SCIENCE. 



218 



cessful ancoot for a long time he may become a great 

 ancoot ; this necessitates a period of fasting, and then, 

 as the story goes, an animal they call amarook (the 

 same word is used for wolf, and for an animal which 

 is probably mythical, unless it can be a Gulo) comes 

 into his hut and bites the man, who immediately falls 

 to pieces ; his bones are then conveyed to the sea, 

 where he lives for some time as a walrus ; he finally 

 returns among his people, a man in appearance, but 

 a God in power. 



If the prophecy of an ancoot does not come to pass 

 as he had said it would, any phenomenon of nature, 

 as a halo, corona, aurora, etc., is sufficient to have 

 broken the spell, and the ancoot loses nothing of his 

 reputation by the failure, for it is then believed that 

 the measure, whatever it might have been, was not 

 pleasing to Tomgarsuk. 



The people come to these soothsayers after all 

 manner of information. We knew of one case where 

 a young woman asked an ancoot if her yet unborn 

 child would be a boy or girl. He retired outside the 

 hut for a few moments, and when he returned he said 

 it would "be a boy"; but he adds, "If it is not a 

 boy, it will be a girl " ! For this valuable information 

 he charged three seal skins and a knife. As a gen- 

 eral thing, the ancoots are paid according to their 

 reputation ; still, it is very seldom they refuse to give 

 them what they ask for in return for their valuable 

 services. 



They seem to have an idea of a future state, but 

 what we denominate as the region down below they 

 consider as the best place. In Egede's " Grcenlands 

 nye Perlustration, year 1741," is given a legend which 

 is almost exactly the same as one that is found among 

 the Cumberland Eskimo at the present day. But 

 Egede says, in the Danish translation, " Himmel," 

 heaven, as though this was the equivalent for the 

 Greenlander's word ; the Eskimo of Cumberland say 

 " topani," which means simply " up." They do not 

 distinguish any difference in the soul's condition after 

 death, or rather of the two places where they expect 

 to live hereafter ; one differs from the other only in 

 this wise, that if death is caused by certain means 

 they go to the one, and if they die a natural death 

 they go to the other. 



The following is their idea of the future : " In the 

 spirit-land all will have it as good or better than they 

 had it on earth." Yet they designate two places 

 where the soul goes after death, viz : " Some go up ; 

 others far down into the earth." But the lower place 

 is considered preferable. This is described as a 

 beautiful land, with everlasting sunshine, where the 

 seal and reindeer abound in fabulous quantities, and 

 food is consequently abundant. To this latter place 

 go only such as are killed by other Eskimo, women 

 who die in child-birth, such as drown in salt water, 

 and whalers; they think, this being the better place, 

 it is a sort of recompense for the suffering they under- 

 went on earth ; all the rest go up. 



In this connection, we will mention that the Cum- 

 berland Eskimo think the aurora borealis is the 

 spirits of dead Eskimo dancing and having a good 

 time generally. It has even considerable influence 

 over them, and they are well pleased to see a bright 

 aurora. The Greenlanders, on the other hand, say it 

 is the spirits of dead Eskimo fighting. 



MULTIPLE SPECTRA 1 

 in. 



I have endeavored to show in the previous articles that 

 there are many facts which justify the conclusion that the 

 same elementary substance in a state of purity can under 

 different conditions give us spectra different in kind. To 

 those spectra to which special reference is now made the 

 names of lined and fluted have been given to mark their 

 chief point of difference, which is that in lined spectra we 

 deal with lines distributed irregularly over the spectrum ; 

 while in fluted spectra we deal with rythmical systems. 



This was the first point, and I showed that the idea was 

 suggested that the lined and fluted spectra, though pro- 

 duced by the same substance, were produced by that sub- 

 stance in a different molecular condition. 



I have pointed out that both in lined and fluted spectra 

 taken separately there was evidence of still further compli- 

 cation, that is, that a complete lined spectrum of a sub- 

 stance and a complete fluted spectrum of a substance, was 

 the result of the vibration not of one kind of molecule only, 

 but probably of several. 



So that in this view we have to imagine a series, in some 

 cases a long series, of molecular simplifications brought 

 about by the action of heat, and ascribe the spectral changes 

 to these simplifications. 



To understand my contention, and one objection which 

 has been taken to it, in the clearest way, let us suppose 

 that there is a substance which gives us, under different 

 conditions, three spectra, which we will term a, b, and c. 

 My view is that these spectra are produced by three distinct 

 molecular groupings brought about by successive dissocia- 

 tions. On the other hand, it is objected that they are pro- 

 duced by one and the same molecule struck, as a bell might 

 be struck, in different ways by the heat waves or the electric 

 current passing among the molecules. 



In my memoir entitled "Discussion of the Working 

 Hypothesis that the so-called Elements are Compound 

 Bodies," I remarked as follows : — 



" I was careful at the very commencement of this paper to 

 point out the fact that the conclusions I have advanced are 

 based upon the analogies furnished by those bodies which, 

 by common consent and beyond cavil and discussion, are 

 compound bodies. Indeed, had I not been careful to urge 

 this point, the remark might have been made that the vari- 

 ous changes in the spectra to which I shall draw attention 

 are not the results of successive dissociations, but are effects 

 due to putting the same mass into different kinds of vibra- 

 tion or of producing the vibration in different ways. Thus 

 the many high notes, both true and false, which can be pro- 

 duced out of a bell with or without its fundamental one, 

 might have been put forward as analogous with those spec- 

 tral lines which are produced at different degrees of tem- 

 perature with or without the line, due to each substance 

 when vibrating visibly with the lowest temperature. To 

 this argument, however, if it were brought forward, the 

 reply would be that it proves too much. If it demonstrates 

 that the // hydrogen line in the sun is produced by the same 

 molecular groupings of hydrogen as that which gives us 

 two green lines only when the weakest possible spark is 

 taken in hydrogen inclosed in a large glass globe, it also 

 proves that calcium is identical with its salts. For we can 

 get the spectrum of any of the salts alone without its com- 

 mon base, calcium, as we can get the green lines of hydro- 

 gen without the red one. 



"I submit, therefore, that the argument founded on the 

 over-notes of a sounding body, such as a bell, cannot be 

 urged by any one who believes in the existence of any 

 compound bodies at all, because there is no spectroscopic 

 break between acknowledged compounds and the sup- 

 posed elementary bodies. The spectroscopic differences 

 between calcium itself at different temperatures is, as I shall 

 show, as great as when we pass from known compounds of 

 calcium to calcium itself. There is a perfect continuity of 

 phenomena from one end of the scale of temperature to the 

 other." 



Not only is what may be termed the bell hypothesis op- 



Contmucd from p. 107. 



