The Eskimo have some very interesting feasts, most of which are closely
connected with their religious notions. In summer feasts are celebrated
in the open air, but in winter a house, called qaggi, or, as we may call
it, singing house, is built for that purpose.
[Illustration: FIG. 531. Diagram showing interior of qaggi or
singing house among eastern tribes.]
The plan of the house which is used by the eastern tribes is represented
in Fig. 531. It is a large snow dome about fifteen feet in height and
twenty feet in diameter, without any lining. In the center there is a
snow pillar five feet high, on which the lamps stand. When the
inhabitants of a village assemble in this building for singing and
dancing the married women stand in a row next the wall. The unmarried
women form a circle inside the former, while the men sit in the
innermost row. The children stand in two groups, one at each side of the
door. When the feast begins, a man takes up the drum (kilaut), which
will be described presently, steps into the open space next the door,
and begins singing and dancing. Among the stone foundations of Niutang,
in Kingnait (Cumberland Sound), there is a qaggi built on the same plan
as the snow structure. Probably it was covered with a snow roof when in
use.
[Illustration: FIG. 532. Plan of Hudson Bay qaggi or singing house.
(From Hall II, p. 220.)]
Hall gives the plan of the Hudson Bay qaggi (Fig. 532), a copy of which
is here introduced, as well as his description of the drum (Fig. 533),
which I have never seen made (Hall II, p. 96):
The drum is made from the skin of the deer [or seal], which is
stretched over a hoop made of wood, or of bone from the fin of a
whale, by the use of a strong, braided cord of sinew passed around
a groove on the outside. The hoop is about 2½ inches wide, 1½
inches thick, and 3 feet in diameter, the whole instrument
weighing about 4 pounds. The wooden drumstick, 10 inches in length
and 3 inches in diameter, is called a kentun. * * *
The deerskin which is to be the head of the instrument is kept
frozen when not in use. It is then thoroughly saturated with
water, drawn over the hoop, and temporarily fastened in its place
by a piece of sinew. A line of heavy, twisted sinew, about 50 feet
long, is now wound tightly on the groove on the outside of the
hoop, binding down the skin. This cord is fastened to the handle
of the kilaut [drum], which is made to turn by the force of
several men (while its other end is held firmly), and the line
eased out as required. To do this a man sits on the bed-platform,
“having one or two turns of the line about his body, which is
encased in furred deerskins, and empaled by four upright pieces of
wood.” Tension is secured by using a round stick of wood as a
lever on the edge of the skin, drawing it from beneath the cord.
When any whirring sound is heard, little whisps of reindeer hair
are tucked in between the skin and the hoop, until the head is as
tight as a drum.
[Illustration: FIG. 533. Kilaut or drum.]
When the drum is played, the drum handle is held in the left hand
of the performer, who strikes the edge of the rim opposite that
over which the skin is stretched. He holds the drum in different
positions, but keeps it in a constant fan-like motion by his hand
and by the blows of the kentun struck alternately on the opposite
sides of the edge. Skillfully keeping the drum vibrating on the
handle, he accompanies this with grotesque motions of the body,
and at intervals with a song, while the women keep up their own
Inuit songs, one after another, through the whole performance.
The feast is described as follows:
As usual the women sat on the platform Turk fashion; the men,
behind them with extended legs. The women were gayly dressed. They
wore on each side of the face an enormous pigtail, made by
wrapping their hair on a small wooden roller a foot in length;
strips of reindeer-fur being wrapped with the hair [see p. 559].
These were black and white for those who had sons and black only
for those who had none. Shining ornaments were worn on the head
and on the breast they had masonic-like aprons, the groundwork of
which was of a flaming red color, ornamented with glass beads of
many colors.
In Cumberland Sound the women also wear pigtails at the celebration of
these feasts. The drum is sometimes played with the wrist of the right
hand instead of the beater.
Every singing house is dedicated to a tornaq, the qaggim inua, as
mentioned above. For this reason all these performances may be
considered religious feasts.
