They have at one time been ordinary men, who for some reason or other,
often quite insignificant, have fallen out with their families or
their companions, or have felt aggrieved by them, and have therefore
turned their backs upon their fellows and fled to the mountains or into
the interior. Here they henceforth live alone, feeding upon animals
which they kill without ordinary weapons, simply by throwing stones
at them, an art in which they become very skilful. While the kivitok
has only been a short time away, it is still open to him to return to
his fellows; but if he does not within a certain number of days obey
the voice of his homeward longing, he loses the power of resuming his
place among men. Some hold that a year is the allotted period. He now
acquires supernatural faculties; he becomes so swift of foot that he can
leap from one mountain peak to another, he can catch reindeer without
weapons, and whatever he aims at he hits. He grows to a great size,
clothes himself in reindeer-skins, and, according to some, his face
turns black and his hair white. Furthermore, he becomes omniscient or
clairvoyant; he can hear the speech of men from any distance, and comes
to understand the language of the animals. But he pays for all this
in his inability to die, and he is always mournful, shedding tears of
longing for humankind to which he can never return. He can, however,
when opportunity offers, especially at night, make his way into houses
or store-rooms to pick up something to eat, or perhaps a little tobacco.
Those who have wronged him are always in danger of his vengeance.
The remarkable feature of this belief is that it probably has a
certain foundation in fact. Suicide is almost unknown in Greenland,
except in the case of a few old or hopelessly infirm people, who,
finding themselves at death's door, sometimes throw themselves over a
precipice into the sea (compare p. 170) in order to put an end to their
sufferings and assure themselves burial. On the other hand, it now and
then happens that someone or other, wounded, perhaps, by a single word
from one of his kinsfolk, runs away to the mountains, and is lost for
several days at least. I myself know Greenlanders who have done this;
and authentic examples are given of people who have lived for years as
kivitoks. About twenty-five years ago, on the island of Akugdlek in
North Greenland, a cave was found which bore evidence of having been a
human habitation for a considerable time. A well-trodden path led up to
it, and within it was a hearth, a hole in the ground which had served
as a store-room, a soft bed of moss, remains of dried fish, edible
roots, &c. A few paces away, there was found a smaller cave with stones
piled up against its mouth. In this the kivitok had buried himself
when he found death approaching. There he lay, still in his seal-skin
jacket; he had himself, from within, closed up the entrance to the
sepulchre with a stone. The Greenlanders recognised him, and concluded
that he must have lived there as a kivitok for two or three years. His
reason for turning his back upon mankind is said to have been that, as
a bad hunter, he was looked down upon and slighted by his kinsfolk;
and, after the death of his little son, life became so hard for him
that he fled.[124]
As Moltke Moe has pointed out to me, there is a remarkable resemblance
between these kivitut and the _utilegumenn_, 'out-liers' so common in
the Icelandic popular legends--criminals, that is to say, who have fled
to the mountains and live in the wilderness far from mankind. The great
part which these 'out-liers' play in the popular fantasy, and the mystic
fear with which they are regarded, has caused them, from a very early
period, to be in great measure confounded in common belief with trolls,
huldre-folk, and other legendary creatures, in whose supernatural
faculties they partake. They can see into the future, they know what
is happening in distant places, they can conjure up mists and lead the
traveller astray, and they possess superhuman strength.[125] Like the
kivitok, they seek the abodes of men in order to pick up something
to eat; they steal sheep, food, and clothes from the people of the
settlements. The most characteristic feature of both the Greenland and
the Iceland legends is that men, by being cut off from society, obtain
supernatural power. The coincidence becomes still more striking when
we observe that both in Greenland and in Iceland these legends form an
_essential_ part of living popular tradition and belief. Among other
races (with the partial exception of Norwegians of the west coast, and
especially of Nordland) similar ideas are scarcely to be found at all.
The conclusion, then, is almost inevitable, that the belief in the
kivitok is derived from the ancient Scandinavians, or rather from the
Icelanders in particular.
I have still to mention, among the remarkable beings known to the
Greenlanders, the _igdlokok_, who is like half a human being, with half
a head, one eye, one arm, and one leg. Precisely similar beings are
also to be found among the Greeks, the Mohammedans, the Zulus, and the
Indians.[126]
As to the creation of the world, the Greenlanders had no definite
opinion. The earth and the universe must either have come into existence
of their own accord, or must have existed from all time and be destined
so to endure.
Nor had they any clear idea as to the creation of man, or of the Eskimo
race itself. Some were of opinion that the first man grew up out of the
ground and mated with a mound of earth. It brought forth a girl, whom he
took to wife.[127] This notion of growing up from the ground is quite
common, occurring in Scandinavia and Iceland,[128] among other places.
We say: 'He who strikes the earth with a stick beats his mother; he who
strikes a stone beats his father'--an idea which closely corresponds
with the Eskimo conception, in which, no doubt, the man should properly
be represented as rising from a rock.
As to the origin of us Europeans, they have a legend which is not
altogether flattering to our vanity. An Eskimo woman, with whom no
husband would remain for any time, at last took a dog to mate, and
was brought to bed of a mingled litter of human children and puppies.
The puppies she placed on an old shoesole and pushed them out to sea,
saying, 'Be off with you and become _kavdlunaks_' (_i.e._ Europeans).
Therefore it is, say the Eskimos, that the kavdlunaks always live on
the sea, and that their ships are shaped like a Greenland shoe, round
before and behind. The human children she placed upon willow-leaves
and despatched them in the opposite direction, so that they became
inland-folk or Indians (_erkiligdlit_ or _tornit_).[129] Precisely
similar legends are to be found among the Eskimos of Baffinsland,[130]
and also on the north coast of Alaska; though there they refer to the
Indians alone, not to the Europeans. Analogous myths of descent from
dogs (or wolves, or bears) occur among many races, Aryan as well as
Mongolian or American.[131] They lie at the root of the mythology of
many Indian tribes, who hold that the first woman took a dog to mate,
and that they themselves are descended from this connection. It seems
to me evident that the Eskimos have taken their legend from this
source, and that they originally applied it to the Indians alone. When,
subsequently, they fell in with another strange race (the Europeans),
they extended it so as to account for them also. It is noteworthy that
the shoe which turns into a ship occurs in the Baffinsland versions as
well.
