The Giant of the North: Pokings Round the Pole

by R. M. Ballantyne

  CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.

  TELLS, AMONG OTHER THINGS, OF A NOTABLE DISCOVERY.

  Soon after this, signs of approaching winter began to make theirappearance in the regions of the North Pole. The sun, which at firsthad been as a familiar friend night and day, had begun to absent himselfnot only all night, but during a large portion of each day, giving surethough quiet hints of his intention to forsake the region altogether,and leave it to the six months' reign of night. Frost began to renderthe nights bitterly cold. The birds, having brought forth and broughtup their young, were betaking themselves to more temperate regions,leaving only such creatures as bears, seals, walruses, foxes, wolves,and men, to enjoy, or endure, the regions of the frigid zone.

  Suddenly there came a day in October when all the elemental fiends andfuries of the Arctic circle seemed to be let loose in wildest revelry.It was a turning-point in the Arctic seasons.

  By that time Captain Vane and his party had transported all theirbelongings to Great Isle, where they had taken up their abode beside oldMakitok. They had, with that wizard's permission, built to themselves atemporary stone hut, as Benjy Vane facetiously said, "on the very top ofthe North Pole itself;" that is, on the little mound or truncated coneof rock, in the centre of the Great Isle, on which they had already setup the observatory, and which cone was, in very truth, as nearly aspossible the exact position of that long-sought-for imaginary point ofearth as could be ascertained by repeated and careful observations, madewith the best of scientific instruments by thoroughly capable men.

  Chingatok and his father, with a large band of their followers and someof their women, had also encamped, by permission, round the Pole, where,in the intervals of the chase, they watched, with solemn and unflagginginterest, the incomprehensible doings of the white men.

  The storm referred to began with heavy snow--that slow, quiet,down-floating of great flakes which is so pleasant, even restful, in itseffect on the senses. At first it seemed as if a golden haze were mixedwith the snowfall, suggesting the idea that the sun's rays werepenetrating it.

  "Most beautiful!" said Leo, who sat beside the Captain and his friendson the North Pole enjoying the view through the open doorway of the hut,and sipping a cup of coffee.

  "It reminds me," said Alf, "of Buzzby's lines:--

  "`The snowflakes falling softly In the morning's golden prime, Suggestive of a gentle touch And the silent flight of Time.'"

  "Behold a more powerful reminder of the flight of Time!" said Benjy,pointing to the aged Makitok, who, with white beard and snow-besprinkledperson, came slowly towards them like the living embodiment of "OldFather Christmas."

  "Come," said Leo, hastening to assist the old man, "let me help you upthe Pole."

  Leo, and indeed all the party, had fallen in with Benjy's humour, andhabitually referred thus to their mound.

  "Why comes the ancient one here through the snow?" said Captain Vane,rising and offering Makitok his seat, which was an empty packing-case."Surely my friend does not think we would forget him? Does not Benjyalways carry him his morning cup of coffee when the weather is too badfor him to come hither?"

  "Truly," returned the old man, sitting down with a sigh, "the Kablunetsare kind. They never forget. Bunjee never fails to bring the cuffy,though he does sometimes pretend to forget the shoogre, till I havetasted it and made a bad face; then he laughs and remembers that theshoogre is in his pouch. It is his little way. But I come not to-dayfor cuffy; I come to warn. There is danger in the air. Blackbeard musttake his strange things," (thus he referred to the philosophicalinstruments), "away from here--from--ha!--from Nort Pole, and put themin my hut, where they will be safe."

  The Captain did not at once reply. Turning to his companions he said--

  "I see no particular reason to fear this `danger in the air.' I'll goand consult Chingatok or his father on the point."

  "The ancient one, as you call him," said Benjy, "seems to be growingtimid with age."

  "The youthful one," retorted the Captain, "seems to be growing insolentwith age. Go, you scamp, and tell Amalatok I want to speak with him."

  Whatever faults our young hero had, disobedience was not one of them.He rose promptly, and soon returned with the chief of Poloeland.

  Amalatok confirmed the wizard's opinions, and both opinions were stillmore powerfully confirmed, while he was speaking, by a gust of windwhich suddenly came rushing at them as if from all points of thecompass, converging at the Pole and shooting upwards like a whirlwind,carrying several hats of the party with volumes of the now wildlyagitated snow up into the sky.

