280 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



east, and the men of Pt. Barrow on their perhaps longer journey 

 towards the setting sun." ^ Dr. Boas- says that the western Eskimo 

 regard the east as the land of their legendary heroes and races. 

 Kohlmeister and Knioch " state that there is a legend to the effect 

 that the Gi-eenlanders were once inhabitants of Labrador, and certain 

 remains there existing have been assigned to them. There is also a 

 len^end that the Greenlanders ultimately came from Canada.* Ross' 

 relates that the soiith Greenlanders believe that they came from the 

 north, and when Sacheme the interpreter to the expedition, saw the 

 Arctic Highlanders, he exclaimed, "these are the right Esquimaux, 

 these are our fathers." Considering the isolation in which some 

 Eskimo communities live, it is truly wonderful that they should have 

 retained a recollection of their relations, and adventures in the distant 

 past. Ross® states that the Arctic Highlanders .seem to have 

 thought themselves the only men in the world, aud that except their 

 habitat, the whole universe was ice, sea and mountains. M. Hansen- 

 Blangsted ' says that the majority of the Eskimo of Angmagsalik (in 

 East Greenland) have never visited the western coast. The Eskimo 

 of Greenland and Labrador seem scarcely to have had any intercourse 

 at all. Indeed, Dr. Rink * is of opinion that the inhabitants of Cape 

 Farewell and Labrador have had no intercourse with each other for 

 upwards of a thousand years. 



Most of the Eskimo communities, like many other primitive races, 

 have a legend regarding an ancient paradise, which their forefathers 

 inhabited in the dim past. Petitot ^ oVjserves respecting this : — 

 " Naterovik est pour les Tchiglit, ce qu' est Akilinerk pour les Groen- 

 landais et Nunataymun pour les Esqiiimaux centraux. Si les Groen- 

 landais ont conserve le souvenir d'Akilinerk, c' est que la derniere 

 etape, sinon le berceau de leurs peres fut le detroit de Behring et les 

 rivages compi-is entre ce parage et le Cap des Glaces." Further in- 

 vestigation is required before the exact import of this legend can be 



1. Loc. cit. p. 597. 



2. Die S^en der Baffin Land Esk., Verhl. der Berl. Gesell. f. Anthr. Ethn. u. Urgesch., 1885 

 S. 165. 



3. Loc. cit., p. 37. 



4. Kohlmeister and Kuioch, Loc. Cit., p. 37. 



5. Voy. of Disc. f. pun^. of Expl. Baffin Bay, etc., 2nd. Ed. 1819, vol. i., p. 149. 



6. Voy. of Disc, for purpose of Expl. Baff. Bay, etc., 2nd. Ed., Lond., 1819, vol. i., p. 1C6> 



7. Soc. de Geog. de Paris, Compt. Rend., 1885, p. 542. 



8. Joum. Anthr. Instit., vol. iii. p. 105. 



9. Voc. Frani;. Esquim., p. xxv. 



