Red Rooney: The Last of the Crew

by R. M. Ballantyne

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

  MISCHIEF HATCHING.

  At early dawn next morning Ippegoo was awakened from a most refreshingslumber by a gentle shake of the shoulder.

  "Oh! not yet, mother," groaned the youth in the drowsiest of accents;"I've only just begun to sleep."

  He turned slowly on the other side, and tried to continue his repose,but another shake disturbed him, and a deep voice said, "Awake; arise,sleepy one."

  "Mother," he murmured, still half asleep, "you have got the throats-sickness v-v-very bad," (referring to what we would style a cold).

  A grim smile played for a moment on the visage of the wizard, as he gavethe youth a most unmotherly shake, and said, "Yes, my son, I am verysick, and want you to cure me."

  Ippegoo was wide awake in a moment. Rising with a somewhat abashedlook, he followed his evil genius out of the hut, where, in anothercompartment, his mother lay, open-mouthed, singing a song of welcome tothe dawning day through her nose.

  Ujarak led the youth to the berg with the sea-green cave. Stopping atthe entrance, he turned a stern look on his pupil, and pointing to thecavern, uttered the single word--"Follow."

  As Ippegoo gazed into the sea-green depths of the place--which darkenedinto absolute blackness, with ghostly projections from the sides, anddim icicles pendent from the invisible roof, he felt a suspicion thatthe cave might be the vestibule to that dread world of the departedwhich he had often heard his master describe.

  "You're not going far, I hope," he said anxiously; "remember I am notyet an angekok."

  "True; but you are yet a fool," returned the wizard contemptuously. "Doyou suppose I would lead you to certain death for no good end? No; butI will make you an angekok to-night, and after that we may explore thewonders of the spirit-world together. I have brought you here to speakabout that, for the ears of some people are very quick. We shall besafe here. You have been long enough a fool. The time has arrived whenyou must join the ranks of the wise men. Come."

  Again he pointed to the cave, and led the way into its dim sea-greeninterior.

  Some men seek eagerly after honours which they cannot win; others havehonours which they do not desire thrust upon them. Ippegoo was of thelatter class. He followed humbly, and rather closely, for the bare ideaof being alone in such a place terrified him. Although pronounced afool, the poor fellow was wise enough to perceive that he was utterlyunfitted, physically as well as mentally, for the high honour to whichUjarak destined him; but he was so thoroughly under the power of hisinfluence that he felt resistance or refusal to be impossible. Headvanced, therefore, with a heavy heart. Everything around was fittedto chill his ambition, even if he had possessed any, and to arouse theterrors of his weak and superstitious mind.

  When they had walked over the icy floor of the cave until the entrancebehind them seemed no larger than a bright star, the wizard stoppedabruptly. Ippegoo stumbled up against him with a gasp of alarm. Thelight was so feeble that surrounding objects were barely visible. Greatblocks and spires and angular fragments of ice projected intoobservation out of profound obscurity. Overhead mighty and grotesqueforms, attached to the invisible roof, seemed like creatures floating inthe air, to which an imagination much less active than that of Ippegoomight easily have given grinning mouths and glaring eyes; and theatmosphere of the place was so intensely cold that even Eskimo garmentscould not prevent a shudder.

  The wizard turned on his victim a solemn gaze. As he stood facing theentrance of the cavern, there was just light enough to render his teethand the whites of his eyes visible, though the rest of his features wereshadowy.

  "Ippegoo," he said in a low voice, "the time has come--"

  At that moment a tremendous crash drowned his voice, and seemed to rendthe cavern in twain. The reverberating echoes had not ceased when aclap as of the loudest thunder seemed to burst their ears. It wasfollowed for a few seconds by a pattering shower, as of giant hail, andIppegoo's very marrow quailed.

  It was only a crack in the berg, followed by the dislodgement of a greatmass, which fell from the roof to the floor below--fortunately at somedistance from the spot on which the Eskimos stood.

  "Bergs sometimes rend and fall asunder," gasped the trembling youth.

  Ujarak's voice was unwontedly solemn as he replied--

  "Not in the spring-time, foolish one. Fear not, but listen. To-nightyou must be prepared to go through the customs that will admit you tothe ranks of the wise men."

  "Don't you think," interposed the youth, with a shiver, "that it wouldbe better to try it on some one else--on Angut, or Okiok, or evenNorrak? Norrak is a fine boy, well-grown and strong, as well as clever,and I am such a fool, you know."

  "You have said truth, Ippegoo. But all that will be changed to-morrow.Once an angekok, your foolishness will depart, and wisdom will come."

