Social and Religious Life

Domestic Occupations and Amusements.

It is winter and the natives are established in their warm snow houses. At this time of the year it is necessary to make use of the short daylight and twilight for hunting. Long before the day begins to dawn the Eskimo prepares for hunting. He rouses his housemates; his wife supplies the lamp with a new wick and fresh blubber and the dim light which has been kept burning during the night quickly brightens up and warms the hut. While the woman is busy preparing breakfast the man fits up his sledge for hunting. He takes the snow block which closes the entrance of the dwelling room during the night out of the doorway and passes through the low passages. Within the passage the dogs are sleeping, tired by the fatigues of the day before. Though their long, heavy hair protects them from the severe cold of the Arctic winter, they like to seek shelter from the piercing winds in the entrance of the hut.

The sledge is iced, the harnesses are taken out of the storeroom by the door, and the dogs are harnessed to the sledge. Breakfast is now ready and after having taken a hearty meal of seal soup and frozen and cooked seal meat the hunter lashes the spear that stands outside of the hut upon the sledge, hangs the harpoon line, some toggles, and his knife over the antlers, and starts for the hunting ground. Here he waits patiently for the blowing seal, sometimes until late in the evening.

Meanwhile the women, who stay at home, are engaged in their domestic occupations, mending boots and making new clothing, or they visit one another, taking some work with them, or pass their time with games or in playing with the children. While sitting at their sewing and at the same time watching their lamps and cooking the meat, they incessantly hum their favorite tunes. About noon they cook their dinner and usually prepare at the same time the meal for the returning hunters. As soon as the first sledge is heard approaching, the pots, which have been pushed back during the afternoon, are placed over the fire, and when the hungry men enter the hut their dinner is ready. While hunting they usually open the seals caught early in the morning, to take out a piece of the flesh or liver, which they eat raw, for lunch. The cut is then temporarily fastened until the final dressing of the animal at home.

In the western regions particularly the hunters frequently visit the depots of venison made in the fall, and the return is always followed by a great feast.

After the hunters reach home they first unharness their dogs and unstring the traces, which are carefully arranged, coiled up, and put away in the storeroom. Then the sledge is unloaded and the spoils are dragged through the entrance into the hut. A religious custom commands the women to leave off working, and not until the seal is cut up are they allowed to resume their sewing and the preparing of skins. This custom is founded on the tradition that all kinds of sea animals have risen from the fingers of their supreme goddess, who must be propitiated after being offended by the murder of her offspring (see p. 583). The spear is stuck into the snow at the entrance of the house, the sledge is turned upside down, and the ice coating is removed from the runners. Then it is leaned against the wall of the house, and at last the hunter is ready to enter. He strips off his deerskin jacket and slips into his sealskin coat. The former is carefully cleaned of the adhering ice and snow with the snowbeater and put into the storeroom outside the house.

This done, the men are ready for their dinner, of which the women do not partake. In winter the staple food of the Eskimo is boiled seal and walrus meat, though in some parts of the western districts it is musk ox and venison, a rich and nourishing soup being obtained by cooking the meat. The natives are particularly fond of seal and walrus soup, which is made by mixing and boiling water, blood, and blubber with large pieces of meat.

The food is not always salted, but sometimes melted sea water ice, which contains a sufficient quantity of salt, is used for cooking. Liver is generally eaten raw and is considered a tidbit. I have seen the intestines eaten only when there was no meat.

Forks (Fig. 517) are used to take the meat out of the kettle and the soup is generally poured out into a large cup. Before the introduction of European manufactures these vessels and dishes generally consisted of whalebone. One of these has been described by Parry (I, p. 286). It was circular in form, one piece of whalebone being bent into the proper shape for the sides and another flat piece of the same material sewed to it for a bottom, so closely as to make it perfectly watertight. A ladle or spoon (Fig. 518) is sometimes used in drinking it, but usually the cup is passed around, each taking a sip in turn. In the same way large pieces of meat are passed round, each taking as large a mouthful as possible and then cutting off the bit close to the lips. They all smack their lips in eating. The Eskimo drink a great deal of water, which is generally kept in vessels standing near the lamps. When the men have finished their meal the women take their share, and then all attack the frozen meat which is kept in the storerooms. The women are allowed to participate in this part of the meal. An enormous quantity of meat is devoured every night, and sometimes they only suspend eating when they go to bed, keeping a piece of meat within reach in case they awake.

After dinner the seals, which have been placed behind the lamps to thaw, are thrown upon the floor, cut up, and the spare meat and skins are taken into the storerooms. If a scarcity of food prevails in the village and a hunter has caught a few seals, every inhabitant of the settlement receives a piece of meat and blubber, which he takes to his hut, and the successful hunter invites all hands to a feast.

The dogs are fed every second day after dinner. For this purpose two men go to a place at a short distance from the hut, taking the frozen food with them, which they split with a hatchet or the point of the spear. While one is breaking the solid mass the other keeps the dogs off by means of the whip, but as soon as the food is ready they make a rush at it, and in less than half a minute have swallowed their meal. No dog of a strange team is allowed to steal anything, but is kept at a distance by the dogs themselves and by the whip. If the dogs are very hungry they are harnessed to the sledge in order to prevent an attack before the men are ready. They are unharnessed after the food is prepared, the weakest first, in order to give him the best chance of picking out some good pieces. Sometimes they are fed in the house; in such a case, the food being first prepared, they are led into the hut singly; thus each receives his share.

All the work being finished, boots and stockings are changed, as they must be dried and mended. The men visit one another and spend the night in talking, singing, gambling, and telling stories. The events of the day are talked over, success in hunting is compared, the hunting tools requiring mending are set in order, and the lines are dried and softened. Some busy themselves in cutting new ivory implements and seal lines or in carving. They never spend the nights quite alone, but meet for social entertainment. During these visits the host places a large lump of frozen meat and a knife on the side bench behind the lamp and every one is welcome to help himself to as much as he likes.

The first comers sit down on the ledge, while those entering later stand or squat in the passage. When any one addresses the whole assembly he always turns his face to the wall and avoids facing the listeners. Most of the men take off their outer jacket in the house and they sit chatting until very late. Even the young children do not go to bed early.

The women sit on the bed in front of their lamps, with their legs under them, working continually on their own clothing or on that of the men, drying the wet footgear and mittens, and softening the leather by chewing and rubbing. If a bitch has a litter of pups it is their business to look after them, to keep them warm, and to feed them regularly. Generally the pups are put into a small harness and are allowed to crawl about the side of the bed, where they are tied to the wall by a trace. Young children are always carried in their mothers’ hoods, but when about a year and a half old they are allowed to play on the bed, and are only carried by their mothers when they get too mischievous. When the mother is engaged in any hard work they are carried by the young girls. They are weaned when about two years old, but women suckle them occasionally until they are three or four years of age. During this time they are frequently fed from their mothers’ mouths. When about twelve years old they begin to help their parents, the girls sewing and preparing skins, the boys accompanying their fathers in hunting expeditions. The parents are very fond of their children and treat them kindly. They are never beaten and rarely scolded, and in turn they are very dutiful, obeying the wishes of their parents and taking care of them in their old age.

In winter gambling is one of the favorite amusements of the Eskimo. Figs. 519–521 represent the ajegaung, used in a game somewhat similar to our cup and ball. The most primitive device is Fig. 519, a hare’s skull with a number of holes drilled through it. A specimen was kindly lent to me by Lucien M. Turner, who brought it from Ungava Bay; but in Baffin Land exactly the same device is in use. Fig. 520 represents the head of a fox, in ivory; Fig. 521, a polar bear. The specimen shown in Fig. 521 b was brought from Cumberland Sound by Kumlien. The neck of the bear is more elaborate than the one shown in a. The attachment of the part representing the hind legs is of some interest. The game is played as follows: First, the skull or the piece of ivory must be thrown up and caught ten times upon the stick in any one of the holes. Then, beginning with the hole in front (the mouth), those of the middle line must be caught. The three holes on the neck of the bear are double, one crossing vertically, the other slanting backward, but both ending in one hole on the neck. After the mouth has been caught upon the stick the vertical hole in the neck is the next, then the oblique one, and so on down the middle line of the animal’s body. If, in the first part of the game, the player misses twice he must give up the pieces to his neighbor, who then takes his turn. In the second part he is allowed to play on as long as he catches in any hole, even if it be not the right one, but as soon as he misses he must give it up. After having caught one hole he proceeds to the next, and the player who first finishes all the holes has won the game.

A game similar to dice, called tingmiujang, i.e., images of birds, is frequently played. A set of about fifteen figures like those represented in Fig. 522 belong to this game, some representing birds, others men or women. The players sit around a board or a piece of leather and the figures are shaken in the hand and thrown upward. On falling, some stand upright, others lie flat on the back or on the side. Those standing upright belong to that player whom they face; sometimes they are so thrown that they all belong to the one who tossed them up. The players throw by turns until the last figure is taken up, the one getting the greatest number of the figures being the winner.

A favorite game is the nuglutang (Fig. 523). A small, rhomboidal plate of ivory with a hole in the center is hung from the roof and steadied by a heavy stone or a piece of ivory hanging from its lower end. The Eskimo stand around it and when the winner of the last game gives a signal every one tries to hit the hole with a stick. The one who succeeds has won. This game is always played amid great excitement.

The sāketān resembles a roulette. A leather cup with a rounded bottom and a nozzle is placed on a board and turned round. When it stops the nozzle points to the winner. At present a tin cup fastened with a nail to a board is used for the same purpose (Fig. 524).

Their way of managing the gain and loss is very curious. The first winner in the game must go to his hut and fetch anything he likes as a stake for the next winner, who in turn receives it, but has to bring a new stake, in place of this, from his hut. Thus the only one who loses anything is the first winner of the game, while the only one who wins anything is the last winner.

The women are particularly fond of making figures out of a loop, a game similar to our cat’s cradle (ajarorpoq). They are, however, much more clever than we in handling the thong and have a great variety of forms, some of which are represented in Fig. 525.

As an example I shall describe the method of making the device representing a deer (Fig. 525 a): Wind the loop over both hands, passing it over the back of the thumbs inside the palms and outside the fourth fingers. Take the string from the palm of the right hand with the first finger of the left and vice versa. The first finger of the right hand moves over all the parts of the thong lying on the first and fourth fingers of the right hand and passes through the loop formed by the thongs on the thumb of the right hand; then it moves back over the foremost thong and takes it up, while the thumb lets go the loop. The first finger moves downward before the thongs lying on the fourth finger and comes up in front of all the thongs. The thumb is placed into the loops hanging on the first finger and the loop hanging on the first finger of the left hand is drawn through both and hung again over the same finger. The thumb and first finger of the right and the thumb of the left hand let go their loops. The whole is then drawn tight. A few other devices from Hudson Bay are represented by Klutschak (p. 139).

The ball (Fig. 526) is most frequently used in summer. It is made of sealskin stuffed with moss and neatly trimmed with skin straps. One man throws the ball among the players, whose object it is to keep it always in motion without allowing it to touch the ground. Another game of ball I have seen played by men only. A leather ball filled with hard clay is propelled with a whip, the lash of which is tied up in a coil. Every man has his whip and is to hit the ball and so prevent his fellow players from getting at it.

A third game at ball called igdlukitaqtung is played with small balls tossed up alternately from the right to the left, one always being in the air. Songs used in the game will be found in the last pages of this paper.

An amusement of women and children is to point successively on the forehead, the cheek, and the chin and to pronounce as rapidly as possible sulubautiχu´tika, tudliχu´tika, tadliχu´tika, tudliχú´tika, i.e., the forehead, the cheek, the chin, the cheek.

Young children play with toy sledges, kayaks, boats, bows and arrows, and dolls. The last are made in the same way by all the tribes, a wooden body being clothed with scraps of deerskin cut in the same way as the clothing of men. Fig. 527 shows dolls in the dress of the Oqomiut; Fig. 528, in that of the Akudnirmiut.

In summer children and grown up people exercise by sitting down on their knees in a large circle and simultaneously jumping up and down, by kneeling and holding their toes in their hands and trying to outdo one another in running in this position, &c.

A favorite amusement during the long winter nights is telling tales and composing songs. Old traditions are always related in a highly ceremonious manner. The narrator takes off his outer jacket, pulls the hood over his head, and sits down in the rear part of the hut, turning his face toward the wall, and then tells the story slowly and solemnly. All the stories are related in a very abridged form, the substance being supposed to be known. The form is always the same, and should the narrator happen to say one word otherwise than is customary he will be corrected by the listeners.

Children tell one another fables and sing short songs. Comic songs making fun of any person are great favorites. Details on the poetry and music of the Eskimo will be found further on.

Parry’s description of the games and sports practiced by the Iglulirmiut is so interesting that I insert it here (II, p. 538):

On an occasion when most of the men were absent from the huts on a sealing excursion, the women joined in playing, one of them being the chief performer. Being requested to amuse the rest, she suddenly unbound her hair, platted it, tied both ends together to keep it out of her way, and then stepping out into the middle of the hut, began to make the most hideous faces that can be conceived, by drawing both lips into her mouth, poking forward her chin, squinting frightfully, occasionally shutting one eye, and moving her head from side to side as if her neck had been dislocated. This exhibition, which they call ajokitarpoq, and which is evidently considered an accomplishment that few of them possess in perfection, distorts every feature in the most horrible manner imaginable, and would, I think, put our most skillful horse-collar grinners quite out of countenance.

This performance is identical with one described later (p. 578) as practiced during the meals in summer.

