{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_68177/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_68177","id":"gutenberg_68177","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/68177","summary":null,"tags":["Baffin Island (Nunavut)","Category: Archaeology & Anthropology","Category: Travel Writing","Eskimo mythology","Eskimos -- Religion"],"text":"AMONG\n                             UNKNOWN ESKIMO\n\n             AN ACCOUNT OF TWELVE YEARS INTIMATE RELATIONS\n                 WITH THE PRIMITIVE ESKIMO OF ICE-BOUND\n                   BAFFIN LAND, WITH A DESCRIPTION OF\n                     THEIR WAYS OF LIVING, HUNTING\n                           CUSTOMS & BELIEFS\n\n\n                                   BY\n                            JULIAN W. BILBY\n\n                Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society\n                    Member of the Folk Lore Society\n\n\n\n                WITH THIRTY-THREE ILLUSTRATIONS & A MAP\n\n                              PHILADELPHIA\n                        J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY\n                  LONDON: SEELEY, SERVICE & CO., Ltd.\n                                  1923\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nIn offering the present book on the Eskimo tribes of the Arctics to the\nreading British public, I must discharge the grateful and pleasing duty\nof acknowledging my indebtedness for much courtesy and documentary\nassistance to the Canadian Government, in the person of F. C. C. Lynch,\nEsq., Superintendent of the \u201cNational Resources Branch of the\nDepartment of the Interior.\u201d He has been zealously instrumental in\nenabling me to consult sources of classic recent information of which\notherwise I should not have had the confirmation and the benefit, and\nalso has placed at my publishers\u2019 disposal the section of the official\nmap which represents the most up-to-date geographical information about\nBaffin Land.\n\nThere is a considerable literature about the Eskimo (as distinct from a\nquite formidable list of works dealing with travel and voyages in the\nArctics) which should be consulted by students of ethnography.\n\nThe classical authorities in this department are Dr Franz Boas and Dr\nRink, a study of whose researches should underlie all the more recent\nfirst-hand contributions to what must remain for a long time to come a\nnew subject.\n\nFor the photographs I am greatly indebted to the Rev. A. L. Fleming,\nL.T.H., who spent several years among the Eskimo of South Baffin Land.\nHis photos were taken during many intrepid journeys in those wilds, and\nhe knew exactly the scenes it was desired to record by photography in\nthis work. I am also indebted to Miss A. B. Teetgen for her assistance\nin the literary construction of the book.\n\nFinally, I wish to record my admiration and respect for the genial and\nbrave Eskimos of those barren lands, and for the way they face and\novercome the difficulties of the Arctic wilds.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\n                                                               PAGE\n    CHAPTER I\n    The Voyage to the Arctics                                    17\n\n    CHAPTER II\n    Baffin Land                                                  32\n\n    CHAPTER III\n    Arctic Flora & Fauna                                         47\n\n    CHAPTER IV\n    The Eskimo                                                   56\n\n    CHAPTER V\n    The Building of the Village                                  72\n\n    CHAPTER VI\n    The Sealing Grounds                                          85\n\n    CHAPTER VII\n    Womanhood in the Arctics                                     97\n\n    CHAPTER VIII\n    Clothing\u2014Boat Building                                      108\n\n    CHAPTER IX\n    Eskimo Dogs                                                 119\n\n    CHAPTER X\n    Tribal Life                                                 136\n\n    CHAPTER XI\n    Tribal Life\u2014continued                                       154\n\n    CHAPTER XII\n    The Eskimo Language                                         171\n\n    CHAPTER XIII\n    Legends                                                     184\n\n    CHAPTER XIV\n    The Conjurors                                               196\n\n    CHAPTER XV\n    The Sedna Ceremony                                          210\n\n    CHAPTER XVI\n    The Native Surgeon                                          224\n\n    CHAPTER XVII\n    Sport & Hunting                                             235\n\n    CHAPTER XVIII\n    The Creatures of the Wild                                   252\n\n    Appendix                                                    265\n\n    Index                                                       271\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.\n\n\n    A Woman of the Fox Channel Tribe                   Frontispiece\n                                                               PAGE\n    An Ancient Aboriginal Encampment                             40\n    Part of an Eskimo Tribe of Women and Children                56\n    An Iglovegak or Eskimo Dwelling                              64\n    An Eskimo Tupik                                              73\n    An Eskimo Snowhouse                                          76\n    An Eskimo Home                                               80\n    The Return of the Successful Seal Hunter in Springtime       88\n    Young Seal Hunting in May                                    92\n    Two Women in Summer Dress                                    96\n    A Young Wife with her Baby in her Hood                      104\n    Eskimo Family Group                                         104\n    Models of Kayak, Umiak, and Okushuk                         112\n    An Ancient Form of Sled                                     134\n    The Two Wives of a Hunter                                   144\n    An Eskimo Family outside their House                        144\n    Preparing for a Long Winter Journey                         160\n    A Native Chart                                              177\n    Asseak and his Wife                                         200\n    An Umiak or Family Boat                                     208\n    The Summer Tent or Tapik                                    208\n    A Conjuror\u2019s Mask                                           211\n    A Kagge or Singing House (Elevation)                        218\n    A Kagge or Singing House (Plan)                             219\n    An Eskimo Woman of the Fox Channel Tribe                    224\n    An Eskimo Summer Encampment                                 224\n    Specimens of Native Stone Carving                           232\n    An Eskimo in his Kayak                                      240\n    Beginning to Build a Snowhouse                              240\n    A Wolf Trap                                                 255\n    An Eskimo Trap for Bears, Foxes or Wolves                   257\n    A Seagull Trap                                              261\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE ESKIMO OF BAFFIN LAND\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nTHE VOYAGE TO THE ARCTICS\n\n\nA voyage to the Arctics has always been a dangerous and exciting\nadventure, whether entered upon by whalers and hunters, intrepid men\nlured by the hardy business of the frozen North, or by the no less\nintrepid pioneers of exploration and of science. For the moment, we are\nnot concerned with the latter, but rather with some aspects of life in\nthe barren lands and icy seas north of \u201cthe Circle,\u201d and with the\nadventures and experiences of the few ships\u2019 crews who have been making\nyearly voyages in those regions for trading purposes ever since the\nefforts of the sixteenth century navigators to discover the famous\nNorth West Passage began to chart out these hitherto unnavigated seas.\n\nThe search, indeed, for this passage, a sea route of communication\nbetween the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans (or, in other words, a short\nway to the East Indies without doubling the Cape of Good Hope)\u2014was\nincidentally the means of opening up the whole of the north polar\nregions to exploration and discovery. As early as the year 1527, the\nidea of such a passage was suggested to Henry VIII by a merchant of\nBristol; but it was not until the beginning of the following century\nthat a first expedition was fitted out at the expense of some London\nmerchants and despatched to the arctic seas.\n\nCenturies before this, however, the Arctic Ocean was entered by a\nNorwegian adventurer about the time of King Alfred; and the west coast\nof Greenland was colonised from Iceland early in the eleventh century.\nBut no further progress was made in arctic discovery until the\nsixteenth century, when various seas and points of land were mapped\nout, mainly in the eastern hemisphere. The navigator Henry Hudson\ndiscovered the Straits and Bay named after him in the great North\nAmerican archipelago, in 1610. Frobisher, Drake, and Hall, made voyages\nto the west coasts of Greenland and to the opposite coasts; but the\nentrance to the arctic regions west of that continent was discovered by\nJohn Davis in 1585. In 1616, Baffin and Bylot passed through this\npassage and sailed up Smith Sound, but nothing further was learned of\nthese parts for another two hundred years.\n\nThe Eskimo preserve to this day the story of Frobisher. It was, indeed,\nnarrated to the writer with a wealth of authentic detail by a native,\nto whom it had been handed down amid other oral traditions of his tribe\nand locality.\n\n\u201cNow it is said that Frobisher, coming to Nauyatlik for the first time,\nnot knowing the place or where there was a safe anchorage, crept along\nthe side (of the land) in his small ship, and was wrecked. For it was\nshallow water there, and getting aground, he ordered the fuel (coal) to\nbe taken out and carried ashore to a place called Akkelasak. For the\nship was no longer habitable. The crew found refuge on a small, flat\nisland, and pitched tents there of the vessel\u2019s sails, and began to\nfashion a graving dock by digging out the soft ground. When it was\nfinished, they towed the wreck to the spot and docked her. All this\nhappened a long time ago, but traces of their work are still visible.\nThe shipwrecked sailors overhauled the hull. When at length their\nrepairs and rebuilding were complete, they towed out the ship and\nmoored her alongside a cliff, at the top of which they fixed their\ntackle, unstepped and restepped the mast, their task being completed.\nAt last, and having buried those of their shipmates who had died during\nthis weary time, they abandoned the remainder of their fuel and set\nsail for home. This is the narrative of one who had it from her mother,\nwho in turn had received it from her dead father, who had it from his\nforbears; for thus they were accustomed to narrate it.\u201d\n\nThe above translation, of course, is very free. It would interest the\nphilologist to have it in the original, or even in a literal version;\nbut possibly the foregoing will convey to the general reader that\ngraphic grasp of the story which renders all Eskimo history so reliable\nand enduring.\n\nThe attempt to find a north west passage by sea, from the Atlantic\nOcean to Behring Strait, where farthest east meets farthest west, was\nabandoned until Commander John Ross, in modern times (1818), was sent\nout to prosecute further exploration in the Arctic. Throughout the\nnineteenth century, many intrepid voyages were made, with which the\nnames of such men as Parry, Ross, Richardson, Rae and Franklin are\nassociated. Prior to this wonderful epoch of dauntless adventure, all\nwithin the Arctic Circle upon the map was a blank. The entire geography\nof the Canadian arctic archipelago has been worked out, defined,\ncharted, and named, since that time. Voyages of discovery were made in\nrapid succession, after Sir John Ross\u2019s expedition in 1818, many of the\nleaders working in conjunction with the officials of the Hudson Bay Fur\nTrading Company, who were anxious to determine the extent and limits of\nthe immense continent they controlled, now known as the North West\nTerritories. Every name upon the arctic map, whether of sea, sound,\ninlet, strait, island, peninsula or cape, is a historical association\nwith the personnel or the patrons of these numerous expeditions.\n\nAll the islands of the Arctic Archipelago lying to the northward of the\nmainland of the continent, and the whole of Baffin Land, form part of\nthe British possessions in North America by right of discovery. They\nwere formally transferred to the Dominion of Canada by Order in Council\nof the Imperial Government on September 1st, 1880.\n\nAn immense amount of scientific information was derived from all this\nhardship, endurance and enterprise. The story of Sir John Franklin\nalone is a deathless epic in the annals of this seafaring nation. And\nthe whole field was opened up for the whalers, sealers, hunters and\nfishers, whose business it soon became to demonstrate that arctic\nexploration had a bearing on commerce and the hardier industries of\nmaritime mankind.\n\nThe whaling trade originated as early as the discoveries of Barentz and\nHudson, but Sir John Ross opened up the northernmost waters of Baffin\u2019s\nBay to it, in recent times. The search for the North West Passage,\nindeed, proved abortive for many years, owing to the fact that the\nseason in which it was possible to navigate in very high latitudes only\nlasted about seven weeks. The most experienced men, though, never gave\nup the theory of the probability of its existence. Half a century went\nby before the route was found at last. Captain McClure, in the search\nfor the long-lost Franklin, achieved the discovery of two routes to the\nBehring Straits and the Pacific Ocean, in the autumn of the year 1850.\nUseless and futile as the discovery proved to be, who can sufficiently\nestimate and appraise all that has gone, of human worth and high\nresolve, of suffering and of life itself, to the making of it?\n\nOf the whalers and traders who followed in the wake of the explorers,\nthe Scottish seamen have been the most persistent. Scotch vessels\ncontinue, to-day, to visit the Arctic every year. They sail from home\nin early summer, cross the North Atlantic, work their way up Davis\u2019\nStrait, and, (unless they winter on the coast of Baffin Land or\nGreenland), return to Scotland late in \u201cthe fall.\u201d Sometimes the\npractice was to make the passage, generally through open water, from\nDundee to St. John\u2019s, spend some weeks upon the sealing grounds, then\nreturn to refit at the Newfoundland port for a whaling cruise farther\nnorth in Lancaster Sound. Having secured their cargo of seal skins and\noil, they return home. The vessels of the Dundee whaling fleet are\ndesigned and built for navigation in northern seas. The hull is of\nwood, on account of its resisting power where pressed by ice, and the\nhardwood (\u201cgreenheart\u201d) sheathing minimises the abrasions caused by\nconflict with the jagged edges of the floes. The ship is immensely\nbraced by stout cross beams inside. The cutwater is protected by iron\nbands or plates, to enable her to withstand the heavy strain of the\nice. She is barque rigged (i.e., a square rigged vessel, having yards\non the foremast and mainmast, but not on the mizzen mast), and fitted\nwith steam, to enable her to proceed during a calm, to shear her way\nthrough ice, or to enter and leave harbour independently of wind or\ntide. On all other occasions she depends upon her sails. A whaler\nfitted after this fashion is called an \u201cauxiliary steam vessel.\u201d She\nsails, however, much faster than she can steam. She carries about 500\ntons of coal.\n\nMany of these tried and tested Scottish whaling ships have been bought\nup by the leaders of Arctic and Antarctic exploring expeditions, and\nremodelled and refitted for the scientific uses to which they would be\nput, and have done yeoman service in the assault on the Poles.\n\nOf late years the Hudson Bay Company (of historic and ubiquitous\nenterprise in Canada), have established posts on the southern shores of\nBaffin Land, (opposite to that northernmost region of the bleak\nLabrador known as Ungava), so that their ships, which sail from\nMontreal as annual supply ships for all the Company\u2019s \u201cForts\u201d and\n\u201cFactories\u201d along the Canadian coasts, have points of call along Hudson\nStrait en route for Hudson Bay itself and the fur ports of that vast\ninland sea.\n\nThe Scotch whaling industry has various agents posted in many a bleak,\nun-heard of spot along the icebound littoral of the Eskimo countries,\nwhose duty it is to collect and store the pelts brought in by the\nnatives\u2014employed by the agent\u2014and ship them away annually or\nbi-annually, as the case may be.\n\nA whaling voyage was filled, especially in the earlier days, with as\nmuch danger as adventure. The ships were manned by sailors who had\ntaken to the life as lads, or, held by the fascination of the North,\nreturned thither year after year, seldom caring to make voyages\nelsewhere. They lived amid the ice. True northman and fine seaman, many\na whaler\u2019s master is proud of the fact that he began his career as a\ncabin boy and worked his way aft. He is a fighter, every inch of him,\nsuch as only \u201cthe wild\u201d can breed. He has an iron code of honour, and a\nstrain of true Norse hardness in him for his enemy. But he has also the\nmanly virtues of his type\u2014fidelity to his fellows, and generosity to\nlesser men than himself.\n\nPrevious to an Arctic voyage, months were spent in the commissioning of\nthese vessels. Every rope and block was overhauled. The ships\u2019 boats\nwere rigorously tested and each carefully fitted out. Food and stores\nof all kinds were taken aboard wholesale, against every contingency\nexperience and foresight could suggest, especially that of a forced\nwintering in the north. An armoury of weapons was carried: harpoons and\nharpoon guns for the boats, lances for killing whales, huge knives for\ncutting up the carcases, bombs, hatchets, rifles and ammunition. No\nless exhaustive was the inventory of the \u201ctrade\u201d\u2014articles for the\nEskimo trade and barter\u2014such as needles, soaps (scented and otherwise),\npipes, matches, calico, beads, and, above all, tobacco! Every boy\u2019s\nbook of adventure will suggest the scope of the slop chest, the\nincredible handiness and nattiness of the galley, the reek of the\nfo\u2019c\u2019sle, the snug dignity of the Captain\u2019s cabin, and the compressed\ncompleteness of an equipment designed to last a ships\u2019 entire crew (let\nus say her tonnage is about 129, and her company number twenty-nine)\nover many months of toil, emergency, and utter isolation. She carried\nno doctor. The first mate presided over the medicine chest, and had\nresort to some small book of directions as to what to give and what to\ndo in case of illness or accident. In the early days adventurers to the\nArctic were sorely stricken with scurvy, for want of vegetable food and\na knowledge of how to provide against this deficiency. We have often\nheard of desperate feats of amateur surgery carried out on board ship.\nIt has been that the mate of a whaling vessel often acted, not at all\nunsuccessfully, as surgeon.\n\nDoctor William S. Bruce, indeed, tells us in his \u201cPolar Exploration\u201d\nthat, generally speaking, germ diseases are unknown in the Arctic, the\nintense cold making everywhere\u2014in the air, on the sea and on the\nland\u2014for a high degree of bacterial sterility. \u201cUnder ordinary\nconditions it is not possible to \u2018catch cold\u2019 in the polar regions ....\ninfectious fevers are practically unknown, unless contracted in a dirty\nship or filthily kept house.\u201d Hence the feasibility of a practical\nasepsis in accident or operation. Bishop Bompass once amputated a man\u2019s\nleg above the knee, and the operation was completely successful. The\nBishop had no medical knowledge beyond having attended some lectures at\nan opthalmic hospital, in order to learn how to treat his Indians for\nsnow-blindness.\n\nThe whaling voyage itself might be uneventful enough until a high\nlatitude was reached; but after that, the greatest possible skill was\nrequired to navigate the ship safely through the \u201cpack\u201d ice coming down\nfrom the Pole through Davis Straits and Fox Channel, on its way to the\ncoast of Labrador and Newfoundland, to be finally melted and dispersed\nin the Gulf Stream.\n\nArctic navigators and oceanographers enumerate many varieties and\nvagaries of the polar ice. Suffice it here to note that \u201cpack ice\u201d is\nthe jammed and frozen conglomeration of masses of ice from broken floes\nand vast disintegrating \u201cfields\u201d of ice. In Straits, this pack is\nalways heaviest in the centre but less compact along the shores, so\nthat a vessel can sometimes be worked along the coast when navigation\nin the middle would be impossible. This \u201cmiddle pack\u201d is rightly\ndreaded by Arctic seamen. A change of wind might drift it in upon the\nshore, when the ship\u2019s destruction would be inevitable. The great\ndanger in meeting the ice pack out at sea consists in the fact that the\nlarger part of the floe is almost submerged and little of it is to be\nseen. Again, it bristles with spurs and points which stick up and out\nlike spears and rams, any one of which might rip up a hull sailing at\nany speed.\n\nThe rapidity with which the ice pack moves is something wonderful.\nMiles upon miles of sea will be free from ice, with the exception of\nsmall masses from the floes, and the ship ploughs a steady course to\nthe north. Suddenly the wind changes. Ice swiftly makes its appearance\non every quarter, and\u2014with incredible rapidity\u2014the vessel is\nsurrounded. But warning has been given from the \u201ccrow\u2019s nest\u201d (the\nlook-out aloft, a barrel at masthead), and the Master works a cautious\nway through the \u201cleads\u201d in the shifting ice. Should the pack be\nexceptionally heavy, threatening to pen in the ship completely,\nmeasures for her safety are immediately taken. Orders ring out sharply.\nThe crew, with ice saws or blasting powder, quickly make a space in the\nice, like a temporary dock, large enough to warp her into, where she\ncan lie snug while the savage floes grind and crash against each other\nwithout. Woe to the ship caught between them ere such a refuge can be\nmade! No vessel that ever adventured in the polar seas could stand the\nawful grip. There would be a rending of the stoutest timbers, groans of\na ship in agony, a lift and a quiver, and as the floes swung apart on\nthe black swell below, the brave creature, mangled, rent, and stove in,\nwould plunge to her bitter grave. As for her crew, their only chance\nwould be to lower the boats, and, either marooned on the ice, drift\nsouth on the prevailing current until perchance sighted by a ship; or,\nif afloat, work their perilous way to the Greenland coast, and take\nrefuge at one of the Danish settlements sparsely scattered on its\nsouthern extremity.\n\nIcebergs\u2014those rightly dreaded wanderers of the northern seas\u2014afford a\nglorious vision in bright, calm weather, as they wend their majestic\ncourse to the south, tinted by the setting sun or by the indescribable\nloveliness of the northern sunrise. Sometimes a large portion having\nbeen melted, breaks from the berg, when the vast mass slowly careens\nover, plunges with a thunderous crash, and reasserts itself upon a new\nfloating base, peerless and beautiful as ever. The ship is fortunate\nwho finds herself standing well away at such a moment.\n\nIn spite, however, of their bad reputation, the bergs have their uses\nfor those hardy wayfarers of the sea who know them. The ancient Arctic\nmariner will tell you that an iceberg can sail against the wind as well\nas with it! Gripped for two-thirds of its bulk by a strong\nunder-current, it can crash its way and forge ahead against the wildest\nadverse gale. An old whaler told of an experience he had when his ship\nwas beset by the loose floe, and like to be crushed to matchwood. The\nmen were striving all they knew to get her into safety, when a vast\nberg drove slowly down beside her through the ice, shouldering it aside\nas a giant liner drives through a heavy sea. With the inspiration of\nsheer desperation, the Captain saw his chance! The vessel was\ncautiously worked still nearer the berg and then kedged on to it. Towed\nthus, with resistless might, she too forged safely through the chafing\nfloe to clear water and deliverance.\n\nAgain, a ship\u2014no matter of what class or tonnage\u2014can only carry a\ncertain quantity of water. So, too, with a whaler; she is limited in\nher supply. It sometimes happens that, cruising about week after week,\nshe runs short of water. On sighting an iceberg, she sends off her\nboats loaded with casks, and the crews refill them either with water\nfrom the pools at the foot of the berg, or with the ice itself, which\nbeing fresh water ice, melts down, of course, into splendid drinking\nwater after the brine and salt coating from the sea has first been\nscraped off. For, be it remembered, an iceberg is a portion\u2014the seaward\nend\u2014of one of the polar glaciers. As the immense ice river reaches the\ncoast it is pushed out over the cliffs, and vast masses break off with\nterrific detonation, plunge into the sea, and the newly born icebergs\ngo floating far and wide. A large number of these bergs are formed in\nEternity Fiord on the Greenland coast, and the crash and roar of them\ncan be heard for miles.\n\nAs the season wears on and the whaler\u2019s hold slowly fills with the\ncargo of the Arctic hunt, from time to time she puts into the sparse\nharbours of the northern coasts, to refit, or to meet the tribes of\nEskimo gathered there to do \u201ctrade\u201d with her. The Hudson Bay Company\nhave lately introduced a form of coinage for this purpose, anything of\nthe sort being previously quite unknown among the natives. Pieces of\nmetal in various shapes represent the values of a currency and are used\nas money. But the prehistoric marketing of barter still holds good\nthroughout the greater part of the Arctic regions.\n\nSometimes a shipmate has to be left, perforce of accident or illness,\nto sleep the long sleep that knows no earthly waking, in this drear and\nfar-off land.\n\nSo much then for the voyage and the voyagers to the Arctic. Now for\nthat frozen world itself, and for those strange people whose lot,\ncompared with that of all the rest of the more genially situated sons\nof men, would seem to have fallen in the bleakest, harshest and most\nforbidding places, where human life might scarcely exist.\n\nWhen the first ship seen by an Eskimo tribe touched on the coast, what\ndid they think of it; what was the bewildering impression they got? An\nold hunter, recounting the story of his tribe and its adventures, gave\nthe writer a graphic account of just such an event. An enormous boat,\nhe said, appeared, filled with Kabloon\u00e2tyet (strangers), speaking an\nunknown tongue and having hairy faces! The tall masts were hung with\nthe clouds (sails), and there was a door in the roof (the companion\nleading from the deck), instead of in the side of the house. At first\nthe tribesmen hovered round this amazing thing in their canoes, afraid\nto approach too near. Presents were thrown out to them of which they\ncould make nothing. They just smelt at the tobacco, biscuit and sweets,\nand cast them aside. There were knives, but they cut themselves with\nthese, not knowing how to handle steel ones. It was almost as if some\nunimaginable craft from another sphere were to visit the Earth and make\nincomprehensible overtures to us by means of objects which conveyed\nnothing to our intelligence\u2014something after the style of Mr. Wells\u2019s\nMartians. At last, however, looking glasses resolved the situation.\nThese the Eskimo received with huge delight and amazement. Eventually\nthey were induced to board the strange boat and open up some sort of\ninitial overtures with her alarming crew. His fore-fathers, said the\nold hunter, had seen these things and carefully handed them down.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nBAFFIN LAND\n\n\nA landfall in the Arctics is forbidding enough. Little is to be seen\nsave bare rocks broken by ravines, filled with snow even so late as far\ninto July and August\u2014bare rocks, rising into gaunt hills from 500 to\n1,500 feet high. The coastline is broken by bays and fiords, running\ndeep inland. These inlets with their irregular outlines have a singular\nif rather drear beauty of their own, especially in the summer-time,\nwhen what little vegetation there may be\u2014a spare, coarse grass and a\nred and white variety of heather\u2014adds a grateful note of relief to the\nsevere scene. There are miles and miles of rocky coast in places, where\nnot so much as a handful of soil to support the hardiest little living\nthing could be found.\n\nBaffin Land, or Baffin Island\u2014the country with which this book has to\ndo\u2014is an immense portion of the Canadian Arctic archipelago lying\nbetween latitude 62\u00b0 and 72\u00b0 N. By far the greater part of it extends\nnorth of the Arctic Circle, while its southern-most cape touches the\nlatitude of the Faroe Islands, \u2019twixt the Shetlands and Iceland, in our\nown more familiar waters. The whole country lies far beyond the\nnorthernmost limit of trees, although it is not without an Arctic flora\nof its own. Baffin Sea, or Baffin Bay (that stretch of the North\nAtlantic Ocean which, beyond Davis Strait, divides the west coast of\nGreenland from North America), was discovered by the navigator William\nBaffin in 1615. Hence the name of the country. Discredit was thrown\nthroughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries on Baffin\u2019s work in\nthe north; and, after him, Arctic exploration ceased for about two\ncenturies. Then Sir John Ross verified Baffin\u2019s observations in 1818,\nand many of them became the bases of later expeditionary enterprise.\n\nA glance at the map shows how the country lies. To the north of it,\nbeyond the whaling grounds of Lancaster Sound, Devon Island is the next\nstretch of the poleward tapering continent. The Gulf of Bothnia and Fox\nChannel divide it on the west from the enormously broken coasts of the\nNorth West Territories. \u201cThe territory now known as Baffin Land was,\nuntil about 1875, supposed to consist of different islands, known as\nCockburn Island, Cumberland Island, Baffin\u2019s Land, Sussex Island, Fox\nLand, etc. It seems to be now established that these are all connected\nand that there is but one great island, comprising them all, to which\nthe name of Baffin Land has been given. It forms the northern side of\nHudson Strait.... It has a length of about 1,005 English statute miles,\nwith an average breadth of 305 miles, its greatest width being 500 and\nits least 150 miles. Its area approximates 300,000 square miles, and it\ntherefore comprises about one tenth of the whole Dominion. It is the\nthird largest island in the world, being exceeded only by Australia and\nGreenland\u201d (Annual Report of Geolog. Survey of Canada, 1898.)\n\nIt is an entirely Arctic country, immediately north of which runs the\npolar limit of human habitation.\n\nUp to the actual time of writing, Baffin Land has been held to be\nincapable of inland commercial development, but a Royal Commission of\nthe Government of the Dominion have recently examined the possibility\nof establishing there a reindeer and muskox ranching industry. Their\nreport has not yet been published, but already some steps are being\ntaken to realise such a project. If this should have results, a new\nmeans of livelihood would be opened up to the Eskimo, at present\nemployed exclusively by the whaling agents on the coast. But the\nnatives are not herders, and in all probability Lapps would be brought\nover from northern Europe to initiate the industry. From this would\nensue doubtless some racial modifications\u2014probably quite inappreciable\nto any but those observers, like the present writer, used to the pure\nand unmixed Eskimo stock. In the present book, little account will be\ntaken of those tribes which have been in contact with other races, like\nthose of Alaska and Labrador, whence results hybridization or\ndegeneration. The writer proposes to confine his attention entirely to\nthe people of ancient, unmixed blood, and to depict their life and\ncustoms as uninfluenced by the forces of trade and civilisation, which\nare already threatening to usher in a new era and extinguish the last\nrepresentatives of the \u201creindeer age.\u201d\n\nFrom another point of view, however, Baffin Land should not pass\nwithout remark. It has certain undetermined mineral resources. At Cape\nDurban, on the 67th parallel, coal is known to exist, and graphite\n(plumbago) has been found abundant and pure in several islands. Again,\npyrites and mica are all to be found in its rocks.\n\nThe geology of the Arctic regions is, of course, a study in itself\nbeyond the scope of this book. It may be of interest, however, to note\nthat the two great distinctive bodies of rock to be observed in a\ncountry like Baffin Land are the granite and the finer grained, darker,\nbasic rock. The ironstone from there is very similar to that brought\nfrom India to be smelted in England. The graphite might be mistaken for\ncoal, but for its formation under geological conditions which could not\nhave given rise to the latter. The two pyrites occur in the rocks of\nall ages; the one is a brassy yellow, very hard mineral, and the other\na brilliant black stone (magnetic pyrites) looking much like a mass of\nloosely formed crystals. Garnets are also formed in several kinds of\nrock, but are chiefly to be found in the schist. As a rule, these\nlittle gems are far too much broken and split by the intense frost to\nbe worth collecting. In the winter, the hardest rock is so split by the\ncold that every peculiarity of its composition can be clearly seen. The\ngraphite can be chipped out with an axe and utilised very conveniently\nfor writing.\n\nThe scenery everywhere is typical of the \u201cBarrens,\u201d the \u201cBad Lands of\nthe North.\u201d In winter, a featureless waste of snow, where in that dark\nseason \u201ccome those wonderful nights of glittering stars and northern\nlights playing far and wide upon the icy deserts; or where the moon,\nhere most melancholy, wanders on her silent way through scenes of\ndesolation and death. In these regions the heavens count for more than\nelsewhere; they give colour and character, while the landscape, simple\nand unvarying, has no power to draw the eye.\u201d (Nansen.) In summer, when\nthe iron grip of ice is relaxed around the frozen coast, snow may\ndisappear from the interminable wastes of rounded granite hills which\nare a feature of the interior. The effect of this endless succession of\nlow bare elevations is one of \u201cappalling desolation.\u201d The long,\nhigh-pitched howl of the wolf, the ultimate note of the wilderness,\nfalls occasionally upon the ear of the twilight camper. This, and the\ncry of the loon from the lakes, with the crowing bleat of the ptarmigan\nin the low scrub, are the chance evening sounds (of spring and summer)\nin the Barrens.\n\nThe country generally is mountainous and of a hilly and barren aspect.\nIn some districts comparatively level Laurentian areas occur, where\nimmense herds of reindeer roam in the summer. At this season the ranges\nhave a dark or nearly black appearance, owing to the growth of lichens\nupon them, but this sombre character is often relieved in valleys and\non hill-sides by strips and patches of green, due to grasses and sedges\nin the lower bottoms, and a variety of flowering plants on sheltered\nslopes exposed to the sun.\n\nThe high interior of Baffin Land, lying just north of Cumberland Sound,\nis apparently all covered with ice, like the interior of Greenland.\nAround the margins of this ice cap the general elevation above the sea\nis about 5,000 feet, and it rises to about 8,000 feet in the central\nparts. Large portions of the northern interior are over 1,000 feet\nabove the sea, so that vast regions of the country may be said to be\ntruly mountainous.\n\nThere are no trees or shrubs of any kind in Baffin Land. Of Arctic\nflowers, a small yellow poppy seems to be the hardiest and most\nwidespread. Even in those parts where desolation seems to reign\nsupreme, this poppy (Papaver radicatum), and a tiny purple saxifrage\n(Saxifraga appositifolia) can generally be discerned. There are coarse\ngrasses growing in scant patches, and immense tracts of reindeer moss,\nupon which the cariboo entirely subsist.\n\nUnlike the sterile Antarctic, however, it is well known that the flora\nof Arctic lands is a feature of such importance that it has been the\nsubject of an immense amount of expert investigation carried out by\nvery many eminent botanists from every country. Professor Bruce says it\nis quite impossible to enter into detail regarding arctic botany,\nlargely on account of its sheer profusion. \u201cNo matter how far the\nexplorer goes, no matter how desolate a region he visits, he is sure to\ncome across one or more species of flowering plants.... Every arctic\ntraveller is thoroughly familiar with scurvy grass, the sulphur\ncoloured buttercup, the little bladder campion, several potentillas,\nthe blaeberry, many saxifrages, the rock rose, the cotton grass and the\narctic willow.\u201d In Grinnell Land (far north of Baffin Land) the British\nArctic Expedition of 1875 met with \u201cluxuriant vegetation.\u201d The presence\nor absence of the Arctic current along the shores of these countries\nseems to have much to do with the problems of vegetation. Baffin Land,\nbathed in its icy waters, is far more barren than Greenland, where it\ndoes not touch. Possibly Grinnell Land is immune from its influence. It\nis, nevertheless, quite possible for a dense plant life to\nflourish\u2014under certain conditions of climate, altitude and\nsituation\u2014deep within the Arctic Circle, where even the tundra, a\nwilderness of snow in the winter, becomes an impassable fever-haunted,\nmosquito ridden, torrid, flower decked swamp in the summer.\n\nBut there is more than this in the botany of Baffin Land! The natural\nor geological history of the Arctic regions generally is that of the\nearth\u2019s crust itself, and from this point of view the study of these\nnorthern blossoms is more wonderful than that of its rocks.\n\nThe fossil plants of these ice-bound countries belong to the Miocene\nperiod, an epoch warmer than the present, which preceded the glacial\nage now triumphant there. The latitudes of Baffin Land were once\ncovered by extensive forests representing fifty or sixty different\nspecies of arborescent trees, most of them with deciduous leaves, some\nthree or four inches in diameter, the elm, pine, oak, maple, plane, and\neven some evergreens, showing an entirely different condition of\nseasons to that which now holds sway in the far, far north. The modern\nbotany of the Arctics, comprising some 300 kinds of flowering plants,\nbesides mosses, algae, lichens, fungi, is characteristic of the\nScandinavian peninsula. Now, the Scandinavian flora is one of the\noldest on the globe. It represents unique problems in distribution,\nfrom which the most tremendous scientific deductions have been drawn,\nsuch as those concerning a former disposition of terrestrial continents\nand oceans, and some concerning changes in the direction of the earth\u2019s\naxis itself! All this is very far beyond the scope of any such account\nof Baffin Land as the present. Suffice it, nevertheless, to indicate\nthe deep vistas of interest that lie behind the \u201cappalling desolation\u201d\nof its appearance to-day, and the limitations of its hyperborean native\nfolk.\n\nThe reindeer moss is a very important asset of the country. It is a\ndelicate grey-green in colour and beautiful in form as well. It grows\nluxuriantly to about the height of six inches. When dry, it is brittle,\nand may be crumbled to powder in the hands; but when wet it is very\nmuch of the consistency of jelly, and very slippery. The reindeer live\nentirely upon it all the year round. In the winter, when it lies under\na deep blanket of snow, to get at it the deer have to scrape their way\ndown with their great splay hoofs. It sometimes happens that a season\ncomes when a thaw may be followed by a sharp frost. In this case the\nsurface of the snow is first melted and then quickly frozen, making a\ncoating of ice over all the surface of the ground. To scrape this would\ncut the deers\u2019 legs, so there is an exodus of the herd to other feeding\nplaces, and hunger even to famine and starvation may reign in the\ndistrict they have deserted. Generally speaking, the herds keep to the\nhigh grounds and hills in the winter, because there the moss is more\nexposed and easier to come at. They move down to the coast at\nintervals, to lick the salt which comes up through the \u201csigjak,\u201d i.e.,\nground ice, along the shore, when the tides rises and the water leaves\npools behind it.\n\nThe deer feed in a peculiar manner. Once a pit has been sunk in the\nsnow and the moss at the bottom is browsed down, the creatures do not\nattempt to enlarge the place, but scramble out again, only to dig a\nfresh hole and sink shoulder high in it at a little distance, and begin\nfeeding afresh. The herd is always dogged by a pack of watchful wolves,\never on the qui vive to attack; but the leaders\u2019 vigilance never\nslackens, and battle breaks out in the wild at the first movement of\naggression.\n\nThere are one or two particularly interesting facts, astronomical and\notherwise, which account for the extraordinary physical phenomena and\nconditions of life in the polar regions. To begin with the seasons. The\n\u201cArctic\u201d properly so called is geographically defined by that circle of\nlatitude where the sun on midwinter day does not rise, and where on\nmidsummer day it does not set. In Arctic countries the sun is never\nmore than 23\u00bd degrees above the horizon, and their intense cold is due,\nin summer, to the sharp obliquity of his rays, and in winter, to his\nentire absence. In the latitude of Blacklead Island, on December 25th,\nthe whole orb of the sun is not visible, only the upper section shows\nabove the horizon (unless mist or snow overcast the heavens) for a\nbrief ten minutes at midday. On May 18th, conversely, the sun has been\nnoted as shining for eighteen hours, the remaining six out of the\ntwenty-four being a bright twilight, scarcely distinguishable from day.\n\nThe whole year round there is little to be seen but rocks and snow. No\ntilling, sowing, harvesting, mark the progress of the seasons or call\nman to the pursuits which have brought all civilisation in their train\nin milder climes. These seasons (which depend, of course, upon the\nposition of the earth in its orbit round the sun, and upon the\ninclination of the polar axis to the plane of the ecliptic giving a six\nmonth\u2019s day and six month\u2019s night at the poles), are markedly defined\nin Baffin Land. But far more distinctly so on shore than at sea, where\nunbroken ice may reign supreme throughout the greater part of the\ntwelve-month. Winter sets in on the southern coast about the end of\nSeptember; farther north a week or two earlier. By this date the hills\nare getting their snow caps, which extend downwards every day, and a\nthin sheet of ice appears upon the sea at night. A rim of ice along the\nshore marks the rise and fall of the tide. Frequent snowstorms now set\nin, and the ice at sea thickens and strengthens, until by November it\nextends as far as the eye can rove. This ice, however, is not stout or\nwelded enough to bear sleds, except in the fiords and smaller bays,\nuntil nearly Christmas time. The sea freezes when the temperature of\nthe air falls to about 15\u00b0 F., and the whole surface of the water\nbecomes covered with a mass of ice spicules known to polar sailors as\nBay Ice, from its forming first in the bays of the coast. Presently\nthis solidifies and thickens, growing ever whiter and more translucent\nin the process, and is broken, even in calm weather, by the action of\ngentle swell or the currents beneath into thousands of discs, large and\nsmall, like pans of ice. Sea ice is formed at a temperature of 3\u00b0 F.\nbelow the freezing point of fresh water. There are many remarkable and\ninteresting physical distinctions between ice formed on land and ice\nformed at sea. The latter when melted is quite drinkable, being not\nnearly so salt as salt water. The intense cold, though, of drinking\nwater so obtained tends to inflame the mucous membrane of the mouth and\nthroat, and its slight salinity still further augments thirst; so it is\nnever resorted to except of necessity. These pans eventually freeze\ntogether into one great solid floor of \u201cpancake ice,\u201d and the Eskimo,\naway hunting in the winter for seal, may camp and live for weeks, miles\nout from land on the frozen sea.\n\nThe days grow ever shorter and shorter until, in midwinter, there may\nbe only a few hours or even minutes of daylight left. The long Arctic\nnight lasts from September to March.\n\nBy the end of March, however, the sun is once more high in the heavens;\nthe sudden spring has begun, and the sound is everywhere heard of water\ntrickling under the snow. Readers of Alaskan romance will recall many a\nfine passage about the ice \u201cgoing out\u201d on the Yukon, and realise the\nterrific transformation undergone by the whole still, silent, rigid,\nfrozen landscape when the iron bonds of winter at length give way.\nSpringtime in the Arctics is a wonderful time. The thaw comes from\nbelow. The rocks take the heat, and the snow sinks down, baring more\nand more of them every day. It grows quite warm; bird sounds (ptarmigan\nand snow bunting) enliven all the day; ducks quack at the floe edge.