160 THE CHIEF A-WAH-LAH, Chap. IX 



the people wiio were eagerly pressing round 

 our tent. All these natives were better-looking, 

 cleaner, and more robust than I expected to 

 find them. 



A-wah-lah . has been to Igloolik ; one of his 

 wives, for each chief has two, has a brother 

 living there. I spread a large roll of paper 

 upon a rock, and got him to draw the route 

 overland, and also round by the coast to it ; this 

 novel proceeding attracted the whole population 

 about us ; A-wah-lah constantly referred to 

 others when his memory failed him ; at length 

 it was completed to the satisfaction of all parties. 

 When I gave him the knife I had promised as 

 his reward, and added another for his wives, he 

 sprang up on the rock, flourished the knives in 

 his hands, shouted, and danced with extravagant 

 demonstrations of joy. He is a very fine spe- 

 cimen of his race, powerful, impulsive, full of 

 energy and animal spirits, and moreover an ad- 

 mirable mimic. The men were all about the 

 same height, 5 feet 5 in. ; they eagerly an- 

 swered our questions, and imparted to us all 

 their geographical knowledge, although at first 

 they hesitated when we asked them about Navy 

 Board Inlet, in consequence of the depot placed 

 there having been plundered ; but we soon 



