432 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 
ently a ghost), sometimes as large as a man and sometimes dwartfish, 
sometimes a ftleshless skeleton, while one man, to describe him, made 
the same grimace that a white man would use to indicate a hobgoblin, 
with staring eyes, gaping mouth, and hands outstretched like elaws. 
Apparently “ turia” in conversation with us was used to designate all 
the various supernatural objects of their belief, ghosts as well as 
familiar spirits. For instance, in Greenland, according to Rink,! a 
ghost “manifests himself by whistling or singing in the ears.” Now, 
Lieut. Ray was walking rapidly one day in the winter with an Eskimo 
and his wife, and the woman suddenly stopped and said she “ heard 
turna”—that he made a noise like singing in the ears. 
The people generally have a great dread of ‘‘tuena,” who they say 
would kill them, and are very averse to going out alone in the dark. 
One of each party that came over from the village in the evening usu- 
ally carried a drawn knife, preferably one of the large double-edged 
knives, supposed to be Siberian and already described, in his hand as 
defense against turnia, and a drawn knife was sometimes even carried 
in the daylight “nanumunlu tuynamunlu,” “for bear and demon.” Not- 
withstanding their apparently genuine dread of “tuena,” they are by no 
means averse to talking or even joking about him. 
The knife also serves as a protection against the aurora, which most 
of them agree is bad, and when bright likely to kill a person by strik- 
ing him in the back of the neck. However, brandishing the knife at 
it will keep it off. Besides, as a woman told me one night, you can 
drive off a “bad” aurora by throwing at it dog’s excrement and urine.’ 
Lieut. Ray saw in one of the houses in Utkaiwin, a contrivance for 
frightening away a “tuena” from the entrance to a house should he try 
to get in. The man had hung in the trapdoor the handle of a seal-drag 
by means of a thong spiked to the wall with a large knife, and told Lieut. 
Ray that if “tuena” tried to get into the house he would undoubtedly 
cateh hold of the handle to help himself up, which would pull down the 
knife upon his head and frighten him off. We never had an opportu- 
nity of witnessing the ceremony of summoning ‘ tuena,” nor did we ever 
hear of the ceremony taking place during our stay at the station, but 
we were fortunate enough to observe several other performances, though 
they do not appear to be frequent. The ceremony of healing the sick 
and the ceremonies connected with the whale-fishery have already been 
described. 
On the 21st of February, 1883, Lieut. Ray and Capt. Herendeen hap- 
pened to be at the village on time to see the turna, who had been 
causing the bad weather, expelled from the village. Some of the natives 
said the next day that they had killed the turna, but they said at the 
same time he had gone “a long way off.” When Lieut. Ray reached 
' Tales, ete., p. 14. 
2Compare Rink (Tales, ete. p. 56): ‘Several fetid and stinking matters, such as old urine, are excel- 
lent means for keeping away all kinds of evil-intentioned spirits and ghosts.” 
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