Ethnological Sketch of the Angmagsalik Eskimo. 133 



a ringed seal. Tigajat, who lived together with him, was 

 so weak that he was quite unable to move, and Kutuluk himself 

 could hardly walk, but had to lean on his sledge, which he pushed 

 in front of him, when he went out hunting. 



The next winter was likewise very severe, but there were many 

 bears at Angmagsalik, so that they managed to ward off extreme 

 famine. Further south at Inigsalik the state of things was worse. 

 Six people died here of starvation and disease combined. There 

 too the survivors consumed the corpses. 



It is not merely in the last few years that the distress has 

 been so great that the natives have had to eat corpses: similar 

 calamities are also spoken of in several old tales. 



Starvation seems to have occurred in its worst form at Kialinek, 

 and the people there have been obliged to feed on corpses on 

 several occasions. This has had such a deterrent effect that in re- 

 cent years people do not go up there as much as before. However, 

 death by starvation cannot well be reckoned amongst the most 

 frequent modes of death, considering that the coast has continually 

 remained inhabited. 



On the West coast the people are often heard to tell that the 

 people on the East coast kill people in order to eat them. The 

 same thing was told us by the Easterners living further south as to 

 the Angmagsalik people. At x\ngmagsalik itself, however, there are 

 only a few stories about this, and they are said to have happened 

 many years ago and are probably to be regarded as legends. The 

 two most common of these tales shall now be related. 



When the inhabitants at Kialinek were dying of starvation, a 

 man with his wife and two children drove on a sledge to an island 

 off the coast, called Igdlitalik. In winter a girl came out to them to 

 escape starvation. The man killed her, and she was eaten. 

 Her head was put on a stake over the lamp, and the man chanted 

 a magic charm over it. After this there was again open water, 

 man}^ seals were caught, and the inhabitants afterwards returned 

 back to Angmagsalik. 



Many years ago the people at Kulusuk had suffered from severe 

 famine in winter. Many people died of starvation, and the surviv- 

 ors eat the corpses. In the spring, when they again began to catch 

 seals, a man eat his own child, 'because he had such a terrible 

 longing to taste human flesh once more' (see tale 43). People say 

 that human flesh tastes quite as nice as bear flesh, but that one 

 can always see from people's looks that they have eaten it; and 

 those who have been compelled to eat it shrink from speaking of it. 



