I have mentioned that it is extremely difficult to find out the
innumerable regulations connected with the religious ideas and customs
of the Eskimo. The difficulty is even greater in regard to the customs
which refer to birth, sickness, and death, and it is no wonder that,
while some of the accounts of different writers coincide tolerably well,
there are great discrepancies in others, particularly as the customs
vary to a great extent among the different tribes.
Before the child is born a small hut or snow house is built for the
mother, in which she awaits her delivery. Sick persons are isolated in
the same way, the reason being that in case of death everything that had
been in contact with the deceased must be destroyed. According to
Kumlien (p. 28) the woman is left with only one attendant, a young girl
appointed by the head ancut (angakoq) of the encampment; but this, no
doubt, is an error. She may be visited by her friends, who, however,
must leave her when parturition takes place. She must cut the navel
string herself, and in Davis Strait this is done by tying it through
with deer sinews; in Iglulik (Lyon, p. 370), by cutting it with a stone
spear head. The child is cleaned with a birdskin and clothed in a small
gown of the same material. According to Lyon the Iglulirmiut swathe it
with the dried intestines of some animal.
Kumlien describes a remarkable custom of which I could find no trace,
not even upon direct inquiry (p. 281):
As soon as the mother with her new born babe is able to get up and
go out, usually but a few hours, they are taken in charge by an
aged female angakoq, who seems to have some particular mission to
perform in such cases. She conducts them to some level spot on the
ice, if near the sea, and begins a sort of march in circles on the
ice, the mother following with the child on her back; this
manœuvre is kept up for some time, the old woman going through a
number of performances the nature of which we could not learn and
continually muttering something equally unintelligible to us. The
next act is to wade through snowdrifts, the aged angakoq leading
the way. We have been informed that it is customary for the mother
to wade thus bare-legged.
Lyon says (p. 370):
After a few days, or according to the fancy of the parents, an
angakoq, who by relationship or long acquaintance is a friend of
the family, makes use of some vessel, and with the urine the
mother washes the infant, while all the gossips around pour forth
their good wishes for the little one to prove an active man, if a
boy, or, if a girl, the mother of plenty of children. This
ceremony, I believe, is never omitted, and is called qoqsiuariva.
Though I heard about the washing with urine, I did not learn anything
about the rest of the ceremony in Cumberland Sound and Davis Strait.
A few days after birth the first dress of the child is exchanged for
another. A small hood made from the skin of a hare’s head is fitted
snugly upon the head, a jacket for the upper part of the body is made of
the skin of a fawn, and two small boots, made of the same kind of a
skin, the left one being wreathed with seaweed (_Fucus_), cover the
legs. While the child wears this clothing that which was first worn is
fastened to a pole which is secured to the roof of the hut. In two
months the child gets a third suit of clothes the same as formerly
described (p. 557). Then the second gown is exposed for some time on the
top of the hut, the first one being taken down, and both are carefully
preserved for a year. After this time has expired both are once more
exposed on the top of a pole and then sunk into the sea, a portion of
the birdskin dress alone being kept, for this is considered a powerful
amulet and is held in high esteem and worn every fall at the Sedna feast
on the point of the hood (see p. 604). I have stated that those who were
born in abnormal presentations wear women’s dresses at this feast and
must make their round in a direction opposite to the movement of the
sun. Captain Spicer, of Groton, Conn., affirms that the bird used for
the first clothing is chosen according to a strict law, every month
having its own bird. So far as I know, waterfowl are used in summer and
the ptarmigan in winter, and accordingly the men are called at the great
autumn feast the ducks and ptarmigans, the former including those who
were born in summer, the latter those born in winter.
As long as any portion of the navel string remains a strip of sealskin
is worn around the belly.
After the birth of her child the mother must observe a great number of
regulations, referring particularly to food and work. She is not allowed
for a whole year to eat raw meat or a part of any animal killed by being
shot through the heart. In Cumberland Sound she must not eat for five
days anything except meat of an animal killed by her husband or by a boy
on his first hunting expedition. This custom seems to be observed more
strictly, however, and for a longer period if the new born child dies.
Two months after delivery she must make a call at every hut, while
before that time she is not allowed to enter any but her own. At the end
of this period she must also throw away her old clothing. The same
custom was observed by Hall among the Nugumiut (I, p. 426). On the
western shore of Hudson Bay she is permitted to re-enter the hut a few
days after delivery, but must pass in by a separate entrance. An opening
is cut for the purpose through the snow wall. She must keep a little
skin bag hung up near her, into which she must put a little of her food
after each meal, having first put it up to her mouth. This is called
laying up food for the infant, although none is given to it (Hall II,
p. 173). I have already mentioned that the parents are not allowed in
the first year after the birth of a child to take part in the Sedna
feast.
