CANADIAN ENVIRONMENT OF THE OUANANICHE 135 



ians. The latter, for instance, will not on any con- 

 sideration give any of the antlers of the game they 

 kill to be taken away from their hunting-grounds. 

 To do so would bring them bad luck in future deer- 

 hunting. An Eskimo has no dread of anything of 

 the kind. But he and all his people are firm believers 

 in the efficacy of conjuring. The Eskimo conjurer is 

 much respected, or dreaded, as the case may be, and 

 possesses as much control over his fellow-countrymen 

 as the Indian medicine-man does over the other mem- 

 bers of his own tribe. There is a noted conjurer at 

 Fort Chimo, in Ungava, called Ogioktabinik, which 

 being translated means " Square flippers' meat," or 

 " Big Seal." He is described as being very tall and 

 very fair, and quite commanding in appearance, and 

 Mr. Mackenzie is my authority for the statement that 

 the Eskimos of Ungava in general are physically a 

 splendid race of men, who in no wise answer the de- 

 scription of the small people of the Atlantic coast of 

 Labrador, usually taken as types of the race. And 

 perhaps, after all, they may be what they are taken 

 for, and the purest type of the Eskimo people ; and 

 their namesakes at Ungava, the larger and finer-look- 

 ing men, among whom are women said to be nearly 

 six feet in height, may be less pure in their descent, 

 while through their veins may course a mixture of 

 blood, part being foreign to the race whose name they 

 bear. Whence may this have come ? From old Ibe- 

 rian stock? Or from hardy Norsemen, who became 

 merged with the Eskimos after having landed upon 

 these coasts, long ere Columbus saw the light of day ? 

 At all events, there were giants in those days in the 



