526 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



them as follows: "These graves were much in the ordinary Eskimo custom, not being under- 

 ground, although the soil was by no means deficient, but consisting of rough unhewn blocks 

 of stone heaped together in an oblong form; the inside measurements being 2 feet by 1| foot. 

 Many of them had been disturbed by bears or wolves, but in most of them a skull and. bones 

 were lying." Dr. Packard, too, speaks of finding at Hopedale, Labrador, in 1864, two ancient 

 Eskimo tombs on the summit of a bare hill. The skeletons lay in what appeared to be a 

 natural fissure in the rock, covered over with a few slabs of stone; the site of the graves being 

 indicated by a vertical pole inserted into the fissure. 



The missionaries seem to have regarded this 

 ancient mode of sepulture as savouring of paganism, 

 and accordingly took effectual measures to ensure its 

 abolition. The new method of burial seems, however, 

 to be by no means an improvement on the old plan. 

 The soil being rocky and frozen, interments after the 

 European custom are, especially in winter, very diffi- 

 cult to carry out in a proper manner; the consequence 

 being that the burial-grounds are frequently in an 

 extremely unsatisfactory condition. Before burial the 

 bodies are either sewn up in skins or placed in rude 

 wooden coffins; after which they are merely covered 

 over, frequently in an imperfect manner, with sods 

 and stones. Originally it was the custom after a 

 death for the members of the family to abstain for 

 a period from labour of all kinds, and at the same 

 time to neglect their hair and dress. It was likewise 

 a universal custom to avoid using the tools or weapons 

 of the deceased, and also to refrain from wearing his 

 or her clothes. The former customs are still more 

 or less observed in Greenland, or at any rate were 

 so a few years ago; but in regard to the latter the 

 imported institution of a sale by auction is considered 

 to break the spell. 



Like their language, the primitive religion of the 

 Eskimo exhibited a remarkable uniformity through- 

 out the entire area inhabited by them. The leading 

 idea is the government of the whole world by super- 

 natural beings termed inuas, or owners. Apparently 

 the soul was regarded as the inua of the body. The 

 general scheme of the Eskimo religion and cosmogony 

 has been tersely summarised by the late Dr. R. Brown 

 as follows: "The earth and the sea rest on pillars, 

 and cover an under- world accessible by various 

 mountain-clefts, or by various entrances from the sea. The sky is the floor of an upper- 

 world, to which some go after death; while others good or bad have their future home in 

 the under-world. Here are the dwellings of the arsissut, the people who live in abundance. 

 This upper one, on the contrary, is cold and hungry; here live the arssartut, or ball-players, 

 so called from their playing at ball with a walrus-head, which gives rise to the aurora 

 borealis. The mediums between the inua and mankind are the angakoTcs, or wizards, who 

 possess the peculiar gift of angakunek or the state of * being angakok ' which they have 

 acquired by the aid of guardian spirits called tornak, who again are ruled by tornasulc, 

 the supreme deity or devil of all." A kind of witchcraft, termed kusiunek or ilisinek, is 

 believed to be the cause of sudden sickness or death. 



A NORTH AMERICAN CHIEF, WITH FEATHER 

 HEAD-DRESS. 



