280 A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY 
he had about his neck, a knife, and some beads, 
It being dark at the time they landed, our people 
did not see their huts, but they judged that 
they were at no great distance from them; for 
about a quarter of an hour after they left the 
shore, on their return, they heard great shouts, 
apparently of rejoicing; and amongst them they 
could distinguish the voices of women and children, 
or at least voices that they considered to be such. 
Thursday, 7th. — We stood in this morning to- 
wards the fiord, or inlet, where the Esquimaux 
landed last night, and when we got close in, a boat 
went ashore to see their habitations, which they 
found to consist of two huts made of seal-skins, 
and situated close to the beach. ‘The inhabitants 
of these huts they found to be the four men who 
visited us last night, four women, and nine chil- 
dren. One of the women was very old, and was 
on that account supposed to be the wife of the old 
man already mentioned. ‘Two of the others were 
judged to be about thirty years of age, and they 
were supposed to be the mothers of all the young 
family: one of them was pregnant. The fourth 
damsel appeared to be too young to be yet living 
a conjugal life; and there was another circum- 
stance remarked with regard to her, that was 
considered as a mark that she had not yet ar- 
rived at the happiness of a matrimonial life. 
The circumstance alluded to is, that the other 
three were tattooed, whilst she was not, from which 
it was supposed, that this barbarous decoration was 
the distinguishing badge of a married woman. This 
honourable, and no doubt. in their estimation, or- 
namental piece of artificial beauty, consisted. of 
