Social Organization 95 



saying that he did not know how to make a knife. The owner quietly continued 

 to sharpen his weapon until its edge was keen enough, then drove it into the 

 jester's stomach with the remark, "Now see if I can't make a knife." 



In neither of these cases, as far as my information goes, was the murderer 

 punished. There is always the danger though that one day a relative of the 

 deceased may avenge him by driving a knife into the murderer's back. Usually 

 the danger is avoided by flight. A man named Ekkeahoak was stabbed near 

 Lambert island, about 1913, by a companion named Hitkok. The murderer 

 fled to the eastward, and in 1914 was living near Bathurst inlet. Ekkeahoak's 

 daughter in speaking of the affair expressed no bitterness towards Hitkok, and 

 probably if he had returned to Dolphin and Union strait he would have been 

 left perfectly unmolested. Such at least was the opinion that other natives 

 expressed; the murder had taken place long ago, they said, and no one wanted 

 to remember it or to wreak vengeance on the murderer. 



Sometimes, even when the evildoer escapes scot-free, his purpose is fruS' 

 trated by the rest of the community. Tamauyuk, an east Coronation gulf 

 native, coveted Kingollik, the wife of a man named Ailanaiuk, so one day when 

 Ailanaluk was spearing fish Tamauyuk went up behind him and stabbed him to 

 death with his knife. The murderer then took the woman from her tent and 

 forced her to become his wife, but the other natives interfered and took her 

 away from him. 



About 1908, at Asiak, east of Kent peninsula, a woman named Mittik was 

 accused of causing a man's death by sorcery. At once a quarrel arose, for this 

 was a straight charge of murder, and a man was stabbed with a knife. He ran 

 outside to get his rifle, but fell dead in the snow before he reached it. Another 

 man stabbed his murderer, then three men were shot, but none fatally. The 

 feud seems to have ended at this stage, no one being willing to carry it further. 

 An even jnore serious affray had occurred in the same region a few years earlier. 

 There had come to the settlement from Netsilik an elderly couple with three 

 sons, the eldest of whom brought his wife with him. An Asiak native wanted to 

 share the woman, but the young man objected to her having two husbands, and, 

 when he could not prevent it, stabbed his wife with a spear as she was stooping 

 down to enter her hut. The woman staggered outside and fell dead in the snow. 

 Her father then came up, and with the help of some of the other natives seized 

 the murderer and stabbed him to death. The second brother crept up behind 

 them and stabbed the father in the back, but the other natives pursued him and 

 stabbed him also. They now decided to put an end to the vendetta by destroy- 

 ing the whole family, so they killed the old father and wounded the third son 

 This boy, however, managed to escape, while the second son, who had been 

 stabbed with a knife, recovered through the care of his mother. Altogether 

 four people were killed and two wounded in this affair. 



A somewhat similar incident occurred among the Ekaluktomiut. A man 

 named Savugaluk was stabbed in the dance-house one evening, but not killed 

 outright. For many years he remained an invalid, unable to hunt or to do any 

 work. Finally, as he was only a burden to the community, the Eskimos decided 

 to take his wife away from him and leave him to starve to death. Savugaluk then 

 stabbed his wife, so a man went into his hut and stabbed him. Thus both of 

 them perished. 



Sometimes a native will resort to magic in order to wreak his revenge, 

 especially if he is afraid of adopting more open means. Two children died 

 among the Kilusiktomiut, and a man named Kavyektok laid the guilt at the 

 door of a Kanghiryuak family that was living in the settlement at the\time. 

 Not long afterwards Kavyektok's hands became partly paralyzed, and he was 

 unable to work. The natives immediately put it down to sorcery; it was the 

 Kanghiryuak family, they said, that had taken this vengeance on him because 

 he had accused them of murder. 