  There was no room for further hesitation.

  "Why, Massa Bunjay, I thought my woolly scalp he hoed up 'long wid myhat!" cried Butterface, leaping up in obedience to the Captain's hurriedorder to look sharp and lend a hand.

  In a short time all the instruments were removed from the observatoryand carefully housed in Makitok's hut. Even while they were thusengaged the storm burst on them with excessive violence. The snow whichhad been falling so softly, was caught up by the conflicting winds andhurled high into the air, or driven furiously over the valley in alldirections, for the gale did not come from any fixed quarter; it roseand swooped and eddied about, driving the snow-drift now here, nowthere, and shrieking as if in wild delight at the chaotic havoc it waspermitted to play.

  "Confusion worse confounded!" gasped Leo, as he staggered past Alf withthe last load on his shoulder.

  "And yet there must be order _everywhere_," observed Chingatok, when,after all were safely housed in Makitok's hut that evening, he heard Leorepeat that sentiment.

  "Why do you think so, Chingatok?" asked the Captain with some curiosity.

  "Because there is order even in my hut," returned the giant. "Pingasuk,(referring to his wife), keeps all things in perfect order. Is theWorld-Maker less wise than Pingasuk? Sometimes, no doubt, when Pingasukis cooking, or arranging, things may seem in disorder to the eye of mylittle boy Meltik and the small one, (referring to baby), but whenMeltik and the small one grow older and wiser, they will see that it isnot so."

  While Chingatok was speaking, a gust of wind more furious than everstruck the hut and shook it to its foundations. At the same time a loudrumbling sound was heard outside. Most of the men leaped up, caughthold of spears or knives, and rushed out. Through the driving driftthey could just see that the observatory, which was a flimsy structure,had been swept clean away, and that the more solid hut was following it.Even as they gazed they saw its roof caught up, and whirled off as ifit had been a scroll of paper. The walls fell immediately after, andthe stones rolled down the rocky cone with a loud rattling, which waspartially drowned by the shrieking of the tempest.

  For three days the storm lasted. During that time it was almostimpossible to show face in the open air. On the night of the third daythe fury of the wind abated. Then it suddenly became calm, but whenButterface opened the door, and attempted to go out, he found himselfeffectually checked by a wall of snow. The interior of the hut waspitch dark, and it was not until a lamp had been lighted that the partyfound they were buried alive!

  To dig themselves out was not, however, a difficult matter. But what ascene presented itself to their view when they regained the upper air!No metamorphosis conceived by Ovid or achieved by the magic lantern; nopantomimic transformation; no eccentricity of dreamland ever equalledit! When last seen, the valley was clothed in all the rich luxurianceof autumnal tints, and alive with the twitter and plaintive cry ofbird-life. Now it was draped in the pure winding-sheet of winter, andsilent in the repose of Arctic death. Nothing almost was visible butsnow. Everything was whelmed in white. Only here and there a few ofthe sturdier clumps of bushes held up their loads like giganticwedding-cakes, and broke the universal sameness of the scene. One ravenwas the only living representative of the birds that had fled. Itsoared calmly over the waste, as if it were the wizard who had wroughtthe change, and was admiring its work.

  "Winter is u
pon us fairly now, friends," said Captain Vane as hesurveyed the prospect from the Pole, which was itself all but buried inthe universal drift, and capped with the hugest wedding-cake of all; "weshall have to accommodate ourselves to circumstances, and prepare forthe campaign."

  "I suppose the first thing we shall have to do is to build asnow-house," said Benjy, looking ruefully round, for, as usual, he wasdepressed by first appearances.

  "Just so, Benjy; and the sooner we go to work the better."

  Now, the reader must not hastily conclude that we are about to inflicton him or her a detailed narrative of a six months' residence at theNorth Pole. We have no such fell design. Much though there is totell,--much of suffering, more of enjoyment, many adventures, numerousstirring incidents, and not a few mishaps--we shall pass over the mostof it in total silence, and touch only on those points which are worthyof special notice.

