ESKIMO GAME. 255 



Near the entry was a pillar of ice supporting the lamp, 

 and additional light was let in through a transparent 

 plate of ice in the side of the building. A string hung 

 from the middle of the roof, by which a small bone was 

 suspended, with four holes driven through it. Round 

 this all the women were collected, behind whom stood 

 the men and boys, each having a long stick shod with 

 iron. The string was now set a-swinging, and the men, 

 all together, thrust their sticks over the heads of their 

 wives at the bone, till one of them succeeded in striking 

 a hole. A loud acclamation ensued ; the men sat down 

 on a snow seat, and the victor, after going two or three 

 times round the house singing, was kissed by all the men 

 and boys ; he then suddenly made his exit through the 

 avenue, and, on his return, the game was renewed." 



The narrative then goes on to state that "one of the 

 objects of the establishment at Hopedale had been to 

 promote an intercourse with the red Indians who lived 

 in the interior, and sometimes approached in small par- 

 ties to the coast. A mutual reserve subsisted between 

 them and the Esquimaux, and the latter fled in the great- 

 est trepidation when they discovered any traces of them 

 in their neighborhood. In 1790, however, much of this 

 ■coldness was removed, when several families of these In- 

 dians came to Kippokak, an European factory about 

 twenty miles distant from Hopedale. In April, 1799, 

 the missionaries conversed with two of them, a father 

 and son, who came to Hopedale to buy tobacco. It 

 appeared that they were attached to the service of some 

 Canadians in the southern settlements, as well as many 

 ■others of their tribe, and had been baptized by the French 

 priests. They evidently regarded the Esquimaux with 



