Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/76

Rh have driven her on shore lower down the bay. Once more, then, the ship and her company were near me. Little had I expected this when looking at her the evening before.

I may here as well relate something very curious, which I have recorded under this date as having occurred during the previous night. Ebierbing was very ill, and both his wife and his aunt were alarmed. The latter went out at midnight, and brought in Jennie, wife of Koodloo, who is a female angeko, to practise on the sufferer. She took her position at once, sitting, Innuit fashion, in a corner of the tupic, facing from us, and proceeded with her incantations, while deep seriousness fell on all around. As she went on, ejaculatory expressions of approbation were occasionally uttered by the persons present, as also by the patient. Presently Ebierbing became more calm, his pains seemed to decrease, and finally he fell asleep, and actually slept well! This is strange, most "passing strange;" yet it is a fact that the ankooting does seemingly benefit the patient, acting as a charm. The mind being diverted from all thought of the clay house to something above which the soul aspires to reach, makes one forgetful that there is anything like pain in his or her system. This people, knowing that I did not make fun of them or taunt them for believing as they do, had confidence in me, therefore I was a privileged one in their midst when ankooting was going on. It is against their customs to have any but the family present, but hitherto I have always had access to their meetings.

Let Christians plant a colony among the western Innuits, as has been done in Greenland, and in time this people will become converts to Christianity, for that is the only true religion; and the truth, when properly presented to honest minds, will be received with open hearts. Jennie is not only a good angeko professionally, but also of pleasing features, and would pass for handsome with many judges of beauty. On the 1st of August the weather still continued bad, with