of the hut, and quickly brought every female that was
left at the village, not excepting even the oldest of them, who
joined in the performance with the same alacrity as the rest. I
could, however, only persuade them to go through a tedious song we
often before heard, which was now, indeed, somewhat modified by
their insisting on our taking our turns in the performance, all
which did not fail to create among them never-ceasing merriment
and laughter. Neither their want of food and fuel, nor the
uncertain prospect of obtaining any that night, was sufficient to
deprive these poor creatures of that cheerfulness and good-humour
which it seems at all times their peculiar happiness to enjoy.

The night proved very thick, with small snow, and as disagreeable
and dangerous for people adrift upon floating ice as can well be
imagined. If the women, however, gave their husbands a thought, or
spoke of them to us, it was only to express a very sincere hope
that some good news might shortly arrive of their success. Our
singing party had not long been broken up, when it was suddenly
announced by one of the children, the usual heralds on such
occasions, that the men had killed something on the ice. The only
two men who were at home instantly scrambled on their outer
jackets, harnessed their dogs, and set off to assist their
companions in bringing home the game, while the women remained for
an hour in anxious suspense as to the extent of their husbands'
success. At length one of the men arrived with the positive
intelligence of two walruses having been taken, and brought with
him a portion of these animals as large as he could drag over the
snow. If the women were only cheerful before, they were now
absolutely frantic. A general shout of joy instantly re-echoed
through the village; they ran into each other's huts to
communicate the welcome intelligence, and actually hugged one
another in an ecstasy of delight by way of congratulation. One of
them, _Arnal=o=o~a_, a pretty young woman of nineteen or twenty,
knowing that a dog belonging to her husband was still at the huts,
and that there was no man to take him down on the ice, ran out
instantly to perform that office; and, with a hardihood not to be
surpassed by any of the men, returned, after two hours' absence,
with her load of walrus flesh, and without even the hood thrown
over her head to shelter her from the inclemency of the weather.

When the first burst of joy had at length sub