is body was rather bent forward, his
eyes sometimes closed, his arms constantly moving up and down, and now
and then hoarsely vociferating a word or two, as if to increase the
animation of the singers, who, whenever he did this, quitted the chorus
and rose into the words of the song. At the end of ten minutes they all
left off at once, and after one minute's interval commenced a second act
precisely similar and of equal duration; Okotook continuing to invoke
their muse as before. A third act, which followed this, varied only in
his frequently, towards the close, throwing his feet up before and
clapping his hands together, by which exertion he was thrown into a
violent perspiration. He then retired, desiring a young man (who, as we
were informed, was the only individual of several then present thus
qualified) to take his place in the centre as master of the ceremonies,
when the same antics as before were again gone through. After this
description it will scarcely be necessary to remark, that nothing can be
poorer in its way than this tedious singing recreation, which, as well
as everything in which dancing is concerned, they express by the word
m~om=ek-poke. They seem, however, to take great delight in it; and
even a number of men, as well as all the children, crept into the hut by
degrees to peep at the performance.

The Esquimaux women and children often amuse themselves with a game not
unlike our "skip-rope." This is performed by two women holding the ends
of a line, and whirling it regularly round and round, while a third
jumps over it in the middle, according to the following order. She
commences by jumping twice on both feet, then alternately with the right
and left, and next four times with the feet slipped one behind the
other, the rope passing once round at each jump. After this she performs
a circle on the ground, jumping about half a dozen times in the course
of it, which bringing her to her original position, the same thing is
repeated as often as it can be done without entangling the line. One or
two of the women performed this with considerable agility and
adroitness, considering the clumsiness of their boots and jackets, and
seemed to pride themselves, in some degree, on the qualification. A
second kind of this game consists in two women holding a long rope by
its ends, and whirling it round in such a manner, over the heads of two
others standing close together near the middle of the bight, that each
of th