The Caribou Eskimos/Part 1/Chapter 7

VII. Social Life.
Social Organisation.

Differentiation within the community. The assertion has frequently been made that there is no Eskimo society. Of course this is wrong. The gregarious instinct is fundamental to all mankind. What has led to the erroneous conclusions concerning Eskimo society is, in the first place, a confusion between this idea and the ideas Government and State, which of course are something quite different, and, in the second place, the circumstance that there is, it is true, very little differentiation in Eskimo society.

The first, fundamental division within it is that which is a result of sex. The Eskimos do not occupy themselves with theoretic speculations as to the equal rights of the sexes, but arrange themselves in practice. I do not doubt that if one could put the question to an Eskimo in the purely abstract, he would reply in favour of the subjection of woman to the will of man; but as the community has no actually organised government, the man has no other place to demonstrate his superiority than in the family circle, and there theory and practice certainly do not always walk together. Were it not that it would give a wrong idea of the usually harmonious family life, I would say that the man rules by means of his fist and the woman by her tongue — and no one need be in company with Eskimos long before he discovers the latter's equality with the former.

Between the sexes there is a natural division of labour, the important features of which appear as follows:

MEN. WOMEN.
Building of snow house. Filling chinks in snow-house.
(Pitching tent). Pitching tent.
Tending fire and lamp.
Hunting.
Fishing. (Fishing).
Collecting. Collecting.
Flensing. Flensing.
Cooking.
Dog driving.
Working in stone, metal and bone. Cooking.
(Skin preparing). Skin preparing.
Sewing.
Thong making.

The work of the women demands more perseverance, perhaps; but on the other hand the men are occasionally exposed to much more violent exertion, not only absolutely but relatively, too. And, by the way, it must be repeated here what has at times been said in the foregoing, that no conventional or religious custom forbids the one sex to give the other a helping hand or to undertake its tasks.[1] Good comradeship is the rule in Eskimo married life, for divorce is so easy that no other kind of marriage lasts very long.

Age difference is of no consequence in the composition of society beyond the purely natural importance it has. There are no age classes, ceremonial initiation at puberty, etc. as among so many other primitive peoples. Certain taboo rules come into force when a young girl has had her first menstruation; but it is not because she passes from one female age class to another. On the contrary, according to Eskimo ideas she only becomes a female "when she discovers her sex", whereas previously, in a magic-religious sense, she was a sexless individual. And reversely when menstruation ceases with age.

The result of the natural influence of age is that the word of middle-aged or elderly men — but only so long as they still have their strength — carries most weight, although less directly, perhaps, than indirectly by force of example. Old people who are no longer in possession of all their faculties gradually lose their influence and respect. Their life is often a bitter one. Even though they are treated with kindness, they feel themselves in the way and suicide is not uncommon. On the other hand I do not think that nowadays — as undoubtedly was the case formerly — they run any risk of being killed, although they might be deserted.

The question of the influence of age is thus in reality reduced to an essentially psychological question of mental superiority. McDougall places the instincts of self-assertion and self-abasement to the fundamental in man's mind.[2] An elderly, skilful hunter with great experience always enjoys great esteem as primus inter pares. When a number of families are gathered in a camp, there is often an elderly pater familias who is tacitly looked upon as [ihumatᴀq], i. e.: he who thinks, implying: for the others. His advice is often taken, but voluntarily; he has no legal authority at all and cannot be called a chief in the ordinary sense. There is an evident misunderstanding at the root of Franklin's reference to the Pâdlimiut: "Two great Chiefs, or Ackhaiyoot, have complete authority in directing the movements of the party and in distributing provisions. The Attoogamauck, or lesser Chiefs, are respected principally as senior men.[3]

Mauss and Beuchat must be credited with the honour of drawing attention to the question of a social differentiation according to season. As I have previously made this work the subject of some observations,[4] I shall restrict myself to mentioning that the changing. seasons do not mean any profound, essential difference in society, but merely a difference of degree that is a natural consequence of the changing mode of living with the seasons.

Transversely over the natural differentiation, which depends upon physiological, psychological and, if Mauss and Beuchat's experiment is included, geographical conditions, runs an artificial division, particularly among primitive peoples. Among the Caribou Eskimos there is only the faintest sign of this. There are neither chiefs, nobility nor slaves. No clan system and no secret society lay bonds upon the initiative of the individual, although some authors, apparently without justification, have interpreted certain phenomena in the eastern Eskimo culture as such.[5] Originally, only the shamans have stood out from among the mass, but, be it noted, without actually enjoying any great respect for that reason. A clever shaman may possess great power because he is clever and feared, not actually because he is a shaman. And a poor shaman never attains the same level as regards respect as an ordinary skilful hunter.

The distribution of values does not give rise to any differentiation in society either. In the original state of the Caribou Eskimos it has been almost impossible to accumulate capital. A hunting life seldom yields more than a hand-to-mouth existence, and the constant journeying does not encourage the accumulation of much of the sort of property which moths and rust can destroy. The area of the Caribou Eskimos is as yet so far outside the periphery of civilisation that only very little has been changed in this state; another contributory factor to this is the Hudson's Bay Company's trading system, which does not put money into circulation, and also its wages system, which to a great extent consists in the distribution of daily rations. But what is natural under original conditions means a perceptible dependence when the white man appears. Only those few Eskimos who act as intermediaries between the Company and their countrymen living in distant parts can attain to a certain degree of prosperity. There is some jealousy between them and the more prominent hunters; but I am scarcely wrong in saying that the sympathies of the people are mostly on the side of the hunters.

They know no government. Here, for once, is a society which is entirely built upon that voluntary agreement of which Kropotkin dreamt. Subject to personal liability towards the inherited laws everyone enjoys full individual freedom. And just as foreign as a government is the idea of a State, with its intimate connection with and possession of land, as Ratzel has pointed out.[6] The community as such does not own the land upon which its members live, no more than it owns the exclusive right to the use of the land.[7] It may decline to accept a stranger who settles on its territory; but it cannot forbid him to live there alone and make use of anything he chooses. In the position of the community as regards the land there is thus an essential difference from the division into certain hunting areas which is to be found among the Algonkian tribes, Californians and even much more primitive peoples such as the Veddah in Ceylon.

We may thus characterise the Caribou Eskimo community as an incoherent conglomerate of families or households, voluntarily connected by a number of generally recognised laws. There is practically no differentiation within the community beyond the purely natural one. The Eskimos have not that joy which Thackeray calls the greatest of all: association with one's underlings.

Customary laws. In speaking of the customary laws of the Eskimos, it is always necessary to remember that these are codified in definite forms and that there exists no authority to administer them. They are laws which in the course of time have taken root in the minds of the people and which no one may break without colliding with public opinion, and, among the Eskimos, the power of public opinion is even greater than with us. For the West Greenlanders Rink has formulated what may be called the Eskimo Constitutional Act,[8] which seems to be in force everywhere among the Eskimos and thus in the area dealt with here too. For our purpose it may be summarised in the following sentences:

  1. The most important means of subsistence are divided among the inhabitants of the settlement according to certain rules.
  2. No one may be excused from hunting except in the case of bodily infirmity.
  3. No one may settle in a camp without the consent of the inhabitants.

A man who would refuse to share the spoils of his hunting or would take up residence among strangers without their permission would make himself so impossible in the narrow circle of his kinsmen that he would soon abandon his unsociable behaviour.[9] If a man neglects to provide for his family out of pure laziness, his wife will soon leave him and return to her relatives or marry another. At Kazan River I met a Harvaqtôrmio, an idle and unreliable fellow, who had gambled away his rifle and other property. Two months later his father-in-law took his daughter away from him and he was obliged to move to another settlement. The following year he travelled round to different camps as an undoubtedly very unwelcome guest. Such a man will not starve to death, for no one will deny him a meal; but he will be more or less regarded by everybody as a pariah.

The first and most important rule of the hunting law is that no one, either individual or community, may lay claim to any particular hunting territory. All have the right to hunt wherever they please, and it is all the same whether or not one belongs to the group which usually lives at the place in question. A strange Eskimo, an Indian or a white man has the same right, and it is to be supposed that the wars with the Indians, for instance, were in themselves no conscious reaction against their encroachment upon the hunting rights of the Eskimos, but rather were a continuous series of issues of blood vengeance or general hostile feeling. Wood, soapstone, etc. occupy the same position as game: he who can take possession of it has the right to it.

There are certain recognised rules for the most common cases of doubt which might arise during the hunt itself. If two men shoot at the same caribou, the animal belongs to the one whose arrow or bullet has hit the most vital spot, provided that the projectile can be recognised. If a hunter wounds a caribou and pursues it, but another kills it, it still belongs to the former. The same rules apply to other animals. But if a seal or a walrus breaks the harpoon line and escapes with the harpoon head in it, the hunter has lost his right; except that when the animal is caught by another, he will usually get his weapon again.

The unrestricted right to hunt at large becomes rather less effective by the fact that the kill is divided according to certain rules. It is possible that the arctic surroundings have set their stamp upon these;[10] but still deeper, I think, lies the sense of justice which seems to mark all primitive people as long as they are uncontaminated by civilisation. The most important rules are:

If two men go hunting together and one kills an animal, he takes the fore-part and the other gets the hind part. Others say that the forepart goes to the one who first reaches the caribou. If there are three hunters together, each of the helpers receives a hind-quarter; but if there are still more in company, there is no sharing. In return the hunter is obliged to provide the inhabitants of the camp with meat in the evening.

For walrus and bearded seal the rules are the same. Among the Pâdlimiut, who in this as in other respects are particularly primitive, there are no definite shares beyond that the hunter has a certain, but not absolute, right to the walrus head and tusks. Otherwise all may supply themselves with meat and skin. On the other hand the Qaernermiut, like the Aivilingmiut and other Coast Eskimos, have more fixed rules, presumably just because they have learned aquatic mammal hunting of the Aivilingmiut. Anyone among them who may be present when a walrus or a bearded seal is flensed is entitled to a part of the meat. If only two are present, the hunter will as a rule take the head and one half of the body, the other half falling to the helper. If they are three, one gets the forepart, the other the hind part and the third the breast portion. Four divide the animal crosswise between them. Five share in the same manner, but the breast-portion is cut off as a separate share. When there are six men, one receives the head and neck, another the fore limbs, and the rest is divided cross-wise. There are no fixed rules for more than six persons and, if there are especially many on the spot — more than eleven has been mentioned — those who have taken no active part in the hunt receive no share, but a present of meat is sent them after the return home.

There are no definite portions of fjord seal but, as after a caribou hunt, the hunter must make his neighbours presents of some of the meat.

A bear belongs to the one who shoots it, and not, as among certain other Eskimos, to the one who first catches sight of it. Whether there are customary shares of it I was unable to learn, but it is not very probable.

A corresponding gradation of the right of possession to that shown by Rink in West Greenland is also to be found among the Caribou Eskimos.[11] One main rule is, that "what is individually used should be individually owned, what is collectively used should be collectively owned".[12] As we have seen, all hunting spoils are, to a certain extent, common property, as in some cases everyone may take what he pleases, whereas in other cases everyone has a right to at any rate partake in the meal which the spoils represent. During a famine all right of possession to food is abandoned; all hunting spoils are common property and anyone who is hungry may simply take from another family's meat cache what he needs without thus making himself a thief; but if he can make some return in another manner he does so.

Caribou fences and salmon weirs are really owned by the settlement which has built them; but actually they are common property to the whole tribe, for when the original inhabitants of the settlement are not using them, anyone else may do so.

Winter supplies are the property of the family, whereas clothing, kayak, arms and all small goods belong to the individual. Individual property is strictly respected. In matrimony, for instance, the hunting implements, kayak, etc. belong to the man, lamp and cooking pot to the woman. Very often some of the dogs are regarded as belonging especially to the wife or one of the children. No husband would think of selling any of his wife's property without her consent, and even small children must first give their permission if any of their possessions are to be sold, even if the sale is made by one of the parents.

The owner has only a qualified right to those things that are not used when conditions otherwise permit of their use. If caribou fences, salmon weirs, or traps are left unused, others may have the use of them. On the other hand, pitfalls for caribou may only be used by others in case of emergency; but it is only natural that they should be regarded differently to fences, weirs and traps, which are constructed of stone, whereas the pitfalls are of snow; for this again means that in reality there is no possibility of their remaining unused for so long that the owner loses his right.[13]

If a man borrows an article and happens to destroy it in use, he is not obliged to replace it; for the owner loses something of his right by lending it out and thereby in a way admits that he does not need it. But if the owner is poor he sometimes receives a compensation, although this is voluntary. Similarly it is also a voluntary matter whether one hands over found articles or not. If a lost article is found close to the dwelling of the owner it will, however, usually be returned to him. When a person dies, the family share the property that is not laid by the grave, but there does not seem to be any definite rule for this; they manage by mutual agreement.

