ACROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

Narrative of the Fifth Thule Expedition

By KNUD RASMUSSEN

WITH 64 ILLUSTRATIONS AND 4 MAPS

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

NEW YORK— LONDON 1927

Copyright, 1937

to . P. Putnam's

Made in the United States of America

INTRODUCTION

IT is early morning on the summit of East Cape, the steep headland that forms the eastern extremity of Siberia.

The first snow has already settled on the heights, giving one's thoughts the first cool touch of autumn. The air is keen and clear; not a breeze ruffles the waters of Bering Strait, where the pack ice glides slowly northward with the current.

The landscape has a calm grandeur all its own ; far away in the sun-haze of the horizon rises Great Diomede Island, here forming the boundary between America and Asia.

From where I stand, I look from one continent to another; for beyond Great Diomede lies, like a bank of blue fog, another island, the Little Diomede, which belongs to Alaska.

All before me lies bathed in the strong light of sun and sea, forming a dazzling contrast to the land behind me. Here lies the flat, marshy tundra, apparently a land of dead monotony, but in reality a plain-realm, with the life of the plain in game and sounds; a lowland which, un- broken by any range of hills, extends through a world of rivers and lakes to places with a distant ring, to the Lena Delta, and, farther, farther on, beyond Cape Chelyushkin, to regions that lie not far from my own land.

At the foot of the hill I have just ascended I see a crowd of Tchukchi women on foot, dressed in skins of curious cut; they have on their backs bags made of reindeer skin which they are filling with berries and herbs. They fit,

iv INTRODUCTION

as an item of detail, so picturesquely into the great expanse that I continue to gaze at them until they are lost to sight among the green slopes of the valley.

On a narrow spit of land, with pack ice to the one side and the smooth waters of the lagoon on the other, lies the village or township of Wahlen. It is only now beginning to wake; and one by one the cooking-fires are lighted in the dome-shaped tents of walrus hide.

Not far from the coast town, clearly silhouetted on the skyline, a flock of tame reindeer move slowly along the crest of a hill, nibbling the moss as they go, while herds- men, uttering quaint far-sounding cries, surround them and drive them down to the new feeding grounds.

To all these people, this is an ordinary day, a part of their everyday life; to me, an adventure in which I hardly dare believe. For this landscape and these people mean, to me, that I am in Siberia, west of the last Eskimo tribe, and that the Expedition has now been carried to its close.

The height on which I stand, and the pure air which surrounds me, give me a wide outlook, and I see our sledge tracks in the white snow out over the edge of the earth's circumference, through the uttermost lands of men to the North. I see, as in a mirage, the thousand little native villages which gave substance to the journey. And I am filled with a great joy; we have met the great adventure which always awaits him who knows how to grasp it, and that adventure was made up of all our mani- fold experiences among the most remarkable people in the world!

Slowly we have worked our way forward by unbeaten tracks, and everywhere we have increased our knowledge.

How long have those sledge journeys been? — counting our road straight ahead together with the side excursions up inland and out over frozen seas, now hunting game,

I

DOGS WHICH MADE THE WHOLE JOURNEY FROM HUDSON BAY TO POINT HOPE,

ALASKA

INTRODUCTION v

and now seeking out some isolated and remote people? Say, 20,000 miles; more or less, — nearly the circum- ference of the earth. Yet how little that matters, for it was not the distances that meant anything to us! One forgets to count miles after three and a half years of constant go, go, go, — and tries only to keep in mind the accumulating experiences.

In my joy in having been permitted to take this long sledge journey, my thoughts turn involuntarily to a contrasting enterprise ending also in Alaska, where last Spring, people were awaiting the visit of daring aviators from the other side of the globe. And from my heart I bless the fate that allowed me to be born at a time when Arctic exploration by dog sledge was not yet a thing of the past. In this sudden retrospect, kindled by the great backward view from East Cape, indeed, I bless the whole journey, forgetting hardship and chance misfortune by the way, in the exultation I feel in the successful con- clusion of a high adventure!

A calmer and more deliberate mental review of that long journey brings almost as much regret as pleasure. For I find that to tell of my observations on the trip, in a book of proper length, compels me to omit more than I can in- clude; and, often, things of great interest.

Particularly painful is it to leave out a statement of the accomplishments of my associates on the Expedition. At the beginning I was merely the leader of a whole group, which included some Danish scientists of note. During the first year, we worked together out of a base on the eastern coast of Canada, going out in small parties to various stations, and returning from time to time to collate our material. Our work had mainly to do with ethnography; my associates were concerned also with

vi INTRODUCTION

archeology, geology, botany and cartography. They did notable work in mapping territory known before only in a vague way. We did much excavating in ruins of former Eskimo cultures. The work of my colleagues in this field, especially, contributed much to knowledge of the past. Full reports of their findings have been published in books, monographs, and papers under their own names before learned societies. This allusion here must stand as the chief acknowledgment, in the present book, of their work. They enter hereafter only in passing.

For, here, I am constrained by limitations of subject to confine myself to a portion of the material I gathered personally, both while I was with them, and later, when I set out on my visit alone to all the tribes of Arctic North America.

It was my privilege, as one born in Greenland, and speaking the Eskimo language as my native tongue, to know these people in an intimate way. My life's course led inevitably toward Arctic exploration, for my father, a missionary among the Eskimos, married one who was proud of some portion of Eskimo blood. From the very nature of things, I was endowed with attributes for Polar work which outlanders have to acquire through painful experience. My playmates were native Greenlanders; from the earliest boyhood I played and worked with the hunters, so that even the hardships of the most strenuous sledge-trips became pleasant routine for me.

I was eight years old when I drove my own team of dogs, and at ten I had a rifle of my own. No wonder, therefore, that the expeditions of later years were like happy con- tinuations of the experiences of my childhood and youth.

Later, when I became aware of the interest which the culture and history of the Eskimo hold for science, I was able to spend eighteen years in Greenland again, laying

INTRODUCTION vii

down the foundation, by the long study of one tribe, for a more comprehensive study of all the tribes.

In 1902, I began my active ethnographical and geo- graphical work with the Eskimos, which has continued pretty steadily since. In 1910 I established, in collaboration with M. Ib Nyeboe, a station for trading and for study in North Greenland, and to it I gave the name of "Thule," because it was the most northerly post in the world, — literally, the Ultima Thule. This became the base of my subsequent expeditions, four major efforts in ten years, and all called " Thule Expeditions. "

By 1920 I had completed my program of work in Greenland, and the time had come to attack the great primary problem of the origin of the Eskimo race. The latter enterprise took definite shape in the summer of 1921, in the organization of an expedition which went from Greenland all the way to the Pacific. At the beginning we worked from a headquarters on Danish Island, west of Baffinland, excavating among the ruins of a former Eskimo civilization, and studying the primitive inland Eskimo of what are known as the Barren Grounds.

Later, with two Eskimo companions, I travelled by dog sledge clear across the continent to the Bering Sea. I visited all the tribes on the way, living on the country, and sharing the life of the people. What I observed on that trip constitutes my story.

The Eskimo is the hero of this book. His history, his present culture, his daily hardships, and his spiritual life constitute the theme and the narrative. Only in form of telling, and as a means of binding together the various incidents is it even a record of my long trip by dog sledge. Whatever is merely personal in my adventures must be cut out, along with the record of the scientific achievements of my associates.

viii INTRODUCTION

Even the Eskimo will suffer some omissions, — for it is obvious that only a portion of the story can be told, when the selection has to be made from thirty note-books, and 20,000 items of illustrative material.

Yet I think it due my companions, before so summarily disposing of them, to point out that the first year of joint effort with them helped greatly to shape my own work and to spur me to enthusiasm sufficient to carry over the long pull alone. In enumerating the rest of the party, I am in one sense naming co-authors.

With me, then, were Peter Preuchen, cartographer and naturalist; Therkel Mathiassen, archeologist and carto- grapher; Kaj Birket-Smith, ethnographer and geographer; Helge Bangsted, scientific assistant; Jacob Olsen, assistant and interpreter; and Peder Pedersen, Captain of the Expedition's motor schooner, Sea-King.

The official title of the Expedition was: 'The Fifth Thule Expedition, — Danish Ethnographical Expedition to Arctic North America, 1921-24."

It was honored by the patronage of King Christian X. of Denmark, and advised by a committee consisting of M. Ib Nyeboe, chairman, and Chr. Erichssen, Col, J. P. Koch, Professors 0. B. Boeggild, Ad Jensen, C. H. Osten- feld, of Copenhagen University, and Th. Thomsen, In- spector of the National Museum at Copenhagen*

Hardly less important to the comfort and success of the Expedition than the work of these scientists was the contribution of our Eskimo assistants from Greenland, and those we added locally from time to time. We brought with us Iggianguaq and his wife, Anarulunguaq; Arqioq and his wife Anaranguaq; Nasaitordluarsuk, hereinafter known as " Bosun, " together with his wife, Aqatsaq; and finally, a young man, known as Miteq,- cousin of Anarulunguaq.

INTRODUCTION ix

Iggianguaq died of influenza after we were far from home, and his wife continued with me to the end of the long trip, along with Miteq. It was her duty, as that of the other women, to keep the fur clothing mended, to cook, and, on the journey, to help drive the dogs. The men drove, hunted food for men and dogs, and built snow huts wherever we set up new camps.

Anarulunguaq is the first Eskimo woman to travel widely, and along with Miteq, the only one to visit all the tribes of her kinsmen. She has received a medal from the King of Denmark for her fine work. After the first y ear, I struck out with one team of dogs and these two Eskimos for the trip across to Nome. Considering the rigors they endured, I don't know which is the more remarkable, that I came through the three and a half years with the same team of dogs, or with the same Eskimos. Surely, however, it is no mere sentimental gesture to point out that they had a bigger share in the outcome of the trip than I have space to show.

One omission likely to be welcomed, at least by the reader, is the almost total excision of theories about the origins of the Eskimos. This being one of the chief assignments of our research, I think it a mark of strict literary discipline to have succeeded in keeping it so nearly completely out of the story, — at least in the manner approved by scientists. As an outlet to sup- pressed dogmatizing, therefore, I am going to make a compact little statement, at this point, of some of our conclusions, and hereaf ter allow the facts to point to their own conclusions.

The Eskimos are widely scattered from Greenland to Siberia, along the Arctic Circle, about one-third of the way around the globe. They total in all no more thatx 33,000 souls, which represents, perhaps, the outside

x INTRODUCTION

number of persons who can gain their Evelihood by hunt- ing in a country so forbidding. They have a wide range in following the seasonal movement of game, but in so vast a territory the different tribes are scattered and isolated from each other. Good evidence leads us to believe that a period of at least 1500 years has elapsed since the various tribes broke off from one original stock.

In so prolonged a separation, it would be natural for the language and traditions of the various tribes to have lost all homogeneity. Yet the remarkable thing I found was that my Greenland dialect served to get me into complete understanding with all the tribes. Two great divisions appeared in the customs, — a land culture and a coastal culture. The most primitive Eskimos, a nomadic tribe who lived in the interior and hunted caribou, had almost no knowledge of the sea, and their customs and tabus were limited accordingly. Nothing in their tradi- tions or implements indicated that they had ever been acquainted with marine pursuits. But the folklore of the sea-people, in addition to being unique in its references to ocean life, was in many other respects identical with that of the tribes that had never been down to sea. The conclusion was inevitable that originally all the Eskimos were land hunters, and that a portion of them later turned to hunting sea-mammals. The latter people retained all their old vocabulary and myths, and added thereto a nomenclature and a folklore growing out of their experi- ence on the water.

As for what happened before that, in the remote past, the theory 1 came to accept was that long, long ago, the Eskimos and the Indians were of common root. But different conditions developed different customs, to such a degree that now there seems to be no resemblance between the Indians and the Eskimos. But the like-

INTRODUCTION xi

nesses are there, not obvious to the wayfarer, but sufficiently plain to the microscopic eye of the scientist. The aboriginal Eskimos developed a special culture around the big rivers and lakes of the northernmost part of Canada. From here, they moved down to the coast, either because they were driven by hostile tribes or because they had to follow the caribou in their migrations. They developed the first phases of a coastal culture at the Arctic Coast of Canada, most probably between Coro- nation Gulf and the Magnetic North Pole.

From here they wandered over to Labrador, Baffin- land, and Greenland, to the east, and westward, reached Alaska and the Bering Sea. Around the Bering, with its abundance of sea-animals, they had their Golden Age, as a coastal people.

From here a new migration took place, for what reason we cannot know, but this time from the West to the East, and here we find the explanation for all the ruins of permanent winter houses we discovered along the Arctic Coast between Greenland and Alaska. The present Eskimos do not construct such houses, which were built in rather recent times by people known as the Tunit The Greenlanders, however, do, and they are undoubtedly the original Tunit.

During all these years of migration, some tribes kept to their old places in the interior, which explains why we were able to find aboriginal Eskimos in the Barren Grounds. These facts, together, explain why the spiritual culture exhibited a certain continuity between all the tribes.

The foregoing was the theory advanced by Prof. H, P. Steensby, of the University of Copenhagen, and all of our researches lent support to it.

There is another general theory with regard to the

xii INTRODUCTION

Eskimos which has but slight relation to the question of American origins, for it goes back to much more ancient times, — not less than 25,000 years ago. This theory traces the Eskimo back to a time when our own ancestors of the Glacial Period lived under similar arctic conditions, and, presumably, resembled the Eskimo of today. All remains of the material culture of the Glacial, or Stone Age are exactly comparable with that of the Arctic dwellers, and the theory assumes that a similar spiritual resemblance can be inferred. This grows naturally out of the discovery that the Eskimos, intimately studied, are much more spiritual-minded, much more intelligent, much more likeable than the average man has been led to expect. They prove to be human beings just like ourselves, — so like, indeed, that we cannot avoid drawing them into the fold, and saying, "These people belong to our race!"

For they do, certainly, react to the suffering, the sacrifices, the hardships and the mysteries of evil which they face, much as we do. Their philosophy, even when untouched by any influences of civilization, has many curiously modern slants, including such ideas as auto-suggestion, spirit seances, and cataleptcy. Their poetry has many resemblances to ours, their religion and folklore often resemble, even in phrasing, as well as in content, our earlier religious literature.

Some archeologists have made bold to assert that the Eskimos are surviving remnants of the Stone Age we know, and are, therefore, our contemporary ancestors. We don't have to go so far to claim kinship with them, however, for we recognize them as brothers. , I believe that the following pages will bear out this statement. Even so, I do not dare to feel that the whole story of the Eskimo, or his whole appeal to our sympathies will be found here.

INTRODUCTION xiii

I have not sounded all the depths. One can never finish exploring a people.

The Expedition started from Copenhagen on the of June, 1921, and proceeded via Greenland, in order to pick up additional members of the party, and arctic equipment. The vessel employed was one built especially for the trip, — the schooner Sea-King, of something over 100 tons.

Since the scientific members of the Expedition would be so occupied with their tasks that they would hardly have time for hunting, and procuring food for the dogs, this important task was to be entrusted to the Green- landers from Thule, who are at once skilful travellers and notable hunters.