The next performance consists in looking steadfastly and gravely forward and repeating the words tăbā’-tăbā’; kjaibo, kjaibo; kebang inutovik, kebang inutovik; amatama, amatama, in the order in which they are here placed, but each at least four times, and always by a peculiar modulation of the voice speaking them in pairs as they are coupled above. The sound is made to proceed from the throat in a way much resembling ventriloquism, to which art it is indeed an approach. After the last amatama she always pointed with her finger toward her body, and pronounced the word angakoq, steadily retaining her gravity for five or six seconds, and then bursting into a loud laugh, in which she was joined by all the rest. The women sometimes produce a much more guttural and unnatural sound, repeating principally the word ikeri-ikeri, coupling them as before, and staring in such a manner as to make their eyes appear ready to burst out of their sockets with the exertion. Two or more of them will sometimes stand up face to face, and with great quickness and regularity respond to each other, keeping such exact time that the sound appears to come from one throat instead of several. Very few of the females are possessed of this accomplishment, which is called pitkusiraqpoq, and it is not uncommon to see several of the younger females practising it. A third part of the game, distinguished by the word kaitikpoq, consists only in falling on each knee alternately, a piece of agility which they perform with tolerable quickness, considering the bulky and awkward nature of their dress. ***Then the same woman came forward, and letting her arms hang down loosely and bending her body very much forward, shook herself with extreme violence, as if her whole frame had been strongly convulsed, uttering at the same time, in a wild tone of voice, some of the unnatural sounds before mentioned.

This being at an end, a new exhibition was commenced in which ten or twelve women took a part, and which our gentlemen compared to blind man’s buff. A circle being formed, and a boy dispatched to look out at the door of the hut, a woman placed herself in the center, and, after making a variety of guttural noises for about half a minute, shut her eyes, and ran about till she had taken hold of one of the others, whose business it then became to take her station in the center, so that almost every woman in her turn occupied this post, and in her own peculiar way, either by distortion of countenance or other gestures, performed her part in the game. This continued three-quarters of an hour, and, from the precaution of placing a lookout who was withdrawn when it was over, as well as from some very expressive signs which need not here be mentioned, there is reason to believe that it is usually followed by certain indecencies, with which their husbands are not to be acquainted. ***

The most common amusement however, and to which their husbands made no objection, they performed at Winter Island expressly for our gratification. The females, being collected to the number of ten or twelve, stood in as large a circle as the hut would admit, with a man in the center. He began by a sort of half howling, half singing noise, which appeared as if designed to call the attention of the women, the latter soon commencing the Amna Aya song. This they continued without variety, remaining quite still while the man walked round within the circle; his body was rather bent forward, his eyes sometimes closed, his arms constantly moving up and down, and now and then hoarsely vociferating a word or two as if to increase the animation of the singers, who, whenever he did this, quitted the chorus and rose into the words of the song. At the end of ten minutes they all left off at once, and after one minute’s interval commenced a second act precisely similar and of equal duration, the man continuing to invoke their muse as before. A third act which followed this, varied frequently towards the close only in his throwing his feet up before and clapping his hands together, by which exertion he was thrown into a violent perspiration. He then retired, desiring a young man (who as we were informed was the only individual of several then present thus qualified) to take his place in the center as master of the ceremonies, when the same antics as before were again gone through. After this description it will scarcely be necessary to remark that nothing can be poorer in its way than this tedious singing recreation, which, as well as in everything in which dancing is concerned, they express by the word mumipoq. They seem, however, to take great delight in it; and even a number of the men as well as all the children crept into the hut by degrees to peep at the performance.

The Eskimo women and children often amuse themselves with a game not unlike our “skip-rope.” This is performed by two women holding the ends of a line and whirling it regularly round and round, while a third jumps over it in the middle according to the following order. She commences by jumping twice on both feet, then alternately with the right and left, and next four times with the feet slipped one behind the other, the rope passing once round at each jump. After this she performs a circle on the ground, jumping about half a dozen times in the course of it, which bringing her to her original position, the same thing is repeated as often as it can be done without entangling the line. One or two of the women performed this with considerable agility and adroitness, considering the clumsiness of their boots and jackets, and seemed to pride themselves in some degree on the qualification. A second kind of this game consists in two women holding a long rope by its ends and whirling it round in such a manner over the heads of two others standing close together near the middle of the bight, that each of these shall jump over it alternately. The art therefore, which is indeed considerable, depends more on those whirling the rope than on the jumpers, who are, however, obliged to keep exact time in order to be ready for the rope passing under their feet.

Of all these games I observed only the one called pitkusiraqpoq by Parry, which I saw played several times at Cumberland Sound. (See Appendix, Note 3.)

While in times of plenty the home life is quite cheerful, the house presents a sad and gloomy appearance if stormy weather prevents the men from hunting. The stores are quickly consumed, one lamp after another is extinguished, and everybody sits motionless in the dark hut. Nevertheless the women and men do not stop humming their monotonous amna aya and their stoicism in enduring the pangs of hunger is really wonderful. At last, when starvation is menacing the sufferers, the most daring of the men resolves to try his luck. Though the storm may rage over the icy plain he sets out to go sealing. For hours he braves the cold and stands waiting and watching at the breathing hole until he hears the blowing of the seal and succeeds in killing it.

When those who have remained at home hear the sound of the returning sledge, they rush out of the houses to meet it. Quickly they help the bold hunter to get on shore. The sledge is unloaded, the seal dragged into the house, and every one joyfully awaits his share. The animal is cut up, every household receiving a piece of meat and blubber. The gloomy huts are again lighted up and the pots, which had been out of use for some days, are again hung up over the lamps.

If the hunter, however, has tried in vain to procure food, if the storm does not subside, the terrors of famine visit the settlement. The dogs are the first to fall victims to the pressing hunger, and if the worst comes cannibalism is resorted to. But all these occurrences are spoken of with the utmost horror. In such cases children particularly are killed and eaten. Fortunately, however, such occurrences are very rare.

Visiting.

As soon as the ice has consolidated in winter a lively intercourse springs up between the settlements. Friends visit one another, trading excursions are undertaken, and almost every few days visitors arrive at the village. They are welcomed with great hospitality. The sledge is unloaded and the dogs are fed by the host. The visitor is led into the hut, served with the choicest pieces of meat, and the hostess puts his clothing in order. In the winter these visits are generally short, rarely lasting more than a few days.

Longer journeys are postponed until spring, when food can be procured more easily. These journeys are planned a long time before they are made. While the families generally leave what they can spare of their household goods in winter at their summer settlement, they bring away everything they possess to the winter village if they intend to visit a neighboring tribe in the spring. In April or May they leave their snow houses; the tent poles and the whole of their goods are loaded upon the sledge, only the boats being left behind in charge of some friend, and then they start upon their long, lonely journey. On the first day they do not travel far, but make the first halt after about a twelve-mile journey. As the load is heavy the men and women sit on the top of the sledges only to rest. The driver walks alongside and the women lead the way, the dogs pulling more willingly if they see somebody ahead of the sledge. At night it is not unloaded, only those things being taken out which are necessary for building a small tent and for cooking. In order to protect the sledge from the attacks of the dogs, the pitu (see p. 530) is taken out and fastened to an eye cut into the ice with the end of the spear. After having traveled about three days a longer halt is made; the sledge is unloaded, the dogs are unharnessed, and the men go out hunting in order to procure food for the dogs and for themselves. Thus they slowly proceed until they at last reach the end of their journey. Here they settle down with the friends whom they have come to visit, establish a hut of their own, and spend a whole year with them. In the following spring they retrace their journey to their own homes. Journeys of four to five hundred miles in one spring are not of rare occurrence; longer journeys, however, frequently last for years.

A journey of two hundred miles, going and coming, is sometimes accomplished in one season. For such a journey they would set out in March or April, leaving all their goods behind, and live with the friends whom they visit for a month or two, returning about June. While on the visit the visitors help their friends to provide for their families.

In traveling in the spring the Eskimo always use snow goggles to protect themselves from snow blindness. The modern ones (Fig. 529), which are made of wood and have a shade and a narrow slit for each eye, are very effective. The old design is represented in Fig. 530, the specimen being made of ivory.

Long journeys are sometimes made in summer, several families traveling together in their boats. As, however, the open season is very short in many parts of Northeastern America, spring journeys are more frequently made.

When traveling by boat the tent poles, skin covers, and all the household goods are stowed away in the bottom. The women do the pulling, three or four working at each oar, while a man sits on the stern board steering with a paddle. They move on at their leisure, stopping whenever they are tired or when a seal is seen blowing near the boat. The kayaks are tied to the stern and towed along. Children and dogs lie about in the bottom of the boat. In the center there is a tub containing all kinds of provisions, and every now and then they take some refreshment from it. During the nights the tents are erected at suitable points. The natives are well acquainted with these, and, if they are not compelled by severe weather to seek shelter at the nearest point, always visit the same places. These have a smooth, sloping beach, fresh water, and dry, gravelly places in which the tents are built.

Social Customs in Summer.

When the rays of the sun begin to be warmer and the roofs of the snow houses tumble down the natives live in a very uncomfortable way until a sufficient number of sealskins are procured to build a tent. Sometimes a family live under a roof too small to cover them all, though they sit as close as possible, and too low to permit them to sit upright; but, as seals are basking everywhere on the ice, this state of affairs does not last long. The women split a number of large skins and dry them on the snow, and by the middle of May they can build a pretty large tent; but it is not until they settle permanently at the place of the summer village that the large tent is sewed and put up.

At this season salmon and venison form the staple food of the Eskimo. The old men, women, and children, who stay at the lakes or at the salmon rivers, depend almost entirely upon this food. They fish and eat the salmon in a raw as well as in a cooked state. Birds are caught and eaten raw. The surplus salmon are split and dried on poles erected for the purpose. Deer shoulders, legs, and backs are also cut into thin pieces and dried. Sometimes the dried fish and venison are deposited in stone caches for later use, but most of it is eaten in summer, especially when the Eskimo go traveling. When the men go deer hunting they take a supply of dried salmon with them, and thus can stay out for a week or even longer. When a deer is killed it is skinned at once, the legs being slit and the belly opened. The paunch is carefully tied up, as the contents are a favorite dish of the Eskimo. The head, the legs, and the ribs are cut off and after being piled up the whole is covered with heavy stones, only the horns protruding from the top of the depot. The hams and the skin are generally carried to the hut at once, and, if the distance is not too great or the carcass can be reached with sledges or boats, the whole animal is brought home. Large depots are only made in the fall, when there is no danger of the meat spoiling.

At this season the natives visit deer passes and lakes, near which they establish their huts. The tents and all the household goods are packed up in heavy bundles, some of which are carried by the dogs, the load hanging on both sides of the back; others, by men and women, being secured by one strap which passes over the forehead and by another which passes over the breast. Their strength and their perseverance in carrying heavy loads over long distances are remarkable.

The social life in the summer settlements is rather different from that in winter. At this season the families do not cook their own meals, but a single one provides for the whole settlement. The day before it is her turn to cook, the woman goes to the hills to fetch shrubs for the fire. Three stones are put up near the hut as a fireplace, the opening facing the wind. The kettle is placed on the top of it and the fire is fed with shrubs and blubber. When the meal is ready the master of the house stands beside it, crying Ujo! Ujo! (boiled meat) and everybody comes out of the hut provided with a knife. The dish is carried to a level place and the men sit down around it in one circle, while the women form another. Then large lumps of meat are passed around, everybody cutting off a piece and taking a swallow of the soup, which is passed around in a large leather cup. These dinners, which are held in the evening after the return from the hunt, are almost always enlivened by a mimic performance. A man or an old woman sits down in the center of the circle and amuses the assembly by singing and dancing or by making faces. A favorite performance is one in which a man, with blackened face and with a thong tied around his head, writhes and makes odd grimaces.

After dinner the men sit chatting or gambling before the huts, while the women and children amuse themselves by running about, playing at ball, or dancing.

A strict religious custom forbids the Eskimo to work on the deerskins which are obtained in summer before the ice has formed; they are only dried and tied up in large bundles. In the fall, when on their way to the winter settlements, the Eskimo travel rather quickly. The boats are piled up with the spoils of the summer hunt and the place of destination is generally reached before the stormy weather sets in.

When it gets colder short excursions are made by boat in order to collect shrubs for covering the tents. Several families join in building a common hut, and on a fine day the old tents are torn down and the tent poles are converted into a strong frame, which is covered with a double roof. The bed and the platforms for the lamps are raised and henceforth all the cooking is done inside.

As soon as the first seals are caught with the harpoon the deer skins are prepared. If they were deposited under stones in summer, sledges set out to bring them to the settlements, and then they are distributed for winter clothing. According to Hall the western tribes are in the habit of spreading all the skins on one place and distributing them among the inhabitants of the settlement. I did not observe the same custom among the eastern tribes. Then they devote themselves to dressing the skins. On Davis Strait this work falls to the share of the women, while among the Hudson Bay tribes it is done by the men. At this season the great religious feasts of the natives are celebrated, which announce, as it were, the commencement of winter.

Social Order and Laws.

