Intellectual Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos/Chapter 8

From birth to death, human beings have to regulate their lives according to the powers that control human weal and woe, and whose anger can give rise to suffering and hardship, not only for the person who has offended, but for the whole village. Obligations towards the higher powers are thus not a private matter, but one affecting the entire community, and the individual must conform to the rules — numerous and irksome though they may be — which are held to be pleasing or conciliating to the divine powers.

This applies under all conditions of life, but more particularly at times when help is most needed, during pregnancy, at birth, and while the infant is yet a helpless creature in itself, at the time of transition from childhood to womanhood, during sickness and at the hour of death, and last but not least in hunting, where the sustenance of all is at stake.

Breaches of taboo can, however, be made good by confessing them, and one is even thanked for so doing.

The great majority of the following rules I obtained from Aua and his wife Orulo.

When a young woman in her first pregnancy feels the life of the child in her body, she must undo her plait and tie her hair at the back of the neck, so that it hangs down loose from the neckband. She must wear it thus for three days. This is called ikuɳain·ᴀrtɔq, and gives a speedy delivery.

A pregnant woman who wishes her child to be a boy must cut off the unfeathered mouth part of a naujavik: the great gull without black wings, the grey gull. This mouth portion must be cut away so as to form a ring, i. e. it must not be cut across, and the penis of a fox then ​sewn into it; this amulet is worn either on the woman's kinia (apron) or on the ako (the tail of her outer coat behind); the remainder of the bird's skin must be flayed off at the same time, but may be used for anything desired, e. g. as a cloth for wiping the fingers when greasy after eating.

A pregnant woman must make two small dolls from a sako·t (iron scraper for softening skins) which has belonged to someone since dead; these dolls are to be placed as amulets in her inner jacket, one under each armpit. Such amulets, which are called imnᴀrmiɳ (let it be an adult) render the foetus light for the mother to carry.

A pregnant woman must be quick to run out of the house or tent whenever she is called from outside; she will then have a speedy delivery.

If she is quick to help others, i. e. hurries to those making ready for a journey and makes herself useful to them (pᴀrnaktut tamaisa ɔrnilᴇrtɔqat·ᴀ·rlugit) then her child will turn out a helpful man or woman.

Pregnant women must not eat animals shot through the heart.

A pregnant woman must never go outside without her mittens on.

A live bee must be rolled over the back of a pregnant woman and afterwards kept; when she has given birth to her child, this bee will become an effective amulet; fastened on top of the head in a hair band, it gives long life.

When a woman feels the birthpangs coming on, then if it is winter, a snow hut must be built; if summer, a tent erected for her. This house or tent, which is quite small, and resembles a dog kennel, is called ᴇrnivik, or ᴇrnivialuk, and is used only for the actual birth.

As long as the woman is there, the house must not be added to or repaired, even in case of bad weather. Not until the child is born is a proper house, or a real tent, set up; this is then called kinᴇrvik.

When a women feels the birth pangs, all her belongings must at once be moved outside the house where she has been living, and may not be taken in again before she herself returns from the lying-in house.

Women in giving birth lie either half over to one side or with the back to the couch, the head pressed against the wall of the house and a small block of snow under each arm to rest the elbows. Sometimes also, delivery takes place in a kneeling position. In such case, a hollow is made in the ground below, and the child glides down into this as ​it emerges from the womb. The Iglulik women maintain that they as a rule have an easy and painless delivery; they use the expression: "sɔ·rᵈlo anᴀrtɔq": "as easy as an evacuation". Where the birth takes a long time, a sealskin thong is tied round the waist and pulled tight to force the child out quickly. Women must effect their own delivery without help, and must be alone in the ᴇrnivik; even where the birth is difficult, no one is allowed to assist: "tᴇrigiʃanᴇrmut" is the expression used, i. e. "she is considered too impure for anyone to be near her". Anyone rendering aid would become impure in turn, and subject to the same troublesome, year-long taboo as the woman herself. The obligations involved interfere so seriously with domestic duties that the community will not allow any married woman, not even the patient's mother, to incur them. But more important than domestic considerations are those of religion; not even a solitary woman, without relatives to consider, may assist; for the powers, or the spirits would be angered at the inability of a woman to manage by herself; or the animals would be offended if a woman aiding another in childbirth should touch a newborn infant not of her own bearing. The only thing that can be done for a woman in cases of difficulty is to apply to a shaman, who may then either summon his helping spirits, and by their aid make matters easier, or utter a magic prayer or magic song, to ease the birth. A high price is paid to the shaman for this service. Among his dues are some of the best implements the woman's husband possesses, and his best dog into the bargain.

As a matter of fact, help is practically speaking never asked for. Every woman considers it a point of honour to bring forth her child unaided.

Prior to her delivery, the woman must have found either a flint, called kukikʃᴀq, or a piece of white quartzite, ɔrʃuʷiᴀq. This is sharpened, and used to cut the umbilical cord, which is first tied round half an inch from the navel; the knife must always be held in the left hand. After about three days, the stump of the cord generally falls off. If the child is a boy, he must have the stump, and the little flint knife used to cut it with, as amulets. They are sewn into his inner jacket on either side of the chest.

If the afterbirth will not come, the woman must make as if to vomit. Then when it has come, it is placed on a block of snow, high up, where the dogs cannot get at it. In summer, on a high stone.

A newly born infant is cleansed by being wiped all over with the skin of a sᴀrvᴀ·q, a small snipe; water must not be used.

After birth, the child must always be placed naked in the amaut: clothes for an infant must not be made until after it is born.

When the child is particularly welcome, and it is earnestly desired ​that it shall live, a magic formula or magic prayer is sung over it, before even it has been given the breast. This is called an anᴇrnᴇrsiut, or prayer for the spirit of life.

If a newly born infant be sung over while its body is being cleansed for the first time, then the child will make up many songs of its own when it grows up. All that is needed is to sing one of one's own songs without words, while cleansing the child. Petting songs, ᴀqautit, in the Greenland sense of the word, are unknown, but one can ᴀqᴀгpɔq a child. Orulo's ᴀqaut runs thus: "kakilisᴀq-a·; kakilisᴀq-a·": "you little stickleback, you little stickleback." When it was said to her, she had to stick out her little finger and jump on to her mother's lap.

In naming the child, some deceased person is invoked, whose name is then uttered by the child's mother. If a boy, for instance, is to be named Ujarak, then his mother will say: "Ujarak, qai-qai tamᴀrpit": "Ujarak, come hither quickly, come hither quickly all of you" (i. e. with all that appertains to you).

This again is connected with the belief in namesake souls. A child cries for a name, and when the one whose name-soul is to take up its dwelling in the newly born infant is summoned, care must be taken that all the qualities that soul possessed are communicated to the child. Hence the word tamᴀrpit.

If it is desired to render a boy invulnerable against animals and men, especially shamans and their attacks by means of witchcraft, if it is desired to prevent him from being bitten to death or otherwise killed by animals: walrus, bear, wolverine etc. and hinder shamans from causing him sickness of body by taking away his soul, then a shaman must be summoned as soon as the child is out of the womb and has had the mother's blood wiped from its little mouth; the shaman must be present before the afterbirth is taken, and his business is then to take the soul out of the boy's body and lay it in under his mother's lamp. The soul must then remain there as long as the boy lives. A person can thus live without a soul in its body, the soul being deposited elsewhere.

Children born backwards, i. e. feet foremost, must afterwards wear caps with the hair turned upward, not, as otherwise customary, with the hair pointing down. This applies to all the caps worn afterwards through life.

After the birth, the woman cleans herself all over, in winter with snow, in summer with water, and cuts away afterwards such portions of her clothing as may have become stained with blood. She is now ​ready to proceed to the kinᴇrvik, and remains there for one or two months, or according to circumstances, sometimes three; if she has been unfortunate with her previous children for instance, her taboɔ will be more severe according to the number and nature of such earlier misfortunes.

A woman while in the kinᴇrvik may receive visitors, but is strictly forbidden to go visiting herself, nor may she have intercourse with her husband during that period. She is regarded as so unclean, so dangerous to her surroundings that her impurity is supposed to issue forth in an actual, albeit invisible, smoke or vapour, which drives away all the game. Shamans who have been up to the moon have seen from there how these enianations arise from women in childbed and during menstruation. Should they during such times break their taboo, all this foul smoke or impurity collects in the form of filth in the hair of the Mother of the Sea Beasts, who in disgust, shuts up all the game in a house, leaving mankind to starve. A woman recently delivered must therefore always have her hood thrown over her head when she goes out, and must never look round after game.

