270 NORTH MAGNETIC POLE AND NORTHWEST PASSAGE. 



reindeer hide, and scream something perfectly dreadful. A^'^lat 

 tistonished me most at these festivities was the singing of the women. 

 I had alwaj^s thought that all their tunes — or rather variations on the 

 five notes — Avere impromptu, but here I had certain proof that they 

 really were songs, for I heard as many as twenty women singing 

 together at these gatherings for a whole hour at a time, without any 

 of them falling out of the melody. In my opinion this almost points 

 to musical gifts. 



The next evening the magician of the tribe will perhaps give a 

 rej)resentation in the same hut. This is a very serious a flair — the 

 only performance to which we never had an official invitation. We 

 tricked them, all the same, and found out what went on. The hut is 

 made almost dark, only a little flame being allowed to burn, which, 

 of course, made things the more mysterious — complete darkness 

 would be too dull. The magician and his assistant (usually his 

 wife) take their places on the bench, and the company sit at the other 

 end of the hut. Absolute darkness broods over the performers. 

 The two noAv begin to utter loud howls, and, on the whole, lead one 

 to suppose they are killing one another. After this farce has been 

 going on for half an hour the noise grows less, and by degrees every- 

 tliing becomes quiet. The light is made stronger, and, to the appar- 

 ent sur})rise of everybody, the magician now exhibits two holes in 

 his coat, which, before the light had been subdued, was quite whole — - 

 one hole in his chest and the other in his l)ack, and they go to prove, 

 of course, that during this turbulent scene he has run himself 

 through with his spear. Judging by appearances, the Eskimo all 

 take this very seriously; but when later I joked with them about it 

 they laughed and said that the whole thing was nonsense. 



Any real sign of astonishment these people seldom show. One of 

 the few times that I can remember seeing any trace of this was when 

 I sent a messenger to the ship — I was then in camp about ten miles 

 away taking magnetic observations — with a letter in which I asked 

 for a certain quantity of ammunition. When he returned the next 

 day and I told him before he gave me the consignments that I knew 

 hoAV many cartridges he had Avith him of each kind and that he 

 ndght count them himself, he Avas astonished to see that I Avas right, 

 and nuich impressed by the use to Avhich Ave put our Avriting. They 

 often amused themselves later by scribbling some strokes on a bit of 

 paper and giAdng it to us. We always pretended to be highly aston- 

 ished, and read it out loud; this gTeatly amused them. Family life 

 gave us the impression, as a rule, of being happy, though I know of 

 cases where the husband ill-treated his wife. The male sex being so 

 much more numerous than the female, it was not unusual to find mar- 

 riages Avhere the Avife had tAvo husbands. The reA'erse relationship T 

 ncA^er met with. In general, the husband was spokesman and the 



