the woman who owned it; though my ignorance in this respect offered a good opportunity of defrauding me, had they been so inclined, by receiving an equivalent for that which did not belong to them:  on the owner’s coming forward, the bargain was quickly concluded.  The pikes which I gave in exchange underwent the usual ceremony of licking, and the sledge was carried to our boat with the most perfect understanding on both sides.  In another instance, an axe was offered by some of the Griper’s gentlemen as the price of a dog, to which the woman who owned the animal consented.  To show that we placed full confidence in them, the axe was given to her before the dog was caught, and she immediately went away with a kind of halter or harness of thongs, which, they use for this purpose, and honestly brought one of the finest among them, though nothing would have been easier than to evade the performance of the contract.  The readiness, however, with which they generally parted with their commodities, was by no means the effect of fear, nor did it always depend on the value of the articles offered in exchange; for having, as I thought, concluded a bargain for a second canoe belonging to the old woman, I desired the men to hand it down to the boat; but I soon perceived that I had misunderstood her, for she clung fast to the canoe, and cried most piteously till it was set down; I then offered a larger price than before, but she could not be induced to part with it.

The stature of these people, like that of Esquimaux in general, is much below the usual standard.  The height of the old man, who was rather bent by age, was four feet eleven inches; and that of the other men, from five feet four and a half to five feet six inches.  Their faces are round and plump in the younger individuals; skin smooth; complexion not very dark, except that of the old man; teeth very white; eyes small; nose broad, but not very flat; hair black, straight, and glossy; and their hands and feet extremely diminutive.  The old man had a gray beard, in which the black hairs predominated, and wore the hair rather long upon his upper lip, which was also the case with the eldest of the three others.

The grown-up females measured from four feet ten to four feet eleven inches.  The features of the two youngest were regular; their complexions clear, and by no means dark; their eyes small, black, and piercing; teeth beautifully white and perfect; and, although the form of their faces is round and chubby, and their noses rather flat than otherwise, their countenances might, perhaps, be considered pleasing, even according to the ideas of beauty which habit has taught us to entertain.  Their hair, which is jet-black, hangs down long and loose about their shoulders, a part of it on each side being carelessly platted, and sometimes rolled up into an awkward lump, instead of being neatly tied on the top of the head, as the Esquimaux women in most other parts are accustomed to wear it.  The youngest female had much natural bashfulness and timidity, and we considered her to be the only unmarried one, as she differed from the other three in not being tattooed upon the face.  Two of them had their hands tattooed also, and the old woman had a few marks of the same kind about each wrist.  None of the men or children were thus distinguished.