Note 84 — CHAP. X.

Captain King has communicated the following account of his interview with the same family. “On the 12th, while I attended the wooding party, a canoe full of natives approached us; and, beckoning them to land, an elderly man and woman came on shore. I gave this woman a small knife, making her understand that I would give her a much larger one for some fish. She made signs to me to follow her. I had proceeded with them about a mile, when the man, in crossing a stony beach, fell down, and cut his foot very much. This made me stop; upon which the woman pointed to the man’s eyes, which I observed were covered with a thick, white film. He afterward kept close to his wife, who apprized him of the obstacles in his way. The woman had a little child on her back, covered with the hood of her jacket; and which I took for a bundle, till I heard it cry. At about two miles’ distance we came to their open skin-boat, which was turned on its side, the convex part toward the wind, and served for their house. I was now made to perform a singular operation on the man’s eyes. First, I was directed to hold my breath; afterward, to breathe on the diseased eyes; and next, to spit on them. The woman then took both my hands, and pressing them to his stomach, held them there for some time, while she related some calamitous history of her family, pointing sometimes to her husband, sometimes to a frightful cripple belonging to the family, and sometimes to her child. I purchased all the fish they had, consisting of a very fine salmon, salmon-trout, and mullet; which were delivered most faithfully to the man I sent for them. The man was about five feet two inches high, and well made; his colour of a light copper; his hair black and short, and with little beard. He had two holes in his under lip, but no ornaments in them. The woman was short and squat, with a plump round face; wore a deer-skin jacket, with a large hood; and had on wide boots. The teeth of both were black, and seemed as if they had been filed down level with the gums. The woman was punctured from the lip to the chin.”