Violation of justice among the Eskimos and its consequences has recently been made the subject of a comprehensive study by Herbert König. That this attempt at ethnographic jurisprudence cannot be said to have been entirely successful is, in the first place, due to the erroneous views on which the whole work has been based. No attempt has been made to enter into the mode of thought of these people. It is an outsider who marshals together the whole machinery of the European courts and consults his book of statutes, without understanding that the Eskimo notions of right and wrong must be seen and appraised from the Eskimos' own point of view.

Let us in the first place repeat that right is based upon custom. This is rarely broken among a people so true to tradition as the Eskimos, but it is no infallible guide. There is always a certain margin for personality. And secondly, these laws most decidedly do not aim at justice. The French revolution showed that the rights of one cease where another's begin; but even in less abstract form we find little of this idea in the Eskimos' perception of right. I have elsewhere written with regard to conditions in West Greenland of former days, and it is my opinion that what I wrote there also holds good among the Caribou Eskimos: there is never any question of judicial action, whether the reaction against the infringement springs from the individual or the community. It is either a simple act of vengeance that takes place or, if the whole community joins in getting rid of a troublesome member, it is for the purpose of securing quiet and order. The responsibility of the person is really a subordinate matter, just because justice, as we know it, is not aimed at. This view being held, society could rid itself of a sick or aged person. To society it is enough that the person becomes a burden to it, and it is of just as little consequence to it if the burden is deserved, as when one kills a feared murderer, or whether it is a poor old woman who is abandoned on a journey. Human life is cheap in these latitudes.

Murder and witchcraft are practically the only serious crimes in the Caribou Eskimo community. Theft can never be a matter of grave importance, and a thief is regarded as something the same as a liar, i. e. an unpleasant person, and if the victim has sufficient moral courage and authority over the thief, he will probably demand the return of the stolen articles.

Murder and witchcraft are closely related crimes in Eskimo eyes, as in nine cases out of ten the purpose of witchcraft will be to put a person out of the way. But whereas under any circumstances witchcraft is an infamous deed, murder is a lawful act when the victim has first been threatened with vengeance. During my sojourn on Sentry Island there was a decided case of attempted murder; a man, who by the way was said to have one murder already on his conscience, shot at a comrade who was creeping up towards a seal on the ice. As his shot missed, nothing was done in the matter; but the Eskimos were agreed that the attempt was seriously meant. They also told me that the same man's ten or twelve year old son had the previous year killed a playmate while out together in a canoe; more officially it was stated that the boy had been killed by an accidental shot. My "adoptive father" at Hikoligjuaq, the great shaman Igjugârjuk, had several murders on his conscience; Knud Rasmussen in his account of the Expedition[14] has related the murder stories of this and another Caribou Eskimo.

In the event of a murder, blood vengeance is a sacred duty, as Klutschak also says,[15] whereas Gilder is quite wrong in saying that "the relatives of the murdered man would probably ask to be paid for the slaughter, and if the request were complied with, that would set the matter at rest".[16] A man who has taken blood vengeance is not himself exposed to vengeance in turn, at any rate theoretically. But it must always be remembered that the Eskimos do not go about with a lot of statutes in their heads and, although I know of no example of it (as the whole I only know of few judicial cases among these Eskimos), it is not impossible that a killing, perpetrated as blood vengeance, might involve fresh murders. There is no actual right of asylum for a murderer, and König also acknowledges that the instances cited by him which might indicate this were not really of right of asylum.[17]

Anything corresponding to the Greenland judicial proceedings, with the singing of lampoons, is not known to the Caribou Eskimos. Nevertheless they do sometimes compose and sing satirical songs of each other; Knud Rasmussen[18] gives an example of this from the Pâdlimiut. On the other hand there has possibly taken place a sort of duel as is still the case by the Northwest Passage. Richardson writes: "Augustus, our interpreter, told me that the Eskimo of the Welcome decided their quarrels by alternate blows of the fist, each in turn presenting his head to his opponent".[19] This Augustus, however, was from the tribe "which occupies the coast of Hudson's Bay between Churchill and Knap's Bay", i. e. a Coast Pâdlimio. Whether he meant his own tribe, or he really meant the people at Roe's Welcome, the Aivilingmiut, remains a question; but it might be pointed out that he cannot have had much direct contact with the latter, as he does not know their name but only calls them "Northlanders".[20] Nowadays. the Caribou Eskimos never fight duels, except perhaps over women.[21]

Daily Life.

Etiquette. In their daily intercourse with each other the Caribou Eskimos do not attach much weight to courteous manners. They know no real greeting, and there is nothing indecent in lousing, belching or relieving themselves of wind in the presence of others. As we say — or said — prosit! when anyone sneezes, the Caribou Eskimos, when anyone breaks wind, say [morᴀ·q], "good luck!” or "through its heart!" That gives luck on the hunt.[22]

When called upon to do anything, manners and customs demand the display of a great amount of coquetry with one's poor abilities. Before a shaman begins a séance, he seldom forgets to emphasise his uselessness, and one who is to sing will first stand and apologise that all his songs have suddenly gone from his memory. Yet the Caribou Eskimos hardly go so far in coquetry as the Polar Eskimos, who do not omit to call for instance another man's dogs "great" in contrast to their own "miserable curs".

In the men's common meal in the evening there are no female partakers. They wait until afterwards or eat at the same time, but alone. At smaller meals, however, "in the family circle", man and wife often eat together. Among the Caribou Eskimos the same piece of meat does not as a rule circulate, whereas the soup ladle always passes from one to another, and sometimes the tobacco pipe does so. Man and wife often smoke the same pipe in turn.[23]

When a stranger arrives at a camp, it is impolite to drive right up to it. He halts a little way from it and waits until he is bidden welcome, which as a rule is communicated by one of the inhabitants of the camp touching the sledge-load or, in summer, the pack which the stranger carries on his back. By his waiting attitude the latter demonstrates his peaceful intentions. The Netsilik and Copper Eskimos who came to the trading market at Thelon River used to shout on their arrival: [ilɔr·ainik tikit·uɳa] "I come from the right side!". The cry taima is never used by the Caribou Eskimos.

In time the stranger is invited into a snow house or a tent, where he is a guest during his stay. Sometimes there is a drum dance in the evening in honour of the new arrival and, if the stranger and one of the inhabitants of the camp are "song cousins", there is a distribution of presents (see p. 160). In olden days it seems that strangers had to undergo a trial of strength. One of them and one of the settlement dwellers faced each other and struck each other alternately with the clenched fist on the shoulder or the cheek bone until one gave up. These fisticuffs have now gone out of fashion among the Caribou Eskimos, but have been retained in the regions round the Magnetic Pole.

If anyone had died in the settlement since the guests last visited it, they were greeted with the left hand. But there are none of the weeping ceremonies that we know from Greenland.

The usual caress, which is used in particular towards children, is nose-rubbing.

Every day and feast days. The Eskimos rise early every day, but they go to bed early too. During the light nights in summer, however, it is often midnight before anyone thinks of going to sleep, and then they sometimes lie until late in the forenoon. Big children often run about and play throughout the most of the night in summer and sleep by day. No one eats very much in the morning, but of course one drinks tea, no opportunity of doing which is ever neglected. They either eat a little dried or frozen meat or, if there should happen to be any leavings from the previous night, a piece of cold, cooked meat. The principal meal is not eaten until the evening, when the men of the camp gather for the common meal at the dwelling of the one who has been successful in the hunt. During the course of the day when the men are out hunting, which however is by no means every day when there is food in the camp, no real meals are cooked, but the women usually make tea once or twice and perhaps eat a snack of cold meat.

The days pass evenly. There are no regular festivals. Religion does not give rise to any celebrations of ceremonial kind, Feasts are simply common meals, drum dances and singing and they are only connected with religion by the slender thread that they must be the prologue to any séance, not because they are really a part of it, but because on such occasions the minds must be attuned to joy and festival. As regards masks, I have only on one occasion, among the Pâdlimiut, heard a man acknowledge using them in the manner that they are also used by the Netsilik and Iglulik Eskimos. Others denied their existence. One evening in a Harvaqtôrmiut camp at Kazan River, when it was already getting late, our tent was suddenly filled with people, a tremendous meat tray was pushed in, filled to the brim with steaming. split caribou heads, and a Homeric feed began, during which the contents of the tray disappeared like lightning.

On this occasion there was no dancing and singing afterwards, but it often happens. The singing is nearly always accompanied by the drum. This, [qilaut], has a skin of unhaired deerskin stretched over a wooden ring, the ends of which lap over each other and are fastened with nails. On the side of the ring is a handle with a groove through which the ring passes. The skin [ihᴇq], actually "eye", is drawn tight by a plaited sinew cord which is fastened to the handle. To the drum belongs a heavy drum-stick. [kato] of wood. Like those of the other Central Eskimo tribes, the drum of the Caribou Eskimos is much bigger than those of Alaska and Greenland.

In the collection there is a comparatively small specimen from the Harvaqtôrmiut at lower Kazan River (P 28: 241; fig. 101 b); it is 66 cm in diameter, the handle being 18 cm long and the drum-stick 30 cm. A drum from the Pâdlimiut, Eskimo Point, is 82.5 cm in diameter, handle 26 cm, drum-stick 33.5 cm (P 28: 240; fig. 101a). I have already related how the drum skin is prepared. It is stretched over the drum-ring with great care in order that the sound may have a good and full tone. At Kazan River I saw a Harvaqtôrmio engaged in this task. The skin was already stretched when he carefully sewed a small patch over a hole. Then he moistened the skin on both sides with water and, with a small iron scraper, gave it a light treatment. He slobbered up the surplus water into his mouth and spat it out on to the floor. The skin was then stretched down over the edge of the ring, using a drill shank as a marline spike, and finally the skin edge which projected beyond the cord which held it tight was carefully rolled up round the latter.

Dancing festivals are held in the evening. It is known long beforehand that there is to be a dance. There is a general cry among the men: [mumiˡlᴇrta-hai], "let us begin to dance!" or [qaç·elᴇric·e], Image missingFig. 101.Drums. "begin to assemble!" But nobody is in any hurry; there is no need to display too much eagerness. Nor is it expected that anyone will answer the call at once, for the drum-skin often must first be moistened and set on.

In winter the company assembles in a separate house set apart for dancing [qaç·e] or [qaᵈge], which, however, is merely an ordinary snow house built on a larger scale. I have never seen one myself, for I have never lived among the Caribou Eskimos during the actual winter; but I presume it is of similar type to those which Jenness figures from the Copper Eskimos.[24] Gilder states of a dance-house of the Qaernermiut that it was 25 ft. in diameter and 12 ft. high.[25] The evening on which I arrived at Eskimo Point we met in one of the tents. There were fifteen people present, and yet there was plenty of room. The women sat by themselves on both sides of the door, singing their chorus songs together. On that night only one of the men sang, the others limiting themselves to drumming and dancing.

Each man has his own particular song [pihᴇq]; a large number of songs have been recorded by Knud Rasmussen and will be published elsewhere.[26] The Coast Pâdlimiut differentiate between the following kinds of songs: [pamaut], a song principally dealing with the fact that the singer is not much good at caribou hunting; [hamaut], that he cannot catch seals; [im·ai] that he must live on the meat caught by others; [qanai], songs about white men. It will be seen that their coquetry also appears in the songs. Normally, only the men have their own songs, to which their wives lead the chorus. Women may only sing songs when called upon by a shaman.[27]

The dance will often begin with the dancer striking a number of rapid, gentle blows on the right side of the drum ring or on the skin itself, sometimes on its upper side and sometimes on the under side. Then the drum is started revolving about its own axis, the beats hitting the under edge of the ring alternately on the left and the right side so that the drum-stick in both cases points inwards towards the middle of the drum. When the beat is on the left side, the palm of the hand turns upwards, on the right side the palm is downward. Later on in the dance the beat is often made in such a way that the stroke on the left side is made with the drum-stick pointing away from the drum. Sometimes the dancer ceases to beat the drum and allows the drum to fall a few times on to the stick so that the skin gives a vibrating sound, after which he begins beating again. He works himself up more and more and at last beats with such force that it is a wonder the drum can stand it.

The drum is held either almost horizontal or almost vertical; the latter position is the least fatiguing, for the drum gradually becomes tiring, and it requires a powerful wrist to manage it. The Netsilik Eskimos support the back end of the handle against the wrist, but the Caribou Eskimos hold it freely in the hand.

The dance is performed almost on one spot. The dancer stands with his body bent slightly forward, now and then moves his feet a little, and gently sways the body above the waist backwards and forwards. It looks just like an elephant swaying behind the bars of his cage. Sometimes he also bends his knees a little. Some remain on the same spot all the time, others take a few steps to one side and return again soon afterwards. The performer nearly always sings while dancing, the woman accompanying him with the constant refrain [aja·] or [hajai-ja·]. Now and then he breaks off with a howl or a groan. And incessantly sounds the drum, always with single beats, never double as in Alaska and among the Chipewyan. The perspiration pours down the dancer's face, and he seems to be quite “lost” in his song until he stops suddenly, and another takes his place. Hour after hour they continue in this manner, a fantastic and barbaric sight in the more than halfdark tent with the many skin-clad, long-haired figures. Often I at last stole away, but even in my sleep I still heard Image missingFig. 102.
Whistle.
the dull droning of the drum till far into the early morning . . . .

