A Journey performed along the South Sh.o.r.e of c.o.c.kburn Island.--Confirmation of an Outlet to the Polar Sea.--Partial Disruption of the Old Ice, and formation of New.--Return through the Narrows to the Eastward.--Proceed to examine the Coast to the Northeastward.--Fury"s Anchor broken.--Stand over to Igloolik to look for Winter-quarters.--Excursion to the Head of Quilliam Creek.--Ships forced to the Westward by Gales of Wind--A Ca.n.a.l sawed through the Ice, and the Ships secured in their Winter Station.--Continued Visits of the Esquimaux, and Arrival of some of the Winter Island Tribe.--Proposed Plan of Operations in the ensuing Spring.
A light air springing up from the eastward on the morning of the 8th, we took advantage of it to run up the margin of the fixed ice, which was now, perhaps, half a mile farther to the westward, in consequence of small pieces being occasionally detached from it, than it had been when we tacked off it ten days before.
The pools on the floes were now so hardly frozen, that skating and sliding were going on upon them the whole day, though but a week before it had been dangerous to venture upon them.
This latter circ.u.mstance, together with the fineness of the weather, and the tempting appearance of the sh.o.r.e of c.o.c.kburn Island, which seemed better calculated for travelling than any that we had seen, combined to induce me to despatch another party to the westward, with the hope of increasing, by the only means within our reach, our knowledge of the lands and sea in that direction. Lieutenant Reid and Mr. Bushnan were once more selected for that service, to be accompanied by eight men, a large number being preferred, because by this means only is it practicable to accomplish a tolerably long journey, especially on account of the additional weight of warm clothing which the present advanced state of the season rendered indispensable. Lieutenant Reid was furnished with six days" provisions, and directed to land where most practicable on the northern sh.o.r.e, and thence to pursue his journey to the westward as far as his resources would admit, gaining all possible information that might be useful or interesting.
On the 14th, while an easterly breeze continued, the water increased very much in breadth to the westward of the fixed floe to which we were attached; several lanes opening out, and leaving in some places a channel not less than three miles in width. At two P.M., the wind suddenly shifting to the westward, closed up every open s.p.a.ce in a few hours, leaving not a drop of water in sight from the masthead in that direction. To this, however, we had no objection; for being now certain that the ice was at liberty to move in the western part of the strait, we felt confident that, if once our present narrow barrier were also detached, the ordinary changes of wind and tide would inevitably afford us opportunities of making progress. The westerly wind was accompanied by fine snow, which continued during the night, rendering the weather extremely thick, and our situation, consequently, very precarious, should the ice give way during the hours of darkness.
At four P.M. on the 15th we discovered our travellers upon the ice. A fresh party being despatched to meet and to relieve them of their knapsacks, Lieutenant Reid arrived safely on board at seven P.M., having, by a quick and most satisfactory journey, ascertained the immediate junction of the Strait of the Fury and Hecla with the Polar Sea.
The weather continuing very thick, with small snow, and there being now every reason to suppose a final disruption of the fixed ice at hand, I determined to provide against the danger to which, at night, this long-wished-for event would expose the ships, by adopting a plan that had often before occurred to me as likely to prove beneficial in an unknown and critical navigation such as this. This was nothing more than the establishment of a temporary lighthouse on sh.o.r.e during the night, which, in case of our getting adrift, would, together with the soundings, afford us that security which the sluggish traversing of the compa.s.ses otherwise rendered extremely doubtful. For this purpose, two steady men, provided with a tent and blankets, were landed on the east point of Amherst Island at sunset, to keep up some bright lights during the eight hours of darkness, and to be sent for at daylight in the morning.
On the 17th the wind freshened almost to a gale from the northwest, with thicker and more constant snow than before. The thermometer fell to 16-1/2 at six A.M., rose no higher than 20 in the course of the day, and got down to 12 at night, so that the young ice began now to form about us in great quant.i.ties.
