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The party then moves seaward, being guided in discovering the holes of the seal or walrus by their dogs. At this time of the year huts are built of snow for the residence of the band, and at no season is the hunter's skill more tested, the seal being a very wary animal, with acute sight, smell, and hearing. It is no match, however, for the Eskimo hunter, who, sheltered from the keen blast by a semicircular wall of snow, will sit motionless for hours, watching for the bubble of air that warns him of the seal coming up to breathe; and scarcely has the animal raised its nostrils to the surface, before the hunter's harpoon is deeply buried in its body. The sport is not without the danger that adds to the excitement of success. The line attached to the point of the harpoon is passed in a loop round the hunter's loins, and, should the animal he has struck be a large seal or walrus, woe betide him if he does not instantly plant his feet in the notch cut for the purpose in the ice, and throw himself in such a position that the strain on the line is as nearly as possible brought in the direction of the length of the spine of his back and axis of his lower limbs. A transverse pull from one of these powerful beasts would double him across the air-hole, and perhaps break his back; or, if the opening be large, as it often is when the spring is advanced, he would be dragged under water and drowned. Accidents of this kind are but too common. When the seals come out on the ice to bask in the powerful rays of a spring sun, the Eskimo hunter knows how to approach them by imitating their forms and motions so perfectly that the poor animals take him for one of their own species, and are not undeceived until he comes near enough to thrust his lance into one. The principal seal fishery ends by the disruption of the ice, and then the reindeer are again numerous on the shores of the Arctic Sea, the birds are breeding in great flocks, and the annual routine of occupation, which has been briefly sketched, commences anew."

In the hunting of the seal and other animals the utmost ingenuity is displayed, and page after page could be filled with accounts of the different methods the Eskimo employ in so doing. An ingenious method of killing bears was noticed among some tribes. A strong piece of whalebone was coiled up, and secured by stringy pieces of blubber. These baits are tossed here and there in the track of the bear, and swallowed one after another. Under the influence of the heat of the animal's stomach the blubber melts and lets loose the spring, which lacerates the interior of the animal, eventually killing it. The Eskimo always kill the old bear before the cub. If this rule is accidentally disobeyed by some inexperienced or foolish individual, they are very cautious to preserve themselves against the rage of the mother. In going homewards they will travel in a straight line and then suddenly turn off at right angles to it, so that when the bear is precipitately following their tracks by scent it may be thrown off. This trick they repeat frequently. When they arrive at home every precaution is taken against being alarmed. The sledges are placed upright against the house, for if the enraged bear should arrive she will knock down the sledges, considering it a suspicious circumstance that they are in that position. By this ruse the hunters get warning, and pour out, dogs and all, to the attack of their enemy. Various traps are used to capture animals, such as the ice-trap to capture the fox, &c., which is simply constructed on the principle of the trap in which English boys capture birds, and many savage tribes other animals-viz., that when the animal seizes the bait it brings down from above a slab of ice, which either kills or holds it prisoner until it is frozen to death or knocked on the head by the trap-builder.

