At eleven at night our party returned on
board, bringing on a sledge Okotook, Iligliuk, and their son. That
Iligliuk would accompany her husband, I, of course, took for
granted and wished; but as the boy could do us no good, and was,
moreover, a desperate eater, I had desired Mr. Bushnan to try
whether a slight objection to his being of the party would induce
Okotook to leave him with his other relations. This he had
cautiously done; but, the instant the proposal was made, Okotook,
without any remark, began to take off the clothes he had himself
just dressed in to set out. No farther objection being made,
however, he again prepared for the journey, Iligliuk assisting him
with the most attentive solicitude. Before the invalid was
suffered to leave his apartment, some of the by-standers sent for
Ewerat, now better known to our people by the undignified
appellation of the "conjuror." Ewerat, on this occasion,
maintained a degree of gravity and reserve calculated to inspire
somewhat more respect than we had hitherto been disposed to
entertain for him in that capacity. Placing himself at the door of
the apartment opposite Okotook, who was still seated on the bed,
he held both his thumbs in his mouth, keeping up a silent but
solemn converse with his _toorngow_,[*] the object of which was,
as Mr.
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