690 THE CENTRAL ESKIMO. 



their way, or, not being entitled to tlie " good land,'" are always wandering about and 

 in great distress. Whetherthe.se unhappy souls are in purgatory or not, I was un- 

 able to learn; but they suffer no other pain than what we would call the " fidgets." 

 In the lowest Adli a perpetual and delightful summer prevails. 



The belief of these tribes undoubtedly is that all who die by ac- 

 cident or by violence and women who die in childbirth are taken to 

 the upper world. I never heard a different opinion expressed by any 

 native. I do not know whether they believe in a series of upjjer 

 worlds similar to the nether worlds of the Iglulirmiut, but it is prob- 

 able, from the names Qudlivun and Qudliparmiut. In the Greenland 

 tradition the upper world is represented as a country with hills and 

 valleys, over which the solid blue sky is expanded. Sedna of the 

 Oqomiut lives in Adlivun. and here the souls must stay one year 

 after death. Everybody who dies from disease or who has offended 

 Sedna by infringing her orders is taken to her. The Eskimo are 

 in great fear of the terrors of her abode. Murderers and offenders 

 against human laws, after they have entered Sedna's house, will 

 never leave it; the other souls, however, are taken to the Adlipar- 

 miut, where they live comparatively at their ease, although they are 

 not nearly so blessed as the Qudliparmiut. They hunt whales and 

 walrus and are almost always troiibled by ice and snow. 



The older aiithors on Greenland mythology state that the concei)- 

 tions of the natives do not coincide (Cranz). According to one tra- 

 dition the good land is below, and tornarsuq, the supreme tornaq, 

 is master of it. Here continuous summer prevails and there is 

 plenty of fresh water, with a profusion of game. Only those peojile 

 are allowed to come here who have been good hunters and workers, 

 who have accomplished great exploits, caught many seals, who have 

 suffered much, or haA^e died by violence or in childbirth. The souls 

 of the deceased miist slide for five days, or even longer, down a steep 

 rock, which has become quite slii^pery from the blood which has been 

 sprinkled over it. Those who have been-lazy and unfit for working 

 goto the upper world, where they suffer from scarcity of food. Par- 

 ticularly tin' bad and witches are taken to this country, where they 

 are toriiii'iifi'd li\- ra.vens. 



Anotlirr tradition places the good land in heaven. The souls 

 travel on the rainbow to the moon, near which they find a large lake 

 abounding with fowls and fish. Rink gives the following statement 

 on this subject (p. 37) : 



After death, human souls either go to the upper or to the under world. The latter 

 is decidedly to be preferred, as being warm and rich m food. There are the dwell- 

 ings of the happy dead called arsissut, — viz, those who live in abundance. On the 

 contrary, those who go to the upper world will suffer from cold and famine; and 

 these are called the arssartut. or ball players, on account of then- playing at ball with 

 a walrus head, which gives rise to the auroi-a borealis. 



While the Iglulirmiut believe that the soul leaves the body imme- 

 diately after death and descends to Adli, the tribes of Davis Strait 