The social order of the Eskimo is entirely founded on the family and on the ties of consanguinity and affinity between the individual families. Generally children are betrothed when very young, but these engagements, not being strictly binding, may be broken off at any time. When the children reach maturity the girl learns the duties of a woman and the boy those of a man. As soon as he is able to provide for a family and she can do the work falling to her share, they are allowed to marry. It happens frequently that the young man’s parents are unwilling to allow him to provide for his parents-in-law, and then he may be rejected at any moment. Usually the young couple must begin housekeeping with the young wife’s family and the young man, if belonging to a strange tribe, must join that of his wife. It is not until after his parents-in-law are dead that he is entirely master of his own actions. Though the betrothal be entered into in the days of childhood the bride must be bought from the parents by some present. In other instances the men choose their wives when grown up and sometimes a long wooing precedes the marriage. The consent of the bride’s parents, or, if they are dead, that of her brothers, is always necessary. Marriages between relatives are forbidden: cousins, nephew and niece, aunt and uncle, are not allowed to intermarry. There is, however, no law to prevent a man from marrying two sisters. It is remarkable that Lyon states just the reverse (p. 353). I am sure, however, that my statements are correct in reference to the Davis Strait tribes.

Should the newly married couple join the wife’s family this would serve as a check to polygamy, which, however, is quite allowable. It is only when the new family settles on its own account that a man is at full liberty to take additional wives, among whom one is always considered the chief wife. Monogamy is everywhere more frequent than polygamy, only a very few men having two or more wives. According to Ross polyandry occurs with the Netchillirmiut (II, pp. 356, 373). As long as the mother-in-law lives with the young family the wives are subordinate to her, while the mothers of both parties are independent of each other. No example came to my notice of both parents living with the newly married couple. Sometimes the man and wife do not set up a new household at once, but each remains at home. The property necessary for establishing a new family is the hunting gear of the man and the knife, scraper, lamp, and cooking pot of the women.

A strange custom permits a man to lend his wife to a friend for a whole season or even longer and to exchange wives as a sign of friendship. On certain occasions it is even commanded by a religious law (see p. 605). Nevertheless I know of some instances of quarrels arising from jealousy. Lyon states, however, that this passion is unknown among the Iglulirmiut (p. 355). The husband is not allowed to maltreat or punish his wife; if he does she may leave him at any time, and the wife’s mother can always command a divorce. Both are allowed to remarry as soon as they like, even the slightest pretext being sufficient for a separation.

I may be allowed to refer once more to the division of labor between the man and woman. The principal part of the man’s work is to provide for his family by hunting, i.e., for his wife and children and for his relatives who have no provider. He must drive the sledge in traveling, feed the dogs, build the house, and make and keep in order his hunting implements, the boat cover and seal floats excepted. The woman has to do the household work, the sewing, and the cooking. She must look after the lamps, make and mend the tent and boat covers, prepare the skins, and bring up young dogs. It falls to her share to make the inner outfit of the hut, to smooth the platforms, line the snow house, &c. On Davis Strait the men cut up all kinds of animals which they have caught; on Hudson Bay, however, the women cut up the seals. There the men prepare the deerskins, which is done by the women among the eastern tribes. Everywhere the women have to do the rowing in the large boats while the man steers. Cripples who are unable to hunt do the same kind of work as women.

Children are treated very kindly and are not scolded, whipped, or subjected to any corporal punishment. Among all the tribes infanticide has been practiced to some extent, but probably only females or children of widows or widowers have been murdered in this way, the latter on account of the difficulty of providing for them. It is very remarkable that this practice seems to be quite allowable among them, while in Greenland it is believed that the spirit of the murdered child is turned into an evil spirit, called angiaq, and revenges the crime (Rink, p. 45).

Besides the children properly belonging to the family, adopted children, widows, and old people are considered part of it. Adoption is carried on among this people to a great extent.

If for any reason a man is unable to provide for his family or if a woman cannot do her household work, the children are adopted by a relative or a friend, who considers them as his own children. In the same way widows with their children are adopted by their nearest relative or by a friend and belong to the family, though the woman retains her own fireplace.

It is difficult to decide which relative is considered the nearest, but the ties of consanguinity appear to be much closer than those of affinity. If a woman dies the husband leaves his children with his parents-in-law and returns to his own family, and if a man dies his wife returns to her parents or her brothers, who are the nearest relatives next to parents or children. When a woman dies, however, after the children are grown up the widower will stay with them. In case of a divorce the children generally remain with the mother.

As a great part of the personal property of a man is destroyed at his death or placed by his grave, the objects which may be acquired by inheritance are few. These are the gun, harpoon, sledge, dogs, kayak, boat, and tent poles of the man and the lamp and pots of the woman. The first inheritor of these articles is the eldest son living with the parents. Sons and daughters having households of their own do not participate in the inheritance. An elder adopted son has a preference over a younger son born of the marriage. Details of the laws which relate to inheritance are unknown to me.

Sometimes men are adopted who may almost be considered servants. Particularly bachelors without any relations, cripples who are not able to provide for themselves, or men who have lost their sledges and dogs are found in this position. They fulfill minor occupations, mend the hunting implements, fit out the sledges, feed the dogs, &c.; sometimes, however, they join the hunters. They follow the master of the house when he removes from one place to another, make journeys in order to do his commissions, and so on. The position, however, is a voluntary one, and therefore these men are not less esteemed than the self dependent providers.

Strangers visiting their friends for a season are generally in a similar position, though they receive a wife if the host happens to have more than one; if the friend has hunting gear, a sledge, and dogs of his own, he can arrange a separate fireplace in the hut.

In summer most families have each their own tent, but in the fall from two to four join in building a house. Frequently the parents live on one side, the family of the son-in-law on the other, and a friend or relative in a small recess. Sometimes two houses have a common entrance or the passages communicate with one another. The inhabitants of both parts usually live quite independently of one another, while the oldest man of every house has some influence over his housemates.

If the distance between the winter and the summer settlement is very great or when any particular knowledge is required to find out the haunts of game, there is a kind of chief in the settlement, whose acknowledged authority is, however, very limited. He is called the pimain (i.e., he who knows everything best) or the issumautang. His authority is virtually limited to the right of deciding on the proper time to shift the huts from one place to the other, but the families are not obliged to follow him. At some places it seems to be considered proper to ask the pimain before moving to another settlement and leaving the rest of the tribe. He may ask some men to go deer hunting, others to go sealing, but there is not the slightest obligation to obey his orders.

Every family is allowed to settle wherever it likes, visiting a strange tribe being the only exception. In such a case the newcomer has to undergo a ceremony which consists chiefly in a duel between a native of the place and himself. If he is defeated he runs the risk of being killed, by those among whom he has come (see pp. , ).

There are numerous regulations governing hunting, determining to whom the game belongs, the obligations of the successful hunter towards the inhabitants of the village, &c.

When a seal is brought to the huts everybody is entitled to a share of the meat and blubber, which is distributed by the hunter himself or carried to the individual huts by his wife. This custom is only practiced when food is scarce. In time of plenty only the housemates receive a share of the animal.

A ground seal belongs to all the men who take part in the hunt, the skin especially being divided among them. A walrus is cut up at once into as many parts as there are hunters, the one who first struck it having the choice of the parts and receiving the head. A whale belongs to the whole settlement and its capture is celebrated by a feast (p. 603).

A bear or a young seal belongs to the man who first saw it, no matter who kills it.

Lost objects must be restored to the owner if he is known, game, however, excepted; for example, if a harpoon line breaks and the animal escapes, but is found later by another man, the game belongs to the latter. In Hudson Bay he is also allowed to keep the harpoon and line.

There is no way of enforcing these unwritten laws and no punishment for transgressors except the blood vengeance. It is not a rare occurrence that a man who is offended by another man takes revenge by killing the offender. It is then the right and the duty of the nearest relative of the victim to kill the murderer. In certain quarrels between the Netchillirmiut and the Aivillirmiut, in which the murderer himself could not be apprehended, the family of the murdered man has killed one of the murderer’s relations in his stead. Such a feud sometimes lasts for a long time and is even handed down to a succeeding generation. It is sometimes settled by mutual agreement. As a sign of reconciliation both parties touch each other’s breasts, saying, Ilaga (my friend) (Klutschak, p. 70).

If a man has committed a murder or made himself odious by other outrages he may be killed by any one simply as a matter of justice. The man who intends to take revenge on him must ask his countrymen singly if each agrees in the opinion that the offender is a bad man deserving death. If all answer in the affirmative he may kill the man thus condemned and no one is allowed to revenge the murder. (See Appendix, Note 4.)

Their method of carrying on such a feud is quite foreign to our feelings. Strange as it may seem, a murderer will come to visit the relatives of his victim (though he knows that they are allowed to kill him in revenge) and will settle with them. He is kindly welcomed and sometimes lives quietly for weeks and months. Then he is suddenly challenged to a wrestling match (see p. 609), and if defeated is killed, or if victorious he may kill one of the opposite party, or when hunting he is suddenly attacked by his companions and slain.

Religious Ideas and the Angakunirn (Priesthood).

Although the principal religious ideas of the Central Eskimo and those of the Greenlanders are identical, their mythologies differ in many material points. I will only mention here that they believe in the Tornait of the old Greenlanders, while the Tornarsuk (i.e., the great Tornaq of the latter) is unknown to them. Their Supreme Being is a woman whose name is Sedna.

The first report on this tradition is found in Warmow’s journal of his visit to Cumberland Sound (Missionsblatt aus der Brüdergemeinde, 1859, No. I, p. 19). The editor says:

The name of the good spirit is Sanaq or Sana, and he seems to be worshiped as the unknown deity. Nobody could give a definite answer to Brother Warmow’s frequent questions as to what they believed he was. They only said they invoked his help if they were in need. “Then we ask him,” one of the men said, “and Takaq (the moon) gives us what we want, seals and deer.” Another one said that Sanaq had lived on the earth and afterwards ascended to the moon.

In Hall’s account of his explorations in Frobisher Bay it is mentioned that the tribes of that country, the Nugumiut, believe in a Supreme Being, and the following statement is given (Hall I, p. 524):

There is one Supreme Being, called by them Anguta, who created the earth, sea, and heavenly bodies. There is also a secondary divinity, a woman, the daughter of Anguta, who is called Sidne. She is supposed to have created all things having life, animal and vegetable. She is regarded also as the protecting divinity of the Inuit people. To her their supplications are addressed; to her their offerings are made; while most of their religious rites and superstitious observances have reference to her.

It is of great importance that in the journals of Hall’s second journey Sedna is mentioned a few times (spelled Sydney), this being the only proof that she is known among the tribes of Hudson Bay.

The statements of the whalers visiting the Sikosuilarmiut and the Akuliarmiut of Hudson Strait correspond with my own observations. Before entering into a comparison of this tradition with similar ones belonging to other tribes, I will give the particulars of the myth as I received it from the Oqomiut and the Akudnirmiut.

Sedna and the Fulmar.

Once upon a time there lived on a solitary shore an Inung with his daughter Sedna. His wife had been dead for some time and the two led a quiet life. Sedna grew up to be a handsome girl and the youths came from all around to sue for her hand, but none of them could touch her proud heart. Finally, at the breaking up of the ice in the spring a fulmar flew from over the ice and wooed Sedna with enticing song. “Come to me,” it said; “come into the land of the birds, where there is never hunger, where my tent is made of the most beautiful skins. You shall rest on soft bearskins. My fellows, the fulmars, shall bring you all your heart may desire; their feathers shall clothe you; your lamp shall always be filled with oil, your pot with meat.” Sedna could not long resist such wooing and they went together over the vast sea. When at last they reached the country of the fulmar, after a long and hard journey, Sedna discovered that her spouse had shamefully deceived her. Her new home was not built of beautiful pelts, but was covered with wretched fishskins, full of holes, that gave free entrance to wind and snow. Instead of soft reindeer skins her bed was made of hard walrus hides and she had to live on miserable fish, which the birds brought her. Too soon she discovered that she had thrown away her opportunities when in her foolish pride she had rejected the Inuit youth. In her woe she sang: “Aja. O father, if you knew how wretched I am you would come to me and we would hurry away in your boat over the waters. The birds look unkindly upon me the stranger; cold winds roar about my bed; they give me but miserable food. O come and take me back home. Aja.”

When a year had passed and the sea was again stirred by warmer winds, the father left his country to visit Sedna. His daughter greeted him joyfully and besought him to take her back home. The father hearing of the outrages wrought upon his daughter determined upon revenge. He killed the fulmar, took Sedna into his boat, and they quickly left the country which had brought so much sorrow to Sedna. When the other fulmars came home and found their companion dead and his wife gone, they all flew away in search of the fugitives. They were very sad over the death of their poor murdered comrade and continue to mourn and cry until this day.

Having flown a short distance they discerned the boat and stirred up a heavy storm. The sea rose in immense waves that threatened the pair with destruction. In this mortal peril the father determined to offer Sedna to the birds and flung her overboard. She clung to the edge of the boat with a death grip. The cruel father then took a knife and cut off the first joints of her fingers. Falling into the sea they were transformed into whales, the nails turning into whalebone. Sedna holding on to the boat more tightly, the second finger joints fell under the sharp knife and swam away as seals (Pagomys fœtidus); when the father cut off the stumps of the fingers they became ground seals (Phoca barbata). Meantime the storm subsided, for the fulmars thought Sedna was drowned. The father then allowed her to come into the boat again. But from that time she cherished a deadly hatred against him and swore bitter revenge. After they got ashore, she called her dogs and let them gnaw off the feet and hands of her father while he was asleep. Upon this he cursed himself, his daughter, and the dogs which had maimed him; whereupon the earth opened and swallowed the hut, the father, the daughter, and the dogs. They have since lived in the land of Adlivun, of which Sedna is the mistress.

This tradition is handed down in an old song. I shall give the substance of it here, as it differs in some points from the above myth.

The story begins when the fulmar carries Sedna to his home and she discovers that he has brought her to a very wretched tent. The next year the father and a brother, whom I find mentioned nowhere else, came to visit her and take her home. The fulmar follows their boat and causes a heavy gale to rise which almost upsets it. The father cuts off her fingers, which are transformed into whales, seals, and ground seals. Besides, he pierces her eye and thus kills her. Then he takes the body into the boat and carries it to the shore. There he lays it on the beach and covers it with a dogskin. When the flood comes in it covers Sedna.

