ESQUIMAU STATISTICS. 431 



be very numerous in all parts of the Sound, furnished 

 them ample subsistence. There were in all nine fam- 

 ilies, but there was no family that consisted of more 

 than four persons, — the parents and two children. 

 The largest family that I have seen among them 

 was that of Kalutunah. Hans told me of several 

 families of three children ; and Tattarat, now a lonely 

 widower, lives on Northumberland Island, near the 

 auk-hill of that place, with three orphans ; and his 

 wife bore him a fourth, which disappeared in some 

 mysterious manner soon after its mother died and 

 while it was yet a babe at the breast. 



With the aid of Hans, I endeavored to get at a cor- 

 rect estimate of the whole tribe, and, commencing 

 with Cape York, took down their names. In this 

 community there can be no domestic secrets, and 

 everybody knows all about everybody else's business, 

 — where they go for the summer, and what luck they 

 have had in hunting, — and talk and gossip about it 

 and about each other just as if they were civilized 

 beings, having good names to pick to pieces. But I 

 strongly suspect that Hans grew tired of my ques- 

 tioning and cross-questioning, and stopped short at 

 seventy-two. I have good reason to believe, however, 

 that the tribe numbers more nearly one hundred. I 

 obtained a complete list of the deaths which had 

 taken place since Dr. Kane left them, in 1855. They 

 amounted to thirty-four ; and, during that time, there 

 had been only nineteen births. 



Their marriage engagements are, of necessity, mere 

 matters of convenience. Their customs allow of a 

 plurality of wives ; but among this tribe, even if 

 there were sufficient women, no hunter probably 

 could support two families. The marriage arrange- 



