They tried more than once the art of picking
our pockets, and were as bold and unembarrassed as ever
immediately after detection. It is impossible to describe the
horribly disgusting manner in which they sat down, as soon as they
felt hungry, to eat their raw blubber, and to suck the oil
remaining on the skins we had just emptied, the very smell of
which, as well as the appearance, was to us almost insufferable.
The disgust which our seaman could not help expressing at this
sight seemed to create in the Esquimaux the most malicious
amusement; and when our people turned away, literally unable to
bear the sight without being sick, they would, as a good joke
among themselves, run after them, holding out a piece of blubber
or raw seal's flesh dripping with oil and filth, as if inviting
them to partake of it. Both the men and women were guilty of still
more disgusting indecencies, which seemed to afford them amazing
diversion. A worse trait even than all these was displayed by two
women alongside the Hecla, who, in a manner too unequivocal to be
misunderstood, offered to barter their children for some article
of trifling value, beginning very deliberately to strip them of
their clothes, which they did not choose to consider as included
in the intended bargain.
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