characters; the fummer fhould be spent only in providing for the winter, and the winter in longing for the fummer.

Yet learned curiofity is known to have found it's way into thefe abodes of pover ty and gloom: Lapland and Iceland have their hiftorians, their criticks, and their poets; and Love, that extends his dominion wherever humanity can be found, perhaps exerts the fame power in the Greenlander's hut as in the palaces of eastern monarchs.

In one of the large caves to which the families of Greenland retire together, to pafs the cold months, and which may be termed their villages or cities, a youth and maid, who came from different parts of the country, were fo much diftinguifhed for their beauty, that they were called by the rest of the inhabitants Anningait and Ajut, from a supposed refemblance to their ancestors of the fame names, who had been transformed of old into the fun and moon.

Anningait for fome time heard the praises of Ajut with little emotion, but at last, by frequent interviews, became fenfible of her charms, and first made a discovery of his affection, by inviting her with her parents to a feaft, where he placed before Ajut the tail of a whale. Ajut feemed not much delighted by this gallantry; yet, however, from that time, was obferved rarely to appear, but in a veft made of the fkin of a white deer; the ufed frequently to renew the black dye upon her hands and forehead, to adorn her fleeves with coral and fhells, and to braid her hair with great exact nefs.

The elegance of her drefs, and the judicious difpofition of her ornaments, had fuch an effect upon Anningait, that he could no longer be restrained from a declaration of his love. He therefore compofed a poem in her praife, in which, among other heroick and tender fentiments, he protested, that, She was beautiful as the vernal willow, and ⚫ fragrant as thyme upon the mountains; that her fingers were white as the teeth of the morfe, and her fimile grate. ⚫ful as the diffolution of the ice; that ⚫he would pursue her, though she should

pass the nows of the midland cliffs, ⚫or feek shelter in the caves of the eaftern cannibals; that he would tear her <from the embraces of the genius of the

rocks, fnatch her from the paws of · Amaroc, and rescue her from the ra

vine of Hafgufa. He concluded with a wifh, that whoever shall attempt to hinder his union with Ajut, might be buried without his bow, and that in the land of fouls his skull might serve for no other use than to catch the • droppings of the ftarry lamps,"

This ode being univerfally applauded, it was expected that Ajut would foon yield to fuch fervour and accomplish ments; but Ajut, with the natural haugh tinefs of beauty, expected all the forms of courtship; and before she would confefs herself conquered, the fun returned, the ice broke, and the feafon of labour called all to their employments.

Anningait and Ajut for a time always went out in the fame boat, and divided whatever was caught. Anningait, in the fight of his mistress, loft no opportunity of fignalizing his courage; he attacked the fea-horfes on the ice; pursued the feals into the water; and leaped upon the back of the whale, while he was yet ftruggling with the remains of life. Nor was his diligence lefs to accumu. late all that could be neceffary to make winter comfortable; he dried the rot of fishes, and the flesh of feals; he entrapped deer and foxes, and dreffed their skins to adorn his bride; he feasted her with eggs from the rocks, and strewed her tent with flowers.

It happened that a tempest drove the fish to a diftant part of the coaft, before Anningait had completed his ftore; he therefore entreated Ajut, that she would at laft grant him her hand, and accompany him to that part of the country whither he was now fummoned by neceffity. Ajut thought him not yet entitled to fuch condefcenfion, but propofed, as a trial of his conftancy, thất, he thould return at the end of fummer to the cavern where their acquaintance commenced, and there expect the reward of his affiduities. O virgin, beauti ful as the fun fhining on the water, confider,' faid Anningait, 'what thou haft required. How eafily may my return be precluded by a fudden froit or unexpected fogs; then must the night be paft without my Ajut. We live not, my fair, in thofe fabled countries, which lying strangers fo wan. tonly defcribe; where the whole year is divided into hort days and nights; where the fame habitation ferves for fummer and winter; where they raise houses in rows above the ground,

1 G

dwell

VIRGIL

pofed by the dilatory coynefs of Ajut, was yet refolved to omit no tokens of amorous refpect; and therefore prefented her at his departure with the ikins of feven white fawns, of five swans and eleven feals, with three marble lamps, ten veffels of feal oil, and a large kettle of brafs, which he had purchased from a fhip, at the price of half a whale, and two horns of fea-unicorns.

Ajut was fo much affected by the fondnefs of her lover, or fo much overpowered by his magnificence, that she followed him to the fea-fide; and, when fhe faw him enter the boat, wifhed aloud, that he might return with plenty of skins and oil; that neither the mermaids might fnatch him into the deeps, nor the fpirits of the rocks confine him in their ca

verns.

She stood a while to gaze upon the departing veffel, and then returning to her hut, filent and dejected, laid ande, from that hour, her white deer ikin, fuffered her hair to spread unbraided on her fhoulders, and forbore to mix in the dances of the maidens. She endeavoured to divert her thoughts by continual application to feminine employments, gathered mofs for the winter lamps, and uried grass to line the boots of Anningait. Of the skins which he had be

DRYDEN.

coat, a fmall boat, and tent, all of exquifite manufacture; and while the was thus bufied, folaced her labours with a fong, in which the prayed, that her lover might have hands stronger than the paws of the bear, and feet swifter than the feet of the rein-deer; that his ❝ dart might never err, and that his boat ⚫ might never leak; that he might never

towed he made

ftumble on the ice, nor faint in the water; that the feal might rush on his harpoon, and the wounded whale might dafh the waves in vain.'

