Chapter 4

“Then for the Hunt”

Loading their sledges with their tents and as many of these stones as they could carry, they travelled over the snow and ice to Meteorite Island. Here they camped, and while the women put up the tents, and got them ready, the men cleared away the snow from the stones and began to work. For many “sleeps,” as the Eskimos say, they pounded and hammered and worked, until they had fashioned a few arrow-heads and also some rude knives. Then for the hunt, which lasted a week. They could hardly believe their eyes, when at the end of that time they saw the number of slaughtered animals,—more than had ever before fallen to their lot in a whole season. Nearly all the hunters would be able to have newfur clothing, and every family would have a new, soft, warm deerskin for the bed.

“Dogs that could draw their Masters on a Sledge”

The Eskimos living hundreds of miles up the coast from here heard of the wonderful arrows and knives made from the heaven-sent stones; but as they did not have dogs and sledges enough to bring all the hunters and their families down where the stones lay, half a dozen of the strongest men took the best dogs and sleds and started for the iron mountain, promising to bring back a piece of the iron large enough to make knives and arrow-heads for all. First they stopped at one ofthe great glaciers, and gathered a sledge-load of the trap rocks; then on they went to Meteorite Island. They were delighted with the knives and arrow-heads which their friends proudly brought forth, and when they were told how deadly the arrow-head was, and shown the pile of meat procured in the hunt, they could wait to hear no more, but hurried over to the iron woman, eager to begin their work. By working steadily, they were able to secure enough scales of the metal to tip their arrow-heads and make their knives, but it seemed impossible to pound off the large piece which they had promised to bring back with them. Long and patiently they worked, chipping and pounding day after day, while the returning sun kept getting higher in the sky, the days grew longer, and the air warmer. The great sheet of snow-covered sea-ice over which the hunters had driven their dogs and sledges was beginning to soften under the caresses of the summer sun. Pools of water began to collect like cool green shadows on the white rolling surface, while numerous black specks on the white sheet showed where sleepingseals were sunning themselves beside their front doors, which opened into the deep sea. Soon the ice would break up and move out, and then the hunters could not return to their families until the Arctic winter set in again, which would not be for three or four months. This idea did not please them, so they redoubled their efforts to break off the large lump upon which they had been working; and just as they were about to give up, the head of the iron woman came off This head must have weighed five hundred pounds, and would supply the people up the coast with all the iron they would need for arrows and knives for a long while. The precious packagewas carefully done up in sealskins, and placed on one of the sledges, and two of the hunters rode beside it, to take care that it did not slide off, and also to drive the dogs, ten of the finest and strongest animals in the pack. The other sledges were loaded with the meat and furs of the animals which had been killed during their stay at the island, and then the little party joyfully started for home.

A Short Rest

Homeward Bound

They found the ice very rotten in places, and often it was covered four or five inches deep with water, through which the dogs had almost to swim and pull the sledges. While crossing one of theseplaces, the dogs drawing the sledge on which the treasured iron lay, suddenly broke through the ice. For a brief moment they struggled to get a foothold amid the broken ice, yelping pitifully with terror, but in the next instant the sledge with its heavy load of men and iron came crashing among them, and shot beneath the water, carrying men and iron and dogs with it. The force and weight of the sledge must have carried it under the unbroken ice, for neither men nor dogs were seen again.

This the natives considered the punishment of the spirit of the iron woman for destroying the stone, and from that time to the present it has been looked upon as bad luck to try to move either of the stones.

It was for this reason that the Eskimos warned AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S father, when he told them he would take the wonderful stones to his country, not to touch them, for something dreadful would surely happen to him. When they found he was determined, nevertheless, to take away the meteorites, they helped him loosen them and take themdown to the ship, but refused to assist him in putting them on board.

Ah-ni-ghi´-to and One of her Brown Fur-clad Friends

While the work of getting the iron tent alongside the ship was going on, AH-NI-GHI´-TO had a merry time. After the sun shone again, thesnow melted rapidly, and she spent her time on shore, picking flowers and berries, which grew among the rocks and on the hillsides; and the Eskimo women built her play “igloos” (houses) just like their own, and taught her different games which she and Laura played with the brown fur-clad children of the North.

