RELIGION. BURIAL. 409 



rude maps for our officers, which have turned out to be sub- 

 stantially correct. 



According to Crantz, the Greenland Esquimaux "have 

 neither a religion nor idolatrous worship, nor so much as any 

 ceremonies to be perceived tending towards it."* This state- 

 ment has been confirmed by many other observer s.f Their 

 burial ceremonies have, however, been supposed to indicate a 

 belief in the resurrection. They generally bend the body into 

 a sitting posture, bringing the knees up under the chin, and 

 then wrap the corpse in one of their best skins. For the grave 

 they choose some high place, and over the corpse they make 

 a heap of stones. Near the body some of them place the 

 implements of the deceased, and even sometimes, if he was a 

 man, his kajak ; believing, as it has been said, that they will 

 be of use to him in the new world. Egede, J however, ex- 

 pressly denies that it is done with any such idea. This view 

 is also confirmed by Hall, according to whom, the Esquimaux 

 have a superstitious objection to use, or even touch, anything 

 which has been in a house containing a dead body. When 

 therefore any person is dying, they place by them everything 

 which can soothe and comfort their last moments, and then 

 leave the igloo, or house, which they close up, thus con- 

 verting it into a tomb. Crantz tells us that they " lay a dog's 

 head by the grave of a child, for the soul of a dog can find 

 its way everywhere, and will show the ignorant babe the 

 way to the land of souls," and this is admitted by Egede. 

 Captain Cook saw burial mounds of earth or stone at 

 Oonalashka. One of the latter was near the village, and he 

 observed that every one who passed threw a stone on it.|| 

 Infants, if unfortunate enough to lose their mothers, are 



* I.e. p. 197. 



f Ross, Baffin's Bay, vol. i., p. 175; Voyage of Discovery, p. 128; Parry, 

 I.e. p. 551 ; Richardson's Arctic Expedition, vol. ii., p. 44 ; Egede, I.e. p. 183. 

 J I.e. p. 151. I.e. vol. i., p. 201 ; vol. ii., p. 221. 



|| Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, vol. ii., p. 521. 



