LIFE AMONG THE ESKIMOS ^^^ 



and seemed to have a greater number near him than the rest. He evidently 

 understood the movement; for he at once, hke a brave fellow, leaped down 

 upon the floe, and advanced to meet me fully half-way. 



"He was nearly a head taller than^myself, extremely powerful and well- 

 built, with swarthy complexion, and black eyes. His dress was a hooded capote 

 or jumper, of mixed white and blue fox-pelts, arranged with something of 

 fancy ; and booted trousers of white bear-skin, which, at the end of the foot, 

 were made to terminate with the claws of the animal. 



"I soon came to an understanding with this gallant diplomatist. Almost 

 as soon as we commenced our parley, his companions, probably receiving sig- 

 nals from him, flocked in and surrounded us ; but we had no difficulty in mak- 

 ing them know, positively, that they must remain where they were, while Metek 

 went with me on board the ship. This gave me the advantage of negotiating 

 with an important hostage." 



The Eskimos were taken aboard ship. Says Dr. Kane : 



"They were lost in barbarous amaze at the new fuel, — too hard for blub- 

 ber, too soft for fire-stone, — but they were content to believe it might cook as 

 well as seal's fat. They borrowed from us an iron pot, and some melted water, 

 and parboiled a couple of pieces of walrus-meat ; but, the real piece de resistance, 

 some five pounds of head, they preferred to eat raw. Yet there was something 

 of the gourmet in their mode of assorting their mouthfuls of beef and blubber. 

 Slices of each, or rather strips, passed between the lips, either together or in 

 strict alternation, and with a regularity of sequence that kept the molars well 

 to their work. 



"They did not eat all at once, but each man when and as often as the im- 

 pulse prompted. Each slept after eating, his raw chunk lying beside him on 

 the buffalo-skin ; and, as he woke, the first act was to eat, and the next to sleep 

 again. They did not lie down, but slumbered away in a sitting posture, with 

 the head declined upon the breast, some of them snoring famously. 



"In the morning they were anxious to go; but I had given orders to detain 

 them for a parting interview with myself. It resuhed in a treaty, brief in 

 its terms, that it might be certainly remembered ; and mutually beneficial, that it 

 might possibly be kept. I tried to make them understand what a powerful 

 Prospero they had had for a host, and how beneficent he would prove himself so 

 long as they did his bidding. And, as an earnest of my favor, I bought all the 

 walrus-meat they had to spare, and four of their dogs ; enriching them, in re- 

 turn, with needles and beads, and a treasure of old cask-staves." 



