Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 1.djvu/173

152 increased rapidly. They were of prismatic colours to-night, pea-green predominating. Oh that I could pen or pencil the beauty of this display! The kind of clouds which I have named are the most distant of any. The aurora, as it frequently ascended high in the heavens, plainly painted its golden rays upon the face of the clouds, thus proving it was at play between me and them. Blind George, the Esquimaux, was standing by my side. I told him what was going on in the heavens. I said the moon was shining, and the aurora showing off finely at the time. He wished me to place him



in position that his face might be upturned toward what I saw and so admired. This I joyfully did. Joyfully, do I say? No, no! For, as Paulooyer (Blind George) asked me, I saw that he was possessed of an uncontrollable yearning, seeming to me like that of a pinioned eagle, to soar away to the regions of the stars. He sought to tear away the curtains