534 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



natives of any country. Iligliuk, though one of the least amiable, was 

 particularly thus gifted. When she really wished to develop our meaning, 

 she would desire her husband and all the rest to hold their tongues, and 

 would generally make it out while they were puzzling their heads to 

 no purpose. In returning her answers the very expression of her coun- 

 tenance, though one of the plainest among them, was almost of itself 

 sufficient to convey her meaning ; and there was, in these cases, a pe- 

 culiar decisive energy in her manner of speaking which was extremely 

 interesting. This woman would indeed have easily learned any thing to 

 which she chose to direct her attention ; and had her lot been cast in a 

 civilized country instead of this dreary region, which serves alike to " freeze 

 the genial current of the soul" and body, she would probably have been a very 

 clever person. For want of a sufficient object, however, neither she nor 

 any of her companions ever learned a dozen words of English, except our 

 names, with which it was their interest to be familiar, and which, long 

 before we left them any child could repeat, though in their own style of 

 pronunciation. 



Besides the natural authority of parents and husbands, these people 

 appear to admit no kind of superiority among one another, except a certain 

 degree of superstitious reverence for their angetkooks, and their tacitly fol- 

 lowing the counsel or steps of the most active seal-catcher on their hunting 

 excursions. The word nallegak, used in Greenland to express master," 

 and " lord" in the Esquimaux translations of the Scriptures, they were not 

 acquainted with. One of the young men at Winter Island appeared to be 

 considered somewhat in the light of a servant to Okotook, living with the 

 latter and quietly allowing him to take possession of all the most valuable 

 presents which he received from us. Being a sociable people, they unite in 

 considerable numbers to form a settlement for the winter ; but on the return 

 of spring they again separate into several parties, each appearing to choose his 

 own route without regard to that of the rest, but all making their arrange- 

 ments without the slightest disagreement or difference of opinion that we 

 could ever discover. In all their movements they seem to be actuated by- 

 one simultaneous feeling that is truly admirable. 



Superior as our arts, contrivances, and materials must unquestionably have 

 appeared to them, and eager as they were to profit by this superiority, yet, 

 contradictory as it may seem, they certainly looked upon us in many respects 

 with profound contempt ; maintaining that idea of self-sufficiency which has 



