ESKIMOS 173 
date. After being instructed, the novice has a series of 
incantations performed over him by the assembled angekoks, 
who dance round him, uttering charms. He is then taken to his 
home and left for several days in solitude, during which time 
he meditates and prays for his tonwak to appear; this usually 
happens after several days, when all that remains to make him 
a full-fledged angekok is to learn words used by them and un- 
known to the uninitiated. 
The angekok prepares for a seance, either behind a blanket 
in the tent or in the porch of the snow-house. Some of them 
appear to be able to work themselves into a sort of mesmeric 
trance, when they pretend to be able to transport their spirits 
to distant scenes and tell what is happening there. They also 
undertake to foretell the results of future hunts, and whether 
success or failure will follow certain undertakings. In sickness 
the angekok works all his cures by charms, the Eskimos being 
entirely without medicines. He ascribes all sickness to the 
breaking of certain taboos, either by the sick person or by some 
close relative. 
they perform a number of simple conjuring tricks for the 
benefit of their audience. I was present at a seance at Cape 
Fullerton, where two angekoks officiated. They made their 
preparations in the porch out of sight of the audience, who were 
arranged in rows on the bed, and who all kept crying ' atte atte,' 
inviting the angekok to enter. Each woman wore a small piece 
of deerskin on the top of her head. A long conversation was 
held with the angekok outside, before he finally entered. He 
first essayed to describe the place whence I came, and in this 
he was not very successful. He then told us the locality of the 
Eskimos who had taken our mail south some weeks before; this 
ended the first part of the performance. The next time, he 
entered in the form of his familiar spirit, the walrus, and to 
simulate it had a pair of small tusks fastened into his mouth. 
Being angry, he tried to strike the natives with the tusks, and 