The Eskimo travel great distances to traffic with other tribes, and in this manner articles obtained from the Russians in Alaska have been seen among the Eskimo in Pond's Bay, in Davis Strait. This desire to traffic is a perfect passion with them, and they will come long distances in order to do so. Needles, knives, iron tools of all kinds, food, and of late looking-glasses beads, and muskets are among the chief articles desired. Their skill in providing food, under the most adverse circumstances, and in fashioning their implements, we have already noticed. Their intelligence is high and their wits are acute, sharpened as they are by the eternal struggle against the forces of Nature. They have few wars with each other-indeed, I never heard of such, but wherever they touch on the Indian border there is war to the knife between the two races. The courage and ferocity of the Eskimo have been abundantly displayed these occasions, and the Dogrib Indians, and those of the Mackenzie, shudder at the vengeance of the Eskimo, whose attacks they have suffered from at various times. In the hunt they will with a single dog and their spear tackle the polar bear, or singly the scarcely less fierce walrus. They are, however, treacherous and revengeful on occasions. That they killed some of Sir John Franklin's men there can, I believe, be little doubt, from the stories circulating among the Pond's Bay natives in 1861, several of the trading tribes in that vicinity having had personal cognizance of these acts. I was once witness of their revengeful disposition. An Eskimo having been ordered out of a whaler for some act of misbehaviour, said not one word, but disappeared over the side; but no sooner had he regained the ice than he sent an arrow whizzing past the ear of some one standing on the deck looking at him. They have, however, some good qualities, such as hospitality to strangers and a kind of gratitude for favours received. No Eskimo whom I have seen would receive anything from any one without thanking him, and after looking it all over, putting it into his hood, or wherever else he was stowing his acquisitions. Whenever they meet any one they cry, "Timoo!" and will even show their goodwill by rubbing noses with him-a mark of politeness which could in most cases be dispensed with. Take them all in all, they are a very good-natured people, neither so lazy nor self-conceited as the Indians (though they have a sufficiently good opinion of themselves), free from many of their graver vices, quite as intelligent, and, while they have insuperably greater obstacles to contend against, showing higher moral and mental characteristics than most of the Indian tribes. Strange to say, their love of home and pride in their ice-bound country are immense. Several of them have visited England, Denmark, and America, but they always wearied to get back again, and though impressed with what they saw, yet after they got back they ridiculed the whites in every possible way. The warmer climates of the South disagree with them, and several have died before they could reach their country again. "Do you see the ice? do you see the ice?" was the constant cry of one of them who had been taken to civilisation, and as he reached his country was on his death-bed.

To finish this brief estimate of the Eskimo character, I may add that he is skilful in imitating anything put before him, though deficient in inventive power; he is also an excellent draughtsman and map-drawer. I have in my possession maps of various portions of the Arctic coast-line, rudely but accurately drawn, and have examined similar ones. They are fond of drawing portraits of well-known personages: I have seen myself portrayed on more than one white-tanned seal-skin in an Eskimo hut, the materials being soot and coal; and to imitate the gait, gesture, or any other peculiarities of white men is a favourite amusement of

the winter months. Everybody living amongst them has a nickname. During the long confinement to their hovels, in the dark winter months, the Eskimo men execute some very fine figures in bone and in walrus or fossil ivory, besides making fish-hooks, knife-handles, and other instruments neatly of these materials, or of metal or wood. Some of the bone articles purchased from the Eskimo are used in games, resembling the European one of cup and ball, or in other contrivances for passing the time. Imitations of the human figure are common, and also of canoes, sledges, and other instruments of their ménage or of animals known to them; but there is no reason to believe that any of the figures they make are worshipped as gods; indeed they part with them freely by barter. Their social character is shown by several families being under

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the same roof, or by building their houses alongside each other, in two rows, with a lane into which each house opens. This lane or passage can be converted into a porch in winter, by roofing it over. In some villages, but not in those of Greenland or Labrador, there is a regular kashim, or council-house, which is used as a place for feasts or other assemblages. Von Baer, in describing a tribe living on a river flowing into Behring Strait, mentions a curious use of this council-house. At night, he says, all the able-bodied men retire to sleep in it, while the women, children, and old men, along with the shaman, or "wizard," sleep in the ordinary houses. In the morning the shaman goes to the kashim with a kind of tambourine, and performs some ceremony, the nature of which he himself determines. Various feasts are held in this house, particularly a great one at the end of the hunting season, when the success of each hunter and his liberality and mighty deeds are duly extolled. The only women

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admitted on these occasions are those who have been initiated, after some mystic ceremonies allied to the medicine-work of the Indian tribes, living further south on the same coast, and which probably may be somewhat of the same nature.