Sedna and her father are described by the angakut (see p. 591), who sometimes visit her house or see them when both dwell among the natives, as follows: She is very large and much taller than the Inuit. In accordance with the second form of the tradition she has only one eye and is scarcely able to move. Her father is also a cripple and appears to the dying, whom he grasps with his right hand, which has only three fingers.

There is a remarkable resemblance between this tradition and one related by Lyon (p. 362), who describes the religious ideas of the Iglulirmiut, more particularly the genii of one of their angakut. He says that the principal spirits are Aiviliajoq (Ay-willi-ay-oo) or Nuliajoq (Noo-le-ay-oo), a female spirit, and her father, Napajoq (Nap-payok) or Anautalik (An-now-ta-lig). Then he continues:

The former is in the first place the mother, protectress, and not unfrequently the monopolist of sea animals, which she sometimes very wantonly confines below, and by that means causes a general scarcity in the upper world. When this is the case, the angakok is persuaded to pay her a visit, and attempt the release of the animals on which his tribe subsist. I know not what ceremonies he performs at the first part of the interview; but as the spell by which the animals are held lies in the hand of the enchantress, the conjuror makes some bold attempts to cut it off, and, according to his success, plenty, more or less, is obtained. If deprived of her nails, the bears obtain their freedom; amputation of the first joint liberates the netsiq (Pagomys); while that of the second loosens the ugjuq (Phoca). Should the knuckles be detached whole herds of walrus rise to the surface; and should the adventurous angakoq succeed in cutting through the lower part of the metacarpal bones, the monstrous whales are disenthralled and delightedly join the other creatures of the deep. ***Her house is exceedingly fine, and very like a Kabluna (European) looking-glass(?); and, what is still more attractive to an Eskimo, it contains plenty of food. Immediately within the door of the dwelling, which has a long passage of entrance, is stationed a very large and fierce dog, which has no tail, and whose hinder quarters are black. ***Aiviliajoq is described as being equally wonderful in her personal appearance as in her actions. She is very tall and has but one eye, which is the left, the place of the other being covered by a profusion of black hair. She has one pigtail only, contrary to the established fashion in the upper Eskimo world, which is to wear one on each side of the face, and this is of such immense magnitude, that a man can scarcely grasp it with both hands. Its length is exactly twice that of her arm, and it descends to her knee. The hood of her jacket is always worn up. ***

Her father has but one arm, the hand of which is covered by a very large mitten of bearskin. ***He is not larger than a boy of ten years of age. He bears the character of a good, quiet sort of person and is master of a very nice house, which, however, is not approachable, on account of the vast herds of walrus lying round it, which, with numerous bears, make a terrific howling. ***He has nothing to eat, and does not even require it; in which particular he differs widely from his daughter, who has a most voracious appetite. I know not if he is the father of all terrestrial animals, but he is certainly their patron, and withholds them at times from the Eskimo.

The name of the father, Anautalik (An-now-ta-lig), i.e., the man with something to cut (with a knife), is very remarkable. Besides, it is interesting that the angakoq who visits the dwelling of Nuliajoq has to cut off her hand in order to liberate the sea animals. In the tradition related in the foregoing, Sedna has another name, to wit, Uinigumisuitung, i.e., she who would not have a husband; her father, Savirqong, i.e., the man with the knife. Often he is only called Anguta, her father.

It is evident that Nuliajoq is identical with Sedna, though some peculiarities exist in the tradition as related by Lyon which it is rather difficult to reconcile with the myth as it is related among the Oqomiut. It seems to me that this difficulty arises from the mixing up of the angakoq’s visit to Sedna with the tradition itself. Indeed Lyon only refers to the angakoq’s visit to Nuliajoq, whom he considers a genius of a great angakoq, though he remarks in another place (p. 363) that she “has a boundless command over the lives and destinies of mankind.”

The tale of the angakoq’s visit makes the tradition very similar to the Greenland myth of Arnaquagsaq, i.e., the old woman. According to Cranz (p. 264) and to Rink (p. 40) this spirit has her abode in the depth of the ocean. She represents the source of nourishment, supplying the physical wants of mankind. She sits in her dwelling in front of a lamp, beneath which is placed a vessel which receives the oil that keeps flowing down from the lamp. From this vessel, as well as from the dark interior of her hut, she sends out all the animals which serve for food, but in certain cases withholds the supply, thus causing want and famine. The reason for thus withholding the supply was that certain filthy and noxious parasites fastened themselves upon her head, of which she could only be relieved by an angakoq. Then she could be induced again to send out the animals for the benefit of man. In going to her he (the angakoq) had first to pass the Arsissut and then to cross an abyss, in which, according to the earliest authors, a wheel as slippery as ice was constantly turning around; then, having safely passed a boiling kettle with seals in it, he arrived at the house, in front of which watch was kept by terrible animals, sometimes described as seals, sometimes as dogs; and, lastly, within the house passage itself, he had to cross an abyss by means of a bridge as narrow as a knife edge.

About the same tale is found among the Baffin Land tribes; according to Captain Spicer, of Groton, Conn., she is called Nanoquagsaq by the Akuliarmiut. She is visited by the angakut, who liberate the sea animals by subduing her or rather by depriving her of a charm by which she restrains the animals.

I am inclined to think that the form in which Lyon gives this tradition is not quite correct, but is a mixture of the Sedna myth and that of the angakoq’s visit to Arnaquagsaq. This seems the more probable from a Greenland tale which Dr. Rink kindly communicated to me, in which it is related that the grandfather of Arnaquagsaq cut off her fingers, which were changed into sea animals.

For this reason it is most probable that Arnaquagsaq, Sedna, and Nuliajoq proceed from the same myth, though the traditions differ from one another as they are related by the travelers. In the mythology of the central tribes this character has a much more decided influence upon their religious belief than the Arnaquagsaq of the Greenlanders seems to have had.

The myth of Sedna is confused with another which treats of the origin of the Europeans and of the Adlet (see p. 637). The legends are in part almost identical. Sedna orders her dog to gnaw off her father’s feet; Uinigumisuitung’s children maim their grandfather in the same way; and, besides, Sedna’s second name is also Uinigumisuitung. In both tales the father is called Savirqong. In Lyon’s Private Journal (p. 363) an important statement is found to the effect that the dog which protects Nuliajoq’s dwelling is by some natives called her husband, by others merely her dog, but that he is generally considered the father of Erqigdlit (identical with Adlet, p. 637) and Qadlunait (Europeans).

Finally, I must record the legend of the origin of the walrus and the reindeer, which is closely related to the Sedna tradition. I could never learn any other reason why the use of sea animals and reindeer at the same period should be forbidden, except the fear of offending Sedna. She is represented as disliking the deer, which accordingly are not found in her house. Any reason for this dislike is not given. The Akuliarmiut, however, have a tradition that a woman, most probably Sedna herself, created the walrus and the reindeer during a famine. She opened her belly and took out a small piece of fat which she carried up the hills where it was transformed by a magic spell into a reindeer. As soon as she saw the animal she became frightened and ordered it to run away, but the deer turned upon her and would not go; then she became angry and knocked out its teeth. It turned round at once, but before it could leave she gave it a kick which lopped off its tail. Thus it happened that the deer is deficient as to certain teeth and has scarcely any tail. The woman, however, continued to hate the deer. Afterward she descended to the beach and threw another piece of fat into the water. It was transformed into a walrus, which swam away at once. (According to a communication of Captain Spicer.)

The form of this tradition as related by the Akudnirmiut is somewhat different. During a famine a woman (I could not learn whether she was identical with Sedna or not) carried her boots to the hills and transformed them by magic into deer, which spread all over the country. Then she carried her breeches to the sea, where they were changed into walrus. The first deer, however, had large tusks and no horns, while the walrus had horns and no tusks. The Eskimo soon found that this was very dangerous for the hunter, as the deer killed pursuers with their tusks, while the walrus upset the boats. Therefore an old man transferred the horns to the deer and the tusks to the walrus.

It is very probable that this woman was Sedna, as the Eskimo affirm that the observances referring to walrus and deer are commanded by Sedna and as the first tradition accounts for her dislike of the deer.

I could not find any trace of the tradition reported by Lyon, that Anautalik, Nuliajoq’s father, is the protector of land animals, nor of that of a being to whom he refers by the name of Pukimna (derived from pukiq, the white parts of a deerskin), who lives in a fine country far to the west and who is the immediate protectress of deer, which animals roam in immense herds around her dwelling.

Sedna is the mistress of one of the countries to which the souls go after death. It has been related in the foregoing tradition of Sedna and the fulmar that she descended to Adlivun; since that time she has been the mistress of the country, and when invoked as such has the name of Idliragijenget. She has a large house, in which no deerskins are found. There she lives with her father, each occupying one side of it. The father, who is unable to move, lies on the ledge and is covered with old skins. In the entrance across the threshold lies Sedna’s dog watching her house. Like her, the father has only one eye, and he never moves from his place while in the house.

The dead, who are seized by Sedna’s father, Anguta, are carried to this dwelling. The dog moves aside only a little, just enough to allow the souls to pass. They have to stay in this dismal abode during a whole year, lying by the side of Anguta, who pinches them.

The happy land is heaven and is called Qudlivun (the uppermost ones). It abounds with deer, which are easily caught, and no ice or snow ever visits it.

The Oqomiut and the Akudnirmiut make a distinction between Adlivun and Adliparmiut. Adlivun means “those who live beneath us;” Adliparmiut, “the inhabitants of the country farthest below us;” and the same difference exists between Qudlivun and Qudliparmiut. Though these names intimate the probability that the Eskimo believe in a series of places, located in a descending scale, each below the other, I could not find any more detailed description of the conception.

Hall’s observations agree fairly with my own. He says (I, p. 524):

Qudliparmiut (heaven) is upward. Everybody happy there. All the time light; no snow, no ice, no storms; always pleasant; no trouble; never tired; sing and play all the time—all this to continue without end.

Adliparmiut (hell) is downward. Always dark there. No sun; trouble there continually; snow flying all the time, terrible storms; cold, very cold; and a great deal of ice there. All who go there must always remain.

All Inuit who have been good go to Qudliparmiut; that is, who have been kind to the poor and hungry, all who have been happy while living on this earth. Any one who has been killed by accident, or who has committed suicide, certainly goes to the happy place.

All Inuit who have been bad—that is, unkind one to another—all who have been unhappy while on this earth, will go to Adliparmiut. If an Inung kills another because he is mad at him, he will certainly go to Adliparmiut.

Kumlien’s remarks on this subject, as well as on other ethnographic subjects, are not trustworthy. He has transferred Greenland tales to Cumberland Sound, though the traditions of these tribes differ materially one from the other. I tried hard to corroborate his statements concerning the amaroq and the tornarsuq, concerning certain customs, &c., and am convinced that they are totally unknown to all the natives of Baffin Land from Nugumiut to Tununirn.

Kumlien states that the better land is below the surface of the earth and that those who are killed by violence descend after death. According to Hall and to replies to my own inquiries, it is quite the reverse. Lyon’s report is extremely interesting, particularly his description of the stages of the nether world, of which I could only find a scanty hint in the names. He says (p. 372):

There are two places appointed to receive the souls of the good: one of these is in the center of the earth, the other in qilaq, or heaven. To the latter place, such as are drowned at sea, starved to death, murdered, or killed by walruses or bears, are instantly wafted, and dwell in a charming country, which, however, has never been seen by any angakoq. ***

The place of souls in the world below is called Adli generally; but there are, properly, four distinct states of blessedness, and each rank has a world to itself, the lowest land being the last and best, which all hope to reach. The day on which a good person dies and is buried, the soul goes to a land immediately under the visible world; and, still descending, it arrives the second day at one yet lower; the third day it goes farther yet; and on the fourth it finds, “below the lowest deep, a deeper still.” This is the “good land,” and the soul which reaches it is for ever happy. The three first stages are bad uncomfortable places for in each the sky is so close to the earth, that a man cannot walk erect: yet these regions are inhabited; and the good soul, in passing through them, sees multitudes of the dead, who, having lost their way, or, not being entitled to the “good land,” are always wandering about and in great distress. Whether these unhappy souls are in purgatory or not, I was unable to learn; but they suffer no other pain than what we would call the “fidgets.” In the lowest Adli a perpetual and delightful summer prevails.

The belief of these tribes undoubtedly is that all who die by accident or by violence and women who die in childbirth are taken to the upper world. I never heard a different opinion expressed by any native. I do not know whether they believe in a series of upper worlds similar to the nether worlds of the Iglulirmiut, but it is probable, from the names Qudlivun and Qudliparmiut. In the Greenland tradition the upper world is represented as a country with hills and valleys, over which the solid blue sky is expanded. Sedna of the Oqomiut lives in Adlivun, and here the souls must stay one year after death. Everybody who dies from disease or who has offended Sedna by infringing her orders is taken to her. The Eskimo are in great fear of the terrors of her abode. Murderers and offenders against human laws, after they have entered Sedna’s house, will never leave it; the other souls, however, are taken to the Adliparmiut, where they live comparatively at their ease, although they are not nearly so blessed as the Qudliparmiut. They hunt whales and walrus and are almost always troubled by ice and snow.

