I
saw nothing in the conduct of any of them to complain of, but
everything to praise. I noticed that most of the men in this camp had
their hair cut close to their heads, the style that at home is
profanely called "a Reilly cut." This I ascertained was not for
personal adornment, but for convenience in hunting, where fine-tooth
combs are unknown, but could be put to good use.
We met a sled with a few natives coming from Kigmuktoo to join the rest
of the tribe on the lake, and with them was an aged crone named
Toolooah, who had seen white men in Boothia Isthmus, when a young
woman, and had also been with the party who found the boat and
skeletons in Starvation Cove, near Richardson Point. She confirmed the
testimony previously obtained in every essential particular. We gave
her a few needles and a spoon, for which she was very grateful,
especially to her namesake, our Toolooah, to whom she gave her
walking-stick and two locks of her hair, which he severed with a
snow-knife as she knelt beside the sled. This was a charm to protect
him from evil until he got home. Besides this old woman there were three
other women on the sled. One I noticed particularly, because she looked
so much like the Goddess of Liberty. Her hood was over her head and hung
with the same jaunty air as a liberty cap, and her artiger, cut loose in
the throat, looked not unlike the classic toga.
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