In the kinᴇrvik she must have her own wooden drinking vessel or wooden tray (pu·gutᴀq) from which to drink soup, and in which to place the meat she eats. She must also have her own cooking pot and her particular wooden ladle, which is used either for soup or for water, and these must always be placed in front of her, near the lamp, the wooden ladle in the wooden mug, and in that again a meat fork made of caribou horn or a piece of pointed marrow bone.

Every morning she has to melt ice or snow for drinking water. Every time she drinks, she must put a drop of water into the child's mouth with her middle finger. This must be done immediately after the child is born, and repeated every time the mother drinks. The finger in question is supposed to possess a peculiar power in regard to infants, so that the water thus dripping into the mouth will prevent the child from ever suffering from thirst. And the main idea is always of male children, as future hunters. Thirst is universally regarded as the worst of all sufferings, and far more dreaded than hunger.

Hanging beside her lamp, the mother must have a small skin bag, (miɳulᴇrtᴇqutᴇqᴀrfia). Whenever she is about to eat, she must cut off a small piece of meat, rub it on the child's mouth, and place it in the bag, before commencing her meal. This is called miɳulᴇrtᴇriʒɔq, and is regarded as a sacred rite — a sacrifice in effigy to the spirits, the dead, and the holy meat. This act protects the child against hunger, and renders it skilful in hunting later on, bringing abundance of game. Another interpretation says that it is nutᴀra·lu·p atiɳe nᴇrᴇrquƀlugit: in order that the child's namesake soul may have something to eat.

​The young mother is not allowed to cut up meat herself for boiling. This must be done either by young girls or older women. Not until it is cooked may she take it up herself from the pot and place it in her pu·gutᴀq. She must take great care never to spill any. Should a piece of meat fall outside the pu·gutᴀq, it must at once be picked up and thrown on the right of the lamp (kaɳia).

The miɳulᴇrtᴇrivɔq ceremony comes to an end when the stay in the kinᴇrvik is over, and the woman then takes the skin bag, filled with tiny fragments of meal, and carries it to the blowhole of a seal. Into this she throws all the scraps of meat, the first meat which has touched the boy's lips, and in a way served as his first flesh food. They are thus thrown back into the sea whence they came, and some people believe that by miɳulᴇrtᴇrinᴇq the separate pieces receive souls and become seals once more, which can be caught again by the boy when he grows up. If the child is a girl, the scraps of meat are merely thrown out on the edge of the beach at the expiration of the kinᴇrvik period. The empty skin bag is flung out on the ice.

While a woman remains in the kinᴇrvik she must always have the skin from the head of a seal spread over her lap while eating. This is called her aklᴇra, or apron. When the kinᴇrvik period is over, the aklᴇra is also laid out beside a seal's blowhole, if the child is a boy.

A woman in the kinᴇrvik must never eat meat of animals other than those killed by her own husband. At Iglulik, however, there is an exception to this rule, as at certain times of the year, three specially chosen men are sent out after walrus, which are supposed to yield the finest meat of all. Meat caught by these men may be freely eaten.

Women in the kinᴇrvik may not eat the meat of animals killed suddenly; seals for their eating must after being wounded have life enough left to come up at least once to the surface and breathe, i. e. they must not eat sa·muɳᴀ·rtɔq or one that dies immediately after sinking.

A woman in the kinᴇrvik eats twice a day if she has given birth to a boy, but must never eat her fill; she has three meals a day if the child is a girl. In the evening, after the last meal, a small piece of meat is placed in the dipper, also intended for the child's atᴇq, or name-soul.

If it is a boy, and the mother wishes him to be specially fortunate in hunting, she eats not twice, but three times a day, but never eating her fill; for the mother's hunger renders the child light, i. e. swift in hunting, and such a boy will make a capture when others are heavy and over slow at the work.

All these rules are observed for exactly as long as the woman remains in the kinᴇrvik.

At the end of the kinᴇrvik period, the mother washes herself all over and throws away the clothing she had on at the time of the birth, for a woman must always have an inner jacket on when her child is born; she must never have the upper part of her body bare at the time. The same inner jacket is to be used all the time she is in the kinᴇrvik, and only now that she is returning to her husband's house is she to put on new garments throughout.

In the olden days, it was the custom at Iglulik for a woman on discarding her clothes after leaving the kinᴇrvik to give them to an old woman, who remade them so that the upper part became the lower. The old woman was then supposed to wear them.

At this time also the child must have new clothing, before being allowed to enter the father's house, but the old garments, i. e. the child's first clothes, are afterwards kept in the sᴇrluᴀq, the small apartment where skins and furs are kept, and must remain there until an opportunity occurs to place them either in a raven's nest or in a gull's nest, or out on a small island in a stream.

When a woman lies with her husband for the first time after giving birth to a child, she must, if the child be a boy, smear the father's semen over the child's breast. This gives strong life.

When the kinᴇrvik period is over, the woman must pay a visit to every house in the village, or if in summer, to every tent, and on these visits she must take with her the little mug with which she took soup or water from her pot; into this is placed, at each house, a small piece of raw meat, which she must take home and boil; not until this is done may she drink cold water; as previously mentioned all water for her drinking had previously to be lukewarm.

This custom of going out and receiving presents of meat from all the neighbours is called kiglilᴇruta·: that whereby a limit is set for her kinᴇrvik period.

For a whole year after childbirth the woman may not eat raw meat, nor may she eat flesh of any animal wounded in the heart, stomach or foetus.

On the first occasion of eating raw meat after childbirth the woman must, if her child be a boy, ᴀʀisᴇгpɔq, i. e. a piece of intestine about 1½ metres long, and a piece of liver, are placed in her cooking pot, taken out again quickly, so as to be hardly more than dipped in the boiling water, and the woman must then swallow the intestine whole, without cutting it, and immediately after eat the liver, which must likewise not be masticated, but swallowed rapidly (she must not cut either one or the other).

​On a newborn infant's first evacuation, the mother must wipe the child behind with her hair and afterwards rub the fæces into her hair; this will prevent her hair from falling out later on.

If it is desired to give a child long hair, the outer integument of a caribou antler is sewn into the hood.

When a boy begins to eat, he must first be given a little caribou fat, and afterwards lean meat; if this is done, he will, when he grows up and becomes a hunter, never get out of breath while running.

When an infant boy or girl has eaten, the body is stretched, the child being held by the middle finger of its left hand and the corresponding toe of the right foot, at the same time one must blow on the fingers and smack the tongue. The same is done with the other hand and opposite foot, this gives rapid growth.

When a boy's limbs have been stretched, he is taken on the lap, set upon the apron (the piece of skin from the head of a seal which a woman after childbirth wears over her lap in order not to spill on her clothes), which is folded, and a piece of meat is then placed on the pu·gutᴀq, or meat tray; the meat fork is then placed in the child's hands, and the hands guided so that the child harpoons the meat; at the same time, motions must be made as if the child were rowing in a kayak: pᴀrtiɳ·uᴀrlugo: he is made to go through the same movements as a man paddling in his kayak.

The ivutɔ·q on the head of a newly born child (the stuff that looks like dirt on the temples), must not be washed off, but allowed to wear off by itself.

When a woman has no more milk, or has not sufficient, the nipple of a hare is smoked over her lamp flame, and afterwards hung as an amulet over her breast, outside the inner jacket.

A very effective amulet for a woman is a fish called qukʃaunᴀq. (I have not been able to identify this fish, but it is described as very small, and living in salt water close to the beach; it is very swift in its movements, and when grasped, twines round the hand). If a qukʃaunᴀq be sewn into the tail (aka) of a girl's fur coat, she will give birth to a son in time, and may further be sure of a rapid and painless. delivery.

A mother who has a son must boil the head of a dog, and then pretend that the dog's head is the child's iglɔq or "song-cousin" that is, the man one likes most of all to sing with, or have as partner in athletic sports, compete with and sometimes sing abusive songs about. The mother must then let the child's little hands strike the head of the dog, pretending that the dog's head represents the song-cousin's head. This is supposed to give the boy "a hard head against fisticuff's". Afterwards, the mother herself eats the dog's head.

​A woman with a baby must always have water in her water vessel, which must always be placed on the left of her lamp, on the spot which is called kit·iane. This is in order that all who are thirsty may come in and obtain water. The seal thus learns that no one in the vicinity of this boy need ever be thirsty, and many seals will afterwards come to the boy and let him capture them. Thirst is the worst thing seals can suffer from.

If a small piece of the spleen of a fox be sewn into the instep of a boy's stocking, he will not fall through thin ice as a grown man.

Newly born male children are often given, as their first garments, a dress of raven's skin with the feathers outside. The ravens always manage to find something; this gives good hunting.

