October, 1S64.J Httll A WIS ut CI Seal DP) 



operated on a second time, tlie ceremony was essentiall>- tlie same. 

 The company patientl}^ awaited the an-ge-hos appearance for lialf an 

 hour, when he entered Imnnning an Eskimo song, and then retirini;-, 

 re-entered with the same song- in the low door-wa}^, OoJ:-har-loo again 

 striking up her monotony. Among liis antics at this time lie gra})i)led 

 with and, with a seeming supernatural strength, readily threw down 

 tw^o of the strongest Innuits. 



Of this an-lioo-ting the chant is the most striking feature; it is low 

 and monotonous, and often broken by the suppressed sobs and moaning 

 of the sick. The grim, swarthy faces of the men and women spectrally 

 illuminated by the fitful gleams of the stone lamp, and their dark bodies 

 swaying awkwardly to and fro and keeping time to the rude intona- 

 tions of their barbarous songs, make up a wild and unearthly scene. 



The last day of October was comparatively warm ; the wind 

 was southerly. From the top of a neighboring hill. Hall saw with 

 his marine glass a number of seals, from two to three miles to the 

 northeast, basking on a floe One of them especially tempted him, 

 as it was seen very near hummocky ice, which might serve as a mask 

 until he could get within rifle-shot. Crossing the shallow bay, and 

 trudging wearily over the very rough ice in some places so massive 

 as to hide the animal entirely from view, he at length again caught 

 sight of it by peering from the height of a pile of ice that had been 

 thrown up by pressure. But before he could come within rifle-shot, he 

 was compelled to wind his way through a labyrinth of high masses 

 of old ice from the far north which had grounded here., and were 

 keeping the new ice between them in a dangerous state for traveling 

 The ice over which he walked was covered, too, with crjstals which 



