obtaining more or less applause, according to the oddity of their grimaces.  At length a witty fellow, in consequence of some whispering and tittering among the ladies, advanced and gave me the koonik, which challenge I Was obliged to answer by standing up to dance, and my nose was in its turn most severely rubbed, to the great delight of all present.

“Having been as patient as could be wished for above an hour, and being quite overpowered by the heat of the crowded tent, I made a hasty retreat, after having distributed needles to all the females, and exacting kooniks from all the prettiest in return.  A general outcry was now made for Dunn, a most quiet North countryman, to exhibit also; but he, having seen the liberties which had been taken with my nose, very prudently made his retreat, anticipating what would be his fate if he remained.

“During a short, interval of fine weather, we hung out our clothes to dry, and the contents of our knapsacks, instruments, knives, and beads were strewed on the ground, while we went inland to shoot a few ducks.  We cautioned no one against thieving, and were so much at their mercy that everything might have been taken without a possibility of detection; yet not a single article was found to have been removed from its place at our return.  At night I was attended by the same bedfellows as before; the young puppy, however, being now better acquainted, took up his quarters in my blanket-bag, as from thence he could the more easily reach a quantity of walrus-flesh which lay near my head; and I was awakened more than once by finding him gnawing a lump by my side.

“On the morning of the 29th I was really glad to find that the ships were not yet in sight, as I should be enabled to pass another day among the hospitable natives.  While making my rounds I met several others, who were also visiting, and who each invited me to call at his tent in its turn.  Wherever I entered, the master rose and resigned his seat next his wife or wives, and stood before me or squatted on a stone near the door.  I was then told to ‘speak!’ or, in fact, to give a history of all I knew of the distant tribe, which, from constant repetition, I could now manage pretty well.  In one tent I found a man mending his paddle, which was ingeniously made of various little scraps of wood, ivory, and bone, lashed together.  He put it into my hands to repair, taking it for granted that a Kabloona would succeed much better than himself.  An hour afterward the poor fellow came and took me by the hand to his tent, where I found a large pot of walrus-flesh evidently cooked for me.  His wife licked a piece and offered it, but, on his saying something to her, took out another, and, having pared off the outside, gave me the clean part, which, had it been carrion, I would not have hurt these poor creatures by refusing.  The men showed me some curious puzzles with knots on their fingers, and I did what I could in return.