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>K^'>

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W

ESKIMO LIFE

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

THE'FIUST CROSSING OV GUEKNLAXl)

W'il/i iilimi-r4iii< 1 1 III. It rnt II I II. t mill ii Mii/i
Clieap Eilitioii. Crown >>vo. Tv. <;>/

Loii.loii : r,f>N(;MAN.-. (.I!i;EN. AND <0.
ami NEW VOItK I". K\sr l.;tli HTIiKKr

■'^

■f

If : ^

T.«

A HUNTKIt, HIS WIFE, AND A VorN<; V.lMh (WKST COAST OK (iUEKNLANO)

'^■•>>.^.

ESKIMO LIFE

FlMiMhM

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UL>rKH, 'M.^i V.MKK, AM) A V(>!>^ MUL (WE-T CUAHT Oi (. REKNLAN1>;

ESKIMO LIFE

'•'i^nrr.for nax.skx

^' iiiuK (l^ • I II,

"">' ni..s-,I.V.. ,,1 ..MKIM.ANI.

TIJANSLATEJ) r.V WILMa.M AKCIIKR

'•77'//- ILLUSTRATIONS

\ \ fY *Th>4s •/L*. •'

LOXJ)OX
LOXGMAX^, GHEEX, AXJJ CO

AND NEW YORK: i:j EAST l,^- STKEKT

All righln r-tfrrr,/

01U7-11

• •• •

> • t • • a
••■• ••••

• ^ t

TRANS LATOirs I'RJ^FACJO.

"■t..»la,io,, I.,.. y„„s,.„ v,.n ,.n.-..lully n.vi,«l ,he
text, and mud,. imimToi.s ...x.-isi,,,,.. a,,,! aiWitiou,.
Tims fh,. li.ll.nvi ,g ,,a,u.e,s H-ill 1„. (buml i„ ,|ill,.r i„
several particulars Inrni il,,- \o,»-,..ia,. original. I
aW. ,vqu,.«te,l a,„l ,eceive,l Dr. N'ai,s,.„-. ,„M-,uissio,i
to s..ppr,.s.s o,.f or two esperially na„s,,,„.s ,l,.,ails of
Eskimo ma„„..r.s, wl,i,.h «.,.,„«1 ,oi,av<. „o panic.lar
ethnolofjical .sig„ifi,..nnc,.. TIm- ...x.-isics nmck- o„
this score, however; prohahly ,1„ „ol a,uo.,„. ,o
half a page in all.

Dr. Nause.i .,ugge,,te,l ll.at I should Collo-.v ihe
example of Dr. Ri,.k in his • Tales and ■|Vaditious of
the Eskiu.o.' and treat ihe word 'Eskimo' as in-
declinable. I have ventured, ho^ve^•er, to o^■e.•r,de

1.\-V J«0.

KSKIJlo |,|i.|.:

It!

his suf..;,.-..sli,m. Tlim- is p.veclem for l,«,I, 'Eskini,.'
and • Kskimo-s' a.s ,1„. pl,„,,l f„,,„ . ,,„j „.,,^^^ ^,^^_.^

is any ohoir. ..t all. it s.en.s o„ly raiional to prefer
tlie reiiular declciision.

I.. Chapters XIII. a,„l XIV, l.r. Xn„sen ttaturally
makes mtmerous references to tliat .ureat, storel.ot.se
of Greenlatt.l folk-lore, Dr. Ri„k's ' Rkitno Sa,.,, og
Evet.tyr,' winch has bee., translate,! and ron.lense.l
by the author hi,n,s,.lf, under the above-tueniioned
title. Where it was possible, I have aWen the
reference to the English editioti: but in oases where
tlie text has been very fr,.ely condensed or expur-
gated, I have referred to the Danish original as well.
Even where I have not ,lone so, .studetus of folk-lore
may be a.lvise.l to -o back to the original text,
which is often fuller an.l „,„,« characteristic than'
the English version.

W. A.

AUTHOE'H PEEFACE.

For .„h. whole winter we were e„t o/I' froni ,1,, world
•in.l l,Mm„re,l amon,^- the Greeiilaiulers. I .hvelt in
tlieir h„t«, took par, in tluMr hutUino-, an.l trie,!, as
vvell as I co„l<l, to live their life a,ul lear,, tlieir lan-
guage. Jint one winter, unfortimately, is far too
Aon a time in whic^li to attain a thoron.oh knowledoe
of so peonhar a people, its civilisation, and its wajs
of tho„,d,t-that would require vears of patient
study. Nevertheless, I have tried in this book to
reeord the impressions made npnn me by the Eskimo
and his polity, and have ..ought, as far as possible,
to s^ipport thetn by .ptotations from fortner authors.
There may eve., be things which a newcomer sees
»>ore clearly than an ob.server of many years' stan.l-
uig, who lives in their midst.

O.i many points, perhaps, the reader may not

Vlll

ESKIMO lAVK

tliiiik as I do. I caniiol, it is true, liiid that
whatever is is verv jjood; I am weak eiioueh to
feel compassion for a decUiiing ra>-*e, which is perhaps
l)e3^oiid all help, since it is already stung with the
^'enom of our civilisation. lUit I comfort myself
with the thought that at least no words of mine can
make the lot of this people worse than it is, and I
hope that the readei- will accept my o])servations in
the spirit in which they ar<' written. Amicus Plato,
arnicas Socrates, magis arnica ceritas — the truth before
everything. And if in some points I should appear
unreasonable, I must plead as my excuse that it is
scarcely possible to live for any tinie among these
people without conceiving an affection for them — for
that, one winter is more than enough.

During the long, dark evenings, as I sat in the
low earth-huts and gazed at the flame of the train-oil
lamps, I had ample time for reflection. It often
seemed to me that I could see these hardy children
of Nature pressing westward, stage by stage, in their
dog-sledges and in their wonderful skin-canoes, along
the barren ice-coasts ; I saw how thev fought their
way onward, and, little by little, perfected their in-

AUTIIOlf'S PlJKFAfK

geiiioiis implements and attained tlicii- masterly skill
in the chase. Hundreds, nay thousands, ol" years
passed, tribe after trilx' succumbed, wliile other and
stronger stocks survived — nnd 1 was filled with ad-
miration for a people which had emerged victorious
from the struggle with such inhospit.Mble natural
surroundings.

l^ut ill melaiicholv contrast to this insi)iritin«>-
picture of the past, tlie present and the future rose
before my eyes — a snd. a hopeless mist.

In Greenland the Eskimos fell in with Europeans.
First it was our Norwegian forefathers of the olden
times ; them they gradually overcame. Hut we i-e-
turned to the charge, this time bringing with us
Christianity and the products of civilisation; then
they succumbed, and are sinking ever lower and
lower. The world ])asses on with a pit\iiiL; shruo-
of the shoulders.

' What more can una sav ? Wlio's u |)ciin.\ the wcrsi-
Thouf,'li a be<,'«av l)o dead V '

But this people, too, has its feelings, like others;
it, too, rejoices in life and Nature, and bleeds under
our iron heel. If anvone doubts this, let him

Ilkai^agSj^lJIgujnMMj^urARM

■Vi.

fit

KSKi.Mo i.ii.i:

olxserve tlieir sympatJ.y witli (,„e anotlior, and flieir
'«'ve ior their children: nr let hhn read their
lej^'eiuLs.

Wlienever I saw iiLstaiices of the 8i./lerii,g and
inisery which we liave ].ro„o]ii npon them, tliat

reiiiiiaiit of a sense of justice wliich

IS s

till

f;o 1

found

in most of us stirred me

1 was filled with a 1

to indignation, and

Jiirning desire to send the truth

re^'erberatino• over the whole world. W
i)i-<»ught home to them, I thou-l
l)iiL awaken from their iudill

ere it oiK^e

pe()])le could not

erence, and at once make

<'■(

)')d the wrong thev had done,

Toor drean

ler

s not been better said ])efore. T]
the (Ireeidanders, as well as of otl

You have nothino' to sav wliich

le hapless lot of

has been set forth

lei- ' native ' race>

avail.

on many hands, and always without

But,

none the less, I felt I
conscience; it seemed t

must unburden n

(> nie a sacred duty to add

my protest to the rest. Aly pen, unhappily

too feeble: what I feel most d

is all

eeply I have failed

express : never have I longed more intensely for

a poet's gifts. I know v

erv well that mv

voice, too.

AITFIOirs PlfKFACL: jjj

Will be as a cry sent roifh over a Hat expanse of

(lesei-i, withoiil even mountains to echo it back. My

only lioi)e is to awaken Iktc nnd lliere a feelino- of

symi)atliy with the I'skimos and of sorrow for tlK^ij-
destiny.

FJ{TT)TJOF XAX.SKN.

Godtham;, Jasakki! :
November 1H91.

jgg^^^r^g^

i-n

li t
ill

I )

I:
ill I

11 r

ii!

CONTENTS.

I II \ r,
I.

II.

HI.

IV.

VI.

VJI.

VIII.

I.\.

\I.

XII.

XIII.

XIV.

XV.

XVI.

XVU.

<w!ki:nl.\\d and tiii: icskimo

AITKAKA.NCE AM) DIfESS

THE ' KAIAK ' AND ITS API'I RTKXA.VCE.S
THE E.SKIMO AT SEA

W.XTKR-U.MSES. TENTS. U,. MAX- BOAT., AM. KXCTRSIOXS

COOKEIiV AXI> DAINTIES

* IIAUACTKK ANIJ SOriAI. COMJITlONS

THE I'OSITION AND WOKK OF WOMEN

I.OVE AND -MAHKI \(;K .

MORALS

JLDI.IAL Pm>rEEDIN.:S_DRUM-DANCES AND KNTKIi-
TA IN. ME NTS .

MIONTAE . METS -ART ^ MUSIC- i'OKTRY-ESKIMO NARRA-

Ti\i:s

RELIGIOUS IDEAS

THE IXTRODKTIUN (.F (11 1; ivn A N ITV

ElliOl'EANS AND NATIVKS

WHAT HAVE Wi; AC'H1E\ ED ?

COXfLUSlON

I
18

8'J
U)(»
121

i;i8

1.57

i8t;
19;{

.301
.■?i;{
327
341

bsSSS^uSi^Sisai.

( 1

Fit

LIST OF ILr.USTKATIONS.

.\T(

i'i..\Ti:s.

A llrNTKi;. HIS Will. AM. A V.,rs(, (.hm, , \V,.>
Coast oi Ciin.KNi.AM')

''I'liK lJoi-M,t,i» S.N.iw-l ii.:li» >ti!KT(1iim, Cm.
AM) WiircK ri;n.,i Si.a id Si.a '

CoVKliINd A IvAIAK

'ThK IIkaI. TlllM I, IlAr.i B\. KUAI;l» TO

Tin: Si:a> '

iSl.AWAlil) I\ Sl.AlK H (.1 S|:AI.^
Hi:AL-lITNTIN(i ....

JjK1'oi;i: tiii: Wim.

A IvAlAK-^klAN i;i:>( UINO A CoMliADK

A KaIAK-.AIaN AITA* KKD |!V a \\'ALl;r>

Halibut- l'is}ii.\(i

An Eski.mo (\\s\\ ....

A Su.^niKi; JouKNhn

FXSHINO

A GUKKNLAMi 1)aN(K ....

A FioHi) Landscai'K ox Till-: 1vv>t Cuas

TlXUMIAKMIUT) ....

NoETHKKN Lights ■Tin. Dkad .vt I'lav '

III J iii'f piitji- "2

c.s

7»
7(i

114
lUO

XVI

Ki^JKIMo Mil:

¥■

il.i

mtO/MfUTS /X THE TEXT.

(illKKM.ASl.^ iM.no,; |),;,.;ss ( K.vsT CovsTI. (1) Mul.. (•nHtu..U.
(2i iMiiialc ("((stiiuic ....

r>i.Ai)iii:i!i»Ai;r .

* ' ' • • •

Tr\ifi'ooN • . . . .

Tin; IIkai) oi' tuk ||ai;i'()<i.\

La.vck

'rin;o\vi\.i-sTi(K WITH Diith-DAiir
TiiK I!ii!i>-i>ai;t 'I'iiijown . .

'l'lli;o\VIN.i-STI(K WITH HaI!1'0()\
KaIAK. skK\ Ki;O.M AliOVK

Kaiaiv-iuaaik

Ski TIO\ OK TIIK Kaiak

P\iii>M-: • . . .

IfAI.K-.rACKKT . ...

Whmlk-.Tackkt ....

I'^SKIMO VknTS and AlNiLLO .

I'Ai.K

. -US

. .'Ill

. .'IT

, :VJ

l;{

44
44

47
4!»
--)()

?-fi;

I ' \ • . K

. '2r,
. ;!4

. ;;('.

• ■)/
.!!)
10
12

i;5

44
44

47
4!»
.■)()
.")()

ESKIMO LIFE

CFIAFrEH I

niiRENLAM) A.VO THE ESKIMO

\ Gkee.vlaxd is ill a peculiar manner associated with
Norway and with tlie Norwegians. Our forefathers
were the first Europeans who found their way to
Its shores. In their open vessels the old Vikin..s
made their daring voyages, through tempests and
drift-ice, to tliis distant land of snows, settle.l there
throughout several centurie.,, and added it to the
domain of the Norwegian crown.

After the memory of its existence had practically
passed away, it was again one of our countrymen '
who, on behalf of a Norwegian company, founded
the second European settlement of the country.

It is poor, this land of the Eskimo, which we
have taken from him ; it has neither timber nor gold
to offer US-it is naked, lonely, hke no other land

' Hans Egede. Trans.
i^ ■ B

,um^'

2 KSKI.MO I. IKK

inli.'ihitcd ()t'in;ni. But In nil its iiMkcd poverty, how
hoiiiitit'iil it is ! ir Norway is <rl<»i'ioiis, Orcciil.'ind is
ill truth no less so. Wlicii one lias once seen it, liow
dear to him is its recollection! I do not know if
others feel as I do, but Tor nie it is toncdied with all
th(^ dream-like beanty of the fairyland of my childish
imaLiination. It seems as thonLdi I there lound our
own Xorwejiian scenery repeated in still nobler,
purer forms.

It is strong' and wild, this Nature, like m saga of
anti(jnit,y carven in ice and stone, yet with moods of
lyri<; delicacy and I'ehnement. It is like cold steel
with the shinunerinLX c<jlours of a snidit cloud
playing through it.

When I see glaciers and ice-mountains, my
thoughts fly to Greeidand wliere the glaciers are
vaster than anywhere else, where the ice-mountains
jut into a sea covered with icebergs and drift-ice.
When I hear loud encomiums on the progress of our
society, its great men and their great deeds, my
thoughts revert to the boundless snow-fields stretch-
ing white and serene in an urdiroken sweep from sea
to sea, high over what have once been fruitful
valleys and mountains. Some day, perhaps, a
similar snow-field will cover us all.

Everything in Greenland is simple and great —
white snow^ blue ice, naked, black rocks and peaks,

"\.

^■!

iny

tcli-

sea

tful

•>*

'«is

*\\

r-- i^

■<-»

\\ \

ril.'HKXLAXl) ANT) THE ESKIMO g

and (lark stonuy sea. Wlieu I see tlie sua sink
.^•lowniL^ into tlie waves, it recalls to uu^. the Green-
land sunsets, witli the islets and rocks floatin^r, as it
were, on the harnished surface of the 8niooth,"softly-
heaving sea, while inhind tlie peaks rise row on row
flushing in the evening light. And sometimes when
I see the sa^ter-life^ at home and watch the sa^ter-
girls and the grazing cows, I think of the tent-life
and the reindeer-herds oii the Greenland fiords and
uplands : I think of the screaming ptarmigan, the
moors and willow-copses, the lakes and vallevs in
among the mountains where the Eskimo 'lives
through his brief sunnner.

Bnt like nothing else is the Greenland winter-
night witli its flaming northern lights ; it is Nature's
own mystic spirit-dance.

Strange is the power which this land exercises
over tile mind ; but the race that inhabits it is not
less remarka])le than the land itself.

lie I^skn.io, more thai, .aiyone else, belongs to
the coast an,l the .ea. He dwells by the sea, upon
.t he seeks his s.,l,sisten,.e, it .ives hin. all the
necessaries „f hi« Hf,, ,„.,,, -^ ,^^ ,^_^^^^ ^^^^ ^^.^

journeys, ^.hether in his skh.canoes iu ,s,„,„„er, or
m h,s dog-sle<lges when it is ice-bo,,,,,! i„ winter,
liie sea ,s tl„,s the strongest influence in the life of
' Sieter. mountain cliillet. Tram.

a 2

ESKIMO MFE

the Eskimo; what wonder, then, if his soul reflects
its moods ? His mind chanL^es with the sea —
grave in the storm ; in sunshine and cahn full of
unfettered glee. He is a child of the sea, thought-
lessly gay like the playful wavelet, 1)ut sometimes
dark as the foaming tempest. One feeling chases
another from liis childlike mind as rapidly as, when
the storm has died down, the billows sijik to rest,
and the very memory of it has passed away.

The good things of life are very unequally
divided in this world. To some existence is so
easy that the}' need only plant a bread-fruit tree
in their youth, and their whole life is provided for.
Others, again, seem to be denied everything except
the strength to battle for life ; they must laboriously
wring from hostile Nature every mouthful of their
sustenance. They are sent forth to the outposts,
these i)eople ; they form the wings of the great army
of humanity in its constant struggle for the subjuga-
tion of nature.

Such a people are the Eskinu)s, and among the
most remarkable in existence. They are a living
proof of the rare f^iculty of the human being for
adapting himself to circumstances and spreading
over the face of the earth.

The Eskimo forms the extreme outpost towards
the infinite stillness of the regions of ice, and as far,

GKEENLANI) AM) THE ESKLMO fi

almost, as we liave forced our way to the north-
ward, we find traces left behind tlieni by tliis hardy
race.

The tracts which all others despise he has made
his own. I^)y dint of constant stru^-gle and slow
development, he learnt some things that none have
learnt better. Where for others the conditions which
make hfe possil)le came to an end, there life began
for him. lb; has (,'onie to love these regions ; they
are to him a world in which he himself embodies the
whole of the human race.^ Outside their limits he
conld not exist.

It is to this people that the following pages are
devoted.

The mutual resemblance of the diilerent tribes of
Eskimos is no less striking than their difference from
all other races in features, figure, implements and
weapons, and general manner of life.

A pure-bred Eskimo from Bering Straits is so
like a Greenlander +hat one cannot for a moment
doubt that they belong to the same race. Their
language, too, is so far alike that an Alaska Eskimo
and a Greenlander would probably, after some little
time, be able to converse without much difficulty.

The Eskimos call themselves inuit- that is to say, 'human
beings ' ; all other men they conceive as belonging to a different genus
c*" animals.

ESKIMO IJI'E

Captain Adrian Jacoljseu, wlio has travelled l)()th in
Greenland and in Alaska, told me that in Alaska he
(tonld niana<jfe to net alon*^ with the few words of
EsTiimo he had learnt in Greenland. These two
peoples are divided by a distance of abont o,()00
miles — something like the distance Ijetween London
and Afghanistan. Such unity of speech among races
so widely separated is probably unique in the history
of mankind.

The likeness between all the different tribes of
Eskimos, as well as their secluded position with
respect to other ])eoples, and the perfection of their
implements, might be taken to indicate that they are
of a very old race, in which e\erything has stiffened
into definite forms, which can now l)e but slowlv
altered. Other indications, however, seem to conflict
with such a hypothesis, and render it more probable
that the race was originally a small cne, which did
not until a comparatively late period develop to the
point at which we now find it, and spread over the
countries which it at present inhabits.

If it should seem difficult to understand, at first
sight, how they could have spread in a comparatively
short time over these wide tracts of country without
moving in great masses, as in the case of larger
migrations, we need only reflect that their present
inhospitable abiding-places can scarcely have been

'. .LAIkiaSBi.kiif^t.UtiMMX^fiai^^

GKEENLAND AXJ) TUE ESKIMO 7

inhabited, at any rate pennaneutly, ])elbre tliev took
possession of tlieni, and tliat tlierefore they had
uotliing to contend witli except nature itself.

The region now inliabited by the Eskimos stretches
li-oni the west coast of Jiering Straits over Ahiska
the nortli coast of NortI) America, the Xorth Ameri-
can groups of Arctic Ishuids, the west coast, and,
rniall}-, the east coast, of Greenhind.

By reason of liis absohitely sechided position, the
I^^sknno has given the anthropologists much trouble
^md the most contradictory opinions have been ad-
• vanced witli reference to his orio-iu

J>r. H. Kink, wlio lias made Greenland and its
people the study of his life, and is beyond con.pari-
son the greatest authority on the subject, holds that
the Esknno in.plen.ents and weapons-at any rate,
ior the greater part-may be traced to America
He regards it as probable that the Eskimos were once
a race dwelling in the interior of Alaska, where
there are stdl a considerable number of inland Fs-
knnos, and that they have migrated thence to the
coasts of the ice-sea. He further maintains that
then- speech is most closely connected with the
prmutne dialects of America, and that their legends
and customs recall those of the Indians.

One point among others, however, in which the
Eshmos differ from the Indians is the use of dog-

ESKIMO LIFE

sledges. With the exception of the Incas of Peru,
who used the llama as a beast of l)urdeii, no Ameri-
can aborigines employed animals either for drawing
or for carrvinL'. In this, then, the Eskimos more
resemble the races of the Asiatic polar regions.

But it would lead us too fjir afield if we were
to follow up this difficult scientific question, on which
the evidence is as yet by no means thoroughly
sifted. So much alone can we declare with any
assurance, that the Eskimos dwelt in comparatively
recent times on the coasts around ]3eriiig Straits
and Bering Sea — probably on the American side —
and liave thence, stage by stage, spread eastward
over Arctic America to Greenland.

It is in my judgment impossible to determine at
what time they reached Greenland and permanently
settled there. From what has already been said it
appears probable that the period was comparatively
late, but it does not seem to me established, as has
been asserted in several quarters, that we can con-
clude from the Icelandic sagas that thev first made
their appearance on the west coast of Greenland in
the fourteenth century. It certainly appears as
though the Norwegian colonies of Osterbygd and
Vesterbygd {i.e. Easter- and Wester-district or
settlement) were not until that period exposed to
serious attacks on the part of the ' Skrellings ' or

' i

: I

GIJKENLAM) AND TIIK KSKI.Mo

Eskimos, coining in l)Mn(ls from tlie nortli : but this
does not i)reclu(le the supposition that they had
occupied certain tracts of the west coast of Green-
huid long before that time and long before the
Xorwegians discovered the country. TJiey do not
seem to liave been settled upon the southern part
of the coast during tjie first four hundred years of
tlie Norwegian occupation, since they are not men-
tioned in the sagas; but it is expressly stated that
the first Xorwegians (Erik the Eed and others) who
canui to tlie country, found both in the I'^aster- and
the Wester-distri(^ts ruhis of human habitations,
fragments of l)oats, and stone implements, which
in their opinion must haye belonged to a feeble
folk, whom they therefore called ' Skrellings ' (or
' weakhngs '). We must accordingly conclude that
the ' f<krellings ' had been there preyiously ; and
as such remains were found in r)oth districts, it
seems that they could scarcely haye paid mere
passing yisits to tliem. It is not impossible that
the Eskimos might simply haye taken to their heels
when the Norwegian yiking-ships a])peared in the
offing; we, too, found them do so upon the east
coast ; but it does not seem at all probable that they
could yanish so rapidly as to let the Norwegians
catch no ghmpse of them. The proljability is, on
the whole, that at that time the permanent settle-

ESKIMO J.IFE

lueiits of the Eskiiuus wcr' I'lirtlier north on the
coast, jibove the 081 li degree of north Lititude, where
seals and whak's abound, and where ihey would first
arrive on their eourse from (lie northward^ (seep.
lo). Fi'oni tliese permanent settlements they pro-
bably, in Eskimo fashion, made frequent exeursions
of more or less duration to the more southerly \ydrt
of the west coast, and there left behind them the
traces which were first found. When the Nor-
wegian settlers began to range northwards they at
last came in contact with the Eskimos. Professor
G. Storm- is of opinion that this must first have
happened in the twelfth century.'' We read in the
' Historia Xor\e<Tfia3 ' that the hunters in the un-
settled disti'icts of north Greenland came ui^on an
undersized people whom they called ' Skrellings,'
and who used stone knives and arrow-points of
whalebone. As their more northern settlements
became over-populated, the Eskimos no doubt began
to migrate southwards in earnest ; and as the Nor-
wegians often dealt hardlv with them when thev

' North of the 68th degree they could kill seals and whales in
plenty from the ice all the winter through ; and this is a method of
hunting which they must have learnt further north, whore it would be
the most important of all for them.

• Gustav Storm : Studies on the Vineland Voyages, Extracts from
Mcmoircs dc In Socicto lioijale des Antiqiiaircs dii Nord, 1888, p. 53.

' The Eskimos themselves have several legends as to their en-
counters with the old Norsemen. See Rink : Tides and Traditions of
the EsTiimo, pp. 308-321.

(il{Ki:NF-.\M) AM) TIIK KSKLMO

met, they iiuiy eveiilually liave taken reveiio-c in tlio
fourteenth century by first (after lo41) atlackinir
and (U'vastatini,^ (>) the Wester-district, and hitcr
(loT'J) uiakin_ii- an exiK-dition a.uainst the Easter-
district, wliicli seems in the foHowhig ccmurv to
have been eiuii-ely destroyed." It was about this
tinu% accordingly, tliat the Eskimos probably eflected
their lirst i)enuanent settlements in tiie southern
parts of the country.

There is evidence in the Eskimo legends as well
of the battles between them aiul the old Xorsemen.
IJut from the same legends we also learn that there
was sometimes friendly intercourse between them;
indeed the Xorsemen are several times mentioned
with esteem. This appears to show that there was
no rooted hatred between ih( two races; and the
theory that the Eskimos carried on an actual war of
extermination against the settlers seems, uioreover,
in total conflict w-ith their charactei- as we now know

Some writers have oonoluded from the mciition of troll-womoii '
in the ' Flc)amaimasatra ' tliat so early as tlie year lOUO, or there-
abouts, Thorf,'ils Orrabeinslbstre must have eiicoimterea Ksldmos oa
the south-east coast of Greenland. But, as Professor Storm has
pointed out, the romantic character of this sa^M forbids us to base
any sueli inference upon it. It nuist also be remembered tliat the
extant manuscript dates from no earlier thim about 1400, Ion- after
the time when the Norsemen had come in contact with the Esldmos
on the west coast. Even if the Eskimos are meant hi the passa-o
about the troll-women, which is extremely doubtful, it may very well
be a late interpolation.

ESKIMO i;iFK

o
h

it. Thus it ran scarct'lv li.ivc bccji surli a war alone
tliat caused the downfall of the (•(>!( )]iy. We may,
perhaps, attrilnite it partly to natural deeUne due
to seehision iVoni the world, partly to absorption of
tlie race, Ijrouyht about bv tlie crossin«f of the two
stocks; Ibr tlie. Europeans of that iv^e were ])robably
no more inaccessible than tlujse of to-day to the
sedu(,'tions of Kskinio loveliness.

As to the route by which the Eskimos made
their way to the west coast of Greenland there has
been a <:ood deal of difrerence of o])ini()n. Dr. Kink
maintains that after passinL>- Smith's Sound the
Eskimos did not proceed southwards along the west
coast, Avhicli would seem their most natural course,
but turned northwards, rounded the noi'thernmost
])oint of the country, and came down alonu" the
east coast. In this way they mnst ultimately haye
approached the west coast from the southward, after
makintj; their way round the southern extremity of
Greenland. This opinion is mainly founded upon
the belief that Thomils Orral)einsfostre fell in with
Eskimos upon the east coast, and that this was the
Norsemen's first encounter with them. I have
already, in a note on the preceding page, remarked
on the untrust worthiness of this evidence ; and such
a theorA' as to the route of the Eskimo immioTation
stands, as we know, in direct conflict with the ac-

(il.'KKNLAM) AM) rili; KSKIMo

I. '5

counts given ill the sagus, iVuiii which it appears
(as above) thai tlie Eskimos came iVc^iii tiie north
ami not from tlie south, the West er-(listri(M liavino-
been deslfoyed before tlie Kaster-district. It appears,
moreover, thai we can draw the same <'onchision
from an Eskimo ti-adition in which their first en-
counter witli the ohl Xorsemen is descril)ed. In
former days, we are told, when the coast was still
very thinly po[)iilated, a Ijoatful of explorei's came
into CTodthaa])-fiord and saw there a large house
whose inhabitants were strange to them, not beiui,'
Kaladlit— that is, Eskimo. They had suddeidy come
upon the old Xorsemen. These, on their side, saw
the Kaladlit for the first time, and treated them in
the most friendly fashion. This happened, it will be
observed, in Godthaab-fiord, which was in the
ancient Wester-district — that is to say, the more
northern colony. There is another circumstance
which, to my thinking, renders improbable the route
conjectured by Dr. Eink, and that is that if they
made their way around the northern extremity of
the country, they must, while in these high latitudes,
have lived as the so-called Arctic Highlanders— that
is, the Eskimos of Cape York and northwards— now
do ; in other words, they must have subsisted chiefly
by hunting upon the ice, must have travelled in doc-
sledges, and, while in the far north, must have used

«l

KsKi.Mo 1,1 n-:

111

TiPitluT kaiaks nor woinaii-ljoals, sinco tlio soa, hv'mrt
usually ice-hound, oH'ci's little or no ojjjiort unity lor
kaiak-huutiuL!' «)i' lioatiuL' oi'uuy sort. It may not 1)(>
in its('lt'iin])ossible that, Avhcn they eaiiie I'liiMher south
and reached more ice-lVee ^^•atel•s a^ain, tliey may
have recovei'ed the art of buildinLi' woman-hoats and
kaiaks, of which sonu' tradition would in any case
sui'vive ; hut it seems iniprohahle, not to say im-
])ossihle, that after liaviuL^ lost the habit, of kaiak-
huntiuL'" thev should be able to master it afresh, and
to develop it, and all the a])pliances belonu-in^«' to it,
to a higher point oi" perfection than had elsewhere
been attained.

The most natui-al account of the nuitter, in my
0])inion, is that the l<]skimos, after crossing' Smith's
Sound (so far there can be no doubt about their
route), made their way scmtlnvards along the coast,
and subsequently ])assed from the west coast, around
the southern exti-emity of the country, up the east
coast. It is impossible to determine whether they
had reached the east coast and settled there l)e-
fore the Norsenu^n canu ^.> Greenland. On their
southward journey from Smith's Sound they nnist,
indeed, have met with a great obstacle in the
Melville ghicier (at about 77° north latitude), which
stands right out into the sea at a point at which
the coast is for a long distance unprotected by

(il.'HKM-AM) AM) TIIK llSKIMo

I.",

i^Innds. I'.ut, in tlu' lirst place, they may have hccii
ahlc to make tlicir way oiiwan] in die 1(.(. ,,i' the
(Iriff-icf : and. in llic second place, this dillicnltv is
at worst not no o-reat as tliose tliev iinist have en-
(■ouiitered in passin^L^ round the northern extreinitv of

•

Oreeidand. Moreover, tlie passa-e in an open boat

from Smith's J^onnd southward alonir the west coast

of nreonland to the Danish colonies lias been several

times aecomplished in recent years without, any par-

ticidar difliculty. In ojjposition to this tlieorv it

may, no doul)t,l)e alle,«ied that the East Oreeidanders

possess do<r-sledoes, which are not used on the

southern part of the west coast, where there is not

enough ice for them. I^ut if we remendjer with

what rapidity, comparatively speaking, the Eskimos

travel in their women-boats, and how fond they were

in former times of roaming up and down along the

coast— and when we take into account the fact that

from time immemorial dogs hayebeen kept alo lo- the

whole of the west coast — this o])jection seems to lose

its weight.

The Eskimos are at present spread over the
whole west coast of Greenland, right from Smith's
Sound to Cape Farewell. On the Danish part of the
west coast they number very nearly 10,000. On the
east coast, as we learn from the account of the Danish
wcmian-boat expedition of 1884-85, under Captain

•■t'

}■

lit

»t>

ESKIMO IJFH

IIoliii, there are Eskimos as far north as the Au^Tf-
nij,gsalik district (GG^ north hititude), their numbers
in the autumn of 1884 being in all o48. Further
north, as the Eskimos told Captain liohn, there were
no permanent settlements so far as they knew. They
often, however, made excursions to the noithward, pos-
sibly as far as to the GStli or 69th degree of latitude ;
and a year or two before two woman-boats had sailed
in that direction, and had never been heard of again.
It is uncertain whether there may not be Eskimos
upon the east coast further north than the 7()th de-
gree of latitude. Clavering is known to have found
one or two families of them in 1823 at about 74°
north latitude ; but since that time none have been
seen; and the German expedition which explored
that coast in 1869-70, and wintered there, found
houses and other remains, but no people, and there-
fore assumed that thev must have died out. The
Banish expedition of 1890 to Scoresl)y Sound,
under Lieutenant Eyder, reports the same experience.
It therefore seems probable that they have either
died out or have abandoned this part of Greenland.
This does not seem to me absolutely certain, however.
There may be small and confined Eskimo colonies in
these northern districts, or there may be a few no-
madic families whom no one has as yet come across.
This portion of the east coast nuist, in my opinion,

(

■■■**^ai^'«i^s¥-"

**n

GKEENLAXI) AND TFIE ESKIMO

he ([uite specially adapted for Eskimo ha^^itation, as
it is very rich in game. It tlierefore seems to me
strange that when once tlie Eskimos had arrived
tliere they should have goim away again ; nor does
it seem probable that they would die out in so excel-
lent a hunting-ground. If tliere are Eskimos upon
this north-east coast, their secluded position, debar-
ring them from all intercourse, direct or indirect,
with the outer world, must render them, from an
ethnological point of view, among the most interest-
ing people in existence.

F-SKTMO TJFE

CHAPTER II

APPEAKANCH AX I) DRESS

il'F

As I now sit down to descrilje these people, at such
a distance from them and from the scenery amid
which we Uved together, how vividly my first meetiut*'
with them, upon the east coast of Greenhxnd, stands uv-
fore my mind's eye ! I see two hrown hiughing count e-
nances, surrounded l)y long, coal-black hair, beaming,
even amid the ice, with bright contentment both with
themselves and the world, and full of the friendliest
good-humour, mingled with unaffected astonishment
at the appearance of the mar^'ellous strangers.

The pure-bred Eskimo would at first glance seem
to most of us Europeans anything but beautiful.

lie has a round, broad face, with large, coarse
features ; small, dark, sometimes rather oblique eyes ;
a flat nose, narrow (3etween the eyes and Ijroad at
the base ; round cheeks, bursting with fat ; a broad
mouth ; heavy, broad jaws ; which, together with the
round cheeks, give the lower part of the face a great
preponderance in the physiognomy. When the mouth
is drawn up in an oleaginous smile, two rows

)

U'PKAKAXCK A\l> IIIIKSS ,;,

Strong white teetli reveal tUemsolves. One re.'eives
the impression, upon the whole, of an admirable
ohewnio. apparatus, conveying pleasant su,.gestions
of raueh and good eating. But, at the same time
one traces in these features, espeoiallv in (hose of the
women, a certain touch of ingratiating petted soft-
ness.

To our way of tlm.king, such a face could scarcely
be described as beautiful; but how much prejudice
there ,s in our ideas of beauty ! I soon .-ame to fmd
these brown faces, gleaming with health and ht
really pleasing. They reflected the free life of nature'
a.id suggested to my mind pictures of blue sea, white'
glaciers, and glittering sunshine.

_ It was, however, chiefly the young that produced
this impression; an,l they soon srow old The
•shrunken, blear-eyed, hairless old women, remindin.-
^^.le of frost-bitten apples, were certainlv not beauti^
hih and yet there was a ..ertaiu style in them, too.
Toil had left its traces upoti their wrinkled counte-
iiances, but also a life of rude plenty and a habit of
good-humoured, hopeless resignation. There was
nothing of that vitreous hardness or desiccated dig-
nity which the school of life so often imprints up;„
aged countenances in other parts of the world

The half-caste race which has arisen upon the
west coast, of n.ingled Europeati and Eskimo blood,

C -J

ESKIMO J JFK

¥\

is apt to be, acrordiug to our ideas, handsomer tlian
the pure-bred Eskimos. They liave, as a rule, a
somewhat southern appearance, with their dark hair,
dark eyebrows and eyes, and brown complexion. A
remarkably Jewish cast of countenance sometimes
appears among them. Types of real beauty are by
no means rare — male as well as female. Yet there is
apt to be something feeble about these half-breeds.
The pure-i ' Eskimos undoubtedly seem more
oenuine and ht^. . ' h v.

It is a common error among us in Europe to
think of the Eskimos as a diminutive race. Though
no doubt smaller than the Scandinavian peoples, they
must be reckoned among the middle-sized races,
and I even found among those of purest breeding
men of nearly six feet in height. Their frame pro-
duces, on the whole, an impression of strength, espe-
cially the upper part of the body. The men have
broad shoulders, strong, muscular arms, and a good
chest ; but, on the other hand, one notices that their
thighs are comparatively narrow, and their legs not
particularly strong. When they get up in years,
therefore, they are apt to have an uncertain gait,
with knees slightly bent. This defective develop-
ment of the lower extremities must be ascribed, for
the most part, to the daily confinement in the cramped
kaiak.

■^•\

APPEAKANX'E AM) DIMISS

A noticeable physical characteristic of the women
appeared to me to be their comparatively narrow
hips, which we are apt to regard as inconsistent
with the type of feminine beauty. Tliey certainly
seemed to me considerably narrower than those of
European women ; but it is hard to say how much
of this effect is to be ascribed to difference of dress.
The Eskimo women, however, are remarkable for
their very small and well-formed hands and feet.
Their physique, as a whole, strikes one as sympa-
thetic and pleasing.

The complexion of the pure-bred Greenlander
is of a brownish or greyish yellow, and even
among the half-breeds a certain tinge of brownish
yellow is unmistakable. This natural darkness of
the skin, however, is generally much intensified,
especially in the case of men and old women'
by a total lack of cleanliness. As an indication'
of their habits in this particular, it will be suf-
ficient if I quote the concise description given by
our very reverend countryman, Hans Egede, of the
method of washing practised by the men in par-
ticular : ' They scrape the sweat off their faces with
a knife.'

The skin of new-born children is fair, and that
not merel3' because they have not yet had time to
grow dirty. Hans Egede Saabye noted long ago in his

*)•)

ESKIMO i.lFE

<•,!

Journal ' that cliildreii liave on the small of then*
back a bluish-black patch, about the size of a six-
penny piece, from which the dark colour of the skin
seems to spread as they urow older. Holm makes a
note to the same effect in his account of the east
coast.'- I cannot speak on the subject from personal
observation. It is perhaps worth noting that some-
thing similar is related of Japanese children.

Most of my readers have probably formed some
idea of the Eskimo costume from pictures (see
Frontispiece). They are probably aware that its
most noteworthy- neculiarity lies in the fact that the
women dress almost like the men. Tlieir costvnne is
certainly very much prettier and more sensible than
our ugly and awkward female fashions.

In South Greenland the men wear upon their
bod^' what is called a tiiniaJc. It is made of bird-skins,
with the feathers or dow^n turned inwards, is shaped
very much like our w^ooUen jerseys, and, like them,
is drawn over the head. The timiak is provided
with a hood, used as a head-covering in the open
air ; at other times it is thrown back, and forms,
with its upstanding selvage of black dog-skin, a sort
of collar round the neck. At the wrists, too, the

' Saabye : Greenland ; being extracts from a Journal Jcept in that
country in the years 1770 to 1778. London : 1818.

'^ Meddelelser om GriJnland. Pt. 10, j). ,58. Copenhagen : 1889.

'5f:KI0"i!^l»W?»'«^

APPI•AI^\^•cE AND i)im:ss

timiak is edged with black doo-skin, like a sliowyfur
overcoat among us. Above- the timiak, an outer vest
(anorak) is worn, now for the most part made of
cotton. Trousers of sealskin, or of European cloth,
are worn upon tlie legs ; on the feet a peculiar sort
of shoes, kamihs, made of sealskin. These ci.nsist of
two layers, an interior sock of skin witli the fur
turned inwards, and an exterior shoe of liairless,
water-tight hide. In the sole, between the sock and
the outer shoe, is placed a layer of straw or of
bladder-sedge.i Into these kamiks the naked foot is
tln-ust.

The costume of the women closely resembles that
of the men. In South Greenland a bird-skin jacket
is worn upon the bod}-, which has, however, no hood
to cover the head, but instead of it a high upstand-
ing collar edged with black dog-skin, which is made
to glisten as much as possible ; and outside this
collar a ])road necklace of glass beads is often worn,
radiant with all the colours of the rainbow. The'
wrists, too, are edged with black dog-skin. The
C(3tton vest above this garment is of course as
brightly coloured as possible, red, blue, green,
yellow, and round its lower edge there generally
runs a broad variegated band of cotton, or, if pos-
sible, of silk. Trousers are worn on the leo-g

' Norwegian, sennegrces. Trans.

.k:

JvSKIMO lAVK

]il

■' 1

I' )

Ml'

generally oi" mottled sealskin, but sometimes of
reindeer-skin. They are considerably shorter than
the men's trousers, comino- only to a little way above
the knee, but are richly decorated in front with
bright-coloured embroideries in leather, and white
stripes of reindeer-skin or dog-skin. The kamiks
are longer than those of the men, and come up to
above the knees ; they are generally painted red,
but sometimes blue, violet, or white. Down the
front of them is sewn a band of many-coloured
embroidery.

Besides the garments above mentioned, there is
another, used by women who are nursing children.
It is called an amaut, and resembles an ordinary
anorak, except that at the back there is a great en-
largement or pouch, in which they carry the child
all day long, whatever work they may be about. As
the amaut is lined both inside and out with reindeer-
or seal-skin, this pouch nuikes a nice warm nest for
the child.

As no fashion-paper is published in Greenland,
fashions are not so variable amonu the Eskimos as
they are with us. Even in this respect, however,
they are no mere barbarians, as the following example
will show :

In former times, the women's anoraks and jackets
were as long as the men's ; but after the Europeans

!■ ^a.;i I'v: ;at!i

'"MsrjsmMm-:

APPEAIJANCE AM) DJMISS

had iiiiported the cxtravugaiit luxury of wearing
white hneu, they lelt that such a wonderful tissue
was far too beautiful and effective to be concealed.
Instead, how(n'ei-, of cutting away their bodices from
above, like our beauties at home, thev l)e£ran below,
and made their anoraks so short that l)etween them
and the trouscr-band, which was allowed to slip right
down on tln^ hips, there appeared a gap of a hand's
breadth or more, in which the fabric in cpiestion
became visible. A somewhat oriirinal stvle of ' low
dress,' this.

The Eskimos of the east coast wear costumes
practically similar to those here described, only that
they almost ahvnys use seal-skins instead of bird-
skins for their jackets. In Xorth (Treenhmd, too,
seal-skin and reindeer-skin are o-reatlv used for these
garments, and the same was the case in earlier times
all along the west coast.

On the east coast, a surprising habit prevails ; to
wit, that in their houses and tents, men, women, and
children go about entirely naked— oi- so, at least, it
seemed to me. JJalto. however, no doubt after closer
examination, assured me that the grown men and
women had all a narrow band ai-ound their loins, a
detail which my bashfulness had prevented me from
discovering. This remarkable o])servation of our
friend Balto is corroborated by the majority of

u,ii.i;.,AiV^.r*^-'M^""--^^

tin

ESKIMO 1,11' E

■iiii

trav('ll('i-s who have uiidei-takcii resenrclies on the
.sul)joct, so I am bouiul lo believe tlieiu. This band,
wliieli the travellers are pleased to desi^^niate uiider-
diawei's — iiow iar it deserves sueli a name I will
leave to the reader to judge from the aeeompanyin^
illustration — is, I am told, called Nntit by the Green-
landers.

In former days this simi)le indoor garb was worn
all over Greenland, I'iiuht up to the northernmost

OKKENLANl) INDOOli DliESS (kAST COASt).
(1) Alale I'listnme. (2) Feiimle costume.

settlements on Smith's Sound, where, indeed, it is
still in use.

This light raiment is, of course, very wholesome ;
for the mauA' layers of skins in the outdoor dress
greatl}- impede transpiration, and it is therefore a
natural impulse which leads the Eskimo to throw
them ofl" in the warm rocmis, where they would be
particuhn-ly insanitary. When the Europeans came
to the country, however, this free-and-easy custom
offended their sense of propriety, and tlie missionaries
preached against it. Thus it happens that the

fiji;

iasmmiim^

ArPKAlJAXCK AND DlMlSS

'27

;

iiati(jnal indoor dre.ss lias been abolished on the
west coast. Whetlier this lias h-d to an iniprove-
nient in morality, I cannot say— 1 have my d()ul)ts.
'Jliat it has not been condncive to sanitation, I can
nnhesitatinorly declare.

The ]^:skimos, however, are still very nns<)i)histi-
cated with respect to the exposui'e of their person,
^lany women, it is trne, make some attempt to con-
ceal theii" nndities when a European enters their
Iiouses; but I greatly fear that this is rather an
affectation which they think will please ns, than a
result of real modesty ; and when they dis<'()ver that
we are not greatly impi-essed by tln^ir attempts, they
very soon give them up. In regard to their own
countrymen they show very little sense of modesty.

The hair of the Eskimos is coal-l^lack, coarse and
straight, like hoi-sehaii-, and is allowed l)y the men
to grow wild. On the east coast tlie\' nsnallv do not
cut it at all, even regarding it as dangerous to lose
any of it ; they keep it back from the face by ineans
of a band or thong. Sometimes they take it into
their heads to cut the hair of children -nd the
children so treated nuist continue all through liieir lives
to cut their hair, and nmst also observe certain fixed
formalities in the matter ; for instance, they must cut
the ears and tails of their dogs while they are
puppies. Iron must on no account come in contact

L'8

I'.SKIMO I, IKK

with tlic liair, wliicli is, tlierciui'e, sjiwii ofl' witli tlu!
j;iwl)oiie of ii GrtH'iiland shark.

The woiucii knot their hair in a tuft upon the
crown of the head. This tlicy do by (gathering it
tiglitly together from all sides and tying it \i\), on the
(uist coast witli a tliong, on the west coast witli
ribbons of various colours. Umuai'ried women wear
a red ri])bon, which they exchange for green if they

have had a cliild. Married women wear a blue, and
widows a black ribbon. If a widow wants to marrv
again she will probably mingle a little red with the
black ; elderly widows, who have given up all thought
of marriage, often wear a white ribbon. If a widow
gives birth to a child, she too must assume the green
ri])bon.

Her top-knot is the pride of the Greenland
woman, and it must stand as stiff and straight up in
the air as possible. This is, of course, held especially
important by the young marriageable women, and
as they are scarcely less vain than their European
sisters, they draw the hair so tightly together that it
is gradually torn away from the forehead, the temples
and the neck, whence they often become more or less
bald while still comparatively young. This does not
add greatly to their attractiveness, but is, never-
theless, a speaking proof of the vanity of human
nature.

• .^

mM!imiimi.uM

AI'PKAI.'AM i: AM) |i|||:ss

lie

Til order to <ret the hair tlioroiiohlv well kjiotled
togc'tlier, and at the same time to >/ivv it, the .dishMi-
iiig appearance whieli is prized as a beauty, lliev
have furthermore tlie liabit of ste(>pin(r if in urine
])efore doiug it up, tlius making it moist and easier
to tighten.

Mothers lick their cliildren instead of washiu"-
them, or at least did so in former days ; and as ir) tlie
insects the}- come across in the pro(;ess, their i)rinciple
is, ' They bite, tlierefore they must be bitten.'

Tf any shoukl be oflended by these peculiarities
in the manners and customs of the Grt-enlanders,
they ouglit to reflect that tlieir omi forenithers, not
so many generations ago, conducted themselves not
so very diflerently. Let tliem read the accounts of
the domestic life of the Teutonic peoples some cen-
turies ago, and they will learn many things that will
surprise them.

• r*

it:

ESKIMO LIFE

CHAPTER in

TlfK ' KAIAK AM) [T.S ArPURTFON'ANCKS

• 'v

A suPKiiFiciAii examiiKilioii ot" certain details in the
outward life of the Eskimo miulit easily lead to the
erroneous conelusion that he stands at a low grade of
civilisation. When we take the trouble to look a
little more closely at him, we soon see him in
another lijjht.

Many people nowadays are vastly impressed with
the ii'reatness of our aae, with all the inventions and
the progress of which we daily hear, and which
appear indisputably \o exalt the highly-gifted white
race far over all others. These people would learn
much by paying close attention to the development
of the Eskimos, and to the locals and inventit)ns
by aid of which they obtain the necessaries of life
among natural surroundings which [)lace such piti-
fully small means at their disposal.

Picture a people placed upon a coast so desert
and inhospitable as that of Greenland, cut off from
the outer world, without iron, without firearms, with-
out any resources except those }>ro\'ided by Nature

THE 'KArAK- AND ITS Al'ini.'TKN AXCES

.•;i

upon the spot. These consist solely of stone, a Httle
drift- wood, skins, and ],(,ne ; ])iit in order to ol^tai.i th(.
latter they must first kill the animals from wliieh to
take them. We, in their place, would inevitably -o to
the wall, if we did not o-et help from honu^ hn\ iW
Eskimo not only manaovs to live, but lives in con-
tentment and happiness, while intercourse with the
rest of the world has, to him, meant nothino- but
ruin.

In order that the reader may realise more vividly
upon what an accumulation of experiences the civili-
sation of this people rests, I shall try to give a sketch
of the way in which we nnist conceive it to have
arisen.

Let us, then, assume that the ancestors of the
Eskimos, according to Dr. l!ink"s opinion, lived in
long bygone ages somewhere in the interior of
Alaska. They must at all events have been in-
landers somewhere and at some time, either in
America or in Asia. Hesides being hunters upon
land, tliese Eskimos must also have gone a-fisliing
upon the lakes and rivers in birch-bark canoes, a^
the inland Eskimos of Alaska and the ^ndians of 'the
North-West do to this day. In <-ourse of time, how-
ever, some of these inhmd Eskimos must either have
been allured by the riches of the sea or must have
been pressed upon by hostile and more warlike Indian

'•+ 1

ESKIMO LIFE

tribes, so tliat they must liavo mi^nvited in tlieir
CJinoes down the river-courses toward tlie western
and northern coasts. Tlie nearer they drew to the
sea, the more scanty became tlie supply of wood,
and they had to hit upon souie other material than
birch-bark with which to cover their canoes. It is
not at all improbable that befoi'c leaving the rivers
the}^ had made expei'iments with the sknis i a(|uatic
animals ; for we still see exrimples of this among
several Indian tribes.

It was not, however, until the Eskimo encoun-
tered the rough sea at the mouths of the rivers that
he thought of giving his boat a deck, and at last of
closing it in entirely and joining his own skin-jacket
to it so that the whole became watertight. The
kaiak was now complete. Ihit even these inventions,
which seem so simple and straightforward now that
we see them perfected — what luige strides of pro-
gress nmst they not have uieant in their day, and
how much labour and how many failures must they
not have cost !

Arrived at the sea-coast, these Eskimos of the
past soon discovered that tlieir existence depended
almost entirely upon the cajjture of seals. To this,
then, they directed all their cunning, and the kaiak
guided them to the discovery of the many remark-
able and admirable seal-hunting instruments, whicli

^ -r^^if^f^,,

[he

J^bCyI

.i'

■*

'til

^'■i!j*-S-.J,^f:.. .-,!,,■,,

Tin: 'KAIAK' .VXD ITS APPUllTEXAN'CES

.*?3

they broLiglit to liiglier and ever-liigher perfection,
and whicli prove, indeed, in the most striking fashion'
what ingenions animals many of us Innnan beingi
r(\allv are.

The ])ow and arrow, wliich they used on land,
they could not handle in their constrained position'
in the kaiak; therefore, they had to fall back upon
throwing- weapons.

Tlie idea of these, too, they borrowed from
America, making use in the first instance of the
Indian darts with steering-feathers, which they had
themselves used in hunting upon land. Small har-
poons or javelins of this sort are still in use amom^
Eskimos of the southern part of the west coast of
Alaska.

As one passes northward along this coast, how-
ever, the feathers soon disappear, and are replaced
by a little bladder fastened to the shaft of the javelin
This device has been found necessary in order to
prevent the harpooned seals from diving and swim-
ming. Further, it has been found necessary so to
arrange the point of the javelin that it cannot be
broken by the seal's violent eflbi-ts to o-et rid of it
but detaches itself instead (at . on ac(^ompanvin<'
engraving) and remains hanging to a line (from ?•
to f>) fast(med (at b^) to the middle of the javelin
sliaft, which is thus made to take a transverse posi-

Il '" .

W-.

,11.

ESKIMO MFE

tiou, and still furllier to imi)e(le tlio movements of
the seal when it rushes away with it. Such was the
origin of the so-called hladder-dart^ known to
all Eskimo tribes who live by the sea.

The bladder is made of a seagull's or
cormorant's gullet, inflated and dried. It is
fastened to the javelin-shaft by means of a
j)iece of bone with a IkjIc bored through it
for the purpose of blowing up the bladder.
This hole is closed with a little wooden plug.
From this ])ladder-dart the Eskimo's prin-
cipal hunting-weapon — the ingenious harpoon
Avith bladder and line — has probably de-
veloped. In order to cope with the larger
marine animals, the size of the bladder was
doubtless gradually increased ; but the dis-
advantage of this — the fact that it offered too
much resistance to the air to be thrown far
and with force — must soon have been felt.
The bladder was then separated from the
javelin, and only attached to its point by
means of a long and strong line, the harpoon-
line. The harpoon, which was now made
larger and heavier than the original javelin,
was henceforward thrown by itself, but drawing
the line after it. The bladder, fastened to the other
end of the line, remained in the kaiak until the

BliADDER
DART.

Pi /."■

>i.

Tim 'K.UAIv- AM, ITS Xn-V UTI-y xyoF.S 3,

a..in>al Iia.l been pien-ed, wl>en it wa, tlu.o>vn over-
board.

Tiiis harpoon, with all i,., i„.enuity of .stn-.ture
ranks, alon. with the kaiak, a.s the highest achieve
n.eut of the Eskimo mind.'

Its shaft is made in Greenland of red .Irift-vvood
-a sort of fir from Siberia, drifted In- the polar
|--rent across the Polar Sea-which is heavier than

l.ewh,te dnft-wood used in making smaller an
if" .7"-;':-- The upper end of the shaft i

fitted w,th a tluek and strong plate of bone, on the
'op o, wh,oh i. fi.ed a long bone foreshaf -com-
monly made of walrus or narwhal tusk-whichTs
-tened to the shaft by means of a Joint of thong

SO tliat a strouo- nressii rp nv ki^ i- ,

° Pi-essure oi blow iroin the side

..stead of shattering the foreshaft, causes it to break
off at the jonn. This foreshaft fits exactly into a
We m the harpoon-head proper, which is made of
bone, generally of walrus or ,>arwhal tusk. It is

now always provided with a point, or rather a sharp
blade, of „.on ; .n earlier daj-s they used flint or

-mply bone. The harpoon-head is fastened to the
barpoon-hne by means of a hole bored through it

»a,ne ha^oon, .i.„ , „„, JtjltJt ta w;""™-"^^ *'
tliroivmg tlie liarpoon from the bnw „f .. ,' "*' ''" "nmals,

boat,. It seems probable hotter 1 "2 T ""? ™™™ "■• *"-
these instrnments from the ETwmoL ' """""^ ""^ '« °f

= ' 1 » >,

i i

D 2

LIBRARY

NATIONAL ill. [?Ei;jt ,■•..•"...,.
■ -OF CANADA ■'"■'■■•

ESKIMO LIFE

and

I' f

t ■
I ■

is provided with ljarl),s ur hooks so that it
slicks last wherever it penetrates. It is,
moreover, so adjusted that it Avorks itself
transversely into the flesh as the wounded
seal tua's at the line. It is attached to the
harpoon shaft by ]mu<s fitted to the before-
mentioned foresliaft, whereupon the line is
hooked on to a peg, placed some distance up
the harpoon-shaft (at a), by means of a per-
forated piece of bone fixed at the proper
distance. Thus the head and the shaft are
held firmly together.

When the harpoon strikes and the seal
begins to plunge, the ])one foresliaft instantly

breaks off at the joint
(see illustration), and the
harpoon-head, with the
line attached to it, is thus
loosened from the shaft,
which floats up to the
surface and is picked up
bv its owner, while the
seal dashes awav, dra<:r-
ging the line and bladder
after it. It must be ad-
mitted, I think, that it
lUEPooN. is difl^cult to conceive a

t >

n
1 <

' '/

-,.1/

c r t

♦ft-,

" '-'^jy.^i.

;

ft are

1
1

seal

aiitly

;',!

joint

* 1 u

d tJie

the

tlius

>haft,

i
^

the

d up

^ ,1

the

■ ?

-i

Tin: 'KAIAK' AXJ) ITS AlTUirniXANCKS

V-

more iiio-enious appliance, coniposecl of such uuilciials
as bone, sealskin, and drift-
\vood; and we may be sure
that it has co.st the labour of
many .lieuerations.

Two forms of this harpoon
are in use in Greenland. The
one is called //iial'; its butt-eiid
is finished off with notliin<.-
more than a jjone knob, and it
is longer and slighter than the
other. This is called eniaiKj-
"'il^\ and has at its butt-end
two flanges or wings of bone,
now connncmlymade of whale-
nb, designed to increase the
weight of the harpoon and to
guide it through the air. It is
one of these which is repre-
sented on p. 36.1

At Godthaal) the ernangnak
was most in use ; but I heard
old hunters complaining that,

' In North Greenland there is yet a
tlm-cl and Lu-er form of tlie harpcn,
winch IS used in wah'iis luintin-, and is
hurled without a tlu-owin^-stick ; it has
instead two bone knobs, one for the
thumb and one for the foiofincrer.

■<l.

THE HEAD OF THE HARPOON.

ESKIMO I.IFi:

''» ^

f !

in a wind, it was more (liniciilt to throw than llie
nnak, since a side gnsl was ai)t to take too strong
liold of the bone Hiniges and to make the harpoon
twist .

The harpoon line is made of the hide either of
the bearded seal {Phoca harhata) or of the yonng
walrus. It is generally from 10 to 18 yards long,
and a good qnarter of an inch (about 7 millimetres)
thick.

For the bladder thev nse the hide of a vouni'

• I/O

ringed seal [Phoai ftetida). The skin is slipped off,
as nearly as possible whole, the hair is removed, the
apertures at the head, the fore limbs, and the hind
limbs are tied up so as to be air-tight, and the whole
is dried.

The line is coiled ui)on the kaiak-stand, which is
fixed in front of the man. It serves to keep the coil
well above the sea, which is always washing over the
deck; and thus the line is alwavs readv to run out
without fouling when the harpoon is thrown.

The harpooned seal is killed by means of a lan<.*e
{(mguvigak). This consists of a wooden shaft (com-
monly made of the light white drift-wood, in order
that it may carry well), a long bone foreshaft, and an
iron-bladed tip. In former days flint was used in-
stead of iron. The foreshaft is generally made of
reindeer horn or else of narwhal tusk. In order that

TIIK 'KAfAK' AM) |Ts A I'lT l.'TKN ANCKS

S!)

the sc.'.l may iiol ])ivak if „li; ii is iastciicd to tlm
shaft ])y a joint simihir to that whidi fastens 4
the foresliaft to the liarpocjii.

