AND ESKIMOS OF UNGAVA. 113 



Faith iu superior knowledge often contributes to the idea of superstition, for if we 

 do not comprehend the workings of nature, we are apt, in the absence of a proper con- 

 ception, to attribute to some mysterious agency, the result that, in the mind of the savage, 

 is ascribed to the workings of spirits ; hence, arises superstition, and this belief is impressed 

 upon him to the detriment of himself and the advantage of the other. 



The shaman alone interprets these mysteries ; and, in order to impress those who 

 appeal to him for his help, he takes his drum, covers his head with a mantle, makes a 

 series of groans and hideous contortions iu the dark, or gloom, or even in the day, with a 

 bandage over his eyes, claiming to be able to drive the spirit, causing the injury, pain or 

 illness, from one part of the body to another ; and, after rolling or beating the patient, 

 until his own strength is exhausted by the energy of his manipulations, he pretends to 

 swoon as he announces that the evil is captured or is banished from the body of the 

 sufferer. 



All the operations of nature are mysterious to the minds of these people, because they 

 do not reason from cause to effect. Anything they do not comprehend is attributed to the 

 working of some spirit ; and of these there are as many as there are objects in nature. None 

 of the spirits are beneficent, but they may be propitiated by certain acts or deeds done by 

 the victim of their inflvrence. The sound of the drum is deemed efficacious in driving 

 away all evil influence, and is beaten in time of joy to banish past cares, in time of danger 

 to avert disaster, and in time of illness to relieve suffering. Scraps of fur, hair, shreds of 

 garments, are formed into packages and laid away with the wish, that those who open 

 them may be the recipients of the good or evil desires of those who prepared them. The 

 sufferer has now recourse to the shaman who dispels the evil intent. 



If the owl, that bird of silent flight and lugubrious note, flits, noiselessly about 

 the tent, it is a certain sign that a dead man will soon be in the midst. A new garment, 

 suspended from a pole, proves to the winged spirit that the community is yet able to pro- 

 duce a garment never before worn ; and, upon seeing it, the dead man's spirit flies to its 

 home in the swamp. 



Their dead are cared for tenderly ; the mode of burial is by inhumation. This method 

 of disposing of a corpse is, doubtless, a recent custom, for many circumstances point to a 

 former mode of wrapping the body in bark, skins or boughs, and placing it in the fork of 

 a tree. In winter, when the ground is frozen, a huge fire is built over the spot, and the 

 earth excavated. As it thaws, the body is placed within the cavity, and the earth 

 replaced. The death of certain members of the community causes general mourning ; 

 and especially is the loss of children a source of deep grief to the mother. Her manifes- 

 tation of grief are not of a violent character, but subdued and impressive. More sincere 

 regret is felt than a casual observer would discover. 



The aged are tenderly taken care of Children are taught to obey those in authority, 

 and regard for them is inculcated from infancy ; no mother punishes her child by blows: 

 chiding or reproof is always sufficient. No little girl shakes the shoulders of her doll 

 while she exclaims, "Now, behave yourself, or I'll slap your ears," because she has never 

 heard her mother say it. 



Succession to property is through the male line, though it sometimes happens that 

 property is left to the wife or to others not related. There are no chiefs at present, which 

 is due to the opposite factions being unable to agree or permit a chief to assume authority. 



Sec. ii, 1887. 15. 