The women dance like the men, but never beat the drum. If there is no drum at all in the camp, the festival is restricted to song. I several times took part in these song festivals in the camp at Morelrorjuaq, on the north bank of Hikoligjuaq. It is contrary to religious habit and custom to beat the drum in the open air. When I wanted a man to demonstrate the use of the drum outside the tent in order that I might photograph it,[28] he was willing enough to go through the motions but was careful not to touch the drum with the stick.

A dance with a distribution of presents is particularly ceremonious and takes place when a person is visited by his "song cousin". Such a festival has been described on page 160.

During their intercourse with the whalers some Qaernermiut learned to dance a regular reel; they only dance this, however, in company with white men. In the same manner some Pâdlimiut after visiting Churchill have learned to dance as the Chipewyan do: the man remains on the same spot, while he does a sort of two-step; in front of him, with her face always turned towards him, his female partner moves with small, rather hopping steps in very small circles in the same direction as the sun. I have never seen the Pâdlimiut do this dance except in company with whites or Indians.[29]

Pastimes. It must first and foremost be observed that although the various forms of diversion are in most cases merely resorted to for amusement, there is a religious background in some cases. For instance, nearly all play nuglutaq the day after a séance, when they must not go hunting, a custom which is observed at any rate at the coast (in the interior it does not seem to be so strictly observed). From other Central tribes we know the religious significance of the ring-and-pin game and "cat's cradle".

To continue with music, the Pâdlimiut know a kind of whistle on which they play to while away the time. Hanbury mentions whistles among the Eskimos west of Hudson Bay, but their form does not appear from his reference.[30] Knud Rasmussen says that some young Pâdlimiut cut whistles out of willow branches.[31] A whistle [hu’bluᴀ·rtut], from the Pâdlimiut at Hikoligjuaq, consists of two pieces of wood tied together with babiche (P 28: 239; fig. 102). The upper side is flat and pierced by six holes, the under side is very arched but forms a flat mouthpiece. At the fore end there is a hole. Length 28.2 cm. These whistles seem to have been adopted from the Indians.

Young men compete in various forms of athletics. One of the commonest forms of trying strength is to pull arms, dualis [talᴇriolᴀ·rluk], the contestants facing each other, the right foot advanced and placed against that of the opponent. They hook their right arms, or hold each other's right wrist and try to pull each other off their balance. They do the same with the fingers, dualis [adgagiolᴀ·rluk]. A third method, dualis [ujɔrojɔro·luk], consists in laying one's arm round the opponent's neck, putting the forefinger in the corner of his mouth and pulling. Hanbury illustrates a trial of strength consisting in the contestants lying face downwards, head to head, with a strap behind the neck, each trying to pull the opponent's head towards him.[32] A pair of handles for trials of strength [ᴀqxᴀ·rᴀq] consists of two round sticks connected by a skin strap. Each man takes his handle and pulls. On a specimen (P 28: 230; fig. 103 c) from the Pâdlimiut, Eskimo Point the handles are 9.5 and 9.9 cm long respectively, and the distance between them about 10.5 cm. A similar specimen (P 28: 229) comes from the Hauneqtôrmiut.

Three kinds of athletics are practised on an outstretched thong. From the roof of the snow house two thongs hang down, each with a loop at the bottom; in these the athlete sits and turns over and over [itaujᴀqtɔq]. In the open air a thong is stretched; from the thong hang two loops, through which the hands are inserted, seizing the thong with an overhand grip; one swings forward at arm's length and round about the thong. This is called [akʟuɳᴇrtᴀrnᴇq]. Some tie a knife to the thong in order to show their skill. An exercise which is called [nimratᴀ·rnᴇq] is a forward turning round the thong, which is held with a right over-grip and a left under-grip.

Skipping [atᴇrᴀrtᴀrnᴇq] and wrestling, dualis [pa·lᴀ·rluk] are common sports, but on the other hand the [na·ɳ·iʃät] of the West Greenlanders — rows of stones along which they hop on one leg — is not known.

Young men and girls often play ball. The ball [ᴀqʀᴀq] is of skin and varies in size according to whether it is to be used as a football Image missingFig. 103.Buzz (a); hand-ball (b); handle for trials of strength (c); ring-and-pin (d–g); nuglutaq (h). or a handball. The former are large and filled with moss, the others smaller and filled with sand. In the Thule collection there is a football from the Hauneqtôrmiut (P 28: 235), made of unhaired caribou skin and with each pole decorated with a circular disc of dark, unhaired sealskin; from disc to disc run six meridional strips of the same material. The ball is slightly flat, the shortest axis being about 16 cm. The decoration is undoubtedly an imitation of the stitching of a European ball. A handball from the Qaernermiut (P 28: 234; fig. 103 b) consists of two pieces of unhaired caribou skin sewn together at the edges. It seems to be filled with sand. Greatest diameter about 9 cm.

Football [ᴀqʀᴀrnᴇq] is played without any other rules than that each side must keep the ball away from its goal. The Coast Pâdlimiut asserted that they did not play football. A game which corresponds to rounders is called [anauligᴀrnᴇq]. Four stones are placed as bays, for instance

4
× 3
2
1

The players divide into two sides. One of the players throws the ball in the air, and the others try to catch it, and the one who succeeds puts his side in to bat. One player stands at × and one of the opposing side stands some distance from him and throws the ball. The player drives the ball back to the bowler with an improvised bat, for instance a snow beater, and runs quickly to the first bay, the other side trying to hit him with the ball. Then the next player takes the bat and runs to the first bay while the first player goes on to the second bay, and so on. If a player is hit with the ball while running between two bays his side is out; there is no counting of points.

A ball game which is played in summer by young men and girls is called [ait·äliᴀq]; sides are taken according to sex. The one side tries to take the ball from the other, who throw it from player to player. The ball may only be taken in one hand. Juggling with several balls at once is called [iglukitᴀ·rnᴇq]. At Eskimo Point I saw a young man and some boys amusing themselves with a ball tied to a cord about 50 cm long. They held the free end of the cord and threw the ball after swinging it.[33] This was called [qiläptᴀq]. A whip is never used for driving a ball as in West Greenland, Baffin Land and Labrador.

Two games, obviously closely related, are very common among the Caribou Eskimos, viz. ring-and-pin [ajagᴀq] and [nuglutᴀq]. The latter seems to be the favourite and, as already mentioned, nearly all the inhabitants of a camp collect and play this game the day after a shaman séance, when they must not go hunting. The requisite for this game consists of a cut piece of antler with a hole at each end and a large hole through the middle.[34] Two specimens from the Pâdlimiut, Eskimo Point, are 15.3 and 14.7 cm long (P 28: 225 and 226; fig. 103 h). This instrument is hung up in the tent or snow house by its upper hole so that it hangs about shoulder height; in the lower hole is another cord, weighted by a large stone which prevents the nuglutaq from swinging too much. Round about stand the players, men and women between each other and each with a pointed object in their hands — an iron fork with pointed teeth, a file without a handle, held so that the tang points forward, etc. One of the players. puts up a prize, which is sometimes anything but a trifle; I know a man who won a rifle at this game. At a given sign all the players, to the accompaniment of laughter and fun and with the utmost eagerness, start to stab at the middle hole of the nuglutaq; this sets it swinging a little so that it is not at all easy to judge the stroke, but on the other hand only makes them all the more keen. If the players are not careful they run the risk of getting a bad wound from one or other of the sharp points, and therefore most players wear a mitten on the right hand. It is seldom long, however, before someone hits the hole; he has then won, but must put up the next prize.

In the collection there is a Qaernermiut ring-and-pin game [ajagᴀq] formed of the humerus of a bearded seal, 13.1 cm long, in the middle of which, through a hole near one edge, is fastened a cord 17.5 cm long with a pin, 8 cm long, on the other end of it (P 28: 221; fig. 103 d). Another specimen, from the Hauneqtormiut, consists of the skull of a hare, in which there are 15 holes (P 28: 220; fig. 103 f). To the upper jaw a plaited sinew-cord, 43 cm long, is tied and on the other end of this cord is a pointed bone, 10.1 cm long (half of the lower jaw of a big bird). Otherwise the Caribou Eskimos make most of their ring-and-pin games of antler or the toe bones of the caribou. A specimen from the Pâdlimiut (P 28: 224; fig. 103 e) is ring-shaped and made of antler, the spongy part being removed and only the hard shell left; length 4.6 cm. Ten holes are bored in one edge and, a little way behind them, a hole for a sinew-cord, 24 cm long, at the other end of which is a pin of antler; 10.2 cm long. There are two specimens from the Pâdlimiut, made of caribou toe-bones, 5.1 and 3.6 cm long respectively (P 28: 222 and 223; fig. 103 g). On these there is no hole other than that to which the cord with the pin is made fast. The common form of ring-and-pin game among the northern Indian tribes. with several toe-bones drawn on cords, is not known. Boas, however, mentions specimens of musk-ox horn from the region west of Hudson Bay.[35]

The game is played in the well-known manner, that the pin is held in the right hand with the point obliquely upwards, and the bone piece is swung backwards and forwards and then up, the player trying to catch it on the pin. Among the Caribou Eskimos points
Fig. 104.Cat's cradles: a, brown bear, P; b, Amâjorjuk, a female spirit, P; c, the same, Q; d, wolverine, Q; e, man kneeling, Q; f, caribou, Q; g, wolverine, Q; h, the same, Q; i, wolf, Q.
are not accumulated as, for instance, in West Greenland and, I believe, in Labrador; but the player continues until he misses his throw. Ring-and-pin is taboo for adult women.

Almost without exception the Caribou Eskimos are incorrigible gamblers. They have a genuine roulette game [ha·tᴀqtɔq], in which they use an ordinary soup ladle of musk-ox horn.[36] The players, who for the most part are women, sit in a ring about the ladle; this is spun round and the one to whom the handle points when it comes to rest has won and puts up a new stake.

A sort of dice game, which is played with caribou toe bones, is called [uɳatäɳ·uarnᴇq]. One of the players is [inuk], Eskimo, and his opponent [itqilik], Chipewyan. They each set up their "men" in a row before them, after which they take turns to throw them. The game is to get the men to stand; he whose men are first overturned has lost. The elegant bird figures which some Eskimos use in similar games are not known here.

A purely gambling game is that which we know as "Tip it", or [nalauthᴀ·rnᴇq] to the Eskimos, which is just the same as the national game udzi of the Chipewyan and also greatly resembles the lehal of the Northwest Indians. Two men sit opposite each other. One takes a stone and holds his hands down in his lap so that the opponent cannot see in which hand the stone is concealed. The latter then claps his hands once and holds out the one corresponding to that which he believes holds the stone. The game goes very quickly and is quite amusing.

Cat's cradle is generally known, and I have collected a considerable number of figures sewn on paper. Unfortunately I am unable to give such details as to how they are made as Jenness has given in his excellent work on the string figures of the Copper and Western Eskimos. It must suffice as an example, to describe the method of making a "tent":

The string is laid round the thumb and little finger of each hand so that it passes from the ulnar side of the hand round the back of the little finger, between the little and ring fingers and across the palm, then in between the index finger and the thumb, behind the latter round to the radial side of the hand. This is the usual "first position", and is the fundament of a very large number of Eskimo string-figures.[37] The left hand's palmar string is then taken with the right index-finger from the proximal side and wound twice about itself. The left index-finger is put through the loop of the right index-finger and brings the right-hand palmar string from the proximal
Fig. 105.Cat's cradles: a, lamp, Q; b, ice, Q; c, lamp, Q; d, name unknown. Q; e, ladle, Q; f, two foxes, Q; g, "pikxúkak", P, or arm, Q; h, man's anus and genitalia, P.
side back through the loop. The right thumb and little finger loop is released, the string pulled tight and the figure is finished. It is exactly like Jenness' no. CXLII, except that the loop is only wound twice instead of three or four times.[38]

The following figures of the Caribou Eskimos are identical with figures described by Jenness; they are given with their local name (Q = Qaernermiut; P = Pâdlimiut) as well as their name and number in Jenness' work:

  • The caribou and its manure, Q. — IX. The dog and its manure.
  • Anus, P. — XV. Anus.
  • The caribou or hare, Q. — XXIV. The caribou or hare.
  • The snowy owl, Q. — XXXVI fig. 48 a. The two big eyes.
  • A man pulling another by the hair, P. Hair, Q. — XLI. A woman pulling another by the hair.
  • Two fawns, Q. — LVII. Two fawns.
  • New ice, Q. — LXXVIII. The sealer.
  • A hill and two ponds, Q. — XCIV. "qoɳaq". (At Cumberland Sound: a hill and two ponds).
  • The tent, P. — CXLII. The duck-spear or tent.

