Ethnological Sketch of the Angmagsalik Eskimo. 81 



Hanserak writes in his diary about the Angmagsahks' belief in 

 the soul: — "A man has many souls. The biggest of them live in 

 the larynx and in the man's left side, and are tiny manikins of the 

 size of sparrows. The other souls live in all the other members of 

 the body and are about the size of a finger-joint. 



Now, when an angakok removes one of them, that part of the 

 man which has lost its soul falls ill. If another angakok on exam- 

 ination finds the soul removed and then fetches it back and replaces 

 it, the man becomes well again; but, if it is found impossible to 

 get the soul back, the man dies and the soul wanders about to the 

 dismay and terror of all around". 



The 'name' (aiekata) is of the same size as a man and enters 

 the child at the moment when a finger dipped in water is passed 

 over the child's mouth, the names of the dead ancestors being 

 simultaneously pronounced. We have not heard so much of the 

 names in the case of grown-up people as in that of children. Care 

 must be taken not to offend the 'name' in any way; for then he 

 may desert the man, who is then sure to fall ill. A man of the 

 name of Adlagdlak had some time in the past taken part in the 

 dressing of his sister's dead body. He thus entailed upon himself 

 a prohibition against working in iron in the house, but he had 

 notwithstanding been guilty of this piece of imprudence. "His 

 sister's name", he said, "was wrath thereat and deserted his little 

 son, who then fell to crying violently, and was seized with severe 

 diarrhoea. Fortunately, the angekok, while performing the incan- 

 tations discovered the loss of the 'name', and had it fetched back 

 just when it was nigh to the far-aw^ay dreaded land "iperfïï". The 

 'name' was a-cold there and shrieked aloud, and hence it was the 

 child fell ill. Had the 'name' reached Ipertit, it would have frozen 

 to death and the child would have died." 



When a man dies the 'name' remains with the body in the 

 Avater or earth where it has been buried, until a child is called after 

 it. It then enters the child and continues its existence there. Tale 

 no. 22 shows how the 'name' in the period between its existence 

 in two human beings wanders through a number of animals. 



The Angmagsaliks have a decided dread of pronouncing their 

 own name. When asked what they were called they invariably 

 turned to others to answer for them, and then assented to the cor- 

 rectness of the answer given. Once when we asked a mother 

 what her little child was called, she answered that she was unable 

 to say: the father was equally reluctant to pronounce the name, 

 and told us that he had forgotten, but that we could get to know 

 it from his wife's brother. 



XXXIX. 6 



