OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 175 



him to indulge me with a sight of them. After some little demur, he began 

 to make his lips quiver, then moved his nose up and down, gradually closed v^v-^ 

 his eyes, and increased the violence of his grimaces till every feature was 

 hideously distorted ; at the same time, he moved his head rapidly from side 

 to side, uttering sometimes a snuffling sound, and at others a raving sort of 

 cry. Having worked himself into this ridiculous kind of frenzy, which lasted 

 perhaps from twenty to thirty seconds, he suddenly discontinued it, and 

 suffered his features to relax into their natural form ; but the motion of his 

 head seemed to have so stupified him, as indeed it well might, that there 

 remained an unusual vacancy and a drowsy stare upon his countenance for 

 some time afterwards. Being pressed to repeat this piece of buffoonery, he 

 did so two or three times ; and on one occasion Togolat asked him in a serious 

 tone some questions respecting me, which he as seriously answered. In 

 general however the women paid little attention to his grimaces, and the 

 whole ended with a hearty laugh from all parties. 



I had to-day some conversation with a woman named Appokiuk, whom 

 Iligliuk had mentioned as having seen Kabloona people before us. This 

 woman was gifted, however, with such a volubility of tongue, that speak- 

 ing as she did in a language very imperfectly known to us, she gave 

 no time for questions, and therefore afforded little information. All we 

 could make out for certain was, that she had within a year past seen two 

 Kabloona Oomiak, (whether ships or boats was still doubtful *) and that her 

 husband was now far away. From all this we concluded that she had been 

 far enough to the southward to see the Hudson's Bay ships in the course of 

 their annual voyage ; and this account gave us very sanguine hopes of being 

 thus able to communicate with them by means of some of the Esquimaux. 



On the 20th a number of our new friends having been allowed upon the Wed. 20. 

 upper deck, an old woman, named Ayug-ga-looh, stole our cooper's punch, 

 which she was shewing to her companions alongside the Hecla just after- 

 wards, when Lieutenant Hoppner observed it and sent her back with an 

 escort. It was impossible not to admit that the fault was chiefly on our 

 side, in permitting these poor people to roam about too freely amidst 

 temptations, which scarcely any thing human could have withstood ; but 

 as it was necessary to take some notice of it, I went through nearly the 

 same process as with Kaoongut, and dismissed her with great appearance of 



These people apply the word oomiak to any vessel larger than a canoe. 