  Let us leap, then, into the very middle of the Arctic winter. It iscontinuously dark now. There is no day at all at the Pole; it is nightall round. The last glimmer of the departing sun left them months ago;the next glimmer of his return will not reach them for months to come.The northern Eskimos and their English visitors were well aware of that,nevertheless there was nothing of gloom or depressed spirits among them.They were too busy for that. Had not meat to be procured, and thenconsumed? Did not the procuring involve the harnessing of dogs insledges, the trapping of foxes and wolves, the fighting of walruses, thechasing of polar bears; and did not the consuming thereof necessitatemuch culinary work for the women, much and frequent attention and labouron the part of the whole community, not to mention hours, and sometimesdays, of calm repose?

  Then, as to light, had they not the Aurora Borealis, that mysteriousshimmering in the northern sky which has puzzled philosophers from thebeginning of time, and is not unlikely to continue puzzling them to theend? Had they not the moon and the stars, which latter shone with abrilliancy almost indescribable, and among them the now doublyinteresting Pole star, right overhead, with several new and gorgeousconstellations unknown to southern climes?

  Besides all this, had not Captain Vane his scientific investigations,his pendulum experiments, his wind-gauging, his ozone testing, histhermometric, barometric, and chronometric observations, besides whatBenjy styled his kiteometric pranks? These last consisted in attemptsto bring lightning down from the clouds by means of a kite and cord, andin which effort the Captain managed to knock himself down, and well-nighshattered the North Pole itself in pieces!

  Moreover, had not Leo to act the part of physician and surgeon to thecommunity? a duty which he fulfilled so well that there never had beenbefore that time such a demand for physic in Flatland, and, it isprobable, there never will be so many sick people there again. Inaddition to this, Leo had to exercise his marvellous powers as ahuntsman. Benjy, of course, played his wonted _role_ of mischief-makerand jack-of-all-trades to the entire satisfaction of everybody,especially on that great occasion when he succeeded in killing a polarbear single-handed, and without the aid of gun or spear or any lethalweapon whatever;--of which great event, more hereafter. Anders, thesouthern Eskimo, made himself generally agreeable, and Butterface becamea prime favourite, chiefly because of his inexhaustible fund of fun andgood humour, coupled with his fine musical qualities.

  We have not said much on this latter point hitherto, because we havebeen unwilling to overwhelm the reader with too sudden a disclosure ofthat marvellous magazine of power which was latent in our band ofheroes; but we feel it to be our duty now to state that the negro sanghis native melodies with such pathos that he frequently reduced,(perhaps we should say elevated), the unsophisticated Eskimos to floodsof tears, and sometimes to convulsions of laughter. As, at Benjy'ssuggestion, he sometimes changed his moods abruptly, the tears oftenmingled with the convulsions, so as to produce some vivid illustrationsof Eskimo hysteria.

  But Butterface's strong point was the flute! No one who had notwitnessed it could adequately conceive the poutings of thick red lipsand general contortions of black visage that seemed necessary in orderto draw the tones out of that simple instrument. The agonies ofexpression, the hissing of wind, and the turning up of whites of largeblack eyes,--it is past belief! The fruitless efforts of the Eskimos toimitate him were as nothing to the great original, and their delight atthe sound was only equalled by their amazement at the sight.

  Alf assisted the Captain scientifically and otherwise. Of course he wascompelled, during the long winter, to lay aside his geological hammerand botanical box; but, then, had he not the arrangement and naming ofhis specimens? His chief work, however, was to act the unwonted, and,we may add, unexpected work of a lawgiver.

  This duty devolved on him thus:

  When Grabantak recovered health--which he was very long in doing--hisspirit was so far subdued that he agreed--somewhat sulkily, it is true--to all that his prime minister had done while he held the reins ofgovernment. Then he was induced to visit Great Isle, where he wasintroduced to his mortal foe Amalatok, whom he found to be so much a manafter his own heart that he no longer sighed for the extraction of hisspinal marrow or the excision of his liver, but became a fast friend,and was persuaded by Alf to agree to a perpetual peace. He also took agreat fancy to Chingatok, who begged of Alf to read to the chief ofFlatland some of the strange and new ideas contained in his little book.

  Alf willingly complied, and for hours these northern savages sat in raptattention listening to the Bible story.

  "My son," said Grabantak one evening to Chingatok, "if we are henceforthto live in peace, why not unite and become one nation?"

  "Why not?" echoed Chingatok.

