100 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



All the Eskimos of Baffin Land are fond of music and poetry. 

 They sing the old songs of their people, and spend the long winter 

 nights telling traditions and singing the old monotonous tunes of 

 their songs or composing new ones. I made the acquaintance of 

 a few poets whose songs were known in every place I visited. 



All their tales and the themes of the old songs are closely con- 

 nected with their religious ideas. • Though there is a strong resem- 

 blance between many of their own traditions and those of the Green- 

 landers, I found quite a number of new tales and religious ideas 

 hitherto unknown. They are familiar with the Erkilik of the 

 Greenlanders, whom they mostly call Adlet, and the Tudnik, who, 

 however, do not inhabit the interior but are said to have lived 

 formerly with the Eskimos on the same shores and in the same 

 settlements. According to their tradition, which is only preserved 

 in parts in Greenland, the Adlet, Kodlunarn, (white men) and Innuit 

 are the children of one mother and her husband, a red dog, who 

 ]ived at Igluling, in Fury and Hecla Strait. From there all the 

 different tribes of Innuit are said to have spread over the country, 

 now occupied by them. 



It is worth noticing that the Labrador Eskimos know the Adlat 

 and the Tudnik too. In Erdmann's Worterbuch des Labrador 

 Dialects, Adlat is explained as Indian of the Interior ; Tudnik as a 

 Greenlander. I believe, however, that these meanings were given 

 to these words by the missionaries, while in reality they signify the 

 same as in Baffin Land and Greenland. To learn whether there 

 are any traditions relating to the Adlat or Erkillek would be of 

 special interest. 



The Eskimos of Baffin Land have no knowledge of the Supreme 

 Being, Torngarsuk, whom the Greenlanders once considered to be 

 superior to all the numerous lower spirits called the Torgnet. Of 

 these there are a great many, but the most prominent ones ap- 

 pear in the shape of a bear, a man, or a woman, inhabiting the 

 large boulders, which are found in great numbers scattered over the 

 country. 



These spirits act as genii of certain favored men who by their 

 aid become great sorcerers. They are able to cure dieases, to de- 

 tect offences, to give good luck in hunting, and they visit the spirits 

 of the moon and of the stars. 



The Eskimos entertain a great fear of the Tupilat, the Spirits of 

 the Dead, who kill every one daring to offend them. This is the 



