23 JULY 1853, Page 26

HOOPER'S TEN MONTHS AMONG THE TENTS OF

THE TIISKLa THE expedition in which lieutenant Hooper embarked was con- nected with the voyage of the Herald in search of Sir John Frank- lin from the direction of Behring's Straits. Mr. Hooper's narra- tive, however, has little to do with the main voyage. By the 18th October 1848, the Plover, in which he served, was blocked up in a bay on the Asiatic coast, in about 64f, degrees of North lati- tude and 173 West longitude. The region is marked on some modern maps as the land of the Chuktehi ; and here they remained till the following Tune passing the eight months of absolute detention not unpleasantly (for sailors) in visiting and observing the natives, and making a few land journies, the most important of which was to East Cape. On joining the Herald in Kotzebue Sound, Mr. Hooper was despatched in a boat expedition to search the shores of North America, and if practicable to explore the unknown land lying to the North of the continent. The ice baffled the greater part of these objects. In the first season the expedition got no further than the mouths of the Mackenzie river, which it ascended, wintering in the Hudson Bay territory. In the next season, all their efforts could not carry them beyond Cape Bathurst, where the we compelled their return. After a second winter in the Hud- son Bay forts, the voyager returned through Canada to England.

his travels. He is a linguist, an amateur in music, and has a turn. for art : he had consequently objects of inquiry about the

Mr. Hooper is well fitted to travel with advantage and ij:tellgoef among whom he was thrown. He appears to be a man of • y nature, ready to see the good there is in man or woman, and to

• Ten Months among the Tents of the Tuski; with incidents of an Arctic Boat Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin, as far as the Mackenzie River and Cape Bathurst. By Lieutenant W. H. Hooper, R.N. With a Map and Illustrations. Published by Murray.

make allowance for the bad. These circumstances have perhaps undesignedly given a peculiar character to his narrative of Arctic experiences. The remarkable appearances of scenery in a Northern winter, and equally so in a Northern summer, will be found noticed in his pages. There is no lack either of peril, privation, and hardship. The main subject, however, is uncivilized life and character among the "Tents of the Tuski," the Esquimaux who inhabit the American shores of the Arctic Ocean, and the Indians of the Hudson's Bay territory. Of these the account of the Tuski is the fullest and the freshest.

These people, inhabiting the extreme East and North of Asia, have some resemblance to the Esquimaux and Greenlanders, but are in a higher scale of civilization. There is evidently gradation of rank ; some men possess comparative wealth, yet the poorest seem better off than the Indians, where there is more equality of

hunger ; and the tents—for they live in tents—are among the richer persons divided into apartments. Barter is well established ; their clothes, tents' arms, implements, display signs of consider- able ingenuity ; a sledge approaching somewhat to the car is in use, drawn generally by dogs, and with the richer by rein-deer. Some division of labour obtains among the most barbarous people ; the Tuski have carried it almost to distinct vocations.

"These people embroider very prettily, and to a great extent, with the hair of the rein-deer and pieces of leather cut out in the required form and sewn on ; they also join many particoloered pieces of skin together, which have frequently a very pretty effect. Ii i4 curious to notice how with them, as in more civilized communities, certain persons were famed for their skill in particular branches of manufacture. Some women were remarkable for dressing skins in a superior manner ; others were noted for employing better dyes than usual. At Rrootair dwelt a cunning artist, a very Tuski Cellini, whose skill in sculpturing ivory was the theme of praise throughout the country. One man made whip-handles well, another produced the best thongs, and so in all things we saw ; as I believe must inevitably be : chaqu un a son metier. These enjoy a monopoly in their peculiar pursuits ; and although, I believe, they do not exact more than an equitable consider- ation for their productions among themselves, put the screw on pretty tightly with strangers, whom a fortunate chance had thrown upon their shores ; and as of course, curiosities and specimens of the progress of the arts and sciences were in great request, a fine harvest was reaped by the more in- genious. In addition to the articles of clothing, before spoken of as brought for barter, many really interesting nicknacks were produced. Models of sledges, and of household furniture, pipes and toys of ivory, among which were ducks, seals, dogs, &c., made for their children, and evidencing great taste and variety, fishing-lines of whalebone, with hooks and sinkers of ivory, seal-akin bags, large and small, coils of rope of walrus or seal hide, cut without a join for full fifty fathoms, and of all thicknesses; dogs, sledges, and harness; and, in fact, any and every thing they could think of within their resources ; even the tiniest children endeavouring to bring something into the market : indeed. their contributions were not the least interesting or sought for."

