62 A Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



accomplices dead— for they were but his instruments, he the real thief — called 

 out "Who will help me against that spirit up there? Friend black bear, you 

 come." Immediately a host of mice swarmed round the boy and threatened 

 to eat him alive, but he sprang to his feet and stamped on them and killed them 

 all. The shaman called out again, "Who will help me against that spirit up 

 there? Friend white bear, you come." A host of lemmings then sprang upround 

 the boy, but he tore them off him and stamped on them and killed them just as 

 he had killed the mice. Again the shaman called out, "Who will help me against 

 that spirit up there? Friend fire, you come." A great ball of fire suddenly 

 appeared and began to roll towards the boy, who fled precipitately. The fire 

 rolled after him, and had almost overtaken him when he drew his dogskin 

 mitten from his left ha;nd and threw it back, saying, "My pup, help me." 

 Immediately the fire and the mitten began to fight, and the fire killed and 

 consumed the mitten. Then it continued the pursuit, and was almost on top 

 of the boy when he drew off his other mitten and flung it back, saying, "My 

 pup, help me." This time the mitten was victorious, and the fire was des- 

 troyed. The boy reached home in safety and thereafter had no more trouble 

 with his nets. 



Cf. Nelson, p. 510f. 



32. The Ghost 

 (Told by Jennie Thomsen) 



Long ago at a place a little south of Nome there were three houses standing 

 together. A man died in one of them, and the other inhabitants left the settle- 

 ment and went to live some distance away. With them was an orphan boy 

 named Oyupkataliq. One day he was grufHy told to go off and get some food 

 for himself, as he could not expect other people to provide for him all the time. 

 He said, "All right, I shall go tomorrow." He borrowed some dogs, a sled and 

 a pair of mittens from the man with whom he was living, and set out the next 

 day for the deserted settlement. There he unharnessed the dogs and took them 

 with him into the dead man's house, leaving the sled beside the rack. Inside 

 he found a lamp, and soon he had everything arranged for passing the night. 

 All was quiet for the first hour or two, then suddenly he heard a voice calling 

 him: oyupkataliq, oyupkataliq, anu tapaymik tunjum piciakatin, tajeoqpaum 

 nqjoa tamakli-i "Oyupkataliq, go out quickly; the spirit is going to seize you, 

 the sea-salmon its oil let it devour." At first the chant was sung slowly in a low 

 voice, and the boy took no notice, but a little while afterwards it was repeated 

 louder and faster. The boy was rather frightened and hid behind the lamp. 

 A third time the chant was sung outside, louder and faster than ever, then 

 came a crash on the roof, and a moment afterwards the door was pushed violently 

 open and the spirit entered. It searched all round the room without finding the 

 boy and went out again. All was quiet for a while, and the boy began to think 

 that the spirit had gone away altogether when he heard the song again, and a 

 moment later it burst into the house a second time, made another futile search 

 and went out. The boy, now thoroughly alarmed, fled outside and hid on top 

 of the rack among a pile of king salmon. There was a light, he noticed, rather 

 like a lamp, on the dead man's grave; presently he saw the spirit emerge out of 

 it and enter the house, then come out again quickly and follow his tracks to 

 the rack. Hurriedly he pulled some salmon out of a seal-poke and threw them 

 down. The spirit stopped, picked them up, carried them on its back to the 

 grave and vanished. Soon it reappeared and came towards the rack again. 

 This time the boy threw down a few pieces of the poke itself, which the spirit 

 carried off similarly. Then the boy jumped down, harnessed up his dogs as 

 quickly as he could and raced off. Presently he saw a ball of fire pursuing him.^ 

 The terrified dogs travelled their fastest, but gradually it overtook them and 



» See Stefansson, Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural EBstory, Vol. XIV, pt. I, p. 341f. 



