Kalli, the Esquimaux Christian | Page 5

polite, without any seeming effort, as to excite astonishment in those who knew how short a time he had enjoyed the advantages of education. It was clear that great pains had been taken with him on board the "Assistance," where his great study had been to adapt himself to the habits and manners of those among whom his lot was so singularly cast. "In this," says Captain Ommanney, "he succeeded; for people were surprised at his good address, when he reached England."

His Fondness for Prints and Drawings
He was always much pleased with the company of young people, and appeared quite at home with them. Some books and prints were placed in the hands of the youth, and he expressed the greatest delight in seeing views of ships in the ice, and the figure of an Esquimaux watching for a seal. After gazing for a few moments at the latter, he uttered a cry of pleasure, and said, "This one of my people!" It seemed as if, for the time, he had been carried back to his own land, which, however homely, was once his home. Had any proof been wanting of the faithfulness of the representation, his hearty and joyous approval of it would have afforded sufficient evidence of its accuracy.
The reader shall see the engraving of the lonely seal-hunter which so much pleased poor Kalli.

Seal Hunter
[Illustration: Seal Hunter]
In this situation, we are told, a man will sit quietly for ten or twelve hours together, at a temperature of thirty or forty degrees below zero, watching for the opportunity of killing and taking the seal, which is supposed to be at work making its hole beneath in the ice. The Esquimaux, partly sheltered from the "winter's wind," and fast-falling snow, by a snow-wall, has got his spear and lines ready, and he has tied his knees together, to prevent his disturbing the seal by making the slightest noise.

Sights in England
Kalli, whilst in London, on a visit to the author, was taken to the British Museum. With some of the objects there he was much gratified. The antiquities, sculpture, and specimens of art and science, had not such charms in his sight as had the life-like forms of stuffed animals in that great national collection. With the seals, reindeer, and a gigantic walrus, with bright glass eyes, he was especially struck and amused, lingering for some time in the attractive apartment which contained them.
He had now and then much to bear from rudeness and incivility on the part of some thoughtless persons, who derided his personal appearance, though they were not successful in putting him out of temper. The author recollects an instance of this in a street in London. He was walking with Kalli, when two young men, who ought to have known better, stared at the youth in passing, and laughed in his face: then presently turning round, they said, as they pointed at him, "There goes a Chinese!" He merely looked up, smiling, as if at their ignorance, and want of proper feeling.
It has been observed of the people of his nation, that they evince little or no surprise or excitement at such things as occasion admiration in others. When Kalli first came up the river Thames with Captain Ommanney, and travelled from Woolwich by the railway, thence proceeding through the wonderful thoroughfare from London Bridge to the West End of the town, passing St. Paul's Cathedral, and Charing Cross, he merely said, It was all very good.
"I took him with me," said the Captain, "to the Great Exhibition, the Crystal Palace, in Hyde Park. He beheld all the treasures around him with great coolness, and only expressed his wonder at the vast multitude of people."

Great Exhibition of 1851
This is natural enough. Many of our readers may recall the feelings of astonishment with which they viewed that large assemblage. On one of the shilling days, in October, 1851, ninety-two thousand human beings were collected together in the Crystal Palace at one time[5]. The force of contrast could perhaps go no further than in this instance. A young stranger who, in his own country, in a space of hundreds of miles around him, had only three families (probably twelve persons) to count, makes one of a multitude of more than ninety thousand of his fellow-creatures, in a building of glass, covering only eighteen acres of ground!
[Footnote 5: This was the case on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 1851. The total number of visitors on that day alone was 109,915.]
He was taken to see the Horse Guards' Stables. On seeing a trooper mount his charger, (both being fully accoutred,) Kalli was puzzled. He could not account for the perfect order and discipline of the animal, and the mutual fitness of the man and his horse, the one for the other.

St. Augustine's College
In