Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/227

208 from the sixth generation direct from the day of the aforementioned grandfather. "I now continue the information conveyed by old Petato, giving the points as they come to mind. "Kodlunas built a ship on Kodlunarn. She described, by peculiar scooping movements of her hands, the place they dug out in the island in which they made the vessel. She said there were two places dug out in the rocks—one a little distance from where they built the ship, made to catch and hold water (fresh water) for the kodlunas. Innuits all around were kind to the white people; brought them seals, tuktoo, &c. &c. "They were on Kodlunarn through one winter—that is, while there, wintered there but once. When ice broke up, went away in the ship. After a while come back again. Seko (ice) brought them back. Could not get out. Very cold—great storm. Innuits built them igloos on Kodlunarn, but they all died. "Petato was about to tell how many kodlunas built the ship and tried to go away. She first raised one hand, opened the fingers and thumb, showing five; thinking a moment, and looking at said fingers and thumb, she finally threw up the other hand, fingers and thumb spread out; then she said she did not recollect whether they were mik-u-ook-oo-loo or am-a-su-ad-lo (few or many)." After concluding this interview with Petato we returned to Jones's Cape, arriving there at 5 An hour after my entrance into his igloo, Sampson returned from his trip to a cache of tuktoo, bringing the saddles and carcasses of two deer. As soon as he arrived these were thrown into the igloo; the network over the ikkumer, placed there to receive articles of clothing which need drying, was cleared off, and the frozen masses of tuktoo placed carefully upon it, in order that the outside might lose some of its burning quality; for let it be borne in mind that anything exposed to the cold of the North, if touched with the bare fingers, gives a sensation as if hot iron were handled. Meanwhile invitations were