CHOICE OF THE ANGEKO'S WIVES. 



169 



him if this man would be very useful in my future explorations 

 to King William's Land ; and on being answered in the affirma- 

 tive, I said aloud, ' Well, if Angeko goes with me next season, he 

 shall have a gun — one of my best.' This made the wizard-man 

 leap for joy ; for he thought, as I afterward found, that I meant to 

 give it him at once. He grasped my hands, he threw his arms 

 around my neck, he danced about the tent, and did many other 

 extravagant things, which showed his gratification on making such 

 a triumph of skill and strategy. He had, as he chose to believe 

 (though I immediately explained, or tried to explain, that the gift 

 was not intended for the moment), accomplished a great feat in 

 charming a hodluna into giving him a gun as recognition of his 

 magical power. So complete was his happiness, that he told me I 

 should have the choice of his two wives, all his tuhtoo skins (rein- 

 deer furs) that I might need, and sealskins for making boots, with 

 other articles in abundance. That he had great riches of this de- 

 scription — probably obtaimed from his credulous worshipers — 

 was evident from the rolls of beautiful skins I saw around me. 



While the angeko was thus expressing himself, his second wife 

 came in, and quietly took a position near the household lamp, 

 which she began to renew with fresh seal-blubber. This gave 

 Mingumailo the opportunity to again press the offer of one of his 

 wives to me. He begged of me, there and then, to select either 

 of them ; but I soon gave him to understand I was already sup- 

 plied with a wife at home. 



This, however, neither satisfied his ideas about matrimony, nor 

 — as it appeared — those of his wives ; for both of them at once 

 decked themselves out in all the smiles and blandishments that 

 they possessed. I asked them if they really coincided in the offer 

 their husband had made, and was immediately told that they glad- 

 ly did. However, I was about again declining the offer, when 

 the angeko suddenly made a sign to Koojesse, and both departed, 

 leaving me alone with the proffered wives. I uttered a few kind 

 words to them, and, giving each a plug of tobacco with a friendly 

 grasp of the hand, left the tupic and went toward the boat. 



On my way, and just outside the angeko's tupic, I noticed an 

 oar of a kia stuck upright in a drift of froien snow. Upon it 

 were suspended little packages done up in red woolen rags, dif- 

 ferently and ingeniously arranged. On one side hung a portion 

 of a well-dressed sealskin, beautifully variegated by parti-colored 

 patches sewed on to it as if for signs. I inquired of several Es- 



