430 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 
thus selected, is generally shrewd enough to make the most of the great- 
ness thrust upon him, and no doubt often pretends to more influence 
and power than he actually possesses.! 
As to the story of the whalemen, that the ‘ chieftainship” is the re- 
ward of the best fighter, who holds it like a “challenge cup,” subject 
to being called out at any time to defend his rank in a duel, as far as 
concerns Point Barrow, this is a sheer fable, perhaps invented by the 
Eskimo to impose upon the strangers, but more likely the result of 
misunderstanding and a vivid imagination on the part of the whites. 
Among wnialiks, one or two appear to have more wealth and influence 
than the rest. Teunaura in Utkiavwin and the late Katiga at Nuwttk 
were said, according to Captain Herendeen, to be “ great umialiks ” and 
Teunaura was always spoken of as the foremost manin Utkiavwin. We 
knew of one party coming up from Sidaru with presents for Teunaura, 
and were informed that the other Eskimo never sold to him, but only 
gave him presents. It was also said that Katiga’s infant son would one 
day be a “‘ great umialik.” 
All these men are or have been captains of whaling umiaks, and the 
title umialiks appears to be applied to them in this ¢: pacity, since 
many of the poorer men, who, as far as we could learn, were not con- 
sidered umialiks, own umiaks which they do not fit out for whaling, 
but use only to transport their families from place to place in the summer, 
RELIGION. 
General ideas.—It was exceedingly difficult to get any idea of the 
religious belief of the people, partly from our inability to make ourselves 
understood in regard to abstract ideas and partly from ignorance on our 
part of the proper method of conducting such inquiries. For instance, 
in trying to get at their ideas of a future life, we could only ask “ Where 
does a man go when he dies?” to which we, of course, received the 
obvious answer, ‘To the cemetery!” Moreover, such a multitude of 
other and easier lines of investigation presented themselves for our at- 
tention that we were naturally inclined to neglect the difficult field of 
religion, and besides under the circumstances of our intercourse it was 
almost impossible to get the attention of the natives when their minds — 
were not full of other subjects. 
Nevertheless, many of the fragments of superstition and tradition 
that we were able to collect agree remarkably with what has been 
observed among the Eskimo elsewhere, so that it is highly probable 
that their religion is of the sane general character as that of the Green- 
landers, namely, a belief in a multitude of supernatural beings, who 
are to be exorcised or propitiated by various observances, especially by 
the performances of certain specially gifted people, who are something 
of the nature of wizards. So much has been written by many authors 
‘Compare the case of the alleged ‘chiefs’ of the Chukches, in Nordenskiéld's Vega, vol. 1, pp. 449 
and 495, 
