STORY OF ANNING AIT AND AJUT. 113 himself to the most celebrated angekok of that part of the country, and, by a present of two seals and a marble kettle, obtained a promise that, when Ajut should consult him, he would declare that her lover was in the land of souls. "Ajut in a short time brought the angekok a coat, made by herself, and inquired what events were to befall her, with assurances of a much larger reward at the return of Anningait if the prediction should flatter her desires. The angekok knew the way to riches, and foretold that Anningait, having already caught two whales, would soon return home with a large boat laden with provisions. "This prognostication she was ordered to keep secret; and Norngspk, depending upon his artifice, renewed his addresses with greater confidence; but finding his suit still unsuccessful, applied himself to her parents with gifts and promises. The wealth of Greenland is too powerful for the virtue of a Greenlander; they forgot the merit and the presents of Anningait, and decreed Ajut to the embraces of Norngsuk. She entreated; she remonstrated; she wept and raved; but finding riches irresistible, fled away into the uplands, and lived in a cave upon such berries as she could gather, and the birds or hares which she had the fortune to ensnare, taking care, at an hour when she was not likely to be found, to view the sea every day, that her lover might not miss her at his return. "At last she saw the great boat in which Anningait had departed, stealing slow and heavy-laden along the coast. She ran with all the impatience of affection to meet Anningait, and relate her con stancy and sufferings. When the company reached land, they informed her that Anningait, after the fishery was ended, being unable to support the slow passage of the vessel of carriage, had set out before them in his kajak, and they expected at their arrival to have found him on shore. “Ajut, distracted at this intelligence, was about to fly into the hills, without knowing why, though she was now in the hands of her parents, who forced her back to their own hut, and endeavoured to comfort her: but when at last they retired to rest, Ajut went down to the beach, where, finding a fishing-boat, she entered it without hesitation, and telling those who wondered at her rashness that she was going in search of Anningait, rowed away with great swiftness, and was seen no more. “The fate of these lovers gave occasion to various fictions and conjectures. Some are of opinion that they were changed into stars; others imagine that Anningait was seized in his passage by the genius of the rocks, and that Ajut was transformed into a mermaid, and still continues to seek her lover in the deserts of the sea. But the general persuasion is, that they are both in that part of the land of souls where the sun never sets, where oil is always fresh, and provisions always warm. The virgins sometimes throw a thimble and a needle into the bay from which the hapless maid departed; and when a Greenlander would praise any couple for virtuous affection, he declares that they love like Anningait and Ajut," NORTH-WESTERN PASSAGE. 115 CHAPTER XII. IT has been remarked that all the arctic tribes (I call those people arctic whose territory approaches to the arctic circle) are much alike in their manners and customs; and it is further to be observed, that they are the same now that they were when first known to the people of civilized Europe; changes and improvements, such as take place in civilized society, not appearing among them. Since 1818 the British government has fitted out vessels to penetrate Baffin's and Hudson's Bays in a westerly direction, in order to discover, if possible, a north-western passage to Asia. This has not been accomplished; but the voyagers employed in this enterprise have made some observations upon the inhabitants and the animals of that northern world which are interesting. Captain John Ross and Lieutenant Parry, having command of two vessels, the Isabella and Alexander, left England April 18th, 1818, and penetrated as far as 75° north, in Baffin's Bay. Two degrees, or one hundred and thirty-nine miles, north of the northernmost Greenland colony. The whales, which have afforded abundant supplies of oil to Europe and America for more than a century, seem to have learned by their own natural instinct of self-preservation, to avoid the pursuit of their destroyers; for of late years they are not to be found in their former numbers in their old haunts, but have retreated to the remote security of the Icy Sea, as the northern waters of the Atlantic and the great bay are called. INTERVIEW WITH THE ESQUIMAUX. 117 In lat. 75° Captain Ross saw them in large numbers, sleeping in those deep recesses, where they had never been assailed by the harpoon. But the whales were less an object of curiosity than the people of the neighbouring coast, and these the English officers made some acquaintance with, by the help of a young Greenlander named Zaccheous. This young man had entered the service of an English whale-ship, and had acquired the English language. Being disposed to receive instruction, he was kindly initiated in the common course of elementary study. He had a desire to be useful, and to accompany the discovery-ships. His offer was accepted, and Captain Ross found him very serviceable in his intercourse with the Esquimaux. The tribe which Captain Ross and his companions became acquainted with, in the expedition of 1818, was different from any we have described. They had never seen or heard of a human being different from themselves; and the first small party of navigators who landed upon their coast, when they approached some of the natives, frightened them. But, terrified as they were at the sight of the Europeans, their curiosity prevailed over their fears. They chose rather to wait and learn who and what the monsters were, than to run away. Accordingly, they stood still, laid fast hold of the long knives lodged in their boots, and looked significantly, first at the strangers, and then at one another. A chasm in the ice separated these Esquimaux from the English. The former seeing Zaccheous among the white men, and perceiving that he bore |