4 40 



mies were hidden away in caves only known to the possessors. 

 A certain luck was supposed to attend the possession of bodies 

 of successful hunters. Hence one whaler, if he could, would steal 

 the mummies belonging to another, and secrete them in his own 

 cave, in order to obtain success in his profession. 



While M. Pinart was in Kadiak, he heard of the existence of 

 one of these mummies but was unable to discover the locality. 

 Afterwards Mr. Sheeran, the U. S. Deputy Collector of the port 

 of Kadiak, through a peculiar superstition of the christianized (?) 

 natives, was able to discover and secure it. It appears that 

 though nominally all members of the Greek Church they still have 

 great faith in the superstitions of their ancestors, and while the 

 whaleman's superstition has passed away, the natives still re- 

 garded the mummy as possessing the power of averting the ill 

 nature of evil spirits, and consequently were accustomed to take 

 to it the first berries and oil of the season. This they asserted, 

 the mummy ate, as the dishes were always empty when they re- 

 turned for them. Thus annually, they furnished the foxes and 

 spermophiles with a feast. By watching, when the spring offering 

 was made, the locality was detected. The mummy was secured by 

 Mr. Sheeran and placed in an outbuilding near his house. During 

 the season the natives came to him and remonstrated at his not 

 feeding the dead man sufficiently ; for he had been seen by a 

 native watchman one foggy night, prowling about the town, pre- 

 sumably in search of food. 



This mummy was only covered with a tattered gut-shirt or 

 kamlayka, was in a squatting posture, and held in his hand a 

 stoneheaded lance, on the point of which was transfixed a rude 

 figure cut out of sealskin, supposed by the natives to represent 

 the evil spirits which he held in check. It was that of a middle 

 aged man with hair and tissues in good preservation. 