After a favorable passage across the dreaded and ice- filled Melville Bay, we arrived at Thule on the 3rd of August, and engaged our native assistants. Leaving Greenland through Pox Channel in mid-September, forcing a passage through heavy ice around to the north of Southampton Island, we found a harbor on a little, unknown and uninhabited island. A whole month was spent in building a house for our winter quarters, — we called it the "Blow-hole," by reason of the prevalent winds — and in sledge trips in various directions with a view to ascertaining our position. Our observations gave this as 65° 54' N, 85° 50' W, but the old maps were so inadequate that we could not at first mark the locality on any existing chart.

The place was afterward called Danish Island. Here in a smiling valley opening seaward upon a shelving beach, and landward, sheltered by a great crescent of guardian hills, we erected what was to be our home for months to come.

xiv INTRODUCTION

Scarcely were we ashore when we found fresh bear tracks in the sand immediately below the location we had chosen for our home. On our first brief reconnaissance to the top of a neighboring hill, we encountered a hare so amazingly tame that we were tempted actually to essay his capture with our bare hands. Soon afterward we spied a lonely caribou who at once was all curiosity and came running toward us to investigate these strange visitors. The confidence of the game showed well enough ho,w little disturbed the region had been. Never before had I encountered from animals such a friendly greeting.

From the top of the hills we had a fine view of a neigh- boring fjord, and out in the open water were seen glistening dark backs of walrus curving along the surface as they fed. Such was our first impression of this new country, truly a land hospitable in its promise of game.

By October, the ground was covered with snow, and a narrow channel behind the house frozen over. The first thing now was to get into touch with the nearest natives as soon as possible; but as the mouth of Gore Bay was open water we were unable to travel far, and by the end of October all we had found was a few old cairns and rough stone shelters built by the Eskimo of earlier days for the purpose of caribou hunting with bow and arrow* The first meeting with the Eskimos of the new world was yet before us.

CONTENTS

PAGE

INTRODUCTION iii

CHAPTER

I. — OLD FRIENDS IN NEW SKINS ... 3

II. — TAKORNAOQ ENTERTAINS GENTLEMEN

FRIENDS 12

III. — A WIZARD AND His HOUSEHOLD . . 18

IV. — FINGER-TIPS OF CIVILIZATION ... 36

V. — A PEOPLE BEYOND THE TOUCH . . 55

VI. — NOMAD'S LIFE IN THE BARREN GROUNDS . 71

VII. — WITH No EDITORS TO SPOIL ... 87

VIII. — BETWEEN Two WINTERS .... 102

IX. — FAITH OUT OF FEAR . . . .118

X.— "I HAVE BEEN So HAPPY!" . . .139

XI. — SEPARATE WAYS 154

XII.— STEPPING OUT 158

XIII. — GOING PRETTY FAR WITH THE SPIRITS , 176 XIV. — AN INNOCENT PEOPLE .... 188

XV. — TRULY THANKFUL 201

XVI. — FROM STARVATION TO SAVAGERY . .218

XV

xviii ILLUSTRATIONS

FACINjG PAGE

YOUNG WOMEN ....... 100

ICE ON THE LAKES ....... 106

REMAINS OF ESKIMO DWELLINGS . . . .112

MITEQ CUTTING UP A NEWLY CAPTURED SEAL . 120 SNOW HUTS ........ 124

A PROMISING YOUNG HUNTER ON THE LOOKOUT FOR GAME ........ 130

TERTAQ, THE "AMULET BOY" ..... 136 TYPICAL WOMEN OF THE TRIBE . . . .142 THE DANISH MEMBERS OF THE EXPEDITION , . 154

ANARULUNGUAQ, THE YOUNG ESKIMO WOMAN FROM GREENLAND ....... 158

A FAMILY PARTY SETTING OUT FOR REPULSE BAY . 160 NATIVE FROM PELLY BAY ..... 164

ESKIMO FROM THE MAGNETIC POLE, ARMED WITH Bow AND ARROW ....... 174

QUERTILIK, NALINGIAQ'S PRETTY DAUGHTER, WIFE OF THE CHIEF QAQORTINGNEQ ..... 176

THE ARRIVAL . . . . , . . .178

NlAQUNGUAQ, THE WIZARD ..... 1 86 NULIALIK, THE MOST SKILFUL REINDEER HUNTER ON

THE GREAT PISH RIVER ..... 192 Two LITTLE GIRLS FROM LAKE FRANKLIN , .198

"TAILS UP!" ........ 200

NETSILINGMIUT CATCHES FISH AT AMITSOQ, KING WILLIAM'S LAND ...... 206

ILLUSTRATIONS xk

FACING PAGE

THE VICTIM ...... . 318

EQALUK AND HIS Two WI.VPS, PAMIQQ AND AG^ATOG 233

HONOR TO THE DEAD . . . . • . . 240

Leo HANSEN, THE FILM PHOTOGRAPHER ... . 244

ARCTIC COD ........ 348

SETTING OUT IN SEARCP OF A NATIVE; VILLAGE . 254

THE RETURN OF THE SUN ..... 268

THE HUNTING CAMP NEAR BERNARD HARBOR . * 278

OUR HOST, QANIGAG, A TYPICAL SPECIMEN OF THE

"BLOND" ESKIMO OF THESE REGIONS . . 282

NEAR PIERCE POINT ...... 286

THE SMOKING MOUNTAINS, NORTH OF HORTON RIVER . 290

ANGUISINAOQ, MY STQRY-TELLER FROM PAILLIE ISLAND 292 YQUNG WOMAN AND CEILS FROM BAHXIE I$L&m •

INSPECTOR WOOD OF HSRSCBSL IS^ANP, CHJEF Q ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE IN THE NORTH- WEST TERRITORY ......

WOMAN FROM POINT BARROW ..... 3°4

POINT BARROW, THE MOST NORTHERLY SETTLEMENT IN AMERICA ....... 306

THE NALUKATAQ ....... 3H

SAGPLUAQ, FROM COLVILLE RIVER .... 3l8

WOMEN FROM POINT BARROW ..... 322

ANARULUNGUAQ WITH Two OF OUR DOGS . . 328

BATTLEFIELDS OF FORMER DAYS . 332

xx ILL USTRA TIONS

FACING PAGE

NASUK, FROM KOTZEBUE SOUND .... 336

VIEW OF THE BEACH AT NOORVIK .... 338

KING ISLAND, A SMALL ISLAND IN THE BERING STRAITS 344

IN BERING STRAITS ....... 352

DANCING AT THE NATIVE FESTIVALS IN ALASKA . 356

EAST CAPE, SIBERIA, THE WESTERN BOUNDARY OF

ESKIMO OCCUPATION 360

REPRESENTATIVE OF THE RUSSIAN SOVIET FROM EMMA- TOWN 364

THE "TEDDY BEAR" 378

MAPS

MAP: REGION NORTH OF HUDSON BAY. SHOWING HEADQUARTERS AT DANISH ISLAND . . .10

MAP: BAFFIN ISLAND TO MACKENZIE BAY . . 224

MAP: MACKENZIE BAY TO EAST CAPE . . . 310

ROUTES OF THE FIFTH THULE EXPEDITION, 1921-24 382

ACROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

ACROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

CHAPTER I

OLD FRIENDS IN NEW SKINS

I HAD halted to thaw my frozen cheeks when a sottnd and a sudden movement among the dogs made me start.

There could be no mistake as to the sound, — it was a shot. I glanced round along the way we had come, fancying for a moment that it might be the party behind signalling for assistance; but I saw them coming along in fine style. Then I turned to look ahead.

I had often imagined the first meeting with the Eskimos of the American Continent, and wondered what it would be like. With a calmness that sur- prised myself, I realized that it had come.

Three or four miles ahead a line of black objects stood out against the ice of the fjord. I got out my glass; it might, after all, be only a reef of rock. But the glass showed plainly: a whole line of sledges with their teams, halted to watch the traveller ap- proaching from the South. One man detached him- self from the party and came running across the ice

3

4 A CROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

in a direction that would bring him athwart my course. Evidently, they intended to stop me, whether I would or no. From time to time, a shot was fired by the party with the sledges.

Whether the shots fired and the messenger hurry- ing toward me with his harpoon were evidence or not of hostile intent, I did not stop to think. These were the men I had come so far to seek from Den- mark and from my familiar haunts in Greenland. Without waiting for my companions to come up, I sprang to the sledge, and urged on the dogs, point- ing out the runner as one would a quarry in the chase. The beasts made straight for him, tearing along at top speed. When we came up with him, their ex- citement increased; his clothes were of unfamiliar cut, the very smell of him was strange to them; and his antics in endeavoring to avoid their twelve gaping maws only made them worse.

"Stand still!" I cried; and, taking a flying leap out among the dogs, embraced the stranger after the Eskimo fashion. At this evidence of friendship the animals were quiet in a moment, and sneaked off shamefacedly behind the sledge.

I had yelled at the dogs in the language of the Greenland Eskimo. And, from the expression of the stranger's face, in a flash I realized that he had understood what I said.

He was a tall, well-built fellow, with face and hair covered with rime, and large, gleaming white teeth showing, as he stood smiling and gasping, still breath- less with exertion and excitement. It had all come about in a moment, — and here we were!

THE FIRST MAN TO GREET US IN THESE NEW LANDS His face and hair were thick with icicles.

OLD FRIENDS IN NEW SKINS 5

As soon as my comrades behind had come within hail, we moved on toward the party ahead, who had been watching us all the time. Our new friend informed me that his name was Papik and that he had come from the neighborhood of Lyon Inlet, — the next large inlet to the North of our recently established headquarters camp on Danish Island. There was not time for much talk, before we came up with the others; and I was anxious this time to check the dogs before they became too excited. As we approached, the men caine out to meet us, the women and children remaining with the sledges.

These men, then, were the Akilinenmtrt, — the "men from behind the Great Sea/' of whom I had heard in my earliest youth in Greenland, when I first began to study the Eskimo legends. The meet- ing could hardly be more effectively staged; a whole caravan of them suddenly appearing out of the desert of ice, men, women and children, dressed up in their fantastic costumes, like living illustrations of the Greenland stories of the famous "inland-dwellers." They were dad throughout in caribou skin; the fine short haired animals shot in the early autumn. The women wore great fur hoods and long, flapping ' l coat- tails" falling down over the breeches back and front. The curious dress of the men was as if de- signed especially for running; cut short in front, but with a long tail out behind. All was so unlike the fashions I had previously met with that I felt myself transported to another age; an age of legends of the past, yet with abundant promise for the future, so far as my own task of comparing the various tribes

6 ACROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

of Eskimos was concerned. I was delighted to find that the difference in language was so slight that we had not the least difficulty in understanding one another. Indeed, they took us at first for tribes- men of kindred race from somewhere up in Baffin Island.

So far as I thought they would understand, I explained our purposes to my new friends. The white men, Peter Freuchen and myself, were part of a larger party who had come out of the white man's country to study all the tribes of the Eskimo, — how they lived , what language they talked, how they hunted, how they amused themselves, what things they feared, and believed about the future life — every manner of thing. We were going to buy and carry back to our own country souvenirs of the daily life of the Eskimo, in order that the white man might better understand, from these objects, the different way the people of the northern ice country had to live. And we were going to make maps and pictures of parts of this country in which no white man had ever been.

I introduced, then, my Eskimo companion (Bosun) , — a man from Greenland who was almost as strange to the Akilinermiut as I, He had come along to hunt and to drive sledges, and do other work for the white man, while we gave our time to these studies.

My new friends were greatly pleased and im- pressed. They had just set out for their autumn camp up country at the back of Lyon Inlet, taking with them all their worldly goods. Being, however,

OLD FRIENDS IN NEW SKINS 7

like Eskimos generally, creatures of the moment, they at once abandoned the journey on meeting us, and we decided to set off all together for some big snowdrifts close at hand, where we could build snow huts and celebrate the meeting.

Accustomed as we were ourselves to making snow huts, we were astonished at the ease and rapidity with which these natives worked. The Cape York Eskimos, in Greenland, reckon two men to the task of erecting a hut ; one cutting the blocks and handing them to the other, who builds them up. Here, however, it was a one-man job; the builder starts with a few cuts in the drift where he proposes to site his house, and then proceeds to slice out the blocks and lay them in place, all with a speed that left us staring open-mouthed. Meantime one of the women brought out a remarkable type of snow- shovel, with an extra handle on the blade, or business end, and strewed a layer of fine snow over the waH as it rose, thus caulking any chinks or crevices, and making all thoroughly weather-proof. Two technical points which particularly impressed our Cape York man, as an expert, were firstly the way these men managed to build with loose snow — some degree of firmness being generally considered essential — and further, the very slight arch of the roof, which has ordinarily to be domed pretty roundly for the blocks to hold, whereas here, it was almost flat* In less than three quarters of an hour, three large huts were ready for occupation; then, while the finishing touches were given to the interior, the blubber lamps were lighted and the whole made warm and cosy.

8 ACROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

I and my two companions distributed ourselves among the three huts, so as to make the most of our new acquaintances. Caribou meat was put on to boil; but we found also, that our hosts had both tea and flour among their stores, which they had pur- chased from a white man down at Repulse Bay, not far from the camp. This was news of importance to us, for it meant we might have a chance of sending letters home in the spring.

In the course of the meal, I obtained some valuable information as to the neighborhood and neighbors. There were native villages, it appeared, in almost every direction round about our headquarters. They were not numerous, but the more interesting in their varied composition. There were the Igdlulik from Fury and Hecla Strait, the Aivilik between Repulse Bay and Lyon Inlet, and a party of Netsilik from the region of the North-west Passage. Only half a day's journey from the camp there was a family from Ponds Inlet, on the north coast of Baffin Land.

Conversation was for the most part general, as it mostly is on first acquaintance. Speaking the same tongue, however, we were not regarded .alto- gether as strangers, and I was able even to touch on questions of religion. And I soon learned that these people, despite their tea and flour and incipient enamel-ware culture, were, as regards their view of life and habit of thought, still but little changed from their ancestors of ages past.

Plainly, here was work for us in plenty, and an interesting task it promised to be. We had, more- over, been well received, and I anticipated little

OLD FRIENDS IN NEW SKINS 9

difficulty in gathering information. First of all, how- ever, we must go on to seek the nearest Hudson's Bay Company station, and find out whether there really would be any opportunity of postal communi- cation in the spring.

We started accordingly, on the following morning. On the 5th of December, while it was still daylight, we reached the spot where, according to the Eskimo accounts, the white man had his quarters. At the base of a little creek, behind huge piles of twisted and tumbled ice, stood a modest looking building, dark against the colony of snow huts which sur- rounded it. This, we found, was the extreme ad- vanced post of the Hudson's Bay Company of Adventurers, one of the oldest and greatest trading companies in the world.

We had hardly drawn up in front of the house before the station manager, Captain Cleveland, came out and greeted us with the most cordial welcome. He proved, also, to be a remarkably quick and efficient cook, and had a meal ready for us in no time; a steaming dish of juicy caribou steaks and a Californian bouquet of canned fruit in all varieties.

George Washington Cleveland was an old whaler who had been stranded on the coast here over a generation before, and made himself so comfortable among the Eskimos that he had never been able to tear himself away. Nevertheless, he was more of an American than one would expect from his isolated life, and was proud of having been born on the very shore where the Mayflower had first landed, He had been through all manner of adventures, but

ID ACROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

neither shipwreck nor starvation, not to speak of the other forms of adversity that had fallen to his lot, could sour his cheery temper or impair his steady, seaman-like assurance of manner.

