MURDOCH. ] RELIGION. 431 
about these wizards or ** doctors,” the angekut of the eastern Eskimo, 
the so-called “shamans” of Alaska and Siberia, that I need make no 
special reference to their writings except where they happen to throw 
light on our own observations. Dr. Simpson succeeded in obtaining 
more information concerning the religious belief of these people than 
our party was able to do, and his observations,’ to which ours are in 
some degree supplementary, tend to corroborate the conclusion at which 
I have arrived. 
Our information in regard to the special class of wizards was rather 
vague. We learned that many men in the village, distinguishable 
from the rest by no visible characteristics, were able to heal the sick, 
procure good weather, favorable winds, plenty of game, and do other 
things by “talking” and beating the drum. We did not learn the 
number of these men in either village, but we heard of very many dif- 
ferent men doing one or the other of these things, while others of our 
acquaintance never attempted them. Neither did we learn that any 
one of these men was considered superior to the rest, as appears to be 
the case in some regious, nor how a man could attain this power. Some 
of these men, who appeared to give particular attention to curing the 
sick, called themselves ‘“ ti’kte” (“doctor”), but, probably for want 
of properly directed inquiries, we did not learn the Eskimo name of 
these people. We were definitely informed, however, that their ‘“ talk,” 
when treating disease or trying to obtain fair weather, etc., was ad- 
dressed to ‘‘tu/ena,” or a supernatural being. This name, of course, 
differs only in dialectic form from that applied in other places to the 
universal familiar spirits of Eskimo superstition. 
We at first supposed that ‘‘tuena” meant some particular individ- 
ual demon, but Dr. Simpson is probably right in saying that the Point 
Barrow natives, like the rest of the Eskimo, recognize a host of 
tuvhain, since * tuena” was described to us under a variety of forms. 
Most of the natives whom we asked if they had seen tuefa, said that 
they had not, but that other men, mentioning certain ‘“ doctors,” had 
seen him. One man, however, said that he had seen tuena in the 
kiidyigi, when the people ‘‘talked” sitting in the dark, with their 
heads bowed and faces covered, and tuena came with a noise like a 
great bird.? He had raised his head and saw tuvna, like a man with 
bloodless cheeks.? Turna again was called ‘¢a bad man, dead” (appar- 
'Op. cit., p. 273 et seq. . 
2Compare Graah's account of the ceremony of summoning a torngak in East Greenland (Narrative, 
p- 123). ‘Come he did, however, at last, and his approach was announced by a strange rushing sound, 
very like the sound of a large bird flying beneath the roof.” (The italics are my own.) The angekut 
evidently have some juggling contrivance, carefully concealed from laymen, perhaps of the nature of a 
“whizzing-stick.” 
3Compare Rink's description of the ceremony of summoning a tornak to ask his advice, in Green- 
land (Tales, ete., p. 60). This was performed beforea company in a darkenedhouse. The angekok lay 
on the floor, beside a suspended skin and drum, with his hands tied behind his back and his head be- 
tween his legs. A song was sung by the audience, and the angekok invoked his tornak, beating on 
the skin and the drum. The spirit announeed his arrival by a peculiar sound and the appearance of a 
light or fire. 
