Chiefs have each two wives; the rest of the men have only one,
so that the number of married people may amount to one hundred and
seventy. He could give me no certain data whereby I might estimate the
number of children.

Two great Chiefs, or _Ackhaiyoot_, have complete authority in directing
the movements of the party, and in distributing provisions. The
_Attoogawnoeuck_, or lesser Chiefs, are respected principally as senior
men. The tribe seldom suffers from want of food, if the Chief moves to
the different stations at the proper season. They seem to follow the
eastern custom respecting marriage. As soon as a girl is born, the young
lad who wishes to have her for a wife goes to her father's tent, and
proffers himself. If accepted, a promise is given which is considered
binding, and the girl is delivered to her betrothed husband at the
proper age.

They consider their progenitors to have come from the moon. Augustus has
no other idea of a Deity than some confused notions which he has
obtained at Churchill.

When any of the tribe are dangerously ill, a conjurer is sent for, and
the bearer of the message carries a suitable present to induce his
attendance. Upon his arrival he encloses himself in the tent with the
sick man, and sings over him for days together without tasting food; but
Augustus, as well as the rest of the uninitiated, are ignorant of the
purport of his songs, and of the nature of the Being to whom they are
addressed. The conjurers practise a good deal of jugglery in swallowing
knives, firing bullets through their bodies, _&c._, but they are at
these times generally secluded from view, and the bystanders believe
their assertions, without requiring to be eye-witnesses of the fact.
Sixteen men and three women amongst Augustus' tribe are acquainted with
the mysteries of the art. The skill of the latter is exerted only on
their own sex.

Upon the map being spread before Augustus, he soon comprehended it, and
recognised Chesterfield Inlet to be "the opening into which salt waters
enter at spring tides, and which receives a river at its upper end." He
termed it _Kannoeuck Kleenoeuck_. He has never been farther north
himself than Marble Island, which he distinguishes as being the spot
where the large ships were wrecked, alluding to the disastrous
termination of Barlow and Knight's Voyage of Discovery[4]. He says,
however, that Esquimaux of three different tribes have traded with his
countrymen, and that the