What this Shamanism is those travellers who have lived among the Eskimos for lengthened periods are not very decided; only we know that women can practise its rites, and I am strongly convinced it is nothing more than the medicine-rites of the more southern coast Indian tribes. The Angekoks are much the same as the shamans, employing ventriloquism,

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and various sleight-of-hand tricks to impress the people with their powers. In Greenland until very recent times, and perhaps to some extent even now, there were certain women and old men who by fasting and other rites were supposed to acquire the power of stilling the wind, causing the rain to cease, and such like. Another kind of furious witch was called Illiseersut, and was feared, hated, and destroyed without mercy. Their religion is a belief in spirits of various degrees of power. The chief one is "Torngarsuk"-the great spirit, or devil, as the name signifies, who, though only known to the common people by name, is constantly consulted by the Angekoks. Whether he is in the shape of a bear or a man, or of no form at all, is disputed among the hyperborean wise men, but that he lives in the interior of the earth or under the

waters, in a land of abundance and everlasting sunshine, is generally conceded. Yet he is not worshipped by the people, all intercourse with him being left to the Angokoks, who affect great familiarity with him, and claim that he gives them power to heal sickness, obtain wealth, success in the hunt, and indeed anything which they can be paid for procuring for their votaries and dupes. In addition, the Eskimo lives in a perfect atmosphere of gods. In every wind that blows he hears spirits; in the darkness of the night their whispers reach him; every animal has its guardian angel; the aurora, as it lights up the snow and rustles in the Arctic air, is the spirits of the dead fighting in the air;-the very moon, which gladdens the long Arctic night, provides for their necessities, giving the Labrador Eskimo reindeer, seals, and other good things. But among the Greenlanders the moon is, or was, quite the contrary of good, being a wicked young man, of whom silly girls could not be too careful. Once in chasing a young lady she smeared his face with soot so that she could recognise him again—hence the eclipse of the moon, when he turns that side of his face to the earth! Among the Labrador people a very old woman rules the reindeer, and selects those the Eskimo need, and to Torngarsuk they assign a task like that of the Greek Proteus-viz., that of herding the whales and seals, and on him they call in their need. Supperguksoak, the old woman, has many herdsmen-namely, the souls of the dead, whom she has assembled to watch her reindeer flocks. Old Hans Egede, the bravest and best of missionaries, tells us that in his day in Greenland there were many minor spirits whom they held in dread. The chief of these were called Innue, and one of these was selected by Torngarsuk as the familiar or Torngak of the Angekok. Some Angekoks have their deceased parent for a Torngak. The Kongeuserokit are marine Innuæ, that feed on foxtails. The Ingnersoit inhabit rocks on the shore, and are very desirous of the company of Greenlanders, whom they carry away for that purpose. The Tunnersoit are Alpine phantoms. The Innuarolit are pigmies that live on the eastern shores of Greenland; and the Erkiglit, who reside on the same coast, are of a monstrous size, with snouts like dogs. Sillagiksertok is a spirit who makes fair weather, and lives upon the ice mountains. To the air the Greenlanders ascribed some sort of divinity, and lest they should offend it, they were unwilling to go out after dark. Nerrim-Innua is the ruler of diet-and a nice job he must have of it! It is pleasant to think that, thanks to Egede and his successors, all this is nearly something of the past. The Eskimo think everything was much the same as it is just now. Their heaven is, like the heaven of all barbarous or semi-barbarous people, a something better than this world -a region where men revel in plenty of land-ice, with seals and reindeer in abundance, where blubber never fails and hunger is unknown. They are ruled in a patriarchal fashion, having no established laws or magistrates. Each man is a law for his own household, and punishes all offences committed within his jurisdiction. When he is too weak to enforce his authority he is quietly shelved, and takes his place with the women and children, over whom he endeavours —with limited success, especially in the case of the latter to keep up a semblance of authority. In a word, the Eskimo agree well with old Fabricius's concise description of them: "Sine Deo, sine dominis, consuetidine reguntur" (with God or master, they are governed by custom). As a people they are lively and talkative, and by no means-as barbarians go-unpleasant companions on a journey.

When they meet strangers they will assume, afar off, the most ridiculous attitudes, apparently either to disarm their ill will or to attract attention. In 1861 we passed

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