The songs are always composed by the singer himself. Satiric songs are
great favorites on these occasions. While the men listen in silence the
women join in the chorus, amna aya, the never failing end of each verse.
The dancer remains on one spot only, stamping rhythmically with the
feet, swinging the upper part of his body, and at the same time playing
the kilaut. While dancing he always strips the upper part of the body,
keeping on only trousers and boots. Singing and dancing are alternated
with wrestling matches and playing at hook and crook. Almost every great
success in hunting is celebrated in the qaggi, and especially the
capture of a whale. Such a feast has been described by Parry.
[Illustration: FIG. 534. Plans of remains of supposed qaggin or
singing houses. (From Parry II, p. 362.)]
The stone foundations observed by Parry and copied here (Fig. 534) are
probably the remains of singing houses. Parry’s description is as
follows (II, p. 362):
It appears that the whole whale or a principal part of it is
dragged into the enclosure, where some of the men are employed in
cutting it up and throwing the pieces over the wall to the rest,
who stand ready to receive them outside; while within the women
range themselves in a circle around the whale and continue singing
during the operation. * * * Each of these structures * * * was the
distinct property of a particular individual; and had probably, in
its turn, been the seat of feasting and merriment either to the
present owner, or those from whom he had inherited it.
Great feasts closely connected with the Sedna tradition are celebrated
every fall.
When late in the fall storms rage over the land and release the sea from
the icy fetters by which it is as yet but slightly bound, when the
loosened floes are driven one against the other and break up with loud
crashes, when the cakes of ice are piled in wild disorder one upon
another, the Eskimo believes he hears the voices of spirits which
inhabit the mischief laden air.
The spirits of the dead, the tupilaq, knock wildly at the huts, which
they cannot enter, and woe to the unhappy person whom they can lay hold
of. He immediately sickens and a speedy death is regarded as sure to
come. The wicked qiqirn pursues the dogs, which die with convulsions and
cramps as soon as they see him. All the countless spirits of evil are
aroused, striving to bring sickness and death, bad weather, and failure
in hunting. The worst visitors are Sedna, mistress of the under world,
and her father, to whose share the dead Inuit fall. While the other
spirits fill the air and the water, she rises from under the ground.
It is then a busy season for the wizards. In every hut we may hear them
singing and praying; conjuring of the spirits is going on in every
house. The lamps burn low. The wizard sits in a mystic gloom in the rear
of the hut. He has thrown off his outer coat and drawn the hood of his
inner garment over his head, while he mutters indescribable sounds,
unnatural to a human voice. At last the guardian spirit responds to the
invocation. The angakoq lies in a trance and when he comes to himself he
promises in incoherent phrases the help of the good spirit against the
tupilaq and informs the credulous, affrighted Inuit how they can escape
from the dreaded ghosts.
The hardest task, that of driving away Sedna, is reserved for the most
powerful angakoq. A rope is coiled on the floor of a large hut in such a
manner as to leave a small opening at the top, which represents the
breathing hole of a seal. Two angakut stand by the side of it, one of
them holding the seal spear in his left hand, as if he were watching at
the seal hole in the winter, the other holding the harpoon line. Another
angakoq, whose office it is to lure Sedna up with a magic song, sits at
the back of the hut. At last she comes up through the hard rocks and the
wizard hears her heavy breathing; now she emerges from the ground and
meets the angakoq waiting at the hole. She is harpooned and sinks away
in angry haste, drawing after her the harpoon, to which the two men hold
with all their strength. Only by a desperate effort does she tear
herself away from it and return to her dwelling in Adlivun. Nothing is
left with the two men but the blood sprinkled harpoon, which they
proudly show to the Inuit.
Sedna and the other evil spirits are at last driven away, and on the
following day a great festival for young and old is celebrated in honor
of the event. But they must still be careful, for the wounded Sedna is
greatly enraged and will seize any one whom she can find out of his hut;
so on this day they all wear protecting amulets (koukparmiutang) on the
tops of their hoods. Parts of the first garment which they wore after
birth are used for this purpose.
