GREAT SEAL-FEAST. 



209 



meat feast — its eating being accompanied by taking into the 

 mouth at the same time a small portion of delicate white blubber, 

 which answered the same as butter with bread. Then followed 

 distributing the ribs of the seal for social picking. I joined in all 

 this, doing as they did, and becoming quite an Innuit save in the 

 quantity eaten. This I might challenge any white man to do. No 

 human stomach but an Innuit's could possibly hold what I saw 

 these men and women devour. 



Directly the " feast" was ended all the company dispersed. Too- 

 koolito then sent around bountiful gifts of seal -blubber for fire- 

 lamps ; also some seal meat and blood. This is the usual custom 

 among the Innuits, and, undoubtedly, is a virtue to be commend- 

 ed. They share each other's successes, and bear each other's 

 wants. Generally, if it is found that one is short of provisions, it 

 may be known that all are. When one has a supply, all have. 



After the feast and the gifts were over, we had leisure to attend 

 to ourselves, and in what " great good humor" we were soon to 

 be found ! Our lamps were all aglow and our hunger sated. I 



then took up the letter sent me by Captain B , which added 



to my pleasure in its perusal. 



It appeared, by what I read, that every one on board the ship, 

 as also the natives in the two villages, had given us up for lost 

 during the gale we encountered when encamped on the ice. 

 From the long absence of all information about us, and the fact 

 that the same gale had broken up the ice in Field Bay, it was 

 concluded that we had been driven out to sea, and probably had 

 perished. Koodloo's wife never expected to see him again ; and 

 old Oohijoxy Ninoo, the grandmother of Ebierbing, said she dreamt 

 about him in such a way that his death was almost assured to her. 



My information from the ship told me that the natives in both 

 villages were still badly off, not having caught one seal since our 

 departure. 



I must now mention, briefly, how Ebierbing obtained the fine 

 seal he brought with him. On his way to the ship he discovered 

 a seal-hole, but, being hurried for time, he merely erected a small 

 pile of snow near at hand, and squirted tobacco-juice as a mark upon 

 it. On his return, he readily found the hole by this mark, and, 

 though he felt the necessity of hastening on to our relief, and had 

 received instructions from the captain to hurry forward, yet he 

 determined to try for the prize by spending the night in attempt- 

 ing to gain it. Accordingly, binding my shawl and various furs 



0 



