DOMESTIC FELICITY. 263 



family more. At all events, he should try it. And 

 now would not the Nalegaksoak, — the big chief who 

 was so rich and so mighty, be good enough to give 

 him so many presents that he would go back and 

 make everybody envious ? Human nature is the 

 same in the Arctic as in the Temperate zone ; and, 

 gratified Avith this discovery, I fairly loaded the rogue 

 down with riches, and sent him away rejoicing. But 

 this wife, what of her ? " Oh, she 's lazy and will not 

 do any thing, and made me come all this long journey 

 to get her some needles which she won't use, and a 

 knife which she has no use for ; and now when I go 

 back without any dog, w^on't I catch it ! " — and he 

 caught hold of his tongue and puhed it as far out of 

 his mouth as he could get it, trying in this graphic 

 manner to illustrate the length of that aggressive 

 organ in the wife of his bosom. " But," added this 

 savage Benedict, " she has a ragged coat, so full of 

 holes that she cannot go out of the hut without fear 

 of freezing ; and if she scolds me too much I won't 

 give her any of these needles, and I won't catch her 

 any foxes to make a new one ; " — but it was easy to 

 see that the needles would not be long withheld, and 

 that the foxes would be caught when he was told to 

 catch them. And so pitying his domestic misfortunes, 

 I added some presents for this amiable creature of the 

 ragged coat ; and when he told me that she had pre- 

 sented him with an heir to the Myouk miseries, I 

 added something for that, too. This little hopeful, he 

 informed me, was already being weaned from its nat- 

 ural and maternal supplies, and was exhibiting great 

 aptitude for blubber. He had called it Dak-ta-gee, 

 which was the nearest that he could come to pro- 

 nouncing Doctor Kane. 



