LANGUAGE— RELIGION. 



is; 



fore, not a conclusive reason for supposing that the Eskimo is an 

 American language. The vocabulary of the Greenland language 

 and that of the Tuski tribes of Siberia contain so many important 

 words alike that their comparison supplies a strong argument in 

 favour of common origin. The following list contains some words 

 which are identical in the languages of the Greenlanders and i f 

 the Siberian tribes near the Gulf of Anadyr : — 



But neither the Arctic Highlanders' vocabulary nor that of the 

 Tuskis and Anadyr tribes are before us in a complete shape. 1 

 It may be understood generally that the languages spoken by all 

 the tribes from Humboldt Glacier to Cape Farewell, are but 

 dialects of the same mother-tongue ; while they are dialects of 

 the languages of Labrador, Igloolik, Boothia, Kotzebue Sound, and 

 some parts of Siberia. 



The Arctic Highlanders only have words, for the first five nu- 

 merals, although they make shift to count a little higher, up to 

 twenty; but otherwise their language, though wanting all words 

 to express abstract ideas, is very precise and exact, and few lan- 

 guages are richer in pronominal forms of speech. Their songs 

 are for the most part impromptu, and in the long winter night, 

 while one recites a catalogue of recent events and possibly some 

 traditions, tho rest join, with a certain time and cadence, in the 

 ancient chorus — Amna ajali ajah ah-liu. Dr. Kane heard this 

 chorus in the iglus in Smith Sound, and Crantz records the same 

 words as used by the people of South Greenland. Their religion 

 is very simple. They believe in supernatural beings presiding 

 over the elements, who are the familiar spirits of their angekoks or 

 magicians ; and that the angekolcs can converse with them, and thus 

 prophecy the prospects of the hunting season and similar matters. 



1 It must be remembered, too, thai the Omoki and other Siberian tribes have 

 disappeared altogether, taking their language with them; and, according to my 

 theory, these are the ancestors of the Arctic Highland 



