214 Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



to what she had stated. " Take hold of it here," she told him, fidgeting the 

 bundle about a little, possibly to place it in such a position among the bed- 

 skins that it would be less easy to lift. " Now it's heavy, isn't it ? " she asked, 

 and he said "Yes, it is a little." "Take hold of it here lower down," she 

 directed him again, " It's heavy now, isn't it ? " "Well, just a little," he 

 rephed. This appeared to satisfy her; she took the cord in her own hands 

 again and weighed it. " It is heavy", she said, and went on with her question- 

 ing. No one seemed to think that there might be any fraud on Higilak's part. 

 Avranna's doubts related not to her good faith, but rather to her interpretation 

 of the weight of the kila, just as we might sometimes question the accuracy of 

 a doctor's diagnosis. 



I understood rather less of what was said at a divination that was held 

 just a week later. There was no definite reason for this performance as far 

 as. I could learn. When I asked Higilak why she was holding it, she merely 

 said aggioktoraluk, "the shades of the dead constantly beset us." My coat 

 was used again for the kila, and two shades appeared to enter it at once, for 

 Higilak said tamna aiparivaga ukumailivaktok "the one accompanying him is 

 making it heavy." Mikinrok thumped the sides and head of the kila to 

 drive it out, but without effect. I was then asked to thump, and this time the 

 result was satisfactory. Higilak asked me who it was that had entered the 

 kila, and when I suggested at random that it might have been "Charlie", the 

 natives immediately identified it with a white man of whom they had heard 

 (Captain Klengenberg?). Another shade entered the kila after "Charlie" had 

 gone; this time it was "Joseph." "Charlie" had announced that Ikpakhuak 

 was threatened with evil, but when he had been driven out, and after him 

 "Joseph", everj'thing seemed to be propitious again. A fortnight later Higilak 

 again used my coat for divining, and this time the only spectators were the 

 little boy Haugak and myself. The other natives of our party had all gone out 

 hunting with Ikpakhuak, and a sudden fog that descended over the land had 

 prevented them from finding their way back. The fog was due, Higilak thought, 

 to certain shades of the dead which entered the kila one after another. Some 

 were the shades of white men, so I was asked to name them — "William, May" 

 etc. — and to tell them that we were good people without evil intentions. Others 

 were the shades of Eskimos, one being Nerialak, Higilak's first, husband, and 

 another Arnaktak, a relative who had died the previous winter; these, her 

 fellow-countrymen, Higilak propitiated as I had mine. The majority of them 

 were readily appeased, for they left the kila immediately. Others refused to 

 go, and the kila remained very heavy, although by Higilak's direction I thumped 

 on its sides and head; finally she had to slash the top of the coat with her knife 

 in order to eject them. When all the shades had thus been disposed of in one 

 way or the other the kila announced that the fog would lift on the morrow, 

 and that Ikpakhuak and his party would be able to find their way back to camp. 



I was taken very ill shortly after this, and my condition remained serious 

 for several weeks. Ikpakhuak and Higilak became greatly alarmed, and the 

 latter held a "consultation" over me. She used my coat to divine with, though 

 she made a pillow for it out of her foot-gear. First she orated about the dis- 

 agreeableness of being ill, how it made everyone unhappy, with other remarks 

 in the same strain. Then, addressing the kila, she enquired whether my system 

 was out of order of its own accord, and the kila replied "No." "Who caused it. 

 then? Was it a white man?" "No." "Some one from Great Bear lake?" 

 "No." "A western Eskimo?" "Yes." I was told to enquire his name, and 

 suggested Aiyakak. The kila answered "Yes." "What are you doing here," 

 said Higilak, "Jenness is not here, he's a long way away. What do you want 

 here?" » and Ikpakhuak, at her signal, struck the kih, with the edge of her 



'Apparently a malignant shade may be fooled or deceived as well as propitiated or intimidated. Why 

 the human breath should drive it away I did not discover. 



