266 AN ESQUIMAU FAMILY. 



and then there was a roll of dried grass, which they 

 use as we do cork soles for the boots, and some dried 

 moss for lamp- wick ; and for food they had a few 

 small pieces of walrus meat and blubber. This cargo 

 was covered with one of the seal-skins, over which 

 was passed from side to side a line, like a sandal-lacing, 

 and the whole was bound down compactly to the 

 sledge ; and on the top of it rode the family, Kalutu- 

 nah himself walking alongside and encouraging on 

 his team rather with kind persuasion than with the 

 usual Esquimau cruelty. In front sat the mother, 

 the finest specimen of the Esquimau matron that I 

 had seen. In the large hood of her fox-skin coat, a 

 sort of dorsal opossum-pouch, nestled a sleeping in- 

 fant. Close beside the mother sat the boy to whom I 

 have before referred, their first-born, and the father's 

 pride. Next came a girl, about seven years old ; and 

 another, a three year old, was wrapped up in an im- 

 mense quantity of furs, and was lashed to the up- 

 standers. 



As the sledge rounded to, near the vessel, I went 

 out to meet them. The children were at first a little 

 frightened, but they were soon got to laugh, and I 

 found that the same arts which win the affections of 

 Christian babies were equally potent with the hea- 

 then. The wife remembered me well, and called me 

 "Doc-tee," while Kalutunah, grinning all over with 

 delight, pointed to his dogs, exclaiming with pride, 

 " They are fine ones ! " to which I readily assented ; 

 and then he added, " I come to give them all to the 

 Nalegaksoak ; " and to this I also assented. 



What surprised me most with this family was their 

 apparent indifference to the cold. They had come 

 from Iteplik in slow marches, stopping when tired in 



