Religious Beliefs 181 



went hunting one day with another Eskimo named Angivranna. They sighted 

 a brown bear on the opposite bank of a river and began to cross over towards 

 it, but they had hardly reached half way when the bear's ears began to enlarge 

 and gradually cover its whole body. Annarvilc turned and fled to shore; when 

 he looked round again a man had sprung out from beside the bear and entered 

 the water. It disappeared below the surface, and presently the terrified Angiv- 

 ranna disappeared also, pulled under by his adversary. No sooner had he sunk 

 than the brown bear vanished into the ground, but on the same spot appeared 

 the mysterious man. Annarvik fled to his camp and told his companions of 

 Angivranna's fate. The brown bear had killed him, the natives said, because 

 he was too good a hunter. 



Quite recently another hunter met with a similar fate, according to local 

 tradition. In the summer of 1914 a party of Eskimos was travelling about 

 in the country south of Bathurst inlet. One day they saw a wolf and one of 

 the men cried, "Shoot it." His gun, however, failed to explode, and the wolf 

 seized him by the wrist and dragged him to the ground. Another hunter shot 

 it with his bow, but as the arrow pierced its body the wolf cried "Oh" exactly 

 like a man. Time went on, and the hunter's wrist slowly healed. One day he 

 shot a caribou, and went on farther to look for more game. That night he 

 failed to return to camp, nor was anything seen or heard of him for many months. 

 The shamans held a stance and discovered that the evil shades of the dead, 

 aggioktun, had murdered him. Finally, in the spring of 1915, his body was 

 found with a wolf lying dead beside it. The wolf had been wounded by his 

 bullet, but before it expired it had succeeded in killing the hunter; so the animals 

 had their revenge. 



It behoves the Eskim>i therefore to be very careful in all his actions. 

 Not only must he propitiate the shades of the Eskimo dead, lest they should 

 become offended and strive to slay him and to convert him into a tornrak like 

 themselves; but he must never forget to propitiate also the animals he kills. 

 Every seal that, is dragged inside his hut must have a little water poured into 

 its mouth, or a little lamp oil instead, for seals are thirsty animals and have a 

 great craving for water (or blubber). Caribou would be given the same, the 

 natives say, only they have not the same strong desire. Geese and other water- 

 fowl, and ptarmigan, all have a longing for oil, so before an Eskimo skins or 

 plucks such a bird he rubs a little fat or blubber on the head, the wing-joints 

 and the feet; but birds of other species have no desire of this kind. Propitiation 

 must be offered to the shades of all fierce and dangerous animals, that is to say 

 of polar and brown bears and of wolves. We shot a polar bear and its cub 

 in the summer of 1915, and Ikpakhuak made a tiny bow and arrow to leave 

 beside the mother's head; he called it a hunting weapon for the bear's shade, 

 and said that a similar gift should be made to the shade of every bear or wolf 

 that is killed. No sewing was permitted on the following day. Moreover, 

 on the last day of the same year, Kesullik, who had been in our party when the 

 bears were killed, captured a seal which he handed over to Ikpakhuak; it was 

 the first seal that -had entered Ikpakhuak's house since the slaying of the bears. 

 Now polar bears are like the Eskimos in this respect, that they, too, live largely 

 on seals. Accordingly, when Ikpakhuak had cut off the flippers of the seal 

 and laid them at the back of the hut, his wife stripped off a little of the skin 

 so that he could drive his knife into the animal's belly. This would please 

 the polar bear, he said, and give him success in his sealing; if he had not done 

 this they would have been angry with him and kept all the seals away. Accord- 

 ing to Milukkattak the usual custom is to lay a miniature bow and arrow beside 

 only the male bear or wolf; beside the female the hunter places a strip of sealskin 

 or deerskin which the shade of the aniitnal can use as a needle-holder. They 

 are like human beings, Milukkattak went on to say, and have need of the same 

 things, the male of his hunting weapons, and the female of her needle-case.' 



'Cf. Rasmussen, p. Ill; Stefansson, My Life with the Eskimo, p. 57, and Anthrop. Papers, A.M.N.H., 

 Vol. XIV, pt. I, p. 353; Boas, BuUetin A.M.N.H., Vol. XV, pt. 1, p. 124. 