The large boats in which the Greenlanders tranfport their families, are always rowed by women; for a man will not debafe himfelf by work which requires neither skill nor courage. Anningait was therefore expofed by idlenefs to the ravages of paffion. He went thrice to the stern of the boat, with an intent to leap into the water, and fwim back to his mistress; but recollecting the mifery which they muft endure in the winter, without oil for the lamp, or fkins for the bed, he refolved to employ the weeks of abfence in provision for a night of plenty and felicity. He then compofed his emotions as he could, and expreffed, in wild numbers and uncouth images, his hopes, his forrows, and his fears. O life,' fays he, frail and un⚫ certain!

certain where fhall wretched man ⚫ find thy resemblance but in ice foating on the ocean? It towers on high, it fparkles from afar; while the forms drive and the waters beat it, the fun melts it above, and the rocks fhatter it below. What art thou, deceitful pleasure! but a fidden blaze ftreaming from the north, which plays a moment on the eye, mocks the traveller with the hopes of light, and then va❝nishes for ever? What, love, art thou but a whirlpool, which we approach without knowledge of our danger, drawn on by imperceptible degrees, till we have loft all power of refiftance ⚫ and efcape? Till I fixed my eyes on the graces of Ajut, while I had yet not called her to the banquet, I was careless as the fleeping morfe, I was merry as the fingers in the stars. Why, Ajut, did I gaze upon thy graces ? why, my fair, did I call thee to the banquet? Yet, be faithful, my love, remember Anningait, and meet my return with the fimile of virginity. I ⚫ will chafe the deer, I will fubdue the whale, refiftlefs as the froft of darknefs, and unwearied as the fummer fun. In a few weeks, I fhall return ⚫ profperous and wealthy; then shall the roefith and the porpoife feaft thy kindred; the fox and hare fhall cover thy couch; the tough hide of the feal fhall fhelter thee from cold; and the fat of • the whale illuminate thy dwelling.'

Anningait having with thefe fentiments confoled his grief, and animated his induftry, found that they had now coafted the headland, and faw the whales fpouting at a distance. He therefore placed himself in his fishing-boat, called his affociates to their feveral employ. ments, plied his oar and harpoon with incredible courage and dexterity; and, by dividing his time between the chace and fishery, fufpended the miferies of abfence and fufpicion.

Ajut, in the mean time, notwithstanding her neglected drefs, happened, as fhe was drying fome fkins in the fun, to catch the eye of Norngfuk, on his return from hunting, Norngfuk was of birth truly illuftrious. His mother had died in childbirth, and his father, the most expert fisher of Greenland, had perifhed by too clofe purfuit of the whale. His dignity was equalled by his riches; he was mafter of four men's and two women's boats, had ninety tubs of oil

in his winter habitation, and five and twenty feals buried in the fnow against the feafon of darkness. When he faw the beauty of Ajut, he immediately threw over her the skin of a deer that he had taken, and foon after prefented her with a branch of coral. Ajut refufed his gifts, and determined to admit no lover in the place of Anningait.

Norngfuk, thus rejected, had recourse to ftratagem. He knew that Ajut would confult an Angekkok, or diviner, concerning the fate of her lover, and the felicity of her future life. He therefore applied himfelf to the most celebrated Angekkok of that part of the country, and by a prefent of two feals and a marble kettle obtained a promise, that when Ajut fhould confult him, he would declare that her lover was in the land of fouls. Ajut, in a fhort time, brought him a coat made by herself, and enquired what events were to befal her, with affurances of a much larger reward at the return of Anningait, if the prediction should flatter her defires. The Angekkok knew the way to riches, and foretold that Anningait, having already caught two whales, would foon return home with a large boat laden with provifions.

This prognoftication fhe was ordered to keep fecret; and Norngfuk depending upon his artifice, renewed his addrefles with greater confidence; but finding his fuit ftill unfacceísful, applied himself to her parents with gifts and promifes. The wealth of Greenland is too powerful for the virtue of a Greenlander; they forgot the merit and the prefents of Anningait, and decreed Ajut to the embraces of Norngfuk. She entreated; the remonftrated; the wept, and raved; but finding riches irrefiftible, fled away into the uplands, and lived in a cave upon fuch berries as the could gather, and the birds or hares which the had the fortune to enfnare, taking care, at an hour when she was not likely to be found, to view the fea every day, that her lover might not mifs her at his return.

At last the faw the great boat in which Anningait had departed, ftealing flow and heavy laden along the coaft. She ran with all the impatience of affection to catch her lover in her arms, and relate her conftancy and sufferings. When the company reached the land, they informed her, that Anuingait, after the fifhery was ended, being unable to fup. port the flow paffage of the vessel of 3 G 2 carriage,