The Eskimos have also the so cnllcd hinl-
(lart (mijit). Its shaft is hkevvise of wliitc
drift-wood. Its point consists of a lonL^ n;ir-
rovv spike, now made of in,,,, ])„t in cMrh'cr
times of l)one ; and Ix-sides this Www arc
fastened to tlie middle of the shaft tlnve
forward-slanting spikes, made of reindeer-
horn and provided with lai-ge ])arbs. The
idea is that if the end of the dart does not
pierce the bird, the shaft sliall olide along
it, and 0]ie of these ontstanding spikes mnsl
strike and penetrate it; and it is tluis, in
fact, that the bird is generally bronght down.
Another invention, this, whicli nr) one need
bhish to own.

All these projectiles can, as I liave. shown
above, be traced Ixick to the Indian feather-
dart.

iSut in order to throw their weapons fnr-
ther and witli greater force, the Eskimos have
invented an appliance wliich distinguishes
them from all surronnding races, whether
American or Asiatic. This invention is the
throidng-stick. Oddly enough, this admirable

LANCE.

**«•(♦•■

KSKI.MO IJIi;

device, which 1)V its slinj'-likc action litcmIIv n\uj-
nu'iits the length and streiigtli of the arm, is known
in V(;ry tew [)art.s of llie woi'ld — [jiohahly only in
three. Il is lound in Australia in a very primitive
form, among the Toiuhos and Turus on the rp[)er
Amazon, where it is scarcely more (levelo[)e(l than in
Australia, and linalU amonj'- the Eskimos, where h
has reached its highest ijerl'eclion.^ We can scarcely

■'il

i\i

TIlllOWIXO-HTK'K WITH liIlil)-I>Ar.T.

conjecture that the throwing-stick, appearing in
places so remote iVom each other, springs i'rom any
common origin, and we must thus accept the I'^skimo
form of it as iiu original invention of that particular
race. It is generally made in (Treenland of red di'ift-
wood, and is ahout half a yard long (fourteen sticks
in my possession range from 42 to 52 centini' tre- in
length). At its lower and broader end i .bout
3 inches (7 or S centimetres) in width, ain- i- flnt,

' As to the different forms of the tlirowing-stick uinoiifj; the Eskimos,
see Mason's paper upon them in the Annual licport, &c. of the Smith-
sonian Institution for 1884, Part II. p. '27'.).

Tin: ' KAIAK • .\M» ITS AIM'I IMIi.N \ Nci:

with ;i tliickiicss of rather hk.iv ihaii half an Inch
(;il)()iit li cciitiiiictiv). Th<' sides, at the lower and
l)f«)a(h'r end, have indentations in iliein lor eon\enieiiee
in o-ra>])iiiu_,„, ^ne sith- lor the ihiinil), on th.' oihrr
for the lore-lin^i^-er : while on ili..ni.|)cr llat >idr ihere
runs a lon^- n-roovc aloiiu the whole len-lli (.f the .>ti('k,
to receive the daiM or iiai'poon.' The tiii<.win,L'-stiek
is lonnd in two lorins. 'I'h,. on,, is most ii^cd loi- ihe
l)lad(h'r-(hirt and the l»ird-dail : it has at the ii|)[)ei-
narrow end a kiio]) wliieh fits into an indentation in a
phite of hone fixed to tlie l)iitt eiul of the dart.
(Compare ilhislratioiis on pp. 40 and 4:i). The
other form is used for harpoons and lanee>: it lias a
hole in the ui)per narrow vml into which lit> a hack-
ward-slant ino' spur in the side of the harpoon or l.-nice-
sliafl, and it has besides another hole further down
and near the grip, into which (its another >lanliii--
spur. (Compare illustration. [). i:]). ^J'hi'owin--
sticks of this sort are used in the Xorth, for exami)le
in Sukkerloppen, for the hird-darl as well.

A third form of the throwiiin-stick is UM-i] in the
most southern part of Gi-eeidand and on the east
coast for the eriiano-nak or flanoe harpoon. This
form has in its upper nan-ow end a small kuoh. as in

' In some places-for example, in tlie most soiithei'n part cf Green-
land and on the East Coast-there is only a hollow for the tlnunl,, while
the other side is smooth or edged with a piece of Ijone in uhich are
notches to prevent the hand from slippino-.

■i

>!F

nil

f i

• 111

ESKIMO LIFE

the bird-dart throiviiig-stick, and this knob fits into
an indentation in tlie butt end of the liarpoon between
tlie bone flanges ; in the lower end of the shaft, oii
the otlier hand, near the grip, tliere are one or even
two holes into wliich fit l)one knobs in the side of
the harpoon sliaft, as above described.

When the harpoon or the dart is to be hurled,

TIIK I!IRD-1).\RT IIIROWN.

the throwing-stiek, of whatever form it may be, is
seized by the grij and held backward, together
with the weapon, in a horizontal position. (See
illustration, page 40) ; being then jVrked forward
with force, its lower end comes away from the dart
or harpoon, while, with the upper end, still fitted to its
knob or peg (see illustrations on this and the next
page), the thrower hurls the weapon away to a con-
siderable distance and witJi great accuracy. This is
an extremely simple and effective invention.

<- >

THE 'XAIAK' AND ITS APPrKTJ: NANCES

Besides the weapons above mentioned, the Eskimo
has Leliind him in his kaiak, wlien he goes ont liunt-
ing, a knife witJi a handle about 4 feei long (1-20
metre) and a pointed blade measuring some S inches
(20 centimetres). This is used for giving the seal or
other game its finishing stroke. He has, moreover,
a smaller knife lying before him in tlie kaiak ; it is
used, amoiigst other things, for piercing hok^s in the

TIlItOWINc; -STICK WIT}I IIARPOON.

seal through which to pass the l)one knobs of the
towing-line, wln^rewith the seal is made fast to the
kaiak and towed to land. To tliis end, too, he always
carries with him one or more towing- bladders, which
he inflates and fastens to the seal in order to keep
it afloat. These ])ladders are made of the pouch of
small whales {e.g. ilie grampus).

To complete this description, I should also men-
tion the bone knife which forms part of I he kaiak-
man's outfit, especially in wintei-, and wliicli is prin-
cipally used for scraping the i.-(^ off the kaiak.

%-•

ill

'«l

If.,

tft

fit''

^'''

•'i

'M^

KAI.VK, SF.F.N
FKOJI AROVE.

ESKIMO MFE

From tlie ucconipanyinn" draw-
ing, the i'eaclt*r will be able to
Ibi'in ail idea of how all these
weapons are fitted to the kaiak
when it is in full huntina- trim :
a is the kaiak-opening ; A, the
harpoon-bladder ; r, the kaiak-
staiid with coiled harpoon-line [e);
</, the harpoon hani'injj; in its
place ; /, tlie lance ; </, the kaiak-
knife ; A, the l)ladder-dart ; /, the
bird-dart ; k, its throwing-stick.

Ihit the most important thing
of all \i'\ remains, and that is a
description of the kaiak itself.

It has an internal framework
of wood. This, of which the
render can. I hope, form some
conception from the accompany-
int>' drawinu", was formerh" alwaA's
made of drift-wood, usually of tlie
white wood, which is lightest.
For the ribs, osiers were some-
times used, from willow bushes
which are found growing far up
tlu; fiords. In later days they
have aot into the habit of buvinjTf

l^\^-

<:>

THE 'KAIAK' AND ITS APPUliTKNANCES 45

European b(jarcls of spruce or Scotcli fir in the west
coast colonies, altliougli drift-wood is still considered
preferable, especially on account oi" its li<.ditness.

This framework is covered externally with skins
as a rule with the skin of the saddleljack seal {P/)oca
lircenkwdlra), or of the bladder-nose or ]iood seal
{Cystophora cnstata). The latter is not so durable
or so Avater-tight as the former ; but the skin of a
young bladder-nose, in which the pores are not yet
yery large, is considered good enough. Those who
can afford it use the skin of the bearded seal (Phoca
harhata), which is reckoned the best and strongest •
but, as it is also used for liarpoon lines, it is, as a
rule, only on the south and east coast that it is found
in such quantities that it can Ije commonly used for
covering the kaiak. The skin of the great ringed
seal {Phoca f(Hid<i) is also used, Ijut not so frequently.
The preparation of the kaiak-skins \yill be de-
scribed subsequently, in Cliapter VIII. They are
generally fitted at once to the kaiak in a i-aw state ;
but if they have been already dried they must be
carefully softened ibr sevei-al days before they can
be used. The point is to get them as moist and
pHant as possible, so that they can be thoroughly
well stretched, and remain as tense as a di-um-head
when they dry. The preparation of the skins, and
the sewing and stretching them on the kaiak, belonrrs

iti^

4()

ESKIMO LIFE

to tlie women's department; it is not veiy easy
work, and woe to them if the skin sits badly or i's
too shick ! Tliey feel it a great disorace.

All, or at any rate a great many, of the women
of the village are generally present when a kaiak is
being covered ; it is a great entertainment to them,
especially as, in reward for their assistance, they are
often treated to coffee by the owner of the kaiak.
The cost of the entertainment ranges, according to
his wealth, from threepence or fonrpence up to a
shilling or more.

In the middle of the kaiak's deck there is a hole
just large enough to enable a man to get his legs
through it and to sit down ; his thighs almost en-
tirely fill the aperture. Thus it takes a good deal of
practice before one can slip into or out of the kaiak
with any sort of ease. The hole is surrounded by
the kaiak-ring, which consists of a hoop of wood.
It stands a little more than an inch (3 or 31 centi-
metres) above the kaiak's deck, and the waterproof
jacket, as we shall presently see, is drawn over it.
At the spot where the rower sits, pieces of old kaiak-
skin are laid in the bottom over the ribs, with a piece
of bearskin or other fur to make the seat softer.

As a rule, each hunter makes his kaiak for him-
self, and it is fitted to the man's size just like a
garment. A kaiak for a Greenlander of averac^e size

F <

TIIK 'KATAK' AND ITS APPIRTKNANCES

measures, in the neiglibourliood of Godthaab, about
C yards (5J metres) iu length. The greatest breadth of
deck, in front of the kaiak-ring, is a])()ut 18 inches (45
centimetres), or a litth' more ; but the boat narrovvscon-
siderably towards tlie bottom. The breadtli, of course,
varies according to the width of the man's thighs,'
and is generally no greater than just to allow him to
slip iu. I should note, however, that the kaiaks in
Godthaab fiords— as, for example, at Sardlok and
Karnok— were longer and narrower than the kaiaks
on the sea-coast, for example at Kangek, obviously
for the reason that on the open coast thev are ex-
posed to heavier seas, and must therefore be stiffer
and easier to handle. The shorter and broader
kaiaks are better sea-boats, and ship less water.

The depth of the kaiak from deck to bottom is
generally from 5 to 61 inches (12 to 15 centimetres),
but in front of the kaiak-ring it is an
inch or two more, in order to give room
for the thighs, and to enable the rower .section of
to get more easily into his ])lace. The ..,™'' ''^'"'-

A (Tliedotteil line re-

bottom of the kaiak is pretty flat, sloping """"*^'"^^^"''
to a very obtuse angle (probably about 140°) in the
middle. The kaiak narrows evenly in, both fore and
aft, aud comes to a point at both ends. It has no
keel, but its underpart at both ends is generally
provided with bone flanges, for the most!' part of

-i^,^'.'^:-ytfg^y|

ESKIMO I.IKE

■I

Ti-
ll'-

whale-j'il), desiu'ued to save the skin from behiif
ripped up by drift-ice, or l)y stones when the kaiak
is beaclu^d. Hoth points are connn(jnly provided
witli knobs of bone, partly for ornament, partly for
prote<'tion as well.

Across the deck, in front of the kaiak-rinu", six
thonL^s are usuallv fastened, and from three to five
behind the rower. Under these thongs weapons and
implements are inserted, so that they lie safe and
handy for use. Pieces of bone are let into the
thongs, partly to hold tliem together, partly to keep
them a little bit up I'rom the deck, so that weapons
<'an the more easily and ([uickly be pushed under
them, and partly also for the sake of ornament. To
some of these thongs the 1)Ooty is fastened. The
heads of birds are stuck in under them; seals,
Avhales, or halibut are attached bv towin£?-lines to the
thongs at the side of the kaiak ; and smaller fish are
not fastened at all, but either simply laid on the back
part of the de<'k or pushed in under it.

A kaiak is so light that it can without diiliculty
be can-ied on the head, with all its appurtenances,
over several miles of land.

It is propelled l)y a two-bladed paddle, which is
held in the middle and dipped in the water on each
side in turn, like the paddles we use in canoes. It
has probably been developed from the Indians' one-

"'a<l-l pa<l<lles. An,on. the Eski„„« on the
west coast of Alaska the one-bladed pad.Ile

- ^versa,; not, until we come „„nh or the
Y kon R,ver do we Ih.cl two-blade,l paddles,
ami even there the single Made is still ,,he

;'"'■'; ""^ .^'"-"^■™ ooast both fonns a.e

it;:"' r"" *''' '™ ^'-^"'^-^ '^'^ '«- --

nto exclusive use eastward of the .Mackenzie

Tl>e Aleutians seem, strangely enough, to
b acquatnted with o.dy the two-Waded
paddle,, and this is also the ..ase, so far as
I can gather, with the Asiatic Eskimos =

In fa.r weather the kaiak-tnan uses the
so-called /-a//>e/..(„,„,y,,,,). ^is :. ,n.,e

of water-tight skin with the hair removed
and .s sew,> with sinews. IJo.n.d its lower

-argu. runs a draw-string, or rather a draw-
tl'ong, by means of which the ed^re of the
jacket can be n.ade to fit so ,.losely to the

London, 1785. '^'^"' '^^•' '^i'' C'L. u. p. ,013,

open skin-boats (baidaro) nf ,u ^^'''^' ^'^'''^ ^'^rge , ,

j^^-uehi. (cip:::^ .^;s '^^ t^'-- ^^ *^ ^ - ^

^^^i/«, n. p. 254, London, 1881.) ^"^"^^ ''^ ^^'« ^-a^.x^k.

soutli-

.■ >*.,>'^".*,'!i'-" st!

■ ¥:

•A

i
J-

ESKIMO LIFK

kaiak-iiiiL'' thai it can only be pressed ami drawn
down over it with some little trouble. This done,
the half-jacket forms, as it were, a water-tight
extension of the kaiak. The uj)i)er margin of
the jacket comes close np to the armpits of ihe
kaiak-man, and is supported by braces or straps,
which pass over the shoulders and can be length-

HALF-JACKKT.

WnOI.r-JACKKT.

eued or shortened by means of handy runners or
buckles of bone, so simple and yet so ingenious that
we, with all our metal buckles and so forth, cannot
equal them.

Loose sleeves of skin are drawn over the arms,
and are lashed to the over-arm and to the wrist, thus
preventing the arm from becoming wet. Watertight
mittens of skin are drawn over the hands.

I I 1111 'i

;:/'"■"";".' ■• ■'" -Xw ;;; ;7r:::i-

U,H „ ,„,,,k, i„ tl.e ,s,a„„. „,,v ,, ii„. I, ,, . , ''■

' ke .M... dose to ,h.. kaiak-n,,,.- |,„ ,/ '
■■'l>ov.., has .sleoves attach.,!,, i, ,:',, ''7'^''

'■an ,t'o n,,H tlu-ou..h the bre.k " """"

"-••^^- -..-^ :..';:;::;:;, r::;'-;

»-;-;ettin,aa.por„.ate..i,,,;.j;:,;:'-'V
I ;v,ll .eadUy be understood ti.at it i., „ot ,„„,

'"" ''-eds a good deal of practice ,o ,uast: T

"'^:"V' """'"'"' ^^i-">-'^- my wl

But wJieii one has acquired ].v nv. f
of flm I. • 1 n ^Ht-tiieci 1,3 practice a iiiasterv

01 the kaiak and of the two-bhded , 1 ii '

'iit oest i)oat for a sinfj-Ie o-n-^mQ,, ^ •

T , '^^^ ^'^^ ^"^aii ever invented

ouglu to begtn early. The Greenlaud boy.s ofteu

E ti

KSKIMO MM*:

■ If-

■i-i

begin to praelii^e in tlit'ir father's kaiak at iVoin six
to eiiflit years old, and when tliev are ten or twelve
the provident Greenlander gives his sons kniaks of
theii' own. This was the rnle, at any rate, in fonncT
times. Lars Dalager even says: ' Wlien they are
from eight to ten years old they take seriously to
work in little kaiaks.'

From this aw onwards, the vonnijf Greenlander
remains a toiler of the sea. At lii-st he generally
confines himself to fishing, but before long he ex-
tends his operations to the more difficult seal-
hunting.

You cannot rank as an expert kaiak-man until
you have mastered the art of riuhtinuf yourself
after capsizing. To do this, you seize one end of
the paddle in your hand, and with the other hand
grasp the shaft as near the middle as possible ;
then you place it along the side of the kaiak with its
free end pointing foi'ward towards the bow; and
thereupon, pushing the end of the paddle sharply
out to the side,^ and bending your body well forward
towards the deck, you raise yourself by a stronsf cir-
cular sw(M']) of the paddle. If yon do not come right
np, a second stroke may be necessary.

' AVhilc the paddle is beinji; pushed out sideways, until it conies at
ri;:jht :mfi;les to the kaiak, it is held slij^htly aslant, so that the blade, in
moving, forces the water under it, and acqi;ires an upward leverage.

roni SIX
r twelve
a inks of

I ibriiier
licy are
usly to

nLnuler

'iif rally

he ex-

t seal-

II until
oursclf
?ik1 of
' liaiul
ssible ;
'ith its

; and
iai-])ly
I'ward
i<2f cir-

riirht

lines at
ade, ill
ras;e.

■'"'■' •'^^'^'^■■^^■'•lT.SAm-.,TE.V.V.NcK.. ,,

vwinoiu .III oar hy he j) ,,f Inv .1

7" """°'" "■ '■>• —s of 0,,,.. .,.,„. ;,,;,;.

""f '" ''"■ "'« "''^^ "f '"« l..-,„.l, IHU ea,. cleuch it

-u. take a stone i„ hi. elend,c.d hand l,,.roa. "
«™.g, audcome t,p wit], it .till in his .,™p

AnKsl.i„,o,oldmeofaM,,tl,e,.u.,.o';vassoextr.
"■•'I'Mar.ly skil^d at righting hhuself ,l,.,t , n

1 . " o iuiu^tii fiiat lie coil (I

•1'. '-eve,,.,KK.iUe,vay:,vitho,-wi,l,ou,au.nr
w.th or without a llirowinv-.tick or witl, I 1 V ,'

hand Tl,,. i ,. "^'^' °' »"" lnselenclied

w 1. «a. h,s tongne; and nty inibnnant protruded
tl. t n..nher and ntade so.e i.rrible grinLe.s

" '" ":■'""'' "'"' '^^"■''^•"■^ ^' ^-"1" -s' to recover
yourself with so inconvenient an i„,p,e,nent

In earlier tin.es, on the west coast of Gree.dand
every at all capable kaiak-tnan .a. able to 1'
""-«: but in these later days, since ,he int:
ducton of European civUisation, and the con't t

degeneracy of the race, this art has declined

-th everything else. It is s.il, ,.,,,„„.„,.;; ^^

ever .„ .any place. For instance, I ean assert f

a .nos all the hunters possessed it. On the east coast
acoordn,g to Captain Uolnr, it seetns to be usual, yet

ESKIMO 1,11' K

I .11'

• * '* I

: ^J:'ll■

.1'

; i.

not so much so .-is it, was in Innncr times upon tlic
west roast. Xor is this to be wondered at. as it is
far more nenessarv oti the west coast, where thei'e is
little drift ice and heavy seas are common.

A kaiak-man wlio lias entirely mastered the art
of rl<ditlii«j himself can defy almost any weather, if
lie is capsized, he is on eyen keel a<fain in a moment,
and can play like a sea-bird with the waves, and (!ut
rijxht through them. If the sea is very lu-avv, he
lays the In'oadsidc; of his kaiak to it, liolds the
paddle Hal out on the windward side, pressinu' it
against the deck, bends forward, and lets the wave
roll over him ; or else he throws himself on his side
towards it, resting on his flat paddle, and rights him-
self again when it has passed. The prettiest feat of
seamanship I have ever heard of is that to whicli
some fishers, T am told, have reconrse among over-
whelming rollers. As the sea curls down over them
they voluntarily capsize, receive it on the bottom of
the kaiak, and wdien it has passed right themselves
again. I think it would be difficult to name a more
intrepid uiethod of dealing wath a heavy sea.

If you cannot right yourself, and if there is no
help at liand, you are lost beyond all hope as soon
as you capsize. This may happen easily enough —
a wave can do it, or even the fouling of the harjjoon-
line when a seal is struck. Just as often, too, it

■'■'"' 'K.\I\K' AND ITS AIMM IMKXAXCKS nn

^^•■n'l-"« tlu-nuo], an nno,,,,d.d nu>v.nuM,l in c-alni

vve.-iiluT, oratiuoim.i.tswhen tho.v s.-cms to ho no
(laii^'cr.

-MaMv Kskin.os fin,! tl„.i,- ,l,.a,h ,.v..,-v v™,- i„ ,1,1^
r«:<mu;: Kor exmnpl.. I ,„,-,y sfa... ,l,at i„ Danish
■ ouil, Gro,.nl,,n(l in IS«8,out of 102 ,l,.atl,s (of wl.irh

i'O were of nmlos), 24, ,„• abom, I.-. ,„.,. com. (tl,at is
to say, nioiv tl„n, a fourll, pari of il„. male nioviaiitv)
were cansed l,y drowning in kaiaks.

In IH8!I, in Souih f^m-nlaiul, o„i of 272 (l,..,ths
(of wl,ic-l, 152 wore of males), 24, or abom 'J per
cem., w.r,. d,,,. ,o the same canse. This in a pon,-
)at,on of 5,614, of whi.-h 2,r,0| ,vere male.

ESKIMO iJFE

CHAPTEU IV

THE ESKIMO AT SKA

; i>

0^'E often hears tlie Eskimo accused of cowardice.
This is no doubt mainly due to the fact that his
accusers h.ave seen him only on land, or in ii.ie
weather at sea ; and then lie is too ^aood-natured and
easy-roing to show any courage. It may be, too,
they have nor taken the trouble to place themsehes
in sympathy with liis yiew of life ; or else they may
haye called upon him to do things which he neither
understood nor cared about.

If by courage we understand the tigerish ferocity
which fights to the last drop of blood, even against
superior force — that courage which, as Spencer says,
is undoubtedly most connnon among the lowest races
of men, and is especially characteristic of many
species of animals — it must be admitted that of this
the Eskimos do not possess any great share. They
are too peaceable and good-natured, for example, to
strike back when attacked ; and therefore F.uropeans,
evei since the time of Egede and the first mission-
aries, have been able to strike them with impunity

(

TiliO E.SKl.MO AT !,EA 5^

aiKl to call the.u cowardly, lint this .sort of cotau...
1.S l.el,l in no great respecl by the natives in (.reen-
laiid, and I am afraid that they do not look np ,0 us
any the more becau.se we exhibit ■, .uperabuudance
"t .t. They have from all time respected the b.-anl i-
iul Chnstian do,-trine that if a man smite ,-ou on the
nght cheek, jou should tnrn to him the left ako

Hut to conclude from this ih.-it ih,. ICsKinio is .a
coward would ^)e unjust.

Xo estimate the worth of a human bein.-, vou
>Hust see hhn at his work. Follow ,he Eskin,,', ,0
■sea, observe him there-where his vocation lies-and
yoti will soon behold hhn in another li..ht : for if we
luiderstand by courage th.-u fa.-ultv which, in n,o-
mems of ,hu,ger, lays i,s plans whh ca!;uness and
executes the,u with ready pres-au-e of nund, or which
taces mevitable danger, and even certain d.-ath
wall immovable self-possession, then we shall fnul
•;. Ore,;i:Ia.. 1 n.en of .such .-ourage as we btu rarely
iiud else vviiere.

Kai'ik-huating has uiany dan-tTs.

Though his fkther may hav. 'p.rished at sea, and
^•ery hkely his brother and his IVi.nd as well, the
l^^skmio nevertheless goes (quietly about his daily
work, in storm no less than in ealm. h' th^ w.ather
IS too terrible, he may be <-hary of putting to sen •
^'xpenence has taught hin. that in sueh weather

KSKIMO LIFK

1=
I'

(, ^li

■u i[-

« -

many perish; but wlu-ii once lie is out lie L'oes ahead
as llioiiffh it ;vere all the most indifrereiit thiui: in the
world.

It is a !]fallant business, this kaiah-hiiiitini;" ; it is
like a sportive dance with the sea and with death.
There is no finer sight po'^^'^Tolc than to see the kaiak-
nian breasting the heavy rollers that sec.n utterly to
euo-uli' him. ( )r when, ()^■e^taken bv a storm at sea,
tlie kaiaks run tor the shore, they come lik(> black
siorm-birds rushing before the wind and thr waves,
which, like rolling mountains, sweep on in their wake.
The paddles wliirl thi-ough air and watei'. the body is
bent a little forwards, the head often turned half
backwards to watch the seas : all is life and spirit —
while the sea around I'ceks like a S(H'thing cauldron.
And then it may haj)})en that when the game is at its
wildest a seal poj)S its head up Ix'lbre them. (iui<'k«^r
than thouglu the harpoon is seized and rushes through
the foam with deadly aim ; the seal dashes away wdtli
the l)ladder behind it, but is presently caught and
killed, and then towed onwards. Everythir.'/ is done
with the same mastei-ly skill and witli the same cjuiet
demeanour. The Eskimo never dreams that he is
pei'forraing feats of heroism.

Ih're he is great — and we? Ah, in these sur-
roundings we ai'e apt to seem \-erv small.

Let us follow the Eskimo on a, daA^'s huntinef.

a I

,J1I#'.. ■' - . iJ.lSffl

•Is

fii,

i!4 v.

»■■

if. „

armisjfJami'rm'^.t-

u£££E«$i&ik,.^.

TIIK ESKIMO AT SF\

Se,.ralhonrs beibro dawn ,,.. s,,,,,,,. ,,,,,,,, ,,,
out ook-ro,.k ov,.r ,ho viUn,., ,„„, .,,,„, ,,„ ,,.,,, ,„ _^^_

-r,a,n wl.e.her .l,e weather is goin. to be favo.n-able
^rav„,g assured hi,„self on fbis poim, be eon.e.s slowly
<l<-n .0 bis bouse and get. ont bis kaiak-ia,.k,.,. Hi's
breakfast n, the good ol.l days ,.onsis,ed ol' a drink
o water ; now that Enropea.t elTenuna,,. bas reac.bed
hnn too ,t ,s generally one or t.o e„„s of s.ron,.
ofle, He eats nothing in the morning: be declare:
, " '""'''' '"'" """-y "' 'he kaiak, and that be
has more endurance wi.hou, ., Xo,. ,b,es he take

^mioodw.thbnn~onlya,,,,idoftobneco

7'- the kai.k is carried down to the beach and
he hunt.ng-weapous are ranged in their places, be

hpstnto the kaiak-hole,n,akes fast his ,-aekct;ver
he nng, and puts out to sea. Front oth^- bouses i„
h.' vdlage Ins tteigbbours are also putting forth at
^e same tnue. It is the bladder-nose thai ,bev are '
after to-day, and the bunting-ground is on ;on,e
banks mne nules out to the open sea

It is caln,, the s.uoo.b sea heaves in a ion.- swell
t wards the rocky islets that fringe the shore,' a li.bt
haze stdl Ites over the sonn.ls between then,, and The
--b.rds floa,iug on the surface seetu double L
natural s,.e. The kaiaks cut their wav forwards

-<lebys>de,,naking only a silent ripple, the paddle,:
swtng tn an even rbytinn, while the ntett keep up an

ESKIMO LIFE

■I

iiiibroken sLrcani of cuiiversatioii, and now iiiid tlu'U
l)urst out into merry huij^liter. iiird-darts are tlirowii
in sport, now hy one, now hy another, in order to
k('(^p eye and hand in praetice. Presently au auk
couies within range ot" one ol" them ; the dart speeds
througli the air, and tlie bird, transfixed, attempts,
"with much ila[)piiig of wings, to dive, but is held u])
next moment u[)on the point of the dart. The point
is pulled out, the hunter s(;izes the bird's beak be-
tween his teeth, and with a strong twitch breaks its
neck, then fastens it to the l)ack part of the kaiak.

They soon leave the sounds and islets behind
them and put straight out t(j the o})en sea.

After some hours' paddling, they have at last
reached tlie hunting-ground. Great seal-heads are
seen peering over the water in many directions, and
the hunters scatter in searcli of their })rey.

lioas,,one of the best hunters of the village, has
seen a large he-seal far off, and has paddled towards
it ; but it has di\'ed, and he lies and waits fo)' its re-
appearance. There 1 a little wa}' before him its
round black head po[)s up. lie bends well forward,
while with noiseless and wary strokes he urges the
kaiak toward the seal, whi(,'h lies peaceful and undis-
turbed, stretching its neck and rocking up and down
U[)on the swell. Ihit suddeidy it is on the alert; it has
caught a glimpse of the Hashing paddle-bhuh', and now

.'■il.v

%'t''

i vt ■

' 1

THE HSKLMO AT SEA

fll

look, sfrai-ht at liim witli its o-roat roimd eyes. ][,.
inslaiitly stops paddlinir and sits motioidcss, wliil.> tlu,
way on ilio kaiak carries it noiselessly inrward. The
seal discovers nothiiiu- new to he alarmed at, and
ivsnmes its torniei- .iuietnde. It throws its h.-ad
baekwards, holds its sjiout straight np in the nir, and
l)ath.'s in the morning sun which gleams upon its
Mack, w.M skin. Tn the meantime the kaiak is
rapidly Hearing; every time the seal looks in that
(lire<"tion, Boas sits still and moves no muscle; but
as soon as it turns its head away again, he shoots
forward like a Hash of lightning. He is ,.<>nnng
within range : he gets his hnrpoon clear, sees that
th(^ line is properly coiled upon the stand; one
stroke more and it is time to throw— when the seal
qiiiotly disap])ears under the water. It was not
frightened, and will consequently come up again at
no great distance. He lies still and waits. Hut the
minutes drag on ; a seal can remain under water
an incredible time, and it seems even longer to
one who is Avaiting for his prey. Ihit the Eskimo
is gifted with admirable patience ; he lies absolutely
motionless except for his head, with which he keeps
watch on every side. At last the seal's head once
more appears over the water a little way off and to
one side. He cautiously turns the kaiak,^ unobserved
by bis prey, and once more he shoots towards it

»r<.

ESKI.MO LI I'M

■k

I ' ' '

m ■

()\^'\• the iiiirnji'-like scii. Wnl siiddciily it cmIcIus
siulit of liim uj^fuiii, looks at him sliarjjly l"<>f a
iiioinciil, and dives. Wv knows ils liahils, however,
and at lull sjx'ed he dashes towards the s[u)i where
it disappeared. Hct'orc many nionieiits have passed
it pops lip its head aijain to look around. Now he
is within ran^'e : the harpoon is seized and carried
back over his shouUh-r, then with a sti'oUL;' move-
ment, as it" hurled from a steel s[)riiiLi', it rushes
whistlinii" from the throwinu-stiek, Avhirlinu' the line
Ixdiind it. The seal jiives a violent [)lun<i;e, but at
the moment it ai'ches its back to di\'e, the liai'poon-
sinks into its side, and buries itsclC up to tlie shaft.
\ few eoiivulsive strokes of its tail eliui'n the water
into foam, and away it goes, dra^'ging the har})Oon-
line behind it towards the depths. In the meantime
Jioas has seized the tlii'owing-stick l)etween his teeth,
and, (piicker than thought, has thrown the bladder
out of the kaiak behind him. It dances away over
the surface of the sea, now and then seeming on the
point of disa[)pearing, as iiuh^ed it fmally does,
liefore louij, however, it ao'ain comes in siirht, and
lie chases after it as quickly as his i)addle can
take him, snapping up on the w;.y liis liarpoon-
shaft whicli has floated to the surface. The hmce
is hiid readN' for use. Next moment the seal comes
up; infuriated at its inaljility to escape, it turns

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WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580

(716) 873-4503

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TIFK ESKIMO AT SKA

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upon its pursuer, attacks iirst the bladder, which it
tears lo pieces, and then goes straiirht for the kaiak.
Again Jkms is within range; the animal arches its
back and hurls itself forward with gaping maw, so
that the water foams around it. A miss may now-
cost him his life ; but lie calmly raises his hmce and
sends it speeding with terrible force through the
seal's mouth and out at the back of its neck. A
shudder runs through it, and its head sinks ; Ijut the
next moment it raises itself perpendicularly in the
water, the l)lood pours frothing from its mouth, it
gapes wildly and utters a smothered roar, while
the hood over its nose is inflated to an astounding
size. It shakes its head so that the lance-shaft
quivers and waves to and fro; but it does not
succeed in jjreaking it or getthig free from it. A "
moment more and iioas's second lance has pierced
through one of its fore-flappers into its lungs;
the seal collapses, and the fight is over. He
paddles up to its side, and as it still moves a litths
he gives it a finishing stab with his long-handled
knife. Then he sets quietly about pulling out his
lances and replacing them in the kaiak, takes out his
towing-line and blows up his towing-bladder, which
he fastens to the seal, cuts the harpoon-head out and
once more makes it fast to the shaft, coils the line on
the stand, and takes out a new bladder and places it

' '!l

I 1^

I II

KSKLMo lAVK

111

^>^^inn(l him. Xoxt, tlie seal's flai)pers are lashed
Hf)se to its body, with the thong designed for that
purpose, and the animal is attached by means of
the towing-line to one side of the kaiak, so that it
can (^asily be towed along, its head being fastened to
the foremost i)air of thongs on the deok, and its tail
to the hindmost. Xow J^oas is ready to look about
him for more game. He is Ineky, and has not paddled
far before he cat(dies sight of another seal. In an
iustant he has east loose the one already killed,
which is kept afloat by the towing-l^ladder, while he'
again sets off in pursuit. This one, too, he kills,
after some wary stalking and eager waiting; he'
takes it in tow and returns for his first prey. The
two great animals are fastened one on each side of
the kaiak. He has now a good cargo, and cannot
get very quickly through the water ; but that does
not prevent hini from increasing his bag. As soon
as another seal comes in sight those already secured
are cast loose, and when the next one is killed it is
fastened behind the others. In this way one man
will sometimes come towing as many as four seals,
or even more at a pinch.

Tobias, in the meantime, another of the best
hunters of the village, has not been quite so for-
tunate as Boas. He began by chasing a seal which
dived and did not come up again within sight. Then

e lashed
for that
Tieans of
3 tliat it
5tened to
d its tail
)k about
paddled
In an
J killed,
ivhile he
le kills,
ing; he
7- The
side of
cannot
at does
As soon
secured
ed it is
lie man
r seals,

le best

so for-

wliich

Then

TFfK ESKIMO AT SKA <.,>

he set off after another; but as he is skimming over
the sea towards it the huge head of a hooded'seal >
suddenly pops up right in front of the kaiak, and is
harpooned in an instant. It makes a frightful wal-
lowing and dives, the harpoon-line whirl's out, l,ut
suddenly gets fouled umler the l)ird-dart throwincx-
stick ; the bow of the kaiak is drawn under with a^^i
irresistible rush, and before Tobias knows where he
is, the water is up to his armpits, and nothinir can be
seen of him but his head and shoulders and the stern
of the kaiak, which sticks right up into the air. It
looks as if it were all over with him ; those who are
near him paddle with all their might to his assist-
ance, but with scant hope of arriving in time to save
hnn. Tobias, however, is a first-rate kaiak-man. In
spite of his difficult position, lie keeps upon even keel
while he is dragged through tlie water by the seal,
which does all it can to get him entirely under. At
last it comes up again, and in a moment he has seized
his lance and, with a deadly aim, has pierced it ricrht
through the head. A feebh^ movement, and \i is
dead. The others (,.onu^ up in time to find Tobias
busy making his l)ooty fast and to get their pieces of
blubber from it.-' They cannot restrain their achnira-

' Ii,,ttes.^l, the f.Ul-srown male of the Klapmyts (bhuhhT-nose)
It has a hood over its nose, which it can inHate enonnous ^•

- W lien a seal is killed, each of the kaiak-men in the nei'.hbonrhoo.l
receives a piece of its blubber, which he generally devours Swm.

I 'I

MSKIMo Mi|.;

r
•I'.

'- y,

turn loi- Ills coolnoss Mild skill. mihI spc.ik of ii Iohm-
iiricrwards. Tobias and lioas, however, aiv the Ih.>i
hiuitci's of the villa.i^c. It is related of tlieiii tliat. in
tlieir yoiiiiHcr days, tliey were siieli masters of iheir
craft tliat llu-y evi'ii disdained tlie use of hiaddeis.
They made fast llie har[)()(Hi-line i-oind their own
waist oi- i-oiind the kaiak-i-in,L'', and wiieii tlie har-
l)()oiied seal was not killed at the lii-st stroke, thev
let it (Iran- themselves and the kaiak after it instead
of the l)ladder. This is U)oked upon bv tlie Greeji-
landers as the simuiiit of {)ossil)le aehievement, but
thei-e are very lew who attain such iiiastei'v.

Hitherto the weather lias ix-eii line, the «dassv
surface of the sea has been hea\iiiL!- softly under the
risino- sun. lint in the course of the last Jiour or
two, bhick and threatcniuLj banks of clouds have
beo-un to draw up over the southern horizon. Just
as Toljias has made last his seal, a distant roar is
heard and a sort of steam <'an be seen risin<>- over
the sea to the southward. It is ;i storm approachin<s
and the steam is ilie Hying .spmy which it drives
before it. Of all winds, the Greeiilanders fear the
south wind {/n<jd') most, for it is always violent and
sets up a hea^'3' *^t'a.

The thin<4- i.^ how to ovt under iIk^ land as quickly
as i)ossil)le. Those wlio have jio seals in tow have
the best of it, yet they try to kc^'p with the others.

it Ioiil:'

that, ill
»r their
a{l(lt'i>.
ir own
ic liiir-
:(', they
instead
(J reel i-
'11 1. l)iit

'dassv

~ -

del" the

)ur or

have

Just

oar is

>• over

aching,

drives

ar the

it and

nickly
haA'e
Dtliers.

tit

ii.-i

16!

fflf

Ml!

tin: kskimo at ska

til

Oil.' r<'li,.v,.s ri„a.< „r ,„„• „r UU .,-.,U. JUw l,,,v,.
'ii-M"i'l'lW lar l„.r,„v ,1„. .,„,,„ i, „|,„„ „,;,,,. .,
Il.rashes tl„. wat,T U, n,am as i. a|,pn,a,-l„.s. a,»I il„.

kaiak-ni,.,, M ii on ll„.i,- l,a,-ks. |,ko a ,ri, •,

and luiriiMK llioiM lonvar.l. Tl„. s,,o,-| I,as ,„,«•

""'"'■'' ^"•'"■»'- ""■ ^'■^'■' S.-.I low<.r i„i„ ,„o„„.

tains ol water and Invak aiul weKei- ,Wn „i„m
tlicni. Th.-y arc making lor ll.c land willi llie wind
nearly abeam ; but they an- Mill far olT, ihev .-an see
nothing ar„„„,l ilu-m lor the spray, an,l almost evry
wave buries iIumu so thai only a lew heads, anus
and ends of ,,a,I,lles ean be seen above the eon.bs of
froth.

Here comes a gigantic roller— lliey ,,.,„ see it
shining bla,-k and white in ,!„■ far distance. It
lowers aloft so thai the sky i. ahuosl hidden In
a mon.ent they have slnck their pa.hlles under the
lliongs on the windward .sid,- and bent their bodies
lorward so that the crest of the wave breaks upon

then- ba.-ks. For a .sc nd almost ev.-rvlhinn- has ,lis--

appeared ; lliase who are further a-lec await th.-ir I nrn
'"anxiety; tln-n the bilh.w passe,., and on,-e more ,he
kaiaks skim forward as before. l)u, such a sea does
not come singly ; the n.-.xt will be worse. Thev hold
their paddles flat to the ,leek and proje,-.ing to'whul-
ward, bend their bodies forwar.l, and at the n.omeni
when the white ,-a.ai-act thunders down np„u amn

ESKIMO lAlK

m
¥

,;■»

tluiV liiii'l tll('lllst'lv('^ into its \('i'v jaws, llms sonic-
what brcakiiiLi its t'oi-cc. For a iiioiiicnl tlicy liavc
{i<.'aiu (lisap])('ai't'(l — tlicn one kaiak cniiu's ii]> on even
keel, and presently anotlicr appeal's liottoni n])wai'(ls.
Tt is IV'dersuak (I.e. llie Iml*" IVtor) wlio lias capsized.
His comi-ado speeds to his side, hut at the same
moment the tliird wave breaks over them and he
mnst look out tor himself. It is too late — the iwa
kaiaks lie heavinfr bottom ni)war(ls. The second
mana<j:es to riuht himself, and his fii-st thouiiht is foi-
his ronu'adc. to whose assistance he once more
hastens. Tie runs his kaiak alonjjfside of the othei-.
lays his paddle aci-oss both, bends down so that he
gets hold under the water of his comrade's arm, and
with a jerk draijs iiim up upon his side, so that, he
too ran net hold of the paddle and in an instant raise
himself upon even keel. The water-tight jacket has
come a little loose from the rinuf on one side and
some water has got in; not so much, however, but
that he can still keep afloat. The others have in the
meantime come up ; they get hold of the lost paddle,
and all can again push forward.

It grows worse and worse for those who have
seals in t<)W ; tht^y lag far behind, and the great
beasts lie heaving and jarring aL^ainst the sides of the
kaiaks. They think of sacrilicing their prey, but one
difficult sea passes after another, and they will still

>ii'r

soinc-
y liMVr
111 even
)\vni"(ls.
psizcd.
1' sMino
:iik] lie
he two
second
il is for
more

other.

Iliiit he

111, and

that he

lit raise

t has
de and
er. but

in the
saddle,

o liave
LTi'eat
s of tlie
)ut one
ill still

k-:.

r ,^^.

■/ k

V'- ^*^Mi -Ff^c '^^fe-il

<^.^

y - ■. '

■ m

111

TIIK KsKlMo \|- <|^^

(ii)

"•yl" Ik....- on Inrawhil,, TIm- ,,rn,„Un,MMMc..(s
'" ^^ '""••••'•"^ lir- M.v tlM,s,. i., wlii.l, Ih. <.,.,.u.s hem.
'^'vvin^r his p,,y, .•UMl m.-s his wi.;/., hi, ,h„.L'lih.r's
aiul Lis ha.Hh.,ai(h.n's happy f;,..,.. }„,„„i„^: ..j,,,,,'
Iiiin tV„m the .hnr... Far n,.t ..t .-a hr al.vadv s.vs
^''*'"' i" I'i^ mi,ul-s .v., a.ul n.ini..,.s \\k. a rhihl
^o vv.Mul.r (hat h. will unt .as, In,., his p.vv .save
at tlic direst pinch of need.

After pa.ssino- thi-.)ii.i.h ]„ai.y sU rollers, tl,ey
l»'«ve at last .<rol muh-r (he la.nl. Uv.vv thev aiv
so.ucNvhut prote,.ted l.y a .-re ,p of i.|,.n,a. Ivin-r far
^' the southward. The .eas be<.o,.,e less viohM.t,^,nd,
as they oradually ^ret iVirther in, thev push on ,nore
U'lK'kly for home over tlie smootlier water.

Ill the meantime the women at home liave l,cen
ill tlie greatest anxi<.ty. WJien the storm aro.se they
••ail up to the outlook-rock or out upon the headlandJ,
aud stood there in oroups gazin... eag<M-lv over tlu'
angry .sea lor their .son.s, husl)ands, fathe.-s, and
brothers. So they stand watching a..d shiverin<^
until, with eyes rendered keener hx- anxietv, they at
last discern what seem like blark specks approaching
from the horizon, and the whole village echoes to one
glad shout : ' They are coming ! Tlu^y a.-e coming ! '
They begin to count how many there are ; two are
missing! No, there is one of them! Xo, they are
all tliere I They are all there !

ESKIMO IJFK

They oooii begin to recognise individuals, partly
by their method of paddling, partly 1>y the kaiaks.
althouji'li as v(4. thev are little more than tiny dots.
Suddenly there sounds a wild shout of joy: ' Boase
kaligpok ! ' ('Boas is towing') — him ihey easily
ideiitify by his size. This joyful intelligence passes
from house to house, the children rush around and
shout it in through the windows, and the groups
upon the rocks dance for joy, Then comes a new-
shout : ' Ama Tobiase kaligpok ! ' ('Tol)ias t(Ki is
towing ') ; and this news likewise passes frcnn house
to house. Next is heard : ' Ama Simo kaligpok ! '
'Ama David kaligpok!' And now again comes
another swarm of women out of the houses and up
to the rocks to look out over the sea breaking white
against the islets and cliffs, where eleven black dt)ts
can now and then be seen far out amid the rolling
masses of water, moving slowly nearer.

At last the leading kaiaks shoot into the little l^ight
in front of the village. They are those who have no
seals. Lightly and with assured aim one after the
other dashes up on the flat beach, carried high upon
the crest of the waves. The women stand ready to
receive them and to draw them further up.

Then c^ome those who have seals in tow; they
must proceed somewhat more cautiously. First, they
cast loose their prey and see that it comes to the

TIIK ESKLMo VT SKA

hands of tlie ^vouwn on slioiv. Then flicv themselves
inake for the land. Wlien once tliey linve -ot out of
tlie kaiak, they, like the lirst c-oniers, pay no heed to
anytliing but tlieniselves and their NNTapons, ^vhi(•h
they carry to their places al)o^•e hio-li-wat(n- mark.
They do not even look at their prey as it lies on the
shore. From this time forward all work in connec-
tion with the ' take ' falls to the share of the women.
The nien go to tlu^r Jionies, take off their wet
clothes and put on their indoor dress, which, as we
have seen, was in the heathen times exceedingly
any, but has now become more visij)lr.

Then at last comes the lirst meal of the day ; but
It does not begin in earnest till the day's Uake ' is
boiled and served up in a huge dish placed in the
middle of the tioor. Then there disappear incredible
quantities of flesh and raw blidjber.

When hunger is appeased, the women always set
themselves to some household work, sewing or the
hke, whilst the men gi^-e themselves up to well-earned
hizniess, or attend a little to their weapons, hang up
the harpoon-line to dry, and so forth.

Then the hunters begin to relate the events of the
day, the family listening eagei-Iy, especially the boys.
The narrative is sober, with none of that boasting or
striving to impress the hearers with an exaggerated
idea of the difficulties overcome, in wldch we

■-'■■«'«"««i yM»««l » lfa. !U<.>ri»fa,r>>a^^iMfa»j-<^^^

ESKIMO LIFI5

w " >

Euroi^eans, under similar circuinstauces, would often
indulge.

But at the same time it is lively and picturesque,
with a peculiar breadth of colouring. Experiences
are described with illustrative gestures, and, as
Dalager says : " When they have come so far in the
story that the cast has to be dei)icted, they swing the
rififht arm in the air while the left is held straijjht out
to represent the animal. Then the demonstration
goes on as follows: 'When the time came for using
the harpoon, I looked to it, I took it, I seized it, I
gripped it, I had it fast in my hand, I balanced it ' —
and so forth. This alone mav li'o on for several
minutes, until at last the hand sinks to represent the
throw ; and after that they do not forget to make
note of the last twitches given by the seal."

At other times the most remarkable events are
dismissed in a few words. But as often as an
opportunity presents itself, a broad humour enters
into the narration, and is unfjiilingly rewarded by
shrieks of laughter from the eager listeners. Xo
more perfect picture could be imagined of happy
family life.

So the days pass for the Eskimo. Although there
is nothing unusual in experiences such as these, they
have for him a distinct attraction. His best thoughts
are wedded to the sea, the hard life upon it is for him

THE KSKLMO AT SEA

tlie kernel ol' existence— and when lie is for(;ed to
i-enniin at home, his heart is heavy. ]\nt. when he
^•rows old— ah, then the saga is over. There is
always a nielan(.'holy in old age, and nowhere more
than here. These kindly old men have also in their
day known sti-ength and youth— times wlu^n they
weie the pillars of their little society. Xow they
liave only the memories of that lite left to them, and
they must let themselves be fed by others. But when
the young people come home from sea with their
booty, they, too, hobble down to the beach to receive
them ; even if it were but a poor foreigner like me,
they were glad to be able to help me ashore with my
kaiak. And then when evening comes they set them-
selves to story-telling ; adventure follows adventure,
the past comes to life again, and the young people
are spurred on to action.

The hunting is often more dangerous than that
described above. It will easily be understood that
from his constrained position in the kaiak, which
does not permit of much turning, the hunter can-
not throw backwards or to the right. If, then,
a wounded seal suddenly attacks him from these
quarters, it requires both skill and presence of mind
to elude it or to turn so quickly as to aim a fatal
throw at it l^efore it has time to do him damage. It
is just as bad when he is attacked from below, or

i*^-''

■'' 1*

^■

t f

' U

f 1-

'. _

fli

w'.

74 KSKI.MO LIl'E

wlieii the Jiiiiinul siiddi'iily slioots n[) close at liis side,
for it is li^hti ling-like in its movements and lacks
neither courage nor sti'engtli. It' it oikh^ irets u[) on
the kaiak and capsizes it, there is little ho[)e of
rescue. It will often attack the hunter under watei',
or throw itself upon the bottom of the kaiak and
tear holes in it. In such a predicament, it needs very
uimsual self-mastery to [)reserve the coolness neces-
sary for recoverino- oneself upon even keel and re-
uewinn' the light with the furious adversary. And
yet it sometimes happens that after being thus
capsized the kaiak-man l)rings the seal home in
triumph.

A still more terrible adversary is the walrus ;
therefore there are generally several in company
when they go walrus-hunting, so that one can stand
by another if anything should happen. ]]ut often
enough, too, a single hunter will attack and over-
come this monster.

The walrus, I need scarcelv say, is a liUL>e animal
of as much as 16 feet (-3 metres) in length, with a thick
and tough hide, a deep layer of blul)ber, a terribly
hard skull, and a powerful body. There needs, then,
a sure and strong arm to kill it. The walrus has the
habit, as soon as it is attacked, of turning upon its
assailant, and will often, with its ugly tusks, make
itself exceedingly unpleasant. If there are several

*ii

Ihnal
lick
il.ly
llieii,

the
li its
iiake

eral

'■'i'
Hi'.

!1< ■

Miiiiiiii,. iiiiiiiiiifflmff

'I'lIK KSKIMO AT SKA

walruses in a Hock, tliey will ve.y likely siirround
him and jittaek liini nil at oix-e.

Even the Xoi-we<.-iaii hunters, who oo after the
walrus in hirov, sti-ong boats, each containing many
men, armed with gnns, lances, and axes— even they
stand nnicli in awe of it.

How much more courno-e and skill does it re-
(luire for the Eskimo to attack it in his frail skin
canoe, with his liu-lu ingenious projectiles— and
alone !

Hut this is no unusual occurrence for the Eskimo.
He lights out his fight with his dangerous adver-
sary ; calmly, with his lance ready jjoised for throw-
ing, he awaits its attack, and, coolly seizing his
advantage, he at the right moment plunges the
weapon into its body.

Cbolness is more than ever essential in walrus-
hunting, for the most unforeseen difficulties may
arise; and catastrophes are by no means i-are. At
Kangamiut, some years ago, a kaiak was attacked
from below, and a long walrus-tusk was suddeidy
thrust through its bottom, through the man's thigh,
and right up through the deck. His comrades'at
once rushed to his assistance, and the man was
rescued and helped ashore.

Besides these animals, the Eskimo also attacks
whales from his little kaiak. There is one species in

KSKIMO MFE

1^5

I l!

i I

ii^

f« »:

partk'ularwlilch is more dangerous than anv other

the grainpu.s, or, as he calls it, an/iu/,'. Witli its
streiigtli, its swiftness, and its horrible teeth, if it
happens to take the ollensive, it can make an end of
a kaiak in an instant. Even the Kskinio fears it ;
but that does not prevent him from attackiiiL'' it
when opix)rtunity offers.

In former times they linnted the larger whales as
well, using, however, the great woman-boats, with
many people in tliem, both men and women. For
this sort of whale-hunting, says Hans Egede, • they
get themselves up in tlieir greatest llnery as if Ibr a
marriage, for otherwise the whale will avoid them ;
he cannot endure uncleanliness.' The whale was
harpooned, or rather pierced with a Ijig lanee, from
the bow, and it sometimes happened that with a
whisk of its tail it would crush the boat or capsize
it. The men were often so daring as to jump on
the whale's back, when it began to ])e exhausted, in
order to give it a finishing sti-oke. This method of
hunting is now unusual.

It is not only the larger animals that expose the
Eskimo to danger. Even in ordinary fishing— for
example, for halibut— disasters may happen. If one
has not taken care to keep the line clear, and it gets
fouled in one place or another, while the stronc^ fish
is making a sudden dash for the bottom, the crank

^Bt^* '"^fe'ftifciiSl ' --^^"i'' :"* ' Vb.""'"

^iM#kw.

P<«L '■»,'

•Vi

:!5.'4;;^i'^ ■"■ ;78

. ■ wmfJ*-~ ■r',:...-m'.',7}i M:-^--i^--fr '^ -■^J ■■- v;.'f.

.'ti

TirK KSKIMo AT SKA

kai.'ik i> (.jislly ojioiirrli .-.•ipsizcd. Mnny Imvc met
llieir end in this wmv.

ft'

Hut wo must not dwell (oo lonn- on (lie sh;idv
■sides of life. T hope I liave su<-eee(h'd in .Ltivin*,^ the
reader a sholit impression of llie lif,. of the Eskimo
at sea. and of some of thii dan^-ers wliirh are his
dailylot— enough, perliaps, to have convinced lu'm
that tliis race is not, lacking- in couraoe when it
conies to tlic pinch, nor in cndnrance and cool self-
command.

But. the Eskimo has more than this; when
disaster overtakes him, he will often show the rarest
endurance and hardihood. In spite of the many
dangers and sufferings inseparable from his industiy,
he devotes himself to it with joy. If the history of
the Eskimos had ever Ijeen written, it would have
been one long series of feats of courage and forti-
tude ; and how much moving self-sacrifice [ind devo-
tion to others would have had to be recorded!
How many deeds of heroism have been irrecover-
ably forgotten! And this is the people whom we
Europeans have called worthless and cowardlv and
have thought ourseh-es entitled to despise.

KSKI.Mo M|.|.;

ft
I,

CllW'l'VM V

UINTi:iM|(,is|.;s, TKXTS, \\OMA\-l5()ATS, AM)
H.XCMIfSloXs.

In wii.lcr ih. (i,V(.„|.,„(L,s lin- i„ hnus.s l„,il, .f

sloiH-sa.Hliurr. TlH.y ris,. nnh Irnm Ini.r to six nvt

(one and a half t<, iwo „H.„vs, mIm.v llu. l.vH nC ,1,,
.i:rou.Hl,nn(lil.elIoor is s„nk snn,.ui.nt iM-.u-atli if

^'iHM-(,nrislL,lorslinh,h.n,vlH.l. Frnni outside the

who). Mnu-tuiv generally looks lik. m., insi^nificuut
moil I id ol'cardi.

TIuTe i.s „„ly oiu- r,„„„ in i !„.«,. |,o„«.s, and i„ it
several iauiilics generally live (ogel l,er-„,eM an,!
won,eu, youMg a.ul oM. The ,-uof is so low llmt a
mail ol any stature can scarcely siand uprisjlii The
room l-orn,.s an oblong .jnaclraugle. Alono'the whole
of the longer wall, opposite the door, runs the chief
sleep„,g-l,ench, about six feet six hn.lies in width
upon which sleep the married people, with orown-up
un.narried danghters and yoimg b,ns and girls
He.-e thev- lie in a row, si.lc by side, with Iheir'fcet
towards the wall and their lieads out into the room.
Hans Egede Saabye savs, in his before-mentioned

\VIMi;iM|n| si:s. TKNTs. W ( »M A \-|'.( » ATS. .v,

7)>

JoiiniMl, thai ihcy make llicir iiiaiTiaLic Ixd iindcr the
.sl«'ci)iii«j-l)('ii('li. I saw iiolliiiiL-' l«) iiidical.' ihal aiiv
siK'li practice now exists aiiywliere in the (n.dtliaal.
district.

riniiarried men L'viiei-ally lie ii|)(»n smaller luMiches
under the windows, which aic in the opposite loiiu-
wall, and of which there are one, two, or three,
ac.'ordino- to the size ol' ihe house. The windows
were iormerly tilled with •••iit-skin, oi- some similar
material; but nowadays, on the west coast, L'lnss is
Ci, nmoidy used. Against the side walls, too— the
sliorter walls— there a!'e generally benches. These,
or the window-benclies. are, as a rule, assiuned to
strauaei's as their sleepinu-places.

When several I'amilies, as is generally the rase,
dwell in one house, the chief sleeping-bench is divided
into stalls— one for each family. The stalls are marked
ofn)y wooden posts, placed against the outer edge of
the bench, and reaching to the roof, from which low
partitions extend to the back wall. It is incredible
how little room they are content with. Captain Holm
describes a house on the east coast which measured
about twenty-seven feet by fourteen and a half, and
in which dwelt eight families, consisting in all of
thirty-eight persons. In one stall, four feet broad

dwelt

a man with two wives and sev

en (

•hild

ren.

This does not give much space to each.

wmmm.

KSIvLMO LIFl']

9 1?

They use sealskins oi- reindeer-skins to lie upon,
and also, in former days, as bedclothes, going to
bed entirely naked, with the (exception of the before-
mentioned indoor dress. Nowadays, on the west
coast, down quilts are commonly used as bedclothes.
Internally, the walls of the house were in former
times always lined with skins. The floor was formed
by the naked earth, partly paved with flags. Nowa-
days, since the introduction of so much European
luxury, they have begun, on the west coast, to line
the wails with boards and to lay wooden floors.
They have even, to a certain extent, adopted the
habit of washing the floors — so much as several
times a year.

The house is entered through a long and narrow
passage, partly dug out beneath the level of the
ground, and, like the houses, walled with stones and
turf. You descend into it from the level of the
ground through a hole. It is, as a rule, so low and
narrow that one has to crouch one's way throucrh it,
and a large man finds it difficult enough to efFe(?t an
entrance. I was told at Sardlok of a fat storekeeper
from Godthaab who stuck fast at a difficult point in
the passage leading to TerkeFs house There he
stuck, struggling and roarijig, but could not advance,
and still less retreat. In the end, he had to get four
small bo}'s to help him, two shovino' behind and two

■ 'V

WTNTEIMIOUSE.S TENTS, WOMAN- 1 {OATS, Sec.

&.■

from witliiii tlie lioiise, dra-ging him in front by the
arms. They laboured and toiled in the sweat of their
brows, but the man was jammed as fast as a wad in a
.ijun-barrel, and there was some thought of pulling
down the wnlls of the passage in order to Hberare
hun, before he at last managed to squeeze through.
If I remember rightU'^, a window had to be torn down
in order to let him out of the house a^ai]!

From the passage, you enter the house through a
little square opening, usually in the front long wall,
which is closed by a door or trap-door.

The purpose of this passage is to prevent the cold
air from coming in and the warm light air from
escaping, It is to this end that it is made to lie
lower than the house ; by which means, too, a little
ventilation is obtained, since the heavy bad air can,
to some extent, sink down into it and escape.

In Greenland houses of the old style there are no
fireplaces ; they are warmed, as well as lighted, by
t.\ain-oil lamps, which burn day and night. They
are left burning nil night through, not merely for the
sake of warmth, but also because the Eskimos are
exceedingly superstitious, and therefore afraid of
even sleeping in darkness. You may lu^ar them
relate, as a proof of extreme poverty, that this family
r)r that, poor things, have to sleep at night with no
lamp burning.