The Eskimos, according to some authorities, trace the origin of death
to a woman who once said: 'Let people gradually die, or else there
will be no room for them in the world.' Others believe that two of the
first human beings quarrelled, the one saying 'Let there be day and
night and let men die,' the other 'Let there be night alone, and let
men live for ever;' and after a long quarrel the former gained the
victory. Others, again, hold that there was a race between a snake and
a louse as to which should first reach mankind; if the snake arrived
first they should live for ever, if the louse arrived first they must
die. The snake got a long start, but fell over a high precipice by the
way, and had to make a long detour, so that the louse won the race and
brought death with it.[132] These myths, by their very meaninglessness
and incoherence, seem to show that they come from elsewhere, and
are fragments of older beliefs whose original point and meaning is
forgotten. If we look around in the world, we shall find remarkable
analogies among the most distant races. The second myth (that of the
quarrel) reappears in the Fiji Islands, where the moon wrangles with
a rat, maintaining that men ought to die and come to life again as
she herself does; while the rat maintains that they ought rather to
die like rats--and he gets the best of it. Among the Indians it is
two wolf-brothers, ancestors of the race, who quarrel. The younger
says: 'When a man dies, let him come back the following day so that
his friends may rejoice.' 'No,' says the elder, 'let the dead never
return.' Then the younger kills the son of the elder, and that is the
beginning of death.[133]
We find remarkable analogues in South Africa to the myth of the snake
and the louse. On the Gold Coast, among the Zulus, and elsewhere, it
is related that the first great Being sent an animal (a chameleon) to
mankind with the message that they were to live and never die. But
then the Being changed his mind, and sent after it another animal (the
fleet-footed salamander) with the message that they were to die; and
as the latter arrived first, so it was. There are several forms of
this myth. Among the Hottentots it was the moon who sent the message
to mankind: 'You, like me, shall die and come to life again.' But the
hare heard this, and ran ahead and said: 'You, like me, shall die and
never come to life again.'[134] This myth, again, is remarkably similar
to the Fiji legend quoted above; and thus we have a bridge between the
second and third Greenland myth, which must accordingly be taken to be
two variants of one original--an exceedingly ancient one, since it has
spread so far.
The Eskimos trace to their fellow-countrymen the origin of almost
everything in external nature. It was an old man hewing chips from a
tree that brought into being the fishes and other marine animals. He
rubbed the chips between his legs ('sudore testiculorum') and threw
them into the water, upon which they turned into fishes. The Greenland
shark, however, is of different origin: 'One day a woman was washing
her hair in urine. A gust of wind carried away the cloth with which she
was drying her hair, and it became a shark; wherefore the flesh of this
fish still smells of urine.'[135]
The heavenly bodies were once ordinary Eskimos, living upon the earth,
who, for one reason or another, have been translated to the skies.
The sun was a fair woman, and the moon her brother, and they lived in
the same house. She was visited every night by a man, but could not
tell who it was. In order to find out, she blackened her hands with
lamp-soot, and rubbed them upon his back. When the morning came, it
turned out to be her brother, for his white reindeer-skin was all
smudged; and hence come the spots on the moon. The sun seized a crooked
knife, cut off one of her breasts, and threw it to him, crying: 'Since
my whole body tastes so good to you, eat this.' Then she lighted a
piece of lamp-moss and rushed out; the moon did likewise and ran after
her, but his moss went out, and that is why he looks like a live
cinder. He chased her up into the sky, and there they still are.[136]
The moon's dwelling lies close to the road by which souls have to pass
to the over-world; and in it is a room for his sister the sun. This
myth seems to have come to the Eskimos from the westward. Among the
North American Indians the sun and moon are brother and sister, and
even so far away as among the Indians of the Amazon district we find
the same myth, only that there the moon is a woman who visits her
brother the sun in the darkness. He discovers her criminal passion by
drawing his blackened hand over her face. (Compare also the myths from
Australia and the Himalayas on the following page.) Among the Incas of
Peru, the sun and moon were at the same time brother and sister and man
and wife. (Compare also the Egyptians' Isis and Osiris.)[137] It is
remarkable that among the Greenlanders the sun is conceived as being
beautiful in front, but a naked skeleton behind.[138] This so strongly
suggests our beautiful 'huldre,' who are hollow when seen from behind,
that it seems as though the idea must be a European and especially a
Scandinavian one, imported into Greenland by the old Norse settlers.
According to the East Greenlanders, the reason why the sun has nothing
but bare bones behind is that, when she is at her lowest point, that is
to say on the shortest day, people cut her back with knives in order
to make her rise again. The flesh is thus cut away, and only the bones
remain.[139]
The moon has not yet turned over a new leaf, but still pays frequent
visits to the earth in search of amorous adventures. Therefore, it
behoves women to beware of him, not to go out alone in the moonlight,
not to stand looking at his orb, and so forth. This erotic proclivity
of the moon's seems to be of very ancient date. In Australia he is a
tom-cat who, on account of an intrigue with the wife of another, was
driven forth to wander for ever. Among the Khasias of the Himalayas,
the moon every month commits the unpardonable sin of falling in love
with his mother-in-law, who throws ashes in his face, thus causing the
spots upon it.[140] According to a Slavonic legend, the moon was the
sun's husband, who, on account of infidelity with the morning star,
was cleft in twain.[141] Among the old Greeks and Romans the moon was
of female sex, indeed, but the fair Luna was by no means exempt from
amatory tendencies. Among the Eskimos, again, the moon is supposed
to be the cause of cold weather. He produces snow by whittling a
walrus-tusk, and strewing the shavings upon the earth, or else by
blowing through a reed; and when he visits the earth, he always comes
driving in a sledge over the winter ice. It is quite natural that such
associations should attach to the moon, since it is in the ascendant
during the night and in winter. As a frigid and austere influence, too,
he is naturally enough regarded as a man; while further south, where
heat is more dreaded than cold, it is the sun who is supposed to be of
the sterner sex.
Thunder they believe to be produced by two old women fighting for a
dry and stiff skin, and tugging each at her end of it; in the heat
of the contest they upset their lamps, and thus cause the lightning.
The origin of fogs they trace to a tornarssuk who drank so much that
he burst.[142] As to the cause of rain, they have on the east coast
another legend in addition to that already mentioned. Rain, according
to this account, is produced by a being named Asiak, who dwells in
the sky. In ancient days, after a long drought, the angekoks would
set out for his abode to beg for rain. When they arrived, they would
peep in, and would usually see his wife sitting on the edge of the
sleeping-bench, while Asiak himself would be lying covered up close
to the wall. On their imploring her aid, she would ultimately reply:
'Last night he wetted his rug a little, as he usually does;' whereupon
she would take up the piece of bearskin on which he had been sitting,
and would shake it, thus causing it to rain upon earth.[143] The very
fact that the angekoks are represented as begging for rain, which is
of no service whatever to a people of hunters and fishers like the
Eskimos, seems to prove that this myth must have originated in other
latitudes, where agriculture is practised. It is not impossible, as
Holm conjectures, that Asiak may be identical with the rain-gods of
several of the American aboriginal races--deities who lived on the
tops of high mountains. The Mayas of Yucatan, it may be noted, called
their rain-god _Chac_. But it is also possible that the whole myth may
come from further west. Among primitive races, rain was very generally
traced to a similar origin. In Kamtchatka we meet with the idea in
its crudest form. When the modern Greek peasant indicates rain by the
phrase [Greek: katouraei ho theos], he is merely employing an image
at least as old as Aristophanes, who makes one of his characters in
'The Clouds' (v. 373) remark that formerly when it rained he used to
believe Zeus [Greek: dia koskinou ourein]. The same idea, more or less
disguised, and generally with a touch of the jocose in it, reappears
in many popular expressions current in Germany, Belgium, Norway, and
elsewhere. They have all their root in a belief of primeval antiquity,
which can also be traced among many other races--for example, among the
old heathen Arabians, and even among the Jews.[144]
In their beliefs or superstitions the Eskimos used to be, and still
are on the east coast, instructed by their priests or exorcisers, the
angekoks (_angakok_, plural, _angakut_). These men are the wisest and
ablest among them, but also, as a rule, the craftiest. They assert that
they have the power of conversing with spirits, journeying both to the
under-world and to the sky and other places unattainable to ordinary
mortals, conjuring up the tornarssuk and other supernatural beings,
obtaining revelations from them, and so forth. They influence and work
upon their countrymen principally through their mystic exorcisms and
séances, which occur as a rule in the winter, when they are living
in houses. The lamps are extinguished, and skins are hung before the
windows so that it is quite dark. The angekok himself sits upon the
floor. By dint of making a horrible noise so that the whole house
shakes, changing his voice, bellowing and shrieking, ventriloquising,
groaning, moaning, and whining, beating on drums, bursting forth into
diabolical shrieks of laughter, and all sorts of other tricks, he
persuades his companions that he is visited by the various spirits he
personates, and that it is they who make the disturbance.
