Haiyahe!
Yaiyahe!
Hwi!
And instantly the contents of the tub were dashed on the fire, the stone thrown into the embers, and both men discharged their rifles, one into the embers, and one into the cloud of steam as it rose. Then all brushed their clothes violently and shouted, and the tuɐña was killed. By a fortunate coincidence, the next day was the finest we had had for a long time.
Sacrifices are also occasionally made to these supernatural beings as in Greenland “gifts were offered to the inue of certain rocks, capes and ice firths, principally when traveling and passing those places.”[615]
Capt. Herendeen, in the fall of 1882, went to the rivers in company with one of the “doctors.” When they arrived at the river Kuaru, where the latter intended to stay for the fishing, he got out his drum and “talked” for a long time, and breaking off very small pieces of tobacco threw them into the air, crying out, “Tuɐña, tuɐña, I give you tobacco! give me plenty of fish.” When they passed the dead men at the cemetery, he gave them tobacco in the same way, asking them also for fish.[616] We noticed but few other superstitious observances which have not been already described. As in Greenland and elsewhere, superstition requires certain persons to abstain from certain kinds of food. For instance, Mûñialu, and apparently many others, were not permitted to eat the burbot, another man was denied ptarmigan, and a woman[617] at Nuwŭk was not allowed to eat “earth food,” that is, anything which grew upon the ground. Lieut. Ray also mentions a man who was forbidden bear’s flesh.[618]
We observed some traces of the superstition concerning the heads of seals and other marine animals taken in the chase, which has been noticed elsewhere. Crantz says:[619] “The heads of seals must not be fractured, nor must they be thrown into the sea, but be piled in a heap before the door,[620] that the souls of the seals may not be enraged and scare their brethren from the coast.” And Capt. Parry found that at Winter Island they carefully preserved the heads of all the animals killed during the winter, except two or three of the walrus which he obtained with great difficulty. The natives told him that they were to be thrown into the sea in the summer, but at Iglulik they readily sold them before the summer arrived.[621]
I tried very hard to get a full series of skulls from the seals taken at Utkiavwĭñ in the winter of 1882-’83, but though I frequently asked the natives to bring them over for sale, they never did so, till at last one young woman promised to bring me all I wanted at the price of half a pound of gunpowder a skull. Nevertheless, she brought over only two or three at that price. We did not observe what was done with the skulls, but frequently observed quantities of the smaller bones of the seals carefully tucked away in the crevices of the ice at some distance from the shore. We had comparatively little difficulty in obtaining skulls of the walrus, but I observed that the bottom of Tûseráru, the little pond at the edge of the village, was covered with old walrus skulls, as if they had been deposited there for years. The superstition appears to be in full force among the Chukches, who live near the place where the Vega wintered. Nordenskiöld was unable to purchase a pair of fresh walrus heads at the first village he visited, though the tusks were offered for sale the next day[622] and at Pitlekaj.[623] “Some prejudice * * * prevented the Chukches from parting with the heads of the seal, though * * * we offered a high price for them. ‘Irgatti’ (to-morrow) was the usual answer. But the promise was never kept.”
[Amulets.]—
Like the Greenlanders[624] and other Eskimos, they place great reliance on amulets or talismans, which are carried on the person, in the boat, or even inserted in weapons, each apparently with some specific purpose, which indeed we learned in the case of some of those in the collection. Like the amulets of the Greenlanders, they appear to be[625] “certain animals or things which had belonged to or been in contact with certain persons (e.g., the people of ancient times, or fortunate hunters) or supernatural beings,” and “objects which merely by their appearance recalled the effect expected from the amulet, such as figures of various objects.” To the latter class belong the rudely flaked flint images of whales, already mentioned, and probably many of the other small images of men and animals already described, especially those fitted with holes for strings to hang them up by.