Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 1.djvu/122

Rh children; his second, Oo-soo-kong, gave him a son and daughter; both, with herself, dead. The third wife was alive, but left at Padley. Afterward she had two children by another man. The fourth also had two children by another man; the fifth hung herself after giving him a daughter, now 14 years old. The sixth—still alive, and related to Tookoolito—had no children; the seventh was Kun-ni-u, whom I shall frequently name. She likewise had no children up to the time of my last seeing her; the eighth was Kou-nung, who had two children by another man—the children now grown up and married. The ninth was Kok-kong, or Pun-nie, his present second wife, but with no children; the tenth was Ak-chuk-er-zhun, who, however, left him and went to live with Kooperneung ("Charley"), a man I often afterward employed. The eleventh wife of Ugarng was Nik-u-jar ("Polly"), by whom he had a child called Menoun, about three years old when I last saw it. Nikujar died while I was up there. She had been the wife of Blind George, already mentioned, but left him a few years after he became blind.

Ugarng was a remarkably intelligent man and a very good mechanic. He had several excellent traits of character, besides some not at all commendable.

In 1854-5 he was on a visit to the States, and among his reminiscences of that visit he said about New York, "G— d—! too much horse—too much house—too much white people. Women? ah! women great many-good!"

I now bring forward another man, already mentioned, Pau-loo-yer, or "Blind George." Of his parentage there is but little known, even by himself, except that his mother hung herself. He was born about 1819, and when young the Innuits took care of him. He grew up and became one of the first Esquimaux of his place. He was an excellent pilot, greatly attached to Americans, and very desirous of learning their language. He married the Nik-u-jar already spoken of, and by her had three children. The first was born in the spring of, and had black spots covered with hair on its body. It died before six months old.