In order to become an angekok a long apprenticeship is naturally
required, frequently as much as ten years. The neophyte must often and
for long periods go into solitary retirement,[145] and rub a stone
round upon another stone, following the sun, for several days on end,
whereupon a spirit comes forth from the mountain. Then he must die
of fright, but afterwards come to life again; and thus he gradually
obtains the mastery of his tornat. He must not reveal that he is going
through this probation until it is completed, but then he must make
public announcement of the fact. If he is to be a regular tip-top[146]
angekok, it is highly desirable that he should be seized and dragged
to the seashore by a bear; then there comes a walrus, buries its tusks
in his genital organs, drags him away to the horizon, and eats him up.
Thereupon his bones set off homewards, and meet the shreds of flesh
upon the way; they grow together again, and he is whole once more. Now
he is at the head of his profession.
The influence of these angekoks of course depended upon their
adroitness; but they do not seem to have been mere charlatans. It is
probable that they themselves partly believed in their own arts, and
were even convinced that they sometimes received actual revelations;
although Egede is not inclined to believe that they had 'any real
commerce or understanding with the devil.'
They can also cure diseases by reciting charms, give a man a new
soul, and so forth. Among the diseases which they profess to cure are
reckoned inability to catch seals, in a man, and, in a woman, inability
to bear children. In the latter case, the East Greenland angekok, even
to this day, has to journey to the moon, from which a child is thrown
down to the woman, who becomes pregnant of it. After this laborious
journey, the angekok has the right to lie with the woman.[147] This
visit to the moon is, of course, connected with the aforesaid erotic
proclivities of that luminary. Among the Indians, too, the moon seems
to possess an influence over procreation.
In order that the angekok may heal diseases he must be well paid;
otherwise his arts will be of no avail. It is of course not he himself
that receives the gifts, but the tornak, for whom he merely acts as
agent.
By reason of their connection with the supernatural world, the most
esteemed angekoks have considerable authority over their countrymen,
who are afraid of the evil results which may follow any act of
disobedience. For it is in Greenland as it used to be here, with
priests who were really masters of their craft--they were not only the
servants of God, but knew 'the black book' as well, and had power over
the devil. The angekoks, indeed, are for the most part well-disposed;
but they may also work evil by robbing other people of their souls and
giving them to their tornarssuk to eat, by sending their tornat to
frighten the life out of their enemies, and so forth. Thus we find even
among the Eskimos the beginnings of priestly rule.
For the most part, however, it is people of another class who are
guilty of such misdeeds as killing others by magic, bewitching their
weapons, and the like. These are the so-called _ilisitsoks_, who
may be either male or female.[148] These wizards and witches are
much hated. It used to be held that most evils, especially death and
disease, were due to them; and if an old woman was suspected of being
an ilisitsok she was remorselessly killed. This cannot surprise us,
when we remember how our own ancestors, with the priests at their head,
used to burn their witches. While the angekoks commune with the spirits
in the presence of other people, the ilisitsoks' dealings with the
supernatural powers are carried on in the deepest secrecy and always to
noxious ends. They must be instructed in secrecy by an older ilisitsok
and must pay dear for the teaching. It does not seem to be clear
what supernatural powers they have dealings with; they are doubtless
different from those known to the angekoks, and are purposely kept
secret. In their diabolical arts they use many different properties,
as for instance human bones, the flesh of corpses, skulls, snakes,
spiders, water-beetles, and the like; but their most potent device
consists in making _tupileks_. A tupilek is prepared in the deadliest
secrecy of various animals' bones, skins, pieces of the anorak of the
man who is to be injured or portions of the seals he has caught; all
this being wrapped together and tied up in a skin. Finally, it is
brought to life by dint of singing charms over it. Then the ilisitsok
seats himself upon a bank of stones close to the mouth of a river. He
turns his anorak back to front, draws his hood up over his face, and
then dangles the tupilek between his legs. This makes it grow, and
when it has attained its proper size it glides away into the water
and disappears. It can transform itself into all sorts of animals and
monsters, and is supposed to bring ruin and death upon the man against
whom it is despatched; but if it fails in this, it turns against him
who sent it forth.[149]
These tupileks remind us strongly of the widespread belief both in
Norway and Iceland in _gand_ or 'messengers,' and it seems scarcely
doubtful that the Eskimos have borrowed this conception from our
ancestors in Greenland. The 'gand' in Iceland is also a fabulous, magic
creature, sent forth by wizards, with the power of transforming itself
into every possible shape; and if it does not succeed in destroying
the person against whom it is sent, it returns and kills the sender.
It can, however, in Greenland, no less than in Iceland and Norway, be
snapped up by other wizards or witches, and its evil influence thus
averted.[150]
Rink sees in these ilisitsoks and their connection with the powers of
evil a possible survival from an older or primæval faith in Greenland,
which is persecuted by the priests of the new faith, the angekoks.[151]
Just so do we find that witchcraft among us consisted largely of
remnants of the old heathenism and was, therefore, bitterly persecuted
by the Christians. There seems to be much in favour of this ingenious
conclusion of Rink's. It appears to me possible, however, that as the
tupilek is descended from the ancient Scandinavians' belief in gand
or 'messengers,' so the origin of the whole witch-lore may be found
in the same quarter. There seem to be sufficient points of likeness
to justify such a conjecture.[152] It is by no means improbable that
precisely this belief in the power of the Evil One, the contract with
Satan, the Black Book and so forth--in a word the whole belief in
wizardry which lay, and to some extent still lies, at the very root
of the superstitions of our race, even deeper, one might almost say,
than the belief in God--might have been the first thing borrowed by the
Eskimos in their dealings with our forefathers. This rapid and easy way
of obtaining supernatural power must have been particularly attractive
to them. So far as I have been able to learn, too, witchcraft does
not play anything like such a prominent part among the more western
Eskimos, if it is to be found at all (?).
I have still to speak of the Greenlanders' belief in amulets. They are
used by almost everyone, and consist of particular objects, generally
portions of animals or of human beings. Charms are sung or muttered
over them, and they are given by parents to their children while they
are still quite little; or young people are instructed by their elders
how to find amulets for themselves. They are worn all through life, as
a rule upon the body or among the clothes. The men, for example, often
have them sewn into skin pouches made for the purpose, and worn upon
the breast, while women often tie them into the top-knot of their hair.
Others are placed in the house-roof or in the tent; or in the kaiak to
prevent it from capsizing. One man as a rule will have several amulets.
