The musk-ox
we saw cached was all the meat they had in hand, or had had for a long
time. An old man of their tribe had starved to death about a month
before our arrival. We gave them some reindeer meat, of which we
fortunately had plenty on the sleds, and told them where they would
find the carcass of a reindeer that one of our party had killed the day
before and left on the field because the sleds were too far off to wait
for it. Their clothing was in a dilapidated condition, though
originally well made, and instead of reindeer gloves and shoes, they
wore articles made of musk-ox skin, which had a most extraordinary
effect. The hair of the musk-ox is several inches long, and it looked
as if they had an old-fashioned muff on each hand. They were very good
natured and friendly, however, and helped to build our igloos and make
them comfortable. We obtained from them a few trifling relics of the
'Erebus' and 'Terror', in exchange for knives and needles,
which made them happy. It seemed strange to me that they should be
hungry in a country swarming with reindeer, but our people explained to
me that in winter it is almost impossible to get near enough to
reindeer; to kill them with arrows, which are their only weapons. In
summer they kill a few reindeer from their kyacks, or skin canoes,
while crossing the big lakes on their migrations.
Pages:
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93