  The poor youth was much cheered by this, because, although he feltutterly unfit for the grave and responsible character, he had enough offaith in his teacher to believe that the needed change would takeplace,--and change, he was well aware, could achieve wonders. Did henot see it when the change from summer to winter drove nearly all thebirds away, converted the liquid sea into a solid plain, and turned thebright day into dismal night? and did he not feel it when the returningsummer changed all that again, sent the sparkling waves for his lightkayak to dance upon, and the glorious sunshine to call back thefeathered tribes, to open the lovely flowers, to melt the hard ice, andgladden all the land? Yes, he knew well what "change" meant, though itnever occurred to him to connect all this with a Creator who changesnot. In this respect he resembled his master.

  "Besides," continued the wizard in a more confidential tone, whichinvariably had the effect of drawing the poor youth's heart towards him,"I cannot make whom I will an angekok. It is my torngak who settlesthat; I have only to obey. Now, what I want you to do is to become verysolemn in your manner and speech from this moment till the deed isfinished. Will you remember?"

  Ippegoo hesitated a moment. He felt just then so unusually solemn thathe had difficulty in conceiving it possible to become more so, butremembering the change that was about to take place, he said brightly,"Yes, I'll remember."

  "You see," continued his instructor, "we must get people to suppose thatyou are troubled by a spirit of some sort--"

  "Oh! only to suppose it," cried Ippegoo hopefully. "Then I'm not_really_ to be troubled with a spirit?"

  "Of course you are, foolish man. But don't you understand people mustsee that you are, else how are they to know it?"

  Ippegoo thought that if he was really to be troubled in that way, theonly difficulty would be to prevent people from knowing it, butobserving that his master was getting angry, he wisely held his tongue,and listened with earnest attention while Ujarak related the details ofthe ordeal through which he was about to pass.

  At the time this conversation was being held in the sea-green cave,Okiok, rising from his lair with a prodigious yawn, said to his wife--

  "Nuna, I go to see Kunelik."

  "And what may ye-a-o-u---my husband want with the mother of Ippegoo?"asked Nuna sleepily, but without moving.

  "I want to ye-a-o-u---ask about her son."

  "Ye-a-a-o-o-u!" exclaimed Nuna, turning on her other side; "go, then,"and she collapsed.

  Seeing that his wife was unfit just then to enter into conversation,Okiok got up, accomplished what little toilet he deemed necessary inhalf a minute, and took his way to the hut of Ippegoo's mother.

  It is not usual in Eskimo land to indulge in ceremonious salutation.Okiok was naturally a straightforward and brusque man. It will nottherefore surprise any one to be told that he began his interview with--

  "Kunelik, your son Ippegoo is a lanky fool!"

  "He is," assented Kunelik, with quiet good-humour.

  "He has given himself," continued Okiok, "spirit and body, to thatvillain Ujarak."

  "He has," assented Kunelik again.

  "Where is he now?"
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  "I do not know."

  "But me knows," said a small sweet little child-voice from the midst ofa bundle of furs.

  It was the voice of Pussi. That Eskimo atom had been so overcome withsleep at the breaking up of the festivities of the previous night thatshe was unable to distinguish between those whom she loved and those forwhom she cared not. In these circumstances, she had seized the firstmotherly tail that came within her reach, and followed it home. Itchanced to belong to Kunelik, so she dropped down and slept beside her.

  "_You_ know, my dear little seal?" said Okiok in surprise.

  "Yes, me knows. When I was 'sleep, a big man comes an' stump on mytoes--not much, only a leetle. Dat wokes me, an' I see Ujiyak. Heshooks Ip'goo an' bose hoed out degidder."

  Okiok looked at Kunelik, Kunelik looked at Okiok, and both gravely shooktheir heads.

  Before they could resume the conversation, Ippegoo's voice was heardoutside asking if his mother was in.

  "Go," said Kunelik; "though he is a fool, he is wise enough to hold histongue when any one but me is near."

  Okiok took the hint, rose at once, and went out, passing the youth as heentered, and being much struck with the lugubrious solemnity of hisvisage.

  "Mother," said Ippegoo, sitting down on a skin beside the pleasantlittle woman, "it comes."

  "What comes, my son?"

  "I know not."

  "If you know not, how do you know that it comes?" asked Kunelik, who wasslightly alarmed by the wild manner and unusual, almost dreadful,gravity of her boy.

  "It is useless to ask me, mother. I do not understand. My mind cannottake it in, but--but--it comes."

  "Yes; when is it coming?" asked Kunelik, who knew well how to humourhim.

  "How can I tell? I--I think it has come _now_," said the youth, growingpaler, or rather greener; "I think I feel it in my breast. Ujarak saidthe torngak would come to-day, and to-night I am to _be--changed_!"

  "Oho!" exclaimed Kunelik, with a slight touch of asperity, "it's atorngak that is to come, is it? and Ujarak says so? Don't you know,Ippe, that Ujarak is an idiot!"