The following figures differ only slightly from the corresponding figures described by Jenness:

  • Two brown bears, Q. — I. Two brown bears.
  • A brown bear and its lair, Q. — III. A brown bear issuing from a cave.
  • The wolf, Q. — XXVIII. The wolf.
  • The white whale, Q. — XLIII. The white whale.
  • Two lemmings and their burrows, Q. - LXVIII. Two lemmings and their burrows.

Figg. 104–07 show a number of figures not included in Jenness' work.

Phases of Life.

Birth. Eskimo women give birth to their children very easily. This is not the place to go deeply into all the ceremonies which, specially among the coast people, are attached to childbirth in the form of taboo; but in order to give a complete picture of their exterior life it is necessary at any rate to mention the most important rules which must be observed.

Among the Qaernermiut, who on this as on other points form a cultural transition from the pronouncedly inland tribes to the coast tribes, women in confinement must live alone in a small tent or snow house [qajᴀrᴀrᵈluk], and there she must remain shut in for two
Fig. 106.Cat's cradles: a, two jaegers, Q; b, Nanordluk, the spirit bear; c, dog, Q; d. sling, Q; e, arms, Q; f, mountains, Q; g, fire, Q; h, box, Q;
Fig. 107.Cat's cradles: a, fire, P; b, raven, Q, when you let go the two lower loops, the bird will "fly away"; c, walrus head with tusks, Q; d, clam, Q.

months if the child is a boy, and three months if it is a girl. In all that time she must cook her own food, and her belongings must lie out in the open air.[39] If the child is stillborn, she must live by herself for three months, and for a whole year must not eat together with others. When she has completed her period of isolation she is called [sujiɳnᴀ·rtɔq]. She must then wash herself in a lake and bury her old clothing.

Among the Pâdlimiut, even out at the coast, the requirements are much less strict. The mother does not live alone and is only taboo for a month, during which time she must not leave the snow house or tent.

She must have her hair loose in order not to hamper the event, of course, and she is assisted by an old woman who acts as midwife. The Pâdlimiut said that all the other women in the camp were present too. The child is wiped down with bird skins, the navel cord is tied with sinew-thread and cut with a piece of quartz. The afterbirth must be laid in a place where the dogs cannot get at it. There is no kind of massaging the child as among the Copper Eskimos.[40]

Naming. As among all Eskimos, the principle in naming is naming the child after one who is dead; for names are looked upon as a rather separate part of man. Every child receives quite a number of names, but at any rate one of them is the name of the person who last died in the settlement or in the district. It is also said that the shaman consults the spirits and thus decides whose name the child is to bear.[41] The name taken from a deceased person must not, however, be taken into use before the child is a winter old, and after that time the mother is forbidden to eat eggs and caribou tongues. It is immaterial whether the child is of the same sex as the one whose name it receives, as the Caribou Eskimos do not differentiate between the names of men and women, even in cases where it would seem to be rather necessary. A male Coast Pâdlimio was called [uc·uɳialik], "provided with vulva", and one of his kinsmen [uc·upaluk] "bad vulva". The only thing is that in these cases certain considerations must be taken to the clothing as long as the person concerned is a child. What Bertelsen has written on original naming in West Greenland[42] applies on the whole here: "In the use of a word as a name its meaning plays no part whatever, nor does its euphony, clang, etc. It is the use of the name in the family which gives it value". The following is a list of the names which I have found in use among the Caribou Eskimos.[43]

  1. agluᴀq (♂ Q), breathing hole, fishing-hole.
  2. ailitᴀq (♂ Hn), wall-skin.
  3. a·jautuᴀq (♀ Hn).
  4. ak·ak·aut (♂ I.-P).
  5. akilᴀq (♀ Q) he on the other side?
  6. ak·iutᴀq (♂ Q), barbs.
  7. akulᴀq (♂ Q), fork of the legs.
  8. akumalik (♀ Q).
  9. akxa·lun·ᴀ·q (♂ Hn).
  10. alᴇrtikxᴀ·q (♂ Hn. Q), stocking skin.
  11. alikam·iᴀq (♀ Hn).
  12. aᵘmᴀ·q (♂ C-P) spark.
  13. amarɔq (♂ Q), wolf.
  14. amaut (♀ Hn), back-pouch on woman's frock.
  15. amᴇq (♀ Q), skin.
  16. anal·ak (♂ Hn), little excrement.
  17. analun·ᴀ·q (♀ Hn).
  18. an·anaut (♂,♀ Q) the desired.
  19. anᴀq (♂,♀ C-P), excrement.
  20. anik·ᴀq (♂ I-P, C-P).
  21. aɳalik (♂ C-P) he who has a maternal uncle.
  22. aɳaɳai (♀ Q).
  23. aɳatᴀq (♂ C-P).
  24. aɳiut (♂ C-P).
  25. aɳorajᴀq (♂ Hn).
  26. aɳut (♂ I-P), man.
  27. aɳuta·ratᴀq (♂ Q).
  28. aɳuti·ᵗnᴀ·q (♂ Hn), the handsome man.
  29. aɔrualᴀ·q (♂ C-P). he who will hunt seal on ice.
  30. apqutain·ᴀq (♂ I-P), only a way.
  31. aqikxᴀq (♂ Hv), ptarmigan chicken.
  32. aqigʒivik (♂ C-P), rock ptarmigan.
  33. ᴀqpakuluk (♂ C-P), bad merganser.
  34. ᴀqpaluᴀq (♂ Hv), merganser.
  35. ᴀqtorun·e (♂ Q).
  36. ᴀ·rᵈluɳajuk (♀ C-P), she who struts.
  37. ãrnahuɳᴀ·q (♀ Hv), she who resembles a woman.
  38. ãrnajuin·ᴀq (♂ Hn) only a woman.
  39. ãrnaujuktuᴀq (♂ Hn), the bad woman.
  40. ãrnäluᴀq (♀ Hv), woman.
  41. ãrna·lugin·ᴀq (♀ C-P), only a woman.
  42. ãrna·luthuᴀq (♀ I-P), the bad woman.
  43. ãrnᴀq (♀ C-P), woman.
  44. ãrnᴀrqik (♀ Hv) very much a woman.
  45. ãrnaraujᴀq (♂ C-P), only a woman.
  46. ãrnatqɔq (♂ Hn).
  47. ãrnaulᴀ·q (♀ C-P), she who resembles a woman.
  48. ᴀrqa·tnᴀq (♀ Q), the great lullaby.
  49. ᴀrqauc·iᴀq (♂ C-P), a lullaby is made.
  50. ᴀrqiᴀq (♀ Q), birthday companion.
  51. ᴀ·ʀuᴀq (♀ Q), hopping song.
  52. ᴀrviut (♀ C-P), whaling knife.
  53. ataɳalᴀ·q (♂ Q).
  54. ataɳa·nᴀ·q (♂ Hn).
  55. ataɳ·at (♂,♀ Q).
  56. at·ᴀrta·lik (♀ I-P), supplied with "hose".
  57. at·ataɔq (♀ C-P), "hose".
  58. atiakuluk (♂ I-P), little name.
  59. atkajuk (♂ Hv).
  60. atqᴀralᴀ·q (♀ I-P), the little one who comes down to one.
  61. atqikxaut (♂ C-P).
  62. at·uät (♀ Hn).
  63. atuɳᴀq (♀ Q) sole.
  64. atuk (♂ C-P).
  65. auliɳ·uᴀq (♀ Hv), the little bloody one.
  66. aumäk (♂ C-P), "you are on"}} (cry when playing catch).
  67. aurac·iᴀq (♂ Q), the rather little sleeve.
  68. auʷane (♂ I-P), northwards.
  69. a·vᴀqtalik (♀ Q).
  70. aviᴀq (♀ Hn).
  71. eqipᴇriᴀq (♀ C-P).
  72. ᴇʳqa·t (♂ Q).
  73. ᴇʳqe· (♂ C-P), corner of mouth.
  74. ᴇʳqo·mᴇq (♂ I-P) involuntarily passed excrement.
  75. ᴇʳqɔrtujuic·ɔq (♀ C-P), she who never washes her behind.
  76. ᴇʳquin·ᴀq (♀ Q), only a behind.
  77. ᴇʳquk (♂ Q, ♀ C-P), behind.
  78. haki’ᵗnᴀq (♀ Hn, Q), only a mother-in-law.
  79. halequthi’ᵈʒuᴀq (♂ C-P).
  80. han·alun·ᴀ·q (♀ C-P).
  81. ha’nuhᴀq (♀ Hv).
  82. hᴀrjut (♀ C-P).
  83. hᴀrpik (♂ Hv), whale (?) tail.
  84. hat·än·huᴀq (♂ C-P).
  85. haumik (♂,♀ C-P), left-handed.
  86. havikatᴀ·q (♂ Q), he who is touched with a knife.
  87. havrᴀq (♀ C-P), sandpiper.
  88. hᴇrqubloralᴀ·q (♀ C-P).
  89. hiätolᴀ·q (♂ Hn).
  90. higʒariᴀq (♀ C-P), sandpiper.
  91. hikithaut (♀ C-P).
  92. hiki’ᵗkaɔq (qHv).
  93. hiki’ᵗkuᴀq (♂ C-P).
  94. hiki’ᵗxᴀ·q (♂ C-P).
  95. hikoliᴀq (♀ C-P), winter ice.
  96. hiliktɔq (♂ Hv,Q), the fat one.
  97. hiloalᴀ·q (♀ Q), little carcass.
  98. hilo·ran·ᴀ·q (♀ C-P, I-P), little carcass.
  99. himɳᴀ·q (♂ Q), last block (in roof of snow house).
  100. hinihaɔq (♀ C-P), she who has just awoke
  101. hiuterɔq (♀ C-P), snail.
  102. hujaupᴇq (♀ C-P).
  103. hukpᴀ·q (♂ C-P).
  104. huluk (♀ C-P), wing.
  105. huɳa·nᴀ·q (♀ Hn) little gall-bladder.
  106. huɳauja·lik (♀ Hn), she who has beads
  107. huta·räthuᴀq (♂ I-P).
  108. huʷakxuk (♀ I-P).
  109. igluin·ᴀq (♂ Q), only the half.
  110. igʒuᴀ·rʒuk (♂ I-P), strange testicle.
  111. ihuɳ·ᴀq (♂ Hn), jaeger.
  112. ijauk (♂ C-P), his eyes.
  113. ije (♀ Hv), eye.
  114. ik·alruk (♂,♀ C-P), cut.
  115. ikaqauhe (♀ Hn).
  116. iko·tᴀq (♂ I-P), drill.
  117. iktulukä’ᵗnᴀq (♀ Hv) the elder.
  118. iliac·ɔq (♂ Q), without kin.
  119. ilaɳiatᴀq (♀ C-P).
  120. ila’ᵗnᴀ·q (♂ Q), fellow-traveller.
  121. ilautu’nᴀ·q (♀ Hn) without kin.
  122. iluɳmiᴀq (♂ C-P) who travels into the fjord.
  123. inäc·ialuk (♀ Q).
  124. iɳaujᴀq (♂ C-P). he who is like a cooking pot.
  125. iwitᴀ·rɔq (♀ Hn), fresh-water fish.
  126. kadläk (♀ C-P, I-P, Hn, Q), dirt.
  127. ka·dluk (♀ I-P), thunder.
  128. kakiviäkic·ɔq (♀ Q) she with the short upper lip.
  129. kaʟ·iᴀq (♀ Q).
  130. kaloran·ᴀq (♀ Hn).
  131. kam·aluak (♀ I-P).
  132. kaɳᴇrʒuaq (♂ Q), great headland.
  133. ka’Template:Missing characternaphᴇq (♂ C-P).
  134. kathalo (♂ I-P).
  135. kaukidla (♀ Hn).
  136. kaunᴀq (♀ C-P).
  137. kautᴀq (♂ I-P), hammer.
  138. ki·ᴀruk (♂ Hn).
  139. kiätᴀ·q (♂ Hv), the white skin.
  140. kidlɔq (♀ C-P), fireplace.
  141. kiguhiu’ᵗnᴀ·q (♂ C-P, ♀ I-P) the little one who is teething.
  142. kiguʃ·iɔq (♂ Q), he who is teething.
  143. kikiugalik (♀ Q).
  144. ki·na·lik (♀ C-P, I-P) she with a face.
  145. kiɳ·ᴀq (♂ Q), mountain.
  146. kiƀgᴀ·rʒuk (♀ I-P), the gnawed-off bone.
  147. kipi·ᴀq (♀ Hv).
  148. kit·a·lᴀq (♂ Hv), little strip of skin.
  149. kit·ᴀq (♂ Hn), strip of skin.
  150. ki·viᴀq (♂ Q), boil.
  151. ku·gᴀq (♂ Hn), little brook.
  152. kuk·ilit (♀ C-P), pin.
  153. kuko (♀ P).
  154. kumᴀq (♀ C-P), louse.
  155. kunihuɳᴀq (qC-P), kiss . . . (?)
  156. kunuk (♂ C-P).
  157. kuɳo (♀ C-P).
  158. kupik (♂ C-P).
  159. mamaɳ (♂ Hv).
  160. mamɳᴀq (♂ Hn).
  161. man·ik (♀ Q), egg.
  162. manrelik (♀ I-P), she who has pus.
  163. maɳnali’ᵗnᴀ·q (♂ Hv).
  164. maqa·jᴀq (♀ Q).
  165. ma·tit (♂ Q).
  166. mautarätnᴀ·q (♂ Q).
  167. mikijuɳ·uᴀq (♀ C-P), the little one.
  168. mikiɳ·uᴀq (♀ Hv), the little one.
  169. miluk (♀ C-P), nipple.
  170. milukᴀq (♂,♀, Hn), nipple.
  171. miʃera·lᴀq (♂ Q), little soup-fat.
  172. nan·aɔq (♂ C-P, ♀ Q).
  173. nan·auɳnᴀ·q (♀ Q).
  174. na’ƀvanᴀq (♀ C-P).
  175. naria·ɳᴇq (♂ Hv).
  176. natilᴀ·q (♂ Q), little floor.
  177. na·tnia·juk (♀ Hv).
  178. naukxauk (♂ C-P).
  179. nᴇqaituᴀq (♀ Q), big meat pot.
  180. nil·ᴀq (♂ Hv).
  181. niɔqtɔq (♂ Hv), bow-drill, igniter.
  182. nipikʃᴀq (♂ Q), who shall be voice.
  183. niviäk (♀ I-P), young girl.
  184. niviᴀrʃiᴀq (♀ Q), young girl.
  185. nuilrᴀ·q (♂ Hv), neck-opening (in the frock).
  186. nutᴀra·luk (♂ C-P), truly a child.
  187. oqäc·iᴀq (♂ Hn), messenger.
  188. oqaujᴀq (♀ Hn), she who is like a tongue.
  189. oqo·tᴀq (♂ C-P), shelter.
  190. ɔqʀɔriäk (♂ I-P), quartzite.
  191. oroluk (♂ C-P), I-P), the peevish one.
  192. pa·dlᴇq (♀ Hn, Hv), willow twig.
  193. pamiɔq (♂ C-P, ♀ Q), tail.
  194. pamiu’ᵗnᴀ·q (♀ C-P), little tail.
  195. paniguniha’ᵗnᴀ·q (♀ Hv, I-P).
  196. panikuc·uapik (♀ Q).
  197. qaniɳajᴀq (♀ Hv, Q).
  198. papik (♂ Q), bird's tail.
  199. pat·uɳalᴀq (♀ Hn).
  200. pa·ulät (♂ Hn).
  201. pauɳrät (♀ Hn, ♂ Q), black crowberry.
  202. pidlrnᴇq (♂ C-P).
  203. pim·ᴇq (♀ C-P), leg meat.
  204. publa·quhic·uᴀq (♂ Q).
  205. pukᴇrᵈluk (♂ Hv), "dirty white".
  206. pukuthuᴀq (♂ C-P).
  207. qablue·iᴀq (♂ Hv, ♀ C-P, Q), rather small eyebrow.
  208. qabluna·rɔrnᴇq (♀ Hn), she who becomes a European.
  209. qadlᴇrnät (♂ Hn).
  210. qarɳorʒuᴀq (♂ Hn).
  211. qahäᵈluᴀq (♂ Hv, ♀ C-P).
  212. qahudlathiu·na·q (♀ C-P).
  213. qahulräc·iᴀq (♀ Hn).
  214. qaji·tɔq (♀ Q).
  215. qaᵈlut (♂ Hv). ladle.
  216. qapuk (♂ Hn), froth.
  217. qᴀqa (♀ C-P), pet.
  218. qᴀqimät (Hv).
  219. qaqʃauk (♀ Q), red-throated loon.
  220. qᴀritᴀq (♀ C-P).
  221. qᴀ·rlua·he (♂ Hv).
  222. qᴀrʃɔ·q (♂ Q).
  223. qᴀ’rtxe (♂ C-P).
  224. qᴀrtʟutɔ·q (♀ I-P), wild duck.
  225. qat·a·ʃuk (♀ Q).
  226. qathaut (♀ C-P) knife for scraping blubber.
  227. qatun·uᴀq (♀ I-P).
  228. qaumajɔq (♀ C-P), the shining one.
  229. qaumᴀq (♀ Q), light.
  230. qaumᴀrʃiᴀq (♂ Q), the expected light.
  231. qᴇqʟe (♂ Q).
  232. qᴇrquät (♂ Hn).
  233. qiᵈlᴇrᵈlᴇq (♀ C-P), she who is not shiny.
  234. qidlɔq (♂ Hn, C-P), carcass.
  235. qilulᴀ·q (♂ Q).
  236. qinuänᴀ·q (♂ Q), little raised beach.
  237. qinetqᴇq (♂ C-P), gland.
  238. qinorätnᴀ·q (♂ Q).
  239. qitᴇrdlᴇq (♀ C-P), middle finger.
  240. qitᴇrdliluk (♀ C-P), the bad middle-finger.
  241. qit·uvijɔq (♂ Hn).
  242. qo·hatnᴀ·q (♀ Hv), she who resembles urine.
  243. qo·qohiut (♀ Hv).
  244. qɔrᵈlɔrtuᴀrᵈʒuk (♂ Hn), the particular waterfall.
  245. quihahuat (♂ Hn).
  246. quinäkxaut (♀ Hn), she who is tickled.
  247. qukxuk (♂ C-P), swan.
  248. qulipʃiatᴀq (qHn), cooking pot.
  249. quɳᴀrʒuᴀq (♂ Q).
  250. qupanuᴀq (♀ C-P), snow-bunting.
  251. quƀvᴀrqᴀq (♂, qC-P).
  252. qu’ᵗnᴀ·q (♂ C-P).
  253. qutoruk (♂ C-P).
  254. ʃiluk (♀ Q), carcass.
  255. ʃiniʃiᴀq (♀ Q), she for whom one waits to fall asleep.
  256. ʃiɳi·e·ɔq (♂ Q), without boot-lace.
  257. tahiɔq (♂ Hv, ♀ Hn, C-P), crab.
  258. takät·uit (♀ Q).
  259. talᴇq (♂ I-P), upper arm.
  260. taleruk (♂ Q), seal flipper.
  261. taƀvatᴀ·q (♂ C-P, ♀ Hn).
  262. tarto (♂ Hn), kidney.
  263. tatan·ᴇq (♂ Hv).
  264. tik·ᴇq (♀ Hv), index-finger.
  265. tikiajᴀ·q (♀ Hv).
  266. to·nrᴀq (♀ Q), familiar spirit.
  267. tɔ·rʟäktᴀ·q (♀ Q).
  268. tuᵈlik (♂,♀ Q), great northern diver.
  269. tuktuic·ɔq (♂ C-P), he who has no caribou.
  270. tulugᴀrʒuᴀq (♀ Q), the big raven.
  271. tuɳɔ·rtuᴀq (♀ Hn).
  272. tu·pᴀq (♂ Q).
  273. tupᴇq (♂ Q), tent.
  274. uc·uk (♀ C-P), vulva.
  275. uc·upä·dlᴀ·q (♂ C-P) the bad vulva.
  276. uc·uɳialik (♂ C-P) she who has a vulva.
  277. uc·upaluk (♂ C-P), the bad vulva.
  278. uc·utᴀ·rma·ɔrnᴀ·q (♀ C-P).
  279. ugʒuk (♂ Q), bearded seal.
  280. ujarᴀq (♀ Q), stone.
  281. ujaupᴇq (♀ C-P).
  282. ujomrᴀq (♂ Q).
  283. ukpa (♂ C-P).
  284. ukpagᴀq (♂,♀ Q)
  285. ulaujuk (♂,♀ C-P, ♀ Hv).
  286. ulimaumik (♂ C-P), by means of an adze.
  287. ulimaut (♂ C-P), adze.
  288. ulin·ᴇq (♂ Hn), high-water.
  289. uliƀvᴀq (♂ Hn, C-P), poppy.
  290. uliut (♂ Hv). back-meat.
  291. uluapäɳ (♂ I-P).
  292. u·n·ᴇq (♀ C-P, I-P), a burn.
  293. ukiɳijᴀ·q (♂ I-P), he who is like an arm-pit.
  294. uɳahaimᴀ·q (♂ I-P).
  295. utahania (♂ I-P).
  296. utä’ᵗnᴀ·q (♂ Q).
  297. utkatᴀq (♀ Q).
  298. utɔrqᴀrᵈʒuaq (♀ Hn), the big old woman.
  299. utɔruthäk (♂ C-P).
  300. uʷajuk (♀ Hv).
  301. uʷaɳ·a (♂ Hn) I.
  302. uʷiɳajɔq (♂ C-P), slope.

