THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 745 



to be lying, hut he could induce none of the natives to accom- 

 pany him. They represented that Ook-goo-lik had become an 

 exceedingly dangerous locality, by reason of a vendetta then 

 waging between two Esquimau tribes growing out of the stealing 

 of a woman. While trying to prevail upon the friendly natives 

 to assist him in reaching Cape Victoria, Hall saw two Esquimaux 

 of a different tribe approaching. These were the avaunt couriers 

 of a considerable company which would arrive on the following 

 day. The strangers were anxious to engage in a wrestling match 

 with some of Hall's men, but a friendly woman quietly advised 

 him that the two strangers were intent upon murder; that in 

 their mittens they had each concealed a sharp-pointed bone, with 

 which to strike their adversaries near the eye, producing a death- 

 blow. Hall was now convinced that no good would follow the 

 visit of the strangers, when their force should be increased by 

 fresh arrivals, and not being able to continue his journey toward 

 King William's Land without more men, he retreated back to 

 Repulse Bay, his winter quarters, with the intention of renewing 

 his efforts to reach Cape Victoria in the following spring. 



The chief reason of Hall's failure to continue on to Cape Vic- 

 toria, after reaching the boundary of King William's Land, was 

 owing to the dread the Pelly Bay natives, who accompanied him, 

 had of the See-ne-mee-utes, a set of murderous fellows living 

 in the vicinity of Cape Bereus, whose favorite ways of greeting 

 a stranger, they affirmed, was to present a long knife, seemingly 

 as a gift, but allowing it accidentally to slip into his breast. 



The custon of the Esquimaux of Cumberland Inlet is not so 

 barbarous as that of the See-ne-mee-utes, but it is hardly less 

 singular, as reported by Lieut. Kumlien, of the Howgate expedi- 

 tion, who says : " When a stranger arrives at an encampment, 

 the Ancoot and the stronger face one another. Both have mit- 

 tens of seal-skin. The stranger complacently folds his arms 

 over his breast, and inclines his head to one side, so as fully to 

 expose his cheek, while the Ancoot deals him a terrible blow on 

 it, sometimes felling him to the ground. The two actors now 

 change parts, and it becomes the stranger's turn to strike, which 