The older authors on Greenland mythology state that the conceptions of the natives do not coincide (Cranz). According to one tradition the good land is below, and tornarsuq, the supreme tornaq, is master of it. Here continuous summer prevails and there is plenty of fresh water, with a profusion of game. Only those people are allowed to come here who have been good hunters and workers, who have accomplished great exploits, caught many seals, who have suffered much, or have died by violence or in childbirth. The souls of the deceased must slide for five days, or even longer, down a steep rock, which has become quite slippery from the blood which has been sprinkled over it. Those who have been lazy and unfit for working go to the upper world, where they suffer from scarcity of food. Particularly the bad and witches are taken to this country, where they are tormented by ravens.

Another tradition places the good land in heaven. The souls travel on the rainbow to the moon, near which they find a large lake abounding with fowls and fish. Rink gives the following statement on this subject (p. 37):

After death, human souls either go to the upper or to the under world. The latter is decidedly to be preferred, as being warm and rich in food. There are the dwellings of the happy dead called arsissut,—viz, those who live in abundance. On the contrary, those who go to the upper world will suffer from cold and famine; and these are called the arssartut, or ball players, on account of their playing at ball with a walrus head, which gives rise to the aurora borealis.

While the Iglulirmiut believe that the soul leaves the body immediately after death and descends to Adli, the tribes of Davis Strait suppose that it lingers three days around the body, unable to leave it. Then it descends to Sedna’s house. During its stay in Adlivun the soul is called tupilaq, which is represented by the figure of a man with wide, loose, shabby clothing. It is looked upon as a malevolent spirit, frequently roaming around the villages. The tupilaq is not allowed to enter the houses, and if the angakoq perceives and announces his presence no one would dare to leave the houses. His touch kills men at once, the sight of him causes sickness and mischief. As soon as the soul has become an adliparmio, it is at rest and ceases to be feared as a tupilaq.

It is worth remarking that the Greenlanders designate with the name of tupilaq a supernatural being made by men for the purpose of destroying their enemies (Rink, p. 53). It is composed of various parts of different animals and is enabled to act in the shape of any of them at will. I have not found any trace of this idea among the Central Eskimo.

The Tornait and the Angakut.

A consideration of the religious ideas of the Eskimo shows that the tornait, the invisible rulers of every object, are the most remarkable beings next to Sedna. Everything has its inua (owner), which may become the genius of man who thus obtains the qualities of angakunirn. I am not quite sure that every inua can become the tornaq of a man, though with the Greenlanders this was possible. I learned of three kinds of spirits only, who are protectors of angakut: those in the shape of men, of stones, and of bears. These spirits enable the angakut to have intercourse with the others who are considered malevolent to mankind, and though those three species are kind to their angakut they would hurt strangers who might happen to see them. The bear seems to be the most powerful among these spirits. The tornait of the stones live in the large bowlders scattered over the country. The Eskimo believe that these rocks are hollow and form a nice house, the entrance of which is only visible to the angakoq whose genius lives in the stone. The tornaq is a woman with only one eye, in the middle of the brow. Another kind of tornaq lives in the stones that roll down the hills in spring when the snow begins to melt. If a native happens to meet such a stone, which is about to become his tornaq, the latter addresses him: “I jumped down in long leaps from my place on the cliff. As the snow melts, as water is formed on the hills, I jump down.” Then it asks the native whether he is willing to have it for his tornaq, and if he answers in the affirmative it accompanies him, wabbling along, as it has no legs.

The bear tornaq is represented as a huge animal without any hair except on the points of the ears and of the tail and at the mouth. If a man wishes to obtain a bear for his tornaq he must travel all alone to the edge of the land floe and summon the bears. Then a large herd will approach and frighten him almost to death. He falls down at once. Should he fall backward he would die at once. If he falls upon his face, however, one bear out of the herd steps forward and asks him if he wishes him to become his tornaq. He then recovers and takes the bear for his spirit and is accompanied by him on the return journey. On the way home, they pass a seal hole and the bear captures the animal for his master. The Eskimo is now a great angakoq, and whenever he wants help he is sure to get it from his bear.

The Eskimo do not make images of the tornait or other supernatural beings in whom they believe, but use to a great extent amulets (arngoaq), some of which are given by the tornait, while others are inherited. The most common varieties of amulets are the feather of an owl, a bear’s tooth, and the like, which are always worn on the middle of the back of the inner jacket. Rare minerals (e.g., iron) sewed up in a piece of skin are sometimes used for the same purpose. A small part of the first gown worn by a child is considered a powerful amulet and is preserved for this reason. It is worn at the point of the hood at a great feast celebrated every fall (see pp. , ) and is called koukparmiutang.

Lyon (p. 367) gives the following account of the use of amulets in Iglulik:

Bones and teeth of animals, hanging as solitary pendants, or strung in great numbers, have peculiar virtues, and the bones of the feet of the kabliaqdjuq, which I imagine to be the wolverine, are the most in request. The front teeth of musk oxen are considered as jewels, while the grinders, one or two together, are much esteemed as tassels for the strings used to tie up the breeches of the women. Eye teeth of foxes are sometimes seen to the number of hundreds, neatly perforated and arranged as a kind of fringe round caps or dresses, and even the bones and teeth of fish have their value.

Leather cases of the size of a quill, and containing small pieces of deer’s or other flesh, are frequently attached to the caps or hoods of children, but whether to render them expert hunters, or to preserve their health, I could not discover. I was assured that broken spear heads, and other equally cumbrous pendants, worn round the necks of young girls, were spells for the preservation of their chastity, while the same ornaments caused the women to be prolific.

The principal office of the angakut is to find out the reason of sickness and death or of any other misfortune visiting the natives.

The Eskimo believes that he is obliged to answer the angakoq’s questions truthfully. The lamps being lowered, the angakoq strips off his outer jacket, pulls the hood over his head, and sits down in the back part of the hut facing the wall. He claps his hands, which are covered with mittens, and, shaking his whole body, utters sounds which one would hardly recognize as human.

Thus he invokes his tornaq, singing and shouting alternately, the listeners, who sit on the edge of the bed, joining the chorus and answering his questions. Then he asks the sick person: “Did you work when it was forbidden?” “Did you eat when you were not allowed to eat?” And if the poor fellow happens to remember any transgression of such laws, he cries: “Yes, I have worked.” “Yes, I have eaten.” And the angakoq rejoins “I thought so” and issues his commands as to the manner of atonement.

These are manifold. Exchange of wives between two men or adoption of a sick child by another family in order to save its life are frequently demanded. The inhabitants of a village are forbidden to wash themselves for a number of days, to scrape the ice from the windows, and to clean their urine pots before sunrise. Sometimes the angakoq commands that the clothing be thrown away or gives regulations for diet, particularly forbidding the eating of venison, working on deerskins, filing iron, &c.

Disorders of women are considered as a punishment for the neglect to observe the regulations referring to their behavior at certain periods, which regulations were established by Sedna. The same is stated by Lyon (p. 363).

A method of finding out the reason of a disease is by “head lifting.” A thong is tied round the head of the sick person or of a relative, who must lie down on the bed, the angakoq holding the thong. Then he asks his tornaq the reason of the sickness and the remedy. If the tornaq answers a question of the angakoq in the affirmative the head is easily lifted. In the other case it feels so heavy that he is unable to move it. Another method is by lifting a boot or a stone, which has been placed under the pillow of the patient. The angakut believe that the boot or stone becomes heavy and cannot be lifted when the tornaq answers their incantations.

At the beginning of some of their performances I have observed the angakoq crawling about in the passage of the hut, howling and shouting, while those inside kept on singing. Then he entered the hut and continued the incantations on the back part of the bed.

Sometimes their cure for sickness is laying a piece of burning wick upon the diseased part of the body and blowing it up into the air or merely blowing upon it.

Storm and bad weather, when lasting a long time and causing want of food, are conjured by making a large whip of seaweed, stepping to the beach, and striking out in the direction whence the wind blows, at the same time crying Taba (It is enough).

A great number of the performances of the angakut require much skill and expertness. Thus in invoking a tornaq or flying to a distant place they can imitate a distant voice by a sort of ventriloquism. In these performances they always have the lamps extinguished and hide themselves behind a screen hung up in the back part of the hut. The tornaq, being invoked, is heard approaching and shaking the hut. The angakoq believes that it is unroofed and flies with his spirit to their place of destination, to propitiate the wrath of a hostile tornaq, to visit the moon or Sedna’s dismal abode.

Part of their performances might almost be called juggling. Hall (II, p. 101) describes one of these performances:

The angakoq (Ar-too-a) now made use of three walrus spears. One of these he thrust into the wall of the snow house, and ***ran with it outside of the igdlu [house] where his ejaculations were responded to by the party inside with the cries of “Atte! Atte!” [Go on! Go on!]. Returning with his spear to the door, he had a severe wrestling match with four of the men, who overcame him. But coming again into the central igdlu, and having the lights which had been at the first patted down, relit, he showed the points of two spears apparently covered with fresh blood, which he held up in the presence of all.

The performance of the angakut in the Sedna feast, which will be described hereafter (p. 604) is quite astonishing. Some pierce their bodies with harpoons, evidently having bladders filled with blood fastened under their jackets beforehand, and bleed profusely as they enter the hut. (See Appendix, Note 5.)

A memorable ceremony has been described by Hall (I, p. 469):

I heard a loud shout just outside [the hut]. As quick as thought, the Eskimo sprang for the long knives lying around, and hid them wherever they could find places. ***Immediately there came crawling into the low entrance to the hut a man with long hair completely covering his face and eyes. He remained on his knees on the floor of the hut, feeling round like a blind man at each side of the entrance, back of the firelight, the place where meat is usually kept, and where knives may generally be found. Not finding any, the angakoq slowly withdrew. ***If he had found a knife he would have stabbed himself in the breast.

It is one of their favorite tricks to have their hands tied up and a thong fastened around their knees and neck. Then they begin invoking their tornaq, and all of a sudden the body lies motionless while the soul flies to any place which they wish to visit. After returning, the thongs are found untied, though they had been fastened by firm knots. The resemblance of this performance to the experiments of modern spiritualists is striking.

The angakut use a sacred language in their songs and incantations. A great number of words have a symbolic meaning, but others are old roots, which have been lost from common use in the lapse of time. These archaic words are very interesting from a linguistic point of view. Indeed, some are found which are still in use in Greenland, though lost in the other dialects, and others which are only used in Alaska.

I ought to add here that most of the angakut themselves believe in their performances, as by continued shouting and invoking they fall into an ecstasy and really imagine they accomplish the flights and see the spirits.

The angakoq, who must be paid at once for curing a sick person, receives pretty large fees for services of this kind.

Although witchcraft occupied a prominent place in the belief of the Greenlanders I could only find very faint traces of it in Baffin Land, to wit, the opinion that a man has the power of injuring a distant enemy by some means the details of which I did not learn.

I shall add here the numerous regulations referring to eating and working, many of which are connected with the Sedna tradition, and the observance of which is watched by the angakut. As all sea animals have originated from her fingers the Eskimo must make an atonement for every animal he kills. When a seal is brought into the hut the women must stop working until it is cut up. After the capture of a ground seal, walrus, or whale they must rest for three days. Not all kinds of work, however, are forbidden, for they are allowed to mend articles made of sealskin, but they must not make anything new. For instance, an old tent cover may be enlarged in order to build a larger hut, but it is not permitted to make a new one. Working on new deerskins is strictly forbidden. No skins of this kind obtained in summer may be prepared before the ice has formed and the first seal is caught with the harpoon. Later, as soon as the first walrus is caught, the work must stop again until the next fall. For this reason all families are eager to finish the work on deerskins as quickly as possible, as the walrusing season is not commenced until that is done.

The laws prohibiting contact with deer and sea animals at the same time are very strict. According to the Eskimo themselves Sedna dislikes the deer (probably for some reason connected with the tradition of its origin,) and therefore they are not allowed to bring it in contact with her favorites. The meat of the whale, seal, or walrus must not be eaten on the same day with venison. It is not permitted that both sorts of meat lie on the floor of the hut or behind the lamps at the same time. If a man who has eaten venison in the morning happens to enter a hut in which seal meat is being cooked he is allowed to eat venison on the bed, but it must be wrapped up before being carried into the hut and he must take care to keep clear of the floor. Before changing from one food to the other the Eskimo must wash themselves. For the same reason walrus hide must not be carried to Lake Nettilling, which is considered the domain of deer.

A similar custom requires that the Ukusiksalirmiut carry salmon into a hut by a separate entrance, for it must not pass through the same one as seal oil. Besides, the fish must only be cooked at the distance of a day’s journey from the place where they have been caught. If eaten on the spot they must be eaten raw (Klutschak, p. 158).

Their customs referring to hunting are manifold. When skinning a deer they must not break a single bone; then, they cut off bits of different parts of the animal and bury them in the ground or under stones (Hall I, p. 386). I have never noticed this custom myself. On the west shore of Hudson Bay dogs are not allowed to gnaw deer bones during the deer hunting season or seal bones during the sealing season (Klutschak, p. 123). Deer bones must not be broken while walrus are hunted (Hall II, p. 155).

When the men go out hunting in their kayaks the women of the Aivillirmiut take a cup down to the shore and leave it there, believing that it will bring luck (Hall II, p. 103). On Davis Strait they throw a piece of seal’s blubber on their husband’s kayak when he is about to go hunting (Kumlien, p. 45). After the capture of a whale the Aivillirmiut are not allowed to burn shrubs, but use bones of the whale instead, which are mixed with blubber (Hall II, p. 364). If an animal that is with young is killed the fetus must not be taken and used for food (Hall II, p. 253). When a bear is caught the Nugumiut and the Oqomiut are accustomed to fasten its bladder to a stick which is placed upright near the hut or encampment for three days.

