"On the morning of the 29th I was really glad to find that the ships
were not yet in sight, as I should be enabled to pass another day
among the hospitable natives. While making my rounds I met several
others, who were also visiting, and who each invited me to call at
his tent in its turn. Wherever I entered, the master rose and
resigned his seat next his wife or wives, and stood before me or
squatted on a stone near the door. I was then told to 'speak!' or,
in fact, to give a history of all I knew of the distant tribe,
which, from constant repetition, I could now manage pretty well. In
one tent I found a man mending his paddle, which was ingeniously
made of various little scraps of wood, ivory, and bone, lashed
together. He put it into my hands to repair, taking it for granted
that a Kabloona would succeed much better than himself. An hour
afterward the poor fellow came and took me by the hand to his tent,
where I found a large pot of walrus-flesh evidently cooked for me.
His wife licked a piece and offered it, but, on his saying something
to her, took out another, and, having pared off the outside, gave
me the clean part, which, had it been carrion, I would not have hurt
these poor creatures by refusing.
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