Franz Boas

“ While the other spirits fill the air and the water, she rises from under the ground.
It is then a busy season for the wizards. In every hut we may hear them singing and praying; conjuring of the spirits is going on in every house. ”

“ Long before the day begins to dawn the Eskimo prepares for hunting. He rouses his housemates; his wife supplies the lamp with a new wick and fresh blubber 562 and the dim light which has been kept burning during the night quickly brightens up and warms the hut. While the woman is busy preparing breakfast the man fits up his sledge for hunting. He takes the snow block which closes the entrance of the dwelling room during the night out of the doorway and passes through the low passages. Within the passage the dogs are sleeping, tired by the fatigues of the day before. ”

“ He was nearly frightened to death and almost upset his kayak. However, he managed to balance it again and cried in answer, lifting up his spear: “I shall kill you with my spear.” When Arnaitiang heard these words she fell down terror stricken and broke her knife. Kiviung then observed that it was made of a thin slab of fresh water ice.
He traveled on for many days and nights, following the shore. At last he came to a hut, and again a lamp was burning inside. As his clothing was wet and he was hungry, he landed and entered the house. There he found a woman who lived all alone with her daughter. ”

“ The circuit made, they visit every hut, and the woman of the house must always be in waiting for them. When she hears the noise of the band she comes out and throws a dish containing little gifts of meat, ivory trinkets, and articles of sealskin into the yelling crowd, of which each one helps himself to what he can get. ”

“ Besides the configuration of the land, the extent of the land ice formed during the winter is of vital importance to the inhabitants of the Arctic region, because during the greater part of the year it affords the only means of communication between the tribes, and because in winter the seal, which constitutes the principal food of the Eskimo, takes to those parts of the coast where extensive floes are formed. Therefore the state of the ice regulates the distribution of the natives during the greater part of the year and must be considered in studying the habits of the Eskimo. ”

“ In the entrance across the threshold lies Sedna’s dog watching her house. Like her, the father has only one eye, and he never moves from his place while in the house.
The dead, who are seized by Sedna’s father, Anguta, are carried to this dwelling. The dog moves aside only a little, just enough to allow the souls to pass. They have to stay in this dismal abode during a whole year, lying by the side of Anguta, who pinches them.
The happy land is heaven and is called Qudlivun (the uppermost ones) . It abounds with deer, which are easily caught, and no ice or snow ever visits it. ”

“ Meanwhile the women, who stay at home, are engaged in their domestic occupations, mending boots and making new clothing, or they visit one another, taking some work with them, or pass their time with games or in playing with the children. While sitting at their sewing and at the same time watching their lamps and cooking the meat, they incessantly hum their favorite tunes. ”

“ Before leaving Cumberland Sound and its inhabitants, the Oqomiut, altogether, I wish to add a few remarks on the whale fishery, which the Eskimo formerly carried on in their bulky skin boats. They pursued the monstrous animal in all waters with their imperfect weapons, for a single capture supplied them with food and fuel for a long time. I do not know with certainty whether the natives used to bring their boats to the floe edge in the spring in order to await the arrival of the whales, as the Scotch and American whalers do nowadays, or whether the animals were caught only in summer. ”

“ As soon as the ice has consolidated in winter a lively intercourse springs up between the settlements. Friends visit one another, trading excursions are undertaken, and almost every few days visitors arrive at the village. They are welcomed with great hospitality. The sledge is unloaded and the dogs are fed by the host. The visitor is led into the hut, served with the choicest pieces of meat, and the hostess puts his clothing in order. ”

“ Though dogs are of no use in the chase of the nimble deer, they are of great help in hunting this animal. When a track is found the dogs are let loose and soon overtake the herd. The latter form a circle of defense in which they are kept at bay until the hunter approaches. While the dogs continue attacking and dodging, the musk oxen try to hit them with their horns and do not heed the Eskimo, who assails them at close quarters with a lance to which a thong is frequently attached. When an ox is wounded it makes an impetuous attack on the hunter, who dodges to one side. ”

“ I will now give a description of the methods of hunting seals and walrus during the summer. As long as ice cakes are drifting in the bays the natives do not use their seal floats, which would be severed from the line and easily torn to pieces. They paddle to a small cake, on which they lift their kayaks, and cautiously move the cake towards another one on which a seal or walrus is asleep. After they have come within range of their game they shoot it. As an abundance of all kinds of seals and walrus are basking on the ice plenty of food can be obtained. ”

