576 



ARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION. 



through the subsequent year. Then follows something like a 

 feast. The next day all go out into the open air and form in a 

 circle ; in the centre is placed a vessel, of water, and each member 

 of the company brings a bit of meat, the kind being immaterial. 

 The circle being formed, each person eats his or her meat in si- 

 lence, thinking of Sidne, and wishing for good things. Then one 

 in the circle takes a cup, dips up some of the water, all the time 

 thinking of Sidne, and drinks it ; and then, before passing the cup 

 to another, states audibly the time and the place of his or her 

 birth. This ceremony is performed by all in succession. Final- 

 ly, presents of various articles are thrown from one to another, 

 with the idea that each will receive of Sidne good things in pro- 

 portion to the liberality here shown. 



Soon after this occasion, at a time which answers to our New 

 Year's day, two men start out, one of them being dressed to rep- 

 resent a woman, and go to every igloo in the village, blowing out 

 the light in each. The lights are afterward rekindled from a fresh 

 fire. When Tookoolito was asked the meaning of this, she re- 

 plied, " New sun — new light," implying a belief that the sun was 

 at that time renewed for the year. 



When one of these meetings and outdoor ceremonies took 

 place, I was absent from the village where most of my Innuit 

 friends were living. Koojesse, Sharkey, and others wished to have 

 me sent for, thinking I would like to be present ; but old Artark- 

 paru objected, fearing that I should grow weary before the cere- 

 mony was complete, and, retiring from the circle, break the charm. 

 So I was not sent for, but was obliged to gain my information 

 from the natives. 



The language of this people is peculiar to themselves. They 

 have nothing written, and all that they can tell is derived from 

 oral tradition, handed down from parent to child for many gener- 

 ations. The pronunciation of the same words by Esquimaux liv- 

 ing a considerable distance apart, and having little intercourse, is 

 so different that they can hardly understand each other on com- 

 ing together. It was with the greatest difficulty that the Innuits 

 who came to Field Bay from Sekoselar, or any other place on 

 the northern shores of Hudson's Strait, could make themselves 

 understood by Innuits residing north of them. Sometimes Innu- 

 its arrive from Igloolik (which is at the entrance to the Strait of 

 Fury and Hecla), at Northumberland Inlet, and it takes a long 

 time for the two parties to understand each other. Still more dif- 