We knew really very little about this arctic region of Canada, and Captain Cleveland's information was most valuable to us later on. We learned now that one of the Hudson's Bay Company's schooners, com- manded by a French Canadian, Captain Jean Ber- thie, was wintering at Wager Bay, five days' journey farther to the south* There was a chance that we might be able to send letters home in the course of the winter by this route, and it was at once decided that Freuchen should set out for the spot and bring bade news.

Tfcere was a dance that evening, to celebrate the visitors' arrival. The Eskimo men and women had learned, from the whalers, American country dances. Music was provided by the inevitable gramophone which seems to follow on the heels of the white man to most parts of the world. And the women were decked out in ball dresses hastily contrived for the occasion from material supplied by Captain Cleve- land.

Later on, we made a round of the huts, which were refreshingly cool after the heat of the ballroom. We were anxious to get more information as to the country round, but being unacquainted with the Eskimo names of places near, we could only go by the old English maps, and were rather at a deadlock when aid arrived frona an unexpected quarter. An old fellow With a long wMte beard, and eyes red-

OLD FRIENDS IN NEW SKINS 11

dened with the strain of many a blizzard, revealed himself as a geographical expert.

We brought out paper and pencil, and to my as- tonishment, this "savage" drew, without hesitation, a map of the coastline for a distance of some hundreds of miles, from Repulse Bay right up to Baffin Land. The map completed, he told me all the Eskimo place names, and at last we are able to get a real idea as to the population of the district and the position of the settlements. I was elated here to note that the majority of these names; Naujarmiut, Pitorqermiut, Nagssugtormiut and many others, were identical with some of the familiar place names from that part of Greenland where I was born. And when I began telling of the Greenland folk tales to the company here, it turned out that they knew them already; and were, moreover, themselves astonished to find that a stranger should be acquainted with what they regarded as their own particular legends.

I was looking forward to closer acquaintance with these people and their history and traditions; Ival- uartjuk, who had drawn the map, wottH, I foresaw, be particularly useful as a source of MoimatkHi. But we could not now remain longer than the one whole day, and on the 7th of December, we took leave of our new friends, Freuchen going down as arranged to meet Captain Berthie at Wager Bay, while Bosun and I drove back to our winter quarters. After passing Haviland Bay, however, we came upon some old sledge tracks, and decided to follow and see whither they led*

CHAPTER II

TAKORNAOQ ENTERTAINS GENTLEMEN FRIENDS

IN the middle of a big lake an old Eskimo woman * stood fishing for trout. In spite of the fact that the winter was yet young the ice had already become so thick that all her strength must have been needed in cutting the hole for her line. Now and then she took a piece of drift-wood shaped like a shovel and pushed away the fragments of ice that were in her way. Then stretching out on her stomach she thrust half her body so far into the hole that all that re- mained visible was a pair of bent, skin-covered legs waving in the air.

Suddenly a puppy that had lain buried in the snow scrambled to his feet and started to bark wildly. Tumbling out of the hole, the old woman crouched, bewildered &t peeing Bostua and myself so near her. At f^ft;spp<| o$tr 4©g§ dashed down on the odd pair.

*?fae seized the pup by the mi& a&d set out in the direction of the .fist as later ancient legs would carry her. B of her flight only served to increase the, c£ ouar dogs, already excited by the scent of tite ¥lfi3ge, aad such was their speed that, in pass- ffif the fugitive, I had barely time to seke her and tog her on top of the flying sledge. There she lay

12

TAKORNAOQ ENTERTAINS FRIENDS 13

with horror in her eyes, while I burst out laughing at the absurdity of the scene* At length, through her tears of fright, she started to smile, too, realizing that I was a human, and a friendly human being, at that.

It was old Takomaoq. She now sat with arms convulsively clutching the whimpering pup. Then above the noise of the frightened dog I suddenly heard a sound that startled me in turn. Bending over her and cautiously lifting her skin kolitah I discovered far down inside her peltry clothing a small infant clinging to her naked back and whimper- ing in unison with the mother and the terrified puppy.

Such was my meeting with Takornaoq. Soon we were friends. We raced merrily along to her village, which consisted of three snow huts. Here we were introduced to the notables of the place.

Inernerunassuaq was an old angakoq, or wizard, from the neighborhood of the Magnetic Pole. He screwed up his eyes to a couple of slits cm being in- troduced, and was careful to draw my attention to his magic belt, which was httng about with zoological preparations. His wife was a simple soul, fat and comfortable, as befits one married to a specialist in the secret arts. They had a large family of small children who hung about getting in the way; none of them had reached the age when a child is reckoned worthy of a name, and their parents simply pointed at this one or that when telling them to be quiet.

Thai there was Talerortalik, son-in-law to the foregoing, having married Uvtukitsoq,, the wizard's daughter. They looked an insignificant pair; but

I4 A CROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

we found out afterwards that it was they who made ends meet for the wizard and his flock. Finally, there was Peqingassoq, the cripple, who was said to be specially clever at catching trout. Others were briefly introduced, and Takornaoq carried me off to her own hut. It was clean and decent as such places go, but chilly, until we got the blubber lamp well alight.

Bosun and I settled down comfortably on the sleep- ing place among the cosy caribou skins. And as soon as the meat was put on to boil, Takoraaoq sat down between us with the unexpected observation that she was "married to both of us now," her hus- band, whom she loved, being away on a journey. Then taking a tiny infant from her aniaut, she laid it proudly in a hareskin bag. The child was named Qasitsoq, after a mountain spirit, the mother ex- plained. It was not her own child, but one of twins born to a certain Nagsuk; she had bought it for a dog and a frying pan. It was too much really, for such a pitiful little creature, nothing but skin and bone; Takornaoq complained bitterly that Nagsuk had cheated, and given her the poorer of the two.

Our hostess told us a great deal about herself and her family. She was of the Igdlulik, from Fury and Hecla Strait, a tribe noted for clever hunters and good women; and she was proud of her origin, as being superior to that of her fellow-villagers here. Our visit was most welcome, she assured us, and even went to the length of voicing her appreciation in an improvised song, which she delivered sitting between us on the bench. Her voice, it is true, was somewhat

TAKORNAOQ ENTERTAINS FRIENDS 15

over-mellowed by her sixty odd winters, but its quavering earnestness fitted the kindly, frank, sim- plicity of the words:

Aya iya, aya ya-iya,

The lands about my dwelling

Are grown fairer this day

Since it was given me to see

The face of strangers never seen.

All is fairer,

All is fairer,

And life is thankfulness itself*

Aya, these guests of mine Bring greatness to my house, Aya iya, aya ya-iya.

Immediately after the song, dinner was served. Our hostess, however, did not join us at the meal; a sacrifice enjoined by consideration for the welfare of the child. Among her tribe, it appeared, women with infant children were not allowed to share cook- ing utensils with others, but had their own, which were kept strictly apart.

Not content with feeding us, however, she then opened a small storehouse at the side of the hut, and dragged forth the whole carcase of a caribou. This, the good old soul explained, was for our dogs. And with rare tact, she tried to make the gift appear as a matter of course. " It is only what my husband would do if he were at home. Take it, and feed them." And she smiled at us with her honest old eyes as if really glad to be of use.

16 ACROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

Bosun and I agreed that it was the first time in our lives a woman had given us food for our dogs.

We enquired politely after her husband, Patdloq, and learned that she had been married several times before. One of her former husbands, a certain Quiv- apik, was a wizard of great reputation, and a notable fighter* On one occasion, at Southampton Island, he was struck by a harpoon in the eye, while another pierced his thigh, ''But he was so great a wizard that he did not die of it after all." He was an expert at finding lost property, and had a recipe of his own for catching fish.

"Once we were out fishing for salmon, but I caught nothing. Then came Quivapik and taking the Kne from me, swallowed it himself, hook and all, and pulled it out through his navel. After that I caught

Another of Takornaoq's adventures shows some- thing of the dreadful reality of life in these regions.

"I c»ce met a woman who saved her own life by eating her husband and her children.

"My husband and I were on a journey from Igdiulik to Ponds Inlet. On the way he had a dream ; in which it seemed that a friend of his was being eaten by his own kin. Two days after, we came to a spot where strange sottnds hovered in the air. At first w^ocmld not make out what it was, but coming nearer it was like the ghost of words; as it were one trying to speak without a voice. And at last it said :

"'I am one who can no longer live among human- kvm, for I have eaten my own kin.9

41 We could hear now that it was a woman. And we looked at each other, and spoke in a whisper

WOMAN'S DRESS, FRONT VIEW

The sleeves are made so loose in the shoulder that when travelling in a blizzard the arms can be drawn up out of the sleeves altogether, and crossed on the breast inside to warm them. The band across the forehead, a woman's principal ornament, is here made from a piece of brass that had formed part of a telescope. The woman here shown, Ataguvtaluk, is one of the survivors of a f axnine, when she lived on the bodies of her husband and children'. Blue veins show up prominently round her mouth, said to be due to her having eaten her own flesh and blood.

TAKORNAOQ ENTERTAINS FRIENDS 17

fearing what might happen to us now. Then search- ing round, we found a little shelter built of snow and a fragment of caribou skin. Close by was a thing standing up ; we thought at first it was a human being, but saw it was only a rifle stuck in the snow. But all this time the voice was muttering. And go- ing nearer again we found a human head, with the flesh gnawed away. And at last, entering into the shelter, we found the woman seated on the floor. Her face was turned towards us and we saw that blood was trickling from the corners of her eyes; so greatly had she wept.

"'Kikaq' (a gnawed bone) she said, 'I have eaten my husband and my children! '

"She was but skin and bone herself, and seemed to have no life in her. And she was almost naked, having eaten most of her clothing. My husband bent down over her, and she said:

"'I have eaten him who was your comrade when he lived/

"And my httsband answered: * You had the will to live, and so you are still alive/

"Then we put tap our tent close by, cutting c€ a piece of the fore-curtain to maJbg a shelter for the wo3daa; for she was ttndeaa, aaad might not fee in the same tent with us. And we gave her frozen caribou meat to eat, but when she had eaten a mouth- ful or so, she fell to trembling all over, and could eat no more.

"We ceased from our journey then, and turned back to Igdlulik, taking her with us, for she had a brother there. She is still alive to this day and mar- tied to a great hunter, named Igtussarssua, and she is his favorite wife, though he had one before.

" But that is the most terrible thing I have known in all my life/'

CHAPTER III

A WIZARD AND HIS HOUSEHOLD

T RETURNED to headquarters on Danish Island 1 full of excitement over the promise of my first reconnoitring expedition. Contact with these shore tribes convinced me that farther back, in the "Bar- ren Grounds" of the American Continent I should find people still more interesting, and that our ex- pedition would be able not only to bear to the world the first intimate picture of the life of a little known people, but also to produce evidence of the origin and migrations of all the Eskimo Tribes.

The key to these mysteries would be found in hitherto unexplored ruins of former civilizations on the shores adjacent to the Barren Grounds, and in the present-day customs of isolated aborigines who were themselves strangers alike to the white man and to the Greenland Eskimos I knew so well.

The "Barren Grounds," as they have long been cailed, are great tracts of bare, untimbered land between Hudson Bay and the Arctic Coast. Though f coming part of the great continent of America, they are among the most isolated and inaccessible portions of ^ the globe. It is for this reason that the most primitive and uncivilized tribes are still to be found there. Despite the zeal with which hunters and

18

A WIZARD AND HIS HOUSEHOLD 19

traders ever seek to penetrate into unknown regions, the natural obstacles here have hitherto proved an effective barrier, and the territory is known only in the barest outline. On the north, there are the ramifications of the Arctic Ocean, permanently filled with ice, to bar the way. On the south, and to some extent also on the west, lie great trackless forests, where travelling is slow and difficult, the only prac- ticable route being along the little known rivers. Only from Hudson Bay has the east coast of the Barren Grounds been accessible for modern forms of transport. And even here the waters are so hampered with ice that they are reckoned to be navigable for only two or three months a year. These natural obstacles, however, which have kept others away, were all to our advantage, because they have kept the tribes of Eskimos I intended to visit uncontam- inated by white civilization, imprisoned within their swampy tundras, unaltered in all their primitive character.

We were now able to plan <mr first year's work in these regions. Near our headquarters we found a few old cairns and rough stone shelters built by the Eskimos of earlier days for the purpose of hunting caribou with bow and arrow. We were convinced that the excavation of these ruins would be well worth while. The natives we had now met explained that these ruins originated with a mysterious race of "giants," called Tunit.

We divided up our work as follows; Mathiassen, with Kaj Birket-Smith was first to visit Captain Cleveland, to acquire preliminary information, and

20 ACROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

then Birket-Smith would travel on south, to investi- gate the problem of the early relations between the Indians and the Eskimos. Mathiassen's first assign- ment was to go with Peter Freuchen to the north, to map shores of Baffin! arid, and study people on whom no reliable information existed. Then, on his return, he was to excavate among the ruins we had found.

I was to study the inland Eskimos, with special reference to the spiritual side of their culture. The Eskimo members of the party were divided among the several sub-expeditions as needed, and two of them would remain on guard at the headquarters camp.

We had a pretty good supply of pemmican, both for ourselves and for the dogs, as well as canned goods, which would form the basis of our provisions. We had to supplement it, however, with fresh meat. We were told that Cape Elizabeth, toward the north, was a good spot for walrus at this time of year, and I therefore went off with Miteq and two of the local natives to try our luck. We set out on the nth of January. Despite some difficulty, owing to snow, which drifted thickly at times, we had some exciting caribou hunting on the ice during the first two days. The thermometer stood at about minus 50 C. (63 P.) and every time we picked up our guns with the naked hand the cold steel took the skin off.

We purchased some stores of meat at Lyon Inlet, and devoted a few days to fetching these, after winch we set out again to the Northward to find the village . None of us knew exactly where it was, as the natives

A WIZARD AND HIS HOUSEHOLD 21

had not yet moved down to the coast, but were en- camped some way inland where they had been en- gaged on their autumn caribou hunting*

The 27th of January was fine, but cold; it was bright starlight towards the dose of the journey, but we had had a long and tiring day, and wished for nothing better than to find shelter without having to build it ourselves.

Suddenly out of the darkness ahead shot a long sledge with the wildest team I have ever seen. Fifteen white dogs racing down at full speed, with six men on the sledge. They came down on us at such a pace that we felt the wind of them as they drew alongside. A little man with a large beard, completely covered with ice, leapt out and came to- wards me, holding out his hand white man's fashion. Then halting, he pointed inland to some snow huts. His keen eyes Were alight with vitality as he uttered the ringing greeting: "Qujangnamik" (thanks to the coming guests).

This was Aua, the aogakoq.

Observing that my dogs were tired after their day's run, he invited me to change over to his sledge, and quietly, but with authority, told off one of the young men in his party to attend to mine, Aua's dogs gave tongue violently, eager to be off again and get home to their meal; and soon we were racing away towards the village. A brief dash at break- neck speed, and we arrived at the verge of a big lake, where snow huts with gut windows sent out a warm glow of welcome.

