362 HUNTING WITH THE ESKIMOS 



chase we overtook him, the narwhal was becoming 

 very tired and bleeding badly where Kulutinguah 

 had lanced it in several places. The Eskimos in the 

 boat were nearly beside themselves with excitement 

 and every one of them who had a rifle tried to get a 

 shot at the narwhal. After a time I succeeded in 

 quieting the men down and then with my 30-40 rifle 

 put three bullets in it and killed it. 



It proved to be a large female. I was greatly 

 disappointed that it was not a male, as I had hoped 

 to secure a good horn. We lashed it alongside the 

 boat and had a hard pull of several miles to our 

 bivouac on the ice. 



Here a pulley was rigged, similar to that employed 

 in hauling in walrus, and the narwhal's body was 

 warped upon the ice by the combined efforts of all 

 hands. It was eighteen feet in length, and in gen- 

 eral appearance resembled a small whale. The skin 

 was very thick, and of a whitish shade, covered with 

 spots and blotches of black. 



The narwhal having been harpooned by Kulutin- 

 guah, it was looked upon as his capture. As soon as 

 it was hauled out of the water, and before the others 

 put knives into it or tasted its flesh, he performed a 

 curious ceremony over it. Drawing his knife, he cut 

 two small strips of skin from the top of the narwhal's 

 head, and very carefully removed one of its eyes. 

 These strips and the eye he then carried to the top 

 of a small snow-covered hummock of ice some two 

 hundred yards distant. In the hummock he cut a 

 hole, into which he carefully laid the eye and the two 



