626 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



he threw her into the water. She held on to the gunwale; then the 

 father took his hatchet and chopped off the first joints of her fingers. 

 When they fell into the water they were transformed into whales, the 

 nails becoming the whalebone. Still she clung to the boat; again he 

 took his hatchet and chopped off the second joints of her fingers. They 

 became transformed into ground seals. Still she clung to the boat; 

 then he chopped off the last joints of her fingers, which became trans- 

 formed into seals. Now she clung on to the boat with the stumps of 

 her hands, and her father took his steering-oar and knocked out her 

 left eye. She fell backward into the water and he paddled ashore. 



"Then he filled with stones the boots in which the dog was accus- 

 tomed to carry meat to his family, and only covered the top with meat. 

 The dog started to swim across, but when he was halfway the heavy 

 stones dragged him down. He began to sink and was drowned. A 

 great noise was heard while he was drowning. The father took down 

 his tent and went down to the beach at the time of low water. There 

 he lay down and covered himself with the tent. The flood tide rose 

 and covered him, and when the waters receded he had disappeared." 



This woman, the mother of the sea-mammals, may be considered 

 the principal deity of the Central Eskimo. She has supreme sway over 

 the destinies of mankind, and almost all the observances of these tribes 

 are for the purpose of retaining her good-will or of propitiating her if 

 she has been offended. Among the eastern tribes of this region she is 

 called Sedna, while the tribes west of Hudson Bay call her Nuliayuk. 

 She is believed to live in a lower world, in a house built of stone and 

 whale-ribs. In accordance with the myth, she is said to have but one 

 eye. She cannot walk, but slides along, one leg bent under, the other 

 stretched forward. Her father lives with her in this house, and lies 

 covered up with his tent. The dog watches the entrance, being sta- 

 tioned on the floor of the house. 



The souls of seals, ground seals and whales are believed to proceed 

 from her house. After one of these animals has been killed its soul 

 stays with the body for three days. Then it goes back to Sedna's abode, 

 to be sent forth again by her. If, during the three days that the soul 

 stays with the body, any taboo or prescribed custom is violated, the vio- 

 lation becomes attached to the animal's soul. Although the latter 

 strives to free itself of these attachments, which give it pain, it is un- 

 able to do so, and takes them down to Sedna. The attachments, in some 

 manner that is not explained, make her hands sore, and she punishes 

 the people who are the cause of her pains by sending to them sickness, 

 bad weather and starvation. The object of the innumerable taboos 

 that are in force after the killing of tbese sea animals is therefore to 

 keep their souls free from attachments that would hurt their souls as 

 well as Sedna. 



