574 



ARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION. 



his Tunukderlien for either of the two wives sent for his choice, 

 and the latter returned to their husband. Thereupon the ange- 

 ko became so enraged that he immediately came from the mount- 

 ains, and entered the village of tupics like a demon. He first 

 tried to negotiate a peaceable exchange, and then attempted by 

 threats to effect what he wanted. With a loaded musket and a 

 large knife, he prowled all night long around Koojesse's tupic, 

 trying to take his life ; but Koojesse had been warned, and finally 

 took up his abode in one of the white men's tents near by. The 

 next day Mate Eogers arrived, and the angeko, fearing him, fled 

 away to his haunt in the mountains. 



Another instance of inattention to the angeko's advice I will 

 relate here. One of the former husbands of Suzhi was sick. 

 The angeko said Kokerjabin, who was at that time the wife of 

 Sampson, must live with the invalid husband for two or three 

 months, or he would die before spring. All the Innuits thought 

 the angeko should be obeyed, but Kokerjabin refused to comply, 

 declaring that she did not believe what the angeko said. Before 

 spring, Suzhi' s husband died as the angeko predicted, and there- 

 fore all the people despised Kokerjabin. 



I will now mention various customs which have relation to the 

 religious belief of the Innuits, though many of them can be ex- 

 plained only by the broad phrase, " The first Innuits did so." 

 When they kill a reindeer, and have skinned it, they cut off bits 

 of different parts of the animal, and bury them under a sod, or 

 some moss, or a stone, at the exact spot where the animal was 

 killed. When an Innuit passes the place where a relative has 

 died, he pauses and deposits a piece of meat near by. On one oc- 

 casion, when traveling with Sharkey, I saw him place a bit of seal 

 under the snow near an island which we were passing. When I 

 questioned him, he said that it was done out of respect for the 

 memory of an uncle who had died there. 



• When a child dies, every thing it has used, either as a play- 

 thing or in any work it did, is placed in or upon its grave. W x hen 

 Tukeliketa, Tookoolito's boy, died in this country, some weeks 

 after the mother collected all his playthings and put them upon 

 his grave.* Visiting the spot some time after, she found that one 

 article, a gayly -painted little tin pail, had been taken away, and 

 her grief was severe at the discovery. In March, 1862, while I 



* The remains of Tukeliketa rest in Groton, Connecticut, in the burial-ground 



near the residence of Captain Budington. 