“ When a seal is brought to the huts everybody is entitled to a share of the meat and blubber, which is distributed by the hunter himself or carried to the individual huts by his wife. This custom is only practiced when food is scarce. In time of plenty only the housemates receive a share of the animal.
A ground seal belongs to all the men who take part in the hunt, the skin especially being divided among them. A walrus is cut up at once into as many parts as there are hunters, the one who first struck it having the choice of the parts and receiving the head. ”

“ Sometimes traveling parties that are not acquainted with the nature of the country which they visit are in want of food. For instance, a large company, consisting of three boat crews, were starved on the eastern shore of Fox Basin, their boats being crushed by the heavy ice and the game they expected to find in abundance having left the region altogether. On one of the numerous islands of Nettilling a number of women and children perished, as the men, who had been deer hunting, were unable to find their way back to the place in which they had erected their huts. ”

“ That the mode of life of the Eskimo depends wholly on the distribution of these animals will therefore be apparent, for, as already observed, they regulate their dwelling places in accordance with the migrations of the latter from place to place in search of food.
When the constraint of winter is broken the natives leave their old habitations. The warm rays of the sun melt the roofs of their snow houses, the strong vaults which afforded shelter and comfortable warmth during the long cold winter begin to break down, and new houses must be built. ”

“ In Arctic America the abundance of seals found in all parts of the sea enables man to withstand the inclemency of the climate and the sterility of the soil. The skins of seals furnish the material for summer garments and for the tent; their flesh is almost the only food, and their blubber the indispensable fuel during the long dark winter. Scarcely less important is the deer, of whose heavy skin the winter garments are made, and these enable the Eskimo to brave the storms and the cold of winter. ”

“ On the fourth day after death the relatives may go for the first time upon the ice, but the men are not allowed to hunt; on the next day they must go sealing, but without dogs and sledge, walking to the hunting ground and dragging the seal home. On the sixth day they are at liberty to use their dogs again. For a whole year they must not join in any festival and are not allowed to sing certain songs.
If a married woman dies the widower is not permitted to keep any part of the first seal he catches after her death except the flesh. Skin, blubber, bones, and entrails must be sunk in the sea. ”

“ Another spirit of which the natives are in great fear is Qiqirn, a phantom in the shape of a huge dog almost without hair. Like the bear which has been alluded to, it has hair only at the mouth, the feet, and the points of the ears and the tail. If it comes near dogs or men they fall into fits and only recover when Qiqirn has left. It is exceedingly afraid of men and runs away as soon as an angakoq descries it.
A very remarkable tornaq is the qaggim inua, i.e., master of the dancing house. The natives build large houses for feasting, singing, and dancing, which are devoted to spirits. ”

“ One pretends to probe them with a spear, another to stab them with a knife, one to cut off their arms and legs, another to beat them unmercifully on the head. The buoys which they carry on their backs are ripped open and collapse and soon they both lie as if dead beside their broken weapons (pilektung) . 606 The Eskimo leave them to get their drinking cups and the qailertetang awake to new life. Each man fills his sealskin with water, passes a cup to them, and inquires about the future, about the fortunes of the hunt and the events of life. ”

“ When the Eskimo who have spent the summer inland return at the beginning of October they eagerly offer their services at the stations, for they receive in payment for a half year’s work a gun, a harmonium or something of that nature, and a ration of provisions for their families, with tobacco every week. Every Saturday the women come into the house of the station, at the blowing of the horn, to receive their bread, coffee, sirup, and the precious tobacco. In return the Eskimo is expected to deliver in the kitchen of the station a piece of every seal he catches. ”

“ Other favorite localities for deer hunting are west of Repulse Bay or near Lyon Inlet. Large deposits of venison are made, and when the deer go south the natives settle in the center of their summer’s hunting ground, building their snow houses on the lakes in order to have a supply of water near at hand. About January most of them gather in one settlement, which is established at Uglariaq, Naujan, or Inugsulik. Those who come from Lyon Inlet do not always join the Repulse Bay tribe, but may be identical with Parry’s Winter Island Eskimo, who move to the bay south of Lyon Inlet in winter. ”