The customs which are associated with the death of an infant are very
complicated. For a whole year, when outside the hut, the mother must
have her head covered with a cap, or at least with a piece of skin. If a
ground seal is caught she must throw away the old cap and have a new one
made. The boots of the deceased are always carried about by the parents
when traveling, and whenever they stop these are buried in the snow or
under stones. Neither parent is allowed to eat raw flesh during the
following year. The woman must cook her food in a small pot which is
exclusively used by her. If she is about to enter a hut the men who may
be sitting inside must come out first, and not until they have come out
is she allowed to enter. If she wants to go out of the hut she must walk
around all the men who may happen to be there.
The child is sometimes named before it is born. Lyon says upon this
subject (p. 369):
Some relative or friend lays her hand on the mother’s stomach, and
decides what the infant is to be called, and, as the names serve
for either sex, it is of no consequence whether it proves a girl
or a boy.
On Davis Strait it is always named after the persons who have died since
the last birth took place, and therefore the number of names of an
Eskimo is sometimes rather large. If a relative dies while the child is
younger than four years or so, his name is added to the old ones and
becomes the proper name by which it is called. It is possible that
children receive the names of all the persons in the settlement who die
while the children are quite young, but of this I am not absolutely
certain. When a person falls sick the angakut change his name in order
to ward off the disease or they consecrate him as a dog to Sedna. In the
latter event he gets a dog’s name and must wear throughout life a
harness over the inner jacket. Thus it may happen that Eskimo are known
in different tribes by different names. It may also be mentioned here
that friends sometimes exchange names and dogs are called by the name of
a friend as a token of regard.
The treatment of the sick is the task of the angakoq, whose
manipulations have been described.
If it is feared that a disease will prove fatal, a small snow house or a
hut is built, according to the season, into which the patient is carried
through an opening at the back. This opening is then closed, and
subsequently a door is cut out. A small quantity of food is placed in
the hut, but the patient is left without attendants. As long as there is
no fear of sudden death the relatives and friends may come to visit him,
but when death is impending the house is shut up and he is left alone to
die. If it should happen that a person dies in a hut among its inmates,
everything belonging to the hut must be destroyed or thrown away, even
the tools &c. lying inside becoming useless to the survivors, but the
tent poles may be used again after a year has elapsed. No doubt this
custom explains the isolation of the sick. If a child dies in a hut and
the mother immediately rushes out with it, the contents of the hut may
be saved.
Though the Eskimo feel the greatest awe in touching a dead body, the
sick await their death with admirable coolness and without the least
sign of fear or unwillingness to die. I remember a young girl who sent
for me a few hours before her death and asked me to give her some
tobacco and bread, which she wanted to take to her mother, who had died
a few weeks before.
Only the relatives are allowed to touch the body of the deceased. They
clothe it or wrap it in deerskins and bury it at once. In former times
they always built a tomb, at least when death occurred in the summer.
From its usual dimensions one would suppose that the body was buried
with the legs doubled up, for all of them are too short for grown
persons. If the person to be buried is young, his feet are placed in the
direction of the rising sun, those of the aged in the opposite
direction. According to Lyon the Iglulirmiut bury half grown children
with the feet towards the southeast, young men and women with the feet
towards the south, and middle aged persons with the feet towards the
southwest. This agrees with the fact that the graves in Cumberland Sound
do not all lie east and west. The tomb is always vaulted, as any stone
or piece of snow resting upon the body is believed to be a burden to the
soul of the deceased. The man’s hunting implements and other utensils
are placed by the side of his grave; the pots, the lamps, knives, &c.,
by the side of that of the woman; toys, by that of a child. Hall (I, p.
103) observed in a grave a small kettle hung up over a lamp. These
objects are held in great respect and are never removed, at least as
long as it is known to whose grave they belong. Sometimes models of
implements are used for this purpose instead of the objects themselves.
Figure 536 represents a model of a lamp found in a grave of Cumberland
Sound. Nowadays the Eskimo place the body in a box, if they can procure
one, or cover it very slightly with stones or snow. It is strange that,
though the ceremonies of burying are very strictly attended to and
though they take care to give the dead their belongings, they do not
heed the opening of the graves by dogs or wolves and the devouring of
the bodies and do not attempt to recover them when the graves are
invaded by animals.
[Illustration: FIG. 536. Model of lamp from a grave in Cumberland
Sound. (Museum für Völkerkunde, Berlin.)]
