into the animal, as it lies on its back, they pour a
little water into its mouth, and touch each flipper and the middle
of the belly with a little lamp-black and oil taken from the under
part of the lamp. What benefit was expected from this preparatory
ceremony we could not learn, but it was done with a degree of
superstitious care and seriousness, that bespoke its indispensable
importance. The boys came eagerly into the hut as usual, and held
out their foreheads for the old woman to stick the charms upon
them; and it was not till now that we learned from Iligliuk the
efficacy of this very useful custom. As soon as this dirty
operation was at an end, during which the numerous by-standers
amused themselves in chewing the intestines of the seal, the
strangers retired to their own huts, each bearing a small portion
of the flesh and blubber, while our hosts enjoyed a hearty meal of
boiled meat and hot gravy soup. Young Sioutkuk ate at least three
pounds of solid meat in the first three hours after our arrival at
the huts, besides a tolerable proportion of soup, all which his
mother gave him whenever he asked it, without the smallest remark
of any kind. We now found that they depended on catching seals
alone for their subsistence, there being no walruses in this
neighbourhood. As they were several miles from any open water,
their mode of killing them was entirely confined to watching for
the animals coming up in the holes they make through the ice.

In the course of the evening our conversation happened to turn on
the Indians, a people whom none of these Esquimaux had ever seen;
but with whose ferocity and decided hostility to their own nation
they seemed to be well acquainted. They described, also, their
peculiar manner of paddling their canoes, and were aware that they
made use of the kind of show-shoes which we showed them. When I
related to them, as well as I was able, the massacre of the
Esquimaux recorded by Hearne, and gave them to understand that the
Indians spared neither age nor sex, it seemed to chill them with
horror, and I was almost sorry that I had told them the story.

_April 11._--We were now glad to begin making some show of
re-equipping the ships for sea; for though this was a business
that might, if necessary, have been very well accomplished in two
or three weeks, it was better to employ the men in occupations
having an evident and determinate object, than in those less
obviously useful ones to which