ed with poetry by Aristotle, and
which old Homer says is the sweetest and most perfect of human
enjoyments, is a pastime much in vogue among the Eskimo, and it required
but little provocation to start a dance at any time on the _Corwin's_
decks when a party happened to be on board. The dancing, however, had
not the cadence of "a wave of the sea," nor was there the harmony of
double rotation circling in a series of graceful curves to strains like
those of Strauss or Gungl. On the contrary, there was something
saltatorial and jerky about all the dancing I saw both among the men and
women. It is the custom at some of their gatherings, after the hunting
season is over, for the men to indulge in a kind of terpsichorean
performance, at the same time relating in Homeric style the heroic deeds
they have done. At other times the women do all the dancing. Being
stripped to the waist they are more _decollete_ than our beauties at the
German, and the men take the part of spectators only in this
choreographical performance.

ART INSTINCT.

The aptitude shown by Eskimo in carving and drawing has been noticed by
all travellers among them. Some I have met with show a degree of
intelligence and appreciation in regard to charts and pictures scarcely
to be expected from such a source. From walrus ivory they sculpture
figures of birds, quadrupeds, marine animals, and even the human form,
which display considerable individuality notwithstanding their crude
delineation and imperfect detail. I have also seen a fair carving of a
whale in plumbago. Evidences of decoration are sometimes seen on their
canoes, on which are found rude pictures of walruses, etc., and they
have a kind of picture-writing, by means of which they commemorate
certain events in their lives, just as Sitting Bull has done in an
autobiography that may be seen at the Army Medical Museum.

When we were searching for the missing whalers off the Siberian coast,
some natives were come across with whom we were unable to communicate
except by signs, and wishing to let them know the object of our visit, a
ship was drawn in a note-book and shown to them, with accompanying
gesticulations, which they quickly comprehended, and one fellow, taking
the pencil and note-book, drew correctly a pair of reindeer horns on the
ship's jib-boom--a fact which identified, beyond doubt, the derelict
vessel they had seen. At Point Hope an Eskimo, who had allowed us to
take sketches of him, desired