After many days the iron tupic was ready to be put on board. Everything in the ship had been stowed, and the ship’s hold filled with rocks, on which the iron stone should rest.

AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S father had built a bridge from the shore to the middle of the ship, where a big opening in the deck, called the hatch, gave an entrance for the big stone to the hold of the ship. This bridge was built of great oak timbers as long as a tree is tall, and on top of the timbers a railroad track was laid. When the iron stone was dug from the frozen bed in which it had lain so long, it was lifted high enough to slip under it a heavy sled of strong oak timbers, bolted together with long iron bolts and shod with iron.

To lift so heavy a mass of iron,—for the tupic weighed nearly one hundred tons,—powerful machines called jacks were used, and with their assistance, too, the great sledge with its heavy load was pushed on to the end of the bridge. The rails were smeared with grease, and strong ropes fastened from the steam-engine to the sledge to help pull, while the powerful jacks pushed. The meteorite was chained down to the sledge with heavy chains and then covered over with a big American flag. AH-NI-GHI´-TO was now told that she must christen the big brown stone with a bottle of wine as soon as it began to move. So she stood with her father just behind the car, when the signal was given to start. Her mother and the Captain began to pump at the jacks, the engine snorted, the ropes straightened, and the big bridge began to groan and creak. It seemed as if nothing could make the meteorite leave its home; but at last a great shout from the men told that the sledge was slowly moving, and then crash went the wine-bottle, and “I name thee AH-NI-GHI´-TO,” said the little godmother.

Having once started, the great stone moved slowly and steadily along the greased track, until it rested over the open hatch. Then the men gave three cheers for AH-NI-GHI´-TO, the little godmother, and three more for her father, who had overcome all the obstacles and at last succeeded in getting the largest known meteorite safely on board.

The Eskimos stood on shore and watched everything with the greatest interest, but they could not be persuaded to come on board ship. They felt very sure the vessel would sink and all be lost, as were the men, sledge, and dogs that were taking away the iron woman’s head.

Winter in the Snowland

It required a few more days of labor to get the unwilling monster into the hold of the ship, and then AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S father said they must not tarry longer, for already the new ice was beginning to form in the bay, and in a short time it would be too thick for the ship to force her way through, and they would be obliged to spend the winter in the Snowland. As no one was prepared to do this, every one felt a little anxious until the open sea was again reached. But here a new trouble awaited AH-NI-GHI´-TO and her friends; for a terrible storm arose, and the ship rolled and tossed about until it seemed as if the iron stone must surely dash through the ship’s side. Of course AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S father had men watching all the time to notice the slightest change, but everything had been so securely packed that nothing moved. AH-NI-GHI´-TO was very gladwhen at last the storm was over and the big waves calmed down, for she had had her first attack of seasickness, and did not like it at all. After the storm the weather grew milder, and AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S father told her she might visit her birthplace at the head of Bowdoin Bay, which pleased her very much. She knew the little black house where the stork had brought her had been burned, but Baby Lake and the gravel bank, the big black cliffs of Mt. Bartlett, and the great white glacier were all old friends, and AH-NI-GHI´-TO wanted to see them again. Ere the bay was reached the snow had begun to fall, and by the time AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S birthplace was reached several inches of snow-covered everything. Nevertheless she was taken ashore by her father and mother, and on the spot where the little black house once stood, she brushed the snow away and picked a handful of big yellow poppies. Up on the gravel bank she dug out a few white round pebbles and then paid a visit to the little lake. Here she found three pretty ducks swimming about; but as soon as the little fur-cladfigure appeared they flew away over the hills and only the steep brown cliffs of the great mountain frowned down upon her, and in the distance the surface of the white glacier gleamed through the fast-falling snow. The storm was increasing in violence, and AH-NI-GHI´-TO was hurried back to the ship.

Ah-ni-ghi´-to on the Site of the Little Black House

Good-bye was said to all the Eskimos, with promises of a return some day, and the ship started for home.