If it is desired that a little girl shall become a rapid and skilful needlewoman, then, as soon as she is old enough to begin sewing, a sewing ring is made for her from the muzzle of a caribou; this sewing ring may also be fastened to her inner jacket.

If a child loses a tooth, the tooth is wrapped in a piece of meat and given to a dog. Then the boy will soon grow a new tooth.

When a young virgin or mother combs her hair, all children in the house must pull down their hoods. If not, they will die.

Man and woman with children must closely observe their taboo. If they do not, the children may lose their wits, or they will die early.

A woman with young children must not eat any caribou meat save the flesh of the hind legs.

A woman who is still bearing children must never eat the flesh of a caribou cow with milk in the udder.

When a boy is out visiting, he must not remain too long in one house. If he does so, the seals he is to hunt will remain long under water, i. e. he will find it difficult to catch them.

Boys who have not yet caught bearded seal or walrus must not play cat's cradle (string figures). If they do, then they are liable to get their fingers entangled in the harpoon lines and be dragged out into the sea.

Boys and young men must never eat fat or suet from the upper part of a caribou breast; if they do, they will get out of breath when running.

Boys must never eat marrow from the forelegs of a caribou; to do so would render them slow in running.

A son who is never allowed to lie midway between his father and mother will be invisible to the animals he hunts, so that he can easily approach them. A bear may walk right past such a boy without seeing him.

Marriages are arranged while the parties are still little children. ​The betrothal often takes place directly after birth, or even before; but where the woman in question lives at some distance from her intended husband, and arrives at marriageable age without his coming to fetch her, a man of her own village may move into the same house with her and live with her for the time being. When then the husband-to-be comes to fetch her, she is placed in the middle of the floor, and the two men try each to drag her to him. The stronger gets her.

Children are not allowed to address old people by name, but only by terms of relationship, or as it·ɔq: head of the household, in the case of an old man.

When a firstborn son gets his first seal, an old woman makes a bag out of the skin of the animal's head, and in this bag she must afterwards keep the moss which serves as wick for her lamp. This bag is called mᴀrɳun: moss wick ("bag" is understood), and must remain in the old woman's possession as long as she lives and be buried with her when she dies. This gives the seals which the boy catches good blubber for lamp oil. (There is a great difference in the quality of blubber in this respect. Some seals yield blubber which gives a poor light in the lamps, others good).

The extreme joints of the flippers of the first seal caught by a firstborn son are kept for a year and then placed in a grave. Then, when the young man later on becomes a great hunter, and some shaman or other grows envious, and endeavours to take away his catch by magic, i. e. steal the souls of the animals he gets, the attempt will prove fruitless. The shaman's helping spirits will be afraid of the outer part of the flippers placed in the grave, and will then protect the boy's catch against all evil.

When a boy get his first seal, he must take off his outer and inner jackets, lay them on the ice and throw himself down flat on them, and before the seal is yet dead, his father must drag it across his back; this will prevent the seals from being afraid of him. The first seal is cut up in the house, and eaten by the parents and as many others as they can. It is distributed among the houses and eaten as quickly as possible. The head may only be eaten by the father or mother. When the skin has been taken off, it must be shared out among as many men as possible for slippers, but all the bones of this firstcaught seal must be gathered together and dropped through a blowhole. When this is done, the soul returns to the bones, and the young man may keep on catching the same seal.

​A young man must never eat the flesh of the first animal of any species he kills.

When a young man comes home after killing his first seal, he must not beat the snow from his chothes with the snow beater; for to do so would frighten away the seals he would otherwise catch later on.

If a young man kills any animal for the first time the heart of that particular animal must only be eaten in his house or tent, and nowhere else. Its blood must not be touched by any-woman.

The first time a young man makes a kill, he must give away the skin of the animal killed.

Sometimes the first seal a boy kills is cut up by women alone; but there must be many women present in such case, and the mother must hold the seal by a line fastened round its head, pulling at the line occasionally and raising the head a little, for the head is to be her share.

All animals killed by a young man whom others are endeavouring to make a skilful hunter, by means of amulets or magic prayers, must be cut up with great care. None of the bones must be broken, and care must be taken always to divide at the joints. He himself must never break the bones of any animal caught or killed.

The marrow bones of animals killed by a firstborn son are never to be eaten with a knife, but must be crushed with stones.

A woman menstruating, or having a miscarriage, must at once inform others; all must know that she is unclean.

Woman during their menstruation must never come in to young men who have not killed one of every kind of game. The young man is called kilinajoq.

Women during menstruation may not enter a house where it is the custom to have song festivals.

Among the Aivilingmiut near Repulse Bay, a woman during menstruation may not go out of the house, and must make water and evacuate indoors. This is in order that no animal hunted may see her while she is unclean.

Menstruating women may not cut raw meat or eat it; and the meat they eat must be cooked in a special pot, from which no one else may eat.

Women menstruating, or having a miscarriage, or in childbirth, may not prepare the skins from the legs of caribou; the skin of caribou legs is altogether regarded with quite particular respect. There are some hunters, for instance, whose own wives are not allowed to prepare the skins of caribou legs from animals killed by their husbands, this work having to be done by other women.

​Menstruating or otherwise unclean women may not beat out blubber for lamps.

In the neighbourhood of Repulse Bay, a menstruating woman may not go out into the open without first washing herself in the urine of a child.

Certain customs must be scrupulously observed in building the snow hut which is to protect one against storm and cold. No one can explain why it is that the work must be done in a particular fashion; all that is known is that the traditions are strict rules handed down from previous generations, and that it is dangerous to neglect them.

The first thing to be done in building a snow hut is to draw a line round where one stands indicating the shape and size desired for the iglo. The snow hut is built up in the form of a slightly oblong beehive of the domed type; the walls above the inner part of the sleeping place at the back and over the entrance hole in front are called the broad sides; the two others, above the lamp sites, are called long sides. As soon as the shape of the hut has been marked out in the snowdrift, one must always begin by cutting out the blocks to be used for the foundation of the long side, and not until these are done may the broad side blocks be cut. This brings luck. And finally, a man who has children must always, when proceeding to cut out the broad side blocks, use a saw for the first block, and not his knife. He will then have strong children. The blocks are now laid in place for the wall, the bases being so cut as to make them lean inwards and form the dome, but a particular cut is also given at the same time so as to make a slight inclination towards the next block, one supporting the other. In the shaping of each block, great care must now be taken to scrape or cut away the snow with an outward movement of the knife, never inward towards the interior of the hut. This is very important, for a movement of the sharp knife in the direction of the space to be occupied would destroy the luck of the household.

The keyblock, which finally closes the last space left in the domed roof, must always be so placed that its softer part lies uppermost. This gives luck. The soft part is that which formed the lower face as it was cut out from the snowdrift, the upper, exposed surface, acted on by the wind, being always harder. Finally, care must be taken to shape the snow blocks forming the entrance to the house, the "doorway" so to speak, with rounded edges, never with sharp.

​Finally, it is important that the closing block fills up a large space. If the blocks have been carried in so fine a spiral that only a small gap is left for the last block, this gap must be enlarged before it is closed for good. When this is done, the women of the household will have easy delivery in childbirth.

The block of fresh-water ice which serves as a window in a snow hut must always be removed before leaving the hut on changing ground. Also, the snow block which is used to close the entrance from within at night, the so-called uk·uᴀq, which is generally kept inside the house, must be thrown out. This will make the sons of the house good hunters. Finally, before setting out, all gnawed skulls of seals caught from the site to be abandoned must be set out on the ice some little way from the house. The same is done with caribou recently shot. The heads must always face in the direction in which the party is setting out. The souls of the animals slain will then follow the same course, and good hunting will result.

If only a few remain behind when the rest leave a village, they must build new huts for themselves. Unless this is done, no further animals will be caught.

When a family leaves a snow hut and does not wish others using it after them to have good hunting, one of the party leaving must sweep all the caribou hairs which are always left behind on the sleeping platform, in towards the inner side. All game will then leave the immediate neighbourhood of that hut, and the new people will hunt in vain. This method of making a snow hut unlucky is called pin'userluinEq.

Stones which have been used for "kauʷᴀrsikʃut": i. e. for hammering blubber so as to make the oil flow freely when placed in the lamp, or stones which have been used as hammers to crush marrow bones, must always be thrown outside when a house is abandoned.

When setting out from a coast other than one's native tract, one must shout out various things towards the land, as for instance: "I have left behind a stickleback!" "I have left behind luscious meat from a caribou breast!" "I have left a mussel!". This is to give the spirits of the alien land the impression that generous gifts have been set out for them on leaving.

On sleeping in a new snow hut for the first time, one must not sleep over long, or poor hunting will result. It is necessary to show the souls of the animals that one is eager to capture them. Very early in the morning one must go outside and walk three times round the house in the direction of the sun. This gives long life.

