Lost and Found.
There is a particular spot in those wild regions which lie somewhere near the northern parts of Baffin’s Bay, where Nature seems to have set up her workshop for the manufacture of icebergs1, where Polar bears, in company with seals and Greenland whales, are wont2 to gambol3, and where the family of Jack4 Frost may be said to have taken permanent possession of the land.
One winter day, in the early part of the eighteenth century, a solitary5 man might have been seen in that neighbourhood, travelling on foot over the frozen sea in a staggering, stumbling, hurried manner, as if his powers, though not his will, were exhausted6.
The man’s hairy garb7 of grey sealskin might have suggested that he was a denizen8 of those northern wilds, had not the colour of his face, his brown locks, and his bushy beard, betokened9 him a native of a very different region.
Although possessing a broad and stalwart frame, his movements indicated, as we have said, excessive weakness. A morsel10 of ice in his path, that would have been no impediment even to a child, caused him to stumble. Recovering himself, with an evidently painful effort, he continued to advance with quick, yet wavering steps. There was, however, a strange mixture of determination with his feebleness. Energy and despair seemed to be conjoined in his look and action—and no wonder, for Red Rooney, although brave and resolute11 by nature, was alone in that Arctic wilderness12, and reduced to nearly the last extremity13 by fatigue14 and famine. For some days—how many he scarcely remembered—he had maintained life by chewing a bit of raw sealskin as he travelled over the frozen waste; but this source of strength had at last been consumed, and he was now sinking from absolute want.
The indomitable spirit of the man, however, kept his weakened body moving, even after the mind had begun to sink into that dreamy, lethargic15 state which is said to indicate the immediate16 approach of death, and there was still a red spot in each of his pale and hollow cheeks, as well as an eager gleam of hope in his sunken eyes; for the purpose that Red Rooney had in view was to reach the land.
It was indeed a miserably17 faint hope that urged the poor fellow on, for the desolate18 shore of Western Greenland offered little better prospect19 of shelter than did the ice-clad sea; but, as in the case of the drowning man, he clutched at this miserable20 straw of hope, and held on for life. There was the bare possibility that some of the migratory21 Eskimos might be there, or, if not, that some scraps22 of their food—some bits of refuse, even a few bones—might be found. Death, he felt, was quickly closing with him on the sea. The great enemy might, perhaps, be fought with and kept at bay for a time if he could only reach the land.
Encouraging himself with such thoughts, he pushed on, but again stumbled and fell—this time at full length. He lay quiet for a few seconds. It was so inexpressibly sweet to rest, and feel the worn-out senses floating away, as it were, into dreamland! But the strong will burst the tightening23 bands of death, and, rising once more, with the exclamation24, “God help me!” he resumed his weary march.
All around him the great ocean was covered with its coat of solid, unbroken ice; for although winter was past, and the sun of early spring was at the time gleaming on bergs that raised their battlements and pinnacles25 into a bright blue sky, the hoary26 king of the far north refused as yet to resign his sceptre and submit to the interregnum of the genial27 sun.
A large hummock28 or ridge29 of ice lay in front of the man, blocking his view of the horizon in that direction. It had probably been heaved up by one of the convulsions of the previous autumn, and was broken into a chaotic30 mass. Here he stopped and looked up, with a sigh. But the sinking of the heart was momentary31. Deep snow had so filled up the crevices33 of the shattered blocks that it was possible to advance slowly by winding34 in and out among them. As the ascent35 grew steeper the forlorn man dropped on all-fours and crawled upwards36 until he reached the top.
The view that burst upon him would have roused enthusiasm if his situation had been less critical. Even as it was, an exclamation of surprise broke from him, for there, not five miles distant, was the coast of Greenland; desolate, indeed, and ice-bound—he had expected that—but inexpressibly grand even in its desolation. A mighty37 tongue of a great glacier38 protruded39 itself into the frozen sea. The tip of this tongue had been broken off, and the edge presented a gigantic wall of crystal several hundred feet high, on which the sun glittered in blinding rays.
This tongue—a mere40 offshoot of the great glacier itself—filled a valley full ten miles in length, measuring from its tip in the ocean to its root on the mountain brow, where the snow-line was seen to cut sharply against the sky.
For some minutes Red Rooney sat on one of the ice-blocks, gazing with intense eagerness along the shore, in the hope of discerning smoke or some other evidence of man’s presence. But nothing met his disappointed gaze save the same uniform, interminable waste of white and grey, with here and there a few dark frowning patches where the cliffs were too precipitous to sustain the snow.
