While they were gone, the six who had gone to slaughter the bear came back, bringing the hide and a considerable quant.i.ty of the meat. Bits were distributed among the crowd, and eaten raw and reeking as if a delicacy. We _chymoed_ the bear-skin from them for a bar of iron.
In about an hour a great _ta-yar-r-r-ing_ from the sh.o.r.eward bespoke the embarkation of the _ladies_; and, with our gla.s.ses, we could make out a large boat coming off, surrounded by _kayaks_.
"That"s the _oomiak_," said Kit. "Looks like quite a barge."
"Don"t lose your hearts now," laughed the captain. "Should hate to have an elopement from my ship here."
"I think Wade is in the most danger," said Raed. "He"s very susceptible to Northern beauties. We must have an eye to him."
"Beware, Wade!" cried Kit. "Don"t be led astray! Steel your heart against the seductive charms of these Husky belles! Remember how the hopes of your family are centred! What would your mother say? Your father would be sure to disinherit you! How would your sisters bear it?"
"Hold on, fellows!" exclaimed Wade. "This isn"t quite fair, nor honorable,--making fun of ladies behind their backs."
"Right, sir!" cried Raed. "Spoken like a true son of the South! Ah!
you did always outrank us in gallantry. No discount on it. Had your heads been as true as your hearts, the result might have been different. But here come the ladies. We must do our prettiest to please "em, or we are no true knights. By the by, we resemble the wandering knight-errants not a little, I fear."
"Only their object was adventure, while ours is science," added Kit.
"Scientific knights!" laughed Wade. "Well, the world moves!"
The _oomiak_ was now within fifty yards.
"Let"s give "em a salute!" exclaimed Kit. "Roll the ball out of the howitzer!"
"Oh! I wouldn"t; it may scare "em," said Raed.
"No, it won"t. Where"s a match?"
_Bang_ went old bra.s.sy out of the stern.
It did startle them, I fancy. Something very much like a feminine screech rose in the _oomiak_. It was quickly hushed up, though, with no fainting, but any quant.i.ty of _heh-heh-ing_ and _yeh-yeh-ing_ from the fat beauties.
"Now give "em two more from the muskets--two at a time--when they come under the side!" shouted Kit. "Hobbs, you and Don first!
Ready!--fire!"
Crack, crack!
"Now Weymouth and Corliss!"
Crack, crack!
"There! I now consider their arrival properly celebrated. And here they are under the bows! Pipe the side for the ladies, captain!"
"Bless me!" exclaimed Raed; "how are we to get "em aboard? Can"t climb a line, I don"t expect."
"Wouldn"t do to give "em the ratlines!" exclaimed Kit; "might entangle their pretty feet. What"s to be done, captain?"
"I--give--it--up!" groaned Capt. Mazard. "Hold! I have it: the old companion-stairs,--the ones we had taken out. They are stowed away down in the hold."
"Just the thing!" cried Raed; "the very essence of gallantry!"
"Corliss, Bonney, and Hobbs," shouted the captain, "bear a hand at those old stairs,--quick! Don"t keep ladies waiting!"
The old stairs were hurried up, and let down from the side. The captain stood ready with a stout line, which he whipped around the top rung, and then made fast to the bulwarks. "That"ll hold "em," said he.
The _oomiak_ was then brought up close, and the foot of the stairs set inside the gunwale. The _oomiak_ was about twenty-seven feet in length by six in width. Like the _kayaks_, it was covered with seal-skin; or perhaps it might have been the hide of the walrus. The framework was composed of both bone and wood tied and lashed together. This was the women"s boat, and was rowed by them. The only man in it was a hideous, wrinkled old savage, who sat in the stern to steer.
"Two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve, and an odd one," counted Raed.
"Invite "em up, captain."
Capt. Mazard got up on the bulwarks with a line in his hand, and, holding it down over the stairs, began to bow and make signs to them to come up. Perhaps they had not intended to actually come on board; or perhaps, like their fairer sisters in other lands, they wanted to be coaxed a little. At first they discreetly hesitated, glancing alternately up at us, then round to their swarthy countrymen in the _kayaks_. The most of them were seemingly young. There was but one really ugly face; while four or five were evidently under fifteen. The women were not quite so swarthy and dark as the men, and wore their hair longer. Several of them had it pugged up behind. The captain and Raed now redoubled their gestures of invitation. The Esquimau men on board also began to jabber to them; at which, first two, then another, and another, stood up, and with broad smiles essayed to mount the stairs. Kit was standing close to me.
"Now, which are the prettiest ones?" he whispered. "Which are the belles? Let"s you and I secure the _belles_ away from Raed and Wade.
Those two back in the stern next to old ghoul-face--how do those strike you? Aren"t those the beauties? They"ve got on the prettiest fur, anyway. Only look at those white gloves!"
The two Kit had pointed out were, as well as we could judge, the fairest of the bevy.
"I believe Wade"s got his eye on one of them!" muttered Kit. "We"ll oust him, though. Crowd along sharp when those two come up. Elbow Wade out of the way. I"ll push against you, and we"ll squeeze him up against the rail."
The others followed the first two, coming up the steps, taking the captain"s hand, and jumping off the rail to the deck. Our two came last.
"Now"s our time!" exclaimed Kit; and, making a bold push, we got in ahead of the unsuspecting Wade, who immediately saw the sell, and turned away in great disgust.
"I"ll pay you for that!" muttered he.
But, having got face to face with the fur-clad damsels, we were not a little perplexed how to make their acquaintance; for they were staring at us with their small black eyes very round and wondering.
"Try a great long smile," said Kit.
We smiled very hard and persistently for some seconds. It seemed to mollify their wonder somewhat.
"Keep it up," Kit advised: "that"ll bring "em."
We kept it up, smiling and bowing and nodding as gayly as we could; and were presently rewarded by seeing faint reflections of our grins on their dusky faces, which rapidly deepened into as broad a smile as I ever beheld. They had very tolerably wide mouths, with large white teeth. Having got up a smile, we next essayed to shake hands with them according to good old New-England custom. Their white gloves were of some sort of bird-skin, I think, and fitted--well, I"ve seen kid gloves worn that didn"t fit a whit better. How to commence a conversation was not so easy; since we knew not more than a dozen words of their language, and could not frame these into sentences. So we began by making them each a present of a jack-knife. These were accepted with a great deal of broad smiling. Kit then showed them how to open the knives. At that one of the girls reached down to her boot; and, thrusting her hand into the leg of it (for their boots had remarkably large legs, coming up to the knee, and even higher), she fished out a little bone implement about four inches long, and resembling a harpoon. Near the centre of it was a tiny hole, in which there was knotted a bit of fine leathern string. It was plain that she meant to give it to one or the other of us. Kit held out his hand for it with a bow.
"_Kina?_" he asked, taking it. ("What is it?")
"_Tar-suk_," said the girl. "_Tar-suk-apak-pee-o-mee-w.a.n.ga_;" which was plain, to be sure.
Meanwhile the other was industriously fumbling in her boot, and pretty quick drew out a bone image representing a fox, as I have always supposed. This was for me.
"_Kina?_" I asked.
"_Bossuit_," was the reply.
This was also pierced with a hole through the neck; and, on my hooking it to my watch-guard, the other girl fell to laughing at her companion, who also laughed a little confusedly, and with a look, which, in a less dusky maiden, might have been a blush. Just what importance they attach to these trinkets and to the wearing of them we could merely guess at.
"I wonder what their names are," said Kit. "How can we find out? Would they understand by our using the word _kina_, do you suppose?"