When snow is to be melted for water in a pot, it must never be placed behind the lamp, but always in front.

​A childless couple may bring the skins for their sleeping place into a new snow hut through the entrance in the ordinary way. But those with children must cut a special hole in the wall above the sleeping place through which the caribou skins are drawn.

People living in a snow hut only built on the ice must not use last year's ice to melt for water, but only snow; if the fresh ice which was once sea ice be used for drinking water, then the young ice will break up, and the party be carried out to sea.

A man suffering want through ill success in hunting must, when coming to another village and sitting down to eat, never eat with a woman he has not seen before.

On Sentry Island, a woman out visiting must only eat boiled meat from her own pot if there is a woman in the village whom she has not seen before.

At the villages of Iglulik, Pingerqalik and Alangneq, no fuel grown from the earth must ever be used for cooking, but only bones and blubber, or the flame of the lamp.

Persons gathering eggs in places where they are not known (places with which they are not familiar?) must wait till they return home before eating the eggs, they must not eat any while gathering.

Travellers on reaching the last ravine of the Tununeq country before the ice begins, on the way from Iglulik to Ponds Inlet, must bend down, grasp their knees and turn somersaults, if driving this way for the first time.

Whoever cuts his hair cuts away a part of his soul. It is customary therefore to wear the hair in sulup·a·tit, or plaits rolled into a knot over the ears; this keeps hold of the soul.

If a man's hair is cut, the cuttings must never be thrown away, but must be burned in the house or tent.

On sneezing, or breaking wind behind, one must say, "qᴀ·ᵓq", in order to live, or to have a long life. This, however, only applies to women. Only men who have committed a murder are required to do the same. If it is a little child who does either, the mother must smack her lips, uttering the same whistling sound used in calling a dog.

When old clothing is thrown away, it must first be torn into pieces. Unless this is done, the owner will have to wear it in the Land of the Dead.

A whip with a handle made from the penis of a bear is good for frightening away evil spirits.

Waste oil from the reservoir of a lamp, poured out in the passage and further sprinkled in drops round about the house keeps away evil spirits.

During a thunderstorm, a small piece of white-bleached skin and ​a firestone and a small kamik sole are laid out as an amulet; this is a sacrifice to the souls of the "thunder girls".

When a piece of soapstone has been broken off to make a lamp, some small object must first be made from a fragment of the same block that is to be used for lamp or cooking pot, as for instance a miniature lamp or pot; this will prevent the actual object when in use from being easily broken.

Mud intended for shoeing the runners of sledges must only be cut in winter, after the snow has fallen, never cut in summer and kept till winter.

At times when the sea ice is breaking up owing to storms, only men with powerful amulets may cut turves for their sledge runners.

Cat's cradle is only to be made in the time when the sun cannot be seen; when the sun once more rises above the horizon, ajagᴀrрɔq, a ring-and-pin game, must be used instead.

Anyone dreaming of another person, a dream of ill omen, must receive gifts from the nearest relatives of the man for whom the dream prophesied ill luck, and a shaman should, to make sure, call up his helping spirits. When all this is done, then the helping spirits belonging to the man who had the dream will protect the man threatened by the dream.

If a man born on a rainy day falls into the water, it will rain on that day; if a man born on a stormy day falls into the water, there will be a storm.

The first time the sun appears after the period of darkness, children must run into the snow huts and put out the lamps, so that they can be lighted anew; this is called suvʃɔraiʃut: those who blow out. The new sun must be attended everywhere by new light in the lamps.

When two namesakes meet, they must exchange gifts. This strengthens their souls and pleases all their deceased "name-cousins".

The sea spirit Takánâluk demands taboo for all sea animals because they were made from her fingers. But also the land animals have to be considered. There are numerous and complicated rules for what must and what must not be done in connection with capture of the different animals. It is essential to make an altogether definite distinction between the different kinds of game, especially between those of the sea and those of the land, which must not be allowed to come into contact one with the other save when special precautions are taken. Certain rules and customs must be observed in hunting, ​to prevent the souls of the animals slain from harming the man who deprived them of their bodies.

Fundamental rules are the following:

When a whale, a bearded seal or a bear is killed, no man's or woman's work must be done for three days. It is also strictly forbidden during these three days to cut turf or gather fuel from the earth. Clothing may, however, be mended; and distinction is here to be observed between ordinary needlework and actual mending.

If a man comes home with an animal which he has killed out at the edge of the ice, he must not enter the house on his return until he has removed his outer clothing.

When a seal is brought into a house, no woman in the house may sew or do any other work until the seal has been cut up. This applies, however, only to winter hunting, in snow huts, not in tents during summer.

As long as a newly captured seal has not been cut up, the following things are taboo:

Rime must not be wiped from the window pane.

Skins from the sleeping place must not be shaken out over the floor.

The mats of plaited willow twigs must not be straightened or rearranged.

No oil must be spilled from the lamp.

No work must be done with stone, wood or iron.

Women must not comb their hair, wash their faces or dry any footwear.

When a bearded seal has been captured, no scraping of hair from skins must be done for three days.

When seal are caught, it is not allowed to shift camp the next day, but not until two days after the first catch; this is because the seals would be offended if the hunters were not grateful for the catch they had got.

When a seal is brought into a snow hut, a lump of snow is dipped into the water bucket, and allowed to drip into the seal's mouth; it is the soul of the seal that drinks. In summer, it does not require water.

Persons hunting seal from a snow hut on sea ice may not work with soapstone.

All bearded seals caught require a special sacrifice. The Mother of ​the Sea Beasts is particularly fond of bearded seals, and they know it, and when they have been killed by human hands, they go to her and complain; therefore special precautions are observed when a bearded seal has been killed.

As soon as it is heard that a bearded seal has been caught; ugjuktɔqᴀrpɔrɔ·q, the sleeping rugs must be made ready without delay, as this must not be done for three days after the capture of bearded seal. During these three days it is likewise forbidden to shift camp.

If a seal is brought into a house and there is a widow of not more than a year's standing present, she must at once pull up her hood, and she may not express her pleasure at the capture.

Young girls present in a house where a seal is being cut up must take off their kamiks and remain barefooted as long as the work is in progress.

Men may cut up their catch on the ice-edge if food is to be eaten out there, but a seal brought home must not be cut up except by the women.

When the seal has been cut up and lies in pieces on the floor, a lump of fresh snow is laid on the spot where its head was, and trodden down there. The Sea Spirit does not like women to tread on the spot where the seal's head has lain.

As long as näcᴇq: a fjord seal, remains on the floor and has not yet been cut up, the sleeping rugs must not be touched, i. e. arranged, set in place, or shaken.

The soul of a seal resides in the naulᴀq: the harpoon head, for one night after the seal has been killed. Hence the harpoon head, with line and shaft, must be taken into the house and placed beside the lamp when the hunter comes home after killing a seal. This is done in order that the soul may be warm throughout the night it remains in the harpoon which killed the animal.

When a seal is caught in Tasiujaq, the great lake at Pingerqalik, near Iglulik, the same sacrifice must be made as in the case of a man who has lost his brother. The severity here is due to the fact that it is a fresh-water lake, and the seal is thus not in its proper element. Perhaps the soul of the seal regards the lake as a sanctuary, and this has therefore to be specially considered. The rule to be observed is that the hunter concerned must not sanäʃ·ᴀrpɔq: work with hunting implements, fashion hunting implements and the like. He must also cook all his food in a special pot until a year has elapsed from the time of the capture. — There was once a man who caught a seal in this lake without observing the prescribed taboo. He fell down dead shortly after, without any previous illness.

If a seal or bearded seal is captured, all the women of the village ​must touch the meat of it with their first fingers. Before the seal is cut up, the woman's husband must sprinkle water on its face.

Women must never make sinews of a seal. Any one trying to sew with sinews of an ordinary fjord seal will die of it, for the sinews of the seal are so short that the animal is ashamed of them, and its soul will kill anyone trying to use them.

Meat of seal or walrus must never be brought into a house immediately after the animal is killed, but not until the day after. Otherwise, the neighbourhood will suffer from a scarcity of game.

When people are living in a snow hut on the ice, and hunting walrus from there, the wicks used in the lamps must be made exclusively of shavings from walrus tusk crushed to powder. Moss wicks must never be used.

During winter, work must only be done with old walrus tusks, i. e. those of last year's catch; tusks from the last winter may not be worked on until the seals have young. When the dark season is over, and the sun is high in the heavens, in March-April, the taboo is not so strict.

