NORTH MAGNETIC POLE AND NORTHWEST PASSAGE. 269 



ever, depends iijjon whether they have enough food. If the man 

 intends to live here for any length of time, he chops himself a win- 

 dow the following day out of the ice on the nearest fresh- water pool 

 and inserts it in the wall innnediately above the entrance. His dame 

 can then see to do her work by daylight. She has plenty to look 

 after. She sits by the fire, which is her accustomed place, with her 

 legs tucked up under her, and watches the flames and her offspring, 

 who are running in and out playing. She smiles and looks absolutely 

 happ3^ Probably it is the two small physiognomies, incrusted with 

 soot and train oil, which call these pleasant thoughts. It is not so 

 long since the youngest left her hood, where children are carried till 

 they are about 2 years old. Their play grows less by degrees, and the 

 youngest one goes up to his mother and looks inquiringly in her face. 

 She knows her boy, she does. The children here are not weaned so 

 quickly, and mother's milk is to their taste long after they begin to 

 walk. I have even seen boys 10 3'ears of age la}' their arrows aside 

 and take part in the repast. 



But see, here comes a friend— of the same sex, of course. She has 

 come to pass the time of day — is bored, j^erhaps, in her own hut. It 

 is Alo-Alo, a young and attractive woman. The sharp cold has given 

 her a fresh color, and the pretty brown eyes with the blue whites look 

 very much as if they could hide something behind them. Out of her 

 hood sticks up a little wondering face ; it is her year-old son "Akla," 

 or the brown bear. Conversation is soon in full swing, and the two 

 women seem to have a great deal that is amusing to tell one another. 

 Suddenly the baby in the hood begins to move, and with incredible 

 rapidity and quite unparalleled adroitness changes place from the 

 hood to his mother's lap. He has his wishes complied Avith and is 

 going to be put back in his warm, coz}?^ place, when his mother dis- 

 covers that he is more than usually dirty today. The washing process 

 which then takes place must be very economical when water is scarce. 

 She licks the child clean, and then puts him back. 



If it has been a fine day, the men have been out on the ice to capture 

 seal, and are now coming back in the dusk. They seldom return 

 home empty-handed, but have a seal or two with them, which are 

 then handed over to the housewife, who has to see to their partition. 

 The entrails, which are the greatest delicacy they know, go to the one 

 who has caught the seal; the rest is divided among all. After sup- 

 per they often require a little diversion in the long winter evenings. 

 They then assemble in the largest hut and spend a few hours together, 

 singing and dancing. These huts are often quite handsome struc- 

 tures, and I have seen them 14-feet high and 25 feet in diameter. 

 On these occasions the women all sit round in a circle and begin their 

 monotonous chanting, the men entering the circle one by one to per- 

 form a kind of solo dance, beat a frame covered with thin tanned 



