Shamanism 201 



during the day— what Ilatsiak could hardly have been aware of — that a boom 

 we were using to roof our provision cache had snapped during the night owing 

 to the weight of the snow above it. Two days later Ilatsiak announced again 

 that in his dream he had seen a sled falling over a cliff, and expressed the hope 

 that none of our sleds would meet with such a mishap during the spring. 



These stories of shamanistic stances and miracles are from hearsay only, 

 but Mr. Wilkins, our photographer, personally participated in a performance 

 at the fishing creek near Bernard harbour. His interpreter for the occasion 

 was the half-breed Patsy Klengenberg, and the account he gives is as follows : — 



"On another occasion I visited a camp and there had been very few fish 

 caught for the last two or three days. They had all waited all that day and 

 there had not been a sign of any fish making a run. About nine o'clock at 

 night they thought they should hold a s6ance to try and induce a few to come 

 along, for although they had a quantity of dried fish they did not care to use 

 that up. A fellow called Igluhuk had arrived at the camp that evening and 

 he had the reputation of being a great shaman. We were all standing about 

 outside watching for signs of a run when one of the men asked me if I would 

 help in a stance to try to make the fish come up the creek. I agreed to do my 

 best, and they all crowded into the largest tent in the village. I was given a 

 seat next to the shaman which had been reserved for me, although I was almost 

 the last to come in, and there was not room for any others to sit down after 

 and some of them had to lean in and look through the door. At first it seemed 

 as if they had forgotten their object, for the conversation was general and was 

 mainly about the fishing at other seasons and on other days and at other creeks 

 that season. After about thirty minutes of this, the shaman seemed to be 

 doing most of the talking and gradually everyone else remained quiet. 



"He seemed to be warming to his subject and would at intervals demand 

 corroboration from one or other of the audience. Presently he started off in a 

 kind of sing-song and the audience chatted to each other in whispers or nodded 

 to each other across the tent. At intervals the shaman would address somebody 

 in a language that they could not understand, and they would turn inquiringly 

 to someone else for an explanation, but none would be forthcoming; no one seemed 

 to know what it was that was asked. Then two or three would ask if it was 

 so-and-so that was meant, or suggest something else, but the shaman would 

 shake his head violently and repeat the question in the unknown jargon. After 

 several fruitless attempts to make himself understood, and when the brows 

 of the audience were wrinkled with thought, and most of them were bewildered 

 in their efforts to understand, the old man gave a shout and clapped his hands 

 to his forehead. Shutting his eyes, he started swaying backwards and forwards. 

 He kept up the monotonous sing-song of an un-understandable sound for about 

 an hour, while the other people talked intermittently about several things, 

 sometimes looking at the performer and shaking their iieads and whispering 

 to each other. Presently the shaman gave a shout and uttered some intelligible 

 sounds and I was requested to hold on to his hand. 



"An old woman sitting next but one to him searched around and found the 

 copper head of an ice spear, and while I held his hand on one side and the owner 

 of the tent held his shoulder on the other, she gave him a smart tap on the left 

 side of the head with a lump of copper. At this he released his hand from 

 his forehead and opened his eyes. Huge drops of perspiration stood out all 

 over his face and his eyes were wild and bloodshot. We released our hold and 

 he kept his backward and forward swaying motion but with renewed vigour. 

 He was now talking intelligible language, but so fast that most of the people 

 in the audience could not understand him and they would repeatedly shout 

 questions to him or ask him to repeat things. He took no notice of them and 

 soon began to point to one or the other of the audience and, fluttering his fingers 