\nSunrise beams upon the Arctic hills until they lie smiling in the full\nbeauty of sunshine on their mantles of untrodden snow.\n\nAt the end of June, summer is come; the sun is really hot, and the\nlong-covered earth, bared at last to its benign influence, puts forth\nheather and grass and flowers. For six months there is no more night.\nIts place is taken by the pale light that offers so strange a\nphenomenon to the dweller from the south. If the sky be unclouded,\nshadows will be seen pointing to the south. If clouds cover the\nheavens, the landscape stands out without shadow at all, clear and\nsharp under this strange illumination. There is no one point from which\nthe light can come; it comes from everywhere. Owing to the length of\nthis Arctic \u201cday,\u201d the ground has no time to radiate away the welcome\nwarmth, hence the rapid growth of what vegetation the region may show.\nAgain, as Nansen says so poetically: \u201cIn these regions the heavens\ncount for more than elsewhere: they give colour and character ... to\nthe landscape ... it is flooded with that melancholy light which\nsoothes the soul so fondly and is so characteristic of the northern\nnight.\u201d\n\nThe stars are an open book to the Eskimo. They know all the principal\ngroups, and use them for the directing of their journeys. They can make\na very creditable chart of the northern heavens. They recognise the\nPlough, and the Bear (which is indeed called \u201cNanook\u201d\u2014the Bear), and\nthey recognise the constellation of three stars in a straight line and\nat equal distances from each other, which they call the \u201cRunners,\u201d and\ndescribe as the spirits of three brothers in pursuit. The arctic\nhunters are marvellous students of nature generally. They have the lore\nof the wild at their finger tips, and all the wisdom of the seasons. It\nis probable that this primitive people have preserved nearly all the\noriginal instincts\u2014as to the presence of danger, right direction, etc.,\netc.\u2014of primaeval man, which are all but extinct in the\nover-civilisation of the modern European.\n\nIn August autumn begins. Last year\u2019s ice has been broken up and carried\nfar out to sea. There are frequent showers of rain, and the nights\nbegin again to encroach more and more on the day. It is about this time\nthat the trading ships generally arrive and put in at various points\nalong the coast to do business and refit. They pick up the annual\nintelligence of the whaling stations, and leave for home as soon as the\nnew ice begins to form.\n\nThen winter comes down upon the land once more. The sky, like velvet,\nis bespangled with stars of incomparable brilliance, burning like\nopals. The Northern Lights, like lambent curtains of amazing\nillumination, swing weirdly through the sky; the blanched hills and the\nfrozen fiords stand out in ghostly black and white under the startling\nmoonlight. There is no sound save the sharp cracking of rock or ice\nunder the strain of the intense frost, the uneasy growl of dogs, the\ndistant howl of a wolf.\n\nSuddenly, however, there may be a chorus of barking in the night, as a\nstrange team of dogs sweeps into view up the fiord, or the harbour, and\nvisitors descend upon the camp. Except for the noise, one could imagine\nthe newcomers to be the ghosts of ancient hunters haunting their old\ngrounds. But cheery cries, the crack of whips and the howls of the\ndogs, dispel any such idea as the group comes up. They are stalwart and\nsturdy individuals enough, clad from head to foot in deerskin, and\ncovered with rime and frost. They are seeking hospitality here, and at\nonce friendly doors are open to them, invitations are readily extended\nand accepted, and soon everyone of the strangers is comfortably\nbestowed (after Eskimo notions of comfort) in one or another of the\nvarious dwellings, the dogs are unharnessed and fed, and peace resumes\nher tranquil sway.\n\nThe natives thus name the four seasons: Opingrak, spring; Auyak,\nsummer; Okeoksak, autumn (i.e., material for winter), and Okeok,\nwinter. The months are named by the sequence of events\u2014the coming of\nthe ducks, the birth of the reindeer fawns, the coming of the fish (sea\ntrout), etc., as \u201cthe duck month,\u201d \u201cthe fawn month,\u201d \u201cthe fish month,\u201d\netc. And the days are distinguished as \u201coblo,\u201d to-day; \u201ckoukp\u00e2t,\u201d\nto-morrow; \u201cikpuks\u00e2k,\u201d yesterday; \u201cikpuks\u00e2ne,\u201d the day before\nyesterday, and so forth. \u201cAkk\u00e2go\u201d means next year, and \u201cakk\u00e2ne\u201d is last\nyear.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nARCTIC FLORA AND FAUNA\n\n\nAnother striking feature of the Arctics is the effect upon the\nappearance and character of those shores touched by the Gulf Stream, as\ncompared with those where its waters never pass. Thus the coast of\nGreenland is comparatively luxuriant in vegetation and its seas teem\nwith fish, while Baffin Land, opposite, washed by arctic currents, is\ndesolate and barren, with no fishing off its shores. The same contrast\nholds good with respect to the north and south coasts of Hudson Strait.\nThere are no cod off Baffin Land, but the Labrador fishermen ply their\ntrade right into Hudson Bay.\n\nBaffin \u201cIsland\u201d is a trackless, mysterious continent where, high up on\nthe summits of some of the mountains, there are vast lakes fed from\nhidden springs\u2014or from streams from still higher ranges\u2014wherein salmon\ntrout abound! At least, these fish are exactly like the sea trout which\ncome up the rivers every year to spawn, save that the hue of the belly\nis bright red. The Eskimo point to this as proof that they never go\ndown to the sea, and call them the \u201cdirty fish,\u201d since they never quit\nthe lakes. How they ever got into them is a mystery the arctic\nzo\u00f6logist must be left to solve, since neither hunter nor fisherman can\noffer a suggestion. The trout could not have attained any such level\nupstream. It would almost appear\u2014if one might hazard a guess\u2014that at\nsome remote geologic epoch this part of the N. American continent was\nsubmerged, for the Eskimo of Baffin Land speak of an inland sea, now\ndry, where fossil remains are to be found of large creatures such as\nthe whale and walrus. They come across fossil fish, indeed, in their\nmore extended wanderings, also shells, and bring them back to camp as\ncuriosities.\n\nThe Eskimo are properly a seaboard people and seldom penetrate farther\ninland than thirty miles from the coast, unless during the annual deer\nhunt, when they may be away for a couple of months, according to the\ndistance the quest may take them.\n\nPossibly these unaccountable trout are the descendants of fish cut off\nfrom access to the sea, when the gradual rise of the continental level\nleft lakes of originally salt water among the ranges. Where they are\nnot without marine life (excepting those wonderful seaweeds which are\nfound at the tropics as well as in the arctic), the waters round these\nshores contain many species of fish commonly known elsewhere, only in a\nmuch less developed state. Such creatures as sea anemones, shrimps, sea\nsnails, small squid, and salt water centipedes, are to be found on the\narctic beach. Naturalists enumerate a formidable list of the sort,\nbristling with scientific nomenclature. Then there are the mosquitoes,\nof which more anon, and small yellow, white and brown butterflies. It\nis indeed due to the comparatively rich fauna and flora of the arctic\nregions, both east and west, that arctic exploration has been carried\nout so frequently. The utter absence of plant or animal or human life\nin the dead antarctic has greatly militated against the success of\nsouthbound expeditions.\n\nTo deal with the mosquitoes! These insects abound in the summer-time,\nand are a terrible pest. It is a puzzle how they survive the winter,\nwhen everything is frozen solid, and the very spots which thaw under\nthe sudden warmth of an arctic spring and allow them to swarm out in\ntheir malignant millions are iron-bound as the rocks themselves for the\ngreater part of the year. So formidable are these insects that man\nhimself has sometimes fallen a victim to their onslaught. On one\noccasion, a polar bear was crossing a swamp on the prowl, when he was\nattacked by mosquitoes. They stung his eyes, the inside of his ears,\npenetrated his nostrils and stung them. As the nasal passages became\ninflamed and swollen, the bear was forced to open his mouth to breathe,\nwhen his enemies swarmed in, fastened on to tongue, palate and throat,\ncausing them also to swell, until the tormented brute succumbed to\nsuffocation. His howls attracted the attention of some Eskimo hunters,\nwho afterwards told the tale.\n\nAnother time, some women in a summer camp noticed a kyak (skin canoe)\ndrifting about at sea in a curious way, and a man went off to\ninvestigate. On arriving within hail he found a body in the canoe,\nleaning back stone dead; done to death in precisely the same way by\nmosquitoes.\n\nArctic birds are numerous. Most of them are migratory, but an eagle, a\nhawk, some owls and a raven, remain the year round. The most typical of\nall Arctic birds, the Snow Bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis), is the\nfirst to arrive and bring news of the spring. He comes about the same\ntime as the Ptarmigan. Lastly comes the bird that always seems to greet\nthe explorer on landing, the Purple Sandpiper (Tringa striata). He\ncomes soon after the ducks\u2014the Eider, the King Eider, the Pintail and\nthe Harlequin. Between the two, there is a rapid vernal succession of\nbirds, including sea pigeons and geese.\n\nEskimo hunters speak of the wild swan, on the south coast and in the\nvicinity of Frobisher Bay. The raven is the only arctic bird which does\nnot change its plumage to match the surroundings. He is always\naggressively, blatantly black. Possibly, being so able a match for any\nordinary foe, this bird has no need to adopt the \u201cprotective\nresemblance\u201d of white. The writer has watched a raven alight to secure\nsome tit-bit of offal, and keep even the wolfish Eskimo dog at a\nrespectful distance, with its huge beak. The bird is cunning to a\ndegree. It will follow a trapper, note the position of his traps, and\nreturn to visit and despoil them of their bait as soon as the coast is\nclear. Then it takes up its stand on some convenient rock just out of\ngunshot range, and watches the trapper on his return, just for all the\nworld as if it relished his comments!\n\nSo much for the land birds. At sea there are petrels, gulls, and skuas.\nThe natives do not recognise pictures of puffins or penguins, as these\nbirds are not known on their coasts.\n\nAgain, the animals of the frozen north form quite a formidable list.\nThere are three large lakes in Baffin Land (shown on the map at the\nend), linked together by rivers and making connection with the sea by\nriver.\n\nThe southern lake is called \u201cAngmakjuak\u201d (\u201cthe great one\u201d). The length\nof this sea may indeed exceed 120 miles by 40 in breadth in its central\npart. The central lake, \u201cTesseyuakjuak,\u201d is possibly 140 miles long by\n60 broad, and the northern lake \u201cNetselik\u201d (the place of seals) is at\nleast 15 miles across. The difference in level between these great\nsheets of water is so inconsiderable that the natives can paddle with\nease either up or down the waterways connecting them; perhaps none of\nthem lie much higher than 300 feet above the sea. They teem with seal\ncoming up from the coasts, and on the shores of Netselik old hunters\nwill tell you they have seen the Red Fox, as well as white and smoky.\nThis may well be so, as the fox is a denizen of Labrador, and might\neasily cross Hudson Strait on the ice during a hard winter. The seal of\nthese lakes and of the coast (much hunted for food and for their skins\nby the natives), are the grey haired seals of wide-spread commerce, but\nnot the fine, fur-bearing animals whose pelts are of the first beauty\nand value. This latter is a different species and is protected by\nGovernment, only a certain number being allowed to be killed each year.\n\nBears, of course, abound. The female is the only arctic land creature\nwhich hibernates. Then there is the wolf, the white and blue fox, [1]\nthe ermine, the arctic hare, a tailless snow mouse, or lemming, the\nmusk ox, and\u2014the most widely distributed of all\u2014the cariboo or reindeer\n(Rangifer tarandus). It would be impossible to over-estimate the value\nof the last named beautiful creature, alive or dead, to all the peoples\nof the arctic countries, east or west. It would be superfluous here to\nremark much about it, except to note one interesting peculiarity. The\nreindeer differs from all other deer in that both sexes bear antlers.\n\nThe wolves, of course, are the inveterate enemies of the deer. In the\nwinter, when the latter herds leave the lowlands and go up to pasture\namong the hills, where the snow lies less deep and can be more easily\nscratched away, they are dogged by the wolves. These hungry and\nvoracious creatures know well enough that the deer are sentinelled\nwhile feeding by their fighting males, and make no movement of\naggression until one of them chances to stray from the herd. When this\nhappens, the luckless animal is immediately headed off towards the\nshore and hunted down. The wolfish pack concentrates behind it and\ndraws in on either side, so as to leave but one avenue of apparent\nescape. The quarry dashes down and away, out on towards the ice; but\nits weight is so great and its hoofs so sharp that the frozen crust of\nsnow gives way beneath it and sorely cuts it about the legs. The deer\nloses blood and slackens in speed, so that the wolves, skimming easily\nover the treacherous surface, close in and soon drag it down.\n\nIt is a fact well known to the Eskimo hunter that the actual chase is\nput up by the female wolf, the male only coming in at the last, for the\nkill. The former do the hustling and placing of the victim, as it were,\nand the latter do the fighting and killing at the end.\n\nThe Lemming (Cuniculus torquatus) is a queer typical little arctic\nanimal. It has a chubby build, a rudimentary tail, and no external\nears. The first toe of the forepaw is almost nil, but the third and\nfourth have very strong claws, which grow longer and still more\npowerful in winter. It is grey in summer and white for the rest of the\nyear. It lives upon the grubs to be found amid the moss under the snow,\nand burrows its way along as it searches for food. It is quite a\nfamiliar sound to hear the scratch, scratch, scratch of a lemming\u2019s\nclaws beneath, as one lies on the snow sleeping bench of an Eskimo\u2019s\nigloo. The creature\u2019s skin when dried is used by the natives for\nsticking over cuts or boils. It is hunted in the spring by the women\nand children, who are guided by the sound of its burrowings. They arm\nthemselves with a stick having a long barbed wire attached, and spear\nthe animal with this through the snow.\n\nAround the coasts there are various species of whales. The Grampus\n(Orca gladiator) or killer, as it is called by the whalers, is a fierce\nmember of the dolphin group, sometimes attaining a length of thirty\nfeet, with large powerful teeth, from ten to thirteen in number, on\neach side of the jaw. It has a high, upstanding fin on the back, like a\nshark. It is very swift in the water and can easily overtake and kill\none of these latter creature. It is shunned and feared by all the\ndenizens of the arctic seas except the Walrus and the great Sperm\nWhale. The Grampus is incredibly voracious, and has been known to\ndevour thirteen porpoises and fourteen seals at one meal.\n\nAll the smaller animals take refuge in shallow water inshore at the\napproach of a Killer, only to fall a prey there to the native. The\nKillers hunt the whalebone whale, which, fast though it is, cannot make\ngood its escape. The pursuers will leap right out of the water and\ncrash down upon the head of their victim; or rush upon it and ram it,\nuntil terrified, stunned and exhausted, the whale drops its jaw, when\nthe Killers tear out huge pieces of the tongue. (The tongue of a whale\nis a vast mass of fat, weighing in a full sized animal as much as a\nton.) Finally, the unwieldly carcase is also despatched, and the\nGrampuses take themselves off, replete. The male Walrus is too active\nand fierce to be beset in this manner, but a female encumbered with a\ncalf will often be pursued by the Killer. She takes the young one under\nher flipper and tries to escape; but the aggressor rushes in and butts\nat her. Sometimes he succeeds in claiming this tender mouthful;\nsometimes he is killed by the infuriated mother.\n\nThe Sea Unicorn or Narwhal (Monodon monoceros), is a purely arctic\nanimal. The curious \u201chorn\u201d is really the left tooth grown to the length\nof six or seven feet. It is only hollow for a certain distance.\nExteriorly this horn is spirally grooved, to allow presumably for quick\nthrust and withdrawal. The Narwhal often engage in a mock combat among\nthemselves with these horns, but use them with fierce and deadly\nprecision when engaged in actual warfare.\n\nIt were too long to linger here with the creatures of the North, since\nwe shall meet them all, and many more, in dealing with the human\ninhabitants of the country. Arctic animals have a fascination all their\nown, and of late years a wonderfully sympathetic and intuitive\nliterature has grown up having them almost exclusively for its\nprotagonists. Jack London has endeared the powerful, savage, husky dog\nto us for all time, in his \u201cWhite Fang.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nTHE ESKIMO\n\n\nThe inhabitants of the Arctic are the Eskimo, also written Esquimaux,\nUsquemows, called by themselves Innuit (Innuk s. Innooeet p.) or the\n\u201cpeople.\u201d The word Usquemow is Indian, meaning raw flesh eaters. The\nEnglish and Scotch anglicised it to Eskimo. The name \u201cHusky\u201d as applied\nto the native is merely slang, a corruption of Eskimo perpetrated by\nmen whose ears and tongues were untrained to the language\u2014whalers who\nsometimes employed the tribesmen in their hunting, and dubbed them with\nthe first jargon name that came handy. It is still used in this sense\nin localities where Europeans are numerous, such as Alaska, and Hudson\nBay.\n\nPure blood Indians do not penetrate so far north as the Eskimo\nterritories, being denizens of the forest but not of the barrens. The\nEskimo are a kindly, intelligent people, hardy to a degree. They follow\nthe manner of life and the pursuits of primitive man; but when brought\ninto contact with the whites and with civilisation, show themselves by\nno means incapable of assimilating a good deal of instruction. They\nhave qualities of amiability, hospitality, ingenuity and endurance,\nwhich all travellers have agreed in extolling; although here and there\nin the records of the voyages of exploration in the nineteenth century\nwe also find unfavourable comments passed upon them. They exist in\nsmall, scattered tribes along the sea coasts, whence they derive the\nbulk of their subsistence. Owing to the establishment of whaling and\nother stations, the geographical areas of the tribes are now more\ncircumscribed and confined than they used to be, as each station is a\ncentre of trade where most of the necessaries of life can be obtained.\n\nThe origin of the Eskimo is a matter of ethnographical conjecture. They\nthemselves had no written language until comparatively few years ago,\nand depended upon oral tradition for their history. And even to-day it\nis only the few who have been taught to read and write, so that legend\nstill holds sway throughout the greater part of Baffin Land, Cockburn\nLand, and the rest. Their past is lost in obscurity. In the obscurity\nperhaps of that neolithic or \u201creindeer age\u201d of which their life, even\nnow, has so often been cited as a close replica.\n\nThat immense span of time in the history of the human race known as the\nStone Age, falls into five divisions. There is the Palaeolithic period\n(Early, Middle and Late), and the Neolithic period (Transitional and\nTypical). During the last throes of the glacial epoch in Europe, the\ntype of human being was that represented by the relic which has come\ndown to us known as the Neanderthal skull. But the later Pleistocene\nperiod saw a greater diversity in the matter of types, and one race in\nparticular is represented by a fair number of specimens. They denote a\ngood-looking, purely human being. Another race of the same period is\nrepresented by a single specimen only. It is known as the Chancelade\nRace, and \u201cthe skeleton, of comparatively low stature, is deemed to\nshow close affinities to the type of the modern Eskimo.\u201d (Dr. Marett.)\nThis is exceedingly interesting as giving us some idea of the antiquity\nof the stock, and as showing how glacial conditions in prehistoric\ntimes in Europe produced a type which lingers on amid the races of the\nmodern world in the still existing glacial epoch of the Arctic.\n\nThe \u201cReindeer men\u201d of prehistoric times lived lives no harder in the\nbleak climate and unprogressive conditions of glaciated Europe than\nthose of the Eskimo in glaciated America to-day. \u201cThe races of Reindeer\nmen were in undisturbed possession of western Europe for a period of at\nleast ten times as long as the interval between ourselves and the\nbeginning of the Christian era.\u201d (H. G. Wells.) If we add these periods\nof time together we may form some estimate of the age of a civilisation\nsuch as the climatic conditions have produced and proscribed in the\nmodern Arctics.\n\nPerhaps it may be said that in one sense the Eskimo have no history.\nThey are living the same life, under the same rigorous conditions, in\nthe same way now, as their forefathers lived it before them, and as far\nback as human life could be traced in the Arctic earth. It is wonderful\nhow faithfully this oral tradition of theirs has been handed down\nthrough the generations, for the same adventures and incidents and\nstories will be told with little or no alteration by various people of\nwidely different tribes, and events that took place centuries ago will\nstill be invariably related with circumstantial precision.\n\nThe writer well remembers an account given to him one winter\u2019s night by\nan aged hunter, of some stores left by a party of the early explorers.\nIt was during a journey along the south coast of Baffin Land, and\nshelter had been sought in the snow house of an ancient Eskimo couple.\nThe old man was grandfather of the tribe, and had been a noted hunter\nin his day, and had fought many a battle with the savage elements and\nmore savage beasts of the wild. It was after the evening meal. The old\nfellow and his equally old wife had been warmed with some steaming\ncoffee liberally sweetened with molasses, and regaled with ship\u2019s\nbiscuit. The pipes of both had been filled, and were drawing well.\nTheir bronzed, lined faces, lined like the shell of a walnut, shone\nwith contentment, they huddled on their sleeping bench and smoked and\ndreamed of the strenuous past. A question or two soon elicited a flood\nof guttural reminiscences. The old hunter pictured himself as a youth\nagain, and went over the exploits of his prime, prompted now and again\nby the crone at his side, in a shrewd expectation of further acceptable\nitems. Among other things, he told of the various \u201cdumps\u201d or \u201ccaches\u201d\nof stores made by the white men who came long ago, remembering exactly\nthe localities and the contents of every one. Some had been broken into\nlong since by wandering Eskimo; some had been destroyed by bears; some\nremained intact. His memory was as exact and reliable as if he had seen\nthe things but a week\u2014instead of a lifetime\u2014before. Perhaps it was an\necho, all that time afterwards, of the Franklin tragedy.\n\nThese primitive Eskimo inhabit the great archipelago which stretches\npolewards from the northern shores of the Canadian continent, from\nGreenland on the east to Alaska and the Aleutian islands on the extreme\nwest. There is, too, a settlement of Eskimo beyond Behring Strait. Some\nethnographers hold them to be of purely American origin with no\naffinities in Asia, however Mongolian they may be in appearance. Dr.\nRink believes in an Alaskan origin for the Eskimo, as opposed to an\nAsian, but another authority, Dr. Boas, thinks the solution of this\nracial problem might be obtained by means of an arch\u00e6ological research\non the coast of the Behring Sea.\n\nThe original Eskimo stock is now probably extinct. In language and\nphysique, many of the present day tribes exhibit traits of racial\nadmixture with the Red Indians. This has occurred in such junction\nareas as Labrador and Alaska, and has given rise to the probably quite\nfallacious idea of an Indian origin for the Arctic race. This error\ncould not be made in Eskimo lands proper. Those who have lived for long\nyears with both Indian and Eskimo, and are intimately acquainted with\nthe language, legends, and characteristics of both peoples, hold\nstrongly to the opinion that they are entirely distinct. Personally,\nthe writer would incline to the belief that the Innooeet are of\nMongolian stock. He has heard on good authority of a pure Eskimo sailor\nbeing addressed by a Chinaman in Chinese, under the impression that he\nwas speaking to a fellow-countryman. It is conjectured that in the\nremote past some Mongols may have reached the sea coast in the extreme\neast, and have crossed by boat from island to island, and so to the\nArctics of North America. Increasing there in numbers, they presently\ndispossessed the aboriginals\u2014the \u201cTooneet\u201d\u2014and drove them to the \u201cback\nof the Arctic beyond.\u201d But of this more when we come to Eskimo legends.\n\nUndoubtedly the Eskimo are linked, if not by blood certainly by custom,\nto the Arctic peoples of Siberia, to the Lapps and Finns of northern\nEurope. In historic times they mixed with the Danes and Norsemen. They\nare not numerically very strong. Forty thousand may possibly total the\nnation, and of those 12,000 are in Greenland, and rather more in\nAlaska, leaving some 13,000 souls scattered along the shores of Baffin\nLand, Melville Peninsula, Boothia, Victoria Island, Banks Island and\nthe rest of the bleak, fragmented continent. It is in Baffin Land, in\nBoothia, and Victoria that the pure Eskimo race is found. Elsewhere the\ntype is extremely mixed. It is to be deplored, too, that where the\npeople have been in contact with vicious and unscrupulous whites,\ntraders, sailors, and the rest, the introduction not only of alien\nblood but of the diseases of \u201ccivilisation\u201d have here and there\nthreatened extinction to whole tribes.\n\nThe \u201cCentral\u201d tribes of Eskimo (i.e., those tribes exclusive of the\nGreenlanders, the Alaskans, and all the Labradorians save those on the\nnorthern shore of Hudson\u2019s Strait) number about thirty-two. They have\nbeen carefully classified, enumerated, and geographically located, by\nthe ethnologist, Dr. Boas. Three communities are found along the\nnorthern shore of Hudson\u2019s Strait (the southern shore of Baffin Land),\nthe Sikkoswelangmeoot at King Cape, the Akuliangmeoot at North Bluff,\nand the Quamanangmeoot in the Middle Savage Islands. All along the\ncoast of Davis\u2019 Strait are scattered another nine tribes, the chief of\nwhich are the Nuvungmeoot, in the neighbourhood of Frobisher Bay, and\nthe Oqomiut (divided into four territorial groups) all about Cumberland\nSound. The Lake Netselings Eskimo are a branch of these, called the\nTalikpingmeoot. In the extreme north of Baffin Land the Tunungmeoot are\nfound at Eclipse Sound, and the Tununirusirmeoot about Admiralty Inlet.\n\nThere is constant intercourse and intermarriage among these scattered\ngroups (none of which is numerically large), wherever the tracts of\nland in between them are not wholly impassable. Other groups are more\nor less isolated by long stretches of territory, unnegotiable by any\nmeans of Eskimo travel. These folk are not only migratory in their\nhabits, but great travellers for the sake of travelling, as well. They\noften engage on journeys which occupy months or even years, although\nthere is a strong tendency among the old people to return to their\nnative spot before the end, and so territorial distinctions are\nmaintained.\n\nEven before the advent of Europeans and the trade they brought with\nthem, there was a certain amount of barter going on among the Arctic\nfolk themselves, occasioning not a little movement. More driftwood\nbeing found in some localities than in others (chiefly at a place\ncalled Tudjadjuak), the tribes came from everywhere to barter for it\nwith those on the spot. Again, the soapstone or \u201cpotstone,\u201d of which\ntheir lamps and cooking utensils were made, is found in a few places\nonly, such as at Kautag, Kikkerton and Quarmaqdjuin; so that the\nnatives came long distances to dig or trade for that, too. Pyrites for\nstriking fire was also a valuable if local production, and flint for\narrow head making. On the whole the relationships of the various tribes\nwere very friendly, and open hospitality was everywhere observed\nthroughout all the regions where communication was fairly open and\nestablished. Some feuds or tribal reserves obtained where the peoples\nwere strange to each other, and hence arose some extraordinary customs\nas to greetings, which looked very much like challenges to single\ncombat by the chosen representatives of either group.\n\nThere seems to be some evidence that the present day Eskimo were not\nthe original inhabitants of these regions at all. There are definite\ntraces still remaining of an earlier folk called the Tooneet. Eskimo\ntradition speaks repeatedly of these Tooneet as having been conquered\nby the ancestors of the present race and pushed farther and farther\nnorth, until they were lost sight of altogether. Some of their words\nhave been preserved by the Medicine Men (Angakooeet, the conjurors),\nand the remains of their dwellings and graves were to be seen up to a\nfew years ago, the latter still containing skeletons and weapons.\n\nThe Tooneet were short, between four and five feet in stature, and very\nbroadly built. (On this subject the reader should consult Dr. Rink,\n\u201cTales and Traditions of the Eskimo.\u201d) The skull was oval, unlike the\npresent race, who are round-headed. Their weapons were fashioned of\nstone, but of a different shape to those of to-day. Their skin canoes\nwere short and broad instead of the long, narrow kyak in use now. Of\nthese aboriginals little further trace or memory remains. The writer\nmet a very ancient Eskimo on the south coast of Baffin Land, who\nrelated that his grandfather had seen two Tooneet on the shores of an\ninland lake. They were getting into their canoes, and would not allow\nthe other to come near. They appeared to understand nothing of the\nshouted greeting, but hastily paddled off. The Tooneets were also found\non the coast of Labrador. The present tribes of the region were\noriginally enslaved to them. At Nakrak, their remains are to be seen.\n\nThe unmixed Eskimo type of to-day closely resembles the Chinese, with\nan average stature of five feet, lank black hair and small peaked eyes.\nNansen gives us a very life-like picture of them: \u201cTheir faces are as a\nrule round, with broad, outstanding jaws, and are, in the case of the\nwomen particularly, very fat, the cheeks being especially full. The\neyes are dark and often set a little obliquely, while the nose is flat,\nnarrow above and broad below. The whole face often looks as if it had\nbeen compressed from the front and forced to make its growth from the\nsides. Among the women, and more especially the children, the face is\nso flat that one could almost lay a ruler across from cheek to cheek\nwithout touching the nose; indeed, now and again one will see a child\nwhose nose really forms a depression in the face rather than the\nreverse. It will be understood from this that many of the people show\nno signs of approaching the European standard of good looks, but it is\nnot exactly in this direction that the Eskimo attractions usually lie.\nAt the same time there is something kindly, genial and complacent in\nhis stubby, dumpy ... features which is quite irresistible. Their hands\nand feet alike are generally small and well shaped.\u201d Elsewhere he adds:\n\u201cOne cannot help being comfortable in these people\u2019s society. Their\ninnocent, careless ways, their humble contentment with life as it is,\nand their kindness, are very catching, and must clear one\u2019s mind of all\ndissatisfaction and restlessness.\u201d The length of the excerpt will be\nforgiven, since it gives more than a delightful pen picture\u2014an\ninimitable bit of human psychology, that touch of insight which makes\nthe whole world kin.\n\nThe Eskimo on the southern coasts of Baffin Land are taller than their\nfellows, sometimes attaining a stature of six feet and breadth in\nproportion. The majority of the men are beardless. Their hair, black\nand coarse, is worn either long or short, but is cut square across the\nforehead. It covers the ears, to prevent frostbite, and a band is tied\nround the head to prevent it blowing about too freely in the wind. We\nshall deal with the ladies\u2019 coiffure at greater length in another\nconnection.\n\nEach band of Eskimo inhabits some particular spot or tract of the\ncoast, and takes its name after the country, or some peculiarity it\nexhibits. For instance, the land at the point of Fox Channel and Hudson\nStrait is called Sikkoswelak, a term which describes the fact that the\nice just there is seldom stable, owing to the swift local tides. Thus\nthe tribe is known to the rest as the Sikkoswelangmeoot or\n\u201cThe-People-of-the-Place-which-never-Freezes.\u201d Again, there are the\nPuisortak or the \u201cPeople-who-live-where-Something-Shoots-up\u201d (a\nblow-hole in a glacier). The tribe is not a very big unit. It consists\nof about ten to twenty families (generally less, and, be it noted, the\npeople are polygamists), but the birth-rate is a low one. The deaths\nfairly balance the births, so that their numbers remain more or less\nstable. Were not this the case, the regions they inhabit could never\nsupport them, for the Eskimo are voracious eaters (naturally,\nconsidering the climate!) and so far as land animals are concerned, the\nhunting is very scanty for many months of the year.\n\nApropos of this peace-loving, non-belligerent quality in the Eskimo\ncharacter, some word should be offered in explanation of the fact that\nthese people have occasionally shown themselves dangerous to the white\nmen, and have murdered a few whalers and traders.\n\nAs far as any historical records of them exist at all, it would seem\nthat on one occasion only did the Eskimo ever go to war, or make an\nactive and successful stand against their enemies. This was many\ncenturies ago. The handful of Norsemen from Iceland who originally\ncolonised some spots along the coast of southern Greenland, lived\npeaceably enough with the natives they discovered there. At last,\nhowever, a quarrel broke out, blood was spilt, and the Eskimo, plucking\nup a courage and spirit never since repeated, fought and killed off the\nforeigners. But in America, whenever the Innuit came into contact with\nthe Red Indians they simply fled before them ever farther and farther\ninto the icy fastnesses of the north. The red men seem to have been\nalways particularly savage and inimical to the others. And when in the\ncourse of time they became possessed of firearms, they pressed this\noverwhelming advantage against the spear and bow-and-arrow people more\nruthlessly than ever.\n\nThe Eskimo believed that it was the white fur trader who had armed the\nAdl\u00e2t with these \u201cfire-tubes\u201d against him, hence the original hostility\nof these people towards all other white folk. As a matter of fact, the\nservants of the Hudson Bay Company did all they could, in those early\ndays, to protect the Eskimo against the Indian, and to bring about an\nunderstanding between the native races of the great territory they\nexploited. It was, however, this original fear and prejudice which must\nbe held accountable for any barbarity white men have met with since at\nthe hands of the Eskimo (unless indeed the instance has been one of\nrecently and immediately provoked reprisals). For the most part, it\ncertainly holds good that the inhabitants of the Arctic north have been\nthe least dangerous \u201csavages\u201d explorers have ever met. There are some\nconflicting accounts on this subject in the annals of arctic voyagers;\nbut as a very general rule the Eskimo have been found to be a kindly\nand harmless folk. Seldom as they wage war against others, seldom as\nthey can be provoked or even terrified into self-defence (except by\nflight), they never fight, in a collective sense, among themselves.\nThis is not due to effeminacy or cowardice, for no one could connect\nany such suspicion with the hardy intrepid natives of the most pitiless\nregions of the earth. It is simply that the Eskimo are not made in the\nmould too common to all the other races of mankind\u2014they are not\nfighters. Most people, it has been said, regard war as a reversion to\nprimitive instincts. But some historians hold that war\u2014organised war,\nas we understand the term to-day\u2014was not primaeval in its origin. It\nwas unknown to early man, and it is unknown to early man\u2019s last\nrepresentatives, such as the Black Fellows of Australia and the Eskimo\nof the Arctics, at the present time. The Eskimo can be doughty enough\nin single combat when necessity or custom require it of him; but\ngenerally speaking he is the most pacific being on earth.\n\nWhere these people come within the sphere of practical British\ninfluence, they are treated somewhat on the same lines as the North\nAmerican Indians, but without being gathered into Reservations. There\nis a Government Agent in charge of the tribe, and its material needs\nare provided for by the annual supply ship sent along the coast. It is\ngenerally the Agent, trading or Departmental, who extends the first\nhandclasp of welcome to medical man or evangelist who betakes himself\nto the peoples of the Arctic.\n\nThere have been, however, few travellers in Baffin Land, excepting, of\ncourse, the seamen who use its coast. Much of the country is\nunexplored. Probably the only whites who have penetrated it at all have\nbeen missionaries and explorers.\n\nThus the very modern and limited story of Baffin Land trade, etc., is\nthe only civilised history it has. As for its native history, we might\nrefer almost without qualification to any arch\u00e6ological account of the\nfur-clad men of the stone age. The similarity of the Eskimo\u2019s\nimplements, their ways of life, their primitive pursuits, their\ndomestic and tribal management, to those of the neolithic age, has\noften been pointed out. The only other notices of the Baffin Islanders\nto be found are those which occur in the journals of explorers\u2019\nvoyages, such as Captain Parry\u2019s second expedition of 1821, in which we\nget a lively account of the junketings on the ice between the \u201csavages\u201d\nand the crews of the \u201cFury\u201d and the \u201cHecla.\u201d\n\nIt was during this voyage that the leader fell in with an Eskimo girl\nwhose name should be rescued from oblivion. Igloolik added to many\nnative graces and accomplishments a bright intelligence and so good an\nidea of hydrography and of the seacoasts in the neighbourhood of the\n\u201cFury\u2019s\u201d moorings, that the Captain utilised the charts and drawings\nshe made for him in the further prosecution of his expedition, finding\nthem always reliable and mainly correct. He afterwards called an island\nby her name.\n\nTen years later, Captain John Ross received the same sort of assistance\nduring his second Arctic voyage, from another Eskimo woman named\nTeriksin. She revised and corrected for him the sketches of the\nsurrounding coasts furnished by some of the men of the tribe.\n\nThe chart which illustrates Chapter XII is just such another as\nIgloolik and Teriksin might have drawn. It was furnished from memory by\na man called Pitsoolak, and is very fairly correct. The hunters and\nfishers of the Arctic are taught as children to memorise the contours\nof the coast, all landmarks, and every \u201cblaze\u201d of any sort a trail\nmight afford. They have no unit of measurement, except the \u201csleep,\u201d\ni.e., the length of a day\u2019s march and its interval of rest.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nTHE BUILDING OF THE VILLAGE\n\n\nThe Eskimo are a wandering folk, thus their dwellings must of necessity\nbe capable of quick erection, demolition and easy transport. The tribe\nlives in tents in the summer, moving from one camp to another as the\nhunters decide; but winter quarters are more permanent, and the snow\nbuilt house\u2014the igloo\u2014takes the place of the sealskin tupik on a more\nlasting foundation. The Eskimo tent is a wholly different affair from\nthe Indian wigwam or lodge. It consists of a penthouse shaped framework\nof poles, semi-circular at the back, with overlapping strips or\ncurtains of dressed skin for the entrance in front. The whole thing\ncarries a covering of skins, firmly and beautifully stitched together.\nThe back part of the tent, used as the family sleeping place, is\ncovered with skins of the large ground seal\u2014ogjuk\u2014or of the ordinary\ngrey seal, with the hair left on in order to ensure some darkness\nduring the long, unbroken day of the arctic summer. The heavy hair also\nserves to throw off the rain in wet weather. But the front portion of\nthe dwelling has a roofing of the inner membranes of the sealskins,\npared from the entire pelt when fresh and moist. These membranes are\nfirst stretched upon frames and dried, prior to being sewn together,\nwhen they become almost transparent, so that there is plenty of light\nin the rest of the tent. They are so beautifully and so neatly stitched\nas to be practically waterproof, like the fine fishing jackets made of\ndried and split seal gut for the kyakers. The finish of Eskimo\nclothing, fur \u201cblankets\u201d and tent coverings, is always neat and\nworkmanlike and gives no ragged, tatterdemalion impression of nomad\nsavagery such as might be derived from some Indian\u2019s belongings.\n\nTowards the back of the tent, inside, a board is fixed from side to\nside, and the whole space between this and the walls is filled with a\ndeep bed of heather, spread on top with deerskins. This is the sleeping\nplace of the family, in the dark half of the dwelling. Additional\ndeerskins serve as blankets, and lie about the bed, rolled up, during\nthe day. The rest of the furnishing is very simple.\n\nInside the entrance hang the bags of seal oil used for lighting or\ncooking purposes. Then there are the cooking pots (\u201ckettles,\u201d as they\nare called), deep, oblong boxes of soapstone without a lid. And the\nlamps, also of soapstone, and in shape not unlike a crumb tray, with a\nraised lip and a little shelf at the back for refuse bits of wick.\nThese \u201clamps\u201d are fed with seal oil. The wick consists of dried moss\nand gossypium. This is moulded into pellets; a row of wick balls is set\non the rim of the lamp and then kneaded down into a line upon it and\nkept carefully trimmed, so that the edge of flame remains clear and\nbright. All the cooking is done over a \u201clamp\u201d of this description,\nunless over a fire of heather and driftwood out in the open. The Eskimo\nhousewife uses a blubber hammer (a stone, or mallet of ivory tusk set\nin a wooden handle), to beat down the seal or whale fat into oil for\nher lamps. Her furs, and her cooking pots, together with her needles,\nand knives and implements for dressing skins, constitute the Eskimo\nwoman\u2019s domestic outfit; a training in the clever use of them is the\nEskimo girl\u2019s education, and the dowry of the Eskimo bride. The tent\nand these impedimenta are portable enough for the wanderings of the\narctic summer, and it is remarkable what an amazing host and medley of\nbelongings can be stowed in the family travelling boat, and unloaded\nfrom it\u2014a veritable Pandora\u2019s box\u2014at the next bit of summer beach.\n\nThe winter locale and the winter dwelling is altogether another story.\nThe tribe having chosen the site of a village in some sheltered bay,\nnear a frozen lake or stream (or, at any rate, where ice or water can\nbe obtained), will return to it year after year, and remain there\nthroughout the long dark season, until the time comes round again for\nthe summer-exodus. An occasional excursion is undertaken by both men\nand women in search of supplies, but the old folk are left on guard.\n\nThe building of this village is quite a work of art, and is begun as\nsoon as the snow lies deep enough. Before this happens, the tents have\nbeen getting very cold to live in, despite the stitching on of several\nlayers of dried heather to break the force of the wind and keep all\nsnug inside. At last a day comes when by common consent the hunters all\nremain in camp, and join forces with the old men and the boys to build\nthe winter dwellings.\n\nEach man plans and builds his own house according to the size of his\nfamily; but only in his turn, and assisted by the rest of the\ncommunity, to whom he has already given, or is prepared to give, his\nservices. The first houses to be erected are those of the Angakooeet,\nthe Medicine Men; the chief hunters are the next to be considered, and\neveryone else comes in the order of his estimation in the tribe.