They are supposed to have power to protect one against witchcraft, and
against injury from spirits, to be of assistance in times of danger,
and to endow their possessor with certain peculiar faculties. Some
amulets can even be used to disguise their possessors in the shape
of animals, and thus remind us of the 'hamlöbing' (the putting on of
falcon-skins, swan-skins, &c.) in our old mythology. If, for example,
a man has a bird or a fish for his amulet, he may by calling upon it
transform himself into a bird or a fish; or he may transform himself
into a tree, seaweed, or the like, if his amulet consists of a piece of
wood or of seaweed. The belief in amulets, as we all know, is spread
over the whole world, and can be traced from the most primitive right
up to the most highly developed races. Among the Eskimos it no doubt
dates from a very early stage of development, and is the most primitive
of their existing religious conceptions. The origin of this belief
appears to me quite explicable. Sometimes, of course, it may have
arisen from a mere external accident, for example the observation of
a series of fortunate events--that a man who is in possession of some
particular object has always been lucky in his fishing, and so forth.
But as a rule its source lies deeper. When, for example, a man sees
that a bird, such as the falcon, cleaves the air with incredible ease
and has extraordinary powers of attack with beak and claws, he is apt
to attribute these powers to every part of the animal, and especially
to the head, with the soul inhabiting it, to the beak, and to the
claws. It is not at all unnatural that barren women, in order to have
children, should take pieces of a European's shoesole and hang them
round their necks. Seeing that Europeans are prolific, they think that
through these shoesoles, on which our strength has rested, some part of
it will 'pass into their garments and serve them to the like end.'[153]
When a boy who spits blood, and whose family is consumptive, is given a
seal-blood plug as an amulet (the plug which is used to stop the flow
of blood from the wounds of a captured seal), and when this is sewn
into the anorak upon his breast, the reason is surely clear enough.
It is based upon the same belief in _sympathetic transference_ which
plays so great a part in the popular superstitions of all countries.
The Eskimos often have for amulets portions of their forefathers'
clothes or other possessions, as a rule of their grandfathers'. This
has no doubt its origin in the belief that the souls of the dead can
protect them, and that when they carry some portions of the dead man's
possessions about with them, it is easier to come into rapport with
him. Cases are also recorded of the carrying about of small male and
female figures to serve as amulets.[154] The transition from this
belief in amulets to fetish-worship, or rather idol- and image-worship,
does not seem to me to be very difficult.
The Greenlanders also think they derive supernatural help from their
charms. These are employed in sickness, in danger, against enemies,
&c., and have about the same influence as the amulets. Even less than
the amulets, however, have they any connection with spirits, and the
method of their action is unknown--no one knows even the meaning of
the words which are spoken. They are simply old formulas which have
been handed down by means of sale from generation to generation. They
have to be learned in secrecy, and must be paid for on the spot and at
a very high rate, else they have no efficacy. They are uttered slowly
in a subdued, mystic tone;[155] it seems as though they were connected
to a certain extent with witchcraft. They remind us forcibly of our
old witch-crones and their often meaningless formulas. It seems to me
probable that they must be reminiscences of old customs, imported from
outside, whose original signification has been lost. According to Rink,
charms may also be learnt by listening to the song of birds.[156]
Besides these formulas, magic songs are also in use. The words of
these, however, are comprehensible, and they may be sung in the hearing
of others.
According to Rink, it is as a rule the deceased relations and ancestors
of the person using the charm, and especially his grandparents,
whose help is invoked in these formulas and in the songs. From
Holm's account, on the other hand, we gather nothing of this sort.
It seems to me not unreasonable, however, to suppose that they, and
also the amulets, have often a certain connection with the dead, and
may thus be the beginning of (or a survival from) a more developed
ancestor-worship. When a boy is for the first time placed in a kaiak,
the father, by means of magic songs, will invoke for him the protection
of his deceased grandparents and great-grandparents.
Offerings to the supernatural powers are very infrequent among
the Greenlanders. The most common form of offering is made to the
inue of the sea, the so-called _kungusutarissat_ (the plural of
_kungusutariak_). They are fond of foxes' flesh and foxes' tails, which
are, therefore, offered to them whenever a fox is caught, that they
may make the fishing successful. In travelling, too, the Eskimos will
make offerings to certain headlands, glaciers, and the like, which they
regard as dangerous, in order to get past them unharmed. The offering
is as a rule thrown overboard into the sea; it often consists of food,
but may also take the form of beads or other things which they value.
Besides these religious ceremonies the Greenlanders have others,
especially certain rules of life as to fasting, abstinence, and the
like, which must be observed, for example, by women immediately before
or after the birth of a child. It would, however, lead us too far to go
in detail into these matters.
* * * * *
From this survey of the religious conceptions of the Greenlanders,
it will doubtless appear that they are not so exempt from foreign
influences as many have been inclined to think. We can trace in them
admixtures from many quarters; we have found myths whose place of
origin is certainly as distant as Central Asia; nay we have even found
some which unquestionably bridge the distance between Greenland,
South Africa, and the Fiji Islands.[157] The migrations of such myths
presuppose immense periods of time. What is perhaps most interesting
for us, however, is the traces which we find of our own forefathers'
visits to Greenland. It is not only a few ruined buildings that
bear witness to their presence; they have also left an unmistakable
imprint on the spiritual life of the natives. I shall cite one or two
more examples of remarkable resemblances to European, and especially
Scandinavian, superstitions, which must in all probability have arisen
from intercourse with our forefathers.
The Greenlanders believe that children born in secrecy, or murdered
after birth, become dangerous spectres (_angiak_). Among other things,
they are in the habit of seeking out a dog's skull, which they use as
a kaiak, in order to persecute and kill their kinsfolk--either their
mother's later-born children, or, it may be, their mother's brothers,
who, by reproaching her for her misconduct, have led her to conceal the
birth. Sometimes, too, they pursue people in the form of a feather,
a mitten, &c.[158] This conception is very like the belief in what
is called _utburden_, which is very widespread in Norway. These are
children who, being born in concealment and killed, have not received
a name. They cannot rest, but, in the form of visible or invisible
ghosts, they pursue either the mother or people who pass by the place
where they have been laid.[159] The resemblance between this Norwegian
conception and the Greenland superstition is so great that there is
every probability of its having been imported into Greenland by the old
Scandinavians.[160]
Passing on to their fairy tales, we find many which resemble Norwegian
and other European legends. For example we have in Norway an as yet
unpublished tale[161] of three sisters who were bent upon getting
married. The one said, 'I am minded to marry even if I got only a fox
for a husband;' the second said she would marry if she got only a
goat, and the third if she got only a squirrel. Thereupon there came
a fox, a goat, and a squirrel, and took each his wife. Their father
afterwards paid a visit to each of his sons-in-law. When he came to
the squirrel's house, the squirrel bade his wife hang a pot over the
fire, and then all three went out and came to a river, into which the
squirrel dived and brought up a trout. When the man reached home he
bade his wife put a pot on the fire and go out with him. On reaching a
river, the man tried to dive as he had seen the squirrel do, but was
drowned. In Greenland we find this story split into two. In the one
it is two sisters who go down to the shore and wish, the one for an
eagle, the other for a whale, as a husband; and these animals at once
come and carry them off.[162] In the other we are told of a pair of old
people who live alone with their daughter. One day there comes a big
unknown man, who says that he lives near them to the southward, and
asks for their daughter in marriage. He obtains her, and on leaving
her home asks his father-in-law to come and pay them a visit. This
the father-in-law does. When he enters the house, his daughter hangs
a kettle over the fire and her husband goes out. The old man looks
after him through the window, but sees only a cormorant which flies
over the water, dives, and comes up with a sea-scorpion. Presently
the son in-law comes in with the sea-scorpion, which he gives to his
father-in-law to eat. On the old man's return home he asks his wife
to hang the pot over the lamp, then rows with her a little way out
from the land, and ties a stone round his neck and a long rope round
his waist, saying to his wife: 'I will dive into the water, and when
I tug at the rope you must haul me up again.' He jumps overboard and
sinks, and when his wife hauls him up again he is drowned.[163] The
resemblance between this story and the latter part of the Norwegian one
is so great that there can scarcely be any doubt as to its origin. We
must, however, take into account the possibility that it did not come
through the old Scandinavians, but through Hans Egede and his people,
or even later.
