Three Voyages for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and Narrative of an Attempt to Reach the North Pole, Volume 1Parry, William Edward, Sir
History
Three Voyages for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and Narrative of an Attempt to Reach the North Pole, Volume 1
Parry, William Edward, Sir
Arctic regions; Northwest Passage; Parry, William Edward, Sir, 1790-1855
Among the few domestic utensils we saw in the tent was the woman's
knife of the Greenlanders described by Crantz, and resembling, in
its semicircular shape, that used by shoemakers in England. The
most interesting article, however, was a kind of bowl, exactly
similar to that obtained by Captain Lyon from the natives of
Hudson's Strait, being hollowed out of the root of the musk-ox's
horn. As soon as I took the cup in my hand, the boy who was our
first companion, and had since been our constant attendant,
pronounced the word _oomingmuk_, thus affording an additional
confirmation to that obtained on the former voyage, of the musk-ox
being the animal described by the natives of the west coast of
Greenland as having occasionally, though rarely, been seen in that
country.
As soon as the Esquimaux became a little more familiar with us,
they repeatedly asked for _sowik_ (iron), in answer to which we
gave them to understand that they must accompany us to our boats if
they wished to obtain any of this precious article. Accordingly,
the whole group set off with us on our return, the males keeping up
with us, and the women a short distance behind. The whole of the
children carried bundles of the branches of ground willow, which
we had just before seen them bring in for their own use, and
which they seemed to consider an article of barter that might be
acceptable to us. As we returned I noticed a quantity of the _ledum
palustre_, and, having plucked some of it, gave it to the boy to
carry; after which, though he very much disliked its smell, he
gathered every root of it that we came to, and deposited it at our
tents. This lad was uncommonly quick and clever in comprehending
our meaning, and seemed to possess a degree of good-humour and
docility which, on our short acquaintance, made him a great
favourite among us.
We had hitherto been much pleased with our new acquaintance,
who were certainly a good-humoured, decent sort of people. We
therefore loaded them with presents, and endeavoured to amuse them
by showing them the manner of rowing our boats, which were hauled
up on the beach. While the men and children were occupied in
observing this, the women were no less busily employed, near the
tents, in pilfering and conveying into their boots some of our
cups, spoons, and other small articles, such as they could
conveniently secrete. This they accomplished with so much
dexterity, that no suspicion would have been excited of their
dishonesty had not Mr. Sherer fortunately missed a cup which was
required for supper. A general search being instituted in
consequence, and the cargo of the women's boots brought back to
our tents, I directed all our presents to be likewise taken from
the two offenders; and, dismissing the whole party with great
appearance of indignation, thus put an end, for the present, to
our communication with these people.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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