■ca-r-Mm- S';5.:c3?;;i ^ mFmmsmBmmgM

ESKIMO f.IFE

•1#

i i

The lamias are large, flat open saucers of soap-
stone. They are of semi-circular form, and alon^y
the sti-aight side lies the wick, which is formed of dry
moss, or, nowadays, of cotton. These lamps rest on
a wooden stand, and are placed on a little table or
raised place in front of the sleeping-bench. There is
generally one of these lamp-tables to each family. If
several families dwell in one house, there are many
lamps, for each family has at least one burning, and,
as a rule, more.

In former days, food used to he cooked over these
lamps in soapstone pots, which hung from the roof.
The preparation of food, like every other business of
life, of course went on in the common room.

So it is to this day on the east coast. On the
west coast, modern civilisation has effected a change
in so far that food is now generally cooked in a
special room with a fireplace, built on to the side of
the passage leading into the house. Peat is used as
fuel in these fireplaces, and also lumps of dried sea-
gulls' dung. Iron saucepans, too, bought at the
stores in the colonies, are now used instead of soap-
stone pots.

Many West Grreenlanders have, moreover, become
so highly sophisticated as to have bought stoves,
which they use instead of the train-oil lamps for
heating their houses. The fuel used is the same as

AVINTEIMIOUSES, TENTS, NN'O^IAX-EOATS, S:c. 83

that mentioned above. At the same time, however,
the indispensable lamps are kept burnino-, for the'
sake of light, if for no other reason.

In former days the houses were -(^nerally laroe,
and several families lived in each. Bv this nierns
they were able to economise in fuel, and theN- lived
warmly and comfortably, while in many other ways
the habitation in common was found advantageous
In this point the influence of the European" has
been unfortunate. They have encouraged the dis-
tribution of the families into separate small houses
and have even offered prizes for house-buildin- • it
was thought to be such a grand thing that elch
famdy should have its own home for itself. The'
result was that the houses became poorer and colder
more material in proportion was needed for warmino-
and hghting-material which was not alwavs forth"-
commg-and the advantages of the old s^-stem of
partial communism were sacrificed; so ihat the
separation tended lo the greater discomfort of the
greater number.

In winter, wlien everything is frozen hard, these
houses are all well enough ; but in summer, when
the moisture exudes from the thawing walls and the
roof leaks and sometimes falls in, thev are anvthina
but wholesome dwelHng-places. As .oon as ^prin^
.drives, therefore, with the month of April, the

ESKIMO LIFM

•ft.
I

t%.

.-■*'■
w

Si-

I ■

Greenlanders used ulvv;iys in former days to quit
their liouses, often unroofino- fhein tlioinselves, in
order that tliey might be thoi'ougldy ventilated and
washed out by tlie autumn rains— an exoeedin<Tly
simple method of house-cleaning.

The whole summer through, and a good way
into the autumn (until September or October), the
Greenlanders dwelt in tents, each family, as a rule
having its own. These tents are of a peculiar semi-
circular form, with the entrance-door in the lii<di
flat side. Internally, thev are arramred very like
the houses, with the sleeping-bench runnino- alontr
the curved back wall opposite to the door, which
is closed with a curtain of semi-transparent gut-
skin. The walls of the tent consist of an outer
layer of water-tight skin with the hair taken off
(old boat-skins being used as a rule), and an inner
layer of reindeer- or seal-skin with the fur turned
inwards. These tents are tolerably warm, and in
them, as in their houses, they go without clothes.

The woman-boat is inseparably connected with
this summer tent-life. These boats, which are from
30 to 40 feet long (10 to 12 metres), have received
their name from the Europeans, because, unlike the
kaiaks, they are rowed by women.

They are entirely open boats, consisting of a
wooden framework covered with sealskin, and are

li t

ii;

i 1

f a
are

'.-•'■ff.'ITC/.rT'^

l<t

ilL

!ii

lii !

\ \ f

li !

\\INTJ.:iMIOUSi:S, TILNTS. NNOMAX-BOATS, &c.

narrow in proportion to their length, and flat-
buttonied. They are easy to row, but their shape
renders tlieni defective and inconvenient sea-boats,
so that as soon as there is any wind the Ureenhanders
make for the land witli them. They have generally
a small sail which can be set in the bow, for running
before a fair wind ; but it will be readily understood
that they are not good sailing-])oats. Sailing is, on
the whole, a pursuit of which the Eskimo under-
stands little, and for which he has no great hking.

In these boats there is room for all a f-imily's
worldly goods— tents, household implements, dogs,
children, women, c^c. They are rowed by as many'
as half a score of oarswomen, and when they are so
well ' manned,' they attain a good speed. A run of
fifty Enghsh miles a day is not at all unconnnon.
TJiey are generally steered by the paterfamilias,
while the other nudes of the fomily follow in their
kaiaks.

In their woman-boats, the Greenlanders used
to move from one hunting-gromid to another all
through the sunmier. For one or two months they
always went far up the fiords in search of reindeer,
and there they hved on the fat of the land.

In those days they often undertook long journeys
up and down the west coast, as they do t°o this day
on the east coast. To show how long these journevs

ESKIMO LIFE

i'i

mi
¥.1

M 1

!![

I*'
III .'

sometimes are, I mav mention that on the east coast
families travel from the Anomagsalik district, in 054°
north latitude, the whole way to the trading-settle-
ments west of Cape Farewell, and back again — a
distance of about 500 miles. They do not generally
travel quickly ; one of two woman-boats which we
met on the east coast at Cape Bille in 1888, on their
way southwards, did not reach Tamiagdluk, west of
Cape Farewell, until two years later, in 1890 — and
this is onlv a distance of some 180 utiles, which we
with our boats could no doubt have covered in a
week or two. But as soon as the Eskimos come to a
place where there are plenty of seals, tliey go ashore,
pitch their camp, take to hunting, and live at their
ease. When the autumn and winter approach, they
choose a good site and build a winter-liouse, con-
tinuing their journey in the spring or summer as
soon as the ice permits. The woman-boat in ques-
tion had in this manner spent three years on the
passage from Umivik, and would no doubt take
pretty nearly as long to return. The other woman-
boat that was passing southwards from Cape Bille
got as far as Nanusek, about Go miles from the
trading-settlements west of C^ape Farewell, and there
went into winter quarters ; but then the father of
the family died, and they faced round and set about
the long journey back to Angmagsalik, without ever

ner ;is
ques-

311 the
take

onian-
Bille

m the
there
ler of
about
t ever

W' L t'' ''^ t^' ■\

I rr

■iai.t^, ..- u*j».T-;3<T|l|U_ "nfRWI

. I

111!!

!U':^

\u ■

ill

\ I''

Mi'"

I* ! i

I !

ill !

WINTEIMIOrSES, TENTS, \V()>r.\N-TK)ATS, &c. 87

havincr readied tlieir goal, the tradiiiff-settloiiients,
or acconiplislied tlieir errand.

Journeys alon,i^r the west coa.st Avere of course
easier and more rapid, as the drift ice did not there
present impediments.

By means of this habit of \vand(^rin<T thev es-
caped the evil effects of too oreat seclusion in
separate villaoes ; they met together and kept up
intercourse with other people, so that there was all
through the summer a certain life and traffic from
which they reaped many benefits, ^fheir minds were
enlivened, interest in huntirg was stimulated, and
skill w^as developed in many different ways, to say
nothing of the fact that the frequent changing of
hunting-grounds brought nmch more game within
their reach.

This sunnner life in the comparatively clean,
airy tents, besides being exceedingly pleasant, was
as we may easily understand, very much healthier
than confinement in the close, evil-smelling earth
cabins. Xo wonder, then, that the Greenlanders'
fairest dreams of liappiness were associated with the
woman-boat and the tent.

Here again, alas ! we Europeans have l)rought
about melancholy changes. Hans Egede, indeed,
complained bitterly of the difficulty of getting the
Greenlanders to leave off their perpetual wanderings

hi*

i ; 1

-,.-

■ ■ ■ ( ;

[!!'!

88 KSKI.MO l.li'F:

and settle down iieaccahly in one [)lacc', so tliut lie
could [)reueli Chi'istiunity to tlieni ;il his east-; he
even |)r()[)osed thai tiiey should l)e lnrcii)Iy hound
down to :i less migratory life. It' this j)iou> man,
who thought of nothiug hul the advaiieeinent ol" the
Kingdom ol'dodjiad been living now, he might in so
far have Ix'cn happy ; I'oi' the ( 'hiMstianGreenland(M's ot'
to-dav scarcely travel at all. I>v reason of the lii'eat
impovei'ishmcnt which we ha\'e brought upon tluMu,
there are every day I'ewer and t"ew(.'r hunters wiiocan
procure enough sivins to maki* a wt)nian-boat and a
tent, both of which are of course necessary for travel-
ling. They are more and moi'e forced to })ass the
whole year round in the unwholesome winter houses,
which are, of course, mere hot-beds for bacteria and
all sorts of contagious diseases, while the nu'U are
thus unable to change their hunting-grounds, and
must keep to the same spots year out year in. By
this means the ' take " is of course greatly diminished,
food is conse([uently much less plentiful, and the in-
dispensaljle sealskins become- fewer and fewer. As
soon as the whole Greenlu:d connnunity has sunk to
the level of Egede's ideal and has entirely abandoned
its migratory habits, it will be almost, if not quite,
beyond salvation. The decline in this direction has
of late years been very alarming.

c'liArxKu \ 1

COCiKi:i{V AM» DAI.NTIKS

Om; I'ciitiiro of the (rreoiihiiiders' daily life, wlildi to
us si'Oins sti-anu'e eiiouuli, is that they liavo no fixed
meal-tiiiic'S ; tlicy simply cat wlicn llicy arc Ihiiiltn-, if
there is anything to he had. As ah-eadv nieiilioiie(h
the hunters ol'teu go the whole; day without anvthincr
to eat. Tliey have a remarkable [)ower of doiiio-
without food, Init to make up for this tliey can con-
sume? at a sitting astonishing quantities of meat,
bluhber, fish,&c.

Their cookery is simple and (\asy to learn.

Meat and fish are eaten sometimes raw or frozen,
sometimes boiled, sometimes dried; and sometimes
meat is allowed to undergo a sort of decomposition
or fermentation, when it is vnlU'd mikial', and is eaten
without further i)reparation. A dish of this sort,
which is very higldy esteemed, is rotten seals'-
heads.

The blubber of seals and whales is generall}'eaten
raw. My dainty readers will of course shudder at
the very thought of eating raw blubber ; but I can

1,1

III

ESKIMO lAFK

liiiiiil

v.,

asRiire tliem tliat, especially when quite fresli, it is
very good. It has a svveetisli, i^erliaps rather
mawkish, taste, remindino- one of cream, with nothincr
of wliat we should call an oily or iishy flavour ; this
does not make itself felt until the blubber has been
boiled or roasted, or when it has grown rancid. There
are still people, no doubt, who believe that the Eskimos
are in the habit of drinking train-oil, although even
Hans Egede has pi^inted out that this is a mistake.
That they do not always refuse it, however, when it
comes in their way, 1 was able to assure myself at
Godthaab; for I always saw our old maid-servant
Rosina take a sip or two out of our lamp when she
was cleaning it in the morning, and, as she usually
did, had filled the vessel a little too full. It did not
seem at all to disagree with her.

They also preserve the stalks of angelica in train-
oil, preparing them, accordino- to Saabve's account,
in the following peculiar fashion ; ' A woman takes a
mouthful of blul)l3er, chews it, and spits it out, and
so continues until she thinks she has enough. When
the angelica-stalks have steeped for a certain time in
this licpiid, they are taken out and eaten as dessert
with much appetite.'

Of vegetal)le food, the primitive Greenlanders used
several sorts ; in addition to angelica, I may mention
dandelions, sorrel, crowberries, bilberries, and different

^ilfilti

COOKERY AND DAINTIKS

9il

kinds of seaweed. One of their greatest delicacies is
the contents of a reindeer's stoniacli. If a Green-
hmder kills a reindeer, and is unalJe to conveynmch
of it home with him, he will, I believe, secnire the
stomach first of all ; and the last thini»- an Eskimo
lady enjoins upon her lover, when he sets off rein-
deer-hunting, is that he must reserve for her the
stomach of his prey. It is no doubt because they
stand in need of vegetable food that they prize this
so highly, and also because it is in legality a very
choice collection of the finest moss and grasses which
that gourmet, the i-eindeer, picks out for himself. It
has undergone a sort of stewing in the process of
semi-digestion, while the gastric juice i)rovides a
somewhat sharp and aromatic sauce. ^lany will no
doubt make a wry face at the thought of this dish,
but they really need not do so. I have tasted it,
and found it not uneatable, though somewhat sour,
like ferment'.! 'ilk. As a dish for very special
occasioi.s, I[ is served up with pieces of blubber and
crowberrietv

Another dish, which will doubtk-oo shock manv
Europeans is the entrails of ptarmigans. In this
case they do not confine themselves to the stomachs,
but devour in a twinkhng the viscera with their con-
tents. The remaindei- of th^ pt;* niiigan they sell to
the traders for a peiu.y or less (5 to 8 ore). This

''F

ESKfMO LIFE

[!M|i

. 1*1
'Hi

i;[ III I '

llf li

i 5

It) pi;

i 111

is tlie reason why, in Greenland, one never sees
ptarmigan Miiole, except those one lias shot oneself.

One time when we went on a hunting expedition
up the Ameralik fiord, and liad the Greenlander Joel
with us, he devoted a day to tearing the entrails out
of all our ptarmigan ; but as they numbered a good
many more than a hundred, he could not devour the
whole on the spot, and gathered up the remains in a
large sack. Upon its delicious contents, which must
have become a sort of gruel before he reached ho- -.
he no doubt intended to feast ni company with his
well-beloved Anna Cornelia. I hope the reader will
pardon my inability to inform him how this dish
tastes; it was tlie one Greenland dehcacy which I
could not make up my mind to essav.

Among other dainties I must mention the skin
(matak) of different sorts of whales, especially of
white whale and porpoise, which is regarded as the
acme of deliciousness. The skin is taken off with the
layer of ])lubber next to it, and is eaten ra\r without
further ceremony. I must offer the Eskimos m}^
sincerest congratulations on the invention of this
dish. I can assure the reader that now, as I write
of it, my mouth waters at tiie very thought of matak
with its indescribably dehcate taste of nuts and
oysters mingled. And then it has this advantage
over oysters, that the skin is as tough as india-rubber

COOKERY AND DAINTIES

to masticate, SO tliat the enjoyment can be protracted
to any extent. Even the Danes in Greenland are
greatly addicted to this delicacy when it is to be
liad ; they cook it, however, as a rule, thus makino-
It of a jellyish consistency and easy of mastica-
tion. The taste of nuts and oysters disappears
entirely.

A delicate dish, which does not, however, rival
matak, is raw halibut-skin. It has the same advan-
tage that, by reason of its toughness, it goes such a
long way. I can confidently reconnuend it as ex-
ceedingly palatable, especially in winter.

The Greenlander is also very fond of raw seal-
skin with the blubber. Its taste was very tolerable,
but I could not quite reconcile myself to the hairs,
and therefore took the liberty of spitting them out
again, after having made several vain attempts to
.^wallow them.

They eat the flesh of seals, whales, reindeer, birds,
hares, bears, even of dogs and foxes. The onlv
things, so far as I know, tliat they despise, are ra\'ens ;
as these birds feed to some extent upon the dung-
heaps, they are regarded, like the plants that grow
there, as unclean.

Lean meat they do not care aljout at all ; tliere-
fore they prefer, for example, sea-birds to ptarmigan.
It happened once that in one of the colonies in South

US''

ESKIMO LIFE

Greenland, a clergyman, who liad just arrived in the
country, invited some of his flock to a party, and his
wife treated them to the greatest delicacy she knew,
namely, roast ptarmigan. The Greenlanders ate very
sparingly of it, though their hostess pressed it hospi-
tably upon them. At last she asked whether they did
not like ptarmigan. Oh yes, they answered, they ate
it sometin^fs — when there was a famine.

What i :"'v'.'' said above will doubtless be enough
to prove that ii • Eskimos are by no means so easily
contented in their diet as is generally supposed. In
famine times, however, thev will eat almost anvthino-.
Dalager assures us that they will, for example, ' cut
their tent skins to pieces and make soup with them,'
and it is not uncommon to hear of some one who lias
made soup of his old skin trousers.

The method of serving the food differs consider-
ably from that which obtains in Europe. There are
no tables in the Greenland house ; therefore the dish
is placed in the niiddle of the floor, and the people sit
on the benches jiround, and dip into it with the forks
provided by Nature. It seldom occurs to them to
place the dish upon a box or any other raised place ;
it seems almost a necessity for them to stoop. An
example of this may be found in an anecdote of
a young Danish lad}' who, soon after her arrival in
Greenland, got some Eskimo women into her house

COOKKlfV AM) DAINTIKS

to do washiiio-. Comino- into the wash-liousts she
found them bendiiin- over the vvash-tub.s, wliich stood
upoii tlie floor, and, thinkhig this an awkward
position, she brouplit them some stools to phice tlie
tubs upon. Shortly afterwards she went in again
to see how they were getting on, and found them,
to her astonishment, standing upon the stools and,
of course, stooping still more awkwardly over the
tubs, which remaiiied upon the floor. 6*6^ mm e vera
e ben trovato.

Of all the many delicacies to which we have
introduced them, the Christian Greenlanders are most
addicted to coffee, and the indulgence in it has on
the west coast become almost a vice. They brew it
strong, and seldom drink less than two large bowls
at a time ; and it is not at all unusual for them to
take coffee four or five times a day— it tastes so nice
and puts them in such excellent spirits. They are
not insensible to its deleterious effects, however', and
therefore young men are allowed little or none of it,
lest it should spoil them for hunting. A dizziness
from which the older men sometimes suffer, and
which makes them unsteady in the kaiak, ' they
attribute in large part to coffee. This harmonises
curiously with the results of recent physiological
experiments, which have shown that the most
dangerous poisons contained in coffee— cafeonet, &c.

ESKI.MO LIFE

■■f?;

-.■'lili

'•%

— attack precisely that part of the nervous system
on wliich equilibrium depends.

Next to coflee they are devoted to tobacco and
bread. On the west coast, tobacco is for the most
part smoked or chewed ; wlnle snuff is the East
Greenlanders' weakness. The women on the west
coast, too, are given to snuffing, and it is often an
unpleasant surprise to observe an attractive young
woman blackening her nostrils and upper lip with
a copious " "icli. They grind their own snuff with
flat stones, out of undamped roll-tobacco, which they
cut up sm..'^ air 1 dry over the lamp. To make it go
further it is sometimes mixed with powdered stone ;
and it is kept in horns of different sizes. On the
east coast, snuff performs a definite social function.
The Eskimos have no words for ' good-day ' or ' wel-
come,' and fill up the gap by offering their snufl-horns
to any stranger who is ac.'ceptaljle in their sight,
whereupon the newcomer responds by offering his
horn in exchange. When they part, the same cere-
mony is repeated.

The West Greenlanders prepare their chewing
tobacco in a way which to us seems somewliat sur-
prising. A deep Danish porcelain pipe is half-filled
with smoking-tobacco, which is then thoroughly
drenched with water, after which the pipe is filled
to the brim with dry tobacco ; then it is smoked till

COOKKliV AND DA LN TIES

the fire i-eaelies the wet tobacco and is extiiiouished.
The ashes are then knocked out, and as much oil as
possible is scraped together from the oil-cell, the pipe-
stem, the old accretions in the pipe bowl, &c., and is
added to the already well impregnated mass in the
bottom of the bowl, which is then considered ready
for chewing. This particularly strong preparation is
specially prized for use on board the kaiak.

The Government has, fortunately, prohil)ited the
sale of brandy to the Greenlanders. Europeans,
however, are allowed to order it from home, and
may treat the Greenlanders with it. It is very
common to let them have a dram when they are
serving as rowers on board the boats of Europeans
travelling in the summer-time, and after any bargain
has been concluded with them. It has furthermore
been wisely ordained that the kifaks, or those who
are in the employ of the Danish Company, get each
his dram every morning ; while the hunters, who
ought to be more capable and better men than the
kifaks, cannot obtain any without either enterino-
into the service of the Europeans or selling something
to them.

They are passionately fond of brandy — women as
well as men — not, as they often confided to me, be-
cause they like the taste of it, but because it is so
delightful to l)e drunk ; and they get drunk when-

I?;

KSKTMO LIFE

• ii

•'t-!ti

ever an opportunity oflurs, wliieli is, liajjpily, not
verv often. That the intoxication is really the main
object in view appears also from the fact that the
kifaks do not OTeatlv value their morninir dram,
l)ecause it is not enou^di to make them drunk.
Several of them, therefore, a^ureed to l)rinLi' their
portions into a common stock, one of them drinkino-
the whole to-day, the next to-morrow, and so on by
turns. Thus they could get comfortably drunk at
certain fixed intervals. When the authorities dis-
covered this practice, however, they took means to
stop it.

Unlike their sisters here in Europe, the Eskimo
wives, as a rule, find their husbands charming in
their cups, and take great pleasure in the sight of
them. I must confess, indeed, that the Eskimos,
both men and women, seemed to me, with few ex-
ceptions, considerably less repulsive, and, of course,
considerably more peaceable, in a state of intoxi-
cation than Europeans are apt to be under similar
conditions.

When the Europeans first came to the country,
the natives could not at all understand the effects of
brandy. When Christmas approached, they came
and asked Niels Egede when his people were going
to be ' mad ' ; for they thought that *• madness ' was
an inseparable accompaniment of the feast, and the

, -r A *g >^^-f ^

-iJ4iJ»JM. ' - ' -<". I i ''«

HtWUM FWi

1 1

COOKKIJV Wl) DAIXTJES

9f>

recurriiio- paroxysm liad become to iliem a landmark
in tlie alniai.aek. They afterwards ascertained that
it was due to this hquor, whi(,-Ii they therefore called
dlaermartok--\]iiit is to say, the iliiuo- which makes
men lose their wits; l)ut now they usually call it
<s?iapsemik.

100

ESKIMO LIFE

CHArTEU VTI

ClIARACTKR AiNI) HOCIAI. CONDITIONS

WiiKX I see all the wranp^liiig and all the coarse
abuse of opponents whicli foi-m the stai)le of the
different party newspapei-s at home, I now and tlien
wonder what these worthy politicians would say
if they knew anything of the Eskimo conuiiunit}-,
and whether they would not blush ])efore the people
whom that man of God, Hans Egede, characterises as
follows : — ' These ignorant, cold-blooded creatures,
living without order or discipline, with no knowledo-e
of any sort of worship, in brutish stupidity,' With
what good right would these 'savages' look down
upon us, if they knew that here, c^ven in the public
press, we apply to each other the lowest terms of
contumely, as for example ' liar,' ' traitor,' ' per-
jurer,' ' lout,' ' rowdy,' &c., while they never utter
a syllable of abuse, their very language being un-
provided with words of this class, in which ours is
so rich.

This contrast typifies a radical difference of
character. The Greenlander is of all God's creatures

...- .l l flUUI i lLllj...

CIIAIJACTin: AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS

h)l

girted witli llie licst disposition. Oood-hinnoiir,
peac'cableiiess, and evenness of temper are tlie most
prominent features in his character. lie is eajiei- to
stand on as uood a footing* as possil)k' witli liis
felloAV-men, and therefore refrains from ollending
them and nmcli more from nsinix coarse terms of
abuse. He is very loth to contradict anothei- e\en
shoukl he be saying what he knows to be false ; if
he does so, he takes care to word liis remonstrance in
the mildest possiljle form, and it would be very hard
indeed for him to say right out that the other was
lying. He is chary of telling other people truths
which he thinks will be unpleasant to them ; in such
cases he chooses the vaguest expressions, even with
reference to such indiflerent things as, for example,
wind and weather. His peaceableness even goes so
far that when anything is stolen from him, which
seldom happens, he does not as a rule reclaim it
even if he knows who has taken it. ' Give to every
man that asketh of thee ; and of him that taketli
away thy goods ask them not again' (Luke vi. 30).

The result is that there is seldom or never any
quarreUing among them. The Greeidande '-annot
afford to w^aste time in wrangling amongst them-
selves ; the struggle to wring from nature the neces-
sities of life, that great problem of humanity, is
there harder than anywhere else, and therefore this

'.4 !t

10:

KSKI.MO hlFK

litth' [x'oplc liMs Mii'iced lo i'lwvy il <>ii without iiei'd-
less dissensions.

r)n the whole, the (Jreeiilniider is ;i hn|)])y l»einL%
his soul heinu' liiilit nnd eheerlhl ;is ;i cliild's. It'
sori'ovv overtakes liini, he may perhaps siifl'er bitterly
t'oi- the nionicnt ; hut it is soon lorLrotteii, aiul he is
once uiore as radiantly contented with existence as
he used to be.

ThivS liappy levity ot'liis saves liini iVoni broodinji"
niucli upon the I'uture. If lie has enonuli to eat tor
the luouient, he eats it and is happy, even if he has
a,ftervvards to sufl'er want — which is now. unfor-
tunately, often the ease, and l)econies so oftener year
by year.

His carelessness has frecpiently been nnide a sub-
jeet of bitter reproach to him. The ndssionaries
declare, no doubt rightly, that it makes him inacces-
sible to civilisation, and have tried to exliort him tt)
greater providence and frugality. They quite over-
look the fact that it is written, 'Take ve no thousfht
for the morrow. . . . Behold the fowls of the air :
for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather
into barns ; yet your heaveidy Father feedetli
them.'

This levity of mind has also its bright side; it is
even, in a way, the Eskimo's chief strength.

Poverty and want have, with us, two conse-

(11 Al! \('li;i: ANh SOCIAL COMtiridNS

103

([ucnci's. Tlic mn<] iinnicliaic is. of coiii-sc. tlic
phvsical siiU'criiiL!' ; l)iit Inoftlicr wil li it ;iii(l iit'irr it
coiiu's menial siiirci'inL^. • ilic cares of lnvad,' llie im-
t;easiii!j" anxiety which pursuo. one ni«jiit .•mil day,
even in <lee[), and einhil teis every honr of life. In the
majority of cases, this is prohahly what tells most nixni
our poor peo|)le : but Ibi- this, the hodily suH'erinj/s,
which, al'iei' all, ai'c Li'enefally ti'aiisitofy. would lie
easily snpi)()rted. ihil it is precisely iVom this plia>e
ofsiiireriny- that the l']skinio"s elastic spirit saves him.
Kven a lon,u' period of starvation and (iidnram-e is at
once t'oro-otten so soon as he is ted : and the memory
of l)V,n'one sufl'erinu'^^ <'mu no more destroy his eiijoy-
lueiit and happiness, than can the tear of those ^vhi<•h
to-mori-ow or the ii(>xt day may l)riii<2-. The only
thiiiu' that reallv niakes liim iudiap])\- is to sei^ others
in want, and therefore he shares with them whenever
he has anything to share.

What chiefly euts the Eskimos to the heart is to
see their children starving; 'and therefore,' says
DahiL>er, ' thev L^ive food to their- children even if
they themselyes are ready to die of hnno-er; foi- they
live every day in the hope of a happy change of
fortune — a hope which really snstains life in many
of them.'

In order to obtain a clearer conception ot the
radical difference between the Eskimo character and

■4

104

ESKIMO LIFJO

,r:

1.*

'■A

r*. »,

v'^l ■'i^'-'

'it!-

■f

I*
I"'

ours, we ought to study the Eskimos in tlieir social
relations.

It is not luiusual to hear j^eople express the
opinion that the Eskimo connnunity is devoid of
law and order. This is a mistake.

Originalh', on tlie contrary, it was singularly well
ordered. It luid its customs and its fixed rules for
every possible circumstance, and these customs and
rules were handed down from f^eneration to o-enera-
tion, and were almost always ol)served ; for the
people are really incredibly well-disposed, as even
Egede himself, who has, as we have seen, written so
harshly of them, cannot help admitthig in such a
passage as, for example, the following ; ' It is won-
derful in what peace and unit}' tliey live with each
other ; for quarrelling and strife, hatred and covetous-
ness, are seldom heard of amoug them.' And even
if one of them happens to bear an ill-will to
another, he does not let it be seen, nor, on account
of their great tenderness for eacli other, does he
take upon himself to attack him openly with vio-
lence or abuse, their language being indeed devoid
of the necessary words.' Observe that this is said

When they have seen our dissohite sailors quarrelUn<r and
fightnig, they regard sucli heliuvionr as inhuman, and sav : " They do
not treat each other as human beings." In the same wav, if one of
the omcers strikes a subordinate, tliey at once exclaim : " He behaves
to his fellow -men as if they were dogs." '

lj^

I rm 1 l i #" i i! '.iwn'i i nimwi I »■

CIIAIJACTKR AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS

lOo

by a niissiuiiary of heatliens, who, therefore, could
not liave developed this peaceful temper tlu'ouifh the
influence of Christianity.

Then came the Europeans. Without knowing or
understanding the people or its re(|uirements, they
started from the assumption that it stood in need of
improvement in every possible way, and consequently
set to work to disturb and overturn the whoU' social
order. They tried to force upon the Eskimos a
totally new character, gave them, all in a moment,
a new religion, and broke down their respect for their
old customs and traditions, of course without being
able to give them new ones in their place. The
missionaries thoui^lit that thev could make this wild,
free people of hunters into a civilised Christian
nation, without for a moment suspecting that at
heart these people were in many respects more
Christian than themselves, and, among other things,
like so many primitive people, had put into practice
the Christian doctrine of love (charity) very much
more fully than an}' Christian nation. The Euro-
peans, in short, conducted themseh'es in Crreenland
exactly as they are in the habit of doing wherever
tliej^ come forward in the name of the Christian
religion to ' make the poor heathen partakers in the
blessings of eternal truth.'

Very characteristic of this view is the following

• 1 »:

'IT

li'f,

100

ESKLArC) UFE

Utterance of Egede's, of wliicli I have already spoken :
'The inl)orn stupidity and duhiess of the Green-
hmders, their slothful and brutish up-l)rinrnno-. their
wandering and unstable way of life, certainly ofTei-
great hindrances to their conversion, and ought as
much as possible to be obviated and remedied.' What
a lack of comprehension ! Only think, tc - aiU to
obviate and remedy the nomadic life of a tribe of
hunters! What would remain to them? I may
add that he at another time proposes to attain this
end by means of ' chastisement and discipHne.'

The Eskimos at first listened in astonishment to
the strangers. They had liitlierto been very well
content with themselves and their wliole wav of
living; they did not know that man and his life
on earth were so miseral)le as the missionaries airain
and again assured them they were. They had not,
as Egede says, 'any just realisation of their own
profound corruption,' and had great difficulty in
understanding a religion so cruel as to condemn
people to everlasting fire. They could quite well
recognise ' original sin ' as a connnon characteristic
of the kavdluuak.s (Europeans), for it was clear
enough that many of them were bad ; but the
kaladlit (Eskimos) were good people, and ouoht
without any trouble to get into heaven.

Wlien in 1728 a numljer of Daiush men and

CIIAIIACTER AND SOCIAL ("ONDITIOXS

107

women came to (^udtluuib to eolonise the coiiiitiA',
many of tliem ^ave great ofleiice to tlie heathens hy
their evil ways, so that they 'often asked how it
was that so many of our people were so Ijad.
Women (that is, GreenUmd women), they said, are
natnrally qniet and modest; bnt these (the Euro-
peans) were boisterous^ bi'azen, and lackin<>- in all
womanly projiriety. Yet they surely all knew
God's will.' And the Greenlanders looked down
upon and laughed at the stupid, self-satisfied
Europeans who preached so finely but practised so
little what they preached, and who, besides, knew
nothing about hunting or about all the things which
the Eskimos regarded as the most important in life.

The power which comes of a higher development
gradually gav(^ the Europeans the upper hand, so
that in the course of time tliev have brouodit about
a complete disturbance of the primitive social order,
and replaced it by an indeterminate mixture of
Eskinic^ and modern European habits and civilisa-
tion ; while they have also effec'ted a deplorable
mixture of breeds, and produced, without the help
of the clergy, an exceedingly mongrel population.

But, as the Eskimos are a verj' conservative
people, we can still find many important traces of
their primitive condition.

The Greenlauders, hke all nations of hunters,

111

108

ESlvLAlO LIFE

i n

If Fi

»1^.

have a very restricted sense of property ; but it is
a mistake to suppose it entirely non-existent.

As regards the great majority of tilings, a certain
communism prevails; but this is always limited to
wider or narrower (drcles according to the nature
of the thing in question. Ascending from the
individual, we find in the family the narrowest
social circle ; then come housenuites and the nearest
kinsfolk, and then all the families of the village.
Private property is most fully recognised in the
kaiak, the kaiak-dress and the hunting-weapons,
which belong to the liunter alone, and which no
one must touch. With them he supports himself
and his family, and he must therefore always be
sure of finding them where he last laid them; it
is seldom tliat they are even lent to others. In
former times, good liunters would often own two
kaiaks, but that is seldom the case now. Snow-
shoes may ahuost be regarded as belonging tt)
hnplements of the chase; but as they were intro-
duced by the Europeans, they are not considered
matters of private property in the same degree ;
so that while an Eskimo seldom or never touclies
another's weapons he will scarcely think twice about
using another's snow-shoes without asking leave.

Next to clothes and hunting implements come the
tools which are used in the houses, such as knives,

CIIAI{A('TEI{ AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS

109

axes, saws, slviii-cutters, &c. Many of these, and
especially the women's sewing materials, are regarded
as altogether private property.

Other honsehold implements are the connnon
property of the family or even of all the occupants
of the honse. The woman-hoat and tlie tent belong
to the father of the family or to the family as a whole.
The liouse belongs to the family, and if several
families live together they own it in common.

The Eskimo knows nothing of pri^-ate property
in land; yet there seems to be a recoijnised rule that
no one shall pitch a tent or build a liouse at a place
where people are already settled without obtaining
their consent.

As an example of their consideration for each
other in this respect T may cite a custom which was
thus descri])ed by Lars Dalager more tlian a hundred
years ago : ' In the sununer, when they take their
tents and bao-<>afye with them, and think of settling
down at a place where other Greenlanders are living,
they row very slowly towards the shore, and when
they come to within a gunshot of it they stop and lie
upon their oars without saying a word. If those on
shore are equally silent and give no sign, the new-
comers think they are not wanted and therefore row
away as fast as possible to some unoccupied place.
But if those on shore, as generally happens, meet

' ''!
■ I

if'

♦■

hi 1

Vj;

ESKIMO LIFE

tliciii witli ('()iii[)lim('nts, suoli as: "Look licrc ! licre
are uood })laces for your tents, a u'ood Ix^ach foi* your
woman-boats — come and rest alter the labours of llie
day ! '" tliev, aftei' a little consideration, lav in to
the shore where the others stand ready to receive
them and to hell) with the landins/ of the bau'ii-a<>e.
But wlien they are startinu' again, the people of the
place ccmfine themselves to helping in the launcli of
the woman-boat, and let the strangers themselves see
to the rest, unless they happen to be xtvy good friends
oi" near relations, in which case tliey are despatched
with the same marks of honour with which they
were received, and with some such plu'ases as this :
" Your visit will be a pleasant memory to us." ' '

We may perhaps find the rudiments of the con-
ception of private property in land in the fact that
where dams have been built in a salmon river to
ii'ather the fish to^fether, it is not reu'arded as the
rifdit thini>- if strangers come and interfere with the
dams or fish with nets in the dammed-up waters, as
Europeans were often in the habit of doing in earlier
times. This too is mentioned l)y Dalager.

Driftwood belono-s to whoever first finds it fioat-
ing in the sea, wherever it may happen to be. In
order to sustain his right to it, the finder is bound to
tow it ashore and place it above the liigh-water line,

' Dalager, (irnulandslic lielationcr, Copenliagen, 175'2, pp. 15-1(3.

CIIAltACTEK AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 111

if possible marki]i<2- it in one way oi- unutlier. For
this form of properly the Eskimo lias llu- orcatcst
respect, and one who has left a piece of driftwood ou
the sJiore may Ije sure of liiidiiio- il again even several
years after, unless Europeans iiave come along in the
meanthne. Any one taking it would he regarded as
a scoundrel.

As to their customs in lending and trading, 1 may
again rpiote Dalager : ' If one man h'uds another
anything, for example a boat, a harpoon, a lishing-

hne, or other sea-implement, and it comes to harm

if, for iiiiiitance, the seal gets away with the harpoon,
or the fisli breaks the line, or the fish or seal does
injury ;o the boat — the owner must bear the loss,
the borrower making no reparation. Hut if anyone
borrows darts or implements without the knowledge
of the owner, and they come to harm, the borrower
is bound to make good the damage. This happens
very seldom ; fur a Greenlander must be hard pushed
before he will trouble his neighbour to lend him
anything, for fear of any harm occurring to it.

' When one makes a purchase from another, and
the wares do not suit him, he can return them even
after a considerable time has elapsed.

' If one buys of another such costly things as a
boat or a gun, and the buyer is not in a position to
satisfy the seller in ready money, he is allowed credit

t 1

il
p.

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' .

\i>

h n

f!>

if!

(11

11:>

ESKIMO LIF1-:

until lie eaii pay up. Hut if llio debtor dies in the
lueuntinie, the creditor never makes any claim. Tliis,'
adds Dalager, 'is an iiieonvenient habit for the
mercliants of tlie colony, who are always bound to
mxe credit ; whereof T have had several experiences,
especially this year, many of m>' debtors having de-
parted this hfe, and thus brought me into consider-
able perplexity.'

On his complaining to ^some influential and
reasonable Greenlanders,' they advised him ' to re-
gister his claim at once, but to let the man's lice die
in the grave (as they expressed it) before he pro-
ceeded to execution.'

Beyond the articles alcove enumerated,^ the
Greenlander, according to his primitive customs, can
possess but httle. Even if he had a faculty for lay-
ing up riches, which he very seldom has, his needier
fellows would have the right to enforce a claim upon
sucli of his possessions as were not necessary for him-
self. Thus we find in Greenland this unfortunate
state of things: that the European immigrants, who
are in reality supported by the natives, often become
rich and live in abundance (at any rate, according to
the Eskimo ideas), while the natives themselves are
in want.

' Dogs, however, must be atUled to the list, and, in the case of the
North and East Greenlanders, dog-sledges.

CHARACTER AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS

I. '5

The Greenlaiuler lias not even unrestricted ]"i<rlits
over the game he himself seein-es. There liave been
fixed rules from time innnemorial Jiccordinu' to vvhicli
it is divided, and there are only a few sorts of animals
which he can keep pretty well to himself and to his
family. To these belong the ahik or Greenland seal ;
but even in its case he must give a portion of l)lul)ber
to each of the kaiak-men who are present when he
takes it, and in the same way the children of the
village, when he comes home, receive a little scrap
of blubber apiece. There are fixed rules for other
sorts of game, in accordance with which the whole
animal is divided among those who were present
when it was killed or even among all the houses of
the village. This is especially the case with regard
to the walrus and several soi'ts of whales, as, for
example, the white whale ; of this the hunter receives
only a comparatively small portion, even when he
has killed it without help from others. When a whale
of any size is brought to shore, it is said to be quite
a horrible sight to see all the iiihabitants of the
village, armed with knives, flinging themselves upon it
to secure each his share, while it is still in the water.

The scene is so sanguinary that Dalager declares
that he has ' never seen or heard of a whale beinir
cut up without someone or other being mutilated, or
at least badly wounded, so great is the careless

I
II

ill

III

f ^

:?il {?

1::^

*•!■■■ 'V '

til.' ■•'

III

in ,

11:

111

HSKl.MO LIFK

eagerness with which several hundred people will
rush upon the lisli, each one duiu_i>' his best for him-
sell", and, therefore, paying very little heed as to
where lie slashes Avitli his knife.' It is eharacteristie
of their aniiabilitv, however, that ' when one of them
has thus eonie to harm, he does not hear any ,i>Tudge
against the man who injured him, but regards it as
an accident.'

It is not only with i-espect to the larger animals
that such rules hold good ; they also apply in the
case of certain fishes. Thus if a halibut is caught,
the fisher is bound to give the other kaiak-men upon
the hunting-ground a piece of tlie skin for division
among themselves ; and in ad(htion to this, when he
comes home, he generally gives some of the animal
to his housemates and neighbours.'

' When several arc hunting,' in company, tliere are fixed rules to
determine to whom the game belongs. If two or more shoot at a
reindeer, the animal belongs to him who first hit it, even if he only
wounded it slightly. As to the rules for seal-hunting, Dalager says :
' If a Greenlander strikes a seal or other marine animal with his light
dart, and it is not killed, but gets away with the dart, and if another
then comes and kills it with his darts, it nevertheless belongs to the
first ; but if he has used the ordinary harpoon, and the line breaks,
and another comes and kills the animal, the first has lost his right to
it. If, however, they both throw at the same time and both harpoons
strike, the animal is cut lengthwise in two, and di\ided between them,
skin and all.' ' If two throw at a bird simultaneously, it is divided
between them.' ' If a dead seal is found with a harpoon fixed in it. if
the owner of the harpoon is known in the neighbourhood, he gets his
weapon back, but the finder keeps the seal.' Similar rules seem also
to be in force upon the east coast.

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ClIAUACTKll AM) SOCIAI. lUNDU'lONS

II.-,

Even vvlu'ii ;i ( iivciilaiukM- has I'liUillcd all the
aforesaid laws, lie caiinot alvva\s kei'[) to liiinscir his
own share of his hooly. Fur iiistaiu-e, if he makes a
catcli at a time when there is scarcity or f;imiiie in
the vilhi<,^e, it is re^^arded as liis duly eiliier to <.ive a
feast or to divide his prey amoiio' other famiUe'S, who
may perhaps liave had to <>o for lon^- without fresh
meat.

After a nood haul, tliey make a feast, and eat as
long as they ean. If everything is not eaten up, and
there is plenty in the other houses as well, what
remains is stored against the winter; but in times of
scarcity it is regarded as the duty of those who have
anything to help tli(jse who have nothing, even to the
last remnant of food. After that, they starve in
company, and sometimes starve to death. That some
people should hve in profusion while others suller
need, as we see it occurring daily in European com-
munities, is an unheard of thing in Greenland ; except
that the European settlers, with the habitual provi-
dence of our race, have often stores of food while the
Greenlanders are starving'.

It will be understood from what has been said
that the tendency of the law is, as nuich as possible,
to let the whole village benefit by the captured
prey, so that no family shall be entirely dependent
ui)on the daily ' take ' of those who provide for it.

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ESKLMO LIFE

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Tliese are laws wliicli have developed through tlie
experience of long ages, and have become established
by the habit of many generations.

The Greenlander is, on the whole, like a sympa-
thetic child with respect to the needs of others ; Ids
first social law is to help his neighbour. Upon it, and
upon their habit of clinging together through good
and ill, depends the existence of the little Greenland
comnmnity. 'V hard life has taught the Eskimo that
however capable he may be, and able as a rule to
look after himself, there ma>- come times when with-
out the help of his fellow men he Avonld ha\e to go
to the wall; therefore, it is best to help others.
' Therefore, all things wdiatsoever ye would that men
should do to you, do ye even so to them'— this com-
mandment, one of tlie iirst and most important of
Christianity, Nature itself has instilled into the Green-
lander, and he always acts up to it, which can
scarcely be affirmed of Christian nations. It is un-
fortunate that, as he advances in civilisation, this
commandment seems to lose its power over him.

Hospitality to strangers is a no less binding law
among the Eskimos than helpfulness to neighbours.
The traveller enters the first hut he comes to, and
remains there as long as convenient. He is kindly
received and entertained with what the house can
offer, even if he be an enemy. When he proceeds

CTIArvACTKU AND SOCIAL COXDITIOXS

ii:

on his way, lie often takes a store of food along with
him ; I have seen kaiak-nien leave houses where they
had remained weatherbound for several days, loaded
with halibut flesh, which liad been presented to tliem
on their departure. No payment is ever made for
the entertainment. A European, too, is everywhere
hospitably received, although the Greenlandcrs would
not think of making similar claims upon his hospi-
tality. Europeans, however, often make some sort of
recompense by treating their entertainers to coffee
and such oi-her delicacies as they may have with
them.

That hospitality is consid.L'riMl a \ery binding
duty upon the east coast of Greenland a[)pears from
several remarkable instances related by Gaptain
Holm. I may refer the reader to what he tells of
the murderer Maratuk, who had killed his stepfather.
He was a bad man, and no one liked him ; \'et when
he presented himself at the house of the murdered
man's nearest relatives, he was received and enter-
tained for a long time — but they spoke ill of him
when he had gone.

Hospitality is of 30urse forced upon them l)y
their natural surroundings; for it often happens that
they are overtaken by storms when far from home,
so that they are compelled to take refuge in the
nearest dwelling-place.

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ESKIMO LIFE

It seems, uiiliappily, as thongli hospitality had
dechiied of late years on the west coast. Doubtless
it is once more the Europeans who have given the
example. And the fact that the people are by no
means so well-to-do as in earlier times, and are
therefore less al)le to entertain strangers, has no
doubt tended in the same direction.

Many of my readers are probably of opinion that
I am unjust to us Europeans ; but that is far from
my intention. If the Europeans have not had the
best influence, the fact cannot always be directly
laid to their charQ'e : circumstances have rendered it
inevitable, in spite of excellent intentions on their
part. For example, they have conscientiously la-
boured to foster the sense of property among the
Greenlanders, encouraging them to save up portions
of their bootv, instead of lavishinci: it abroad in their
usual free-handed way, and so forth ; the principle
being that a more highly-developed sense of property
is the first condition of civilisation. Whether this is
a benefit may seem doubtful to many ; for my part I
have no doubt about the matter. I must admit, of
course, that civilisation presupposes a much greater
faculty for the acquisition of worldly goods than
the Eskimo is possessed of; but what I cannot
understand is what these poor people have to
do with civilisation. It assuredlv makes them no

CnARACTER AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS

11!)

happier, it rniiis what is fine and admiraljle in tlieir
eharacter, makes them weaker in tlie struirrrle for
existence, and inevita])ly leads them to poverty and
misery. But more of this at a later opportunity.

The laws upon which the heathen community in
Greeidand rests are, as we have seen, as nearly as
possible socialism carried into practice. In this
respect, accordingly, they are more Christian than
those of any Christian comnmnity. The social re-
formers of to-day miolit learn much in these liioh
latitudes.

Spencer has in ouu (jf his liooks pointed out that
mankind has two religions. The first and most
natural is the instinct of self-preservation, which
impels the individual to protect himself against all
outward opposition or hostile uiterference. This he
calls the religion of enmity. The other is the in-
stinct of association, which impels men to join
fellowship with their neighbours ; and to it we trace
the Christian doctrine that you should love youi-
neighbour as yourself, and should even love your
enemies. This he calls the ]-eligion of friendship.
The former is the religion of the past, the latter that
of the future.

Precisely this religion of the future the Eskimo
seems to have made his own to a peculiar degree.

The men of some tribes or races are driven to com-

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120

ESKIMO LIFE

bine with each other by the pressure of human enemies,
others by inhospitable natural surroundings. The
latter has been the case with the Eskimos. Where
the instinct of association and mutual help has been
most strongly developed, there has the community's
power of maintaining itself been greatest, and it has
increased in numbers and in well-being ; while other
small communities, with less of this instinct, have
declined or even succuml^ed altogether.

In so far as we believe with Spencer that the
religion of friendship is that of the future, that self-
sacrifice for the benefit of the connnunity is the
point towards which development is tending, we
must assign to the Eskimo a high place in the scale
of nations.

It is a question, however, whether our forefathers
also, in long" bygone ages, did not act upon a
similar principle. It may be that social develop-
ment proceeds in a spiral Avith ever wider and wider
convolutions.

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CIIArTEli ^'IIT

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TIIK i'OSITlOX AXD AV(»I?K OF WO.Mi:X

Many leadiiiii thiiiker.s have reiiiarkcd that tlic social
position occupied by its women ailbrds the best
criterion of a people's place in the scale of civilisa-
tion. I am not entirely convinced that this is always
the case ; but if it is, I think we have here another
indication that the Eskimo mnst be allowed to hav(^
reached a pretty hioh level of development. For
the Eskimo woman plays no insignificant part in the
life of the connnunity.

It is true that, according to the primitive Eskimo
conception, she is practically regarded as the pro-
perty of her husband, who has either cari-ied her off,
or sometimes bought her, from her father. He can
therefore send her away when, he pleases, or lend
her, or exchange her for another ; and, when he can
afford it, he can have more wives than one. Hut as
a rule she is well treated, and we find this conceptioiL
of her as the husband's chattel more clearly marked
among many other races ; tliei-e is even a good deal

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122

ESKIMO LIFK

of it in our own sorictv, onlv under a i^oniewliat
different disefuise.

There are some who maintain that our women
liave plenty to do, but that tlie j^-reat mistake is that
their employments are not exactly the same as thos<i
of the men. These people will be no better con-
tented with the state of affairs in Greenland, for
there, too, the employments of the two sexes are
entirely distinct.

It is true that both sexes wear trousers, and have
done so from time immemorial ; but nevertheless
they have not yet attained to the conception that
there is little or no diff'erence between men and
women.

Tliev hold that there are, amonijf other thinofs,
certain essential physical differences, and imagine
that women are not as a rule so strong, active, and
courageous as men, and that they therefore are not
so well fitted for huntintj and fishincf. On the other
hand, they do not think that men are best fitted to
have the care of children, to give them suck, and so
forth.

This is no doubt the reason for the verv clear
line of demarcation between the employments proper
to the two sexes in Greenland.

To the man's share falls the laborious life at sea,
as hunter and food-provider ; but Avhen he reaches

THE rOSlTIOX AM) WOIIK ()!• AVOA[F.N

]1'3

the sliore with his booty, he lias fulfilled the most
important part of his social function. He is received
by his womenfolk, who help him ashore ; and while
he has nothing to do but to look after his kaiak and
his weapons, it is the part of the women to drag the
booty np to the house. In earlier times, at any rate,
it was beneath the dignity of any hnnter to lend a
hand in this work, and so it still is with the
majority.

The women ilay the seal and cut it up according
to fixed rules, and the mother of the family i)resides
at the division of it. Further, it is the women's
duty to cook the food, to j)repare the skins, to cover
the kaiaks and woman-boats, to make clothes, and to
attend to all other domestics tasks. In addition to
this they build the houses, pitch the tents, and row
the woman- boats.

To row in a woman-boat was formerly, at any
rate, quite l)eneatli a hunter's dignity, but it was the
part of the father of the family to steer it. Now we
often see men sitting and rowing, especially if they
are hired by travelling Europeans. When yon have
become thoroughly ac^customed to their way of life,
this makes an nnpleasant impression ; the kaiak is
and must be the in.dispensable condition of their
existence, and one feels that they ought to neglect
no opportunity for exercising themselves in its use.

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ESKLMO JJl-'K

Even now no liunler of tlie first rank will condescend
to enter a woniun-boat, except as steersman.

When the family is out reindeer-huntinn-, it is of
course the men wlio shoot the reindeer, while it
often falls to the share of the women to dra<'- the
game to the tent ; and this is a laljorious business,
calling for a great deal of endurance.

The only sort of fishery with wliich the women
as a rule concern themselves is caplin-fishing. The
season for this is the early sunnner, when the caijlin
appear on the coast in such dense shoals that they
can be drawn up in bucketsful into the woman-
boats. The fishing continues until a suflicient store
IS laid up against the winter; when once that is
done they care no more about them, however abun-
dant they may be. The fish are dried by being spread
out on the rocks and stones ; it is the women's
business to look after them, and, when they are
dried, to pack them together.

Sometimes they take part in seal-fishing, when a
sort of battue is made, the seals being hunted into
narrow sounds and fiords and driven ashore.

Only a few cases are on record in which women
have tried their hand at kaiak-fishino-.

Captain Holm mentions two girls at Imarsivik on
the east coast who had taken to the kaiak. The pro-
portion between men and women in the village was

TIIK I'OSrTTOX AM) WOIfK OF WOMEN

li'o

uiifortiiiiafe, there beiiio- only five men out o? a
population of twenty-one. We are nnliappily not
informed wlietlier tliese womeii liad attained as
great .skill in Imntino- as their male comrades.

They had entirely adopted the masculine manner
of livino-, dressed like men and wore their hair like
men. When they Avere allowed to select what they
wanted from among Holm's articles of barter, they
did not choose needles or other feminiue implements,
but preferred spear-heads for their wea])ons. It must
have been difficult to distinguish them from men ; I
must doubtless have seen them when 1 was on the
east coast in 1888, without suspecting their sex.
Holm mentions that one or two other oirls in the
same place were also destined to be trained as
hunters, but they were as yet too young.

While the men pass most of their time on the sea,
the women reuiain at home in their houses ; and there
you will generally find them busil}^ occupied with one
task or another, in contrast to those fair ones on our
side of the ocean who do nothing but eat, lounge
about, gossip, and sleep. When they go beyond the
circle of their ordinary douK^^tic employments, it is
generally to busy themselves with the weapons of the
men, ornamenting them with ])one-carvings, &c. ;
these are their chief pride.

The men generally sit at the outer edge of the

126

KSKLMO MFK

sleepiiig-boiK-li with their feet on the llcor ; but the
women jilwjiys sit well back on the l)e]i('h, with their
legs crossed, like a tailor on his ta])le. Here they
sew, embroider, cut up skins with their peculiar
crooked knives, chew bird-skins, and in short attend
to many of their most important occupations, while
their tono-ues are in ceaseless activity; for they
are very lively and seldom lack matter for con-
versation. I cannot, unliappily, quite acquit them
of the proverbial feminine lo(piacit3' ; and, if we may
believe Balager, they are not altogether free from
graver defects. He says : ' Lying and backbiting
are chiefly to be found among the women. The men,
on the otiier hand, are much more honest, and shrink
from relating anything which they are unal)le to sub-
stantiate.'

Oh woman, woman, are you everywhere the
same !

The very first thouglit to wliicli Loke ^ave birth,

It was a lie, and he bade it descend

In a woman's shape to the men of earth.

The preparation of skins is a very important part
of the women's work, and as the methods are ex-
tremely pecuUar, I shall give a short description of
them, as I learnt them from the Eskimos of the Godt-
haab district. Q'he processes vary according to the
diflerent sorts of skins and the purposes for which
tliev are destined.

TIIK POSITION AND WOIJK (»F Wo.MKN

I'JT

Kaiak-skiiisjire dressed citht'i- hhick or white.'
The black skin (erlMk) is oljtaiiied hy scniping the
l)hil)ber from tlie under side of ihe skiu wliiU-lt is
IVesh, and tlieii steeping it for a day or two in stale
urine, until the hairs can be plucked out with a knife.
These beino- removed, the skin is rinsed in sea water,
and in sununer it is then dried, but not in the sun.'
Ill winter, it is not dried, but if possible preserved by
being buried in snow. Whether in summer or winter,
however, it is best if, innuediately after being washed',
it can be stretched cm tlie kaiak so as to dry upon'
the framework. These skiiLs are dark because the
grain or outer membrane of the skin of the seal is
either black or dark brown.

White kaiiih-skins (I'mek) are prepared in this way :
While they are quite fresh, and after the blubber has
been roughly removed, they are rolled up and laid in
a tolerably warm place either out of doors or in.
There they lie until the hairs and the outer membrane
can easily be scraped away with a mussel-shell. For
this purpose, however, the Greenland beauties gene-
rally prefer to use their teeth, since they can^hus
suck out a certain amount of blubber, which they
consider delicious. Then, in summer, the skins are

' The skins used as before mentioned (p. 45) are usually those
of the sadc lebaclc seal or hood seal ; but the skm of the bearded sea!
IS also used, and occasionally that of the ringed seal or even of the
mottled or common seal {Fhoca vltalinu).

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128

I'SKI.MO fJI'M

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IniUL' lip lo dry — nol in tluisiin — upon a woodon mil,
{ind luv often tui-nud in ordci- thai \\wy in;iy dry
evenly all over. Tn winter they ;ii'e preservod, like
the blnek skins, in the snow. The dark membrane
being s('r.'i|)ed aw;iy, tliese skins nre quite lii^dit-
C'olonred of white when thev are iinished.

It nnist be noted that neither of these sorts of
skins is stretelied while (byino-.

l:Joth sorts are used for Avomaii-boats as well as lor
kaiaks.

For the kaiak. the wliite skins, which ou^lit always
to l)e kept well greased with seal-blubbei-, are con-
sidered best in sunnuer ; the black, on the other hand,
which are never greased, are jDreferred in winter. A
well-appointed hunter, theref(n'e, ought to re-cover
his kaiak twice a year : nowadays, however, he can
generally do so only once, and sometimes only once
in two years.

If the sealskins are to l)e used for kamiks (shoes),
the blubber and the inner layer of the skin itself is
scraped away with a crooked knife (ulo) upon a
board made for the purpose out of a whale's shoulder-
blade. When the skin has been scraped thin it is
steeped for a day or so in stale urine until the hairs
can be plucked ofl' with a knife. This done, the
skin is stretched, by means of small bone pet^s,
upon the earth or the snow, and dried. Then it is

TIII^ i'U.SITlUN ANU WUKK Ol' WO.MKN

!-'!>

riib])(!(l until it i^ soft, and the proross is complete.
As this sort of skin has its outer mnijil)raiui intact, it
is of a (lai'k rolour.

Wliile kaniik-skiiis are prepared up to a ccrtaiu
pohit like the ioreijoiug, but \vh(Mi the liairs have
])('eu removed tliey are dipped in warm water (not
too vvai-m) until the black meinl)raiie is loosened,
and tlum steeped in sea water, as cold as possible.
If all the mem])raue is not removed, tlie skin is
a.i^ain dipped alternately in warm watei- and sea
water nntil it comes away. Then the skin is pen<^ed
out and dried like the black skin.

The white skins, not being as strouL-- and water-
tight as the black, are used ahnost entirely bv
women, who either keep them white or dye them
in different ways.

Sole leather for the kamiks is prepared in the
same way as the black kaiak-skin, but is peg<i-ed
out while di'vinjr.

Skins for kaiak-gloves are prepared at first
like the black kamik skins, but after the hairs have
been i-emoved they are dressed witli blood, and
then rolled together and put away. This is re-
peated two or three times until they become
entirely black. Then they are stretched for dry-
ing—in summer out of doors, but in winter in the
houses. This skin is wonderfully water-tight.

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130

ESKIMO LIFE

If the sealskin is to be prepared with its hairs
on, as for example, for the inner sock of the kamiks
or for j?v'kets, it is scraped on the blul)ber side
with a crooked knife, jnst like the ordinary kamik-
skin. Then it is steeped in water, and waslied wiiii
soft soap ; wherenpon it is rinsed (Mil in clean water,
stretched, and dried as aljove descril)ed. It is then
made soft and pliant by '-abbing, and is ready for
use.

Eeindeer skin is simply dried and rubbed, no
water being ap])lied to it.

In preparing bird-skiris, the first step is care-
full}' to dry tiie featliers ; then the skins are turned
inside out, and the layer of fat is scraped away as
thoroughly as possible with a mussel shell or a
spoon, and is eaten — it is held a great delicacy.
Then the skins are hung up under the roof to
dry. After a few days, the last remnants of fat
are removed from them b}' means of chewing,
then they are dried again, then washed in warm
water with soda and soap three times over, then
rinsed out in very cold water, pressed, and hung
up for the final drying. If the feathers are to be
removed so that only the down is left, as, for
example, in the case of the eider duck, they are
plucked out when the skin is half dry. Then it is
thonmghly dried and cut up, and so is ready for use.