The following story resembles both Asiatic and European legends. A
reindeer-hunter once saw a number of women bathing in a lake. He took
away the clothes of the fairest of them, who had therefore to follow
him home and become his wife, whilst the others rushed to the shore,
put on their clothes, and were transformed into geese or mergansers
and flew away. His wife bore him a son; but presently she set to work
collecting feathers, by means of which she changed both herself and
her son into birds, and flew away with him one fine day, when the man
was out hunting. He set forth to search for them, and came upon a man
who was cutting chips of wood which were transformed into fishes.
This man placed him upon the tail of a big salmon which he made out
of a chip, and told him to close his eyes, whereupon the fish brought
him to his wife and son.[164] The American Eskimos have an altogether
similar story. Among the Samoyedes it is related that a man went out
on a journey and came upon an old woman who was felling birch trees.
He helped her, and went with her to her tent, where he hid himself.
Then in came seven girls, who talked to the old woman and went away
again. She said to him: 'In the darkest part of yonder wood there is
a lake; there the seven girls will bathe; take away the clothes of
one of them'--and he did so. The remainder is quite different from
the Greenland story, and there is nothing at all about their being
changed into birds, though their home was in air or in the sky.[165]
This story, whose likeness to the Greenland legend is remarked by
Dr. Rink,[166] is not, however, so like it as an Icelandic story, in
which we are told that a man was walking early one morning beside the
sea and came to the mouth of a cave. He could hear sounds of dancing
and merriment from inside the cave, and outside it lay a heap of
seal-skins, one of which he took home with him. Later in the day he
came again to the mouth of the cave; there sat a fair young woman
quite naked, and weeping. She was the seal who owned the skin. He
gave her clothes, took her home with him, married her, and they had
children. But one day when the man was out fishing his wife found the
old seal-skin; the temptation was too strong for her, she said good-bye
to her children, put on the skin and threw herself into the sea.[167]
The Greenland story, for the rest, resembles the swan legends which are
spread over almost the whole world, and of which we have several in
Europe. That it cannot have been introduced into Greenland of recent
years is proved by the fact that Paul Egede heard it there so long ago
as 1735. The possibility that it may have been brought to Greenland
by the old Scandinavians seems to me strengthened by the fact that
swan legends and stories of a like nature do not seem to have been
common in America. Powers, for example, in his book about the Indians
of California, says that he can find no stories of this nature among
them.[168]
If space permitted I could adduce several other remarkable coincidences
between the folk-lore of Greenland and that of Europe, and especially
of Scandinavia. It appears, then, that the intercourse between the old
Scandinavians and the natives must have been greater than has generally
been believed.[169]
Footnotes.
[54: As to the constitution of the soul see also Paul Egede,
_Efterretninger om Grönland_, p. 149, and Cranz, _Historie von
Grönland_, p. 258.]
[55: Paul Egede says expressly (_Efterretninger om Grönland_, p. 126)
that the natives make no distinction between _tarrak_ and _tarnek_
(_tarnik_), and he himself uses the two words indifferently. See also
the same work, p. 92.]
[56: _Historie von Grönland_, p. 257.]
[57: See Holm, _Meddelelser om Grönland_, pt. 10, p. 112.]
[58: A similar idea is also current on the west coast (compare
_Meddelelser om Grönland_, pt. 10, p. 342), but seems there to have
reference to the ordinary soul of the deceased. The distinction between
the soul and the name cannot, therefore, be sharply drawn among the
different tribes.]
[59: Throughout the foot-notes to this chapter, Dr. Nansen is
profuse in his acknowledgments of the assistance rendered him by
Professor Moltke Moe. I have ventured to concentrate these recurrent
acknowledgments into this one note, and shall refer to Professor
Moe only where he figures as the authority for a statement of
fact.--_Trans._]
[60: See also Liebrecht, _Zur Volkskunde_, p. 311.]
[61: Klemm, _Culturgeschichte_, iii. p. 77; Tylor, _Primitive Culture_
(1873), ii. p. 4; _Antiquarisk Tidsskrift_, 1861-63, p. 118.]
[62: It appears to me that exogamy between two of the same surname,
which is found among many races (see p. 175), can easily be explained
on this principle, since the same name creates a close spiritual
affinity, which may, like blood-affinity, act as a bar to marriage.]
[63: See Holm, _op. cit._ p. 111, where examples of such
re-christenings are given. Holm thinks that 'the old names reappear
when the deceased is quite forgotten.' It seems to me more natural to
suppose that this occurs as soon as a child has been called after the
dead man.]
[64: Nyrop, _Mindre Afhandlinger udgivne af det philologisk-historiske
Samfund_, Copenhagen, 1887, pp. 147-150.]
[65: Nyrop, _op. cit._ pp. 136 & 137.]
[66: Liebrecht, _Academy_, iii. (1872), p. 322.]
[67: _Meddelelser om Grönland_, pt. 10, p. 113.]
[68: See Schoolcraft, in _Antiquarisk Tidsskrift_, 1861-63, p. 119,
&c., also Andrée, _Ethnographische Parallelen und Vergleiche_, p. 180;
Tylor, _Early History of Mankind_, p. 142.]
[69: The reluctance prevailed among our forefathers. 'Sigurd concealed
his name because people believed in the old days that a dying man's
curse had great power, when he called his enemy by name.'--_Sæmundar
Edda_, ed. by Sophus Bugge, p. 219.]
[70: Information received from Prof. Moltke Moe.]
[71: The way in which name and thing melt into one appears clearly,
to mention one instance, in the Swabian custom of 'throwing the names
of three shrewish women' into the wine, in order to turn it into good
vinegar.]
[72: Compare Nansen: _The First Crossing of Greenland_, i., p. 328;
abridged edit., p. 160.]
[73: As to the significance of the name and its mention among the
different races, compare Kristoffer Nyrop's comprehensive essay,
'The Power of the Name,' in _Mindre Afhandlinger udgivne af det
philologisk-historiske Samfund_, Copenhagen, 1887, pp. 119-209. See
also B. Gröndahl in _Annaler for nordisk Oldkyndighed_, 1863, p. 127,
&c.; Moltke Moe, in _Letterstedtske Tidsskrift_, 1879, p. 286, &c.; S.
