204 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



modified by their insisting on our taking our turns in the performance, all 

 which did not fail to create among them never-ceasing merriment and laughter. 

 Neither their want of food and fuel, nor the uncertain prospect of obtaining 

 any that night, were sufficient to deprive these poor creatures of that cheer- 

 fulness and good-humour which it seems at all times their peculiar happiness 

 to enjoy. 



The night proved very thick with small snow, and as disagreeable and 

 dangerous for people adrift upon floating ice as can well be imagined. If the 

 women however gave their husbands a thought or spoke of them to us, it was 

 only to express a very sincere hope that some good news might shortly arrive 

 of their success. Our singing-party had not long been broken up when it 

 was suddenly announced by one of the children, the usual heralds on such 

 occasions, that the men had killed something on the ice. The only two men 

 who were at home instantly scrambled on their outer jackets, harnessed their 

 dogs, and set off to assist their companions in bringing home the game, while 

 the women remained for an hour in anxious suspense as to the extent of their 

 husbands' success. At length one of the men arrived with the positive intel- 

 ligence of two walruses having been taken, and brought with him a portion 

 of these huge animals as large as he could drag over the snow. If the 

 women were only cheerful before, they were now absolutely frantic. A 

 general shout of joy instantly re-echoed through the village ; they ran into 

 each other's huts to communicate the welcome intelligence, and actually 

 hugged one another in an ecstacy of delight by way of congratulation. One 

 of them Arnalobd, a pretty young woman of nineteen or twenty, knowing 

 that a dog belonging to her husband was still at the huts, and that there was 

 no man to take him down on the ice, ran out instantly to perform that office ; 

 and with a hardiness not to be surpassed by any of the men returned, 

 after two hours' absence, with her load of walrus-flesh, and without even 

 the hood thrown over her head to shelter her from the inclemency of the 

 weather. 



When the first burst of joy had at length subsided, the women crept one by 

 one into the apartment where the first portion of the sea-horses had been 

 conveyed, and which is always that of one of the men immediately concerned 

 in the killing of them. Here they obtained blubber enough to set all their 

 lamps alight, besides a few scraps of meat for their children and themselves. 

 From this time, which was nine o'clock, till past midnight, fresh cargoes were 

 continually arriving ; the principal part being brought in by the dogs, and 