  When Amalatok and Makitok heard the question propounded, they also said,"Why not?" and, as nobody objected, the thing was settled off-hand thenand there.

  "But," said the prime minister of Flatland, starting a difficulty, "whois to be _greatest_ chief?"

  Amalatok, on whose mind the spirit of Christianity had been graduallymaking an impression, said promptly, "Let Grabantak be chief. He iswise in council and brave in war."

  Grabantak had instantly jumped to the conclusion that _he_ ought to be_greatest_ chief, and was about to say so, when Amalatok's humilitystruck him dumb. Recovering himself he replied--

  "But there is to be no mere war! and I have been a warrior. No, letAmalatok be great chief. He is old, and wisdom lies with age."

  "I am not so sure of _that_!" muttered Captain Vane to himself inEnglish; then to the giant in Eskimo, "What says Chingatok?"

  "May I speak, my father?" said the giant, dutifully, to Amalatok.

  "You may speak, my son."

  "Then," continued Chingatok, "I would advise that there should be threechiefs, who shall be equal--my father, Grabantak, and Makitok. Letthese consult about our affairs. Let the people appoint twelve men tohold council with them, and what the most of them agree to shall bedone."

  After some further talk this compromise was agreed to.

  "But the laws of Poloeland and those of Flatland are different," saidAmalatok, starting another objection. "We must have the same laws."

  "My brother chief is wise," said Grabantak. "Let us have new laws, andlet that wise young Kablunet, Alf, make them."

  "Both my brother chiefs are wise," said Makitok. "Let it be done, andlet him take the laws out of the little thing that speaks to him."(Thus they referred to the Bible, having no word in their language bywhich to name it.)

  Great was the surprise of Alf at the honour and labour thus thrust uponhim, but he did not shrink from it. On the contrary, he set to work atonce with notebook and pencil, and set down the two "GreatCommandments:" "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, andwith all thy soul, and with all thy mind;" and, "Thou shalt love thyneighbour as thyself," as the first law in the new code. He set down asthe second the golden rule, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do untoyou, do ye even so to them."

  Proceeding from these as a basis, he worked his way gradually do
wn thecode till he had embraced nearly all the possibilities of Eskimo life--awork which kept him busy all the winter, and was not quite finished when"time and tide" obliged him and his companions to quit the land.

  Now, not long after this eventful council, Benjy Vane burst ratherirreverently into his father's hut with excited looks, holding whatlooked like an old book in his hand.

  "What have you got there, lad?"

  "I've got it at last, father! You know I've been trying to wheedle oldMakitok into letting me open his mysterious bundle. Well, I prevailedon him to let me do it this afternoon. After unrolling bundle afterbundle, I came at last to the centre, and found that it containednothing whatever but this book, wrapped up in an old cottonpocket-handkerchief. The book is _very_ old, father. See, 1611 on thefirst page. I did not take time to glance at more than that, butbrought it straight away to you."

  "Hand it over, Benjy," said the Captain eagerly. "This accounts for themysterious `buk' that we've heard so much about."

  He received the little book with a look of tender curiosity and openedit carefully, while Leo, Alf, and his son looked on over his shoulder.

  "1611, sure enough," he said, "though not very legible. The charactersare queer, too. Try, Alf, what you can make of it."

  Alf took the book. As he did so old Makitok entered, somewhat anxiousas to what they were doing with his treasure. Being quieted by theCaptain with a draught of cold tea, and made to sit down, theexamination of the book proceeded.

  "It is much worn, and in places is almost illegible, as might beexpected," said Alf. "Let me see. `Coast of Labrador, (somethingillegible here), 1611. This day the mutineers took possess ... (can'tmake out what follows), and put Captain Hudson, with his son, myself,the carpenter, and five sick men into the dinghy, casting us, (blank),with some, (blank), and one cask of water. I begin this diary to-day.It may never be seen by man, but if it does fall into the hands of anyone who can read it, he will do a service to ... by conveying ...England.--John Mackintosh, _seaman_.'

  "Can it be possible?" said Alf, looking up from the relic with anexpression of deep solemnity, "that we have found a record of that greatArctic explorer, the unfortunate Henry Hudson?"

  "It seems like it, Alf; read on," said Leo, eagerly.

