434 TIIF, I'OINT I5AKR0W ESKIMO. 



i„ eat tlic burbot, another man was denied ptarmigan, and a woman' at 

 Nuwnk was not allowed to eat "earth food," that is, anj-thing which 

 o,e\v ui.on the ground. Lieut. Ray also mentions a man who was for- 

 hidil.-ii bear's tie.sh.- 



We observed some traees of the sujicrstition eoneernmg the heads 

 of seals and other marine animals taken in the chase, which lias been 

 noticed elsewhere. Crantz saysr' "The heads of seals must not be 

 Iractured. nor must they !>« thrown into the sea, but be piled in a heap 

 liefore the door,' that the souls of the seals may not be enraged and 

 <,are their brethren from the coast." And Capt. Tarry found that at 

 Winter Island they carefully preserved the heads of all the animals 

 killed during the winter, except two or three of the walrus which lie 

 obtained with great difflculty. The natives told him that they were to 

 be thrown into the sea in the summer, but at Iglulik they readily sold 

 them before the summer arrived.'* 



I tried very hard to get a full series of skulls fr(mi the seals taken at 

 I'tkiavwin in the winter of lS82-'8.3, but though I frequeutly asked the 

 natives to bring them over for sale, they never did so, till at last one 

 young woman promised to bring me all I wanted at the price of half a 

 pound of gun|)o\vilcr a skull. Nevertheless, she brought over only two 

 or three at that i)riee. We did not observe what was done with the 

 skulls, but freiiuently observed quantities of the smaller bones of the 

 seals carefully tucked away in the crevices of the ice at some distance 

 from the .shore. We had comparatively little difficulty in obtaining 

 skulls of the walrus, but I observed tliat the bottom of Tusertlru, the 

 little i.ond at the edge of the villii.u.'. \v;is covered with old walrus skulls, 

 as if th<-y had been deposited there for years. The superstition appears 

 to be in full force among the Chukches, who live near the place where 

 the Vi-f/a wintered. Nordenskjold was unable to purchase a pair of 

 fresh walrus heads at the first- village he visited, though the tusks were 

 olfered for .sale the next day'' and at Pitlekaj.'' " Some prejudice * * * 

 lirevented tiie Chukches from parting with the heads of the seal, though 

 * * * we ott'i'red a high price for them. ' Irgatti ' (to-morrow) 

 was the usual answer. But the inomise was never kept." 



Amulets. — Like the Greenlanders" and other Eskimos, they place 

 great reliant-eon amulets or talismans, which are carried on the person, 

 in the boat, or even inserted in weapons, each apparently with some 



115, :ni<l Parry. 2.1 voya 