“ Wherever water holes are found they are frequently visited during the winter by the Eskimo, especially by those who have firearms. They lie in wait at the lower side of the hole, i.e., the side to which the tide sets, and when the seal blows they shoot him, securing him with the harpoon after he has drifted to the edge of the ice. These holes can only be visited at spring tides, as in the intervals a treacherous floe partly covers the opening and is not destroyed until the next spring tide. ”

“ Strangers visiting their friends for a season are generally in a similar position, though they receive a wife if the host happens to have more than one; if the friend has hunting gear, a sledge, and dogs of his own, he can arrange a separate fireplace in the hut.
In summer most families have each their own tent, but in the fall from two to four join in building a house. Frequently the parents live on one side, the family of the son-in-law on the other, and a friend or relative in a small recess. Sometimes two houses have a common entrance or the passages communicate with one another. ”

“ If a scarcity of food prevails in the village and a hunter has caught a few seals, every inhabitant of the settlement receives a piece of meat and blubber, which he takes to his hut, and the successful hunter invites all hands to a feast. ”

“ A remarkable method of killing wolves has been described by Klutschak (p. 192) and confirmed by the Eskimo of Cumberland Sound. A sharp knife is smeared with deer’s blood and sunk into the snow, the edge only protruding. The wolves lick the knife and cut their tongues so severely as to bleed to death. Another method is to roll a strip of whalebone, about two feet long, in a coil, which is tied up with sinews. At each end a small metal edge is attached to the whalebone. This strip, wrapped in a piece of blubber or meat, is gulped down by the hungry wolf. ”

“ The meat of the whale, seal, or walrus must not be eaten on the same day with venison. It is not permitted that both sorts of meat lie on the floor of the hut or behind the lamps at the same time. If a man who has eaten venison in the morning happens to enter a hut in which seal meat is being cooked he is allowed to eat venison on the bed, but it must be wrapped up before being carried into the hut and he must take care to keep clear of the floor. Before changing from one food to the other the Eskimo must wash themselves. ”

“ Of all these games I observed only the one called pitkusiraqpoq by Parry, which I saw played several times at Cumberland Sound. (See Appendix, Note 3.)
While in times of plenty the home life is quite cheerful, the house presents a sad and gloomy appearance if stormy weather prevents the men from hunting. The stores are quickly consumed, one lamp after another is extinguished, and everybody sits motionless in the dark hut. Nevertheless the women and men do not stop humming their monotonous amna aya and their stoicism in enduring the pangs of hunger is really wonderful. ”

“ The form of this tradition as related by the Akudnirmiut is somewhat different. During a famine a woman (I could not learn whether she was identical with Sedna or not) carried her boots to the hills and transformed them by magic into deer, which spread all over the country. Then she carried her breeches to the sea, where they were changed into walrus. The first deer, however, had large tusks and no horns, while the walrus had horns and no tusks. The Eskimo soon found that this was very dangerous for the hunter, as the deer killed pursuers with their tusks, while the walrus upset the boats. ”

“ As long as there is no fear of sudden death the relatives and friends may come to visit him, but when death is impending the house is shut up and he is left alone to die. If it should happen that a person dies in a hut among its inmates, everything belonging to the hut must be destroyed or thrown away, even the tools &c. lying inside becoming useless to the survivors, but the tent poles may be used again after a year has elapsed. No doubt this custom explains the isolation of the sick. If a child dies in a hut and the mother immediately rushes out with it, the contents of the hut may be saved. ”

“ While the families generally leave what they can spare of their household goods in winter at their summer settlement, they bring away everything they possess to the winter village if they intend to visit a neighboring tribe in the spring. In April or May they leave their snow houses; the tent poles and the whole of their goods are loaded upon the sledge, only the boats being left behind in charge of some friend, and then they start upon their long, lonely journey. ”

“ When the hunters, in their canoes, perceive a large herd sleeping on the floating ice, as is their custom, they paddle to some other piece near them, which is small enough to be moved. On this they lift their canoes, and then bore several holes, through which they fasten their tough lines, and when everything is ready, they silently paddle the hummock towards their prey, each man sitting by his own line and spear. In this manner they, reach the ice on which the walruses are lying snoring; and if they please, each man may strike an animal, though, in general, two persons attack the same beast. ”