Page:Archæology of the Central Eskimos.djvu/450

death took place continued to be occupied as if nothing had happened; at the grave-side the burial party cried and howled as is the custom among the Aiviliks.

Of great interest is Angutimarik's statement that the Sadlermiut had none of the strict taboo rules of the Aiviliks regarding the separation between land and marine animals; there was nothing to hinder them from hunting the seal and the caribou at the same time or cooking walrus and caribou meat in the same pot. They had angakoq performances as have the Aiviliks, both men and women. When they flensed a seal they first poured a little water on its throat. When they met they rubbed noses by way of greeting. They had the same numerals as the Aivilik.

The following tale, related to Saorre by a very old Sadlermiut, tells of the origin of these people:

"Once, long ago, there was a great famine among the Sikosuilarmiut in southern Baffin Land, and they all died except four, who went over the pack-ice on Fox Channel to Nuvualuk, Bell Peninsula on Southampton Island, where they settled. Gradually as their numbers grew they spread over the island; during this advance they met at South Bay two Tunidjuit, big people, who had no bows but, by means of their throwing boards, threw the big arrows which they also used for caribou hunting. They killed one of these Tunidjuit, whilst the other fled into the mountains and they never saw him again. These Tunidjuit lived in houses built of stone, but with skin roofs; they used to sleep with their feet straight up in the air. They hunted the walrus on thin ice by thrusting the harpoon through the animal's lips and dragging it up by the tusks, whereupon they broke its neck by bending the head back. They dragged the walruses up to the houses to flense them, and one man could drag a whole walrus; they had no sledges or dogs."

Angutimarik related another legend of their origin: Two men and women and their children once drifted on an ice floe from Nuvuk at Wager Inlet to Southampton Island, and from them descended the Sadlermiut.

He also said himself that the Sadlermiut were the last Tunit in the country; I will, however, revert to these Tunit legends in a subsequent chapter.

According to Angutimarik, one of the Sadlermiut songs was as follows:

"Ugleruple, inugsuktaluanile, qungatimik, meqijuma, pitingmalarpunga, ajija ajija-a"

in translation:

"At Ugli I shoot with the bow at curved neck of the cairn, ajija ajija-a".