30 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARCTIC AMERICA. 



An aucoofs duty is, first, to rantter over the sick, tliat they may become 

 well ii^aiu; si^comlly, he will talk with Torngamul; and get information 

 from him as to how he must manage so that they will have success in 

 tlu'ir undertakings; thirdly, of him he learns if any one is about to die, 

 and what the cause is, or if some unusual death or misfortune is about 

 to occur to the people. 



Their devotion and belief in the avcoofs are unlimited; they can never 

 be induced to tres})ass on the commands or disbelieve the prophecies 

 of these important i^ersonages. When one has been a very successful 

 ancoot for a long time he may become a great ancoot; this necessitates 

 a i)eriod of fasting, and then, as the story goes, an animal they call 

 amarooJc (the same word is used for wolf, and for an animal which is 

 probably mythical, unless it can be a Gido) comes into his hut and bites 

 the man, who immediately falls to pieces; his bones are then conveyed 

 to the sea, where he lives for some time as a walrus; he finally returns 

 among his peoide, a man in appearance, but a God in power. 



If the prophecy of an ancoot does not come to pass as he had said it 

 wonhl, any phenomenon of nature, as a halo, corona, aurora, &c., is suf- 

 ficient to have broken the spell, and the ancoot loses nothing of his repu- 

 tation by the failure, for it is then believed that the measure, whatever 

 it might have been, was not pleasing to Torngarsul: 



The people come to these soothsayers after all manner of information. 

 We knew of one case where a young woman asked an ancoot if her yet 

 unborn child would be a boy or girl. He retired outside the hut for a 

 few moments, and when he returned he said it would "be a boy"; but 

 he adds, "If it is not a boy, it wUl be a girl''! For this valuable infor- 

 mation he charged three seal-skins and a knife. As a general thing, 

 (he ancoots are paid according to their re]>utation ; still, it is very sel- 

 dom they refuse to give tliem what they ask for in return for their valu- 

 able services. 



They seem to have an idea of a future state, but what we denominate 

 as the region down below they consider as the best i)lace. In Kgede's 

 Gnenlands nye Perlustratiim, year 1741, is given a legend which is 

 almost exactly the same as one that is found anvmg tiie Cund)erland 

 Eskimo at the jjresent day. Ihit Egede says, in the Danish translation, 

 "llimmel," heaven, as though this was the equivalent for the Green- 

 lander's word; the Eskimo of Gumberland say "topani," which means 

 simply "up,'' They do not distinguish any difi'erence in the soul's con- 

 dition after death, or rather of the two places where they expect to live 



