TRANSFORMATION 215 



Dr. Rink writes of the Eskimo of Greenland. The 

 stories of those of Baffin Land witness to the Same 

 belief. " There is one tradition in which it is told how 

 the soul of a woman passed through the bodies of a 

 great many animals, until finally it was born again as 

 an infant/' Dr. Boas, however, who records this and 

 other tales, states that the Eskimo in question believe 

 that a man has two souls, of which at death one goes 

 to " one of the lands of the souls ; " the other stays with 

 the body, and when a child is named after the deceased 

 enters its body and remains there about four months. 

 " It is said that the soul enters the body because it is 

 in want of a drink." This seems inconsistent with 

 what follows: "It is believed that its presence 

 strengthens the child's soul, which is very light, and 

 apt to escape from the body. After leaving the body 

 of the infant, the soul of the departed stays near by, 

 that it may re-enter the infant in case of need." l 



The practice of naming a child after a deceased 

 person obtains also among the Eskimo of Bering 

 Strait ; but here it appears in a connection entirely 

 different. "The first child born in a village after a 

 person dies is given the dead one's name, and must 

 represent that person in subsequent festivals which 

 are given in his honour. This is the case if a child is 

 born in the village between the time of the death and 

 the next festival to the dead. If there be no child 

 born, then one of the persons who helped [to] prepare 

 the grave-box for the deceased is given his name and 

 abandons his own for the purpose. When the festival 



1 Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. xv. 132, 130. As to the Eskimo of 

 Davis Strait, see Boas, Rep. Bur. Ethn.vi. 612. The practice of 

 naming seems the same, but no reason is assigned. 