This had been a very unusual summer. Much snow had fallen, and many storms took the place of the usual sunshine. The natives laid all this to the removing of the iron mountain, and told AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S father, when they bade him good-bye, that they feared they would never see him again, for they were sure the ship, with all on board, would go to the bottom of the sea.

They were very much distressed, and begged him to put the stone ashore here, and thus avoid the ill luck which would surely befall him. He tried to assure them that the ship would reach home safely, but they seemed very sad when the vessel steamed away.

For a time it seemed as if the weather had united with the evil spirit which the Eskimos had said protected the iron stones, and the wind and sea together tried their best to set free the great meteorite by pounding it through the ship’s sides or turning the vessel over.

But the good ship withstood all their attacks, and finally the stormy wind became a favoring breeze and smoothed the tumbling waves into a smiling sea.

AH-NI-GHI´-TO was now bound for home, and the vessel steamed steadily toward the south, stopping at one point to take on board a party of gentlemen who had spent the summer studying the rocks and ice rivers. Still farther south, another stop was made to gather fossils. AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S father took her with him to the fossil-beds, as the scientific men called the hillside where the fossils were to be found, and showed her the flat shaly stones which when split open had pictures of leaves and twigs upon the inner surface. He told her that many, many years ago, it was always summer in this spot where now it was always winter; that the ground on which she stood was then covered with ferns and flowers instead of snow and ice; and that, just as she had seen her mother press the flowers she had gathered, in the sunny places among the rocks, between the leaves of books to preserve them that she mightshow them to friends at home, so these ferns and leaves of long, long ago had been pressed, by the wind and rain, between sheets of mud which have turned to stone, so that the learned men who were now opening these stone books, or fossils, with their hammers could see what kind of plants and trees grew then in this country.

After a few hours AH-NI-GHI´-TO was again on her way South; and the next stopping-place was a little town called Umanak, made up of only about a dozen habitations. There were three Danish families in this place, but in only one family were there children, and these children, five in number, had never in all their lives seen another white child before. They were delighted with AH-NI-GHI´-TO. Each one tried to do more for her than the other, and while AH-NI-GHI´-TO could not understand one word of their language and they could not understand a word of hers, yet they had a happy afternoon together. AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S toys were as new to them as their quaint and mostly homemade ones were to her. They were dear, generous,good-hearted little ones, and wanted to make AH-NI-GHI´-TO a present of everything she admired. They had funny little Eskimo dolls made of rags, and dressed just like an Eskimo girl, with long fur stockings, with the fur side next the leg, and over these, tanned sealskin boots; short sealskin trousers, with the fur on the outside, and trimmed down the front with bands of colored leather. The body was covered with a woollen blouse, shaped like one of our sweaters, and lined with eiderdown. The bottom of the blouse was trimmed with ribbon. Seaweed was used for the hair, which was tied up in a top knot with a broad piece of ribbon.

The dolls were not pretty, but very odd, and unlike any AH-NI-GHI´-TO had ever seen; and these little children were just as fond of them as AH-NI-GHI´-TO was of her beautiful bisque dolls, which have real hair and can open and shut their eyes. They insisted on giving one of their dolls to AH-NI-GHI´-TO to take home with her. AH-NI-GHI´-TO felt very proud of this gift, and said she would keep it always in remembranceof the little strangers who were so kind to her. She gave them oranges, the first they had ever seen. It was not until she had peeled one and broken it in pieces that she could make the eldest, a little boy who was about seven years old, believe it was not a ball, but a fruit, and good to eat.

When they had tasted of the orange, they could hardly wait to peel others before eating them. When AH-NI-GHI´-TO saw that they liked this new fruit, she sent them a basket full, all she had left, as soon as she returned to the ship. The Eskimos in this place brought pretty little sealskin boots and slippers decorated with bits of colored leather to AH-NI-GHI´-TO, also toy boats and sledges patterned after the large ones which they used. Laura, too, received her share of souvenirs, for she was a great curiosity, both to the Eskimos as well as the white people. Some of the natives had never even heard of colored people.

Towards evening AH-NI-GHI´-TO bade all her new friends good-bye, promising to surely visit them if she ever made the voyage to the Snowland again.

