394 SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



1823. which they consider as the exclusive property of their own offsprino- 



January. . . i i j is 



^■'-v-v.' My dogs being carefully tied up at the man's request, a party of our 

 people accompanied by me drew the body to the shore, where we made a 

 grave about a foot deep, being unable to get lower on account of the frozen 

 earth. The body was placed on its back at the husband's request, and he 

 then stepped into the grave and cut all the stitches of the hammock, although 

 without throwing it open, seeming to imply that the dead should be left 

 unconfined. I laid a woman's knife by the side of the body and we filled up 

 the grave, over which we also piled a quantity of heavy stones which no animal 

 could remove. When all was done and we returned to the ship, the man 

 lingered a few minutes behind us and repeated two or three sentences, as it' 

 addressing himself to his departed wife ; he then silently followed. We 

 found Shega quite composed and attending her little sister, between whose 

 eye-brows she had made a spot with soot, which I learned was because 

 being unweaned it must certainly die. During the night my little charge 

 called on its mother without intermission, yet the father slept as soundly 

 until morning as if nothing had happened. 

 '■^- " All who saw my patient on the morning of the Soth gave me great 



hopes ; she could swallow easily and was even strong enough to turn or sit 

 upright without assistance, and in the forenoon .slept very soundly. At 

 noon the sister of the deceased, Ootooguak, with her husband and son, 

 came to visit me. She had first gone to the Fury and was laughing on 

 deck and at her own request was taken below, not caring to hurry herself 

 to come to the house of mourning. Even when she came to the Hecla, she 

 was in high spirits, laughing and capering on deck as if nothing had hap- 

 pened, but on being she\vn to my cabin, where Shega having heard of her 

 arrival w^as sitting crying in readiness, she began with her niece to howl 

 most wofully. I however put a stop to this ceremony, for such it certainly 

 was, under the plea of its disturbing the child. The arrival of a pot of 

 smoking walrus-flesh soon brought smiles on all faces but that of Takkeelik- 

 keeta, who refused food and sat sighing deeply ; the others ate, chatted, and 

 laughed, as if nothing but eating was worth thinking of. Dinner being 

 over, I received thanks for burying the woman in such a way that " neither 

 wolves, dogs, nor foxes could dig her up and eat her," for all were full of 

 the story of Keimooseuk, and even begged some of our officers to go to 

 Igloolik and shoot the offending dogs. A young woman named Ablik, 

 sister to Ooyarra, was induced after much entreaty and a very large present 



