Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/305

 *

family more. At all events, he should try it. And now would not the Nalegaksoak,—the big chief who was so rich and so mighty, be good enough to give him so many presents that he would go back and make everybody envious? Human nature is the same in the Arctic as in the Temperate zone; and, gratified with this discovery, I fairly loaded the rogue down with riches, and sent him away rejoicing. But this wife, what of her? "Oh, she's lazy and will not do any thing, and made me come all this long journey to get her some needles which she won't use, and a knife which she has no use for; and now when I go back without any dog, won't I catch it!"—and he caught hold of his tongue and pulled it as far out of his mouth as he could get it, trying in this graphic manner to illustrate the length of that aggressive organ in the wife of his bosom. "But," added this savage Benedict, "she has a ragged coat, so full of holes that she cannot go out of the hut without fear of freezing; and if she scolds me too much I won't give her any of these needles, and I won't catch her any foxes to make a new one;"—but it was easy to see that the needles would not be long withheld, and that the foxes would be caught when he was told to catch them. And so pitying his domestic misfortunes, I added some presents for this amiable creature of the ragged coat; and when he told me that she had presented him with an heir to the Myouk miseries, I added something for that, too. This little hopeful, he informed me, was already being weaned from its natural and maternal supplies, and was exhibiting great aptitude for blubber. He had called it Dak-ta-gee, which was the nearest that he could come to pronouncing Doctor Kane.