File:Journal of a second voyage for the discovery of a north-west passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific - performed in the years 1821-22-23, in His Majesty's ships Fury and Hecla, under the orders of (14781629135).jpg

Identifier: Journalsecondvo00Parr (find matches)
Title: Journal of a second voyage for the discovery of a north-west passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific : performed in the years 1821-22-23, in His Majesty's ships Fury and Hecla, under the orders of Captain William Edward Parry : illustrated by numerous plates
Year: 1824 (1820s)
Authors: Parry, William Edward, Sir, 1790-1855 Lyon, G. F. (George Francis), 1795-1832, ill Finden, Edward Francis, 1791-1857, engraver Melville, Robert Saunders Dundas, Viscount, 1771-1851, dedicatee
Subjects: Parry, William Edward, Sir, 1790-1855 Fury (Ship) Hecla (Ship) Natural history Eskimos Inuit
Publisher: London : John Murray
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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ringthe process. So decidedly is this a matter of form, unaccompanied byany feeling of sorrow, that those who are not relatives shed just as manytears as those that are ; to which may be added, that in the instances whichwe witnessed there was no real occasion for crying at all. It must thereforebe considered in the light of a ceremony of condolence, which it wouldbe either indecorous or unlucky to omit. I have already in the course of the foregoing Narrative given severalinstances of the little care these people take in the interment of their dead,especially in the winter season ; it is certain however that this arises fromsome superstitious notion, and particularly from the belief that any heavyweight upon the corpse would have an injurious effect upon the deceased ina future state of existence ; for even in the summer, when it would be aneasy matter to secure a body from the depredations of wild animals, themode of burial is not essentially different. The corpse of a child observed
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OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 551 by Lieutenant Palmer, he describes as being laid in a regular but shallowgrave, with its head to the north-east. It was decently dressed in a gooddeer-skin jacket, and a seal-skin prepared without the hair was carefullyplaced as a cover to the whole figure, and tucked in on all sides. The bodywas covered with flat pieces of limestone, which however were so light thata fox might easily have removed them. Near the grave were four littleseparate piles of stones, not more than a foot in height, in one of whichwe noticed a piece of red cloth and a black silk handkerchief, in a second apair of childs boots and mittens, and in each of the others a whalebonepot. The face of the child looked unusually clean and fresh, and a fewdays only could have elapsed since its decease. These Esquimaux do not appear to have any idea of the existence of OneSupreme Being, nor indeed can they be said to entertain any notions on thissubject, which may be dignified with the name of

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