Appearances had now become so much against our making any farther progress this season, as to render it a matter of very serious consideration whether we ought to risk being shut up during the winter in the middle of the strait, where, from whatever cause it might proceed, the last year"s ice was not yet wholly detached from the sh.o.r.es, and where a fresh formation had already commenced, which there was too much reason to believe would prove a permanent one. Our wintering in the strait involved the certainty of being frozen up for eleven months; a sickening prospect under any circ.u.mstances, but in the present instance, probably, fatal to our best hopes and expectations.
The young ice had now formed so thick about the Fury, that it became rather doubtful whether we should get her out without an increase of wind to a.s.sist in extricating her, or a decrease of cold. At ten A.M., however, we began to attempt it, but by noon had not moved the ship more than half her own length. As soon as we had reached the outer point of the floe, in a bay of which we had been lying, we had no longer the means of applying a force from without, and, if alone, should therefore have been helpless, at least for a time. The Hecla, however, being fortunately unenc.u.mbered, in consequence of having lain in a less sheltered place, sent her boats with a hawser to the margin of the young ice; and ours being carried to meet it, by men walking upon planks, at considerable risk of going through, she at length succeeded in pulling us out; and, getting into clear water, or, rather, into less tough ice, at three P.M. we shaped a course to the eastward.
In our return to Igloolik we encountered a severe gale, but we luckily discovered it at half past ten A.M., though such was the difficulty of distinguishing this from Neerlo-nakto, or either from the mainland, on account of the snow that covered them, that, had it not been for the Esquimaux huts, we should not easily have recognised the place. At noon on the 24th we arrived off the point where the tents had first been pitched, and were immediately greeted by a number of Esquimaux, who came running down to the beach, shouting and jumping with all their might.
As soon as we had anch.o.r.ed I went on sh.o.r.e, accompanied by several of the officers, to pay the Esquimaux a visit, a crowd of them meeting us, as usual, on the beach, and greeting us with every demonstration of joy.
They seemed disappointed that we had not reached Akkolee, for they always receive with eagerness any intelligence of their distant country people. Many of them, and Toolemak among the number, frequently repeated the expressions "_Owyak Na-o_!" (no summer), "_Took-too Na-o!_" (no reindeer), which we considered at the time as some confirmation of our own surmises respecting the badness of the past summer. When we told them we were come to winter among them, they expressed very great, and, doubtless, very sincere delight, and even a few _koyennas_ (thanks) escaped them on the first communication of this piece of intelligence.
We found these people already established in their winter residences, which consisted princ.i.p.ally of the huts before described, but modified in various ways both as to form and materials. The roofs, which were wholly wanting in the summer, were now formed by skins stretched tight across from side to side. This, however, as we soon afterward found, was only a preparation for the final winter covering of snow; and, indeed, many of the huts were subsequently lined in the same way within, the skins being attached to the sides and roof by slender threads of whalebone, disposed in large and regular st.i.tches. Before the pa.s.sages already described, others were now added, from ten to fifteen feet in length, and from four to five feet high, neatly constructed of large flat slabs of ice, cemented together by snow and water. Some huts also were entirely built of this material, of a rude circular or octangular form, and roofed with skins like the others. The light and transparent effect within these singular habitations gave one the idea of being in a house of ground gla.s.s, and their newness made them look clean, comfortable, and wholesome. Not so the more substantial bone huts, which, from their extreme closeness and acc.u.mulated filth, emitted an almost insupportable stench, to which an abundant supply of raw and half-putrid walrus" flesh in no small degree contributed. The pa.s.sages to these are so low as to make it necessary to crawl on the hands and knees to enter them; and the floors of the apartments were in some places so slippery, that we could with difficulty pa.s.s and repa.s.s, without the risk of continually falling among the filth with which they were covered. These were the dirtiest, because the most durable, of any Esquimaux habitations we had yet seen; and it may be supposed they did not much improve during the winter. Some b.i.t.c.hes with young were very carefully and conveniently lodged in small square kennels, made of four upright slabs of ice covered with a fifth, and having a small hole as a door in one of the sides. The canoes were also laid upon two slabs of this kind, like tall tombstones standing erect; and a quant.i.ty of spare slabs lying in different places, gave the ground an appearance somewhat resembling that of a statuary"s yard. Large stores of walrus" and seals"
flesh, princ.i.p.ally the former, were deposited under heaps of stones all about the beach, and, as we afterward found, in various other parts of the island, which showed that they had made some provision for the winter, though, with their enormous consumption of food, it proved a very inadequate one.
