﻿366 ESKIMOS. 



I have mentioned such a building as existing at 

 Point Atkinson (page 254.), but that was of inferior 

 size, being indeed suited to a smaller community. 

 In the language of the Labrador Eskimos Kashi- 

 minwik, or KasMmm-wikhak, signifies, " a place 

 where men assemble in council;" smd Kasclwn-i-ut, 

 " an assemblage of men for council;" from which 

 we derive additional evidence of the national 

 identity of the two people. 



The kashim is the sleeping apartment for all 

 the adult able-bodied males of the village, who 

 retire to it at sunset ; while the old men, women, 

 children, and the shaman sleep in the ordinary 

 dwellings. Early in the morning the shaman goes 

 to the kashim with his drum, and performs some 

 religious ceremony, varied as his fancy prompts, 

 for the shamanism of the tribes of the Eskimo stock 

 is said not to be guided in its ceremonials by any 

 fixed practice.* The only women who are allowed 

 to enter the kashim to eat with the men are those 



* Augustus informed us that in his tribe, which occupies the 

 coast of Hudson's Bay between Churchill and Knap's Bay, there 

 were sixteen men and three women who were acquainted with the 

 mysteries of shamanism. The women exhibited their skill on 

 their own sex only. When the shaman was sent for to cure 

 a sick person, he shut himself into a tent with his patient, and, 

 without tasting food, sung over him for days together. The 

 shamans also swallowed knives, fired bullets into their bodies, 

 and practised various other deceptions to show their powers. 



