544 



ARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION. 



Tookoolito, repeated to me, though in a somewhat different form, 

 what I had learned in previous conversations with her, namely, 

 that ships with white men came to those regions ; that the 7wd- 

 lunas who were left behind built a ship, attempted to escape from 

 the country, failed in the attempt, and finally froze to death. She 

 also gave me two names, which show how accurately the tradi- 

 tions of the Innuits are handed down ; one was the name of a na- 

 tive who was particularly kind to the white men, and who was 

 called " E-loud-ju-arng ;" he was a Pim-ma-in, a great man or chief 

 among the Innuits, as Tookoolito, translating the old lady's words, 

 said, "All same as king." When the white men were about to 

 set out with their ship for home, this Eloudjuarng had a song 

 made wishing the kodlunas a quick passage and much joy, and 

 he caused his people, who were then very numerous, to sing it. 

 The other name handed down is that of one native who saw the 

 kodlunas, "Man-nuP 



Ookijoxy Ninoo gave me, moreover, an entirely new fact. She 

 said that the kodlunas in the ships who first came to the country 

 went up the bay called by the Innuits Ker-nuJc-too-joo-a, and by me 

 Newton's Fiord, and there, a little distance inland, erected a mon- 

 ument. Some time later, Tookoolito brought me a sketch of the 

 monument, made by the old lady herself, and the accompanying 

 illustration presents a facsimile of this sketch. The monument 

 itself is not on very high land. The Innuits for a very long time, 

 and down even to the present day, have been in the habit of go- 

 ing there ; and wishing success in hunting, they would give it 

 presents of young tuktoo meat, bows and arrows, beads, etc., hang- 

 ing the same on it or placing them close about it. It was on all 

 occasions treated with the greatest respect, the belief being that 

 he who gave much to the monument would kill much game. 

 Ebierbing, on seeing the sketch, said that he had frequently given 

 arrows in a similar way. 



At one point in her narrative old Ookijoxy Ninoo seized an 

 oodloo — a knife shaped like the chopping-knife in use among us 

 (see page 272) — and severed a lock of her hair, which she gave 

 into my hands with the request that I would take it to America, 

 and show it to many people as that of the oldest Innuit inhabit- 

 ant. She said that there was no one living in her country who 

 was a child when she was. Her hair was nearly all black, there 

 being only now and then a white or gray hair on her head. I 

 doubt not Ookijoxy Ninoo was fully 100 years old. Finding the 



