ESQUIMAUX GUESTS. 
421 
essary, and we were slowly approaching om anchor- 
age, when a rough yawl boarded us. She brought a 
pleasant company, Unas the schoolmaster and parish 
priest, Louisa his sister, the gentle Amalia, Louisa's 
cousin, and some others of huLmbler note. 
The baptismal waters had but superficially regen- 
erated these savages: their deportment, at least, did 
not conform to our nicest canons. For the first five 
minutes, to be sure, the ladies kept their faces close 
covered with their hands, only withdrawing them to 
blow their noses, which they did in the most primi- 
tive and picturesque manner. But their modesty thus 
assured, they felt that it needed no further illustration. 
They volunteered a dance, avowed to us confidential- 
ly that they had educated tastes — Amalia that she 
smoked, Louisa that she tolerated the more enliven- 
ing liquids, and both that their exercise in the open 
air had made a slight refection altogether acceptable. 
Hospitality is the virtue of these wild regions: our 
hard tack, and cranberries, and rum were in requisi- 
tion at once. 
It is not for the host to tell tales of his after-dinner 
company. But the truth of history may be satisfied 
without an intimation that our guests paid niggard 
