478 Notes on the Labrador Eskimo [May, 
enticing the Esquimaux by the most tempting offers. Besides 
the evil consequences resulting from these expeditions in a spirit- 
ual point of view, so large a proportion of their wares was thus 
conveyed to the south that the annual vessel which brought out 
provisions and other necessaries for the brethren, and articles of 
barter for the natives, could make up but a small cargo in return, 
though the brethren, unwilling as they were to supply this fero- 
cious race with instruments which might facilitate the execution 
of their revengeful projects, furnished them with the firearms, 
which they could otherwise, and on any terms, have procured 
from the south.” 
Crantz then mentions a feature of Eskimo life, which however 
repugnant to the feelings of the Moravians, is of interest to the 
ethnologist, and has not, so far as we are aware, been observed 
among the Eskimo of late years. This is the erection of a tem- 
porary winter éstufa or public game-house. “ A ache, or plea- 
sure-house, which, to the grief of the missionaries, was erected 
in 1777, by the savages near Nain, and resorted to by visitors 
from Okkak, has been described by the brethren. It was built 
entirely of snow, sixteen feet high and seventy feet square, The 
entrance was by a round porch, which communicated with the 
main body of the house by a long avenue terminated at the far- 
ther end by a heart-shaped aperture, about eighteen inches broad 
and two feet in height. For greater solidity the wall near the 
entrance was congealed into ice by water poured upon it. 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 
Te the establishment at Hopedale had been to promote an intep- - 
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