Notes to G. Holm's Collection of Legends ;ukI Tales from Angmagsalik. 317 



46. Saniniiilnak's account of how he became an angakok. 



There are several variations in the printed collection of the 

 theme treated here. The version given here, which is in substance 

 quite similar to the records from West Greenland, must be regarded 

 as a most valuable contribution. 



48—54. Drum Songs and Magic Charms. 



If the tales lose a great part of their effect when committed to 

 writing, and still more after having undergone the process of trans- 

 lation, this is, of course, still more true of the songs. The latter 

 are chanted in detached sentences and detached words. They are 

 intended for an audience who merely require a hint to understand 

 the meaning. This is the case both with the satirical songs and 

 the ordinary songs. When we take this into consideration, it will 

 be found that among the ordinary songs in the printed collection 

 (E. S. pp. 348—50 and E. S. Spl. 138—149) there are some in which 

 the brief outbursts of rapture over nature, the chase, the exploits 

 of the kaiaker etc., distinctly reveal poetic feeling. The satirical 

 songs extol the old customs, and castigate worthlessness, indolence, 

 and immoral life. The specimens which have been presented here 

 are too few to allow of our determining whether the songs from 

 Angmagsalik have any characteristic features to mark them off from 

 those in the formerly printed collection^). (Some of the songs in 

 the latter have, to be sure, been obtained from Easterners; but then 

 these Easterners were from the southern part of the East coast and 

 had visited the West coast). In any case, these drum-songs from 

 Angmagsalik, together with the magic charms, form in virtue of 

 their genuineness and the rarity of the latter, a most valuable 

 contribution to Eskimo folklore. 



') Cf. pag. 311. 



Julv 1887. 