This number of names really seems imposing for a population of barely 500 individuals, especially having regard to the fact that the list is by no means exhaustive. Everyone who knows the Eskimos' frequent use of names with a sexual meaning will wonder that not one of those given above is derived from [uhuk], penis. This may only be accidental, in other words the list might be capable of extension. Nevertheless, a list of all Danish christian names is only about three times as long, despite the fact that it not only includes genuine Scandinavian names, but many of Hebrew, Greek, Latin, German and other origin.[44] Probably the English real christian names are still fewer than the Danish.

Many of the names are difficult to translate; some of them, such as [kunuk], no longer have any meaning. The sources from which they have been taken are, as in Greenland,[45] conspicuous marks, parts of the body, etc. of both animals and human beings, implements in daily use and the surrounding nature, especially the animal world; but with regard to the latter it is remarkable, as Bertelsen also points out with regard to the Greenland names, that the Eskimos dislike to use the names of the animals they hunt. This is only natural, having regard to the magical ideas which they attach to the name.

In one respect regarding just these magical ideas the Caribou Eskimos, as well as the other Central tribes I have met, differ from Greenlanders and Labrador Eskimos on the one side and Western Eskimos on the other. This is the well-known shyness of mentioning their own names, which one does not notice at all in the regions west of Hudson Bay. Otherwise it is only reasonable that the great importance of the name is reflected in another manner in religious matters. Thus two bearing the same name must not marry. If two people named after the same person meet, one of them must for the time being relinquish his name after he has given the other a present, and in the meantime he is simply called "his name fellow".[46] A shaman may, however, command that the name be retained.

In West Greenland and the Thule district there is the custom that two persons who call each other [iligi·k] must not mention each other's name or speak to each other. It may be that originally there was some religious idea behind this, but now it is only a sort of fun. Some Caribou Eskimos averred that they knew nothing whatever of anything of the kind, whereas others believed that they had heard that two must not mention each other's name, but otherwise might very well talk together. In this case, too, it was only done for fun.

In adressing a person the name is used less than among whites. Not only do children address their parents by the natural "father" and "mother", but on the whole the terms of relationship are generally Fig. 108.A Pâdlimio mother with her baby in the back pouch. Sentry Island. used in the vocative: [pani·k] daughter, [ᴇrni·k] son, and so on. Pet names for small children are very common and they often have just as pronounced a sexual meaning as the proper names. Two women having the same husband address each other as [igloqätiga], "my housemate". A shaman at Hikoligjuaq always said [naja·k] "younger sister", to the younger of his two wives, these being thereby more or less regarded as sisters. The same was the case in an Arviligjuarmiut family.[47]

Childhood. One cannot say that there is a lack of purposeful education among the Caribou Eskimos, as the parents little by little teach their children what they think is right. It might rather be said that there is a want of systematic education, but I am not sure even of that, for the necessary manual accomplishments and moral principles, however primitive they may be, are gradually impressed upon the children. It is true that one does not notice Eskimo upbringing much. No parent will ever beat his child. Of the Eskimos at Hudson Bay Gilder says: "Nothing would seem more abhorrent to an Esquimau mind than the thought of striking a man or boy; but to strike a woman or girl is, on the contrary, quite proper, and, indeed, laudable".[48] The latter is nonsense, of course. It is one of those cheap phrases that look "interesting". A man may beat his wife in anger, but it can never be "laudable", for one reason because he who gives full vent to his anger loses, just because of this, the right to become angry, according to Eskimo ideas. But he will certainly never strike his daughter. It is possible that Turquetil is right in saying that the unwillingness to strike children originates from the belief in the connection between the inherited name and the ancestors.[49]

The children are allowed to do practically as they like. Naturally they are not angels and, from the time when they become old enough to be naughty and until they understand that they ought to be good — between about three and seven years — they are sometimes bad; but on the whole they are astonishingly obedient and well brought up. The hare is the "bogey man" of the Eskimo children. "Look out, the hare is coming!" is the standing cry for frightening children into being good. If this does not work, the parents give it up. Even when there is really something at. stake they do not take more forcible measures. I remember the days when we starved together with the Eskimos on lower Kazan River. The only game to be had were ptarmigan and, owing to lack of ammunition, they had to be knocked over by stones or shot with the bow and arrow. Our already slender chances on these occasions were constantly spoiled by a four year-old boy who insisted upon joining in the hunt and who always scared the birds away; but no one forbade him to go with us.

