44 ^IV ARCTIC JOURNAL 



which consisted of two or three deerskins, on which the family 

 slept ; a stove made of soapstone and shaped like our dust-pans, 

 in which they burned seal fat, using dried moss as a wick ; and 

 a dish or pot made of the same material, which they hung 

 over their stove, and in which they melted the ice for drinking 

 purposes and also heated their seal and walrus meat (I say 

 heated, for we would hardly call it cooked when they take it 

 out of the water). The skin tent put up, and these articles 

 put in place, the house was considered furnished and ready 

 for occupancy. Wood being almost impossible to procure, the 

 tent was put up with narwhal tusks, which are more plentiful 

 and answer the purpose. The tent itself is made of sealskin 

 tanned and sewed together with narwhal sinews. These peo- 

 ple were very curious to see the white woman, who, they were 

 given to understand, was in the American "igloo" (house); 

 and when Mr. Peary and I came out, they looked at both of 

 us, and then Ikwa asked, " Soonah koonah ? " Of course we 

 did not know then what he wanted, but he soon made us 

 understand that he wished to know which one of the two was 

 the woman. I delighted him, and won his lasting favor, by 

 making him a present of a knife. His wife, Mane, was almost 

 overwhelmed by a gift of some needles ; while Anadore, the 

 elder of the two children, amused herself by making faces at 

 her image in a small mirror that I had presented to her. It 

 was the first time these people had seen themselves, and the 

 parents were as much amused as the children. They asked 

 many questions, but as we could not understand them any 



