86 G. Holm. 



« 



arms. When a woman becomes pregnant, special amulets are used 

 in order that the child may be a boy, thus, for instance, a splinter 

 of the centre tent-pole or a prop of an umiak stand. People who 

 are subject to epilepsy wear a fox's snout as an amulet. Children 

 are sometimes given an amulet from the 'Sun's urine', a red lichen 

 "whereby they are brought to cast a light from behind, so that the 

 Inersuaks can see them and communicate with them, without their 

 needing to learn how to become angakut". How the amulet is 

 used will be seen from talcs 2, 3 and 35. 



There are several other customs which may be referred to the 

 category of amulet superstitions, such as, for instance, tatooing, the 

 way in which the hair is dressed to match the shape of the frock, 

 and the ribbon round the upper arm, all of which have already 

 been mentioned. It should further be mentioned that when the 

 natives sold us hunting implements which they had used them- 

 selves, or whole skins, they often cut off a small, sometimes quite 

 a minute fragment, which they preserved themselves. A man who 

 had sold us a paddle fell ill in spring. Seeing his opportunity, he 

 cut off a splinter from the paddle and abstracted some of the bone 

 nails with which the mounting was fastened. When the natives 

 had bought an iron spear or knife, they bartered it away, if they 

 had purchased it with the skin of a seal caught by themselves. 



The Angmagsaliks attached supernatural power to our anthro- 

 pological measurements, although I myself did nothing which could 

 give occasion to such a belief. Those who were most addicted to 

 this superstition were old people or people suffering from some 

 bodily defect. One man, after I had finished measuring him exclai- 

 med, "well, now let us hope the hand will get better"! His hand 

 had been stiff for a very long time and he was suffering from pain 

 in its joints. When I asked them for a lock of their hair, they 

 usually said that their father had told them they were never to 

 have their hair cut, as they had flaps on their frock — or they 

 would die\). Not a hair of their head had ever been cut before. 

 Several young men however allowed me to take a lock clandestinelj^ 

 without the knowledge of their family. 



When old Kutuluk, who in all other respects was a thorough 

 believer, had once allowed me to cut off a lock of his hair, saying 

 that the gout he suffered from would now be sure to disappear, 

 most of the others waived their scruples too. Once, however, it 



') I suppose the natives were afraid of an ilisitsok using tlieir hair in a tiipilek 

 agiiiiist tiieni. Kven when parasites are taicen in a man's liair, he wishes, 

 I tliink for tlie same reason as aliove, to cat them liimseif. 



