Ethnological Sketch of the Angmagsalik Eskimo. 95- 



angakok performance depends on the angakok's power of making 

 so much noise and to-do as possible, and on his ventriloquial skill. 

 Whereas, when the lamps are lit, the drum is always beaten by 

 striking the drum-stick on the edge of the wooden rim, during the 

 angakok performance the drumming sometimes is performed by 

 rocking the drum on the flat stone, which can be done with the 

 elbow or leg, when the hands cannot be used, and it sounds just 

 as if the drum-stick were being used with extraordinary quickness. 

 When the angakok strikes the loose, flat stone on which the drum 

 lies, it gives a very hollow and mystical sound. 



By speaking and singing down between the hollow spaces under 

 large stones and driving the sound along the drum-stick, voices 

 from the nether world are produced. Sanimuinak one evening gave 

 in our house, with the lamps lighted, an exhibition of his ventri- 

 loquial skill, making his iartok speak outside the house. The dry 

 skins which hang before the entrance and the window can of course 

 produce a very loud and weird noise. 



The cord wdth which the angakok is bound, is tied in a kind 

 of noose, which is certainly drawn uncommonly tight, but which 

 can be loosened and slipped off by forcing the arms closer together, 

 so that it becomes possible to get the hands free. 



As has been already mentioned, the prime object of the anga- 

 kok in performing his arts is to produce a demoniacal, mystical 

 impression on his audience and to work upon their nerves. The 

 following incident may serve to illustrate the impression which the 

 angakut can make with their arts. 



Narsingertek's speciality was to see a spectre (kardlimaetek) 

 standing on the rock between the house of the natives and our 

 house, and which, he informed us, had followed us from the 

 southernmost point of the land. Although our crew was very much 

 afraid of ghosts, the angakok arts possessed such an attraction for 

 them that they could not abstain from going to see them performed. 

 They heard the drum dancing of itself round Narsingertek's head, 

 and heard a ghost, the spectre in question, outside in the passage- 

 way. It made as if it would enter, but the angakok forbade it to 

 go further. 



Our crew was seized with terror, and they came home quite 

 beside themselves, absolutely convinced of the angakok's ability to 

 commune with the spirit world, and as to the reality of the spectre 

 that had travelled with us. 



As a rule, the angakut perform their arts for the mere pleasure 

 of it, though not without some notion that their arts will draw 

 hunting luck to the house where they are performed. On days when 