When a house is deserted the Aivillirmiut are in the habit of carrying all the bones lying inside to some distance and putting them upon the ice (Hall II, p. 175). If they intend to move to a place some distance away they are in the habit of burying some of their clothing. Klutschak observed this custom among the Netchillirmiut; I myself, among the Akudnirmiut. If a great number of families leave a village those who remain build new houses, as they believe that they would otherwise have bad luck in hunting.

A great number of regulations refer to the behavior of women during menstruation. They are not allowed to eat raw meat, they must cook in separate pots, and are not permitted to join in festivals, being looked upon as unclean during this period. Customs referring to childbirth and sickness will be found further on (see p. 609).

When a traveling party visits a neighboring tribe it is obliged to adopt the customs and regulations of the latter.

This account does not by any means include all the peculiar customs of these people, for they are so numerous and the difficulty of finding out anything pertaining to this subject is so great that it is probable that the greater part of them have escaped notice.

I shall also mention a few customs that are peculiar to certain places. At Qeqertelung, east of Naujateling, in Cumberland Sound, the Eskimo dig potstone, but must buy it from the rock: that is, having dug out a piece, they must give the rock something in exchange; for example, ivory carvings, beads, food, or the like.

At Arligaulik, near Wager River, the Eskimo address a large rock and bid it farewell when passing (Hall II, p. 174).

In Cumberland Sound there is a cape called Iliqimisarbing, i.e., the place of headshaking. The place is very dangerous, as heavy squalls sweep down the steep rocks and slides frequently occur. Therefore the natives never pass it without shaking their heads, at the same time uttering a deep murmur.

Besides the tornait already mentioned, a number of others are known which cannot become genii of men. A spirit of the sea, Kalopaling or Mitiling, is described in a tradition (see p. 620). In Erdmann’s Wörterbuch des Labradordialectes “Mitiling” is translated Gespenst, i.e., ghost. No doubt it is the name of the same spirit or at least of a similar one which is recognized among the northern tribes, the literal translation being “with eider ducks.” Another spirit of which the natives are in great fear is Qiqirn, a phantom in the shape of a huge dog almost without hair. Like the bear which has been alluded to, it has hair only at the mouth, the feet, and the points of the ears and the tail. If it comes near dogs or men they fall into fits and only recover when Qiqirn has left. It is exceedingly afraid of men and runs away as soon as an angakoq descries it.

A very remarkable tornaq is the qaggim inua, i.e., master of the dancing house. The natives build large houses for feasting, singing, and dancing, which are devoted to spirits. This tornaq has the shape of a bandy legged man, his knees being bent outward and forward. He has not a single hair upon his entire body and no bones at the back of his head. To touch him would result in immediate death (see p. 636).

Besides these tornait, more powerful supernatural beings are known, who are “owners” (inua) of the stars and constellations and of meteorologic processes. Moon and sun are considered brother and sister, and in this the tradition of the Central Eskimo exactly corresponds with that of the Greenlanders. It is even known among the Eskimo of Point Barrow (Simpson, p. 940). From Repulse Bay (Aivillirmiut) a few scanty traces of this tradition are recorded by Rae (I, p. 79). He relates as follows:

It is said that many years ago, not long after the creation of the world, there was a mighty conjurer, who gained so much power that at last he raised himself up into the heavens, taking with him his sister (a beautiful girl) and a fire. To the latter he added great quantities of fuel, which thus formed the sun. For some time he and his sister lived in great harmony, but at last they disagreed, and he, in addition to maltreating the lady in many ways, at last scorched the side of her face. She had suffered patiently all sorts of indignities, but the spoiling of her beauty was not to be borne; she therefore ran away from him and formed the moon, and continues so until this day. Her brother is still in chase of her, but although he gets near, he will never overtake her. When it is new moon, the burnt side of the face is towards us; when full moon, the reverse is the case.

The following form of the legend, which I received from some Akudnirmiut and Oqomiut, is almost identical with the Greenland one:

In olden times a brother and his sister lived in a large village in which there was a singing house, and every night the sister with her playfellows enjoyed themselves in this house. Once upon a time, when all the lamps in the singing house were extinguished, somebody came in and outraged her. She was unable to recognize him; but she blackened her hands with soot and when the same again happened besmeared the man’s back with it. When the lamps were relighted she saw that the violator was her brother. In great anger she sharpened a knife and cut off her breasts, which she offered to him, saying: “Since you seem to relish me, eat this.” Her brother fell into a passion and she fled from him, running about the room. She seized a piece of wood (with which the lamps are kept in order) which was burning brightly and rushed out of the house. The brother took another one, but in his pursuit he fell down and extinguished his light, which continued to glow only faintly. Gradually both were lifted up and continued their course in the sky, the sister being transformed into the sun, the brother into the moon. Whenever the new moon first appears she sings:

Aningaga tapika, takirn tapika qaumidjatedlirpoq; qaumatitaudle.
Aningaga tapika, tikipoq tapika.

(My brother up there, the moon up there begins to shine; he will be bright.

My brother up there, he is coming up there.)

The Flight to the Moon.

There exists another tradition in regard to the spirit of the moon, which is also known to the Greenlanders. While in the first tradition the moon is a man carrying a glowing light, in the other she is the moon man’s house (Rink, p. 440). The legend, as told by the Oqomiut and Akudnirmiut, is the narrative of the flight of an angakoq to the moon and is as follows:

A mighty angakoq, who had a bear for his tornaq, resolved to pay a visit to the moon. He sat down in the rear of his hut, turning his back toward the lamps, which had been extinguished. He had his hands tied up and a thong fastened around his knees and neck. Then he summoned his tornaq, which carried him rapidly through the air and brought him to the moon. He observed that the moon was a house, nicely covered with white deerskins, which the man in the moon used to dry near it. On each side of the entrance was the upper portion of the body of an enormous walrus, which threatened to tear in pieces the bold intruder. Though it was dangerous to pass by the fierce animals, the angakoq, by help of his tornaq, succeeded in entering the house.

In the passage he saw the only dog of the man of the moon, which is called Tirie´tiang and is dappled white and red. On entering the main room he perceived, to the left, a small additional building, in which a beautiful woman, the sun, sat before her lamp. As soon as she saw the angakoq entering she blew her fire, behind the blaze of which she hid herself. The man in the moon came to meet him kindly, stepping from the seat on the ledge and bidding the stranger welcome. Behind the lamps great heaps of venison and seal meat were piled up, but the man of the moon did not yet offer him anything. He said: “My wife, Ululiernang, will soon enter and we will perform a dance. Mind that you do not laugh, else she will slit open your belly with her knife, take out your intestines, and give them to my ermine which lives in yon little house outside.”

Before long a woman entered carrying an oblong vessel in which her ulo (see p. 518) lay. She put it on the floor and stooped forward, turning the vessel like a whirligig. Then she commenced dancing, and when she turned her back toward the angakoq it was made manifest that she was hollow. She had no back, backbone, or entrails, but only lungs and heart.

The man joined her dance and their attitudes and grimaces looked so funny that the angakoq could scarcely keep from laughing. But just at the right moment he called to mind the warnings of the man in the moon and rushed out of the house. The man cried after him, “Uqsureliktaleqdjuin” (“Provide yourself with your large white bear tornaq”). Thus he escaped unhurt.

Upon another visit he succeeded in mastering his inclination to laugh and was hospitably received by the man after the performance was finished. He showed him all around the house and let him look into a small additional building near the entrance. There he saw large herds of deer apparently roaming over vast plains, and the man of the moon allowed him to choose one animal, which fell immediately through a hole upon the earth. In another building he saw a profusion of seals swimming in an ocean and was allowed to pick out one of these also. At last the man in the moon sent him away, when his tornaq carried him back to his hut as quickly as he had left it.

During his visit to the moon his body had lain motionless and soulless, but now it revived. The thongs with which his hands had been fastened had fallen down, though they had been tied in firm knots. The angakoq felt almost exhausted, and when the lamps were relighted he related to the eagerly listening men his adventures during his flight to the moon.

It is related in the course of this tradition that the man in the moon has a qaumat, some kind of light or fire, but I could not reach a satisfactory understanding of the meaning of this word. It is derived from qauq (daylight) and is used in Greenland for the moon herself. Among the Eskimo of Baffin Land it is only employed in the angakoq language, in which the moon is called qaumavun, the sun qaumativun. Another name of the moon is aninga (her brother), in reference to the first legend. The natives also believe that the man in the moon makes the snow. He is generally considered a protector of orphans and of the poor, and sometimes descends from his house on a sledge drawn by his dog, Tirie´tiang, in order to help them (see the tradition of Qaudjaqdjuq, p. 630).

Kadlu the Thunderer.

It is said that three sisters make the lightning, the thunder, and the rain. The names of two of them are Ingnirtung (the one who strikes the fire) and Udluqtung (the one who rubs the skins), whose second name is Kadlu (thunder), while that of the third I could not ascertain. They live in a large house the walls of which are supported by whale ribs. It stands in the far west, at a great distance from the sea, as Kadlu and her sisters do not like to go near it. If an Eskimo should happen to enter the house he must hasten away or Ingnirtung will immediately kill him with her lightning. Even the stones are afraid of her and jump down the hills whenever they see the lightning and hear the thunder. The faces of the sisters are entirely black and they wear no clothes at all.(?) Ingnirtung makes the lightning by striking two red stones together (flint). Kadlu makes the thunder by rubbing sealskins and singing. The third sister makes the rain by urinating. They procure food by striking reindeer with the lightning, which singes their skins and roasts their flesh. The Akudnirmiut say that beyond Iglulik, on the continent of America, a large tribe of Eskimo live whom they call Kakī´joq. The women of the tribe are said to have rings tattooed round their eyes. These natives offer the dried skins of a species of small seals to Kadlu, who uses them for making the thunder.

Feasts, Religious and Secular.

The Eskimo have some very interesting feasts, most of which are closely connected with their religious notions. In summer feasts are celebrated in the open air, but in winter a house, called qaggi, or, as we may call it, singing house, is built for that purpose.

The plan of the house which is used by the eastern tribes is represented in Fig. 531. It is a large snow dome about fifteen feet in height and twenty feet in diameter, without any lining. In the center there is a snow pillar five feet high, on which the lamps stand. When the inhabitants of a village assemble in this building for singing and dancing the married women stand in a row next the wall. The unmarried women form a circle inside the former, while the men sit in the innermost row. The children stand in two groups, one at each side of the door. When the feast begins, a man takes up the drum (kilaut), which will be described presently, steps into the open space next the door, and begins singing and dancing. Among the stone foundations of Niutang, in Kingnait (Cumberland Sound), there is a qaggi built on the same plan as the snow structure. Probably it was covered with a snow roof when in use.

Hall gives the plan of the Hudson Bay qaggi (Fig. 532), a copy of which is here introduced, as well as his description of the drum (Fig. 533), which I have never seen made (Hall II, p. 96):

The drum is made from the skin of the deer [or seal], which is stretched over a hoop made of wood, or of bone from the fin of a whale, by the use of a strong, braided cord of sinew passed around a groove on the outside. The hoop is about 2½ inches wide, 1½ inches thick, and 3 feet in diameter, the whole instrument weighing about 4 pounds. The wooden drumstick, 10 inches in length and 3 inches in diameter, is called a kentun. ***

The deerskin which is to be the head of the instrument is kept frozen when not in use. It is then thoroughly saturated with water, drawn over the hoop, and temporarily fastened in its place by a piece of sinew. A line of heavy, twisted sinew, about 50 feet long, is now wound tightly on the groove on the outside of the hoop, binding down the skin. This cord is fastened to the handle of the kilaut [drum], which is made to turn by the force of several men (while its other end is held firmly), and the line eased out as required. To do this a man sits on the bed-platform, “having one or two turns of the line about his body, which is encased in furred deerskins, and empaled by four upright pieces of wood.” Tension is secured by using a round stick of wood as a lever on the edge of the skin, drawing it from beneath the cord. When any whirring sound is heard, little whisps of reindeer hair are tucked in between the skin and the hoop, until the head is as tight as a drum.

performer, who strikes the edge of the rim opposite that over which the skin is stretched. He holds the drum in different positions, but keeps it in a constant fan-like motion by his hand and by the blows of the kentun struck alternately on the opposite sides of the edge. Skillfully keeping the drum vibrating on the handle, he accompanies this with grotesque motions of the body, and at intervals with a song, while the women keep up their own Inuit songs, one after another, through the whole performance.

The feast is described as follows:

As usual the women sat on the platform Turk fashion; the men, behind them with extended legs. The women were gayly dressed. They wore on each side of the face an enormous pigtail, made by wrapping their hair on a small wooden roller a foot in length; strips of reindeer-fur being wrapped with the hair [see p. 559]. These were black and white for those who had sons and black only for those who had none. Shining ornaments were worn on the head and on the breast they had masonic-like aprons, the groundwork of which was of a flaming red color, ornamented with glass beads of many colors.

In Cumberland Sound the women also wear pigtails at the celebration of these feasts. The drum is sometimes played with the wrist of the right hand instead of the beater.

Every singing house is dedicated to a tornaq, the qaggim inua, as mentioned above. For this reason all these performances may be considered religious feasts.

The songs are always composed by the singer himself. Satiric songs are great favorites on these occasions. While the men listen in silence the women join in the chorus, amna aya, the never failing end of each verse. The dancer remains on one spot only, stamping rhythmically with the feet, swinging the upper part of his body, and at the same time playing the kilaut. While dancing he always strips the upper part of the body, keeping on only trousers and boots. Singing and dancing are alternated with wrestling matches and playing at hook and crook. Almost every great success in hunting is celebrated in the qaggi, and especially the capture of a whale. Such a feast has been described by Parry.

