162 GRKENL,AJN1>. 



while often he is spoken of as purely spirit. The other 

 great spirit, supposed to be the principle of evil, is repre- 

 sented as a female, but has no name. 



The angerkoks profess, by means of their familiar 

 spirit, to charm away bad luck from the hunter, to 

 change the weather, or to heal the sick. The lesser 

 spirits are believed to control the different elements, and 

 from their ranks Tongarsuk selects the familiars for the 

 priests. One of these lesser spirits, who rules the air, 

 is supposed to be so vicious, that the Eskimos are loath 

 to stir out after dark for fear of offending him. 



They suppose the sun and moon to be brother and 

 sister, who having quarrelled, the sun bit off one of his 

 sister's breasts ; and the maimed appearance presented by 

 the moon is caused by her turning her wounded side to the 

 earth. The aurora borealis is supposed to be the game 

 of " hockey," played by the departed spirits of their 

 friends and relatives. 



Now, however, owing to the unwearied labours of 

 missionaries in Danish Greenland, I believe, there is not 

 one heathen remaining. A few customs, which are fol- 

 lowed more from habit than belief, however, remain, 

 though these are not more absurd than many which 

 obtain in any country district in Great Britian or Ireland. 



In Smith Sound, and on the western shores of Baffin's 

 Bay or Davis' Strait, the Eskimos are yet in the darkness 

 of heathenism, and there are many "angerkoks"' who 

 believe all the superstitions I have mentioned. 



From incidental reference to the social life of the 