Another despairing sigh rose to the man’s lips, but these refused to give it passage. With stern resolve he arose and stumbled hurriedly forward. The strain, however, proved too great. On reaching the level ice on the other side of the ridge he fell, apparently41 for the last time, and lay perfectly42 still. Ah! how many must have fallen thus, to rise no more, since men first began to search out the secrets of that grand mysterious region!
But Red Rooney was not doomed43 to be among those who have perished there. Not far from the spot where he fell, one of the short but muscular and hairy-robed denizens44 of that country was busily engaged in removing the skin from a Polar bear which he had just succeeded in spearing, after a combat which very nearly cost him his life. During the heat of the battle the brave little man’s foot had slipped, and the desperately45 wounded monster, making a rush at the moment, overturned him into a crevice32 between two ice-blocks, fortunately the impetus46 of the rush caused the animal to shoot into another crevice beyond, and the man, proving more active than the bear, sprang out of his hole in time to meet his foe47 with a spear-thrust so deadly that it killed him on the spot. Immediately he began to skin the animal, intending to go home with the skin, and return with a team of dogs for the meat and the carcass of a recently-caught seal.
Meanwhile, having removed and packed up the bear-skin, he swung it on his broad shoulders, and made for the shore as fast as his short legs would carry him. On the way he came to the spot where the fallen traveller lay.
His first act was to open his eyes to the uttermost, and, considering the small, twinkling appearance of those eyes just a minute before, the change was marvellous.
“Hoi!” then burst from him with tremendous emphasis, after which he dropped his bundle, turned poor Rooney over on his back, and looked at his face with an expression of awe48.
“Dead!” said the Eskimo, under his breath—in his own tongue, of course, not in English, of which, we need scarcely add, he knew nothing.
After feeling the man’s breast, under his coat, for a few seconds, he murmured the word “Kablunet” (foreigner), and shook his head mournfully.
It was not so much grief for the man’s fate that agitated49 this child of the northern wilderness, as regret at his own bad fortune. Marvellous were the reports which from the south of Greenland had reached him, in his far northern home, of the strange Kablunets or foreigners who had arrived there to trade with the Eskimos—men who, so the reports went, wore smooth coats without hair, little round things on their heads instead of hoods50, and flapping things on their legs instead of sealskin boots—men who had come in monster kayaks (canoes), as big as icebergs; men who seemed to possess everything, had the power to do anything, and feared nothing. No fabrications in the Arabian Nights, or Gulliver, or Baron51 Munchausen, ever transcended52 the stories about those Kablunets which had reached this broad, short, sturdy Eskimo—stories which no doubt began in the south of Greenland with a substratum of truth, but which, in travelling several hundreds of miles northward53, had grown, as a snowball might have grown if rolled the same distance over the Arctic wastes; with this difference—that whereas the snowball would have retained its original shape, though not its size, the tales lost not only their pristine54 form and size, but became so amazingly distorted that the original reporters would probably have failed to recognise them. And now, at last, here was actually a Kablunet—a real foreigner in the body; but not alive! It was extremely disappointing!
Our sturdy Eskimo, however, was not a good judge of Kablunet vitality55. He was yet rubbing the man’s broad chest, with a sort of pathetic pity, when a flutter of the heart startled him. He rubbed with more vigour56. He became excited, and, seizing Red Rooney by the arms, shook him with considerable violence, the result being that the foreigner opened his eyes and looked at him inquiringly.
“Hallo, my lad,” said Rooney, in a faint voice; “not quite so hard. I’m all right. Just help me up, like a good fellow.”
He spoke57 in English, which was, of course, a waste of breath in the circumstances. In proof of his being “all right,” he fell back again, and fainted away.
The Eskimo leaped up. He was one of those energetic beings who seem to know in all emergencies what is best to be done, and do it promptly58. Unrolling the bear-skin, which yet retained a little of its first owner’s warmth, he wrapped the Kablunet in it from head to foot, leaving an opening in front of his mouth for breathing purposes. With his knife—a stone one—he cut off a little lump of blubber from the seal, and placed that in the opening, so that the stranger might eat on reviving, if so inclined, or let it alone, if so disposed. Then, turning his face towards the land, he scurried59 away over the ice like a hunted partridge, or a hairy ball driven before an Arctic breeze.
