[608]. Report, etc., p. 125.
[609]. Compare the case of the alleged “chiefs” of the Chukches, in Nordenskiöld’s Vega, vol. 1, pp. 449 and 495.
[610]. Op. cit., p. 273 et seq.
[611]. Compare Graah’s account of the ceremony of summoning a torngak in East Greenland (Narrative, p. 123). “Come he did, however, at last, and his approach was announced by a strange rushing sound, very like the sound of a large bird flying beneath the roof.” (The italics are my own.) The angekut evidently have some juggling contrivance, carefully concealed from laymen, perhaps of the nature of a “whizzing-stick.”
[612]. Compare Rink’s description of the ceremony of summoning a tornak to ask his advice, in Greenland (Tales, etc., p. 60). This was performed before a company in a darkened house. The angekok lay on the floor, beside a suspended skin and drum, with his hands tied behind his back and his head between his legs. A song was sung by the audience, and the angekok invoked his tornak, beating on the skin and the drum. The spirit announced his arrival by a peculiar sound and the appearance of a light or fire.
[613]. Tales, etc., p. 14.
[614]. Compare Rink (Tales, etc. p. 56): “Several fetid and stinking matters, such as old urine, are excellent means for keeping away all kinds of evil-intentioned spirits and ghosts.”
[615]. Rink, Tales, etc., p. 56.
[616]. “When an Innuit passes the place where a relative has died, he pauses and deposits a piece of meat near by.” Baffin Land, Hall, Artic Researches, p. 574.
[617]. Report Point Barrow Expedition, p. 46.