The wing of a gull is dipped in waste oil from the lamp and thrust into the harpoon line between the harpoon head; then when the hunter arrives at the blowhole of walrus, he sucks the feather and spits out the oil over the blowhole; the walrus will then have no fear and will not notice the presence of men.

A naked — i. e. newly born and dried — lemming, i. e. one so small that it has no hair as yet, is placed inside the hunting float; the walrus will then not turn against the float and destroy it when harpooned.

If a woman is unfaithful to her husband, while he is out hunting walrus, especially on drift ice, the man will dislocate his hip and have severe pains in the sinews.

At Iglulik, no marrowbones may be cracked in the walrus season. At Usuarssuk on the other hand, there is no objection to this, but the man who has captured a walrus may only eat marrow from the hind legs and only when the bone has been cracked by someone else. At Iglulik, all the marrow bones are stored away until the spring, when they may be eaten freely.

If a walrus is killed at that period in autumn when the women are busy sewing their garments of caribou skin, all needlework must be stopped for a month.

If a woman sees a whale, she must point to it with her middle finger.

In the olden days, the whales used to move along the coast quite close in to shore, so the men always had their hunting implements ready on the beach, with the harpoon line fastened to a big stone and the harpoon close by. But one night when two men were going to change wives, and their wives, while all were asleep, went to the men they were to lie with, they saw a whale coming along by the shore, quite close to the beach; and in their eagerness, they ran to a harpoon and harpooned the whale. They got it, but since then the whales never move along close inshore, as they feel degraded at one of their number having been harpooned by a woman.

When a whale has been harpooned, all the women must lie down on the sleeping place with limbs relaxed, and loosen all tight fastenings in their clothes, laces of kamiks, waistband: {{IPA|tᴇqiʃ·iut}. Unless this is done, the whales will run the boat far out to sea, dragging it by the line that is made fast to the harpoon head. All this applies to young women and wives. Old women on the other hand may look on freely at the whaling.

As soon as a whale is harpooned, the boys must be tied up together, in pairs, one's left leg to the other's right, and thus bound, they must hobble off inland until out of sight of the sea. If the boys are an odd number, so that one is left over, then it is his business to push the bound pairs and make them tumble over: for the more they do so, the better. It is supposed that the difficulty experienced by the boys in their progress is communicated to the whale, so that after being harpooned, it finds it hard to swim away. Old women may also be lashed together, but not in the same way. All that is done is to tie their legs together a little above the instep, and in this manner they must also hobble off inland, often falling, rolling about at the small declivities; the harder they find it to advance, and the more they roll about, the slower will be the progress of the whale dragging the boat out with it, and it will not move far from the spot where it was harpooned.

When it has been observed from on shore that a whale is harpooned, no one is allowed to fetch water.

When out whaling, a boat must never be baled out. No one on board is allowed to make water or spit over the side; if spitting is absolutely necessary, one must spit on one's own person. As soon as the whaleboat with the whale in tow is about to land, all young mothers must try to be first down to it, running right out into the ​water, sometimes up to the waist, and then leap on board with water for their husbands; this will make their sons good hunters.

Women with infants, or women who have had a miscarriage, may not boil walrus meat until the backbone of the whale has been broken.

When the boat is within a stone's throw of the shore, maktak is cut up into strips, and the boys and girls divide into separate groups, and the maktak is thrown to them to scramble for. Older persons may also take part. The pieces obtained by women with infants or women who have their menses, or women who have had a miscarriage, are given to old women. The pieces thrown to the boys must be cut with a dice pattern along the strips, those thrown to the girls are marked crosswise.

In the olden days, when whales were hunted in kayaks, the boys had to do as the young mothers do nowadays, come down and pour water over the fore end of the kayaks as soon as they came towing in to shore. This would make them good whalers. The more one could smear oneself over with blood and blubber when a whale was being cut up, the better, for this would please the Mother of the Sea Beasts.

A big circle of stones was built up with a whole shelter wall behind and a flat stone in the middle, set up on another stone. On the flat stone were placed meat and maktak for the first common meal. The men sat here in a circle and feasted with the older women. Women with children were not allowed to take part in this meal. This maktak and all the meat were boiled in one large cooking pot which served for all, and drum dances were held after the feast.

For three days after the capture of a whale, no work was allowed to be done by men or women. In a village where a whale had been captured, no cooking was allowed to be done with fuel obtained from the ground, but only over fires made of bones and blubber, or over the lamp.

Clothing which had been worn at a whale hunt must never be taken inland in the spring for the caribou hunting.

During a whale hunt, the women were obliged to wear a head ornament consisting of a white quartzstone, fastened to a strap round the forehead. This was done to show a light for the soul of the whale.

When a bear has been captured, its bladder, penis, maᵛsᴀq (spleen) and part of the tongue are hung up inside the house together with men's implements. This arrangement is to hang for three days. ​At the end of that time, the man who got the bear must take it out into the passage and throw it down on the floor; the children in the house must then try which can be first to get hold of the implements and give them back to the owners.

When a she-bear is captured, sewing thread, needle and a woman's knife are hung up together with the bear's nakasuk, or bladder, its suɳᴀq, or gall, and maᵛsᴀq, spleen; this ceremony is called näciƀlugo, and means: "in order to wait for the time to pass". The soul only remains there on the spot for three days.

When a man has killed a bear and returns to his house he must take off all his outer clothing, including outer mittens and kamiks, before entering the house, and for a whole month he must not eat of the meat or blubber of the bear.

In a house where oil made from bear's fat is used for the lamps, it is forbidden to eat marrowbones. The souls of bears are very dangerous, and will not allow marrowbones to be eaten while bear's fat is burned.

People who have eaten human flesh never eat bear's meat; this because it is said that bear's meat is like human flesh.

Persons on a journey and far from their relatives must, if they catch salmon, never eat the head. (Salmon nearly always means trout).

In winter, no one is allowed to eat salmon out of doors.

Water must not be spilled on the floor when salmon are sought for; if anyone does so, all the salmon will disappear.

Salmon must never be eaten at the spot where they are captured, whether raw or boiled, but only some distance away (especially on Back River).

The dorsal fin of the salmon and a narrow strip just below the fins must never be eaten (Back River).

If anyone out after salmon on a river during the ascent of the fish from the sea to a lake should chance to spill soup on the floor, the delinquent must utter a sound as if vomiting, and say "mᴇriʃ·ᴀq, mᴇriʃ·ᴀq" which means the vomit, that which is vomited. Unless this is done, the salmon will be afraid, and will not venture up the river. So also, children may not make water on the floor in tents pitched by these salmon rivers during the time when the salmon are moving up to spawn; altogether, special care has to be taken at this season, and anything spilt from a cooking pot is counted as an "insult to the spirits".

​If a salmon is to be brought into a house where there is blubber, it must not come in the same way as the blubber, but a special hole must be cut in the wall (Back River).

When salmon is being cooked in a house where there is blubber, care must be taken that nothing falls on the floor, and that the soup does not drip on the floor. If salmon is to be passed from one side of the house to the other, it must be handed across the sleeping place, not over the floor (Back River).

If salmon is to be boiled in the same pot with meat (siɳmiuʃune: people who will live all the year round on the coast without going up country for the caribou hunting) then the pot must be washed very carefully, and some of its soot smeared on the inside; the salmon must not, however, be boiled over the same lamp as meat; a lamp has to be set up on the right of the ordinary one, and the salmon cooked there.

It is forbidden to eat walrus or bearded seal meat on the same day as salmon, but this does not apply to ordinary seal or caribou meat. Salmon must never be eaten on the same day as flesh of seal or other marine animals.

It is very strictly forbidden to go walrus hunting with kamiks which have been used while after salmon. If there is absolutely nothing available with which to make new ones, then the upper laces — uɳᴇrutit — are taken out of tuktɔqutit — shoes of caribou skin — and the kamik itself can be used with a new sole of bearded seal under.

The caribou is reckoned the most important of all the animals hunted; its taboo therefore, and all the special hunting rules associated with this animal are extremely complicated. The caribou is not only of enormous importance as food, but also as the animal which almost exclusively furnishes material for clothing and the sinew thread used in making the garments; it must therefore be treated with the greatest caution. Especially in the days when the natives had no firearms, and all the hunting took place at the swimming places, in kayaks and with spears or with bow and arrows from special hiding places called talut, it was so great an art to bring down the caribou required for food and clothing that all possible consideration was observed in order to propitiate the souls of the animals. The actual caribou hunting did not begin until summer, when it was no longer possible to go out on the sea ice after seal; as a rule at the beginning of July, the party would leave the coast and set out for a summer camp in one ​of those tracts where the great herds of caribou were known to pass. The main season for this hunting is as a rule in August, but the hunting parties would remain inland until the ice was firm enough to commence hunting seal. If the caribou hunting had been particularly good, the stay up country might be prolonged until about the New Year; if it had been bad, and there was need of meat and blubber, then as a rule the move down to the coast and out on to the sea ice would be made in November or December.

