June, 1866.1 Hall Accused of Mischief. 211 



tlionglit tliat tliis story seemed to confirm what had been before told 

 liim, — that when Franklin's ships were crushed by the ice, some of his 

 party, after trying to go down the west side of King AVilliam's Land, 

 had turned back, doubled Cape Felix, and come down on the eastern 

 coast. And, at the time, he persuaded himself that the monument was 

 the vault containing the long-desired records. 



He had a curious though short experience of trials with these 

 Pelly Bay people. His first trouble was, that, after a short absence 

 from them, he found on his return, it had been whispered around that 

 he had been the cause of the death of Nu-'ker-zhod's young child — 

 bringing on spasms by placing his hands on its head. Relieved of 

 apprehension from this rumor by being called on to prescribe for the 

 old chief himself and for some children, he was told that the w^ife of 

 the chief had hung herself, because he had persuaded her husband to 

 remain longer with the Repulse Bay men, and because he had given 

 medicine to these children. The tribe, one and all, accused Hall of 

 being the author of these sicknesses. Not long after this the old chief 

 himself was hung.* 



But with the assistance of his two Eskimos, Hall prevented any 

 permanent or serious quarrels between the two parties. Soon after 

 the first coming of the Pelly Bay men, old See-gar and Kok-lee-arng- 



*The circumstances of these deatlis are not, however, given hy Hall with his nsual clear- 

 ness. At a later date, he says that the son of the chief told him, with tears in his eyes, "He was 

 very sorry he had no father or mother living with him, Init that it had been his duty to hang 

 them, as it was at their request, and that by their dying thus they would be sure of going 

 to that happy place Avhere all good Inuuits go." Scc-innuj-er, it was well known, had hung his 

 grandfather when he had become feeble. Too-koo-li-too said that these Pelly Bay natives, as 

 well as the Neitchilles, believed in Knd-liT-pur-me-an and Ad-lce-pur-me-an (a good and a bad place) ; 

 but she thought the Iwillik people believed in nothing of the kind. 



In some memoranda prepared by Hall for one of his lectnres after returning from this 

 Expedition, he speaks of this woman's having been hung as a "peace-otfering." This points to a 

 difficnlty that separated the two tribes for a time, the Pelly Bay men going off some dislance ; 

 in the memoranda just named, the words "a terrible time" are found in this last connection. 



