, 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.