The men assemble early in the morning in the middle of the settlement.
As soon as they have all got together they run screaming and jumping
around the houses, following the course of the sun (nunajisartung or
kaivitijung). A few, dressed in women’s jackets, run in the opposite
direction. These are those who were born in abnormal presentations. The
circuit made, they visit every hut, and the woman of the house must
always be in waiting for them. When she hears the noise of the band she
comes out and throws a dish containing little gifts of meat, ivory
trinkets, and articles of sealskin into the yelling crowd, of which each
one helps himself to what he can get. No hut is omitted in this round
(irqatatung).
The crowd next divides itself into two parties, the ptarmigans
(aχigirn), those who were born in the winter, and the ducks (aggirn), or
the children of summer. A large rope of sealskin is stretched out. One
party takes one end of it and tries with all its might to drag the
opposite party over to its side. The others hold fast to the rope and
try as hard to make ground for themselves. If the ptarmigans give way
the summer has won the game and fine weather may be expected to prevail
through the winter (nussueraqtung).
The contest of the seasons having been decided, the women bring out of a
hut a large kettle of water and each person takes his drinking cup. They
all stand as near the kettle as possible, while the oldest man among
them steps out first. He dips a cup of water from the vessel, sprinkles
a few drops on the ground, turns his face toward the home of his youth,
and tells his name and the place of his birth (oχsoaχsavepunga----me,
I was born in ----). He is followed by an aged woman, who announces her
name and home, and then all the others do the same, down to the young
children, who are represented by their mothers. Only the parents of
children born during the last year are forbidden to partake in this
ceremony. As the words of the old are listened to respectfully, so those
of the distinguished hunters are received with demonstrative applause
and those of the others with varying degrees of attention, in some cases
even with joking and raillery (imitijung).
Now arises a cry of surprise and all eyes are turned toward a hut out of
which stalk two gigantic figures. They wear heavy boots; their legs are
swelled out to a wonderful thickness with several pairs of breeches; the
shoulders of each are covered by a woman’s over-jacket and the faces by
tattooed masks of sealskins. In the right hand each carries the seal
spear, on the back of each is an inflated buoy of sealskin, and in the
left hand the scraper. Silently, with long strides, the qailertetang
(Fig. 535) approach the assembly, who, screaming, press back from them.
The pair solemnly lead the men to a suitable spot and set them in a row,
and the women in another opposite them. They match the men and women in
pairs and these pairs run, pursued by the qailertetang, to the hut of
the woman, where they are for the following day and night man and wife
(nulianititijung). Having performed this duty, the qailertetang stride
down to the shore and invoke the good north wind, which brings fair
weather, while they warn off the unfavorable south wind.
As soon as the incantation is over, all the men attack the qailertetang
with great noise. They act as if they had weapons in their hands and
would kill both spirits. One pretends to probe them with a spear,
another to stab them with a knife, one to cut off their arms and legs,
another to beat them unmercifully on the head. The buoys which they
carry on their backs are ripped open and collapse and soon they both lie
as if dead beside their broken weapons (pilektung). The Eskimo leave
them to get their drinking cups and the qailertetang awake to new life.
Each man fills his sealskin with water, passes a cup to them, and
inquires about the future, about the fortunes of the hunt and the events
of life. The qailertetang answer in murmurs which the questioner must
interpret for himself.
[Illustration: FIG. 535. Qailertetang, a masked figure. (From a
sketch by the author.)]
The evening is spent in playing ball, which is whipped all around the
settlement (ajuktaqtung). (See Appendix, Note 6.)
This feast is celebrated as here described in Cumberland Sound and
Nugumiut. Hall and Kumlien make a few observations in regard to it, but
the latter has evidently misunderstood its meaning. His description is
as follows (p. 43):
An angakoq dresses himself up in the most hideous manner, having
several pairs of pants on among the rest, and a horrid looking
mask of skins. The men and women now range themselves in separate
and opposite ranks, and the angakoq takes his place between them.