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THE rOSITIOX AXD WOL'K OF WOMEN'

131

The cliewiiiiT ;ii)()ve ineiitioued is a remarkable
process. The operator lakes the dry skin, ahnost
drippino- witli fat, and chews away at one spot until
all the fat is sucked out and the skin is soft and
white ; then the chewing area is slowly widened, the
skin gradually retreating further and further into
the mouth, until it oftci disappears entirely, to l)e
spat out again at last with every particle of fat
chewed away. This industry is for the most pat.
carried on by the women and children, and is very
highly relished b^^ reason of the quantity of fat it
enables them to absorb. In times of scarcity, the
men are often glad enough to be allowed to do their
share. It is a otrange scene that is presented when
one enters a house and finds the whole of its popula-
tion thus engaged in chewing, each witli his skin in
his mouth. The excellence of the Greenland bird-
skins i,^ dne to this process. How few of tliose who
have admired the exquisite eider-down rugs wliich
adorn so many a luxurious European home, have
any idea of the stages through whicli they have
gone ! And how many a European beauty, resplen-
dent in costly skins, would shudder if she could see
in a vision all the more or less inviting mouths
through which her finery lias passed, up there in
the far North, before it came to deck her swan-like
form !

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ESKIMO LIFE

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On tiie whole, the Greenland women make great
use of their teeth, now to stretch the skins, now to
hold them while they are being scraped, and again
for the actual scraping. It is rather startling to
us Europeans to see theiii take up a skin out of the
tub of fetid liquor in which it has l)Oon steeping,
and straightway fix their teeth in it and be^in to
dress it. The mouth, in fact, is a third hand to
them ; and therefore the front teeth of old Eskimo
women are often worn away to the merest stumps.

The sinews of seals, whales, and reindeer are used
as thread in making garments out of skins. The
sinews are simply dried. For sewing kuiak-jackets,
kaiak-gloves, and sometimes for kamiks, the gullet
of the saddleback seal, the ringed seal, the bladder-
nose seal, the small mottled seal, and the cormorant
is also used. The outer membranes of the gullet
are cut away while it is quite fresli, and then it is
drawm over a round stick prepared for the purpose,
and greased with blubber. Sometimes the srullet is
also scraped with mussel-shells When it has dried
upon the stick and has been cut lengthwise into
narrow strips, it is ready for use. The thread thus
obtained has this advantr.ge over the sinew-thread
that it does not soften in water.

The Greenland women are very capable at their
work, and are especially skilful with iheir needle.

THE ruSITIOX \\l) WUIIK OF WO^fEX

r.y.i

One lias orxly to examine ilie seams of a kaiak-skiii,
a kaiak-jacket, or a gut-skin shirt to convince one-
self of this. But their skill is still more conspicuous
in the admiraljle embroideries witli which thev orna-
ment their trousers, kamiks, and other garments.
On the west coast, where they have learned the use
of dyes from the Europeans, they now execute these
embroideries with small patches of hide of different
colours, which they £-w together into a sort of
mosaic. They work entirely in freehand, without
any pattern to go by, and disphiy great neatness and
precision, to say nothing of their sense of colour
and of form.

In living with the Eskimos in their homes, one
does not at all receive the impression that the women
are particularly oppressed or slighted. It seemed to
me, on the contrary, that the housewives of Godt-
haab and the surrounding district often played a
\'ery important part in the domestic economy, in
some cases even ruling the roost. Judging from my
own experience, then, I should say that there is a
good deal of exaggeration in what Dalager says of
the women, thixt 'even what ouglit to ])e the best
lioars of their hfe, fi-om the thne they come to
maturity, are nothing but a long chain of trouble,
contempt, and sorrow.'

It cannot be denied that in social life one observes

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134

ESKIMO LIFE

a certain differetic^ of status between men and
women. Tims at meal-times or at roli'ee-parties, the
hunters and the men of most importance are first
helped, then the less important males, and finally the
women and children. Dalager, in last century,
makes a similar remark in his description of a ban-
quet. The men, he jays, take the leadinii; place, and
tell each other their adventures, while -the women
too have in the meantime formed a little party by
themselves in another corner, where, no doubt,
nothing but empty chatter is to be heard.' But, if it
comes to that, such a description would apply in
several other parts of the world besides Greenland.

I must admit, however, that the Eskimo men
sometimes show themselves sadly deficient in poUte-
ness towards the ladies. For exai )le, ' when the
w^omen are hard at work, building liouses, drawing
water, or carrying heavy burdens of one sort or
another, the men stand bv with their hands thrust
into the breast of their jackets, and laugh at them,
without ofiering the slightest help.' But is this so
very much worse than what v.e often see in Norway,
when a Bergen peasant, returning from market,
lights his pipe, stretches himself in the stern of the
boat, and lets his women row him home ?

That women are not held in sucli hi<di esteem as
men is also unhappily evident from the fact that

.iwmmiMiT^

THE POSITION AND WOllK OF WOMEN

wlien a man-child is bori], t]ie iallier is jul)ilaiit, and
tlie mother beams with pride, >.hile if it l)e a girl,
they both weep, or are at any rate very ill content.

Bnt is this so very much to be wondered at?
With all his goodness of heart, the Eskimo is, after
all, no more than a man. The bo}- is of course,
regarded as the kaiak-man and hunter of the future,
the support of the family in the old age of his parents,
in short as a direct addition to the working capital ;
while they no doubt think tiiat there will always Ije
plenty of girls in the world.

The same diff'erenc'e is observable in the brin<-in<»--
up of the children, the boys being always regarded
as the food-providers of the future, who nuist in
ever}' way be well cared lor : and if a Ijoy's parents
die, his position is never a whit the worse, for all the
neighbours are quite willing to receive him into
their liouses and do all they can to make a man
of him. With the girls it is different; if they
lose their parents and have no relations, they can
always, indeed, ha\e plenty of food, but they have
often to put up with the most miserable clothing, so
that it is pitiful to see them. When they come to
1 he marriageable age, however, they stand on pretty
much the same level as girls who have been more
fortunately situated ; for no such thing as a dowry is
known, and their chances simply depend upon

>il.

tSSBt

-v i

;'!>' ,

A'
if'

!tl

'>M

■)l

180

ESKIMO JJFE

' beauty and solidity, which shall secure them favour
in the eyes of the young men — lacking these they
are despised, and will never be married, since there
are always plenty to choose from.' Of this, however,
tluiy cannot complain, for the men themselves are no
better off. If the}' are not strong enough to make
good hunters, as sometimes hai^pens, they have poor
enough chances of ever hnding a mate, and are
looked down upon by every one.

That bo3-s are regarded very much in the light of
capital appears from the fact that although widows
are not in demand in the marriage-market, it some-
times happens that they fmd a husband, ' especially
if the}- have a family of l^oys ; in that case they are
pretty sure one da}' to make a match with a respect-
able widower.'

Even in death, women seem to be placed at a dis-
advantage, as we may conclude from the following
remark of Dalager's : ' It sometimes happens that a
woman of no great importance, when mortal sickness
falls upon lier, is buried ahve. A horrible case of
this sort occurred a short time ago at this very place.
Several people declared that they had heard the
woman, a long time after her burial, calling out from
her gTcive and begging for something to drink. If
you remonstrate with them upon such inhuman
cruelty, they answer that when the patient cannot

BEP

THK POSITION AND WORK OF WOMEN

137

recover, it is better that she should be put away in
her last resting-place, than that tlie survivors should l»'o
tlirougli the agony of death in obs(n'\in<4- her miserv.
But this reasoning will not hold good ; for if any male
person wer(^ thus barbarously dealt willi, it would
be regarded as the most brutal nunxler.' Yes, this
was ill done ; but fortunately such events are verv
exceptional. Tlieir real reason, nioreo\-er, is pro-
])ably to be lound in the Eskimos' intense dread of
touching dead Ijodies, which makes them clothe the
dving, wdiether men or w^omen, in their o-rave-
clothes, often long before death occurs, preparing
every tiling for the carrying out of the corpse and its
burial, while the patient himself lies and looks on.
For the same reason, they slu-ink from assisting one
who has met with an accident at sea, if he seems to
be already in the pinch of death, fearing lest they
should happen to lay hands upon him after life has
departed.

"'i^m

1*1

"« 'H

<'-i^

:ii

lliS

ESKIMO L1FI-:

C'HAl'TER IX

L(JV1': AND ,MAI1U1AGE

Love, tliat power Avliidi ijermeates all creation, is by
no means uiiknowji in Oxreenland; but the Greenland
variet}' of it is a simple impulse of nature, lacking
the many tender shoots and intricate blossoms of the
hot-h(mse plant which we know b}' this name.

It does not make the lover sick of soul, but
drives him to sea, to the chase ; it streno-thens his
arm and sharpens his sight ; for his one desire is to
become an expert hunter, so that he can lead his
Naia home as his bride, and support a family. And
the tender young Naia stands upon the outlook-rock
gazing after him ; she sees with what speed and cer-
tainty he shoots ahead, how gracefully he wields the
paddle, and how lightly his kaiak dances over the
waves. Then he disappears in the far distance ; but
she still gazes over the endless blue expanse, which
heaves over the grave of so many a bold kaiak-man.

At last he comes home again, towing his booty ;
she rushes down to the beach and helps the other

LOVE ANJ> MAinUAdK

180

woiiieji to bring his prey asliorc, wliile hv (|iiietly
puis liis weapons loLicthcr and goes up to liis liouse.

lint one eveuing he does not return, for all her
waiting and gazing ; all the others have come — liim
the sea has taken. She weeps and weeps, slie can
never survive the blow. But her despair does not
hist long; after all, there are other men i]i the worhl,
and she begins to look on them with favour.

The pure-ljred Eskimo generally marries as soon
as he can provide for a wife. The motive is n( )t always
love; ' the right o]ie ' has perhaps not yet appeared
on tlie scene ; 1)Ut he marries because he I'equires a
woman's help to prepare his skius, nnike his clothes,
and so forth. He often marries, it is said, before he
is of an ai^e to beget children. On the east coast,
indeed, according to Holm, it is quite conmion for a
man to hiixn been married three or four times before
that ai»e.'

Marriage in Greenland was, in earlier times, a
very simple matter. When a man had a mind to a
girl, he went to her house or tent, seized her Ijy the
hair or wdierever he could best get hold of her, and
dragged her withont further ceremony home to his
house,-' where her place was assigned her upon the

' Mcddclclser ovi Grvnland, pt. 10, p. 94.

- It sometimes happened, too, that he got others to do this for liim ;
but the affair imist always take tlie form of a capture or abduction.
Similar customs, as is well known, formerly prevailed in Europe, and
have even, in certain places, survived down to our own day.

Mr-

its

.'!

I'i

ESKi^ro rji'i'i

sleeping l)eiicli. The brldcgi-ooni Avould soinetimes
give her ;i l;uiip iiiul a new water-bucket, or
something ol' that soi-t, and that concluded the
matter. In Greenland, however, as^in otlici- parts
of the world, good taste demanded that the ladv
in question should on no account let it a[)pear that
she was a consenting party, however favourably
disposed towards her wooer she might be in her
heart. As a well-conducted l)ride anion<T us feels
it her duty to weep as she passes up the church,
so the Eskimo bride was bound to stru<>-<vle a<»ainst
her captor, and to wail and bemoan herself as much
as ever she could. If she was a lady of the ^-ery
highest breeding, she would weep and ' can-}- on '
for several days, and even run aAva^' home ao-ain
from her husband's house. If she went too far in
her care for the proprieties, it would sometimes
happen, we are told, that the husband, unless he
was already tired of her, would scratch lier a little
on the soles of the feet, so that she could not walk ;
and before the sores were healed, she was ^enerallv
a contented housewife.

When they first saw marriages conducted after
the European fashion, they thought it very shock-
ing that the bride, when asked if she would have
the bridegroom for her husband, should answer
Yes. According to their ideas, it would be much

LOVE .VXD MAItRIAdi:

more beconiiiig for her to ;ms\vor Xo, foi* they I'opird
it as a shaiiioful tliiiifj for a yoiiiii]^ lady to ro))ly to
such a (luostion in the adiniiativc. When assured
that tills was tlu^ custom among us, tliey wei-c of
ophiion that our women-folk must Ix; d('\'()id of
modesty.

The sim})l(' method of marriiigc al)0\'e described
is still i\n) only one known upon the east coast of
Greeidand, and a good deal of \iolence is sometimes
employed in the carrying off of the bride. The
lady's relations, however, stand quite unmoved and
look on. It is all a private matter between the
parties, and the Greenlander's love (jf a good under-
standiniT with his fellows makes him charv of mixin"-
himself up in the affairs of others.

It sometimes happens, of course, that the young-
lady really objects to her wooer ; in that case she
continues her resistance until she either learns to
possess her soul in patience, or until her captor gives
her up.

Graah relates a curious instance' proving how
difficult it is for an onlooker to determine what are
really the lady's sentiments. An able-bodied young
rowing-woman in his boat, an East Greenlander
named Kellitiuk, was one day seized and carried to

' W. A. Graah, Narrative of an Expedition to the East Coast of
Greenland, London, 1837, pp. 140-143.

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14ij

ESKIMO I.IFE

fii^

the mountains by one of her countrymen named
Siorakitsok, in spite of the most violent resistance on
her i)nrt. As Oraah beheved that she really disliked
him, and as her friends aflirmed the same thinu', he
went aftei- her and rescued her. A few days later,
as he was preparino- to set forth on his journey
a<i'ain, and the boat had just been launched, Kellitiuk
jumped into it, lay down under the thwarts, and
covered herself with bags and skins. It soon ap-
peared that this was because Siorakitsok had just
landed on the island, bringing his father with him to
])ack him up. While Graah's back was turned for a
moment, he iumijcd into the boat and dra^i^ged the
fair one out of her hiding-place. Convinced that
her brutal wooer wa* really repulsive to her, Granh
thought it his duty to rescue her. When he came
up, the suitor had already got her lialf out of the
boat, and his father stood bv on shore readv to lend
a hand. Graah tore her frtmi his grasp, and re-
commended him instead to try his luck with ' Black
Dorothy," another of the rowing-women, whom he
would have been glad to get rid of. The baffled
bridegroom listened to him (puetly, ' muttered some
uiaudible words in his beard, and went away with
wrathful and threatening hH)ks.' The father did not
take his son's fate nuich to he^irt, ' but helped us to
load the boat,' says Graah, 'and then bade us a no

LOVK AM) MAl!i:[A(;i:

li;5

doubt well-ineaiit farewell.' When they were about
to start, however, Kellituik was uowliere to be found,
although they shouted and searclicd for her all over
the little island. She had evidentlv hidden her-
self away somewhere, and they set off without her ;
so it appears that she had, aft(M* all, no irreconc^ilable
antipathy to Siorakitsok.

Among the heathen Greenlanders, divorce is as
simple an aflair as marriage. When a man grows
tired of his wife — the re\erse is of rarer occuirrence —
he need oidy, says Dalager, 'lie apart from her on
the sleeping-benches, without speaking a word. She
at once takes the hint,' and next morning gathers all
her garments together and quietly returns to her
parents' house, trying, as well as she can, to appear
indiflerent. How many husbands at home could
wish that their wives were Greenlanders !

If a man takes a fancy to another man's wife, he
takes her without ceremony, if he happens to be the
stronger. Papik, a highly respected and skilful
hunter at Angmagsalik, on the east coast, took a
foncy to the young wife of Tatuak, and, towing a
second kaiak behind his own, he set off for the place
wdiere Patuak lived. He went to his tent, carried off
the woman, made her get into the second kaiak, and
paddled away with her. Patuak, being younger
than Papik, and not to be compared with him in

*;:

144

ESKIMO T.IlvK

streniifth and skill, had to put up with the loss of his
wife.^

There are cases on the east coast of women who
have been married to half-a-score of different men.
Utukuluk, at Aniiinaofsalik, had tried eiiiht hus-
bands, and the ninth time she remarried husband
No. 6.2

Divorce is especiallv easv so lon^ as there are no
children. When the woman has had a child, es-
pecially if it be a boy, the bond is apt to ])ecome
more lasting-.

On the east coast, if a man can keep more
than one Avife, he takes another ; most of the good
hunters, therefore, have two, but never more."' Tt
appears that in many cases the first wife does not
like to have a, rival ; but sometimes it is she that
suggests the second marriage, in order that she may
have help in her household work. Another motive
may also come into play. ' I once asked a married
woman,' says Dalager, ' why her husband had taken
another wife ? " I asked him to myself," she replied,
" for I'm tired of bearino- children." '

' Holm, Mcddclclser oin Grihiland, pt. 10, p. 90.

- Holm. Mcddclclser nm (rronland, pt. 10, p. 108.

' Dalager states that, in his time, on the west coast, ' scarcely one
in twenty of the Greenlanclers had two wives, very few three, and still
fewer four ; I have, however, known a man who had eleven.' — Griin-
landsJie Eclationcr, p. 9.

I-OVE AM) MAl:i:iAQK

I Jo

Tlic liist wife seems always to Itc rcnardcd as ilie
head of the liouseliokl, even if the Iiusbaiid sliows a
prelereiKu,' for the second.

Polyaiuh-y seldom occurs. Nils I<oede meuti(ms
a woman who had two hushaiids, hut I)otli slie and
they were anijekoks.'

On the introduction of Christianity, these pi-imi-
tive and simple marriage customs were of (bourse
abolished on the west coast of (Jreenhind, where
people ai-e now united with relinious ceremonies as
in Euroi)e. The bride, too, is no lonner required to
offer so determined a resistance.

liut if it was formerly easy to -et oneself a wife,
under the new order of thinos it has Ix'come diflicult
enou.uh. For the ceremony must necessarily be per-
formed b}' a clero>man, the natixe catechists, who
fill the place of tlie pastors in th,. various villages,
not being reckoned good encjugh. If, then vou
happen to live at a [)lace which the pastor visits oidy
once a year, or perhaps once in two years, you must
take care to come to an undersiandhig with the
lady of your choice just in time to seize the oppor-
tunity. If a young fellow should take it into his
head to marry just after the pastor has goneawax,
he must wait a year, or perhaps two, before he can
go through the necessary ceremony, unless, ind(!ed,

' Angfkul\..ua'ilicine-inuii, orprifst.

fi'

146

KSKIMO I.I IK

■ (I

i!i

he and liis hridc nrc ])i'ei)iir('d to take a loiiu" j'»ll^uey
in search of clerical ministrations.

8uch a state of lliiiiL*'s would iiievital)ly lead
many to form less biiidiiijj coiiiicclions, or to marry
without the help of the cleruy, eycn if the Greeu-
laiiders were naturally less inclined towards such
laxity than as a matter of fact they are. I have
heard of a case in which a cleiic. on cominu to a
certain yillaae after a two years" absence, had to
confirm a "ivl, marrv her, and christen her child on
tlie same day. This may be called summary pro-
cedure. I^uch an arran<>ement cannot but be hnrtful,
tending to undermine all respect foi' the ceremony
whose irapressiveness it is sought to enhance by
making the clergy alone competent to officiate at it.

On the introduction of Christianity, polygamy
w^as of course abolished. The missionaries eyen hi-
sisted that wdien a man who was married to two
wives became a Christian, he should put away one
of them. In 1745, an Eskimo at Frederikshaab had
a mind to be baptised, ' but when it came to a ques-
tion of putting aw^ay his second wife, he began to
hesitate, for he had two sons by her, whom he would
thus lose. In the end he changed his mind and went
his way.' ^ For this one can scarcely blame him.
Similar cases, in wdiich it is required that a man shall

' Dalager : Grl'mlandslxc Bdationer, p. 9.

i-(»\i: AM) MAi{i;iA(.i:

147

put awny one of his wives, witli wlioiii h,. ],;,s perhaps
lived ]iai)pil\ for many a year, still occur now and
then, Avheii a ( h-eonlandor iVoni the cast coast settles
on the west coast (near ("ape Karewell) a!id is
baptised. The hardsliip wliieli the man is thus forced
to inilic! ni)0ii the woman need scarcely be insisted
upon. r<:ven to Dala-er, in last cent my, it appeared
an injustice, and 'how iar it conflicted with the
ordinances of God tliat a man should have more than
one wife, seemed to him a prol)lem.'

roly-amy, however, is still (occasionally to be
found ui)on the west (M)ast, a second wife bein<r

ai^parently one of the indulgences wjiicli first occur
to a Greeidander's mind when lie is inclined to kick
over tile traces.

Ill Greenland, as elsewhere, the position of
women in marria-e differs accordinn- to the circum-
stances of each particular case. As a, i-ule the man
is the master; but 1 have also seen cases, doubtless
exceptional, in whi(;li the grey mare has been the
better horse.

Among the primitive Eskimos, the wife seems
practically to have been regarded as the husband's
property. It sometimes happens on the east coast
that a formal bargain and sale precedes the marria<'-e,
the brideoToom paying the lather a harpoon, 1,r
something of the sort, for the privilei^e of weddiiur

L -2

148

ESKIMO \Al'K

»i

fi'i

jiiii

his lovclv (lauii'htci-. Someliincs. on llic otlici- liaiid.
tlio lalluM- will i)ay a hiiiilcr of credit and renown to
take his danu'liter ofr his hands, and the daniihttT is
liound to marry at lier lather's l)iddin<i-.^ ^Foreover,
it ol'tcn oeeurs on the east coast that two hunters
a.ii'ree to exehanue wives for a lonucr oi- shoi'ter
period — sometimes for liooch Temijorary exchan«res
of wives still occur, doul)t less, on the west coast as
well, especially during- the sununer reindeer-hunting,
wlien tlie people are livino- in tents in the interior of
the country. At these limes they allow themselves
many liberties Avhich cannot be controlled bv the
missionaries.

Marri(;d people as a rule Vive on very good terms
with each other. I have never heard an unkind word
exchano'ed l)etvveen man and wife ; and this is the
general exi)erience. Palager declares that 'the
lonrrer a married coui)le live toi>-ethei', the more
closely are they united in adection, until at last they
pass their old age together like innocent children.'
They are, on the whole, exceedingly considei-ate to-
wards each other, and may sometimes be seen to
exchano-e caresses. Tliev do not kiss as we do, how-
ever, but press their noses together or snutf at each
other. This process 1 am i^nfortnnately unable to
describe, as I lack the necessary practice.

' Holm: Mcddelelscr uin Gi'ihdand, ^t. 10, ^. [){j.

lom: AM) MAi.'inAci;

lit

On the (^ast coMst. too. tlic rdaiion liciwccn
liu.sl)aii(l and wilr -^cciiis lo Ik- vcfv liood as a I'lilc,
though ii appcai-s. accoidiiiu- lo ( aplaiii Jloliu, tlial
scenes of xioh-iirc arc iiol unknown.

A ccitaiii Saniinninak one day canic lionic to liis
s])oiKse Viiitck. ])i'in_sjinL'' with him a second wife, ilic
youiiL!' riukuhdx dlic 1)( roi'c-nuMilioned hidy of tlic
nine Imsbaiids), whrrcnpon I'idiek l)('('ann' anurv
and fell to .scoldiiiL;' her Inishand. Tliis made him so
furious tliat he soi/cd lier hy llie top-knot and sii'uek
lier willi his clenched fist on tlie l)ack and in tlie lace.
At last he seized a knil'e and stahhed liei- in the knee,
so that the blood spurted foith.' liolm also relates
a case in which a man recei\-ed a sound thrashinii'
from his wife, ^^cenes of this sort, howevei-. are very
rare among this peaceahk' people.

Any very deep love between man and wife is no
doubt exceptional, (h'pth of feeling being, on the
whole, unconunon among the Mskimos. If one dies
the survivor is generally pretty easily consoled. ' Ii"
a man loses his wife,' savs Dalaiicr. • not manv of his
own sex come to condole with him. 'J'he women-
folk, on the other hand, scpiat along the imier edi^c
of the sleei)ing-benehes in his house and bewail the
deceased, while he, in response, sobs and wipes his
nose. After a short time, however, he be<dns to

' Holm : Meddeldner oiii Griinland, i)t. 10, p. 102.

f 1

|.-.()

KSKi.Mo Liri;

!!S

.'uloi'ii himsc'U" ;is lie used lo in liis I);icli('l(»r (l;iv>.
polishing- lip his k.-iiuk .-iiul liis weapons wiili [)ar-
liculur ciirc, tlicsc hciiiLi- the tliin<^s with wliidi a
(Trcenlaiuler always makes the <!i'eatest sliow. W'lieii,
at sea, he comes (hisliing up \o liis (•(•nu-ades in this
brilliant arrav, ihev sav to each otliei': "Look, look
— here comes a new hrother-in-law." If he over-
hears it, he says nothing'', hut smiles lo himsellV It
is highly incnmheiit u[)on a widower's new wile to
lament her own imperfections and belaud the \ii'tues
of her predecessor: 'Whence we learn that the
(-rreeidand women are as apt at actinir a [)art. where
tlieir interest is concerned, as are others of their sex
in more polite countries.'

The chief end and aim of marriage in (ireenland
is uiupiestionably the procreation of chihhvn.
Therefore, as in the Old Testam<Mit times, unfruitful
women are contemned, and a childless marriaoe is
often dissolved.

On the average, the pure-bred Greenlanders are
not prohfic. Two, three, or four chikh'en to each
marriaii'e is the general rule, thouah there are in-
stances of famihes of six or eight, or even more.

Twins are uncommon, and I was often asked bv
the women if it were true that in the land of the lonu"
beards (J^orway) women gave l)irth to two children
at a time. When I answered that tliev not only

-i!

I.'>\ i; AM» MAlJI.'IAdK

l)()i-e Iwiiis hill ;iU() iriplcts .•md cvni lour cliildrcii
Ml M l)irlli, tlicy >Iiri('k('(l with laiiL'lilci- aiid dcchircd
thai our women wt-rc like dous : lor huinaii beings
and seals hear oidy one al a lime.

As a rule, the (Jreeiilaiid women snU'er little in
childhiith. As an exam[)le of how easily tliev lake
this incident in their lives, I may ([\u>\r a (;ase inen-
lioiu'd by Graah. As he wa*^ passing: by iiernstorlls-
lioi'd, on his jonriiey aloiiLj- the east coast, one of the
wumeii of his company was takL'ii with labour-pains.
'I'hey liasteiied to land upon a naked rock on the
north side of the liord. "While the labour continued,
the linsband stretched himsell' on ihe rock and lell
ask-ep; but presently they awakened him with the
joyl'iil intelliu-ence that a >on had been born to him.
As already slated, this is regarded as a piece of good
luck, while the birih of a daughter is a matter of in-
(hflereiice. ' Krnenek accordiniflv (that was the
husljand's name) expressed liis satisfaction bv smilhifr
on his spouse and saying •' Ajungilatit" (Not so bad
for you). With our new passenger, we at once pro-
ceeded on our journey.' ^

The heathen Greenlanders kill deformed chikh-en
and those which are so sickly as to seem unlikely to
hve ; those, too, whose motlier dies in childbirtli. so

' W. A. Graah, Narrative nf an Expedition to the East Coast of
Greenland, Loudon, IHIJT, \i. l.'Jo.

\r,-2

iisKiMo 1,1 ri:

lliMf tlicrc in no (\\v to uivc flifiii <iii-k. Tlii> iIk-n- do.
MS M nilc, l»y cxposiiiL!- tlic fliild oy tlirowiiiL' it into
llu* scM.' Ilowcxcr ciMicI this m.-iy sound to ni;inv
l'!nrr)j)(';ni niotlici^. it is ncvci-tlii'los done IVoni com
]»;ission, ;ind il is iiiulcniMhly rcMson.'iMc : I'of nndci*
snt'li liai'd n;itiif;d conditions ms those o|' ( Jivcnl;uid,
\vc cMiniot wonih'i- ih;it people ;ii-e nnwilliiiL'' ti» Iti'inLf
n|) ollspriiio- which c;in nexci- he of Mny nse. aiul c;ni
only help to diminish the connnon store of siiste-
i\;uice.-' It is lor the sjinie rensoii thai people who
liJive f'l-own so old as to he (piite nnahle to lend lor
themselv<'s ai'c held in small esteem and are ihoULdit
lo be lietler ont of the way. (Mi the east coast it
sometunes happens that old people, who s(^em likclv
to die, are di'owned, or else drown themselves,
f^iniilar practices also obtained in loriuer days upon
the west <*()ast (compare next cliai)ter).

Greenland mothers are \eiy slow to wean their
cliildreii. They often uive snck until the child is
three or four, and T have even heard of cases in
wliirh children of ten or twelve continued to take
the breast. A European at Godthaab told me that
lie had seen a dashing youth of twelve or so come

' Compare 1'. Ef,'t'(le, i'.yVfnr/«t»,7tT om Grunlaud, p. 107; ami
Holm, Mcddeleher oiii CIroiilaud, pt. 10, p. 01.

- Althouf,'h, as we have seen, the Eskimos are not <,'rently tleli<,'hto(l
at the birth of clau^'liters, they do not, hke so miiny otlicr primitive
people, make a habit of killing female children.

i.n\ i: AM) \i \i;i.'i \(i|.;

|.V{

1m )i lit' ill Iii> k;ii;ik wilh lii> Im.uIv. ni-li ii|) to lii>< Iimiuc.
;iii(l ilici'c CDii^iiiiK. ;i hisniii. siMiidiiiL' liclwccii liis
iii()t!ici''s kiico. ,111(1 driiikiiiL'. tVoiii tiiiu' lo time, IVoiii

All ihc cliiMrcii <»t' Clu-isiiaii ( iicciilaiidrr^ arc iA'
course cliristciicd and uiMii iiaiiics. Tlic oriuinal
(n-cciilaiid iiaiiK'S ln)\vc\cr. Imnc. owinir tn the in-
IIiitMU'*' of llic nrissioiiarics. .'nin^t ciilircK- died oul.
In ihcir slcad aiv used a'l jtossililc Hihlical nanics
tVoiii Iioili till- Old Ml ^ Ihc New i'cstaniciit. Xo-
whci-c in llic world, pi-oliai^l i< one surer lo nu-cl
with ihc whole drainali.^ |)ci>oiki' of the Script ni-cs.
riL'ht from Falhci- Achiiii d..wn lo Peter and I'aiil.
< )iir notable friend Dalauei' does not sc(Mn lo ha\c
liked this nusnsc of the I'-iMc. and thcfcrorc, he
says, -T once asked a certain inissionarv why a
(Jrecnlandcr, when he \va^ christened, coidd not l»e
.'dlowed to I'ctain his lornier name, which was ])ro-
bably a very natural and ^jood one. " It sounds ill "
he rci)lied, "to have a ChriMian called altei- a seal or
a sea-l)ird."' T smiled and answered that at home
there were plenty of IJavcns. Hawks, and Crows,
who passed for excellent pe(.ple none the less.' On
this jjoint I camiot hut a,L!i-ce with J)alaoer.

The (:Treenlandei-s are exceediniily fond of theii-
(•hildriMi and do everything'- to nuike them happy,
especially if they are boys. These little tyrants will

^.■■;

ESKIMO LI IF,

ft.'

oftcii rule over the wiiole house, uiid the words of
Solomon : ' Chasten thy sou wliile tliere is liope,
and h't not thy soul spare tor his erviu«j;',' are by
no incaus acted upon. Puuishuient, especially of
course where their owu ilesh and blood is coucerued,
they regard on the whole as iuhuinaii. I have never
once heard an Eskimo say an unkind word lo his
child. With such an upbringing, one might expect
that the (b-eeidand chil(h-en wonld be naughty and
intractable. This is not at all the case. Ahhough I
have o-one about a iiood deal amonu' the Eskimos on
the west coast, T have only once seen a naughty
Eskhno child, and that was in a more European than
Eskimo home. When the children are old enouiiii
to understand, a gentle liint from father or mother is
enough to make them desist from anything forl)idden.
I have never seen Eskimo children (piarrelling either
indoors or in the open air; not even talking angrily to
each other, nuK'h less fiijhtino-. 1 have watched them
l)laying by tlie liour, and have even taken part in
their football (a peculiar game of theirs, very like the
English football), which, as we know, is rather apt to
lead to quarrels ; but I have never seen an angry or
even an unfriendly lot)k pass between them. Could
such a thing happen in Europe ? I shall not attempt
to determine what may be the reason of this remark-
able difference between Eskimo and European cliil-

I'ii

LOVK .WD .m.\I!i;ia<;k

• )-J

tlrt'ii. Xo {l(>-i])t it is iiKiiiilv due to \\u' i'Xcv^niwtW
pe:iceal)le and iiood liuinourtMl tciinx'i-aiiiciit of tlie
race, devoid of all iiervotisiiess or irritability. It
may partly be attributed, also, to the fact that the
l^skiiuo women always live in the saine room as their
children, and carry them with them in the amauts on
their backs even when they oo lo work. 'Hius thev
can give them mnch more constant care, and there is
a more unbroken intercourse Ix'tween children and
parents hi Greenhuid than in Europe.

We must not judge the l^^skimo boys too severely
if they now and then anuise themselves with thi-owiufr
stones at the Colonial Manager's or the Pastor's fowls
and ducks, or if they make occasional irruptions into
the Manager's garden and root up or destroy the
plants. It nuist be remembered tliat the conception
of property in land, and the notion that one is not at
liberty to chase or to appropriate whate\-er moves or
grows upon the face of the earth, are (piite foreign
to their instinctive ideas. Even if such conceptions
are inculcated upon them, they do not grasp them
clearly ; they are, and will always remain, notions
which the European foreigners have tried to intro-
duce in their own interests, and which are founded
upon no natural right.

In order to exercise their eyes and their arms,
the provident Greenlander gives his sons, even while

l."iO

K8KLM0 Ml'K

they liw rnvw cliildrcii, toy bird-darts and liarpoons ;
and M'itli iliese, or, failiiio- these, willi common stones,
one may see the tliree or fonr-year-old Imnters prac-
tisiiio- upon small hirds and anvtliin<i- else worthy of
their passion for the chase Avhicli they happen to
come across. I have already- mentioned that thev
connnence practising in the kaiak at a very early

age,

It is, of course, of the greatest importance for
the Greenland connnunity tliat the rising generation
should b(^ brought up to be expert hunters. On this
their whole future depends.

Tlie girls, too, nuist be early trained in their life-
work : they must learn to sew, and to assist their
mother in her domestic labours.

157

CIIAITEK X

MORALS

Tjie Eskimo li;is, of course, like cveiy other race of
men, Ins virtues and liis foil)les ; possi])ly with this
(liffereiiee froui the civihsed European, that the
former are more numerous in proportion to tlie
hitter. ]3ut, on the other hand, neitlier his virtues
nor his foibles are found in such hii>li (hivelopment.

Even tlie earhest accounts of Gn^'idand, how-
ever, such as Eo-ede's, Cranz's, Dahiiivr's, and others,
show ck\arly enougli the falsity of the frequent
assertion that the Eskimo staiids upon a low moral
plane ; althouuh in some of these writei-s, ibr
example in Hans Egede, we can trace an evident
tendency to paint the Eskimo, individuallv and
socially, in as dai'k colours as [)ossi1)le. iit order to
l)rove how sadly this i)eople stood in need of the
lights of religion, and how necessary it therefore
was that the CTreeidand mission should l)e supjjorted.

One of the most i)romineiU and attractive traits
in the Eskimo's moral character is certainlv his

ti.i-

m^g^i^^^M

loH

ESKIMO LTFK

1»

if-

1 11

integrity. Tf soine Kiiropcaiis have dciiicd liiiu this
virtue, it can onh' be, 1 am .sure, l)eeause these
gentleiiieu liave uot taken the trouble to phice them-
selves in sympathy with liis modes of thought, and
to realise wjiat lie I'egards as dishonourable.

It is of speeial importance for the l^skimo that he
should be able to i-ely with confidence upon his
neighbours and his fellow-men ; and it is the first
condition of this mutual confidence, on which depends
all united action in the battle for Ufe, that everv man
shall be upright in his dealings with his neigiibours.
The Eskimo thei'efore regards it as in the highest
degree dishonourable to steal from his housemates or
from his fellow- villagers, and it is vvvy seldom that
anything of the stn't occurs. Even Egede tells us
that they let their goods and chattels • lie open to
everyone without fear of anyone stealiny- or takin<>-
away the least portion of them. . . . This mis-
demeanour is so repulsive to them that if a girl is
found stealinii', she loses all chance of makinii' a "'ood
marriaue.'

For the same reason they very seldom lie to ea(di
other — especially the men. The following trait, re-
lated by Dalager, affords a remarkable proof of this :
'In describing a thing to another person, they are
very careful not to paint it in brighter colours than
it deserves ; especially in the sale of an object which

<»

-MORALS

159

the ])iiy('i- lias not seen, even alrlionoli tlie seller may
be anxions to ^vtridof it, he will depreciate ii rather
tjian overpraise it.'

When one owes another money, the creditor mav,
as a rule, be assnred that the de])tor will pay np as
soon as ever he can. The Danish merchants .•..nlirra
this trait. They have often told me that Ihev lend
with confidence to the Greenlanders, because it veiy
seldom happens that they are not repaid in full.

The Eskimo's conception of his duties towards
strano-ers, especially towards people of another i-ace,
is not quite so strict. We must remember that a
foreigner is to him an indifferent object, whose
welfare he has no interest in furtherino-; and it
matters little to him whether he can rely on the
foreio-ner or not, since he has not got to live with
him. Thus he does not always find it inconsistent
with his interests to appropriate a little of the
foreigner's property, if he thinks it can be of use to
him.

The first Europeans who came to the country
suffered a good deal from this peculiarity. We can-
not greatly wonder that the Eskimos stole from
them, when we consider how the European expedi-
tions at first conducted themselves, after tl.e land
had been discovered anew. They often plundered
the natives, maltreated their women, and what was

.'I

IfiO

I.SKI.MO 1,1 1'K

woi-sc, (cniptcd tliem on Ijoard tlieir sliips. set sail,
and took llicm as prisoners to lMii-(»})e. Tims the
Kskiinos had from the lirsi l)iit little reason to reuai-d
us as friends. Nor docs it seem l)y any means irre-
con('ila])le willi Euro])('an morality to plnnder foi-eio'ii
peoples, if we may jmhv by the way in which we
deal with the native i-acc- in AiVica and el^ewhei-e.
Or let us sujjpose that it had Ijeeii the Eskimos who
came and planted themselves upon our shores, and
Ijehaved to us as wi' did in Greenland — would it
then have ])een altogether inconsistent with our
moral code to I'ol* and lilcli fi-om them \vhate\er we
could ?

It nuist also be taken into account tliat in com-
parison with the Eskimos the Enropeans possess pro-
perty in superabundance. Acc-ording to Eskimo
morality, therefore, it appears that we ought to be
able to dispense with some of our superlluity, and
if we decline to do st) it is because we are miserly
and selfish.

As the Europeans have g}-adually settled down
in the country and ceased to be regarded as
foreigners, matters haw altered a good deal, and
theft even from them is now rare. I l)elieve, however,
that when an uppoiUniity oflei's the natives are
still inclined to appropriate trifles which they think
can never be missed. 1 have myself seen respect-

MOKALS

i(;i

;i])lc rTrcciilaiulcrs fill tlicir jxickcts and u'lovcs with
meal fn.iii tlie ])anvls in the sloiv. (|iiit(' uiialjat^licd
In- the iact of my ohxTvIiio' thciii. In such a case
tlicy no (loiil)l tliiiik lliat it is ilie Hoval Ciivciilaiid
Company i'roni whose superfluity they are helpin^'
themselves. The (.'ompany will neither be richer
nor poorer for a few liandfuls of meal, which for
them are of .ureat. moment — and in this comfortable
conviction they go on their way rejoicing. I am
afraid that, such modes of thouglit are not peculiar
to Greenland. •

For the rest, it must l)e remembered as an extenu-
ating circumstance that the Eskimos were from the
first, and even down to compai'atively i-ecejit times,
shamelessly defrauded by the European traders, who
used false weights and measures, and gave them,
in barter, wares of wretched quality. I need only
mention, on Saabye's authority, that tlie traders of
hist century used excessively large four-bushel mea-
sures, which had, in addition, no bottom, but were
carefully placed over cavities in the floor. These the
natives had to fill with their l)lubber when they
wanted to sell it, so that what passed for four bushels
was in reality at least six. They knew and under-
stood quite well that they were being cheated, but
they submitted uncomplainingly. Such practices
are now, of course, things of the past.

\r,-j

i:sKi>[() LiFi:

As a proof of the l']skiiiio's sonipiiloim respefl foi-
the moral law wliich he rccoLinises, I may remind tlic
reader tlint lie iicvtM- touclies driftwood wliid! another
has placed al)ove hiuh-water mark, thouiili it woidd
often be so easy to a[)pr()pi'iate it without fear of
detection. And when we h^.nropeans 1)reak throu^ih
this law, and help ourselves without ceremony to
their stored-up driftwood — as we have often done. T
am sorry to say, intentionally or otherwisi — have not
the Eskimos, I wondei-, at least as ;jx»od riixht to
despise us tts we have to look down upon them?

FightiuiL!' and Inaitalities of that sort, as before
mentioned, are unknown amonu' them, and murder is
\'ery rare. They hold it atrocious to kill a fellow-
creature ; therefore war is in their eyes incomprehen-
sible and repulsive, a thinji' for which their laniiuajit^
has no word ; and soldiers and officers, brought up to
the trade of killinii', tlie\' regard as mere butchers.

It has, indeed, as Egede says, 'occurred now and
then that an extremely malicious pei'son. out of
ranklini>- hatred, has killed another.' But when he
adds that 'this they regard with the 2'reatest cool-
ness, neither punishinji' the murderer nor takino- the
thin<x to heart in anv wav.' I believe that he is not
quite just to them. They certainly abhor the crime,
and if they do not actively mix themselves up in the
matter, it is because they regard it as a private affair

■.\

MOI.'ALS

163

botwcMi tli(Mii,n-(lm.r and l,is virtini. Tr is ,u>t il.o
InisiiH-ss of the comnuinity. l„,t simply of (lu- ,„„,-
(lered man's noaivsl rolativcs. t.. take revenge for his
cleath, if tliey are in a p()siti(m to do s„: and thus we
find, e^•(>n amono' this peaceable folk, traces of a sort
of blood-feud, thouoh the practice is l>u( sli..-hily
developed, and the duty does not, as a rule, secmi to
weigh heavily upon the survivors. In cases of
extreme atrocity, however, the men of a village liav«»
been known to make common ranse againsta mur-
derer, and kill him.

Here, as elsewhere, women and love are anion-
the most frequent causes of bhxxlshed.

The attack often takes place at sea, the murderer
transfixing his victim from behind with his harpoon,
or capsizing his kaiak and cutting a hole in it. It'
does not accord with the Eskimo's character to
attack another face to face, not so much because he
is afraid as because he is bashful, and woukl feel it
embarrassing to go to work under the other's eye.

They do not regard it as criminal to kill old
witches and wizards, who, they think, can injure ami
even kill others by their arts. Xor is it inconsistent
with their moral code to hasten the death of those
who are sick and in great sufh'Hng, or of those in
delirium, of which they have a great horror.

Of our commandments, Ihe seventh is that which

•1

104

i:SKIM(( mm;

tlio r;n.,MiI;,„(l(.rs ;„v most apt f..]„enk: Inr, ,,s ihv
•v.-Klcr may Ml.vady have oMtlicn-d fn.mtlic loivL-oii...'
chapter, vi.Hu, and modesty aiv n..t I.rld in'lii.d,
esteem anumu- tliem. This is ..<p,.,.i,l]v th. rase
^tnH.noil^chnstian l-skimo nftlu- w.st ..,ast, wl...
have eome mudi in .-ontaet with ns luircpeans. Uy
many of tliem it is not regarded as any ])arti(mlar
dksnraee for an nnmarried girl to have cliildreu. Of
tliis T liave seen frequent example... Whih. we were
at Godthaal), two unmarried oirfs of ihr neiir]il,onr-
hood who were with child made no sort of attempt
to coneeal the fart, and c-veu tied np their top-knots
with green ribbo.i' long before it was necessary
seeming almost prond of this visible sign tliat tliey
were not disdained. I have seen green-tops wlio
not only wore the coh>nr in their hair, but trinniied
and embroidered tlieir anoraks (^uite stvlisldy with
ribbons of the same hue, though such a proceedino- is
neither obhgatory nor customary.

The missionaries have, of course, been vehement
in their denunciations of the prevahmt hixity in this
direction, and liave tried to inculcate a stricter
morality upon the youth of both sexes, from tlieir
schooldays onwards ; but tJiey do not seem to have
succeeded in inducing their flocks to regard the

• As stated on p. 28, sreen top-knots are worn bv nnm.v,.,- i
women wlio have had children. ^ unmarried

lie

M(H:\I,S

lOA

'"''•'*■'■ l"i'<'i" .'I liiL'li'i' -t;iii(l|)oiiit. t'of iliiiius urovv
woix' r.'illicr ih.'iii l.,.ii,.r. WIi,.|i ..| ynuw^ woman
>t:iii(l- ill an illicit ivlatioii n. a man. >lic altcmpts no
•'-•"•••■almciit: il" (lie man be a Kiiropcan. ind. .,■(!, she
posjiivi'ly .lilories in ii, and it seem- h. pi-ocuiv her
additional (•()ii>id.'i'ali(.ii anioiiL'' lici- female friends.
Fni- this state of tliiiiL'-< llie I'-nfopeans tliem^elves mv
• •liiedy to l)lame. In tlie (irst i)la('e. the \oun-- men
^vllo have eome !o ( liveidand have often hehaved ill
1" the nati\-e women, and set a bad e.\amj)le ; and. in
the second place, the luii-opeans have on the whole
managed so to impose npon the natives that the
women will now pivfei- the commonest iMiropean
sailoi- to the very Iw^t Kskinio hnnter. The result is
tliat durinn- the ceiitniy and a half since we settled
in the country, the race has snfrered so lamv an
admixtiu-e of European blood that it is now extreiuely
difli(^,ult to lind a sin(.de pure-bred Kskinio on the
whole west coast. ^ And this although the Europeans
form but a small fraction of the population of the
country, a few hiuKh'ed as against ten thousand.

It is ob\ious that the ^jroneness of the Europeans
to this form of innnorality has not made it any easier
lor the missionaries to vindicate the sanctity of the

' One reason of this is also to be found in natural selection, for the
half-castes are now generally regarded as handsomer than the pure-
bred l':skinu)s, and are consequejitly apt to be preferred in marriage.

-f

!(>(]

i I

■ (
I

INKIMn 1,1 1' |,;

"*•■'■""" •■""I""ni. .M.v,..v|„.n,.„r,..,,,„lTI„.|i,.v,.

""' "'■ '"'-' ..i-.,v,.r.. is il,,, ,|„. ,,„,,,. „,„„„.,,
"' '!"■ '"l-Mic.s. wl,,.n. ,„.„,y K„r„,,<..-,„s ivm,!,.. ,„v

'"""'' """■'• ' 'I''^! iIkm, i|,„s,. „r ||„. ^iii,,,,,.,

«l„.r,. il„.,v ,„v„„|.:,„„|„,,„.. l-\„- ,.x,,m|,|., 1 „K,v

""■"""""'■• ■»■"""" ^'iS,,r,ll„k,K„n,„l<.KM„..,.k.

•■""I .Vns,,l< ni.ul,. an alloovll,,.,- I,,.,,.,- i,„|,,,ssi„„

"'"" "'"'■'" ••" •■'"lil'.'.'i. ^ \-w ll,.n„l,ul. xvlarc

."'""■'"■'""■■' ■ "''^ "II" '• IVUTS,. „r ,|is,.„„n,..-

"iti l.uvanls y,MM,o> „„.„ «l,„ I,,-,,,,,,.,,,.,! lo , .•,!<,. i|„.'i,

fjllKV.

-Sexual nuM-Mlity M.-nis t„ I.avr l,,.,, ,o.,si(l,.,,,hly
hi'^h^'v aniono' ll.c 1h.;„1hmi Kskin.ns hvi'oiv ihc Knni-
peansram.. intiuM-nt.nin-. Kv.n Ifans Iv.,!,. who
^l-**« »ol, as a ml... d.pi,., ,I..ir nM>ral .jualiiics in
too hnolu colour., .says iu his ^X.w P.rlns.ration ' :
'^oui.o- o-iHs and maidcus, on iju^ other hand, are
modest enouoh. ^V. have never seen them eonduef-
mg themselves wantonly with the voung men or
makmo- ihv least approach to sucli eonduel, either iu
word or deed. During the fifteen vears 1 was in

<^i-eenlaml, I knew oi^.nly two <>r three unniarrie(l
gi.is who gave birth to children; lor this they re-
gard as a great (h'sgraee.'

Dalager's ovneral testimony to tlie national

character in this respect is that 'the (
are certaiidy inclined to the sin of

:irceniaiider

incontinence, but

MOI.'AI.S

107

""' *" ""I'-Ii ><» ;is (•tlicr iiMiioiis.' ( M' ihc L'irls li.'
says lli.Mi -ill ill, Mr lirsi years of iii;ii urity llipy \>r:\v
llK'iiis.lvrs Very cliMslcly, Ini' otii.rwisc llii'v arc
•••'ilaiii t(» s|)nil tlic'i!- <'li.'iiii-(s ill iiiaiTiaLTc.'

AiiKHiu' iIm' licailicns (if the (..-isi (■(»;ist ;il I he pn..
M'lil (lay, ihc mailer does noi si-ciii i.. lie ivn-Midcd so
seriously; for I lolm assin-cs iistliaf 'it is imi eoiisideivd
any disLii-ace lor an iitiinaiTied '/w\ In have eliildrt'ii.'
I lie strict morality wliieli oijlained amoiM*- the
iimiiarried youths and maidens of the west eoast in
tlu' heathen days, seems to have be.-ii \ ery consider-
ai)ly r<'laxed when once rhey were married. Tlie
men, at any rate, had then the nioM nm-estrieted
tVecdom. Kgede says that lor lon^' 'lie conld not
ascertain that men had to do with other women
than their own wives, or wives with other men ; hut
at hist we diseovered that they were none too par-
ticular in this respect.' He desrl•il),^s, among- other
things, a remarkable ,uame for which ' married men
and women conic together, as ihou-h to an assembly/
The men stepped forth by turns, and, to the acconi-
pammeut of a drum, sang songs in lionour of women
and love ; whereu[)on shameless license became the
order of the day for all present. ' jiut in this oame
the young and unmarried are foi-bidden bv modest \-
to take part ; married people see in it nothing to be
ashamed of.'

II ,

■ : I

I (is

KSKLMO ]AVl]

Egc'de also reiiuirks llmt women regard it as a
great lionoiir and happiness to become tlie coiK'ul)ine
of an angekok— that i.^, ' one of tlieir propliets and
learned men.' 'Many husbands even regard this
with favour, and will sometimes ikiv the an<vekoks to
lie with their wives, especially if they themselves
have no children by them.'

The Eskimo women, tlien, are allowed far greater
freedom in this respect than women of Germanic stock.
The reason prol)ably is that wliereas iidieritance,
and the continuance of the race and name, have been
matters of supreme importance to the Teutons, the
Eskimos have had little or no property to transmit
fi-om father to son, while for them the great con-
sideration is simply that children shall be born.

With reference to the above-mentioned aame,
however, Dalager declares that it is of verv rare
occurrence, 'and that it is to be observed that a
married woman who has duly become the mother of
a family nevor takes part in it.'

On the other hand, he tells us that widows and
divorced wives are not so particular. While it is
very seldom that ' a young girl has a child, one sees
older women bearing just as many children as if
they were living in wedlock. If they are reproved
for this, even by tlieir own countrymen, they will
answer that their conduct does not proceed

oft

-MOKALS

IVom mere waiitouiu'ss, but iVoiu ;i natural loiiLiiiiL!' to
bear cliilcU-en, wliicli leads them to seduce many a
worthy man."

On the east coast, too, the morality of married
j)eople seems to leave a ,i>ood deal to be d^sin'd, i\c-
eording to our ideas. I liave mentioned, for uistanee,
that the men often exehauiie wives ; but the ex-
change is strictly a personal matter, and the husband
will usually resent any unfaithfulness on the wife's
part to the man to whom he has lent her, he himself,
however, claiming full liberty. While living in their
winter houses tliev often plav a wife-exchan<'iii<.- or
Uimp-exthiguishingganie, like that above mentioned ;
but in this the umnarried also take part. Th)lm tells
us that ' a good host always has the lamps put out at
night when there are guests in the house.'

So far as L knt)w, this game is nc h)nL>'er prac-
tised on the west coast. Married Christian (Jreen-
landers, however, do not seem to ha\e any over-
weening respect f')r the seventh connnandment, and
irregularities of conduct are far from uncommon.

The morals above described seem to us \-('i-v bad
on the wliole ; but it does not follow that the
Eskimos share this feeling. We should bewai'i- how
we fix ourselves at one point of view, aiid unsparingly
condemn ideas and practices which the experience of
many genei-ations has developed among anotlier

I >.

170

j:sklmu LirK

people, lunvever imieli they may eonllict with our
own. 'I'here may be uiiderlying reasons which do
not at once meet the eye, and wliich place the whole
matter in a very diJlei'eiit ho-ht.

The conceptions of nood and e^•il in this world
are exceedin<.lv di^•ergent. As an example, let me
cite the case (,f tl,e Eskimo -irl who, when Xiels
Egede spoke to her of \ovu ,.f Ood and her neigh-
bour, said to him : • I have isWtn proof of love for
my neioJiboLir. Once an old woman who was ill,
but could not die, ollered to pa}- me if I would lead
her to the top of the steep cliff iVom ^xhirh our people
have always thro\vn themseh'es when the}- are tired
of li^•ino•; iHit L liaving ever loved my iieighbours,
led her thither without payment, and cast her over
the cliif; Eo-ede told her that this was ill done, and
that she had kilhnl a fellow-creature. ' She said no ;
but that she was filled with pity for her, and cried
after she had fallen over.' Are we t(. .-all this a good
or an evil deed ':'

Another time, when Egede was explaining how
God punishes wicked people, an Eskimo remarked
that in that respect he was like Ood, for he had
killed ihree old women who were witches.

^he sanu^ di\ergence of judgment makes itself
ith regard to the sev(>nth commandment

felt

the Eskimo the other exhort

ition to increase and

-MOIIALS

171

multiply seems to ])e of <jTe;iter weighl. The reason
may partly be that liis race is ])y nature uiiproliiic.

Like many other peoples, the Eskimos found it
strange that we should not re,uard polyc^amy with
warm approval. Amono- them, a man was held in
esteem in proportion to the number of wives he pos-
sessed, and they therefore thouolit the Old Testament
patriarchs more reasonable than we. This, however,
is a view which we iind prcvailini;- amono our own
forefathers, until well on in historical times.

W Jien I'aul Egede was remonstrating- with the
(Treenlanders one day upon their polynamous pro-
clivities, one of them fell to eulooisinn' his own
wife for her -good humour in never bein<>- an<>Tv
because he loved stran^-e women" Iv^vdv said that
'women in our country could not endure that their
husbands should care for odiors : they would turn
them out of their houses." ' It is Jio pi-aise to voui-
women,' replied the Eskimo, - that they want to
have theii liusbands all to themselves and to l)e
masters over them ; M-e hold that a fault.'

Their way of thinking in these matters is less
ideal and more practical than ours, and their point
of view entirely dill'erent. Their habit of exchanoino-
waves, for example, and theii- treatment of barren
women, seems to us wanton and immcjral ; but when
we remember that the production of oflspring is the

i;
m

■it .

172

ESKIMO TJl-i:

! I

,i2Toat end and aim of their coiuliift. and reflect wliat
an all-important matter this is ioi- them, we may
l)erhaps pass a somewhat milder jncknnent.

If a Greenlaiider's wife does not bear children,
his marria<ze fails of its chief purpose, and it is
(piite natural that he should try to lind a remedy.
A youno- man whose wife had no children once
offered Xiels E^ede a fox-skin either to come to his
aid himself in the matter, or to order one of his
sailors to do so, and was much a>tnnislied to find
l']gede indignant at the proposal. ' There would he
no disgrace,' he said, ' for slie is married, and she
could have one of your married sailors.'

It appears, however, that even the married
Greerdanders are not by nature devoid of what we
understand as moral feeling, for their everyday be-
haviour is, as a rule, quite reputable and void of
offence ; on that point an travellers must agree.

If a lieathen — and in manv cases even a Chris-
tian — Greenlander refrains from having to do wdth
another man's wife, whom he has looked upon with
favour, it is generally, no douljt, more because he
shrinks from quarrelling with the husband than
because he reoards adulterv as morallv wrona' ; but
we ma}- gather from the following saying, current at
Angmagsalik, that even on the east coast there is a
vague feeling that it is not the ridit thini>-. ' The

^IL

-MOilAI.S

I7;j

wliaK', the nuisk-nx, aiid the ruiiidcer," so ihc saviiiu'
runs, •left the foiiutry Ijecause men had loo luiich
to do with other mvw'x wives/ Many men declai'e(K
however, thai it was • because the women wt-re
jealous of their linshands.' 'J'he jealous}- of llu'
women was also alleued as a reason for the fact
that the ehannel which formerly went i-i^iit through
the country, from the ^^ermelik Fiord to the west
coast, had been blocked with ice.'

l^uede relates tliat, strangely enough as he
thought, the women before his arrival had felt no
jealousy when their husbands had nioi'e wives than
(me, ' and got on very well with each other' ; but as
soon as he had preached to them the wickedness of
such i^roceedings, they began to show nuich aimoy-
ance wlien their husbands wanted to take second
wives. ' When 1 have been reading with them,' he
says, ' and instructing them in the Word of God,
they have often urged me to bring the seventh com-
mandment sharply home to their husljands.' The
men, as may be suppcjsed, did not at all ap})ro\'e of
the missionaries" hifluence over the women in this
respect, and one of them, whose two wives had
fallen by the ears, said an<>rilv to Xiels Ey-ede : ' You
have spoiled them witli your teaching, and now
they're jealous of each other.' It appeai-s to me

' Holm : Mc(hlclelscr oiii Grunland, pt. 10, p. 100.

.:lli

X74

KSKIMO l.lFi:

l!h!

tluil the iiKiir.s ;mn"('r wa< not witlioul iustilifatioii.
Wluil should we s.-iy ii" OrcciihiiKlcrs canio to our
couutrv, forced theuiselves into our houses, and
preached tlieii- own morality to our wives p

liefore we utlerlv condenni the nioralit\' of tlie

« ■

Eskimos, we ouy'lit also, perliaps. to remember the
H'olden maxim that those wlio live in sjjlass houses
should not throw stones. European morality is in
many respects of such doubtful value that we have
scarcely the liuht to pose as judu'es. After all is
said and done, it is possible that the most essential
difference between our morality and that of the
Eskimos is that with us the worst things take place
l)ehind the scenes, in partial or complete secrecy,
and therefore produce all the more demoralising
effect, while among the Eskimos everything happens
on the open stage. The instincts of human nature
cannot be altogether suppressed. It is with them as
with explosives : where they lie unprotected on the
surface, thev mav be easilv ' set off,' but thev do
little mischief; whereas when they lie deeper and
more concealed, they are perhaps less easily kindled,
but when once they take fire the explosion is far
more violent and destructive, and the lireater the
weight that is piled upon them, the greater havoc do
they work.

According to the Eskimo code, marriage between

-Mdl.'AI.S i;-

first (;oii>iiis. or In'twccn any iic;ir relations, is pfo-
liil)it('(l. I'Acii r()sl('i--cliildr('ii. \\\\n liapjUMi to liavc
1)eeii broiio-lit up in i]h, same Imnscliold. cjuiiiof
marry. A iiiaii should, if possil)ll^ seek liis wife in
anotlier village.

