RELIGION. MODES OF BURIAL. 511 



articles of clothing are hung up to dry, a woman, apparently 

 engaged in the preparation of food, and a hunting scene. A 

 decoy, roughly representing the head and antlers of a reindeer, 

 has been put up ; and a real reindeer, while unsuspiciously 

 browsing close by, is about to be shot by an Esquimaux 

 hunter. In fig. 221 are represented two animals, apparently 

 intended for crocodiles ; the draughtsman must, I think, have 

 seen drawings of this animal in some European vessel. 



According to Crantz, the Greenland Esquimaux "have 

 neither a religious nor idolatrous worship, nor so much as 

 any ceremonies to be perceived tending towards it."* This 

 statement has been confirmed by many other observers.-)* 

 Their burial ceremonies have, however, been supposed to indi- 

 cate a belief in the resurrection. They generally bend the 

 body into a sitting posture, bringing the knees up tinder the 

 chin, and then wrap the corpse in one of their best skins. 

 For the grave they choose some high place, and over the 

 corpse they make a heap of stones. Near the body some of 

 them place the implements of the deceased, and even some- 

 times, if he was a man, his kajak ; believing, as it has been 

 said, that they will be of use to him in the new world. Egede, J 

 however, expressly denies that it is done with any such idea. 

 This view is also confirmed by Hall, according to whom the 

 Esquimaux have a superstitious objection to use, or even 

 touch, anything which has been in a house containing a dead 

 body. It is, perhaps, the same idea which induces them to 

 remove a corpse, not through the ordinary entrance, but by 

 way of the window. || In other cases, when a person is evi- 

 dently dying, they place by him everything which can soothe 



* I.e. p. 197. Arctic Expedition, vol. ii. p. 44 ; 



t Graah's Voyage to Greenland, Egede, I.e. p. 183. 

 p. 123 ; Ross, Baffin's Bay, vol. i. I.e. p. 151. 

 p. 1 75 ; Voyage of Discovery, p. 1 28 ; 1. c. vol. i. p. 201 , vol. ii. p. 221 , 



Parry, I.e. p. 551; Richardson's || Graah, 1. c. p. 128 ; Ross, Arctic 



Expedition, 1829-33, p. 290. 



