NELSON] HOSPITALITY 297 
large village of Konigunugumut, near the mouth of the Kuskokwim, 
I was given a very surly reception, and it was almost necessary for me 
to use force before I could get anyone to guide me to the next village. 
On the contrary, at Askinuk and Kaialigamut, in the same district, the | 
people ran out at our approach, unharnessed our dogs, put our sledges 
on the framework, and carried our bedding into the kashim with the 
greatest good will. 
At King island, in Bering strait, the same spirit was shown by the 
people during the visit of the Corwin, when they iusisted on having us 
enter their houses. Their attention sometimes became embarrassing, 
as in one instance when I was stopping in a house on the outer side of 
St Michaelisland. Anold man came home from fishing in the afternoon 
and was given a small tray containing tomeod livers and berries, kneaded 
by his wife into a kind of paste. From his trinket box he took an old 
spoon fastened to a short wooden handle and began eating the mix- 
ture with great pleasure, until he suddenly remembered that there was 
a guest present. At this he stopped eating and, wiping the bow] of the 
spoon on the toe of his sealskin boot, gravely handed it and the dish 
to me, whereupon I declined them with equal gravity. 
That morning I had fallen into the water while hunting, and as a 
consequence remained in the house all day to dry my clothes. At one 
time or another during the day nearly everyone in the village came to 
see me, and in every instance my hostess placed a few tomcods before 
the callers. 
This practice of offermg a small quantity of food to guests is con- 
sidered to be proper among the Eskimo. Wherever I visited them, 
and any people of the same village came in in a social way, they were 
given food, unless everyone was on the verge of famine. 
On October 3, 1878, I arrived at Kigiktauik in a large kaiak with two 
paddle men. As we drew near the village one of the men welcomed 
us by firing his gun in the air, and then ran down to help us land, after 
which he led the way to his house. The room was partly filled with 
bags of seal oil and other food supplies, and the remaining space was 
soon occupied by a dozen or more villagers, who came to see us and 
were regaled with the tea that was left after I-had finished my supper, 
and soon after my blankets were taken to the kashim, where I retired. 
A small knot of Eskimo were gathered in the middle of the room 
around a blanket spread on the floor, and were deeply interested in a 
game of poker, the stakes being musket caps, which were used for chips. 
Scattered about on the floor and sleeping benches were a number 
of men and boys in varying stages of nudity, which was entirely justi- 
fied by the oppressive heat arising from the bodies of the people congre- 
gated in the tightly closed room. Two small seal-oil lamps, consisting 
of saucer-shape clay dishes of oil with moss wicks, threw a dim light 
on the smoke-blackened interior. In a short time the planks were 
taken up from over the fire pit, and a roaring fire was built for a sweat 
