302 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT (ETH. ANN 18 
their friendly disposition. When they were motioned to come along- ' 
side, they approached hesitatingly until some of them recognized me, 
having seen me during a visit they had made to St Michael the previ- 
ous year. At this they began to shout vociferously to attract my 
attention, and immediately came on board. This lack of contidence 
was caused by the fact that these people had looted a small trading 
vessel the year before, and later in the same season, when they boarded 
a larger ship, they had been very roughly handled. 
When the trading umiaks from the shores of Bering strait made 
their summer visits to St Michael, the people were always remarkably 
civil and quiet, in marked contrast to their manner when seen about 
their native place. At Cape Prince of Wales I went ashore in a small 
boat with a couple of men. On our way we met an umiak with twelve 
or fifteen paddlers; as they came near they turned and paddled straight 
at our little dingy, whooping and shouting at the top of their voices 
and coming so directly at us that I feared they would run us down. 
When within a boat’s length the paddle men on one side suddenly 
backed water while those of the other side made a heavy stroke, causing 
the big umiak to turn as on a pivot and shoot astern of us. As we 
landed several hundred people ran down to meet us and as many as 
could get hold of our boat seized it along the sides and dragged it some 
25 or 30 yards up the beach with us still seated in it; afterward, when 
I wished to go on board, it was only with the greatest difficulty that I 
could get one of them to help launch the boat. 
As already noted, the people at Point Hope were boisterous and 
confident when we saw them at home, but later in the season when we 
met several umiaks with people from that place near Cape Lisburne, 
they came within about 150 yards of the Corwin and then all raised 
their empty hands over their heads, shouting “ nii-ki-rik, ni-ki-rik,” 
until the officer of the deck called to them, after which they came on 
board, but were very quiet. 
The Malemut extend their wanderings from Kotzebue sound even to 
Kuskokwim river and Bristol bay, but hardy as they are they have the 
same prudence in avoiding trouble while away from home. One case 
illustrating this came to my knowledge in connection with a party of 
them who were camping beside a village of Kuskokwim Eskimo. One 
of the Malemut became enraged at a Kuskokwiin man, and hastened 
into his tent to obtain a weapon. Two of his companions went after 
him and tried to persuade him to give up his idea of revenge for the 
slight affront, but he refused to listen to them and went out. His two 
fellow tribesmen then took him, one by each arm, and walked along, 
still trying to dissuade him from his project. When he again refused 
to listen to them, the man on his right suddenly drew his long sheath 
knife and slashed him in the abdomen, completely disemboweling him, 
so that he sank down and died in a few moments. In speaking of it 
afterward, the man who had done the killing said that if they had 