Ah-ni-ghi´-to on Deck

As the good ship sailed South, she gradually came into the zone where the sun goes down every evening and rises every morning. This AH-NI-GHI´-TO did not like at all, for now she could not go on deck after supper as she had been in the habit of doing, nor could she have daylight in her cabin whenever she pleased by simply pulling the old hat out of the tiny round window. Instead, she had the moon and stars to keep her company through the night.

Ah-ni-ghi´-to’s Birthday

One morning (it was the twelfth of September) AH-NI-GHI´-TO awoke and found on a little stand by the side of her bed a beautiful cake all iced with chocolate,—this was her favorite cake,—and upon it four colored candles burning brightly. What do you suppose this meant? It meant that four years ago that day the stork had brought little AH-NI-GHI´-TO to her father and mother, in the little black house way up in the Snowland; so this was her birthday. All the gentlemen on board ship, whom she called her “brothers,” had remembered the little girl, and her presents were different from any she had ever received on her other birthdays. There were ivoryrings, an ivory locket and chain, and an ivory cross; all these had been carved by the Eskimos. Then there were two white-fox skins, and two blue-fox skins; sealskin mittens, shoes, and slippers; a muff and neckpiece made of eiderdown, and a lovely eiderdown quilt, with the beautiful green and black skins of the necks of the birds used as a border all around it. But the funniest thing of all was a big Eskimo doll, almost as tall as AH-NI-GHI´-TO herself, dressed like an Eskimo hunter, with his sealskin trousers and coat, and his fur hood pulled over his face in true Eskimo style. Such a happy little girl she was that day. In the afternoon she invited her friends, whom she called her brothers, to share her cake and whatever else could be found in the “goody” line. What a jolly time there was in the little cabin! Every one wished AH-NI-GHI´-TO “many happy returns of the day;” the captain hoisted the stars and stripes on the mainmast, and the engineer blew four loud blasts with the whistle. This, he said, would let all the seals and walrus, and even the polar bears, if there were any withinhearing distance, know that there was a celebration on board ship, and that AH-NI-GHI´-TO, the Snow Baby, was four years old that day. If they heard the whistle, they did not make any sign, for not an animal was to be seen.

It was still a week’s sailing before the American shore would be reached, and AH-NI-GHI´-TO began to grow eager to get home, where she had left her family of dolls, taking only her eldest with her, for, she said, “they must miss a mother’s care, poor things, and I am homesick for them too. I wonder what they will say to the new Eskimo sister and brother that I am bringing to them. I hope they will be pleased, even if the new children are not beauties. Then, too, I am so anxious to tell all my dear ones what a good time I have had, and to show them my new presents and also to give them the curious things I have brought from the Snowland for them.”

At last the shore was in sight, and toward evening it was reached. That night AH-NI-GHI´-TO slept in a hotel with her father and mother; and very queer it felt to sleep in a bedthat did not rock to and fro, and to wake in the night and not hear the steady, even pulsing of the engine, together with the swish of the waves against the ship’s sides, which had been her steady company for nearly three months.

Home Again

There was still a long journey to be made on the railroad, and AH-NI-GHI´-TO thought it would never end. But at last, with a clanging of bells and a puffing of steam, the long dusty train rolled into the station, and there among the eager crowd AH-NI-GHI´-TO saw her “Tante” and the gentle kindly face of “dear old Grossma,”both glad to have their baby back again safe and well.

Of course there was much to hear and much to tell; presents to give, friends to see, and her own family of dolls to look after and the new ones to be introduced, until when night came it was a very tired AH-NI-GHI´-TO that mother tucked away in the little white bed.

“Good night, mother dear,” she said. “I have had a very nice time, and I am glad to have seen the Snowland again, and ‘Billy-Bah,’ and the little brown Eskimos, and those dear little children who gave me the Eskimo doll, even if they could not speak English or German. The christening of the meteorite was great fun, and I liked the big ship and our funny little room, and I liked my big brothers on the ship; but I like Grossma’s house the very best of all, don’t you?”

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTESSilently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

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