422 THE JEANNETTE ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



, 



ing from his pretended stupor, he tells his audience the 

 spirits say that the hunters will kill seal, or walrus, or catch 

 fish, as the weather prognostications, which these knaves 

 study well, are almost a sure guide to the results of the 

 hunt. 



" On the 12th of March natives returned from East Cape 

 and reported open water in that direction, and the ice going 

 north. Two natives had been out sledging catching seals, 

 and got carried out on the ice to sea, and had not been heard 

 of. There was great excitement at At-kun-keer, owing to 

 the fact that the natives who had been lost on the ice be- 

 longed to families there. The natives assembled in one of the 

 huts and commenced the ceremonies of mourning by sending 

 for the medicine-man who lived at Yandangie. He soon ar- 

 rived, and opened the services by swallowing a large portion 

 of raw walrus meat. He then began beating his tom-tom 

 with a stick, and kept up a noise for six or seven hours 

 resembling the bellowing of a calf. One of the men lost 

 had a wife. She was sent for, and sat down on the floor of the 

 hut. The medicine-man tied a seal rope around her head, 

 and tied a large club to the end of it. He made her lay 

 down on the floor, and proceeded to lift her up and down for 

 nearly half an hour, exclaiming at the same time, ' Hi yang,' 

 ' Hi yang ; ' ' Men namalkee ' (no die, by and by come back). 

 These ceremonies were repeated the following day and 

 night. 



" Early in the morning of the 14th, sledges coming from 

 Yandangie were seen. Upon arrival their occupants proved 

 to be the natives who had been carried away on the ice. The 

 medicine-man then got a drum made of sealskin, with tails 

 attached, beating it with his hands and making noises like 

 a crow. Some dried grass was burnt, and the ashes shaken 

 over the men, and they were allowed to enter their huts. 

 They had killed a seal for subsistence during their stay on 

 the ice." 



Mr. Grace was at the village of Yandangie one night, and 

 lodged in a hut where a young girl was sick. " I noticed," 



