fore,
without waiting for the return of the sledges, set out for the
village at an early hour in the forenoon, accompanied by the
sergeant of marines. At eleven at night our party returned on
board, bringing on a sledge Okotook, Iligliuk, and their son. That
Iligliuk would accompany her husband, I, of course, took for
granted and wished; but as the boy could do us no good, and was,
moreover, a desperate eater, I had desired Mr. Bushnan to try
whether a slight objection to his being of the party would induce
Okotook to leave him with his other relations. This he had
cautiously done; but, the instant the proposal was made, Okotook,
without any remark, began to take off the clothes he had himself
just dressed in to set out. No farther objection being made,
however, he again prepared for the journey, Iligliuk assisting him
with the most attentive solicitude. Before the invalid was
suffered to leave his apartment, some of the by-standers sent for
Ewerat, now better known to our people by the undignified
appellation of the "conjuror." Ewerat, on this occasion,
maintained a degree of gravity and reserve calculated to inspire
somewhat more respect than we had hitherto been disposed to
entertain for him in that capacity. Placing himself at the door of
the apartment opposite Okotook, who was still seated on the bed,
he held both his thumbs in his mouth, keeping up a silent but
solemn converse with his _toorngow_,[*] the object of which was,
as Mr. Bushnan presently afterward found, to inquire into the
efficacy and propriety of the sick man's removal. Presently he
began to utter a variety of confused and inarticulate sounds; and
it being at length understood that a favourable answer had been
given, Okotook was carried out and placed on the sledge, Ewerat
still mumbling his thumbs and muttering his incantations as
before. When the party took their leave, there were a great many
doleful faces among those that remained behind; and Mr. Bushnan
said that the whole scene more resembled the preparations for a
funeral than the mere removal of a sick man. When the sledge moved
on, Ewerat was the only one who had not a "Good-by!" ready, he
being as seriously engaged as at first, and continuing so as long
as our people could observe him.

[Footnote: Familiar spirit.]

Okotook was extremely ill on his arrival, having been three hours
on the sledge, and Iligliuk, who, as Mr. Bushnan told me, had
scarcely taken her eyes off her husband's f