In all the rules and taboo regulations concerned with caribou and caribou hunting, a very marked and decisive line is drawn between these animals and those of the sea. As usual, it is the unclean women who have here to be most careful. From the moment the party leaves the coast and moves off up country, the women are not allowed to do any needlework, except small repairs, and even these must not be done in the tents, but always out in the hills, far away from the camp. This prohibition of needlework holds good throughout the whole of the autumn, and is not removed until the hunting is over and the party have again moved into snow huts. Women are not allowed to sew during that time, it is said, because amuklaiʃiʃuʷaɳmata tɔ·ʳɳʳᴀ·rmik: "they would draw an evil spirit to the place with their thread". This taboo against needlework is removed during the time when new clothes are being made in the first snow huts of autumn, and then all sewing is once more taboo as far as caribou skins are concerned, throughout the time when the party are living out on the sea ice, and when only sealskins may be used. This taboo lasts until the spring, when the sun is once more high in the heavens, and there is now a period of a couple of months where all the stricter rules of taboo are suspended. All the various rules associated with caribou and women's work are given in the following as formulated by Orulo:

No new garments may be made as long as the party are living in tents; not until they have moved into snow huts. If it should be absolutely necessary for a man to have a new garment before there is snow enough to make a proper snow hut, but some snow and ice have appeared on the lakes, then a little temporary snow hut is built, large enough for the woman who is to do the sewing, and in this she does the work. But the skin must not be softened in the usual way with a sak·ut, or scraper; it must be wetted on the inner side with water and softened with the feet, being stretched at the same time.

When the caribou have shed their old coats and the new ones have come, material of sealskin and used for footwear must no longer be used. If there are men who must absolutely have new soles to their boots, then the sole leather must be laid on the floor to be trodden on, so that it is no longer new, but soiled, and old kamiks ​may then be soled, but the work must be done out of doors, not in the tent.

No one is allowed to make new garments of caribou skin as long as the animals still have the "velvet" on their antlers.

It the snow is late in coming, i. e. before there is material available to build snow huts, and there is great need of new garments, then instead of snow huts, ice huts may be built, and this is done in the form of qᴀrmᴀq: i. e. with ice blocks for the walls and the tent placed over as a roof. The hairy side of the tent must be turned inward, in contrast to the usual custom when using skins for tents. Not until all items of caribou skin, clothing, outer furs, sleeping places, inner garments, footwear, sleeping rugs etc. are finished may the party move down to the coast and out on the sea ice to commence hunting the creatures of the sea.

At Iglulik, the walrus hunting might begin even though the women were still making clothes for the winter, as long as the snow huts were built on land; seal hunting, however, was absolutely forbidden. Three men were then chosen from the village; only one of them was allowed to use harpoon and lance; the others might go with him, but only to help in cutting up the catch. These three men were not allowed to eat caribou head or marrow, but only caribou meat, frozen, not boiled, and then only while wearing mittens. And the women who were doing needlework were not allowed to eat walrus meat, but only caribou meat from the summer stores; never meat of freshly killed beasts.

Usuarssuk was an exception; here, sealing and walrus hunting could be carried on at the same time. Heads and foreflippers of walrus however, were not allowed to be brought on land, but had to be cached out on the ice off the headland of Usuarssuk, where they were left until all needlework on the new caribou skin clothing was finished.

As long as caribou skin garments were being made, no walrus meat was allowed to be brought indoors. The observance of all taboo at Iglulik was especially necessary, as it is supposed to be from here that the sea spirit Takánâluk set out before going down to the bottom of the sea.

As soon as the needlework and all the new clothes were finished, and no one else required new garments of caribou skin, walrus meat could be brought into the house and be cooked and eaten by all. But caribou meat from the depots was now not allowed to be brought into the house, but had to be kept out in the sᴇrluᴀq, and must not be eaten until the seals had their young (April). It was better to go hungry than offend against this rule.

​All this, however, did not apply to freshly caught caribou meat, which might freely be brought into the house together with walrus. These customs were observed more especially in the days when the natives had no guns, but hunted the caribou with bow and arrow only. It was then often necessary to pursue the animals for three or four days, a party of "beaters" shouting and screaming behind, until the animals grew so tired and hungry that they no longer heeded the hunter, who could then come up to quite close range and shoot them down.

At Iglulik it was forbidden to eat the flesh of walrus, whale or seal on the same day as caribou meat, nor was this allowed to be in the house at the same time. This taboo did not apply to Usuarssuk. When walrus hunting gives place to caribou hunting or vice versa, taboo only applies to footwear, not to other articles of clothing.

Walrus hide, or things made from it, must not be taken inland when hunting caribou, but harpoon lines of bearded seal may be used, if they have not previously been used for walrus hunting.

When the women have finished making the new fur garments, and then proceed to eat sea meat and sew sealskins, they must first wash their hands.

Autumn skins of caribou, but only of animals killed while up inland, and meat of the same, must not be brought into a snow hut on sea ice through the passage entrance, but through a hole at the back of the house above the sleeping place. The same hole is used for bringing in bedding when seal are to be hunted. In the case of skins of animals killed in winter however, there is no particular taboo. All taboo comes to an end when the seals have their young, i. e. in April.

On first setting out for walrus or seal hunting after having hunted summer or autumn caribou up inland, a fire must be lighted in the snow hut, with fuel of dried seaweed, and over this are held clothing, mittens of caribou skin, harpoon with line and head, and the words "namᴀrmik-mamᴀrmik", meaning "give us something that tastes nice" are uttered. Then, in leaving the hut to set out on the hunt, one must step across the fire.

As soon as sealing begins after the close of the caribou season, a small narrow strip of pukᴇq (white skin from the belly of a caribou) is set out, and a piece of sinew thread from the short end (sinew thread is made from the back sinews of the caribou, and that part lying nearest the spine gives the longest threads, the outermost being quite short). This is a sacrifice to Takánâluk, and is called kivᴇrsautit: "that wherewith something is lowered down" meaning presumably that offences are thus lowered down into the deep.

​If women have to sew caribou skins during the sealing season, they must go up inland, if they are living in snow huts built on the ice.

In spring, when old clothes have to be repaired with autumn skins while in snow huts, the skins must first be cut up as ilᴇrnikut, i. e. that which is left over after cutting out a garment; these fragments are fastened on to the garments to be repaired, and not until they have been worn thus long enough to make the pieces old and dirty may they be used for needlework. Such patchwork, however, must not under any circumstances be done in winter during the dark season, but only when the sun has begun to give out warmth.

A woman must never sew while her husband is out at the ice-edge after seal.

When a caribou is cut up, a small piece of skin must always be left on round the eyes and genitals, for the caribou souls do not like women to touch those parts of their bodies.

When a caribou killed with an arrow is cut up, care must be taken not to break any of the bones, and when the animal has been cut up, a small piece of meat or suet is placed under a stone — qiɳaluklune — as a sacrifice to the dead — nᴇrᴇrquvlugit — piʃäkʃalik — manisinialuɳmat — it is desired that the dead shall eat, in the hope that they will procure game.

During the time when caribou are hunted with bow and arrows, the dogs are not allowed to gnaw the bones of the legs or any other bones. This would hurt the souls of the caribou, and the caribou themselves would disappear

During the same period, men are not allowed to work on iron; if arrow heads have to be sharpened, the women must do it for them.

If a white caribou is brought down — a so called pukᴇq — then the hunter is subject to the same taboo as a man who has lost his sister. The meat must not be eaten, and the skin must be dried and then placed unused in the sᴇrluᴀq. At Taserssuaq, a lake near Tununeq, no women are allowed; caribou killed here require the same taboo as is imposed upon a man who has lost his sister. Women must not look about in this neighbourhood, for if they should look out over the lake they would soon have bad eyes, a sort of snow-blindness; the eyes water continually and they cannot see anything. The reason of this is that two brothers were once attacked here; only the younger escaped, and he lived here afterwards in the neighbourhood, hunting, procuring fur clothing and in many ways obliged to do women's work because he was alone; this is said to be the reason why the taboo here is so strict in regard to women. Here also lived the Tunaluit, a man and woman of the Tunit tribe. It is said that when Tuneq, the husband, saw the solitary hunter, he was afraid and ran down ​with such violence to his kayak, leaping so high in the air, that deep tracks showed in the ground behind him; these tracks are still visible, and when they are particularly conspicuous it means that many caribou may be looked for that year. This Tûnâluk's "spy-glass" is still to be found here, a large piece of mica with specks of ɔqʃuʷiᴀq, or quartzite, which can shine in the dark: by looking through this, stone, caribou may be seen far far away.

