THE WHITE WORLD 



the loan of my gun had enabled him to get enough seal- 

 skins to form the cover, so that he is now at least thirty 

 percent richer and perhaps need not become the Keats of 

 his tribe. 



When the other Eskimos found that songs were in de- 

 mand, they, too, came forward with contributions, and 

 pretty soon I had exhausted the repertoire of the Cape 

 York colony. At any rate, though I repeatedly went over 

 the remaining list of animals known to them (bear, walrus, 

 seal, muskox, ptarmigan, etc.), in each case they replied, 

 " He has no song." However, having returned to our 

 station, Fort Magnesia, near Cape Sabine, and there meet- 

 ing a number of other Eskimos, I found that their musical 

 treasures were more extensive. Though not all the natives 

 were able to sing all the songs, they all recognized them. 

 It was a common diversion for me to stand before a group 

 of them, sing a song out of my notebook and then ask them 

 what it was. Not one of them ever failed to name the 

 animal to which the song was attributed. They told me 

 repeatedly that this was the first time a white man had 

 taken notice of their songs, and been able to repeat them. 

 Awia (or Niwikengwa) wanted to see my tongue, thinking 

 there must be something peculiar about it to enable me to 

 sing like them. She asked whether my mother had not 

 been an Eskimo. 



My authorities at Cape York, besides Igia, were Angu- 

 tibluahsu, a stalwart man of thirty; Igiengwa, his stepson, 

 a very bright boy of fourteen; Publa's sister, Kuyaping, a 

 timid girl of fourteen; Atuhsu, a woman of perhaps seventy. 

 At Fort Magnesia my authorities were Awia (Niwikengwa), 

 a very intelligent woman of about forty, wife of Akoma- 

 dingwa; her son, Angudlu, a man of about twenty-five, one 

 of the bravest and most persevering hunters of the tribe; 

 her daughter, Akatengwa, a girl of eleven, who promises to 

 surpass her mother in intelligence, though not in industry; 

 Kawiengwa, a rather reticent fellow of about eighteen; 

 Utuniahsoa, a famous bear hunter and traveller of about 

 sixty, and his daughter, Anarwi, wife of Aseyu, a couple 

 so intelligent and well mannered that nature actually seems 

 to have been cruel in endowing them with such brains and 

 then thrusting them into a corner of the globe where they 

 have so little use for them. 



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