110 Superstitions. fDecembt^r, 1864. 



corrected by his further experieiice. At first he seems to have beheved 

 ^hat he wished to believe. But his later journals record a number 

 of coiTected judgments, always frankly entered, and even against 

 liimself 



Nearly all the men were now absent from the settlement. After one 

 unsuccessful attempt made by some of the natives who remained, to 

 secure a walrus where the ice was found too thick for the animal to break 

 through, a second effort was rewarded by their capturing the larger 

 part of one, the remainder being lost by the ice-floes coming together 

 and massing upon it. They had resumed their hunt in consequence of 

 having seen, the night before, " a walrus springing right up through 

 the ice-floor of their igloo^^; — to them a sure sign of success. 



Another instance of their low superstitious customs was thus 

 shown : The pale-face, having expressed a desire for a change of food, 

 was presented with the head and neck of a reindeer, for fear that there 

 would be great trouble in catching a walrus ; but this provision could 

 be placed neither on the floor nor behind the lamps on the platform, 

 nor could it be either cooked or eaten with walrus-oil or on the same 

 day with walrus-meat. Pieces of the frozen mass were, therefore, 

 chipped off on the bed-platform with carefulness that not one should 

 fall upon the floor, and they were dipped in old rancid seal-oil before 

 being eaten. Four quarts of walrus-oil were at the same time jore- 

 sented to Hall for his hunp. 



A leaf from Hall's journal of the 18th, written on receiving this 



present, will further show the care which he exercised in subjecting 



himself to the low superstitions of the tribe: 



Krh-ltt-a eaiiic in bring:inf( in bcr arms the licad and neck (raw, solid, and 

 frozen) of a iciiidccr tor iiic, as slie lioaid that 1 wanted a change from wakus- 