Caribou tongue must never be eaten while any one of the family is out on a journey.

Human beings must never eat of a caribou if any part of it has been eaten by fox or wolf. But it may be given to the dogs. A human being eating such meat will never again be able to satisfy his hunger.

Caribou skulls must never be cracked with hammer or stone. If this were done, the people of the village would have pains in the head.

If a visitor who has eaten caribou meat in the morning comes to a house where meat of sea animals is being eaten, and is to eat caribou meat in that house (for he must not eat sea meat), then the caribou meat he brings into the house must, when placed on the sleeping bench (it must never be placed on the side bench) be wrapped up, and while eating, he must take care that no pieces of meat fall on the floor.

During the time men are hunting caribou at Piling, the women are not allowed to sew in their absence; all needlework, even repairs, must be stopped, before a caribou hunt begins; for the land here is regarded as very "sensitive" and requires strict taboo.

At Tununeriseq: Admiralty Inlet, no work must be done for three days after caribou or bearded seal, narwhal, walrus or bear have been caught. During the same three days it is forbidden to break the soil, or to break fuel.

natlɔrsiɔrtut: i. e. people hunting caribou in kayaks on a river or lake, must, while hunting, lay out a piece of sealskin under a stone as a sacrifice to Tugtut Igfianut, the Mother of the Caribou.

If two caribou are seen fighting with their antlers locked, then bootlaces — siɳᴇq — must be unfastened, as also the waistbelt: tᴇqiʃ·ᴇq̃, i. e. everything tight in one's clothing; one can then go straight up to them and they will not run away.

Marrowbones must never be thawed over a woman's drying frame.

Women are not allowed to eat bear's meat or walrus meat during the time when the sun is low in the heavens. If they eat walrus meat, then the walrus will disappear; if they eat bear's meat, all the bears will become very shy.

​Young women must never eat tongue, head or marrow of caribou, and little girls must not eat those of seals. Women who have ceased to bear children are exempt.

Widows are never allowed to pluck birds.

A widower during his first year must — like a widow — never mention any animal hunted by name. Nor may he strike his dogs, or even drive them himself, but must have a boy to act as driver.

If an animal with young is struck in the foetus, no woman is allowed to eat of the meat; otherwise, the meat of unborn tu'ga lit "those with tusks" i. e. narwhal, may also be caien by women, with exception, however, of mothers who have given birth to children during the current year.

Persons who have eaten human flesh are not allowed to eat at the spot where walrus meat is being cut up. It they wish to eat frozen walrus meat, this must only be eaten on land, and then not until after they have placed the pieces of meat on one foot, pretending to "boil" the meat with the foot as a cooking pot. A man who has eaten human flesh is likewise forbidden to crack the bones of animals other than those from old carcases stored in the depots; nor may he eat raw seal meat of newly captured seal, and only bearded seal of his own catch.

The first time a man rows out in a newly covered kayak, his wife places a cup full of water on the place where he sets out. This is done in order to give him good hunting; for the creatures of the sea are always thirsty.

If a sᴀ·rvᴀq, a small snipe, be placed in the bow of a kayak, the rower will not upset in a heavy sea.

If anyone lies ill in the house, drippings from the roof must not be wiped off, nor must the rime be cleared from the window, or the house itself cleaned out, as one might otherwise easily happen to throw out the soul of the sick person together with the dirt.

As long as anyone is ill in the house, no cracked marrowbones may be thrown outside; they must be collected in the passage, and only thrown out after the patient has recovered.

If dogs are to be fed from a house where anyone is ill, and the meat to be given them is inside the house where the patient is, then it must first be shifted out into the passage, and left there overnight, and only given to the dogs the day after.

A man who often has pains in any part of his body must never eat in company with a stranger; to do so would make the pain worse.

​A man who has pains anywhere must, if the trouble occurs during the time when the sun is low in the heavens, never cut mud for shoeing sledge runners; should he do so, he will die before the winter is out.

If a man has a pain in the upper arm, he must not eat the upper foreleg of a caribou.

A man whose child is ill must not do any kind of work. Should he do so, it is believed that the child will never recover.

If a man loses his wits, it is because unclean women have secretly eaten of his catch or prepared skins from the legs of caribou which he has killed; the insane person is called pulamit·ɔq: i. e. one who falls down flat on his face.

If a woman becomes insane, it is either because she has commited some serious breach of taboo, or because she has once seen of iʲᴇrqät and thereafter visited a woman in childbirth. The iʲᴇrqät will not endure this; they feel such dread of women in childbirth that they deprive any woman who has done this of her wits.

If a man has lost one of his souls, he must not go out hunting for a whole month, but must remain quietly at home in hut or tent. This is in order that all his souls can get back properly into place.

When a spirit seance is held on behalf of a man to aid him in any way, he must, on first going out, set aside part of his catch as a sacrifice to the spirits.

A man who has regained his soul after illness and has recovered, must not do any work for five days.

A shaman is not allowed to hunt any kind of game during the time he is occupied in endeavouring to cure a sick person. Should he kill any animal in this way, he might easily happen to kill the soul of the persons for whom he is working at the same time.

If a patient on the point of death can manage to sneeze, he will get well.

As soon as it is evident that a person is mortally ill, the rugs and skins and all that he lies on, with the clothes he keeps in the house, not in use at the moment, are taken out and placed in the passage. Only the rugs belonging to the dying person may remain in the house. As soon as the dying person is about to expire, those present exclaim: "piujuɳ·nailᴇrpɔq", i. e. "there is not much left of him", and as these words are uttered, loud weeping and lamentation are set up. The dead person is wrapped in graveclothes, only the inner jacket inner breeches and stockings, and tied up in the sleeping rug. Anyone dressing a corpse for burial must stop up his or her nostrils with caribou hair. The manner in which the corpse is removed from the dwelling depends on whether it is in a snow hut or in a tent, and ​whether the deceased is a man or a woman. As a general rule, the body is not taken out through the usual-exit, but through an opening in the side wall; among the Iglulingmiut however, the body of a man, but not of a woman, is taken out of a snow hut through the passage. From the snow hut, the corpse is hauled by a line fastened round the instep, to its resting place; from a tent, it is carried on the back.

In the case of a little child, the mother may take the body out of the house just before the child expires; in that case, no death taboo is imposed upon those in the house or the skins and clothing in the house, and the taboo affects only the mother of the dead child.

A woman who has lost an infant is called ᴀ·ʀujɔq; whenever she goes out, she must have her hood pulled over her head, always have her head covered. The period depends on the age of the child. In the case of a newborn child, it is only a day, if the child is a couple of years old, then a couple of days. She must then make a small bonnet of skin without hair, and this she must have on her head whenever she goes out for a month or two according to the age of the child.

For a year, she must not eat raw meat caught by any other than her husband; she may eat of his catch if the child died in winter, but even then not until the spring, when the sun begins to melt the roof of the snow hut (i. e. in May). Apart from these special rules, she has to observe the ordinary mother taboo, i. e. not to eat entrails, heart etc. of any animal, or eggs; in a word, all that which applies to women who have to be particularly careful.

For instance, she must never drink water from melted ice, but only water from melted snow.

When parents have lost a child, the child's clothing is kept until they have to leave their place of residence. The clothing is then placed near the grave.

No visitors are allowed to be in a house when anyone is dying; "they must go out into the passage and not come in again until the dying person has expired.

The face of a corpse is always covered when it is being taken to the grave. Here the face covering is removed, and carried round in the direction of the sun, to the cry of "ilɔrfak·ut", in order that the dead person may bring good weather. At the same time, the lashings with which the outer wrapping of the body is tied, are cut.

When the lashings of the skin in which the corpse is tied up are cut at the graveside, this must always be done with a knife that has belonged to the deceased; and the knife must never after be used for anything else, but is deposited by the grave.

When the men who have brought the corpse to the grave return ​to the house, they must all drink water from the dead person's cup, in order that the deceased may get something to drink, and not be thirsty.

The corpse is not placed in a cairn of stones, as was customary in Greenland, only a single circle of stones is placed round the body. At times a stone may also be laid under the head as a pillow.

If it is winter, a small snow hut is built over the body.

The dead are buried with their belongings, which are laid beside the grave. This applies both to men and women.

A dying person may, however, give away his or her possessions to any favoured friend, but all that is not so given away must be laid by the grave.

