92 Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



holding itself aloof, because without the assistance and guidance of the local 

 natives it might starve to death through ignorance of the best fishing and 

 hunting grounds. Natives from the Coppermine river basin and even from 

 Bathurst inlet remained in Dolphin and Union strait throughout the spring of 

 1916 in order to be near the expedition; but they joined the local natives at 

 their fishing weirs as soon as the sahnon began to migrate, and merged them- 

 selves for the time being into the foreign community. The exipedition refrained 

 from using these weirs as long as the natives were there, but after they had left 

 we caught a number of salmon in them, and no objection was raised; nor did 

 the natives disapprove of our using nets in their rivers, or shooting the caribou, 

 but only because it was obviously to their advantage that the expedition should 

 remain in their country. Had food been scarce at the time they would have 

 expected us to share our food with them, or at least to refrain from diminishing 

 their own supplies by hunting and fishing in their territories. 



Even the drum seems to be regarded as in some degree the property of the 

 whole community, though it may be made by the labour of a single individual. 

 There was the frame of a drum in the hut of Uloksak when I visited the Copper- 

 mine river Eskimos in February, 1915. The natives decided to hold a dance 

 in my honour, and for this purpose the drum was repaired. Uloksak supplied 

 the membrane of caribou skin, and four of the natives fastened it over the 

 frame. The drum was always kept in Uloksak's house, and carried on his sled 

 during migrations; but it was at anyone's disposal for a dance, and there would 

 have been much ill-feeling if Uloksak had refused to hand it over. 



Certain intangible things may be classed as property; at least they can be 

 bought, sold and inherited. The control that a shaman exercises over the spirit- 

 ual world may be bought by an aspirant to the same profession.^ Thus Uloksak 

 paid a number of caribou to a shaman for teaching him how to obtain the com- 

 niand over certain spirits. A shaman too must be paid for his services in curing 

 disease or in driving away bad-luck. Aksiaktak's son fell from the roof of the 

 ■ dance-house and broke his thigh, whereupon a local shaman offered to heal the 

 leg if Aksiatak would allow hun to adopt the boy. The parents naturally did 

 not wish to lose their son, the support probably of their old age in years to come, 

 but they could not refuse' for fear that he might remain a cripple for life. A 

 Mackenzie river youth whom I used for a time as interpreter gained the repu- 

 tation of being a shaman through a simple trick with a piece of string that he 

 learned from Mr. Chipman. One of the Copper Eskimos whose knee was troub- 

 ling him presented the youth with some seal meat and with a pair of mittens, 

 requesting that he exercise his magic power to heal his knee. 



Inheritance 



A portion of the property is always laid on the owner's grave; the rest is 

 divided among his kinsfolk, the children receiving most or all of it. The distri- 

 bution is decided after a peaceful discussion, the elder children, as far as I am 

 aware, having no priority of claim. Implements and utensils of value that may 

 be left on the grave are often recovered in after years by one or other of the sur- 

 vivors, when time has effaced the memory of their misfortune. In the fall of 

 1915 Kanneyuk found a small lamp lying on the ground, evidently deposited on 

 a woman's grave. No one knew for certain whose grave it was, though there 

 were several conjectures; but as we needed a lamp at the time, Higilak told 

 the girl to bring it in to camp. 



'Of more intangible things the inheritance of shamanistic power is the most 

 important. Higilak, for example, learned shamanism from her father, and 

 Ilatsiak, the greatest living exponent of the profession, was teaching his adopted 

 son. Yet it is not quite correct to say that the power can be handed down. 



■Cf. Stefansson, Anthrop. Papers, A.M.N.H., Vol. XIV, pt. I, p. 369. 



