SUPERSTITIONS OF THE ESKIMO 



said he had promised to Miss Po-cas-si-nah some " pe-lah- 

 vah " (flour) and had not the wherewithal to redeem his 

 promise, and he pleaded with the captain to help him out of 

 his dilemma. He said he could not choose anything else 

 to take the place of flour since it is so highly prized as a 

 luxury. The boy got the flour and the girl was made the 

 recipient of it at the ball. 



The object of the second dance during this winter was to 

 frighten off the Eskimo " devil." They firmly believe in 

 :he existence of this personage, and at night they always 

 carry a long knife to protect themselves against him. Some 

 of them claim to have seen the devil and describe him as a 

 winged man, very savage and horrible to behold. They 

 believe that by dancing and shouting around a fire and 

 pouring water upon it and firing rifles into the ashes the 

 devil will either be killed or badly wounded, and will pass 

 away with the smoke. 



Their third dance had for its object the " blessing of the 

 sealing and whaling implements." During this dance all 

 the Eskimo boat-captaijjs had seats in the orchestra and a 

 select few did the drumming and talking. The dance came 

 in at the close of the exercise, but was of secondary im- 

 portance. Upon their return from the deer hunt they have 

 a dance, and also upon various other occasions. 



For sickness they take no medicine, but the physicians 

 assemble in the sick chamber and beat their drums and 

 ab'-ba-bah' (howl) to the devil to go out of the sick person. 

 If in the course of a day or two the patient does not im- 

 prove under such treatment, a knife is used by the wise 

 doctors, and surgery is performed. Slight gashes are 

 made in the afflicted parts of the patient's body. If it be 

 a case of persistent headache, a cut from a quarter to one 

 inch in length is made in the head. If the pain be in the 

 back, a cut is made there. Other parts of the body receive 

 like treatment if the devil intrudes there. You might think 

 that some of these thrusts would prove fatal to the patient, 

 but through long practice these surgeons probably know 

 were to cut and where not to cut. These doctors charge 

 for their services. Their fees consist of whalebone, walrus 

 tusks, fox and deer skins, food, etc. Eskimo families, like 

 people in civilized lands, are made poor by having much 



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