Grundtvig, _Danmarks gamle Folkeviser_, ii. p. 339, &c.; H. Spencer,
_Principles of Sociology_, vi. p. 701.]
[74: Compare Rink, _Aarböger for nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie_,
1868, iii. p. 202.]
[75: Compare Paul Egede, _Efterretninger om Grönland_, p. 149.]
[76: Holm, _Meddelelser om Grönland_, part 10, p. 113.]
[77: Communicated to me by Moltke Moe.]
[78: See on the same subject Paul Egede, _Efterretninger om Grönland_,
p. 117. According to some accounts, witches and 'wicked people' go to
the over-world.]
[79: Communicated by Moltke Moe. Compare also J. Flood, _Grönland_,
Kristiania, 1873, p. 10, note. Similar notions are said to be current
in Bavaria and in the Marquesas islands. Compare Liebrecht, in the
_Academy_, iii. (1872), p. 321.]
[80: P. Egede, _Efterretninger om Grönland_, p. 109. See also H. Egede,
_Det gamle Grönlands nye Perlustration_, p. 84. Cranz, _Historie von
Grönland_, p. 301.]
[81: _Meddelelser om Grönland_, part 10, p. 106, note.]
[82: Tylor, _Primitive Culture_ (1873), i. p. 472.]
[83: This conception of a second death, or the death of the soul, is
found among many races: Hindus, Tartars, Greeks, Kelts, Frenchmen,
Scandinavians, Germans, &c.]
[84: Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, ii. p. 44.]
[85: Knortz, _Aus dem Wigwam_, Leipzig, 1880, p. 133; compare p. 142.]
[86: It is interesting to note that the Alaska Eskimos seem to believe
in a being similar to this tornarssuk of the east coast of Greenland,
with long tentacles, &c. See Holm: _Meddelelser om Grönland_, part 10,
p. 115, note 1.]
[87: _Tartok_ means properly 'dark.' Among the Eskimos of Southern
Alaska, the same word, _taituk_, means 'mist.' In East Greenland
_târtek_ means 'black.' (Compare Rink: _Meddelelser om Grönland_, part
11, p. 152.)]
[88: Rink: _Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo_, p. 44. In Scotland a
singing in the ears is called 'the dead-bell,' and portends the death
of a friend. Hogg: _Mountain Bard_, 3rd ed. p. 31.]
[89: _Tredie Continuation_, &c., p. 74.]
[90: Holm, however, tells us (_Meddelelser om Grönland_, part 10, p.
105), that on the east coast the body is sometimes dragged out through
the house-passage by means of a thong looped around the legs. In such
cases, I take it, the dread of touching the body must have conquered
the dread of taking it out through the passage, for if it is taken
through the window it must be lifted and handled. By dragging it with
the feet foremost and pointing outwards they probably think to hinder
the soul from effecting a re-entrance.]
[91: From information given me by Moltke Moe. Compare also Liebrecht,
_Zur Volkskunde_, p. 372.]
[92: Morris and Magnússon, _The Saga Library_, vol ii. 'The
Ere-Dwellers,' p. 88.]
[93: See Moltke Moe's paper in the _Norske Universitets-og
Skoleannaler_, 1880, and the works there cited.]
[94: Holm, _Meddelelser om Grönland_, part 10, p. 107.]
[95: Hans Egede, _Det gamle Grönlands nye Perlustration_, p. 83.]
[96: See P. A. Gödecke's translation of the _Edda_, p. 170, and notes
on p. 335.]
[97: Paul Egede, _Continuation af Relationerne_, &c., p. 45; Hans
Egede, _Grönlands nye Perlustration_, p. 118; Rink, _Tales and
Traditions of the Eskimo_, pp. 40, 466.]
[98: The Dakota Indians relate that on the way to Wanaratebe there is
a wheel which rolls with frightful velocity along the bottom of the
abyss below the mountain ridge mentioned on p. 239. To this wheel are
bound those who have treated their parents despitefully. See Liebrecht,
_Gervasius Otia Imperialia_ (1856), p. 91, note.]
[99: Reference communicated by Moltke Moe.]
[100: See Sophus Bugge, _Mythologiske Oplysninger til Draumekvædi_, in
_Norsk Tidsskrift for Videnskab og Literatur_, 1854-55, p. 108-111;
Grimm, _Mythologie_, p. 794; Liebrecht, _Gervasius Otia Imperialia_, p.
90. Compare also H. Hübschmann, _Die parsische Lehre vom Jenseits und
jüngsten Gericht_, in _Jahrbücher für protestantische Theologie_, v.
(Leipzig, 1879), p. 242.]
[101: Compare H. Hübschmann, _op. cit._, pp. 216, 218, 220, 222.]
[102: Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, ii. 50. Compare, too, the Indians'
conception of a mountain ridge as sharp as the sharpest knife (see p.
239). It is of course possible that the Indians may have got this idea
from the Eskimos, or more probably, perhaps, from the Europeans after
the discovery of America.]
[103: Sophus Bugge, _op. cit._, p. 114.]
[104: Tylor, _op. cit._, p. 50. Compare Knortz, _Aus dem Wigwam_, p.
142.]
[105: Communicated by Moltke Moe, from his unpublished collection of
folk-tales. See also a tale reported from Flatdal in _Fedraheimen_,
1877, No. 18; a Hardanger tale (watered down) in Haukenæs's _Natur,
Folkeliv og Folketro i Hardanger_, ii., 233. Danish variants in Kl.
Berntsen, _Folke-Æventyr_, I. (Odense, 1873) p. 116; Et. Kristensen,
_Jyska Folkeminder_, v. 271.]
[106: Rink, _Meddelelser om Grönland_, part 11, p. 17. Compare Boas,
_Petermann's Mittheilungen_, 1887, p. 303; Rink and Boas, 'Eskimo Tales
and Songs,' in _Journal of American Folk-Lore_, 1889 (?), p. 127.]
[107: Note by Glahn in Crantz's _Historie von Grönland_, Copenhagen,
1771, p. 348. Rink, _Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo_, p. 440;
Danish edit. pp. 87, 166, suppl. p. 44.]
[108: Communicated by Moltke Moe.]
[109: I. 551, 553.]
[110: Rink, _Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo_, p. 440; Danish edit.
p. 87.]
[111: Compare Sophus Bugge, _op. cit._, p. 115.]
[112: Noted by Moltke Moe.]
[113: Holm, _Meddelelser om Grönland_, part 10, p. 144.]
[114: Compare K. Knortz, _Aus dem Wigwam_, p. 130. H. de Charencey
(_Melusine_, i. 225) mentions (quoting from Malthæus, _Hidatsa
Grammar_, 1873, Intr. p. xvii.) that the forefathers of the
Minnetarees, a tribe belonging to the Missouri region, lived at the
bottom of a great lake, and climbed up to the surface of the earth by
help of a big tree, which ultimately broke, so that many of them had
to remain below. (From an unpublished manuscript by Moltke Moe.) This
legend presents an even closer analogy to that of the ignerssuit, who
dwell under the sea.]
[115: See J. Krohn, _Finska Litteratur-Historie_, 1st Part, _Kalevala_
(1891), p. 165. Moltke Moe has directed my attention to this
similarity, and has lent me the MS. of an as yet unpublished essay on
legends of this class. As a rule, the connection between earth and
heaven is effected by a great tree, by which people climb up and down.
