MI-RIXM ii.] RELIGION. 431 



about these wizards or * doctors,&quot; the angekut of the eastern Eskimo, 

 the so-called &amp;lt; shamans &quot; of Alaska and Siberia, that 1 need make no 

 special reference to their writings except where they happen to throw 

 light on our own observations. Dr. Simpson succeeded in obtaining 

 more information concerning the religious belief of these people than 

 our party was able to do, and his observations, to which ours are in 

 some degree supplementary, tend to corroborate the conclusion at which 

 I have arrived. 



Our information in regard to the special class of wizards was rather 

 vague. We learned that many men in the village, distinguishable 

 from the rest by no visible characteristics, were able to heal the sick, 

 procure good weather, favorable winds, plenty of game, and do other 

 things by &quot;talking&quot; and beating the drum. We did not learn the 

 number of these men in either village, but we heard of very many dif 

 ferent men doing one or the other of these things, while others of our 

 acquaintance never attempted them. Neither did we learn that any 

 one of these men was considered superior to the rest, as appears to be 

 the case in some regions, nor how a man could attain this power. Some 

 of these men, who appeared to give particular attention to curing the 

 sick, called themselves tu kte 1 (&quot;doctor&quot;), but, probably for want 

 of properly directed inquiries, we did not learn the Eskimo name of 

 these people. We were definitely informed, however, that their &quot; talk,&quot; 

 when treating disease or trying to obtain fair weather, etc., was ad 

 dressed to &quot; tu efia,&quot; or a supernatural being. This name, of course, 

 differs only in dialectic form from that applied in other places to the 

 universal familiar spirits of Eskimo superstition. 



We at first supposed that &quot;tuufia &quot;meant some particular individ 

 ual demon, but Dr. Simpson is probably right in saying that the Point 

 Barrow natives, like the rest of the Eskimo, recognize a host of 

 tuufiain, since &quot;tivefia&quot; was described to us under a variety of forms. 

 Most of the natives whom we asked if they had seen tuufia, said that 

 they had not, but that other men, mentioning certain &quot; doctors,&quot; had 

 seen him. One man, however, said that he had seen tuufia in the 

 kudyigi, when the people talked&quot; sitting in the dark, with their 

 heads bowed and faces covered, and tuufia came with a noise like a 

 great bird. 3 He had raised his head and saw tuufia, like a man with 

 bloodless cheeks. 3 Tuufia again was called &quot;a bad man, dead&quot; (appar- 



Op. cit., p. 273 et eq. 



2 Compare Graah rt account of the ceremony of summoning a tunifjak in East Greenland (Narrative. 

 p. 123). &quot;Come he dill, however, at last, and his approach was announced by a strange rushing sound, 

 very like the sound of a large bird flying beneath the roof.&quot; (The italics are my own.) The angflnit 

 evidently have some, juggling contrivance, carefully concealed from laymen, perhaps of the nature of a 



Compare Rink s description of the ceremony of summoning a tornak to ask his advice, in Green 

 land (Talcs, etc., p. GO). This was performed before a company in 11 darkened house. The angekok lay 

 on the floor, beside a suspended skin and drum, with his hands tied behind his back and bis head be 

 tween his legs. A song was sung by the audience, and tin; angekok invoked bis tornak, beating on 

 the skin and the drum. The spirit announced his arrival by a peculiar sound l.nd the appearance of a, 

 light or fire. 



