Shamanism 203 



CHAPTER XVI 



SHAMANISM (Continued) 



Of the many stances that I witnessed myself among the Copper Eskimos 

 at one time and another, a few are worth describing because of the light they 

 shed on the psychology of the natives and on their religious beliefs. Among 

 the earliest was a performance by Kaminggok at the Liston and Sutton islands 

 in January, 1915. The people had been singing and dancing after their usual 

 custom in the dance-house when he entered the ring on his own initiative and 

 announced that he would hold a stance. He began in the orthodox manner 

 with an oration, then suddenly uttered cries of pain and covered his eyes with 

 his hand as though he were in the greatest agony. Soon he raised his head 

 again, looking round with wild staring eyes, trying to speak apparently but 

 unable to utter a sound. The audience questioned him, suggesting whatever 

 they thought he was trying to say, and he nodded eagerly to the native who 

 guessed correctly. In this way he told them that two men to the eastward had 

 just died, one of them having been killed by the spirit of Cat's Cradles.' Again 

 he uttered cries of pain and slapped his hand to his forehead, then began to speak 

 in a weak falsetto voice about two of the local Eskimos and their lack of success 

 in sealing. Something they had done with a hatchet, he said, had frightened 

 the seals away, but he (i.e., his familiar spirit) had removed the hatchet so they 

 would soon kill more seals again. A third time he cried out in pain, then said 

 in his natural voice, but in a low and rather husky tone, that he could see some 

 dogs stealing fish. A native suggested that it might be my dogs, but he said, 

 "No". Several of us then left the dance-house to find out whether what he said 

 was true, and we discovered that the natives' own dogs had stolen some fish 

 belonging to an Eskimo woman. How Kaminggok could have known about it 

 I have no idea, for no one else had heard any noise. His performance was 

 almost over by the time we returned. He closed his eyes suddenly and began 

 to stagger; his soul, nappan, was returning, my Mackenzie river native whisp- 

 ered to me, or perhaps it was his familiar leaving him. A by-stander laid his 

 hand on the back of the shaman's neck, and another man laid his on the side of 

 it, while, at the request of a third native, I rapped him on the head with some 

 matches. The first rap had no effect, nor the second, so, by the natives' advice, 

 I placed my hand on the side of his head. Immediately he opened his eyes 

 and gazed at me with an uncomprehending stare, then smiled, pulled himself 

 together, and began an ordinary conversation with some of his audience. 

 Throughout his performance there had been nothing so strange as to suggest 

 an abnormal state of mind; the whole affair had resembled rather the trick of 

 a fairly clever impostor. Palaiyak, however, my Christianized ' Mackenzie 

 river interpreter, thoroughly believed in his inspiration, asserting that several 

 familiars had successively entered his body and that he was really a great 

 shaman. 



A few days later Kaminggok gave another performance in the dance-house. 

 I was projecting a journey to an AkuUiakattak settlement on the morrow, with 

 Kaminggok and another native as my guides; the stance was held to discover 

 what fortune we would have. It resembled very closely his earlier performance: 

 first, the oration, then the cries of pain, a period of dumbness during which the 

 audience made guesses at what he was trying to say and he answered by nodding, 



'The natives of North Alaska and of the Mackenzia delta believe that the opening stage in certain 

 cat's cradle figures, or a development from it called ''Two Labrets," has the power of driving away this 

 spirit if performed more rapidly than the spirit itself can perform it, The man who had just died, it was 

 said, had been defeated by the spiritin the contest. 



