Ethnological Sketch of the Angmagsalik Eskimo. 35 



The sky is also peopled with spirits. Of these I shall only 

 mention the sun, the moon, Jupiter and Vega. With regard to the 

 origin of the sun and the moon, the same legend is rife as amongst 

 the other Eskimos (tale 10). Jupiter is regarded as being the 

 mother of the sun; it is very dangerous for the angakut to pass 

 near it on their journey to the moon. Vega, who is called Nelarsik, 

 is, like the moon, the brother of the sun. As to how it got into 

 the sky a similar legend is told as with regard to the moon. It 

 does great service to the human race, indicating the time, when it 

 is dark, just as the sun does, when it is light. Besides that there 

 are many other ways in which it assists man. Many other legends 

 are told about the moon (see tales 16, 30, 31, and 34). 



The winds also have their rulers, to whom the angakut must 

 journey in order that the wind may blow or cease to blow. 



Amulets. — The spirits mentioned above, and many others be- 

 sides, are not worshipped with any special rites, but in order to 

 shield themselves against any harm they might do, the East Green- 

 landers wear all kinds of different things as amulets, which they 

 believe are able to protect them against sickness and danger and to 

 secure for them a long life. Amulets serve other purposes as well, 

 as, for instance, to obtain the fulfilment of a wish. 



As has already been mentioned above, amulets are worn by 

 men as a rule in the harness-like cord which they wear round 

 the body or sewn in the anorak, and by women in their top-knots 

 or sewn in the flap of their frock in front. 



The choice of amulets is absolutely arbitrary, and they are worn 

 in a variety of different ways. Old people advise the young what 

 to pick out as their amulet, and in what fashion they are to wear 

 it. Thus, for instance, Kutuluk had sewn a tongue of a loon and 

 his grandmother's hair band in his amulet strap. His son Napar- 

 dlugok wore a splinter of his grandmother's lamp-stool sewn in 

 his strap. W^hen he fell ill, his father hung a dried fox's head 

 above his head. This fox was the first animal that Napardlugok 

 had caught as a child. Ukutiak had both in his house and in his 

 tent a branch hanging from the ceiling over his head. A 

 boy who was given to spitting blood, and whose whole family 

 was consumptive, had a wooden plug (of the kind the seal hunter 

 use for sticking in the wounds of the captured seal) sewn in his 

 anorak in front of his chest. Many wear in their amulet straps 

 a male and a female figure carved out of wood taken from the 

 passage-way. The female figure is worn on the chest, and the male 

 on the back, while smaller pieces of wood are placed under the 



