OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



207 



without any great stretch of the imagination, have almost fancied it a road JJ 822, 

 leading over a level and extensive heath towards a more civilized and sub- v-^-y-O 

 stantial village than that which we were now approaching. Iligliuk walked 

 as nimbly as the best of us ; and after two hours and a half brisk travelling, 

 we arrived at the huts, and were received by the women (for all the men 

 were absent) with every expression of kindness and welcome. Each was 

 desirous of affording us lodging, and we had speedily arranged matters so as 

 to put them to the least possible inconvenience. 



These huts, four in number, were in the mode of their construction exact 

 counterparts of those at Winter Island on our first visit, but being now new 

 and clean, presented a striking contrast with the latter, in their present 

 disordered and filthy state. What gave a peculiarity as well as beauty also 

 to the interior appearance of these habitations, was their being situated 

 on the ice, which being cleared of the snow, presented a flooring of that 

 splendid blue which is, perhaps, one of the richest colours that nature 

 affords. A seal or two having been lately procured, every lamp was now 

 blazing, and every dbtkdoseek smoking with a hot mess which, together with 

 the friendly reception we experienced and a little warmth and fatigue from 

 travelling, combined in conveying to our minds an idea of comfort which we 

 could scarcely believe an Esquimaux hut capable of exciting. 



On the arrival of the men, who came in towards evening, with two seals 

 as the reward of their labour, we were once more greeted and welcomed. 

 Arnaneelia in particular, who was a quiet, obliging, and even amiable man, 

 was delighted to find that my quarters were to be in his apartment, where 

 Aneetka, his wife, a young woman of about twenty-three, had already ar- 

 ranged every thing for my accommodation ; and both these poor people now 

 vied with each other in their attention to my comfort. The other two apart- 

 ments of the same hut were occupied by Kaoongut and Okotook, with their 

 respective wives and families ; it being the constant custom of these people 

 thus to unite in family groups, whenever the nature of their habitations 

 will allow it. Mr. Bushnan being established with Okotook, and the two 

 men with Kaoongut, we were thus all comfortably lodged under the same 

 roof. 



Toolooak having been concerned in killing one of the seals just brought 

 in, it fell to his mother's lot to dissect it, the neitiek being the only animal 

 which the women are permitted to cut up. We had therefore an opportu- 

 nity of seeing this filthy operation once more performed, and entirely by the 



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