He then picks out a man and conducts him to a woman in the
opposite ranks. This couple then go to the woman’s hut and have a
grand spree for a day or two. This manner of proceeding is kept up
till all the women but one are disposed of. This one is always the
angakoq’s choice, and her he reserves for himself.
Another description by Kumlien (p. 19) evidently refers to the same
feast:
They have an interesting custom or superstition, namely, the
killing of the evil spirit of the deer; sometime during the winter
or early in spring, at any rate before they can go deer hunting,
they congregate together and dispose of this imaginary evil. The
chief ancut [angakoq], or medicine man, is the main performer. He
goes through a number of gyrations and contortions, constantly
hallooing and calling, till suddenly the imaginary deer is among
them. Now begins a lively time. Every one is screaming, running,
jumping, spearing, and stabbing at the imaginary deer, till one
would think a whole madhouse was let loose. Often this deer proves
very agile, and must be hard to kill, for I have known them to
keep this performance up for days; in fact, till they were
completely exhausted.
During one of these performances an old man speared the deer,
another knocked out an eye, a third stabbed him, and so on till he
was dead. Those who are able or fortunate enough to inflict some
injury on this bad deer, especially he who inflicts the death
blow, is considered extremely lucky, as he will have no difficulty
in procuring as many deer as he wants, for there is no longer an
evil spirit to turn his bullets or arrows from their course.
I could not learn anything about this ceremony, though I asked all the
persons with whom Kumlien had had intercourse. Probably there was some
misunderstanding as to the meaning of their feast during the autumn
which induced him to give this report.
Hall describes the feast as celebrated by the Nugumiut (I, p. 528), as
follows:
At a time of the year apparently answering to our Christmas, they
have a general meeting in a large igdlu [snow house] on a certain
evening. There the angakoq prays on behalf of the people for the
public prosperity through the subsequent year. Then follows
something like a feast. The next day all go out into the open air
and form in a circle; in the centre is placed a vessel of water,
and each member of the company brings a piece of meat, the kind
being immaterial. The circle being formed, each person eats his or
her meat in silence, thinking of Sedna, and wishing for good
things. Then one in the circle takes a cup, dips up some of the
water, all the time thinking of Sedna, and drinks it; and then,
before passing the cup to another, states audibly the time and the
place of his or her birth. This ceremony is performed by all in
succession. Finally, presents of various articles are thrown from
one to another, with the idea that each will receive of Sedna good
things in proportion to the liberality here shown.
Soon after this occasion, at a time which answers to our New
Year’s day, two men start out, one of them being dressed to
represent a woman, and go to every house in the village, blowing
out the light in each. The lights are afterwards rekindled from a
fresh fire. When Taqulitu [Hall’s well known companion in his
journeys] was asked the meaning of this, she replied, “New
sun--new light,” implying a belief that the sun was at that time
renewed for the year.
Inasmuch as Hall did not see the feast himself, but had only a
description by an Eskimo, into which he introduced points of similarity
with Christian feasts, it may be looked upon as fairly agreeing with the
feast of the Oqomiut. The latter part corresponds to the celebration of
the feast as it is celebrated in Akudnirn.[8]
[Footnote 8: Since the above was written I learn from a paper by
Mr. Lucien M. Turner that a similar feast is celebrated in Ungava
Bay. (American Naturalist, August, 1887.)]
According to a statement in the journal of Hall’s second expedition
(II, p. 219) masks are also used on the western shore of Hudson Bay,
where it seems that all the natives disguise themselves on this
occasion.
The Akudnirmiut celebrate the feast in the following way: The
qailertetang do not act a part there, but other masks take their place.