The women came out to greet us, and Aua's wife,

22 ACROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

Orulo, led me into the house. It was, indeed, a group of houses, cleverly built together, a real piece of architecture in snow, such as I had never yet seen. Five huts, boldly arched, joined in a long passage with numerous storehouses built out separately, minor passages uniting one chamber with another, so that one could go all over the place without ex- posure to the weather. The various huts thus united served to house sixteen people in all. Orulo took me from one to another, introducing the occu- pants. They had been living here for some time now, and the heat had thawed the inner surface of the walls, forming icicles that hung down gleaming in the soft light of the blubber lamp. It looked more like a cave of stalactites than an ordinary snow hut, and would have looked chilly but for the masses of thick, heavy caribou skin spread about.

Through these winding passages, all lit with tiny blubber lamps, we went from room to room, shaking hands with one after another of the whole large family. There was Aua's eldest son Nataq, with his wife, and the youngest son Ijarak who lived with his fifteen-year-old sweetheart; there was Aua's aged sister Natseq with her son, son-in-law and a flock of children; and finally, out in the farthest end of the main passage, the genial Kuvdlo with his wife and a newborn infant.

It was the first time I had visited so large a house- hold, and I was much impressed by the patriarchal aspect of the whole. < Aua was unquestioned master in his own house, ordering the comiags and goings aad doings of aH, but he and his wife addressed each

A WIZARD AND HIS HOUSEHOLD 23

other and the rest with the greatest kindness, and not a little fun; an atmosphere of genial good humor was evident throughout.

Hot tea, in unlimited quantity, was welcome after our long hours in the cold, and this being followed by a large, fat freshly cooked hare, it was not long before appetite gave way to ease, and we settled ourselves comfortably among the soft and pleasant smelling caribou skins.

We explained that we had come down to hunt walrus, and the news was greeted with acclamation by our host and his party. They had been thinking of doing the same themselves, and it was now sug- gested that the whole village should move down to some snowdrifts on the lowlying land at Cape Elizabeth. They had been hunting inland all the summer, and there were numerous good meat depots established in the neighborhood. There was oil enough to warm up the houses for a while, but the last bag of blubber faad already been opened. We decided therefore to go titrating on the ice, It was necessary first of all, however, to spe®& ooie day in fetching in stores of caribou meat from the depots, as there was no saying how long it might be before we procured any other.

On the day of the final move, all were up betimes and busily at work. Pots and dishes and kitchen utensils generally were trundled out through the passages, with great bales of caribou skins, some new and untouched, others more or less prepared, and huge unwieldly bundles of clothing, men's, women's and children's, The things had not seemed

24 ACROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

to take up much room within doors, where every- thing had its place and use, but the whole collection stacked outside in the open air looked as cumbrous and chaotic, as unmistakably "moving" as the worldly goods of any city and surburban family waiting on the pavement for the furniture van.

Just at the last moment, when the sledges were loaded up to the full, and the teams ready to start, I had the good fortune to witness a characteristic little ceremony; the initiation of an infant setting out on its first journey into the world.

An opening appeared somewhere at the back of Kuvdlo's house, and through it came crawling Mrs. Kuvdlo with the little new-born infant in her arms. She planted herself in front of the hut and stood waiting until Aua appeared. Aua, of course, was the spiritual shepherd of the flock. He stepped forward towards the child, bared its head, and plac- ing his lips close to its face, uttered the following heathen equivalent of a morning prayer:

"I rise up from rest,

Moving swiftly as the raven's wing

I rise up to meet the day—

Wa-wa.

"My face is turned from the dark of night My gaze toward the dawn, Toward the whitening dawn."

It was the child's first journey, and the morning hymn was a magic formula to bring it luck through life.

A WIZARD AND HIS HOUSEHOLD 25

The winter ice extends some miles out from the shore, to all intents and purposes as firm as land. Then comes the water, with pack ice drifting this way and that according to wind and current. When the wind is blowing off shore, holes appear in the ice just at the edge, and the walrus follow these, diving down to the bottom to feed.

Aua and I had settled ourselves, like the others, in comparative shelter behind a hummock of ice, with a good view all round. The vigil was by no means monotonous; there was something going cm all the time, calling up memories of past hunting. The pack ice was in constant movement, surging and straining and groaning at every check. Now and thai a gap would appear, and the naked water sent up a freezing mist like blue smoke, through which we could just discern the black shapes of the walrus rising to breathe. We could hear their long, slow gasp — and thai down they went to their feeding grounds below.

We had both experienced it aS many a time before; and the familiar sights and sotmds loosened our tongues in recollection.

"Men and the beasts are much alike," said Aua sagely. "And so it was our fathers believed that men could be animals for a time, then men again." So he told the story of a bear he had once observed, hunting walrus like a human being, creeping up and taking cover, till it got within range, when it flung a huge block of ice that struck its victim senseless.

Then suddenly Aua himself gave a start— he had been keeping a good look out all the time — and

26 ACROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

pointed to where Miteq was standing with his har- poon raised. Just ahead of him was a tiny gap in the ice, the merest puddle, with barely room for the broad back of a walrus that now appeared. Miteq waited till the head came up, and then, before the creature had time to breathe, drove his harpoon deep into the blubber of its flank. There was a gurgle of salt water, a fountain of spray flung out over the ice, and the walrus disappeared. But Miteq had already thrust his ice-axe through the loop at the end of his harpoon line, and the walrus was held.

We hurried up and helped to haul it in, despatched it, and set about the work of cutting up. This was ccmpleted before dark, and when we drove in that night to the new snow palace at Itibleriang, I was proud to feel that one of my own party had given these professionals a lead on their own ground.

There was great rejoicing at our arrival; a full- grown walrus means meat and blubber for many days, and this was the first day we had been out. There was no longer any need to stint the blubber for the lamps, and there was food in plenty for our- selves and the dogs.

A well-stocked larder sets one's mind at rest, and me feds more at liberty to consider higher things. Also, our surroundings generally were comfortable enough. The new snow hut was not quite as large as the former, and lacked the fantastic icicle adorn- ment within; but it was easier to make it warm and cosy. The main portion, the residence of Aua and his wife, was large enough to sleep twenty with ease. Opening out of this, through a lofty portal, was a

A WIZARD AND HIS HOUSEHOLD 27

kind of entrance hall, where you brush off the snow before coming in to the warmth of the inner apart- ment. On the opposite side again was a large, light annex, accommodating two families. As long as there was blubber enough, seven or eight lamps were kept burning, and the place was so warm that one could go about half naked and enjoy it.

Which shows what can be made out of a snowdrift when you know how to go about it.

Au§i gave me leave to ask questions, and promised to answer them. And I questioned him accordingly, chiefly upon matters of religion, having already per- ceived that the religious ideas of these people must be in the main identical with those of the Greenland Eskimo.

A prominent character in the Greenland mythol- ogy is the Mistress of the Sea, who lives on the floor of the ocean. I asked Aua to tell me all he could about her. Nothjng loath, he settled himself to the task, and with eloquent gestures and a voice that rose and fell in accord with the tenor of his theme, he told the story of the goddess of meat from the sea.

Briefly, it is as follows: There was once a girl who refused all offers of marriage, until at last she was enticed away by a petrel disguised as a handsome young man. After living with him for some time, she was rescued by her father, but the petrel, setting out in pursuit, raised a violent storm, and the father, in terror, threw the girl overboard to lighten the boat. She dung to the side, and he chopped off, first the tips of her fingers, then the other joints, and finally the

28 ACROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

wrists. And the joints turned into seal and walrus as they fell into the sea* But the girl sank to the bottom, and lives there now, and rules over all the creatures of the sea. She is called Takanaluk Arna- luk; and it is her father who is charged with the punishment of those who have sinned on earth, and are not yet allowed to enter the land of the dead.

I enquired then as to this land of the dead, and the general arrangements for their after-life. This falls mainly into two parts.

When a human being dies, the soul leaves the earth, and goes to one or the other of two distinct regions. Some souls go up into heaven and become Uvdlor- miut, the People of Day. Their country lies over towards the dawn. Others again go clown under the sea, where there is a narrow belt of kind with water on either side. These are called Qimiujarmiut, the People of the Narrow Lund, But in either place they are happy and at case, and there is always plenty to eat.

Those who pass to the Land of Day arc people who have been drowned, or murdered. It is said that the Land of Day is the land of glad and happy souls. It is a great country, with many caribou, and the people there live only for pleasure, They play ball most of the time, playing at football with the skull of a walrus, and laughing and singing as they play* It is this game of the souls playing at ball that we can see in the sky as the northern lights.

The greater among the angakoqs, or wizards, often go up on a visit to the People of Day, just fur pleasure* Such are called Pavungnartut, which means, those

A WIZARD AND HIS HOUSEHOLD 29

who rise up to heaven. The wizard preparing to set out on such a journey is placed at the back of the bench in his hut, with a curtain of skin to hide him from view. His hands must be tied behind his back, and his head lashed fast to his knees; he wears breeches, but nothing more, the upper part of his body being bare. When he is thus tied up, the men who have tied him take fire from the lamp on the point of a knife and pass it over his head, drawing rings in the air, and saying at the same time: "Nior- ruarniartoq aifale" (Let him who is going on a visit now be carried away).

Then all the lamps are extinquished, and all those present close their eyes. So they sit for a long while in deep silence. But after a time strange sounds are heard about the place; throbbing and whispering sounds; and then suddenly comes the voice of the wizard himself crying loudly : " Halala— halaiale halala— halalale! " And those present then must answer "ale— ale- ale." Then there is a rushing sound, and all know that an opening has been made, like the blowhole of a seal, through which the soul of the wizard can fly up into heaven, aided by all the stars that once

were men.

Often the wizard will remain away for some time, and in that case, the guests will entertain themselves meanwhile by singing old songs, but keeping their eyes closed all the time. It is said that there is great rejoicing in the Land of Day when a wizard comes on a visit. The people there come rushing out of their houses all at once; but the houses have no

30 ACROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

doors for going in or out, the souls just pass through the walls where they please, or through the roof, coming out without making even a hole* And though they can be seen, yet they are as if made of nothing. They hurry towards the newcomer, glad to greet him and make him welcome, thinking that it is the soul of a dead man that comes, and one of themselves. But when he says "Putdlaliuvunga" (I am still a creature of flesh and blood) they turn sorrowfully away.

He stays there awhile, and then returns to earth, where his fellows are awaiting him, and tells of all he has seen.

The souls that pass to the Narrow Land are those of people who died of sickness in house or tent. They are not allowed to go straight up into the land of souls, because they have not been purified by violent death; they must first go down to Takanalukarnaluk under the sea, and do penance for their sins. When all their penance is completed, then they go either to the Land of Day or stay in the Narrow Land, and live there as happily as those who are without sin.

The Narrow Land is not like the Land of Day; it is a coast land, with all manner of sea creatures in abundance, and there is much hunting, and all de- light in it.

I enquired whether the wizards did not make other excursions into the supernatural, for some special purpose. Aua informed me that this was the case, and kindly gave me further details.

Should the hunting fail at any season, causing a dearth of meat, then it is the business of the Angakoq

A WIZARD AND HIS HOUSEHOLD 31

to seek out the Mistress of the Sea and persuade her to release some of the creatures she is holding back. The preparations for such a journey are exactly the same as in the case of a visit to the Land of Day, already described. The wizard sits, if in winter, on the bare snow, in summer, on the bare earth. He remains in meditation for a while, and then invokes his helping spirits, crying again and again:

' ' Tagf a arqutinilerpoq — tagf a neruvtulerpoq ! " (The way is made ready for me; the way is opening before me.)

Whereupon all those present answer in chorus: "Taimalilerdle" (let it be so).

Then, when the helping spirits have arrived, the earth opens beneath the wizard where he sits; often, however, only to close again; and he may have to strive long with hidden forces before he can finally cry that the way is open. When this is announced, those present cry together: Let the way be open, let there be way for into! Then oomes a voice close under the ground: "halala— fee — he — he" aad again farther off under the passage, and again stffi farther and ever farther away until at last it is no longer heard; and then all know that the wizard is on his way to the Mistress of the Sea.

Meantime, those in the house sing spirit songs in chorus to pass the time, It may happen that the clothes which the wizard has taken off come to life of themselves, and fly about over the heads of the singers, who must keep their eyes closed all the time. And one can hear the sighing and breathing of sotds long dead. All the lamps have been put out, and tibe

32 ACROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

sighing and breathing of the departed souls is as the voice of spirits moving deep in the sea ; like the breath- ing of sea-beasts far below.

One of the songs is a standing item on these occa- sions; it is only to be sung by the elders of the tribe, and the text runs thus :

"We stretch forth our hands

To lift thee up.

We are without food,

Without fruits of our hunting.

Come up then from below,

From the hollow place

Force a way through.

We are without food,

And here we lie down

We stretch forth our hands

To lift thee up."

Great wizards find a passage opening of itself for their journey down under the earth to the sea, and m§et with no obstacles on the way. On reaching the house of Takanalukarnaluk, they find a wall has been built in front of the entrance; this shows that she is hostile towards men for the time being. The wizard must then break down the wall and level it to the earth. The house itself is like an. ordinary human dwelling, but without a roof, being open at the top so that the woman seated by h^fllamp can keep an eye on the dwellings of men, The only other difficulty which the wizard has to encounter is a big dog which lies stretched across the passage, barring the way. It shows its teeth and growls, impatient at being disttirbed at its meal— for it

A WIZARD AND HIS HOUSEHOLD 33

will often be found gnawing the bones of a still living human being. The wizard must show no sign of fear or hesitation, but thrust the dog aside and hurry into the house. Here he meets the guardian of the souls in purgatory, who endeavors to seize him and place him with the rest, but on stating that he is still alive: "I atn flesh and blood," he is allowed to pass. The Mother of the Sea is then discovered seated with her bade to the lamp and to the animals gathered round it— this being a sign of anger— her hair falls loose and dishevelled over her face. The wizard must at onee take her by the shoulder and turn her face the other way, at the some time, stroking her hair and smoothing it out* He then says:

11 Those above can no longer help the seal up out of the sea/'

To which she replies; "It is your own sins and ill doing that bar the way,"

The wizard then exerts aU his powers of peisuasion, and when at last her anger is appeased, she takes the animals one by one and drops them on the floor. And now a violent commotion arises! and the

disappear out into the sea; this is a sign of rich hunting and plenty to come.

AH soon as the wizard returns to earth, all those in the house are called upon to confess any breach of tabu which they may have committed.

All cry out in chorus, each eager to confess his fault lost it should be the cause of famine and disaster to all And in this way "much is made known which had otherwise been hidden; many secrets are

34 ACROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

told." But when the sinners come forward weeping and confess, then all is well, for in confession lies forgiveness. All rejoice that disaster has been averted, and a plentiful supply of food assured; 11 there is even something like a feeling of gratitude towards the "sinners" added Ana naively.

I enquired whether all wizards were able to ac- complish such an errand, and was informed that only the greatest of them could do so. One of the greatest angakoqs Aua had known was a woman. And he told us the story of Uvavnuk, the woman who was filled with magic power all in a moment. A ball of fire came down from the sky and struck her senseless ; but when she came to herself again, the spirit of light was within her. And all her power was used to help her fellows. When she sang, all those present were loosed from their burden of sin and wrong; evil and deceit vanished as a speck of dust blown from the hand.

And this was her song:

"The great sea has set me in motion,

Set me adrift,

Moving me as the weed moves in a river.

The arch of sky and mightiness of storms Have moved the spirit within me, Till I am carried away Trembling with joy."

