MURDOCH.] AMULETS. 437 
three joints of the foot of a reindeer fawn, with the skin and hoof and 
about 14 inches of tendon attached behind, through a hole in the end 
of which is knotted about 3 inches of seal thong. No. 89525 [1314] from 
the same village, is a precisely similar charm. No. 89699 [779] from 
Utkavwin, is the subfossil incisor tooth of some ruminant with a hole 
drilled through the root for a string to hang it wp by. It was said to 
be the tooth of the “ug’ru/nt,” a large animal, long extinct. As the 
natives said, ‘‘ Here on the land are none, only the bones remain.” No. 
89743 [1110], from Utkiavwit, is a molar tooth of the same animal, 
probably, weathered and old, with a hole freshly drilled through one 
root and a long piece of sinew braid with the ends knotted together 
looped into it. There are also in the collection two very old teeth 
which probably were inclosed in little sacks of skin and worn as amu- 
lets. 
No. 89698 [1580], from Utkiavwin, is the tusk of a very young walrus, 
only 24 inches long, and No. 89452 [1148] from Utkiavwin, is the canine 
tooth of a polar bear. No. 56547 [656], from the same village, is a simi- 
lar tooth.! 
The only amulet attached to a weapon, which we collected, is the 
tern’s bill, already alluded to, placed under the whalebone lashing on 
the seal-spear, No. 89910 [1694]. Perhaps theidea of this charm is that 
the spear should plunge down upon the seal with as sure an aim as the 
tern does upon its prey.” 
A number of amulets of this class are always carried in the whaling- 
umiak. I have already mentioned the wolf-skulls, stuffed ravens and 
eagles, fox-tails’ and bunches of feathers used for this purpose. Most 
of these charms are parts of some rapacious animal or bird, but parts 
of other animals seem to have some virtue on these occasions. 
For instance, I noticed the axis vertebra of a seal in one whaling- 
umiak, and we colleeted a rudely stuffed skin of a godwit (Limosa 
lapponica baueri), which, we were informed, was “for whales.” ‘This 
specimen (No. 89526 [1328], Fig. 424, from Utkiavwin) is soiled and 
ragged, and has a stick thrust through the neck to hold it out. The 
neck is wrapped around with a narrow strip of whalebone and some 
coarse thread, part of which serves to lash on a slip of wood, apparently 
to splice the stick inside. A bit of white man’s string is passed around 
the body and tied in a loop to hang it up by. This charm is perhaps 
to keep the boat from capsizing, since Crantz says that the Greenlanders 
“like to fasten to their kajak a model of it * * * or only a dead 
1Compare Kumlien, Contributions, p. 45. ‘‘Another charm of great value to the mother who has a 
young babe is the canine tooth of the polar bear. This is used as a kind of clasp to a seal-skin string, 
which passes round the body and keeps the breasts up. Her milk supply cannot fail while she wears 
this. (Cumberland Gulf.) 
2Compare the story in Rink’s Tales and Traditions (p. 445), where the kaiak, which had a piece of 
sheldrake fastened into the bow for an amulet, went faster than the sheldrake flies. 
3Compare Crantz, vol. 1, p. 216. ‘The boat [for whaling] must have a fox’s head in front, and the 
harpoon be furnished with an eagle's beak.” The latter statement is interesting in connection with 
the tern’s bill on the seal harpoon, from Point Barrow, already referred to. 