The stone foundations observed by Parry and copied here (Fig. 534) are probably the remains of singing houses. Parry’s description is as follows (II, p. 362):

It appears that the whole whale or a principal part of it is dragged into the enclosure, where some of the men are employed in cutting it up and throwing the pieces over the wall to the rest, who stand ready to receive them outside; while within the women range themselves in a circle around the whale and continue singing during the operation. * * * Each of these structures * * * was the distinct property of a particular individual; and had probably, in its turn, been the seat of feasting and merriment either to the present owner, or those from whom he had inherited it.

Great feasts closely connected with the Sedna tradition are celebrated every fall.

When late in the fall storms rage over the land and release the sea from the icy fetters by which it is as yet but slightly bound, when the loosened floes are driven one against the other and break up with loud crashes, when the cakes of ice are piled in wild disorder one upon another, the Eskimo believes he hears the voices of spirits which inhabit the mischief laden air.

The spirits of the dead, the tupilaq, knock wildly at the huts, which they cannot enter, and woe to the unhappy person whom they can lay hold of. He immediately sickens and a speedy death is regarded as sure to come. The wicked qiqirn pursues the dogs, which die with convulsions and cramps as soon as they see him. All the countless spirits of evil are aroused, striving to bring sickness and death, bad weather, and failure in hunting. The worst visitors are Sedna, mistress of the under world, and her father, to whose share the dead Inuit fall. While the other spirits fill the air and the water, she rises from under the ground.

It is then a busy season for the wizards. In every hut we may hear them singing and praying; conjuring of the spirits is going on in every house. The lamps burn low. The wizard sits in a mystic gloom in the rear of the hut. He has thrown off his outer coat and drawn the hood of his inner garment over his head, while he mutters indescribable sounds, unnatural to a human voice. At last the guardian spirit responds to the invocation. The angakoq lies in a trance and when he comes to himself he promises in incoherent phrases the help of the good spirit against the tupilaq and informs the credulous, affrighted Inuit how they can escape from the dreaded ghosts.

The hardest task, that of driving away Sedna, is reserved for the most powerful angakoq. A rope is coiled on the floor of a large hut in such a manner as to leave a small opening at the top, which represents the breathing hole of a seal. Two angakut stand by the side of it, one of them holding the seal spear in his left hand, as if he were watching at the seal hole in the winter, the other holding the harpoon line. Another angakoq, whose office it is to lure Sedna up with a magic song, sits at the back of the hut. At last she comes up through the hard rocks and the wizard hears her heavy breathing; now she emerges from the ground and meets the angakoq waiting at the hole. She is harpooned and sinks away in angry haste, drawing after her the harpoon, to which the two men hold with all their strength. Only by a desperate effort does she tear herself away from it and return to her dwelling in Adlivun. Nothing is left with the two men but the blood sprinkled harpoon, which they proudly show to the Inuit.

Sedna and the other evil spirits are at last driven away, and on the following day a great festival for young and old is celebrated in honor of the event. But they must still be careful, for the wounded Sedna is greatly enraged and will seize any one whom she can find out of his hut; so on this day they all wear protecting amulets (koukparmiutang) on the tops of their hoods. Parts of the first garment which they wore after birth are used for this purpose.

The men assemble early in the morning in the middle of the settlement. As soon as they have all got together they run screaming and jumping around the houses, following the course of the sun (nunajisartung or kaivitijung). A few, dressed in women’s jackets, run in the opposite direction. These are those who were born in abnormal presentations. The circuit made, they visit every hut, and the woman of the house must always be in waiting for them. When she hears the noise of the band she comes out and throws a dish containing little gifts of meat, ivory trinkets, and articles of sealskin into the yelling crowd, of which each one helps himself to what he can get. No hut is omitted in this round (irqatatung).

The crowd next divides itself into two parties, the ptarmigans (aχigirn), those who were born in the winter, and the ducks (aggirn), or the children of summer. A large rope of sealskin is stretched out. One party takes one end of it and tries with all its might to drag the opposite party over to its side. The others hold fast to the rope and try as hard to make ground for themselves. If the ptarmigans give way the summer has won the game and fine weather may be expected to prevail through the winter (nussueraqtung).

The contest of the seasons having been decided, the women bring out of a hut a large kettle of water and each person takes his drinking cup. They all stand as near the kettle as possible, while the oldest man among them steps out first. He dips a cup of water from the vessel, sprinkles a few drops on the ground, turns his face toward the home of his youth, and tells his name and the place of his birth (oχsoaχsavepunga——me, I was born in ——). He is followed by an aged woman, who announces her name and home, and then all the others do the same, down to the young children, who are represented by their mothers. Only the parents of children born during the last year are forbidden to partake in this ceremony. As the words of the old are listened to respectfully, so those of the distinguished hunters are received with demonstrative applause and those of the others with varying degrees of attention, in some cases even with joking and raillery (imitijung).

Now arises a cry of surprise and all eyes are turned toward a hut out of which stalk two gigantic figures. They wear heavy boots; their legs are swelled out to a wonderful thickness with several pairs of breeches; the shoulders of each are covered by a woman’s over-jacket and the faces by tattooed masks of sealskins. In the right hand each carries the seal spear, on the back of each is an inflated buoy of sealskin, and in the left hand the scraper. Silently, with long strides, the qailertetang (Fig. 535) approach the assembly, who, screaming, press back from them. The pair solemnly lead the men to a suitable spot and set them in a row, and the women in another opposite them. They match the men and women in pairs and these pairs run, pursued by the qailertetang, to the hut of the woman, where they are for the following day and night man and wife (nulianititijung). Having performed this duty, the qailertetang stride down to the shore and invoke the good north wind, which brings fair weather, while they warn off the unfavorable south wind.

As soon as the incantation is over, all the men attack the qailertetang with great noise. They act as if they had weapons in their hands and would kill both spirits. One pretends to probe them with a spear, another to stab them with a knife, one to cut off their arms and legs, another to beat them unmercifully on the head. The buoys which they carry on their backs are ripped open and collapse and soon they both lie as if dead beside their broken weapons (pilektung). The Eskimo leave them to get their drinking cups and the qailertetang awake to new life. Each man fills his sealskin with water, passes a cup to them, and inquires about the future, about the fortunes of the hunt and the events of life. The qailertetang answer in murmurs which the questioner must interpret for himself.

The evening is spent in playing ball, which is whipped all around the settlement (ajuktaqtung). (See Appendix, Note 6.)

This feast is celebrated as here described in Cumberland Sound and Nugumiut. Hall and Kumlien make a few observations in regard to it, but the latter has evidently misunderstood its meaning. His description is as follows (p. 43):

An angakoq dresses himself up in the most hideous manner, having several pairs of pants on among the rest, and a horrid looking mask of skins. The men and women now range themselves in separate and opposite ranks, and the angakoq takes his place between them. He then picks out a man and conducts him to a woman in the opposite ranks. This couple then go to the woman’s hut and have a grand spree for a day or two. This manner of proceeding is kept up till all the women but one are disposed of. This one is always the angakoq’s choice, and her he reserves for himself.

Another description by Kumlien (p. 19) evidently refers to the same feast:

They have an interesting custom or superstition, namely, the killing of the evil spirit of the deer; sometime during the winter or early in spring, at any rate before they can go deer hunting, they congregate together and dispose of this imaginary evil. The chief ancut [angakoq], or medicine man, is the main performer. He goes through a number of gyrations and contortions, constantly hallooing and calling, till suddenly the imaginary deer is among them. Now begins a lively time. Every one is screaming, running, jumping, spearing, and stabbing at the imaginary deer, till one would think a whole madhouse was let loose. Often this deer proves very agile, and must be hard to kill, for I have known them to keep this performance up for days; in fact, till they were completely exhausted.

During one of these performances an old man speared the deer, another knocked out an eye, a third stabbed him, and so on till he was dead. Those who are able or fortunate enough to inflict some injury on this bad deer, especially he who inflicts the death blow, is considered extremely lucky, as he will have no difficulty in procuring as many deer as he wants, for there is no longer an evil spirit to turn his bullets or arrows from their course.

I could not learn anything about this ceremony, though I asked all the persons with whom Kumlien had had intercourse. Probably there was some misunderstanding as to the meaning of their feast during the autumn which induced him to give this report.

Hall describes the feast as celebrated by the Nugumiut (I, p. 528), as follows:

At a time of the year apparently answering to our Christmas, they have a general meeting in a large igdlu [snow house] on a certain evening. There the angakoq prays on behalf of the people for the public prosperity through the subsequent year. Then follows something like a feast. The next day all go out into the open air and form in a circle; in the centre is placed a vessel of water, and each member of the company brings a piece of meat, the kind being immaterial. The circle being formed, each person eats his or her meat in silence, thinking of Sedna, and wishing for good things. Then one in the circle takes a cup, dips up some of the water, all the time thinking of Sedna, and drinks it; and then, before passing the cup to another, states audibly the time and the place of his or her birth. This ceremony is performed by all in succession. Finally, presents of various articles are thrown from one to another, with the idea that each will receive of Sedna good things in proportion to the liberality here shown.

Soon after this occasion, at a time which answers to our New Year’s day, two men start out, one of them being dressed to represent a woman, and go to every house in the village, blowing out the light in each. The lights are afterwards rekindled from a fresh fire. When Taqulitu [Hall’s well known companion in his journeys] was asked the meaning of this, she replied, “New sun—new light,” implying a belief that the sun was at that time renewed for the year.

Inasmuch as Hall did not see the feast himself, but had only a description by an Eskimo, into which he introduced points of similarity with Christian feasts, it may be looked upon as fairly agreeing with the feast of the Oqomiut. The latter part corresponds to the celebration of the feast as it is celebrated in Akudnirn.

According to a statement in the journal of Hall’s second expedition (II, p. 219) masks are also used on the western shore of Hudson Bay, where it seems that all the natives disguise themselves on this occasion.

The Akudnirmiut celebrate the feast in the following way: The qailertetang do not act a part there, but other masks take their place. They are called mirqussang and represent a man and his wife. They wear masks of the skin of the ground seal, only that of the woman being tattooed. The hair of the man is arranged in a bunch protruding from the forehead (sulubaut), that of the woman in a pigtail on each side and a large knot at the back of the head. Their left legs are tied up by a thong running around the neck and the knee, compelling them to hobble. They have neither seal float and spear nor inflated legs, but carry the skin scraper. They must try to enter the huts while the Inuit hold a long sealskin thong before them to keep them off. If they fall down in the attempt to cross it they are thoroughly beaten with a short whip or with sticks. After having succeeded in entering the huts they blow out all the fires.

The parts of the feast already described as celebrated in Cumberland Sound seem not to be customary in Akudnirn, the conjuration of Sedna and the exchanges of wives excepted, which are also practiced here. Sometimes the latter ceremony takes place the night before the feast. It is called suluiting or quvietung.

When it is quite dark a number of Inuit come out of their huts and run crying all round their settlements. Wherever anybody is asleep they climb upon the roof of his hut and rouse him by screaming and shouting until all have assembled outside. Then a woman and a man (the mirqussang) sit down in the snow. The man holds a knife (sulung) in his hand, from which the feast takes its name, and sings:

Oangaja jaja jajaja aja.

Pissiungmipadlo panginejernago

Qodlungutaokpan panginejerlugping

Pissiungmipadlo panginejernago.

To this song the woman keeps time by moving her body and her arms, at the same time flinging snow on the bystanders. Then the whole company goes into the singing house and joins in dancing and singing. This done, the men must leave the house and stand outside while the mirqussang watch the entrance. The women continue singing and leave the house one by one. They are awaited by the mirqussang, who lead every one to one of the men standing about. The pair must re-enter the singing house and walk around the lamp, all the men and women crying, “Hrr! hrr!” from both corners of the mouth. Then they go to the woman’s hut, where they stay during the ensuing night. The feast is frequently celebrated by all the tribes of Davis and Hudson Strait, and even independently of the great feast described above.

The day after, the men frequently join in a shooting match. A target is set up, at which they shoot their arrows. As soon as a man hits, the women, who stand looking on, rush forward and rub noses with him.

If a stranger unknown to the inhabitants of a settlement arrives on a visit he is welcomed by the celebration of a great feast. Among the southeastern tribes the natives arrange themselves in a row, one man standing in front of it. The stranger approaches slowly, his arms folded and his head inclined toward the right side. Then the native strikes him with all his strength on the right cheek and in his turn inclines his head awaiting the stranger’s blow (tigluiqdjung). While this is going on the other men are playing at ball and singing (igdlukitaqtung). Thus they continue until one of the combatants is vanquished.

The ceremonies of greeting among the western tribes are similar to those of the eastern, but in addition “boxing, wrestling, and knife testing” are mentioned by travelers who have visited them. In Davis Strait and probably in all the other countries the game of “hook and crook” is always played on the arrival of a stranger (pakijumijartung). Two men sit down on a large skin, after having stripped the upper part of their bodies, and each tries to stretch out the bent arm of the other. These games are sometimes dangerous, as the victor has the right to kill his adversary; but generally the feast ends peaceably. The ceremonies of the western tribes in greeting a stranger are much feared by their eastern neighbors and therefore intercourse is somewhat restricted. The meaning of the duel, according to the natives themselves, is “that the two men in meeting wish to know which of them is the better man.” The similarity of these ceremonies with those of Greenland, where the game of hook and crook and wrestling matches have been customary, is quite striking, as is that of the explanation of these ceremonies.