\n\nThe main considerations the Eskimo has to bear in mind in building his\nsnow house are that it will have to be kept in repair, and that it must\nbe adequately lighted and warmed. This means labour and oil, so for his\nown sake the dwelling is planned on as small a scale as possible. It\nvaries in nothing but in this point of size from all the rest of the\nvillage.\n\nThe hunter having chosen his site, next takes a sealing spear, a long\ntwelve-inch knife and a saw, and begins piercing the snow in every\ndirection, his object being to find a spot where it is deep, and so\nclosely packed and hardened by the wind that it can be cut out into\ngreat blocks for building. Otherwise his \u201cbricks\u201d would be too brittle\nor too friable for the purpose. Should no such patch lie near at hand,\nthe builder calls all hands, and together they start trampling and\npacking down the snow with their feet, while the old men, the women and\nboys constantly bring up fresh supplies and throw it in to be stamped\nfirm. Having thus prepared what he considers sufficient material for\nhis purpose, the good man commences to saw out huge rectangular blocks\nof this solidified snow mass, each one of which taxes his utmost\nstrength to lift. He begins his house by building a ring of them, a\nlarger or smaller ring as the case may be, fitted and jointed together\nwith the utmost nicety by means of his knife. A second tier is added to\nthis ring, the builder working from the inside and the blocks being\nbrought up by his assistants. As soon as this is \u201cwell and truly laid,\u201d\nhe trims the upper surface to a slope, and continues building, but in a\nspiral now and slightly sloping inwards, until he has reached the top\nof what has grown to be a dome roof. A key block is deftly fitted in to\ncomplete and close it, and the shell of the dwelling is complete.\n\nA semicircular opening in the side is next cut out for the doorway, and\nthen the builder turns his attention to the sleeping bench\u2014the\nprincipal feature of the Eskimo igloo. He builds a line of blocks from\nside to side, facing the opening, up to the height of a man\u2019s legs. The\nspace between this and the walls is filled with broken snow like\nrubble, which is trampled down until brought to the necessary level, so\nas to form a solid bench of snow right across the building.\n\nThen side pieces are built out, to form solid shelves for the lamps and\nfamily utensils and to serve generally as a larder and storage place\nfor oil and blubber; so that, by the time all is done there is little\nof the original floor space left.\n\nThe next step is the porch or sukso, another little domed erection much\nlike the main igloo, built in front of the entrance and intended, first\nto break the force of the wind and to keep the larger place warm, and\nsecondly as a store house for surplus meat and blubber, for the dogs\u2019\nharness, whips, sealing lines, and anything the latter and the wolves\nmight find eatable. (Eskimo dogs, be it remarked, find nothing\nuneatable save sticks and stones). As an entrance or exit for the\nsukso, a further passage is built, like a little tunnel; again as\nprotection from the arctic wind.\n\nThe finishing touch is the window. Light is a necessity, but the Eskimo\nis scarcely particular about ventilation. The less he gets of that the\nmore successful his architecture seems to be. A square opening is cut\nhigh up in the dome of the igloo, facing the sleeping bench. It is then\nglazed after the fashion of the Arctics. The builder sets off for the\nnearest sheet of fresh water ice, and with the butt end of his sealing\nspear shivers out a good thick pane of it. This he places over the hole\nin the roof, packing its edges round with half melted snow, and pouring\nwater over the packing. In two minutes, everything is frozen airtight\nand solid, and a window of flawless ice lets the illumination of the\nnorthern night into the pure and icy chamber of the newly made house.\nFailing a window of ice, one is made of strips of dried seal intestine\n(a thin, translucent material, not unlike oiled silk), stitched\ntogether with fine deer sinew. The seams are parallel, and as neatly\nexecuted as if by machine working on the smallest stitch. The fabric is\nstretched over the opening and pegged down at the corners, and\ncongealed into its place by half melted snow. A small hole is cut in\nthe dome for ventilation, and a snow block provided to stop it up again\nwhen necessary.\n\nFinally, the interior has to be glazed. While the householder himself\nhas been busy more or less within the building, on the outside the old\nmen and the children and the women have been set the task of packing\nevery joint and crevice in the snow masonry with loose snow, so as to\nmake it absolutely wind tight. Now comes the moment when the doorways,\ntoo, are closed and every entrance blocked. Two lamps, well trimmed and\nwell supplied with oil, have been carefully lit and left burning\ninside, much as we in this country leave a sulphur candle in a room to\nbe fumigated after infectious illness, and seal up the door. As the\nlamps burn slowly away, the temperature rises and all the surface of\nthe snow is slightly melted. As the lamps die out the temperature falls\nagain, and the surface freezes to glass-like smoothness. Every asperity\nof the sawn blocks of snow is annealed, and the dwelling is as proof\nagainst draught as the inside of a bottle. Water, too, is thrown on the\nfloor, to make it smooth as marble and as durable as cement.\n\nThe writer has dwelt thus at length upon the building of the Eskimo\u2019s\nwinter quarters, since there is something almost like a fairy tale in\nthis fantastic yet ingenious and practical use of snow and ice. If\nmasters of taste have always insisted upon the principles in\narchitecture that design should be in keeping with site and\nsurroundings, and material should be indigenous to the locality, surely\nthe houses that these hardy children of the frozen North build for\nthemselves are by no means wanting in true artistry.\n\nThese snow houses do not take very long to construct. An Eskimo can\nbuild an igloo large enough to house about six people in a few hours,\ngiven some assistance. It would be imagined that no great degree of\ncomfort could be expected within a dwelling where a thaw of the roof\nand walls begins as soon as the temperature rises above freezing point.\nBut warmth is a matter of degree in the Arctic, and shelter from the\nbitterness of the wind alone is almost warmth. The stillness of the air\ninside, the greatly lessened intensity of cold, and the local if foul\nwarmth over the lamps and cooking pots, all make for comfort as the\nnative understands it.\n\nIn some parts of the country the natives line the dome and walls of\ntheir houses with cleverly stretched skins, and between them and the\nsnow walls the intervening space acts as a regulator against the\ninterior warmth, so that excessive thaw is checked, or its effects are\nprevented from damping the family circle below.\n\nLest the foregoing account of the white and frozen village should\nconvey too dazzling an idea of such a settlement, it should be\nremembered that the snow all round and about is trampled up, and\nincredibly defiled by all the refuse of a community who have no ideas\nat all about sanitation and seemly surroundings. Hence there is an\nappearance of dirt and squalor wherever the Eskimo encamp, and these\nlittle congeries of human beings contrive quite effectually to blot and\nmar the pure immensity of the snow-white northern landscape.\n\nThe Igloovegak once finished, it remains to do the furnishing. This is\nessentially the women\u2019s work. Heather is lavishly spread over the\nsleeping bench, and covered again with the heavy winter skins of deer.\nThe rolled-up fur rugs (or \u201cblankets\u201d) of the family are ranged round\nthe walls. Two of the soapstone lamps are placed on stands at each end\nof the sleeping bench, and a rough framework of wood and deer thongs\narranged above them by way of a rack for drying clothes. Stone cooking\npots may be suspended over the lamps when required, and a store of\nblubber and meat is kept handy on the snow benches behind the lamps.\n\nThe rest of the family belongings are stowed away in the porch, and the\nhouse is ready for occupation.\n\nThere is another description of snow dwelling used by the Eskimo called\na Sinnikt\u00e2kvik, an acquired sleeping place. This is merely a temporary\naffair, a hastily built igloo sufficient to house a travelling party\nfor the space of a \u201csleep,\u201d having no porch or window, and only\nintended to be abandoned next day.\n\nIt is interesting to note that the remains of the dwellings of the\nTooneet can be distinguished by the fact of their circular floors\nhaving been laid down with rough stones, unlike the modern igloo, which\nleaves little or nothing to mark its site by the time it has all melted\naway in summer. The sleeping bench in the Tooneet house was narrower\nthan the present day Eskimo\u2019s, showing that the earlier people were of\nshorter stature.\n\nThe family continue to inhabit the winter igloo until the spring thaw\ncomes, and the roof falls in. Then, for a week or two, skins are\nstretched over the hole to keep the storms from beating in; but this is\nonly a temporary measure. By the time the milder weather really sets\nin, and the trickle of water can be heard everywhere, and the\ntunnelling, too, of the lemming under the sleeping bench, the tupik has\nto be in readiness. It has been stored away under a heap of stones\nduring the winter, but with the advent of the ducks it is brought forth\nand erected once more.\n\nThese Eskimo settlements are not built according to plan. Each man\nchooses a site for his own igloo, generally in the shelter of some\nrock, or where there is a good supply of hard packed snow. The\ndwellings are not very scattered, however, but grouped fairly closely\ntogether, for the double purpose of sociability and common defence\nagainst attack by dogs, wolves, or bears. The true Eskimo village\nboasts of no common room or general meeting house such as may be in use\namong some of the tribes in Alaska and elsewhere, where few native\ncustoms survive unchanged. Nor is the log or sod hut ever seen in the\nregions where Eskimo life is still lived as it used to be before\nEuropeans set foot in the polar wilds.\n\nIt is noteworthy that, when an Eskimo tribe moves to another locality,\nthe old igloos are never destroyed. In the barrens, the law of\nhospitality is universally observed, and such of these buildings as may\nsurvive the springtime thaw, might serve for shelter at any time to\ntravellers on journey. Those that are fairly intact when the tribe\nmoves away are merely blocked up; but those which have become unsafe\nhave the roof knocked in. The writer has frequently come across these\ndeserted villages in the course of his journeys, and had occasion to\navail himself of the shelter thus offered. It is a weird and desolate\nsight\u2014a collection of derelict igloos\u2014some gaping open, others closed;\nbut no smoke or steam escaping from their little domes. And, over all,\nthe pall of the frozen silence of the Arctic.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nTHE SEALING GROUNDS\n\n\nThe day\u2019s work in an Eskimo village (i.e., permanent winter quarters),\nis full and varied, and quite regular. It is a busy life they lead,\nboth men and women, marked by all sorts of skilled activities; by\nintervals of neighbourly recreation and gossip; by the excitement and\nstir of the hunters\u2019 return from sealing or bear hunting; and by\nwonderfully cheery, cosy, hospitable orgies of eating in the evening,\nwhen everyone is getting dry and warm and replete for the night.\n\nThe hunters start out early in the morning, after a hasty meal of raw\nflesh and a drink of water, accompanied by their sons and the dogs,\nfour or five in number, harnessed to a light sled loaded with lines and\nharpoons, or whatever implements may be needed for the proposed chase.\nThe team starts out in a fine tear, urged by shouting and the cracking\nof whips, and off they all race, men and dogs together, to the sealing\ngrounds out on the frozen sea, or inland for deer. The stars serve as a\ncompass, or in thick weather the wind will be sufficient guide.\n\nNo food is borne on the sled, for the hunter depends upon himself for\nhis dinner. The duty of the boys is to watch the sled, to mind the\ndogs, and see they do not fight or stampede, to study the conditions of\nthe ice, the signs of the weather, the habits of animals, to note their\ncalls and movements and how to imitate them, to take careful notice of\nthe topography of the country and make mental drawings of it to serve\nas charts and maps, to read the stars, and, generally to endeavour to\nbecome skilled and successful hunters themselves.\n\nThey arrive at the sealing ground as the winter day breaks, and\nimmediately start the search for a seal hole; for upon the finding of\nthis depends the comfort and sustenance of the whole family for days to\ncome, and the succour of the families of anybody else who may not be in\nluck, but who may return home, cheery as ever, but empty handed.\n\nAll around as far as the eye can see is a vast, white expanse, utterly\nfeatureless and monotonous save for an occasional iceberg or a ridge of\nhummocky ice. Behind is the white line of the broken coast; ahead is a\ndark mist, marking the floe edge and the open sea; and above all, the\ntwilight sky, darker than the drear white world, of the Arctic winter.\nTo a European, the effect of such a scene is crushing in its\nmelancholic immensity, its frozen immobility and silence. Not so to the\nnative. He remains irrepressibly cheerful, his whole soul preoccupied\nwith the necessities of his larder, buoyed up with the hope and the\ntireless patience of the sealer. He goes searching for his blow hole.\nThe slight indication for which his practised eye is scanning every\nfoot of the ice is a faintly rounded bump with a small opening in it no\nbigger than a shilling. As soon as he catches sight of one of these he\nis reassured, and prepares to wait\u2014quite indefinitely, and perfectly\nstill\u2014for what must presently happen.\n\nThe seal is a warm-blooded creature, whose need of air to breathe is\nurgent and frequent. As soon as the sea begins to freeze, the animal\ntakes precautions against being imprisoned and drowned under the ice.\nIt makes a series of breathing holes over the whole area of its feeding\nground below. If one or another of these freezes over again, there are\nthe rest; or if an enemy is encountered at one hole, it can have\nrecourse to another. The seal comes methodically after feeding to each\nblow hole in turn, and keeps it open by scratching away any newly\nformed ice threatening to close it up. It puts its nose to the opening\nand breathes long, deeply, and luxuriously, before diving once more.\n\nThe hunter knows every move in the game.\n\nHaving discovered a seal hole, he provides himself with a block of snow\nto sit upon, and prepares for a lengthy wait. He takes up his patient\nstation facing the wind (for the seal has the keenest scent, and the\nEskimo is, to say the least of it, somewhat smelly), thrusts his feet\nand legs into a deerskin bag, tucks his hands into the sleeves of his\njacket, lays his spear across his knees, and watches\u2014it may be for\nhours\u2014motionless as a rock, for sound travels under the ice and the\nprey must not be warned. A sealer will wait all day and all night, if\nneed be, at the blow hole. If he should fall asleep, he runs the risk\nof being maimed for life with frostbite.\n\nPresently he hears the expected scratching, and the scraping of the\npaws of a seal coming up to breathe. Silently he prepares for action.\nNow is the critical time. First, there comes the expulsion of the foul\nair long pent in the animal\u2019s lungs; but not yet dare the watcher make\nthe slightest sign. The seal withdraws its head and listens intently\nfor a possible foe. Reassured after a few moments, it again approaches\nthe hole with the little dome of snow and, putting its head well up,\ntakes a long, reviving breath. This is the hunter\u2019s moment. His hand\nslips to his spear (his fur garments making no sound), grips it, and\npoises it with unerring aim. With one swift downward thrust, the weapon\nis through the blow hole and its barb buried deep in the neck of the\nseal. When the eye is true and quick the stroke is seldom missed. The\nanimal immediately dives, taking out the barb and line. The Eskimo seal\nspear has a movable head or barb, which is attached to the shaft in\nsuch a way that it becomes detached from it the moment an animal is\nstruck, and remains firmly embedded in the flesh with the long line of\nwhite whale hide attached, while the spear itself floats on the water\nor falls on the ice as the case may be. The hunter instantly recovers\nthis shaft, and now the butt comes into play. The hole is quickly\nenlarged and the prey hauled up and killed, there on the ice, with one\nquick stroke.\n\nIt is but the work of a few minutes for the dog team (which had been\ndriven away back from the hole as soon as it was discovered), to come\nracing up. A shout summons every other hunter within sight, and quicker\nthan it takes to tell, there is a concourse of fur-clad figures, the\nseal is cut open, and a rib, dripping with the fresh, hot blood, is\npresented to each by way of an invigorating snack. The carcase is soon\nskewered together again by means of the long ivory pins carried by the\nhunter, and loaded on to the sled, when the successful \u201coutfit,\u201d\nbidding a cheery adieu to the others, strikes off then and there for\nhome, rejoicing in the thought of fresh supplies of meat and blubber,\nand another skin added to the family stores.\n\nWhen the sealing season fully sets in, sealing camps are formed far out\non the ice at sea, over the sealing grounds, and thither the younger\nhalf of the entire Eskimo community resorts for a month or more. A new,\nroughly fashioned, temporary village quickly springs up, and all the\nusual household goods are installed in readiness for the season\u2019s work\non the spot. The camp igloos are much smaller and less ambitious\ndwellings than those on shore, their sole object being to provide a few\nweeks\u2019 shelter. There is none of the home life of the permanent\nvillage. The men and boys are away all day long, and the women spend\nall their time preparing and drying the skins and keeping the cooking\npot going. Water is obtained either from the snow lying deep on the\nsurface of the ice, or from ice from the nearest berg. From early\nmorning till late at night the camp resounds with the crack of whips,\nthe shouts of the dog-team drivers, the gruff voices of men and the\nshrill voices of boys, as they drive hither and thither, quartering the\nexpanse of the sealing grounds in search of the blow holes. Every foot\nof the way is closely scanned. Suddenly a deep \u201cUgh!\u201d from the hunter\nannounces the saucer-like depression in the snow which tells him that a\nseal cavern is beneath.\n\nHere and there a solitary sportsman with but one dog on a long line\nsets out on his own, over the sealing ground. He trudges observantly\nalong, urging the dog to ferret about and pick up the scent of the\nquarry beneath the snow. \u201cWhite Fang,\u201d nothing loth, sets all his\nsharp, trained wits to work, and presently starts snuffling and\nscratching, like any terrier at a rat hole, and the hunter knows he has\ncome upon his prey.\n\nTo understand the activities of the sealing camp it is necessary to\nknow something of the habits of the seal in the breeding season. For\nsome time before the baby creature is born, for instance, the mother\nhas been preparing a house for it. She does not give birth in the water\nnor on the surface of the snow, for the obvious reasons of the cold and\nof the possible presence of enemies. She makes a hole in the sea ice\nbig enough for her to get through, and proceeds to scrabble out an airy\ncavern in the deep layer of snow above, leaving a sort of shelf or\nflooring of clear ice upon which she can lie in safety and bring her\nyoung to birth. This place is\u2014comparatively\u2014warm, dry, and even cosy.\nIt is within immediate reach of the hole through which she can dive\nback into the water at a moment\u2019s alarm, and it is almost completely\nhidden from above. The baby is left in this cavern while the mother\nseeks food, and it lives there until, after a series of short\neducational excursions in the water, it has learnt to hunt for itself,\nand its lungs have accustomed themselves to the conditions of the adult\nseal\u2019s existence.\n\nFrequently indeed the baby gets drowned! The mother may have heard some\nnoise above which has alarmed her. Fearing danger, she has thrust her\nhead up through the diving hole, caught hold of the young one, and\nhastily retreated with it to a depth unsuitable for its tender lungs,\nwith a sad and fatal result.\n\nThe Eskimo sealer knows all this natural history as he knows that of\nevery other denizen of the Arctic, and founds upon it his methods in\nhunting.\n\nDirectly he has detected the locality of a seal\u2019s nursing cavern under\nhis feet, either by the presence of a slight depression in the snow, or\nby the pointing of the dog, he arms himself with a nixie, or hook on\nthe end of a long shaft, and gathering himself together makes a\ntremendous jump into the air, coming down with all his weight and force\nupon the spot. He jumps again and again, until at last the snow caves\nin and blocks the hole below, cutting off the baby seal\u2019s retreat into\nthe sea beneath. Then he prods and probes among the d\u00e9bris of the\ncavern for the imprisoned creature, locates it, hooks it out, and kills\nit with one blow on the head. After that, there is the mother to be\ncaught. She is probably lurking under the ice nearby. So, before he\nkills the little one, the hunter ties his sealing line to one of its\nflippers and pushes it through the diving hole into the water. The\nmother at once tries to come to its rescue, only to encounter her own\ndevoted death. She, too, is hooked, dragged out, and despatched.\n\nThe seal has other enemies to contend with besides man. The bear has a\nkeen scent, a heavy paw, a huge appetite, and a peculiar relish for her\nyoung. He, too, wanders out on the sealing grounds at the proper\nseason, and having found a cavern, sets his two huge forepaws on the\nsnow and, with one mighty push, breaks it all in. He easily hooks the\nhelpless little creature beneath, and devours it with ursine relish.\n\nOr it may be that an arctic fox decides to spend a day seal hunting. He\nglides over the snow, an almost invisible shape, like nothing so much\nas a white wraith of the desolation around. His scent having guided him\nto a likely spot, and being unable, like the bear, to do his\nhousebreaking by mere brute force, he adopts a peculiarly wicked plan\nof his own. Planting all four feet together pivot-fashion, he spins\nhimself round and round, his claws boring a way through the snow, until\nhe corkscrews his unwelcome presence into the seal\u2019s retreat. The baby,\nagain, falls a helpless victim.\n\nThis seal hunting of the tribesmen, far out at sea in the camp on the\nice, is not without its dangers, as the following tale will show.\n\nFor several weeks all had gone prosperously with the sealers. The\nweather had been good, and the young seals plentiful. Loaded sleds had\nbeen continually going to and fro between the winter village on shore\nand the village on the ice, bearing meat and skins to the old folk at\nhome. Contentment and jollity reigned, for had not the Conjurors\nguaranteed prosperity and good luck, and were their prophecies not\namply fulfilled?\n\nBut, one day, the sky became overcast. Hour after hour it grew more\nheavily banked with forbidding cloud, whilst from seaward came a low\nroar, the presage of an arctic storm. The sealers hastily retreated to\ntheir dwellings, and blocked up their doors, and prepared to wait.\nEvening drew nigh, and the tempest rose. An occasional quiver of the\nicy floor told of the pounding of heavy breakers at the floe edge, and\na portentous shiver now and again spoke of masses of it being broken\naway.\n\nWith the indifference which comes of familiarity with danger, these\nhardy northern folk stayed out there in camp, on the very edge as it\nwere of death; and as the night drew on, merely rolled themselves in\ntheir fur blankets and went to sleep, confident that the morning would\nsee an abatement in the storm. Nevertheless, it went on increasing and\ngrew more and more violent. The shivering dogs scratched holes for\nthemselves in the snow on the lee side of the igloos, and buried\nthemselves as deeply as they could. At length the Eskimo instinct of\nperil was aroused, and an intuitive sense of the full extent of the\ncatastrophe at hand (a sense not developed to any marked degree among\ncivilised peoples), roused the entire camp.\n\nIt began when a woman and her husband waked suddenly, feeling that all\nwas not well. They looked round the igloo, yet could detect nothing\namiss. Its other occupants slept soundly. There was the thud and the\nroar of the wild hurricane without, but all seemed snug within.\n\nAnd yet\u2014what was that? Even as the goodwife watched and waited, there\ncame another of those strange quiverings in the ice, and the cooking\npot suspended over the lamp began to swing. The awful thing told its\nown tale! The ice on which the camp was built was breaking up beneath\nit, and every soul was faced with imminent and deadly peril. The sea\nwas fathoms deep below; the land a long distance away! Darkness and the\nsavage uproar without made chaos of the arctic night.\n\nThen indeed the ice gave way, and in a moment became nothing but a\npounding, grinding mass of detatched fragments, on which the wrecked\ncamp tossed. The sealers, roughly awakened, smashed down their doors,\nor with knife and spear cut a way out of their igloos as best they\nmight, and got clear of them, followed by the women and children. With\nthe strange but unerring instinct of primitive man, they headed, even\nin that tumult and pitchy darkness, for the unseen land; and then began\na perilous race with death and the spirits of the storm.\n\nThey had to spring from floe to floe, following each other, encouraging\nand helping the women, finding a way where from moment to moment there\nmight be none, risking everything at every leap.\n\nAmong those in the crowd was Kownak, a young hunter, and his new made\nwife. The girl was only then recovering from a recent sickness, and her\nstrength completely failed her. The two started, indeed, on their\nghastly journey like the rest; but before half the distance to safety\nwas accomplished the young wife\u2014wet, terrified, and weak\u2014sank down\nexhausted and beaten on the bitter ice with a cry of despair. Kownak\nlifted her up and bore her on in his arms. But the rocking of the ice\nflung them both into the sea time and again, despite his utmost\nendeavour. Once he managed to grip the edge of the floe, whilst the\ngirl scrambled back on to it again over his shoulders. He stripped off\nhis coat to wrap it round her in the frantic effort to keep her from\nfreezing, and tried again to lift and carry her. But it was an\nimpossible feat on the tossing, glassy ice. She struggled to rise and\nstagger on, but could endure no more and sank down again, unconscious,\nto be frozen to death within another minute.\n\nKownak could not tear himself from the body until it had become nothing\nbut an indistinguishable mass, one with the ice. Only then did he\nremember his own desperate plight, and make a final effort to save\nhimself. After incredible exertions and hairbreadth escapes, at last he\nreached the shore, black with frostbite, and joined the surviving\nremnant of the sealing camp. The merest handful of the people had\noutlived that terrible night.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nWOMANHOOD IN THE ARCTICS.\n\n\nIn the meantime, the women, left in the village on shore, have been far\nfrom idle. As soon as the husband has gone off for the day the wife\nsets about her domestic affairs. First, she rolls up the bedding and\ntidies the sleeping bench. The next job is to sweep the hoar-frost from\nthe window and the cupola, to prevent the dripping of any moisture, and\nthen to sweep up the floor\u2014littered, likely enough, with the remains of\na good feed overnight. These duties are performed with a brush made of\nthe outspread wings of a duck or raven; it might almost be called a\ndouble-bladed brush. The backs are sewn together and the upper bones\nform the handle. Such a contrivance is a very handy affair altogether,\nand will last quite a long time.\n\nThe next task is to prepare a quantity of blubber for oil. This is\npulped with a bone hammer or koutak, and the fuel so obtained is\nsuspended over the shallow lamps in such a way as to dip into them and\nkeep them supplied. New wick is fashioned from dried moss and cotton\nplant trimmed upon the lamps. Next comes the stew for supper. The\nEskimos have only one way of cooking meat, and that is stewing it in\nthe stone \u201ckettles\u201d already described. These are partly filled with sea\nwater for the sake of the salt, a quantity of seal\u2019s blood is added,\nand then comes the meat. The whole thing hangs simmering over the lamps\nall day, and by the time the men come back at night a reeking hot meal\nis ready, rich, nourishing, and as tender as a sharp-set hunter could\ndesire.\n\nWater is the next consideration. The Eskimo housewife hauls it in skin\nbuckets from the nearest stream, bailing it up through a hole in the\nice; or, failing that, she brings in the ice itself, or snow, and sets\nit to melt over a spare lamp. These people are thirsty souls, and water\nis hard to come by in the winter. Every drop that can be obtained is\nused for drinking or cooking, so that washing (except the hands and\nface), is dispensed with perforce of arctic circumstance. Fresh water\nice melts more quickly than beaten snow, and it is an interesting fact\nthat an iron or tin pot used for melting the former will last much\nlonger than for melting snow. The latter process causes it to become\nquickly pitted with spots of rust and perforated. Aluminium vessels\nlast the longest. In the old days\u2014i.e., prior to the establishments of\ntrading posts\u2014the Eskimos had no utensils of any sort except those of\nnative manufacture from bone, or stone, or ivory. Nowadays they have\nsteel-tipped spears, iron nails, and tinware for cooking purposes.\n\nPerhaps the next most important employment of the feminine portion of\nthe community is the preparation of skins, the softening of leather,\nand the finer animal tissues, the washing, drying, and stretching of\ngut, and the manufacture of the marvellously fine sinew used for sewing\nand stitchery. All this includes the making of tents and clothing. The\nold women help the housewives as far as they are able, and the girls\nwatch and learn, with a view to rendering themselves eligible in the\neyes of the young men as accomplished brides-to-be. The women are\nperpetually employed chewing the edges of skins and leathers to make\nthem pliable and soft for sewing. This process tends to wear down the\nteeth to very unsightly stumps.\n\nThe heavy work is done by the hale and hearty, who leave only the\nlighter tasks, such as the tending of the lamps and the minding of the\nhouse, to the older folk. Womanlike all the world over, the crones love\nto get together and indulge in unlimited gossip. All the women, indeed,\npay a constant round of visits, and gathering, now here, now there, sit\nabout smiling and gossiping, as is their wont from the tropics to the\npole.\n\nThe Eskimo are a genial, jovial, peaceable people, among whom\nquarrelling is a crime, and he or she who disturbs the general peace is\na villain of the deepest dye. So, whatever else comes of all the\ngossip, it is not\u2014in an Eskimo village\u2014malevolence, backbiting and\nspite. They talk\u2014these fur-clad, hard-working women\u2014of their last\nyear\u2019s journeyings, who and what they saw and heard, of their trials\nand vexations, of their children and relations and husbands\u2014each one\u2019s\ncontribution to the conversation being punctuated by a chorus of \u201cAh,\nAh\u2019s,\u201d \u201cElarle! Elarle!\u201d (Indeed! Yes!) from the rest.\n\nSuddenly, however, just when their enjoyment may be at its height, the\nchildren\u2019s cry of \u201cKumokse! Kumokse! Nets\u00e9rkpok!\u201d\u2014(A sled, a sled! He\u2019s\ngot a seal!) breaks up the gathering in excited confusion. There is a\nrush, each wife to her own home. Cries of joy and anticipation fill the\nair, and the whole village is stirred with cheerful and prosperous\nbustle. The hunters are returning, and fresh supplies are at hand. Very\nsoon the cracking of the dog whips is heard, shouts of command, barks\nand howls; and the teams appear, scrambling over the sigjak (the broken\nice along the shore), with their welcome loads. Quickly the harness is\nthrown off and safely bestowed, the lines and everything eatable being\ncarried into the sukso; the dogs are fed and quieted, and curl round\nand go to sleep in the snow.\n\nThen comes the evening meal. The stewpot is taken from the slings and\nset in front of the mistress of the igloo. The sturdy men and children\ncrowd round her and each one is served with a generous piece of\nsealmeat. They hold it in their hands to eat. Each bronzed or\nwind-blackened face glows with enjoyment and contentment in the homely\nlamplight, and an atmosphere of unfeigned goodwill and cheer dominates\nthe little group. The hungry folk whose husbands and fathers have not\nbeen successful all day simply distribute themselves through the\nvillage, and share the food of the lucky. The captor of to-day may\nreturn empty handed to-morrow, when he may look for hospitality to his\nguests of to-night.\n\nAs soon as the meal in the pot is finished, the soup is poured out into\na drinking bowl and handed round, each one taking a good pull in turn.\nThe air soon reeks\u2014the tight-packed assemblage of unwashed humanity,\nthe stench of seal oil and blubber, the strong odours from the pot and\nthe exhalations of garments spread out on the racks to dry, all\ncontribute to the malodorous atmosphere. But what of that to those\naccustomed to nothing else, to whom the whole means warmth and plenty\nand the nearness of his own, in the frozen immensity of the awful\narctic world without?\n\nAs soon as the meal is done the day\u2019s catch of seals is cut up. Each\nanimal is placed on its back on the floor, opened and dismembered, and\npieces of the meat and blubber are given to the needy. Open hospitality\nis the law of the land in the Arctics. Travellers, whether native or\nEuropean, are always sure of welcome and shelter on reaching an Eskimo\nvillage. On these occasions the stranger is always the first to be\nserved from the generous family stew.\n\nThis sanguinary and odoriferous business being despatched, and the\nneighbours having taken themselves off, the door is fixed for the\nnight\u2014the door being a slab of snow cut to fit the main entrance to the\nigloo, and set on one side during the day. The lamps are trimmed to a\nlow flame, wet clothes are spread on the drying frames above them, and\neach member of the family rolls up in a fur blanket on the sleeping\nbench and so goes to bed. Occasionally the mother wakes up, to trim the\nlamps and turn the clothes during the night. She will be the first to\nwake and rise in the morning, since it is part of the woman\u2019s work\n\u201cwhich is never done,\u201d to rub and soften the leathern clothing of her\ngood man and the boys, which had hardened in drying while they slept.\n\nBefore the advent of the white man and his methods, the Eskimo used to\nstart a fire by means of \u201cfiresticks.\u201d The writer has seen this done\nrepeatedly at the present day. An oblong piece of wood with a\ndepression made in it to hold the tinder (a mixture of dried moss and\ncotton plant), receives the spindle. Another small piece of wood,\nplaced on top of the latter, is held in position by the teeth and\npressed down firmly upon it. The spindle is made to rotate rapidly by\nmeans of a rough bow until a spark, caused by the friction, starts up\nin the tinder. This is gently blown to a flame, and the fire is\nkindled. Nowadays, steel, or pieces of iron, are used in place of the\ndriftwood board and spindle, especially on hunting expeditions; for\nalthough matches have found their way into the Eskimo igloo, they are\ncostly, and apt to get damp.\n\nThere seems to be a happy sort of sex equality among these people, or\nperhaps it should rather be said that a mutually agreeable division of\nequally essential labours cause the men and women to live more on a\ncommon footing than they seem to do among many other uncivilised folk.\nOld women, widows, and orphan girls, never want for protection and\nsustenance, so long as the rest can shelter and support them. The\nEskimo are a very improvident people, never taking thought for the\nhungry morrow when they can feast to-day; but so long as the good\nthings last, so long as they are to be had, the old and helpless of\nboth sexes are never neglected. If a time should come when there arises\na question of superfluous mouths to fill, the old people go into a sort\nof voluntary retreat in their own houses, and willingly die the death\nof starvation. More will be said on this subject elsewhere.\n\nOn one dreadful occasion an Eskimo woman was betrayed by force of\ncircumstances into an act of cannibalism. This woman was a tall,\ncommanding figure from the south coast, with a grave, intelligent face.\nShe was an excellent huntress, equally at home with gun or spear. She\ncould wield her needle, too, and together with her husband, was a\nfirst-rate worker and much respected by all the tribe.\n\nA party of women, including herself and her baby, were travelling to a\ntrading station. Their sled was well provisioned and their dogs in good\ncondition, and the route lay over mountains and valleys, and across all\nthe intervening fiords and bays. Soon after they started things began\nto go wrong. The weather changed and a wind got up, bearing snow. Storm\nafter storm swept the country, through which the travellers could\nscarcely force their way. The dogs sank to their shoulders in the deep\ndrift, and at last could make no further progress at all. The little\nexpedition called a halt. They built a sleeping place and prepared to\nwait till the violence of the weather abated. But, as day after day\nwent howling by, each as impossible as the last, the stock of rations\nbecame exhausted, and the whole party reached the verge of starvation.\n\nThe Eskimo woman from the south fell ill, in consequence of the\nhardships and privations, and lost consciousness. While she happened to\nbe in this state, a council was held by the others of the party, who\ndecided to keep life going by killing and eating the child. This was\naccordingly done, and as soon as she could be partially roused, a\nportion was given to the famished mother. Not knowing what it was she\ndid, she ate the meat\u2014and survived. Some time afterwards the forlorn\nband was rescued by some hunters and taken to their camp, and only then\nthe woman learnt the truth about her supposedly dead baby. Years after\nthe horrible thing occurred the writer met her and had the story from\nher own lips.\n\nWomen and their adventures figure largely in Eskimo folk tales. One of\nthem might almost point to a feminist movement in the Arctics! Two\nbrides, it is narrated, ran away from their homes before their very\nfirst children ever saw the light. After awhile the fathers went in\nsearch of their lost daughters. When the girls found they were\ndiscovered they wept bitterly, and declared themselves most unwilling\nto return to their husbands. The fathers, however, were quite relieved\nto find them comfortably off where they were, and having stayed a\ncouple of \u201csleeps\u201d in their daughters\u2019 house, returned home without the\nbrides. When they got back to the tribe they had this amazing thing to\ntell\u2014that two women without the company of any men, lived happily all\nby themselves, and were never in want!\n\nThere is a charming little story of a lonely woman who owned a bear\ncub, and loved it and brought it up like a child and called it her son.\nThe bear repaid her devotion, and supported her by his prowess in\nhunting so well that the rest of the villagers grew jealous and planned\nto kill him. So, conscious of their evil designs, he departed, almost\nas much to the grief of the children of the village as to that of his\n\u201cmother.\u201d He never ceased, however, to repay her love, and continued\nout on the ice floes to catch seals for her support.\n\nThe gruesome story of the murderess Toodl\u00e2nak has never hitherto\u2014so far\nas the writer can ascertain\u2014been included in any ethnologist\u2019s\ncollection of the Eskimo legends.\n\nIt is narrated by the Ancient Ones that there lived this Toodl\u00e2nak, who\nwas an evil spirit in female disguise. She had a large house\n(igloovegak) built by the side of the route used by hunters going\ninland after deer. It was far up country, many days\u2019 journey either\nfrom the sea or from the pastures of the interior. The house was large\nand comfortable, and Toodl\u00e2nak had a reputation for hospitality. She\nloved to entertain any who passed that way and to give them food and\nshelter for the night. She allotted to them the best rugs and the most\ncomfortable part of the sleeping bench. Presently, however, it began to\nbe noticed that few if any of these hunters returned. At last the\nbrother of one of these inexplicably missing men determined to look\ninto things. He started out with a companion, and in due course both\nreached the half-way house. Out came Toodl\u00e2nak, as usual, all smiles\nand amiability, inviting them to enter and refresh and rest themselves\nthere for the night. They did so, but the suspicious young man kept his\nwits about him, and never relaxed a sharp look-out on his hostess. He\nhad a notion that she knifed her guests in their slumber.\n\nUnknown to Toodl\u00e2nak, he secreted a flat stone within the bosom of his\ntunic (the netseak), and, rolling himself in his blanket, lay flat on\nhis back apparently in deep sleep. His hostess had also retired to\nrest, and seemed also quite dead to the world. But, about midnight, he\nsaw her rise by the dim light of the lamp, and creep over to his\ncompanion where he also lay asleep on the bench. The movement betrayed\nthe fact that the awful creature had a knife-like tail with which she\nstruck her victim through the chest and killed him. She then crept\nstealthily towards the watcher, and would have served him the same way\nbut that he was ready for her. The vicious tail struck, indeed, at his\nchest, but shivered on the hidden stone, broke off, and left Toodl\u00e2nak\ndefenceless. The hunter sprang up and killed her on the spot. He\nsearched all over the place, and found the remains of innumerable\nvictims, and their property hoarded away. He broke down the house,\nburied his luckless companion, and returned home with the news that at\nlast the country was ridded of its pest and might be safely travelled.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nCLOTHING\u2014BOAT BUILDING\n\n\nIn the preceding chapters little but an outline has been given of the\nactivities of the day in an Eskimo encampment. Boat building is one of\nthe occupations in which men and women jointly engage; but before this\nis described at the length it requires, there is much to be said about\nthe dressing and fashioning of the various skins which form the most\nimportant item of Eskimo economy.\n\nThe Eskimo woman values none of her possessions more than the ooloo, a\nshort-handled knife shaped like a small half-moon turf cutter, chiefly\nused for paring off the inner membrane of the stout sealskin for the\nlighter hangings of the summer tent, but of universal utility. With it\nshe cuts out her garments or dismembers a seal. In addition to this she\nhas steel or ivory needles and a thimble.\n\nThe Eskimo have no woven fabrics or European clothes until they come in\ncontact with the whites, and\u2014perhaps unfortunately\u2014acquire the\nbeginnings of a civilisation alien to the natural evolution and\nnecessities of their lives.\n\nTheir own native dress consists entirely of deerskins for winter use\nand sealskins for the summer. Both sets are warmly lined with fur. The\ndeerskins employed as clothing are the summer and autumn hides; those\nflayed in the winter are reserved for the kaksak or sleeping blankets.\nThe men\u2019s and women\u2019s tunics are lined either with fawn skins or the\nsummer skins with the hair on. No underclothing is required, fur always\nbeing worn next to the skin. The man\u2019s jacket is looser in shape than\nthe woman\u2019s, and the hood (nessak) fits closely round the face. The\nwoman\u2019s garment is quite different. It has shorter, baggy sleeves, is\nlarge and roomy at the back, fitting, however, tightly to the waist; it\nhas a hood (amout) big enough for two heads, a short stomacher-like\napron about twelve inches long in front, and a lengthy tail reaching to\nthe heels behind. The Eskimo women carry their babies on their backs in\nthis queer jacket. The child has no clothing on it, but it keeps\nadmirably warm next the fur-clad mother. Its feet rest on her waist\nline and its head peers from out of the capacious hood over her\nshoulder.\n\nBoth sexes wear short, wide trousers. For footgear they have long\ndeerskin stockings like Lifeguardsmen\u2019s boots, with the hair turned\nnext the skin, reaching well up over the knees under the pants. Over\nthese is worn a sock like a Turkish slipper, made from the skin of the\nLarge Glaucus Gull, the feathers being inside; and over this again goes\na short sock of deerskin, with the hair turned outwards and upwards so\nas to enable the long boot, or kummik, to pull on easily. This boot is\ntied on below the knee and round the ankle. The sole is made of the\nleather of the large ground seal, with the hair shaved off, and the leg\nis the skin of deer\u2019s legs stoutly stitched together.