This rnlo answois to tlio scvralled lawof exonamy,
or proliibitioii of marriaoe with blood relations, with
people of the same fiunily name, oi' even helomnno-
to the same clan (amoncr the Chinese), i^otra (amono-
the ITindns), or o-(mis (amono- the Piomans r), which is
also found in slightly diffei-ent forms in the Greek, and
formerly in the Catholic, C'hnrch. amon,-' the Slavonic
and Indian races, and in many other quarters.
Plutarch says of the Romans that in earlier times
they no more thouo-ht of marryiiiM' women of the
same stock than they would in his (hiy think of
marrj'ing aunts or cousins, (^in- own foi-efathei-s. in
long past ages, probably ol)sei-\-ed the law of exo-
gamy, which, however, stands in sharp opposition
to the feeling now dominant in Xoi'way, that natives
of the same place should be chosen in niari-iai>e. and
if Dossi

>ibl(

e near relatives. e\'en lirsr i-ousii

IS.

seems

to be the genei-al rule that we find the widest cii-cles
of prohibition against marriaij'c anioiu

savaa'e

peoples, while among modern and civilised nat
n greater freedom prevails. Exogamy would tl
appear to be a relic of barbarism from which we N

ions

lUS

or-

170

KSKI.MO IJFK

III

Hli

•\vc',Lii;iiis liavc very tlioroiiijlily freed ourselves. 1 1 is
ver\- dinieiill to exi)l;iiu llic oriu-iii of" this law. Maiiv
writers, as \\r know, seek to trace it to the pi'iinitive
<;oiicej)tioii ol' AV(nnan as a chattel, and coimuunly as
a ca[)live of the spear, whence if ibllowed that a
wile ought not to be taken iVoni among I'elations or
friends, but should l)c carried oif Jroiu another trilje.
Althoui>'h the scieutilic! authorities are aizaiiist mc, it
appears to me by no means impossible that we may
also liud at the root ol" the custom the l)elief" that
mairiage between near relations produces a weakh'
progeny. This belief, at any rate, prevails among
almost all nations in the form of a dread of incest.
It is true that modern i-esearch has souo-ht to show
that marriage between kinsfolk is not injurious; but
whether well-founded or not, the contrary belief has
undoubtedly been entertained, and from it the law
of exogani}' would naturally follow. The fact that
among the Greenlanders it goes the length of f(^r-
bidding marriage between people of the same village
is easily explicable when we think of the al)OV(!-
mentioned customs, which render it impossible to
Ije sure who may or may not be half-brothers and
sisters.

In several respects the morality of the heathen
Eskimos stands considerably higher than that which
one generally finds hi Christian connnuinties. As I

1 !

MUltALS

\i I

liave already poijitcd .his out (in Cliapt.-i- VITI.), I will
here only remind the reader of their self-sac rificino-
love of their neighbour and their mutual helpfulness,
to which, indeed, we lind no parallel in Juiropean
society. These virtues, however, are not unl're-
quently to be found among pi-imitive peoples, and
are probalily in the main due to the simpler struc-
ture of society. A more developed and consequently
more complicated social order leads to the decline of
many of the natural virtues of humanity.

But the Eskimo's love of his neighbour goes the
lengtli of restraining him from slandering him, and
even from any sort of evil-speaking, especially in the
case of a neighbour in the literal sense of the word.
Scandal and malice are inconsistent with his peace-
able and kindly disposition. As before remarked,
the women do not seem to be quite so exemplary in
this respect ; but we know that such weaknesses are
commonly attributed to the softer sex all the world
over.

Eeverence for the aged is not a prominent feature
of the Eskimo character. They are honoured, indeed,
so long as they are able to work, and if they have
in their younger days been good hunters, and have
sons, they may retain great influence and be regarded
as the head of the household. A woman who has
able-bodied sons may also be ti-eated with reverence,

l'4 ■'

178

KSKIMO lAVE

i !

even should slie attain a great nu'e. A widow especi-
ally has often great power, governing the house as
long as she lives, and having tlie upper hand of her
daughtei's-in-law. Hut, as a rule, when people grow
so old that thev cannot take care of themselves, thev
are apt to be treated with scant consideration, espe-
cially women. .Sometimes the younjrer <>'eneration
will even go the length of making fun of them, and
to this the poor old people submit with great pati-
ence, regarding it simply as the way of the world.

That the reader may form some conception of a
primitive Eskimo's habits of thought on moral (jues-
tions, I quote the following letter from a converted
Greenlander to Paul Egede.' I reproduce it here,
because it in many respects bears out the views
above expressed, and Egede's book 'Accounts of
Greenland,"- in wdiich this translation is printed (pp.
230-236) is now not easily obtainable. The writer
was a heathen who had been baptised by Paul
Egede's father, Hans Egede. The letter, which was
of course written in Eskimo, oives evidence not onlv
of a peculiar moral point of view, but also of a keen
understanding, and of feelings which, as Paul Egede
says, one would scarcely expect ' in so stujjid a

' Paul Egede was for many years a missionary in Greenland, but
had at this time (1756) returned to Copenhagen.
Efterrctnimjcr om Grunland,

^•M.

.MUKALS

I 7!!

people ;is w,- li;i\c liitherfo taken tli.'in |,, I,,.; j, j^^
as will l)c seen, an answer to an epi.il,. ,)r Kv-mIc's,
and runs as I'oliows :

Amiable Piniin! '
Vou kii.nv lunv |.ivci(.iis and aoTceabI,. v..nr Irttrr is to
»ne; but how appalled I was when 1 iva.l .,f' tl,,. ,h.st mrt ion
of sncl. iniilfitud.'s nf,„.,,|,l,. i„ tl,,. u.,vat r;,rtli.,u;ik.';-' incon-
ceival.le t<. ns. whiH. yo.i say dfn-o.nvd in .„„> nionicnf nH.tv
l^eople than tlioiv nre in all our country. I cannot tell you
how this uiovrd me, or liow IrightentHl w wr.',so tJiat many
tied from tlir placv where they lived to another, which was
quite as unsafe, thou<rh it was (m a r.)ck ; fnr we see even
here that roeks have I.een split open fn.m the toj) to the very

de].ths. thoutrh wlien it ]iap])ened noi f ns know, (iranite

rocks, such as our land consists of. and sand-hills like your
land, are equally ensy for God to overthr..w, in whose power
the whole wnrld .>tunds, and we poor little animals are 'easily
buried in the ruins. Vou give' me to understand that with
you there have been neither snow nor ureat cold this winter,
and conclude that it unist have been all the severer with us •
but we. too, have had an uiuisually mild winter. I hear that
your learned men are of 0])inion that this mild weather has
l>een caused by the warm vapours emanating from the earth
at the time of the earth(|uake, which have wanned the air and
melted the snow-material. But if I had not lieard that this
was the opinion of the learned, 1 should have thought that
the warmth of the earth would avail little to heat the height
and breadth of the air— as little as a man's bivath avails to
warm a large house in which he simply breathes for a moment

• Pania or Pavia is the Eskimo corniptioii of Paul.
■' rEvidently the earth(jnake at Liahon.— Trans.]

N 'J

'I'

.a '43

Irto

KSKI.MO MI'K

III

Milt
Iff

and then ^'t»fs tuit aj/iiiii. 'Plic soiifli winds, wliicli art' always
warm, and liavr blown all tlir year llinMii^-Ii with n-. arc the
causf (tf tlif nind'-rati' cold wc have had: huf wliy the south
wind hhnv I cannot tell, nor the learned eitliei'. jierhaps.
Were these wrelched |>e()j)le killed hy the heat, (tr ilid the
earth swallow them up, or were they shiiken to death?
Skipper li. thoutrht that their own houses must have fallen
upon them and killed tliem. Your people do not seem to
care very much ahout it; tor they are not only cheerful and
merrv, but thev relate that the two nations ' who come heiv
whale-tisliing, not your countrymen, hut of tlie same faith as
you, are li^j^htino' with and shooting each other both hy land
and sea, hunting each other as we hunt seals and reindeer,
and stealinu- and taking away ships and goods from each
other, from people they have never seen or known, simply
because tlunr hjrd and master will have it so. When 1 asked
tlie skipper, through an interpreter, what could be the cause
of such hdmmanity, he answered that it was all about a
piece of land light opposite ours,"^ so far away that it could
onlv be reached after three months' sailing, 'i'hen I thought
that there must be great scarcity of land where these ])eo])le
dwell ; but he said no, that it was only because of the great
lords' greediness for more riches and more people to ride
over. I was so as ounded by this greediness, and so
terrified lest it ^;I/o dd fall u])on us too, that I was almost
out of my mind ; but I presently took heart again,
vou will scarcely guess why. I thought of our snow-clad
country and its poor hihabitants, and said to myself:
'Thank God! we are poor and possess nothing which these
greedy Kablunaks [so they call all foreigners] can desire.

' Probably the Dutch and English.— [Surely rather the French and
English.— Trans.]

• Doubtless America.

I!)

I and

MOIIAI.S

181

Wliaf \vt' liiivt' npnii till' eiirlli tlicy (li» ii"f •■iii'<' tn posscsM,

wllJlt we l'f(|llil*<' \'nV tnnd Mild clutlliMLr suilii^ ill I III" t,'l't'Ilt

Mfii ; of thai llii\\ iiiiiy ic'iUc Jis inufli as tln-y can, tlit-rt' will
ahva\> 1)1' t'ii(iiit>-|i tor us." It' oiilv wc liavi- as iiiiii'Ii t'nntl us
we can cat. and skins i'Ikui^Ii to ktc|i us IVuiii ilic ccild, wcarc
(|uilc c((iitt'ntfd ; and yon know vi-ry \v<'l! tliat we let tn-
niorrow take care of itself, Tlicrt'foi'c wf will not tii^iit with
jinyoiic, cvm if wc were strong enoiij/li ; altlu)U<;li wc can
UH jiiHtly 8uy t hat tin' >ea belongs to ns as the helievers in
the Ma.st can say of tin- iiiihelievers in the West that they
antl their possessions liehtiij^' to them. We can say it is <»ui'
sea whicli surrounds our land, and that the wjiales, cachalots,
«;rani|)uses. |)or|)oiseH, unicorns [that is, narwhals], white
whales, seals, halibuts, salmon, cod, and sca-scor|iions w hich
swim in it belon«if to us too; but we willini^ly allow others
to take of this great store us much as they please. \\'e are
happy in that we have not so great a natural covetousness as
they, r have often wondered at the Christians, and ha\-e not
known what to tliink about them — they leaN'e their own
beautiful land, and sutt'er mucli liardship in this country,
which is to them so rough and disagreeable, sim|)ly for the
sake of making us good people; Ijut have \ )u seen so much
evil in our nation, have you ever heard such strange and
utterly senseless talk amontr us? Their teachers instruct us
how we are to escape the devil, whom we never knew ; and
yet the roystering sailors pray with the greatest earnestness
that the devil uuiy take them, or may split them. I daresay
you remendjer how I, in my youth, learned such phrases frcjiii
them to please them, without knowing what they meant,
until you forbade me to use them. Since I have come to
understand them myself, 1 have iieard more than 1 wanted of
them. This year in particular I have heard so much ot'tJie
Christians, that if I had not, in the cour.se uf long familiaiity

(jii^

1<,

'.'in

18:

KSKTMO F.irK

' 'nv

with tlicm, known many <]fOocl aiul wortliy men anionir tlieni.
and if Hans Punjifiok and Arnarsak, who liavo been to your
country, liad not tohl me that tliei'e were many jiious and
virtuous people tiiere, I coukl have wished tliat we had never
set eyes upon tliem lest they should corrupt our |)eople. I
daresay vou have often heard how :nv countrvmen lliink of
vou and vours that vou have learned o-ood behaviour anion<>-
us ; and when they see a pious ]iersf)n among you, they will
often say, ' He is like a human being,' or * a frreenhander.' Vou
no doubt remend)er that funny fellow Okakos idea of sending
angekoks [that is, medicine-men] to your country to teach
the people to be good, as your king has sent preachers hither
to teach us that there is a (iod, which we did not know before.
But I know that your people do not lack instruction, and
therefore that ])roposal is of no use. It is strange enougii,
my dear Pauia I — your people know that there is a God, the
creator and ujiholder of all things, that after this life they will
either be ]ia]»py or nn'serable. according as they shall have con-
ducted themselves here, and yet they live as if they were under
orders to be wicked, and it was to their honour and advantage
to sin. Mv countrvmen. on the other hand, know nothing
either of a God or a devil, believe neither in punishment nor
in reward after this life; and yet they live decently, treat
each other kindh', and share with each other peaccal)ly when
they have food to share. 'I'here are. of course, bad peoi)le
among us too, which ])roves that we must be of one stock ;
aiul i^erhaps we must thank our barren land for the fact that
most of us are above reproach, (^'ou do not think. I hope,
that I am talking hviiocriticallv about mv countrvmen, for
you know l)y experience that what I «ay is true.) When I
have heard accounts of your pleasant country 1 have often
envied its inhabitants ; for they have great abundance of the
delicious fruits of the earth, and of animals, birds, and fishes

fc'

MOKALS

l,s:}

of iniuiiiiei-iible sorts, fine Ini-gc comf rfal)le houses, line
clotlies. ,1 \onir summer, no snow or cold, no midtres. but
everything pleasant and desirable; and this luipinness. I
thought, belonged to you alo..j because you wei-e believei's.
and, as it were, (iod's own children, while we, as unbelievers,
were i)luced in this country as a punishment. Hut, oh, we
happy Greenlanders ! Oh, deai- native land ! How well it
is that you are covered with ice and snow ; how well it is
that if in your rocks there are gold and silver, fin- which the
Christians are so greedy, it is covered with so much snow
that they cannot get at it ! Your un fruit fulness makes us
lu'.ppy and saves us from molestation ! Pauia! we are indeed
contented with our lot. Fisli and flesh are our sole food;
dainties seldom come in our way, but are all the pleasanter
when they do. Our drink is ice-cold water ; it (pienches
thirst and does not steal away the understanding or the natural
strength like that maddening drink of which your peo])le are
so fond. Oui- clothing is of unsightly thick-haired skins,
but it is well suited to this country, both for the animals,
while the skins are still theirs, and for us when we take
them from them. Here then, thaidc God, there is nothing to
temi)t anyone to come and kill us for its sake. We live without
fear. Tt is true that here in the Xorth we have the fierce white
Ix^nr; ; b: i.) tieal with them we have our dosrs, which fiirht
f"i' •; !, so that we do not run the sli<ditest risk. Murder is
vtr\ se dom heaixl of among us. It does not happen unless
som on ' is suspected or accused ' ;,ding a magician and of
h.aving killed someone by his witchcraft, in which case he is
killed without remorse by those wJiose duty it is, who think
they have just as good right vh the executioner in your
country to take the lives -/i' m.'-Jefactors ; but they make no
boast of it. and do not five th tides to God for it like the great
h)rds in your coviMry. wh'^n they have kilh-d all the peo])le of

t V >M

•1(1

18-4

ESKIMO LIFE

i\'

another land, as D. has told me. If surely cannot be to the
good God of whom you teach us, who has forbidden us to
shed blood, that they give thanks and praises ; it must be to
another who loves slaughter and destruction. I wonder if it
is not to the Tornarsuk [the devil] ? I'et that cannot 1)6
either ; for it would be ilying in t)ie face of the good God to
give any honour to Satan. I hope you will explain tiiis to
me at your convenience. I promise not to tell my country-
men about it. It might lead them to think like Kaua, who
dared not become a Christian for fear he should come to be
like the wicked sailors. I will not tell you anything about
the conversion of my countrymen, for I know t^; ; our
teacher has given you all information. The thing \oi desired
me to look into I will, as far as I am able, attend to. I have
not been able to make the experiment with the compass,
since the cold this year has been only moderate. The cause
of the two conflicting currents is no doubt what you say.
Since you value so much the two fishes almost turned to
stone, I shall try to procure more for you ; +hey are found
in clay beds, as you su})pose. Now I seem to have been
speaking to you and you to me — now I must close my letter.
The skipper is ready and the wind is fair. The mighty Pro-
tector of all of us guide them over the great and ])erilous
sea, and preserve them, especially from the wicked men-
Imnters, of whom I see they are most in dread, so that they
may come scatheless to their fatherland and find you, my
beloved, with gladness.

Paul Greenlander.

Greenland, 1756.

This letter, as well as what has been stated in the
earlier part of this chapter, surely justifies us in
saying that the primitive nioralit}' of t]\:. Eskimo

MOIJALS

185

stands in many respects close to that of ideal CLris-
tianity, and is even in one wa}' snperior to it ; for, as
the letter-writer says, the Greenlanders ' know no-
thino- either of a God or a devil, believe neither in
punishment nor in reward after this life, and yet they
live virtuously ' none the less.

Many people will, no dou])t, think it astonishing-
that we should find so highly developed a morality
among a race so uncultivated, and so unclean in
their outward habits. Others will perhaps find it
more surprising that this morality should have been
developed among a people who have no religion, or
at any rate a very imperfect one, as we shall pre-
sently see. Such facts are inconsistent with the
theory which is still held in many quarters, that
morality and religion are inseparable. A study of
tlie Eskimo comnmnity shows pretty clearly, I think,
that morality to a great extent springs from and rests
upon natural law.

1 ', M

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186

ESKIMO lAVE

:^r

, i

I i

CIIArTEK XI

JUDICIAL riJOCKKDlXdS DIIUM-DANCI^S AND

i:.\Ti:iiTAiN.Mi:xT,s

I DAVi: a«.:i' . and auain soiiolit to impress ii[)<)U the
reader that the Eskimos nre a peaceal)le and kindly
race. Tliere is no more striking proof of this, I
think, than their primitive judicial process.

It is a mistake to suppose that the heathen
Eskimos had no means of submitting any wrono- they
had suffered to the judgment of their fellows. Their
judicial process, however, was of a quite pecidiar
natur(% and consisted of a soi't of duel. It was not
fought with lethal weapons, as in the so-called
civilised countries; in this, as in other thnigs, the
Greenlander went more mildly to work, challenging
the man who had done him wrong to a contest of
song 01- a drum-dan(,'e. This generally took place
at tlie great summer meetings, where many people
were assembled with their tents. The htiii'ants stood
ffice to face with each other in the midst of a
circle of onlookers, both men and women, and, beat-

JUDICIAL Pl{()CEi:niN(JS, imUM-DANCES, K'R'. ls7

iuii" a tmuboiiriue or drum, each in luni saiii^' satirical
soii^iis aljoiit tlie other. In these son^s, whicli as a
rule were composed beforehand, but were sometimes
improvised, they related all the misdeeds of their
opponent and tried in every possible way to make
him ridiculous. The one who got the audience to
laugh most at his jibes or invectives was the con-
queror. Even such serious crimes as murder were
often expiated in this way. It may a])pear to us
a somewhat mild form of punishment, but for this
people, with their marked sense of honour, it was
sufficient ; for the worst thing that can happen to a
Greenlander is to 1)e made ridiculous in the eyes of
his fellows, and to be scoffed at bv them. It has
even happened that a man has beei\ forced to go into
exile l)y reason of a defeat in a drum-dance.

This drum-dance is still to be found upon the
east coast. It seems clear that it must be an ex-
ceediniilv desii'able institution, and for m^' i^art I
only wish that it could be introduced into Europe;
for a quicker and easier fashion of settling (puirrels
and punishing evil-doers it is di(li(ndt to imagine.

The missionaries on the west coast of Greenland,
unfortunately, do not seem to have been of the same
opinion. ]3eing a heathen custom, it was therefore,
in their opinion, innuoral and noxious as well ; and
on the introduction of Christianity they opposed it

I m

■ r'.'.i

188

ESKIMO LIFE

and rooted it out. Daluuer even tells ns that 'there
is scarcely any vice practised amontr the (Ireenlanders
against which our missionaries preach more velie-
mentlv than thev do against this dance, affirminjr
that it is the occasion of all sorts of misbehaviour,
especially among the young.' This policy he did
not at all approve. He admits, indeed, that the
dances may be the occasion of a few irregularities,
but adds that if a girl has made up her mind to
part v..ti her virtue, she is not likely to select so
unquiet a time and place ; and one cannot but agree
with 111 ill wiien he exclaims, ' And in truth, if people
danced to such good purpose among us, we should
presently see eveiy second moralist and advocate
transformed into a dancing-master.'

The result of this inconsiderate action on the
part of the missionaries is that, in reality, no law
and no forms of justice now exist in Greenland.
The Europeans cannot, of course, or at any rate
should not, mix themselves up in the Greenlanders'
private affairs. But when, on some rare occasion, a
crime of real importance occurs, the Danish authori-
ties feel that thev must intervene. The conse-
quences of such intervention are sometimes rather
surprising. At a settlement in North Greenland
some years ago (so I have been told), a man who
had killed his mother was punished b}' banishment

JUDICIAl. PlfOCKKDINCS, DlJTM-DANrKS. ETC. is!)

to a desert island. In order that he shouhl be able
to support hhiiself in solitude, they had to <iive him
a new kaiak. and a small store of food to be^iu
with. Some time afterwards, the food having run
out, he returned to the settlement and declared that
he could not live on the island, because there was
not enough game in the waters around it. He
therefore settled dow^n again in his old house, and
the only change in his life brought about by his
matricide was that he got a new kaiak.

The managers of the colonies sometimes have
recourse to a more eflective method of punishment
in the case of women : it consists in excluding them
for a certain time from dealing at the stores.

Besides being a judicial process, the drum-dance
was also a great entertainment, and was often danced
merelv for the sake of pastime. In this case the
dancers sang songs of various kinds, Ijeating a
drum the while, and going through a varied series
of more or less burlesque writhings and contor-
tions of the body. This is another consideration
which ought to have made the missionaries think
twice before abolishing the drum-dances, for amuse-
ment is a necessity of life, serving to refresh the
mind, and is of quite peculiar importance for a
people which, like the Greenlanders, inhabits an
inhospitable region and has few diversions. To

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make u[) lor llic loss of ilio (Iniiii-danccs. llicy lia\H'
now horrowcd IVoiii llie luiropcaii whalc-lishers and
sailors many l-'in'opcaii dances. esi)ecially reels,
which they liave to >oiiie exleiil modilied acconliiiL!'
to their own taste. At the colonies, the carpenter's
sho}), the hluhher-lol'l, or some other lai'^ijc apart-
ment, is L!'eiierallv used as a ball-room, and liei'e
dances take [)lace as often as the niaiiaL;('r> or other
authorities will u'ive j)ermission*— Licnerally (jnce a
week. In the other villages the (htiiciii,!!' takes place
in the ( ireenlanders" own houses.

A (vreenland ball oll'ers a pictures(|ue spectacU' —
tlie room hal!' liifhled bv the train-oil lamps, and the
crowd of people, younii' and old, all in their many-
coloured _iiarments, some of them takiuL:' part in the
dance, some standiii,!;" as on-lookers in crowded
groups alonu" the walls and upon the sleepinL:'-l)enches
and seats. There is plenty of beauty and of grace-
ful form, commingled with the most extravagant
hideousness. Over the whole scene thert- is a sense
of sparkling merriment, and in the dance a great
deal of grace and accomjjlishment. The feet will
often move so nimbly in the reel that the (^ye can
with diflicult}' follow them. In foi'nier days the
music was generally supplied by a \iolin, l»ut now
the accordion, too, is nuich in use.

The unhappy Eskimos who belong to the German

v..

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■■I I '

,/■(;.♦

.irDiciAi, ri;<t(i:i:i)iN(is, ih.t.m-kanci'.s, v:h\ hu

or lltM'i-iiliiil coiimiiiiiiru's, of wliicli llui'c uiv .scvcriil
in tlie <'oiiiitry, ;ire forhiddcii lo dance, and even to
look ut otliers dancing. If lliey do. ilicy arc excom-
municated ]»y the missioiuiries, or put down in their
bhack books.

Anionii' otlicr anuisenicnts, cluirch-Lioing takes ;i
prominent phice. Tliey lind tlic psahn-siiiiilnu" <'X-
tremely diverting', and the women in pai'ticuhir are
very mucli addicted to it.

Tlie women, however, fmd shopping!" at least as
entertainino-. As tlie time for openinii" the stores
approaches, they are to be seen, even in the winter
snowstorms, standing in groups along the walls and
waitino- for the moment when the doors of Paradise
shall he fluno- wide and they can rush in. ^lost of
them do not want to buy anythiiiii', l)iU they while
away the hours durnii^' which the store is o])en,
partly in examining all the European articles of
luxury, especially stuffs and shawls, partly in fhrting
with the storekeepers, and partly in exchanging all
sorts of more or less refined witticisms and 'larking'
with each other.

The rush is particularly great every sunnner,
after the arrival of the ships with cargoes of new
wares from Europe. Then tlie stores are litei-ally in
a state of sieo-e the whole day lonu'. Like their
Euj-opean sisters, the Eskimo women are fond of

i' '■' W'

' ■.^l»^■'

I!>:

MSKI.MO LI KM

novdtles of all sorts, so that as soon as thev arrive
the stores do a roarinj/ trade in them. The main
point, so far as I eould understand, is that the \vai*es
shall be new; the use they are to be [)U
minor ronsidenition.

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CTIA?TKU xir

M I:NTAL 1 FTS — A UT — M L'SK : — I'Oiyi'ItY- -KSK I MU

NAIJIJATIVKS

Till'] (Tiveuliiiidei's uiv ciidowTd with uood iiiciital
iacLdties and great invent iveiiess. Their implements
and weapons, as we hav* seen, aflurd a striiving proof
of this. The missionaries, too, espeeially at first,
found only too ample oj)portunity to judge of the
keenness of tlieir nnd(;rstanding, when tliey were so
foolish as to let themselves be drawn into discussions
with the heathen an^ekoks. When the missionaries
were cornered, however, tliev had often ari>uments
in reserve which were much more f(^rcible than those
of the natives. They wielded, as my friend, the
master carpenter at Godthaab used to say, ' a proper
fist,' and to its persuasions the peaceable Greenlanders
could not but yield.

To prove that their natural parts are good, I may
mention that they learn to read and write with com-
parative ease. Most of the Christian Eskimos can
now read and write, many of them very well ; in-

: v

' ■(

194

ESKIMO LIFE

deed, their faculty for writing is often quite mar-
vellous. Even the heathen Eskimos learn to play
dominoes, draughts, and even chess, with ease. I
have often played draughts with the natives of the
Godthaab district, and was astonished at the abiUty
and foresight which they displayed.

All our ordinary branches of education they
master with more or less readiness. Arithmetic is
what they find most difficult, and there are compara-
tively few Avho get so far as to deal competently with
fractions ; the majority have quite enough to do with
addition and subtraction of integers, to say nothing
of multiplication and division. The imperfection of
their o-ifts in this direction is no doubt due to age-old
causes. The Eskimo language, like most primitive
idioms, has a very undeveloped system of numerals,
five being the highest number for which they have
a special word. They count upon their fingers:
One, atausek; two, mardluk\ three, pingasut; four,
sisamet\ five, tatdlimat, the last having probably
been the original word for the }iand. When an
Eskimo wants to count beyond five, he expresses six
by saying ' the first finger of the other hand ' {arjinel'
or igluane atauseh) ; for seven he says ' the second
fincyer of the other hand ' Uirfmelc mardluk), and so
forth. Wlien he reaches ten he has no more hands
to count with, and must have recourse to his feet.

1 I *

MEXTAL GIFTS, AIIT, MUSIC. POETRY, ETC. 195

Twelve, accordingly, is represented L}'- ' two toes
upon the one foot ' {nrkanek mard/id:\ and so forth ;
seventeen by ' two toes on the second foot ' {arfer-
sanek mardluk), and so forth. Thus he manages to
mount to twenty, which he calls a whole man {;umk
ndvdlugo). Here the mathematical conceptions of
many Eskimos come to an end; Ijut men of com-
manding intellect can count still furtlier, and for
one-and-twenty say ' one on the second man ' {imip
dipagssdne atausek). Thirty-eight is expressed by
' three toes on the second man's second foot {invp
dipagssdne arfinek piugasut), forty by ' the whole of
the second man' (imip dipagssd ndcdhigo), and so
forth. In this way they can count to a hundred, or
' the whole of the fifth man ' ; but beyond tliat his
language will not carry even the most gifted Eskimo.
This is, as will be easily understood, a somewhat
unwieldy method of expression when one has to deal
with numl)ers over twenty. In former davs there
was seldom any need to go further than this ; but
the introduction of money and trade has, unfortu-
nately, rendered this more frequently necessary. It
is therefore not surprising that, in spite of their
remarkable power of resistance to foreign words,
the Greenlanders have begun more and more to
adopt the Danish numerals, even for the smaller num-
l)ers. By their aid they have now got so far that

o 2

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■■)■■

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I'i

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190

ESKIMO LIFE

they can count to over a hundred, which they call
witritigdlit' ; but I strongly suspect that they have
still a difficulty in forming any distinct conception of
so high a number. A thousand they call tusintigdlit?
This primitive Eskimo method of numeration
answers to what we find among most primitive
peoples, the fingers and toes b ng been from all
time the most natural appliances for counting with ;
even our forefathers no doubt reckoned in the same
way. Imperfect though it be, however, this method
is a great advance upon that of the Australian tribes,
who°cannot count beyond three, or in some cases not
beyond two, and whose numerals consist of : ' One,
two, plenty.' That the forefathers of the Eskimos,
as of all other peoples, at one time stood on this level
appears from their original grammar, in which we
find a singular, dual, and plural, as in Gothic, Greek,
Sanscrit, the Semitic languages, and many others.

All travellers agree in acknowledging the Es-
kimo's remarkable sense of locality and talent for
topography. When Captain Ommaney, in 1850,
asked an Eskimo from Cape York to draw the
coast, he took a pencil, a thing he had never seen
before, and sketched the coast-line along Smith's
Sound from his birthplace northwards with astonish-
ing accuracy, indicating all the islands, and the more

1 Danish, luindrcde. ' Danish, tuainde.

MENTAL GIFTS, ART, MUSIC, POETRY, ETC. 197

important rocks, glaciers, and mountains, and men-
tionino- the names of all of them. The heathen
natives brought to Captain Ilolm a map of the east
coast north of Angmagsalik, which they had cut out
in wood.

The Greenlanders have, in my opinion, an in-
dubital)le artistic faculty, and if their culture in this
direction is but httle developed, I believe the reason
lies in their hard fight for existence, which has left
them no time for artistic pursuits. Their art ^ con-
sists chiefly in the decoration of weapons, tools, and
garments with patterns and figures, cut out of bone
or wood, or embroidered in leather. The designs
often represent animals, human beings, woman-boats,
and kaiaks ; but they are conventional, and intended
rather for decorative or symbolic effect than as true
reproductions of Nature ; indeed, they have as a rule
assumed quite traditional forms. Some, too, are of
rehgious significance, and represent, for example, the
torndrssuk— one of their spirits or supernatural
beings. When they really try to copy Nature, they
sometimes display a rare sense of form and power
of reproducing it, as may be seen from the remark-
able pictures given by Captain Holm of dolls and

' Tlie most iniportnnt contribution to our knowlcdfje of Eskimo art
in its primitive condition is to be found in Captain Holm's instructive
account of the Eskimos at Anjj;mafj;salik, Mcddelehcr om. Gronlaiul,
pt. 10, p. 148, &.C.. with iUustrations.

ii i

198

ESKIMO LIFE

toys from the east coast, which are therefore quite
uninfluenced by European art-i)ro(lucts.

Weapons and tools were doubtless among the
first things upon which the human artistic faculty
thought of exercising itself; but the human body
itself was perhaps a .still earlier subject for artistic
treatment. Eelics of this early form of art are found
among the Eskimos, the women seeking to heighten
their attractions by means of geometrical lines and
figures which they produce upon face, breast, arms,
or letjfs, by means of drawing sinews, blackened with
lamp-soot, through the skin.

Hieroglyphics, which many believe to have been,
in part at least, the origin of art, seem oddly enough
to haye been unknown among the Greenlanders, un-
less indeed the symbolic designs in their ornamenta-
tion can be supposed to haye some such significance.
The only attempt at real picture-writing which I
haye been able to discoyer among them does not
evince a very high order of talent. It was a missive
to Paul Egede from an angekok, which consisted
simply of a stick, upon which was drawn, with soot
and train oil, a figure like this : A- The angekok
called after the letter-carrier, as he took his de-
parture, ' If Pauia Angekok does not understand
what I mean (though he probably w411), then say to
him : " This means a pair of trousers which I want

MENTAL GIFTS, ART, MUSIC, POETRY, ETC. l!)9

him to buy for me at the stores." Ikit he will
understand it well enough.'

Eskimos who have seen specimens of European
art and methods of representation, will sometimes
produce remarkable things without any sort of in-
struction. A Greenlander named Aaron once fell

ft*)

! t Vl

KSKIMO VKNUS ANH Al'OLI.O.

sick and had to keep to his bed. Dr. llink sent him
some materials for wood-en<jfravino' and some old
woodcuts. Lyino- in bed, he at once beaan to illus-
trate the Eskimo lej^ends, and he not only drew his
pictures, but also cut them on the wood.

As an example of their talent for sculpture I
here reproduce two heads, carved in wood, which a
native of a villac'e in the Godthaab district brought

""^B

200

ESKIMO LIFE

to me. TliGV seem to me to betray a mai'ked sense
of humour; and one can scarcely doubt that it is
the features of his own race which the artist has
innuortahsed.

Of nnisical talent the Greenlanders have a jxood
share. They pick up our music with remarkable
ease, and reproduce it, sometimes vocally, for they
are very fond of singing, somethnes on the violin,
guitar, organ, accordion, or other instruments, which
they (quickly teach themselves to play upon. This is
the more remarkable as their primitive music, which
was performed at the drum-dances, is monotonous
and undeveloped, like that of most primitive peoples.
It employs only a few notes, as a rule not more than
live ; but it is nevertheless peculiar and not without
interest. It is believed to be in the main an imita-
tion of the rushing of the rivers. The East Green-
landers told Holm that when they sleep beside a
river they hear the singing of the dead, and this
they seek to imitate.

The primitive characteristics of their music have
of course been more or less destroved bv their
intercourse with Europeans. They have now
adopted many European airs, and it produces a
(^uaint and surprising effect, among the moun-
tains and the glaciers, suddenly to hear a snatch
of a Copenhagen street song, as for example,

MENTAJ. GIFTS, ART, MUSIC, TOETUY, I:TC.

-'01

' Gina, lovely maiden niiiie. . . . won't you come
along ? '

The Greenlanders liave a great wealth of fairy
tales and legends, many of them very characteristic.
Nothing affords a betler insight into the whole
spiritual life of the people, their disposition, feelings,
and moods, than the matter of these legends and the
manner in which they are told. We find in them a
considerable talent for narrative and mh of imaui-
nation, along with a grotesque humour, which of
course often takes the form of coarseness.

]ksides this legendary lore (see next chapter) and
narratives of exploits and adventures, the Green-
landers had a poetry of their own. The songs were
either lampoons, such as they used to sing at .the
before-mentioned drum-dances, or else descriptions
of different objects and events.

When, on the introduction of Christianitv, the
drum-dance was abolished, the art of versification
also fell into disuse or assumed new shapes. Still,
however, the Greenlanders make up songs. They
are often of a jocose character, the i)oet setting
forth to ridicule, in a more or less innocent manner,
the pecuHarities of others. I understand that several
songs of this nature were composed with reference
to members of my expedition. Indeed I have often
heard them sung about the settlement of an evening.

\sy

* •(/

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IIP

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I! I

202

ESKIMO LIFE

though I never succeeded in obtaming the text of
any of them.

Thanks to the initiative of Dr. Eink, an Eskimo
newspaper, Ataagcujdliutit, has ever since 1861 been
pubUslied in Godthaab. It is printed by a native,
Lars Muller, who has been to Copenhagen to learn
tlie trade, and who even draws and lithographs
pictures for it. It is pubHshed twelve times a jear,
and is distributed gratis to the communitv, the
expenses being borne out of the pubUc funds. Its
contents consist partly of translations from the
Danish, partly of independent contributions from
the natives describing their hunting, their travels,
and so forth. Thus a whole new literature has been
called into existence.

A specimen of their method of narration was
given in ' The First Crossing of Greenland,' Vol. II.
pp. 217-286. It consisted of the account given
by an Eskimo named Silas, in the Atuagagdliutit,
of his expedition from Unanak on Godthaab-fiord
to the Ameralik fiord to render assistance to the
four members of our expedition who had remained
behind there in October 1888, after Svei^drup and I
had proceeded to Godthaab. The following narra-
tive, from the Atuagagdliutit, is also a good sample
of their style. It exemplifies, moreover, the strong
hold wliicli their superstitions still possess upon the

MENTAL GIFTS, AlIT, MUSIC, I'OKTKV, K'lV. m\

Eskimo mind, ami is tlius of interest with reference
to the matter of my next chapter. I have to thank
Mrs. Signe Ehik for her kindness in transhiting it for
me.

At last I send you something which I have long thought
of contributing to your • Varieties ' column. There is not
much in what I have to tell, but what there is I have seen
with my own eyes. I refer to the comical customs in con-
nection with the killing of a Ijear in certain southern dis-
tricts, which are (|[uite unknown elsewhere. These thini>'8
took place in the year 1882-83 down at Augpilagtut, a little
way from l\'imiagdluk.' Tlu're ai-e two Eskimo houses at
Augpilagtut. In one of them lived three seal-hunters wnth
their families, to wit, Benjamin, surnamed Akatit, Isaac,
or Umangujok, and lastly ]Moritz ; and in the other dwelt
Mathanis, who was generally called Ulivkakaungamik, or
' the full-stuffed,' from a catch-woi-d he himself was in the
habit of using. He was over seventy, but still went
hunting very often, and had even killed manv bears all bv

*■' *.

himself.

It happened one Sunday, when all the other hunters had
gone to sea, that we who remained behind held a prayer-
meeting in Matha?us"s house. When it was ovei-, Benjamin's
son was the first who went out, and he came rushing back
again crying, ' There's a bear right outside here, eating the
blubber.'

I was half frightened, half rejoiced by this news ; but old
Mathanis positively trembled with delight, and burst forth,
' Thanks to him who brings such good tidings ; I must go
out at once and kill the bear.' I looked at him, thinking

'■ki*j

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■ i.

' Near Cape Farewell.

204

ESKIMO LIFE

lili :

i^iii

iii

that lie was goin^^' to ])ick out for hiiiist'lf a jjfood weapon, a
long knife or spear, lint iiothinir of the kind ! The weapon
he had taken scarcely stuck out from his clenched fist. What
use can that be. I thought, against the bear's hide and tliick
layer of fat. However, the women of the house would not
let him attack the bear, and all seizi'd n])on him to hold him
back, I helping them. The women all untied their top-knots
and let their Iiair spread loose, that the bear might think
they were men, and therefore keep his distance. For our
heathen forefathers thought that bears had human under-
standing.

As we wei-e afraid lest this bear should take it into his
head to come into the house through the gut-skin window, f,
too, had to think about getting hold of some weapon or
other, and therefore asked for their axe ; but I of course
found that it had been lent to the people of the other house.
At the same time I caught sight of a woman's knife lying
upon the ij'iik^ beside the lamp, and that I seized, along with
a piece of wood from an old kaiak-keel, which I wanted to tie
to the knife and use as a spear-shaft. But no sooner had I
taken these things than someone behind me cried, * Give
them to me ; I am ever so much stronger than you ! ' It
was no other than Mathams's daughter, a widow. She took
them both away from me.

The house-clock ^ now began to strike eleven, and that
brute of a bear forthwith began to look hungrier. I rushed
at once to stop the striking, but in my consternation 1 made
a mistake and increased the racket, until at last I managed

' The ipal- is an extension of the sleeping-bench (generally square)
on which thej' place the lamp with its wooden stand.

^ Cheap Nuremberg or Swiss clocks are among the articles of
luxurj' which commerce has introduced into Greenland ; they are to
be found in the remotest corners of the country.

ill

MEXTAI, (ilFTS, AliT, MLSIC, rOKTl!V, KKJ. Jo.',

to get tilt' weitJi'lit looseiu'tl iiiid tlio strikiii*,'' stnpiit'd. Tlit'
women were still holding fight to ^lathu'us lo ktu-p him hack,
Then, all at once, the mother of the hoy who had seen tin-
bear began to slip lier trousers down to her knees, and so go
shufHing round the room, while she plaited some straws.
This, they said, was to weaken the hear, so as to nuike it
easier to get the better of him. In the meantime, old
Matha3us shook the women otf and set forth. I rushed after
him, and came up with him before he had quite got out of
the entrance-passage. Jle told me to go (piietly. ami said,
' Hush, hush, now he's going down towards the si-a."

Mathiuus's rifle was lying in his kaiak on the beach, and
as soon as the bear had passed the kaiak, the old man crept
cautiously on all foui's in the same direction. I stood at
the entrance to the passage and saw the bear suddenly turn
and rush roaring towards him. This frightened me so that
I tied over to the other house where, in mv hurrv, i came
tumbling in at the door. AVhile 1 still lay grovelling upon
the floor, I could see through the window' how the bear
and Matha3us stared each other straight in the face, each on
his own side of the kaiak, jMathii?us making grimaces, and
the bear roaring with his mouth wide open, ready to bite him ;
but Matha3us planted his foot firmly against the kaiak and
aimed, without once taking his eyes off the bear for a single
moment ; and then he fired. I now hurried out, just in time
to see him thrust his sealing-lance into its carcase. Then he
called loudly to those in the house that now they had better
come and get their ningek (slice of fat). In their hurry to
outstrip each other, the women almost stuck fast in the
narrow house-passage, part of which they tore down. "When
they reached the bear, they all thrust their hands into the

;.'J:

I *■ ■

^ Which is very low in tho genuine Eskimo luits.

•'(Id

ESKIMO \M'K

wound and liipped Hojne of tlif hlood, while each of them
named the part, of the animal which she wanted to have. At
last my turn came to drink' the hlood, and I did so, sayinjjf
tljrit T wanted one ham as my portion; but thereupon they
answered that all the limbs were already bespoke, and that I,
moreover, liad ne<,docted to touch the bear when I came uj)
to it. It was extremely vexatious that I had fortjfotten this
detail. The mother of the boy who had first seen the bear
now ran for a bowl of water and made us all take a mouthful
of it, thouj^h none of us was thirsty. This she did in order
that her son mi^ht always have (j^ood luck in spyin<^ Ijears.
The drinking of the blood was meant to prove to the whole
race of bears how tliey thirsted after them. Before they set
to work to cut up the bear, they kept drumming at his skin
and crying : ' You are fat, fat, beautifully fat.' This they do
out of politeness, in the hope that the bear may really be fat;
but when we skinned this one it was found to be quite un-
usually lean.

When they carried the head into the house, T went along
with them, knowing that they would go through certain
ceremonies with it. First it was placed on the edge of the
lamp-table with the face towards the scuth-east ; then they
sto])ped its mouth and nostrils with sediment from the lamps
and other sorts of grease ; and lastly, they bedecked the
crown of the head with all sorts of little things, such as shoe-
soles, sawdust, glass beads, knives, &c.
direction is due to the fact that it is fron
compass that the bears generally come, b( carried by • uie
great ice' round the southern extremity of the i.md The lamp-
moss in the nostrils is meant to prevent the bear they next
attack from scenting the approach of men ; and the greasing
of the mouth is designed to give it pleasure, as the bear is
supposed to be a lover of all soi'ts of fried grease. The head

Th soutli-east
jiiarter of 'he

MF.NTAI, (illTS, AHT, MI'SIC, POKTIIV, I'.TC, j()7

is covoreil with kiiick-ktmcks because tlioy tliink lliiil tins
bonr is soiit to tluMu by tluMi* foivfatliers for tlic iMirposf of
briu^'inj^' tliose things with it to the other world ; and as they
reckon that the bear's soul cannot reach its home in less than
live days, they always retVuin for that time fi-om eating' its
head, lest its soul should die on the way, aiul the little ^'ifts
to their relatives should thus be lost. 'I'hey are even careful
to stop up all the holes in the neck where the head has been
cut off, in order to prevent the soul from bleeding to death
on its journey, I'or my part, I call all this idolatry. The
heathens, indeed, believed in the old days that everytliinj^,
whether living or dead, had its soul ; but there is nothing
that one ought to mix up with man's immortal soul. The fact
that, even in our days, so long after the introduction of
Christianity, the people here in the far south still cling to
some of the habits of their forefathers is due to their frecjuent
(almost yearly) intercourse with the heathens of the east
coast.

1 left Augpilagtut in 1885. I am not quite sure whether
even out at Pamiagdluk there may not be a tew families who
still lean to these bear superstitions ; but all certainly do not
— not Isaac's family, for (jne. At other places, for example
here at the Colony, they have scarcely even heard of the
customs I have described.

I had not been told on what dav they intended to cook
the bear's head, and was therefore surprised by a sudden
invitation to come and share in it. I cut the snout off with-
out ceremony ; but they soon let me know that I had made
a mistake, at once tearing it out of my hands. I confess I
was a good deal offended, and told them straight out that,
however foolish they might think me, I did not believe a bit
in all this. They assured me (piite earnestly that in that
case I would never kill a bear, whereupon T answered that

■ '■ - ( .

^ V,

;';t

oifn <

S08

ESKIMO IJ.FE

.''

this prophecy was very likely to be fulfilled, siuce I was so
short-sighted that the bear would probably b«^ licking me
before I was aware of its presence.

They have also these further customs : W they see the
track of a bear in the snow, they eat a little of it in order to
assure themselves of killing the bear if it should happen to
come back the same way. Little boys are given the kidneys
of bears to eat, in order that they may be strong and
courageous in bear-hunting. Furfhermore, they are careful
during the aforesaid five days not to make any jingling noise,
for the bear is supposed to dislike any sort of clinking or
clanking.

Matha3us told me that the bear I had seen him kill was
his eleventh, and that he had not been in the least afraid of
it because in this case he knew he had his rifle to trust to ;
but that once before when he had seen a bear come crawling
up the beach in the same way, he iiad rushed right in upon
it with only his lance. He said he could not remember how
long ago that was.

•209

CHAPTER XIII

'}'tm

Eeligiox and relio-ious ideas are among the most
remarkable ])roduets of the human spirit. Witli all
their reason-dcfN-ing assertions and astounding incon-
grnities, they seem at first sight inexplicable. Time
out of mind, therefore, men have found it difficult to
conceive them as having arisen otherwise than
through a supernatural or divine revelation, which,
it would follow, must originally liave been imparted
to all men alike. Hut gradually, as people l)ecame
acquainted with the more or less rudimentary reli-
gions of the various races, wliich often differ greatly
on the most essential matters, they began to doubt
the accuracy of this assumption, and (-ame more and
more to consider whether religious ideas must not be
reckoned as a natural product of the human mind
itself, under thv influence of its surroundiiK>-s

The first rlieory was tliat they arose from a
religious crc^ving common to all human beings, wln'ch
was itself, therefore, in a certain sense supernatural.

f f.

:-ii

210

ESKIMO Lll'l':

ill

(i.i

It is a mysterious iiicomprelieiisible preseiitiineiit,
says Sclileiermaclier, which drives mankind across
the boundaries of the finite world, and k^ads everyone
to rehgion ; only by the (•rippling of this natural
])roclivity can irreligiousness arise. 'Religion begins
in the first encounter of the life of the All with that
of the individual ; it is the sacred and infallible inter-
marriage — the creative, productive embrace — of the
universe with incarnate reason,'

Gradually the explanations l)ecame less vague and
hiffh-soundinii'. Peschel and others held that religious
ideas arose from the need of conceiving the cause or
beginning of all things, or, in other words, that it
was the sources of movement, life, and thought,
which mankind souo-ht after, with its inl)orn lonoinii"
to realise the absolute. Others hold, with Max
Miiller, that a lon<>inii' for the infinite, a strivini>- to
understand the incomprehensible, to name the un-
nameable, is the deep spiritual bass-note which
makes itself heard hi all religions. Others again, like
0. Pfleiderer, see in mankind's inl)orn and incom-
prehensible thirst for beauty, its fantasy, and its
assthetic sense, the first germs of religious conscious-
ness. Some theorists, finally, have sought to explain
religious ideas as an outcome of the moral sense of
mankind, of its thirst for righteousness.

In the light of a moderately penetrating study of

KEl.KilOrs IDKAS .,j|

Hie religions ideas of tl,e Eskimos, as of everv other
prnnitive i,eople,all these philosophi,- tlieories" vanish
away. I„ our e.i.pirieal a,«e, people have come more
aiHl more to recognise tliat relioious ideas nmst he
ascnhe,! to the san,e natural htws which condition all
other phenomena, and to liold, as David Hume first
maintained, that they can be traced for the most part
to two tendencies in our nature-or perhaps ^ve
should rather call them instincts-whi,.h are co.n.non
to all animals ; to wit, thf,,u- ,^ doak .n,d th- dm,r
of h/.: From the former instinct arises fear of the
dead and of external nature with its titanic forces
and the craving for protection against tliein. From
the latter arises the desire for happiness, for power
and for other advantages. Tl,u.s, too, we understand
the fact that the early religious are not disinteresK-d -
but egotistical, that the worshipper is not so much'
rapt in contemplation of the enigmas of nature and
of the infinite, as eager to secure some advaiitacre to
himself When, for example, amulets and feUshes
are supposed to posses.s supernatural power, they are
not only treasured, but worshipped.

It is difficult, not to .say impossible, to search
back to the first vagne form.s in whic'h religious ideas
dawned in the morning of humanity, when thou-ht
began to emerge from the primal mists of animal
consciousness. It was with religious ideas in that

t 8

.''.'

III

' h

m :

ESKIMO LIFE

time as with the first orn^anic beings which arose upon
our earth — they had not yet assumed such deter-
minate forms, their component parts were not yet so
definitely fixed, as to leave traces behind them ; what
we find are the more advanced stages of develop-
ment. The first ideas must have been exceedingly
obscure impressions, dependent upon many outward
chances, and we can no more reason ourselves back
to them, than we can conceive the appearance of the
first organisms. Nor can we determine at what stage
of the development of humanity these first vague
fverms of religious ideas appeared — whether, for ex-
ample, they were present in our simian forefathers.
It does not even seem to me certain that the lower
animals are devoid of all superstitious feeling. We
cannot, therefore, expect to discover in any now
existing race a total lack of even the most rudimen-
tary superstitious conceptions. We must rather
wonder that in a people otherwise so highly developed
as the Eskimos, they should still remain on such a
remarkably low level.

In the light of our knowledge of the primitive
rehgions, it seems to me best not to regard the
aforesaid instincts as the direct cause of superstitious
conceptions, but rather to distinguish between at
least three germs or impulses, which liave provided
the material out of which these instincts — in reality

KKLKilOUS IDEA.S

-'13

resolvable into one, the instinct of self-preservation —
have fashioned all rehgious systems. The three
germs are : our tendency to personify nature, our
belief in its and our own duaht\' and in the immor-
tality of the soul, and the Ijelief in the supernatural
power and influence of certain hianimate oljjects
(amulets). In order to recognise the great impor-
tance of these germs, especially at a primitive
stage of development, we nmst tr\- to throw our
minds back to the standpoint of the child, which
most nearly answers to that of primitive man. To
personify nature is for the child no mere passing
fancy ; he consistently regards all surrounding
objects, animate and inanimate, as persons, and will,
for example, carry on long conversations with his
toys. A child of my acquaintance, standing one
day in the kitchen watcliin«>' some lon<^ sausao-es
boiling in a pot, exclaimed to the cook : ' I saA', are
these sausages killed yet ? ' All of us, probably, can
remend)er from our childlu^od how we personiiied
trees, certain mountains, and the hke. It is the
sanu^ proclivity, as Tylor says, which reappears in
our often irrational desire or thirst for vengeance
upon inanimate things which in one wa}' (jr another
have caused us pain or injur}'. For example, when
we were crossing Greenland, SAerdrup and I had a
sledge which was heavy to draw ; it would have

'''■.!l*

<i/U

; .51 ■: ,

:»'■

'^^

. !|

if !i

i'i

ESKIMO JJFl-:

caused us ([uite real satisfacMioii to have destroyed it,
or otlierwise revenged ourselves upon it, when we at
hist left it behind. Another inseparable characteristic
of the cliild-niind is its determination to see in every
movement or occurrence in its little world the
activity of a personal will.

In the first childish philosophy of the human
race, the same method of rei>ardino' all natural
objects as persons must have been (piite inevitable.
Trees, stones, rivers, the winds, clouds, stars, the sun
and moon became living persons or animals. The
Eskimos, for example, l)elieve that the heavenly
bodies were once ordinary men and women before
they were transferred to the sky.

But after or along with this proclivity tliei-e must
also have arisen quite naturally the tendency to con-
(.*eive a twofoldness, a duality, in nature and in man,
the feeling of a visible and tangible, and of an
invisil)le and super-sensible, existence. Let us, for
instance, with Tylor, conceive an ignorant primitive
man hearing the echo of his own voice ; how can he
help believing that it is produced by a man ? He
knows nothinn- of the theorv of sound-waves. But
when lie hears it time after time, and can find n(3
man who produces the sound, it is inevitable that he
should attribute it to hivisible beings.

Or take, for example, the dew, which he sees

i:i:M(iR)US IDEAS

appearing and disappeariiijv, he ('aiuiot tell whence
Of whither : the stars which are lighted in the even-
ing, and pnt out again at morning ; the clouds which
gather all of a sudden, and of a sudden are dis-
j)ersed ; the rain, the wind, the currents in the water
— must not all these arouse in him the thought or
conception of visil)le and invisible existences? When
\]w. primitive Eskimo first met with the glacier which
he saw gliding out into the sea, and giving l^iith,
iVom time to time, to mighty icebei-gs, could lie see
in this anything else than the activity of a, live
being P He attriljuted life to the tiling itself, and
regarded these monsti-ous births as voluntary and
awe-inspiring actions.

( )j-, to take another example, when a prinutive
num saw his own shadow or his own image in the
water, now here, now gone again, eluding ahke his
touch and his grasp, how could this fail to arouse in
him the conception of tangible and intangible ex-
istences, things that could now be here and at the
n(^xt moment could ^•anisll awav ?

There were plenty of grounds, in short, for the
evocation of the idea of duality in nature, of a
visible and an invisible phase of existence. Jiut this
belief in the duality of nature nuist have been greatly
strengthened by the primitive man's conceptions of
himself. When he slept, and dreamed that he was

■m

IfM.

■"M

210

KSKiMo ijir:

it's

out hunting, was claneing, was visiting others, in
short, was wandering far and wide, and then awoke
and discovered that his body had not moved from
his cave or hut, and heard his wife or his com-
panions corroborate this, he naturally could not but
believe that he consisted of two parts, of one part
wiiich could leave him at ni^ht and yo through all
these experiences, and one which lay still at home.
To distinguish between dreams and reality was. far
more than could be expected of him. The speech
of many primitive races cannot to this day, as
Spencer points out, express this distinction, having
no means of saying ' I dreamed that I saw ' instead
of 'I saw.' When he had further noticed that his
shadow followed him bv day l)ut not bv niyht. it
was quite natural that he should give to the part
that was separable from him the name of ' shadow '
or ' shade,' which, therefore, came to mean the same
thing which others denominate soul or spirit. We
shall presenth' see that the Eskimo has acquired in
this way his l)elief in, and his name for, the soul.
The conviction of his own kinship with all the
objects around him is further strengthened by the
observation that they have shadows as well as
himself.

But when primitive man was l)rouglit face to
face with death it must have made a powerful

■(I

'•; -'r I

IJKJ.KilOLS IDKAS

lii:

iuiprcssioii upon liiiii, uiul llif beliei' in his own
duality must have Ijeen confirmed in a still higher
degree. Here, he saw, was the same body, the same
mouth, and the same lindjs ; the onlv dill'erenee was
that in hie they spoke and moved, whereas now all
was still. Their speech and motion must Ijc due to
some lii'e-giving principle, and this nuisl oi' course
be the soul, which, as he knew from dreams, had the
power of (juitting tiie body. We nuist also hold it
only natural that the soul, which at death departed
from the bodv, came to be associated with the breath
c>f the mouth, which was now gone ; and therefore (as
for example among some of the J'^skimos) man was
endowed with two souls, the shitdow and the hrcafk.
This belief in the dualitv of the soul, which is some-
times also traceable to the shadow and the I'ellection
in the mirror, is very widely spread, and to it we
may probably trace our own distinction between soul
and spirit, j>,si/c/ie and jiiieii}n<i.

It might at first sight seem natural for primitive
man to conclude that the soul no less than the body
dies at death. There are. in fact, sonu* who think
so; but most of tin ni, on meeting the dead again in
their dreams, were driven to the conclusion that
their souls still lived. Furthermore, it was not at all
difficult to conceive that, as the soul was temporarily
absent from the body in sleep, delirium, and so forth.

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111;

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:llt1|

iirV

1 1 ■

iii

L'lH

KSKIMO MFK

it WMS pcnnnnciitlv mLsciiI in dcalli. Tims the ])eliel'
in llic coiiliiiiicd life ol" the soul lias (|iiit(' natiu'ally
and incvitahly arisen : and as tlie idea of annihilation
is vcrv unattrartivc to every livinu;- crealnre, this
conceiJtion of ininiortalily has appealed ioreibly to
llic Ininian mind.

Bnt as most men are afraid of (h'ath and of the
dead, they do not like to meet them aiiain as _i»hosts ;
and, terror stimnlatin*^' the imaL.'iiiation, a supei-
natural power is attributed to them, maiidy liurtful,
l)ut sometimes helpful as well. Peojile thei-efore
come to think it wisest to propitiate and make ft'iends
with them. Tims has arisen that worship of the dead
which plays so yreat a part in the rcliiiion of most
races, and which lies, if not at the foundation, at anv
rate, veiy near to it, in ahuost all religions — as, for
instance, among the Eskimos.

It cannot Ije thought uimatural that the s])irits of
the dead, and especially those of the more eminent
among them, such as chiefs and princes, were gradu-
ally converted into cjods.

The word for God among the Hebrews (// or el),
among the Egyptians [niitdr), and among many other
peoples, meant only a powerful being, and could ])e
applied as well to heroes as to gods. As there were
upon the earth peculiarly powerful men, so there
must be in the spirit- world peculiarly powerful

KKI.KJIUU.S IDKAS

i»li>

>^l)irils : and these iialurally hceaiiie tlie divinities jxir
f',/vr//r//rv wlioiu it was specially iiiiporraiit to woi-shiji.
Thus we arrive at last at the belief in one ( iod, at
•he Jiiomeiit when absolute iiioiiaichy is estublished
in I he spirit world.

Ihit alongside of this .meeslor-worshii), we reeo"-
iii"^t' as ;i powerfid faelof in the development of
superstitious ideas the iiiaiked tendency of the liuninn
race t' attribnte supernatural powei' to certain in-
atuuiate ohjecls, wliich, in the ])rimitive sta^e, are
used to avert or inllueiice the i)ower of tlie dead or
to attain other advanta.iics ; and from this has de-
veloped tlie wliole wide-spivad beUefiii aiiiulets, and
possiljly also, in a measure, fetish-worship. We shall
(-onsider later how the belief in the power of the
amulet may have arisen.

An nupt)rtant force tending towards the continu-
ance and development of supei-stitious conceptions,
when they have once arisen, is of course to be found
in the authority of the medicine-men (spiiit-exor-
<'isers), or of the priests, over their fellow-men.
^ome minds, and these the ablest, naturally came to
liave a better understanding than the othei's of super-
natural things, and to stand in a closer relation to
the dead. It was clear that they could thus help
their neighbours, when, for example, there was (jues-
tion of applying the powers of the dead to the benefit

tc.'

Hrri

' ■:*:■

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' "4-

'•'ft

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.■■J..