Apart from the implements proper, various articles in miniature are made for men, such as kayak, sledge, harpoon, bow and arrows, cup, these miniature objects being placed at the feet of the corpse. For women, a small lamp, meat fork, pot, cup and real needles and thimble are made; these are likewise laid at the feet. These things are made on the day before the na·ce·vik, or the stricter death taboo, comes to an end, and are placed in position on the day it ends. This is said to be done in order that the deceased may possess something. With these miniature objects the soul passes to Takánâluk as soon as the death taboo ceases. Until then, for 3 or 4 days, they remain with the body. The period of na·ce·vɔq, i. e. maintaining the strict death taboo for men is three days, for women four days; during these days the persons concerned must do no work, must not wash, comb their hair or cut their nails; the lamp must not be cleaned, the dogs must not be fed, and the persons are not allowed to cut up their own meat for cooking. Sexual intercourse is forbidden, as also dancing or song festivals. The brother or sister of the deceased must during these days leave his or her own house and stay in that of the deceased, so that they may be together until the soul of the deceased passes away.

Sledges must not be driven during the days of strict death taboo. Should it be absolutely necessary to go out hunting, it must be done on foot. The noise of the sledge is offensive to the dead.

When the people of a village do not observe taboo after a death, the soul returns in the form of a tupiläk, an evil spirit, and strikes the disobedient with sickness; it is then necessary for a shaman to sakavɔq, i. e. to call up his helping spirits, and he can then stab the evil spirit to death with his sealing harpoon.

As soon as these three or four days have passed, one of those who have assisted in disposing of the body takes a piece of dog's excrement and carries it round the snow hut in all directions, saying "tu-tu-tu": this done, all must wash, comb their hair and cut their nails, and ​then, rubbing their nails together, say in a kind of growling tone: "u·mh-u·mh-u·mh". Only when this has been done may all work be resumed.

When people are living in tents, and not in snow huts, the ceremony with the dog's excrement is not used after a death; instead, a fire stone or the toggle of the traces of an old dog is taken; sparks are struck with the stone, to cleanse the air in the tent. The reason for using a dog's excrement or toggle of an old dog is that it is desired to propitiate the dog which keeps watch in the passage of the house where the Mother of the Sea Beasts lives.

When the na·ce·nᴇq is over, all who have taken part in the setting of the stones round the grave, or have been in the house visited by death, must throw away their clothing and leave their snow huts with all inside, including the ilupᴇrɔq, or skin hangings used to line the walls of the snow hut.

Those who have had anything to do with death are subject to various forms of taboo extending beyond the first few days; thus no one else is allowed to eat anything boiled in their pots, nor they to eat anything boiled in others' pots, for a whole year. Similarly, they may not eat raw meat of seals newly caught by others, only frozen meat caught some time beforehand; and neighbours, when making a catch, must speedily bring them meat for cooking; tɔquʃɔrɔ·q alianaɳusuniᴀrmat, i. e. in order that the deceased may rejoice.

At a village where a man has died, no knife may be used for work on any implement for a whole year.

Women whose relatives or nearest neighbours have died within the year must not prepare raw skins, but only work on dried ones. Nor may they mention the animals by name, but only refer to them in the shaman language.

ᴀ·ʀ·ujune, i. e. among people whose brother or sister has died, no animal may be cut up in a tent without placing a skin on the floor beneath the head. This custom is not observed in a snow hut.

If a brother has lost his sister, or vice versa, the bereaved is not allowed to pluck the feathers of the kanɔq (Canadian snow goose).

If there is seal meat in a house of death, the meat may be eaten, but the skins of these seals must not be used, dried, or in any way made into clothing.

When a man dies, no one is allowed to wear clothing made from animals he has caught. All such garments must be thrown away.

On the day when the news of a death is made known, no needlework is to be done in the evening.

When learning of a death in another village, one must sleep one night with all one's amulets under one's head.

​When there are any dead in a village, one must get up very early in the morning.

A year after the death, the relatives visit the grave and walk round it three times in the direction of the sun, while when swinging his "face cloth" they only walked round once.

Persons wishing to put an end to their lives by hanging must do so in a house while they are alone, and must hang themselves from the bearing post of the drying frame, i. e. the piece of wood which is thrust unto the wall of the snow hut and frozen fast there, to support the drying frame. They must leave the lamp burning, not put it out, lest any should be frightened by coming upon them in the dark. After death, they do not pass to Takánâluk or to the Narrow Land, nor to the Land of Day, but to qimiktun nunä·n the Land of the Hanged, where souls go about with their tongues hanging out. This country is nearer to the land of human beings generally than is any other region in the Land of the Dead.

The first time a man who has lost his wife goes out hunting and gets a seal, he must na·ce·vɔq it for three days, that is to say, he must observe a kind of taboo, as he is considered unclean in relation to game; in cutting up the carcase, he takes the meat, but leaves the bones whole without cutting them out (tanᴇrᵈlugo); entrails, skin and blubber are likewise left untouched. It is this to which he must pay sacred attention for three days, wrapping the skin and blubber round the skeleton, after which it is placed out on the ice, as a sacrifice to the soul of his dead wife. In the case of the two next seals he catches, he is not required to na·ce·vɔq, but they must be cut up in the same fashion, skin, blubber and bones being laid out on the ice, care being taken also to see that the backbone is not broken. No stranger may eat of the meat of these three seals, only the man himeslf. Not until the fourth capture is normal procedure resumed, and only then is the death taboo removed from the seals he gets.

The first bearded seal he catches must be dealt with in a similar manner. In cutting it up, care must be taken not to break the spine; the meat is cut away from the bones, and skin and blubber flayed off, only the skeleton is sunk. Here also the catch is subject to some taboo; the meat may be eaten by others, but only by men, and in their own house, and no portion of blubber or skin may be given away; the hair must not be removed from the skin, but if the hide is required for thongs or sole leather, it must be left until the hair rots off (utiᵛq). This applies only to his first bearded seal.

The first three caribou he kills must also be specially treated: he may only take the skin and lean meat, the skeleton must be covered up with stones. In the case of walrus there is no special taboo.

​At Sentry Island (Arviaq), the death taboo lasts for three days; the following special customs are there observed:

If a person dies just after sunrise, burial must take place at once, and no special taboo is required of the immediate relatives, save that for five days they must not sleep out in the open. If on the other hand, a person dies after sunset, the body must remain in the tent or snow hut for five days, and during these five days none of the relatives may leave the hut.

A dead body must always be removed through a hole at the back of the house, never through the same hole that is used by living persons; otherwise, they would follow the deceased to death.

For the first five days after death, all in the village must lie down to sleep, the men with their knives, the women with their ulos, under their heads. And no one is allowed to go outside without carrying some weapon in the hand. This is done in order to guard against the dangerous spirits of the dead person.

After a death, a sledge must be at once raised on end in front of the house where anyone has died. This serves as a warning to strangers, so that they can take their knives in their hands at once before going up to the village.

A dead body must be handled by an old woman or a young woman who has only just reached marriageable age.

When it is winter in the land of human beings, it is summer among the aklivut, in the Land of Day; there are, however, the same seasons, and they follow one another in the same succession as on earth.

There are in the earth large white eggs, siläʃ·ät, as big as the bladder of a walrus. They turn to silät or silᴀ·ra·luit: these silᴀ·ra·luit are, when fully developed, shaped almost like caribou, but with large snouts, hair like that of a lemming, and legs as tall as tent poles. They look as if they were as big as an umiᴀq, but they are not dangerous, they have the nature of the caribou. Their footmarks are so large that two hands with outstretched fingers will not cover one. If it is killed, and one wishes to cut it up, it will take several days, so great are these animals, and that even if one only tries to deal with one side of the carcase. When one of these giant beasts is seen among caribou, it appears like a white mountain of snow; when it takes to flight and treads the ground, rain falls, pouring, drenching rain, and a thick mist covers the earth. The shaman Aua, who gave me this description, has seen such an animal at close ​quarters, and seen it take to flight in company with terrified caribou. To speak of them or describe them is like lying, no one believes it, but it is nevertheless true. They are called silᴀq, plural silät, and this means something of sila, of the earth, of the universe, of the air, of the weather. It is said that they are the children of the earth. Anyone killing such a silᴀq must observe the same taboo as a man who has lost his brother.

Round about the different villages are a few sacred stones. These stones are said to personify the Sea Spirit Takánâluk. Sacrifice is therefore made to them by those passing by. In case of sickness or dearth, a shaman may consult such a stone, sakaƀlune, i. e. by consulting his helping spirits. If the shaman's wish be fulfilled, the stone will emit a grumbling sound, and the earth will tremble. Some declare that specially skilful shamans can consult any stone whatever, and get the "Mother of the Sea Beasts" to answer through it.

The souls can speak, but human beings cannot hear them, only shamans when invoking the spirits.