. Arctic researches, and life among the Esquimaux;. y fur stockings had become damp from per-spiration, therefore my feet were nearly frozen. Every few min-utes I was necessitated to jump and thrash myself—to do any-thing I could to keep my limbs from frostbites. • llow intently I watched each change in Nukertou! One,two, three, four, five, six, seven did I slowly count in the inter-vals of her breathing, and these increasing to even double thatnumber. At last I could count nineteen between her inspirations,but her respirations were short and prolonged—irregular. Atlength Nukertou ceased to li
. Arctic researches, and life among the Esquimaux;. y fur stockings had become damp from per-spiration, therefore my feet were nearly frozen. Every few min-utes I was necessitated to jump and thrash myself—to do any-thing I could to keep my limbs from frostbites. • llow intently I watched each change in Nukertou! One,two, three, four, five, six, seven did I slowly count in the inter-vals of her breathing, and these increasing to even double thatnumber. At last I could count nineteen between her inspirations,but her respirations were short and prolonged—irregular. Atlength Nukertou ceased to live. I exclaimed, Shes dead! Re-ceive back»hcr spirit, I pray thee, 0 God, for she is Thine. I placed the lamp before her face. She breathed not. Andthere I sat on the platform, of snow by her side, her disheveledlocks matted and tangled with reindeer hair, falling in wilddisor- 190 ARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION. der over her tattooed brow. I called to her, ISTukertou! Nuker-tou! but no response came back. The silence o^ the dead THE DYUiU I CK-EK-TOU. I now left for another part of the island, to call her cousinKoodloo. He was asleep in an igloo, and, on awaking him, he ac-companied me back. But I could find no one willing to lend ahelping hand; no one would touch the dead. I therefore determ-ined to lay the corpse out myself. Koodloo would do nothingbut hold the lamp, and I had to perform the whole. I put her ona snow bed, crossed her hands upon her breast, closed her lips,and placed lumps of the pure snows of heaven upon her eyelids,with a snow pillow under her head. This done, I then left forthe ship, having first taken the precaution to seal up the igloo soas to prevent the dogs from eating up her remains. It was three in the morning when Nukertou died, and as Ileft her, so did her body remain, unvisited, uncared-for, withinthat igloo tomb! My journal continues: It might as well be here stated whatoccurred in Nukertous igloo on the arrival of my valuable
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjecteskimos, bookyear1865