\n\nThe women take immense pride in the cut, fit, workmanship and\nornamentation of their dresses, showing no little taste and\ndiscrimination in the management of design and ornament. The various\nfurs are introduced in lines, panels and patterns, with an eye to\ncolour and texture a skilled furrier might envy.\n\nPrior to the advent of Europeans to the Arctics, fringes of deerskin\nwere the most popular form of ornament for clothing; but to-day the\nEskimo women are passionately fond of elaborate beadwork. The beads are\nof European manufacture, but the design in which they are applied is\nnative. The favourite beads are small and brightly coloured. The native\nsempstress will also sew two or three coins down the front of the\ninside jacket and down the tail of the dress, or even the bowls of a\nfew spoons. These clink as they walk, and greatly delight their\nwearers.\n\nThe Eskimo tailor has a wonderfully correct eye, and can so scrutinise\na figure as to be able to turn out a well-fitting suit of skins without\ntaking a single measurement, or \u201ctrying on.\u201d\n\nThe men\u2019s clothes are plain, without ornamentation, and the fashion of\nthem does not vary with the season. In summer they are lined with the\nwhite skins of the baby seal, which are as soft and fleecy as lambs\u2019\nwool; in winter, with the skins of the fawn, which are very soft and\nwarm.\n\nThe Eskimo housewife prides herself greatly upon her store of skins.\nThese, and the soapstone cooking utensils, and the carefully housed\npoles for the summer tupik, dogs, sled, and kyak, constitute the wealth\nof a native family. Fine sewing thread is made from the sinew of deer\u2019s\nlegs, scraped and dried. For stouter purposes, seal sinew is used.\nEskimo stitching requires to be seen to be appreciated. It is amusing\nto note that the age of a child can be told at a glance by the length\nof the tail of its little jacket.\n\nApropos generally of domestic tastes, a word must be added on the\nwomen\u2019s hairdressing. The hair is generally parted down the centre and\nplaited on either side of the face, the two plaits being looped under\nthe ears (reminiscent of the early Victorian style!) and tied in a knot\nat the back. In some tribes the women gather their hair up and bind it\nall into a stiff vertical cone on the top of the head. They weave into\nthis stubborn erection every hair which comes out, so that in time a\nwoman\u2019s age may be guessed by the size of her topknot. It used to be\nthe fashion in bygone days to tattoo the face with linear designs, but\nthis has now practically died out.\n\nIt is a common error of writers upon the Eskimo folk to assert that\nthey oil themselves to keep out the cold, that they drink oil as a\nfood, and revel in grease generally. Nothing of this is correct. The\ndirtier and the greasier a man is, the colder he is; so every effort is\nmade\u2014not after cleanliness exactly, as that is an impracticable\nstandard\u2014to keep grease from the clothes and the person. When engaged\nin preparing or cleaning anything very oily, the women remove part of\ntheir dress to save it, and afterwards rub away as much of the grease\nas possible from their hands and arms. Seal oil and melted blubber act\nas strong purgatives, hence it would be impossible to use them as\ndrink, besides they are required for the lamps.\n\nPerhaps the next most important business of the Eskimo women, after\ncooking and making the clothes, is the preparation of skins for the two\ntypes of boat in use on the coast. This entails considerable labour and\nskill. The men are responsible for the framework.\n\nThe kyak\u2014a creation as truly national to these intrepid coasters as the\nsnowshoe may be to the Indian, the ski to the Norwegian, and the\nalpenstock to the Swiss mountaineer\u2014is a covered canoe, graceful as a\nfish, for use at sea. It can be handled in the roughest weather. It\nconsists of a light framework, formerly of whalebone, but now generally\nof driftwood, fastened together with thongs of sealskin. It is from\neighteen to twenty feet in length, strong and elastic to a degree, and\nentirely covered with skins, almost resembling a torpedo in shape, with\nlong, tapering extremities. There is a small circular opening\namid-ships, where the kyaker sits, fitting closely round his body. In\nrough weather he wears a waterproof jacket (of seal gut), the hood\nfitting tightly round his face and the sleeves to his wrists. The lower\nedge of this comes over the opening in the canoe and is laced round it,\nso that man and craft are fairly one.\n\nThe Rev. A. L. Fleming, formerly a naval architect, informed the writer\nthat the lines of the kyak are perfect, and from the point of view of\nsea-going architecture could not be improved. The Baffin Land kyak is\nbroader than the Greenland type. The latter is much narrower, and\nrequires great skill to handle. Readers of Arctic literature will\nrecall Nansen\u2019s account of the extraordinary feats performed by the\nEskimo on the west coast of Greenland in man\u0153uvring these canoes. The\nBaffin Islanders are also very skilful. They can right themselves, if\ncompletely overturned, by a peculiar quick jerk of the paddle. The kyak\ncannot fill, should the waves wash right over it. It probably comes\nnearer the ideal of an unsinkable boat than many a more ambitious\nconstruction. It would be hard to say, as between hunting and fishing\n(the staple business of their lives), which is the characteristic\nnational \u201csport\u201d of the Eskimo; but certainly no one not born and bred\nto the handling of the kyak could acquire the native degree of ease and\ndaring.\n\nThe sealskins for these canoes are bleached. Either they are scalded,\nor tied in bundles and hung up in a warm atmosphere to ferment. This\nprocess is allowed to go on for a week or two, until the stench becomes\nunbearable. When taken down and shaved with the ooloo, the black\nepidermis comes away with the hair, leaving the skins beautifully\nwhite. The inner membranes are left intact. The next step is to stitch\nthe skins together. Bleached hides may be made to alternate with\nunbleaced ones, by way of ornament; or the entire covering may be\nmerely black or brown.\n\nThe thread is sinew from seal flesh, since it must be derived from the\nsame source as the skins, to ensure the same degree of shrinking and\nstretching. The seams are double stitched, first through the skin only,\nleaving the membrane untouched, and then oversewing the latter, so as\nto make them perfectly watertight. The moistened skins are then loosely\napplied to the framework; as they shrink and dry they fit to it\nexactly, and form a light, drum-tight covering over the whole. It is\npart of the man\u2019s job to fit the wooden rim to the opening on top, and\nto make the loops which serve to secure his weapons.\n\nHe carries a three-pronged bird spear on the left hand side in front of\nhim; on the right is his sealing spear, and between the two is a small\nround tray for the coiled seal line fixed to the detachable spearhead.\nBehind him on the left is his nixie or hook, on the right a heavy\nharpoon for striking walrus or the larger creatures he may encounter,\nbetween the two and immediately behind him an inflated sealskin with\nthe end of his sealing line attached. Thus equipped, the canoe is\ncomplete, a thing of pride to its owner, which will last all his life\nand be handed down to his sons and their sons after him.\n\nThe sealing spear has an ivory (or nowadays a steel) butt for breaking\nice, and acts as an ice chisel. Its shaft consists of a piece of\ndriftwood, its long keen point is made from part of the jawbone or rib\nof the whale, and its detachable barbed head is of steel or ivory. The\nlong line attached to this is a stout strip of white whale hide. The\nharpoon, too, is of wood and ivory, as also is the long hunting knife\nand the small kit of lesser tools without which the hunter seldom\nmoves. All these things are made during the endless winter evenings,\nwhile sitting round the seal oil lamps in the igloo, or on stormy days\nwhen the Arctic blizzard obliterates the world without. (There is an\ninteresting collection of Eskimo dresses and implements and utensils to\nbe seen in the Ethnological Gallery at the British Museum; but perhaps\neven more representative a one is that in the Natural History Museum in\nNew York.)\n\nThe paddle of the kyak is made from a long piece of driftwood. Its\nproper length is the span of the owner (the full extent of the two\nextended arms), and half a span again. The blades are narrow, since\nthey are for use at sea, and engage the most skilful attention of the\ncraftsman. Both are tipped with ivory. This pouteek, as it is called,\ncan be used as an outrigger. On top of the kyak, in front of the man,\nthere are four strongly made loops of hide, the exact width of the\nblade of the paddle. If the rower wishes to stand up or give play to\nfree movement, to cut up and store away a seal either upon the craft or\ninside it, he cannot do so without an outrigger or he would simply\ncapsize. To prevent this, he pushes one end of the paddle into the\nloops, which hold it fast. The other end, outboard, acts as a\ncounter-weight and exactly balances the canoe. It is then perfectly\nstable and almost impossible to upset. The dexterity of the kyaker has\nalready been alluded to. He can do anything with this boat. His\nconfidence is so complete that not infrequently, when a heavy wave is\natop of him, he will deliberately turn turtle, receive the weight of\nthe water on the bottom, and right himself when the moment is passed.\n\nThe Umiak is a very different craft, and serves the Eskimo family as a\nsort of general pantechnicon and removing van. It consists of a large,\nclumsy framework of wood, covered with the skins of the big ground\nseal, which are dressed into a thick tough leather. It is really an\nopen sailing boat, capable of carrying perhaps six families and a huge\nand miscellaneous cargo. It has a square stem and stern and a stumpy\nmast set well forward in the bows. The large square sail used to be\nmade in earlier days of skin stitched together, or of the intestines of\nseals blown out and dried, then split open, the long, broad strips\nalternating with narrow strips of the same material, to ensure equal\nstretching and shrinking. Nowadays, the natives provide themselves with\nsail-cloth from the trading posts. The Umiak is an unhandy thing to\nmanage, but a good enough boat in a heavy sea way. When on a long\nvoyage up or down the coast or across the bays, in former times, the\nUmiak had a double skin; the outer covering becomes so waterlogged and\nthe movement so sluggish that the whole thing is cast off, and the\njourney proceeds in the inner, lighter and drier shell. The gut sail\nrequires constant wetting to prevent it splitting into ribbons. This\nprimitive concern is paddled by women when the paddles become\nnecessary, but a man has the steering in his charge.\n\nThe oars for the Umiak are clumsy things compared to the kyak paddle.\nThe blades are rough oblongs of wood, almost like spades, fitted to\npoles of wood by no means necessarily straight, and bound on by thongs\nof hide. Sometimes the oar is quite a crooked branch, and a collection\nof these in the hide hung boat looks about as prehistoric an outfit as\nMr. E. T. Reed\u2019s most comic imagination might depict among his\ninimitable parodies of life in the neolithic period.\n\nThe Kyak and the Umiak are the two purely native types of boat used on\nthe Arctic coast. The people, however, are familiar and handy enough\nnowadays with rowing and sailing boats of European model, wherever they\nhave had the opportunity of using and knowing them. They have other\ningenious means of getting about on the water when boats of any\ndescription are not to be had at all. The hunter at the edge of the\nfloe can stand and paddle himself away out to sea on a raft or slab of\nice detached from the mass; and the deerstalker inland, anxious to\ncross a sheet of water or a river, will utilise a skin stuffed with\ndried heather, stoutly bound about with thongs of hide. He sits on this\nand skims off as happily as a water-beetle.\n\nThe possession of a couple of boats like the foregoing, of a good store\nof hunting weapons, plenty of skins, a team of well-trained dogs, and\ntwo sleds\u2014one, a short, light, travelling affair for hunting, and the\nother a heavy, long-distance thing for the migrations of the\nfamily\u2014constitute the Eskimo house-holder\u2019s wealth, and determine his\nsocial precedence and standing in the tribe.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nESKIMO DOGS\n\n\nThe value to the Eskimo of a good team of about five dogs is equivalent\nto that of a kyak or a sled, or a reliable gun. To assess it in terms\nof money would have no significance in a land where utility and\nnecessity alone determine the scale.\n\nThe breed is part, or half, wolf. In build, the true Eskimo dog is well\nformed, almost slim about the hindquarters compared with the rest of\nhis body, the broad and sturdy chest, the strong neck and heavy jaws.\nHis hair is very thick, grey or tawny in colour, and his tail immensely\nbushy, always carried erectly, curving over the back. He is a different\ncreature to the Samoyede and the Kentucky wolf hound; but probably\nthere is very little to distinguish him from the famous Alaskan \u201chusky\u201d\ndog of so much literary fame, and the dog of the Labrador.\n\nThe dogs in Baffin Land are fed solely on seal flesh, unlike those of\nthe trappers and mail carriers in Alaska and elsewhere, who subsist on\na spare and spartan ration of frozen fish. Sacks of chopped seal are\nalways carried on the sleds for the dogs on a winter journey, skin and\nhair included. They are wonderful travellers, although the speed with\nwhich a trip may be accomplished depends on a good many other factors\nthan dog power alone. In the winter a team may average thirty miles a\nday; or when conditions of ice and wind are particularly favourable\nthis figure may be doubled.\n\nThe Eskimo dogs begin their lives in quite pleasant domestic comfort.\nThey breed in the spring and autumn, and the puppies when born are kept\non the sleeping place in the tent or igloo, and played with by the\nwomen and children in order to accustom them to being handled, and to\nthe scent of human beings. Otherwise they would grow up wild and\nsavage, and a trouble to their owners; and, moreover, might too easily\nfall a fat and toothsome morsel to any particularly hungry parent or\nstray wolf about the camp. They are pretty, playful puppies, full of\npuppy imbecility and fun. When about six weeks old this halcyon period\nof irresponsibility and shelter comes to an abrupt end. Out go the lot\ninto the hard world, to eat and sleep with the grown-up dogs of the\nvillage. And immediately the puppy\u2019s training begins. He has a\nminiature harness made for him and a little sled. The small boys take\nhim in hand. They harness him and drive him about, to his unfathomable\ndisgust and their own diversion, until he becomes used to the process\nand the various words of command.\n\nAs time goes on and he gets a little older his serious education\nengages the attention of the men. Puppy is harnessed to the real sled\nwith the older dogs and has to help to drag it to the hunting grounds.\nHe objects strongly to leaving the village and what it has of\npossibilities in the way of tit-bits; but the accustomed orders break\nover his head in a fearful roar he has never heard before, and he\nscares up a new obedience. Soon, however, he tries the effect of\nrebellion, and bolts back on the trail, only to be brought up with a\njerk as he reaches the end of his line. He is unceremoniously dragged\nalong on his back, bumping over the rough ice, hating everything and\neverybody, thinking life not a bit worth living and that the bottom of\nhis world has fallen out. He is rudely brought to! The leader of the\nteam knows what to do. Like a parent spanking a naughty child, the\nleader sails in, and with many a forceful shake and many a shrewd nip\nat every tender point, he forces Puppy to take his rightful station in\nthe team and do his best to pull. As he goes back to his own position\nat the head the Leader just passes word along to the rest to follow his\nexample. They make quite a point of it. As often as the recruit shows a\ntendency to slack off again, or so much as rolls an eye towards the\nback trail, they give him a shake up or a nip on the leg to encourage\nhim to proceed, rather, in the right direction. He receives further\nassistance towards this desirable fixity of purpose by an occasional\nand painfully adroit flick of the hunter\u2019s long driving lash.\n\nA few days of this sort of thing, and the youngster registers the\nlesson that discretion is the better part of valour. He learns to keep\nhis objections to himself.\n\nThe next thing to dawn upon his expanding mind is that dragging heavy\nweights over the snow makes one\u2019s feet uncommonly sore. The older dogs\nknew that long ago, and lay down before starting in the morning, quite\nwilling to have their boots put on. The dog \u201cboot\u201d is merely an oblong\nstrip of seal leather with two holes for the nails to go through and a\ncouple of thongs to secure the ends round the leg. Everywhere in the\nArctics the freight dogs are obliged to have protection for their feet.\nBut Youngster, whose turn for practical investigation has ere this\nconvinced him that nothing is inedible except sticks and stones,\nretires promptly to the back of the sled or behind the nearest cover,\nand eats his boots there and then, with early morning relish. The team,\nto a dog, say nothing, but start off as usual. Youngster licks his\nlips, curls his tail, and feels good. But after a few miles something\nof the curl goes out of his tail, his feet become tender and he droops\na little. The others plod on; he lags. Instantly comes the sting of the\nwhip or a nip of teeth like a vice. Youngster sprints ahead, only to\nflag more and more, to limp and crawl at last with the pain in his\nunprotected, wayworn feet. At the end of the day he simply staggers\nhome, a very sad and sobered Puppy. Leader strolls over, when he thinks\nhe will, looks at him en passant, and grins. The culprit adds another\nmental note to his list of things not good for the digestion. No more\nboots!\n\nComes another milestone on the hard path of learning and\nvirtue\u2014pilfering.\n\nYoung dogs have to learn that everything on the sled is rigorously\ntaboo\u2014for them. Not to be touched, or so much as sniffed at, on any\naccount whatever. This lesson can only be enforced by many a whipping.\nFor Youngster does so love to stroll past the sled with a preoccupied\nair, hands in pocket as it were. If he were a human being he would hum\na hymn tune. Then, just in that flick of time when no one seems to be\nlooking, he steals a mouthful of seal-meat or blubber. Instantly\nretribution envelops him. He is severely thrashed. If an experience of\nthis sort repeated once or twice does not cure him his master becomes\nharsh indeed. The hunter must at all costs gain and keep the ascendancy\nover his dogs. The thief has his head forced hard back with the mouth\nwide open, and the man smashes out the two long upper fangs with the\nback of his hunting knife. That bit of violence completes this part of\nYoungster\u2019s spartan education.\n\nHe graduates by learning how to smell for seal holes in the ice, how to\ntackle a bear, how to defend himself, how to guard the tent or igloo,\nhow to brave every extreme of bitter weather. When an Eskimo dog knows\nall this he becomes a valuable asset to his master.\n\nThe Eskimo drives his sled team spread out fanwise. In this formation\nthey are less likely to break through the snow crust than if driven\nIndian fashion, one ahead of the other. The tandem style is suitable\nfor wooded country, where there is no room to expand and where it is\nimperative to keep to a narrow, perhaps ill-defined trail; but in the\nArctics one of the greatest dangers of travelling is to fall into deep\nsnow. Men and dogs alike can be smothered if the crust gives way, for\ntheir struggles only cause them to sink the deeper. The dogs are driven\nby word of command only (i.e., orders to get up, start, straight ahead,\nright or left, lie down), and by the whip, a tremendously long thong of\nwhite whale hide attached to a short stock. Half the art of dog driving\nconsists in the right management of this difficult whip. It has to sail\nout to touch just the right dog in just the right place, and should\ncrack sharply at the tip. The Leader is the most important, reliable\nand experienced dog in the team. He is attached to the sled by a longer\ntrace than the others, so that he runs ahead of them, and his position\nis in the centre. It goes without saying that he is very conscious of\nhis eminence, and gives himself insufferable airs.\n\nIn camp the team always sleep curled round in the snow, if not in the\nporch at least near their master\u2019s dwelling, ready for any scraps that\nmay be flung out; and woe betide any other dog who dares to come near,\nor even essays to pass by! There is a rush and the outsider is severely\nmauled. Another time, he makes a wide d\u00e9tour. The people never leave\nthe tents without a guard if they can possibly help it. If the man and\nwoman are both away a child is left. The dogs can tell the place is\ninhabited and refrain from a raid, which would only bring a storm about\ntheir ears if once the alarm were raised. But should the dwelling be\nempty even for a short time, the dogs at once get to know it\u2014and they\nknow about the stores of meat and oil and blubber inside! Now, the\nLeader of the team belonging to the establishment is there also as a\n\u201cguard,\u201d but his argument seems to be that this obligation applies only\nto outsiders. Having driven off any strange visitants who may venture\naround, he has no further scruples about helping himself. Moreover, he\nhas a remarkable business head. He believes, in letting the others\ndown\u2014for his own advantage and prestige.\n\nAs soon, then, as he decides the tupik is really empty, he gives one\nshort, deep note, well understood by the others dogs, signifying that\nthe coast is clear. Then he bounces at the tent wall, bursts through\nit, and snatching the first big mouthful of meat he can get, beats a\ndiscreet retreat, leaving the others like thoughtless children to do\nthe work and get themselves into the required mess. They rush in, of\ncourse, make hay of the tent, and kick up a tremendous uproar, giving\nthemselves away to the whole village. It does not take long for the\nnatives to cope with the situation. Armed with sticks, they hurry to\nthe spot, and while some penetrate the tent to lay about and drive the\ndogs outside, others stand ready for the culprits when they come out,\nto give them such hard blows as will last them well\u2014until next time!\nOut comes number one, a lump of provender in his teeth. He gets his\nblows right enough, but sticks to the meat ... only to be met, further\non by the Leader, a surprised and indignant look on his face, as who\nshould say \u201cWhat! You at it again! Stealing, when you ought to be on\nguard! And having the effrontery to try to pass Me with your plunder!\nPut that meat down instantly and I\u2019ll take charge of it! If you want\nany more, go back and get it.\u201d\n\nThere is no getting past this. The delinquent is bowled out, rolled\nover, bullied until he loses his head and his booty into the bargain.\nHe is glad to escape alive. He breaks away at last, frantically licking\nhis wounds. Whereupon Leader absent-mindedly eats the meat and sits\ndown to await another scrap from the next offender. He calls this\nkeeping his end up with the mob.\n\nOn one lurid occasion of this sort, all the canine raiders had escaped\nfrom the tent but one, a small fat puppy. He happened to be in the\nplace at the time and quite enjoyed entering into the spirit of the\nthing\u2014meant to do his best like the others. So he climbed into the\nlamp, freshly replenished with oil, and fitted it so exactly,\nlubricating himself from head to foot, that he stuck in situ to be\ncaught, but looking quite proud of his position and feeling altogether\ngrown up. He was soaked in oil and grime; oil dripped from his mouth,\nand the laugh on his face plainly said, \u201cMy! This is good! Why didn\u2019t I\nthink of it before?\u201d He was summarily pulled both out of the lamp and\nout of his complacency. Infantile yells outside told of early\ncorrection being administered and a lesson in honesty enforced. After\nthat his mother took him in hand and licked him clean.\n\nIt is sometimes asserted that the Eskimo dog does not bark. This is a\nmistake, as he certainly has a snappy bark of his own, however little\nit may resemble the recognised barks of all other sorts of dogs. For\nthe most part he howls.\n\nThe dogs, one and all, are up to every sort of trick. Moreover, their\nstomachs are for ever empty and always keen for any sort of food. They\nare fed at night whilst on the trail, in order that the meal should\nhave time to digest and strengthen them. Incidentally, they sleep\nsoundly buried in the snow, and neither attempt to stray nor to break\ninto the hunter\u2019s sleeping place. In the morning they are nowhere to be\nseen. The white expanse remains unbroken. They are all under the snow,\nand in no way inclined to rouse up and be harnessed. Nobody wastes time\nlooking for them. Someone takes a lamp outside the shelter and empties\nthe oil on the ground. Immediately black noses emerge from here and\nthere, tempted by the smell, and the rest is easy.\n\nOnce upon a time Nannook (the bear) the Bad Hat of the team, had a\nbrilliant idea. He had often considered the weighty problem of the\ndriving lash it seemed so impossible for his master ever to forget. The\npoint was, how to get rid of it. So long as that whip cracked forever\nabout them there was no chance of making the other dogs do his share of\nthe work, no opportunity to slack off or snatch a rest. The only scheme\nseemed to be to eat it. Nothing loth, Nannook waited for the usual\nmidday halt. The hunter chopped off some frozen pieces of meat, sat\ndown in the lee of the sled and ate and smoked. The whip lay unheeded\non the snow behind his shoulder.\n\nNannook sneaked up, caught hold of the end of the lash, and steadily\nbegan to chew. He chewed yard after yard, his stomach feeling better\nwith every foot of the way. He chewed up to the very stock, undetected;\nand having packed away at least eighteen feet of seasoned whalehide,\ncrept back to the team. Presently the hunter bestirred himself for a\nstart. Picking up his whip\u2014he just gazed round. It was a dog, without a\ndoubt; but which one? Who on earth could tell! All were innocently\ndozing, every one in his place, the picture of virtuous decorum. No one\ncould tell. No one, therefore, could be punished. The rest of the\njourney was accomplished perforce of shouting only. For once in a way\nthe dogs had the best of the joke.\n\nIt sometimes happens on a long trail with a heavy sled that a blizzard,\nor some other untoward circumstance, may delay a traveller for a longer\nor shorter time; sometimes for days. His food supply gives out and the\ndogs come to an end of their rations. The team gets ever more weary and\nmore weak. The hunter goes on ahead, breaking the trail for them on\nsnowshoes; the dogs stagger along after him, often lying down and\nrefusing to get up. But the trouble has not been unforeseen. The master\nhas prepared for this sort of emergency by carefully bringing along\nsome particularly bad bits of refuse seal meat. The stench of them\nwould imbue a skunk with self-respect, in comparison. Taking one of\nthese, he forges ahead, calling the dogs and leaving behind him a lure\nlike poison gas. He drops the meat, and the Leader, picking up the\nscent, with a new cock in his dispirited ears, bustles round, spurring\nup the team with the information. \u201cCome on!\u201d he says. \u201cCan\u2019t you see\nhe\u2019s dropped that bit? My, can\u2019t you smell it? Hurry up, and let\u2019s get\nit!\u201d They do get up, poor dupes; but the Leader, in virtue of his\nlonger trace gets there first, and doesn\u2019t wait to argue. Over and over\nagain this man\u0153uvre is repeated, both on the hunter\u2019s part and on the\nLeader\u2019s. The rest of the team make all the effort they can to get\nequal with such duplicity, and sometimes even succeed in snatching\nfirst at the bait. Anyway, it is a fine way of getting the sled along\nand taking their minds off their troubles. A trail of loathsome scraps,\neach one encouraging a spurt on the part of the dogs, helps over the\ndistance. Often an exhausted team has been enabled to cover the last\nfew miles by this method, when otherwise they must have dropped.\n\nIn spite of the rigour of his life and the necessary hardness of his\nowner, the Eskimo dog is not without that glorious power of faithful\ncanine devotion which is one of the most beautiful forms of love on\nearth. The writer knows of at least two instances where a dog has\nwasted away and died of grief in his master\u2019s absence or after his\ndeath. But such a true canine trait is very rare. For the most part,\nthese animals readily transfer their affections to the hand that feeds\nthem.\n\nThey are savage to all strangers. The team guards its master\u2019s tent or\nigloo because he is the one who provides for it. The dogs sleep in the\nporch as a rule; and before entering a dwelling the visitor is well\nadvised to call to one of the inmates to quiet them, otherwise he will\nbe severely bitten. In winter, when hungry, the dogs are more dangerous\nthan ever. It happened, once, that two Eskimo had died, and been sewn\nup in their blankets and buried beneath a cairn of huge stones in a\nneighbouring valley. One of the bodies was even enclosed in a light\nbarrel. During the night the dogs raided the place, tore down the\nstones, and ate the dead. In the summer time they forage for themselves\non the seashore, picking up small fish left by the tide, and anything\nedible they can find.\n\nThe Eskimo dog has a great deal that is wolfish and dangerous in him.\nThe strain, indeed, is very little differentiated from the wolf.\nSometimes a dog will leave camp, go back to the wild, and join a pack\nof wolves as one of themselves. Those who do this seldom return; but\nwhen they do, puppies of the direct resulting strain are greatly\nvalued. It has been remarked that, whereas wolves in the Arctic seldom\nattack a human being, dogs will not uncommonly do so. The extraordinary\nthing about this is that hydrophobia is practically unknown. It would\nbe difficult to say exactly what may be the natural span of life of the\nEskimo dogs, but they seem to be at least as long lived as the larger\nbreeds of European dogs.\n\nThe Eskimo names his dog \u2018The Lively One,\u2019 the \u2018Bear,\u2019 the \u2018North\nStar,\u2019 and in similar fashion. The animals possess much humour of their\nown; one belonging to the writer, of whom he was extremely fond,\ncertainly enjoyed fun, and could very nearly speak!\n\nLest, while on the subject of these creatures too much space should be\ndevoted to them, this chapter cannot be concluded without a brief\ndescription of the sleds to which their toilsome lives are vowed.\n\nThe small, light-going sled used for hunting is only about six feet in\nlength. The cross bars are fastened to the runners by sealskin thongs,\nto ensure a certain degree of pliability in travelling over rough ice.\nA pair of reindeer horns with part of the skull attached are fastened\nby thongs to the back of the sled, forming a sort of erect triangle.\nThis serves as a rack upon which to hang coils of sealing line and\nvarious implements, and also as a rest to lean against for anyone\nsitting on the sled. The runners are shod with strips of bone sawn from\nthe ribs or jaw of the whale, and fastened on either by wooden pegs or\nby thongs sunk into grooves to prevent them wearing through. These\nrunners are the object of very special care and constant daily\nattention on the part of the owner. They are covered with a thick\ncoating of seal\u2019s blood, for the sake of a fine surface. The craftsman\ntakes a mouthful of this material and squirts it upon the runners,\nmoulding it at the same time with his fingers. It freezes even as he\nsmooths it down, and with a final squirting of water takes a high, hard\nglaze which ensures smooth and swift running for the sled. If seal\u2019s\nblood happens to be scarce the maker uses a mixture of moss roots and\nwater, which gives an almost equally good surface when applied in the\nsame way, and looks like nothing so much as a first-class cork lino.\n\nThe Kummotik, or long travelling sled, is double the length of the\nforegoing and heavier in proportion. Otherwise its construction is the\nsame. It requires a team of from twelve to eighteen dogs, whereas five\nare sufficient for the hunting sled. The loading of a Kummotik is a\nwork of art. There is a place for everything, and everything has to go,\njust so, into its place. The spears and weapons are stowed in the\nbottom of the sled in front, by the driver. At the far end, a piece of\nskin is laid down and upon this slab upon slab of blubber for the lamp\nis piled up, and the lamp set atop of the lot, bottom up, because of\nthe grease and dirt. Then the meat for the journey is put aboard\u2014frozen\ndeer hams, and frozen seals entire, enough for the whole party until\nthey fetch up at the next tribe\u2019s camping ground. The meat is, of\ncourse, uncooked, since a minimum of raw meat gives a maximum of heat\nand strength. (Hence the Eskimo prefer their rations raw when there is\nwork to be done. The cooked stew of an evening is a mere luxury meal.)\nA skin is thrown over the heap of provisions to prevent the travellers\u2019\nclothing being soiled by it. Over it all are piled the rolled-up\nsleeping blankets and the kars\u00e2te or deerskin rugs for mattresses.\nKnives, axes and lines hang upon the horns behind. The driver\u2019s seat in\nfront is a box containing small tools, flint and steel. The whole load\nis securely lashed down to the cross bars of the sled. The man\u2019s spear\nis slipped into the lashings on one side, so as to be handy for use at\na moment\u2019s notice. The women and children perch on top of the load, or\nmake their way alongside on foot, as they prefer. The dogs\u2019 lines are\nall gathered to a point (like the sticks of a fan) just in front of the\nrunners, when they are tied and then divided into the two short traces\nwhich, fastened to right and left on the runners, draw the sled.\n\nA still more ancient form of sled was in use among the Eskimo before\nthe advent of the whites, but the elders of the villages remember it\nwell and describe it to-day. In those times wood was very scarce, tools\nvery rude, and whales more abundant than at present. So strips of\nwhalebone taken from the mouth (before this valuable material came into\nthe markets of the world at all) were stitched together by whale or\nhide thongs, until a sled could be fashioned out of them, something\nlike a huge, long, black shovel, very hard, durable and strong. Dogs\nharnessed to this contrivance made good speed with it, even with the\ndriver squatting upon it. In one respect it was more serviceable than\nthe modern form with runners, since unlike these it did not sink in\nsnow or easily break through a rotten crust. It should be noted that a\nfull-grown whale has about a ton of this black whalebone fringe hanging\nfrom his jaw, the longest part of it attaining six or seven feet when\nthe mouth is open; so that a fair sized sled could easily be made out\nof such a great supply.\n\nThe struggle for existence in the Arctic has taught the Eskimo to\nutilise in the most ingenious ways resources at their disposal so\nlimited that the marvel is so self-sufficing, so healthy, hearty and\nhappy a civilisation, of its kind, could ever have been evolved.\n\nWhere these tribes have come so much in contact with other peoples, and\neven with well-meaning white enterprise on their behalf, that they have\nattempted to substitute for their old ways a method and mode of living\nindigenous neither to the climate nor to their own physique, they have\ninvariably degenerated. The Eskimo of Labrador and Alaska have largely\nabandoned the snow house for the log shack or sod hut, and have in\nconsequence been decimated by tuberculosis. Everywhere, contact with\n\u201ccivilisation\u201d has tended so to divorce these children of the North\nfrom their natural environment as to initiate their wholesale decline.\nIt is only now, in \u201cthe last North of all\u201d\u2014in Baffin Land, Boothia\nIsland, Victoria Land, and the rest\u2014that the Eskimo retain their old\nways and their old vigour. Their life and their type everywhere else\nhas become mongrel and nondescript. While there can never, of course,\nbe any question in believing and thinking man\u2019s mind about the\ninestimable boon of Christianity and educating these people along the\nlines suggested by a sympathetic study of them on the spot, it seems to\nbe very inadvisable to interfere with them, to \u201ccivilise\u201d them too much\nafter the unsuitable European model, to revolutionise the natural and\nsuitable scheme of life they have so bravely and so ingeniously worked\nout for themselves during the uncivilised centuries of their existence\nin the bleakest and most inhospitable regions of the earth.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nTRIBAL LIFE\n\n\nIn their family and tribal life the Eskimo carry out a very smooth\nrunning sort of communism, the chief tenets of which are rigidly\nenforced peaceableness, open hospitality to the stranger, and a sharing\nof food and the necessaries of precarious existence among each other.\nTribal government is wholly patriarchal in character. The Angakooeet,\nor chief conjurors\u2014a class of men apart\u2014hold the first place in public\nesteem and common council. After them the village is ruled by the\nsuccessful hunters, who foregather with the former and with the aged\nand experienced, when it is a question of deciding where to go and what\nto do about the hunting, or change of encampment, or treatment of a\ndelinquent.\n\nThe Eskimo have no idea of authority, except that which one man may\nexercise over another in virtue of his superior wisdom, experience,\nskill or strength. There has recently been some question of\ninaugurating a reindeer and musk ox industry on the vast moss pastures\nof the hinterland of Baffin Land, and the purport of much evidence\ngiven on this subject before a Royal Commission abundantly confirms the\nexperience of the present writer, and emphasises the remarks that have\nbeen made as to the inadvisability of rushing matters with regard to\n\u201ccivilising\u201d the Eskimo, and radically changing his mode of life from\nthat to which the conditions of his environment have hitherto formed\nhim. Savage as these conditions are, the Eskimo has wrought out his own\nwell-being, and in his native state is as happy and contented an\nindividual as could be desired. He has his hard seasons of\nsemi-starvation, when the hunting is poor; but even these are borne\nwith cheerfulness and equanimity.\n\n\u201cThey seem to have the communal idea very strongly implanted,\u201d said D.\nJewess, Esq., one of the witnesses. \u201cTheirs is a community in which one\nman is equal to any other man. The idea of one man being a servant to\nanother would not seem to be native to the Eskimo; it is a foreign\nidea. It would seem that they must learn the whole idea of one man\nserving another before they could be counted upon as reliable\nemployees.\n\n\u201cAn Eskimo will serve you faithfully on certain conditions, and will\nexpect his payment afterwards. He will serve you for a limited time and\nperform almost any work, and will then expect his payment. The moment\nthat payment is made he is an absolutely free man; but for the period\nof work, if he understands his contract clearly, he will serve you\nfaithfully. They seem to work partly through the binding force of a\npromise; but a great factor in keeping them at work seems to be that of\nhaving them understand that they will be well rewarded at the end. As\nis the case with all human beings, they vary; but on the whole they may\nbe considered as faithful as white people found in civilised\ncommunities. Experience seems to show that they will keep to an\nagreement unless they get angry. In this event, they seem to forget\ntheir promise. If they, in a casual manner, more or less promise to do\na thing, they are as likely as not to fail. Like most primitive people,\nif they trust you they will do what they can to justify your confidence\nin them.\n\n\u201cAt the present time the Eskimo is not responsible. He would make an\nexcellent servant, and in time an excellent trapper, guide and hunter.\nThis is speaking of the Coronation Gulf Eskimo, who have known white\nmen only during the past four or five years. It would seem that the\nEskimo of Hudson Bay and of the east generally have other\ncharacteristics which have been moulded through this influence. It is\nnot thought that this contact with white men is necessarily an\nadvantage, if one is trying to convert the Eskimo into a reliable,\nresponsible servant or working man. A great deal naturally depends upon\nthe kind of white men with whom the natives have had to associate.\u201d\n\nIt must be remembered that life in an Eskimo tribe is almost a family\none. Each family is interdependent upon the others, and all have close\nties and relationships. Thus anything which interferes with the general\nharmony is dangerous and, in the unwritten law, a crime.\n\nMatte, a good hunter and a man of standing in the tribe of X\u2014\u2014, in the\nlocality of Z\u2014\u2014, had for long disturbed the peace of the rest. He had\nquarrelled, had spread ill reports about the doings of the hunters, had\ndivulged their secrets, and been generally independent and unsociable.\nFor a long time Matte was a thorn in the side of his tribe. He\ndisregarded their customs and traditions, and became, according to\nEskimo law, altogether a first-class misdemeanant. At last he became\nunbearable. His big voice and burly frame were no longer tolerable in\nthe settlement. A day came when, in his absence, the Angakooeet and\nchief men met in council to decide what should be done. His case was\nreviewed and discussed at length, and arguments were brought forward\nboth for and against the accused. At length the verdict was given by\nthe Angakut, the Chief of the Conjurors, and ratified by the Council.\nMatte was to be put to death.\n\nFive men were chosen by the Angakut, and instructed in their duties.\nTwo were to hold the prisoner\u2019s arms, two his legs, and the fifth was\nto strike and kill.\n\nAs the time for the man\u2019s return approached the executioners went out\nand waited for him in the path outside the village. No sooner had he\nappeared than they seized upon him. Matte read his doom in their eyes.\nHe had but time for one ejaculation of despair when the knife struck\nthrough his breast and justice was done. The body was thrown aside and\nleft for the dogs and wolves to rend and devour.\n\nThe five men returned to their homes. One of them (the one who\nafterwards related the story to the writer), married Matte\u2019s widow at\nher express wish, and \u201clived happy ever after.\u201d The woman indeed was\nquite agreeable to the removal of her first husband, as it was\nmiserable to be the wife of so unpopular a member of the community.\n\nContinued quarrelling, like that of this man Matte, is punishable by\ndeath. So also is murder. A thief is banished from the village, but\npetty pilferers are merely sent to Coventry.\n\nOld people are held in great respect among the Eskimo, and their\ncounsel is always considered. They help as far as they are able in the\nhousehold work, the old men repairing weapons, harness, etc., and the\nold women in sewing or tending the lamps. In times of scarcity, as in\nwinter, meat and oil are always shared round. Directly a deer or seal\nis brought in it is cut up and pieces sent to each needy family. In\ntimes of plenty each family is supposed to provide for itself; but old\npeople, widows and orphans have always the first claim upon those who\nhave the means.\n\nAmong these people, mutual kindliness is a general obligation. A widow\nor orphan child is never left alone, but taken into the house and\nfamily circle of the nearest relative. The widow gives her services in\nreturn for food and lodging and clothing, and the child is cared for\nexactly as the man\u2019s own offspring.\n\nChildren have always the right of entry to any house and to partake\nthere of whatever food may be going. Women are seldom refused a like\nprivilege. In times of famine children are fed first, the women next\nand the men last. The writer has known a hunter to go out four days in\nsuccession and meet with no success. He had shared a portion of seal\nwith another man who had caught one and cut it up as usual, but this\nhad been given to his wife and family, whilst he himself, taking no\nmore than a drink of warm water, went off with unimpaired cheerfulness\nto try his luck again.\n\nStrangers and travellers, too, are always entertained and provided for\nso far as the means of the moment may permit. A native arriving from\nanother tribe and having no relations in the village just puts up at\nany igloo he may chose\u2014as a rule he will select the family best able to\nentertain him\u2014and there his dogs are fed, his equipment is repaired or\nthe necessary material offered, and food and a sleeping place provided\nfor himself. Should he be on the trail alone, a temporary wife is\nfurnished him from the widows or spinsters of the community, and it\nbecomes her business to see that his clothes are dried and mended, and\nthat when he departs again he has sufficient food to carry him over the\nnext stage of his journey.