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Language and Folklore. 291 
(or fly away)” (no. 50). He thinks that these words will really give 
him the capacity of the thing mentioned: not just that a bat shall 
come into him, but that the word for this rare animal with its 
peculiar qualities (quite as other similar, holy words), is supposed 
to have a magic power which acts in the same way as what we call 
a natural element. At the back of the holy or strange word he feels 
in his heart the magic power of the wish, and believes in its reali- 
sation. The very manner in which he recites the prayer acts, no doubt, 
as a suggestion on his mind. 
In various formulae the symbology (i. e. the nature of the magic 
forces) is related, as for example in those of Akernilik and Attiartertoq 
(no. 61 and 83). Akernilik wishes to appease the anger of the walrus, 
and says: “I stroke your cheeks and pat your tusks.” Attiartertoq 
wishes to avert the cunning of his mortal enemy, which pursues him on 
the ocean: “I gently stroke your cheeks, you have become appeased.” _ 
In the formula against the risk from a shooting-star (no. 85) 
the symbology is not meant less substantially than in the foregoing. 
The most important point lies, here also, in the magic of the word, 
which is not fictional but real, according to the Eskimo conception 
of nature. — 
In these magic prayers the East Greenland Eskimo has through 
the ages preserved a page from his primitive views on life which 
was long unknown. Some few examples have been given previously 
by G. Holm, C. Kruuse, and C. Rosing;* the latter in Greenlandic, 
and all collected at Ammassalik. As several of the specimens contain 
interesting details, I give most of them, translated into English, in 
the supplement to mine. As regards the manner of using these prayers 
and their place in the East Greenlanders’ religion, I refer to the 
special section thereon. 
Meant to be recited in private, and interlarded with holy words, 
these prayers had for the Eskimo become as blood of his blood. Each 
time he had to face a critical moment in life he could grasp at this 
religious help. These holy poems are of just as much importance for 
the adult as the petting songs were for the child, or are even more 
weighted with vital importance. They reflect and exhale the serious- 
ness of life. 
A. HEALTH 
No. 49. Health. 
Aleqaajik. 
Several of the formulae are bound up with an amulet, which is worn by 
the owner, or hidden in his boat, weapon or clothes (cf. First Part p. 631). 
Together with this magic formula was the old bit of an anorak, which had 
been made into an amulet. Aleqaajik had bought this formula, which is to 
bring about good health, with the amulet from Saka’s mother QacYsa herself, 
by paying a large seal-skin for it. When she got a daughter, and the latter 
was at the point of death, she used the formula. | 
1 Holm (1888), р. 334, cf. here, First Part, р. 305; Kruuse (1902), р. 213, cf. Medd. 
om Gronl. (1912), pp. 41—43; Rosing (1906), pp. 60—62. 
