204 
ANINGNAH. 
tables. A boy, ordered to climb the rocks with one of 
their purse-nets of seal-skin at the end of a narwhal’s 
tusk, would return in a few minutes with as many as 
he could carry. 
The dogs seemed as happy as their masters: they 
were tethered by seal-skin thongs to prevent rob¬ 
bery, but evidently fed to the full extent of their 
capacity. 
Aningnah, wife of Marsumah, the lady whose like¬ 
ness beautifies page 114, was one of the presiding 
deities of the soup-pot, or rather first witch of the 
caldron. She was a tall, well-made woman, and, next 
to Mrs. Metek, had a larger influence than any female 
in the settlement. 
During one of my visits to the settlement, I had 
relieved her from much suffering by opening a fu¬ 
runcle, and the kind creature never lost an oppor¬ 
tunity of showing how she remembered it. Poor old 
Kresut was summarily banished from the central seat 
of honor, and the nalegak installed in his place. She 
stripped herself of her bird-skin kapetah to make me a 
coverlet, and gave me her two-year-old baby for a 
pillow. There was a little commotion in the tangled 
mass of humanity as I crawled over them to accept 
these proffered hospitalities; but it was all of a wel¬ 
coming sort. I had learned by this time to take kindly 
and condescendingly the privileges of my rank; and, 
with my inner man well refreshed with auk-livers, I 
was soon asleep. 
In the morning I left my own tired dogs in charge 