Children are looked upon as being particularly exposed to the influence of evil powers. For this reason our collection only includes one child's dress, and even then it is new; nothing would persuade any parent to sell clothing which their children had worn. They were even reluctant to part with urine scrapers. Among the Pâdlimiut on Sentry Island it was only with great dificulty that I was allowed to photograph the children. In other places this gave no trouble; but in some of these cases it was because no one suspected what a camera was. Many children, boys at any rate, are richly decorated with amulets. If a child dies while an infant, it is necessary that the next one to be born in the family be made unrecognisable to the evil spirits; it must, at any rate among the Qaernermiut, have a special dress (cf. p. 195).

Image missing
Fig. 109.Toy kayak.

Many children's games are a mimicry of the life and doings of the grown-ups. On Sentry Island, high up, there was a number of stone settings which represented kayaks.[50] They belong to an earlier period, whereas close to the Harvaqtôrmiut camp Nahiktartorvik, at lower Kazan River, there are two stone settings from recent times; they represent houses, or rather platforms, on which the little girls play "house-keeping".

A number of toys are copies of the possessions of the adults. From the Pâdlimiut at Hikoligjuaq there is a browband of brass with beadstrings and hair-sticks wound with red and black cloth, which are only toys (P 28: 58). From the coast band at Eskimo Point there is a toy sledge with four cross-slats, 54.5 cm long and 14 cm wide (P 28: 236). On Sentry Island, close to a grave but hardly belonging to it, we found a small wooden kayak, 12 cm long, of typical shape with long stem and stern (P 20: 34; fig. 109). From the Hauneqtôrmiut the collection contains a miniature snow-knife of ivory, 9.2 cm long (P 28: 237); this, too, is a toy.

Proper toys are not lacking either. The girls have dolls, sing. [inuʷiᴀq], actually: something which resembles man. Two dolls from the Pâdlimiut, south of Hikoligjuaq, are of caribou skin and represent a man and a woman in their under dress (P 28: 217 and 218 fig. 110 a–b); the faces are not indicated on either of them. The woman doll has the hood turned up and is 47 cm long; the other is 37 cm. From Baker Lake there is another doll, 29 cm long (P 28: 219; fig. 110 c). On this the hood is down and it has long hair-sticks. Much more primitive are the dolls of bone, dressed with strips of skin and wool, figured by Boas.[51]

A common toy is the buzz [imiglutᴀq]. A specimen from the Pâdlimiut, Hikoligjuaq, consists of a circular disc of unhaired caribou skin with a diameter of 6 cm and two small holes in the middle (P 28:1 231; fig. 103 a). A sinew-cord runs through both holes and forms a small loop, whilst the two free ends are furnished with two small strips of hairy sealskin. The total length of the cord is 60 cm. By holding the cord at both ends and first swinging the disc a few times. round so that the cord becomes twisted, the disc can be made to Image missingFig. 110.Dolls. rotate rapidly with a buzzing sound by alternately bringing the hands. closer together and further away from each other. From the regions. west of Hudson Bay Boas figures a buzz of bone or gristle.[52]

The wind-wheel [kaibʒᴀ·rtitᴀq] consists of a flat piece of wood pointed at both ends, the edges bevelled off at opposite sides like a very crude propeller. In the centre is a hole for the handle. When this toy is moved against the wind the wings revolve. A specimen from the Pâdlimiut at Hikoligjuaq is 30.5 by 6.7 cm (P 28: 228).

The bull-roarer [anoreʒiut] is also known. A bull-roarer from the Pâdlimiut at Hikoligjuaq is lanceolate, rather crooked, thickest along the middle line and with notched edges (P 28: 227; fig. 111 b). It is 29.5 cm long, 4.7 cm wide and to the rear end is fastened a sinew-cord, 80 cm long, ending in a loop for the hand. A pop-gun [hᴇrqɔrtaut] consists of a small tube, for instance a bird bone, through which the boys send a ball of chewed lichen by means of a rod. Finally the children also have whistles. Hanbury says: "They have also small flutes, like penny whistles, made of wood".[53] I have not seen these, but in the collection from the Qaernermiut at Baker Lake there is a whistle (P 28: 238; fig. 111a) made of a quill, the distal Image missingFig. 111.Whistle (a) and bull-roarer (b). end of which is cut off obliquely to form a long, thin point; a sound hole is cut near the proximal end. Length 19 cm. The bones in the head of the trout are also used as a kind of toy; according to their shape they are given various names such as "bear paw", "owl" etc. I have never seen a top, and unfortunately I neglected to enquire whether it is known. But as it is known to the Netsilik and Iglulik tribes as well as many other Eskimos, it is very probable that the Caribou Eskimos have it too.

Many games require no particular toy or plaything. "Catch" is commonly played, and in the light summer evenings the camp resounds with [aumäk, aumäk], "you are on". Similar games are [amarogiᴀrnᴇq], in which some are "caribou" and others "wolves" who pursue them, and [to·nrawiᴀrnᴇq], which proceeds as follows: one of the players is a "spirit" [to·nrᴀq]. The other players must first lay a hand on his head and then run towards a rock, while the "spirit" chases them and upsets as many as possible. Those upset then become "spirits" too. The others approach the "spirits" as closely as they dare, but are again pursued by them, and thus the game continues until all have been caught.

Hide-and-seek is often played. It is called [ijeraunᴇq], as also a game which is very like "hunt the slipper". A player hides a small object. "Where is it?" [kutäic·ɔq], "it is gone". The others then search for it. In winter they play [hitorᴀ·rnᴇq], gliding down a slope on a caribou skin. The game of [ujiƀʒᴀ·rnᴇq] consists in several — always little girls, I believe — swinging round until they become dizzy. Boas mentions a game from the west coast of Hudson Bay: a man sits on a piece of ice shaped like a top and is whirled round and round;[54] but I do not know whether the Caribou Eskimos play it.

A special game for little girls is [qat·irwᴀq]. Two girls stand face to face, let their knees go quite slack and then bob quickly up and down by the ankles without lifting the toes from the ground; at the same time they jabber a rigmarole at incredible speed, ending with the words [jäpape, jäpape]. I have never succeeded in getting hold of any of the other words, and it proved quite hopeless to persuade one of the young ladies to repeat the rhyme at a reasonably human tempo. The Aivilingmiut assert that they have learnt this game from the Netsilik Eskimos, but I have seen Pâdlimiut girls playing it on Sentry Island, where at any rate direct Netsilik influence is out of the question. Perhaps it is only the rhyme used by the Aivilik girls which originates from the Netsiliks.

Another game for girls is [iktᴀrpᴀrnᴇq], hopping with bent knees alternately on the right and the left leg, almost like Russians do. Young girls amuse themselves sometimes by "playing", i. e. flipping the finger-nails against the upper teeth, commencing with the little finger; they are astonishingly adept at producing various tones in this manner.

Puberty. At the close of childhood there are no puberty ceremonies in the proper sense. The most marked is the change for the young girl who, at her first menstruation, assumes the long frock-hood. She must then eat with a man who is under taboo [aglᴇrtɔq], for instance owing to a death, whereby his taboo is removed; he is then called [tᴇrqiɳnajaigᴀq]. Otherwise only shamans may eat with menstruating women, and therefore at each period a woman must cook her food in a separate pot. She must not eat raw or rotten meat, and, the first time she menstruates after a birth, she must not eat the head of any animal.

Boys are regarded as grown up when they begin to really take an active part in the hunt. The first time a boy kills a caribou, it must be cut up in the house, which is otherwise taboo; the skin must be presented to a man and the meat must be eaten by everyone in the settlement except women and small children. When he has caught his first seal, all the men and women in the settlement must make a cut in the skin of its head. No woman may touch the blood, but the meat must be cooked and eaten by each sex separately, but with the usual exclusion of women with infant children. The heart must be eaten in the boy's own tent.

Marriage. As soon as a young man is able to keep a wife, he marries. Widows and widowers endeavour to marry again, for the single state is looked upon as almost an abnormity in these regions, where it is certainly true that it is not good for man to be alone. The few old widows and widowers to be found live with their relatives.

Name-fellowship is an obstacle to marriage. Near relations do not marry either; I have never heard of definite rules for this, however, and, even if there may be cases of incest, it is always an exception and regarded as being exceedingly reprehensible. Nor is there any clan or local exogamy, although McLennan believed he had found traces of the former among the Eskimos.[55]

To the poverty of strict marriage prohibitions corresponds an equally pronounced poverty of obligations to marry between certain persons. There is reason for emphasising this, as Sternberg and Jochelson considered they had found an obligatory group-marriage between cousins among the Aleut and the Pacific Eskimos, and the former author has on this basis set up a hypothesis that the Eskimos have formerly had a system of consanguinity similar to that which he describes from the Gilyak, a hypothesis which, even if the observations are correct, is untenable under any circumstance.[56] The only rule which may be interpreted as a marriage duty among the Caribou Eskimos is the levirate mentioned by Klutschak.[57] Although Klutschak is not always entirely reliable, it must be regarded as being very possible that the levirate has formerly been a more regular custom. Now, however, there does not seem to be any absolute duty of marrying a brother's widow; but it is a very widespread custom that a man leaves his wife to his brother when he is going on a journey and cannot take her with him. In this connection it ought also to be mentioned that, according to Hanbury, a boy and a girl born at the same time must marry each other.[58] I rather doubt that this is actually obligatory; on the other hand, as betrothals are usually decided soon after birth — Turquetil says at the naming[59] — this will very often take place.

Usually the young man has to pay for his bride;[60] a Qaernermio at Baker Lake paid a rifle for his wife. Sometimes the affair proceeds much more dramatically, however. As the family for some reason or other had opposed the marriage, the respected Pâdlimio shaman Igjugârjuk had acquired his wife in this manner: in the early morning he and his elder brother had crept in through the entrance to the snow house of his beloved and had shot father-in-law, mother-in-law, brothers and sisters-in-law, seven or eight people in all. The beautiful Kibgârjuk who had been the involuntary cause of this massacre, was now old and Igjugârjuk had taken a younger wife to him as well; but the whole family lived in most perfect harmony.

There is no fixed rule as to whether the newly married couple go to live with the parents of the bride or the bridegroom. They do what is most practical in each case; but often it is the bride who moves into the house of her parents-in-law. There is no wedding ceremony at all. It is true that Klutschak says that "unter den Kinipetu-Eskimos gebührt dem Ankut {{{1}}} das jus primae noctis";[61] but this is wrong. And what is more, even a slaman would have difficulty in finding a young girl who entered into marriage a virgin.

Boas writes: "When it happens that several men want to marry the same woman, all the older people meet in a large hut. The woman is made to stand in the centre, the several men take hold of her, and the strongest is allowed to marry her".[62] Stefánsson records a similar contest with antlers, which was said to have taken place among the Copper Eskimos, but Jenness describes it as "half legendary".[63] Turquetil mentions fist-fights about women, apparently of the same kind as the "juridical" duels.[64] This sounds more probable than Boas' statement, which came to him secondhand, and is perhaps the foundation of it.

Polygamy is rather common, even though most are content with one wife. Of 12 Hauneqtormiut families, three men have each two wives, and of 22 Coast Pâdlimiut families, five men have two wives each; this means that about 25 per cent. have two wives. On the other hand I know of no case of polyandry, which is common among the Netsilik Eskimos.

Marriage is dissolved as easily as it is contracted, and as a rule both parties go through more than one before they finally settle down. In case of divorce the woman takes her personal property and the children. But otherwise the children are the bond which holds the parents most strongly together. Statistical investigations in Greenland have shown that Eskimo women are not at all so unfruitful as was formerly supposed, and Knud Rasmussen has come to the same conclusion through his observations among the Netsilik Eskimos.[65] But the fact that nevertheless there are very few children in the marriages is the fault of the very high mortality among infants. Formerly there were cases of infanticide; whether it still takes place I cannot say. Children, i. e. boys, are the family's wealth, for they secure the parents against suffering want in their old age. Adoption is very general,[66] so much so that one or more of a large family of children is nearly always adopted by other — not merely childless couples. The parents are always paid a compensation for the child, who is given exactly the same position as the adoptive parents' own children.

It often happens that men lend out their wives for shorter or longer periods, or that two friends exchange wives for a time. This makes their friendship more firm. If a man becomes angry over his wife's unfaithfulness it is because this is an encroachment upon his rights; the next day it may easily happen that he himself lends her out. In the exchanging of wives Crawley sees an example of what he calls ngia ngiampe, a sort of "magical inoculation" which, in his opinion, is the foundation of a large number of marriage ceremonies.[67] There is hardly any doubt that this is correct with regard to the ritual exchanging, which is known from old-time Greenland and other places; but as regards the ordinary exchanging of wives there is no reason for such an assumption. Purely practical considerations often step in here, as for instance when one husband is going on a journey.