Toys are perhaps no great proof of advance towards civiliza- tion; still they argue leisure, and a certain amount of taste. "It is very curious to observe how in all lands the amusements of the children follow in miniature the occupations of their elders. Few countries are there where dolls are not a great resource : the Tuski children have theirs; make and clothe them with the minutest attention to details; every article of dress is provided, and everything puts on and off in the proper manner ; the boys have miniature sledges, boats, and bows and arrows; the girls their dolls, and also embroidery, which they early begin to practise as a pastime, and soon become expert in."

The germ of the drama is found amongst the Tuski, as among all peoples and tribes. It seems to proceed no further than one actor with a musical accompaniment, and to stop short of a story. Simple and obvious as dialogue and connected events appear, it takes a long time to reach them.

"Desiring to communicate with our guides, I sought them in the hut, to which they had overnight repaired: they had already gone forth ; and I was directed to a very large yarang, whither they had gone. On entering I found my friends, and had also the good fortune to witness a national per- formance of a purely theatrical nature, which was curious as unexpected. In this large tent, apparently erected for and devoted to public purposes, (possibly as a council-room as well as theatre, for in place of the usual inner apartments only a species of bench of raised earth ran around it,) were seated numerous spectators. Yaneenga made room for me beside her ; and I had a plain view of the solitary actor, who sustained his part with extra- ordinary skill, activity, and endurance. This performance was a repre- sentation of the practices of the Pa-erks, (i. e. Esquimaux on the opposite shore of the straits.) I had before seen this slightly attempted, but the pre- sent was evidently a state occasion, and all details were carefully presented. He imitated with extravagant action—paddling, eating, and drinking, look- ing for an enemy, fighting, and hunting the whale, in which the efforts of the men and the struggles of the animals were grotesquely depicted, and he gesticulated throughout with furious energy. Two musicians seated upon the earth beat incessantly upon their drums ; their performances seeming to be an indispensably necessary addition to the sport. The spectators ap- plauded vociferously, in a manner scarcely less interesting than the scene they praised, any incident more striking than the rest eliciting interjections of ' Bah, kah, kah !" da cape diminuendo,' and a low running gurgle of approval with a continuous though subdued current of conversation, occa- sionally breaking out with the elders in short notes, to their fellows or the actor, of satisfaction at his efforts. By the very general interest displayed I have little doubt that he was the Garrick of his tribe ; indeed, I never saw any other among them so expert as himself by many shades : the poor fellow deserved applause if only for the labour of his performance. It may briefly be noticed, that he was clad to resemble those he mimicked, having among other peculiarities only one mitten on, (a familiar trait of Esquimaux,) and threw into his action, tones, and expression, a character so entirely foreign to his own, that one would un warned fail to recognize him as of the Tuski. I was much impressed with the view of this spectacle. Here, on the extreme of a sterile and desolate waste, on whose edge only a few uncivilized persons are scattered, the imitative faculty of man had burst forth without example, his untaught and unaided ingenuity developing itself in a thousand in- stances."