The myth of such heaven-trees is to be found in almost every quarter
of the world. We find it in Scandinavia (Ygdrasil) no less than in
Polynesia, Celebes, Borneo, New Zealand, &c. Among the Vogulians, the
son of the first two human beings (see above) transforms himself into a
squirrel, climbs up a tree to heaven, and afterwards climbs down again.
(Compare A. Lang, _Myth, Ritual and Religion_ (1887). i. 182, note
2.) Among the Indians the first man climbs into a tree, in chase of a
squirrel, and so reaches heaven, whence he returns with the elements
of civilisation, or, according to some, in order to take his sister up
with him again. (Compare Tylor, _Early History of Mankind_ (2nd ed.),
p. 349.) The gipsies on the borders of Transylvania have a legend of a
great tree from which flesh fell down to earth, and from whose leaves
human beings sprang forth (H. von Wlislocki, _Märchen und Sagen der
transsilvanischen Zigeuner_, No. 1.) There is probably some connection
between these myths and the Greenland legend; it is quite natural that
in the Eskimo version the tree should have disappeared.]
[116: Compare A. Lang, _Myth, Ritual, and Religion_, i. 181.]
[117: Compare J. Krohn, _op. cit._, pp. 163-173.]
[118: Communicated by Moltke Moe. Others relate that it was the
ugly children whom Eve concealed, or that she was ashamed of having
so many. (See Faye, _Norske Folkesagn_, 2nd ed. p. xxv.; Söegaard,
_Fra Fjeldbygderne_, p. 102; _Dölen, 1862_ (III.) No. 17; Storaker
and Fuglestedt, _Folkesagn fra Lister og Mandals Amt_, p. 51; Finn
Magnusen, _Eddalæren_, iii. p. 329; Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_, 4th
ed. iii. 163, &c.) The legend is originally Jewish, and may be traced
to the Rabbis; see, for example, Liebrecht on _Gervasius Tilberiensis
Otia Imperialia_, p. 70.]
[119: Paul Egede gives a somewhat different account of the ignerssuit's
fall from human estate. They 'formerly dwelt upon earth, until the
time of the great flood, which caused the earth to capsize, so that
what had formerly been uppermost was now below.'--_Continuation af
Relationerne_, p. 96.]
[120: This suggests our Norwegian 'draug' which sails in a half boat
(_i.e._ a boat split in two longitudinally); and it does not seem
impossible that we may here trace the influence of the old Scandinavian
settlers.]
[121: Paul Egede: _Efterretninger om Grönland_, p. 172.]
[122: Legends of dog-men being widely spread over the world (they are
found, for instance, among the Greeks), it is possible that the Eskimos
may have received them from some other quarter, and applied them to the
Indians, who, they knew, claimed descent from a dog.]
[123: Compare Tobler: 'Ueber sagenhafte Völker des Altertums,' &c., in
_Zeitschrift der Völkerpsychologie_, vol. xviii. (1888), p. 225.]
[124: See Hammer, _Meddelelser om Grönland_, part 8, p. 22; E. Skram
in _Tilskueren_, October, 1885, p. 735. As to kivitut, see also Rink,
_Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo_.]
[125: See Arnasen, _Íslenzktar thjódsogur_, ii. 160-304, translation
by Powell and Magnússon (London, 1866), pp. cxlvi, and 101-231. Maurer
_Isländische Volkssagen_, p. 240; Carl Andersen, _Islandske Folkesagn_,
2nd ed., p. 258.]
[126: P. Egede, _Efterretninger om Grönland_, p. 172; Tylor, _Primitive
Culture_, i. 391; Tobler, _op. cit._, p. 238; Liebrecht in _The
Academy_, iii. (1872), 321.]
[127: P. Egede, _Continuation af Relationerne_, p. 97; H. Egede,
_Grönlands Perlustration_, p. 117.]
[128: Compare Liebrecht, _Zur Volkskunde_, p. 332, and the authorities
there cited. See also Moltke Moe in _Letterstedtske Tidsskrift_, 1879,
pp. 277-281.]
[129: H. Egede, _Grönlands Perlustration_, p. 117; P. Egede,
_Continuation af Relationerne_, p. 47; Rink, _Tales and Traditions of
the Eskimo_, p. 471; _Meddelelser om Grönland_, part 10, pp. 290, 342.]
[130: Rink and Boas, _Journal of American Folklore_ (1888?) p. 124.]
[131: F. Liebrecht, _Zur Volkskunde_, 1879, pp. 17-25; J.C. Müller,
_Geschichte der americanischen Urreligionen_, pp. 134, 65.]
[132: P. Egede, _Continuation af Relationerne_, pp. 32, 80;
_Efterretninger om Grönland_, pp. 127, 106. H. Egede, _Grönlands
Perlustration_, p. 117.]
[133: Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, i. 355; A. Lang, _La Mythologie_
(Paris, 1886), pp. 204, 206; Smithsonian Institute, _Annual Report
of the Bureau of Ethnology_, 1879-80, p. 45. The choice between day
and night in the Greenland form of the myth may possibly be borrowed,
directly or indirectly, from the biblical cosmogony.]
[134: Christaller in _Zeitschrift für afrikanischen Sprachen_, I.
1887-88, pp. 49-62. Compare also Bleek, _Reineke Fuchs in Afrika_
(Weimar, 1870): Tylor, _op. cit._, p. 355; A. Lang, _op. cit._, p. 203.]
[135: Hans Egede, _Grönlands Perlustration_, p. 117; P. Egede,
_Continuation af Relationerne_, pp. 20, 60. As to washing in urine (see
p. 29), I may remark that it seems to have been a custom of untold
antiquity. We find allusions to it even in the sacred writings of the
Parsees. Thus it is said (_Vendidad_, 8, 13) that corpse-bearers shall
wash themselves with urine 'not of men or women, but of small animals
or beasts of draught.']
[136: P. Egede, _Continuation af Relationerne_, p. 16; H. Egede,
_Grönlands Perlustration_, p. 121; Rink, _Tales and Traditions of the
Eskimo_, p. 236; Holm, _Meddelelser om Grönland_, part 10, p. 268.]
[137: A. Lang, _Custom and Myth_, p. 132; Tylor, _Primitive Culture_ i.
288.]
[138: Compare Rink, _Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo_, pp. 237, 440.
Danish ed. suppl. p. 44. Liebrecht in _Germania_, vol. 18 (1873), p.
365.]
[139: Holm, _Meddelelser om Grönland_, part 10, p. 142.]
[140: This myth is so strikingly like the Greenland legend that there
can scarcely be a doubt of their having sprung from the same source.
Among the Khasias to love your mother-in-law is the direst sin, while
among the Greenlanders it is worst to love your sister.]
[141: Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, i. 354. See also A. Lang, _Myth
Ritual, and Religion_, i. p. 128.]
[142: P. Egede, _Efterretninger om Grönland_, pp. 150, 206.]
[143: Holm, _Geografisk Tidsskrift_ (Copenhagen, 1891), xi. 16. The
idea that rain is due to the overflow of a lake in the over-world may
possibly be traceable to more southern regions, where agriculture and
artificial irrigation are practised, and where accordingly the mountain
lakes have been dammed up. In the Greenland myth there is also mention
of the lake being closed by a dam. (Compare Egede and Cranz.)]