They are called mirqussang and represent a man and his wife. They wear
masks of the skin of the ground seal, only that of the woman being
tattooed. The hair of the man is arranged in a bunch protruding from the
forehead (sulubaut), that of the woman in a pigtail on each side and a
large knot at the back of the head. Their left legs are tied up by a
thong running around the neck and the knee, compelling them to hobble.
They have neither seal float and spear nor inflated legs, but carry the
skin scraper. They must try to enter the huts while the Inuit hold a
long sealskin thong before them to keep them off. If they fall down in
the attempt to cross it they are thoroughly beaten with a short whip or
with sticks. After having succeeded in entering the huts they blow out
all the fires.
The parts of the feast already described as celebrated in Cumberland
Sound seem not to be customary in Akudnirn, the conjuration of Sedna and
the exchanges of wives excepted, which are also practiced here.
Sometimes the latter ceremony takes place the night before the feast.
It is called suluiting or quvietung.
When it is quite dark a number of Inuit come out of their huts and run
crying all round their settlements. Wherever anybody is asleep they
climb upon the roof of his hut and rouse him by screaming and shouting
until all have assembled outside. Then a woman and a man (the
mirqussang) sit down in the snow. The man holds a knife (sulung) in his
hand, from which the feast takes its name, and sings:
Oangaja jaja jajaja aja.
Pissiungmipadlo panginejernago
Qodlungutaokpan panginejerlugping
Pissiungmipadlo panginejernago.
To this song the woman keeps time by moving her body and her arms, at
the same time flinging snow on the bystanders. Then the whole company
goes into the singing house and joins in dancing and singing. This done,
the men must leave the house and stand outside while the mirqussang
watch the entrance. The women continue singing and leave the house one
by one. They are awaited by the mirqussang, who lead every one to one of
the men standing about. The pair must re-enter the singing house and
walk around the lamp, all the men and women crying, “Hrr! hrr!” from
both corners of the mouth. Then they go to the woman’s hut, where they
stay during the ensuing night. The feast is frequently celebrated by all
the tribes of Davis and Hudson Strait, and even independently of the
great feast described above.
The day after, the men frequently join in a shooting match. A target is
set up, at which they shoot their arrows. As soon as a man hits, the
women, who stand looking on, rush forward and rub noses with him.
If a stranger unknown to the inhabitants of a settlement arrives on a
visit he is welcomed by the celebration of a great feast. Among the
southeastern tribes the natives arrange themselves in a row, one man
standing in front of it. The stranger approaches slowly, his arms folded
and his head inclined toward the right side. Then the native strikes him
with all his strength on the right cheek and in his turn inclines his
head awaiting the stranger’s blow (tigluiqdjung). While this is going on
the other men are playing at ball and singing (igdlukitaqtung). Thus
they continue until one of the combatants is vanquished.
The ceremonies of greeting among the western tribes are similar to those
of the eastern, but in addition “boxing, wrestling, and knife testing”
are mentioned by travelers who have visited them. In Davis Strait and
probably in all the other countries the game of “hook and crook” is
always played on the arrival of a stranger (pakijumijartung). Two men
sit down on a large skin, after having stripped the upper part of their
bodies, and each tries to stretch out the bent arm of the other. These
games are sometimes dangerous, as the victor has the right to kill his
adversary; but generally the feast ends peaceably. The ceremonies of the
western tribes in greeting a stranger are much feared by their eastern
neighbors and therefore intercourse is somewhat restricted. The meaning
of the duel, according to the natives themselves, is “that the two men
in meeting wish to know which of them is the better man.” The similarity
of these ceremonies with those of Greenland, where the game of hook and
crook and wrestling matches have been customary, is quite striking, as
is that of the explanation of these ceremonies.
The word for greeting on Davis Strait and Hudson Strait, is
Assojutidlin? (Are you quite well?) and the answer, Tabaujuradlu (Very
well). The word Taima! which is used in Hudson Strait, and Mane taima!
of the Netchillirmiut seem to be similar to our Halloo! The
Ukusiksalirmiut say Ilaga! (My friend!)