chasm of
animosity existing between the Eskimo and their next-door neighbours,
the Loucheux Indians to the South. Wilfrid, in taking to himself a
Loucheux woman to wife, has done what the Seventh Henry of England did
when he married Elizabeth of York. Wilfrid's son and heir holds the same
place in Northern history as did Henry VIII, who united in himself the
claims of the rival Roses of York and Lancaster.

[Illustration: A Kogmollye Family]

Mrs. Ila-la-Rocko asked us into her hut, where we reclined on fur mats
while the whole family, wreathed in smiles, tumbled over themselves to
do us honour. One by one they danced for us, stopping to tell their
names and to ask ours. "Major Jabussy," "Missa Blown," they got the
names all right but applied them promiscuously, and then went into
roars of laughter at their blunder. The merriment was infectious. Let no
one waste further sympathy over the poor benighted Eskimo of this
Canadian North. The Mackenzie River Eskimo is, with perhaps the one
exception of an Arab I fraternized with in Chicago at the World's Fair,
the most splendid specimen of physical manhood I have ever seen; in
physique he stood out in splendid contrast to the Europeans and
Americans who were investigating him and his. Arrow-straight and six
feet tall, mark him as he swings along the strand. His is the carriage
and bearing of the high-bred Tartar. This man has "arrived"; he has an
air of assuredness that in the drawing-rooms "Outside" you seldom see.

The Eskimo of the Arctic foreshore are of two tribes: the Kogmollycs to
the east of the Mackenzie mouth, the Nunatalmutes, Dwellers in the
Hills, or Deermen, originally from the interior to the West, but now for
the great part making their home at Herschel Island, eighty miles from
the Mackenzie delta, attracted there by the opportunity of working for
the American whalers.

One of the striking figures of the North is Oo-vai-oo-ak, headman of the
Kogmollycs, living in dignified happiness with his children and his two
wives. This second wife was the cause of much comment among us. How did
she happen? It was this way. Mr. Oo-vai-oo-ak married Mrs. Oo-vai-oo-ak
the Elder when they were both young. Children were born to them, the big
seal was plenty, succulent beluga-steaks graced the board, and the years
followed one another as smoothly as glacial drift or the strip of
walrus-blubber that the last baby drops down its red gullet as a plummet
sinks in a well.

O