Leaving the Fury at seven A.M. on the 26th, and being favoured by a fresh easterly breeze, we soon cleared the southwest point of Igloolik; and, having pa.s.sed the little island of _Oogli=aghioo_, immediately perceived to the W.N.W. of us a group of islands, so exactly answering the description of c.o.xe"s Group, both in character and situation, as to leave no doubt of our being exactly in Captain Lyon"s former track.
Being still favoured by the wind and by the total absence of fixed ice, we reached the islands at eleven A.M., and, after sailing a mile or two among them, came at once in sight of two bluffs, forming the pa.s.sage pointed out by Toolemak, and then supposed to be called _Khemig_. The land to the north, called by the Esquimaux _Khiadlaghioo_, was now found to be, as we had before conjectured, the southern sh.o.r.e of Richards"s Bay. The land on our left or to the southward proved an island, five miles and a quarter in length, of the same bold and rugged character as the rest of this numerous group, and by far the largest of them all. To prevent the necessity of reverting to this subject, I may at once add, that two or three months after this, on laying before Ewerat our own chart of the whole coast, in order to obtain the Esquimaux names, we discovered that the island just mentioned was called _Khemig_, by which name Ormond Island was _also_ distinguished; the word expressing, in the Esquimaux language, anything stopping up the mouth of a place or narrowing its entrance, and applied also more familiarly to the cork of a bottle, or a plug of any kind. And thus were reconciled all the apparent inconsistencies respecting this. .h.i.therto mysterious and incomprehensible word, which had occasioned us so much perplexity.
At daylight on the 27th we crossed to a small island at the margin of the ice; and leaving the boat there in charge of the c.o.xswain and two of the crew, Mr. Ross and myself, accompanied by the other two, set out across the ice at seven A.M. to gain the main land, with the intention of determining the extent of the inlet by walking up its southern bank.
After an hour"s good travelling, we landed at eight A.M., and had scarcely done so when we found ourselves at the very entrance, being exactly opposite the place from which Mr. Richards and myself had obtained the first view of the inlet. The patch of ice on which we had been walking, and which was about three miles long, proved the only remains of last year"s formation; so forcibly had nature struggled to get rid of this before the commencement of a fresh winter.
Walking quickly to the westward along this sh.o.r.e, which afforded excellent travelling, we soon perceived that our business was at an end, the inlet terminating a very short distance beyond where I had first traced it, the apparent turn to the northward being only that of a shallow bay.
Having thus completed our object, we set out on our return, and reached the boat at three P.M., after a walk of twenty miles. The weather fortunately remaining extremely mild, no young ice was formed to obstruct our way, and we arrived on board at noon the following day, after an examination peculiarly satisfactory, inasmuch as it proved the non-existence of _any_ water communication with the Polar Sea, however small and unfit for the navigation of ships, to the southward of the Strait of the Fury and Hecla.
I found from Captain Lyon on my return, that, in consequence of some ice coming in near the ships, he had shifted them round the point into the berths-where it was my intention to place them during the winter; where they now lay in from eleven to fourteen fathoms, at the distance of three cables" length from the sh.o.r.e.
