LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 505 
weighing, in the whole, 15Jibs, which was, on an average, five 
pounds to a man. One of them contrived to consume three pounds, 
leaving twelve pounds and a half to be devoured by his com¬ 
panions, whose appetite appeared to increase in the ratio of the 
decrease of the food, that was before them. On a sudden, both 
of them were seized with an excessive vomiting, which appeared 
to be to them such a common occurrence, that with the greatest 
coolness, they allowed the malady to subside, and then, if 
permitted, would have returned to dispose of the remainder of 
the fish ; but, in this, they were prevented by one of the officers, 
who had quite satisfied himself with this specimen of Esquimaux 
gluttony. These human cormorants took their departure soon 
after breakfast; but in a short time, they were succeeded by an¬ 
other party of their tribe, consisting of two men, one woman, 
and two children, one of whom was quite an infant, in fact, it 
could not have been born more than six days. The Esquimaux 
give the name to their children from the 3rd to the 10th day 
after their birth; and yet, in the naming of their children, they 
do not act with that consummate folly and impiety, which dis¬ 
tinguish a people, who call themselves the most civilized of 
the world, amongst whom the ceremony exists, on the christ¬ 
ening of a child, of insisting that a particular person shall take 
upon himself all the sins and transgressions of the child, until 
he be an adult; and that he shall, at the same time, lay himself 
under the obligation of performing certain duties towards the 
child, which he never intends to perform; although he swears, 
in the presence of his God, that he will most religiously and 
faithfully perform them, to the best of his power and ability 
This impious farce is not acted, in the naming of an Esquimaux 
child, yet it is a day of rejoicing amongst them; but their re¬ 
joicings, at the best, are, like their climate, cold and senseless : 
a smile on the countenance of an Esquimaux, is like the beam 
of his sun in the autumn of the year, spiritless and cheerless, the 
laugh of joy is seldom heard in his hut of snow ; and although 
the song and the dance at times enliven his dreary hours, yet his 
mirth is seldom the spontaneous effusion of the heart, but breaks 
forth like a faint ray of the moon through a cloud of mist. 
22. St 