All had listened so intently to Aua's stories of the supernatural that none noticed the women had ne^ glected their duty, and the la&rps were almost out. It was indeed an impressive scene; men and women sat

A WIZARD AND HIS HOUSEHOLD 35

in silence, hushed and overwhelmed by the glimpses of a spirit world revealed by one of its priests*

By the I4th of February, our whole party was assembled at Itibleriang. The Baffin Land party were to stay on for a few days more, walrus hunting; the rest of us, who were going south, split up into de- tachments ; Miteq and Anarulunguaq went with me. Birket-Smith and Bangsted were also with us most of the way*

On a fine sunny morning then — February 16 — we waved goodbye to our comrades and set off homewards. This is the first time since leaving Denmark that we have been separated for any long or indefinite period, and there is much important work to be done in the eight months which must elapse before we meet again.

After three cold days on the road, and warm nights in comfortable snow huts, we reached home in a gale of wind that is no discredit to this windy region. So dense was the whirling snow that the whole of the last day's journey was accomplished with bent backs and bowed heads; we had literally to creep along, following the well-wo£n sledge track ^ith <mr noses almost to the ground. It was the only way we could be sure of crossing Gore Bay from Qajugfit without missing the little island that was our goal. When at last we got in, our faces were completely coated with ice, all save two small gaps round the eyes that just enabled us to see. Oddly enough, however, we had no feeling of cold; possibly the exertion, with our heavy skin garments, had kept us warm, or perhaps the Eskimos are right in declaring that "heat comes out of the earth" in a blizzard*

CHAPTER IV

FINGER-TIPS OF CIVILIZATION

/~\UR route lay southward, to the country of the ^^ inland Eskimos of the Barren Grounds, with Chesterfield, the "Capital" of Hudson Bay, as our first objective.

A last farewell, and off we went, the dogs giving tongue gaily as they raced away. We followed the old familiar high road down to Repulse Bay. We were anxious to make the most of each day's run while the dogs were still fresh, and intended therefore to make but a short stay at Captain Cleveland's. Actually, however, matters turned out otherwise. A blizzard from the north-west whirled us down to his place, and kept on for three days in a flurry of snow that made it impossible to see an arm's length ahead.

At last, when the storm had thrashed itself out, we made ready to push on. Our loads weighed some- thing like 500 kilos per sledge, and ran heavily. We had reckoned, at starting, to make do with the iron runners, as generally used in Greenland, but the first day's journey showed that they dragged in the snow to such a degree that the pace was of the slow- est, and would soon spoil the temper of the dogs. We had therefore, while at Cleveland's, had recourse

36

FINGER-TIPS OF CIVILIZATION 37

to ice-shoeing, a great improvement on the naked iron, and a triumph of Eskimo invention. The process is complicated, and should be described in detail.

As long as the snow is moist, and the air not too cold, iron or steel rttnners make quite good going. But as soon as the thermometer falls below 20° C, they begin to stick, and the colder it gets, the worse it is. The cold makes the snow dry and powdery, until it is like driving through sand, the runners screeching and whining with the friction, so that even light loads are troublesome to move. The Eskimos of earlier days of course knew nothing of iron runners, but made shift with a patchwork of walrus tooth, whalebone or horn, cut and smoothed to fit, and lashed under the sledge. These runners acted then exactly as does the iron.

It had, of course, been observed that ice ran easiest over snow, and obviously it would be an advantage to give the runners a coatnig o£ fee* . Btffc this was not so easy to begia with. Ice *mfflid not hold on iron or steel, bone or wood* Uliimately, scmetee hit on the idea of coating the runners first of aH with a paste made from peat softened in water, and laying a thin coat of ice on after. This method at once proved eminently successful, and has remained un- surpassed for rapid running with heavy loads, despite numerous experiments made with other materials by various expeditions. It has, however, the disad- vantage of being a lengthy and difficult process in its application.

The first requisite is to find the peat; or failing this,

38 ACROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

lichen or moss. The mass should in any case be entirely free from sand or grit. It has then to be thawed, crumbled in the hands, mixed with tepid water and kneaded to a thick paste which is spread on the runners in the form of a ski, broadest in front just where the runners curve upward. Even in very severe cold it requires a day to freeze thoroughly on, and not until then can the coating of ice be applied. This is done by smearing it with water, using a brush or a piece of hide. The water must be lukewarm, as the sudden cooling gives a harder and more dur- able form of ice. With this shoeing, even a heavily laden sledge will take quite considerable obstacles, as long >as the movements are kept fairly smooth, avoiding any sudden drop that might crack the coat- ing of ice. Should this occur, it is a troublesome business to repair it. In the course of a long day's journey, the ice gets worn through, and has to be renewed once or twice; it is therefore necessary to carry water, in order to save the loss of time oc- casioned by first melting snow or ice.

With a good ice shoeing and reasonably level ground, even heavy loads will run as smoothly as in a slide, without fatiguing the teams.

It was hopeless, of course, to go out in the blizzard himting for peat, so we had recourse to another means in this case. Mr. Cleveland had plenty of flour at the store; we purchased some of this, and worked it up with water into a dough which proved excellent for the purpose. And lest any shouJS con- sider it a sinful waste of foodstuffs in, a region ill provided with the same, I may reassure my readers

YOUTH AND BEAUTY A girl from Repulse Bay, with the big fur hood falling down over one shoulder.

FINGER-TIPS OF CIVILIZATION 39

with the information that the flour thtis used still fulfilled its proper mission in the end. As soon as the weather grew milder and ice shoeing was no longer needed, the dough was scraped off and given to the dogs, who regarded it as a delicacy of the highest order.

We were rather late in starting, and got no farther that day than a camp of snow huts on the western side of Repulse Bay. Here we were kindly received by an old couple who had settled down on the spot with their children and nearest of kin. On entering their hut, we found, to our astonishment, rosaries hung above the blubber lamps and crucifixes stuck into the snow walls. Our host, divining the question in our minds, explained at once that he had met a Roman Catholic missionary far to the south some time before, and had been converted with all his family. He had formerly been an angakoq himself; and it was plain to see ;that he was an honest man, earnestly believing in his pow^s aad those he had invoked. But,?ke inforaaed tis, frdoa the moment he first listened to the worfs of t&e stranger prfesst* his helping spirits seemed to have deserted him; doubt entered into his mind, he felt himself alone and forsaken, helpless in face of the tasks which had called forth his strength in earlier days. At last he was baptized, and since then, his mind had been at rest. All his nearer relatives had followed his ex- ample, and all now seemed anxious to make us un- derstand that they were different from the ordi heathen we had met. The others of their tribe given them the name of Majulasut, which

40 ACROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

they who crawl upward, as indicating that they had already relinquished their foothold upon earth, and sought only to find release from the existence to which they were born.

We started early the next morning, there was a broad spit of land to cross at Beach Point, and we were eager to see how our ice shoeing took it. The pace was good enough; but we had hardly begun to congratulate ourselves on this before we discovered that what we had gained for the dogs we had lost for ourselves. Travelling overland in Greenland is quite good fun for the most part, and little obstacles need not be taken too seriously; the iron runners will take no harm from an occasional stone or point of rock. Here, however, we have to leap off at the first sight of any such hindrance ahead, and guide the sledge carefully to avoid damage to the fragile covering of ice. Save for this, however, the general result is admirable. The sledges glide as if their heavy loads were feather light, and we can keep at a sharp trot all day, despite the hilly going. It is a pleasure to see how little exertion is required on the part of the dogs; the sledges run almost by them- selves, with just a momentary pull every now and again.

We halted that night on the edge of a lake, and bmlt a snow hut for shelter.

It was a cheerless country we were driving through. Everything one saw was like everything else; today's jofrney was just yesterday's over again; no moun- talfas, only small hills, lakes and level plain.

Next afternoon, to our great surprise, we met a

FINGER-TIPS OF CIVILIZATION 41

fellow traveller on the road. A sledge appeared in the distance, coming straight towards its, and shortly after we had the pleasure of a first encounter with the famous Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Both sledges halted as we came together, and a tall, fair young man came forward and introduced himself as Constable Packett, of the Mounted Police Head- quarters at Chesterfield Inlet, on his way out to inspect our station,

It was strange to us to meet with police in these regions; and we were at once impressed by the energy with which Canada seeks to maintain kw and order in the northern lands. The mounted police, a service popular throughout the country, has here to relin- quish its splendid horses and travel by dog sledge, making regular visits of inspection over a wide extent of territory. Originally, the headquarters here was at Cape Fullertan, a couple of days* journey north- east of Chesterfield; tibe whaling vessels used to winter there, and the somefwfaat najfoad society of the whakr's camp required a good deal of k>o&g after* Tbe whaling has now ceased, but the Mcrarbed Pofioe remains as a permanent institution in the Canadian Arctic, representing the Government of the eodirtry and its laws, in regard to white men and Eskimos alike.

I explained to Constable Packett that he would find Bosun's wife and some of our Eskimos at the station; and recognizing that I could not go back with him myself without giving up the journey I had planned, he very kindly agreed to make do with a report, which I promised to hand in at Chesterfield,

42 ACROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

instead of reqttiring my personal attendance. He himself, however, would have to go on to our head- quarters, in accordance with his instructions.

I confess to being somewhat impressed by the Canadian Mounted Police as undaunted travellers. Our friend here, for instance, was out for a little run of some two thousand kilometres. He reckoned to be two and a half months on the way, and during the whole of that time, he would have no shelter but a snow hut, save for the few days at Captain Cleve- land's and our station. We bade him a hearty fare- well, and were soon out of sight.

At noon on the 3rd of April we came up with the icebound vessel Fort Chesterfield at Berthie Har- bor, a little to the north of Wager Bay. Despite all good resolutions as to not breaking the journey while it was light enough to see, we found it impossible to pass by these cheery seamen's door without a halt. Captain Berthie himself was away, investigating the possibilities of some new harbor works. I had met him before, and spent some days with him on the road. Berthie had all the good qualities of the French Canadian, and in addition, was thoroughly familiar with all forms of travel in the Arctic, and speaks Eskimo fluently. His crew, consisting ex- clusively of young men from Newfoundland, were full of praise for their captain; and entertained us in his absence with cheerful hospitality.

A little village of immigrant Netsilik natives had spna&g tip about the vessel, and I took the oppor- frBiity of paying them a visit* The oldest inhabitant was an ag^d veteran from the region of the North

FINGER-TIPS OF CIVILIZATION 43

Pole, named Manilaq. He had been a great fighter in his day, but was now reduced to resting on his laurels. He lived in a big snow hut with his children and grandchildren, who still regarded him with great respect, treating him indeed, as if he were their chief. He was an excellent story-teller, and always sure of a large audience* Unfortunately, I had not time myself to draw upon his stock of folk lore and per- sonal recollections. It was essential to my plans that we should get as far on into the Barren Grounds as possible while the winter lasted. I hoped, how- ever, to have an opportunity of meeting the old fellow later. As it turned out, this was not to be. A little while after we had left, he committed suicide, in the presence of his family, preferring to move to the eternal hunting grounds rather than live on growing feebler under the burden of days.

The time passed rapdly BOW, and our sole object was to get <m as far ES p6ssibl& W^ took short cuts Tfrlierever we could, though tmveffing ov^fend was always an anxious business, trnacccistomecl as we were at first to the use of this delicate ice-shoeing. Thus we cut across the flat country from Berthie Harbor due west down to Wager Inlet; the mouth of the great fjord here is never frozen over, owing to the strength of the current. From here we came up on land again, and at last, on the loth of April, reached Roe's Welcome, at a bay called Iterdlak. We could now follow the coast right down to Chester- field, and though the country itself was very monot- onous, there was plenty to interest us here. Every

44 ACROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

time we rounded a headland we eame upon the ruins of some old settlement, which were eagerly investi- gated. They were not the work of the present popu- lation, but of some earlier inhabitants, evidently of a high degree of culture and well up in stone archi- tecture. The ruins consisted of fallen house walls, store-chambers, and tent rings — all of stone — with frameworks for kayaks and umiaks, such as one finds in Greenland, where the boats are set up to keep the skins from being eaten by the dogs. There was evidence of abundant hunting by sea, in the form of numerous bones scattered about wherever the groiind lay free from snow. Meat cellars were also frequently found, and to judge from their size, there should have been no lack of food* Every little headland was fenced in by stone cairns placed so close together that they looked from a distance like human beings assembled to bid us welcome. They were set out along definite lines across the ground, and had once been decked with fluttering rags of skin on top, serving to scare the caribou when driven down to the coast, where the hunters lay in wait in their kayaks, ready to spear them as soon as they took to the water*

All these ruins were the work of the "Tunit"; and from all that we could see, this highly developed coastal race with their kayaks end umiaks, must have been identical with the Eskimos that came into Greenland from these regions a thousand years ago. Both Miteq and Arnarultik felt thoroughly at home ia these surroun<fingsl Much of what they had met with among the living natives of the present day was

FINGER-TIPS OF CIVILIZATION 45

strange to them, but these relics of the dead from a bygone age were such as they knew from their own everyday life at home.

We followed the coast southward, keeping close in to shore, as the ice here was good and level. On the 1 6th of April we passed Cape Fullerton, where some empty buildings still remain from the great days of the whaling camps, It was late in the afternoon, and the sun shone warmly over the spit of land, as if in welcome. It was tempting; here we could find shelter in a real house if we wished; but we had heard that there were natives at Depot Island, and our eagerness to meet them outweighed consider- ations of mere creature comfort. We drove on, therefore, until the twilight forced us to camp on the site of a famous rain, known as Inugssivik. It had evidently been a big village at one time, and the huge stones that had been placed in position showed that the folk who Eved there were **ot afraid of hard work. Our guide, lattjaq, Informed us that in the olden days, there was always war between these people here and the tribes from Repulse Bay; hostilities had continued throughout a number of years, until the villagers here had been entirely exterminated.

Next morning, as soon as it was fully light, we perceived a small hillock far to the south amid the ice. This was Depot Island, which juts up out of the great white expanse like the head of a seal come up to breathe. It was some distance away, but we hoped to reach it before dark. We have given the dogs an easy time lately, and it would do them no

46 ACROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

harm to let them know we were in a hurry. A good driver should have the power of communicating his feelings to his team, so that the animals feel his own eagerness to get forward in case of need. And it was not long before our dogs realized that the old steady jogtrot would not do today; something more was needed. And accordingly, they were soon at full gallop; the sledges, lightened of all the dog-feed we had used up since leaving Repulse Bay, flew over the ice at such a pace that the occasional jerks at the traces threw them sideways on, and us nearly off. A little after noon we reached the island, hav- ing covered the distance at an average speed of ten kilometres an hour.

It was not long before we came upon fresh sledge tracks, and following them down to the coast, drove across a little headland without sighting any human being. Then suddenly we almost fell down a steep incline, and dashed full into a cluster of snow huts half buried in loose snow. Wooden frames stood up here and there, with skins and inner garments hung out to dry or bleach; two fat dogs came out and started barking— here evidently was the place we had been seeking, Miteq ran up to the window and shouted down to those within: "Here we are; here we are at last," a piece of mischievous fun that brought out the inmates at once. There was a confusion of cries and shouting, as of women in a flutter, a sound of rapid steps along the passage way, and out among us tumbled— a black girl. A little negro lady as black as one could wish to see*

This was perhaps the most surprising encounter we

FINGER-TIPS OF CIVILIZATION 47

have experienced up to date. I noticed also, that the sight was almost too much for Miteq, who started back and stood with wide eyes fixed in wonder on the unexpected figure. Here we were come all the way from Greenland to seek out other peoples of the farthest northern lands; and all of a sudden we found ourselves face to face with a child of the tropic South; a creature of the sun leaping up out of the snow!

