Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 1.djvu/241

220 scenting the luscious fat, quicker than thought he gave one leap—a desperate one, as if the strength of a dozen well-fed animals were in him. In an instant I grappled with the dog, and made great efforts to save the precious material; but, though I actually thrust my hands into his mouth, and though Tookoolito and Punnie also battled with him, Merok conquered, and instantly devoured that portion he had seized. This misfortune, however, was not single. Before Jack could get his well-loaded spear and himself into the igloo, all the other dogs about the place were around him, fighting for a share of what was left. They succeeded in obtaining nearly all before we could drive them away, and thus the good portion intended for us from what Jack had procured was lost to us, but not to the dogs! Jack, who was of Ugarng's party, and had brought this as a present, returned to his own igloo, and left us disconsolate to ours. "Better things," therefore, in that case, were not for us; but, nevertheless, as I have said above, they did arrive, and that speedily. Not before 9 did I again leave my tuktoo bed and go outside the igloo to look around. Naturally and longingly my first glance was in the direction whence I expected Ebierbing. In a moment my eyes caught something black upon the almost universal whiteness. I looked again and again. It moved, and immediately my heart leaped with joy as my tongue gave utterance in loud tones to Tookoolito within, "Ebierbing! Ebierbing! He is coming! he is coming!" The response was, "That is good;" and I—merely adding, "I go to meet him"—bounded away as fast as my enfeebled body would allow. I soon found, however, that if progress was to be made toward him, I must do it by slow degrees and patient steps. "Black skin," in homoeopathic quantities, daily taken for food, had but kept my stomach in sufficient action to support life. All the strength I now had was mostly from the beef-steaks of dear Ohio, eaten and moulded into human fat, muscle, and bones before leaving my native home. But this