LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS 
315 
fatness of a polar bear, and to be hereafter vended in the shape 
of bear’s grease, for the growth and beautification of the hair of 
the belles and beaus, the dowagers and codgers of the metropolis, 
and to exclaim. 
To what vile purposes do we come at last. 
Of the party who visited the ship on the 10th, two remained 
on board the ship, whose names were Narlook and Ikmalik , 
the age of the former was 25, the latter 27, and on the following 
day they made their first appearance as scholars in the Tirocin¬ 
ium of the Victory. Finding them however to possess the same 
degree of ductility as a block of marble, Capt. Ross employed 
them in the building of a snow hut similar to those inhabited 
by themselves, and to his great surprise the whole was com¬ 
pleted in 15 minutes. Supper was served to them about 8 o’clock, 
consisting of rather more than 8 pounds of baked seal, every 
morsel of which they demolished, diluting it at times with 
copious draughts of water, which in the whole must have 
amounted to two gallons. 
A singular habit of these people was here taken notice of, 
which was that of picking their teeth after their meals with their 
hair, of which they extract three or four from their head, and 
twisting them into a kind of brush, which from their wiry nature 
are well adapted for the purpose, they generally spend half an 
hour in the operation of picking their teeth, until they fall asleep, 
groaning from the effects of repletion. As gluttons they are 
perhaps not to be equalled by any people of the world, and from 
the long state of inaction in which they are kept during their 
tedious winter, their bodies assume a corpulency, which renders 
them very unfit for the purposes of active life. It was however 
a scene of great merriment to the crew, to watch their actions as 
they laid themselves to sleep, and when reclining on their ham¬ 
mocks, they appeared more like two huge savage animals than 
numan beings. They would have made an excellent representa¬ 
tion of the monster Caliban, and in their natures they were 
equally gross and sensual. Whether it was the novelty of their 
situation, or the effects of indigestion, their sleep was of short 