The girl herself was no less astonished at our appearance. She retreated hastily into the hut, and we stood there waiting in eager anticipation until steps once more were heard within, and the girl reappeared, this time in company with three older women of normal Eskimo type.

It is often almost a pity to have mysteries ex- plained; the whole thisg seems so natural once you know how it came about, that there is nothing marveHotis or tariffing afcont it afterward.. The oldest of the wotneii carae tip <te tis at -om® aad asfced who we were. When we had mtoodte^a our- selves as lucidly as possible, she explained thai her husband and those of the other two women were out hunting, but should be back in the course of the day. She named her companions one by one, and when it came to the dark young lady's turn, informed us that this was her daughter by a stranger, a man who had come to them from a land where it was always summer. A remarkable man, she ex- plained, one who never went but hunting himself, but devoted his life to the task of preparing rare feasts and luscious dishes tor his fellows. He iad

48 ACROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

come to their country on a great ship, and had spent the winter in their huts.

It was all simple enough after this. The girl's father had been a negro cook on one of the American whalers.

The dwelling place consisted of three large roomy huts, built together. The party here had spent the summer and autumn inland, caribou hunting, and had moved out in the course of the winter for the walrus hunting on the edge of the ice. They had done very well, it appeared, at any rate, there was an abundance of food of all kinds. A series of store- chambers had been built side by side with the living rooms, so that by shifting a block of snow, one gained access to the larder, the different kinds of meat being stored in separate compartments; seal meat, caribou meat and salmon, with piles of walrus meat in a shed at one side of the passage. We were at once invited to take as much meat as we liked for our dogs, and while we were feeding them, three pots were set on to boil, that we might have our choice of meats when it came to our turn.

In the course of the afternoon, the master of the house returned. His name was Inugpasugssuk, and he belonged to the Netsilik, as did the rest of the party. It was not long before we became firm friends. This ready frankness and lack of all reserve on the part of the natives was a great asset to me in my work. Where else in the world could one come tumbling into people's houses without ceremony, merely saying that one comes from a country they do not know, and forthwith begin to question them

FINGER-TIPS OF CIVILIZATION 49

on matters which are generally held sacred — all without the least offence?

We were now but one dayfs journey from Chester- field Inlet, and as there seemed to be excellent walrus hunting in the neighborhood, I decided to stay here for a while. Inugpasugssuk was too valuable a find to be dropped all at once. I stayed eight days, in the course of which time we went all through the folk- lore and legends of the people, without the slightest sign of impatience on his part. After we had done a hundred of the stories, we agreed that he should go with us to Chesterfield, where it would be more convenient to write them down.

We had arrived at Depot Island nearly out of provisions, as our arrangements had been made to include re-stocking at Chesterfield, and we had not reckoned oa making any stay here. As it was, however, these good folk, whom we had never seen before* pjxwicfed tas with food for the whole party — five m&n and tw&af^Mbar dpgsr— %m*gbw& cmr stay, aad seemed to regaj*l it qtdte 3s a siatfer of course.

We were all busily occupied meantime* Araaraltik was making new spring jackets for us, as the hard aad heavy winter furs would soon be too hot. Miteq was out walrus hunting all day with the men of the place. At last, when he had got two walrus on his own account, I decided to set out for Chesterfield. Two sledges belonging to the party here helped us to carry our loads of meat, and oap. the 22nd of April, a calm, warm sunny day, we started for the white men's settlement of which we had heard so

5o ACROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

A couple of hours' journey away, however, we were overtaken by a blizzard which came down on us so suddenly that we lost sight of the others. It was hopeless to go searching about in the dark and the driving snow; we camped, therefore, in three separate parties, none knowing where the others were, and waited for the morning.

Waking up in fine weather after camping hurriedly in a blizzard the night before is always full of sur- prises. One sees now, from the tangled tracks, how the sledges had been driven this way and that in the darkness and the gale, seeming to pick out the very worst spots. The last part of our journey on the previous night had led us in among a host of little reefs and islets, pressure ridges and fissures, till we brought up finally on a low point of land where a snowdrift offered the site and material for a hut.

Now, all was bathed in the morning sunlight, and the fresh April weather gave a brightness to every hummock and hill; beyond the farthest flat point to the south lay the settlement we had failed to reach. Without waiting for the other sledges, we started off, making our way slowly across the bay, which was deep under snow. Just as we were coming up on to the land again, we found ourselves driving in our own tracks of yesterday, and realized to our surprise that we had been almost in to Chesterfield the night before, but with the wind lashing our faces had turned off a little from the straight and come round in a wide curve.

The ascent from the bay was thick with sledge

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FINGER-TIPS OF CIVILIZATION 51

tracks, and before long the dogs got scent of human dwellings. We raced at full speed over some low hills, and at last, reaching the main ridge of the peninsula, came in sight of the little group of houses that form the colony. We opened our eyes at the sight; for after our long sojourn among little snow hut encampments, this was a city by comparison. On the extreme east lay some neat white-painted houses belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company, forming a kind of suburb in themselves. Then a roughly built warehouse — a perfect skyscraper it seemed to us — and then a yellow wooden edifice entirely surrounded by snow huts, the open en- trances to which gave the whole the appearance of a rabbit warren. Now too we perceived the bar- racks of the Canadian Mounted Police, in lordly isolation on the farther side of a creek which divided the town into twb parts.

Btit t&e otefr tMsig wliicli most of all impressed us as civiHzed and city-See was a wooden ckttrch on the shore of & tiny lake. It faad a slender tower rising above the rest of the buildings, and just as we came out on to the lake, the deep, full tones of a bell rang out, as if to greet us. The sound of a church bell made a deep impression on our minds ; it was as if we had passed a thousand years in heathen wilds, and now returned to Christendom and peace.

The bell was ringing for service; and there was something affecting in the mere sight of so many people moving, in the old accustomed way of a con- gregation, slowly, all towards the open doors.

We drove up to the Hudson's Bay Company's

52 ACROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

offices and were hospitably received by the Station manager, Mr. Phillips. He very kindly invited me to stay with him, but this I declined, as it was essential that I should live as much as possible among the natives in their own free and easy fashion. He then at once placed an empty house at our disposal; we moved in at once, and revelled in the unaccus- tomed luxury of ample room, coal fires and comfort generally. Anarulunguaq kept house for us, and we decided to live Eskimo fashion on the stores of walrus meat we had brought down with us.

At the Mounted Police barracks I found only a Cor- poral at home; Sergeant Douglas, who was in charge of the station was away up country investigating a dual murder committed by an Eskimo. The last re- ports from his patrol stated that travelling was most difficult; deep snow, shortage of food for the dogs, and starving Eskimos all round. This was poor en- couragement to us, who were to follow the same route, and farther up country.

The little church whose bell had greeted us so prettily on our arrival belonged to a Roman Catholic Mission, under Father Turquetil and two younger priests, all Jesuits, highly cultured and most interest- ing to talk to. They opened their house to us with the greatest hospitality, and I spent many an in- structive evening in their company. Father Turque- til, a learned man who spoke Eskimo and Latin with equal fluency, had lived in these parts for a genera- tion, and was greatly looked up to by the natives. Converts were not numerous, but the church was full every Sunday.

FINGER-TIPS OF CIVILIZATION 53

On the 3rd of May we said goodbye and drove our separate ways.

The mild weather brought with it all the ad- vantages we had been waiting for so long. The snow was moist underfoot, and the stout iron runners made as easy going as the troublesome ice shoeing, We had already decided to follow the narrow gut of Chesterfield Inlet right up to Baker Lake, instead of trying short cuts over hilly and unknown country.

On the morning of the 4th of May we halted to camp; the weather fine and calm, temperature a little over i degree. For the first time during the whole trip we could pitch a tent and call it summer.

All about we found puddles of dean fresh water from the newly melted snow; it was pleasant to kneel and drink from these. Along the slopes, the snow had vanished already, and we could lie down on a Imtjrimts carpet of heather and herbage, eat- ing ctimfyerms aad^wfeor^eb^ries by the handful, :dmttering ptaiBiigsa twm%$@& about our

But we had now to mafee tfa0 3®fcsl of tfee little snow that remained for travelling, and pushed oa therefore with all speed, and on the I2th of May we arrived at the little island in Baker Lake where Birket-Smith had been waiting impatiently for our coming. This is the most westerly outpost of the Hudson's Bay Company, and the centre of trade for all the Barren Grounds Eskimos right out to Hikolig- juaq, the Kasan River and the region of the Back or Great Fish River.

We were at once greeted with the good news that

54 ACROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

there was excellent going on the overland route as long as one travelled by night. And, another point of equal importance to our progress; the caribou were moving up from the south. This was as encouraging as could be wished.

The principal difficulty we had to face was that of getting into touch with our fellow men at all. The only definite information we could gather on this head was, that if we followed the course of the Great Kazan River far enough up, we should meet with two inland tribes. The nearer of the two was called the Harvaqtormiut, or the people of the eddies; farther inland, near Lake Yathkied, or Hikoligjuaq, were the Padlermiut, or Willow-folk. Where the various families were now to be found, no one could say; they followed the moving caribou up in the interior.

We saw no reason to spend any time among the people in the neighborhood of Baker Lake, as these, the Qaernermiut, had for a long time past had deal- ings with the whalers, and much of their original character had been lost. We therefore transferred our attention without delay to the unknown interior.

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CHAPTER V

A PEOPLE BEYOND THE TOUCH

way lay through, a flat, wild, desolate ootm- try, with little to guide the stranger. Although it was the latter part of May, the snow still covered such landmarks as there were, even the rivers were indistinguishable from the plains. All was white save the southern slopes of the hills where the sun had thawed a few bare patches of earth. Hour after hour we travelled on, never seeming to get any farther, and with an uncomfortable feeling all the time that we might be going wrong; as if the- sense of c^ee^c^w^eatfaidt. But as a matter of fact, it Ottered little wMdb^rectioa we took, for from the d&y we left the coast .we had realised that BO iafocnfta- tion could be gleaned even from a&& setttemeiit as to the position of another, since the various parties were always on the move, taking up their quarters here or there according to the movements of the game. On the i8th of May we camped on the top of a ridge of hills, looking- out over a wide landscape which, while still under snow, resembles in many ways the inland ice of Greenland, save that moraine takes the place of ice. Isolated masses of rock rising up here and there amid the iimumerable lakes and streams, remind one of the Greenland nunataks:

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mountain tops thrust up above the submerging flood of ice. There are ridges and ranges of hills here, too, as in Greenland, at intervals on the way, until one reaches farther into the interior, when all is merged into one vast level plain.

Standing outside the tent one feels the country like a desert. There is not a sign of life; all game seems to be extinct at this season of the year. No white man ever comes here; unless some crime or other calls for the presence of the ubiquitous Mounted Police. Only a few days back we had heard about Sergeant Douglas' last excursion in quest of a local murderer. He had been up in the coldest season, when the prevalent north-west winds give a degree of cold that few places in the world can surpass. Everywhere he had met with starving natives, mov- ing vainly from place to place in search of food. The caribou had disappeared, the salmon had left the rivers and lakes, and all their hunting failed to yield the barest means of livelihood. The police patrol itself had found the greatest difficulty in getting through to the coast, the dogs being ready to drop with weakness and fatigue; and Douglas himself was known as a clever and experienced traveller.

Toward evening the desolate landscape was tinged with beauty. Light and shade stood out sharply contrasted; but as the sun went down, and all melted and merged into white billows of snow, one was again reminded of the inland ice. Following Chesterfield Inlet, and afterwards Baker Lake, we had not this impression of a vast expanse, but here, with nothing

A PEOPLE BEYOND THE TOUCH 57

but land to see on every side, we began to realize that these are indeed the Barren Grounds.

Geologically speaking, these are the ruins of what was once a mountainous country, the mountains having been gradually worn away in the course of -millions of years. The disintegrating force of alter- nating heat and cold, action of water, and the rest, have done their work. In the glacial period, a great ice-cap, the Keewatin Glacier, covered all the land. The ice has rounded off all projecting summits, worn away all softer parts, and strewn boulders, great and small, over the whole, until we have now a tract of primitive rock, buried beneath a thick layer of moraine deposit; day sand and gravel, with only a solitary peak, or its worn remains, jutting up here and there,

On tfee I9tfa of May, we passed the first settlement of the Harvaqtomitit, the People of the Eddies. We have decided, however, to t&e the gen&rai term, Caribou Eskimos, for all thesa inland tribes, the caribou being the principal factor in their Hfe*

We had made excellent going up to now, the snow firm as a dancing floor under the night's frost. Be- ing, however, four men to one sledge, and that with a heavy load, I preferred to go ahead on ski. We had just topped a rise when to our surprise we dis- covered a village down by the shore of a tiny lake, with people running in and out of their snow huts in confusion; alarmed, it would seem, at our appear- ance on the scene. When we reached the huts, all the women and children had disappeared, and only

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two men remained outside, seated on a block of snow, back to back, ready to receive us. Evidently, they were not sure we came as friends. Our whole equipment, with the Greenland sledges and dogs, would be strange to them; they might take us per- haps for a party of the Kitdlinermiut from the shores of the Arctic, or Indians from somewhere up country. Both these they regarded as enemies, the Indians especially, as we learned later on, being looked upon with dread. For centuries past, the Eskimos and the Indians had been at feud, and the atrocities on both sides were not yet forgotten.

While at Baker Lake, I had met a man from the shores of the Arctic, who informed me that there was a special form of greeting used when encounter- ing any of the inland Eskimo. The natives from the coast often went all the way down from the region of the North-west Passage to the timber belt, in quest of wood. And it was their custom on meeting the inland folk, to say at once: Ilorrainik tikitunga, which means: "I come from the right side" i.e., from the proper, friendly, quarter.

I shouted the conventional greeting accordingly, at the top of my voice; and hardly were the words out of nay mouth when the two men sprang up with loud cries and came running towards us, while the remainder of the party came tumbling out from then- huts.

We now learned that the place was called Tugdliu- vartaliik, the Lake of Many Loons, They had had a very severe winter, and numbers of men and dogs aEke had died of hunger in various parts. They

PUKERDLUK, CHIEF OF THE PEOPLE OF THE EDDIES

A PEOPLE BEYOND THE TOUCH 59

had camped throughout the winter on the eastern side of the Kazan River, and had now moved west to meet the caribou coming from the south. Two sledges had been sent out to a neighboring settle- ment on the Kazan River, at Nahigtartorvik, or The Outlook; from here the caribou could be seen as soon as their advance guard appeared. This being duly reported to the camp, the whole party would move off and shift their quarters to fresh hunting grounds.

Despite the fact that we were but a few days jour- ney from the trading station at Baker Lake, we found that some of the women and children here had never seen white men before. Our cameras were regarded with the greatest astonishment, and a peep through the finder seemed a marvel beyond words. The people here were anxious to trade, and brought along their stores of fox skins, asking in return, how- ever, our most Indispensable pots and pans. When we dedmed to barter these, aM explained that we did not care for fox skins, but Would rather have old clothes, hunting implements aad other curios of ethnographical interest, it was plain to see that we had fallen in their estimation.

