HANS AND HIS FAMH.Y. 117 



better kno^vn as Mrs. Hans. She is a little chubby 

 specimen of womankind, and, for an Esquimau, not 

 ill-looking. In truth she is, I will not say the pret- 

 tiest, but the least ugly thorough-breed that I have 

 seen. Her complexion is unusually fair, so much so 

 that a flush of red is visible on her cheeks when she 

 can be induced to use a little soap and water to re- 

 move the thick plaster of oily soot which covers it. 

 This, however, rarely happens ; and as for undergoing 

 another such soaking and scrubbing as the sailors 

 gave her on the way up from Cape York, she cannot 

 be induced to think of it. 



The baby is a lively specimen of unwashed human- 

 ity. It is about ten months old, and rejoices in the 

 name of Pingasuk — "The Pretty One." It appears 

 to take as naturally to the cold as ducklings to water, 

 and may be seen almost any day crawling through the 

 open slit of the tent, and then out over the deck, quite 

 innocent of clothing ; and its mother, equally regard- 

 less of temperature or what, in civilized phrase and 

 conventional usage we designate as modesty, does not 

 hesitate to wander about in the same exposed man- 

 ner. The temperature, however, of the house is never 

 very low, mostly above freezing. 



My other two Esquimau hunters, Marcus and Jacob, 

 are lodgers with the Hans family. They are a pair 

 of droll fellows, very different from Hans and Peter. 

 Marcus will not work, and Jacob has grown like the 

 Prince of Denmark, "fat and scant of breath," and 

 cannot. As for hunters, they are that only in name. 

 They have been tried at every thing for which it 

 was thought possible that they could be of any use 

 and it is now agreed on all sides that they can only 

 oe serviceable in amusing the crew and in cutting up 



