Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 1.djvu/210

Rh thought to pacify the babe by taking it in my own hands, and, in doing so, tried to show them how civilized mothers carry and nurse their children. This, however, only produced a hearty laugh; and I was made to understand that, in all the matters relating to the tending of infants—even in the very minutest, as there and then shown to me—the Innuit custom was the best. I could here mention one or two facts, but it will be unnecessary more than to say that mothers here at home will comprehend all my meaning when I tell them that an Innuit infant is carried naked in the mother's hood, yet in close contact with the parent's skin. Thus every childish necessity is generally anticipated in good time by the ever-sensitive, watchful mother. On the 18th December we heard of an arrival at the upper village from Annawa, the Esquimaux who, with his family, it may be remembered, went away on the 30th of the previous August. This Esquimaux was a brother of some of the most enterprising Innuits in the North. He lived almost the life of a hermit—that is, he resided with his small family in a distant part, away from other people, his abode being at an island called Oo-pung-ne-wing, in the Countess of Warwick's Sound, on the north side of Frobisher's Bay. It was his son who had now arrived, with a view of doing a little trade, if he could.

Many of the Esquimaux came to me, not only as ordinary visitors and to see what they could get in the way of presents, but also to do some trading. At the same time, several of the younger ones gladly received instruction from myself in the civilized tongue. As regards trading with them, it was generally done for articles of use, reindeer-skin dresses especially being necessary for me for winter, and no one could be more expert or more tasteful than the Innuit women in making them. On one of my visits to the upper village, a daughter-in-law of Artarkparu was just finishing off her winter coat with a long tail, the universal fashion there among the ladies. It