as said, however, to see the
drift of his visitor's meaning.

"Huk!" he exclaimed, with a look of satisfaction; "Angut will be glad to
hear this."

"Who is Angut?" asked the sailor.

The whole party looked peculiarly solemn at this question.

"Angut is a great angekok," answered Okiok, in a low voice.

"Oh! he is one of your wise men, is he?" returned Rooney, with an
involuntary shrug of his shoulders, for he had heard and seen enough
during his residence at the settlements to convince him that the
angekoks, or sorcerers, or wise men of the Eskimos, were mostly a set of
clever charlatans, like the medicine-men of the North American Indians,
who practised on the credulity and superstition of their fellow-men in
order to gain their own ends. Some of these angekoks, no doubt, were
partly self-deceivers, believing to some extent the deceptions which
they practised, and desiring more or less the welfare of their dupes;
but others were thorough, as well as clever, rogues, whose sole object
was self-interest.

"Well, then," continued Rooney, "after I'd been two winters with these
Kablunets, another big kayak came to the settlement, not to trade, nor
to teach about God, but to go as far as they could into the ice, and try
to discover new lands."

"Poor men!" remarked Okiok pitifully; "had they no lands of their own?"

"O, yes; they had lands at home," replied the sailor, laughing.

"Huk!" exclaimed several of the natives, glancing at each other with
quite a pleased expression. It was evident that they were relieved as
well as glad to find that their visitor could laugh, for his worn and
woe-begone expression, which was just beginning to disappear under the
influence of rest and food, had induced the belief that he could only go
the length of smiling.

"Yes," continued the sailor; "they had lands, more or less--some of
them, at least--and some of them had money; but you must know, Okiok,
that however much a Kablunet may have, he always wants more."

"Is he _never_ content?" asked the Eskimo.

"Never; at least not often."

"Wonderful!" exclaimed Okiok; "when I am stuffed with seal-blubber as
full as I can hold, I want nothing more."

Again the sailor laughed, and there was something so hearty and jovial
in the sound that it became infectious, and the natives joined him,
though quite ignorant of the exciting cause. Even Tumbler took
advantage of the occasion to give vent to another howl, which, having
somethin