[144: See Schwartz, _Die poetischen Naturanschauungen_, i. pp. 138,
259; ii. p. 198; Schmidt, _Das Volksleben der Neugriechen_, i. p. 31;
_Belgisch. Museum_, v. p. 215; Ign. Goldziher, _Der Mythos bei den
Hebräern_, p. 88.]
[145: This idea recurs in several parts of the world. Compare Christ's
forty days' solitude in the wilderness.]
[146: So in original (_Trans._).]
[147: Holm, _Meddelelser om Grönland_, part 10, p. 131.]
[148: Angekoks, too, might be of either sex, but women seem always to
have been in the minority among them.]
[149: Holm, _Meddelelser om Grönland_, part 10, p. 135; Rink, _Tales
and Traditions of the Eskimo_, pp. 53, 151, 201, 461; N. Egede, _Tredie
Continuation af Relationerne_, pp. 43, 48; P. Egede, _Efterretninger om
Grönland_, p. 18, &c.]
[150: Compare Carl Andersen, _Islandske Folkesagn og Eventyr_, 2nd
edit. (1877) pp. 144-149. It is interesting to compare these Icelandic
tales with the East Greenland legend related by Holm (_Meddelelser om
Grönland_, part 10, p. 303), which is very similar in matter, though
of course adapted to the conditions of life in Greenland. Analogous
tales are also to be found in Norway, according to Moltke Moe, who has
directed my attention to this remarkable similarity.]
[151: Rink, _Tales and Traditions of the Eskimos_, p. 42.]
[152: One of the characteristics of the ilisitsoks, as well as of the
angekoks, is that they breathe fire. In the mediæval legends, and even
in more recent European folk-lore, this faculty was attributed to the
Devil, and was often extended to those who had sold themselves to him.
The Greenland fire-breathing is probably connected with this mediæval
superstition. The ilisitsoks, moreover, when seen by the angekoks
during their exorcisms, are observed to be black from the hands up
to the elbows--a trait which may also have its origin in the popular
European conception of the Devil and his host as black in colour.]
[153: Hans Egede, _Grönlands Perlustration_, p. 116.]
[154: Compare Holm, _Meddelelser om Grönland_, part 10, p. 118.]
[155: Holm, _Meddelelser om Grönland_, part. 10, p. 119.]
[156: _Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo_, p. 51; Danish ed. suppl. p.
194.]
[157: As regards the greater part of these myths, the theory that they
were invented independently in different parts of the world seems quite
inadmissible; the coincidences are too numerous and too characteristic.
Examples may be cited, indeed, of the same invention having been made
independently by different races remotely situated from each other;
but they are remarkably rare. On the other hand, it is surprising how
certain tools, cultivated plants, and arts or accomplishments have
been handed on from people to people over immense tracts of the earth.
(Compare Peschel, _Abhandlungen zur Erd-und Völkerkunde_, 1877, i. p.
468).]
[158: Glahn, _Nye Samling af det kongelige norske Videnskabelige
Selskabs Skrifter_, i. 1784, p. 271. Rink, _Tales and Traditions of the
Eskimo_, pp. 45, 391, 439; Kleinschmidt, _Den grönlandske Ordbog_, p.
33.]
[159: See Moltke Moe's Introduction to Qvigstad and Sandberg: _Lappiske
Eventyr og Folkesagn_, p. vii; _Nyrop, Mindre Afhandlinger udgivne
af det philologisk-historiske Samfund_, Copenhagen, 1887, p. 193;
Liebrecht, _Zur Volkskunde_, p. 319.]
[160: I must not omit to note, however, that similar conceptions are
to be found in different parts of the world. In Tahiti, Oromatus, the
mightiest of spirits, is said to have come into existence in this
way, and among the Polynesians generally the souls of children are
regarded as being especially dangerous. (Compare F. Liebrecht, in _The
Academy_, iii. 1872, p. 321.) One of my reasons for thinking that the
Greenlanders may have borrowed their angiak from the Scandinavians
is that, so far as I can ascertain, other Eskimo tribes have no such
belief--at least it cannot be common among them. There is no mention of
the angiak even among the legends collected by Holm on the east coast.
On the other hand, there are several apparently more primitive myths of
ordinary children who are turned into monsters. (Compare _Meddelelser
om Grönland_, part 10, p. 287; Rink, _Tales and Traditions of the
Eskimo_, p. 258; Danish ed. suppl. p. 125.) One of these, who on the
east coast is the child of the moon by a human mother (_Meddelelser om
Grönland_, part 10, p. 281), has on the west coast become an angiak.
This is, no doubt, a late recasting of the legend--a theory which is
borne out by the fact that variants occur on the west coast in which
the angiak is an ordinary child.]
[161: Communicated by Moltke Moe.]
[162: Rink, _Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo_, p. 126; Holm,
_Meddelelser om Grönland_, part 10, p. 276.]
[163: Rink, _Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo_, Danish ed. suppl. p.
119.]
[164: P. Egede, _Continuation af Relationerne_, p. 19; _Efterretninger
om Grönland_, p. 55; Rink, _Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo_, p.
145; _Meddelelser om Grönland_, part 11, p. 20, Suppl. p. 117.]
[165: Castrén, _Ethnologiske Foreläsningar_, Helsingfors, 1857, p. 182.]
[166: _Meddelelser om Grönland_, part 11, Suppl. p. 117.]
[167: C. Andersen, _Islandske Folkesagn_, 1877, p. 205.]
[168: The Iroquois, however, have a legend of seven boys who were
transformed into birds and flew away from their parents. They have also
a tale of a young man who goes out fishing and comes upon some boys
who have put off their wings and are swimming. They give him a pair
of wings which enable him to fly away with them; but they afterwards
take his wings away from him and leave him helpless. Compare Rink,
_Meddelelser om Grönland_, part 11, p. 21.]
[169: It has hitherto been supposed that there are no traces of such
intercourse except in the Eskimo legends (mentioned in Chapter I.), of
their encounters with the old Scandinavians, and in the three following
words: _nîsa_ for nise (porpoise), _kuánek_ for kvanne (angelica)
and _kalâlek_ (meaning Greenlander). The derivation of _nîsa_ (old
Norse nisa) and _kuánek_ seems probable enough, though some doubt is
thrown on the latter by the fact that in Labrador the word is applied
to an eatable seaweed. _Kalâlek_ was supposed to be the same as the
Norwegian skrælling--the name given by our forefathers to the Eskimos,
which in an Eskimo's mouth would sound something like kalalek. It is
rather surprising, however, to find the same word among the Eskimos of
Alaska in the form of _katlalik_ or _kallaaluch_, meaning an angekok
or chieftain (Rink, _Meddelelser om Grönland_, part 11, Suppl. p. 94;
_Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo_, Danish ed. suppl. p. 200). It is
possible, however, that the word may have been imported into Alaska
from Greenland in modern times. Another thing which, as it seems to
me, may possibly be a relic of the old Scandinavians, is the cross-bow
which Holm found upon the east coast, and which was formerly in use
on the west coast also. So far as I know, it is not found among the
Indians.]