Ethnological Sketch of the Angmagsalik Eskimo. 99 



powerless in this respect as in the other things. People slandered 

 him and were evilly disposed towards him, because he had no 

 brothers or other near relations. 



This confession was made by Avgo probably with the object of 

 currying favour with me. As, however, I had never said anything 

 against the angakut but only tried to obtain a knowledge of them 

 and their arts, I imagine that it must have been a remark of Hanserak 

 which had imbued him with the idea that he would gratify me 

 in this way. That the others slandered him is sure enough. People 

 dissuaded us from going to Sermiligak, where he lived, telling us 

 that he would be sure to kill us. When we went there in spite of 

 their warnings, they said that Avgo would be very friendly towards 

 us so long as we were there, but, as soon as we went away, he 

 would rob us of our souls, so that we м^еге bound to die. They 

 urged us therefore to shoot him. 



The angakok's prophecies are not worth much. I may 

 mention by way of example that the winter before we came to 

 Angmagsalik, an angakok prophecied that Ilinguaki would return 

 from the south together with foreigners. This prophecy was ful- 

 filled, as we did come up with him. Another angakok had been 

 commissioned to examine whether a pregnant woman would give 

 birth to a boy or a girl. He heard the child cry in the mothers' 

 womb and could see that it was a boy. It turned out, however, 

 to be a girl. But at a latter performance the angakok discovered 

 that the prophecy Avould have been fulfilled, had not the woman 

 once inadvertently slipped, so that the embryo was cracked. 



Although as a general rule the angakut perform their arts 

 with their own private profit in view, there are amongst them a 

 few disinterested and honest men. We may mention old Ilinguaki, 

 a man of over sixty years of age. He is respected by all about 

 him. A consumptive man told me in spring that Ilinguaki had 

 performed arts for him and cured him, so that he now felt much 

 better than he had done in winter. When I asked Ilinguaki if he 

 had cured the sick man, he returned an evasive answer and seemed 

 rather embarrassed, as if he were ashamed to admit that people on 

 whose behalf he performed arts, occasionally died. He had also 

 the reputation of being able to go to the Lords of the Winds and 

 procure any wind that might be desired ; as to this, he simply said 

 that it might happen that the desired wind came after the per- 

 formance of the arts. 



It is, however, quite possible that both Ilinguaki's and Avgo's 

 confession of their own incapacity as angakut to do good or evil 

 respectively is merely an instance of the extreme diffidence which 



