712 



THK WORLD 8 WONDKRS. 



though I could not see that she swallowed anything. The little 

 girl, Succi, about four years old, was crying a kind of chronic 

 hunger whine and I could just see the baby's head in the mother's 

 hood, or capote. The babies have no clothing whatever, and are 

 carried about in this hood, which hangs down the mother's back, 

 like young kangaroos in the maternal pouch, only on the reversed 

 side of the body. All I could do was to encourage them a little. 

 I had nothing that I could give them to make them any more com- 

 fortable. I was glad, at least, to see that they had some oil left." 

 Two of their nine dogs were at length killed and eaten by the 



ESQUIMAU JOE GOING FOR THE SEAL. 



now starving party, who were left in a yet more abject state by 

 the exhaustion of their originally small stock of blubber-oil, 

 which was needed for warmth, light, and cooking purposes. The 

 long, brooding darkness of Arctic night was upon them, when 

 only during high-noon time was there even a short twilight, ren- 

 dering objects dimly visible. Drifting away in the darkness, 

 without food, light or fuel, exposed to a constantly-freezing tem- 

 perature, their condition was most pitiable. 



November 21st, three seals were killed, and so ravenously hun- 

 gry were the men that they ate them raw, skin, hair, and all. 

 This lucky stroke of the hunters was a God-send to the people, 



