Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 1.djvu/223

202 you and me—everybody—to visit the sick, the afflicted, the widow, the helpless, the poor.' "Kindly I proceeded, to the best of my poor ability, to show her wherein it was wrong thus to leave the sick—the dying. Her astonishment at what I said seemed as great to her as was mine at her recorded remark. During this important conversation, allusion was made as to working on tuktoo furs during the season of catching walrus. It is a fact that, when the Innuits begin to catch walrus, no work is done on reindeer skins; therefore all winter clothing is made up before any attempts are made to get walrus. The reasons why will be stated some time hereafter. "In my arguments with Tookoolito I told her it was not to be wondered at that she and her people believed many unreasonable things, when there had been no one to teach them better—no one to tell them of the Bible. I told her that some people of America and in England believed a great many ridiculous things, but that did not make them true; told her that I only wished to do her good; that whenever I could kindly show where they—her people—were doing wrong, I should do so; that if she or her people could prove to me her or their ways were all the best, then I would be one to do as Innuits did. After this interview under the snow roof of the dying, I heard Tookoolito, in her igloo, earnestly engaged in telling her wing-a all that I had told her. They both seemed thankful for what I had said."

In connexion with the preceding account of Nukertou's death, and the Innuit customs referring to it, I may here mention another occurrence somewhat similar, which took place about the same time.

There was a sick native, whom I visited on two or three occasions, named Kooperarchu, who suffered greatly from ulcers on the neck. His case was desperate, and no remedies we applied availed him. As his end approached, the angeko took possession of him altogether, and when I once tried to see the patient, all the natives assured me it would be useless while the angeko was there. But I determined to make the