The word for greeting on Davis Strait and Hudson Strait, is Assojutidlin? (Are you quite well?) and the answer, Tabaujuradlu (Very well). The word Taima! which is used in Hudson Strait, and Mane taima! of the Netchillirmiut seem to be similar to our Halloo! The Ukusiksalirmiut say Ilaga! (My friend!)

Customs and Regulations Concerning Birth, Sickness, and Death.

I have mentioned that it is extremely difficult to find out the innumerable regulations connected with the religious ideas and customs of the Eskimo. The difficulty is even greater in regard to the customs which refer to birth, sickness, and death, and it is no wonder that, while some of the accounts of different writers coincide tolerably well, there are great discrepancies in others, particularly as the customs vary to a great extent among the different tribes.

Before the child is born a small hut or snow house is built for the mother, in which she awaits her delivery. Sick persons are isolated in the same way, the reason being that in case of death everything that had been in contact with the deceased must be destroyed. According to Kumlien (p. 28) the woman is left with only one attendant, a young girl appointed by the head ancut (angakoq) of the encampment; but this, no doubt, is an error. She may be visited by her friends, who, however, must leave her when parturition takes place. She must cut the navel string herself, and in Davis Strait this is done by tying it through with deer sinews; in Iglulik (Lyon, p. 370), by cutting it with a stone spear head. The child is cleaned with a birdskin and clothed in a small gown of the same material. According to Lyon the Iglulirmiut swathe it with the dried intestines of some animal.

Kumlien describes a remarkable custom of which I could find no trace, not even upon direct inquiry (p. 281):

As soon as the mother with her new born babe is able to get up and go out, usually but a few hours, they are taken in charge by an aged female angakoq, who seems to have some particular mission to perform in such cases. She conducts them to some level spot on the ice, if near the sea, and begins a sort of march in circles on the ice, the mother following with the child on her back; this manœuvre is kept up for some time, the old woman going through a number of performances the nature of which we could not learn and continually muttering something equally unintelligible to us. The next act is to wade through snowdrifts, the aged angakoq leading the way. We have been informed that it is customary for the mother to wade thus bare-legged.

Lyon says (p. 370):

After a few days, or according to the fancy of the parents, an angakoq, who by relationship or long acquaintance is a friend of the family, makes use of some vessel, and with the urine the mother washes the infant, while all the gossips around pour forth their good wishes for the little one to prove an active man, if a boy, or, if a girl, the mother of plenty of children. This ceremony, I believe, is never omitted, and is called qoqsiuariva.

Though I heard about the washing with urine, I did not learn anything about the rest of the ceremony in Cumberland Sound and Davis Strait.

A few days after birth the first dress of the child is exchanged for another. A small hood made from the skin of a hare’s head is fitted snugly upon the head, a jacket for the upper part of the body is made of the skin of a fawn, and two small boots, made of the same kind of a skin, the left one being wreathed with seaweed (Fucus), cover the legs. While the child wears this clothing that which was first worn is fastened to a pole which is secured to the roof of the hut. In two months the child gets a third suit of clothes the same as formerly described (p. 557). Then the second gown is exposed for some time on the top of the hut, the first one being taken down, and both are carefully preserved for a year. After this time has expired both are once more exposed on the top of a pole and then sunk into the sea, a portion of the birdskin dress alone being kept, for this is considered a powerful amulet and is held in high esteem and worn every fall at the Sedna feast on the point of the hood (see p. 604). I have stated that those who were born in abnormal presentations wear women’s dresses at this feast and must make their round in a direction opposite to the movement of the sun. Captain Spicer, of Groton, Conn., affirms that the bird used for the first clothing is chosen according to a strict law, every month having its own bird. So far as I know, waterfowl are used in summer and the ptarmigan in winter, and accordingly the men are called at the great autumn feast the ducks and ptarmigans, the former including those who were born in summer, the latter those born in winter.

As long as any portion of the navel string remains a strip of sealskin is worn around the belly.

After the birth of her child the mother must observe a great number of regulations, referring particularly to food and work. She is not allowed for a whole year to eat raw meat or a part of any animal killed by being shot through the heart. In Cumberland Sound she must not eat for five days anything except meat of an animal killed by her husband or by a boy on his first hunting expedition. This custom seems to be observed more strictly, however, and for a longer period if the new born child dies. Two months after delivery she must make a call at every hut, while before that time she is not allowed to enter any but her own. At the end of this period she must also throw away her old clothing. The same custom was observed by Hall among the Nugumiut (I, p. 426). On the western shore of Hudson Bay she is permitted to re-enter the hut a few days after delivery, but must pass in by a separate entrance. An opening is cut for the purpose through the snow wall. She must keep a little skin bag hung up near her, into which she must put a little of her food after each meal, having first put it up to her mouth. This is called laying up food for the infant, although none is given to it (Hall II, p. 173). I have already mentioned that the parents are not allowed in the first year after the birth of a child to take part in the Sedna feast.

The customs which are associated with the death of an infant are very complicated. For a whole year, when outside the hut, the mother must have her head covered with a cap, or at least with a piece of skin. If a ground seal is caught she must throw away the old cap and have a new one made. The boots of the deceased are always carried about by the parents when traveling, and whenever they stop these are buried in the snow or under stones. Neither parent is allowed to eat raw flesh during the following year. The woman must cook her food in a small pot which is exclusively used by her. If she is about to enter a hut the men who may be sitting inside must come out first, and not until they have come out is she allowed to enter. If she wants to go out of the hut she must walk around all the men who may happen to be there.

The child is sometimes named before it is born. Lyon says upon this subject (p. 369):

Some relative or friend lays her hand on the mother’s stomach, and decides what the infant is to be called, and, as the names serve for either sex, it is of no consequence whether it proves a girl or a boy.

On Davis Strait it is always named after the persons who have died since the last birth took place, and therefore the number of names of an Eskimo is sometimes rather large. If a relative dies while the child is younger than four years or so, his name is added to the old ones and becomes the proper name by which it is called. It is possible that children receive the names of all the persons in the settlement who die while the children are quite young, but of this I am not absolutely certain. When a person falls sick the angakut change his name in order to ward off the disease or they consecrate him as a dog to Sedna. In the latter event he gets a dog’s name and must wear throughout life a harness over the inner jacket. Thus it may happen that Eskimo are known in different tribes by different names. It may also be mentioned here that friends sometimes exchange names and dogs are called by the name of a friend as a token of regard.

The treatment of the sick is the task of the angakoq, whose manipulations have been described.

If it is feared that a disease will prove fatal, a small snow house or a hut is built, according to the season, into which the patient is carried through an opening at the back. This opening is then closed, and subsequently a door is cut out. A small quantity of food is placed in the hut, but the patient is left without attendants. As long as there is no fear of sudden death the relatives and friends may come to visit him, but when death is impending the house is shut up and he is left alone to die. If it should happen that a person dies in a hut among its inmates, everything belonging to the hut must be destroyed or thrown away, even the tools &c. lying inside becoming useless to the survivors, but the tent poles may be used again after a year has elapsed. No doubt this custom explains the isolation of the sick. If a child dies in a hut and the mother immediately rushes out with it, the contents of the hut may be saved.

Though the Eskimo feel the greatest awe in touching a dead body, the sick await their death with admirable coolness and without the least sign of fear or unwillingness to die. I remember a young girl who sent for me a few hours before her death and asked me to give her some tobacco and bread, which she wanted to take to her mother, who had died a few weeks before.

Only the relatives are allowed to touch the body of the deceased. They clothe it or wrap it in deerskins and bury it at once. In former times they always built a tomb, at least when death occurred in the summer. From its usual dimensions one would suppose that the body was buried with the legs doubled up, for all of them are too short for grown persons. If the person to be buried is young, his feet are placed in the direction of the rising sun, those of the aged in the opposite direction. According to Lyon the Iglulirmiut bury half grown children with the feet towards the southeast, young men and women with the feet towards the south, and middle aged persons with the feet towards the southwest. This agrees with the fact that the graves in Cumberland Sound do not all lie east and west. The tomb is always vaulted, as any stone or piece of snow resting upon the body is believed to be a burden to the soul of the deceased. The man’s hunting implements and other utensils are placed by the side of his grave; the pots, the lamps, knives, &c., by the side of that of the woman; toys, by that of a child. Hall (I, p. 103) observed in a grave a small kettle hung up over a lamp. These objects are held in great respect and are never removed, at least as long as it is known to whose grave they belong. Sometimes models of implements are used for this purpose instead of the objects themselves. Figure 536 represents a model of a lamp found in a grave of Cumberland Sound. Nowadays the Eskimo place the body in a box, if they can procure one, or cover it very slightly with stones or snow. It is strange that, though the ceremonies of burying are very strictly attended to and though they take care to give the dead their belongings, they do not heed the opening of the graves by dogs or wolves and the devouring of the bodies and do not attempt to recover them when the graves are invaded by animals.

The body must be carried to the place of burial by the nearest relatives, a few others only accompanying it. For this purpose they rarely avail themselves of a sledge, as it cannot be used afterward, but must be left with the deceased. Dogs are never allowed to drag the sledge on such an occasion. After returning from the burial the relatives must lock themselves up in the old hut for three days, during which they mourn the loss of the deceased. During this time they do not dress their hair and they have their nostrils closed with a piece of deerskin. After this they leave the hut forever. The dogs are thrown into it through the window and allowed to devour whatever they can get at. For some time afterward the mourners must cook their meals in a separate pot. A strange custom was observed by Hall in Hudson Bay (II, p. 186). The mourners did not smoke. They kept their hoods on from morning till night. To the hood the skin and feathers of the head of Uria grylle were fastened and a feather of the same waterfowl to each arm just above the elbow. All male relatives of the deceased wore a belt around the waist, besides which they constantly wore mittens. It is probable that at the present time all Eskimo when in mourning avoid using implements of European manufacture and suspend the use of tobacco. It has already been stated that women who have lost a child must keep their heads covered.

Parry, Lyon (p. 369), and Klutschak (p. 201) state that when the Eskimo first hear of the death of a relative they throw themselves upon the ground and cry, not for grief, but as a mourning ceremony.

For three or sometimes even four days after a death the inhabitants of a village must not use their dogs, but must walk to the hunting ground, and for one day at least they are not allowed to go hunting at all. The women must stop all kinds of work.

On the third day after death the relatives visit the tomb and travel around it three times in the same direction as the sun is moving, at the same time talking to the deceased and promising that they will bring him something to eat. According to Lyon the Iglulirmiut chant forth inquiries as to the welfare of the departed soul, whether it has reached the land Adli, if it has plenty of food, &c., at each question stopping at the head of the grave and repeating some ceremonial words (p. 371).

These visits to the grave are repeated a year after death and whenever they pass it in traveling. Sometimes they carry food to the deceased, which he is expected to return greatly increased. Hall describes this custom as practiced by the Nugumiut (I, p. 426). He says:

They took down small pieces of [deer] skin with the fur on, and of [fat]. When there they stood around [the] grave [of the woman] upon which they placed the articles they had brought. Then one of them stepped up, took a piece of the [deer meat], cut a slice and ate it, at the same time cutting off another slice and placing it under a stone by the grave. Then the knife was passed from one hand to the other, both hands being thrown behind the person. This form of shifting the implement was continued for perhaps a minute, the motions being accompanied by constant talk with the dead. Then a piece of [deer] fur and some [fat] were placed under the stone with an exclamation signifying, “Here is something to eat and something to keep you warm.” Each of the [natives] also went through the same forms. They never visit the grave of a departed friend until some months after death, and even then only when all the surviving members of the family have removed to another place. Whenever they return to the vicinity of their kindred’s grave, a visit is made to it with the best of food as a present for the departed one. Neither seal, polar bear, nor walrus, however, is taken.

According to Klutschak (p. 154), the natives of Hudson Bay avoid staying a long time on the salt water ice near the grave of a relative.

On the fourth day after death the relatives may go for the first time upon the ice, but the men are not allowed to hunt; on the next day they must go sealing, but without dogs and sledge, walking to the hunting ground and dragging the seal home. On the sixth day they are at liberty to use their dogs again. For a whole year they must not join in any festival and are not allowed to sing certain songs.

If a married woman dies the widower is not permitted to keep any part of the first seal he catches after her death except the flesh. Skin, blubber, bones, and entrails must be sunk in the sea.

All the relatives must have new suits of clothes made and before the others are cast away they are not allowed to enter a hut without having asked and obtained permission. (See Appendix, Note 7.)

Lyon (p. 368) makes the following statement on the mourning ceremonies in Iglulik:

Widows are forbidden for six months to taste of unboiled flesh; they wear no ***pigtails, and cut off a portion of their long hair in token of grief, while the remaining locks hang in loose disorder about their shoulders. ***After six months, the disconsolate ladies are at liberty to eat raw meat, to dress their pigtails and to marry as fast as they please; while in the meantime they either cohabit with their future husbands, if they have one, or distribute their favors more generally. A widower and his children remain during three days within the hut where his wife died, after which it is customary to remove to another. He is not allowed to fish or hunt for a whole season, or in that period to marry again. During the three days of lamentation all the relatives of the deceased are quite careless of their dress; their hair hangs wildly about, and, if possible, they are more than usually dirty in their persons. All visitors to a mourning family consider it as indispensably necessary to howl at their first entry.

I may add here that suicide is not of rare occurrence, as according to the religious ideas of the Eskimo the souls of those who die by violence go to Qudlivun, the happy land. For the same reason it is considered lawful for a man to kill his aged parents. In suicide death is generally brought about by hanging.