208 Canadian Arctic Expedition, iyi3-18 



his whole frame drooped heavily against her, and gasping cries broke from his 

 lips, while a quiver ran through his audience. He staggered into the centre of 

 the ring and motioned for me to stand beside him; of Sullivan, who was on 

 the other side of the dance-house, he took no notice. A torrent of wild gibberish 

 flowed from his lips for about five minutes. His father, who was standing 

 beside me, said that it was white man's language, and asked me whether I did 

 not understand it. Uloksak heard the question and paused, looking at me with 

 an expression that I interpreted to mean, "Back me up in this matter"; I 

 therefore replied that it resembled the speech of white men, and nodded my head 

 in understanding whenever he seemed to address his gibberish expressly to me. 

 Almost immediately afterwards he dropped into his proper language, and 

 speaking a few words about the dead Arnaktak, said that another of his familiar 

 spirits, a dog, would take possession of him. Thereupon he crouched down like 

 a dog, pushed his head into another man's stomach, and growled. In broken 

 and only half -audible tones he told them how Arnaktak had come to die; a white 

 man far away had killed him by sorcery, stealing his soul, while we, the white 

 men who were living amongst them, were friendly and meant them no harm. 

 Again he rose erect and with wild eyes poured forth a stream of gibberish — 

 the language of white men, comprehensible to myself alone. Naturally we soon 

 arrived at a mutual understanding; he would jabber at me for a minute, and I 

 Avould answer in the first words of French that came into my head, using French 

 so that Sullivan might not understand. After a time Uloksak turned to the 

 natives and dropped a word or two in Eskimo. They had to guess at his mean- 

 ing, and he nodded whenever they guessed correctly; his gestures indeed were 

 almost lucid enough to make words unnecessary. In this way he repeated that 

 Sullivan and myself and all the other members of our expedition were friendly 

 towards them and sought them no harm, and that Arnaktak's death was due 

 to another man far away. Then once again he crouched down and gasped a 

 few times, while an Eskimo on one side and I on the other caught hold of him 

 and kept him from falling. His familiar, the dog, now left him, and a moment 

 afterwards he stood up and smiled. 



The stance was over, but Uloksak was too shrewd a man to lose his opportunity. 

 His audience was in the proper mood to be deceived by any fraud, and here was 

 a rare opportunity of enhancing his prestige. He renewed his gibberish talk, 

 and I nodded comprehendingly, throwing in occasionally a word or two of 

 French, which he of course understood equally well; thus an animated conver- 

 sation was carried on between us for a time. He next began to dance after the 

 manner of the Bear lake Indians, and invited Sullivan to join him, which he did, 

 much to the enjoyment of the spectators. This Indian dancing bears a con- 

 siderable resemblance, if indeed it is not derived from, some Scotch dances, so 

 that Sullivan had no difficulty in keeping up his part. Uloksak then dragged 

 two women into their dance, one of them being his second wife. Whenever he 

 wanted Sullivan to do anything, he jabbered at me in his gibberish, but took 

 care to explain by his gestures so that I could understand and interpret. The 

 strain on both of us, however, was rather too heavy; moreover there was a danger 

 of the fraud being detected if we prolonged the performance too much. I 

 pleaded weariness therefore, and moved to leave the dance-house. Uloksak 

 immediately assented and preceded me outside, intending to speak to me; but 

 as two of the Eskimos followed us he had to make use of his gibberish again, 

 pointing first to our station, then to his house, as much as to say, "Go back 

 now, and let us meet later in my hut." I replied in French, dropping the one 

 Eskimo word akago, "to-morrow", and motioning towards his house. He at 

 once nodded and retired, while I went back to our station. 



The outcome of this stance was emmently satisfactory to both of us. 

 Uloksak had vastly increased his prestige in the eyes of the natives by this proof 

 that he understood the language of the white men; while I was acquitted of 



