CUMBERLAND SOUND AND ITS ESKIMOS. -jjj 



Only those who have been good and brave on the earth escape 

 Sedna, and lead happy lives in the upper-land of Kudliwun. This 

 land is full of reindeer ; it is never cold there, and snow and ice never 

 visit it. Those, also, who have died a violent death may go into the 

 fields of the blessed. But whoever has been with Sedna must always 

 stay in the land of Adliwun, and hunt whales and walruses. With all 

 the other evil spiiuts, Sedna now lingers in the fall among the Innuit. 

 But, while the others 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 

 singing and praying, and conjuring of the spirits is going on in every 

 house. The lamps burn low. The wizard sits in a mystic gloom in the 

 back part of the hut. He has thrown off his outer coat and drawn the 

 hood of his inner garment over his head. Muttering undistinguish- 

 able words, he throws his arms feverishly around his body. He utters 

 sounds which it is hard to ascribe to a human voice. At last the guard- 

 ian spirit responds to the invocation. The AngeJco lies in a trance, 

 and when he comes to himself he promises, in incoherent phrases, the 

 help of the good spirit against the Tupilak, and informs the credulous, 

 affrighted Innuit how they can escape the dreaded evil. 



The hardest task, that of driving away Sedna, is reserved for the 

 most powerful wizards. A rope is coiled on the floor of a large hut, 

 in such a manner as to leave a small opening at the top, which rep- 

 resents the breathing-hole of a seal. Two wizards stand by the side 

 of it, one of them holding the seal-spear in his hand as if he were watch- 

 ing at the seal-hole in the winter, the other holding the harpoon-rope. 

 Another Angeko sits in the back of the hut, whose office it is to lure 

 Sedna up with magic song. At last Sedna comes up through the hard 

 earth, and the Angeko hears her heavy breathing ; now she emerges 

 from the ground, and meets the wizards waiting at the hole. She is 

 harpooned, and sinks away in angry haste, drawing after her the har- 

 poon, to which the two men hold with all their strength. Only by a 

 desperate effort does she tear herself away from it and return to her 

 dwelling in Adliwun. Nothing is left with the two men but the 

 blood-sprinkled harpoon, which they proudly show to the Innuit. 



Sedna and the other evil spirits are at last driven away, and a great 

 festival for young and old is celebrated on the next day in honor of 

 the event. But they must still be careful, for the wounded Sedna is 

 greatly enraged, and will seize any one whom she can find out of his 

 hut. So, on this day, they all wear protecting amulets on the tops of 

 their hoods. 



The men assemble early in the morning in the middle of the settle- 

 ments. As soon as they have all got together, they run screaming and 

 jumping around the houses, following the course of the sun. A few, 

 dressed in women's jackets, run in the opposite direction. They are 

 those who were born in abnormal positions. The circuit made, they 