II'

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'20

KSKIMO Ml'K

of Jill iiulivldiuil or of u hody of iiicii ; and the priest
thus jittaiiicd powei' and inlliiciicc in llic coiniuimit}',
anil oil I'll advaiila<^('!j of a more iiinturial iuUlul' as
well. It has thus always Ikt-h to the iiikn-cst of tlu*
iiU'diciiui-nieu and pi'iests to sustain and nurture
supei'stitious or I'eliu-ions idejts. Thcv nuisl them-
selves appear to bcHcve in them ; they may even
discover new prece[)ts of divinity to their own ad-
vanta<it', and tlierehy increase both their power and
their revenues.

Among i)eople like the J^skimos, yet another in-
fluence comes into play, which colours their su})er-
stition ; the inlhuMice, to wit, of the natural sui"-
roundings among which they are placed, and of the
hard and hazardous life tliev lead. It is a recoji-
nised fact that a race which lives l)\' huntinu- and
fishing has a special tendency to become supersti-
tious; of this we have a striking example in our own
country. Compare the men of the west and north
coasts with those of the eastern districts. The
former have to h)ok niainlv to the sea for their

livelihuod, they are dependent on w ind and weather,
on the cominii' of shoals of fish, &c. — in short, on a
wdiole series of influences nntathomable by man,
wdiich they describe in one word as chance, and
which may be not only unfavourable but even fatal
to them. Inevitabl}', therefore, they become super-

I!i;i,h;f(Hs idkas

•ji'i

stifloiis; noi" i^ tlioro any p.'ii't of till' comitiT wlicro
pietism and obscurantism find siicli i'ci'tilc soil as on
tlio west coast. When we turn lo tlic peasant of tlic
eastern disti'icts we find ;i I'cmarkahle diU'erence.
Tie dwells at ease npoii liis I'ai'm ; somewhat depen-
dent, it is true, on wind and weather, Ijut in a com-
paratively secure position; and iherefoic he is less
superstitious. Tlow nuich more sti'oiiLily must the
stinudns towards superstition act upon the I^skimo,
whose whole life depends n])on huntinij and fishin<i' !
And it is still fui'ther intensified by the pei'petua!
daniicr in which he lives, and by his Arctic sur-
ronndings. Nature so wild and nnijestic as that of
Greenland — with its izlaciers, icebergs, mira«jfes,
tempests, and the lon<i" winter nights with the
shinunering Northern Lights — obtains an irresistible
power over the mind, evokes reverence and terror,
and feeds the imairinntion. We look upon all these
marvels in the dry liLiht of reason ; but. pi'imitive
man, like a <'hild, ekes out defe(!tive comprehension
with wild fantasy, and his belief in the supernatural
is streno'thened and developed.

Morality, which many believe to be intimately
connected with religious conceptions, lias in its origin
little or notliin<>' to do with tluMU. As alreadv in-
dicated in C*liapter X. it springs from the social
instinct, and is, among primitive races, quite distinct

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from superstitious "deas. Thus tlicy liave uo re-
wards ben'oud tlie ^iiiiivc for a life of moral ex-
cel lenco.

Tlie Eskiuios are in sonic measure an example of
this. It is Irue that we fuid hints in the fTi-eenland
l(\ii'eiids of punishment in this life ibi' evil-doinu', and
es])ecianv for witchcraft, at the hands of supernatural
powers. The dead may pos^i])ly to a ceiiain extent
requite survivors for benefits conferred u])on them
durin«)- their life ; the souls (or inue Y) of animals can
revenn-e a too cruel slauuhli-r of their oilsprinii" ; the
soul or spirit of a murdered nuin demands that his
murder shall be aveno;*d ; wi'oiil;- done to the weak
is punished in divers fashions, and so forth, jhit all
these notions are so vague that they cannot be
conceived as prhnary or fundamental, but rather as a
sort of occasional overgrowth, due +o the natural
mingling of social relations and laws with the primi-
tive legends. They may therefore be regai-ded as the
iirst hesitating steps of the religious ideas towards
morality. It is not until a considerabl}- later staiiC
that religion has consciously and in earnest entered
into an alliance witli morality which helps to
strengthen both. lveligi(.)n has thereby acquired a
strong back-bone, and moral pi-ecepts pi'oduce a
deeper impression when they come from an exalted
and divine source, and are moreovei- reinforced bv

PiEJ.TGIOUS IDKAS

L'i';J

pi-omises of rewai'ds and ])unislimciit.s Ix^voiul the

^rave.

A remarkal:)l(' feature in all reli<^'i()ii8 is that, in
.spite of their great diderenees in many essentials,
there are also snch great and important similarities
spread over the whole earth. This maybe explained
in two ways: either (m the theory that all religion is
the result of the iv.itne causes, ae-ting independently
in difl'erent places, or on the theory that religions
(•on.'eptions have arisen in one place and have thence
spread all the woi'ld over. For my [)art I believer
that we may have recourse to both theories hi order
to explain this simihu-ity of religions. The human
brain and nerve-system are astonishingly similar
among all races ; the diHerences consist chiefly in
the development whi(^h nuist be associated with the
progress of the higher races. It follows that we
must assume the same laws of thought to hold o-ood
thi )ughout, especially in earlier and less complex
stages of development; and as ex[)erieiices must in
a certaui measure have been everywhere identical,
peo})le must not oidv have arrived at the same ri<du.
conclusions, but nuist have also, when the ri<du e\-
l)lanation did not lie on the surface, have everywhere
fallen into the same fundamental errors ; and npon
these errors religions are built. But in addition to
this, certain definite religious conceptions have ])re-

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ESKIMO LIFE

sumfil)lv shaped tlunnselves in particular places, and
have, in the form of nionth-to-nionth traditions aiid
leo-ends, permeated all races of the earth. We shall
snbseqnently find speakin^- evidence for the belief
that they may liave reached even snch remote i-a(;es
as the Eskimos.

The ffiith of the Greenland Eskimo is of o-reat
interest towards the elncidation of the questions
above touched upon. It is s(-» primitive that I doubt
whether it deserves the name of a relio-ion. There
are many legends and much superstition, but it all
lacks clear and defmite form : (^oncepticms of the
supernatural vary from individual to individual ai 1
they produce, as a whol(\ the impression of a relio-ion
in process of formation, a mass of incoherent and
fantastic notions which have not vet crvstaUised into
a definite view of the world. We must assun-^* that
all rehgions have at one time or another passed
through just such a, stage as this.

The Greenlanders, like all primitive races, origin-
ally conceived nature as animate throughout, eveiy
object — stone, mountain, weapon, and so forth —
having its soul. We still find traces of tliis belief.
The souls of tools, weapons, and clothes, follow the
dead on his wandering to the land of the shades;
therefore they arc laid in the gra\e, that there they
may rot and their souls may be set free. Gradually,

KKLK.rouS IDKAS

2:25

however, this belief lias, in the coiifused and illoo'ieal
way pe.-uliar to ])riiiiitive raees, mixed itself up with
a totally difrercnt one: the belief, to wit, that the
souls of tlie dead cixn take up tlieir abode in different
animals, objeets, mountains, and the like, wliich ihev
siibjuo-ate to tliemselves, and from which they can
issue from time to lime, even showino- tliemselves to
thehving. There has thus arisen the belief thai in
every natural object there dwells a particular IxMug,
called its inwi (th. c is, its owner)— a word which,
charactei-istically enouoh, ori_Lnnally signiiied human
being or Eskimo.

According to the l<:skimos, i^very stone, mountain,
glacier, ri\er, lake, has its inua ; the very air has
one. It is still more remarkable to hnd that even
abstra(^t conceptions have their inue; they speak for
example of the inne of particular instincts or passions.
This may seem surprising in a primitive people, but
it is not verydidlcult to explain. When, for example,
a primitive man sufleihig i'rom violent hun«>-er, feels
an inward gnawing, it is (piite natural that he should
conceive this to be caused ])y a being, whom he
therefore describes as the inua of hunger or appetite.
As a rule, these inue are invisible, l)ut when thev are
seen, according to Eink, they take the form of a
brightness or hre, and the sight of them is verv
danaerous.

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Man liiinself, accordiiii>' to tlic Greonlanders, con-
sists of at least two parts: the /xk/ij and the f^-nid —
and these they hold to Ix* quhe distuiet I'roni
each otlier. The sonl can only Ije seen l)y aid of a
particnlar sense which is fonnd in men nnder certain
conditions, or in those who possess a special <>ift ; to
wit, the angekoks. It appears in the same shape as
the body, but is of a more airy composition. The
angekoks explained to Hans E^-ede that souls were
' quite soft to the touch, indeed scarcely tangible at
all, just as if they had iieither muscle nor bone.' '
The people of the east coast hold that the soul is
Cjuite small, no laro-ei- than a liand or a ^"'lo-er. The
Greenlanders' word for the soul is fanilk ; this re-
sembles the word tarr(d\ which signifies shadow, and
I think there can be no doul)t that they have orioin-
ally been the same word, since tlie Eskimo, as l)efore
indicated, used to regard the soul and the shadow as
one and the same thin<>'.- This tallies exactly with
what we find among other ])e()ples. The Fijian, for
example, calls his shadow his dark soul, which leaves
Inm during the night; his im.age in the miri'or is Ids

' As to tlio constitution of the sonl see also Piinl Epede, Efter-
rctiiu/cr 0)11 Grihihnul, p. 141), and Cranz, Historic vnn Gronland,
p. 258.

- I'anl Ef,'C(le says expressly iJ-:fferrc(iii;/cr om (Jri'mlaiid, p. 126)
that the natives make no distinction between tarrnl- and tarneh
(farnik), and ho himself uses t1ie two words indifferentlj'. See also
the same work, p. !>2. ,

KELIfUnrs IKKAS

light soul. Inrral in (lu- riivciiIaiKl lan-'iiao-e means
both shadow and reflection, so that the orininal word
for soul meant all tliese tliree lliinos. Accordiuo- to
Cranz,^some of tlie Giveidanders l)elieved that man
had two souls: his shadow and his l)i-eath (compare
al)ove, pp. 21(), &(..). The -eneral lielief in Iv-ede's
ami Orauz's time seems to have l)een that the soul
was most intimately comiecl-d with I lie breath. For
instance, the angekok used to l)low upoji a sick man
hi order to cure him or o'ive him a new soul.

It is worth notino that Ilanserak, a native cate-
chist from West Greenh.nd whc accompanied Captain
Hohn on his joui-ney along the east coast (in l884-S-j),
stated in his diary (written in Eskimo), with reference
to the Angmagsaliks' l)elief in the soul, that ' a man
has many souls. The Lirgest dwell in the laiynx
and in the left side, and are tiny men about the size
of a span-ow. The other souls dwell in other parts
of the body and are the size oi' a finger joint. If
one of them is taken away, its particular member
sickens.'- Whether this belief has ever been wide-
spread among the Eskimos does not appear from
other sources of infoi-mation.

The soul is quite independent, and can thus leave
the body for any time, short or long. It does so

' Historic con Grlhihind, p. 'I'u .

- See Ilohn, Meddclchcr om Grihiland, [it. 10, i). 112.

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every niiiht, wIkmi, in vivid dreams, it goes hunting
or joins in nierrvniakinus and so forth. Tlie sonl can
also remain at home when the man is on a journey, a
notion wliicli Cranz beheves to arise from liome-sick-
ness. It can also be lost, or stolen l)y means of
witchcraft. Then tlie man falls ill nnd must get his
ancjekok to set off and letch his soul back a^'ain. If,
in the meantime, any disaster has happened to it,
for example if it has been eaten up by another
ancfekok's tornarssuk, the man must die. An
angekok, however, had also power to pnnide a new
soul or exchange a sick soul for a sound, which,
according to Cranz, he could obtain from, say, a
hare, a reindeer, a l)ird, or a young child.

The strangest thing (^f all is that the soul could
not only be lost in its entirety, but that pieces of it
could also go astray ; and then the angekok had to
be called in to patch it up.

Among the Greenlanders of the east coast, accor-
ding to Ilolra, a third element in addition to these
two enters into the composition of man : to wit ' the
name ' {afrkata). ' Tlie name is as large as the man
himself, and enters into the child after its birth, on
its mouth being damped with water, wliile at the
same time the "names" of the dead are spoken.'
Among all the Greenlanders, even the Christians, the
first child born after the death of a member of the

;!!;'(

li'lOLKilOL'S IDEAS

-'!'!-)

family is almost always called after him, the object
beiiio- to procure peace lor him in his .yrave. The
East Greenlaiuler l)elieves that the 'name' remains
with the body or mi.urates throuo-h dillereiit animals.'
untilachihl is called by it. It is therefore a duty
to take care tliat this is done; if not, evil conse-
quences may follow for the child to whom the name
ouiiht to have been ,i2i\'en.

This belief is remarkably simiLir to one which (as
Professor Moltke ]\Loe - informs me) is current in
Norway:, to wit, that the dead 'seek after names.'
A preoiiain woman dreams of one or otlier departed
relative who comes to her (' seeking after a name '),
and after him she nmst call her child; if not, she is
guilty of an act of neglect, whicJi may injuriously
affect the child's future.'' The same superstition is
also found among the Lapps. Among the Ivoloshes in
Noi'thAVest America, the mother sees in a dream the
departed relative whose soul gi\-es the child its like-

J k ^ ■

' A similar idea is alsj cuiTciit on the west coast (compare
Me<hlclchrr out GriUihiuil. pt. 10, p. ;i42i, but seems there to liave
reference to the ordinary soul of the deceased, 'I'luMHstinction between
tlie soul and the name cannot, therefore, be sharply drawn amonfr the
different tril)es.

-' Throughout the foot-notes to this chapter. Dr. Xansen is profuse
in ..IS acknowledgments of the assistance rendered him by Professor
iMoltke :\I.pe. I have ventured to concentrate these recurrent acknow-
ledgments into this one note, and shall refer to Professor Moe only
where he figures as the authority for a statement of fact.— 7'/-((//i'.

•■' See also Liebrecht. Zur \'o//in/,initlc, p. ;ill.

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ness. Amoiiii" tlie Indians also tlic naiuiii<i; of cliil-
(Ircii is made to depend on a divaiii.'

In (.Ireeidand, as cNervwliere (4se, [hv. luinie is of
great importance ; it is helieNcd that liiere is a
s})iritual affinity' l)etween two peo})le ol' tlie same
name,- and that the charaet eristics of a dead })ers()ii
are transmitted to one who is cahed after him, wlio,
moreover, is special!}' l)onnd to defy the iiiflnences
Avhicli have cansed his predecessor's death. Thus
the name-child of a man who has died at. sea must
make it his special business to defy the sea in his
kaiak — a notion which is also found amonu' other
races, for examph% the Indians.

The Greeidanders are very nuicli afraid of men-
tioning the luuues of the dead. On the east coast,
accordin<>- to Ilolm, this fear cfoes so far that when
two people have home the same name the survivor
nuist change his ; and if the deceased has been named
after an animal, an object, or an abstract idea, the
word designating it must be aUered. The huiguage
is thus subjected to im2)ortant temporary changes,
for these re-christenings are accepted by a whole

' Klennn, CiiUio-fjeschichte, iii. p, 77; Tylor, l'rl,iutivc Culture
(1873), ii. p. 4; Antiquarisk Tidsslu-ift, 1K()1-G3, p. 118.

- It appears to me tliat exof,'ainy between two of tlie siinie surname,
wlaich is found among many races (see p. 17i"5), can easily be explained
on this principle, since the same name creates a close spiritual
affinity, which may, like blood-affinity, act as a bar to nuirriage.

I.'KI.KilOIS ]|»i:.\^

•jai

tribe.' The sniiir <Mist(mi is very uidcly diHus,.,! ;ii,„,„n-
the Iiidiniis nl' X,„-t], America .mii.I of l';,lao.,„i..^
anion-' tlie Sanioyedes in Asia, and llie (;i,,si,.s in
Europe. It i. also Innnd in Kastcni AlVica, in
Mada-asear, Australia, Tasmania. Xew (-ninea, ami
iIh' Society Islands. When (ineeii I'omare of Tahiti
died, the word po {u'vjh\) was di-opped IVoiii the
langna,!j'e, and //// took its i)Iaee.-'

The fear of nieiitioninu' the names of the dead is
also J'ound in luirope- -iii (Jennany, the Slietiand
Mauds,-' and elsewheiv— and, no (h.idjt, anion- ns in
Norway as well. In (Greenland, as anion- some
native races in America and in the Siinda Islands,-*
sick people who liear the same name as one who is
dead ehan-e it in order to eheat death.

The East Greenlanders are also afraid to s[)eak
their own names. Holm ,says that when tliey were
asked wliat tliey were called they always -ot others
to answer for them. When a mother was asked
' what was the name of her child, she answered that
she could not tell. The fatlu^r likewise refused to

>>%:•;!'

See Holm, o/>. rd. p. Ill, wliere examples of sneh re-ehristenin^s
are -,ven. Holin thinks tliat ' the old iiamos reappear when the
deceased ,s quite ior-otten.' It seems to me more natural to suppose
that this occurs as .oon as a child has been called after the dead man.

- Nyrop, Miudrc AfhandUrujcr luhjicw af dct phUologi.k.hls.
toriske Sainfund, Copenhapfen, 1887, p]). 147 ir>0.

'' Nyrop, 02). cif. jip. ISiJ iSj l;;57.

• Liebrecht, Acadeinij, iii. (1872), p. ;32-J.

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say; lie inthuutcd lluu he had loi-oottcii it, hut
that wo coiiUl learn il Iroiu his wife's Ijrothci/ ^

Amon^' theliidiaus, the naiiu' plays a ^ureat part ; they
even try to keej) it secret, and therel'ore a man is often
called 1)V a niekname.-' AnioiiL;- many races, custom
forbids the mention of tlie names ol" I'elations, as. for
instance, a husband's, a mother-in-law's, a son-indaw\s,
the names of parents, or the name of the kiui^-. This
l)otencv of the name uoes to considerable len<»tlis
amoniist certain races. When the Kin^ii' of Dahomey,
Bossa Ahadi, ascended the throne, he had everyone
beheaded wlio boi-e the name of l)Ossa.

The feai' of mcntioniuL!' names is conuuon to
humanity ; we find it in many of our legends.'' and it
prevails among ns even to this day, especially npon
the west coast.' It may probably Ije traced to the
fact that the name and the thing are apt to melt
into one. People come to think that when once the
name is known the thing ^ is known as well, so that

' Mcddclchcr oni Griinland, pt. 10, p. 113.

- See Schooloi-aft, in Antiqiiarisk Tidsskrift, l8(Jl-0;-5. p. 119, kc,
Also Aiulrt'e. KtlinofjraphLschc P(tr(dldcn iind Vcnjleiche, p. ISO;
Tylor, Eurlij HiHturij of Mankind, p. 14'2.

•'' The rc'hictance lu-evailed aiuoni,' our forefatlioi's. ' Si,i,MU'd con-
cealed his name because people believed in the old days that a dyint,'
man's curse had ijjreat power, when lie called his enemy In name.'- -
Su'iniuidar Kdda, ed. by Sophus IJufjge, p. 21U.

■* Information received from I'rof. Moltke Moe.

^ The way in which name and thing melt into one appears clearly,
to mention one instance, hi the Swabian custom of ' thnnving the
names of three shrewish women ' into the wine, in order to turn it
into good \inegar.

iJKIJdlOl'S IKKAS

tlic iiiciilioii of its iiaiiu* (•(juu's lo cxci-cisc an iii-
lluciicc upon tliL' tliiiiL^- itscll'. A man may thus lo^e
liis .sirenijlh hy rcxcaliiiL!- Iiis iiamt\ Tlici-cforc. too,
we may su])])(>s(' tlial dead people do not like to lie
called by tlieir names, and that to name them nia\lie
;i means of summoning them from theii- Lifa\'es or of
disturbing them in iheir rest. The ( Ireeiiianders
dare noL even >peak the name of a glacier [pnisoriol,)
as tliey row past it, foi- lea!' lest if should be olh'iided
iind throw oil" an icel^erg.' A simihir notion is very
prevalent among the Indians and others, who dare
not speak tlie names of places or of rivei's.-

With I'eference to the soul's life after death, the
(Treenlander> .-^eem to have had diverse opinions.
Some, whom the missionaries call stupid and l)rutisli
[)e()ple, thought that all was over at death, and that
there was no life beyond the grave, ^lost of the
(Ireeulanders, however, seem to have thought that
even if the soul was not (piite immortal, it was yet in
the habit of continuing- to live after leavino- the bodv,

' Compare Xiuiscn : Tlic First Crnssiiif/ a/ drecnland, i., p. .';2S :
iibrid.^t'il edit., p. ItiO.

- As to the .sii^niilicance of tlie luinie uiul itn luentiuii iimuii^' the
different races, euinparc Kristoffer Nyrop's eoiupreheiisive essay, 'Tlie
Power of tlie Name,' in Mindrc Af/Kiudlint/cr udi/imc af drt plii/o-
logisk-hiHtori-skc Sdiii/iiiid. Copeiiliageii, 1SS7. i)p. ll'J 2U!>. See also
J). Gnnutalil in Annalcv for nordis/,- OIdkijiidi(jlicd, lH(j;i, p. 127, fn-. ;
Moltke Moe, in Lcttcrsicdtskc Tidsxkrifl, 187'.), p. 286, o;:c. ; S. Gruiult-
vig, DiOiiiKirks gimi/c Folkcriacr, ii. p. a;5t), Sec. ; H. Spencer. I'lincqilcs
of Sociolugij, vi. p. 701.

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or ;it Miiy rate of comiiiL;- to life auiiiii even if it luul
(lied aloiiLi' witli the hodv. In that case it went
either to a place under tlie earth and tlie sea or to
the npi)er world in the sky, oi- ratlier between the
skv and tlie earth.' The former place is rcL'arded as

* It

the better of the two ; it is a veiv iiood land, where,
accoi'diuL;- to Hans Ej^ede, thei-e is ' lovelv smishine,
excellent water, animals and birds in abundMn<-e.'
To many it may seem strange that, niilike ns, they
should place their happiest region under the earth or
the sea ; but this, it seems to me, mav easily have
arisen i'roni their having seen the heaven and the
mountains reflected in the water, and believed that
it was another world tlicA' saw. Xo doubt thev have
in process of time discovered that it is only a reflec-
tion, but the original belief in an under-world has
maintained itself lume the less. It is particularly
characteristic that this under-world is placed under
the water, and that there is much sunshine in it ; for
it must have been chiefly in the sunshine that they
saw the reflection.

The other i-egion, in the over-world, is colder ; it
is like the earth with its hills and valleys, and over it
is arched the blue heaven. There the souls of the
dead dwell in tents round a lake, and when the lake

' Compare Rink, Aarhnger for iwrdiak OhllnjudiijJicd o«j Historic,
1808, iii. p. 202.

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iu:i,i<;inis jin:.\s

aan

overilows it i-aiiis on earth. Tlien* arc inaiiv crow-
berries tlierc, and many ravens, who always setth' on
the lieads of okl women ' and chnii' on to their liair ;
it is dillicnh to drive them oil; and they seem lo lill
the place oi" li(,'e here on earth. The souls of the
dead can be seen up there by niohl, in the form of
northern liojits, playing- foot1)all with a walrus head.
On the east coast, liowever, it is believed that the
northern lights are merely the souls of stillborn or
prematurely born children, or of those who are
killed aftei- their birth. These children's souls ' take
each othei-'s hands and dance ai-ound in mazy
<'ircles. They play at ball, too, and when they see
orphan children, they rush upon (hem and throw
them lo the ground. They accompany their sports
with a hissing, whistling sound.'- Therefore, the
northern lights are called ul/h/.s/t/.-at, which ap[)ears
to mean untimely births, or children boi-n in con-
cealment. This notion of the ( treenlandei-s seems to
be closely related to the Indians' belief •' that the
noi'thern liglits are the dead in dancinu- array.

The Eskimos have no hell. Hoth the aljove-
named regions are more or less good, and whether
the soul goes to the one or to the other does not

' Compare Paul Egede, E/tcnctuiiKjcr am (haiildiui, p. 14!).
-' Holm, Mcdddehcf out (iiunhiiid, part 10, p. lly.
•' Communicated to me bv Moltke Moe.

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seein lo depend particularly upon the man's o-ood or
evil a(!ts.

I'^gede, however, asserts that to the lovely land
under the earth there go only ' women who die in
childbirth, men Avho are drowned at sea, and whale-
fishei's, as a reward for the evil thev have suflered
here on earth ; all others iT(^ to the skv.' ' It seems
doubtful whether this was ever a general belief. An
exactlv analoL*"ous idea is to be found amonu" our-
selves. An old woman in Telemark said to Moltke
Moe, speaking of her son: 'Ah, yes, he is certain
enoua'h to have uone straight to heaven; for vou
know it's said in God's Word that those who are
drowned at sea or die in childbirth 120 straiyht awav
to the Kiniidom of God.' -

From other accounts, in ain' case, it seems
that these are not the only souls which go to the
under world. 'i'lu' destination of the soul may
partly depend on the treatment of the body. Paul
Egede says (^E/tcrirtniu<ji'r om Grunlaiid.^. 174) that ' it
was their custom to take people who were sick unto
death oentlv out of bed, and, laving them on the

' See on tlu> same subject Paul Egede, Kffenrhiingcr oui G ton-
land, p. 117. According to some accounts, witches and • wicked people '
go to the i)ver-\\ urld.

• Connnunicatod by IMoltke ]\Ioe. Compare also J. Flood, Gioru
land, Kristiania, iHl'ii, p. 10, note. Similar notions are said to bo
current in Bavaria and in the Manpiesas islands. Compare Liebrecht,
in the Acadeiin/, iii. (1H72), p. 921.

' !!■ %

1 1 i I

KKLKJiors IDKAS

287

floor, to swallic them in their Li'rave-clolhes. Tliis
lowerimj tlieiu down from tlie bed i)n)1)al)lv svm-
])ohses their wisli tliat after deatli tliev mav (h'scend
beneatli the eartli, Ihit if a man dies before lie is
taken IVom the bed, his soul goes upward.' On his
inquiring why a dog's head was laid ])eside the
grave, he was answered ' that it was a custom among
some of their fellows to lay a dog's head beside a
child when it was buried, in ordei- that it might scent
about and guide the chihl to the land of spirits when
it came to life again, children being foolish and wit-
less, and unable to find their own w\av.' ' It seems as
though Captain Ilolm - doubted the correctness of
this trait (wdiich, however, he quotes from Hans
Egede), on the ground that he could discover no such
poetical custom among the East Greenlandei-s. Jhit
in this he does not seem to be quite justified ; for, on
the one hand, we are scarcely entitled to doubt so
definite a statement by a man like Paul Egede, who
knew the Greeiilanders and their lanufuaufe so well,
while, on tlie other hand, we must always remember
how fluctuating and changeable are religious concep-
tions. Analogous customs, moreover, are found
among the Indians. The Aztecs killed a dog at

•

' P. Egeilo, Eftcrrdnhiger om Gnhdand, p. 109. Soo also H.
Ef^odo, Dct gnmle Gvonlands nijc Prrlmfnifloii, p. 84, Cranz, Hintorio
von. (irihilaiid, p. JJOl.

- Mcddelchcr om Grihiland, part 10, p. 100, )iote.

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ESKIMO 1,1 IK

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fimorals, and burned or luu'icd it, alonu' with tlie
body, witli M cotton tlircnd tied around its throat.
Its function was to h'ad tlic deceased over the deep
waters of Chiuhnaluiapan on the way to the land of
the dead.'

The Journey to the l)eautiful iVLtion is, however,
no easy matter. Kiiede savs tliat tliere is on tlie way
a hiu'li sliarp rock, 'down wliicli tlie dead must shde
on tlieir backs, wherefore the rock is bloody.' Cranz
asserts that it takes the souls live oi" even more days
to slide down this i-ock or mountain; and those
luckless ones are especially to be pitied who have to
make the journey in winter or in stormy weather,
for then they cnn easily come to hai-m. This they
call the second death, after which nothinii' is left of
them.-' They fear this very nnudi, and, in order to
avert it, the survivors, during' the critical days, are
bound to observe certain precautions. Similar
leoends as to the many ddficulties besettinj^f the lonu"
journey of souls to the land of the dead are to be
found amoni:st most races."' Tt seems pro])al)le that
these dilliculties have arisen in order to serve as tests
through which the good can pass more easily than

' Tylor, I'rimilivr C'ltltitre |1H73|. i. p. 472.

- This conception of n. second doatli, or the death of tlie soul, is
found anions nian.\ races : Hindus. Tartars, Greeks, Kelts, Frenchmen,
Scandinavians, (lerinana, itc.

•' Tylor, I 'ri mi five Cidfiirc, ii. p. 44.

KKfJOIOUS IDKAS

j;{!>

'f^:

the wicked. lint since, aiiioni.- the ]>kiiii()>, the
(lidiciilties :ini)r(l no toiiclistone of mcral (jiialiliis, we
must conchuh' lliat the h'ociul descnhino- ihe,ii must,
he l)()iT()we(l lV(.m othei-s, and most proljal.ly from
the Indians. 'J'he sliar[) rock in ])articnhii- reminds
us of tlie Indians' 'mountain ridge, which was as
sharp as tlie sliarpest knife,' along wliidi the souls
had to pass on the way to their dwelling-place.

The Greeidandei-s seem generally to have attri-
buted a soul to animals, which, like the human soul,
could survive the body and journey to the regions
beyond. This appears clearly enough from the bear
story related in Chapter XII (see p. 200). It also
appears from the custom mentioned on p. 2o7 of lav-
ing dogs' heads in the graves of children; for it is
of course the dog's soul, dwelling in its head, which
is to accompany the (;liild. For the rest, this is a
general belief among primitive peoi)les. The Kamt-
chatkans, for instance, believe that the souls of all
animals, even of the smallest flv, come to life a'-ain
in the under- wo rid.

The Greenlanders know of many supernatural
beings of a higher oi-der. Among those who stand
nearest to man, and are most useful to him throuiih

; ;' (

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p. 142.

Knortz, Ahh deii) Wigwam, Leipzig, 1880, p. inn ; coiuparc-

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KSKIMO Mil:

the inedinin ol'tlic niij^ckoks, we must firsl name the
so-.";ill('d form ft (tlie |)liii';il of tornal). These are tlie
aiii^'ekoks' miuistcrinu' sj)ii-ils, wlio impart to tliem
tlieir supeniatural power. They are often said to be
souls of tlie dead, especially of Ln'aiidfatheis or other
jiucestors : l)u1 they mav also l)e the souls of various
animals, or other su])eruatural l)eiu<j^s, either of
human orii^in, like the l'iri(/fttf, to he hereafter ukmi-
tioned, or indejx'iident spiritual essences dwellin£![ in
the sea or far inland. They may also be the soids of
absent Euroijeans. An anufekok would as a rule
have several, some actinuf as councillors, others as
helpers in danuer, and othei's, apfaiu, as avengers and
destroyers. These last were despatched by the
auLjekok to show themselves in the form of j^hosts,
and thus to frighten to death those auainst whom the
vennicance was directed.

Tn ('onne(;tion with, or superior to, the tornat, we
find the ^^''/v?^?y%v?//-, which is generally held to be
their master, or a ijarticularly powerful tornak. 'J'lie
tornarssnk was regarded as, on the whole, a benevo-
lent power ; through his tornak the angekok could
jret into conununication with him and obtain wise
counsels. Ihit evil deeds seem often to have been
attributed to him. With him, as with all the other
supernatural l)eings, it probably depended on the
ancfekoks whether he should be beneficent or the

I.'KLKJIOCS IDEAS

•241

reverse. His lioiiie lay in the under- wui-Id, in (he
land of tlie souls. As to his appearance, ideas Avere
very va<rue ; some holding that he had no Ibrni at
all ; others that he was like a bear ; others, again, that
he was huge and had only one arm ; and some, finally,
that he was no larger than a finger. As to his nature,
according to Hans Egede, there was no less difference
of opinioii ; for while some held that he was im-
mortal, others ])elieved that it needed very little to
kill him. Thus V^^ede relates that during an an^'e-
kok's magic operations, or while he is communin<r
with the tornarssuk, ' no (me must scratch his head,
or fall aslee}) ; for l)y such means they say the
wizard may be killed, and even the devil [that is,
tiie tornarssuk] himself.' Dr. Kink holds that all
this is founded upon misunderstandings on the part
of Egede and the other missionaries, and that, on the
whole, very little was known either as to the tor--
narssuk's appearance or as to his nature. The
heathens on the east coast, however, seem, as we
shall see, to know all about him.

In this tornarssuk many have been fain to see a
beneficent supreme being whom the Eskimos wor-
ship ; answering, accordingly, to our God. Xever-
tlieless he was, on the introduction of Christianity,
transformed into the devil, with whom he is now
synonymous. I cannot help believing that Ef^ede

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and tlu' lirst inissionarics luivc had some hand
in working-np this conception of liini as God.
Tliev no doubt started, as many missionaries do
even to tliis day, from the hypothesis that every
people must liave a conception of God or of a bene-
ficent supreme beinij, and, asstuning this, they pnn
bably cross-rpiestioned the poor lieathen so long
about their tornarssuk, that they at last came to
answer just what their questioners desired. More-
over, they doul)tless talked so much of their good
and almighty God that the heathen priests, in order
not to be beaten, began to maintain that they, too,
had such a God to help them. That the tornarssuk
was not so great a spirit as is commonly stated seems
evident from Captain Hohn's account of the heathen
East Greenlanders' belief. Their tornarssuk is a much
less imposing creature, who dwells in the sea, and
whom many people, both angekoks and others, can
see and have seen, Thev therefore describe him

ft-

with great exactitude, and have even numerous
representations of him. lie is long, like a large
seal, but fatter than a seal, and has, among other
things, long tentacles. Holm, judging from their
descriptions, has come to the heretical opinion that
he must be an ordinary cuttle-fish. He devours the
souls of those whom he can capture, and is often
quite red with blood. One must admit that if thi&

l.'KI.Kildl S IhKAS

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croMttiru is (Icscciulcd rmiii mir Innate coiic-pii,,,!
of Hod, lie has (lcpl()ral)ly (Irnciirral.-d. M,,,,.-
over, hv is not, on tin- casi cnast. one and in-
divisi])l(' : hut every ;in^r,.k,,k, ammlinL^ !<» IToIni, lias
his tonmrssuk. He luis also a coadjiiioi-, ai^nirtrk,
ii l)la('k animal as luueli as two v\U in IlmilmIi, and
with great • knife-tongs in his Iiead." Holm says ex-
pressly that he could discover no trace of a conccj)-
tion of the tornarssuk as the master of the tornak ;
and we are thus forced to subtract a little I'rom the
power and importance attributed to tliis spirit by
former authors.'

It seems to me clear that this belief in tiie toi--
narssuk, no less than in the tornal, mu>t be traced
to a behef in the spirits or ghosts of ancestors. We
may possibly find evidence of thi> in the words
themselves. It seems probable that tnmalc may ha\e
been the same word as tantik or tanw (that is, soul),
which again resembles tan'ak (shadow — compare p.
22G). We find simie support for this theory in the
fact that tuniak appears on the east coast in the form
of tcu'toh or ttirtak, which is the same word as tirrakr

' It is interesting to note that the Alaskii Eskinio.s scc-iu to boHuve
in a bein^r simihir to this tornarssuk of the cast coast of Greenland,
with lonK tentacles, &c. See Holm: Mcihlelchn- „m Gfu„h,,i<l'
part 10, p. 115, note 1.

^ Tartok means properly ' dark.' Amon^' tlie Eskimos of Soiuhcrn
Alaska, the same word, taituk, means 'mist.' In East Greenland
tcirtck umim 'black.' (Compare Ifink : MaUlclvher om (IriniJand
part 11, p. 1,52.) '

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Thus it Mppcars to luc prohalilc llwit all tlicsc words
\v(M-(' oriL'iiKilly one and tlic same, siunilyin^i' slmdow,
I'clIcPlioii, or sold, and also dcsi^Mialiiiff llic souls of
(he dead. Tnriiih's.siiL\ a^aiii, is certainly a deriva-
tive of tornfih\ liavinL*" i)rol)al)ly been in its ori<iiu
the sanie as tnrn<(r,ssiui/,\ that is to say, 'the l)i</, or
the bad and hoi'ril>le, tornak.' This implies that he
Avas originally a particularly powerful tornak, which,
anion^ some tribes, has gradually obtained a soi-t of
dominion over the other toi'nat or souls of the
dead.

'i'hnt these souls should have become the subject
of peculiar superstitious is readily comprehensible
when we observe the fear with which they still re-
<rai'd the dead, ami still more, of course, theii' spectres.
These //ciif/anr/rrc are often visible and may be very
danfreious, though sometimes, too, they are tolerably
well disposed. The most amiable way in which they
can manifest themselves is in a whistlinjT sound, or a
sin^inir in people's ears. In the latter case they are
begginu' for food, and to such a request a Green-
lander will reply : ' Help yourself ' — meaning ' from
my stores.' ' That the ghost is not always hostile
appears from what Niels Egede - relates of a boy at

' liink: Tales and Trnditions of the Eshi)Ho,\).^A. In Scotland
a sint,'nifj; in the oars is called 'the dead-bell.' and portends the death of
a friend. Hop;?: Mountain Bard, ;5rd cd. p. 31.

- Tredie Continuation, kc, p. 74.

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IM'.l.roiolS IKKAs

■'■w

'',''•

Oodtlia.'il) wIk,, playiiiL^ nno day will, scv.-ral n\\u-v>
in tlie ia'i^rhI,o„rli,„„| ..f U[^ hmuIkt's oravc, sud-
denly saw a sliap.' risinn- up from it. He and ihc
••tli.Ts took to tlu'ir lu'cls, l)ut tin- oli,,>i ,an M\rv
lliini, cauulit \wv s,,M. •(■iul)j-ac('d liim, kisx-d him,
and said, ^' Do uot Im- TnLdifeucd of me : I am your
mother, aud lovc3 you"";' witli moiv l,, \Uv same
clll'ct.

Their customs at 'he deatli and Imrial of their
friends show how much they rar llu- .'r.„l, ;,nd
esD'cially their souls or crliosis. T!).. dyin- are ..fici.
dressed in their graveclnt lies— that i. to say, in liu-ir
best <ranueuts— a little while heture death. ^J'he leus,
too, are often bent tonether, so that the feet come up
under the back, and in :his position they are sewed
or swathed in skins. The object i>, no\loubt, that
they may take up less spa.-e and need a smallei-
grave; and it is done during their life in order that
the survivors may have to handle theii- corpses as
little as possible. This dread of touching a dead
body goes so far (as befoi-e mentioned on page 1-^)
that they will not help a man in danovr— for example,
a kaiak-man who is drowninnr—^vlien they believe
that he is at the point of death.

Wlien they are finally dead, they are taken, if it be
in a house, out through the window; if in a lent,
through an oijeiung cut in the skins of the back

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ESKIMO LIFE

wall.' Tlii.s coiTcspoiuls reniMi'kably with the comnioii
custom ill our own couiitrv of ourryiiifj a body out
tlirou_f.rli an opening in the vvmU made for the pur-
pose.'- The ]*eason is, no doubt, the same in both
cases — namely, that these openings can be entirely
closed again, so that the spectre or soul cannot re-
enter, as it might if the body wei-e carried out by way
of th(^ passage or the door. It is not improbable that
the Greenlanders may have borrowed the habit from
the ancient Norwegian or Icelandic settlers in Green-
land. It is mentioned in several sagas as havinu' been
the custom of the heathen Icelanders. In the Eyr-
byggja Saga^ it is said : ' Then he [Arnkel] let break
down the w^all behind him [the body of Thorolf], and
brought him out thereby.' The clothes and other
possessions of the deceased are also at once throwm
out, that they may not niake the survivors unclean.
This recalls our death-bed burning, wiiich is also a

' Holm, however, tells us {McdddeJscr am Gronlavd, part 10,
p. 10;")). that on the east coast the body is sometimes dra^yed out
throu,yh the hoiisc-passape by means of a thong looped around the
legs. In such cases, I take it, the dread of touching the body nmst
have conquered the dread of taking it out through the passage, for if
it is taken through the window it must be lifted and handled. By
dragging it with the feet foremost and pointing outwards they pro-
bably think to hinder the soul from effecting a re-entrance.

^ From information given me by Moltke Moe. Compare also
Liebrecht, Ziir Vollslmndc, p. 372.

■' ]Morris and Magnusson, The Saga Library, vol ii. ' The Ere-
Dwellers,' p. 88.

IMvLIGIors J]»EAS

247

'widespread ciisioin ainoiio- our kindred races in
Europe.'

The survivors also caiTv tlieir own possessions
out of the house, that tlie smell of death may pass
away from them. They are either brou<dit in a«'ain
at evening, or, as on the east coast, are left Ivino- out
for several days. The relatives of the dead man, on
the east coast, go so far as to leave off wearing their
old clothes, which thev throw awav.-

When the body is carried out, a woman sets fire
to a piece of wood, and waves it backwards and for-
wards, saying: 'There is nothing more to be had
here.' This is, no doubt, done with a view to show-
ing the soul that everything belonging to it has been
throwm out.

Bodies are either buried in the earth oi- thrown
into the sea (if one of the dead man's ancestors has
perished in a kaiak (?) ). The possessions of the
deceased — such as his kaiak, weapons, and clothes ;
or, in the case of a woman, her sewing materials,
crooked knife, &c. — are laid on or beside the grave,
or, if the body is thrown into the sea, they are laid
somewhere upon the beach. This seems to be partly
due to their fear of a dead person's property and

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' See Moltke Moe's paper in the Norake Vnioefniidn-ori Sholcan-
naler, 1880, and the works there cited.

- Hohn, Medddchcr om Grimlaml, part 10, p. 107.

7i
1S3

I' '

248

ESKIMO LIFI']

unwilliiijrness to use it ; partly, too, as Ilaiis Egede
says, to the fact that the si^rht of these things and
the consequent recollection of the deai- departed
would be apt to set them crying, and ' if they cry
too much over the depai-ted they believe that it
makes him cold.' ^ This idea reminds one strongly
of the second song of Ilelge Hundingsbane, where
his widow Sigrun meets him wet and frozen, and
wrapped in a cloud of hoar frost, by reason of
her weeping over him. ('Helge swims in the dew
of sorrow.' -) Compare also the well-known Swedish-
Danish folk-song of 'Aage and Else,' in which we
read :

' For every time that in thy breast

Thy heart is glad and light,
Then all within my coffin seems

With rose-leaves decked and dight.

^or every time that in thy breast

Thy heart is sad and sore,
Then all within my coffin seems

To swim in red, red gore.'

But, beyond this, it was doubtless the belief of
the Greenlanders that the deceased had need of his
implements, partly for earthly excursions from the
grave, partly also in the other world. Thev saw
indeed, that the implements rotted, but that only

Hans E^ede, Dct g anile Gronlands
See P. A. Godecke's translation of

on p. y;}").

nye Perlusf ration, p. 83.
the Edda, p. 170, and notes

UVAAiilOVS IDEAS

i'll>

meant that tlieir .souls ibllowcd the soul ol" the
deceased. Tliose who carry the body out, or have
touched it or anything belonging to it, are for some
time unclean, and must retrain from certain foods
and occupations, which the angekoks prescribe ; in-
deed, all those who live in the same house must
observe the like precautions, partly to avoid injury
to themselves, partly in order to place no hindrance
in the way of the departed soul on its journey to the
other world.

They must weep and mourn for a >tated time
over the deceased ; and if the}- meet acquaintances
or relatives whom they have not seen since the
death took place, they must, even if it be a lon,u-
while after, begin to weep and howl as soon as the
newcomer enters the house. Such scenes of lamen-
tation must often be exceedingly ludicrous, and are,
in fact, the merest comedy, ending in a consolatory
banquet. They have also manv other mourninfr
customs, which exercise a tolerably powerful in-
fluence upon tlieir lives. Tliose, for example, who
have carried out a body must do no work in ii-on for
several years. Moreover, we must remember the
before-mentioned dread of uttering the name of the
deceased.

The great object of all this is no doubt, as the
East Greenlanders said to Holm, ' to keep the dead

■ 1^

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lit

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KS^Kl.MO j;iKE

from beinj? aiiL^rv : ' whence we see wliat a powerful
influence over this life they attribute to the de-
parted. There is, therefore, nothing inipi'oliable in
the theory that the whole belief in the tornat and
tornarssuk may have developed from this fear. In
process of time, however, other kinds of superstition
have dou])tless come to play a part in the matter.

The Greenlanders believe in a whole host of
other supernatural fjeings. Of these I can only
mention a few.

IMarine animals are under the swav of a i^ioantic

•- * CI;

woman whom some call ' the nameless one,' others
irnarkuagsmk, which simi)ly means 'the old woman.'
Her dwelling is under the sea, where she sits
beside a lamp under which, as under all Greenland
lamps, there is a saucer or stand to catch the
dripping train-oil. In this saucer whole flocks of
sea-birds are swimming, and out of it proceed all
the sea animals, such as the seal, the walrus, and
the narwhal. When certain impurities gather in her
hair, she keeps the sea animals away from the coasts,
or they remain away of their own accord, attracted
by the impurities ; and it is then the angekok's diffi-
cult duty to seek her out and appease or comb her.
The way to her abode is perilous, and the angekok
must have his tornak with him. First he passes
through the lovely land of spirits in the under-world ;

?!;^

IfKIJGIOUS IDEAS

.•-)1

then lie comes to a ureat abyss, wliieli lie can cross
only (by the helj) of the tornak) on a large wheel as
smooth as ice, and whirling rapidly. Then he passes
a boiling cauldron with live seals in it ; then either
through a dangerous picket of angry seals who
stand erect and bite on every side, or else j)ast a
huge dog which stands outside the woman's house,
and gives warning when a great angekok api)roaclies.
This dog takes only a few winks of sleep eveiy now
and then, and one must be ready to seize the oppor-
tunity ; but this only the highest angekoks can
manage. Here, again, the tornak must take the
angekok by the hand ; the entrance is wide enou«'li,
but the further way is narrow as Ji thread or the
edge of a knife, and passes over a horrible abyss.
At last they enter the house where the woman is
sitting. She is said to have a hand as large as tlie
tail-fin of a whale, and if she strikes you with it
there is an end of you. According to some accounts,
she tears her hair and perspires with fury over such
a visit, so that the angekok, aided l)y his tornak,
must fight with her in order to get her hair cleaned
or combed ; while others hold that she is accessible
to persuasions and appeals. His task a(!hieved, the
return journey is comparatively easy for the angekok.'

' r.aiil Epede, Continnation af Bdntiorurnc, &c., p. 45 ; Hans
Eyede, Grmilaiuh nye Perl ust ration, p. 118 ; Rink, Talcs and Tmdi-
films of the Eskimo, pp. 40, 406.

"■1

lim

'Si

ESKIMO IJFM

■\

This mvlli reminds us strongly of the visits to the
under-world or Hades which play so prominent a
part in p]uropean legends, for example, in those of
Dionysos, Orpheus, Heracles, and others (comjjare
also Dante), and to which we have a parallel in onr
own mythology in Hermod's ride to Hel to bruig
back leakier. Similar legends are also found, how-
ever, among the Indians. From information given
me bv Moltke Moe, it seems scarcelv doubtful that
this Eskimo conception is coloured by, or even bor-
rowed from, European legends. The smooth wheel,'
for example, and the bridge which is narrow as a
thread or a knife-edge, reappear, sometimes in the
same words, in media3val legends of journeys to the
under world. In an old ballad of the north of
EuLiiand mention is made of ' the bridize of dread
no wider than a thread.' Tundal sees in i)uroatorA'
a narrow bridge over a horribly deep, dark, and
malodorous valley, and so forth. The oldeet ap-
pearance in legendary literature of this hell-bridge
is in Pope Gregory the Great's Dialogues, dating
from the year 594 (lib. iv. cap. 36).- But these
mediaeval conceptions, in their turn, are indubitably

' The Dakota Indians relate that on the way to Wanaratebe tliei'e
is a wheel whicli rolls witii iri^'liifui velocity alonj; the bottom of the
abyss below the nioimtaiu ridge mentioned on p. 289. To this wheel
are bound those who have treated their parents despitefuUy. See
Liebrecht, Gervassius Otia Imi)criaUa (1850), p. 91, note.

'^ Reference comnnniicated by Moltke Moe.

l.'ELKlIors IDKAS

•Joii

coloured l)y Oriental tradition.s. The Jews speak of
the thread-like hell-bridge, and the JMahonunedans
believe that in the middle of liell all souls must pass
over a bridge narrower than a hair, sharper than a
sword, and darker than nioht.' xVceording to the
Avesta, the souls of the old Tarsees, on the third
night after death, had to cross the ' high Hara '—a
mountain which surrounds the earth and reaches
right to heaven— in order to ari-ive at the Tsjinvat-
bridge which is guarded b}' two dogs. In the
Pehlevi writings, this l)ridge is said to widen out to
nearly a parasang wlien the souls of the pious pass
over it, but it narrows in ])efore the unrrodlv until
they top])le down into hell, which lies right under.-

An analogous conception is found (compare
Sophus 13ugge, /^;7. cit.) in the old folk-song ' Drau-
mekva^di,' as to the Gjallar bridge on the way to
the land of the dead. It hangs high in air so
that one grows dizzy upon it ('Gjallarbrui, lion
henge saa hJigt i vinde " ). and in some variants of the
song it is expressly stated to be narrow, whilst in
others it is said to be ' both steep and broad.' In

• See Sophns Bni^-e, MytliohnjiHl-c Oplymingcr til Drnnmc
hvmli, in Norsk Tidsskrift for Vidcnskah oq Llfcratur, lSr,4 'n
p. 108-111; Grimm, Mutlwlogic. p. 794; Liobrerl.t, Gervasius Otia
Impcnalm, p. 90. Compare also 11. Hiibschinann, Die p.nsisclw
Lchrc vom Jenscih und jiin<istcn GcrlrJtf, in Jahrhilchrr fiir pro-
testantischc Thenlofjic, v. (Loij)zi^', 1879). p. 242.

Compare II. Iltibsclnuunn, op. clL, pp. 210, 218, 220 222.

Am'

/TT-

(■

1 '

iJ 'I

.i ii i'

li! I

i li

ESKIMO \AVK

the Eddas we are told that Ileiiiiod, on the way to
Hel, rode over the GjaUar-bridue, which was roofed
with shilling g<jld, and which thundered under his
horse's hoofs not less than if five squadrons of dead
men (that is to say 250) had ])een passing over it.

It seems probable tliat this belief of the Green ^
landers in a narrow ])ridge or pass must be coloured
by these European, or partly Oriental, conceptions,
imparted to tliem by the ancient Scandinavians. At
the same time there may also l)e something more
original at the root of it. Thus we find among the
Indians the notion of a snake-bridge, or a tree trunk
swinfrincf in the air, which leads over the river of the
dead to the citv of the dead.^

The notion of the huge dog who guards the
entrance to the woman's house reminds us strongly
of Ilel's terrible dou' Garm, with the l)loodv breast,
who barks before the Gnipa-cave. For the rest, this
notion of the dog in the other world is a common one.
Among the Hindoos, two dogs watch the path to the
abode of Jama,- and among the old Parsees, two dogs
guard the Tsjinvat bridge (see last page). The

' Tylor, Pvunit'u-c Cnltuic, ii. 50. Compare, too, the Indians'
conception of a mountain ridge as sharp as the sharpest knife (see
p. 239). It is of course possible that the Indians may have got
this idea from the Eskimos, or more probably, perhaps, from the
Europeans after the discovery of America.

- Sophus Bngge, oj). cit., p. 114.

inCMUlOLS IDKAS

Indians station a liu<j(. niid I'lirions dou at I he otlicr
end of tlie above-mentioned snakr l)iid<'<'.'

In Enropean folk tales, and especially in those of
Scandinavia, we often meet with an old woman who
bears rule over animals. She likes to be called
'Mother," is fond of being scratched or washed, and
is glad to get hold of a pair of shoes, a piece of
tobacco, or the like. If the Ash-Lad meets her and
does her any such service, she requites him with a
' motherly turn,' making her animals help him or
giving him gifts. But besides this common theme
which reappears in a majority of oui- folk-tales, we
can also point to a particular story which is founded
on similar conceptions. The Ash-Lad comes to the
ogress with a whole company of animals, the stoat,
the tree-bear (the squirrel), the hare, the fox, the
wolf and the bear, to try to rescue his sister whom
she has carried off. While he is eating, the ogress
cries ' Scratch me ! scratch me ! ' ' You must wait
till I've finished,' says the boy ; but his sister warns
him that if he does not do it at once the ogress will
tear him to pieces. Then he makes the animals
scratch her, one after the other ; but none of them
content her until it comes to the turn of the bear,
who claws her till her itch departs. In se\-eral

' Tylor, op. cit. p. 50. Compare Knortz, Ai(,s dem Winwam d
142. • ' '■

";^:^

:,-^A

KSKIMO MIK

V 'I

F I

variants, tliree brothers make tlie attempt one after
the otiiei-. and she kills the first two of them.' Even
at lirst siL'ht this Seandinavian group of stories seems
suspiciously like the Greenland legends, the scratch-
ing and washmg especially reminding ns strongly of
the liair-combing; but when W(; also find that
Arnarknagssak is unknown to the Alaskan Eskimos,
the coiuiection seems to ])e dear. According to one
Greenland legend she was tlie daughter of a power-
ful an<>"ekok who, being o\ertak('n bv a storm, threw
her out of the woman-boat to save himself. She
clung on to tlie gunwale, whereupon he, one by one,
cut off her fingers and her hands. These were trans-
formed into seals and whales, over which she ob-
tained dominion ; and when she sank to the l)ottom,
she took up her abode there for good. Among the
Eskimos of Baffin's Land the same legend is told of a
woman named Sediia, who has, however, become a
different being from Arnarknagssak. The latter
seems to be unknown on the Mackenzie river. ' If
it should appear,' says Dr. Rink, ' that the Green-
land myth is not known in Alaska either, we must
conclude that it was invented during the course of

^ Communicated by Moltke Moe, from his unpublistied collection
of folk-tales. See also a tale reported from Flatdal in Fcdralieimen,
1877, No. 18 ; a Hardanger tale (watered down) in Haukenses's
Natur, FolkcUv oij Folketro i Hardaiujcr, ii.. 283. Danish variants
in Kl. Berntsen, Folkc-^Evcntijr, I. (Odonse, 1873) p. 110; Et.
Kristensen, Ji/sJia Folleinuuhr, v, 271.

IJKI.Kllors IDKAS .jr,r

the omionitioii to GmMilaiul.' • Ir seems more
natural, liowever, to eonjcctiuv, as T liave done
above, tliat it descends from tlic old Scandinavians.

On the whole, then, it seems probable that this
Greenland divinity was ori-inally a character in old
Norwegian folklore, and that the description of the
journey to her abode is desc(Mided from, or at least
coloured by, European mj-ths and legends, imported
by the old Scandinavian settlers; but more original
Eskimo elements may also be mixed up in it, having
their origin in the west, and resembling the myths
of the Indians.

The souls who go to the over-world have to
pass the abode of a strange woman who dwells at
the top of a high mountain. She is called Erd-
faversUsok (U the disemboweller), and her properties
are a trough and a bloody knife. She beats upon a
drum, dances with her own shadow, and says nothing
but ' My buttocks, &c.,' or else sings ' Ya, ha, ha, ha ! '
When she turns her back she displays huge hind-
quarters, from which dangles a lean sea-scorpion ;
and when she turns sideways her mouth is twisted
utterly askew, so that her face becomes horizontally
oblong. When she bends forwards she can lick her

' Rink, MeiUelelser om GnJnland, part 11, p. 17. Compare
Boas, Petenmmn's Mitthelhtngm, 1887, p. 303; Rink and Boas

ISst"?' ^127 '""^ ^°"°''' '"^ '^"'"''"''^ "^ A,nencan Folk-Lore]

i !,.

'ii\

■

2:^

•m

8S8

iisKiMo [,iri:

)

>|i!

ijill

own hindciuartcrs, and wIhmi she bends sideways she
can strike her cheek, with a loud smack, against her
thiijh. If von can look at her without lauffhinu vou
are in no danwr : ])Ut as soon as anvone befjins to
smile she throws awav her drum, seizes him, hurls
him to the earth, takes her knife an<l rips him up,
tears out his entrails, throws them into the Iroujih,
and then greedily devours them.' In this stoiy, too,
we meet with more than one trait of Scandinavian
tradition.- Thus ' the underground folk ' cannot
endure laughter; the human being who wounds
them by laughing at them must pay dear for his
thoughtlessness. And in two names for the Jotun-
woman which are preserved in Snorro's Edda,''
Bakraitf and Rlfiixjafla (' the woman with the cleft
or torn hindquarters ') we find exactly the same idea
which is represented in the ogress of the Greenland
legend.

On the same journey the souls also pass the
dwelling of the Moon Spirit. The way they have to
go is described as very narrow, and one sinks in it
up to the shoulders.* This reminds us of the bogs

' Note by Glahn in Crantz's Historie von Gri'mlanil, Copenhagen,
1771, p. 348. Rink, Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, p. 440 ;
Danish edit. pp. 87, 166, suppl. p. 44.

- Counnnnicated by Moltke Moe.

' I. 551, 553.

* Bink, Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, p. 440 ; Dani.sh edit.
p. 87.

■;■'»> I

ijKr-KiKxrs nnv\s5

•.»."!►

t'-.'

the
to

II it

,gen,
440;

edit.

which ai'c s.iid in our ' DramuckviiMli ' to He in flic
iieiLrliboiirliood of tlic nj;inar-])ri(lL!t'. and info which
the wi<'k('d sink.^

Itiig'o II' (If'ii (ijull.irlxui,
ho tisst 'pundo skyi hiiugt! ;
men e;^ tottc tynyio cloi CJa-

gloinyninii, —
gu' Ijiure (U'li, (lei ska gango ! •

High is the (!iall!ir-l)ri(lgr> ; it

hangs,
('los(> to the clouds, in uir ;
l>ut worse [ iWni tho (Jagle-

inoss —
God hi'lp who trcadoth there !

Ii Denmark, too, popidar U'yend speaks of these
hell-bo^s or lit.'ll-nu)sst's. Thus it seems that iiere
ii<»'ain wv. can trace the infhience of the ancnent
Scandinavians, to wliom tlie conception of such peni-
tential swamps in the under-world no douljt came
from the ecclesiastical vision-fictions of the middle

ages.

When kaiak-men are at sea, they believe them-
selves to be surrounded by the so-called hjiiei'Sfmlt
(the plural of vjnerssaah^ which means ' great lire ').
These are for the most part good spirits, inclined to
help men. The entrance to their dwellings is on the
sea shore. ' The first earth which came into exist-
ence had neither seas nor mountains, but was quite
smooth. When the One a])ove was displeased with the
people upon it, he destroyed the world. It burst
open, and the people fell down into the rifts and

' Compare Sophns Biigge, oi). cit., p. 115.
• Noted by Moltke iMoe.

^ '-:

•I'

ii!?:

.■vi

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"1;

•i

•'. ■ i ■

" 'A'

■ <;■''

8 2

2G0

ESKIMO IJl'E

M <j

■f !:i

I' ;

iDecame igiierssuit, and the water poured over every-
thing. When the earth reappeared, it was entirely
covered by a glacier. Little by little this decreased,
and two human Ijeings fell down from heaven, by
whom the earth was peopled. One can see eveiy
year that the glacier is shrinking. In many places
sicfns mav vet be seen of the time when the sea rose
over the mountains.' '

In this myth we can trace influences from no
fewer than four different quarters. The conception
of the ignerssuit, who resemble men and live under
the earth, sucfiiests the Indian lecfend that men for-
merly lived under the earth, Imt began one day to
climb to the surface bv means of a vine which arew
up through a fissure or chasm in a mountain. When a
fat old woman (or man) tried to clamber up, the vine
broke oflf, and the rest had to remain below, while
those who had reached the top peopled the eartli.-

The two beings who fall down from heaven
appear to belong to the cosmogony of the Finnish-

' Holm, Mcddclelser om GrimJand, part 10, p. 144.

