18'i Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



asking an old man was emphatically told that it was prohibited. Even at our 

 station, four miles from the creek, she was afraid to sew some red sealskin bands 

 on a dancing-cap, though I tried to assure her that it "was not forbidden so far 

 away. However, the natives have been compelled to modify this taboo in the 

 case of their foot-gear, which at this season of the year, the late spring, requires 

 mending every two or three days; they may sew sealskin patches therefore 

 on worn-out boot soles, but must not steep them in the stream. Whether it 

 is permissible to make new sealskin shoes on the land, the shoes that are worn 

 in winter over deerskin socks, I am not quite certain. At all events, a woman 

 refused to make me a pair one autumn when she was preparing my other winter 

 clothes, though ,she promised to make them after we migrated out on to the ice. 



It is possible that the prohibition against the sewing of new deerskin 

 clothes on the ice during the dark days of winter also had some connection origin- 

 ally with this differentiation between products of the sea and of the land. At 

 the present time, however, the taboo is in force for very little more than a month, 

 since the natives are usually still sewing on the coast when the sun disappears, 

 and do not migrate out on to the ice until later. The sun is visible again in the 

 middle of January, after which time they may sew as many new clothes on the 

 ice as they wish. Old clothes may be patched at any season of the year. The 

 women would even make new clothes for us all through the dark days, provided 

 that they were allowed to sew them at our station on the land. This may 

 possibly be another instance, like the repairing of boots at the salmon creeks, 

 where necessity has forced the Eskimos to modify the full application of a taboo 

 that in its origin was much more general and far reaching. 



Certain other taboos may be mentioned here, although they probably arose 

 from different causes. Stone lamps and pots must not be made during the 

 winter :i nor must cottonwood be burnt then, otherwise the weather will grow 

 very cold. There is an idea, I imagine, that dislodging stones of any kind is 

 hable to have this effect; it will be remembered that the Bathurst inlet natives 

 gave this as their reason for not cooking on the ice any deer-meat that had been 

 cached under stones. Cat's cradles are tabooed at most seasons of the year; it 

 is only during the dark days when the sim cannot see them that the natives are 

 allowed to play the game, for the sun may come down and tickle them at any 

 other time, as tradition says it tickled a man long ago. The taboo is not very 

 rigidly observed, however. The natives taught me some figures in the summer, 

 although they took the precaution to close the door of the tent so that the sun 

 could not see them. Some natives believe in a special spirit of cat's cradles 

 that punishes them if they violate the taboo .^ Mr. Stefansson says that it is 

 only during the dark days that the natives tell stories,' but Ikpakhuak and 

 his people had no hesitation about narrating them in the summer. There is a 

 curious regulation about dances; they must never be held out of doors, lest the 

 songs of the natives should be wafted abroad and the singers die. Throwing 

 the scrapings from deerskins on to the floor of a snow hut is alleged to be 

 tabooed, though the natives frequently do it. Farther east the Netsilingmiut 

 are said to have a taboo against making new knives on the ice before the young 

 seals are born, but the Coronation gulf Eskimos have no scruples in this respect. 

 Avranna on one occasion refused to allow his dog to eat any part of the skin or 

 meat of a rabbit that he had shot, sajdng that it was 'dry meat' and the dog 

 would fall ill and die. It may have been a taboo, or only a particular fancy of 

 his own. 



»Cf. Boas, Bulletin, A.M.H.N., Vol. XV, p. 149. 



'More details concerning the superstitions relating 

 t's Cradles to be published in one of the later rep( 



'Anthrop. Papers, A.M.N.H., Vol. XIV, pt. I, p. 244. 



'More details concerning the superstitions relating to cat's cradles will be found in a volume of Eskimo 

 Cat's Cradles to be published in one of the later reports of this series. 



