A TREATY FORMED. 
209 
melted water, and parboiled a couple of pieces of 
walrus-meat; but the real piece de resistance, some five 
pounds a head, they preferred to eat raw. Yet there 
was something of the (jourmet in their mode of assorting 
their mouthfuls of beef and blubber. Slices of each, 
or rather strips, passed between the lips, either to¬ 
gether or in strict alternation, and with a regularity of 
sequence that kept the molars well to their work. 
They did not eat all at once, but each man when 
and as often as the impulse prompted. Each slept after 
eating, his raw chunk lying beside him on the buffalo- 
skin ; and, as he woke, the first act was to eat, and the 
next to sleep again. They did not lie down, but slum¬ 
bered away in a sitting posture, with the head declined 
upon the breast, some of them snoring famously. 
In the morning they were anxious to go; but I had 
given orders to detain them for a parting interview 
with myself. It resulted in a treaty, brief in its terms, 
that it might be certainly remembered, and mutually 
beneficial, that it might possibly be kept. I tried to 
make them understand what a powerful Prospero they 
had had for a host, and how beneficent he would prove 
himself so long as they did his bidding. And, as an 
earnest of my favor, I bought all the walrus-meat they 
had to spare, and four of their dogs, enriching them in 
return with needles and beads and a treasure of old 
cask-staves. 
In the fulness of their gratitude, they pledged them¬ 
selves emphatically to return in a few days with more 
meat, and to allow me to .use their dogs and sledges for 
Voii. I.—14 