- Compare K. linoriv., Aiis dem Wigioain,\}. 130. H. deCharcnce.v
{Mchtsine, 1.22")) montioiis (quoting from Malthitns, Hidatsa Grammar,
1873, Intr. p. wii.) that the forefathers of the Minnetai-ees, a
tribe belonginf? to the jMissouri region, hvetl at the bottom of a great
lake, and cUmbed up to the surface of the earth by help of a big tree,
which ultimatelj- broke, so that many of them had to remain below.
(From an unpublished manuscript by Moltke Moe.) This legend pre-
sents an even closer analogy to that of the ignerssuit, who dwell imder
the sea.

|:i 1 1

1:1

KELIGIOrs IDEAS

•jr,i

Ugriiui races, or to be borrowed from the same
source. Among the Voguhans, the two first peo})le
descended from heaven in a cradle ot silver wire.
The idea that heaven is the birthphice of humanity
is also found in the mvtlis of other Finnish-Ut>rian
tribes in Asia and Europe.^

Similar ideas have also reached the Indians (^per-
haps through the Eskimos?) Thus the Ilurons
l)elieve that the first human ])eings came from
heaven.- The idea that the earth was oriuinallv flat
and then split up also reminds us of the Finnish-
Um-ian cosmownv, accordini>- to which the earth,

' See J. Krolin, Fiiislai Liftrrdtur-HiKlnric, Jst Part, Kdhrn/a
(1891), p. 165. Moltke Moe has cliree'tetl my attention to tliis sinii-
lai'itv, and has lent nio the IMS. of an as yet inipiibHslied essay on
lej,'ends of this class. As a I'ule, the connection Ix-tween eartli and
lieaven is effected by a {:^i'Qiit tree, by whidi people clindj up and down.
The myth of such heaven-trees is to be found in almost every quarter
of the world. We find it in Scandinavia (Yf^drasil) no less thu,n in
I'olynesia, Celebes, Borneo, New Zealand. »S:c. Amon<,' the Vogulians,
tlie son of the first two hunum bein^^s (see above) transforms liimself
into a squirrel, climbs up a tree to lieaven, and afterwards chmbs down
a^ain. (Compare A. Lang, Myth, liiiudl (oul liclirjiuii. (1HH7). i. 182,
not<3 2.) Among the Indians the first man climbs into a trie, in chase
of a squirrel, and .so reaches heaven, whence lie returns with the
elements of civilisation, or, according to some, in order to take liis
sister up with him again. (Compare Tylor. lUti-lij llititorij cf Man-
I'tid (2nd ed.), p. 849.) The gipsies on tiu' borders of Transylvania
have a legend of a gre;it tree from which tlesh fell tlown to earth, and
from wliose leaves human beings sprang forth (II. von Wlislocki,
Mi'irchcn and Sagen drr tninsnHuKiiiin'lioi Zuicuncv. No. 1.) There
is probably some connection between these myths and tlie Greeidand
legend ; it is quite natural that in the Eskimo version the tree should
have disappeared.

- Compare A. Lang, Myth, lilfiml, and liclujiuii, i. IHI.

■Mi: '.

•^ -h

■ it

il!

'I, I!

M
4

■ ' 'i

2t)2

ESKIMO IJFE

when firc^t created, formed a quite smooth and level
crust over the water, but was afterwards made to
billow by an internal convulsion, and stiffened in its
billowy form, whence the origin of mountains and
valleys.^

We may disthiguish a third element in the people
who originally dwelt upon this flat earth, in its dis-
pleasure with whom the Power above caused the
earth to split and the water to rush forth. It seems
scarcely doubtful that this conception is due to a
direct intermixture of the Christian or Jewish legend
of the Deluge, which might, of course, have passed
from the west coast up along the east coast. Possibly,
however, the notion of the flood may have been sup-
plemented by touches from a very widesi)read legend
in Europe, and especially in Scandinavia, as to how
the subterranean or invisible people {Jiuldre-folk)
came into existence. The Lord one day paid a visit
to Eve as she was busy washing her children. All
those who were not yet washed she hurriedly hid in
cellars and corners and under big vessels, and pre-
sented the others to the visitor. The Lord asked if
these were all, and she answered ' Yes ' ; whereupon
He replied, ' Then those which are " dulde " (hidden)
shall remain "hulde" (concealed, invisible).' And

' Compare J. Krohn, op. cit., pp. 163-173.

RELIGIOUS IDEAS

■JHhi

from them the luddre-folh are sprung.^ Bo this as it
may, the iynerssuit cannot but remind us of the sub-
terranean people in our Scandinavian folk-lore.

Finally we have as a fourth element the <da(jier,
winch must belong exclusively to Greenland itself. -

Among other supernatural beings may Ije men-
tioned the different sorts of iidnnd-folk who live in
the interior of the country or upon the ice-fields.
Some of these are cjilled tornit (the plural of tuneJc)
or iiioruUit, or, upon the east coast, timersit. Tliey
are of human aspect, but of huge stature. Some say
they are 4 metres (13 feet) in height, and others that
they are as tall as a woman-boat is long, that is to
say at least 10 metres (more than 32 feet). Their
i^ouls alone are as big as ordinary people. Tliey
live by hunting Ijoth land and sea animals. They
can run exceedingly fast. On the sea thev do not
use kaiaks, but sit in the water ^ witli the fog for

' Communicated by :\roltko Moo. Others relate that it was the
ugly children wliom Eve cncealed, or that she was a«hanied ofhavin-
so many. (See Faye, Norskc Folkcmcjv, 2nd ed. p. xxv.; Suegaard'i
I' raFjehlbygchrne, I,. 102; Dnlcn, IS&iail.) No. 17; Storaker and
lu-lestedt, Follrsagn fra Llstevog Mmnlals Amt,i^. r>l ; Finn Magnu-
sen, Eddalann, m. p. 32{» ; Grimm, Dcnhchr Mijthologic, 4th" ed.
ni. 163, &c.) The legend is originally Jewish, and may be traced to
the Rabbis ; see, for example, Liebrecht on Gcrvasiu^ Tilberinisis
Otia Imperialia, p. 70.

-' Paul Egede gives a somewhat different account of the ignerssuit's
fall from human estate. They • foimerly dwelt upon earth, until the
time of the great flood, which caused the earth to capsize, so that
, 'hat had formerly been uppermost was now below.'— Co«^m«a^io/t
of Eelationerne,-p.[)(}.

It,

H '4-:

$f It: ■ i' ,

It H^.'

t .'.■!■
« ,'•.'.'■

*■' . *

ill

^i;i|

i [

,:!h li!

ii()4

ESKIMO LIFE

their kaiak.' ^ They can catch seals from the land
(in great traps), and they can carry two huge
saddlebacks or bladder-noses inland with them in a
sealskin bag upon their shoulders. As a rule the}-
stand on a hostile footing towards men, but they
are also open to friendly intercourse, and will some-
times even exchange wives with them.

Another class of inland folk are the igaligdlit
(the plural of igaliliJc), who go about with a whole
kitchen on their l)acks. The pot alone is so huge
that they can boil an entire seal in it ; and it boils
even as they carry it about. A third class are the
erkigdlit (the plural of er/dlek), who, according to
some, are like men above and dogs below, Ijut
according to others have dogs' heads or dogs' noses.
They are expert archers, and carry their arrows
in quivers on their backs.-' They are hostile to
men. I may also mention the isserkat (the plural
of isserak), who ' blink lengthwise ' — which probably
means that their eye-holes are perpendicular instead
of horizontal.

As Eink has shown, there can be very little
doubt that these inland folk, who all play a pro-

* This Buprgests our Norwegian ' draug ' which sails iii a half boat
{i.e. a boat split in two longitudinally) ; and it does not seem hnpos-
sible that we may here trace the influence of the old Scandinavian
settlers.

^ Paul Egede : Efterrefniiiffer om Gronlavd, p. 172.

Iii'

■°""'HH 'ITflBUffl'

KELIGIOUS IDEAS

Mr,

miiient part in the Eskimo legends, were orininall\'
different races of Indians with whom the fbicfatliers
of the Gi-eenlanders, while they still dwelt on the
north coast of America, had deahngs, sometimes ami-
cable, but geiu'rally hostile. They bi-ought with them
to Greenland stories of these ad\'entures, and thev
stdl laid the scene in the interior of the country,
where the Indians in process of time Ijecame en-
tirely mythical beings. The word tnnek seems
snnply to mean Indian, and is so used to this dav
by the Eskimos of Labrador. By the Eskimo
tribes on the west coast of Hudson's Bay and
further west the word erkigdlit is applied to the
Indians of the interior. The description of the
tornit as large and swift applies well to the Indians,
who are taller than the Eskimos, and have the
u[)per hand of them by land. The fact that the
erkigdlit are clever with the bow and carrv their
arrows in quivers— a custom not in use amon<.-
the Greenlanders— also suggests the Indians. 80,
too, do the dogs' legs or dogs' faces attributed to
them, these having no doubt arisen from the Indians'
own belief that they are descended from a dog (see
p. 271).^ The isserkat, ' those who blink lengthwise,'

' Legends of (log-men being widely spmid over the world (they
are found, for instance, among the Greeks), it is possible that the
Eskimos may have received them from some other quarter, and applied
them to the Indians, who, they knew, clainiod descent from a dog.

1 'I

t1 ktm

1^
■ l«

\ f

« ,1 ,

•i!

260

ESKIMO \A\'E

fin

liiil

l|W'

\tw

liiil

I i r ; ■

may originally have been Indian races with remark-
ably obli(iiu' or otherwise ])ecnliar eyes ; such tribes
are described bv travellers. Here, then, we have
supernatural or mythical beings who may be as-
sumed to be of historical origin. The legends of
wars with them have also, no doubt, a certain his-
torical foundation. In tlie same wav, probablv,
did the classical peoples come in contact with th<;
mythical races of their legends.^

The kiritnt (the plural of kivitok) are biMugs of a
peculiar nature. They have at one time been ordi-
nary men, who for some reason, or other, often quite
insigniiicant, have fallen out with their families or
their companions, or have felt aggrieved by them,
and have therefore turned their Ijacks upon their
fellows and fled to the mountains or mto the interior.
Here they henceforth live alone, feeding upon animals
which they kill without ordinary weapons, simply
by throwing stones at them, an art in which they
become very skilful. While the kivitok has only
been a short time away, it is still open to him to
return to his fellows ; but if he does not within a
certain number of days obey the voice of his home-
ward longing, he loses the power of resuming his
place among men. Some hold that a year is the

^ Compare Tobler : ' Ueber sagenliafte Vcilker des Altertums,' &c.,
in Zeitschrift der VolkcrjJsycJiolofjie, vol. xviii. (1888), p. 225.

SSB

LIIMIHIMWM

RELIUIOUS JDEA8

I'tj;

allotted period. He now acciuires .supernatural
foculties ; lie becomes so swift of foot that lie can
leap from one mountain peak t.) anot]ier, he can
catch reindeer without weapons, and whatever he
aims at he hits. He grows to a great size, clothes
himself in reindeer skins, and, according to some,
his face turns black and his liair white. Further-
more, h(j becomes omniscient or clairvoyant; he can
bear the speech of men from any distance, and
'•omes to understand the language of the animals.
But he pays for all tliis in his inabibty to die, and
he is always mournful, shedding tears of longing
for humankind to which he can never return. Pie
can, however, when opportunity otiers, especially at
night, make his way into houses or store-rooms to
pick up something to eat, or perhaps a little tobacco.
Those who have wronged liiin are always in danger
of his vengeance.

The remarkable feature of this ])elief is that it
proljablyhas a certain foundation in fact. Suicide is
almost unknown in Greenland, except in the case of
a few old or hopelessly infirm people, who, linding
themselves at death's door, sometimes throw theni^
selves over a precipice into the sea (compare p. 170)
in order to put an end to their sullerings and assure
themselves burial. On the other hand, it now and
then happens that someone or other, wounded, per-

i'. \-

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2fi8

ESKIMO LIFE

hjips, by a single word from one of his kinsfolk,
runs away to the mountains, and is lost for several
days at least. I myself know Greenlanders who have
done this ; and authentic examples are given of
people who have lived for years as kivitoks. About
twenty-five years ago, on the island of Akugdlek in
North Greenland, a cave was found which bore evi-
dence of having been a hnman habitation for a con-
siderable time. A well-trodden path led up to it,
and within it was a hearth, a hole in the ground
which had served as a store-room, a soft l)ed of moss,
remains of dried fish, edible roots, &c. A few paces
away, there was found a smaller cave with stones piled
up against its mouth. In this the kivitok had liuried
himself when he found death approaching. There he
lay, still in his sealskin jacket ; he had himself, from
within, closed up the entrance to the sepulchre with
a stone. The Greenlanders recognised him, and con-
cluded that he must have lived there as a kivitok for
two or three years. His reason for turning his back
upon mankind is said to have been that, as a bad
hunter, he w^as looked down upon and slighted by
his kinsfolk ; and, after the death of liis little son,
life became so hard for him that he fled.^

' See Hammer, Mrdddchcr om Grdnland, T^art 8, p. 22; E. Skram
in Tilskueren, October, 1885, p. 735. As to kivitut, see also Rink, Talcs
and Trnditiovfi of the Eskinw.

RELIGIOUS IDEAS

2<i9

As ]\roltke Moe has pointed out to me, (here is a
remarkable resein])laiice between tliese kivitut and
the ntilegumenn, ' ont-hers ' so common in the Ice-
landic popular legends — criminals, that is to say,
who have fled to lh(^ mountnins and live in the wil-
derness far from mankind. The i^reat part which
these 'out-liers' play in the popular fantasy, and the
mystic fear with whicli they are regarded, has caused
them, from a very early period, to be in great mea-
sure confounded in ccmnnon belief with trolls, huldre-
folk, and other legendary cr(\atures, in whose super-
natural faculties they partake. They can see into
tlie future, they know what is happening in distant
places, they can conjure up mists and lead the tra-
veller astra}-, and they possess superlmman stren<yth.^
Like the kivitok, the}' seek the abodes of men in order
to pick up something to eat ; they steal sheep, food,
and clothes from the people of the settlements. The
most characteristic feature of both the Greenland and
the Iceland legends is that men, by being cut off from
society, obtain supernatural power. The coincidence
becomes still more striking when we observe that
both in Greenland and in Iceland these legends form
an essential part of living popular tradition and

' See Arnasen, Islcnz'kar \y6'!Ssr>g'nr, ii. 100 304, translation by
Powell and Magnusson (London, 18GG), pji. cxlvi, and 101-231. Manrer
Islandische VoUcssagen, p. 240 ; Carl Andersen, Islandske Folkcsaqn
2nd ed., p. 258. '

"1 itl-i

''%=■

i'70

ESKIMO LIFE

lielief. Ainoii"' other races (with the pai'fial excep-
tion of Norweniaiis ol' the west coast, aiul es[)eciallv
of NordLaiid) simihir ideas are scarcely to be found
at all. The (conclusion, then, is almost inevitable,
that the belief in the kivitok is derived from the
ancient Scandinavians, or rather from the Icelanders
in particular.

I have still to mention, among the remarkable
beings known to the Greenlanders, the igdhkok, who
is like half a human being, witli half a liead, one eye,
one arm, and one leg. Precisely similar beings are
also to be found among the Greeks, the Mohamme-
dans, the Zulus, and the Indians.'

As to the creation of the world, the Greenlanders
had no definite opinion. The earth and the universe
must either have come hito existence of their own
accord, or must have existed from all time and be
destined so to endure.

Nor had they any clear idea as to the creation
of man, or of the Eskimo race itself. Some were of
opinion that the first man grew up out of the ground
and mated with a mound of earth. It brought forth a
girl, whom he took to wife.- This notion of ofrowiufj-

!ii Ir

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!■ : '^

* l'

1 iwl

1 p. Egede, Efterrdninger ovi GrUnland, p. 172 ; Tylor, Primitive
Culture, i. 391 ; Tobler, oj). cit., p. 238 ; Liebrecht in The Academy,
iii. (1872), 321.

'•* P. Egecle, Continuation af Relationerne, p. 97; H. Egede, Grnn-
lands Perlustration, p. 117.

maa^SBS^SBi

IIKLKJIOL'S IDEAS

971

up from the <fvnum\ is ((uite coiuiiKiii, occun-in^r in
Scandinavia and Iceland,' amono- other places. We
.say: 'He who strikes the earth with a stick ])eats liis
inothei- ; he wlio strikes a stone beats liis father'— an
idea which closely cori-esponds with the Kskinio con-
ception, in which, no doubt, the man shonld properly
be represented as i-ising from a rock.

As to the origin of us Europeans, they have a
legend which is not altogether flattering to our
vanity. An Eskimo woman, with whom no husband
would remain foi- aiiy time, at Inst took a dog to
mate, and was brought to bed of a mingled litter of
human children and puppies. The puppies she
placed on an old shoe-sole and pushed them out to
sea, saying, 'Jje oir with you and become kavdlimats'
{i.e. Europeans). Therefore it is, say the Eskimos,
that the kavdlunaks always live on the sea, and that
their ships are shaped like a Greenland shoe, round
before and behind. The human children she placed
upon willow-leaves and despatched them in the oppo-
site direction, so that the}- became inland-folk or
Indians {erkUvjdlit or toniit).^ Precisely similar

iff

tte';

Compare Liobrecht, Zur VoR-Hlmmlc'^. 332, and the authorities
there cited. See also Moltke Moe in Lettcrstedtskc Tidsskrift IHTO
pp. 277 281. "^ ' •

- H. Enrede, Gri'mlands Perlustmtion, p. 117; P. Ef^ede, Con-
tinuation af Relationernc,^. 4:1 ', Rink, Talcs and Traditions of the
Eskimo, p. 471 ; Meddelclser om Gninland, part 10, pp. 290, 342.

•ir.

<^.^y

->72

ESKIMO MIK

• i

»t

Ictrciids :ii'o to !)(' toiiiid .'Uiioiil:' tlic Ksk'mios of Hal-
fmslMiul,' and also on llic north coast of Alaska;
tliouirh there thev refer lo the Indians alone, not to
the hiiiropeans. Analogous myths of descent fi-oni
dogs (or wolves, or ])ears) occur among many races,
Aryan as well as Monixolian or American." They lie
at the root of the mvtholoirv of many Indian tribes,
who hold that the first woman took a dog to mate,
and that thev themselves nvv. descended from this
connection. It seems to me evident that the Eskimos
have taken their legend from this source, and that
they originally applied it to the Indians alone. When,
subsequently, they fell in with another strange race
(the Europeans), they <.'xtended it so as to account
for them also. It is noteworthy that the shoe which
turns into a ship occurs in the Baffinsland versions
as well.

The Eskimos, according to some authorities,
trace the origin of death to a woman who once said:
'Let people gradually die,, or else there will be
no room for them in the wi^^ld.' Others believe that
two of the first human beings quarrelled, the one
sayinff 'Let there be day and night and let men
die,' the other 'Let there be night alone, and let

' Rink and Boas, Journal of American Folklore (1888 ?) p. 124.
2 F. Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, 187U, pp. 17-25 ; J. C. Miiller,
GescJdchte tier americanisclicii Urreligionen, pp. 134, 65.

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ESKIMO LIFE

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retarn.' Then the vouiij^er kills the son of the elder,
and tliat is the beoinninj^' of death.'

We find remarkable analogues in South Africa
to the myth of the snake and the louse. On
tlie Gold Coast, among the Zulus, and elsewhere, it
is related that the first great Being sent an animal (a
chameleon) to mankind with the message that they
were to Uve and never die. Bnt then the Being
changed his mind, and sent after it another animal
(the fleet-footed salamander) with the message that
thev were to die ; and as the lattei- arrived first, so it
was. There are several forms of this myth. Among
the Hottentots it was the moon who sent the message
to mankind : ' You, like me, shall die and come to
life ao-ain.' But the hare heard this, and ran ahead
and said : ' You, like me, shall die and never come
to life again.'- This myth, again, is remarkably
similar to the Fiji legend ([noted above ; and thus
we have a bridge between tlie second and third
Greenland myth, which must accordingly l)e taken
to be two variants of one original— an exceedingl)-
ancient one, since it has spread so far.

' Tylor, Primitive Culture, i. 855; A. Lang, La Mythologic
(Paris, 1886), pp. 204, 206 • Smithsonian Institute, Annual Report of
the Bureau of Etlivolofiy, 1879-80, p. 45. The choice between day
and night in the Greenland form of the myth may possibly be bor-
rowed, directly or indirectly, from the bibUcal cosmogony.

' Chvist&\ler in Zc itschr if tfilr a frikanischcn Sprachcn, I. 1887-88,
pp. 49 62. Compare also Bleek, Reinel-e FucJis in Afrika (Weimar,
1870) : Tylor, oj). cit., p. 355 ; A. Lang, op. cit., p. 203.

if.

(Hi.

TXI

tmsymammyxt mrnmilimmami

RKLKJIOUS IDKAS

i'75

The Eskimos trace to tlieir fellovv-couritrNmeii the
orioin of almost everything in external natnro. Tt
was an old man hewing chips from a trcM- that
bronght into being the fishes and other marine
animals. He rubbed the chips I)etween his leers
{' sudore testicnlorum ') and threw them into the
water, upon which they turned into fishes. The
Greenland shark, however, is of dillerent origin :
'One day a woman was washing her hair in urine.
A gust of wind carried away the cloth with which
she was drying her hair, and it became a shark •
wherefore the flesh of this fish still smells of urine.' i'
The hen venly bodies were once ordinary Eskimos,
living upon the earth, who, for one reason or an-
other, have been translated to the skies. The sun
was a fair woman, and the moon her brother, and
tliey lived in the same house. She was visited
every night by a man, but could not tell who it was
In order to fini rv,,he blnckened her hands with
lamp-soo', ;r;.d nibl)ed them upon his l).Tck. When
the morning (-ame, it turned out to bp 1..^. ])rother,
for his whit., reindeer-skin was all smudged; and

> Hans E'^eae, Gronlands Ferlustraiivn, i^. 117 ; P. E^ede Con
UnunHon af Rclationcrnc, pp. 20, 00. As to wash n, in ^Hne t"

antiquity. We find allusions fo it even in the .ac.d writin.^s of th.
Parsee. Thus it issaid (1 W^,.,. « 1.. th.. corpli^^; , ^ ^
^ah he,x.solves with urine 'n.i ot .uen or women, hut of sua
annuals or beasts of draufjht.'

T 2

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E.SKLMO IJFK

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lieiice come the spots on the moon. The sun seized
a crooked knife, cut off one of lier ])reasts. and
threw it to him, crying: 'Since my whole body
tastes SI) yood to vou, eat this.' Then she liuhted a
piece of hxmp-moss and rushed out ; llie moon di 1
hkewise and ran after her, but his moss went out,
and that is why he looks like a live cinder. He
chased her up into the sky, and there they still are.'
The moon's dwelling lies close to the road by which
souls have to })ass to the over- world ; and in i^ . a
room for his sister the sun. This myth seems to
have come to the Eskimos from th(^ westward.
Amono- the North American Indians the sun and
moon are brother and sister, and even so far away as
among the Indians of the Amazon district we find
the same myth, only that there the moon is a woman
who visits her brother the sun in the darkness. He
discovers her crimhud passion by drawing his black-
ened hand over her face. (Compare also the myths
from Australia and the Himalayas on thv- following
page.) Among the Incas of Peru, the sun and moon
were at the same time brother and sister and man
and wife. (Compare also the Egyptians' Isis and
Osiris.) ■-' It is remarkable that among the Green-

' P. Egede, Continuation of Bclationernr, p. 10; H. Egede,
(ironlands Pcrhtst ration, p. 121; Rink. Talcs and Traditions of
the Eskimo, p. 28r) ; Holm, Mcddclchcr om Griniland, part 10, p. 268.

•-■ A. Lang, C»s^o)n and Myth,]). 132; Tylor, Primitive Cultun^
i. 288.

i ,i ■ mm <mvmim ummMf^fg^

KELKUOL'S IDEAS i>77

landers the sun is ronceived ii< beiiii>' beautiful in
front, but a naked skeleton beliind.' This so stronu'ly
sugii'ests our beautiful ' Inddre.' who ai-e hollow when
seen from liehind, that it seems as thouii'h the idea
must be a European and especially a Seandinavian
one, imported into Greenland by the old Norse
settlers. Accordinii' to the East rireeidaiiders, the
reason why the sun has nothing but bare l)oiit's be
hind is that, when she is at her lowest point, that is
to say on the shortest day, people cnt hei- back with
knives in order to make her rise a^iiain. The llesh is
thus cut awav, and oulv the bones remain.-

The moon has not yet turned over a new leaf,
but still pays fi-e([uent visits to the earth in search of
amorous adventures. Therefore, it behoves women
to beware of him, not to o'o out alone in the moon-
light, not to stand looking at his orb, and so forth.
This erotic proclivity of the moon's seems to be of
very ancient date. In Australia he is a tom-cat who.
on account of an intrigue with the wife of another,
was driven forth to v\-ander for ever. Among the
Khasias of the Himalayas, the moon everv month
commits the unpardonable sin of falling in love with
his mother-in-law, wlio throws ashes in his face, thus

' Compare Rink, Talcs und Ti-adifiom of the Enkimn, pp. '237,
440. Danish ed. suppl. p. 44. Liebreeht in Geniutnia, vol. 18 (1873),
p. 365.

- Holm, Meddelchcv out ffrihilmid, part 10, p. 142.

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378

i:SKIMO LIFE

causing tlie spots upon it.' According to a Slavonic
legend, the moon was the sun's husband, who, on
account of infidelity with the morning star, was cleft
in twain.- Among the old Greeks and Eomans the
moon was of female sex, indeed, but the fair Luna
was by no means exempt from amatory tendencies.
Among the Eskimos, again, the moon is supposed to
be the a se of cold weather. He produces snow by
whittling , . -Irus tusk, and strewing the shavings
ujjon the earih, or else by blowing through a reed ;
and when lie visits the earth, he alwavs comes drivinif
in a sledge over the winter ice. It is quite natural
that such associations should attach to the moon,
since it is in the ascendant during the night and in
winter. As a frigid and austere influence, too, he is
naturallj^ enough regarded as a man ; while further
south, where heat is more dreaded than cold, it is
the sun who is supposed to be of the sterner sex.

Thunder they believe to be produced by two old
women fightina" for a drv and stiff skin, and tujrfrinor
each at her end of it ; in the heat of the contest they
upset their lamps, and thus cause the lightning. The
oriji'in of foj^s tliev trace to a tornarssuk who drank

' This myth is so strikinf:fly hke the Greenland le<i;end that there can
scarcely be a doubt of their having;; sprunji; from the same source.
Amonff the Khasias to love your mother-in-law is the direst sin, while
amonf^ the Greenlanders it is worst to love your sister.

- Tylor, rnmitivc Culture, i. 354. See also A. Lanj,', Myth
Ritual, and Religion, i. p. 128.

IIL^^lBlJiiffllML.,.,- ...... -i]il JWiill!liipiiifl|pii|

liEJJGlOU.S IDEAS

279

SO much that he burst.' As to the cause of rain, they
have on the east coast anotlier k'geiul in addition to
that ah-eadv mentioned. Ixain, accordinu' to this
account, is produced by a being named Asiak, who
dwells in the sky. In ancient davs, after a lono-
drought, the angekoks would set out tor his al)ode to
beg for rain. When they arrived, tliey would peep
in, and would usuallv see his wife sittinji on the ed<'e
of the sleeping-bench, wdiile xVsiak himself would be
lying covered up close to the wall. ( )n their implor-
ing her aid, she would ulthnatelv rei)lv : ' Last nidit
he wetted his rug a little, as he usually does;'
whereupon she would take up the piece of bear-skin
on which he had been sitting, and would shake it,
thus causing it to rain upon earth.-' The very hicX
that the angekoks are represented as begging for
rain, which is of no service whatever to a people of
hunters and fishers Uke the Eskimos, seems to prove
that this myth nuist have originaied in other latitudes,
where agriculture is prac-tised. It is not impossible,
as Ilohn conjectures, that Asiak may be identical

' P. E{?ecle, Eftcrretninger om Gronland, pp. 150, 20().

- Holm, Gcoyt-ajisk Tuhskrift (Copenhagen, 1891), xi. 10. The
idea that rain is due to the overflow of a lake in the over-world may
possibly be traceable to more southern regions, where agriculture and
artificial irrigation are practised, and where accordingly the mountain
lakes have been dannned up. In the Greenland myth there is also
mention of the lake being closed by a dam. (Compare Egede and
Cranz.)

\H:!i

ft!
■Jh

f K

280

KSKIMO LlFK

hi^

with tlip rain-gods of several of tlie Amerirnii abori-
ginal races— deities wlio lived on tlie tops ol' liioh
mountains. Tlie ]\[ayas of Yucatan, it may l)e noted,
called their rain-god Char, j^ut it is also j.ossiblc
that the whole myth may come from furtliei- west.
vVmong primitive races, rain was verv i^enerallv
traced to a similar origin. In Kamtchatka we meet
with the idea in its crudest form. When the modern
Greek peasant indicates i-ain by the phrase KaTovpaeu
6 ^eo9, '. IS merely employing an image at least as
old ns Aristophanes, who makes one of his characters
in 'The v^louds (v. 373) remark tliat formerly when
it rained he used to believe Zeus Sta koo-kCvov
ovpelu. The same idea, more or less disguised, and
generally with a touch of the jocose in it, rea])pears
in many popular expressions current in Germanv
Belgium, Xorway, and elsewhere. They have all
their root in a ])elief of primeval antiquity, which
can also l)e traced among many other races — for
example, among the old heathen Arabians, and even
among the Jews.^

In their beliefs or superstitions the Eskimos used
to be, and still are on the east coast, instructed by
their priests or exercisers, the anijekoks (nnqakoL

' See Schwartz. Die jtoetischcn Natiirnnschaiiimgcn, i. pp. 138,
•i.W; ii. p. 198; Schmidt, Das Volhslebcn der Nengricchcn,i.\).'61;

Brlgi.icJi. Mkscuiii.
Hr/iraeru, p. 88.

V. p. 215; l<rn. Goldziher, Der Mijtlws hci den

^m^

IM'lLKJIors IDEAS 0^1

])lnral. (nu/dbft). Tlu^so incii ai'c tlic wisest mid
ablest ;mi()ii_ii- them, but also, ns a laile, the ci-afliest.
They assert that tliey liave tlif power of eouvei-ijiiiij-
with s])irits, joiirneyin^r botli to the 'inder-world and
to tlie sky and other places unattainable to ordinary
mortals, eonjuring up the tornarssuk and othei*
supernatural beings, obtaining re\elations fi-om theni,
and so forth. Tliey influence and work upon their
countrymen principally through theii- mystic exor-
cisms ami seances, which occur as a rule in the
winter, when they are living in houses. The lamps
are extuiguished, and skins ai-e hung before the
windows so that it is rpiite dark. The angekok him-
self sits upon the floor. \]\ dint of making a horrible
noise so that the whole house shakes, chan<>in<'- his
voice, bellowing and shrieking, ^■entl•ilo(plising,
groaning, moaning, and whining, beating on diaims,
bursting forth into dial)olical shrieks of laughter, and
all sorts of other tricks, he persuades his conipanions
that he is visited by the various spii-its he pei-sonates,
and that it is they who make the disturbance.

In order to become an angekok a long ap})rentice-
ship is naturally required, fi-e(juently as much as ten
years. The neophyte must often and for long periods
go into soUtary retirement,^ and rub a stone round

' This ideu recurs in so\enil parts of the world. Compare Clirist'a
forty days' solitude in the wilderness.

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•282

ESKIMO LIFE

hi i

upon anotliei- stone, lollowin<r tlie sun, for several
days on end, whereupon a spirit (-(jnies fortli from
the mountain. Then he must die of fright, but after-
wards <'ome to hfe again; and thus lie gradually
obtains the mastery of his tornat. He must not
reveal that he is going through tliis probation until
it is completed, ]3ut then he must make public
amiouncement of the fact. If he is to be a reo-ular
tip-top' angekok, it is highly desirable that he
should be seized and dragged to the seashore by a
bear ; then there comes a walrus, buries its tusks in
his genital organs, drags him away to the lioiizon,
and eats him up. Thereupon his bones set off home-
wards, and meet the shreds of flesh upon the way ;
they grow together again, and he is whole once more.
Now he is at the head of his profession.

The influence of these angekok s of course de-
pended upon their adroitness ; but they do not seem
to have been mere charlatans. It is probable that
tiiey themselves partly believed in their own arts,
and were even convinced that they sometimes received
actual revelations ; although Egede is not inclined to
believe that they had ' any real commerce or under-
standing with the devil.'

They can also cure diseases by reciting charms,
give a. man a new soul, and so forth. Among the

' So in original (Trans.).

PJfWWKWIi^

KELKilOUS IDEAS

J8a

diseases \vlii(^li they profess to cure are reckoned
iiia]»ility to catch seals, in a man, and, in a
woman, inabihty to ])ear chikb-en. bi the latter
case, the East Greeidand angekok, even to this
day, has to journey to the moon, from which a
child is thrown down to the woman, who becomes
pregnant of it. After this laborious journey, the
angekok has the right to lie with the woman.' This
visit to the moon is, of course, comiected with the
aforesaid erotic proclivities of that luminary. Among
the Indians, too, the moon seems to possess an in-
fluence over procreation.

In order that the angekok may heal diseases he
must be well paid ; otherwise his arts will be of no
avail. It is of course not he himself that receives
the gifts, but the tornak, for whom he merely acts as
agent.

By reason of their connection witli the super-
natural world, the most esteemed angekoks have con-
siderable authorit}' over their countrymen, who are
afraid of the evil results which ma}- follow an}' act of
disobedience. For it is in Greenland as it used to be
here,- with priests who were really masters of their
craft — they were not only the servants of God, but
knew ' the black book ' as well, and had power over
the devil. The angekoks, indeed, are for the most

' Holm, Meddelelser om Gronlancl, part 10, p. 131.

384

IvSKI.NR) [JFi:

part well disposed; but they may also work evil by
i-()b])ino- otlier i)(M)])le of tiieir souls and friviii<>' tli'Mu
to tlu'ir toniai'ssuk to cat, by sending their tornat lo
frighten the life out of tlieir enemies, and so forth.
Tims we fmd even among the Ivskimos tlie be<>innin<'s
of priestly rule.

For the most part, however, it is people of
another elass who are guilty of such misdeeds as
killing othei-s by magic, Ijewitching their weapons,
and the like. These are the so-called ifmtsoh,
who may be either male or female.' These wizards
and witches are much hated. It used to be held
that most evils, especially death and disease, were
due to them; and if an old woman was suspected of
being an ilisitsok she was remorselesslv killed. This
cannot surprise us, when we I'emendjer how our owu
ancestors, with the priests at their head, used to bui-u
their Avitches. While the angekoks commune with the
spirits in the presence of other people, the ilisitsoks'
dealings with the sui)eruatural powers are carried oii
in the deepest secrecy and always to noxious ends.
They must be instructed in secrecv by an older
ilisitsok and must pay dear for the teaching. It does
not seem to be clear what supernatural powers they
have dealings with; they are doubtless differeut from

' Angekoks, too, might be of eitlier sex, but women seem always
to have been in the minoritv among tlieni.

k-'%»> .Iftjiaut^.

i,'i:i.i(;i()i s ii»i;.\s

I'Mo

'I, :

those known lotlic aiiLicknks, and ai'c i)iir[)ost'I\- kept
seci'et. Ill llicii* diabolical arts they use many dil-
fci'cnt })i'()pei'tii*s, as tor inslancc hnmaii bono, ilic
ilcsli of corpses, skidls. snakes, spideis. \valcr-l)eetlcs,
and the like; but their most potent (le\ice consists in
iuaki?io- tiijnicks. A lu[)ilek is pre})ared in I lie dead-
liest secrecy of various animals' l)()nes, skins, [)ieces of
the anorak of tlie man who is to be injni'cd or por-
tions of the seals he has cjiuo-ht ; all this beini^
wrapped together and tied up in a. skin. Finally, it
is l)rou<iht to life by dint of sinijinu- charms o\cr it.
Then the ilisitsok seats himself upon a baidv of stones
close to the mouth of a i-iver. Tie turns his anoi-ak
back to front, draws Ids hood up over his face, and
then dangles the tupilek between his legs. This
makes it grow, and when it has attained its i)ro[)er
size it glides away into the water and disappears. It
can transform itself into all sorts of animals and
monsters, and is supposed ^o bring ruin and dealli
upon the man against whom it is despatched ; l)ut if
it fails in this, it turns against him wlio sent it foi-th.'
These tnpileks remind us strongly m the wide-
spread belief both in Norway and Iceland in (jdnJ or
' messengers,' and it seems scarcely doubtful that the

' Hohw, Mcddelclser uin Gronland, imrt 10, p. 153;); iiink. Tales
and Traditions of the EsJiimo, pp. 53, 151, 201, 401 ; N. llgcde,
Trcdie Continuation af Eelationerne, pp. 43, 48 ; i'. Ej,'edo, I'lflcf'
retnimjcr om (iri'mland, p. 18, &c.

■I ;

lit

r,
tf

•I

ilHi'i

KSKiMo Lin;

i) :i

m I

Eskimos liiivc Iton-owcd this coiiccptioii fVom our
ancestors in ( rrt'ciilMiid. Tlic ' Liaml' in rcchiiid is
also alahulous, inaLric crcatui-c, sent forth l)y wizai'ds,
with tlic powtT of ti'ansforminji itself into every pos
sible shape; and if it does not succeed in destroying'
the person a<iainst wlioni it is sent, it returns and
kills the sender, ft can, however, in (jreeniand, no
less tlian in Iceland and Norway, be snapped uj) by
other wizards or witches, and its evil inlluence thus
averted.'

llink sees in these ilisitsoks and their roiniection
with the powers of evil a possil)le survival from an
older or prinuuval faith in Greenland, which is per-
secuted by the priests of the new faith, the angekoks.-
Just so do we find that witchcraft among us consisted
lar^jeh' of remnants of the old heathenism and was,
therefore, l)itterly persecuted by the Christians.
There seems to be much in favour of this ingenious
conclusion of Kink's. It appeals to me possible,
however, that as the tupilek is descended from the
ancient Scandinavians' belief in gand or ' mes-

* Compare Carl Andersen, Islandshe Folkesagn og Eventtjr, 2nd
edit. (1877) pp. 144 141). It is interesting to compare these Icelandic
tales with the East Greenland legend related by Holm {Meddelclser
om Grvnland, part 10, p. 303), which is \ery similar in matter, though
of course adapted to the conditions of life in Greenland. Analogous
tales are also to be found in Norway, according to Moltke Moe, who
has directed my attention to this remarkable similarity.

- llink, Talcs and Traditions of tlic Eskimos, p. 42.

i:i:iJ(j|ni s ihKAS

-'m:

scn^rors,' so tlic oi-iLiiii of (he wlmlc wlicli-Nn-c mav he
fnimd ill tlic >;iiii(' (juartcr. 'I'lici'c seem t<> he siidieieiit
[)()iiils of likeness lo jiislily such a conject lire.' It is
hy no nieaiiN invjiiohahle that [H'eeist'iy this belief in
the power of the Mvil One, the contract with Satan,
the niack iiook and so foi'th-in a woid the whole
belief in wizardry which lay, and to some extent still
lies, at the very root of the superstitions of our i'a(;e,
even deeper, one mi^ht almost say, than the belief iu
CTod — niiuhl ha\-e been the first thinn borrowed by
the Eskimos in their dealin^us with oui* forefathers.
I'his rapid and easy way of obtaining' supernatural
power must luu'e been particularly attractive to
them. So far as I have been al)le to learn, too,
witchcraft does not [)lay anythiiio- like such a pi-o-
minent part among the more western Eskimos, if it
is to l)e found at all [?).

I have still to speak of the Greenlanders' lielief
in amulets. Thev are used bv almost everM)ne, and
consist of particular objects, generally poi-tions of
animals or of human beings. Chai-ms are sung or

' One of the characturistics of the ilisitsoks, as well as of tlio an^'e-
koks, is that they breathe iire. In the niediit'val le^'ends, and even in
more recent European folk-lore, this faculty was attributed to the Devil,
and was often extended to tliose who had sold tlicniselves to hini.
The Greenland fire-breatliinf^ is probably connected with this uiediu'val
superstition. The ilisitsoks, moreover, when seen by the an^^'koks
dui'int,' their exorcisms, are observed to be black from the hands up
to the elbows — a trait whicli may also have its origin in the popular
luu'opean conception of the Devil and his host as black in colour.

Mr*

■'I'

•

'(^i

W'l

•JHH

ESKLMO lAVK

iiiLUtcrecl over them, and tliev are <ii\eii l)\- narciits
to their children while they are .still quite little; or
young people are instructed by tlieii- elders how to
find anmlets for themselves. The}' are worn all
through life, as a rule upcm the body or among the
clothes. The men, for example, often have them
sewn into skin pouches made for the purpose, and
worn upon the breast, while Avomen often tie them
into the topknot of their liair. Others are placed
in the house-roof or in the tent ; or in the kaiak
to prevent it from capsizing. (Jne man as a rule
will have several amulets. The}' ai-e supposed to
have power to protect one against witchcraft, and
against injury from spirits, to be of assistance in
times of danger, and to end(nv their possessor with
certain pecuUar faculties. Some amulets can even
be used to disguise their possessors in tlu; shape of
animals, and thus remind us of the ' hamlr>bing ' (the
putting on of falcon-skins, swan-skins, i.^:c.) in our old
mythology. If, for example, a man has a bird or a
fish for his amulet, he may by calling upon it trans-
form himself into a bird or a fish ; or he may trans-
form himself into a tree, seaweed, or the like, if his
amulet consists of a piece of wood or of seaweed. The
belief in amulets, as we all know, is spread over the
whole world, and can be traced from the most primi-
tive right up to the most highly developed races.

rtELKUOrS IDEAS

•JSi)

Among the Eskimos it no doubt dates from a very
early stage of development, and is the most primitive
of their existing religious C(m('epti(ms. The origin
of this l)elief appears to me rpiite explica'hle. Some-
times, of course, it may have arisen from a mere
external acjcident, for example the observation of a
series of fortunate events— that a man who is in
possession of some particular object has always been
lucky in his fishing, and so forth. Jiut as a, rule its
source lies deeper. When, for example, a man sees
that a bii-d, such as the falcon, cleaves the air with in-
credible ease and has extraordinary powers of attack
with beak and claws, he is apt to attrilmte these
powers to every part of the animal, and especiallv to
the head, wdth the soul iidiabiting it, to the beak,
and to the claws. It is not at all unnatural that
barren women, in order to have <-hildi-en, sliould take
pieces of a European's sho(\><ole and hang them round
their necks. Seeing that ]<:uropeans are prolific, they
think that through these shoesoles, on which our
strength has rested, some part of it will ^pass into
their garments and serve them to the like end.''
When a boy who spits l)lood, and whose family is
consumptive, is given a seal-blood plug as an amulet
(the plug which is used to stop the ilow of l)lood
from the wounds of a captured seal), and when this

' Hans Egecle, Grnnlands Ferlnstmtion, p. IKJ.

>-■

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290

ESivIMO LIFE

is sewn into the anorak upon his breast, the reason is
surely clear enough. It is based upon the same belief
msympathetlc transference\x\\\c\\ plays so great a part in
the popular superstitions of all countries. The Eskimos
often have for amulets portions of their forefathers'
clothes or other possessions, as a rule of their grand-
fathers'. This has no doubt its origin ' the belief
that the souls of the dead can protect them, and that
when they carry some portions of the dead man's
possessions about with them, it is easier to come into
rapport with him. Cases are also recorded of the
carrying about of small male and female figures to
serve as amulets.^ The transition from this belief in
amulets to fetish- worship, or rather idol- and image-
worslii}), does not seem to me to be very difficult.

The Greenlanders also think they derive super-
natural help from their charms. These are employed
in sickness, in danger, against enemies, &c., and have
about the same influence as the amulets. Even less
than the amulets, however, have the}' any connection
with spirits, and the method of their action is
unknown — no one knows even the meaning of the
words which are spoken. They are simply old
formulas which have been handed down by means of
sale from generation to generation. They have to
be learned in secrecy, and must be paid for on the

' Compare Holm, Mcddclvlser om Gronland, part 10, p. 118.

""■»"««

avsu»,ai,3awi'.-

KELinrOU.S IDKAS

291

spot and at a very high rate, else tliey have no
efficacy. They are uttered slowly in a subdued,
mystic tone;' it seems as tliouiih (hey were con-
nected to a certain extent witli witchcraft. They
remind us forcibly of our old witch-crones and their
often meaningless formulas. It seems to me pro-
bable that they must ))e reminiscences of .old cm-
toms, imported from outside, whose original significa-
tion has been lost. According to Rink, charms may
also be learnt by listening to the song of l)irds.-

Besides tliese formulas, magi(^ songs are also in
nse. The words of these, however, are comprehen-
sible, and they may be sung in the hearing of others.
According to Eink, it is as a rule the deceased
relations and ancestors of the person using the
charm, and especially his grandparents, whose help
is invoked in these fonnulas and in the songs. From
Holm's account, on the other hand, we gather nothing
of this sort. It seems to me not unreasonable, Iiow^
ever, to suppose that they, and also the amulets,
have often a certain connection with the dead, and
may thus be the beginning of (or a survival from) a
more developed ancestor-worship. When a boy -is
for the first time placed in a kaiak, the father, bv

\ ■': '< i
if 'i ■

T> 1-

Holm, Medddelser om GrImUnd, part. 10, p. 119.
■" Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, p. r,l ; Danish ed. snppl.

V -2

I,J|

•^^'

ft.
; mi

^fx r!f «

■ ■ '4i

.'.

I-'

I ^

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292

ESKIMO LIFE

means of magic songs, will invoke for him the pro-
tection of his deceased grandparents and great-grand-
parents.

Offerings to llie supernatural powers are very
infrequent among the Greenlanders. The most com-
mon form of offering is madt io the inue of the sea,
the so-called kwupisutttrissat (the plural of hui</usu-
farinl). They are fond of foxes' flesh and foxes'
tails, which are, therefore, offered to them whenever
a fox is caucfht, that tliev mav make the fishini>'
successful In travelling, too, the Eskimos will make
offerings to certain headlands, glaciers, and the like,
which they r(\aard as dangerous, in order to get past
them unharmed. The offering is as a rule thrown
overboard into the sea ; it often consists of food, but
mav also take the form of beads or other things
which they value.

lk^sides these rehgious ceremonies the Green-
landers have others, especialij certain rules of life as
to fastinL^ abstinence, and the like, which must be
observed, for example, by women inmiediately before
or after the birth of a child. It would, however,
lead us too far to go in detail into these matters.

From this survey of the religious conceptions of
the Greenlanders, it will doubtless appear that they
are not so exempt from foreign influences as many

liELlGlOUS IDEAS

293

have been inclined to tliink. We can trace in tli.'ni
admixtures from many quarters; we have found
myths whose place of orioin is certainly as distant as
Central Asia; nay we have even found some which
unquestionably bridge the distance between Green-
land, South Africa, and the Fiji Islands.' The migra-
tions of such myths presuppose innuense periods of
time. What is perhaps most interesting for us,
however, is the traces which we find of our own
forefathers' visits to Greenland. It is not only a few
ruined buildings that bear witness to tlieir presence;
they ha\-e also left an unmistakable imj)riiit on the
spiritual life of the natives. I shall cite one or two
more examples of remai'kable resemblances to l^iro-
pean, and esi)ecially Scandinavian, superstitions,"
which must in all probability have arisen from inter-
course with our forefathers.

The Greenlanders believe that children born in
secresy, or murdered after birth, become dangerous
spectres {(uu/mk). Among other things, they are in

' As regards tlie <rreator part of tliese m.vtlis, tlie tlieorv that they
were invented independently in different parts of tlie world seems
quite inadmissible; the coincidences are too numerous and too cha-
racteristic. Examples may be cited, indeed, of the same invention
having been made independently by different races remotelv situated
from each other; but they are remarkably rare. On the other hand,
It IS surprising how certain tools, cultiNated plants, and arts or accom-
plishments have been handed on from people to people over immense
tracts of the earth. (Compare I'eschel, Abhandluwjen znr Erd- und
Votkerkunde, 1877, i. p. 4G8).

'-''i MS

ill

I. rk

.: iM

■im

1«

(!S,

:!l|l

' (li

!bi

204

ESKIMO LirE

tlie habit of seeking out a dog's skull, which they use
as a kaiak, in order to persecute and kill their kins-
folk — either their mother's later-born children, or, it
may be, their mother's bi-others, who, by reproaching
her for her misconduct, have led her to conceal the
birth. Sometimes, too, they ])ursue people in the
form of a feather, a mitten, &c.' This conception is
very like the behef in what is called atburden, which
is very widespread in Norway. These are children
who, being born hi concealment and killed, have not
received a name. They cannot rest, but, in the form
of visil)le or invisible ghosts, they pursue either the
mother or people who pass by the place where they
have been laid.- The resemblance between this
Norwegian conception and the Greenland supersti-
tion is so great that there is every probability of its
having been imported into Greenland by the old
Scandinavians.''^

^ Glahn, Nye Samling of dct Iwnffclii/e vvrskc VidevslabcUgo
Selshdn Slriffcr, i. 1784, p. 271. Eink, Talcs and Traditions of the
Eslimo, pp. 45, 391, 439 ; Kleinschmitlt, Den (jronlandsle Ordhog,
p. 33.

- See Moltke Moe's Introduction to Qvigstad and Sandberg:
Lajijjisl-e Evcntyr og Folkcsagn, p. vii; Nyrop, Mindre Ajliand-
linger udgivne af dct ])hilologisk-liistoris'kc Sanifund, Copenhagen,
1887, p. 193 ; Liebrecht, Ziir Volkskundc, p. 319.

^ I nmst not omit to note, however, that similar conceptions are to
be found in different parts of the world. In Tahiti, Oromatus, the
mightiest of spirits, is said to have come into existence in this way,
and among the Tolynesians generally the souls of children are regarded
as being especially dangerous. (Compare F. Liebreclit, in The

wwwmmm9mss!imtm»-mm

i:kli(;iou8 ideas

209

'i '/■.'

rassino- on to their fairy tales, we fiiul many which
resembh' Norwegian and othei- Enropean legends.
For example we have in Norway an as yel nnpuh-
lished tale ' of three sisters who were l)eiit npon
getting married. The one said, 'I am minded to
marry even if I got only a fox for a husband:' the
second said she would marry if she got only a goat,
and the third if she got only a s<[nirrel. Thereupon
there came a fox, a goat, and a squirrel, and took
each his wife. Their father afterwards paid a visit
to each of his sons-in-law. When he came to the
scpdrrel's house, the squirrel hade his wife han«r a
pot o\er the fire, and then all three w(Mit out and
came to a river, into which the S(|uir]-('l dived and
brought up a trout. When the man reached home
he bade his wife put a pot on the fn-e and go out
with him. On reaching a river, the man tried to

Aradetni/, iii. 1872, p. ^21.) One. of my reasons lor thinking that the
Greenhm.lers may luive borrowed their aii-ink from tlie Scandinavians
IS that, so far as I can ascertain, other Eskimo tribes liave no such
behef— at least it cannot be common among them. There is no
mention of the angiak even among the legends collected by Holm on
the east coast. On the other hand, tlierc are several apparently more
primitive myths of ordinary children who are txu-ned into monsters,
((^ompare MedileJchcr oni Grimhind, part 10, p. 2K7 ; Kink, Tales and
Traditions of the EsUvw, p. 25H ; Danish ed. snppl. p. 12o.) One of
these, who on the east coast is the cliild of tlie moon by a human mother
{Meddelclser oni Grimland, part 10, p. 281), lias on the west coast
become an angiak. This is, no doubt, a late recasting of the legend
—a theory which is borne out by the fact that variants occur on" tlie
west coast in which the angiak is an ordinary child.
^ Connnunicated by Moltke Moe.

k I

I ft

ill

t;,.-

I'll

296

ESKIMO IJFK

hiA

'ill

dive as lu' luid seen tlie squirrel do, l)ut was drowned.
In Greenland we find tliis story split into two. In
the one it is two sisters who ^^o down to the shore
and wish, the one for an eaole, the other iV)r a whale,
as a hnsband ; and these animals at onee come and
carry them ofF.^ In the otlier we are told of a pair
of old people who li^•e alone with their daughter.
One day there comes a big unknown man. who says
that he lives near them to tlie southward, and asks
for their daughter in marriage. He obtains her, and
on leaving her home asks his father-in-law to come
and pay them a visit. This tlie father-in-law does.
When he enters the house, his daughter lian«>s a
kettle over the lire and her husband goes out. The
old man looks after him through the window, but
sees only a cormorant which flies over the water,
dives, and comes u[) with a sea-scorpion. Presently
the son in-law comes in with the sea-scorpion, which
he gives to his father-in-law to eat. On the old
man's return home he asks his wife to hang the pot
over the lamp, then rows with her a little way out
from the land, and ties a stone round his neck and a
long rope round his waist, saying to his wife : ' I will
dive into the water, and when I tug at the rope you
must haul me up again.' He jumps overboard and

' Rink, Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, p. 126; Holin,
Meddelelser on Gronland, part 10, p. 276.

Lli I

1 1** H'l

/il*

1 1

]{Ki.[(}i(>rs [ih:as

1'97

sinks, and wlieii liis wilt' hauls liiiii ui) a<>-aiii lie is
drowiied.' Tlic rosemljlance Ix'twcoii this story and
the hitter part of the Xor\ve<^ian one is so great that
there can seareelv be any doubt as to its orio-in. We
must, liowever, take hito aecoiint tlie possil^ilit v that
it did not come througli the old Scandinavians,
but through Ilans Egede and his })eople, or even
later.

The following story resembles lx)th Asiatic and
European legends. A ri-indeer-hunter once saw a
iuuid)er of women bathing in a lake, lie ti)ok away
the clothes of tlie fairest of them, who had therefore
to ibllow Inm home and l)ecome his wife, whilst the
others rushed to the shore, put on their clothes, and
were transformed into geese or mergansers and flew
away. His wife bore him a son ; but presently she
set to work collecting feathers, l)y means of which she
changed botli herself and her son into birds, and flew
away with him one fine day, when tlie man was out
hunting. He set forth to search for them, and came
upon a man w^ho was cutting chips of wood which
were transformed into fishes. This man placed him
upon tlie tail of a big sahnon which lie made out of
a chip, and told him to close his eyes, whereupon the

* Rink, Tales and Traditions of the EsJdmo, Danish ed. sininl.
p. 119.

■i:,'.'

, Si

^■1

■ mu

-MtM

KSKIMO \AVK

Lit

.'hi!

iTsI

lish ])r()u<i-ht liiin to liis wife and soii.^ The Americiiu
Eskimos linve an altooetlier similar stoi'v. Amon*'
tlie Samoyedes it is related tlnit a man went out on a
jom-ney and came upon an old woman who was fell-
inii' birch trees. He helped her, and went with Ikm-
to her tent, where he hid himself. Then in came
seven girls, who talked to tlu^ old woman and went
aw;iy again. 8he said to him : 'In the darkest part
of yonder wood there is a lake : thei'e the seven girls
will jjatlie ; take away the clothes of one of them ' —
and he did so. The remainder is quite different from
the Greenland storv, and there is nothiuix at all about
their being changed into bii'ds, though their liome
was ill air or in the sky.- This stoi-y, whose likeness
to the Greeidand lesj-end is remarked bv Dr. Eink,-' is
not, however, so like it as an Icelandic storv, in
which we are told that a man was walking early one
morning beside the sea and came to the mouth of a
cave. He could hear sounds (jf dancino- and merri-
ment from inside the cave, and outside it lay a heap
of sealskins, one of which he took home with him.
Later in the day he came again to the mouth of the
cave : there sat a fair young woman quite naked, and

' P. Egede, Coitinuationaf Belationernc, Tp. 1{); Eftcrretnim/er
om Grimland, p. 55; Eink, Tales and Traditions of the EsMmo,
p. 145 ; Meddclclser om Grimland, part 11, p. 20, Suppl. p. 117.

~ Castrt'n, Eflinologishe Forddsninyar, Helsiiigfors, 1857, p. 182.

^ Meddclclser om Grimland, part 11, Snppl. p. 117.

}

JiKLKilUlS lliKAS

2299

weepliii:'. S]k' was the seal mIio owned llie skin. He
gave lier elotlies, took lier lionie willi him, married
her, and tliev liad childreii. Hnl, one day when tlie
man was out fislilno- Ins wife found the old sealskin ;
llie leniptali«)n was too strong for her, she said good-
bye to her children, put on the skin and threw her-
self into the sea.' The Greenland story, for the rest,
resend)les the swan legends which ai-e spread over
almost the whole world, and of which we have
several in Europe. That it cannot have been intro-
duced into Greenland of recent years is i)roved bv
the fact that Paul Eo-ede heard it there so lon<i' a«vo
as 1735. The possibilitv that it nniv have been
brought to Greeidand by the old Scandinavians seems
tA) me strengthened by the fact that swan-legends and
stories of a like nature do not seeni to have been
(common in America. Towers, for example, in his
book about the Indians of California, says that he can
find no stories of this nature among them.-

If space permitted 1 could adduce several other
remarkable coincidences between the folk-h)re of

' C. Andersen, Islandshc Fvlkcscuju, 1877, p. 205.

-' The Iroiiuois, hoA\ever, have ii legend of se\en boys wlio were
transfonned into birds and riew away from their parents. Tliey \m\v
also a tale of a young man who goes out fishing and comes upon some
boys who have put off their wings and are swinnning. Thc,\- give him
a pair of wings whicli enable him to fly away with them ; but they
afterwards take his wings away from him and leave him helpless.
Compare l{m]<,Mcddek'lscr om (Inmland, part 11, p. 21.

Mil 1

'^lI'Ci

m
m

'.(K)

KSKIMO Mil;

nrecnlaiid and thai of Kiiro|K'. and ('s[)('cially of
Scandinavia. It apjR'ar.s, then, dial llic inlcrcoiirsc
])etvveen tlic old Scandinavians and tlic natives must
liavc been nr(.;ite;' iliaii iias jreiieralh' lu'cii helievt'd.^

i ^

n I

' It has hitlu'itii been Hiipposod tliiit tlu'i'f are no traces of such
intercourse except in tiie Ivslunio IcKeiids (uiciitioued in (Mmpter I.), of
tlieir encounters with tlie old SciiMdinaviiuis. und in the three foUowiuy
words: iiiaa i'ov niso (porpoise), kinincl; U>r kvanne (anj,'elica) and
halalck (uieauinj,' (Ireenlaiuler). The derivation of nisa (old Norse
nisa) and Inn'oirh seenis prnl)able enou^di. thou^di some douht is
thrown on the latter by the fact that in I.abrador the word is applied
to an eatable sea-weed. Kahilck was supposed to be the same as the
Norwegian skradlin^'—the name yiven by our forefathers to the Kski-
moH, which in an Eskimo's mouth would sound something' like kalalek.
It is rather surprisinj,', however, to find the same word amonj,' the
Eskimos of Alaska in the form oihttlalih or hulhuihirli, meaning an
angekokor chieftain (Kink, Mvtldelehcroin (liihiluiul, part 11, Suppl. p.
i»4 ; TdlcN and Traditions of the EnJd)tio, Danish ed. sujjpl. p. 200). It
is possible, however, that the word may have been imported into Alaska
from Greeidand in modern times. Another thing which, as it seems to
me, may possibly be a relic of the old Scandinavians, is the cross-bow
which Holm found upon the east coast, and \vhicli wa^ formerly in uso
on the west coast also. So far as I know, it is not found among the
Indians.

