ghed heavily on their spirits. In a division of the house
where they lodged, they found three widows dwelling together, and one
of them informed them that her husband, Anauke, who had died the year
before, had said to her, when she was mourning over him in his last
illness, "Be not grieved for me,--I am going to heaven, to Jesus who
has loved his people so much!" He was one of those who had remained
during the summer near Nain, and whose countenance bore strong marks
of the thief and the murderer, and had appeared at first to have more
than usual savage ferocity in his whole deportment; but it was
remarked that, before he left that vicinity, his very countenance had
changed, and his behaviour had become gentle; but the missionaries had
no decisive proof of his conversion to the Saviour, till they heard,
to their joy, this his dying profession of the faith. His countrymen
called him the man whom the Saviour had taken to himself. This man,
there is every reason to believe, was the first fruits of the mission.

Night is an appropriate time to call on the prince of darkness; and it
is observable that among all the heathen, that season has generally
been devoted to his service in deeds that shunned the light. In the
evening, when the missionaries had laid themselves down to sleep in
Mikak's house, they had another confirmation of this remark. There had
been a dreadful storm during the day, so that the natives had been
prevented from going to seal-catching, they therefore assembled in
her house after nightfall, to entreat her, as she was considered a
powerful sorceress, to make good weather, bring the seals from the
deep, and show the holes in the ice to which they came for air; also
where the greatest number of rein-deer were to be found. All the lamps
were immediately extinguished, and she began with deep sighs, and
groans, and mutterings, to call up Torngak. Sometimes she raised her
voice so loud that the whole house rang. At this signal, the people
began to sing, and to ask one another, what does Torngak say? At
length there was a tremendous crash, as if the whole place had been
falling about their ears, produced, as the missionaries supposed, by
the stroke of a stick on the extended skins. The sorceress then
proceeded to the door, beating with her feet, and uttering strange
sounds, at which some of the more sensible among the worshippers could
not forbear to express their sense of the ridiculous scene by their
laughter.