  "Mother!" exclaimed the youth remonstratively, "Ujarak an idiot?Impossible! He is to make me an angekok to-night."

  "You, Ippe! You are not more fit for an angekok than I am for aseal-hunter."

  "Yes, true; but I am to _be--changed_!" returned the youth, with abright look; then remembering that his _role_ was solemnity, he droppedthe corners of his mouth, elongated his visage, turned up his eyes, andgroaned.

  "Have you the stomach twist, my boy?" asked his mother tenderly.

  "No; but I suppose I--I--am changing."

  "No, you are not, Ippe. I have seen many angekoks made. There will beno change till you have gone through the customs, so make your mindeasy, and have something to eat."

  The youth, having had no breakfast, was ravenously hungry, and as theprocess of feeding would not necessarily interfere with solemnity, heagreed to the proposal with his accustomed look of satisfaction--which,however, he suddenly nipped in the bud. Then, setting-to with anexpression that might have indicated the woes of a lifetime, he made ahearty breakfast.

  Thereafter he kept moving about the village all day in absolute silence,and with a profound gloom on his face, by which the risibility of somewas tickled, while not a few were more or less awe-stricken.

  It soon began to be rumoured that Ippegoo was the angekok-elect. In theafternoon Ujarak returned from a visit, as he said, to the nether world,and with his brother wizards--for there were several in the tribe--confirmed the rumour.

  As evening approached, Rooney entered Okiok's hut. No one was at homeexcept Nuna and Tumbler. The latter was playing, as usual, with hislittle friend Pussi. The goodwife was busy over the cooking-lamp.

  "Where is your husband, Nuna?" asked the sailor, sitting down on awalrus skull.

  "Out after seals."

  "And Nunaga?"

  "Visiting the mother of Arbalik."

  The seaman looked thoughtfully at the lamp-smoke for a few moments.

  "She is a hard woman, that mother of Arbalik," he said.

  "Issek is not so hard as she looks," returned Mrs Okiok; "her voice isrough, but her heart is soft."

  "I'm glad to hear you speak well of her," said Rooney, "for I don't liketo think ill of any one if I can help it; but sometimes I can't help it.Now, there's your angekok Ujarak: I cannot think well of him. Have youa good word to say in his favour?"

  "No, not one. He is bad through and through--from the skin to the bone.I know him well," said Nuna, with a flourish of her cooking-stick thatalmost overturned the lamp.

  "But you may be mistaken," remarked Rooney, smiling. "You are mistakeneven in the matter of his body, to say nothing of his spirit."

  "How so?" asked Nuna quickly.

  "You said he is bad through and through. From skin to bone is notthrough and through. To be quite correct, you must go from skin tomarrow."

  Nuna acknowledged this by violently plunging her cooking-stick into thepot.

  "Well now, Nuna," continued Rooney, in a confidential tone, "tell me--"

  At that moment he was interrupted by the entrance of the master of themansion, who quietly sat down on another skull close to his friend.

  "I was just going to ask your wife, Okiok, what she and you think ofthis business of making an angekok of poor Ippegoo," said Rooney.

  "We think it is like a seal with its tail where its head should be, itsskin in its stomach, and all its bones outside; all nonsense--foolishness," answered Okiok, with more of indignation in his look andtone than he was wont to display.

  "Then you don't believe in angekoks?" asked Rooney.

  "No," replied the Eskimo earnestly; "I don't. I think they are cleverscoundrels--clever fools. And more, I don't believe in torngaks or anyother spirits."

  "In that you are wrong," said Rooney. "There is one great and goodSpirit, who made and rules the universe."

  "I'm not sure of that," returned the Eskimo, with a somewhat dogged andperplexed look, that showed the subject was not quite new to him. "Inever saw, or heard, or tasted, or smelt, or felt a spirit. How can Iknow anything about it?"

  "Do you believe in your own spirit, Okiok?"

  "Yes, I must. I cannot help it. I am like other men. When a man diesthere is something gone out of him. It must be his spirit."

  "Then you believe in other men's spirits as well as your own spirit,"said Rooney, "though you have never seen, heard, tasted, smelt, or feltthem?"

  For a moment the Eskimo was puzzled. Then suddenly his countenancebrightened.

  "But I _have_ felt my own," he cried. "I have felt it moving within me,so that it made me _act_. My legs and arms and brain would not go intoaction if they were dead, if the spirit had gone out of them."

  "In the very same way," replied the seaman, "you may _feel_ the GreatSpirit, for your own spirit could not go into action so as to cause yourbody to act unless a greater Spirit had given it life. So also we mayfeel or understand the Great Spirit when we look at the growing flowers,and hear the moving winds, and behold the shining stars, and feel thebeating of our own hearts. I'm not much of a wise man, an angekok--which they would call _scholar_ in my country--but I know enough tobelieve that it is only `the fool who has said in his heart, There is noGreat Spirit.'"

