OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



551 



by Lieutenant Palmer, he describes as " being laid in a regular but shallow 

 grave, with its head to the north-east. It was decently dressed in a good 

 deer-skin jacket, and a seal-skin prepared without the hair was carefully 

 placed as a cover to the whole figure, and tucked in on all sides. The body 

 was covered with flat pieces of limestone, which however were so light that 

 a fox might easily have removed them. Near the grave were four little 

 separate piles of stones, not more than a foot in height, in one of which 

 we noticed a piece of red cloth and a black silk handkerchief, in a second a 

 pair of child's boots and mittens, and in each of the others a whalebone 

 pot. The face of the child looked unusually clean and fresh, and a few 

 days only could have elapsed since its decease." 



These Esquimaux do not appear to have any idea of the existence of One 

 Supreme Being, nor indeed can they be said to entertain any notions on this 

 subject, which may be dignified with the name of Religion. Their super- 

 stitions, which are numerous, have all some reference to the preternatural 

 agency of a number of toorngow, or spirits, with whom, on certain occasions, 

 the Angetkooks pretend to hold mysterious intercourse, and who in various 

 and distinct ways are supposed to preside over the destinies of the Esqui- 

 maux. On particular occasions of sickness or want of food the Angetkooks 

 contrive, by means of a darkened hut, a peculiar modulation of the voice, 

 and the uttering of a variety of unintelligible sounds, to persuade their 

 countrymen that they are descending to the lower regions for this purpose, 

 where they force the spirits to communicate the desired information. The 

 superstitious reverence in which these wizards are held, and a considerable 

 degree of ingenuity in their mode of performing their mummery, prevent 

 the detection of the imposture, and secure implicit confidence in these absurd 

 oracles. My friend Captain Lyon having particularly directed his attention 

 to this part of their history during the whole of our intercourse with these 

 people, and intending to publish his Journal which contains much interest- 

 ing information of this nature, I shall not here enter more at large on the 

 subject. Some account of their ideas respecting death, and of their belief 

 in a future state of existence, have already been introduced in the course 

 of the foregoing pages, in the order of those occurrences which furnished 

 us with opportunities of observing them. 



The language of the Esquimaux is so full of words, and so varied and 

 peculiar in the formation of its sentences, that it would require a much 

 longer acquaintance with these people, as well as far greater ability than 



