THE HUSUTOKS. 
127 
of the words and the introduction of a few cabalistic 
terms. 
Besides the angekoks, who are looked up to as the 
hierophants or dispensers of good, they have the issiv^ 
tole, or evil men, who work injurious spells, enchant¬ 
ments, metamorphoses. Like the witches of both Eng- 
lands, the Old and the New, these malignants are 
rarely submitted to trial till they have been subjected 
to punishment—“castigat auditque.” The finder of 
the Runic stone, old Pelemut, was one of them, and 
dealt with accordingly. Two others, only as far back 
as 1828, suffered the penalty of their crime on the 
same day, one at Karmenak, the other at Upernavik. 
This last was laudably killed after the “ old customs,” 
custom being the apology of the rude everywhere for 
things revolting to modern sense. He was first har¬ 
pooned, then eviscerated, a flap let down from his fore¬ 
head “ to cover his eyes and prevent his seeing again,” 
—he had the “evil eye,” it might seem; and then 
small portions of his heart were eaten, so as to make 
it secure that he could not come back to earth un¬ 
changed. All this in accordance with venerated ritual. 
The other, the Karmenak case, was that of an old 
sick man. He was dealt with more succinctly by his 
neighbor Kamokah, now old Tobias; who, at the in¬ 
stance of the issiutok family, pushed him into the sea 
after harpooning him, and then gave his flesh to the 
dogs. I have seen Tobias at Proven, a Christianized 
man now, of very good repute, and, for aught I know, 
worthy of it. 