Relationship. Starcke reckoned the Eskimos as a people with patriarchal organisation, and Father Schmidt looks upon them. as an Ursprungsvolk within his vaterrechtlich-grossfamiliale Kreis, with the addition that there has been an admixture of matriarchal elements, which is mostly observable in Alaska.[68] The latter is indisputable and easily comprehensible, as the Eskimos there, both on the Asiatic and the American side, are in contact with tribes with a matriarchal system; but as I have formerly held, one cannot for this reason reckon the Eskimos as a whole as a patriarchal people. As among us, children are in reality looked upon as belonging equally to the father's and the mother's family, and the discussion on the patriarchate or matriarchate among the Eskimos is in reality idle.[69]

In Morgan's well-known work on Systems of Consanguinity there is a list of Eskimo terms of relationship which was compiled by the factor of the Hudson's Bay Company at York at that time.[70] Thus in all probability — as indeed is confirmed by various phonetic peculiarities — it must originate from the Caribou Eskimos; but it is very incomplete and badly spelled. Below is a list of the terms which I succeeded in elucidating:

Term Relating to both sexes Relating to males Relating to females
1. ila relative
2. aɳajɔrqᴀq forefather
3. ata·täc·iᴀq grandfather
4. ana·näc·iᴀq grandmother
5. ata·ta father
6. ana·na mother
7. uʷe husband
8. nulia wife
9. aɳununᴇq temporary husband (wife-exchanging)
10. ᴀrnaunᴇq temporary wife (wife-exchanging)
11. igloqät "joint wife"
12. ᴇrnᴇq son
13. panik daughter
14. qatäɳ·ut brothers and sisters
15. aɳajɔq elder brother elder sister
16. nukᴀq younger brother younger sister
17. aleqᴀq elder sister
18. najᴀq younger sister
19. anik elder brother
20. atqaluᴀq younger brother
21. akᴀ·q paternal uncle
22. acᴀ·q paternal aunt
23. aɳᴀ·q maternal uncle
24. ana·narajukxᴀ·q maternal aunt
25. aɳutiqät cousin on father's side
26. ᴀrnaqät cousin on mother's side
27. qaɳiᴀq brother's child
28. ujorɔq sister's child
29. ᴇrnikxᴀq? sister's son
30. panikxᴀq? sister's daughter
31. hake father-in-law
mother-in-law
32. niɳaɔq son-in-law sister's husband
33. ukuᴀq daughter-in-law brother's wife
34. hakiᴀq wife's brother husband's sister
35. aiga brother's wife
wife's sister
sister's husband
husband's brother
36 aɳajo·nrɔq wife's elder sister's husband husband's elder brother's wife
37. nuka·nrɔq wife's younger sister's husband husband's younger brother's wife
38. nulᴇq child's father-in-law
child's mother-in-law
39. aɳutikxa·q
tiguᴀqxe
adoptive father
40. ᴀrnᴀqxᴀ·q adoptive mother
41. tiguᴀq adoptive child
If we compare these terms with the corresponding terms of other Central tribes and Greenland[71] the profound conformity will be seen immediately, despite certain differences as to details. As Kroeber has shown, the terms of relationship may be expressions for eight different conditions: (1) the generations; (2) blood relationship or affinity; (3) lineal or collateral relationship; (4) sex of relatives; (5) sex of the connecting relation; (6) sex of person speaking; (7) age of the relative in the generation; (8) certain special conditions concerning the connecting relative, for instance whether the person concerned is dead or still alive, married or unmarried, etc..[72] In the Indo-European languages it is principally the first four points which are expressed, as in English, where they stamp all 21 terms with the exception of one, the word cousin, which indicates nothing of the sex.[73]

If we set up for comparison the general West Greenland terms and the foregoing terms from the Caribou Eskimos with the exception of Nos. 1–2, 7–11, 14 and 39–41, which can only be included in a figurative sense, the result is as follows:

Caribou Eskimos W. Green­land[74] English
Number of terms in all 30 35 21
Generations 28 33 21
Blood relationship or affinity 30 35 21
Lineal or collateral relationship 28 30 21
Sex of relatives 18 18 20
Sex of the connecting relative 12 10 0
Sex of the person speaking 13 13 0
Age in the generation 8 8 0
Condition of the connecting relative 0 0 0

This shows in the first place the great similarity in the principles of the terms of relationship of the Caribou Eskimos and the West Greenlanders, and, in the second place, that the Eskimos attach most importance to more or less the same conditions as the Indo-European languages, especially to the question of blood relationship or affinity, but that furthermore they often express conditions which seldom or never are expressed in the ordinary, European languages. The Caribou Eskimos differ from the West Greenlanders with regard to the terms of relationship on three points: (1) whilst in Greenland there is only one term for female and male cousin, the Caribou Eskimos differentiate between the paternal and the maternal side. (2) Among the Caribou Eskimos both men and women express "brother's child" by the same word, whereas in Greenland each sex uses its own term; on the other hand, the Caribou Eskimo women, I believe, use two words for sister's child, according to its sex. The Greenland specifying with regard to the sex of the person speaking in connection with the term for "brother's child" is apparently the original one. (3) On the other hand the Caribou Eskimos are apparently at a more primitive stage in the terms for children-in-law, brothers and sisters-in-law, where the meaning of certain Greenland terms seems to have been extended in the course of time.[75]

Morgan once set up the Eskimo system of relationship as a sort of supplement to what he called the "Ganowánian family" and, as already stated, Sternberg not many years ago believed he had found traces of a Turano-Ganowánian system among the Aleut and the Pacific Eskimos.[76] The reason why Morgan did not actually venture to include the Eskimo system in either the Ganowánian or the Turanian, but only attached it loosely to them, is because the classifying element among the Eskimos is restricted to a minimum; it is in all essentials descriptive.

But now, especially after Kroeber's investigations, it is no longer possible to maintain the sharp line between classifying and descriptive systems of relationship. And what is more, when we speak of "the classifying system" in general we are speaking of a scientific abstraction. There is not one, but an enormous number of classifying systems, each with more or fewer classifying terms. In reality, nothing justifies our assuming that they can all be explained from a single formular; for very probably here, as with the term totemism, things of widely different origin are concealed below a common, generalising label, and not even within the same system can it in advance be assumed that all terms have the same origin. Consequently it is to be supposed that classifying terms may have their root both in special social conditions — as Rivers has shown as regards various Pacific islands[77] — and in psychological and lingual peculiarities as Kroeber believes. With these factors it is possible to explain, i. a., the rather few and insignificant classifying elements in the Eskimo system, even though in one or two cases a particular social condition, the levirate, may also have had some influence.[78]

Disease. Fortunately, hardly any disease has yet spread so widely among the Caribou Eskimos that it may be said to be of social importance. This is true both of venereal diseases and tuberculosis. There are remarkably few cases of gonorrhoea and syphilis among them after such comparatively long intercourse with the American whalers. I have seen a few cases of consumption and some deformities which are presumably due to tuberculosis of the bone. But in spite of all uncleanliness, the hygienic conditions — the snow houses, which are frequently changed — are too good to allow tuberculosis to ravage. as in those places where the Eskimos have permanent winter houses. As a whole the Caribou Eskimos give the impression of being healthy, and among them no traveller is exposed to the incredible begging for medicines such as one immediately meets with among the Chipewyan; that they are nevertheless declining is perhaps due to occasional epidemics, but otherwise simply starvation.

On the other hand, old age with its infirmities soon comes. Rheumatism seems to be very common and the eyes of nearly all old people are inflamed round the edges. Nor is it rare that blindness accompanies old age. In spring of course there are always cases of snow-blindness and in winter frost bite.

Disease is believed to be due to supernatural forces[79] and consequently the art of healing is almost exclusively shamanistic. The shaman holds a séance and afterwards prescribes the rules which the patient must observe. Even for such simple cases as constipation, diarrhoea, snow-blindness, toothache and earache etc. there are no remedies. For headache a piece of skin is tied round the head. Wounds are bandaged with animal pellicle, and broken limbs are placed between wooden splints. Of actual remedies there are only wolf fat and pulverised, burned lamp moss, both of which are laid upon frost bites.

If anyone in the settlement is seriously ill, endeavours are made to prevent the spreading of the disease by invoking magical aid. This was done for instance at Eskimo Point in spring, when there were a number of stomach disorders, probably on account of bad drinking water. The people all come with presents to a young girl who has many amulets. They then stand in a circle, facing inwards, and the girl walks round the outside of the ring and touches each one with the frock on which the amulets are fastened. This gives strength to withstand the evil spirits.

Death. Life is harsh towards the Caribou Eskimos and old people are rare. If mortality statistics could be compiled for them they would be horrifying.[80] Nor is it seldom that old people or persons suffering from a disease come to the conclusion that life is more unbearable than death and, according to Eskimo ideas, they have the moral right to commit suicide. Suicide is not rare, and it is the duty of pious children to assist their parents in committing it. As a rule the method is hanging. But there is no doubt that it also happens that a sick person is left to die, either out of fear that the others will be unable to pull through when he is a burden to the family, or simply out of fear of coming into contact with death.

Death is dangerous and demands that the survivors observe a number of taboo rules, although otherwise they look death in the eyes with such stoical calm that, in the case of the passing away of others, they almost seem to be heartless. I will here merely mention some of the principal rules of the Qaernermiut:[81] If a person dies during the day, the corpse must be taken out of the dwelling at once; if at night, it must remain for three days if the person is a man, and five days in case of a woman. During all this time the others wail incessantly; no one may drive in a sledge, the women must wear their hair loose, etc., and at night all must sleep with a knife under their heads in order that the soul of the dead may do no harm. Everything that was in the house when death took place must lie out in the open air for the same period. The sledge must be set up on end beside the house of death, and travellers who see this sign stop their own sledge some way from the camp and walk up to it knife in hand. The deceased's relatives and those living in the house must observe special precautions. For instance, when a man dies, his housemates must not for a year cut bone or wood with a knife. A man who loses his wife may not go hunting until five days later, and he must sink the skin and half the meat of the first caribou or seal he catches into a lake or into the sea as the case may be.

Only old women and young girls may touch a corpse. If a man touches a dead body he must not hunt for a whole year. The corpse is doubled up and in this position is wrapped up in skin. During this work the person who enshrouds the body must wear mittens and afterwards she must carry her knife with her for three or five days, according to whether the deceased is a man or a woman. The corpse is brought to the burial place by the nearest relatives, who have plugged their nostrils with caribou hair. As the sledge must be left by the grave, the corpse is sometimes laid on a small sledge which is placed on top of the big one, and thus the latter can be taken home again. In addition, all the mourners must leave mittens and footwear by the grave; but for this reason they sometimes merely wind some Fig. 112.Grave at Eskimo Point. (Sketch by the author). pieces of skin about the feet. For a certain period the grave must be visited daily.

The Coast Pâdlimiut say that after a death no one may pluck birds for five days. A woman who has lost a relative must not scrape, sew or remove the hair from caribou skin for five days, and for a whole year she must eat neither caribou head nor marrow. A widow or a woman who has lost a child must not for a year look at any game and must call it by another name. While I was on Sentry Island a woman died. As death occurred at sunrise the other women in the settlement were allowed to sew and collect fuel, but only by day, and they were not to touch the platform skins. The men could go hunting but must not sleep on the ice (it was in the best sealing time, when they often reinained out the whole night). This lasted. five days and during the same period the sleeping place of the deceased had not to be touched, though she was buried immediately after death occurred.

The graves are single graves. At the coast some of them are fairly regular stone coffins, covered by heaps of stones, whereas others are more or less carefully built rings of stones (fig. 112), closed at the top by a stretched skin.[82] According to Turquetil, some Eskimos explain the use of the stone rings by saying that the rapid destruction of the corpse hastens the release of the soul.[83] At any rate this is, however, undoubtedly a secondary explanation. The woman just referred to was laid inside a fairly solidly built ring of stones, over which a piece. of brown canvas was stretched. Some coffins which I examined were, as the grave goods showed, quite recent, so that both burial methods. must be in use simultaneously. Nor has sex any influence upon the Fig. 113.Grave under a canoe. Eskimo Point. kind of grave. On the other hand it has something to do with the position of the body, as men and boys must be laid with their heads to the west, whereas women and girls lie head to the north.[84] As a rule a long pole is raised obliquely at one end, but I was unable to find out the reason. I have seen similar poles at graves at lower Kazan River;[85] but in the interior I have never been in a position to make examinations of graves because there I was always in company with Eskimos. Mgr. Turquetil at Chesterfield told me that north of Ennadai Lake, a little to the west of Kazan River, there is a big stone heap which the Eskimos continually add to as they journey past. It is said to be a grave. A similar custom is said to prevail among the Arviligjuarmiut at Pelly Bay and is also mentioned from the Aleut;[86] therefore it is not impossible that it is also known to the Pâdlimiut, although it must be very rare as I have never heard of it from the Eskimos or seen any grave of this kind. There is a peculiar kind of grave at Eskimo Point. Image missingFig. 114.Grave find.
Maguse River.
In it is a boy who was accidentally shot while in a canoe, i. e. this is the official story, whereas everyone knows that he was murdered by a playmate. He is now buried under the upturned canoe, over which a blanket is spread and held down by stones; alongside it is a box, presumably with grave goods (fig. 113).