  "There is something in what you say," returned the Eskimo, as the linesof unusually intense thought wrinkled his brow; "but for all that yousay, I think there are no torngaks, and that Ujarak is a liar as well asa fool."

  "I agree with you, Okiok, because I think you have good reason for yourdisbelief. In the first place, it is well-known that Ujarak is a liar,but that is not enough, for liar though he be, he _sometimes_ tells thetruth. Then, in the second place, he is an ass--hum! I forgot--youdon't know what an ass is; well, it don't matter, for, in the thirdplace, he never gave any proof to anybody of what he and his torngak aresaid to have seen and done, and, strongest reason of all, this familiars
pirit of his acts unwisely--for what could be more foolish than tochoose out of all the tribe a poor half-witted creature like Ippegoo forthe next angekok?"

  A gleaming glance of intelligent humour lighted up Okiok's face as hesaid--

  "Ujarak is wiser than his torngak in that. He wants to make use of thepoor lad for his own wicked ends. I know not what these are--but I havemy suspicions."

  "So have I," broke in Nuna at this point, giving her pot a rap with thecooking-stick by way of emphasis.

  Rooney laughed.

  "You think he must be watched, and his mischief prevented?" he said.

  "That's what I think," said Okiok firmly.

  "Tell me, what are the ceremonies to be gone through by that poorunwilling Ippegoo, before he can be changed into a wise man?"

  "Oh, he has much to do," returned Okiok, with his eyes on the lamp-flameand his head a little on one side, as if he were thinking. "But I ampuzzled. Ujarak is cunning, though he is not wise; and I am quite surehe has some secret reason for hurrying on this business. He is changingthe customs, and that is never done for nothing."

  "What customs has he changed?" asked Rooney.

  "The customs for the young angekok before he gets a torngak," repliedthe Eskimo.

  Okiok's further elucidation of this point was so complex that we preferto give the reader our own explanation.

  Before assuming the office of an angekok or diviner, an Eskimo mustprocure one of the spirits of the elements for his own particularfamiliar spirit or torngak. These spirits would appear to be somewhatcoquettish and difficult to win, and marvellous tales are related of themanner in which they are wooed. The aspirant must retire for a time toa desert place, where, entirely cut off from the society of his fellows,he may give himself up to fasting and profound meditation. He alsoprays to Torngarsuk to give him a torngak. This Torngarsuk is the chiefof the good spirits, and dwells in a pleasant abode under the earth orsea. He is not, however, supposed to be God, who is named Pirksoma,i.e. "He that is above," and about whom most Eskimos profess to knownothing. As might be expected, the weakness of body and agitation ofmind resulting from such exercises carried on in solitude throw intodisorder the imaginative faculty of the would-be diviner, so thatwonderful figures of men and monsters swim before his mental vision,which tend to throw his body into convulsions--all the more that helabours to cherish and increase such symptoms.

  How far the aspirants themselves believe in these delusions it isimpossible to tell; but the fact that, after their utmost efforts, someof them fail to achieve the coveted office, leads one to think that someof them are too honest, or too strong-minded, to be led by them.Others, however, being either weak or double-minded, are successful.They assert that, on Torngarsuk appearing in answer to their earnestpetition, they shriek aloud, and die from fear. At the end of threedays they come to life again, and receive a torngak, who takes themforthwith on a journey to heaven and hell, after which they return homefull-fledged angekoks, prepared to bless their fellows, and guide themwith their counsels.

  "Now, you must know," said Okiok, after explaining all this, "whatpuzzles me is, that Ujarak intends to alter the customs at the beginningof the affair. Ippegoo is to be made an angekok to-night, and to be letoff all the fasting and hard thinking and fits. If I believed in thesethings at all, I should think him only a half-made angekok. As it is, Idon't care a puff of wind what they make of poor Ippegoo--so long asthey don't kill him; but I'm uneasy because I'm afraid the rascal Ujarakhas some bad end in view in all this."

  "I'm _quite_ sure of it," muttered Nuna, making a stab with her stick atthe contents of her pot, as if Ujarak's heart were inside.

  At that moment Nunaga entered, looking radiant, in all the glory of anew under-garment of eider-duck pelts and a new sealskin upper coat withan extra long tail.

  "Have you seen Angut lately?" asked Rooney of the young girl.

  "Yes," she replied, with a modest smile that displayed her brilliantteeth; "he is in his own hut."

  "I will go and talk with him on this matter, Okiok," said the seaman."Meanwhile, do you say nothing about it to any one."