BOAS.] RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 589 



Tlie Oqomiut and the Akudnirmiut make a distinction between 

 Adliviin and Adliparmiut. Adlivun means ' ' those who live beneath 

 us;" Adliparmiut, "the inlia1)itaiit^; of the country farthest beh)w us;" 

 and the same difference exists hctwi'cn Qudlivun and Qudlijiarmiut. 

 Though these names intimate tlic ]in.iljability that the Eslvimo l)elieve 

 in a series of places, located in a descending scale, each below the other, 

 I could not find any more detailed description of the concei^tion. 



Hall's observations agree fairly with my own. He says (I, p. 524): 



Qudliparmiut (heaven) is upward. Everybody happy ther >. All the time light: 

 no snow, no ice, no storms; always pleasant; no trouble; never tired: sing and 

 play all the time — all this to continue without end. 



Adliparmiut (heU) is downward. Ahvays dai-k there. No sun : trouble there 

 continually ; snow flying all the time, terrible storms; cold, very cold; and a great 

 deal of ice there. All who go there must always remain. 



All Inuit who have been good go to Qudliijarmiut: that is, who have been kind 

 to the poor and hungry, all who have been happy while living on this earth. Any 

 one who has been killed by accident, or who has committe 1 suicide, certainly goes 

 to the happy place. 



All Inuit who have been bad — that is, unkind one to another — all who have been 

 unhappy while on this earth, Avill go to Adliparmiut. If an Inung kills another 

 because he is mad at him, he will certainly go to Adlip irmiut. 



Kumlicu's r(Miiai'l;si>ii 1 his subject, as well as on other ethnographic 

 subjects, arc unt tiiist wort liy. He has transferred Greenland tales 

 to Cumherland Sound, tliough the ti-aditions of these tribes differ 

 materially one from the other. I tried hard to corroborate his state- 

 ments concerning the amaroq and the toruarsuq, concerning certain 

 customs, &c. , and am convinced that they are totally unknown to all 

 the natives of Baffin Land from Nugumiut to Tununirn. 



Kumlien states that the better land is below the surface of the 

 earth and that those who are killed by violence descend after death. 

 According to Hall and to replies to my own inquiries, it is quite the 

 reverse. Lyon's report is extremely interesting, particularly his 

 description of the stages of the nether world, of which I could only 

 find a scanty hint in the names. He says (p. 373) : 



There are two places appointed to receive the souls of the good: one of these is in 

 the center of the earth, the other in qilaq, or heaven. To the latter place, such as 

 are drowned at sea, starved to death, murdered, or killed by walruses or bears, are 

 instantly wafted, and dwell in a charming country, which, however, has never been 

 seen by any angakoq. * * * 



The place of souls in the world below is called Adli generally; but there are, 

 properly, four distinct states of blessedness, and each rank has a world to itself, the 

 lowest land being the last and best, which all hope to reach. The day on which a 

 good person dies and is buried, the soul goes to a land immediately under the visible 

 world; and, still descending, it arrives the second day at one yet lower; the third 

 day it goes farther yet; and on the fourth it finds, " below the lowest deep, a deeper 

 still. " This is the " good land," and the soul which reaches it is for ever happy. 

 The ttoee first stages are bad uncomfortable places for in each the sky is so close 

 to the earth, that a man cannot walk erect : yet these regions are inhabited : and the 

 good soul, in passmg through them, sees multitudes of the dead, who, having lost 