\n\nThe Eskimo are aware that in some respects European customs differ from\ntheir own, and when entertaining a white man his peculiarities are\nrigidly respected. The Eskimo standard of morals is not that of the\nEuropean. It may be that in this matter of the temporary wife, as in\nthe annual exchange of wives during the Sedna festivities, nature is\nmaking her own instinctive provision for the continuation of a race;\notherwise so heavily handicapped are they by arctic conditions of life\ngenerally that without it wedlock would scarcely suffice for the\npurpose. The Eskimo despite customs which look like promiscuity\naccording to the standards of civilisation, are not afflicted with the\ndiseases associated with European vice\u2014until they come in contact with\nunscrupulous whites. Either the germs of these scourges have not made\ntheir appearance in the Eskimo communities, or the people are\nparticularly resistive to them. That this latter supposition is not\nborne out is evidenced by the havoc that has been wrought among the\ntribes in the past. The Eskimo, when left to themselves, are a moral\npeople according to their own ideas, and the rude health they keep\ndespite these strange customs, seems to vindicate them from an\nunthinking criticism.\n\nIf he can, the wayfarer makes suitable offerings in return, but they\nare not necessarily expected. He drops in on the family overnight, just\nperhaps when the hunter has returned with a good fat seal, and the\njolly distribution of it all round is going on. There is a broad smile\non the face of the housewife as she picks out the best bits for her\nfriends and leaves the scraggy remnants for those of whom she cannot\nprofess to be so fond. The children rush hither and thither, willing\nservitors of those who cannot come themselves.\n\nThe blood is carefully scooped into an ice bowl for future stew or for\nthe glazing of sled runners. At the hospitable shout, \u201cKileritse!\nKileritse!\u201d\u2014\u201cCome ye! Come ye!\u201d\u2014everyone, friend and stranger alike,\ncrowds into the house and squats on the bench or the floor, or in the\nporch, and is duly served out with his share. Nothing is heard for\nawhile but the crunch of strong ivory teeth; the red blood stains hands\nand faces; black eyes glisten with enjoyment. Then, after a time, the\nhum and clatter of talk rises to the smoky roof. Everything is\ndevoured, even the entrails (squeezed through the fingers to flatten\nand empty them). Reindeer moss, taken from the stomach of a deer may be\nserved up as well by way of that greatest possible luxury\u2014a salad!\n\nFinally, everyone goes to bed. The doorway is blocked up, blankets are\nunrolled, and men and women and children, stripped to the skin, wrap\nthemselves up in these and lie down with their heads towards the lamps\nand their feet towards the back of the snow house, and sleep the sleep\nof health and good humour and repletion until the break of another\narctic winter \u201cday.\u201d\n\nThe children of an Eskimo community have quite a good time. Whenever\ninfanticide has been practised among these people, it was never through\ncruelty or wanton waste of infant life, but simply because of a dearth\nof provisions. As a matter of fact, the Eskimo prides himself on having\nas large a family as possible. He is entitled to have as many wives as\nhe can support. It is not uncommon for a well-found man to have three\nwives\u2014possibly sisters\u2014all living amicably together. The children are\nnamed after some place or object, and many names descend from father to\nson. Thus we have \u201cMoneapik,\u201d the little egg; \u201cOonapik,\u201d the little\nhunting spear; \u201cPitsoolak,\u201d the sea pigeon; \u201cShokak,\u201d roof of the\nmouth; and other names too crude for translation.\n\nThe pastimes of the children are just like those of children all the\nworld over. On fine days they romp with the puppies, as described\nelsewhere, or they borrow a sealskin from their mothers and, finding a\nsnow incline, drag it to the top and toboggan down on it in fine style\nand with resounding glee. They build snow houses; play with little\nimprovised sledges; kick a seal bladder about by way of a ball;\ndiscover cat\u2019s cradles for themselves with any odd bits of thong; and\nget up to all the usual mischief with bows and arrows. The girls make\ndolls. The boys have an ivory top corresponding to cup and ball, and\nanother game called \u201cspearing the seal,\u201d which is played by two, with a\npiece of skin for the ice, and a bit of bone that moves about\nunderneath it for the seal. There is a blow hole, of course, and a\nminiature spear.\n\nThe education of the Eskimo boy all turns on hunting. All sorts of\ncurious observances wait on his first adventures in that line. When he\nsecures his first weasel, for instance, he gives it to the dogs, simply\nto be torn in pieces; and that night has to sit up by the igloo door,\none hand on hip and in the other a lamp stick. Possibly the root idea\nis to defend himself from the spirit of the little beast. When he gets\nhis first bird, Young Hopeful sits in the middle of the sleeping bench,\nhis mother on one side and his grandmother on the other. The boy is\ntold to take off his jacket, and the two women wrench the bird apart\nbetween them in a sort of tug of war, to the accompaniment of cries of\ncongratulation. The mangled spoil is then eaten to bring good luck to\nthe boy.\n\nThe following tale of the voluntary suicide of the old people who feel\nthat they have outgrown their usefulness to the community, and have\nrather become a burden to it, shows how strongly the communal feeling\ndominates the Eskimo, how essential to existence each one of them finds\nthe social life of the tribe and village to be.\n\nFor many weeks summer has reigned in the arctics. Snow has disappeared.\nThe ice has broken up and drifted away to the south; only a few bergs\nremain, like the remnants of a majestic fleet, wending their wandering\nway after the rest. For weeks on end it has been one long, glorious\nday, when the sun has scarcely set an hour. The weather is hot and the\nsky is blue. Arctic flowers and arctic heather gem the short turf;\nstreams and cascades fill the valleys with the unwonted music of\nrunning water. The dogs lie about, basking in the sunshine, or betake\nthemselves to the seashore to hunt for fish and such toothsome morsels\nas may be left in the rock pools by the falling tide. The village of\nsealskin tents is pitched in a sheltered spot near some handy stream,\noverlooking the inlet. Contentment, ease and plenty are the order of\nthe day. The kyakers skim the waters of the bay, hunting as usual, and\nin the evening the boys have a turn in the same light craft, to\npractice with harpoon or birdspear. They vie with each other in skill\nand speed, and take lessons from their elders.\n\nThe old men and women potter about, visiting each other. The crones\noccupy themselves teaching the younger women how things were best done\nin their day, and the granfers fight their own battles over again and\nexploit their own adventures, as they listen to the talk of the younger\nmen\u2014the tales of more recent feats accomplished, perils survived, and\nclever captures achieved. As the bright day wanes to that short\ntwilight which is the arctic summer night, the men fetch their blankets\nfrom the tents, roll themselves up in them under the shelter of some\nboulder, and sleep in the open air.\n\nThe month of the eider ducks has come and gone. The women have manned\ntheir boats and made their annual raid on the island where the birds\nbreed, returning with hundreds of eggs, plenty of ducks, and a goodly\nstore of eiderdown from the nests. The days have been one long, joyous\npicnic, all the hardships, privations and dangers of the winter\nforgotten. The babies, brown and mother-naked, have sprawled about in\nthe sun and waxed fat and jolly, with the freedom and the play and the\nplenty of summer.\n\nBut now the time has come to get ready for a very big annual enterprise\nindeed\u2014the great deer hunt, upon which the fortunes of the tribe will\nturn for months. If the Eskimo lay up little store of food, they\naccumulate all the hides they can for winter clothing. For several\nweeks before the start is made, stores of meat are prepared, slices of\nseal cut and spread on the rocks, or hung on lines in the sun to dry.\nPiles of moss and cotton plant are collected and dried for the winter\u2019s\nsupply of lamp wick. Sealskins are cleaned and stretched and dried for\nclothing, boot soles, boat coverings, and water buckets; intestines are\ninflated and dried for sail cloth and material for making windows. The\ndogs are outfitted with sealskin panniers for transport purposes. The\ntrek ahead of the tribe is a long and laborious one. They will journey\nfor many days by water up the rivers, and climb long ranges of hills\nand cross many valleys, before they reach the interior and the pastures\nof the deer. Each man, woman and child must shoulder his own pack, for\nnone can carry a double load. And so, it often chances, comes the\ntragedy of old and enfeebled age.\n\nSeorapik was an octogenarian. Her hair was grey and her back was bent.\nShe had managed, somehow, the previous year to carry her belongings on\nthe long, long trail, and to stumble along after the tribe. But at last\nthe bitter fact forced itself upon her that she could follow the\nhunters no more. She must stay behind\u2014alone. She could no longer carry\nher load nor keep pace with the folk on the way, and none might carry\nher. She had no alternative but to remain in the deserted village and\nawait the tribe\u2019s return.\n\nNow Seorapik, like every other Eskimo, was an intensely sociable being.\nShe loved nothing so much as to hear laughter and jokes about her, and\nto be in the thick of all the village talk and doings. As she faced the\nprospect of the long lonely weeks ahead, in the lifeless silence of the\nempty camp, with the days growing ever shorter and colder, without a\nsoul\u2014except perhaps a child\u2014to bear her company, her heart quailed and\ngrew very heavy. There was the danger, too, of attack by wolf or bear,\nand of sickness coming on\u2014and death. Death, all alone! True, they would\nleave her a plentiful store of food\u2014the good village folk\u2014and lots of\nskins; but what comfort could these afford her in their absence?\n\nBut the law of the North is stern and immutable.\n\nThey knew it\u2014those sons and daughters of hers, and all their sons and\ndaughters. They grieved for Seorapik, and remembered her many acts of\nkindness to each and every one of them, and her life of cheery toil\nspent wholly in their service. They had a custom to be sure\u2014but it was\nhard to endure it when it came face to face. A familiar custom,\ndesigned to meet such as case as this; but a heartbreaking one, all the\nsame. Seorapik remembered it, too, and was the first to summon the\ncourage to announce it.\n\nShe proposed to bid the tribe goodbye rather than let it take leave of\nher. Her time to go on the long, lone journey from which none ever\nreturned could not be far off in any case. She decided to anticipate\nit. She could not face seeing her folk load up the packs, start out on\nthe trail, without her, and disappear over the hills. She could not\ncontemplate the intense loneliness that it would all mean, and miss the\nlaughter of the children, and even the rough and tumble among the dogs.\nSo the dread subject was broached to her son.\n\nHe gave his assent. Itteapik announced the decision to the villagers,\nand they came to help with the preparations for Seorapik\u2019s death.\n\nA rough, round igloo was built, and the old woman withdrew into it,\ntaking her few belongings, escorted by all her kindred and friends.\nThey encouraged her to the last with every kindly and sympathetic thing\nthey could think of to say. She braved it out, and, with her cheery but\nquavering goodbye still in their ears, her loved ones blocked up the\nentrance to the little death chamber in such a way that no dog or wolf\nmight break in.\n\nAnd there she sat down slowly and willingly to starve to death, quite\nhappy so long as her children continued to come from time to time and\ncall to her from outside, and tell her all that was going on, every\nsingle little thing that happened.... She never asked for food or\ndrink; they never gave it.... She never wanted to come out; they never\nmoved a stone.... She simply had to go. Their part was to make her last\ndays, her last hours, as happy as they could, simply by being\nthere\u2014quite close\u2014outside.\n\nThen the time came when the feeble voice just ceased to make one more\nresponse. She had gone on her own long journey first, to the land where\nparting would be no more, nor the fear and sadness of it. Her last\nhours had been happy ones, cheered by the sounds of the village life,\nthe cries and gurgles of the babies, the shouts and cat-calls of the\nboys and girls, the murmur of men and women talking over their\naccustomed tasks. She had no loneliness to bear, after all, no\ndesolation, no silence. The old Eskimo died with a smile of love and\ncontentment on her face, with a long record behind her of woman\u2019s good\nand motherly work, of a humble, \u201cprimitive\u201d life indeed, but lived\naccording to what light she had\u2014and so into the better life beyond.\n\nThere was Nandla (the spear), too, the blind hunter, who also went to\ndeath under the lash of arctic circumstance.\n\nThe incident took place near Davis\u2019 Strait, and was related to the\nwriter by one who had witnessed it. Again, the inexorable law of the\nwild left one handicapped as Nandla was no choice. The man was\ncomparatively young, but by reason of his blindness useless to himself\nand a burden upon others. In a hungry land, where every extra mouth to\nbe filled represents a problem, there is no room for one who cannot\nprovide for himself. The severity of the code of the North is very\ngreat. It cannot be judged by the ordinary standards of humanity.\n\nSpring was at hand\u2014the joyous spring of the arctics. The days were\nlengthening and the seals increasing in numbers. They were coming up\nfrom the south for the breeding season. In the village all was life and\nbustle. The hunters were full of preparations, and the dogs scarcely\nless so. The boys were loading the sleds and harnessing the teams. One\nby one, each hunting outfit glided off over the frozen ground, out\ntowards the bay.\n\nOutside his snow house sat Nandla, the blind hunter, listening to every\nsound and seeing every detail in his mind\u2019s eye. His heart was heavy as\nlead. In his younger days he, too, had gone forth just like these\nothers, to spear the season\u2019s catch, and come home rejoicing with a\nheavy sled. But repeated attacks of snow blindness (despite his wooden\nsnow goggles) had destroyed his sight; and here he was, in early middle\nage, a useless, hopeless, helpless man, tied to the house, dependent\nupon his folk for food and clothing, and a drag upon them all.\n\nEach night, as the hunters came home, the whole tribe gathered as usual\nround the cooking pots, when the excitements and doings of the day\nwould be discussed with no less gusto than the food. Nandla always had\nhis place in the family circle, and eagerly drank in every word the\nhunters had to say. He longed to hunt again, himself; to bring back the\nkill, to see the children come pushing into his house for their share,\nand to bid his wife give generously to the aged and the destitute! In\nhis mind he pictured it all: the village nestling in the bay, huge,\nsnow-clad cliffs rearing up at the back of it, and overhead the pure\nblue of the bright sky, where the glaucus gulls wheeled and cried. He\npictured the scavenger ravens perched about everywhere, on the look-out\nfor bits; the vast expanse of the frozen bay, glaring white in the cold\nsunlight; and beyond, a heavy black mist smoking up in the wind,\nmarking the water line. Out there were the hunters\u2014mere dots\u2014moving\nabout in the still immensity.\n\nAnd here was he\u2014Nandla\u2014idle and useless, unable to occupy himself even\nwith such tasks as fell to the ancients of the tribe\u2014the repairing of\nlines, harness, and weapons. He could not patch up a snow house any\nmore, or trim a lamp! Often, during the months of severe weather and of\nscarcity his relations had been hard pushed to find the wherewithal to\nfeed him or clothe him. Nandla was very wretched.\n\nAt length, one evening, after just such a bad spell of weather and of\nluck, Nandla begged to be taken out on to the hunting grounds. Now, his\nrelatives had been thinking things over rather grimly, and had seen\nnothing ahead for him but long years of misery and possibly of want.\nThe problem suggested but one solution. It was simple enough. This\nrequest of the blind man\u2019s to be equipped once more for the hunt and\ntaken along with the rest, gave them their opportunity. They fell in\nwith his desire and made their plan. They knew of a certain rout where\ndanger lay. Nandla should be taken that way.\n\nIt was neither treachery nor murder they planned, but an end for the\nafflicted man of his anxieties and griefs. Nandla set out that morning\nfull of delight. His heart was full of unwonted excitement. He yelled\nto the dogs and bumped and glided over the ice on the sled with a long\nmissed sense of exhilaration.\n\nThey soon reached the grounds. Nandla\u2019s guide seized his hand and led\nhim towards a gaping seal hole.\n\n\u201cFollow me!\u201d he said, dropping the other\u2019s hand and lightly stepping to\none side.\n\n\u201cI follow!\u201d replied the sightless man, and straightway fell into the\nhole.\n\nHe went right under, then and there\u2014under the ice\u2014and was immediately\ndrowned and frozen. A handy piece of ice served to seal the death trap,\nand all was over. Nandla had died on the hunt, and had entered the\nEskimo heaven like the other valiant men of his tribe, and taken his\nplace with the doughtiest of them, where there would be joy and plenty\nfor evermore.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nTRIBAL LIFE\u2014Continued\n\n\nChildhood in the arctics does not last long. There are among the Eskimo\na number of strange customs and superstitions attending not only the\ntransition time between girlhood and maturity, but the whole physical\nlife of woman, which may have their interest for the ethnologist\n(especially from the point of view of the interpretation of the\nmentality of primitive peoples), but in which the general reader would\nscarcely find much interest. Suffice it to say that the root\nreason\u2014probably instinctive\u2014underlying many of these observances and\nrites, these taboos and indications, is very possibly a hygienic one,\nsince in nearly every instance some purpose of the sort seems to be\nunconsciously served. It may be that herein lies one of the true\ndistinctions between uncivilised and civilised existence. In the\nlatter, most of the functional aspects of life are subordinated to the\nintellectual and the spiritual, while in the former they bulk\nself-consciously and far more obtrusively even than among the lower\nanimals.\n\nThe Eskimo community in sanitation or in sex matters has few\nreticences. This may be another way of saying it has no pruderies. The\nnative attaches no more importance to the functions of sex than to\nthose of eating, drinking or sleeping. It would, of course, be easier\nto attribute complete insouciance in these respects to the native mind\nif, instead of trapping some of them out with rather elaborate\nceremonial, it kept them all much on a level. In most instances of\ninsistence, however, a hygienic motive, conscious or unconscious, lies\nbehind them. Although the people live under very crude conditions,\ncrowded together in the igloo, without privacy or special quarters for\nwomen, they are not without a sense of the fitness of things or some\nidea of personal modesty. It is the height of ill-breeding to stare,\nfor instance, at anyone whilst dressing or undressing.\n\nLike the Indians, and like most other uncivilised people, the Eskimo\nmarry early, sometimes indeed at the age of twelve years. Unions are\narranged by the mothers and grandmothers. A woman with a marriageable\ndaughter is fully alive to the advantage of seeing a good hunter attach\nhimself to the domestic circle. She looks round in good time, and\nnoting some promising youth, makes overtures to his mother on the score\nof the cleverness, the docility and the industry of her girl. The whole\nthing at once becomes a fertile topic of discussion. Some amicable\nunderstanding having been reached, presents are interchanged and the\nyoung couple are informed that they are to be married. There is no\nceremony. The girl is sent to her mother-in-law\u2019s house, and for a\nmonth or more works there under a pair of sufficiently vigilant eyes.\nThis gives the boy also an opportunity of making up his mind about her.\nAnd the prospective bride has a chance to do the same about him. As a\nrule, the whole thing works out quite satisfactorily, and even happily;\nbut if the girl turns out lazy or careless or bad-tempered, a divorce\nis declared and she returns to her parents\u2019 igloo, to be married\nelsewhere, with better luck next time.\n\nThis sending of the bride to the hunter\u2019s mother\u2019s house scarcely\namounts to an interval of probation. The girl certainly expects to\nstay. In all probability the young folk have known each other from\nchildhood up, and there is no reason to suppose their marriage will be\nanything but a success. It is the Eskimo way of asserting the\nworld-wide fact that you never know a person until you have to live\nwith him\u2014or her.\n\nShould, however, real faults of temper or character be presently\ndiscovered on either side, it is quite open to the bride or bridegroom\nto ask to have a divorce declared. The matter is arranged between the\nfamilies concerned, not necessarily by the Angakok. Should a girl be\nreturned on her people\u2019s hands enceinte, after an experiment of this\nsort (not a likely contingency at an early age), the child forms no\nobstacle to her contracting another union later on. It is adopted into\nthe mother\u2019s family and cared for as usual, without a trace of stigma\nattaching to either. In the Arctics, where families are small, children\nare an asset, and represent little burden to a community every member\nof which is willing to help feed and support them. If a child is a boy,\nhe will grow up to be a hunter, and catch seals for the tribesfolk; if\na girl, she will become the wife of a hunter and the mother of more\nhunters.\n\nThe difference between married life and free or promiscuous unions,\neven with this primitive folk, is quite clearly marked. A married\nwoman, i.e., a woman belonging definitely and recognisedly to such and\nsuch a man, is faithful to him and he to her, so long as harmony reigns\nbetween them and no \u201cdivorce\u201d takes place. The occasional interchange\nof wives, such as during the Sedna ceremony, is a recognised\ninstitution of Eskimo life, and interrupts the even tenor of the\nconnubial way in no permanent sense. There is a good deal of\n\u201cimmorality\u201d (according to standards entirely inapplicable to this\npeople in the native state), and promiscuous intercourse with widows\nand discarded wives. It is from this class that strangers staying in\ncamp are accommodated with their temporary partners.\n\nFidelity is observed between married people while they agree to remain\nmarried. Sometimes, however, two husbands will come to an agreement\nwith each other, with the knowledge and consent of their respective\nwives, to effect a temporary exchange. Again, fidelity is now observed\nas long as the exchange endures, but reverts to the original partner\nwhen presently dissolved. Should any children come of this interlude,\nthey generally remain with the mother, the permanent husband being\nquite willing to adopt them.\n\nThe new-made bridegroom does not leave his parents\u2019 home and set up his\nown establishment until he is able to maintain it by hunting. If the\nhusband and wife belong to different tribes, the woman is adopted into\nthat of the man. The men sometimes maltreat their wives, if aggravated\nby shrewish tempers or bad household management, but children very\nseldom experience any but the kindest and most indulgent treatment. The\nwriter knew a boy who stabbed his mother in the arm during a fit of\ntemper, but was merely scolded for it. That he knew no better was the\nexcuse alleged in his defence, and it was his elder\u2019s business to teach\nhim self-control and good behaviour. Children are devotedly loved by\nthe Eskimo, and maternity (never prolific in the arctics) is held in\nthe highest esteem. If the men occasionally beat the women it has never\nbeen known that children are ever abused or neglected. All travellers\nand observers agree in this respect.\n\nA girl will be attended in childbirth with her first baby, but not\nafter that. The expectant Eskimo mother has to be alone (except on the\nfirst occasion), in a little house set apart for her, and without\nassistance. After it is born, the baby is never washed but rubbed down\nwith a soft fur or bird skin and put straight away, stark naked, into\nthe capacious hood of its mother\u2019s tunic. The woman must, however,\nnever eat alone during this time, lest a Tougak with three fingers\nsteal her food and bring evil upon the child. She must pay no visits\nuntil she has quite recovered in the space of a full month, and only\nthen if she has a new suit of clothes.\n\nAs an illustration of what has been said about some real reason\nunderlying such injunctions as the foregoing, it may be remarked that,\nwhy the mother may not eat alone is probably to ensure that she does\nnot starve. She is in solitary confinement, and cannot procure and\nprepare food for herself. To ensure her being fed she must have the\nfood brought to her and the messenger stays to share the meal. Again,\nan expectant mother must always run out of her igloo or tupik during\nthe day when the dogs howl. They do not howl incessantly, as might be\nimagined, since they are away with the hunters in the day, and asleep,\nburied in the snow, at night. The woman has to sit up on her haunches\nwhen she hears the dogs in the night-time, and not lie down again until\nthey cease. After all, there is good sense in this. The women sit about\nin their houses for the most part, and get comparatively little\nexercise. The two rules involved in this dog howling enactment ensure\nthe expectant mother a modicum of exercise and fresh air, which she\nmight not otherwise exert herself to obtain.\n\nChildbirth is always attended by the women conjurors, never by the men.\nThe event in itself is thought little of, and not looked forward to\nwith any dread. The writer has known of a case of husband and wife\nbeing on the trail together with their sled, in midwinter, when the\nwoman was taken in labour. The man merely stopped the team and hastily\nput up a snow shelter. The wife retired to it for a little while, then\nplaced the new-born child in her hood, clambered back upon the sled,\nand continued the journey. A long day\u2019s journey later, they reached the\nvillage for which they were making, and in a very short while the\nmother was walking about in it, as well and strong as ever.\n\nThe would-be mother who has reason to fear her hopes of a child are\ngroundless, has recourse to the conjuror, the Angakok. Here again, the\ninterrogations, the incantations, the conjuration to which this worthy\ncommits himself (the while his spirit is supposed to ascend to the moon\nto procure \u201cmaterial for a child\u201d), the conjuror claims and is allowed\nthe right of cohabitation and so follow the accompaniment of a natural\nsequence of events, which probably result in the woman realising her\ndesire. In many instances the superstitions with which Eskimo laws and\ninjunctions are wrapped up, serve to enforce them. Otherwise they would\neither not be followed at all, or would have no weight in public\nestimation. It is only possible to make head or tail of primitive\nritual by the aid of some tentative interpretation of the sort, which\nmust be deduced from long familiarity with the people amid their own\nsurroundings.\n\n\n\nAll was quiet in the village. The sealers had gone off early in the\nmorning, taking the boys with them, and the women had settled down to\ntheir own tasks for the day. The old folks were for the most part\nasleep on the sleeping benches in the dwellings. It was a cloudy day,\nvisibility very low, sun-dogs in the misty heavens foretold bad weather\nto come.\n\nSuddenly a tumult of sound broke upon the village, and the few old dogs\nleft there on guard gave vigorous tongue in turn, as somewhere from out\nthe murk came a chorus of yowls and yelps mingled with the shouts of\nmen and the sharp crack of whips.\n\nAn immediate exodus took place. Everyone sprang up and ran off to meet\nthe newcomers. The children scrambled up the cliff at the back of the\nlittle settlement, sheltering it, and the elders tottered along to the\nhead of the pathway cut through the sijak or shore ice, to catch a\nglimpse of the strangers and their sleds. Presently two large\ntravelling outfits with full team of dogs, and crowded with Eskimo,\nswept into view. Cries of \u201cChimo! Chimo!\u201d (Welcome) resounded from\nevery side, and there were hearty hand-shakings as the strangers\ntumbled out and declared their gladness to have arrived.\n\nIt seemed they had come from Fox Channel, many \u201csleeps\u201d away, and had\ntravelled over hills and across frozen bays and through deep snow, for\ndays and days, in order to visit this tribe. In a twinkling the dogs\nwere unharnessed and fed, the sleds unloaded, and the guests carried\noff into the hospitable igloo under the cliff.\n\nThen matters began to clear, and the object of the journey declared\nitself. A head man and his wife, it seemed, had come this long distance\non behalf of their son, a lad of about fifteen, a promising young\nhunter of marriageable age, who desired to find a wife. No girl in his\nown tribe had taken his fancy, but the family had heard of a likely\nbride in the Middle Coast tribe, and had come to see her and her\npeople. She had the reputation of being clever at all household duties,\ndocile and pleasing in manner, with eyes like sloes and hair as glossy\nblack as the raven\u2019s wing. Moreover, they had heard that she had no\nrelatives and dependents except a widowed mother. The whole idea had\npleased them so much\u2014mother, father and son\u2014that here they were, to\nlook into the thing for themselves, to give and receive news, and to do\na bit of incidental trading. They settled down in camp for a few days,\nand both hosts and visitors thoroughly enjoyed themselves.\n\nNegotiations proceeded apace, without hitch or difficulty, and at last\nwere brought to a pleasant conclusion. The prize secured, a day was\nfixed for the departure of the bride and bridegroom and his people. Her\ntreasures and possessions were packed on the sleds, and with many tears\nshe said goodbye to the good folk of her own village.\n\nAll seemed to augur well for the wedding journey. The sky was clear and\nthe sun shone. The ice was perfect and the snow well packed and good\nfor sled travelling. The dogs, rested and well fed, flew over the\nground in high spirits. The sleeping houses built en route by the\nwooer\u2019s party, proved to have remained intact; the frozen meat and\nblubber, buried beneath the floor in each of them, had not been\ndisturbed.\n\nThe first night was spent in singing. The young man gave a vocal\naccount of the exploits of his tribe and of his own prowess in hunting,\nto an audience consisting of his admiring parents and the bride. All\nwent merrily, too, the second day out; but after that, disaster\novertook the party.\n\nThey came to a stretch of newly formed ice, over which they must pass\nor make a long d\u00e9tour. They decided to risk the shorter way. The ice\nwas very thin, so they got off the sleds and attempted the crossing on\nfoot, each one at a stated distance from the other. Treading as lightly\nas possible, they started the venture, but, half-way across, a scream\nrang out, the ice broke, and the two women were engulfed in the icy\ncurrent beneath. Lines were flung to them and a rescue effected,\nalthough they remained in imminent danger of being frozen. Prompt\nmeasures had to be taken. There was no shelter at hand, and no\nimmediate means of making a fire. There was only the powdery snow! In\nthis the half-drowned women were rolled and rubbed. The snow acted\nalmost like blotting paper, and they were soon comparatively dry,\nalthough still perishingly cold. A shelter was quickly built for them\nand a lamp hastily lit. Their blankets were unrolled and they were\nsnugly wrapped up in their capacious folds and put to sleep, to recover\nfrom the shock.\n\nThe very next day, late in the afternoon, as they drew near their next\nsleeping place and were looking forward to a feast on the rations\nstored there, another disaster befell this ill-fated arctic wedding\nparty. They actually sighted the wayside house and were driving right\nup to it, when a deep growl came from inside and, before they had time\nto descend or prepare for attack, a full sized polar bear rushed out\nand hurled himself upon them.\n\nThe women fled and the men scattered, whilst the animal took possession\nof the sleds. All the spears and guns were lashed in place, so the\nrefugees were unarmed and powerless. The bear, muttering and growling,\ntore the bales of provisions apart and feasted on the meat and blubber.\nWhile he was so engaged, one of the hunters, bolder than the rest,\nstalked his way up to one of the sleds and managed to secure a spear.\nThen he opened an attack on the highwayman, after the approved manner\nof bear-fighting.\n\nCrouching with poised weapon low on his haunches, he suddenly sprang up\nand began to sing and dance about, on this side and on that, but\ndrawing nearer all the time to his astonished adversary. The bear\nbecame more and more bemused by the noise and the agility of the\noncomer, until at last the latter was able to rush close in and strike\nhim one fatal blow with the practised spear. Although the creature had\nrifled the travellers\u2019 house and devoured their cache, it was now their\nturn to skin and eat him; and so accounts were squared.\n\nAfter this, the luck of the bride and bridegroom seemed to turn again,\nand the rest of the journey was accomplished in comfort and safety. The\nyoung woman settled down happily with the Fox Channel tribe into which\nshe had married, and became a model wife under the vigilant eye of her\nhusband\u2019s mother.\n\n\n\nHaving sketched something of the education the native children receive,\nand of the adult life and occupations of the tribe generally, the next\nthing to deal with is death, and the elaborate ritual of an Eskimo\nfuneral.\n\nThese people fear death, and the dying. Just before a man dies he is\ndragged outside the house or tent, so that his spirit may not haunt it.\nNo dwelling where a death has taken place is ever re-occupied. Should\nanyone chance to die inside, all the possessions are held to be\npolluted and must be cast away.\n\nA corpse is sewn up in the deceased\u2019s accustomed sleeping blanket,\nplaced upon a hand sled, and hauled away to the chosen place of burial,\nfollowed by the members of the family and the relatives. It is laid\nupon the bare rock (the ground being frozen hard as iron, grave-digging\nis out of the question), and huge stones are piled around and upon it,\nlike a cairn. In the case of a man, his weapons, drinking cup and\nknife, or these things in miniature, are placed beside him, his sled or\na small model of it nearby, and he is buried with a little sort of doll\nrepresenting a woman. In the case of a female, her needles, knife, cup,\nand a man doll, are laid beside her. Food is deposited on a flat rock\nnear the pile, and the mourners sit down to eat a farewell meal with\nthe spirit of the dead. Then they march in single file seven times\nround the cairn, following the direction of the sun, i.e., from east to\nwest, chanting directions to the departed:\u2014\n\n\n    Innoserra arkiksimalarook: My life, pray let it be put right.\n    Illooprakoole kissearne: Through that which is pleasant alone.\n    Nakrook mallilugo: Through space following.\n    Kaum\u00e2ttevoot malliglo: Following that which gives light.\n\n\nThe idea is that the spirit must follow the course of the sun, to guide\nit to the realms of bliss and light whence comes that glory, and\nwhither it goes.\n\nThe objects placed with the corpse under the stones are to assist and\naccompany the spirit on this journey.\n\nThe word illooprakoole is a \u201cspirit word,\u201d used only in addressing\nspirits. It means a route through pleasant ways not beset by dangers.\nThe same significance, in an ordinary mortal connection, is expressed\nby a different word altogether. Nakrook is another \u201cspirit word,\u201d\nmeaning the Great-Air-Space-beyond-the-Earth. The ordinary word in\neveryday usage is Sillarlo. This spirit language used by the conjurors\nhas its parallel in every case in ordinary parlance. The following are\na few instances:\u2014\n\n\n         Ordinary Word      Meaning.        Spirit word used\n         in everyday use.                   in conjurations.\n\n         Netsuk             A seal          Angmeatseak\n         Angakok            A conjuror      Takreoo\n         Agakka             The hand        Issarkrateeka\n         Sennayo            One who works   Issarrayo\n         Aput               Snow            Nungooark\n         Kyak               Canoe           Agfarkjuk\n         Angoot             A man           Peyaktoiyo\n                                                    etc., etc.\n\n\nIn the case of the burial of an unpopular or badly conducted man, the\npeople walk round the cairn in the reverse direction, i.e., from west\nto east, with a different refrain. The idea being to direct the spirit\naway from the light and into outer darkness, their refrain begins with\nthe words to the effect:\u2014\n\n\n                \u201cEvil will always have evil.\u201d\n\n\nAll this is called the custom of the Kingarngtooktok.\n\nThe mourners at length return to their village, and apparently forget\nall about the funeral, unless in the case of the deceased being of ill\nrepute. Should the conjuror assert that his spirit has gone to the\nrealms of Sedna (the Eskimo hell), gifts and offerings have to be\ncollected in order that the necessary conjurations may effect his\ntranslation to some other abode (the Eskimo purgatory).\n\nThe people much dislike to have their dead bodies devoured by dogs,\nlest their souls have to wander over the ice and land on vain hunting\ntrips; but they do not object to wolves on the same score, since the\nwolves also devour the souls, and the departed, thus disposed of, will\nalways hunt deer successfully and live on the meat. Neither do they\nobject to the carrion-loving raven, as the soul in this case is also\nabsorbed by the bird and provided for in perpetuity. It would indeed\ntake a trained psychologist to determine wherein comes the distinction\nas between dogs and the other scavengers!\n\nOn the anniversary of a death, the spirit of the deceased, good or bad,\nis supposed to return to the grave of its body, and is there met by its\nfriends still in the flesh, who bring it offerings of food.\n\nOn the return from a funeral the mourners march round the dead man\u2019s\ndwelling from east to west, then entering, take a draught of water, for\nluck in sealing. The chief mourners neither leave the house nor work on\nany skins for three days in succession. Afterwards they throw away\ntheir clothes and abandon the dwelling. After a death the community\nshould not wash or do their hair nor cut their nails for three days.\nThose who transgress this injunction are called Nuggatyauyoot, the\ndisobedient. Nor are men allowed to have their stockings taken out of\ntheir boots and dried, for the Tarnuk (spirit) will kill them in that\ncase.\n\nUnfathomable to the white man\u2019s intelligence as many of these odd\nobservances may be, the root idea will explain the general scope of\nthem. The spirit of the deceased is earth-bound for three days, and if\nof an evil disposition when alive, is liable to do much mischief to his\nlate family and friends. Earth-bound spirits are the Toopel\u00e2t (pl.),\nthe evil spirits of the dead. Hence the custom of haling the dying well\noutside the house. During the three following days, a knife edge,\nplaced outwards, is set at the entrance of the igloo to prevent the\nspirit from returning, especially at night, and doing some\ninjury\u2014causing some pain, sickness or death\u2014to the sleepers within.\n\nWhen an Eskimo community hears of a death in its midst, the husband on\nhis return from sealing waits for the first quiet moment in his house,\nand then offers his wife the third finger of the right hand, to crook,\nand they say together, \u201cTokkoneangelagoot\u201d (we shall not die). This is\nthe custom of \u201cKillaryo.\u201d The children then come to the mother, and in\nturn she takes the third finger of each one\u2019s left hand between her\nteeth and singes a little piece of the hair on the left temple of the\nchild. The child is bidden to bite the mother\u2019s jacket on the shoulder,\nand say \u201cSittatoot,\u201d the mother answering with another formula of\npreservation. The writer has made every effort to get at the meaning of\nthese doings, but they seem to have lost their original significance by\nnow, and even the oldest natives fail to interpret them any more. They\nwere probably some form of supplication against the entry into the body\nof the Spirit of Death.\n\nFrom much of the foregoing it will be seen that the Eskimo have a\ndecided belief in the soul, the innua\u2014the spiritual, immortal essence\nof man. Also that they have formed for themselves definite ideas about\nthe after life, either in bliss, as a reward for good living, or in\nmisery, as a punishment for evil\u2014Good and Evil, of course, being\ntinctured by the cast and scope of the Eskimo mind and its standards of\nsocial life. There is little of ethical content in it all. The heaven\nand hell of Eskimo conception are gross and material. Heaven is a land\nof warmth and sunshine, with good hunting, absence of storms and hard\nseasons, and plenty of fat seals in its ice-free sea. Hell is the dark\nand bitter abode of the submarine Sedna, the enemy of man, who\nengineers bad weather and times of scarcity. Descriptive legends of her\nawful \u201chouse\u201d abound among the tribes, showing a fancifulness and\nimagination fantastic as nightmare.\n\nTo deal with the subject of the Eskimo religion, however, requires a\nchapter to itself. Its chief priests are the Conjurors, and its chief\nfestival the Sedna ceremony.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nTHE ESKIMO LANGUAGE\n\n\nThe Eskimo tongue requires a chapter to itself, for although it can\nboast of no literature\u2014being until recently an unwritten language\u2014it\nshould have exceptional interest for the student of comparative\nphilology. It is the speech of a primitive, untutored folk, yet its\nvocabulary is very large, its grammar complete, methodical and perfect,\nand its construction capable of expressing subtleties and combinations\nby inflection, unlike those of any tongue, springing from the\nwell-known stocks of human speech. It is euphonic, agglutinative, and\ncomplex.\n\nEuropeans find Eskimo difficult to acquire. The writer, like others,\nhad largely to construct his own grammar when studying it. He spent\nmany long hours, first with the young folk to get the purity of the\nsounds, then with the middle-aged men to arrive at correct idiom and\nfluency, then with the ancients to get at the folk lore of the tribe.\nOftentimes their speech was merely a series of long and complicated\ngutturals, two hours of it being enough to make a man\u2019s head spin for\nthe rest of the day. But labour and pertinacity were at length\nrewarded; the language was mastered, and the minds of the arctic people\nrevealed.\n\nThe romance of this grammar consists in the fact that it has all been\nmarshalled and classified, and reduced to a system which will bear\ncomparison with even the classic tongues. Unless the first missionaries\nto the arctic had taken up this virgin and inchoate subject and handled\nit by the aid of the centuries of culture to which they were heir,\nEskimo speech must have still remained a sealed book to the\nphilologist, and\u2014what is of far more importance\u2014presented a Hill of\nDifficulty for years to all those who should come after them in the\nsame ministry. With the aid of the grammars and dictionaries so\npatiently and thoughtfully compiled in the dark, unknown and bitter\nNorth, the would-be evangelist to-day may prepare himself for work\namong the Eskimo in the merest fraction of the time it took the first\nDanish envoys from civilisation.\n\nThe original attempt was made by the well-known Danish pastor, Hans\nEgede, who went to Greenland with his wife in 1721, and lived there\namong the natives for many years. Eskimo was the mother-tongue of their\nson, born in the country as one of its own people. In time, this lad\nwas sent to Denmark to study at the University of Copenhagen. On his\nreturn to Greenland, young Egede applied himself to the scientific\nstudy of the language he knew so intimately, and to the compilation of\na grammar and a dictionary. His example was followed by the teachers\nwho came after him, some of them being German linguists imbued with the\nmeticulous love of learning and of intellectual conquest the task\nseemed preeminently to require. These tracked down and classified the\nmany meanings of Eskimo inflection and expression, and perfected their\nsystem of interpretation. Hence, of course, the thoroughly Teutonic\nmould into which the syntax of the Eskimo tongue has been thrown.