Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/279

260 flesh, skins, blood, and bones, scattered all about the igloo. He would see, hanging over a long, low flame, the oo-koo-sin (stone kettle), black with soot and oil of great age, and filled to its utmost capacity with black meat, swimming in a thick, dark, smoking fluid, as if made by boiling down the dirty scrapings of a butcher's stall. He would see men, women, and children—my humble self included—engaged in devouring the contents of that kettle, and he would pity the human beings who could be reduced to such necessity as to eat the horrid stuff. The dishes out of which the soup is taken would turn his stomach, especially when he should see dogs wash them out with their long pliant tongues previous to our using them. But I will not multiply particulars. Sharkey this day saw a rabbit when out on the island hunting partridges, but could not get a shot at it. If "Jennie," or any other female songster, had been with him, he would probably have secured it. Innuits, when they go after rabbits, generally have such a vocalist with them. While she sings "charmingly" the sportsman is enabled to have a fair shot. The rabbit delights in listening to the music of a female Innuit voice, and will stop, sit up, and be shot under its charms. The scarcity of provisions, combined with the troubles I encountered with the evil-disposed Innuits, Koojesse and Jennie, had been so great, that I had determined to abandon my journey farther up the bay, and return at once to the Countess of Warwick's Sound; but we now found ourselves so abundantly supplied that I concluded to take Sharkey, and, leaving the rest of my company at the place of the tenth encampment, to make a flying trip up the bay with sledge and dogs. Sharkey at first cheerfully assented to my proposition, but on May 6th he signified to me his desire to take Jennie with him. I declined to accede to this request, and he acquiesced in my decision, but Jennie flew into a rage. She put on her kodlings and dodged out of the igloo, attempting to run away; Sharkey darted after her, and in about an hour they returned, on apparently amicable terms.