He made such good use of his short legs that in less than an hour he reached a little hut, which seemed to nestle under the wing of a great cliff in order to avoid destruction by the glittering walls of an impending60 glacier. The hut had no proper doorway61, but a tunnel-shaped entrance, about three feet high and several feet long. Falling on his knees, the Eskimo crept into the tunnel and disappeared. Gaining the inner end of it, he stood up and glared, speechless, at his astonished wife.
She had cause for surprise, for never since their wedding-day had Nuna beheld62 such an expression on the fat face of her amiable63 husband.
“Okiok,” she said, “have you seen an evil spirit?”
“No,” he replied.
“Why, then, do you glare?”
Of course Nuna spoke in choice Eskimo, which we render into English with as much fidelity65 to the native idiom as seems consistent with the agreeable narration66 of our tale.
“Hoi!” exclaimed Okiok, in reply to her question, but without ceasing to glare and breathe hard.
“Has my husband become a walrus67, that he can only shout and snort?” inquired Nuna, with the slightest possible twinkle in her eyes, as she raised herself out of the lamp-smoke, and laid down the stick with which she had been stirring the contents of a stone pot.
Instead of answering the question, Okiok turned to two chubby68 and staring youths, of about fifteen and sixteen respectively, who were mending spears, and said sharply, “Norrak, Ermigit, go, harness the dogs.”
Norrak rose with a bound, and dived into the tunnel. Ermigit, although willing enough, was not quite so sharp. As he crawled into the tunnel and was disappearing, his father sent his foot in the same direction, and, having thus intimated the necessity for urgent haste, he turned again to his wife with a somewhat softened69 expression.
“Give me food, Nuna. Little food has passed into me since yesterday at sunrise. I starve. When I have eaten, you shall hear words that will make you dream for a moon. I have seen,”—he became solemn at this point, and lowered his voice to a whisper as he advanced his head and glared again—“I have seen a—a—Kablunet!”
He drew back and gazed at his wife as connoisseurs70 are wont to do when examining a picture. And truly Nuna’s countenance71 was a picture-round, fat, comely72, oily, also open-mouthed and eyed, with unbounded astonishment73 depicted74 thereon; for she thoroughly75 believed her husband, knowing that he was upright and never told lies.
Her mental condition did not, however, interfere76 with her duties. A wooden slab77 or plate, laden78 with a mess of broiled79 meat, soon smoked before her lord. He quickly seated himself on a raised platform, and had done some justice to it before Nuna recovered the use of her tongue.
“A Kablunet!” she exclaimed, almost solemnly. “Is he dead?”
Okiok paused, with a lump of blubber in his fingers close to his mouth.
“No; he is alive. At least he was alive when I left him. If he has not died since, he is alive still.”
Having uttered this truism, he thrust the blubber well home, and continued his meal.
Nuna’s curiosity, having been aroused, was not easily allayed80. She sat down beside her spouse81, and plied64 him with numerous questions, to which Okiok gave her brief and very tantalising replies until he was gorged82, when, throwing down the platter, he turned abruptly83 to his wife, and said impressively—
“Open your ears, Nuna. Okiok is no longer what he was. He has been born only to-day. He has at last seen with his two eyes—a Kablunet!”
He paused to restrain his excitement. His wife clasped her hands and looked at him excitedly, waiting for more.
“This Kablunet,” he continued, “is very white, and not so ruddy as we have been told they are. His hair is brown, and twists in little circles. He wears it on the top of his head, and on the bottom of his head also—all round. He is not small or short. No; he is long and broad,—but he is thin, very thin, like the young ice at the beginning of winter. His eyes are the colour of the summer sky. His nose is like the eagle’s beak84, but not so long. His mouth—I know not what his mouth is like; it is hid in a nest of hair. His words I understand not. They seem to me nonsense, but his voice is soft and deep.”
“And his dress—how does he dress?” asked Nuna, with natural feminine curiosity.
“Like ourselves,” replied Okiok, with a touch of disappointment in his tone. “The men who said the Kablunets wear strange things on their heads and long flapping things on their legs told lies.”
“Because he is too heavy to lift, and too weak to walk. He has been starving. I wrapped him in the skin of a bear, and left him with a piece of blubber at his nose. When he wakes up he will smell; then he will eat. Perhaps he will live; perhaps he will die. Who can tell? I go to fetch him.”
