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 



