36 



VISIT FROM 



1824. and that he spoke in a great measure the same 

 August, dialect as our friends at Igloolik ; a fact we 

 were before unable to ascertain from our total 

 ignorance of the Esquimaux language when 

 we first saw the natives of the Savage Islands. 

 My new acquaintance was called Kee-poong- 

 ai-li, and he anxiously asked ray name^ a cus- 

 tom never omitted by Esquimaux on meeting 

 a stranger ; until he remembered it perfectly . 

 He was extremely urgent that we should carry 

 the ship to the shore, and with very excusable 

 anxiety at finding himself alone, expressed im- 

 patience for the arrival of others of his tribe, 

 many of whom, he said, were coming off. 



In half an hour our visiters amounted to 

 about sixty persons, in eight Kayaks, or men's, 

 and three Oomiaks, or women's, boats, which 

 latter had stood out to us under one lug-sail 

 composed of the transparent intestines of the 

 walrus. As the females approached they 

 shouted with all their might, and we were jnot 

 so deficient in gallantry as to be silent on such 

 an occasion, for the specimen collectors were 

 happy to observe that our fair visitors wore 

 immense mittens of delicate white hare-skin, 

 trimmed in the palms with the jetty feathers 

 of the breast of the dovekie. The boats being 

 all hauled on the ice — Babel was let loose. On 



