ESKIMOS 167 



selves somewhat hazy as to what they do believe concerning the 

 soul and a future state ; secondly, an intimate knowledge of the 

 language is needed to catch their ideas on these subjects, and 

 thirdly, one must be very intimate with them and have acquired 

 their respect before they will, from fear of ridicule, ,discuss 

 such subjects. 



They all appear to have a belief in a supreme goddess, 

 called Nuliayok on the western side of Hudson bay, and Sedna 







by the eastern Eskimos. The folk-lore in connection with these 

 two goddesses points to the same origin for both, and is almost 

 identical. The tradition is that Nuliayok was a coy Eskimo 

 maiden who would not marry any of the young men. She was 

 wooed by the fulmar, a gull, who spoke in a pleasing manner 

 of the life she would lead with him. He so worked upon the 

 senses and feelings of the maiden that she consented to accom- 

 pany him to his island home as his wife. On arriving there 

 she found that she had been cruelly deceived, and that the 

 splendid house was nothing but a nest of sticks perched upon 

 the high bare rocks, without any shelter from the snows or 

 winds. The abundant food promised turned out to be nothing 

 but rotten fish, and to add to her other discomforts she was 

 jostled by the other fulmars, so that she often had difficulty in 

 preserving her place on the rock. There was plenty of time for 

 regret before she managed to send word to her father, request- 

 ing him to come to her rescue, which he did. Her father's 

 name was Anautelik, and he took her away in his boat during 

 the absence of the fulmar. When the latter discovered his loss, 

 he caused a great storm, and Anautelik, to preserve his own life, 

 threw his daughter overboard, but she clung to the side of the 

 boat, and he cut off her fingers, one by one, to make her release 

 her hold. As her fingers dropped into the sea they changed into 

 the whale, walrus, big seal and the small seal, so originating the 

 sea animals. Her father next knocked one of her eyes out, after 

 which she let go of the side of the boat and went to the world 



10 



