Across Arctic America/Chapter 19

We started out again the following morning before it was light. When we had been driving for a couple of hours, a little interruption took place, which rather mystified me at the time. We were driving across a big fjord, more than 60 km. wide at this part, and were just passing a steep rocky island, that stood out in the gloom like a huge black monument against the white snow. Suddenly Netsit begged me to halt for a moment. I held in the dogs as well as I could, and he proceeded to climb the mass of rock.

He stopped some distance up, and knelt down; there was barely light enough to make out what he was doing. I saw him digging a hole in the snow with his knife; then he took out the cigarette I had given him the night before, placed it, with a couple of matches, carefully in the hole and covered all over with snow once more. Through the howling of the gale I could hear him reciting something, ending up with a few words to call attention to the valuable gift he had just deposited in the snow. I wrote down the earlier part afterwards: it was as follows:

Then he came running back to me and we continued our journey.

What had happened, as I afterwards found, was this. He had been paying a visit to the grave of his father, Ilatsiaq, who had been a great wizard in his time. Netsit thought that the gift of so unusual a luxury as a cigarette would surely have power to call up the soul of the dead man, and secure his protection for us against the troublesome weather we were having. It is generally held that the souls of the dead remain, for the first few years after death, in the vicinity of the grave. "Grave," however, is hardly the proper word in this case, as no grave is dug, the bodies being simply laid out and left to the mercy of prowling beasts. The immortal soul, however, can look after itself, and needs no shelter.

The verses noted above were a formula designed to propitiate the spirit of the departed. They have been handed down from very ancient times for use on special occasions, and are supposed to be highly effective.

And certainly, in our case, it appeared as if the lamented Ilatsiaq had appreciated his cigarette. For on the following morning, on cutting a hole in the ​side of our hut to see what the weather was like, we found to our delight that it was a fine, calm, frosty day.

Two more of the same sort followed, with delicious rest at night in fresh snow huts, and we reached the base of the fjord, where the "band of murderers" were understood to be. On the third day, about noon, we came upon three sledges loaded up with firewood, in charge of a party of boys and girls. The young people answered our greetings cheerfully, and informed us where the village lay; it was a big one, by their account: "Inuit amigaitut"—a whole world of people, they said. And soon, for the first time in many long weeks, we were driving down a regular track worn deep by the passing and repassing of many sledges.

The place was, certainly, a big one by Eskimo standards: over thirty huts stood grouped round the sides of a natural amphitheatre, and in the midst, one glittering white hall bigger than all the rest. This was the Dance-house, Temple, and centre of festivities and solemnities generally; built out of a snow drift in the waste, by these ruffians of sinister repute.

Smoke rose from the chimneys—yes, there were chimneys, ugly black things sticking up brutally through the white snow roofs from the patent stoves within; spoiling the picture no doubt, but a welcome sight to the half-frozen traveller for all that.

The place seems quite a metropolis after what we have been accustomed to for months past; and when the inmates come tumbling out of their burrows we find ourselves in the midst of a crowd. And a ​very noisy, boisterous crowd, though good-humored enough when one knows how to deal with them. The natives here are by no means the shy and peaceable creatures that one finds in Greenland. They are accustomed to treat visitors without ceremony, and see no reason to alter their ways for a white man. Indeed, the appearance of one all alone seems to be taken as an excellent opportunity for a little rough horseplay.

One of them tries to take my pipe out of my mouth—but very soon learns he had better not! Another pulls at my tunic, a bob-tailed arrangement of the Cape York type; but soon finds out his mistake. And when I begin unloading, preparatory to feeding my dogs, the women come pressing forward and begging for blubber. Their own seal-hunting season has not yet begun, and the fresh, pink blubber in hard-frozen slabs makes their mouths water. I had to keep them back.

"Do you think I have come all this way to feed you with blubber? This is for my dogs; and you have men enough to look after you. Why don't you start getting seal for yourselves if you are so anxious for blubber?"

There was a general laugh at this. But I was alone against the crowd of them, for Netsit was their kinsman more than my companion, and looked on highly amused at it all.

"Who are you? Are you a trader come to buy foxes?"

"I have come to have a look at you, and see what you are like inside!"

​At which they laugh more uproariously than before. But one of the elders answers, a little hesitatingly, not knowing whether to take my words in jest or earnest:

"H'm. Well, you will find all manner of folk here. Some of them are quite nice to look at, but most are ugly, and you will find little pleasure in looking at their faces."

All this was very amusing as far as it went.

I realized, however, that it was essential to show them a bold front, if I wished to keep them in hand, and therefore came straight to the point.

"I have come to you alone, though ill things are said of you in other parts. It is not many years since two white men were killed here; and the Police do not speak well of you to travellers. But I am not afraid of meeting you alone, as you can see."

"It was not our fault! It was the white men who began the quarrel. We are peaceable enough, only somewhat given to fun; fond of singing and laughter, and with no evil thought as long as we are not afraid. You are our friend and need fear no harm."

Certainly, they did their best now to set me at my ease. I was led to a snow hut in which quarters had been assigned to us both. Our hostess, Qernartoq, received us with the greatest hospitality; though I afterwards learned that her husband had been killed by Netsit's father! This however did not appear to affect our friendly relations in the least.

I had put on my sternest manner in order to keep the more impertinent at a distance. But I could not keep up the pose very long. A woman came up ​to me, and placing one hand on my shoulder, looked me full in the face and said:

"Tell me, stranger; are you the sort of man who has never a smile for a woman?"

I laughed aloud; I could not help it. And with that the ice was broken all round.

I spent the first few hours going visiting from house to house. All were of the same type, fine large snow huts, but altered out of all recognition as Eskimo dwellings by the metal stoves and their long chimney pipes sticking up through the roof. They used brushwood for fuel, which sent out a powerful heat, but the snow roof was so cleverly constructed that it hardly dripped at all. Here and there one might find a hole melted through, but the draught was pleasant rather than the reverse.

In the evening there was an entertainment in the dance house, which was big enough to hold sixty with ease. It was built of snow like the rest, only on a larger scale. Niches were cut in the walls half way up, and small blubber lamps placed in these, throwing a weird light over the assembly. In the middle of the hall stood the leader of the revels with a huge drum in his hand, and round him the men and women constituting the chorus. The drum is held in the left hand; and consists of a whole caribou hide stretched on a thick wooden hoop; its weight alone is no trifle, and it needs considerable physical strength to take the part of drummer, dancer, and leader of the chorus all at once, often for an hour or more at a time. The dancing, which consists of hops and leaps and writhings of the body, steadily ac​companied by the drum, is likewise exhausting, and the performers are limp with heat and exertion when their "turn" comes to an end.

Everything is done to make these entertainments in the dance hall as festive as possible; both men and women wear special costumes, gaily decorated with patterns of fine white skin. The men fasten white ermine on back and shoulders, the tails fluttering as they move; both men's and women's boots are beautifully embroidered in white and red. The headdress is a kind of patchwork helmet, with the beak of a loon sticking up like a spike on top.

I had never heard spirit songs delivered by a chorus before, and a few of those peculiar to this tribe were included in the programme "by request." Later in the evening, songs of recent date were given, turn and turn about with "classics" by the ancient masters. I managed later to write down the text of all these songs, of which a few are here given. It should be noted, however, that when sung, the same lines are constantly repeated, so that a text of but a few verses may last half an hour or more.^[1]