14 Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1918-18 



Celibacy holds no joy for either sex; the man needs a wife to prepare his food, 

 and to make clothing and a tent from the caribou skins he secures; and the woman 

 needs a husband to provide her with all three necessities of life, food, clothing 

 and shelter. Beauty of form or face are of very minor importance. Every 

 native marries at an early age, with few preliminaries and with no romance. 

 There is only one song in the whole collection that carries a note of pathos, 

 the widow's complaint in No. 55. The Eskimo is by nature exceedingly cheerful 

 and even-tempered, not given to brood over the periods of privation that so 

 often fall to his lot (Cf. No. 17), or the many weary journeys that may so easily 

 end in disaster (Cf. Nos. 34 and 74). He is fond of companionship (Cf. No. 46), 

 and not lacking in affection for his family and kinsfolk (Cf. Nos. 13, 39 and 75), 

 although in a fit of anger or jealousy evoked by some incident like that recorded 

 in No. 32 he may treat his wife as harshly as his dogs (Cf. No. 13). As long as a 

 man retains the strength to hunt he can always find a comfortable home; but 

 wretched is the fate of the widow who is unable to obtain another husband. 

 She is cast on the community, a burden to herself and to her kinsfolk alike. 



Incantations 



The incantations in this collection, though much fewer than the dance- 

 songs, are yet numerous enough to reveal how important a place they occupy 

 in the field of Copper Eskimo music. All that are here recorded are incantations 

 to produce fine weather, except No. 88, which was said to be for healing the sick. 

 Weather incantations, though occasionally chanted in summer, are most often 

 employed during the winter months, when terrible blizzards prevent the Eskimos 

 from sealing and reduce them to a state of famine. The natives then gather in 

 their dance-houses and strive to appease or drive away the malignant spirits 

 that are credited with producing the storms. Generally the performance is 

 preceded by the usual dances. At their close a shaman enters the ring, the drum 

 is laid aside, and the people strike up the incantation, swaying their bodies from 

 side to side Ijut keeping their feet stationary. When the incantation is concluded 

 the shaman invokes his familiar or guardian spirit and begins his s6ance.^ 



In this collection a few of the incantations slightly resemble dance-songs 

 in form, having refrains and in one case a connective; but on the whole their 

 pattern is quite different. Most of them were said to be very ancient and their 

 meanings not understood. In No. 92 (93 and 94 are variants) the words are 

 supposed to be uttered by the shaman's familiar, which is directly invoked in 

 Nos. 95 (variants 96 and 101), 97 and 107 (variant 109). No. 88 seems to des- 

 cribe how the familiar forced the sick man's wandering soul to return to his 

 body and so destroyed the cause of his ailment; and Nos. 100 (variant 104) 

 and 105 (variant 106) depict the behaviour of the shaman himself ard interpret 

 the meaning of his performance. The words of the remaining songs throw no 

 light on their purpose; as far as one can see they might have been equally well 

 adapted to dance-tunes. 



Chants like Nos. 100 and 106, though called weather incantations, are in- 

 tended mainly to produce an abundance of seals. Similar chants probably 

 exist for caribou and fish, although none were actually recorded. One for brown 

 bears was obtained from a Bathurst inlet shaman who learned it from an Eskimo 

 of the Thelon river district on the west coast of Hudson bay.'' It ran : 

 apoj-ua neyiyuj-ua . 

 iliyayyuatiylu alyayyuatiylu 

 qaptuajotLtka qaptuajotitka 



"Game, food animals [I wish to kill]. 



Your big feet, your big hands. 



I make them walk on all fours, I make them walk on all fours." 



1 See Vol. XII, Ft. A, Ch. XIV, especially pp. 187-188. 



2 This incantation, unlike all the others that were recorded, belonged exclusively to one man, who had purchased it 

 originally with a knife. 



