270 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [eth.ann. 18 



houses, and one body was found halfway out of the entrance. Most of 

 the bodies lying about the villages had evidently been dragged there 

 and left wherever it was most convenient by the living during the later 

 period of the famine. The total absence of the bodies of children in 

 these villages gave rise to the suspicion that they had been eaten by the 

 adults; but possibly this may not have been the case. The strongest 

 evidence in this regard, however, was in one village where there were 

 over two hundred dead adults, and although 1 looked carefully for the 

 bodies of children, none could be found; yet there was no positive evi- 

 dence that cannibalism had been practiced by the natives. That this 

 custom sometimes prevailed, however, in ancient times, during famines, 

 I learned from the Unalit; nevertheless they openly expressed their 

 abhorrence of the practice. 



On the bluff at the northwest i)oint of this island we found a couple 

 of surviving families living in round-top, walrus-hide summer houses. 

 At the foot of the hill not far from their present camping place was a 

 winter village, where about 100 people lay dead; the bodies were scat- 

 tered about outside or were lying in their blankets in the houses, as we 

 had seen them in other places. 



The two families living there consisted of about a dozen people; the 

 adults seemed very much depressed and had little aninmtion. Among 

 them were two bright little girls, who had the usual childish careless- 

 ness, and kept near us while we were on shore. AVhen I shot a snow 

 bunting near the village they called to me and ran to show me its nest 

 on the hillside. 



When I asked one of the inhabitants what had become of the peoj)le 

 who formerly lived on that part of the island, he waved his hand toward 

 the winter village, saying, "All mucky mucky, ^^ being the jargon term 

 for "dead." 



I tried to obtain a photograph of the women and little girls, and for 

 that purpose placed them in position and focused the camera. While 

 I was waiting for a lull in the wind to take the picture, the husband of 

 one of the women came up and asked in a listless, matter-of fact tone, 

 "All mucky now V^ meaning, "Will they all die now?" He evidently 

 took it for granted that my camera was a conjuring box, which would 

 complete the work of the famine, yet he seemed perfectly inditierent to 

 the consequences. 



A curious trait noticed among these survivors was their apparent 

 loss of the customary fear which the natives usually show when near a 

 spot where many persons have died. The death of all their friends 

 and relatives seemed to have rendered them apathetic and beyond the 

 influence of ordinary fear of that kind. The two families mentioned 

 were camped on the hill just above the village full of dead bodies, and 

 whenever they went down to the shore to launch their umiak they were 

 forced to pass close to the dead, yet they seemed oblivious to their 

 gruesome surroundings. 