As the Eskimo spoke, the yelping87 of dogs outside told that his sons had obeyed his commands, and got ready the sledge88. Without another word he crept out of the hut and jumped on the sledge, which was covered with two or three warm bearskins. Ermigit restrained the dogs, of which there were about eight, each fastened to the vehicle by a single line. Norrak handed his father the short-handled but heavy, long-lashed whip.
Okiok looked at Norrak as he grasped the instrument of punishment.
“Jump on,” he said.
Norrak did so with evident good-will. The whip flashed in the air with a serpentine89 swing, and went off like a pistol. The dogs yelled in alarm, and, springing away at full speed, were soon lost among the hummocks90 of the Arctic sea.
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1
icebergs
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| n.冰山，流冰( iceberg的名词复数 ) | |
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wont
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| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
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gambol
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| v.欢呼，雀跃 | |
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jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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garb
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| n.服装，装束 | |
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denizen
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| n.居民，外籍居民 | |
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betokened
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| v.预示，表示( betoken的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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morsel
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| n.一口，一点点 | |
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resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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extremity
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| n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度 | |
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fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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lethargic
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| adj.昏睡的，懒洋洋的 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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miserably
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| adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地 | |
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desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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migratory
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| n.候鸟，迁移 | |
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scraps
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| 油渣 | |
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tightening
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| 上紧，固定，紧密 | |
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exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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pinnacles
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| 顶峰( pinnacle的名词复数 )； 顶点； 尖顶； 小尖塔 | |
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hoary
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| adj.古老的；鬓发斑白的 | |
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genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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hummock
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| n.小丘 | |
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ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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chaotic
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| adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的 | |
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momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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crevice
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| n.(岩石、墙等)裂缝；缺口 | |
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crevices
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| n.（尤指岩石的）裂缝，缺口( crevice的名词复数 ) | |
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winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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ascent
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| n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高 | |
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upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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glacier
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| n.冰川，冰河 | |
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protruded
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| v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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denizens
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| n.居民，住户( denizen的名词复数 ) | |
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desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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impetus
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| n.推动，促进，刺激；推动力 | |
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foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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hoods
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| n.兜帽( hood的名词复数 )；头巾；（汽车、童车等的）折合式车篷；汽车发动机罩v.兜帽( hood的第三人称单数 )；头巾；（汽车、童车等的）折合式车篷；汽车发动机罩 | |
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baron
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| n.男爵；(商业界等)巨头，大王 | |
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transcended
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| 超出或超越（经验、信念、描写能力等）的范围( transcend的过去式和过去分词 )； 优于或胜过… | |
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northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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pristine
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| adj.原来的，古时的，原始的，纯净的，无垢的 | |
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vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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scurried
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| v.急匆匆地走( scurry的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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impending
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| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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plied
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| v.使用（工具）( ply的过去式和过去分词 )；经常供应（食物、饮料）；固定往来；经营生意 | |
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fidelity
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| n.忠诚，忠实；精确 | |
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narration
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| n.讲述，叙述；故事；记叙体 | |
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walrus
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| n.海象 | |
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chubby
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| adj.丰满的，圆胖的 | |
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softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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70
connoisseurs
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| n.鉴赏家，鉴定家，行家( connoisseur的名词复数 ) | |
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71
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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72
comely
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| adj.漂亮的，合宜的 | |
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73
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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74
depicted
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| 描绘，描画( depict的过去式和过去分词 )； 描述 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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76
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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77
slab
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| n.平板，厚的切片；v.切成厚板，以平板盖上 | |
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laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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79
broiled
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| a.烤过的 | |
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80
allayed
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| v.减轻，缓和( allay的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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81
spouse
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| n.配偶(指夫或妻) | |
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82
gorged
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| v.（用食物把自己）塞饱，填饱( gorge的过去式和过去分词 )；作呕 | |
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83
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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84
beak
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| n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻 | |
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meditation
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| n.熟虑，（尤指宗教的）默想，沉思，（pl.）冥想录 | |
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86
marvels
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| n.奇迹( marvel的名词复数 )；令人惊奇的事物（或事例）；不平凡的成果；成就v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的第三人称单数 ) | |
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87
yelping
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| v.发出短而尖的叫声( yelp的现在分词 ) | |
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88
sledge
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| n.雪橇，大锤；v.用雪橇搬运，坐雪橇往 | |
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89
serpentine
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| adj.蜿蜒的，弯曲的 | |
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90
hummocks
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| n.小丘，岗( hummock的名词复数 ) | |
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