Cases of murder and cannibalism during periods of starvation have been authenticated among the natives of the west shore of Hudson bay, and have been reported among other tribes, but are resorted to only in extreme cases.
Murder from private reasons is very rare, and entails a blood feud unless a settlement can be made by presents to the nearest relatives of the murdered man.
If an individual becomes dangerously obnoxious, or insane, a consultation of the men of the band is held, and one or more of them are deputed to remove the criminal or lunatic; in such a case the individuals acting are held blameless in the matter.
Supposed incurables commit suicide, which is not looked upon as a crime, as suicides are supposed to go, after death, to an upper heaven along with other good people.
When a death occurs, the body is sewn up and kept for some time in the iglo, after which it is drawn to a convenient spot on the land, and there covered with boulders as a protection against dogs, wolves and foxes. The body is removed from the snowhouse through a hole cut in the side, and not through the door. The reason for keeping the body a few days is due to the belief that the spirit hovers about it during that time before departing, and might be displeased if it were buried immediately.
There appears to be a great deal of doubt in regard to the action of the soul after death, and at times one is led to think that the Eskimos believe in a dual soul, one of which leaves the body and its surroundings shortly after death, the other remaining in its environment and gradually departing for longer and longer periods as the body decays.
A number of customs are observed after death among the Aivilliks and Kenipitus. No work or hunting is permitted for five days, and the women confine themselves closely to the house. During this period the snow must not be scraped from the ice window, the bed must not be shaken, nor the willow mats disturbed; the drippings from the lamp must remain, and snow for melting must not be cut. The women are forbidden to wash faces, comb hair or dry boots. The men must not work on iron, wood, stone or ivory. Some of these regulations extend beyond the period of five days. The belongings of the dead are not used by the others, and, if they cannot be traded to the whites, are abandoned. When a man dies, his gun and hunting implements are laid beside his grave, and allowed to remain there for a certain time, until his spirit is supposed to have no further use for them, having ceased to remain with the body, or until the spirit is supposed to have forgotten about them. In the case of a woman, articles of a personal nature of use to the spirit are put alongside her grave. For some time after death visits are made to the grave, and one-sided ‘conversations’ are held with the spirit there to show respect and to keep it from becoming lonely; at the same time small presents of tobacco or other articles are left at the grave.
SUPERSTITIONS AND BELIEFS.
It is an exceedingly difficult task to arrive at any sure idea of the beliefs of the Eskimo. In the first place, they are themselves somewhat hazy as to what they do believe concerning the soul and a future state; secondly, an intimate knowledge of the language is needed to catch their ideas on these subjects, and thirdly, one must be very intimate with them and have acquired their respect before they will, from fear of ridicule, discuss such subjects.
They all appear to have a belief in a supreme goddess, called Nuliayok on the western side of Hudson bay, and Sedna by the eastern Eskimos. The folk-lore in connection with these two goddesses points to the same origin for both, and is almost identical. The tradition is that Nuliayok was a coy Eskimo maiden who would not marry any of the young men. She was wooed by the fulmar, a gull, who spoke in a pleasing manner of the life she would lead with him. He so worked upon the senses and feelings of the maiden that she consented to accompany him to his island home as his wife. On arriving there she found that she had been cruelly deceived, and that the splendid house was nothing but a nest of sticks perched upon the high bare rocks, without any shelter from the snows or winds. The abundant food promised turned out to be nothing but rotten fish, and to add to her other discomforts she was jostled by the other fulmars, so that she often had difficulty in preserving her place on the rock. There was plenty of time for regret before she managed to send word to her father, requesting him to come to her rescue, which he did. Her father’s name was Anautelik, and he took her away in his boat during the absence of the fulmar. When the latter discovered his loss, he caused a great storm, and Anautelik, to preserve his own life, threw his daughter overboard, but she clung to the side of the boat, and he cut off her fingers, one by one, to make her release her hold. As her fingers dropped into the sea they changed into the whale, walrus, big seal and the small seal, so originating the sea animals. Her father next knocked one of her eyes out, after which she let go of the side of the boat and went to the world beneath the sea, where she became queen, living in a house built of stone and whalebone, and guarded by her husband, the dog. She cannot walk, but ‘hunches’ over the ground with one foot beneath her body. Her father was also drowned later, and now lives with her, wrapped up in his tent cover, and is employed torturing the souls of the wicked. The souls of sea animals go to her after remaining three days by the body after death. This is the reason a great deal of respect is shown to the bodies of these animals, and is the origin of a number of taboos in connection with them. If the soul is displeased on its departure for the abode of Nuliayok it informs her, and causes her hands to swell; then she revenges herself by bringing ill-luck or sickness upon the Eskimos. If all the ceremonies are properly observed they please the soul of the animal, and other animals will allow themselves to be killed by such considerate people.