Shamanism 207 



man is performing"; but when I pointed out that Utugaum had finished he 

 waived his objection. Uloksak had been teUing the people earlier in the evening 

 about the two pillars that hold up the sky, and Utugaum probably had these 

 in his mind when he spoke of the two poles that a man had knocked down. 

 There is a special incantation that is generally sung before a shaman goes in 

 search of Kannakapfaluk, but for some reason or other it was omitted on this 

 occasion. 



Tokalluak, a Coronation gulf native, held a s6ance at the fishing creek near 

 Cape Krusenstern in July, 1916, when a band of natives had gathered together 

 to spear the salmon. He invoked his familiar and uttered some brief remark, 

 then laughed and hid his face in his hands. His laugh, however, had caused 

 his familiar to leave him and he had to recall it. This happened repeatedly, 

 for he seemed to be unable to control his laughter whenever any of his audience 

 laughed. He spoke of a boy whose legs were too long (Patsy, my interpreter) , 

 and of a man with long whiskers (myself) whom he called Patsy's father, and 

 accused of frightening away the fish by dipping an iron cup into the creek. 

 (Unluckily for Tokalluak's credit, the Eskimos had just caught a phenomenal 

 number of fish that day). Finally he tabooed all sewing on the following day 

 and terminated his stance. 



Higilak held several stances during the spring and summer of 1915 in addi- 

 tion to the one that has been described already. The most interesting of them 

 all took place at the end of July at a time when I was seriously ill in the Eskimo 

 camp. I do not know what familiar possessed her, except that it was the shade 

 of some Eskimo long dead. She began in the usual manner with an oration. 

 There was a strained look in her eyes as she spoke, and a tension in her face, as 

 though she were concentrating herself for a great effort. Suddenly she emitted 

 several deep ventriloquistic cries, followed by shrill falsetto utterances from her 

 head. Then she began to gabble in high falsetto, first about the scarcity of fish, 

 for which some dead person was to blame, then about my sickness, for which 

 another dead person she named was responsible. Suddenly she cried aggioktok, 

 "A malignant shade is troubUng me", and bowed her head, concealing her face 

 in her hands. Avranna asked ,"Who is it?" and in a faint voice she replied, 

 "Arnaktak" (Amaktak was a relative of Ikpakhuak who had died in the pre- 

 vious winter). Ikpakhuak struck her on the head, and drove away the obstructing 

 shade. Almost immediately another obstructed her, and Avranna asked of it again, 

 "Who are you?" The shade, instead of answering the question directly, merely 

 said, in faint accents issuing from Higilak's lips, "Here I am", and added some 

 further remarks which I could not hear. Milukkattak now struck Higilak 

 on the head and drove it away. A third shade took possession of her and 

 Avranna held a long conversation with it. It finally promised to be good, 

 nagoyok, whereupon a sigh of relief went up from the audience, and Higilak, 

 after one or two gasps, came to her senses. A short discussion followed the 

 performance, after which everyone retired to bed. 



When Arnaktak, the native just mentioned, had died, I was a hundred 

 miles away in Coronation gulf. Nevertheless some of the Eskimos accused me 

 of murdering him, because, as they said, he had perpetrated some petty theft 

 on me. There was some disagreement, however, so Uloksak, the most famous 

 shaman among the western Copper Eskimos, was asked to find out what precisely 

 was the cause of his death. The stance took place in a dance-house beside our 

 station, and, having rather a personal interest in the matter, I went down to 

 see it. Our cook, Sullivan, was present also, though from first to last he had no 

 idea of what was happening. The people arranged themselves in a ring and 

 began to sing, rather to while away the time than from any other reason, for their 

 singing was very half-hearted and they did not trouble to bring out the drum. 

 Uloksak sat outside the circle on a sleeping platform, leaning against his second 

 wife and apparently quite unconcerned with what was taking place. Suddenly 