We halted for a few hours, made some tea aad some pancakes, and on this simple menu stood treat to the whole village. While the impromptu banquet was in progress, in came the two sledges which had been sent out reconnoitring. Long before they reached us we could hear the men shouting: "The caribou are coming; the caribou are coming "; and in a moment the entire assembly was in a tur-

6o ACROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

moil of extravagant rejoicing. Here was the end of winter; the caribou were come, and with them sum- mer and its abundance. And one can imagine what this means to people who have struggled through a whole long winter in the merciless cold of their snow huts, with barely food enough to keep them alive.

On leaving Baker Lake, we had laid our course over land in a curve to the south-east of the Kazan River, having learned that it was inadvisable to follow the lower reaches of the river itself. Now, however, we had to move down to the river in order to get into touch with the natives. One of the young men who had just come in offered to go with us to the next village as a guide, and with his aid, we soon reached the river, which was fairly broad at this point. We crossed over to the spot where the village had been, but found the place deserted; the party had gone off after the caribou, We then sent our guide back at once, and went farther up country, in the hope that we might again manage unaided to get into touch with people here.

The Barren Grounds were now so thick with game that it was hard to make any progress by sledge with dogs used to hunting. Herds of caribou came trotting by, great and small, one after another, numbering from fifteen or twenty-five to fifty, some- times over two hundred head*

Although it was late in June, we again had win- ter for a spell. The snow had frozen hard again, caking over everything, and we cotild make better going now. We followed the winding river through the low-lying country, where the stream itself re-

A PEOPLE BEYOND THE TOUCH 61

peatedly spread out to great width. Here and there the water had begun to eat its way up through the ice, and we had to be very careful in. the neighbor- hood of these eddies. Towards evening we came upon a deserted snow hut, a sure sign that there were people not very far away. But where? There was a confusion of sledge tracks to choose from, but most of them pointed in a direction opposite to that we were inclined to take.

We had left the river now and had reached a lake of such extent that it could hardly be any but Hiko- ligjuaq itself where the Padlermiut were supposed to have their summer camp. We had followed the eastern bank of the river, as advised, and now at last a man appeared on the summit of a hill, watching us intently. We stopped and waved to him; he an- swered by stretching out both arms, a sign which said he is a friend. We drove forward accordingly, and soon arrived at his catojx

Here at last we found we &a4 reached our goal. We were among the Padleranat, the W2k>w-Fofe^ the head tribe of the Caribou Eskimos.

It was a tiny camp, consisting for the moment erf but three tents. Igjugarjuk, the head of the party, unlike the majority of his fellows, greeted us with fearless cordiality, and his jovial smile won our hearts at the outset. I knew a good deal about him, already, from his neighbors on the Kazan River, and had heard the story of how he procured his first wife. It was, to say the least, somewhat drastic, even by Eskimo standards, He had been refused permission to marry her, and therefore went out one

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day with his brother and lay in wait at the entrance to the lady's hut, and from there shot down her father, mother, brothers and sisters — seven or -eight persons in all, until only his chosen herself was left. I was somewhat surprised then, to find a man of his temper and antecedents introducing himself im- mediately on our arrival as the accredited repre- sentative of law and order. He handed me a docu- ment with the seal of the Canadian Government, dated from his camp in April, 1921, when the police had visited there in search .of a criminal. Briefly, it set forth that the bearer, one Ed-joa-juk (Igjugar- juk) of She-ko-lig-jou-ak, was by the undersigned, Albert E. Reames, His Majesty's Justice of the Peace in and for the North-west Territory, hereby appointed Special Constable in and for the said territory for the purpose of bringing to justice one Quaugvak, of the Padlermiut, the said Quaugvak being accused of two murders . , .

I read through the document with due solemnity, and handed him in return a bit of old newspaper from a parcel. He took it with great dignity, and studied it with the same attention I had given to his. And from that moment we were friends, with perfect confidence in each other.

As a matter of fact, Igjujarjuk was no humbug; and when I run over in my mind the many different characters I met with on that long journey from Greenland to Siberia, he takes a prominent place. He was clever, independent, intelligent, and a man of great authority among his fellows.

He invited us at once into one of his tents; and we

IGJUGARJUK, CHIEF OF THE WILLOW FOLK AND A NOTABLE WIZARD

He fell in love with our Greenland dress at first sight, and we had to present him with a costume. He would never consent to be photographed in his own caribou-skin dress.

A PEOPLE BEYOND THE TOUCH 63

found that as befitted Ms position, he had two wives. The elder of the two, Kivkarjuk, the cause of the massacre above mentioned, was now dethroned by a younger beauty named Atqaralaq, and it was to her tent we were now invited.

To my great relief, the famine we had expected to encounter was already a thing of the past. In front of the tents lay a pile of dead caribou, so many indeed that it was difficult to count them. A month before, the people here had been on the verge of starvation, but now all was changed. Igjugarjuk at once gave orders for an extravagant banquet in our honor, and two large caribou were put on to boil in huge zinc cauldrons.

I had expected to find these people living in quite a primitive state, and in this respect, was disappointed beyond measure. What we did find was the worst kind of tinpot store and canned provision culture; a product of trading expeditions to the distant Hud- son's Bay Company's Sfcaticms. And when a power- ful gramophone struck up, and Caruso's mighty voice rang out from Igjugarjuk's tent, I felt that we had missed our market, as far as the study of these people was concerned. We were about a hundred years too late. Save for their appearance, which was of pro- nounced Eskimo type, they were more like Indians than Eskimos. Their tents were of the pointed Indian pattern, made of caribou skins with a smoke hole at the top, and in each, on the left hand side, burned the Uvkak, or tent fire. All the women wore colored shawls over their skin dresses, just as the Indian women do; and to my astonishment

64 A CROSS ARCTIC A MERICA

I found that they wore watches, hung round their necks. These ornaments, however, were divided up among the party, some wearing the case, others going shares in the works.

The only unadulterated Eskimo element we had to work on was the language; and to the satisfaction of both parties, we found that our Greenland tongue was understood immediately, though there was natur- ally some difference in pronunciation and idiom. Igjugarjuk, who was not beyond flattering a guest, declared that I was the first white man he had ever seen who was also an Eskimo.

The banquet took some time to prepare, and while it was being got ready, we went out to feed our dogs. This gave rise to astonishment not unmixed with horror among our hosts. We had still some of the walrus meat we had brought up from the coast, and this we now brought out. But no such meat had ever been seen on Lake Yathkied, and strange meat was strictly tabu. Here was a difficulty. Igjugar- juk, however, whose travels had made him somewhat a man of the world, met the situation with tact. The young men of his party, he declared, must on no account touch the strange meat, but there would be no harm in our cutting it up ourselves, and feeding ouj own team with it, as long as we used our own knives.

This little episode showed that our friends were not so hopelessly civilized after all. And when one of the young men, named Pingoaq, came up and asked me whether seal had horns like the caribou, I forgot my disappointment altogether. True, tango

A PEOPLE BEYOND THE TOUCH 65

melodies were now welling forth from the gramo- phone, and the meat for our dinner was seething in genuine imported ironmongery; yet these people were plainly different in manners and habit of mind from the ordinary type of Eskimo to whom seal and walrus are the main factor in everyday life. And though I was aware that white men had visited these regions before, I knew also that no one had yet made a thorough study of the people here.

My meditations were interrupted by a shout in- forming the whole camp that dinner was ready. I have sat down to many a barbaric feast among Eskimos in my time, but I have never seen anything to equal this. Only the elders used knives, the younger members of the party simply tore the meat from the bones in the same voracious fashion which we may imagine to have been the custom of our earliest ancestors. Besides 1&e two caribou, a num- ber of heads had b^^opkse*!, and one was served OH£ to eadi meaaBer ofcte* party, *Hie Jfeads weare an extra, aad we were allowed to Is6&p tfoeto tii after, to eat in our own tent, on condition that none of the leavings should under any circumstances be touched by women or dogs. The muzzle especially was regarded as sacred meat, which must not be defiled.

Then came dessert; but this was literally more than we could swallow. It consisted of the larvae of the caribou fly, great fat maggoty things served up raw just as they had been picked out from the sVm of the beasts when shot. They lay squirming on a platter like a tin of huge gentles, and gave a nasty

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little crunch under the teeth, like crushing a black- beetle.

Igjugarjuk, ever watchful, noted my embarrass- ment and observed kindly : "No one will be offended if you do not understand our food; we all have our different customs/ ' But he added a trifle mali- ciously: "After all, you have just been eating cari- bou meat; and what are these but a sort of little eggs nourished on the juices of that meat?"

That same afternoon a whole party of sledges came in from an island out in the lake. It was a remark- able procession to any accustomed to the Eskimos of the coast and their swift teams. Here were six heavily laden sledges, fastened three and three, each section drawn by two dogs only, men and women aiding. The only person allowed to travel as a passenger was an old woman, a mummy-like figure, very aged, and generally looked up to among the Padlermiut on account of her knowledge of tabu and wisdom generally. The fact that she was Igjugar- juk's mother-in-law doubtless counted for something as well.

By the time we had been there one day we began to feel ourselves at our ease among these strange folk. They treated us, apparently, with entire confidence, and endeavored in every way to satisfy our curiosity, In the evening, I ventured to touch on my special subject, and explained to Igjugarjuk, who was famous as an angakoq throughout the whole of the Barren Grounds, that I was most anxious to learn something of their ideas about life, their religion and their folk- lore. But here I was brought up short. He an-

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swered abruptly that he was an ignorant man, know- ing nothing of his people and its past; if any had said he was an angakoq, they lied.

I realized that I was going too fast, and had not yet gained the confidence of my host in full- It was well on in the forenoon before we turned out on the following morning, and Igjugarjuk at once volunteered to show me the country round.

Just behind the camp was a high range of hills, and from here one had an excellent view of the sur- roundings. The lake, I found, was enormous, the low-lying coasts vanishing away into the horizon; it looked more like the sea than an inland water. The Indians call it Lake Yathkied, but the Eskimo name is Hikoligjuaq, . which means the great water with ice that never melts. The name is justified by the fact that the ice in the middle of the lake rarely if ever thaws away completely.

Igjugarjuk drew for me with surprising readiness a chart of the lake and its shores, noting the names of all the different settJeaamts. A g^oaratioii or so earlier, there had been some 600 people Ifcre; now there were hardly 100. The introduction of firearms has affected the movements of the caribou, and the animals have begun to avoid their old routes and crossings; and when the caribou hunting fails, it means famine to the Eskimo.

The weather was wonderful; the brutal change on change with snow, storm and rain was gone, and everything was at peace. The ice of the lake had melted close to the mouth of the river, and the heavy tumbled winter ice made way in its midst for a

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smooth sheet of water with a veil of warm mist above. Hosts of swimming birds had found a playground here, and laughed and chattered as new flocks alighted*

On land, one heard all around the little singing sound of melting snow; and the daylight beat so fiercely on the whiteness of the lake that one had to shade one's eyes. Spring had come to the Barren Grounds, and soon earth and flowers would realise out of the snow.

Small herds of caribou on the move approached within easy distance; but today we were friendly observers only, and felt nothing of the hunter's quickened pulse on seeing them at close range. We had meat enough for the present.

Here again we found the stone barriers, shelters and clumsy figures built to represent a human form, with a lump of peat for a head — relics of the days when caribou hunting was carried on systematically by driving the animals down to the water, where the kayak men were ready to f all upon them with the spear.

With the introduction of firearms, this method of hunting has gone out of fashion, and there will soon be hardly a kayak left in the Barren Grounds. But not mapy years ago, these inland people were as bold and skilful in the management of a kayak as any of the natives on the coast.

Igjugarjuk and I walked down towards the camp. Far out on the horizon one could see the extreme fringe of the forest, but the sunlight was deceptive, and I could hardly make out for certain whether it were trees

A PEOPLE BEYOND THE TOUCH 69

or hill. I asked Igjugarjtik, and he answered at once: "Napartut" (the ones that stand up). "Not the true forest where we fetch wood for our long sledges; that is farther still. It is our belief that the trees in a forest are living beings, only that they cannot speak; and for that reason we are loth to spend the night among them. And those who have at some time had to do so, say that at night, one can hear a whispering and groaning among the trees, in a lan- guage beyond our understanding."

All the wild creatures were greeting the spring in their mute, humble fashion. We could see hares and lemmings, ermine and marmot snuggling up in the tall grass, with never a thought of feeding, but only enjoying the light and warmth. They were dreaming of an eternal summer, and gave themselves up to the delight of the moment, forgetting all their mortal enemies. Even the wolves, forever lying in wait at other seasons, BOW resdfted to thedr old den and gave themselves tip to domestic bliss. In a fortnight there would be a litter of cubs to look after, and the parents then must take turns to go abroad, for the foxes are quick to scent out anything in the shape of young, even when the sun is at its hottest.

But by the open waters of the lake there was an incessant chattering among the gulls and terns and duck who cannot make out why the loon should always utter such a mournful cry in its happiest moments. There was a blessedness of life and growth here in the spring, when the long-frozen earth at

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last breathed warm and soft and moist, and plants could stretch their roots in the soil and their branches above. The sand by the river bank gleamed white; showing clearly the footprints of the cranes as they moved. All the birds were talking at once, heedless of what was going on around them, until a flock of wild geese came swooping down, raising a mighty commotion in the water as they alighted. And in face of these, the smaller fry were silent and abashed. But who can paint the sounds of spring? The nature lover will not attempt it, but will be content to breathe its fragrance with rejoicing.

The sun was low on the horizon, the sky and the land all kround aglow with flaming color.

"A youth is dead and gone up into the sky," said Igjugarjuk. "And the Great Spirit colors earth and sky with a joyful red to receive his soul."

CHAPTER VI

NOMAD'S LIFE IN THE BARREN GROUNDS

A FTER our first introduction here, I allowed a **^ few days to pass without pressing my actual errand, spending the time in hunting and bartering a little for ethnographical material* I realized that it would take some time to gain the complete con- fidence of the natives here.

We lived in our own tent. Among the natives of the coast we had always preferred as far as possible to live in the houses of tie natives as we found them, which gave us a better chance of making friends and being regarded as ffles&b^s of lie family. In the present instance, however* we kept to our own quarters, not only because we 2^,&j|QBe time, but also because our hosts here were?— 4x> ptrt tfc i&ilc8y — so uncleanly in their habits that it would have been difficult to accommodate ourselves to such conditions.

