June, 1858. ARCTIC HIGHLANDERS. 113 



1 85 1. This man is an angekok, or magician; he has a still 

 flatter face than the rest of his countrymen, but appears more 

 thoughtful and intelligent. 



Petersen pointed out to me a stout old fellow, with a toler- 

 able sprinkling of beard and moustache. This worthy per- 

 petrated the only murder which has taken place for several 

 years in the tribe : he disliked his victim and stood in need 

 of his dogs, therefore he killed the owner and appropriated 

 his property ! Such motives and passions usually govern the 

 "unsophisticated children of nature;" yet, as savages, the 

 Esquimaux may be considered exceedingly harmless. 



Of late years these arctic Highlanders have become 

 alarmed by the rapid diminution of their numbers through 

 famine and disease, and have been less violent towards each 

 other in their feuds and quarrels. 



The appearance of the men, as they danced and rolled 

 about in frantic delight at our approach, was wild and 

 strange, and their costumes uniform and picturesque. Their 

 long, coarse, black hair hung loosely over the sealskin frock, 

 which in its turn overlapped their loose shaggy bearskin 

 breeches, and these again came down over the tops of their 

 sealskin boots. Most of them carried a spear formed out of 

 the horn of a narwhal. They watched the rapid evolutions 

 of Christian in his kayak with intense interest, for they do 

 not possess any themselves, and their knowledge of them is 

 only traditional. My first interview with these northern 

 Esquimaux was in 1852, when commanding H.M.S. 'In- 

 trepid'; then, as now, the men came off on the land ice to 

 us; they appeared to me to be very little people, with large 

 flat faces and a sprinkling of beard and moustache, appa- 

 rently in sound health and perfectly happy. A party of us 

 walked to the land to visit their abodes, and the female popu- 

 lation; one vociferous old hag met us at the beach, and 

 seemed to be introducing us to all the rest, and gave us a 



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