The tribe to which Augustus belongs resides generally a little to the
northward of Churchill. In the spring before the ice quits the shores
they kill seal but during winter they frequent the borders of the large
lakes near the coast where they obtain fish, reindeer, and musk-oxen.
There are eighty-four grown men in the tribe only seven of whom are aged.
Six chiefs have each two wives; the rest of the men have only one; so
that the number of married people may amount to one hundred and seventy.
He could give me no certain data whereby I might estimate the number of
children.
Two great Chiefs or Ackhaiyoot have complete authority in directing the
movements of the party and in distributing provisions. The Attoogawnoeuck
or lesser chiefs are respected principally as senior men. The tribe
seldom suffers from want of food if the chief moves to the different
stations at the proper season. They seem to follow the eastern custom
respecting marriage. As soon as a girl is born the young lad who wishes
to have her for a wife goes to her father's tent and proffers himself. If
accepted a promise is given which is considered binding and the girl is
delivered to her betrothed husband at the proper age.
They consider their progenitors to have come from the moon. Augustus has
no other idea of a Deity than some confused notions which he has obtained
at Churchill.
When any of the tribe are dangerously ill a conjurer is sent for and the
bearer of the message carries a suitable present to induce his
attendance. Upon his arrival he encloses himself in the tent with the
sick man and sings over him for days together without tasting food; but
Augustus as well as the rest of the uninitiated are ignorant of the
purport of his songs and of the nature of the Being to whom they are
addressed. The conjurors practise a good deal of jugglery in swallowing
knives, firing bullets through their bodies, etc., but they are at these
times generally secluded from view and the bystanders believe their
assertions without requiring to be eye-witnesses of the fact. Sixteen men
and three women amongst Augustus' tribe are acquainted with the mysteries
of the art. The skill of the latter is exerted only on their own sex.
Upon the map being spread before Augustus he soon comprehended it and
recognised Chesterfield Inlet to be the opening into which salt-waters
enter at spring tides and which receives a river at its upper end.