1. I i

1..!, .

•fiiMV

•^

801

.;M

CKArTEU XIV

THK l.\TI{()I)L(TI()\ Ol' fllKISTlAMTV

Ai,L tills superstition of wliich I liuvc bct'ii speaking
of course seems to us mere meaningless confusion,
tlie extirpation of which nuist be an umnixed advan-
tage. Hut if we place ourselves at their point of
view, is it so nuich more meaningless for them than
our Christian dogmas, which h'ad them into a world
entirely foreign to them? In order to understand
these dogmas, they had first to transpose them into
their own key of thought, or. in other words, they
had to make them inore or less heathen before they
could really grasp them at all. It is useless to
imagine tliat a people can suddeidy, at a word of
conunand, begin to think in an entirely new manner.
This transnuitation has cost them much labour, and
though they are still heathen at l)ottom and believe
in their old legends, yet the new doctrine has intro-
duced confusion into their ideas. I'his alone micrht
tempt (me to think that it would have been better to

Cfii

P
;?ii^

302

FSKLMC) JJFE

:•}

i'.'^'-
m

Mil

III' i.

liave let theiii preserve their own. fiiith undisturbed.
It gave tliein, with their comparatively meagre capa-
city for ideas, the easiest explanation of tlieir sur-
roundings ; it peopled nature with tlie supernatural
powers which they needed for consolation when
reality became too hard and complex for them.
And how characteristic these myths are of tlie
Eskimos — for example, the conception of the region
beyond the grave ! Here there is neither silver nor
gold, neitJier gorgeous raiment nor shining palaces,
as in our stories; earthly riches have no value for
the Eskimo. Nor are there lovely women, flowery
gardens, and so forth. No ; at most there is a mud
hut, a little larger than his own, and in it sit the
happy spirits eating rotten seals' heads, which lie in
inexhaustiljle heaps under the benches ; and around it
there are splendid hunting-grounds, with quantities of
game and much sunshine. In his eyes our Paradise
of white-robed angels, where the blessed sit around
upon chairs, seems a tedious and colourless existence
which he does not understand, and which excites no
longing in him. We c;an scarcely wonder at an
angekok, who said to Niels Egede that he far pre-
ferred the tornarssuk's or ' Devil's house,' where he
had often been; 'For in heaven there is no food to
be had, but in hell there are seals and fishes in
plenty.'

THE INTIIODUCTIOX OF CHKISTrANITV

;50:{

f I'll

' 'i\*A ■■■■

One would expert that the missionaries' victory '

ovei" Ileal heiuh^ni woukl be a very easy one aniono' so

«■ ft' ,■■*

peaceful and good-humoured a people as the flreen-
landers ; l)ut this can scarcely be said to have been
the case. The natiyes had many oljjections to alleo-e

ft «/ O

a^^ainst the Cliristian assertions. For example, they
could not understand that the sin which Adam and
Eve committed ' could be so oreat and involye such
melancholy consequences ' as that the whole human
race should be condemned on account of it. ' Since
Clod knew all tliinos, why did he i)ermit the first man
and woman to sin?' The idea of free-will seems to
them, frankly speaking, mere rubbish, and, but for
free-will, Adam's offspring would never have l)een
corrupted, and the Son of God need not have
suffered.

One girl was not at all contented with the aii-

' Mission.ary activity in Greonl.uid. tlion a possession of tho Xor-
wt'gian crown, was commenced in 1721 by Hans Ejifode, who to that
end set on foot a conil)ined ccnnnicrcial and missionary compan\- in
Bergen. Tliis mission was afterwards supported by tlie Danish-Nor-
wegian Government, and after tlie separation of 1H14, by whicli
Denmark retained the Norwegian possessions of tlie Faroe Isles, Ice-
land, and Greenland, by the Danish Go\ernment alone. Ten year;;
after Egede's arrival in the country. Count Zinsendorf, wlio had heard
of his mission, despatclicd three [Moravian bretln-en to Greenland.
These also formed a little congregation, and the Gen, an or Hernhutt
mission has likewise obtained a footing. It has now a few stations in
the Godthaab district, and one or two in the exlnnne south of tlie
cotmtry. The peculiarity of these Ilernlmtt coimnunities, so far as [
could gather, is tliat in them the natives liave sunk to an even greater
depth of misery than elsewhere.

■1*3 A

rt;

•I

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iVrJ

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:»■■)

a04

ESKIMO LIFE

.il

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svver she received to tliese objections. ' She wanted
to have tlieni so answered tliat slie could inwardly
assent and feel that the answer was true, and that
she could silence those who had so nnich to say
against this part of our docli-ijie.' Similarly, they
wei-e of opinion that Adam and Eve must have been
very foohsh to think of chattering with a serpent,
and ' that they must have been very fond of fruit
since they would rather die and suffer pain than
forego a few l)ig ben-ies.' Others thought that it
was just like the kavdlunaks (Eui-opeans) ; for ' these
greedy people m-xev liave enough ; they have, and
they want to have, more than they require.' One
angekok thought it was very ui ducky that Christ, the
great angekok, wlio could even bring the dead tohfe,
was not born lummg the Ivskimos ; they would have
loved him, and obeyed him, and not done like the
foolish kavdlunaks. 'What madmen! to kih the
man who could l)ring the dead to life ! ' When they
saw that Christian Europeans quarrelled and fourrht,
they had little faith m the Christian doctrines, and
said: 'Perhaps, if we knew as much as thev, we,
too, would become inhuman.' And thev thou^dit
that it was impossible to find well-behaved Europeans,
' unless they had been sev(n'al years in Greenland and
had there learnt mort's.'

Some asked, since Christianity was so essential,

It'

THE IXTRODUCTION OF CTIKISTIANITY

30.5

why God had not instructed them in it sooner, for
then their forefathers, too, could liave o-one to lieaven.
When Paul Egede answered that perliaps God had
seen that they would not accept the Word, but rather
despise it, and thereby become more .liuilty, an old
man said that he had known many excellent people,
and had himself had a pious father ; and even if
some of them might have despised the Word, ' still
there were the women and children, who are all
credulous.' When Paul Egede explained to them
that worldly goods are ' trumpery,' altogether un-
worthy to go to heaven, someone answered : ' I did
not know that these things were not worth thinking
about : if it is so nice there, wliv are we so unwillinof
to leave the earth ? '

When the Scriptures came to be translated, con-
siderable objections presented themselves. Many
even of the Christian Greenlanders thoufiht that it
would not be advisable for their unbelievinof coun-
trymen to be told, for example, of ' Jacob's slyness
and treachery towards his father and brother, of the
patriarchs' polygamy, and especially of Simeon's and
Levi's matchless wickedness.' 'The story of Lot,'
too, they thought unfortunate. ' A selection of
what was most important would be best for this
people.' ^

' Compare Paul Egede, Eftcyrctuingcr oin (ivunliin<l,\}T^, 117, 162.

m
w

' M

306

ESKIMO LIFE

l': ■

1; i

The sacrament of the ahar, of course, seemed in
then- eyes the most arrant witchcraft, and baptism
likewise. One time, says Niels Egede, when they
had seen some Europeans goin<>- through this cere-
mony, 'an angekok asked me why I was always
denouncing those who practised witchcraft, when
here was one of our own priests performing sorceries
o\'er us ? ' To which Egede found no better answer
than that it was ' in accordance with Christ's com-
mand ; ' he did not think ' the dog had any right
to know more.' Once, when the missionaries told
a man ' that he should especially thank God who
had given him many children,' he became very
angry and answered, ' It is a great lie to say that
God has given me children, for I made them myself.
" Is it not so ? " he said, turning to his wife.'

Their criticism of the doctrine and practice of
the missionaries was sometimes so mordant that the
intelligent and honest merchant Dalager has to admit
that ' even the stupidest natives from far beyond the
colony have often confronted me with such objections
on these points as have made me groan, while the
perspiration stood on my brow.'

Divine service seems at first to have bored them
very much ; they preferred to hear about Europe,
and would ask many naive questions: 'Whether
the King was very big ? Was he strong ? Was he

THE IXTRODrCTlOX OF CIIHISTIAMTV

307

a great ani>-ekok ? And had he caught iiuuiy
whales?' Paul Egede records that when the}'
thought his father's sermons too long ' tliey went up
to liiiu and asked him if he was not soon <ioin<>- to
Stop. Then he had to measure ofl" upon his arm how
much of his discourse was left, whereupon they went
back to their places and sat moving their liands
down their arms every moment. When the preacher
paused at the end of a parjigraph, they made haste
to move the hand right out to the linger-tips ; but
when he began again they cried "Ama" (that is,
" Still more ") and moved the hand back again half
way up the arm. The singing was in my department,
and when I began a new psalm, or sane- for too lorn-,
they would often hold a wet sealskin mitten over mv
mouth.'

The missionaries' treatment of the natives was not
always of the gentlest. I may cite a couple of ex-
amples chosen at random from their own statements :
' I gave him to understand,' says Xiels Egede, ' that if
he would not let himself be persuaded by fair means,
but despised the Word of God, he should receive the
same treatment from me as other angekoks and liars
had received (namely a thrashing).' ' When I had
tried all I could by means of persuasion and ex-
hortation, without avail, I had recourse to my usual
method, flogged him soundly and turned him out of

X 2

■m

808

ESKIMO LIFE

the house.' ^ A luiii was beaten by her priest, ' be-
cause she could not believe that God was so cruel as
he represented Ilim to be ; he had said that all her
forefathers were with Tornarssuk, and were to be
tortured to all eternity, because they did not know
God.' She tried to defend them by suggesting- that
they knew no better, whereupon he lost his temper ;
and when at last she said ' that it was horrible for
her to learn that God was so terribly angry with
those who sinned that he could never forgive them,
as even wicked men will sometimes do,' he gave
her a beathig.- It cannot but jar upon us to hear of
such conduct on the part of our countrymen and
Christian missionaries towards so peaceable a people ;
and it would scarcely make a better impression upon
the natives themselves. We can only admire the
good humour which prevented them from driving the
missionaries out of their houses. In excuse for the
missionaries, we must remember that they were born
in Europe, and in a much ruder age than our own.

The conversion of the natives at first went but
slowly and with difficulty ; but they gradually dis-
covered that the missionaries were in reality great
angekoks, and that their ceremonies, such as baptism,
their doctrines and formulas, the Christian books,

' Niels Egede, Trcdic Continuation af Rclationerne, pp. 32, 45.
- VwwX'E^aike^Eftcrretningcr am G)'dnland,Tp. 221.

THE INTRODUCTIOX OF CIUUSTIAMTY

80! »

and so forth, were magical appliances, potent for
cnring disease, protecting against want, and ensnring
good fishery and other advantages; not to mention
that conversion and a little appearance of contrition
often bore immediate fruits in the shape of small
rewards from the eaj?er missionaries. Accordinolv
they said of them : ' They are good peojjle, they
gave us food when we believed and looked sorrow
fuL' A father whose son was dangerously ill, after
having had recourse to various angekoks, took
counsel with an old and experienced one ' as to
whether he should not seek help from the priest at
the Colony ; ' whereupon the old man calmly answered :
'You may do is you please; for I am of opinion
that the Word of God and the words of skilful ange-
koks are equally powerful' This gradual!}' became
the general opinion ; and as it fortunately chanced
in several cases that the Word of God seemed more
effectual than that of the angekoks, it was natural
that some should let themselves be baptised. Th(^
example once given, there were plenty to follow it,
especially when distinguished hunters led the way.

But if the Greenlanders nominally went over to
Christianity, the}' held, and still hold in a greater or
less degree, to their old faith as well. It was at
first very difficult to convhice them of the falsit}- of
the grotesque inventions of their angekoks. When

< ' S.'

,.:i;J
'hi

•I

■(?b

■ n'

I.;

:i \

m i

II ii

:\\0

i:SKLMO LIFE

tlu'v weiv rcproMched with their ci-eduhty they
niisweml simply • that they were not in the habit of
lyin.o- and therefore believed all that people said to
them.'

That they were not absolutely simple-minded,
however, in their acceptance of all that the Europeans
told them, seems clear from this, amongst other
things, that when some Greenlanders could not L^et
Niels Egede to swallow their assertion that 'they
had killed a bear on Disco which was so bi<y that it
had ice on its l)ack that never melted,' they said :
* We have belie\'ed what you tell us, but you will not
believe what we tell you.'

To show Avhat a little way below the surface
C'hristianity has gone, and how some of them, at any
rate, still understand baptism,! may mention that some
years ago in North Greenland a catechist (a man who
has received a theological education, and suppUes the
place of the clergyman in his absence) baptised not
onlv his parishioners, but also his puppies in the
name of the Father, the Son, &c. His wife was
childless, and he took this means, as he thought, of
setting matters right; and, sure enough, next year
she bore a child.

The pa]'t of their old heathenism which now most
haunts their fancy is, so far as my experience goes,
the belief in the kivitut or mountain-men (see above,

" I

TIIK IXTIJODrCTION OF CIIIMSTIAMTV

811

p. 200). Of tliese tliey stand in ureat drt^ad, and
frequently think they see them. Wliile we were at
Godthaab several of them were seen. Wlienever
anything is stolen from one of their store-r(X)ms it is
of course the kivitut who have done it, and if a
kaiak-man disai)pears, and his body is not found, he
is at once supposed to have taken to tlie mountains,
and become a kivitok. This l)elief seems of late
years to have gained ground greatly. A catechist,
in the ' Atuagagdliutit,' takes his countrymen to task
on the subject, and exclaims : ' Xo, let us believe of
those who perish on the treacherous sea that they
rest their limbs upon the great burying-ground at the
bottom of the ocean, and that their souls live in the
joys of eternity.'

I had once an unpleasant proof of tlie ingrahied
nature of this superstitious terror. At Godthaab,
late one eveniuii', I went over to one of the Green-
landers' houses with a letter which was to be sent oft
early next morning with some kaiak-men from an-
other place. When I entered, the whole house was
in deep slumber ; men and women side by side on
the chief sleeping-bench like herrings on a thwart.
Not to disturb them more than necessary, I wanted
to awaken the onlv unmarried son of the house,
Jacob, who lay alone on the window-bench. He and
I were excellent friends, and saw each other daily. I

.l-.-Sl

If
II

81 L>

ESKIMO LII-'K

I* 1

is: ;l

■i

shook him, and shouted ' Jacob ' into his ear. He
slept as heavily as ever, and I liad to shake liini long
and violently before he at last opened his eyes a little
and grunted. But wlien he saw nie bending over
him, his eyes grew glassy with terror, and he sat u]),
uttered a frightful shriek, and kicked and struck out
at me. He went on shrieking more and more wildly-,
and fought his way backwards on the Ijench. All of
those upon the main bench now sat up too and stared
in blank affright at me, while poor I stood there in
speechless astonishment at the hu])bub I had created.
At last I recovered my powers of speech, approached
Jacob, held out my hands towards him, and spoke
some reassuring words. But that only made him
worse than ever. When I saw that words were of
no avail, I stopped speakini>-, and beoan to laucrh.
whereupon the yells ceased as suddenly as they had
begun, and Jacob became as red in the face as he
had formerly been white, and muttered somethintr in
a shamefaced way about having dreamt of a kivitok
that wanted to carry him off to the mountains. I
gave him my letter, and withdrew as quickly as I
could. The next day it was known over all the
Colony that I had been a kivitok ; for the neighbours
had heard the veils.

i IS -i'

818

CHAPTER XV

EUROPEANS AND NATIVES

Tub relation of tlu' Europeans to the Greenlamlers is
in many respects unique, for the Eskimos have l)een
treated more tenderlv tlian any other primitive
people which has been subjected to our experiments
in civilisation. The Danish Grovernment certainh-
deserves the highest respect for its action in this
matter, and it were nmch to be desired that other
States would follow the example here given them.
Care for the true welfare of the natives lias been
largely operative in their polic}^ and there is scarcely
another instance of a people of hunters which has
come into such close contact with European civilisa-
tion and proselytisra, and has held its own so well for
so long a time.

We do not often meet with such enthusiasm as
that which impelled our countryman Hans Egede
and the first missionaries to seek out this at that
time almost unknown land, and led them to endure so
many hardships there. They did it with the best of

i'i

314

MSKIMo M|.|:

f I

i f'

Bi! «'

motives, aiul ilioii.Liht (hat they were thereby advaiic-
hin- both tlie spiritual and Icmporal welfare of the
l']slviiiio. If we compare this mission and the treat-
ment of (frecnland as a whole with the conduct of
Kuropeans under similar circumstances in other
parts of the woi-ld, we cannot l)iit reco.unise the
workinj[r ,,t' ;m unusually hinnane spirit ; and as we
examine the whole history of the liovenunent of
Oreenland down to our own chiy. we find ever new
and gratifying examples of this spirit.

Witli all the good will in the world, liowever,
civilised men camKjt resist the tenden(;y to look down
upon a primitive people as essentially their inferiors.
Even in the history of rireeidand we find many proofs
of this. We learn from his own writings that the
devoted Hans Egede himself cherished no small con-
tempt for the natives whom he held it his mission to
christianise. He even relates how he often beat
them, and had them flogged, or given the rope's end.
On one occasion, learning from a small l^oy that an
angekok, named Elik, had said that it would be an
easy matter to root out the foreigners who had come
to their country, he set off with seven armed men,
fell upon the angekok, took him prisoner, and
brought him to the colony. There 'he received
some blows with the rope's end, and was put in irons.'
In the evening the angekpk's sons came to inquire

'^*.

KUl{0rKAN8 AND NATIVKS

;iir,

al)()iit tlieir t'ntluT, aiul ' wt^rc ])('nnitt(nl, at tlu'irowii
r«.'(iuest, to pitcli their tents in the colony.' After ;i
few days tlie prisoner was set at liberty, anil they
Avciit away. One niioht suppose that al'ler such
treatment the Greenlanders would bear ill-will to
the foreigners ; but their nood-huniour and liospitaHly
are inconi})arable. As luck would have it, the Ibl-
lowin<,' winter, Hans l^^-ede's son, I'aul, who had
taken part in this hiiih-lianded proceeding, was
di"iven by stress of weather to a place where he was
surprised to find the an-^ekok Elik. It was not par-
ticularly pleasant, as he himself confesses ; but to his
astonishment he was invited to take up his quarters
with the angekok, who spread a reindeer skin for
him upon his own sleeping-bench. There Paul
Egede had to remain for three days, and was enter-
tained with the best of everything.' This is indeed
* To return good for e\'il ' and ' To do good to them
that hate a'Ou ' ; but Eoede attributed it to the Green-
landers' willingness ' to put up with punishment when
they feel they have deserved it.'

Hans Egede had also another habit, which does
not show the greatest possible consideration towards
the natives ; he would now and then take children
to his house, against their parents' wishes, and keep
them there to learn the laimuaiie from them. In this

' P. Egede, Efterrctningcr on Grntdand, ji. 21 ; compare also ]). 25.

316

ESKIMO LIFE

I I'!

'ill.

ip -1

:iti!

it^ :

l;|:i

connection tliey made a son^- about him : ' There
has come a strange man over the grt^at sea from the
West, wlic steals boys, and gives them thick soup
with skin upon it (that is, porridge) to eat, and dried
earth from his own land (that is, ship's biscuits).'
When Paul Egede on one occasion offered a mother
a present if she would let her son remain some time
longer with him, she answered that children were not
articles of commerce.

We can still find evidences in Greenland of how
difficult it is for us to get rid of our ingrained con-
tempt for all so-called aborigines. The motive of
the Europeans for supporting colonies in the country
is that they may be a blessing to it ; it is, of course,
exclusively for the sake of the mission and of the
natives that trade is carried on. Nevertheless, the
relation between the natives and the foreioners has
come to rest on an entirely wrong basis. The
foreigners are regarded both by themselves and by
the Greenlanders as a higher race and the lords of
the country, to whom all obedience is due : whereas,
if they were really there for the sake of the natives,
they ought rather to be their self-sacrificing servants.
Half voluntarily, half in\-oluntarily, the Europeans
ha\e themselves emphasised this relation, and have
all along treated the natives as a subject race. We
came to the country to preach Christianity ; but how

rl^A

i:UROPKANS AND NATIVES

:5] r

does this acccn-d witli our Cliristiaii doctrine of free-
dom and equality, and especially with the example
of Christ himself ?

As an instance of the <'xtent to which this al)use
has l)een carried I may mention that at several settle-
ments in South Greenland the natives are forbidden to
keep dogs, because the handful of European families
who live there want to keep ^i^oats. This prohibition
has, it is true, in n^any cases been determined upon
in the local council (see p. 321); but it has been
proposed by the Europeans, and as the Greenlanders,
as I have said, always follow their lead, it was not
difficult to i>et them to consent to it, aa'ainst their own
real wishes. I have heard them regretting bitterly
that they should have been so foolish as to ngree to
such a prohibition. The most glaring injustice,
however, is to be seen in the villages where the
German missionaries reside, and where, for no other
reason 1)ut thai his own goats may live in peace, the
reverei.d i^entleman issues an ukase forl)iddin£f his
flock to keep dogs.

I have spoken of this to m;»ny otherwise intclH-
o-ent and kind-hearted residents in Greenland, but
found them all of the opini(^u that since the dogs
chased nnd worried the a'oats, it followed as a matter
of course that they must be prohibited. On my olj-
jecting that the Europeans were few" and tlie Green-

tl:i!
1] v*

318

ESKIMO LIFE

>'i;-

landiM's luaiiv, so tliat it was more reasonable that
the latter should fbrl)id the keeping oi" goats, they
simply laughed in my face. It did not seem to
occur to them that they themselves are the inter-
lopers, and that the Eskimos have kept dogs from
time immemorial. Nor did they see anything par-
ticularly wrong in the fact that the goats often
tore the turf from the roof and walls of the Green-
landers' houses, injured their fish when it was hung
up to dry, and so forth.

Another result of the different manner in which
the rights of the Europeans and of the natives are
regarded is to be found in the regulations concerning
the sale of brandy. While it is illegal, as stated in
Chapter V., to sell Ijrandy to the natives of the
coiintr\, the European residents are free to have as
much of it as they please. Tliis is unfortunate : for
it can scarcelv fail to annov the iiatives to have it
perpetually brought home to them that they are not
held good enough to be entrusted with that which
the meanest European may have rX will. But this
ordinance becomes still more hurtful from the fact
that the Greenlanders who enter into the service of
Europeans are allowed brand}' every day, while
others can obtain it if thev sell sometliinfr to the
Europeans. That this may easily lead to the gravest
abuses is clear enough, and we may be sure that it

KUiJOl'KANS AND NATIVKS

3U)

has Mctuailly done so. I pass over minor inconsis-
tencies, sucli a;^ tlie fact that certain individual
natives of mixed descent and of social imi)ortance
are allowed to order from Europe a stated quantity
of brandv ever^- veai-.

It was of course a clear necessity to forbid the
sale of brandv in Greenland, on pain of oreath-
accelerating the extermination of the native race.
But the only right and consistent thing to do would
have been to make the prol Ibition apply to natives
and Europeans alik(\ ^luny maintain. I am aware,
that this would ha\e been to inflict an unjust hard-
ship upon the Europeans, who have all their lives
been accustomed to this stimulant ; and I know that
this would have been specially the case with regard
to people from Denmark, where l>randy is drunk at
almost every meal, even among the working classes,
and where it is thus regarded as well-nigh a necessity
of life. But notwithstanding this, I cannot but hold
to my opinion that a general prohiljition would have
been the only right and advantageous thing for both
parties. Such a demand cannot be called unjust;
for if the prohibition is known beforehand, it is
always open to any European to refrain from goino-
to Greenland, and I have no feai- but that, in anv
event, there would always Ije plenty of Europeans
in the country.

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320

ESKIMO TJFE

But mv demands would ^o still further. I hold
that not only should the sale of brandy be pro-
hibited, but also the sale of coffee, tobacco, and the
other indul)itably noxious, or at any rate valueless,
products which we have introduced among- the na-
tives. It is certain that they had no desire for them ;
on the contrary, it took us a long time to make them
acquire the taste for them. Tlie East Greenlanders
to this dav do not like coffee. On the west coast, as
before stated, we have l)een unhappily successful in
begetting tliis taste, and coffee has contributed not a
little to the decline of the race. But if the sale of
coffee to the natives were forbidden, its impor ''tion
for the use of Europeans should, of course, be for-
bidden as Avell. Many will call this fanaticism, but
I cannot help it. My opinion is that if it be indeed
for the sake of the natives that we have come to
their country and undertaken to live there and teach
them, we must prove this by our conduct, we must
fulfil consistently the duties imposed upon us by
such a responsible and difficult mission, and we must
suljmit to the small deprivations it may involve.
Such a work of self-sacrifice cannot be carried on
without deprivations. The Apostles of the Lord
have always regarded suffering as an essential part
of their calling, and if we cannot endure it we are
neither fitted for, nor worth v of, such a task, and

eui{()pi:axs AXi) xatim:s

321

oiight to refruiii from it alto«iether. If. on i]i(.
other hand, we have come to Greeiihiiid m.l for \hv.
natives' sake but for our own, that is quite a dif-
ferent matter; but in that case let us call thiiios ])v
their right names, and not use big words such as
civilisation and Christianit\'.

In order to remedy the state of lawlessness M-hicli
arose from the disuse of the old customs thi-ough
the influence of the missionaries, and from tlie fact
that the meanest European felt himself entitled to
look down upon and domineer orer the natives, the
enthusiastic energy of Dr. Eink has succeeded in
introducing the so-.alled local ^'ouncils {forstun-
dershiber), which consist partly of native memliers,
chosen by the different villages or small districts.
The intention was that in these councils all the
internal affairs of the conmiunity should l)e re<>alated
the poor-rate should be determined, and, in geneial,
law and order should be maintained. As the Green-
landers, however, did not themselves understand
these matters, the pastor in ever}- district was to act
as chairman of the council, and the other European
residents were to be members of it, and to advise
and guide the native councillors. It now appears
that the Europeans have gradually got into their
hands the whole real authority, and that the otliers
simply obey their wishes. It was a line idea, and

;J22

ESKIMO LIFE

Mil'

1^^

ill

worthy of all recognition, that the natives should
acquire the habit of self-government, and Dr. Eink's
innovation marks a turning-point for the better in
the history of the Greenlander. It suffers, however,
from the disadvantage inseparable from all measures
which the Europeans can devise for the benefit of
the natives — to wit, that it has not arisen from
among the people themselves who are to profit by
it. The introduction of new social customs is no-
where to be effected in a moment ; changes cannot
be brought about by a single act of will, but must
be the result of a long process of development in
the people themselves. An institution imposed from
without b>- foreigners must at least need a very long
time to take root in the national life. Many Green-
landers now regard it as a distinction to serve as a
councillor ; but I have also known others, and these
the most capable among them, who do not appre-
ciate the honour, holding it of more importance to
look to their hunting and to the support of their
famihes than to travel long distances in order to
attend meetings where, after all, with their exagge-
rated deference towards the Europeans, they can do
nothing but follow their lead and agree to what
measures they propose.

From what I have just said, and from many other
passages in this book, the reader may perhaps he

EUROPEANS AND NATIVES

323

inclined to conclude that the Greenlanders are a
people of no natural independence, and born for
sul)jection. This, however, is quite a mistake. On
the contrary, the Greenlander's love of freedom and in-
dependence has always been very marked. When the
Europeans first came to the country, the natives held
themselves at least their equals, and the idea of
standing in a menia' or subordinate position to
another man, as they saw the Europeans do amon«T
themselves, seemed to them strano-e and deoradin<y
It is true that the father of a family exercises a cer-
tain authority in his own household, and perhaps
over all the families wlio live in the same house ; but
this authority is so mild and unobtrusive that it is
scarcely felt. They have servants, too, in so far that
women who have no parents or other relatives to pro-
vide for them are often received into the house of a
hunter, to assist the mother, daughters, and daughters-
in-law in the household work ; but the}' stand on a
footing of equahty with them, and are thus servants
in name rather than in reaht}-. Male servants are
entirely unknown. Consequently they could with
difficulty reconcile themselves to the idea of goino-
into service ; and ^hey still dishke above evervthino'
to be ordered about in a domineering ftishion, e\'en
if their extreme peaceableness of disposition prevents
them from protesting openly.

f: *i

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324

ESKIMO LIFK

ill-!

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Tliis love of freedom rendered it difficult at first
for the Europeans to procure native servants. (Gra-
dually, however, European influence has denioralised
the natives in this respect as well, so that even
hunters now enter the service of the Company and
sometimes feel a certain pride in so doing; for.
among other things, they thus, as Danish ' ollieials,'
are entitled to their snapsemik (dram) exevy morning.
Danish ladies can still bear witness to the fact
that it is not so easy to avoid giving offence to the
pride of their Greenland maid-servants. They are
active and agreeable so long as they are well treated ;
but if a hard word is addressed to them, they will
often disappear without ceremony and not come
back again. If then the mistress is not prepared to
eat the leek and beg pardon, she must look out for
another handmaiden.

If the Greenlander sometimes impresses one as
being of a servile disposition, I tlimk the effect is
due to his astounding patience and power of taking
everything, even to the most open injustice, Avith
imperturbable calmness. It must be this patience
which Egede describes as ' the Greenlanders' inborn
stupidity and cold-bloodedness, their lazy and brutish
upbringing,' and so forth. I believe it is the hard-
ship of their life that has taught them this apparently
phlegmatic calmness. The very uncertainty of their

i:ri{()PHAXS AXl) NATIVES

:V2r,

' l\

liiiiitiiiL!", for instaiu'e, often puts tlie'ir pjiticiu'c to
the severest tests : as, i'or example, wlien tliev strike
a run of ill luck, and couie home dav after dnv with
no booty to their hungry families. E^ede least of
all had luiy right to complahi of this characteristic;
since but for it, and their extreme peaceableness of
disposition, they would certainly not have put up so
amiabl}' with the often violent proceedings of the
first Europeans. I had many an opportunity of
admiring their stoical patience — when, for example,
I would see them in the mornin" standiu"' bv the
hour in the passage of the Colonial Manager's house,
or waiting in the snow outside his door, to speak to
him or his assistant, who happened to be otherwise
engaged. They had probably some little business to
transact with them before startiniif for their homes,
often manv miles from the colonv, and it mi<?ht be of
the greatest importance to them to get away as s(Jon
as possible in order to reach their destination be-
times. If the weather happened to look threatening,
every minute would be more than precious ; but
there they would stand waiting, as immovable as
ever, and to all appearance as indifferent. If I asked
them if they were going to make a start, they only
answered , ' I don't know,' ' Perhaps, if the weather
doesn't get worse,' or something to that effect ; but I
never once heard the smallest murnmr of impatience.

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KSKLM(> UKK

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The I'ollowiii.u' of'curreiifo, for whidi my iiifor-
mnnt vouches, tiilbrds ;iii excellent illuslralioii ol'
this side of their chiirncter. An inspector at Oodt-
haal) once sent a wonian-l)o:it with its crew into the
Aiuei-alik fiord to mow grass for his goats. They
remained a lonu' time awav, and no one could under-
stand wliat had l)ecome of them. At last they
returned ; and Avhen the inspector asked why they
had been so long, they answered tliat when they got
to the place the grass was too short, so that they
had to settle down and wait until it grew.

With just the same patience do the Greeulanders
await the ripening of their own ruiil. They are a
patient people.

1 1

CIlAlTEli XVI

WHAT IIAVK Wi; ACHIHVEI)?

;■ r

The purpose of our mission and of our work of
civilisation in Greenland was, in the first place, to
win honour for ourselves before God and man, and
secure our own salvation in the other world ; and, in
the second place, to benelit the natives. JUii what
have we done ?

Let us first look at the purely material side. It
miofht seem at first sight as if we ouuht to have been
able to bring to a people like this, living practically
in the Stone Age, many things that would aid them
in their hard fight for existence. As a matter of
fact, this has been by no means the case. The
things that were of most importance for them, their
weapons and their hunting implements, were in no
way susceptible of improvement at our hands. It is
true that we brought them iron, which is useful for
harpoon-points and knives ; but the Greenlanders
were not entirely ignorant of it before, and, can,
besides, get on quite well without it. They fitted

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ESKIMO LIJK

tlieir harpoons Avitli points of hard ivory or stone,
tliey made tlieir knives of the same material, and
<'auolit, in tliose days, a .ijreaf many more seals than
tliey do now.

P)nt have not onr lii-earms been of great advan-
tage to tliem? Quite tlie reverse. The rifle, for
example, has enabled them to perpetrate terrible
slaughter among the i-eindeer, merely for the sake of
a small and momentary gain. This went so far, that
on the narrow strip of naked, broken country wliioli
stretches along the west eoast, no fewer than 10,000
reindeer were killed every year, only the skin, as a
rule, being taken and sold to the Europeans, while
the flesh, was left behind to rot. Of course, this pre-
sently led to the almost total extermination of the
animals, and hunting almost entirely ceased because,
as it was explained, ' the reindeer had left the coast.'
In former days, when they hunted with bow and
arrow, they could kill all that they required, but the
slang] Iter was never so great as seriously to diminish
the mnnbers of the reindeer.

Foi- marine hunting, too, the rifle has been the
reverse of an advantage. When there are many
seals in the fiord, they are irightened 1)y the shots
and set off to sea, whereas harpoon-hunting is carried
on in silence. :Moreover, it is, of course, easier to
kill seals with the rifle than to harpoon therii, and

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tlierel'ore the rifle lias led to a (lecliiie in skill with
the harpoon. And yet the harpoon remains of
supreme ini[)ortance ; for while the riHe hunter
must stop at home in ron_<>h weather, the harpoon
hunter can go out in all weathers and support his
family. Harpoon huntin^u', too, is the more rational
method, the wounded animal bein<;- almost always
secured ; whereas of seals wounded by the riHe, at
h'ast as many escai)e and die to no puri)ose as are
secured and brought home.

Nor has the sliot-i>un been of real service. In
many districts it has tempted the hihabitants to
devote themselves more to the easier bird-shootin<r
than to seal-hunting, which is and must ])e the pur-
suit upon which depends the very existence of the
Eskimo comnmnity ; for the seal provides flesh,
blubber, both for food and fuel, and skins for kaiaks,
boats, tents, houses, clothes, boots, and so forth —
nothing can replace it. Another evil is that, by help
of the shot-gun, the Greenlanders are enabled to kill
so many birds of certain species (for example, eider-
ducks) that their numbers are }early decreasing ;
and this will soon lead to great misery, for bird-
hunting has now become the chief means of supper.,
of many families. At Godthaab, fen- example, the
inhabitants live upon it during the greater part of
the winter, there being few capable seal-hunters. In

ESKIMO llVE

earlier times, the Eskimo killed birds with his
throwiiio-dart. It, too, was an effective weapon,
and the birds he wounded he secured ; when he now
sends his small shot scattering in among a flock of
eider-duck, who can reckon how many are destro}ed
without doing any good to anyone ?

No, we certainly cannot flatter ourselves that we
have perfected his methods of hunting ; we have
only introduced disturbance into them, the full ex-
tent of whose ruinous results we cannot even yet
foresee.

But worst of all is the irreparable injury which

all our European commodities have done to him. We

have, as I have shown, been so innnoral as to let him

acquire a taste for coffee, tobacco, bread, European

stuffs and finery ; and he has bartered away to us his

indispensable sealskins and blubber, to procure all

these things which give him only a moment's doubtful

enjoyment. In the meantime his woman-boat has

gone to ruin for want of skins, his tent likewise, and

even his kaiak, the essential condition of his existence,

will often He uncovered on the beach. The lamps in

his house have often to be extinguished in the winter,

because the autunni store of blubber has been sold to

the Company. He himself must go on winter days

clad in European rags instead of in the warm fur

garments he used to have. He has grown poorer

WJIAT HAVE WE ACHIEVED r

.•{.-.l

,1^'

and poorer, the deli<4litful summer journevs have for
the most part had to l)e abandoned ibr want of
woman-boats and tents, and all the vear round he has
now to live in confined houses where contaoious
diseases thrive and ])lav worse havoc amon«'- the
population than they ever did before. To show how-
great the decadence has been in certain districts, I
may mention that at a place near Godthaab where a
few years a^i-o there were eleven woman-l)oats,' there
was now only one, and that one Ijelonged to the
missionary.-

The statistics of population in Greenland during
recent years may at first sight seem encouraging.
For example, the number of natives on the west coast
was, in 1855, 9,G44, while in 1889 it was 10,177.
But we must not lull our conscience to sleep with
these figures ; they are unfortunately deceptive, and
the figures of the intervening years will show that
the population fluctuates very greatly. In 1881 it
was no more than 9,701, and in 1883 only 9,744
(thus showing an increase of only 100 since 1855).
In 1885 it had risen to 9,914, and in 1888 to 10,221 ;

' That a man should have a woman-boat, which was formerly the
general rule, is now ref,'ardea as a conclusive proof of exceptional
wealth and capabihty ; for he must of course catch many seals in order
to have enough skins for it. Compare ante p. 85.

'^ It must be mentioned, however, that accidental circumstances,
such as the removal of some good hunters to other places, had con-
tributed in some measure to this great falling oH.

^
•1^'

'.V.\-2

ESKIMO MKK

hut tlu'u it fell anfaiii in 1S80 to 10,177. I have no
later statistics. These fioiires, in which increase and
decrease alternate, show that the state of things can-
not be healthy. It ought not to be forgotten, too,
that Hans Egede, a centuiy and a half ago, estimated
the population of the west coast at 30,000. This is
probably a large over-estimate, but there is an
enormous margin between o(),000 and 10,177.
Assuredly this people is sailing with ' a corpse in the

cargo.

Disease has of late years increased alarmingly.
It is especially the Greenlanders' scourge, consump-
tion, or more properly tuberculosis, which makes ever
wider ravages. There can be few places in the Avorld
where so large a proportion of the population is
attacked by it. It is not quite clear whether we im-
ported this disease into Greenland, but most probably
we did; and at any rate, as I have several times
pointed out, our influence has in more ways than one
tended strongly to promote the spread of this and
other contagious diseases.'- Tuljerculosis is now so
common that it is almost easier to number those who
are not attacked by it than those who are. It is re-

' An allusion to the well-known nautical superstition.— Trans.

- For instance, by causing the natives to wear worse clothes, and
to Hve all the year round in their damp, insanitary houses, where the
«enns of disease find the best possible soil to Hnurish in, by intro-
(luchig Eiiropean articles of diet, and so forth.

WHAT II am: \vi: Atim:vKi)

•('»«»
• i*i«»

iiuirk.'ihlc, liowever, wliat a powci- of icsistaiicc the
natives .show to this disease. They .'ire sonietiiues s(»
far jioiie in it while vouiilj as to spit blood copiously,
and yet survive to a good age. T have even seen
excellent hunters who had consumption, and who
would one day lie abed si)itting Mood, and a few days
later would be out at sea again. This jjower of
resistance is probably due in part to the amount of
fat they consume, and especially to the blubber which
is admirably adapted to fortify them against the
disease. It is proved, too, that people at theCoh)nies,
.vho consequently live largely upon European fare,
are most apt to succumb to it. As a rule, however,
it reduces their strength all round, so that those
attacked by it can do little for themselves ; and it is
clear that this must hamper the activities of so small
a community. An epidemic disease such as small-
pox, which we have of course also imported and
thereby greatly thinned the population, is much to
be preferred ; for it kills its victims at once, and does
not keep them lingering like this slow, sneaking
poison.^

' It is strange that the Greenlaiiders have in great measure escaped
syphihs, which is usually one of the tirst gifts we confer upon those
primitive people whom we select as subjects for our experiments in
civilisation. It is found only in one place, Arsuk in South Greenland,
where they try to isolate it. It is only of recent years that it has been
introduced, but from what I hear it appears to have spread, and it seems
probable that it will continue to do so, and in course of time afiect the
whole population.

334

KsKr.Mo r.iFi;

We see, llicn, thai the result of our iufluenro upon
the Grociil.'Mulcrs' uiMterijil circumstances lias jjeen
a continuous decline from their fonner well-beinfr
and i)rospenty towards an almost hopeless poverty
and weakness.

Many will admit this, hut ohjeet that it was really
to i-aise the level of tlieh- spiritual life and culture
that we went to Greeidand, and that this cannot be
done save at the expense of their temporal welfare.
Let us, then, look a little at this side of our activity.
Many people think that a hi<rhly developed and
civilised connnunity can be fashioned at one stroke
out of so unpromising material as a primitive race.
This is a great mistake ; human nature is not to be
transformed at the good pleasure of individuals.
It is, indeed, capable of modification ; but the de-
^•elopment always occurs slowly, like development
in nature as a whole. We must not imagine,
therefore, that we have the right, as we have done
in Greenland and in other places, to swoop down
upon a primitive race with our civilisation and im-
pose it upon them. 'Try to fit a hand with five
fingers into a glove with four,' says Spencer, 'and the
difiiculty is strikingly like the difficulty of implanting
a complex or composite idea in a mind which has not
a correspondingly composite faculty.'

The only change which can be brought about

* WHAT IIAVK \VJ: AClIIKVEDi' ;;;;.-,

willi any sort of i-;i[)i(lity aiiioim- a jirimitivc viuv is
the ('liaii<^'e towards (It'^rciioratimi and ruin. Siicli a
change, in tlie spiritual spiici-c, sets in as soon as we
attempt to impose etliieal conceptions upon a jx-ople
at a stage of cultivation dillri'ent from our own.
This is [)re('lsely wliat we iiave achieved amoug tlie
Eskimos. When, for exam])le, in contempt of tlieir
own laws and ordinances, we have sought to imjiose
ui)on them our conceptions of i)i-operty, which are
undeniably fitted for a more deveh)ped but less
neighbour-loving conununity than that of Greeidand,
how can we ex])ect to bring about anything but
confusion and ruin? 'J'heir whole social scheme was
arranged to fit their primitive socialistic conceptions
of property, and as their habits of life are irrecon-
cilable with the new and foreign conception, de-
generation is inevitable. And as with the idea of
property, so is it with all the other ideas which we
have sought to implant in them.

To take one more example : Plow baneful to them
has been the introduction of money! Formerly they
had no means of saving up work or accumulating
riches ; for the products of their labour did not last
indefinitely, and therefore they gave away their
superfluity. But then they learned the use of
money ; so that now, when they have more than
they need for the moment, the temptation to sell the

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KSKI.MO Ml i:

overplus to iIk' lMiro|)«';iii.s, iiiNtcad of ;jiviii^' it to
their needy iiei^iiiljours, is often too ;jreMt for tlieni :
for vvitli tlui money tliey llius aecjiiire tliey can
snj)ply tlieniselves vvitli the nuicli-coveted Knropean
connnodities. Tluis we Christians help more and
more to destroy instead of to develop their old sell-
sacrificin" h)ve of tlieir neiLihl)ours. And monev
does still more to nndermine the Greenland com-
nmnitv. Their ideas of inheritance were formerlv
very vague, ibr, as before menticjned, the clothes and
weapons of a dead man were consigned with him to
the grave. Now, on the other hand, the introduction
of monev has enabled the survivors to sell the effects
of the deceased, and thev are no lon«^er ashamed to
accept as an inheritance what they can ol)tain in this
way. This may seem an advantage ; but, here, too,
their old habit of mind is upset. Greed and covet-
oiisness — vices which they formerly abhorred above
everything — have taken possession of them. Their
minds are warped and enthralled by money.

Let us, however, look at another aspect of the
case. Our true aim, I suppose, was, after all, to
make them a cultivated people, and open up to them
a wider range of spiritual interests. But even if we
could actually attain this end, must it not neces-
sarily be perilous in the highest degree to give a

people like the Eskimos new interests which may

'..'•••'■'' I •'.' * •

" >tit

• ■ ■

• • 1 I
• • • .

WHAT IIAVK \VK AnilKVKF))'

y;{7

divert iIk'iii fVnm llic (»im' tliiiiL' iummU'iiI - (he duty of
providino for tlit'iiisclvrs mihI flicir fnniilics. [t is
vamitcd as a hrilliaiit a('hi('v<'iiipiit that tlic inajoritv
of tlie natives of tli<' west coast ran now l)otli read
and write, rnfortiinately fnr them, they can; for
tliese arts are not t(. he learned for notliiii«% and fhev
have indeed to pay (l(»ar for their arcpiirenients. It
is self-evident that an Kskiino cannot jmssihly devote
his time to these hranclies of kn \'led<''e and nc^ver-
theless be as ;L'ood a hunter as when he had oidy one
interest in hfe, and h'arned aotliiiitr xcept hunting
and the mana<rem^Mit of tlie kaiik.' We have direct
evidence of tlie fact that skill with the kaiak has
declined, ill the many accidents which liavu hapi>ened
of late years. Forni<'rly. according to Kink, no
more than fifteen or twenty deaths in kaiak-hunting
occuried during the year; hut in 1888 and J 88!)
there have been thirty-one fatal kaiak accidents eacli
vear.

The chief aim of all education must surely be to
make the rising generation good and capable citizens
of the community in which their lot is cast. But in
what way does an Eskimo become a capable citizen
of his Uttle cominnnitv ? Since hnntiiifr and fishincr

' Just US I am semliiif this to i»re8s there appears Gejerstam's
Kiilturhunprn i Herjahilcn, in wtiich tlie author ar-,'uea, as I do, that
our school teaching,' has been the ruin of the Lapps, by weakening
their interest in the business of their lives.

ir 7

338

ESKIMO LlFi:

are tlva sole means of supporting existence assigned
by Nature to this community, it follows tliat lie can
become a capable citizen only by ac([uiring the
greatest possible skill in these pursuits. Of what
profit, then, to the Eskimo, is his ability to read and
write ? He assuredly does not learn hunting by help
of these arts. It is true that by means of the few
books he possesses he may gain information as to
other and better countries, unattainable conditions
and alleviations, of which he before knew nothing ;
and thus he becomes discontented with his own lot,
which was formerly the happiest he could conceive.
And then, too, he can read the Bible — but does he
understand very much of it ? And would it not do
him just as much good if the matter of it were related
to him, as his old legends used to be ? There can be
no doubt that the advantage is dearly bought. We
must bear well in mind that the Eskimo community
lives upon the very verge of possible human existence,
and that a concentrated exertion of all its energies is
necessary to enable it to carry on the fight with in-
hospitable nature. A little more ballast and it must
sink. This is what is already happening, and all the
wisdom in the world is of no avail.

The upshot, then, of European activity in Green-
land has been deijeneration and decadence in every
respect. And the only compensation we have made

WHAT HAVE WE ACHIEVED:-

;};J9

ii!

to the natives is the introduction of Ohrislianity. In
so far we have achieved i happy consununation, for,
in name at least, all the Greenlanders of the west
coast are now Christians. But the question seems to
me to be forced upon us whether this Christianity,
too, is not exceedingly dearly bought, and whether
the most ardent believer ouglit not to have some
doubts as to the blessings it has conferred upon tliis
people, when he sees how it has cost them their whole
worldlv welfare ?

What part of Christianity is most to be valued,
its dogmas or its moral teaching ? It seems to me
that even the best Christian must admit that it is the
latter which is of enduring value; for history can teach
him how variable and uncertain the interpretation
of the dogmas has always been. Of what \-alue, then,
have these dogmas, which he understands so im-
perfectly, been to the Eskimo ? Can anyone seriously
maintain that it is a matter of essential moment to a
people what dogmas it professes to believe in ?
Must not the moral laws which it obeys always l)e
the matter of primary concern ? And the Eskimo
morality was, as we have seen, in many respects
at least as good as that of the Christian communities.
So that the result of all our teachincr has been that,
in this respect too, the race has degenerated.

And lastly comes this question : Can an Eskimo

z 2

340

ESKIMO LIFE

who is nominally a Christian, but who cannot support
his family, is in ill-health and is sinking into deeper
and deeper misery, be held much more enviable than
a heathen who lives in ' spiritual darkness,' but can
support his family, is robust in body, and thoroughly
contented with life ? From the Eskimo standpoint
at any rate, the answer cannot be doubtful. If he
could see his true interest, the Eskimo would assuredly
put up this fervent petition : God save me from my
friends, my enemies I can deal with myself.

;ui

CHAPTER XVII

i!;

CO>X'LUSIOX

Let us cast a backward <,4auce over the ibreiioiiiii-
chapters, and mark what lesson they teacli us.

They show us a people, highly gifted by nature,
which used to live happily, and, in spite of its
faults, stood at a high moral standpoint. But our
civiUsation, our missions, and our commercial pro-
ducts have reduced its material conditions, its
morality, and its social order to a state of such melan-
choly decline that the whole race seems doomed to
destruction.

And yet, as we have seen, it has been more
kindly and considerately dealt with than any other
people under similar conditions. Is not this a serious
warning for us? And if we look around among
other primitive peoples, do we not find that the result
of their contact with European civilisation and Chris-
tianity has everywhere been the same ?

What has become of the Indians ? What of the

342

ESKIMO LIl-K

once so liauu'hty Mexicans, or the lii«»lily gifted
Iiicas of Peru ? Where are the aborigines of
Tasmania and the native races of Australia? Soon
there will not be a single one of them left to raise an
accusing voice against the race which has brought
them to destruction. And Africa ? Yes, it, too, is
to 1)6 Christianised; we have already begun to
plunder it, and if the negroes are not more tenacious
of life than the other races, they will doubtless go
the same waA^ when once Christianitv comes upon
them with all its colours flying. Yet we are in no
way deterred, and are ever ready with high-sounding
phrases about bringing to the poor savages the
blessinjjs of Christianitv and civilisation.

If we look at the missions of to-day, do we not
almost everywhere learn the same lesson ? Take for
instance a people like the Chinese, standing on a
high level of civilisation, and therefore, one would sup-
pose, all the better fitted to receive the new doctrine.
One of ' the most enlightened mandarins in China,
himself a Christian, and educated at European uni-
versities,' writes in the North China Daily News an
article about the missionaries and their influence, in
which, among other things, he says : 'Is it not an
open secret that it is only the meanest, most helpless,
most ignorant, necessitous, and disreputable among
the Chinese who have been and are what the mis-

CONCIA'SION

343

sionarit's call " converted " ? . . . I ask whether it
cannot be proved that these converts — men who have
thrown awav the faith of their chiklhood, men who
are forbidden by their teat.'hers to show any sym-
pathy, oi" indeed anything but contempt, for the
memories and traditions of our ancient liistory —
whether it cannot be pi-oved that these men, as soon
as they have had to reUnqnisli the hope of worldly
Ljain, have shown themselves to be worse than the
worst of the common Chinese rabble ? The mis-
sionaries are ready enough to tell their hearers that
the mandarins are a parcel of idiots who believe in
heavenly portents and all such nonsense, while the
very next day they will probably be telling the same
listeners that the sun and moon really stood still at
the command of the Hebrew general, Joshua.' As
to the allefjed beneficence of the mission towards the
natives in the way of relieving poverty and misery,
the writer asks : ' Can it be shown that this assis-
tance affords even the barest equivalent for the
money which the Chinese CTOvernment has to pay for
the protection of the missionaries ? I believe that
the interest alone of these immense sums would be
sufficient to support a much larger staff of skilful
European doctors and nurses. . . . Let it be shown
what proportion of the millions which compassionate
people in Europe and America subscribe for the

j
I'

344

ESKIMO LIFE

China missions really goes to the relief of misery.
Let it be shown how much goes to the sup})ort of the
missionaries and their wives and cliildren, to the
building of their fine houses and sanatoriums, to
postage and paper for their voluminous rose-coloured
reports, to the expenses of their congresses, and
many other things. ... Is it not an open secret
that the whole mission is nothing but a charitable
foundation for the benefit of unemployed persons in
Europe and America ? ' He further asks whether it
is not notorious that the missionaries, ' with their
high opinion of their own infallibilit}', are often in-
trusive and arrogant, and apt to mix themselves up,
with self-imposed authority, in matters that do not
concern them ? If anyone doubts that the mission-
aries, taken as a whole, are inclined to these vices,
let him study and note the tone and spirit of their
own writings.'

This account of matters forciblv reminds us, in
many particulars, of what we have just seen in
Greenland. The main difference is that when the
Chinese offer resistance to the missionaries who have
come among them uninvited, they are not simply
cuffed and fiogged. Recognising the evils that
threaten them, they ' beg the foreign powers, in the
interests of China as well as of America and Europe,
to recall the missionaries,' and having begged in vain.

CONCLUSION 34G

they then try to expel them by force ; whereupon
these gentlemen, who have come to preach tlie
Gospel of Peace, call upon their Governments for
protection, and are supported by <:unboats and troojjs
who direct a destructive lire of shells and grape-shot
upon the natives, and secure for the pious mis-
sionaries a sanguinary compensation for the harm
done to their goods and gear, as though it had never
been written : ' Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor
brass in your purses ' (Matthew x. 9).

In all this we recognise the race which, when
China sought to protect itself against the ruinous
opium-poison, forced it, by means of a bloody war,
to open its harbours to the noxious traffic,' in order
that Europeans might grow rich while the Chinese
social fabric was being undermined — from first to
last a piece of such shameless scoundrelism that no
language has words adequate to describe it. The
Eskimos, unfortunately, do not seem to be so far
WTong in thinking the Europeans a corrupt and dis-
honourable race, which ought to come to Greenland
in order to learn morals.

But do not the missions elsewhere produce better
results ? Scarcely. Statistics have recently been pub-
lished as to crime in India, which cast grave doubts
upon the benefits resulting from missionary enterprise.
As to Africa I can find no statistics, l)Ut from all 1

34()

ESKIMO LIFE

can learn it appears that there, too, the resuUs of the
missions are nothing to boast of. African travellers
are, I believe, nnaninious in declaring that the native
converts to Christianity are by no means those whom
they prefer to take into their service or to rely upon
in any way. And Norway, too, contributes its
hundreds of thousands^ yearly to the missions both
in Africa and India ! Have we so much superfluous
wealth that we cannot employ this money to better
advantage at home ? The desire to help these poor
savajzes whom we have never seen, and whose needs
we do not know, is no doubt a noble aspiration ; but
I wonder whether it would not be nobler still to
help the thousands of unfortunates whose necessities
we have daily before our eyes ? Since we are bent
on doing good works, why not begin with those
nearest to us ? Then, when all at home were beyond
the need of assistance, it would be time enough to
look abroad and inquire whether there are not else-
where others who need our help. ' Charity begins
at home.'

I am by no means arguing that all missionary
enterprise must necessarily be hurtful ; but I am of
opinion that in order to be really beneficent it must
fulfil conditions which, in our time, are almost
beyond attainment. In the first place, it demands

' Crowns, the krone being equal to Is. l^d. — Trans.

(•<)NCLI>!I()N

siirli a iiumlKT of noble, self-!<a<Tiliciii.L:', mikI alto-
wtlu'r rcmurkable iiitMi as we cannot hope to liiul all
at one time. One may come to the front, perhaps
two or three, but there can be no steady supply of
them. And then we must remember that so many
evil influences follow in tlie wake of a mission, that
the most ideal missionaries can neither hold them
aloof nor repair the dama.Lie they do to the natives.
So the result is always the same in the end.

Are we never, then, to open our eyes to what we
are really doing? Ought not all true friends of
humanity, from pole to pole, to raise a unanimous
and crushing protest against all these abuses, against
this self-righteous and scandalous treatment of our
fellow-creatures of another faith and at another stage
of civilisation ?

The time will come when posterity will sternly
condemn us, and these abuses, which we now hold
consistent with the fundamental principles of Chris-
tianity, will be branded as profoundly immoral.
Morality will then have so far developed that men
will no longer consider themselves justified in swoop-
ing down upon the first primitive people that (.-omes
in their way, in order to satisfy their own religious
vanity and to do ' good works ' which shall minister
to their self-complacency, but which may or may not
be beneficial to the race in question. Then only

'.ilK

KSKIMO I.II'K

coinpetcMil and in cvci'V .sense woll-equipped people
will take upon themselves to study the lite and
civilisation of another race in order to see whether
it needs our assistance, and ii" so, in what wav it can
best be accorded; and if the result of the in([uiry is
to show that we can do them no o'ood, thev will be
left alone. \\u\ before that time comes, most of
such races, even of those which now survive, will
have been swept awny.

If we ask, in conclusion, whether there is no
hope of salvation ibr the Eskimo community, every-
one who knows the circ.'umstances will be forced to
admit that the oidy expedient would be foi- the
Euroix'ans o'raduallv to withdraw from the countrv.
Left to themselves, and freed from suljversive foreign
inlluences, the Eskimos miulit nossiblv recover their
old habits of life, and the race mi<jjht vet be saved,
i^ut this possibility must doubtless b(^ regarded as
merely Utopian, at any rate foi- many a long day to
come. In the first place, it would be a severe blow
to the vanity of a European state to have to give uj)
an experiment in civilisation which it has once
begun, and which it has recorded in large letters to
the credit side of its account in the other world ;
and in the second place it would be useless for the
Danish colonies to withdraw uidess the ships of other

1 1

avm

NOKTIIEUN LK.'HTS — 'IHI: ])K.\U AT IL\Y'

' »

•w

(ONCLlSinN

;;n»

nations could he rt'straint'd iVoni li'adiii;^' with tlu»
natives and importinL'" lMiro])('an coininoditics, cspi;-
i'ially hrandv.

Bur at)ai*l from tlicir intcrcoui'sc with us, anotlicr
daii,Li(*r tlu'catciis the Rskinios : to wit, tiic alarming
dcci'ca.sc in tlic nundxM' of seals. Tliis is not (hn- to
their own lislicries, in wliicli tlie 'take' is inliiii-
tesinial in comparison witli tlie hundi-eds of thousands
of newly born seal-wlielps wliicli tlie Enro])ean and
American sealers slau,L!'ht(!r every year, especially
upon the drift -i(X' off Xewfoundland. Ilei'e it is
aj^ain the white race which injures the l*]skimo ; hut
even if he knew of it, he would not hav<' the power
to set aiiv linuts to the abuse ; his voice cannot
make itself heard. Yet seal-hunting is an industry
with which our society could very well dispense,
while for the Eskimo the seal means life itself.

Thus we find this loveable people inevitably
destined either to pass utterly away or to decline
into the shadow of what it once was. liut the
Greenlander bears up cheerfully, and is perhaps
happier than we are apt to be ; he does not realise
his own ruin, and does not hale us, but ij-ives us a
friendly welcome when we come to him.

Greenland was once an excellent source of revenue
to the Danish Government ; but that time is past.
Now the Royal Greenland C/ompany and the mission

/ )

;3oO

ESKIMO JJFK

cost large sums every year, and the sums will grow
ever larger. Is it to be expected that the Danish
Govermnent will keep this going for ever? Would
it not be better and wiser for us first to recall our out-
posts, and then gradually to withdraw the colonies
and hand over the warehouses and buildings to the
natives ? In my own opinion, the very best thing
we could do in the end would be to pack up all the
stores, put them and the traders on board the Com-
pany's nine ships, and set sail with the whole back
to Denmark. This will have to be done sooner or
later, but perhaps not until tliei'e are no natives left
behind to inhabit the land. The lifeless numbness
of the inland ice will extend to the margin of the
sea, where only the moLU-nful wail of the seagulls
will be heard along the unpeopled shores. The sun
will rise and set and waste its glory over a deserted
land. Only once in a while will some storm-driven
ship skirt the desolate coasts. But in the long
winter niofhts the dead will dance in shinmiering
sheets of lij^ht over the eternal silence of the snow-
fields.

TUF': END.

I'lUNTKii i;v
spoTTr.«*woor>K Avn fo.. NF.w-sTitiii;r syuAitu

LONDON

*■