ken,
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 shore, 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 stitches 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
quantity 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 assistance, 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