The body must be carried to the place of burial by the nearest
relatives, a few others only accompanying it. For this purpose they
rarely avail themselves of a sledge, as it cannot be used afterward, but
must be left with the deceased. Dogs are never allowed to drag the
sledge on such an occasion. After returning from the burial the
relatives must lock themselves up in the old hut for three days, during
which they mourn the loss of the deceased. During this time they do not
dress their hair and they have their nostrils closed with a piece of
deerskin. After this they leave the hut forever. The dogs are thrown
into it through the window and allowed to devour whatever they can get
at. For some time afterward the mourners must cook their meals in a
separate pot. A strange custom was observed by Hall in Hudson Bay
(II, p. 186). The mourners did not smoke. They kept their hoods on from
morning till night. To the hood the skin and feathers of the head of
_Uria grylle_ were fastened and a feather of the same waterfowl to each
arm just above the elbow. All male relatives of the deceased wore a belt
around the waist, besides which they constantly wore mittens. It is
probable that at the present time all Eskimo when in mourning avoid
using implements of European manufacture and suspend the use of tobacco.
It has already been stated that women who have lost a child must keep
their heads covered.
Parry, Lyon (p. 369), and Klutschak (p. 201) state that when the Eskimo
first hear of the death of a relative they throw themselves upon the
ground and cry, not for grief, but as a mourning ceremony.
For three or sometimes even four days after a death the inhabitants of a
village must not use their dogs, but must walk to the hunting ground,
and for one day at least they are not allowed to go hunting at all. The
women must stop all kinds of work.
On the third day after death the relatives visit the tomb and travel
around it three times in the same direction as the sun is moving, at the
same time talking to the deceased and promising that they will bring him
something to eat. According to Lyon the Iglulirmiut chant forth
inquiries as to the welfare of the departed soul, whether it has reached
the land Adli, if it has plenty of food, &c., at each question stopping
at the head of the grave and repeating some ceremonial words (p. 371).
These visits to the grave are repeated a year after death and whenever
they pass it in traveling. Sometimes they carry food to the deceased,
which he is expected to return greatly increased. Hall describes this
custom as practiced by the Nugumiut (I, p. 426). He says:
They took down small pieces of [deer] skin with the fur on, and of
[fat]. When there they stood around [the] grave [of the woman]
upon which they placed the articles they had brought. Then one of
them stepped up, took a piece of the [deer meat], cut a slice and
ate it, at the same time cutting off another slice and placing it
under a stone by the grave. Then the knife was passed from one
hand to the other, both hands being thrown behind the person. This
form of shifting the implement was continued for perhaps a minute,
the motions being accompanied by constant talk with the dead. Then
a piece of [deer] fur and some [fat] were placed under the stone
with an exclamation signifying, “Here is something to eat and
something to keep you warm.” Each of the [natives] also went
through the same forms. They never visit the grave of a departed
friend until some months after death, and even then only when all
the surviving members of the family have removed to another place.
Whenever they return to the vicinity of their kindred’s grave,
a visit is made to it with the best of food as a present for the
departed one. Neither seal, polar bear, nor walrus, however, is
taken.
According to Klutschak (p. 154), the natives of Hudson Bay avoid staying
a long time on the salt water ice near the grave of a relative.
On the fourth day after death the relatives may go for the first time
upon the ice, but the men are not allowed to hunt; on the next day they
must go sealing, but without dogs and sledge, walking to the hunting
ground and dragging the seal home. On the sixth day they are at liberty
to use their dogs again. For a whole year they must not join in any
festival and are not allowed to sing certain songs.
If a married woman dies the widower is not permitted to keep any part of
the first seal he catches after her death except the flesh. Skin,
blubber, bones, and entrails must be sunk in the sea.
All the relatives must have new suits of clothes made and before the
others are cast away they are not allowed to enter a hut without having
asked and obtained permission. (See Appendix, Note 7.)
Lyon (p. 368) makes the following statement on the mourning ceremonies
in Iglulik:
Widows are forbidden for six months to taste of unboiled flesh;
they wear no * * * pigtails, and cut off a portion of their long
hair in token of grief, while the remaining locks hang in loose
disorder about their shoulders. * * * After six months, the
disconsolate ladies are at liberty to eat raw meat, to dress their
pigtails and to marry as fast as they please; while in the
meantime they either cohabit with their future husbands, if they
have one, or distribute their favors more generally. A widower and
his children remain during three days within the hut where his
wife died, after which it is customary to remove to another. He is
not allowed to fish or hunt for a whole season, or in that period
to marry again. During the three days of lamentation all the
relatives of the deceased are quite careless of their dress; their
hair hangs wildly about, and, if possible, they are more than
usually dirty in their persons. All visitors to a mourning family
consider it as indispensably necessary to howl at their first
entry.
I may add here that suicide is not of rare occurrence, as according to
the religious ideas of the Eskimo the souls of those who die by violence
go to Qudlivun, the happy land. For the same reason it is considered
lawful for a man to kill his aged parents. In suicide death is generally
brought about by hanging.