RELIGIOUS BELIEFS OF THE CENTRAL ESKIMO. 631 



one stabs her, and by this means they cut off all the transgressions 

 The ceremony is performed in a darkened snow-house. After the cere- 

 mony the lamps are lighted again and the people see the harpoon and 

 the knife that were used in the ceremony covered with blood. If the 

 angakut should fail to free Sedna from the transgressions, bad weather 

 and hunger would prevail during the ensuing winter. On the following 

 day Sedna sends her servant, who is called Kaileteta, to visit the tribe. 

 She is represented by a man dressed in a woman's costume and wearing 

 a mask made of seal-skin. On this day the people wear attached to 

 their hoods pieces of skin of that animal of which their first clothing 

 was made after they were born. It seems that the skins of certain ani- 

 mals are used for this purpose, each month having one animal of its 

 own. It is said that if they should not wear the skin of the proper 

 animal, Sedna would be offended and would punish them. 



The angakut also cure sick persons and make good weather with 

 the help of their guardian spirits. They discover transgressions of 

 taboos and other causes of ill luck. One of the most curious methods 

 of divination applied by the angakut is that of 'head-lifting.' A thong 

 is placed around the head of a person who lies down next to the patient. 

 The thong is attached to the end of a stick which is held in hand by 

 the angakok. Then the latter asks questions as to the nature and out- 

 come of the disease, which are supposed to be answered by the soul of a 

 dead person, which makes it impossible for the head to be lifted if the 

 answer is affirmative, while the head is raised easily if the answer is 

 negative. As soon as the soul of the departed leaves, the head can be 

 moved without difficulty. 



Amulets are extensively used as a protection against evil influences 

 and to secure good luck. Pregnant women wear the teeth of wolves on 

 the backs of their shirts. These same teeth are fastened to the edge of 

 the infant's hood. The string which passes under the large hood of the 

 woman who carries her child on her back is fastened at one end to a 

 bear's tooth, which serves to strengthen the child's soul. When the 

 child begins to walk about, this string and the bear's tooth are attached 

 to its shirt and worn as amulets. Pyrites, when thrown upon a spirit, 

 are believed to drive it away. 



As compared with the beliefs of the Greenlanders, the beliefs of the 

 Central Eskimo are characterized by the great importance of the Sedna 

 myth and the entire absence of the belief in a powerful spirit called 

 Tonarssuk, which seems to have been one of the principal features of 

 Greenland beliefs. There is an evident tendency among the Central 

 Eskimo to affiliate all customs and beliefs with the myth of the origin 

 of sea animals. This tendency seems to have been one of the prin- 

 cipal causes that molded the customs and beliefs of the people into the 

 form in which they appear at the present time. 