\n\nAll this work has formed the basis of study for everybody who has had\noccasion to learn the language since, although such an undertaking has\nalways entailed a new and personal effort to work out the grammar and\ncompile a local vocabulary. For all students of Eskimo, including the\npresent writer, find a variety of dialects, although generally it may\nbe said that the language varies so inconsiderably from one region to\nanother, that hunters from widely different parts of the arctics can\nsoon\u2014by mutual questionings\u2014understand each other. Those in Greenland\nspeak practically the same tongue as those in Alaska.\n\nApropos of the purely etymological aspect of this little known\nlanguage, it is interesting to recall an observation made by Dean\nFarrar in a lecture before the Royal Institution, delivered in 1869. \u201cI\nhardly hesitate to prophesy,\u201d he said, \u201cthe extreme probability that\nthe final answer to many high scientific problems regarding the nature\nand the origin of man may come from enquiries into the languages of\nnations such as these (the Chinese, Eskimo and Cherokee) rather than\nfrom any other branch of ... palaeontological research.\u201d\n\nEskimo has indeed received some measure of study and analysis, and it\nis for grammarians to tell us whether or no this prophesy has been to\nany extent fulfilled. A French writer, M. Hovelaque, hesitates to\nanswer any question as to what group of human language the\n\u201chyperborean\u201d tongues should be assigned. His observations should be\nrecorded here perhaps, by way of a commentary on the exhaustiveness\nwith which the Germans seem to have gone into the subject: \u201cAu surplus\nle nom d\u2019hyperbor\u00e9ennes ou arctiques, sous lequel on r\u00e9unit ces\ndifferentes langues, ne doit pas donner le change sur le plus ou moins\nd\u2019affinit\u00e9 soit entre elles, soit avec autres idiomes. Bien des\nhypoth\u00e8ses sont encore permises \u00e0 ce sujet, mais il est vraisemblable\nqu\u2019un certain nombre de ces idiomes r\u00e9sisteront \u00e0 toutes les tentatives\nque l\u2019on pourra faire en vue de les laisser parmi tel ou tel groupe\nsuffisament connu. Il serait dangereux, en tout cas, d\u2019accorder aux\nrelations des missionaires sur telle ou telles de ces langues,\nnotamment sur celles des Esquimaux, plus de cr\u00e9dit qu\u2019il ne convient.\nOn n\u2019y trouve, le plus souvent, que des rapprochements de mots, des\netymologies; en somme rien de scientifique. Ajutons, d\u2019autre part, que\ncertains idiomes hyperbor\u00e9ens ont \u00e9t\u00e9 \u00e9tudi\u00e9s avec soin et par des\nauteurs comp\u00e9tents, ainsi qu\u2019on peut le voir dans les publications de\nl\u2019Academie de Petersbourg.\u201d (La Linguistique. Biblioth\u00e8que des Sciences\ncontemporains.)\n\nUp to within recent times the Eskimo had no system of writing. But\nanother patient evangelist, inspired by the necessity of delivering the\nmessage of Christianity in a more permanent form than by oral teaching\nonly, invented what is known as the Syllabic Character for the benefit\nof the Indians, at a post called Norway House. This was the Rev. James\nEvans, a minister of the Canadian Methodist Church. The Syllabic\nCharacter, which is a sound (and not a letter, or alphabetical)\nwriting, similar to shorthand, was designed for the Cree, but proved to\nbe easily adaptable to represent the Eskimo speech. Without such a\nmethod, it is difficult to imagine how restless and roving tribes, at\nthis post to-day and gone to-morrow, could ever have been taught to\nread. By this means, however, an ordinarily intelligent individual can\nlearn in eight or nine weeks.\n\nThe principle of Mr Evans\u2019 characters is phonetic. There are no silent\nletters. Each character represents a syllable; hence no spelling is\nrequired. As soon as the series of signs\u2014about sixty in number\u2014are\nmastered, and a few additional secondary signs (some of which represent\nconsonants and some aspirates, and some partially change the sound of\nthe main character), the native scholar of eighty or of six years of\nage can begin to read, and in a few days attain surprising accuracy.\n\nSuch results as these, such gifts of pure intellectual effort, are\nsurely among the greatest blessings civilisation has to confer on the\nfew primitive peoples still left in the world.\n\nOf late years the British and Foreign Bible Society have taken charge\nof the work, and now the Gospel in Cree, Syllabic and Eskimo is widely\nspread.\n\nThe Syllabic Character is known far and wide to-day in the arctics. It\nhas not been spread solely by white men, for the people teach each\nother as they travel from tribe to tribe. The Eskimo freely write\nletters to their friends and hand them over for delivery to anyone\ntaking a journey in the desired direction. The letters always reach\ntheir destination, because the postman at his first sleeping place\ninvariably reads them all through from first to last; so that if, as\noften happens, one or two should get lost, the addressee receives the\nmissive by word of mouth; and incidentally the postman knows\neverybody\u2019s business and is altogether the most glorious gossip who\ncould ever drop in and enliven the circle round the igloo lamp of a\nwinter\u2019s night.\n\nPen, ink and paper, it may be noted, are innovations of the new\ncivilisation. Prior to the advent of the white man the only idea and\nthe only means of calligraphy the Eskimo had was the etching on ivory\nor bone. Many vigorous and spirited drawings exist of hunting or other\nscenes, scratched on blade or handle, and sharply bitten in, black and\nclear, by rubbing with soot from the lamps. It is not remarkable that a\nknowledge of writing and reading should have spread among the people in\nthis way, for the Eskimo are avid of instruction, and eagerly avail\nthemselves of any opportunity of being taught. Where Christianity\nitself has gained a footing it has been largely through the\ninstrumentality of some among them who have come in contact with\nmissionaries, and passed on to others all they had seen and heard.\n\nOne of the most puzzling aspects of Eskimo is its \u201cagglutinative\u201d\ncharacter. The words all run together. All the parts of speech may be\njoined to the verbal root and then conjugated in its various moods and\ntenses, so that the word finally produced by this process may be sixty\nor more syllables long. Students find the principal difficulty, not so\nmuch in building up and saying these peculiar words, but in correctly\nunderstanding what the natives say.\n\nThe following lengthy remark will illustrate three things: first, a\ncharacteristic mood and tense of the verb \u201cto flee\u201d; secondly, the\nphonetic characters used; and, thirdly, the composite nature of the\nword.\n\n\n    1. Kem\u00e2yomaneangelara = I shall not wish to flee from him.\n    2. \u146d\u14aa\u152a\u14aa\u14c2\u140a\u158f\u14da\u154b\n    3. Ke-m\u00e2-yo-ma-ne-\u00e2-ng-ge-l\u00e2-ra.\n\n\nThe Eskimo tongue has a full complement of the parts of speech. There\nis no definite article, but the numeral adjective one, attousik, takes\nits place; e.g., attousik angoot, a man, i.e., one man.\n\nThere is no form to express gender. Sex is distinguished by the word\n\u201cman\u201d or \u201cwoman\u201d (really male or female) added to another noun; as\nkingmuk, a dog; arngnak, a woman; angoot, a man. Kingmuk arngnak, a\nfemale dog; kingmuk angoot, a male dog.\n\nIn many cases where English admits of only one word for an animal,\nEskimo has several. A deer is a deer in English all the year round; in\nEskimo it has a different name for its growth or habits at certain\nseasons, as in the fawning period, etc.\n\nThe noun plays an important part in the sentence on account of the\nvarious affixes which may be attached. It is inflected for number, and\nfor no less than nine cases (rendered by prepositions in translation);\nit draws possessive pronouns and some adjectives to itself as a magnet\ndraws iron filings; it has moreover a transitive and an emphatic form.\nAt the risk of writing a chapter which might be taken from an Eskimo\nPrimer, we venture to give examples of some of these intricacies of the\nsnow folks\u2019 strange speech, since whatever else it may be, this can\nscarcely be called a hackneyed subject! So the transitive form of the\nnoun is used when it is the subject of a transitive verb:\u2014\n\nErnipta nagligev\u00e2tegoot = our son, (he) loves us.\n\nThe emphatic form:\u2014\n\nAngootib erninne nagligeva = the man loves his own son.\n\nThere are three numbers\u2014singular, dual and plural:\u2014Noonak, a land;\nnoon\u00e2k, two lands; noon\u00e2t, lands; and each of these is declined with\ndifferent endings to express eight cases translated by the nominative\nand vocative, and then \u201cof,\u201d \u201cto,\u201d \u201cin,\u201d \u201cthrough,\u201d \u201cfrom,\u201d and \u201clike\u201d\na land. We feel we are getting on to firm ground somewhere when it is\npossible to note down such a rule as this: \u201cNouns in the singular end\neither in a vowel or in the consonants k and t. The dual always ends in\nk, and the plural in t.\u201d\n\nWe must not part with the noun unceremoniously. Its possibilities are\nnot easily exhausted. It must have cost a good deal of thinking,\noriginally, to get it into grammatical harness. For nouns of different\nkinds have different terminations, which add all sorts of ideas to\ntheir isolated meaning. For instance, kut, a family; innuk, an Eskimo;\ninnukut, the family of an Eskimo. Vik, time or place, and kooveasook,\nrejoicing; hence kooveasookvik, a place of rejoicing. Again, katte, a\ncompanion, and nerre, to eat; hence nerrekattega, my table companion,\nga being the possessive pronoun.\n\nThe possessive pronouns, indicated by inflection, include \u201cour two,\u201d\n\u201cyour two,\u201d and \u201ctheir two.\u201d There is also a possessive emphatic form\nof the noun, his \u201cown\u201d son.\n\nThe Eskimo have names for the numerals up to six, after which figure\nthey use a system of addition and multiplication to express number.\nSeven, for instance, is six and one; nineteen is ten and eight and one.\nThe figure ten is arrived at as being the count of a man\u2019s fingers on\ntwo hands; twenty includes his toes. Eighty is translated by \u201cMen four,\ntheir extremities finished.\u201d It must indeed have been a matter of some\nmild philological exhilaration to the first translators when they\narrived at such a conclusion as this!\n\nThen there are the verbs. This part of speech may be almost called the\nwhole of the Eskimo tongue. It annexes both subject and object, and can\nexpress through various particles a sentence which would require in\nEnglish half a dozen or even ten words. There are two kinds of verbs,\ntransitive and intransitive; three Voices, active, passive, and middle;\nthe usual Moods, of which one\u2014the subjunctive\u2014lends itself to an\ninteresting inferential sort of meaning. When the person addressed can\nform some idea of what the speaker wants or means, without the use of\nthe principal verb, this moods comes into play: \u201cBecause there are no\npartridges,\u201d is the sentence; \u201cI didn\u2019t get any,\u201d is the inference.\n\u201cBecause I am very hungry\u201d leaves it to be inferred \u201ctherefore I want\nsome food.\u201d When this is confined to the obvious, well and good; it\nwould scarcely be so clear, \u201cBecause the house is very warm\u201d therefore\n\u201cyou must make it cooler,\u201d unless the conversation took place in a snow\nhouse where conviviality was having a disastrous effect on the roof and\nthe walls.\n\nThe verb has participles and tenses, which have many modifications of\nmeaning with no equivalent except an entire sentence in English. In\nnarration, there is an extraordinarily graphic past, not adequately\nrendered by \u201cWhen So-and-So lived;\u201d but \u201cin So-and-So\u2019s own time of\nbeing in the world.\u201d There are impersonal verbs, and irregular verbs,\nand all sorts of particles; potential (I can do a thing), optative (I\nwish to do it), negative (I do not do it), the proper \u201csorting out\u201d of\nwhich is half the battle of learning Eskimo. Time is expressed by time\nparticles placed between the verb and the verbal termination; there are\nalso verbal and adverbial particles which have fixed rules as to\nposition, always preceding the time particle. Thus, a word may be\nelaborated, such as Tikkenarsuakpok, \u201cHe-endeavours-to-arrive,\u201d or\nTikkenarsuatsinakpok, \u201cHe-endeavours-always-to-arrive;\u201d and\n\u201cI-indeed-hear-you,\u201d or \u201cI-indeed-hear-only-you.\u201d\n\nIt would be perhaps superfluous to offer further notes on the Eskimo\ntongue, since the foregoing will suffice to give some idea of its scope\nand complexity. The syntax falls under two headings, the formation of\ncompound words and the arrangement of these into sentences. The\nposition of words in a sentence, particularly a short one, may be\nchanged without altering the sense. It is no part of the present\nwriter\u2019s purpose to do more, here, than to sketch the briefest outline\nof one whole section of his subject. To do justice to this language\nwould require very considerable space. Again, there is no particular\nobject in adding a chart of the syllabic characters, which are purely\narbitrary, have no history beyond that already given, and belong in no\nsense to the genius of the Eskimo themselves. The only recommendation\nthey might have\u2014if the general reader could pronounce them\u2014is that they\nfar more nearly give the sounds of what is really a flowing and not\nunmusical tongue than the barbaric conglomeration of outlandish\nconsonants and double vowels which, as a poor expedient, represent to\nthe eye only, Eskimo words in our inadequate letters. It is for this\nreason that we have so often given, in the foregoing pages, only the\ntranslation and not the Eskimo words themselves. In Roman characters\nthey convey a hideous idea to the eye, and a still worse idea to the\near.\n\nIt is for the future to reveal whether or no the newly found gift of\nwriting will lead these people on to extensive literature. The\nMoravians have published some well known books, such as \u201cChristie\u2019s Old\nOrgan,\u201d etc. If so, by the analogy of every literature in the world, it\nwill begin with verse, by the enshrining of the folk tales immemorially\ndear to every nation, and by the composition of some sort of Eskimo\nsaga. The Greenland Eskimos composed long songs in honour of Fridtjof\nNansen before he took leave of them, after the first crossing of their\nicy continent. It may be that these Eskimo poems, printed in his book,\ntogether with Dr. Rink\u2019s collection of \u201cTales and Traditions of the\nEskimo,\u201d and Dr. Boas\u2019 similar collection of the fables of this people\n(\u201cThe Central Eskimo\u201d) and the present writer\u2019s contribution to the\nsame subject, constitute so far the bulk of the offering made by these\nchildren of the arctic to the literature of mankind.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nLEGENDS\n\n\nThere exists among the Baffin Islanders, as among all the other tribes,\none long consecutive legend in particular, which should rank, if not\nwith the great Scandinavian and Icelandic Sagas beloved of William\nMorris and of Wagner, at least with some of the most picturesque of\nGrimm\u2019s immortal fairy tales, and certainly with any of the strange and\nmonstrous legends of Kalevala, the Finnish cycle of national song.\n\nStudents of national story-telling will probably find analogies and\nrelationships between the Eskimo story of \u201cSedna\u201d and the\ncharacteristic folk tales of the other arctic or sub-arctic peoples\neast and west. \u201cSedna\u201d is beguiled into marriage by a gallant hunter\nwho is really not a man at all, but a sea bird. This sort of tragedy,\nor disillusionment, is common in Eskimo fable. In one Alaskan-Eskimo\ntale, the heroine marries the human semblance of a bear.\n\nThe Sedna legend\u2014a religious legend around which turns a large volume\nof Eskimo superstition\u2014has its repulsive as well as its poetic aspects.\nBut to one who has lived intimately with these people, it would seem\nthat so strange and awesome a story of the wild north as the tragedy\nand death of Sedna should be set, in song, to the metre of Kalevala and\nHiawatha. It is the metre of a child-like version of adventures\nhappening to a child-like folk.\n\nBelief in this legend, in the existence and the power of Sedna, a\nmaleficent sea-goddess of the underworld, forms a large part of the\nEskimo religion, and the annual autumnal festival arising out of it is\nthe principal celebration in their calendar. In connection with this\nphantasy, it is noteworthy that the Eskimo conception of the spirit of\nevil\u2014or at least of hostility to man\u2014is unlike that of any other\nnation. The Eskimo devil is a woman.\n\nThe Eskimos are great story-tellers, and the bulk of their fables,\nhanded down by oral tradition from generation to generation, has\nassumed a stereotyped form. Their narration demands the exercise of an\nart in which the arctic folk excel\u2014the art of vivid narration. Many of\nthese tales begin as recitatives; some are almost wholly related in\nverse or musical form; others are told in prose, with every sort of\nappropriate gesture, modulation of the voice, and facial expression. A\nnumber of them are onomatopoeic in character, imitating the calls and\ncries of the birds and creatures of the wild. Story-telling is one of\nthe principal features of the social life of these people of the north,\nand bulks largely in the programme of all festivities.\n\nMany of the Eskimo legends would require a certain amount of\nbowdlerising before they could be presented to the world as a book of\nEskimo tales, a contribution to the folk lore of the nations; but some\nof them (notably the well dramatised story of the migration of the\nSaglingmiut, with its very essence of primitive arctic life) could be\nretold intact. Ethnologists have made a fairly representative\ncollection of these stories in the course of the past fifty years, and\nmost of them are to be found in the bibliography of arctic travel.\nThose incidental to these pages, with the exception, of course, of the\nSedna tradition, are fresh contributions to the subject, not included,\nto the best of the writer\u2019s belief, in any other work.\n\nAn amusing tale, related to the writer, is that of the amorous youth\nwho made a particularly disappointing mistake.\n\nIn a certain village there lived a lovely maiden with her father. She\npossessed little but a happy disposition and a ready smile. The old man\nhimself was so poor that his one dream of the future turned on the hope\nof his daughter securing a first-class hunter for a husband, who would\nprovide for the two of them ever after. No young man, attracted by the\ngirl\u2019s bright eyes, was made welcome over the lamp in that igloo unless\nher father satisfied himself as to his credentials. But, as luck will\nhave it apparently all the world over, the daughter\u2019s love was won by\nthe most ineligible suitor of them all\u2014a youth poor in everything but\nin courage and hope and promise. The old man rejected all his overtures\nand rudely denied him his daughter. So the two were driven to form\nplans of their own.\n\nThey decided to run away together, and that she should merely feign\nresistance when her lover arrived to carry her off. The night came for\nthe attempt. The old man and the girl retired to rest as usual, rolled\nup in their blankets on the sleeping bench, and the lamp burnt low.\nNow, the approach to their abode was across a neck of ice spanning a\ndeep ravine. The youth came along, and cautiously crept over the narrow\nbridge. Quickly entering the igloo, and perceiving the two sleeping\nforms, he snatched up one of them, furs and all, and rushed back whence\nhe had come. To evade all possibility of pursuit, he smashed down the\nice bridge behind him. Then, burning to look upon the face of his\nbride, he drew the blankets from about her head\u2014only to discover with\nthe utmost consternation that he had carried off the father instead of\nthe girl! Dropping his burden none too gently, he made off at top speed\nand fled into the night. The story-teller failed to draw upon his\nimagination as to what happened in the domestic circle thus\ndisastrously broken up, after that.\n\nTo return, however, to the chief of the legends\u2014the legend of Sedna:\n\nThere was, once upon a time, a beautiful Eskimo girl, called Sedna. She\nwas her widowed father\u2019s only daughter, and they abode together by the\nsea shore. As she grew up she was wooed by many a youth of her own\ntribe, and of others who came from afar. But to no single one of her\nlovers did her heart incline in the least. She refused altogether to\nmarry. She had a proud spirit and delighted in disdain. At last,\nhowever, a day came when a very handsome young hunter appeared upon the\nscene, from a far-off strange country. Neither Sedna nor Anguta, her\nfather, had ever heard of him before. He had beautiful skins cunningly\nwrought with a stripe in the coat, and a spear of ivory. His kyak drove\ninshore over the shining sea; but instead of landing on the beach, he\npoised it on the edge of the surf and called to the maiden in her tent\nabove the strand to come off to him. He wooed her with an enticing\nsong: \u201cCome to me; come into the land of the birds, where there is\nnever hunger, where my tent is made of the most beautiful skins. You\nshall rest on soft bearskins.... Your lamp shall always be filled with\noil, your pot with meat.\u201d\n\nSedna, framed in the entrance of the leathern hangings, refused. She\nwould not come down. Wholly won at first sight, maidenlike she must\nrefuse! So he began to plead and woo. He drew for her a picture of the\nhome where he would take her, the rich furs that he would give, and the\nnecklaces of ivory. Even though she vowed she wanted no husband, let\nher come down with her bag, her sealskin sack of treasures, and fly\nwith him! Sedna made the coy boast, \u201cAm I not the only one who does not\nwant a husband?\u201d but even as she said it, her hand fell from the tent\nflap and she stepped down towards the sea. \u201cLet my bag be brought....\u201d\n\nHe placed her aboard his kyak and paddled off on his return journey. So\nSedna went away with her lover and her father saw her no more on the\ncliff by the seashore that was her home.\n\nCame swift awakening and a bride\u2019s tears! Sedna\u2019s lover was no man at\nall, but a phantom man whose real self was a Bird! One of those\npeerless creatures of the arctic sky who, with \u201cwide wing ...\nbroad-spread to glide upon the free blue road\u201d above the crashing\nfloes, wheels over the bitter waters of the North. Some have it a\nFulmar, and some a Loon. It was a Spirit bird, having power to\ntransform itself into the semblance of a human thing. Falling in love\nwith the maiden, it had taken the form of the hunter and decoyed her to\nits own.\n\nSedna was inconsolable. She had the horror of a very human girl at her\nstrange mate, and could by no means make his land her home and his\npeople hers. The legend has it that the Loon provided for her as an\nordinary hunter would have done; but she was wild and homesick, and\npassed her days bewailing, as lone and desolate an exiled maiden as\never cried, \u201cWoe, woe!\u201d\n\n(Sedna\u2019s disillusionment is a note in the story wholly coarse to\nEuropean ideas. The Eskimos are a people without prudery. A perfectly\nnatural incident on the journey revealed that the lover was a bird.)\n\nBut the father wearied for his daughter\u2014the Eskimo word has the loving\npossessive \u201chis own daughter\u201d\u2014and at length fitted out his boat and\nsailed away to that distant coast whither she had been borne. The\nhusband Bird was from home when he came to this land, and it was a sad\nand sorry tale that greeted his ears from the wind-lashed, spray-beaten\nmaiden that had been his smiling, contented child. Without more ado, he\nlifted her into his boat, made one swift turn, and fell to retracing\nhis course. The craft\u2014a tiny mark\u2014was soon lost to sight in the welter\nof the waves.\n\nThen the Loon, returning, enquired and said, \u201cBut where is my wife?\u201d\nThe cry echoed round the naked cliffs. And answering cries, wind-borne\non the darkening air, told him that his wife had fled. Her father had\ncome and snatched her back, in grief and anger, to his bosom.\n\nAt once, the Bird, assuming the Phantom form again, followed in his\nkyak; but when the Father saw him coming he covered up his daughter\nwith the furs and things he had loaded in the boat. Swiftly the kyaker\nbore down upon them, and rushing alongside demanded to see his wife.\n\n\u201cLet me see my wife!\u201d he cried. \u201cLet me only see her; pray let me see\nher!\u201d\n\nThe angry father refused, and held determinedly on his way.\n\n\u201cThen let me see her hands only. I only ask to see her hands!\u201d the\nKokksaut cried, to be passionately rejected again.\n\nThen, bowing his head over the opening of his kyak in grief and\ndesolation, the kyaker fell behind. He had failed! His manhood had\nfailed; Sedna had hated and left as true a lover as ever a man could\nhave been to her, and he would no more of it! With one wild sweep of\nhis wings, he was a bird again, the kyak a mote upon the waters\nbeneath, and a stroke or two of his great vans brought him above the\nboat of the fugitives. He hung there awhile, uttering the strange cry\nof the Loon; but at last dropped away into the darkness.\n\nThen there arose a storm\u2014a black arctic storm\u2014out at sea.\n\nAnd Sedna\u2019s father was stricken with fear. Terror of the bird-man\ngripped his heart. Terror of the offended powers of sky and sea nerved\nhim to a bitter sacrifice. The raging waves demanded Sedna, and he must\ngive her up, and repulse her struggling, and see her drown. He bent\nforward, and with one fearful thrust, cast his daughter out of the\nboat\u2014so to propitiate the offended sea!\n\nThe wild, white face rose to the surface, and despairing hands caught\nat the gunwale. But the Terror was not to be defrauded, and the father,\nfrenzied with grief and the desperate determination of his deed,\nsnatched up an axe\u2014a heavy thing of ivory and wood\u2014and brought it down\nupon those pathetic, clinging fingers. The maiden fell back into the\nsea (and the first joints of her maimed and bleeding hands turned into\nseals). But, coming up again, with agony in her eyes she made another\nstruggle to catch at the boat. Three times the drowning creature came\nback; but she was the doomed victim of the sea, and the father must\nconsummate the sacrifice. Three times he smote and chopped at her\nmangled hands. (The second joints became the ojuk, the ground seals;\nthe third joints made the walrus; and whales sprang of the rest.)\n\nApropos of this reeking legend, it must be borne in mind that the\nEskimo believe implicitly in Spirits and in their power to demand\nsacrifice. The father, believing the storm to be an expression of the\nanger of the Sea god (on behalf apparently of the sea-bird) and a\ndemand for the daughter he had reclaimed, did not hesitate to give her\nup and to steel himself against her drowning agony.\n\nAt last Sedna sank, to rise no more.\n\nAnd the storm sank, too. The boat presently came to land. The father\nentered his tent and lay down beneath it and slept a sleep of\nexhaustion and overspent grief. In the tent was fastened Sedna\u2019s dog.\nBut that night there was a high tide which washed up the beach,\ndemolished the tupik, and drowned the two living creatures within. So\nthat man and dog rejoined the maiden in the depths of the sea. There\nthey have dwelt ever since, in some \u201chouse\u201d or cave of Eskimo\nimagination. There they preside over one whole region\u2014called\nAdlivun\u2014where souls are imprisoned for punishment for a while or all\ntime, after death.\n\nThe sea creatures who owe their origin to Sedna belong to her and she\ncontrols them. She protects them, and causes the storms which bring\nwreckage and famine to the kyakers and sealers. Hence she is in Eskimo\nmythology inimical to mankind, the source of the worst evils they know,\na spirit who has to be propitiated or quelled by ceremony, as the case\nmay be.\n\nShe is considered to be of enormous stature, with two plaits of hair,\neach thick as an arm, and she has only one eye. The other was pierced\nand put out in her drowning struggle.\n\nThe writer has seen an example of this sort of sacrifice in actual\nlife, and it redeems the story of Sedna\u2019s father from the senseless\nselfishness of which it seems to be compounded by some narrators. Two\nboats containing a party of hunters were returning from sealing, when a\nsquall struck them. Before sail could be taken in, one boat overturned\nand the men were thrown into the water. They all climbed back except\none, who was numbed with cold and dazed with shock. He did not sink\nimmediately, being held up by his deerskins. He even drifted close by\nthe boat, and easily within reach. One man, indeed, did reach out and\ntouch him with an oar, but when he failed to grasp it the general\ndecision was to let him drown. He was \u201cmaterial for the Tongak\u201d\nspirits, claimed by the Spirit of the sea\u2014as was Sedna in the legend.\nHe simply drowned in the sight of the others, and of the women on\nshore, who covered their faces with their hoods and gave the death\nwails, i.e., began to shriek and howl in the frenzied manner proper to\nthe circumstances.\n\nIt is possible that no better story than that of Sedna (with all its\nelements of phantasy, human emotion, poetry and savagery) could be\nfound in illustration of a good deal Dr. Marrett has to tell us in his\n\u201cPsychology and Folk Lore,\u201d by way of reducing primitive folk-lore and\nprimitive procedure (religious or medical, or both, arising out of it)\nto a science of primitive psychology. His masterly analysis of the\noutlook of the wholly untutored mind on the phenomena of cause and\neffect demonstrates quite clearly the sincerity and the obviousness of\nthe \u201csavage\u201d rites and customs which seem to us so barbaric, irrelevant\nand monstrous.\n\nThe Sedna myth gives rise to the taboo, and the practices of the Sedna\nceremony. The aboriginal theory of things (the origin of the sea\ncreatures, the cause of storms, etc.), leads to aboriginal methods of\ndealing with them  \u201cOn (close) acquaintance, such as perhaps is to be\nobtained only on the field,\u201d says Dr. Marrett, \u201cthe savage turns out to\nbe anything but a fool, more especially in anything that relates at all\ndirectly to the daily struggle for existence ... common sense is no\nmonopoly of civilisation,\u201d although the educated application of it to\nthe material and spiritual needs of life may easily be so. The interest\nof the primitive theurgist is a practical one, and the elements in his\nproblem are only two, namely, a supernormal power to be moved and a\ntraditional rite that promises to move it. The special function of the\nconjuror or the medicine man among aboriginal peoples is to grapple\nwith the abnormal, and \u201cthis ever tends to constitute for the savage a\ndistinct dispensation, a world of its own.\u201d There is in such a story as\nthe Sedna legend some groundwork of common sense and verifiable\nexperience; and in the practices which arise out of it, this has to be\ntaken into account, together with some very real occult content\n(whether of suggestion or hypnotism, the most modern of sciences alone\ncould say), and some conscious fraud no doubt on the part of the\nconjurors.\n\nPrior, however, to an account of this ceremony, it will be as well\nperhaps to devote some space to the conjurors themselves. For, among\nthe Eskimo, as among other primitive peoples, the typical \u201cmedicine\nman\u201d is a specialist, trained for his vocation and initiated into an\nexclusive guild. He is by no means necessarily a fraud and a charlatan.\nNormally, the primitive faith healer has as much faith in himself and\nhis methods as his patients have, and between the two of them\u2014when it\nis a question of a mental reaction to be obtained\u2014there is no reason\nwhy absolute success should not crown his efforts. In the sphere of\nmaterial results these amazing methods seem to be wholly empirical, and\nyet it cannot be denied that the Eskimo conjurors sometimes produce\neffects comparable only to some of the well-known demonstrations of the\n\u201cmagic\u201d of the East.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\nTHE CONJURORS\n\n\nThe greatly esteemed profession of Conjuror is open among the Eskimo to\nboth men and women. Anyone is eligible to become a student in the rites\nand lore of the caste, but only those who pass its tests (i.e., only\nthose who attain, not only a really high degree of the power of mental\nconcentration, of intuition and character reading; but some true occult\ngift), are allowed to practise. The art has its own hierarchy of\nprofessors according to their degree of aptitude and initiation. Only\nthose with some particular qualification, natural or acquired, such as\nthe power of throwing themselves into true trance, attain the highest\ndegree of dignity. Aspirants to the position of conjuror who fall short\nof this, but have yet studied and schooled themselves to some purpose\nin the art, are not denied its practice altogether, but hold lesser\nrank and officiate on minor occasions.\n\nThe would-be conjuror is put through a fairly long and fairly severe\ncourse of training, the whole of which, wrapped up in an immense amount\nof magical circumlocution and sheer imposture, simply tends to enhance\nhis intellectual qualities, such as they may be, at the expense of the\ngrosser appetites of the Eskimo lay individual.\n\nThe candidates to the caste\u2014youth or young woman\u2014begins by choosing a\nconjuror\u2014male or female\u2014under whom to study. And immediately the\nneophyte enters upon his apprenticeship. The length of time this may\nlast rests upon his capacity to learn the rites and acquire the\npsychological stock-in-trade of a conjuror. It is to the teacher\u2019s\nadvantage to spin out this period of tuition as long as possible, since\nfor the whole term of his training the disciple is the body servant of\nthe master, and performs for him even the most menial offices. The\nnovice is a sort of articled pupil into the bargain. He pays for his\ninitiation.\n\nFirst of all, he has to acknowledge all his breaches of the communal\nlaw and custom, and confess to the conjuror whatever of wrongdoing\nthere may have been in his life. The Eskimo believe in this sort of\nconfession, and it is frequently enjoined. He receives forgiveness, and\nthereupon embarks upon a wholly new course of life.\n\nFasting and abstinence and the mastery of the appetites of eating and\ndrinking are the first trials, and the first victories he has to win.\nThe Eskimo are vast eaters, and so much of their diet being flesh meat\nand in the raw state, their physique tends to grossness. This grossness\nhas to be remedied if the conjuror is to be capable of dominating other\nminds by the greater force and clarity of his own. The neophyte eschews\nall luxuries whilst learning, again, of course, with the idea of\nself-command and of that detachment from the unnecessary things of life\nwhich\u2014under civilised conditions also\u2014hang so many trammels round a\nfiner aspiration. In the terms of Eskimo experience, this involves\nallowing the hair to grow long and hang down; to eat with the hands\ncovered; and to go to rest without discarding the clothes. The strict\ndiet, the austerities, the real course of mental training, improve the\ncandidate\u2019s natural powers of mind, enhance his memory, and concentrate\nhis will and consolidate so solid a belief in the system and powers he\nis attaining that the graduate has really, at last, something\nprofessional and exclusive to offer the community.\n\nTo begin with, the aspirant has to become absolutely familiar with all\nthe ancient customs of the people, and their significance. Then he has\nto study the spirit language, the tongue of the conjurors\u2014that is to\nsay, the language in which spirits are to be addressed and in which\nthey express themselves through the initiate. He proceeds to study the\ncause of sickness (this however in a superstitious and not a natural\nsense), and what penalties to inflict for the wrongdoing which sickness\nis supposed to indicate. He has to learn all the various incantations\nfor various occasions, and exactly how to set about them.\n\nAll this is merely the first stage of his apprenticeship. He begins to\nshow of what stuff he is made, so far as the career of conjuror is\nconcerned, when it comes to dealing with matters of guilt and secrecy.\nThe accomplished conjuror must be able to detect and affix guilt. Here\nhe is concerned entirely with the minds of his fellow men, and trying\nto fathom and read them. The Eskimo mind is as tortuous as the Eastern.\nThe conjuror pursues his own method, which may have a good deal to\nrecommend it in the eyes of those who have made a study of the occult,\nbut which is not the method of direct evidence and deduction. He throws\nhimself into a perfectly genuine trance, and stakes everything on the\nintuitions of that state and the awesome effect of it upon the\ninterested beholders.\n\nTo do this the conjuror sits down with his face to the wall, and\ndrawing his hood well over his features, rocks himself backwards and\nforwards, calling the while on his familiar spirit (his Tongak) to come\nto him. He continues this howling and rocking until such concentration\nof mind is effected that he becomes unconscious; he foams at the mouth.\nWhilst in this condition of self-induced hypnotism\u2014or however the\nspiritists may explain it\u2014his spirit, it is believed, goes below to\nSedna, or above to the regions of beatitude, to find out what has been\nthe cause of the guilt in question, and discover the requisite\npunishment.\n\nThe interesting thing about this performance is that it is by no means\nthe tissue of imposture one might suppose. The Eskimo conjuror may be\nno more and no less a fraud than the medium of a spiritistic s\u00e9ance.\nThe writer has been creditably assured by these practitioners that the\ntrance ensues in the vision of a great white light (like the light\nthrown on a sheet by the magic lantern), and then in that illumination\nthey see the whole scene of the supposed crime re-enacted, all the\npeople implicated in it, and its every detail. They are told, or\ninspired, what penalty to inflict. On returning to consciousness, the\nvision is not forgotten, but sharply remembered. The conjuror is able\nto accuse the offender, to question him, and extort a confession from\nhim. The penalty generally takes the form of some obnoxious task to be\nperformed or some fine to be paid in kind.\n\nThis power to see the white light and to project in it the thoughts,\nprobably, of the assistants at the conjuration\u2014for the performance,\nwhen genuine, amounts to nothing less\u2014is really a remarkable psychic\nfeat. Probably the conjurors understand it as little as the laity; they\nhave only trained themselves to achieve it, and they explain it\naccording to the fantastic body of superstition which constitutes the\nEskimo religion. It is only after long practice and the sustained\neffort after great mental concentration that the manifestation is\nattained, that the light can be seen, and incidents recorded in it.\nThis is the final test for the honours of full conjurorship. The\ncandidates sit night after night with the teacher, faces to the wall,\nand the lamps burning low, shutting out all extraneous objects and\ndistractions, in the endeavour to see the light, to pass into trance.\nThose who remain for ever unable to arrive at this, fail to pass the\ntest, and are rejected from the class of the full-fledged. They must\ncontent themselves with minor dignities in the order of conjurors. One\nof these inferior grades is that of the Kunneyo, the one who incants\nfor the seal hunters. Another is the Makkos\u00e2ktok, the one who goes\nround with the whip during the Sedna ceremonies; and a third is the\nNoonageeksaktok, another official at the great annual celebration.\n\nOn the completion of his training and on his passing the final test for\nthe witch-doctorate, the candidate is publicly acknowledged as a\nConjuror. He makes a visitation of all the dwellings in the settlement,\nperforms incantations in each, and receives in payment a number of\ncharms, such as small pieces of carved ivory or bits of deerskin\nfringes. These things are valueless in themselves, but signify that the\ntribesfolk have accepted the new conjuror.\n\nIt is easy to see how the conjurors acquire the power they undoubtedly\nhave over the people, and easy to imagine how much of fraud,\nimposition, hypocrisy and sheer self-seeking could be practised under\nthe thick cloak of their rites, incantations, superstitions, and\u2014last,\nbut not least\u2014their clever trickery and legerdemain. What may be\nperhaps not quite so easy is to convey to the reader an idea of the\nreal good faith and of some demonstrable if inexplicable occult command\nunderlying much of the conjuror\u2019s art. The whole subject is too big,\neither from the point of view of primitive superstitions and procedure,\nor from that of occultism, to be dealt with at much length here and\nnow; but by way of illustrating the point that the Eskimo conjuror can\nperform miracles (collective hypnotism?) as striking as the well-known\nEastern trick of the mango-tree, one of the incidents of the Sedna\nceremony may be instanced.\n\nAt a certain stage of the Sedna proceedings, the conjuror, who has the\nspirit of a walrus or bear for Tongak (familiar spirit), spears himself\nthrough the jacket, or is speared by others, deep in the breast. When\nthis whole performance is not merely a spectacular trick, it seems to\nbe quite genuinely done. A line is attached to the deeply embedded,\nbarbed spearhead, and the people catch hold of this and pull on it and\nhaul the impaled man about, to prove that he is fairly caught, as the\nvictim of a hunt might be. The conjuror is bathed in blood. At length,\nhowever, he is let go, and he makes his wounded way alone to the\nseashore. Here the Tongak releases him from the spear, and after a\nshort space of time he returns to the festival whole and well as ever,\nwith no sign about him except his torn clothing to indicate the rough\nhandling he has undergone.\n\nThe whole stock-in-trade indeed of the Eskimo conjuror is a certain\nvery demonstrable, acquired, occult power. Besides this, he has a good\nmemory, an immense amount of shrewdness and cunning, an intimate\nknowledge of animals and their habits, of weather conditions and\nseasons, and, above all, of course, a capacity to judge of his fellow\nmen.\n\nIt is after the period of training is over that the conjuror becomes\nthe bestial, sensual creature, full of cupidity and trickery, he is so\noften represented to be. After graduating in the guild, no further\nprohibitions and denials are observed. He marries, indeed; but no woman\nof the community is safe from him. Under one professional pretext or\nanother, he may have his way with each and every one of them, with or\nwithout her own particular man\u2019s consent. This, however, is seldom\nwithheld. On the whole, monogamy is the rule among the Eskimo, although\nthere are plenty of exceptions. The writer has known a conjuror with\nthree wives, two of whom were sisters.\n\nWhen a wife is childless it is a great grief both to her and her\nhusband. The conjuror is called in for professional advice and to find\nout why she is not favoured by the spirits. He resorts to his\nincantations, but takes an obvious advantage of the situation (quite as\nmuch for his own ends as for the satisfaction of the would-be parents),\nand all is satisfactorily arranged. Again, when a man is very ill and\nhas been performed over by the conjuror, one of the things demanded by\nthe latter is that the patient\u2019s coat shall be brought to his house in\nthe evening by the man\u2019s wife, and not taken home again until next day.\n\nEskimo life is full of this sort of thing, and the crudities of\nrelationships entering into any of their typical folk-stories make\nthese a little hard to reproduce in a manner acceptable to better\ntaste. But there is certainly some distinction to be drawn between the\nprimitive doings of a people struggling numerically against the\ncruellest conditions of life nature can impose, (who moreover have no\nconception of the ethical idea of morality), and mere promiscuity and\nvice as practised for their own sakes by the \u201ccivilised\u201d peoples of far\nmore favoured lands.\n\nOne of the commonest occasions of calling in the aid of the conjuror is\nduring bad weather. The days have been dark and stormy, with bitter\ngales and snowstorms, so that the hunters have been unable to go\nafield. The witch doctor arms himself with a whip\u2014either an ordinary\ndog whip or one made from sea-weed\u2014and a knife, and rushes out to join\nthe howling elements. He slashes the wind and shouts down the gale.\n\u201cTaba! Taba! Namuktok!\u201d (Stop! Stop! It is enough!).\n\nAnd presently the wind drops, and the accustomed death-like stillness\nof the frozen world supervenes upon the uproar.\n\nThe conjuror of course could read the signs of the weather even more\nastutely than the practised hunters, and awaited the moment when the\ngale had spent itself for the exhibition of his influence.\n\nAfter the death of anyone looked upon as more or less of a criminal,\nthe conjuror is called upon to drive the evil-intentioned spirit of the\ndeparted away from his old home. He does this by shading his eyes\ncarefully in the effort to perceive the spirit. Then, with a knife or\nspear he rushes about, yelling and shouting, and stabbing as if at his\ninvisible foe, calling upon it to depart and go to its own place below.