The Harvaqtôrmiut assert that they never give grave goods. The Arviligjuarmiut at Pelly Bay said the same, for the reason that the dead might use the objects to do harm to the living. Both the Qaernermiut and the Coast Pâdlimiut, however, give the dead some of his possessions with him in the grave and expressly explain that they are for his use in another life. In some cases the grave goods are renewed, which of course is another proof that the placing of these objects by the grave is not due to the fear of the living to use them. At Chesterfield Inlet lies a woman who is given a new cotton dress every summer, and on a point north of Eskimo Point we found, among a lot of old grave goods, a quite new, white enamel mug with tea-leaves and wax matches. Some examples of recent graves and their contents will give an idea of their arrangement and what the dead may have use for in life on the other side.

On a point at the mouth of Maguse River there were twelve fairly recent graves, lying east-west; they were all of the open type, however, and wolves and foxes had long ago removed all traces of the bodies. In one grave, in fact, lay a dead wolf! By the side of one grave lay a kayak-ring but no other remains of the kayak, and by another were two woman's waist-belt buttons of wood (fig. 114 c–d), an oval soup ladle of wood (fig. 114 a), and a scraper with an iron blade and a handle of antler (fig. 114 b). The burial place was not further examined.

On the north side of a point just north of Eskimo Point there. were several tent-rings and meat caches and, not far away from them, there were about six graves (fig. 115). One of them was totally destroyed, presumably by wild beasts, and the grave goods were scattered about.[87] There was a broken muzzle-loading gun with a very long barrel, a kayak-ring, a snow-shovel, a reel for a fishing line, a drill, Fig. 115.Grave with raised pole. Point north of Eskimo Point. a home-made plane, several old tin cans etc. It was by this grave that the afore-mentioned mug with tea-leaves and matches lay. At the east. end of the grave there was a heap of stones and the remnant of a pole which had been erected.

Another grave consisted of a coffin, about 1.5 m long and 0.5 m wide, built regularly of large stones from east to west. The covering stones were supported by two poles. Smaller stones and gravel were piled over it. A neck-vertebra was the only part of the skeleton that was preserved. At the west end of the grave was a heap of stones in which a pole had been erected, and there was a small wooden box with a woman's knife, some rusty tin cups, a single hair stick, some glass beads, caribou and walrus teeth.

A third grave was likewise a closed coffin, the lid-stones being Image missingFig. 116.Grave find. Point north of Eskimo Point. supported by three poles laid along the grave and two cross pieces, one of which was a snow-beater (fig. 116 a). The interstices between the stones were filled with small stones and gravel. There was no skeleton in the grave. A pole stood obliquely in a small heap of stones at the east end, and at the south-east corner lay some of the grave goods, the remainder being close by in a little wooden box. There were remnants of a fishing net of common string, a steel fox-trap, a double-barrelled muzzle-loader, a gun-lock, powder horn (fig. 116 h) and hunting knife. There was also a rather heavy knife with a thick, lanceolate, iron blade 14.1 by 4.7 cm in size, inserted into a handle of bone which has a scarf face at the butt end and iron rivets (fig. 116 i); the handle is broken but still measures 17.4 cm. There were also a socket-piece for a weapon-shaft, leister prongs of musk-ox horn with barbs of iron (fig. 116 f), a bone dagger for caribou hunting (fig. 116 c), an arrow consisting of a hammered-out nail inserted in a wooden shaft with a scarf face, a whole and a half-finished bone sinker for a fishing hook, a large pivot of muskox horn for a swivel (fig. 116 g) and a smaller one of antler, as well as a curved, pointed toggle of musk-ox horn for a sledge draught-line (fig. 116 d). There were also found a two-edged snow knife (fig. 116 b), four home-made planes of various sizes, a shank and mouthpiece for a bow-drill (fig. 116 j, k), a large iron pail, three sucking tubes of bird bone, a pipe bowl of soapstone, a woman's brow band of brass, and a stone scraper (fig. 116 e). There are thus both men's and women's objects in this rich find; but there is hardly any doubt that they belong to the same grave.

Some other grave finds will be referred to in the analytical part in another connection, because their characteristic features are comprised in the information which they provide regarding certain changes in the culture in these regions.

  1. Among his instances of sexual taboo Crawley (1902; 50, 171) says that Eskimo men will not row in an umiak or eat in company with women; there is no question of any taboo on these points, however, but simply ordinary custom, which is not at all observed strictly and has no religious background.
  2. McDougall 1924; 62 seqq.
  3. Franklin 1828; 263.
  4. Birket-Smith 1924; 141 seqq.
  5. Mauss & Beuchat (1904–05; 115) contains some vague observations as to a clan system. Schurtz (1900; 122) and Webster (1908; 221) see in the use of masks the relics of secret societies.
  6. Ratzel 1909–1912; I 44 seqq.
  7. I point this out expressly because, if the case should arise, the Caribou Eskimos would be quite strange to the principle according to which the Canadian Government pays the so-called "treaty-money" to native tribes and which is just for the very purpose of acquiring equal rights for the whites to use the land of the tribes. I do not say that the Eskimos would welcome a white invasion in their country; but no one would contest the right of the whites to do so, a right which they possess simply because they are fellow beings! The Arviligjuarmiut have now in large numbers immigrated from Pelly Bay into the Aivilingmiut's area round Repulse Bay and Roe's Welcome without the latter tribe having made any protest against the exploitation of what, in our view, is their hunting ground. This feature in the social culture is of importance to a comprehension of how tribal changes can take place within the Eskimo area and ought to be remembered when, later on, I deal with the change in the composition of the coast population which seems to have taken place in the eighteenth century (See pt. II p. 14 seqq.).
  8. Rink 1862; 99 seq.
  9. I know an Iglulik shaman who, when his fellow-inhabitants of the settlement went over to Christianity, averred that out of regard for his familiar spirits he must not allow the Christians to share in his booty, whereas of course he could quite well partake of theirs. This gave rise to much scandal and some grumbling, and it was undoubtedly only his capacity as a shaman that made his behaviour possible, and then probably only for a time.
  10. Riedel 1902; 33 seqq. It will be seen that Koppers (Schmidt & Koppers s. a.; 404) is wrong in maintaining that "was der Eskimo erjagt, sei es Seehund oder Walross, das gehört ihm seiner Familie".
  11. On this point, too, the surroundings may have had an influence (Riedel 1902; 32).
  12. Gilbertson 1913–14; VI 369.
  13. Even though the snow does not of course melt during the winter, a pitfall will soon become useless owing to the drift.
  14. Knud Rasmussen 1925–26; I 156, 213 seqq.
  15. Klutschak 1881; 227 seq.
  16. Gilder s. a.; 242.
  17. König 1924–25; 784 seq.
  18. Knud Rasmussen 1925–26; I 205.
  19. Richardson 1851; I 367. Cf. Franklin 1828; 197 seq.
  20. Ibidem, I 362 footnote.
  21. Turquetil 1926; 424.
  22. This reminds one of Poul Egede (1788; 197) who writes from West Greenland, that a wind "is like an arrow, with a black and a white feather, which steer it".
  23. Cf. also Gilder s. a.; 45 seq.
  24. Jenness 1922; 66 fig. 14; 71 fig. 20 and elsewhere.
  25. Gilder s. a.; 43.
  26. Cf. the various samples in Knud Rasmussen 1925–26, I 151, 167, 203 seqq.
  27. Ibidem, I 204.
  28. Unfortunately, the plate was broken on the journey.
  29. This dance, by the way, is not a national one among the Chipewyan either, they have learned their dances from the Dogrib and Cree (Hearne 1795; 333). It corresponds nearly to the description of the dance among the latter (Cf. Drage 1748; I 220).
  30. Hanbury 1904; 67.
  31. Knud Rasmussen 1925–26; I 226.
  32. Hanbury 1904; pl. p. 2.
  33. A similar ball is used in Alaska in this way: it is suspended in the string, and the participants in the game try to kick at it, jumping with feet together. A ball of this kind is in the Thule collection, probably from King Island (P 32: 261).
  34. Cf. Gilder s. s.; 45. Klutschak 1881; 232. Boas 1907; 110.
  35. Boas 1907; 113. There are several of this sort in the Thule collection from the Netsilik tribes.
  36. Cf. Gilder s. a.; 45. Boas 1907; 110.
  37. Jenness 1924; 13 seqq. The terminology is that used by Haddon.
  38. Jenness 1924; 162.
  39. If the birth unexpectedly takes place in an ordinary snow house or tent, it must be left. (Turquetil 1926; 420).
  40. Jenness 1922; 165.
  41. Cf. Turquetil 1926; 421.
  42. Bertelsen 1918; 278 seq.
  43. Abbreviations: C-P, Coast Pâdlimiut; Hv, Harvaqtôrmiut; Hn, Hauneqtôrmiut; I-P, Inland Pâdlimiut: Q, Qaernermiut.
  44. Johs. Steenstrup: Mænds og Kvinders Navne i Danmark gennem Tiderne. København 1918.
  45. Cf. Bertelsen 1918; 279 seqq.
  46. Boas 1907; 466. Turquetil 1926; 421.
  47. Knud Rasmussen 1925–26; II 23.
  48. Gilder s. a.; 243.
  49. Turqueti 1926; 423.
  50. Cf. pt. II seq. of this work and the more detailed description I have given of the relics at this place in Mathiassen 1927; I 108 seqq.
  51. Boas 1907; 113 seq. fig. 166.
  52. Boas 1907; fig. 165 b.
  53. Hanbury 1904; 67.
  54. Boas 1907; 110 seq.
  55. Cf. Birket-Smith 1927 a; 100 seq.
  56. Sternberg 1913; 332 seq. and, in opposition to this, Birket-Smith 1927 a; 101 seqq.
  57. Klutschak 1881; 234.
  58. Hanbury 1904; 69.
  59. Turquetil 1926; 421. Cf. Klutschak 1881; 233.
  60. Cf. Gilder s. a.; 250. Turquetil 1926; 421.
  61. Klutschak 1881; 234. From here this assertion has passed into Westermarck's famous work (1893; 84).
  62. Boas 1907; 466.
  63. Stefánsson 1913; 159. Jenness 1922; 159.
  64. Turquetil 1926; 424.
  65. Knud Rasmussen 1925–26; II 133 seq. There is a comparison of statistical reports from Greenland in my paper "The Greenlanders of the Present Day" (Greenland, Vol. II).
  66. Cf. Gilder s. a.; 247.
  67. Crawley 1902; 248 f.
  68. Starcke 1888; 131. Schmidt & Koppers s. a.; 195, 261.
  69. Birket-Smith 1927 a; 96 seqq.
  70. Morgan 1871.
  71. Jenness 1922; 83 seq. Birket-Smith 1927 a; 99 seq. Ejusdem 1928; 41 seq.
  72. Kroeber 1909; 78 seq.
  73. Kroeber 1909; 79.
  74. Birket-Smith 1927 a; 103. There only two cases are indicated, in which the sex of the connecting relative is expressed. Through an error, which is cor- rected in the above, I had overlooked the fact that this is also expressed several other times.
  75. Birket-Smith 1927 a; 107 seq.
  76. Morgan 1871; 269. Sternberg 1913; 329, 332 seq.
  77. Rivers 1914; 10 seqq.
  78. Birket-Smith 1927 a; 107 seqq.
  79. Turquetil's expression, that disease is due to the spirits (1926; 429) is so far correct, but must not be understood as if the patient is possessed of an evil spirit. That this idea is nowadays to be found in West Greenland in cases of insanity is a result of the influence of Christianity.
  80. In Greenland, mortality is declining but is still much higher than in Denmark proper. A comparison of the statistical material from Greenland will be found in my paper "The Greenlanders of the Present Day" (Greenland, Vol. II).
  81. Low's descriptions of burial customs (1906; 165 seq.) are partly from the Aivilingmiut and partly from the Qaernermiut and rather incomplete. Boas description (1907; 515 seqq.) is more detailed, but not even here are the tribes kept separate. Cf. also Turquetil 1926; 432 seq.
  82. Graves are mentioned from Marble Island and the islands at Mistake Bay: (Ellis 1750; 154, 245); from an island which seems to be Sentry Island (Rae 1850; 22); from Hubbart Point (J. B. Tyrrell 1898; 101. Preble 1902; 20); from the mouth of Chesterfield Inlet (Hanbury 1904; 50).
  83. Turquetil 1926; 433.
  84. In contrast to this, age is the deciding factor among the Iglulik Eskimos (Lyon 1824; 371 seq.).
  85. J. B. Tyrrell (1898; 146) also mentions from Angikuni Lake that "un tombeau d'Esquimau était visiblement marqué, par des longs morceaux de bois posés verticalement".
  86. Cook & King 1785; II 519.
  87. The skull from this grave was brought home and, like the other parts of the skeletons which were collected by the Expedition, given to the University Normal-Anatomical Museum, Copenhagen.