It was not till the afternoon of the 30th that the whole was completed, and the Fury placed in the best berth for the winter that circ.u.mstances would permit. An early release in the spring could here be scarcely expected, nor, indeed, did the nature of the ice about us, independently of situation, allow us to hope for it; but both these unfavourable circ.u.mstances had been brought about by a contingency which no human power or judgment could have obviated, and at which, therefore, it would have been unreasonable, as well as useless, to repine. We lay here in rather less than five fathoms, on a muddy bottom, at the distance of one cable"s length from the eastern sh.o.r.e of the bay.
The whole length of the ca.n.a.l we had sawed through was four thousand three hundred and forty-three feet; the thickness of the ice, in the level and regular parts, being from twelve to fourteen inches, but in many places, where a separation had occurred, amounting to several feet.
I cannot sufficiently do justice to the cheerful alacrity with which the men continued this laborious work during thirteen days, the thermometer being frequently at _zero_, and once as low as -9 in that interval. It was satisfactory, moreover, to find, that in the performance of this, not a single addition had been made to the sick-list of either ship, except by the accident of one man"s falling into the ca.n.a.l, who returned to his duty a day or two afterward.
While our people were thus employed, the Esquimaux had continued to make daily visits to the ships, driving down on sledges with their wives and children, and thronging on board in great numbers, as well to gratify their curiosity, of which they do not, in general, possess much, as to pick up whatever trifles we could afford to bestow upon them. These people were at all times ready to a.s.sist in any work that was going on, pulling on the ropes, heaving at the windla.s.s, and sawing the ice, sometimes for an hour together. They always accompanied their exertions by imitating the sailors in their peculiar manner of "singing out" when hauling, thus, at least, affording the latter constant amus.e.m.e.nt, if not any very material a.s.sistance, during their labour. Among the numerous young people at Igloolik, there were some whose activity on this and other occasions particularly struck us. Of these I shall, at present, only mention two: _N=o=ogloo_, an adopted son of Toolemak, and _K=ong~ol~ek_, a brother of "John Bull." These two young men, who were from eighteen to twenty years of age, and stood five feet seven inches in height, displayed peculiar _tact_ in acquiring our method of heaving at the windla.s.s, an exercise at which _K=ong~ol~ek_ became expert after an hour or two"s practice. The countenances of both were handsome and prepossessing, and their limbs well-formed and muscular; qualities which, combined with their activity and manliness, rendered them (to speak like a naturalist), perhaps, as fine specimens of the human race as almost any country can produce.
Some of our Winter Island friends had now arrived also, being the party who left us there towards the end of the preceding May, and whom we had afterward overtaken on their journey to the northward. They were certainly all very glad to see us again, and, throwing off the Esquimaux for a time, shook us heartily by the hand, with every demonstration of sincere delight. Ewerat, in his quiet, sensible way, which was always respectable, gave us a circ.u.mstantial account of every event of his journey. On his arrival at _Owlitteweek_, near which island we overtook him, he had buried the greater part of his baggage under heaps of stones, the ice no longer being fit for dragging the sledge upon. Here also he was happily eased of a still greater burden, by the death of his idiot boy, who thus escaped the miseries to which a longer life must, among these people, have inevitably exposed him. As for that noisy little fellow, "John Bull" (_Kooillitiuk_), he employed almost the whole of his first visit in asking every one, by name, "How d"ye do, Mr. So and So?" a question which had obtained him great credit among our people at Winter Island. Being a very important little personage, he also took great pride in pointing out various contrivances on board the ships, and explaining to the other Esquimaux their different uses, to which the latter did not fail to listen with all the attention due to so knowing an oracle.
CHAPTER XIII.
Preparations for the Winter.--Various Meteorological Phenomena to the close of the year 1822.--Sickness among the Esquimaux.--Meteorological Phenomena to the end of March.
_November_.--The measures now adopted for the security of the ships and their stores, for the maintenance of economy, cleanliness, and health, and for the prosecution of the various observations and experiments, being princ.i.p.ally the same as those already detailed in the preceding winter"s narrative, I shall be readily excused for pa.s.sing them over in silence.