  We will not further trouble the reader with Alf's laboured decipheringof this curious and ancient notebook, which was not only stained andworn, but in many places rudely torn, as if its owner had seen much hardservice. We will merely run over a few of the chief points which itcleared up. Unfortunately, it threw no additional light on the fate ofpoor Hudson. Many of the first pages of the book which no doubt treatedof that, had been destroyed and the legible portion began in the middleof a record of travelling with a sledge-party of Eskimos to the north ofparallel 85 degrees 20 minutes--a higher northern latitude, it will beobserved, than had been reached by any subsequent explorer exceptCaptain Vane. No mention being made of English comrades, thepresumption remained that they had all been killed or had died--at allevents that Mackintosh had been separated from them, and was the onlysurvivor of the party travelling with the Eskimos.

  Further on the journal, which was meagre in detail, and kept in the dryform of a log-book, spoke of having reached a far northern settlement.Reference was also made to a wife and family, leading to the conclusionthat the seaman had permanently cast in his lot with the savages, andgiven up all hope of returning to his native land.

  One sentence near the end caused a considerable sensation, and openedtheir eyes to a fact which they might have guessed if they had not beentoo much taken up with the spelling out of the faded pencilling to thinkof it at first.

  Alf read it with difficulty. It ran thus:--

  "Another boy born to-day. His name is Igluk. It is only the eldest boyof a family, in this tribe, who bears his father's surname. My eldestalone goes by the name of Mackintosh. His eldest will bear the samename, and so on. But these Eskimos make a sad mess of it. I doubt ifmy Scotch kinsmen would recognise us under the name of Makitok which isthe nearest--"

  "Makitok!" shouted Benjy, gazing open-eyed at the white-bearded wizard,who returned the gaze with some astonishment.

  "Why, old boy," cried the boy, jumping up and seizing the wizard's hand,"you're a Scotsman!"

  "So he is," said the Captain with a look of profound interest.

  "And I say," continued Benjy, in a tone so solemn that the eyes of allthe party were turned on him, "we _did_ find him _sitting on the NorthPole_!"

  "And what of that, you excitable goose?" said the Captain.

  "Goose, father! Am I a goose for recognising the fulfilment of anancient prophecy? Has it not been a familiar saying, ever since I wasborn, that when the North Pole was discovered, a Scotsman would be foundsitting on the top of it?"

  "Unfortunately, Ben," returned Alf with a laugh, "the same prophecyexists in other lands. Among the Germans, I believe, it is held that aBohemian and a Jew will be found on the top of it."

  "That only confirms the correctness of prophecy in general," retortedBenjy, "for this man unites all these in his own person. Does not thisnotebook prove him to be a Scot? Have we not just _found_ him? whichproves him to be one of a `lost tribe'--in other words, a Jew; and,surely, you'll admit that, in appearance at least, he is Bohemian enoughfor the settlement of any disputed question. Yes, he's a ScotchBohemian Jew, or I'm a Dutchman."

  This discovery seemed almost too much for Benjy. He could not think ortalk of anything else the remainder of that day.

  Among other things he undertook to explain to Makitok something of hisorigin and antecedents.

  "Ancient one," he said earnestly, through the medium of Anders, when hehad led the old man aside privately, "you come of a grand nation. Theyare called Scots, and are said to be remarkably long-headed andwonderfully cautious. Great warriors, but greater at the arts of peace.And the fellow you call your _first father_ was a Mackintosh, (probablychief of all the Mackintoshes), who sailed nearly 270 years ago tosearch for this very `North Pole' that _we_ have got hold of at last.But your first father was not the leader, old boy. He was only aseaman. The leader was Henry Hudson--a man who ranks among the foremostof Arctic explorers. He won't be able to understand what that means,Anders, but no matter--translate it the best way you can. This HenryHudson was one of the most thorough and extensive searchers of theseregions that ever sailed the northern seas. He made many importantdiscoveries, and set out on his last voyage intending to sail right overthe North Pole to China, which I daresay he would have done, had not hisrascally crew mutinied and cast him and his little son, with seven othermen, adrift in a little boat--all of whom perished, no doubt, exceptyour first father, Makitok, my ancient tulip!"

  He wound up this summary by grasping and shaking the wizard's hand, andthen flung off, to expend his feelings on other members of thecommunity.