﻿SUSCEPTIBILITY OF CULTIVATION. 359 



is the Shamanism, or influence which certain in- 

 dividuals claim to possess over the evil spirits. 

 Sorcery has been reduced to a system on the 

 shores of Beering's Sea ; and that it is not un- 

 known even on the Labrador coast, the following 

 words, collected from an Okkak dictionary, will 

 show. Ange-kok^ " a shaman ; " Elihetak^ " one killed 

 by sorcery ;" I-yerok^ " the devil's servant or rnQ^- 

 senger'y" ]Vang-mer-7n{nik, "an appearance produced 

 by a sorcerer ;" Torngak^ " a devil or evil spirit ;" 

 Torngiwok, *' he performs the office of a sorcerer." 



As to intelligence and susceptibility of civilisa- 

 tion, I consider the Eskimos as ranking above the 

 neighbouring Indian nations, though my personal 

 experience on this head, being confined to the 

 interpreters employed on the several expeditions 

 to which I have been attached, is perhaps too 

 limited to found much upon. These individuals, 

 however, showed a docility, industry, steadiness of 

 purpose, a ready adoption of European customs, 

 and an amiability which I did not observe among 

 the Northern Indians or Crees in the course of 

 several years' study of their characters. 



The success of the Moravian missionaries, in 

 introducing Christianity and the arts of reading 

 and writing among the population of the Labrador 

 coast, is a strong inducement to attempt an ex- 

 tension of the same system of instruction to the 



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