The daily visits of the Esquimaux to the ships throughout the winter afforded, both to officers and men, a fund of constant variety and never-failing amus.e.m.e.nt, which no resources of our own could possibly have furnished. Our people were, however, too well aware of the advantage they derived from the schools not to be desirous of their re-establishment, which accordingly took place soon after our arrival at Igloolik; and they were glad to continue this as their evening occupation during the six succeeding months.
The year closed with the temperature of -42, the mean of the month of December having been 27 8", which, taken in connexion with that of November, led us to expect a severe winter.
About the middle of the month of December several of the Esquimaux had moved from the huts at Igloolik, some taking up their quarters on the ice at a considerable distance to the northwest, and the rest about a mile outside the summer station of the tents. At the close of the year from fifty to sixty individuals had thus decamped, their object being, like that of other savages on _terra firma_, to increase their means of subsistence by covering more ground; their movements were arranged so quietly that we seldom heard of their intentions till they were gone. At the new stations they lived entirely in huts of snow; and the northerly and easterly winds were considered by them most favourable for their fishing, as these served to bring in the loose ice, on which they princ.i.p.ally kill the walruses.
Towards the latter end of January [1823], the accounts from the huts, as well from the Esquimaux as from our own people, concurred in stating that the number of the sick, as well as the seriousness of their complaints, was rapidly increasing there. We had, indeed, scarcely heard of the illness of a woman named _Kei-m=o=o-seuk_, who, it seemed, had lately miscarried, when an account arrived of her death. She was one of the two wives of _Ooyarra_, one of Captain Lyon"s fellow-travellers in the summer, who buried her in the snow, about two hundred yards from the huts, placing slabs of the same perishable substance over the body, and cementing them by pouring a little water in the interstices. Such an interment was not likely to be a very secure one; and, accordingly, a few days after, the hungry dogs removed the snow and devoured the body.
Captain Lyon gave me the following account of the death and burial of another poor woman and her child:
"The mother, Poo-too-alook, was about thirty-five years of age, the child about three years--yet not weaned, and a female; there was also another daughter, Shega, about twelve or thirteen years of age, who, as well as her father, was a most attentive nurse. My hopes were but small, as far as concerned the mother; but the child was so patient that I hoped, from its docility, soon to accustom it to soups and nourishing food, as its only complaint was actual starvation. I screened off a portion of my cabin, and arranged some bedding for them, in the same manner as the Esquimaux do their own.
Warm broth, dry bedding, and a comfortable cabin, did wonders before evening, and our medical men gave me great hopes. As an introduction to a system of cleanliness, and preparatory to washing the sick, who were in a most filthy state, I scrubbed Shega and her father from head to foot, and dressed them in new clothes.
During the night I persuaded both mother and child, who were very restless, and constantly moaning, to take a few spoonfuls of soup.
On the morning of the 24th the woman appeared considerably improved, and she both spoke and ate a little. As she was covered with so thick a coating of dirt that it could be taken off in scales, I obtained her a.s.sent to wash her face and hands a little before noon. The man and his daughter now came to my table to look at some things I had laid out to amuse them; and, after a few minutes, Shega lifted up the curtain to look at her mother, when she again let it fall, and tremblingly told us she was dead.
"The husband sighed heavily, the daughter burst into tears, and the poor little infant made the moment more distressing by calling in a plaintive tone on its mother, by whose side it was lying. I determined on burying the woman on sh.o.r.e, and the husband was much pleased at my promising that the body should be drawn on a sledge by men instead of dogs; for, to our horror, Takkeelikkeeta had told me that dogs had eaten part of Keimooseuk, and that, when he left the huts with his wife, one was devouring the body as he pa.s.sed it.
