* * * *

Whatever may be the abundance sometimes enjoyed by these people, and
whatever the maladies occasioned by their too frequent abuse of it, it
is certain that they occasionally suffer very severely from the opposite
extreme. A remarkably intelligent woman informed Captain Lyon, that two
years ago some Esquimaux arrived at Igloolik from a place near
_Akkoolee_, bringing information that, during a very grievous famine,
one party of men had fallen upon another and killed them; and that they
afterward subsisted on their flesh, while in a frozen state, but never
cooked or even thawed it. This horrible account was soon after confirmed
by Toolemak on board the Fury; and though he was evidently uneasy at our
having heard the story, and conversed upon it with reluctance, yet, by
means of our questions, he was brought to name, upon his fingers, five
individuals who had been killed upon this occasion. Of the fact,
therefore, there can be no doubt; but it is certain, also, that we
ourselves scarcely regarded it with greater horror than those who
related it; and the occurrence may be considered similar to those
dreadful instances on record, even among civilized nations, of men
devouring one another, in wrecks or boats, when rendered desperate by
the sufferings of actual starvation.

The ceremony of crying, which has before been mentioned as practised
after a person's death, is not, however, altogether confined to those
melancholy occasions, but is occasionally adopted in cases of illness,
and that of no very dangerous kind. The father of a sick person enters
the apartment, and, after looking at him a few seconds without speaking,
announces by a kind of low sob his preparation for the coming ceremony.
At this signal every other individual present composes his features for
crying, and the leader of the chorus then setting up a loud and piteous
howl, which lasts about a minute, is joined by all the rest, who shed
abundant tears during the process. So decidedly is this a matter of
form, unaccompanied by any feeling of sorrow, that those who are not
relatives shed just as many tears as those that are; to which may be
added, that in the instances which we saw there was no real occasion for
crying at all. It must, therefore, be considered in the light of a
ceremony of condolence, which it would be either indecorous or unlucky
to omit.

I have already given several instances of the little care these people
ta