old companion the repeating rifle.

The last event of interest which occurred at the North Pole, before the
departure of our explorers, was the marriage of Oolichuk with Oblooria.
The ceremony was very simple. It consisted in the bridegroom dressing
in his best and going to the tent of his father-in-law with a gift,
which he laid at his feet. He then paid some endearing Eskimo
attentions to his mother-in-law, one of which was to present her with a
raw duck, cleaned and dismembered for immediate consumption. He even
assisted that pleased lady immediately to consume the duck, and wound up
by taking timid little Oblooria's hand and leading her away to a hut of
his own, which he had specially built and decorated for the occasion.

As Amalatok had arrived that very day on a visit from Poloeland with his
prime minister and several chiefs, and Grabantak was residing on the
spot, with a number of chiefs from the surrounding islands, who had come
to behold the famous Kablunets, there was a sort of impromptu gathering
of the northern clans which lent appropriate dignity to the wedding.

After the preliminary feast of the occasion was over, Captain Vane was
requested to exhibit some of his wonderful powers for the benefit of a
strange chief who had recently arrived from a distant island. Of course
our good-natured Captain complied.

"Get out the boats and kites, Benjy, boy," he said; "we must go through
our performances to please 'em. I feel as if we were a regular company
of play-actors now."

"Won't you give them a blow-up first, father?"

"No, Benjy, no. Never put your best foot foremost. The proverb is a
false one--as many proverbs are. We will dynamite them afterwards, and
electrify them last of all. Go, look sharp."

So the Captain first amazed the visitor with the kites and india-rubber
boats; then he horrified him by blowing a small iceberg of some
thousands of tons into millions of atoms; after which he convulsed him
and made him "jump."

The latter experiment was the one to which the enlightened Eskimos
looked forward with the most excited and hopeful anticipations, for it
was that which gratified best their feeling of mischievous joviality.

When the sedate and dignified chief was led, all ignorant of his fate,
to the mysterious mat, and stood thereon with grave demeanour, the
surrounding natives bent their knees, drew up elbows, expanded fingers,
and glared in expectancy. When the dignified chief exp