hem it scarcely ever
goes beyond painful irritation, while among strangers inflammation
is sometimes the consequence. I have not seen them use any other
remedy besides the exclusion of light; but, as a preventive, a
wooden eye-screen is worn, very simple in its construction,
consisting of a curved piece of wood, six or seven inches long, and
ten or twelve lines broad. It is tied over the eyes like a pair of
spectacles, being adapted to the forehead and nose, and hollowed
out to favour the motion of the eyelids. A few rays of light only
are admitted through a narrow slit an inch long, cut opposite to
each eye.

"There are, upon the whole, no people more destitute of curative
means than these. With the exception of the hemorrhage already
mentioned, which they duly appreciate, and have been observed to
excite artificially to cure headache, they are ignorant of any
rational method of procuring relief. It has not been ascertained
that they use a single herb medicinally. As prophylactics, they
wear amulets, which are usually the teeth, bones, or hair of some
animal, the more rare apparently the more valuable. In absolute
sickness they depend entirely upon their Angekoks, who, they
persuade themselves, have influence over some submarine deities who
govern their destiny. The mummeries of these impostors, consisting
in pretended consultations with their oracles, are looked upon with
confidence, and their mandates, however absurd, superstitiously
submitted to. These are constituted of unmeaning ceremonies and
prohibitions generally affecting the diet, both in kind and mode,
but never in quantity. Seal's flesh is forbidden, for instance, in
one disease, that of the walrus in the other; the heart is denied
to some, and the liver to others. A poor woman, on discovering that
the meat she had in her mouth was a piece of fried heart instead of
liver, appeared horror-struck; and a man was in equal tribulation
at having eaten, by mistake, a piece of meat cooked in his wife's
kettle.

"Personal deformity from malconformation is uncommon; the only
instance I remember being that of a young woman, whose utterance
was unintelligibly nasal, in consequence of an imperfect
development of the palatine bones leaving a gap in the roof of the
mouth."

*