In these high latitudes subsistence is uncertain, as cultivation is impossible, and wild animals vary with the seasons. The herd of rein-deer is a great advance over dogs, but they are too valuable to be destroyed to feed the poor. The sea-side seems a more favourable locality than an inland region. Neither the Tuski nor

the Esquimau' ever appear to suffer the famines that afflict the Indians of the Hudson Bay, Territory, and even the smaller sta- tions, giving rise to horrible cannibalism, of which Mr. Hooper furnishes as horrible instances. The Tuski have a practice which, however philosophical it may look, doubtless originated in ne- cessity.

"A custom exists with this people which must shock the least delicate sensibilities of civilization, so utterly repugnant is it to all laws human or divine. Tidings were one morning brought to the ship that one of the elder women of Woorel had died on the previous night. Inquiring into the cir- cumstances of her decease, we were informed, with the most perfect indiffer- ence of manner, that she had been wah-let-tah ' (stabbed) by her eon. We could not at first conceive this horrible statement to be true ; but un- mistakeable signs put it beyond a doubt ; nor did our remarks on the fright- ful nature of the act elicit the slightest token of reciprocal feeling. Why should not the old woman die ? aged and feeble, weary of life, and a burden to herself and others, she no longer desired to cumber the earth, and claimed of him who owned nearest relationship the friendly stroke which should let out her scanty remnant of existence. Her desire was obeyed with an apathy only to be-accounted for by the enshrouding veil of custom, and her life was ended by him to whom she had given it, and whose first throbbings she had cherished. What more ghastly, more unnatural than this ! To take life in any way is fearful ; infanticide revolts the senses ; but for a man to proceed with the utmost deliberation to cut the fast diminishing thread of existence of his mother, of her who gave him birth and nursed his feeble ray of exist- ence into strength, is a deed of which the idea curdles the warm blood in one's veins, and creates dark feelings of horror and dismay."

The following picture of a bear-hunt with Esquimau' is from the boat expedition, and in fact from its extreme point of explora- tion, the neighbourhood of Cape Bathurst.

"The united forces of Esquimaux and Whites turned out in pursuit of the hirsute quadruped.

"The brute was discovered on a huge mass of ice, which, with others, had grounded at some distance from the beach : one party started in the Logan, to cut off his retreat by sea ; another, which I joined made for the summit of the bank, which we hoped he would endeavour to ascend. First blood was drawn by our party : a ball from my fowling-piece struck him in the shoulder, and he fell for an instant on the ice and began to suck his paw, which made us think it was there he had been wounded ; speedily rising, he ran on along the hummock, taking to the water and climbing the side, of the masses of ice with the utmost indifference and ease. Our hunt- ers (Indians are always excellent marksmen) now paid him some attention ; they hit him several times, but did not succeed in turning him : he at- tempted at last to swim to seaward, and would doubtless have succeeded, but for a new opponent. One of the Esquimaux, launching his kiak, fol- lowed the bear, and at close proximity discharged arrow after arrow into his body. This was the most exciting part of the hunt. Each time that an arrow pierced its body the poor animal seized the missile, if within reach, in its teeth, and strove to wrench it from the wound, generally, however, break- ing it short ; then would it turn fiercely on its persecutor, who, skilfully manceuvenng his light boat, hung at two or three yards' distance only on his rear; so close were they, indeed, that the man deliberately splashed water with his double-bladed paddle into poor Bruin's face, just backing gently to be clear of his paws, a single stroke from which would quite have reversed the fortune of the combat ; when, after a hunt which lasted about four hours, the animal received its' final death-stroke by a ball through the brain, from the Logan : he was stuck all over with arrows, and looked like a barbecued pig. By the laws of savage venery, first blood always decides the captor ; and the Esquimaux readily recognized the rule in the present instance, indicating that the prize belonged to the Kabloonan. Of course the carcass was divided ; but I stipulated for and obtained the skin, which I still possess as a trophy. An hour afterwards I ate a bear-steak. The Es- quimaux who had so importantly contributed to the capture was rewarded with a large broad dagger (a very awkward weapon in his hands) and some other trifling presents, and was delighted with his good fortune."