184 SKILL AS TOPOGRAPHERS— CHARACTER. 



These angekohs are not hereditary office-bearers ; but, for the most 

 part, they are the cleverest and laziest fellows in the community. 

 They have a few proverbs and figurative sayings, they perform 

 incantations over the sick, prescribe the nature and amount of 

 mourning for the dead (who are buried under heaps of stones, or 

 sometimes an iglu is abandoned and closed up as a tomb), and 

 exercise that general influence which they obtain from their own 

 cunning, and from the traditional respect in which their profession 

 is held. This angekok superstition is exactly the same as the 

 Shamanism of the Siberian tribes, as described by Wrangell. There 

 is very little crime amongst these good-natured savages, though 

 the punishments they inflicted on criminals were formerly 

 severe. But, in 1858, the people at Cape York told McClintock 

 that they had abolished their ancient custom of punishing 

 theft capitally, because their best hunters were often the greatest 

 thieves. 



One of the most striking points in the intellectual development 

 of all the Eskimo tribes is their wonderful talent for topography. 

 The cases of the woman of Igloo! ik who drew a map for Parry, 

 and of the Boothians who did the same for Boss, and the interest- 

 ing account of the old lady who " conned " the Fox up Pond's Inlet 

 as if she had been a certified pilot from the Trinity House, are 

 familiar to the readers of Arctic voyages. The same talent was 

 displayed by our shipmate, Erasmus York, on board the Assist- 

 ance. When asked by Captain Ommanney to sketch the coast, 

 he took up a pencil, a thing he had never seen before, and deli- 

 neated the coast-line from Pikierlu to Cape York, with astonish- 

 ing accuracy, making marks to indicate all the islands, remarkable 

 cliffs, glaciers, and hills, and giving all their native names. " Every 

 rock," says Dr. Kane, " has its name, every hill its significance." 



The visitor who first sees a party of Arctic Highlanders will be 

 at once struck by their merry, good-natured countenances, their 

 noisy fun, and boisterous laughter. They have a true love of inde- 

 pendence and liberty, and their mode of life has bred in them great- 

 powers of endurance, cool presence of mind, and indomitable 

 courage. Their ingenuity and skill are by no means contemptible, 

 and their intellectual capacity, though inferior to that of many 

 other savage people, is not altogether despicable. They do not 

 hesitate to steal from the stranger, for whom they cannot be 

 expected to have any fellow-feeling; but when confidence is once 

 established, they have proved themselves to be good men and true ; 

 they undoubtedly saved the crew of the Advance from death, which 

 was staring them in the face ; and Dr. Kane gives his testimony that 



