Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/306



Kalutunah and his companions had scarcely been gone when another sledge came, bringing two more Esquimaux,—Amalatok, of Northumberland Island, and his son. They had four dogs; and having stopped on the way to catch a walrus, part of which they had brought with them, they were much fatigued; and, having got wet in securing the prize, they were cold and a little frozen. Both were for several days quite sick in Tcheitchenguak's snow-hut, and I had at last a patient, and the snow-hut became a sort of hospital, for old Tcheitchenguak was sick too. I either visited them myself or sent Mr. Knorr twice daily; but the odor of the place becoming at length too much for that gentleman's aristocratic nose, I could no longer prescribe by proxy, and so went myself and cured my patients very speedily, winning great credit as a Narkosak, the "medicine man," in addition to being the Nalegaksoak, "the big chief." Amalatok thought at one time that he was going to die, and indeed I became sincerely alarmed about my reputation; but he came round all right in the end, and, strange though it may appear, his memory actually outlived the service long enough for him to do more than to say "Koyanak,"—"I thank you;"—that is to say, as soon as he could get about he brought me his best dog, and, in token of gratitude, made me a present of it. Afterward, upon the offer of some substantial gifts, he sold me another, and he went home as rich as the party that had preceded him, and happy as Moses Primrose returning from the fair with his gross of shagreen spectacles.

And thus my kennels were being once more filled up, and my heart was rejoiced.