"Takkeelikkeeta now prepared to dress the dead body, and, in the first place, stopped his nose with deer"s hair and put on his gloves, seeming unwilling that his naked hand should come in contact with the corpse. I observed, in this occupation, his care that every article of dress should be as carefully placed as when his wife was living; and, having drawn the boots on the wrong legs, he pulled them off again and put them properly. This ceremony finished, the deceased was sewed up in a hammock, and, at the husband"s urgent request, her face was left uncovered. An officer who was present at the time agreed with me in fancying that the man, from his words and actions, intimated a wish that the living child might be enclosed with its mother. We may have been mistaken, but there is an equal probability that we were right in our conjecture; for, according to Crantz and Egede, the Greenlanders were in the habit of burying their motherless infants, from a persuasion that they must otherwise starve to death, and also from being unable to bear the cries of the little ones while lingering for several days without sustenance; for no woman will give them any share of their milk, which they consider as the exclusive property of their own offspring. My dogs being carefully tied up at the man"s request, a party of our people, accompanied by me, drew the body to the sh.o.r.e, where we made a grave, about a foot deep, being unable to get lower on account of the frozen earth. The body was placed on its back, at the husband"s request, and he then stepped into the grave and cut all the st.i.tches of the hammock, although without throwing it open, seeming to imply that the dead should be left unconfined. I laid a woman"s knife by the side of the body, and we filled up the grave, over which we also piled a quant.i.ty of heavy stones, which no animal could remove. When all was done and we returned to the ship, the man lingered a few minutes behind us and repeated two or three sentences, as if addressing himself to his departed wife; he then silently followed.
We found Shega quite composed, and attending her little sister, between whose eyebrows she had made a spot with soot, which I learned was because, being unweaned, it must certainly die. During the night my little charge called on its mother without intermission, yet the father slept as soundly until morning as if nothing had happened.
"All who saw my patient on the morning of the 25th gave me great hopes; she could swallow easily, and was even strong enough to turn or sit upright without a.s.sistance, and in the forenoon slept very soundly. At noon, the sister of the deceased, Ootooguak, with her husband and son, came to visit me. She had first gone to the Fury, and was laughing on deck, and, at her own request, was taken below, not caring to hurry herself to come to the house of mourning. Even when she came to the Hecla she was in high spirits, laughing and capering on deck as if nothing had happened; but, on being shown to my cabin, where Shega, having heard of her arrival, was sitting crying in readiness, she began with her niece to howl most wofully.
I, however, put a stop to this ceremony, for such it certainly was, under the plea of disturbing the child. The arrival of a pot of smoking walrus-flesh soon brought smiles on all faces but that of Takkeelikkeeta, who refused food and sat sighing deeply; the others ate, chatted, and laughed as if nothing but eating was worth thinking of. Dinner being over, I received thanks for burying the woman in such a way that "neither wolves, dogs, nor foxes could dig her up and eat her," for all were full of the story of Keimooseuk, and even begged some of our officers to go to Igloolik and shoot the offending dogs. A young woman named Ablik, sister to Ooyarra, was induced, after much entreaty and a very large present of beads, to offer her breast to the sick child, but the poor little creature pushed it angrily away. Another woman was asked to do the same; but, although her child was half weaned, she flatly refused.
"The aunt of my little one seeming anxious to remain, and Shega being now alone, I invited her to stop the night. In the evening the child took meat and jelly, and sat up to help itself, but it soon after resumed its melancholy cry for its mother. At night my party had retired to sleep; yet I heard loud sighing occasionally, and, on lifting the curtain, I saw Takkeelikkeeta standing and looking mournfully at his child. I endeavoured to compose him, and he promised to go to bed; but, hearing him again sighing in a few minutes, I went and found the poor infant was dead, and that its father had been some time aware of it. He now told me it had seen its mother the last time it called on her, and that she had beckoned it to Khil-la (Heaven), on which it instantly died. He said it was "good" that the child was gone; that no children outlived their mothers; and that the black spot, which Shega had frequently renewed, was quite sufficient to ensure the death of the infant.
