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SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



bringing information that, during a very grievous famine, one party of men 

 had fallen upon another and killed them ; and that they afterwards subsisted 

 on their flesh, while in a frozen state, but never cooked nor even thawed it. 

 This horrible account was soon after confirmed by Toolemak, on board the 

 Fury ; and though he was evidently uneasy at our having heard the story, 

 and conversed upon it with reluctance, yet by means of our questions he 

 was brought to name, upon his fingers, five individuals who had been killed 

 on this occasion. Of the fact therefore there can be doubt; but it is certain 

 also that we ourselves scarcely regarded it with greater horror than those 

 who related it ; and the occurrence may be considered similar to those 

 dreadful instances on record, even among civilized nations, of men devour- 

 ing one another, in wrecks or boats, when rendered desperate by the suf- 

 ferings of actual starvation. 



The ceremony of crying, which has before been mentioned as practised 

 after a person's death, is not however altogether confined to those melan- 

 choly occasions, but is occasionally adopted in cases of illness, and that of 

 no very dangerous kind. The father of a sick person enters the apartment, 

 and after looking at him for a few seconds without speaking, announces by 

 a kind of low sob his preparation for the coming ceremony. At this signal 

 every other individual present composes his features for crying, and the 

 leader of the chorus then setting up a loud and piteous howl, which lasts 

 about a minute, is joined by all the rest, who shed abundant tears during 

 the process. So decidedly is this a matter of form, unaccompanied by 

 any feeling of sorrow, that those who are not relatives shed just as many 

 tears as those that are ; to which may be added, that in the instances which 

 we witnessed there was no real occasion for crying at all. It must therefore 

 be considered in the light of a ceremony of condolence, which it would 

 be either indecorous or unlucky to omit. 



I have already in the course of the foregoing Narrative given several 

 instances of the little care these people take in the interment of their dead, 

 especially in the winter season ; it is certain however that this arises from 

 some superstitious notion, and particularly from the belief that any heavy 

 weight upon the corpse would have an injurious effect upon the deceased in 

 a future state of existence ; for even in the summer, when it would be an 

 easy matter to secure a body from the depredations of wild animals, the 

 mode of burial is not essentially different. The corpse of a child observed 