\nAt length he vanquishes the spirit, and announces that it is to be\ndreaded no more; by their belief in him he removes their fears and\nrestores tranquility of mind and body; whereupon he receives his dues\nand the perturbed and anxious relatives recover their poise and\ncheerfulness.\n\nIn order to grasp how seriously the Eskimo believe their lives, and\nevery adventure of their lives, to be beset by unseen influences, it\nmust be remarked that the main idea of their uncouth religion is that,\nnot only man, but all things, animate or inanimate, have souls. Rocks,\nwood, earth, water, sun, moon, stars, fire, fog, icebergs, plants, all\nanimals, all creeping things, and even hunting implements, have spirits\nwhich never die. The Tarnuk, or soul of a man, has the shape of a man,\nbut is about one inch in height, and is to be discovered in the hand of\na conjuror or in that of a new-born babe. The soul of a bear is like a\nbear; that of a walrus like a walrus; but the soul of a deer resembles\na spider, and that of a salmon, a man! The souls of rocks are like\nsturdy, thickset men; the soul of the earth looks like a piece of\nliver. Animals\u2019 souls are black and hairless, but those of some\ninanimate objects are clothed in deerskin. It would indeed take a great\ndeal of study to determine how and why the people should have arrived\nat these fantastic notions and distinctions. Perhaps it would never be\ngiven to the mind of the modern white man to fathom the workings of\nsuch primitive intelligence, building up for itself a monstrous,\nnightmare scheme of things, on foundations of the blackest ignorance.\n\nFor sheer phantasy, the writer is aware of course that the beliefs of\nthe Eskimos are paralleled by those of many other uncivilised peoples.\nIt may be that along lines of comparative savage mythology some\ngeneralisations might emerge which would throw light upon the whole\nsubject. Here, however, would lie the study of a lifetime.\n\nBriefly put, the Eskimo religion consists in the belief in a\nmultiplicity of spirits, good and bad, and in one Supreme Spirit, of\nwhom no fear is felt because he has no evil intention towards man. The\nconjuration and propitiation of the evil spirits is the constant\nbusiness of the conjuring class, although everyone has some degree of\npower to deal with them. Man was made, indeed, by the Great Supreme\nSpirit, and his name was given, \u00c2kkolukju; and woman, Omaneetok, was\nfashioned from his left-hand floating rib.\n\nThe Eskimo very highly esteem their own race, but hold Europeans in\nconsiderable contempt. They have an unpleasant legend of a woman and a\ndog being cast away together in a boat or on a floe, by way of\naccounting for the origin of the whites.\n\nMan\u2019s spirit, like the spirit of everything else, is immortal, and\ndestined to a future life in bliss, in the region where the Great\nSpirit presides over a happy community of very prosperous Eskimo, such\nas has already been described. Those who die on the hunt go to this\nheaven, also women in childbirth, and those who die a violent death by\nany sort of accident. The road to this Eskimo heaven is beset by many\nobstacles and pitfalls. It is haunted by savage animals, who lie in\nwait to attack, maim, and kill the wayfarers upon it. Legend has it\nthat at the end of this road, at the rim of this world which is the\ngate to the next, two huge rocks are set, confronting each other across\nthe narrow path. They sway ominously and often crash together, so that\nthe soul seeking heaven has to run the risk of being caught and crushed\nbetween them as he endeavours to get through.\n\nAll illness other than that derived from these causes is looked upon as\na consequence of sin, i.e., the failure to be a good member of the\ncommunity, the having been of a quarrelsome turn, bad-tempered, mean or\nungenerous, and the having failed to own up to these things when\nexhorted by the conjuror. When a sick person, having confessed yet\ndies, it is believed that he had some mental reservation and was not\nquite honest about his confession. These bad folk go to the Eskimo\nhell, to the awful realms of Sedna. But a third idea of a sort of\npurgatory comes in, a place to which the damned can escape before they\nare finally admitted to bliss. The spirit of the conjuror is able to go\nbelow and fight the evil one, and liberate the soul in question. The\nwhole transaction is generally a somewhat expensive one for the\nrelatives.\n\nAll animals have their guardian spirits (Tongak) who have power over\ntheir souls (Innua). The bear, walrus, killer, ground seal, etc., have\nthe best and strongest familiars. It is the custom for each conjuror to\nadopt one of these spirits as his own, in order to avail himself of its\nattributes and powers. The bear is a special favourite, since his\nTongak is possessed of cunning and intelligence above the ordinary.\nSedna, the goddess or protectress of the sea creatures in her briny\nunderworld, controls and safeguards their bodies only; each one\u2019s\nparticular Tongak controls its soul. The conjuror, in turn, controls\nthe Tongak; so this important personage can counteract Sedna\u2019s\nmachinations against successful hunting. The hunter invokes the aid of\nthe conjuror, who thereupon causes the Tongak of the seals to enter\ninto the man and lead him to success. This familiar companionship is\nforfeited if the hunter commit some breach of the law and does not\nconfess as much to the witch doctor, or if he fail to pay for the\nservices rendered.\n\nEskimo mythology is almost an inexhaustible subject. In addition to the\nactive, informing spirit called the Tongak, which everyone possesses\nand which can be invoked for guidance or assistance by every man at his\nneed, all other beings, animate and inanimate, possess an indwelling\nspirit peculiar to themselves alone. This individual, permanent,\npresiding spirit is the Innua, something distinct from the patron\nspirit, the Tongak.\n\nThe writer has collected an immense mass of notes on the Eskimo\ndeities, as they were described to him by the most creditable of the\nconjurors. He believes that his list is unique, and offers the student\nof such matters entirely original material. In it are enumerated no\nless than fifty of these tutelary spirits, with their personal\ndescriptions (generally uncouth and imaginative to a degree), their\nsupposed habitat\u2014earth, air, or water\u2014and their characteristic\nactivities or patronages.\n\nThere is Keekut, for instance, a being who lives on the land, in\nappearance is like a dog without hair, and who works in a more or less\nmaleficent manner. There is Segook, a spirit with a head like a crow, a\nbody like that of a human being, and who is black. It has wings. It is\na benefactor to the tribesfolk, and brings them meat in its beak. It is\nfabled to exist upon the eyes of deer and seals. The list is\nmonotonously fabulous, and could only be wearisome to the general\nreader.\n\nAtaksok lives in the sky. He is like a ball, and has the means of\nbringing joy to his beholders as often as he may be invoked by the\nconjurors. Akseloak is the spirit of rocking stones. When called upon,\nhe arrives rolling, and falls flat upon his face at the witch doctor\u2019s\nfeet. Ooyarraksakju is a female spirit, and lives in the rocks and\nboulders; is beneficent in her activities.\n\nSo the list goes on. It would doubtless have a value all its own for\nthe student of primitive imagery or fable, and form an addition to\nethnographical researches on the Eskimo; but to give it here in extenso\nwould perhaps serve little or no purpose.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\nTHE SEDNA CEREMONY\n\n\nAt the end of the arctic summer, before the young ice begins to form\nagain along the shores, there comes a spell of tempestuous weather,\nwith frequent storms and high, rough tides. Food grows more and more\nscarce as sealing increases in risk and difficulty. Those intrepid\nhunters who do venture out, return empty-handed day after day, and it\ngrows high time for something to be done. The goddess Sedna is supposed\nto be causing these storms and all this dirty weather at sea, to\nprevent her animals being killed. And so a conjuration has to be\nperformed to liberate the seals.\n\nThis is the occasion of the most elaborate festival in the Eskimo\ncalendar.\n\nIt begins by the conjurors, in full dress, calling the people\naltogether to dispense them for a short space from their marriage ties.\nEach witch doctor is masked, and clad in women\u2019s clothing. The idea of\nhis amazing get-up, apart from the usual intention to awe the people by\ngrotesqueness or hideousness, is to disguise the face and body, to\nefface as it were the well-known individual, to make the people lose\nsight of the conjuror in the representation of a great power at work\namong them. His dress is partly that of a man and partly that of a\nwoman, and he carries the usual implements used by both sexes. This is\nto bring the needs of either before the great power, and to intercede\nfor their respective needs.\n\nTo begin with, the Angakok wears several pairs of nether garments and\nboots, until he looks very big and out of his usual proportions. He has\na woman\u2019s pointed tunic, whose sleeves are elaborately trimmed with\nfringes and charms. The hood is pulled down over his head, and he wears\na mask of black skin tattooed all over. On his shoulders he carries an\ninflated sealskin float, and over his arm a coil of walrus hide. In his\nleft hand he bears a woman\u2019s skin scraper, and in his right a spear.\nThus caparisoned, he emerges from his tent and begins by pairing off\nthe couples.\n\nThe tribesfolk are ranged in two long lines, the men and women facing\neach other, and a lane between. Then the \u201cKailuktetak\u201d (a minor order\namong the initiate) open the ceremonies. Each conjuror is furnished\nwith a deer-horn scraper like a long curved knife (used in the ordinary\ncourse of things for scraping the newly formed ice from the kyaks as\nthey are drawn out of the water), to which is attached a small piece of\nbearskin. He starts off down the living lane, dancing and shouting in\nglee, touching first a man and then a woman with the wand as he goes.\nThe two thus indicated pair off, and are man and wife for the next\ntwenty-four hours, or perhaps a little longer. The fun is fast and\nfurious. Much of the whole thing has been prearranged, and the element\nof surprise is rather subordinate to that of anticipation. The\nconjurors choose among the women for themselves first, and next for\nthose hunters who have had sufficient eye for beauty and sufficient of\nthis world\u2019s goods to mention the fact privately and persuasively\nbeforehand.\n\nThere has been quite a stream of visitors to the conjuror\u2019s house of\nlate, and quite a number of presents made, which forgetfulness on the\npart of that worthy has failed to return. So that the pairing off on\nthis auspicious day is largely a prearranged affair. However, it\noccasions plenty of Eskimo laughter and delight. The enceinte (and the\nold folks) are not included in this adventure. They play the part of\nspectators only, but applaud or deride as heartily as the rest over\neach mating. These women are Kooveayootiksatyonerktoot, i.e.,\n\u201cno-longer-the-material-for-a-rejoicing,\u201d having apparently given\nhostages to fortune already, or having sufficiently fulfilled the hopes\nof the community. Children are paired off first\u2014boys and girls of no\nmore than twelve years\u2014and then the adults.\n\nEach couple, as they are selected, join hands and walk away towards the\nman\u2019s dwelling, attended for a little distance by the Kiluktetak who\nhas picked them out, dancing all round them and about them like a mad\nthing. If they chance to touch him, they too begin to dance, and to\nvoice their excitement in no uncertain manner. On entering the\ndwelling, each drinks a little water and mentions the place of his or\nher birth.\n\nThe conjuror has an \u00e2vetak slung upon his breast, that is, the entire\nskin of a seal which, inflated, is generally used as a float on the\nkyak. On this day, however, it serves another purpose. As the couple\npresently return to the Kilukletak, they pour water into this, and each\nindividual, drinking from it again and again, mentions the place of his\nor her birth a second time. The rite is official, and sets the\nconjuror\u2019s seal upon the proceedings and its consequences.\n\nThe root idea of this pairing off is to strengthen a race that might\neasily be weakened by too much inter-marriage, and to increase the\nbirth-rate. The writer has elsewhere commented on the defensibility of\nsuch a custom\u2014from the Eskimo point of view\u2014but it remains to be added\nhere that, as regards parentage, the father of a child is always known\nand acknowledged, be he the woman\u2019s husband or her temporary Sedna\nmate. The Sedna offspring is cared for by the regular husband, or by\nthe community.\n\nNext comes the extraordinary performance already described, when the\nconjuror is speared through the chest.\n\nAfter this, the principal Angakok prepares to give battle to Sedna. The\ngoddess can be killed; but as she subsequently comes to life again,\nthis killing has to take place every year. The whole performance is a\nrepresentation of seal-spearing on the ice. The conjuror coils a rope\non the floor of a large hut, and leaves a little opening at the top to\nrepresent the blow hole. Two assistants stand on either side, armed\nrespectively with harpoon and spear. A third chants incantations at the\nback of the dwelling. Sedna is supposed to be lured from the\nunderworld, and when she comes to the hole, is transfixed at once. She\nsinks away again, dragging the harpoon with her, wounded and incensed.\nThe conjurors haul on the line for all they are worth, and recover the\nweapon.\n\nThen the chief Angakut squats upon the floor, with his arms and legs\nbound by a length of light hide line. The lamps are pressed down to\nburn so dimly that it is all but dark. The rest of the folk also sit\nabout the floor with their heads bowed, so that none may stare at the\nconjuror\u2019s face. He begins his incantations, rocking to and fro and\nuttering sounds that seem incredible for a human throat to compass. He\nworks himself into a state of insensibility (but not before his\nfamiliar spirit has undone the knots and released him from his bonds.)\nIt is this trance which makes such an impression on the tribesfolk.\nThey believe that the witch doctor\u2019s spirit has left his body and their\nmidst, and has really gone to meet and despatch the powerful figment of\ntheir myth, to kill her and liberate the seals.\n\nThe hardening of the weather soon after this ceremony, when the\nprospects of the sealers naturally improve, seems to the Eskimo mind a\nclear demonstration of cause and effect. Probably the conjuror quite\nbelieves it, too, and although he has done nothing but hypnotise\nhimself and strike awe thereby into the onlookers, this assumption of\nall that he accomplishes in the meantime is as real to him as to the\nothers.\n\nAfter the Kiluktetak\u2014the chief of the whole conjuring band\u2014has\nconcluded this s\u00e9ance, he proceeds to make good hunters. Those who are\nambitious to make a name for themselves in this respect, and greatly\ndesire the skins and trappings that come of abundant catches, pay the\nconjuror a walrus hide line; whereupon he resorts again to his\nincantations, and his Tougak causes the soul of a seal to enter the\nbody or mind of the young man in question. The whole business may\nperhaps have some result, perforce of suggestion, and the sealer who\nhad hitherto doubted his own judgment or prowess, who had felt\ndiscouraged by ill success, or who had failed perhaps in skill or\npatience, picks up a fortuitous confidence in himself and really has\nbetter luck afterwards.\n\nIt is impossible to believe that these beliefs and ceremonies would be\nso widespread among the people and carry so much weight, were no sort\nof explanation to be sought for them. These folk are trained and\naccomplished hunters; they attribute their success to junketings of\nthis description, and by no means wholly to the obvious care they take\nto ensure it. If the ceremonies had no value and proved by experience\nto have no bearing on all these vital matters, even the primitive mind\nwould scarcely perpetuate them for their own sakes pure and simple.\n\nIn the meantime, while the Kiluktetak has his hands full in the\nunderworld, all sorts of other things are taking place, all sorts of\ngames going on, in the village above.\n\nThere is a tug of war with a rope of walrus hide or white whale hide, a\ncontest provocative of uproarious fun, watched by a keen, delighted\ncrowd. One end of the rope is manned by the \u201cPtarmigans\u201d (those born in\nthe winter time) and the other by the \u201cDucks\u201d (those born in summer.)\nIf the former yield to the latter, it is taken as an augury of good\nweather for the ensuing season.\n\nAfter this a curious game is played. One of the lesser conjurors is\nfantastically got up in a number of garments, and in a pair of trousers\nwith very narrow legs. The trousers seem to tickle the Eskimo sense of\nthe ludicrous in exactly the same way as Charlie Chaplin\u2019s baggy ones\nand his \u201ccaterpillar\u201d boots tickle ours. He takes a piece of wood in\none hand, a skin scraper in the other, and starts capering off, calling\non all and sundry to follow him and assemble in the \u201cKagge,\u201d or singing\nhouse.\n\nThe ceremony in the Kagge was performed in the past but now only the\nSedna ceremony is performed, minus the Kagge.\n\nThe Eskimo build larger houses than those they usually occupy, for\nfeasting, singing and dancing on particular occasions. The singing\nhouse is dedicated to a particular spirit which has the shape of a\nbow-legged, hairless man. It is generally built upon the usual round\nplan of the igloo, sometimes three being grouped together, apse and\ntransept fashion, with a common entrance (nave). The company disposes\nitself in concentric rings round the house, married women by the wall,\nspinsters in front of them, and a ring of men to the front. Children\nare grouped on either side of the door, and the singer or dancer,\nstripped to the waist, takes his stand amid them and remains on the one\nspot all the time. A pillar of snow in the middle of the house supports\nas many lamps as it requires to illuminate the proceedings and to warm\nthe air. Singing festivals and competitions in the Kagge especially\nmark the great occasion of the tribal deer hunting in the spring, so\nthat it will be described at somewhat greater length in that\nconnection.\n\nAs soon as everyone has crowded in, all the new made (temporary)\ncouples are bidden to join hands and guide each other out. Everyone is\nlaughing, but the pair in question have to preserve the gravity of\nowls. If they yield to the infectious merriment and badinage going on,\nand fail to keep absolutely solemn faces, some grievous sickness will\nbefall them. The conjuror touches their feet as they cross the\nthreshold, and when he himself follows out the last pair, blows off\nhard, like a seal.\n\nAt the risk of wearying the reader with the apparent uncouthness of all\nthis (an alien humour is always hard to perceive), one more incident of\nthe festival must be given.\n\nThe Mukkosaktok possesses himself of a whip with a particularly short\nhandle, and starts on a tour of the village on his own account. He\nenters the first house he comes to, and starts to lay about him in\nplay. He fillips one of the inmates with the end of his lash, and\norders him to sing a song\u2014an extempore song of his own composition. If\nthe victim fails, another one has to take his place, and so in turn\nuntil the circle is exhausted. This goes on in every household, all\nsorts of weird howls and chants and guttural distiches being elicited\nby force majeure, until at last the Mukkosaktok is playfully hustled to\nthe door and pushed outside.\n\nThe underlying idea of much of all this is doubtless that of promoting\nsociability and good feeling all round. The Eskimo are an intensely\nsociable people, and, to the very limited extent of their powers and\nopportunities, delight in entertainment. These festival songs, for\ninstance, have required a certain amount of preparation. They are\ncomposed about some event that has taken place and caught the singer\u2019s\nattention. They have been rehearsed and, if successful, will be\nrepeated all through the long winter nights, when the folk spend so\nmuch weather-bound time in visiting each other and exchanging tales and\ngossip round the igloo lamps. No tribesman likes to be laughed at, so\nhe really does his best over his song.\n\nThere is a real groundwork of sense about the ceremony of visiting each\nhouse in turn, and the scramble for presents. In the first place, it is\na symbol of goodwill and plenty. Each householder is expected to keep\nup appearances by doing this sort of thing, and he uses every effort to\ngain the wherewithal to meet the obligation. This militates against\nlaziness and any tendency to hoard\u2014great crimes in the Eskimo\nestimation of things. The hunter strains every nerve to provide the\nthings his neighbours scramble for, and the women of the village do\ntheir utmost, so far as attractiveness and domesticity go, to attach\nsuch men as husbands. Again, by a general scramble, the poorer and less\nlucky folk get a good many windfalls otherwise unobtainable.\n\nThe roysterers flock off in a body, to make the round of the\nencampment, stopping at every man\u2019s house in turn. The owner goes\ninside, makes a selection of all sorts of unconsidered\ntrifles\u2014generally bits of sealskin used for the legs of boots, with\ndifferent kinds of sewing sinew attached\u2014and, returning to the\nvociferous crowd waiting outside, scatters these things broadcast.\nThere is a grand commotion and no end of noise, as the oddments are\nbattled for. As this performance is repeated at every house in the\nvillage it necessarily takes some time.\n\nLittle information is obtainable as to the significance of these games\nor ceremonies, or whatever the Eskimo themselves may consider them. The\nannual pairing off doubtless serves to keep up the numbers of the\ntribe. Women are always in excess of men, owing to hunting fatalities\namong the latter, and other causes; and some of these, although\nmarried, may be childless. The Sedna proceedings tend to remedy this\nstate of things to a satisfactory extent. The writer\u2019s own idea is\nthat, in addition to the main responsibilities of the festival, which\nrest on the shoulders of the Kiluktetok, the doings of the lesser\nlights of the order of conjurors are designed more or less to keep\nthings going merrily and to establish themselves firmly in the\ngood-will of the community.\n\nThe main idea of the frequent acknowledgment of breaches of village law\nis undoubtedly to keep the social life intact, to ensure that no\nsecrecies and plottings shall break it up, and no hoarding of supplies\nlead to quarrels and injustices. Another feature of the Sedna day is a\ngeneral \u201cconfessing\u201d of all these \u201csins.\u201d Another lesser luminary,\ncalled a Noonageeksaktoot, dresses himself up in a medley of garments\nand dons a close-fitting cap made from the skull of a ground seal. This\ncap has a peak, to represent a bird\u2019s bill. He binds upon his feet some\nof the sticks used for beating snow from clothes, so that they resemble\na raven\u2019s, and hops about in imitation of that bird. As often as the\npeople come up and accuse themselves of wrongdoing, he betakes himself\nto the beach, to tell Sedna, and returns with forgiveness.\n\nIt will be readily understood that it is of great value in the hard\nfight for existence in the arctic that a spirit of hope and\ncheerfulness should be maintained. No one knows this better than the\ncommander of an arctic or antarctic expedition, or than the head of a\ntrading station! It is quite essential that the Eskimo village should\nmake itself a centre of jollity and comfort to the returning hunters,\nand to travellers on the trail. There are sound economic principles\nunderneath the queer trappings of some of all this barbaric custom, and\neven sound hygienic laws governing some of the regulations and taboos\nof daily life. That one, for instance, which forbids a woman in\nchildbirth to eat any food not provided by her husband, probably acts\nquite beneficially. Eskimo food is very rich and often consumed in the\nraw state, so that a glut of it, as would result from a shower of\nbenefactions, would upset the new-made mother.\n\nThe Sedna ceremony has been carefully studied by the best ethnologists,\nlike Dr. Boas, who have travelled for the sake of science among the\narctic tribes; but it may be hazarded that the raison d\u2019\u00eatre of much of\nit could only dawn on an observer who had actually lived for a very\nconsiderable time in close personal and linguistic touch with the\npeople.\n\nThe writer offers his interpretations with all diffidence, but believes\nthey constitute something original to the descriptions of other\nwriters. Those who easily dismiss the whole subject as fantastic\nsavagery, much of which is unfit for publication, seem singularly to\nhave failed in any real grasp of the character of these benighted, but\nin many ways cheery and genuine, children of the sternest wild in the\nworld.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI\n\nTHE NATIVE SURGEON\n\n\nOne of the principal offices of the native conjuror is to find out the\nreason of sickness and death, or of any misfortune or disaster\nhappening to the tribesfolk. But in this matter of primitive medicine,\nthe Eskimo are probably far behind the untutored folk of other\nuncivilised peoples, for the simple reason that, unlike the dwellers in\ntemperate or tropical and therefore vegetated regions of the world,\nthey have nothing with which to experiment, in sickness, by way of\nherbs and simples. An absolutely barren land, covered for the most part\nof the year with snow, provides no material for the empirical\npharmacist. Eskimo medical practice consists entirely in incantation,\nin dealings with the spirit world, and in the exercise of an amazing\nand complicated system of fetish and taboo, i.e., the doing or\nrefraining from doing all sorts of unreasonable things to attain or\nproduce some desired end. In surgery, the conjuror is no less intrepid,\nif considerably more lucky (thanks to an air so pure as to be almost\nsterile) than the ghastly practitioners of West Africa, whose appalling\nanatomical ventures are described in Mary Kingsley\u2019s unrivalled book of\ntravel in the Cameroons.\n\nThe arctic folk seem to have no glimmering of an idea as to natural\ncause and effect in sickness. Bodily ills and death, to them, admit of\nonly one explanation. The sufferer has in some way or other in some\nparticular transgressed the communal law. The disorders of women are\nconsidered as a punishment for the infringement of some of the\nmeticulous regulations laid down for their observance at certain times.\nHence the first business of the conjuror on being summoned to a sick\nbed, is to scare or worry the invalid into the remembrance and\nacknowledgment of whatever he or she may have done contrary to the\ngeneral well-being of the village. He does this after his usual\nfashion, by crawling into the igloo in some particularly horrid guise,\nand sitting down in the darkened place with his face to the wall and\nhis features well concealed by his hood, giving vent to the most\nhorrific howls, mutterings, ventriloquisms and unhuman-sounding noises,\nat his ingenious command. Then he proceeds to interrogate the sick\nperson, and of course wrings some acknowledgment from him or her.\nTreatment\u2014of sorts\u2014may ensue; but as a rule the issue of commands as to\natonement or compensation is the wind-up of what the Americans would\naptly describe as the whole \u201cstunt.\u201d Occasionally a piece of flaming\nmoss wick from one of the lamps is laid upon the painful part of the\nsufferer\u2019s body and fanned with the conjuror\u2019s breath, or merely blown\nup into the air. All real attempt at cure is left to nature, and it\nmust be added that the recuperative powers of a hearty-eating, hardy,\nhealthy-blooded people like the tribes of Eskimo, are quite remarkable.\n\nEskimo flesh has wonderful healing power. The writer has seen the most\nfearful gashes quickly close and heal up without any precautions or\ndressing whatever. One case he certainly thought would have a fatal\ntermination. A hunter was repairing his implements, a small box of\ntools lying on the ground beside him. A large file without a handle\nhappened to be sticking straight up out of the box. The man\u2019s foot\nslipped on the ice and he fell, in a sitting posture, straight upon the\nfile. He sustained a deep punctured wound. It was merely bandaged with\nsome very dirty strips of soiled skin underclothing, and inflammation\nand intense suppuration presently set in. At no time did the wound\nreceive any further attention, but in due course the hunter was about\nagain, as though nothing had happened.\n\nSomething, however, must be said for the conjuror as an anatomist. By\nvirtue of his calling and of his continual dealing with animals of all\nkinds, he knows the positions of joints, muscles, ligaments, veins and\narteries, and can find any one of them. Some men have more aptitude in\nthis respect than others, and these occasionally act as surgeons. A\nyoung woman, who may be called Omanetok, the daughter of one of the\nminor conjurors, developed a large mysterious swelling in the groin.\nThere was acute inflammation, pointing to deep-seated pus in\naccumulation. A native surgeon was called in, and after examination he\npronounced for an immediate operation. He decided to lance the\nswelling. A time was arranged, and by special request the writer was\nallowed to be present.\n\nThe surgeon arrived, accompanied by two hefty fellows as assistants\n(his \u201cdressers,\u201d probably, in an enhanced state of things!) His lancet\nconsisted of a rough piece of all-round, useful steel, inserted into a\npiece of ivory by way of a handle. The blade was about two inches long\nand had a rounded end instead of anything so convenient as a sharp\npoint. This blade had, however, been filed, in an attempt at an edge.\nIn addition, there was a small oilstone. Both stone and instrument were\nvery dirty. The operator began by spitting on the oilstone and\nsharpening the lancet upon it, afterwards wiping the latter with a\nsoiled piece of birdskin previously used for scouring out the cooking\npots.\n\nThe patient was then \u201cprepared\u201d by her mother. She was laid flat upon\nthe bed bench, and the part to be operated upon was exposed. The\nsurgeon, wetting his fingers in his mouth, proceeded to moisten and\nslightly cleanse (!) the skin. Then the two assistants grasped Omanetok\nby the legs, her mother held her head, and two more helpers held her\nwell down by the shoulders. The conjuror inserted the lancet simply by\npressing on it and sawing it in, backwards and forwards, until it had\ngone deep enough to reach the pus. Omanetok squirmed considerably, but\nher nurses had her well in hand. The contents of the swelling were\nexpelled by repeated pressure, and wiped away from time to time with a\nlittle bit of dirty mouse or lemming skin. When this was finished, the\nwound was covered by a piece of lemming skin, licked by the operator\u2019s\ntongue and stuck on over the place.\n\nTwo days afterwards the patient was walking about, well and jolly as\never she had been in her life.\n\nApropos of the extraordinary command the conjurors universally exercise\nover the people, and of the paramount psychic influence they establish\nin the community, it is not too much to say that they hold every man\u2019s\nlife in their hands. We know how the fatalistic-minded Asiatic can die\nby auto-suggestion. The Eskimo, too, dies by suggestion, even when\nstrongly against his will.\n\nA fully qualified practitioner, well known for a sensual and\nself-indulgent man, was particularly tenacious of his purposes and able\nto bide him time. He had long desired the good-looking half-breed wife\nof a certain hunter, and had frequently approached the man on the\nquestion. Contrary to the general rule, in this instance he was\nconsistently refused. Now, Moneapik, the hunter, was a skilful fellow,\nwell able to provide himself and his wife with food and clothing. He\nwas careful, too, and rather exclusive, not liking to squander his\ngains upon the lazy folk of the village, after the generally accepted\nfashion. For this reason he was unpopular. He had his own circle of\nfriends, however, and was content not to enlarge it. The conjuror had\nnothing to work upon so far as Moneapik was concerned, except the\nlatter\u2019s superstition. The man was neither poor, nor feckless, nor\nfriendless.\n\nAt length a long spell of bad weather set it, bringing in its train a\nseason of sickness and semi-starvation. The conjuror was expected to\nset matters right by his arts and incantations; but on this occasion he\nhad only a signal failure to register. He loudly excused himself for it\non the ground that the spirits were profoundly offended by the\nunsociable practices of Moneapik. He had committed the heinous offence\nof keeping largely to himself; he had not given freely to the\ntribesfolk. Only by his death could the powers be propitiated and the\nfamine ended. The majority of the villagers were prone enough to agree\nwith this, for over and over again the hunter had set their greed at\nnought. Whereupon the conjuror boldly faced the man, stated the\nincontrovertible facts, pronounced his death sentence, and departed\nsaying: \u201cI command you to die!\u201d\n\nMoneapik was a strong, healthy man, in the prime of life and the pink\nof condition. Normally, he should have lived to a ripe old age. But so\ningrained was his belief in the conjuror, in his power to get into\ncommunication with the spirit world, that this command was virtually\nfatal. He said: \u201cI am commanded to die!\u201d He gave up his active\noccupations, withdrew into his tent, ate and drank very sparingly, and\nwithin four days was dead. They sewed up the body in skin blankets and\nleft it on the rocks of a neighbouring island, to be devoured by foxes.\nThe writer visited the spot a few days later\u2014but only bones remained.\n\nFriends had indeed visited Moneapik in his tent before the end, and\nargued with him, laughed at him, tried by every possible means to\ndisabuse the man\u2019s mind of its obsession. But all in vain. The victim\u2019s\nsole response was, \u201cI am commanded to die!\u201d And die he did, although it\nwas by no means a death from starvation. It was death by suggestion.\n\nThe conjuror, of course, obtained his own ends.\n\nAn account has already been given of the conjuror spearing himself in\nthe breast during the Sedna ceremony, and appearing no whit the worse\nfor it shortly afterwards. Although this extraordinary action may often\nperhaps be simulated by a trick, (the performer concealing a bladder of\nblood under his tunic and merely stabbing that), there seems to be\nsufficient evidence that such feats are within the compass of the\ngenuine practitioner. No less authority than Dr. Boas gives an instance\nof an Angatok, on the island of Utussivik, who thrust a harpoon through\nhis body and was led through the village by twenty-five men. Another\nconjuror, at a place called Umanaqtuaq, on finishing his incantations,\n\u201cjumped up and rushed out of the hut, to where a mounted harpoon was\nstanding. He threw himself upon the harpoon, which penetrated his\nbreast and came out at the back. Three men followed him, and holding\nthe harpoon line led the Angatok, bleeding profusely, to all the huts\nin the village. When they arrived again at the first hut, he pulled out\nthe harpoon, lay down on the bed, and was put to sleep by the song of\nanother Angatok. When he awoke after a while he showed the people he\nwas not hurt, although his clothes were torn and they had seen him\nbleeding.\u201d (Monograph on the Central Eskimo, by Dr. Boas.)\n\nThe underlying idea in the treatment of all sickness (as distinguished\nfrom accident) being that some spirit is offended and is punishing the\ndelinquent, it becomes necessary to discover what custom has not been\ncomplied with or what observance has been omitted, or what prohibition\nhas been neglected. The science of divining what spirit, too, is\nantagonised, comprises perhaps the whole volume of Eskimo fetish and\nsuperstition. The conjuror knows beforehand, of course, the character\nand the failings of any individual he may be called upon to attend. He\nmakes a shrewd guess from hearsay what the man may have been doing, and\nby skilful questions and half accusations, manages pretty generally to\nget at the core of the matter and extort more or less genuine (if\nwholly irrelevant) confession.\n\nThere are some crimes for which there is no forgiveness, such as having\ncommunion with the dead, especially the Toopelat, i.e., the earth-bound\nspirits of indifferent folk. If the sick man confesses to this, there\nis no hope of cure for him. Adown the long interrogatory we come upon a\nfew questions which illumine the apparent nonsense of all the rest with\ngleams of good human sense and logic: Have you stolen from the sick?\nHave you greatly lied about your neighbours or your race? Have you been\nabusive to the old folk? And\u2014for a woman\u2014have you concealed a\nmiscarriage?\n\nOtherwise the questions turn upon whether the patient (if a woman) has\nworked upon forbidden sorts of skins, i.e., heavy and arduous work\nlikely to upset her (if she is enceinte), at certain seasons; whether\nthe meat of land and sea creatures has been eaten at the same meal;\nwhether shell fish were gathered when seal should have been hunted;\nwhether lamps were cleaned during a time of taboo, etc., etc. The\nunderlying idea of half these prohibitions is lost in the obscurity of\ntime immemorial, and the Eskimo to-day can account for them no better\nthan by saying, \u201cAs our fathers did, so do we.\u201d\n\nThe invalid thoroughly believes in the authority and omniscience of the\nconjuror. He racks his brains for the remembrance of some breach of the\nunwritten social law, and generally succeeds in the effort, and so\ncomplies with what is required of him. Should he be so grievously ill,\nhowever, that the conjuror can elicit no sort of response, should the\nsickness be obviously leading to death, the failure of all these\nproceedings is taken as proof positive that a crime has been committed\nbeyond the power of the witch doctor\u2019s machinations to palliate,\nbecause beyond the power of the spirits to forgive.\n\nIn any less serious case the practitioner has a peculiar method whereby\nto determine the probable duration of the sickness, and also its\ngravity. He has among his assistants minor conjurors called the head or\nleg lifter, as the case may be; and an incantor whose business it now\nbecomes to squat upon the floor with covered head and improvise a chant\nfor the occasion. He is called the Kunneyo.\n\nAs soon as this wail begins the others assistants bind a piece of wood\nupon the sick man\u2019s head with a length of thong, and lift it\ntentatively as if in the act of weighing it, asking the spirit\nmeanwhile wherein the patient has offended. If the head is inert and\nheavy feeling, he is judged to be guilty; if it feels light, he is\ninnocent. Sometimes the wood is bound upon the leg, and this is lifted\ninstead of the head. When this examination is over and the patient has\npromised to comply with any orders given him, the conjuror commands,\n\u201cLet the bindings be cast off.\u201d This is done, and he pursues, \u201cLet the\ncause of guilt be cast away, and let him recover.\u201d\n\nThe penalty imposed often takes the form of some abstinence to be\nobserved for a time. When the illness has been brought about by\ngluttony or exposure, this injunction, joined to a period of rest and\nquietness, may prove quite enough to restore the patient to his\naccustomed health. Nature does her own work. Should there have been\nsome real fear or disquiet of mind, the whole thing simply resolves\nitself into a faith cure. Incidentally, the Angatok maintains his\ninflated authority, and earns a fat livelihood. He exacts payment, of\ncourse\u2014a dog, a sled, a skin, a length of line, and the favours of the\npatient\u2019s wife; and prescribes the use of various charms. These charms\nmay be a fringe of deer or bearskin, a spider or beetle sewn up in a\npiece of skin, worn on boot or breast or back, as directed. Most potent\nof all is a scrap of the garment worn during the first year of life,\nand this is always affixed to the cap or hood. Then, of course, a\npresent has to be given to the spirit. Some small article is placed\namong the rocks and dedicated.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII\n\nSPORT AND HUNTING\n\n\nA whole book could be written on Eskimo sport and on the Eskimo methods\nof hunting generally. These methods are based, of course, on an\nintimate knowledge and experience of the habits and characters of the\narctic birds and animals. Something has already been said in this\nconnection about seals and seal hunting. But a little space must now be\ndevoted to some account of a few more of these methods and adventures.\n\nWith the coming of March, the sealing season has set in. The days begin\nto draw out, the sun climbs higher in the heavens, and even sheds a\nfaint warmth now on the lee side of shelter, if there be no movement in\nthe air. The seals are arriving in droves, and their young are being\nborn in their caves under the snow, all over the wide expanse of the\nice off shore.\n\nA spirit of restlessness seizes upon the tribesfolk. The hunting\nweapons are gladly brought out for examination and getting in\nreadiness; the small hunting sleds are put in order; the heavy winter\ndeerskin clothing is laid aside and the lighter garments of summer\nsealskin put in thorough repair, to don as soon as the tribe shall be\nready to move off en masse to the sealing grounds. Mysterious meetings\ntake place between the Angakooeet and the chiefs, when the spring\ncampings are fully discussed and arranged among them.\n\nAt last the great day arrives when, with much shouting and bustle, the\nsleds are loaded and the dogs harnessed. Each hunter and his wife\nassemble and pack their belongings\u2014the lamp, the cooking pot, the box\nof small tools, the large knife for building (i.e., for cutting out\nblocks of snow), spears, lines, spare skins for clothing, etc., etc.,\netc. The baby is popped into the mother\u2019s hood; the boy takes up his\nstation by the team, to learn to drive and manage it, and with many a\nshout, much touching of noses in farewell, cracking of whips, laughter\nand joking, each outfit pulls out and drives away, off into the frozen\nbay.\n\nThe old folk are left behind in the village, to await the end of the\nseason, to dress the skins brought in to them every now and again by\nboys returning from the camps. Sealmeat abounds; everyone gorges to\nEskimo repletion and lives in luxury. The ground is covered with skins,\npegged out to dry in the sun, prior to being scraped, washed, and\nprepared for making up.\n\nThe newly flensed hide is first freed from its inner layer of fat and\nblubber, and this is rendered down for oil for the lamps. The fur is\nthen washed with warm water to remove the grease. Then small holes are\npierced all round the edge of the skin, and the whole is pegged out to\nits full extent on a frame, or merely on the ground, to dry and sweeten\nand bleach in the genial brightness of the arctic spring day. After\nthis process, the inner membrane is first pared off, and the skin is\nready to be tailored. Everyone left behind in the village on shore is\nkept busy at this sort of work.\n\nAs the spring sealing season wears on towards the arctic summer, an\nentire change comes over the activities of the tribesfolk. They have,\nnow, to prepare for the long trail inland to the feeding ground of the\ndeer. Stacks of provisions are accumulated, and the boats and kyaks got\nready for the trip to the head of the fiord, whence the expedition will\nmake its start. The framework of the umiaks is carefully examined, and\nnew pieces put in where required. All thongs and lashings are\nstrengthened or renewed; secondary skins in former times were prepared\nas boat coverings, to be discarded when they became so waterlogged as\nto check the pace. As a rule, one of these large travelling boats is\nowned and shared by several families, and will contain the whole of\ntheir effects.\n\nAt length these preparations are complete. The day comes when a general\npacking up absorbs all the energies of the tribe. Tents are struck and\nfolded away at the bottom of the boat, together with big consignments\nof sealskin buckets and hunting weapons. The women ship the ponderous\nand unhandy oars, children and dogs pile in on top of everything, and\nthe men take up their travelling stations fore and aft, in readiness to\ndefend the transport from any sort of attack, or to launch a harpoon at\nany likely prey.\n\nThey pull away joyously and hilariously on the great summer trip. As\noften as the wind will allow they hoist the great square sail made of\nseal intestine, and one member of the crew takes up a station beside it\nwith a water bucket, to keep it constantly wet. Otherwise it would dry,\nand split into ribbons before the breeze. At the present day canvas\nsails are used.