"My party made a hearty breakfast on the 26th, and I observed they did not scruple to lay the vessel containing the meat on the dead child, which I had wrapped in a blanket; and this unnatural table excited neither disgust nor any other feeling among them more than a block of wood could have done. We now tied up all the dogs, as Takkeelikkeeta had desired, and took the child about a quarter of a mile astern of the ships, to bury it in the snow; for the father a.s.sured me that her mother would cry in her grave if any weight of stones or earth pressed on her infant. She herself, he feared, had already felt pain from the monument of stones which we had laid upon her. The snow in which we dug the child"s grave was not above a foot deep, yet we were not allowed to cut into the ice, or even use any slabs of it in constructing the little tomb. The body, wrapped in a blanket, and having the face uncovered, being placed, the father put the slings by which its deceased mother had carried it on the right side, and, in compliance with the Esquimaux custom of burying toys and presents with their dead, I threw in some beads. A few loose slabs of snow were now placed so as to cover, without touching, the body, and with this very slight sepulchre the father was contented, although a fox could have dug through it in half a minute. We, however, added more snow, and cemented all by pouring about twenty buckets of water, which were brought from the ship, on every part of the mound. I remarked that, before our task was completed, the man turned and walked quietly to the ships.
"During the last two days I obtained some information with respect to mourning ceremonies, or, at all events, such as related to the loss of a mother of a family; three days were to be pa.s.sed by the survivors without their walking on the ice, performing any kind of work, or even having anything made for them. Washing is out of the question with Esquimaux at most times, but now I was not allowed to perform the necessary ablutions of their hands and faces, however greasy or dirty they might be made by their food; the girl"s hair was not to be put into pig-tails, and everything was neglected; Takkeelikkeeta was not to go sealing until the summer. With the exception of an occasional sigh from the man, there were no more signs of grief; our mourners ate, drank, and were merry, and no one would have supposed they ever had wife, mother, or sister. When the three days (and it is singular that such should be the time) were expired, the man was to visit the grave; and, having talked with his wife, all duties were to be considered as over. The 28th was our third day, but a heavy northerly gale and thick drift prevented our visiting the grave. The 29th, although not fine, was more moderate, and I accompanied him at an early hour. Arriving at the grave, he anxiously walked up to it and carefully sought for foot-tracks on the snow; but, finding none, repeated to himself, "No wolves, no dogs, no foxes; thank ye, thank ye." He now began a conversation, which he directed entirely to his wife. He called her twice by name, and twice told her how the wind was blowing, looking at the same time in the direction from whence the drift was coming.
He next broke forth into a low monotonous chant, and, keeping his eyes fixed upon the grave, walked slowly round it in the direction of the sun four or five times, and at each circuit he stopped a few moments at the head. His song was, however, uninterrupted. At the expiration of about eight minutes he stopped, and, suddenly turning round to me, exclaimed, "_Tugw~a_" (that"s enough), and began walking back to the ship. In the song he chanted I could frequently distinguish the word _Koyenna_ (thank you), and it was occasionally coupled with the Kabloonas. Two other expressions, both the names of the spirits or familiars of the Annatko, Toolemak, were used a few times; but the whole of the other words were perfectly unintelligible to me.
"I now sent Shega and her father home, well clothed and in good case. The week they had pa.s.sed on board was sufficient time to gain them the esteem of every one, for they were the most quiet, inoffensive beings I ever met with; and, to their great credit, they never once begged. The man was remarkable for his extraordinary fondness for treacle, sugar, salt, acids, and spruce-beer, which the others of the tribe could not even smell without disgust; and he walked about to the different messes in hopes of being treated with these delicacies. Shega was a timid, well-behaved girl, and generally remained eating in my cabin, for I am confident of speaking far within bounds when I say she got through eight pounds of solids per diem. As far as grat.i.tude could be shown by Esquimaux, which is saying "koyenna" on receiving a present, my friends were sensible of the attentions I had shown them."