Fig. 25. Talisman.
Fig. 26. Talisman.
If the person become ill the wife is often accused of working some charm on her husband in order that she may enjoy the favors of another. A woman whose husband had recently died was espoused by another who soon after became violently ill. She nursed him with the greatest assiduity until he convalesced. At this period his mother, with the advice of some old hags, decreed that she had been the sole cause of her husband’s illness and must leave the tent. Her things were pitched out and she was compelled to journey in quest of her relatives.
Another illustration came under my notice.
A widow was taken to wife by a Koksoak Eskimo. He was soon taken violently ill and she was accused by the shaman of being the cause of it, as the spirit of her deceased husband was jealous. Unless she were cast off the Koksoak man would never recover. It was then also found that unless the wife of another man should desert him and become the wife of a man who already had two of this woman’s sisters as wives the sick man would die. The woman and her husband escaped divorce by fleeing from the camp.