\n\nEvery now and again, as they coast along among the islands, they put in\nhere or there for fresh supplies of drinking water. At night they fetch\nsome well-known point for an encampment. The umiaks are moored, heather\nand driftwood collected, fires lit, kettles slung, and the evening stew\nset to simmer, while the men forage afield for the next day\u2019s\nprovender. Then, rolling themselves up in their blankets, the\ntravellers drop off to sleep right there on the ground, under the\nshelter of whatever cover it may afford, to be up and under way again\nbefore sunrise next morning.\n\nThe days pass very pleasantly. The scenery is grand, the weather clear\nand sunny; the water, gemmed with islands dark brown and green, is\nstill as a mill-pond. The fleet of primitive, uncouth-looking skin\nboats, filled with barbaric northern folk with tattooed faces and\nguttural speech, reproduces a picture of pre-historic times. Many of\nthese scenes of Eskimo life and enterprise are deserving of record by\nthe best of artists, if only to bring before us in these effete days of\nover-civilisation a vivid, still existent, picture of the very earliest\nadventures of the human race.\n\nAt length the head of the inlet is reached. The boats proceed up river\nat high tide to the appointed place of debarkation. Here the umiaks are\nhauled well inshore, unloaded, dismantled, and turned over, to be\ncovered with a pile of stones against the time of the hunter\u2019s return.\nThe personal treasures of the women are also hidden away in some safe\ncavity among the rocks, and left there. Then the loads are carefully\napportioned all round, and made up in bundles according to the strength\nof their carriers. The men bear the weapons and ammunition only and\ntravel light, in order to go on ahead and secure game on the trail.\nChildren are lightly loaded, and the old people carry nothing but their\nown belongings; so that the bulk of the heavy transport falls on the\nable-bodied women of the tribe. Each one toils along under tent poles\nand coverings, piles of skins and meat, and the baby of the family into\nthe bargain. The whole staggering load is hoisted on to the woman\u2019s\nback and secured by lashings round the waist and a broad leather band\nround the forehead. She is almost wholly eclipsed by the enormous\nburden.\n\nSo they file off, one by one, from the point of landing, and make their\nway to the uplands and the appointed general meeting place of all the\ntribes engaged upon the annual hunt. Thither many such parties\nconverge: the people from Fox Channel, the tribe from the neighbourhood\nof Kikkukt\u00e2kjuak, or Big Island, the Saddlebacks, the Noovingmeoot from\nFrobisher Bay, and as many more from north, south, east and west. They\ntime themselves all to arrive as punctually as possible. The spot is a\nhigh plateau among the hills, at the head of the inlet described above.\n\nWhen at last all the tribes have assembled, the elders hold a general\nmeeting and decide upon the direction and the details of the\nprospective hunt. As soon as this important business is settled the\npeople give themselves up en masse to a few days\u2019 holiday-making.\n\nIt is the height of arctic summer; food abounds; and friends meet each\nother once again after a year of separation. The people are care-free\nand happy. No danger threatens from any direction. So that Eskimo good\nspirits attain their highest pitch, and for a short time the people\nabandon themselves to their every hospitable and sociable instinct, to\ntheir love of jollity and fun, to sports all day, to singing,\nentertainments, feasting and story-telling of an evening and well into\nthe night.\n\nThe sports are inter-tribal. There are running and wrestling matches,\ntoo, races and competitions of all sorts. The youth are keenly aware of\nbeing watched by the bright, sloe-eyed, laughing girls, and of being\ncriticised or applauded by the elders. As true a sporting spirit of\nemulation, good temper and fair play obtains in this far-away arctic\nfestival as on the famous \u201cplaying fields of Eton,\u201d and as many a\nromance comes of it as well. For this is an immensely important social\nand fashionable function among these primitive folk, and men and\nmaidens meet and strike many a match of their own.\n\nThere are contests with the bow and arrow. Poles are fixed in the\nground with skins suspended from them to represent deer and seals. The\nvital spot, of course, is the Eskimo idea of the bull\u2019s eye. The\nspear-throwing competition calls for a high degree of skill. From the\ntop of a fixed, inclined pole, a line is carried to the earth, having\nan ivory ring tied in it half way down. This ring is carefully\nconcealed by fringes of hide, and the spear throwers, stationed at a\nrecognised distance away, have to cast their weapons deftly through it.\nThe attempt demands the greatest accuracy of vision and training of the\nhand. The contests are very keen, and great \u00e9clat awaits those who\ndistinguish themselves. Their names become household words round the\nigloo lamps all during the succeeding winter, much as those of crack\nfootballers become familiar to the sporting manhood of this country.\n\nIn the evening come the singing contests\u2014quite one of the most\nimportant features of the annual festival. Ethnologists generally are\nagreed that the Eskimo excel in poetry and music. Improvisation with\nthem is a recognised art. Every man is something of a composer, and is\ncalled upon whenever festivities are in progress to contribute a number\nof his own to the improvised concert. The form of these songs is quite\nstrict, and the melodies, even to unaccustomed European ears, may be\nreduced to accepted notation. Travellers who have but a superficial\nacquaintance with the arctic folk, distinguish little in the extempore\ncontests of the Kagge or of the Sedna ceremony but sheer barbaric\ncacophony\u2014yowlings, yells, and monotonous and seemingly endless\nrepetition. But there are some to whom Gregorian chant itself conveys\nbut little more!\n\nThese Eskimo songs deal with any and every subject which may occur to\nthe singer, those of a satirical or personal or topical character\nproving the most popular. The contests give rise to untold amusement\nand delight. Nothing is more appreciated in the whole round of the\nprogramme. As a rule, the competitors are only men. The \u201cptarmigans\u201d\n(i.e., those born at the end of winter or beginning of spring)\nchallenge the \u201cducks\u201d (or those born in the summer). Each side extols\nits own prowess in hunting, its natal advantages, etc., etc., to the\ndetriment of the other. All sorts of ridicule is poured upon the\nopposite party, causing the wildest merriment among the auditors, who\nshriek with laughter at each successful or witty sally, clap their\nhands, and vociferate over the comedian who wins the contest. The\nEskimo have a very lively sense of fun, and appreciate each home thrust\nand happy skit every bit as keenly as a Cockney music-hall audience.\n\nThe Kagge, or singing house, of the summer deer-hunt is, like that of\nthe Sedna ceremony, a big round house, similarly tenanted by the people\nin circles around the walls. The summer Kagge is built of sod and\nstones. The women wear skin gloves\u2014the backs black and the palms\nwhite\u2014and take their station behind everybody else, with the children.\nThe men come next, and the Angakooeet, as judges, sit in the front\ncircle. The centre of the house is left vacant for the performers.\n\nThe first part of the entertainment consists of songs describing the\nexploits of the dead and gone heroes and hunters of the tribe, each\nsong having a refrain which is taken up by the women, who sway their\nbodies from side to side as they sing, so raising and lowering their\narms as to show first a circle of waving white and then a circle of\nwaving black hands. Many of these songs are old-established favourites,\nextemporised at first by some individual as his own contribution to\nsome occasion, which \u201ccaught on\u201d and became part of the tribe\u2019s\ncollective musical tradition.\n\nAfter these come the extempore efforts of the current evening. Each man\ncontributes a song of his own, turning upon some event in his career,\nor some more or less poetic fancy which has occurred to him. The songs\nhave probably been composed and polished, and possibly practised, in\nprivate for some time, but the contest is the occasion of their\npublication to the musical world. They are most attentively received,\nand judged by the Angakooeet.\n\nThe outstanding event of the evening, to which all look forward on the\ntip-toe of expectation, is the tournament of satires between the\nptarmigans and the ducks. A ball of thoroughly good-tempered musical\nridicule is tossed backwards and forwards between each pair of singers,\naccompanied by roars of laughter from the auditors, who hold their\nsides and roll in ecstasies of enjoyment. Tears of merriment stream\ndown the women\u2019s faces.\n\nThis sort of thing goes on night after night for as long as a whole\nweek; and only at the end of that time does the gathering begin to\nbreak up, and set about the prodigious business of getting on with the\nsummer\u2019s work.\n\nAs soon as this interlude of festivity and recreation is concluded, the\ntribes separate, each bound for its own appointed sphere of hunting\noperations, independently of the others. The new camp is soon pitched\nin some sheltered valley where there is a running stream, but not too\nclose to the selected district, for fear of alarming the shy quarry.\nThe men then go daily to search the hills and stalk the deer.\n\nAs soon as a herd is located, word is passed down to the camp, and the\nwomen rally to the men\u2019s assistance. As each arrives she receives her\ninstructions from the hunters. A valley is selected having but one\nexit, where there seem to be plenty of boulders. The women station\nthemselves in a rough sort of ring all round it, hidden behind the\nrocks, each one with her skin jacket off and slung over her arm.\nMeanwhile, the men creep up, and, keeping also under cover, surround\nthe herd, and begin, by the well aimed throwing of first one stone,\nthen another, to drive it off in the direction of the selected ravine,\nwhere other hunters are gathered in force with bows and arrows ready.\n\nThe deer, still suspecting nothing, move slowly to their fate.\nPresently one woman, to the rear, and then another, gets up in the open\nand beats her jacket on the rock behind which she had been hiding. This\nscares the creatures forward in the right direction, and drives them\nwithin the reach of the men. Directly they come within bowshot their\ndoom is sealed. So skilful are the hunters that no man expends more\nthan an arrow apiece on the deer. The whole herd is killed with the\ngreatest celerity.\n\nThe carcases are retrieved and skinned, and immense feasting follows.\nThese man\u0153uvres are repeated day after day throughout the whole season,\nuntil the snow begins to appear again on the higher ranges, and the\narctic summer is on the wane. Gradually the tribesfolk move off again\ntowards the lower grounds, the south, and the sea, transporting with\nthem huge bundles of invaluable skins and a great quantity of deer\nhams, until one by one they reach the various points of water where\nthey left and stored their boats on the up-country trip.\n\nThere is no general point of assembly on the return journey. Each tribe\ntakes its own course and works its way back towards its own territory\nunaccompanied by the others. The women and children get a brief spell\nof rest when they reach the coast, while the men put in a few days seal\nhunting, to provision the homeward voyage. Finally, the umiaks are\nlaunched again and reloaded to the very gunwales; the sails are\nhoisted, and the fleet draws away through the archipelagoes of the\ncoast to its port of registration!\n\nNot infrequently on one of these big summer hunting expeditions, traces\nare discovered of a winter deer hunting party which had been overtaken\nby disaster. The evidences of some tragedy lie there for all to read:\nthe sled torn to pieces, weapons scattered about, small boxes lying\nhere and there, and bones\u2014human, canine or vulpine\u2014all over the place.\nHunger, perhaps, overtook the party; sickness followed. Wolves\nattacked, or the hungry team of dogs got out of hand and tore down the\nhunters, who were unable successfully to defend themselves. The writer\ncould instance many a savage incident of this description.\n\nIn a very similar district to the one described in the preceding\naccount of the summer hunting, there was a fiord leading up to a\nlandlocked bay, a favourite resort of the white whales. Regularly each\nyear the hunters of the tribes in the vicinity used to go to hunt these\ncreatures with gun and spear, taking splendid hauls of meat back to the\ncamp, and bales of stout hide to be made into thongs, harness, etc. So\nmuch flesh and offal was left about on the scene of action that wolves\ncame to infest the entire region. In early spring the fiord afforded a\nparticularly good sealing ground, being so sheltered from the crashing\nseas outside.\n\nAn Eskimo and his son ventured thither one day, intending to form a\ncamp there for awhile and put in some good hunting. Mile after mile was\ncovered, headland after headland passed, until they were nearing the\nsealing grounds, when the dogs began to show signs of panic. They could\nscarcely be got to proceed, no matter how sharply urged by voice and\nwhalehide whip. Nothing moving, however, caught the keen sight of the\nmen; no sound came to their ears. Suddenly, just as they passed another\npoint, a fierce howl rang out on the bitter air, followed by a chorus\nof more howls, and a large pack of wolves swept out from behind it and\ncame into full view. They had been lying in wait until the sled came\nup. Their bleached coats had rendered them invisible until they moved.\n\nThe hunters at once realised their deadly peril, and turning instantly\nabout, headed at top speed for home. A long fierce chase ensued. There\nwas no need to drive the dogs. They strained every terrified nerve in\ntheir bodies and flew over the ice. The wolves rushed on behind. They\nspread out fanwise, trying to encircle the dogs and cripple them one by\none as opportunity offered, by making brilliant forward dashes and\nslashing with savage fangs at their legs.\n\nThe man thrust a sealing spear into the boy\u2019s hands and shouted to him\nto thrust it at any wolf attempting to attack at close quarters at side\nor rear, while he himself, armed with the terrible dog whip, lashed out\ncontinuously with the courage of despair, and the effectiveness of\nyears of practice. He roared, and swung the murderous thong over the\nbacks of the team, so as to protect it from the attacking wolves,\ncrippling any one of them who ventured within its sweep. As often as\none of the bloodthirsty brutes rushed in, it was met with a terrific\ncut, and fell back howling and disabled.\n\nHour after hour the awful race went on; until at last, when it seemed\neven to the hardy and seasoned hunter that neither he nor the wretched\ndogs could sustain the strain a moment longer, they came in sight of\nthe last headland which hid the settlement from view. A final heroic\neffort might yet bring them to safety!\n\nWith a yell of encouragement to the exhausted son, and renewed vigour\nin his wielding of the whip, the hunter pressed on. The wolves,\nrealising that their prey was actually escaping, redoubled their\nefforts to close in upon the sled. It dashed round the point only in\nthe nick of time. The dogs in camp beyond, scenting what was afoot,\ninstantly rushed out to give battle to the wolves. The pack, perceiving\nthat the odds were now heavily against them, snarled viciously, turned\ncoward tails, and vanished....\n\nThe refugees arrived in camp in a state of utter collapse. The man\u2019s\nwhip arm was swollen beyond further usage, like his tongue, and his\nvoice had gone. He staggered to his house, and both he and the boy lay\nthere for days before either sufficiently recovered to rise and go\nabout their ordinary work again.\n\nMany a party have been waylaid by wolves like this, and have not had\nthe good fortune to survive. Should there be a shortage of food,\nresulting in subsequent sickness and weakness among the travellers or\nhunters, they fall victims very easily to the rapacity of the savage\nanimal denizens of the wild. The male dogs of the teams get killed, and\nthe females join the marauding horde and revert to their wolfish state.\n\n\n        THE SONG OF THE PINTAILED DUCK.\n\n        As sung in Competition in the Kagge.\n\n        Samane samiyeyiya, iya, neakoa koololotingo\u00e2le\n        Sigoole kokiglotingoale aglokugle pooarkretingoagle\n        Okagle allotingoarkinna ikko\u00e2to kettemalotikogikgoa\n        Ookeonne pissorayakattalale ip\u00e2 adyelikjolikpanma\n        Iya annungmenik ipa sosooktelaneyonele annamane\n        Adyegegalo\u00e2goone kattargit nippotenekpategikkoa\n                Issungatoot annenarsuar\u00e2yakto.\n\n\nFree Translation of the Song of the Pintailed Duck in Competition with\nthe Ptarmigan.\n\n\n        \u201cHis head is like a swollen thumb joint,\n        His beak is like the thumb nail.\n        His lower beak is like a shovel, and his tongue is like a spoon.\n        They come together (the Ptarmigans) in the winter;\n        They walk together, and make a soft sleeping place\n        By covering the hard rocks with dung.\n        But their breasts freeze hard down to this,\n        They flap their wings,\n        And try to fly away ...\u201d\n\n\nThe singer goes through all the appropriate (if somewhat broad) actions\nof this bit of burlesque, flapping his arms to ridicule the birds\ncaught fast on the rocks in their own frozen droppings. The Ptarmigan\nis not slow to respond.\n\n\n        THE SONG OF THE HUNTER.\n\n        Panneyukpayiyey\u00e2 \u00e2 sakkokalemukkoa\n        Panneyuktarrek\u00e2 okeoksaktalimingmat\n        Samaniyiyeyeya \u00e2 sakkokalemukkoa\n        Panneyuktarreka oonarramanna panneyaktarrega\n        Okeaksaktalemingmat sammiyiyeyiya \u00e2\n        Ipparramanna toosneksaktangmeta innarlo\n        S\u00e2ngane samiyiyeyeya \u00e2 oonaralelidlugolemanaey\u00e2\n        Iyuksaktareka inn\u00e2lo s\u00e2ngane samiyiyeyiy\u00e2 \u00e2\n        Kinnalena imnarlo s\u00e2ngane.\n\n\nFree Translation of the Song of the Hunter:\n\n\n        \u201cHe is preparing his hunting weapons and his ammunition.\n                Mine also are being prepared,\n                Because it is again autumn.\n        My spear is prepared, and my seal warp.\n        Because they catch the sound of my preparing,\n                Of my placing my spear,\n                In the front of the high cliffs\n                The seals have gone away.\n        Although the face of the high cliffs\n                Smells of the seals\u201d\n        (Understood, yet they have gone away.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII\n\nTHE CREATURES OF THE WILD\n\n\nBear hunting, again, is pursued by the Eskimo with no less zest than\nthat of the seal or deer. It forms quite a subject by itself, and calls\nfor some description of its own customs, methods, and superstitions.\n\nThe bear is much respected by the Eskimo for his intelligence and\ncunning, and his strength. Indeed, they consider him second only, among\nthe creatures of the wild, to man himself. It is for this reason that\nthey so often choose for their \u201ctongak,\u201d or guardian familiar, the\nspirit of a bear.\n\nOne very curious belief about the animal is that the bear himself has a\ntongak (quite distinct from his Tarngnil or soul), and that when this\nspirit requires any new commodity, such as a new seal warp or line,\nwhich is represented by the black skin round the mouth of its prot\u00e9g\u00e9,\nthis tongak causes the bear to fall in the hunter\u2019s way and be killed.\nThe hunter spares the black skin, and refrains from cutting it when\nflaying the carcase, as an offering to the spirit. A further offering\nof the sort is made by transfixing various portions of the beast\u2019s body\nand entrails on a stake or spear, together with a man\u2019s implement\u2014such\nas a knife, if the bear were a male, or a woman\u2019s implement, such as a\nneedle or skin scraper, if it were a female\u2014and exposing the gift for\nthree days. At the end of that time it is thrown into the sea.\n\nIn bear hunting, the rule is for the skin to go to the first hunter who\nsights the prey (not necessarily the first to kill it.) The best part\nof the body goes to him who deals the fatal blow.\n\nThe arctic bear is not an hibernating animal, for it is only the female\nwho sleeps through the winter. The pair hunt together until the\napproach of winter, when the female, fat, and in the pink of condition\nafter the summer months of good feeding, searches for a suitable place\nin which to retire and bear her cubs. She generally chooses a sheltered\nspot on land, where the snow lies deeply drifted. The two partners\nscratch out a comfortable cave in this, and the female then enters and\nrolls herself up to sleep. The male bear blocks up the entrance, and\nthe next fall or drift of snow effectively completes his task, and\nobliterates all traces of the animal\u2019s activities. He takes himself\noff, to roam about at his own sweet will, and attend to nobody\u2019s\nappetite but his own for the next few months, returning to the female\nonly in the spring, when she emerges from her hiding place, gaunt and\nhungry, and accompanied by the cubs. The male is always the safer\ncreature to hunt at such a season, since the female is then thoroughly\nout of condition and very savage.\n\nBears are particularly fond of and feed upon the blubber of seal and\nwalrus, and resort to many tricks in order to procure it. The older\ngeneration of hunters studied the habits of the arctic creatures more\ncarefully than do the Eskimo of to-day, and affirm many interesting\nthings as to the bear\u2019s tactics when on the prowl for food. They\u2014the\nbears\u2014know just as much about seal hunting as the tribesmen know, i.e.,\nthat these creatures lie about on the ice in the frozen bays, but are\nso wary of danger that they plunge out of sight in an instant through\ntheir \u201cagloes\u201d or seal holes at the slightest alarm. The bear goes\nnowhere near the sealing ground at first, but makes his way up any\nslight hill or eminence in the neighbourhood from which he can view the\nseals, and their adjacent holes. He impresses some sort of a map of it\nall, and of the safest route towards it, on his mind, and then makes\nthe best haste he can towards the broken ice along-shore. He slides\ndown the snow on his haunches like a tobogganist, carefully avoiding\nany rocks and obstacles projecting themselves in his path. After that,\nhe creeps along with extraordinary caution towards the first sleeping\nseal he has marked down. He is all but invisible against the white\nbackground, and he is absolutely silent. He just glides towards his\nvictim, and then at the last, when sufficiently close, he rushes\nforward and kills it with a single blow of his paw.\n\nIn the latter part of the spring, when the seal holes have become so\nenlarged that several of the animals may be making use of the same one,\nthe bear takes careful note of this fact and adopts a bolder plan of\naction. He creeps up to any neighbouring hole, examines it, dives down\nthrough it, and swims along under the ice towards the place where the\nseals are congregated. He suddenly pops up through their own particular\nhole, thus cutting off their retreat, kills them at his leisure, and\ngorges on their fat.\n\nWhen hunting walrus the bear adopts different tactics. He knows that\nthese creatures are at a great disadvantage on land, but that they love\nto drag themselves up on to the rocks or shore ice, and lie there\nasleep or basking in the sun beneath some cliff, and safely screened\nfrom their principal enemy\u2014man. When the bear sights a walrus in such a\nposition, he risks no direct attack, but takes careful note of the\nsituation, loads a massive piece of ice or rock upon his shaggy\nshoulder, and making a cunning d\u00e9tour, works his way to some spot\ndirectly behind and above his intended victim. Then he launches his\nmissile down upon its head. The skull of the walrus is so thick it is\nalmost impossible to smash it; but at least the animal is stunned, and\nthe bear has only to scramble down and complete his work with a blow or\ntwo of his paw.\n\n(This method of hunting, incredible though it seems, has been\nemphatically affirmed by several ancient hunters.)\n\nNo wonder the human hunter has conceived the highest respect for the\nbear, and is anxious to secure his Tongak for a familiar spirit!\n\nIn the water the walrus is a swift and formidable creature, to capture\nwhom taxes the kyaker\u2019s utmost skill and courage. The man has nothing\nbut his spear and drag, i.e., an inflated sealskin attached to his\nspearhead, by means of which the animal, when transfixed, is prevented\nfrom diving too deeply or travelling too fast. As he approaches the\nwalrus, man and beast man\u0153uvre for an opening. The kyaker, keenly on\nthe alert, with a touch of the paddle just keeps his frail craft moving\nuntil the other, with a sudden grunt and roar, rushes at him through\nthe water, rearing right up at striking distance, a terrible vision\nindeed, with huge slavering tusks, eyes bloodshot and glistening with\nrage ... The coolest courage is required to face it!\n\nThe hunter pauses there for just that fraction of a second until the\ncreature is upon him, then slips aside, and the harpoon drives deep as\nthe animal surges past. It instantly dives, intending to come up and\ntear the kyak from beneath. But the drag of the float upon the line\nchecks it and causes it to misjudge the distance, so that when it rises\nthe kyak is not there. Meanwhile, the hunter has easily kept track of\nthe beast\u2019s rush under water, by the air bubbles (or by his highly\ntrained instinct), and when its savage head reappears he races up, and\nstrikes it in the face before it has recovered from its bewilderment.\nThe startled, baffled foe immediately dives again, and remains below\nthe surface as long as possible, only to be driven down once more the\ninstant it emerges for a breath of air.\n\nAt last, utterly exhausted and nearly drowned, it comes up the last\ntime and meets its fate at the hands of the plucky and relentless\npursuer. Should the hunter miss his stroke at the first awful attack\nand fail to get clear, the kyak is instantly overturned and the man\nsavagely mauled in the water, the walrus driving its tusks right\nthrough his body time and time again. Or it sometimes seizes the hunter\nbetween its flippers and, in full view of the other kyakers, holds him\nunder water, coughing hoarse defiance at them all as they rush up to\nthe rescue; and then slowly submerges, taking its enemy with it. Such\nare the casualties of arctic life.\n\nOne of the very few creatures who seems to have it all his own way in\nthe frozen regions of the north is the raven. He supplies an element of\nsheer impishness and insouciance in Eskimo life, without which the\nnative might want for a good deal of fun and aggravation.\n\nThe bird abounds everywhere. Even in the most bitter and desolate spots\nthe raven turns up in a sufficiently glossy and well nourished\ncondition. His huge beak is a formidable weapon and always stands him\nin good stead. He is like a spirit of mischief, able to calculate to a\nhair how near to spear or gun he may with safety venture. He is the\ndespair of men and dogs alike. He is an expert thief, and cannot be\nexcelled in pilfering.\n\nDuring the day, whilst the hunters are away and there is nothing much\ndoing, the raven sits on a crag or other convenient spot overlooking\nthe village, and with a melancholic and malignant eye broods in\ndisgust. You can almost hear him hoarsely remark:\n\n\u201cWhat a rotten show! What a poverty-stricken hole! This really is the\nlimit! Not a scrap to filch since daybreak!\u201d\n\nShould you pass by, he brightens up and cocks an eye at you in an\nexpectant way, as though it were the plainest duty of all bipeds to\nshed scraps and bits for him to enable him to pick up an honest living.\nAlthough, as a matter of fact, he much prefers a dishonest one.\n\nTowards evening, there is an air of expectancy about the raven group.\nThey have trimmed themselves up and sharpened their beaks on any stone\nor pole handy for the purpose. As the hunters begin to put in an\nappearance the birds move off and entrench themselves behind such cover\nas the neighbourhood may afford. They know from experience that man is\nuncertain with his gun, and it may go off unexpectedly with detrimental\neffects to themselves. Anyhow, they prefer to have a boulder in\nbetween.\n\nPresently one bird, sharper-set than the rest, peers from his\nconcealment to see how things are progressing. A croak of disgust at\nthe leaden-footedness of events announces his observations to the rest.\nBut presently a hunter emerges from his house with a bowl of dainties\nfor the dogs (the dainties are more or less putrid), and empties it\ninto a tumultuous crowd of them, when each one vies with his neighbour\nin catching and bolting as much as possible in the least space of time.\nAt this, there is an ebon rush from the surrounding crags, and a fierce\nrear attack upon the dogs from the voracious birds.\n\nA beak like cold steel driven deep into a dog\u2019s flank just as he is\nengulfing a particularly delicious morsel, tends to make him choke. He\ndoes so in fact, and his feathered aggressor, striking hard now at his\nnose, snatches the lump of meat from him in the very act of flapping\nand floating off to safety in mid air. The dog, disgusted and\ndisappointed beyond expression, sits down and howls maledictions on\nthieves in general and ravens in particular, to the remotest of their\ngenerations.\n\nNo one loves the raven. The hunter uses every art to catch him, but\ngenerally in vain. He will set out early of a winter\u2019s morning with a\nsupply of the most cunning traps he can contrive, and of the most\ntempting bait. Nothing is in sight as he leaves the camp. When he\nreaches the trapping grounds he sets a line of fox traps in all the\nmost likely places, and carefully conceals his work with snow. But his\nevery movement his been \u2019cutely watched, and as soon as his back is\nturned there comes an amused and contemptuous croak, as who should say:\n\u201cWhat an ass! Do you suppose I\u2019m not equal to that?\u201d\n\nThe croaker spreads bold wings and sails over to the trap. Inserting\nhis bill beneath it like a lever, he simply wrests it over and so\nsprings it. In a trice he tweaks out the bait and bolts it. He makes a\npoint of being there on the hunter\u2019s return in the evening, just to\nhear his remarks. The bird has the audacity indeed to sit there, close\nby, his head upon one side and a bored expression in his eye, as though\nhe were reflecting on the pitiable amateurishness of the whole affair.\n\n\u201cWhat!\u201d he seems to say. \u201cYou call that a snare? And you think you\u2019re\neloquent about it now! Why, if it comes to that, I could make your hair\nstand on end with the force and aptness of my remarks!\u201d\n\nWith a hoarse, derisive note, he rises then and wheels off into the\narctic empyrean.\n\nThe gulls, on the other hand, come well within the category of those\ncreatures whom the Eskimo hunter can outwit. These birds are always\nmuch in demand, both as food and for the sake of their skins, which\nlatter, turned inside out, make capital socks. The old men spend a good\ndeal of their time in winter, catching gulls.\n\nThe hunter builds himself a small igloo among the rough ice by the\nseashore, and creeps inside. He proceeds to cut a hole in the top just\nbig enough for the passage of a bird\u2019s body, and round this opening, on\nthe outside, he spreads attractive bits of seal meat and blubber. Then\nhe prepares to wait. Presently a gull, sweeping by on the endless\nsearch for food, spies these dainties, and descrying no sign of foe or\ndanger, swoops ever nearer and nearer, until at last it alights on top\nof the igloo for a brief second, seizes a morsel and wheels off again.\nNothing untoward having occurred, the bird grows bolder, returns, and\nfinally settles down to the feast outspread in that tempting spot.\n\nSuddenly a hand comes up and grips it by the legs, and drags it\ndownwards through the hole. Another hand slides up its body to its\nneck, so that it cannot fight or bite, and in a moment or two the life\nis choked out of it. Bird after bird is caught in this way, until at\nthe end of the day the hunter returns to the village under a load of\nwhite and grey feathers. He laughs delightedly to think how he has\ntricked the greedy gulls, and how his cunning bird-calls have deceived\none after another.\n\nHe recounts the story of it all over the cooking pot into which the\nbirds are thrown as soon as skinned, and keeps his women-folk well\nentertained as they sit chewing the skins to pliability in their strong\nwhite teeth, for the rest of the arctic evening.\n\nSuch is a glimpse into the lives of these brave and hardy warriors of\nthe North, a country which they love. Fierce and relentless though it\nbe, it brings out all the best that is in them. All honour and praise\nto them.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX\n\nESKIMO DEITIES\n\n\nSedna. Goddess of sea animals, but not of the sea itself.\n\nOoluks\u00e2k. God of the lakes. He lives by the side of the lakes, and it\nis by his instrumentality that the conjurors get their light when\nperforming their rites.\n\nTekkitserktok. God of the land. He owns all deer. This god is greater\nin power than all the other gods. Offerings are made to this god by\nhunters before going inland for the annual deer hunt.\n\nKingoatseak. This god lives in the sea and is like a dog in appearance;\nlegs very thin like a dog\u2019s. Is not able to come to the surface.\n\nSinnilktok. Lives on the land. One side of this god is like a woman,\none side like a dog. It is a benevolent spirit, gives seals to the\nconjurors and cures the sick, but is very much afraid of Eskimos and\ndogs.\n\nKeekut. Lives on land and is like a dog without hair. Is an evil\nspirit, and does evil of various kinds.\n\nSegook. This spirit has a head like a crow and a body like a human\nbeing, and is black, and has wings. It does good and brings meat to the\nEskimos in its beak. It eats the eyes of deer and seals.\n\nTekkonatelik. A spirit living on land, with a body like a fox, fiery\neyes, red hair. Benevolent in disposition.\n\nEeyeekadluk. Lives on land. In appearance like a short man with fairly\nlarge eyes, black face, very short legs, eyes frightful to look upon.\nLives in a stone igloo. Good spirit, tries to cure the sick.\n\nMummerreak. Lives on land. Like an Eskimo, masc. gender, but has his\nhair dressed like a woman, and his skin clothes have no hair upon them.\nGood spirit; is helpful by heaving rocks at the deer and killing them.\nThe deer are then found by the Eskimos.\n\nAngootelooktook. Lives on land. Like a man in appearance. His thighs\nare crippled and he wobbles whilst walking. Benevolent spirit; keeps\nclose to the conjurors and pays heed to his incantations.\n\nNooesarnak. Lives on land. In appearance like a woman with thin legs.\nIs clothed like a woman, in deerskins. Has a deerskin mask. Benevolent\nspirit; always wishes to give deerskins to the people.\n\nToodlanak. Lives on land. Like a woman in appearance. Is a great\nwalker, and walks about with bedding and tupik (tent) on her back, as\nthe people do when on journey inland. She has no husband. Has a nice,\npleasant face, and wears long boots. She is a good spirit and gives\ndeer to the Eskimo, i.e., drives them within their reach.\n\nAipalookvik. This spirit is malevolent and lives on the sea bottom. Has\na large head and face, human in appearance, but ugly like a cod\u2019s. Is a\ndestroyer by desire, and tries to bite and eat the kyakers (canoemen).\n\nAkktonakjuvoonga, or Akktonakjuak. Live under the sea. Are very thin in\nappearance and like Eskimo. They congregate and cry to each other,\n\u201cShevarktonakjoovoonga\u201d the others replying, \u201cShevarktonakjoovtit\u201d (I\nam a rope. Reply: Thou art a rope).\n\nOgjunak. Lives on land. Like an Eskimo in appearance, one side black,\none side white. Has European clothes. Face covered with hair, thin\nlegs, arms and body. Good spirit; tries to cure sick.\n\nKoopvilloarkju. Lives on land. Like a small Eskimo man. Has orange\ncoloured hair and orange coloured clothes. Good spirit; said to give\nfood and heal the sick.\n\nOoleooyenuk. Lives by the side of the sea. Like a man in appearance,\nhis clothes made with lapels and scallops. Eats seaweed. Good spirit.\n\nAulanerk. Lives in the sea. Like a stout man. Is naked, writhes about\nand makes waves. Is a source of joy to the Eskimo.\n\nNaput. Lives on land. Like an Eskimo; is very thin, cannot walk, but\njumps and stands upright. He is never angry, and classed as a good\nspirit.\n\nAngemenooat. Lives on land. Is like a woman, very thin, almost like a\nskeleton, and has a string round her waist like a woman who is carrying\na child. Has very large clothes and a benevolent mind.\n\nOokomark. On land. Like a short, thin man; very large, round face, a\nstout body. Is very strong, and is dangerous if seen by mortals. Lives\nin a stone house and kills animals with stones. (Not benevolent; temper\nuncertain; needs careful handling.)\n\nOovineroolik. Those who were flesh. (These are the spirits of departed\nEuropeans.) Lives on land; clothed in a shirt; like a European in\nappearance. Has a boat and hunts seals. Is captain of three boats, two\nof which are manned by other departed Europeans. When boats are full,\nmeat given to the Eskimo. Very good spirits.\n\nIsserootaitok. (Also spirit of departed European.) Lives on land; like\na European in appearance. Wears a jacket with no buttons. Always\narrives from a distance; has no boat, but tries to do good.\n\nNessallogainalik. Lives on land. Has no clothes, but wears a hat. Is\nlike a European; generally sleeps on a ship; is supposed to be the\nspirit of a departed sailor.\n\nOyakkert. This spirit is an Innooa and not a Tongak. It lives in small\nstones; in appearance like an Eskimo. Has a very red face, black body\nand legs; is very thick and heavy. Only seen by conjurors. Has no\nattributes.\n\nKoodj\u00e2nuk. First-class spirit. When the world was made he was a very\nlarge bird with black head and hooked beak, white body. Lived on the\nboundary of the earth. Is a benevolent spirit; a trifle blas\u00e9 through\nage. Has the ability to give, and does so when asked by the conjurors;\nalso heals sick.\n\nPoolaiyittok. Lives on land, by the side of the lakes. Like a woman in\nappearance. Is accompanied by a dog like a white fox. Is a good spirit\nand does good when asked.\n\nBokoomeerlekuluk. Lives on the sea bottom. Like a fox in appearance,\nwith fur, black in colour; but head and face like an Eskimo, with two\ntusks, which are used for cleaning purposes and for killing seals,\nwhich are given to the Eskimo.\n\nKalluktok. Lives on land and on ice. Like an Eskimo, dwarf in size. He\nhas dogs and a sled, and is a good hunter. Gives meat to the people. Is\nvery swift with his sled.\n\nKulaktok. Lives on land in a tupik (skin tent). Like an old woman, and\nis the mother of Kalluktok. She is always cooking, because her son is a\ngood hunter. She constantly gives food to her Tongak friends.\n\nKallooetok. Lives on land. Is father to Kalluktok and husband of\nKullaktok. Is a bad hunter because his eyes are bad. He is very old and\ndoes not go hunting, but has good intentions to the Eskimo.\n\nTooktooak. Lives on land. In appearance like a very tall and thin\nEskimo; hair white and clothing black, with no hair upon it. He is a\ngood spirit in intention.\n\nKoodjaunuk. Lives at the bottom of the sea. Like an Eskimo. Wears no\nclothes and is very thin. He is not one to be feared, as his intentions\nare good, and comes to the surface when called by the conjuror.\n\nToonekotario. This one lives on land. It is the spirit of one of the\ndeparted Tooneet. Carries a bone harpoon and comes as often as invoked.\n\nAumanil. Lives on land. Has a black face with fiery eyes. His mouth,\neyes and nostrils are very much distended when invoked by the conjuror.\nHe guides whales.\n\nNootaitok. The spirit of the Icebergs. He lives in the sea. Like an\nEskimo. Wears black skin clothes; has bright eyes. Is a good spirit and\ngives seals when invoked.\n\nAdjarkpaluk. Lives on land. Is like a European, and wears European\nclothing. When invoked, will come from afar. He has a good mind and\ndoes no harm.\n\nTooloreak. Lives on land. Is like an Eskimo. Has large canine teeth\nlike a bear; wears bearskin trousers, and the rest of his clothing of\nskin without hair. Black in colour. Does not wear boots, but has feet\ncovered with hair. He is a good spirit and comes when called and gives\nas desired.\n\nAgloolik. He lives beneath the ice like an ogjuk (large seal). He is\nthe guardian spirit of the seal holes. He gives seals to the hunters\nand is considered a good spirit.\n\nAkselloak. This is the spirit of the rocking stones. When called he\narrives rolling, and when near the conjuror he falls flat upon his\nface. He is considered a good spirit.\n\nTooteg\u00e2. Like a small woman. Lives on an island in a stone house. She\nis able to walk upon the sea.\n\nAtaks\u00e2k. Lives in the sky. He is like a ball in appearance. He has the\nmeans of joy within himself, thus he is the joy-giver. He comes to the\nEskimo as often as he is invoked by the conjuror. He has many strings\nof charms on his clothing. These charms are very bright, and as he\nmoves about his body is also bright. He arrives to the people as a ball\nof light and causes the people to be joyful, through the conjuror. He\nis considered good.\n\nKingmingoarkulluk. He lives on land and is like a very small Eskimo.\nWhen seen he is always singing with joy: \u201cKingmingoarkulloona, aiya,\nsamaiya.\u201d (He is always singing that he is Kingmingoarkulluk.) The name\nis derived from a plant called Kingmingoark. He is of a good\ndisposition and does good generally.\n\nOoyarraksakju. She lives in the big stones, hence her name: the\nbeautiful material for stone. She is like a large woman in appearance,\nlives on various things; gives various good things to the Eskimo.\n\nOoyarrauyamitok. Has no definite abode. Is sometimes on earth,\nsometimes in Heaven. In appearance is like a middle-aged Eskimo. Is\nfrequently invoked by the conjurors when incanting. This god, if\ninvoked and respected, gives meat to the Eskimo, i.e., enables them to\nget it.\n\nKoodloorktaklik. He lives far inland and is like a man, and does not\nwish to be seen by the Eskimo. He is bright and clean in appearance. He\ndoes good to the sick, and in various other ways. He generally has the\nends of deer hoofs attached to his clothing, hence his name.\n\nKakkakotauyak. Lives on land. Is like a dog in appearance; whitish in\ncolour. His eyes and nose are black. He is not dangerous, even if seen.\nHas amiable characteristics, and sends seals and deer to the Eskimo.\n\nSillaseak. Lives inland, and is like a man. He never goes on the ice.\nHe lives in a house under the earth. He gives deer to the Eskimo when\ndeer-hunting.\n\nKattakju. Lives on land and is like an old woman in appearance and is\nvery tall. She presides by the sick when the conjuror tests them by\nhead or leg lifting, and reveals their state and chances of recovery to\nthe conjuror.\n\nNiksiglo. This god lives under the earth, and is like one with a hook\nwith a line attached. In appearance he is like a walrus tusk. Is a\nTong\u00e2k and a bad character. He steals the hunters\u2019 deer and seals by\nhooking them. He is seen only by conjurors, if seen at all. There are\nmany of these tong\u00e2k, and if seen stealing by a conjuror, the aid of\nanother conjuror is called in. The spirits of these two search for the\nthief; the one watching from above, the spirit of the other goes below,\nand from a small house beneath the dwelling of the tong\u00e2k he is able to\nsee the thief and kill him.\n\nAngalootarlo. Is another tong\u00e2k and a bad character. He is a great\nthief, and has two personalities; is like a large bearded seal when in\nthe sea, and like an Eskimo when on the ice. He is frightful in\nappearance and works in the following manner: When an Eskimo is alone\nat sea in his kyak, this tong\u00e2k, keeping the appearance of a seal,\nswims away from land and is followed by the kyaker. When a long\ndistance from land, the tong\u00e2k gets upon a piece of ice and the kyaker,\nhaving no gun, follows to kill him, still thinking it is a seal. Then,\nwhen the hunter draws near, the tong\u00e2k changes his shape into that of\nan Eskimo, and kills the hunter, he having no gun and being very near.\n\nPukkeenegak. Lives on land, and is like a small woman, with face\ntattooed. She has her hair done up into a knot on the top of her head,\nlike the Greenlanders. She has very large boots (kummeek) made from the\ndeer legs, and has very nice clothes. Is quite aristocratic. She is\nconsidered to be good, as she gives food, material for clothes, and\nbabies, to the Eskimo women.\n\nToodlayoeetok, also Pissukyongnangetok. Has his abode in Heaven. Is\nlike an Eskimo, but cannot walk, hence his name: he who is unable to\nwalk. He sits on a small sled and propels himself along by two sticks.\nHe is considered a good deity. He catches animals by lassooing them,\nand then gives them to the Eskimo.\n\nOrkshualik. Lives on land ice.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTE\n\n\n[1] Occasionally the black fox is taken, and the fortunate hunter may\nreceive as much as the equivalent of $100 to $500 for a pair of fine\nskins, from the Agent.","title":"Among unknown Eskimo: An account of twelve years intimate relations with the primitive Eskimo of ice-bound Baffin Land, with a description of their ways of living, hunting customs & beliefs","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":63030}