TUSKI SONG OF REJOICING. 181 



burden of his ditty, which might easily have been 

 taken for a dirge rather than a song of rejoicing, ran 



very much in this way : — " Ah h mo o 



le en, K . . . a . poo ok ah h, Wahl 



dah ; Ma a zi n kah, Ma 



zi n . kah, Ka a poo k ah, Ka 



poo kah ; " * and so on, ad libitum, with an 



occasional change into "Ah h h ah 



ah," as his breath denied utterance to the 



words. There was much to strike one as extraordi- 

 nary in the appearance of this minister of a rude 

 religion. Seated crosslegged in his tent, nude from 

 the waist upwards, his body swaying to and fro with 

 the intonations of his chant, perspiration streaming 

 from every pore of his vast bulk, the huge tamboiu-ine 

 filling the entire space with its reverberations, and, 

 above all, the expression of conviction impressed 

 upon his lineaments of the sacred importance of his 

 duty, Mooldooyah acquired a new and imposing 

 character, far different to his ordinary nature. 



This ceremony, and the one we witnessed with so 

 much effect when lost in the snow, together mth the 

 slighter indications of religious practices displayed at 

 different times, lead one, in some degree, to draw a 

 parallel between them and the ancient observances, 



* Ahmoleen a whale has killed good, good, the whale, the whale, &c. 



