Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/333

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was not difficult to perceive that Kalutunah started with me expecting to take me under his protecting wing; and if he did not have the pleasing satisfaction of seeing me groaning with the cold, at least he should have the opportunity to instruct me how to live and how to travel; but when I began to instruct him, and turned the tables on him, he was much disappointed; and when to this violation of propriety I added the still more unpardonable offense of refusing him a bear-hunt, his enthusiasm oozed out very rapidly; and if he admired the Nalegaksoak the more he desired to follow him the less, particularly as the dangers of the service preponderated over the emoluments. Indeed, the fellow was disposed to avail himself fully of the advantages of his new situation, and I soon made up my mind that he was henceforth a pensioner upon my bounty, so I doubled his riches and made him the happiest Esquimau that ever was seen. My thoroughly energetic, daring and skillful hunter, who prided himself upon the excellence of his equipments and the abundance of his supplies, for once in his life found himself so situated that he was freed from all necessity of giving thought to the morrow. It was truly a novel sensation, and it is not surprising that he should wish to enjoy the short-lived holiday. He was greatly amused,—amused with himself, amused with the Nalemaksoak who had made him so rich and allowed him to be so lazy, and amused with the white man's dress with which he was bedecked, and in which he cut such a sorry figure. His face was never without a full-blown grin. I gave him a looking-glass, and he carried it about with him continually, looking at himself and laughing at his head with a cap on it, and
 * stances; and this was a great deal in his eyes. It