The men were leading a life of idleness just at present, but the women were busy; we were indeed astonished at the amount of work which fell to their share. It was the women who went out gathering fuel, often from a considerable distance, which meant heavy toiling through the swampy soil; they had also to skin and cut up all the caribou brought in, aqd

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attend to the fires and the cooking. Their hard life had set its mark upon them; it was not always age, but often simply toil, that had wrinkled their faces; their eyes were often red and rheumy from the smoke of the fires, their hands coarse and filthy, with long, coarse nails. Their womanly charm had been sacrificed on the altar of domestic utility; none the less, they were always happy and contented, with a ready laugh in return for any jest or kindly word. It suited our purpose well enough that the men were idle, as we had thus more opportunities of gathering the information we sought. In regard to all matters of everyday life they were willing enough to tell us all they knew. The thing which most of all impressed us was their entire independence of the sea. True, they had had some dealings with the natives of the coast districts, a few having made journeys for purposes of trade, but many of the men here had never even seen the sea. And this also accounted for the fact that all sea meat was strictly tabu. Old men were of opinion that their forefathers had always lived inland, their sole means of livelihood being based on caribou, salmon, and birds. Nor was there anything in their material culture to sug- gest any previous acquaintance with the sea. During the past generation, however, intercourse with neigh- boring tribes had been somewhat more general, and $here had lately been some emigration from the southern end of Hikoligjuag down over the great lakes to the coast at Eskimo Point. The country here was now inhabited by natives from the inland districts. Nevertheless, the natives with whom we

W +; ffl is

9 °

NOMAD'S LIFE 73

were living at present seemed for the most part to regard it as inconceivable that anyone could prefer the blubbery, evil-smelling beasts of the sea to the splendid game that was to be had on land.

Each hunter had a modern rifle, and there was no difficulty in catching foxes enough to pay for the ammunition required. But they did not seem to realize that the use of firearms was in itself largely responsible for the frequent periods of famine. In the olden days, it is true, hunting was more confined to certain definite seasons; but the ingenious methods and implements of capture gave so rich a yield as to cover also the dead seasons when no game was to be had, as long as the hunting had been fairly good and sufficient meat stored for the winter.

The first essential was to find a site for the village directly on the route followed by the caribou in their migrations, and as these routes differed for spring and autumn, the natives led a somewhat nomadic existence. They always returned, however, to the same spots, as extensive preparations were needed. Hundreds of stone cairns had to be erected covering a range of several kilometres, and the ground had to be chosen so that the caribou could be driven in exactly the direction required. Hunting in the open with bow and arrow gave but a poor return; it was necessary to work up within close range of the animals, which might be a matter of days. And one could never reckon on bringing down more than a couple of head, even where the herds were numer- ous.

The caribou were shy, and the bow was only

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effective at short range. This difficulty was met by the following arrangement:

Oblong boulders were set up, or stone cairns built, in two lines, forming an avenue. On top of each stone, or heap of stones, was set a lump of peat or tuft of grass, to look like a head. The avenue was very broad at one end, and so placed that the caribou in flight, coming over a hill, would find themselves between the two lines of figures. Behind were women and children acting as beaters, waving gar- ments and shouting like wolves. The animals seeing themselves, as it appeared, pursued by their enemies from the rear and hemmed in by a line on either side, had no choice but to go straight ahead. As they did so, the space between the lines narrowed in, like an old-fashioned duck decoy, and at the farther end, shelters were built where the hunters lay in wait. The caribou had now to pass within dose range of the shelters, and the hunters were able to take toll of them on the way.

The same system of stone figures was employed on the lakes and rivers, at spots where the caribou were accustomed to take to the water. In this case, however, the hunters would lie in wait on the shore, ready to put out in their kayaks. Caribou do not swim very fast, and it was then an easy matter to overtake them and kill them with the spears which were specially fashioned for this form of hunt- ing. Given a broad crossing place and numerous herds, great numbers could be slain in this manner, till the water was choked with the bodies. Some were also taken in winter, in regions where they

NOMAD'S LIFE 75

were to be found at that season, by a system of pit- falls.

Compared with the caribou, all other forms of game were but of minor importance. Fish were caught by spearing or with hook and line; birds, hares, lemmings and marmot taken in snares. The feathered game was mostly hunted in the autumn, when the birds are moulting and cannot rise easily. They are then pursued on the water in kayaks, and killed with small harpoons.

Unfortunately, the kayak is now being superseded altogether by the gun, and it will not be long before kayaks are a thing of the past. The gun has im- mediate advantages, but it is doubtful whether it pays better in the long run. Naturally, it is tempt- ing to employ a weapon which does away with the need for elaborate preparation of dummies and shelters, and there is little difficulty on thinning out the herds with a long-range rifle. But it should be borne in mind that arrow and spear did their work silently, and without scaring the i^est, so that the caribou continued for centuries to follow the same routes from the forests to the Barren Grounds and back again. Now, since the introduction of fire- arms, a change seems to have taken place in this respect; the animals tend more and more to avoid the native villages, and famine has frequently re- sulted. In some districts, during the last few years, the inhabitants have been completely exterminated by starvation.

Another difficulty which the Caribou Eskimos have to reckon with is the fact that the moving of the

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caribou in summer and autumn comes just at those seasons when travelling is most difficult. The great stretches of tundra are a pathless waste, and the rivers are available only as their course lies, often tending in the wrong direction for pursuit of the caribou. It is not until late in the autumn, when the rivers and lakes are frozen over, and the country is covered with snow, that they are able to cover any distance; but under these conditions, they are splendid travellers, skilful and untiring. In the days before the trading stations were established at Baker Lake and Eskimo Point, they would go south as far as Fort Churchill, and west to the region of Schultz Lake and Aberdeen Lake, Here they had their meeting place at the famous Akilineq, a ridge of hills south of the great lakes in the neighborhood of the Thelon River. Here they procured timber for sledges, kayaks and tent poles, from Lake Tiv- salik, where great tree trunks, brought down by the river from far up country, were washed ashore. One can imagine the patience required in those old days for any kind of wood work, when the only tools available were odd scraps of iron. Now, of course, the saw is generally in use; and sawn timber cut to standard sizes can be obtained at the trading stations. Akilineq was the meeting place for the natives from Baker Lake and Kazan River, who encountered here the tribes from regions so far distant as the North-west Passage, likewise coming up in search of timber. There was naturally a good deal of trad- ing between the different tribes thus brought into contact. The inland folk traded white men's goods

TATILGAQ, WHO DESCRIBED THE NATIVE METHODS OF HUNTING

NOMAD'S LIFE 77

brought from Churchill, mostly knives, in exchange for seal skin thongs which were in great demand.

There were also forests by the shores of these lakes, but as the trees were regarded as living beings, they were rarely visited. There was a widely cur- rent tradition, of ancient date, that the tree-folk would not suffer any human being among them for more than ten nights.

It says much for the sfcifl and endurance of the Eskimos as travellers that these long journeys were made with very small teams, rarely more than two, and never more than five dogs, owing to the diffi- culty of procuring food for the animals. Both men and women, however, were hardy walkers, and would cheerfully harness themselves to the sledge and haul as well as any dog. Despite their small teams, these natives here use, curiously enough the longest sledges known to exist anywhere; tea metres in le&gth by only 43 centitnetres across are by BO means utiusttal

they were easy to hatil, and tfaeir le&gtii macte steadiness and buoyancy in soft loose s&ow.

We were anxious to ascertain whether any stone houses existed up inland, such as we had found all along the coast; our informants here, however, were positive that none such had ever been seen. Houses of this type would also be inconsistent with their mode of Hf e, which involved a constant moving from place to place at certain seasons of the year.

The only form of winter dwelling known to the inland Eskimo is the snow hut; but having »o oil or blubber, they are unable to heat them, though the

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thermometer in the cold season may often fall below minus 50°. During the long, dark evenings, their only light is a sort of primitive tallow dip, made of moss and caribou fat. So hardy, however, are these people that they declare they never feel cold indoors, however severe the weather may be; and their houses are also protected against the blizzards by being simply smothered in snow, till they are hardly dis- tinguishable from the drift in which they are built.

Just outside the living room proper, and connected with it by a passage is the so-called iga, or kitchen, built straight tip with steep walls, to prevent the snow from melting. Here the food is cooked, when any fuel is available; this, however, is by no means an everyday occurrence when the whole country lies deep in snow. For days in succession they may have to make do with frozen meat, and not even a mouthful of hot soup to help it down.

Water supply is ensured by building the snow hut close to the shore of a lake, and a hole is kept open in the ice all through the winter, a small snow hut being built above the opening to keep it from freez- ing. Like all other Eskimos living exclusively on meat, these inland folk drink enormous quantities of water.

The only serious difficulty they have to contend with is that they have no means of getting their footwear dried after a long day's hunting. If they have skins enough, the wet things are thrown away and replaced by new ones; failing this, the old wet things have to be dried at night by laying them next to the body.

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In May, the snow huts begin to melt, and tents are then called into requisition, often of great size and magnificence, made on the Indian pattern, with smoke hole at the top, and of caribou skin through- out. In front of the house-wife's seat is the fireplace, and all meals are cooked here, inside the tent, the weather as a rule being very windy. One might imagine that the moving into tents meant a period of comfort and ease; this, however, is by no means the case. The cooking indoors precludes the use of a curtain at the entrance, and one has thus either to sit in a roaring draught, or in a smother of smoke from the fireplace. Often we had to jump up half stifled and hurry outside to breathe, though the rest of the inmates appeared to find no discomfort from the atmosphere.

This, roughly, is the ordinary everyday life of the inland Eskimos, probably the hardiest people in the world. Their country is such as to offer but a bare existe&ce tinder the hardest possible conditions, and yet they think it the best that could be found. What most impressed us was the constant change from one to another extreme; either they are on the verge of starvation, or wallowing in a luxury of abundance which renders them oblivious of hard times past, and heedless of those that await them in the next winter's dark.

Igjugarjuk, who had so vehemently asserted that he was no magician, and knew nothing of the past history of his people, soon changed over when he found that he could trust me, and realized that I was earnestly interested in such matters. And in the

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end, I learned from him a great deal about aspects of Eskimo culture which were quite new to me.

I found it impossible to get a clear and coherent account of their religious beliefs; as soon as one began to ask about matters outside the sphere of tangible reality, the views expressed were so contradictory that one could make nothing of them together. Nothing definite was known, nor did it seem to matter that the wise men of the tribe held different views one from another; the one thing certain was, that all study of such matters was attended with the greatest difficulty, and much remained beyond our knowledge. The general view of life after death is best shown in the following story, which was told to me by Kiv- karjuk:

" Heaven is a great country with many holes in. These holes we call the stars. Many people live there, and whenever they upset anything, it falls down through the stars in the form of rain or snow. Up in the land of heaven live the souls of dead men and beasts, under the Lord of Heaven, Tapasum Inua,

II The souls of men and beasts are brought down to earth by the moon. This is done when the moon is not to be seen in the sky; it is then on its way to earth, bringing souls. After death, we do not al- ways remain as we were during life; the souls of men, for instance, may turn into all kinds of animals. Pinga looks after the souls of animals, and does not like to see too many of them killed. Nothing is lost; and blood and entrails must be covered up alter a caribou has been killed.

11 So we see that life is endless ; only we do not know in what form we shall reappear after death/1

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The easiest way to learn, of course, was to inquire of an angakoq, and in the course of my long conver- sations with Igjugarjuk I learned many interesting things. His theories, however, were so simple and straightforward that they sound strikingly modern; his whole view of life may be summed up in his own words as follows: "All true wisdom is only to be learned far from the dwellings of men, out in the great solitudes; and is only to be attained through suffering. Privation and suffering are the only things that can open the mind of man to those things which are hidden from others."

A man does not become an angakoq because he wishes it himself, but because certain mysterious powers in the universe convey to him the impression that he has been chosen, and this takes place as a revelation in a dream.

This mysterious force which plays so great a part in men's fate, is called Sila, and is very difficult to define, or even to translate. The word has three meanings: the universe; the weather, and finally, a mixture of common sense, intelligence and wisdom. In the religious sense, Sila is used to denote a power which can be invoked and applied by mankind; a power personified in Silap Inua, the Lord of Power, or literally, the one possessing power. Often also, the term Pinga is used, this being a spirit in the form of a woman, which is understood to dwell somewhere in space, and only manifests itself when specially needed. There is no definite idea as to her being the creator of mankind, or the origin of animals used for food; all fear her, however, as a stern mistress

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of the household, keeping watch on all the doings of men, especially as regards their dealings with the animals killed.

She is omnipresent, interfering as occasion may require. One of her principal commandments ap- pears to be that daily food should be treated with respect, care being taken that nothing is wasted. There are certain ceremonies, for instance, to be observed on the killing of a caribou, as mentioned in the story just quoted.

All the rules of tabu are connected with Sila, and designed to maintain a balance of amicable relations with this power. The obligations imposed by Sila are not particularly burdensome, and perhaps for that very reason trespass is severely punished; as for instance by bad weather, dearth of game, sick- ness, and the like; in a word, all that is most to be feared.

The angakoq serves as interpreter between Sila and mankind. Sila's leading qualities are those of healing in sickness or guarding against the iUwill of others. When a sick person desires to be cured, he must give away all his possessions, and is then car- ried out and laid on the earth far from any dwelling; for whoever would invoke the Great Spirit must have no possessions save his breath.

Igjugarjuk himself, when a young man, was con- stantly visited by dreams which he could not under- stand. Strange unknown beings came and spoke to him, and when he awoke, he saw all the visions of his dream so distinctly that he could tell his fel- lows all about them. Soon it became evident to

NOMAD'S LIFE 83

all that he was destined to become an angakoq and an old man named Perqanaoq was appointed his instructor. In the depth of winter, when the cold was most severe, Igjugarjuk was placed on a small sledge just large enough for him to sit on, and carried far away from his home to the other side of Hikolig- juaq. On reaching the appointed spot, he remained seated on the sledge while his instructor built a tiny snow hut, with barely room for him to sit cross-legged. He was not allowed to set foot on the snow, but was lifted from the sledge and carried into the hut, where a piece of skin just large enough for him to sit on served as a carpet. No food or drink was given him; he was exhorted to think only of the Great Spirit and of the helping spirit that should presently appear— and so he was left to himself and his meditations.

After five days had elapsed, the instructor brought 'hfrrt a drink of !ukew*ffioi water, and with similar exhortations, left frtm as before. He fasted now for fifteen days, when he was given another drink of water and a very small piece of meat, which had to last him a further ten days. At the end of this period, his instructor came for him and fetched him home. Igjugarjuk declared that the strain of those thirty days of cold and fasting was so severe that he "sometimes died a little." During all that time he thought only of the Great Spirit, and endeavored to keep his mind free from all memory of human beings and everyday things. Towards the end of the thirty days there came to him a helping spirit in the shape of a woman. She came while he was

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asleep, and seemed to hover in the air above him. After that he dreamed no more of her, but she became his helping spirit. For five months following this period of trial, he was kept on the strictest diet, and required to abstain from all intercourse with women. The fasting was then repeated; for such fasts at frequent intervals are the best means of attaining to knowledge of hidden things.* As a matter of fact, there is no limit to the period of study; it depends on how much one is willing to suffer and anxious to learn.

Every wizard has a belt, which often plays a great part in his invocations of the spirits. I was fortunate enough to acquire one of these belts from a woman who was herself a witch doctor, named Kinalik. It consisted of an ordinary strap of hide on which were hung or strung the following items: a splinter from the stock of a gun worn in recognition of the fact that her initiation had taken place by means of visions of death; a piece of sinew thread, which had formerly been used to fasten tent poles with, and had on some occasion or other been used for a magic demonstra- tion; a piece of ribbon from a packet of tobacco; a piece of an old cap formerly belonging to her brother — the brother was now dead, and was one of her helping spirits — a piece of white caribou skin, some plaited withies, a model of a canoe, a caribou's tooth, a mitten and a scrap of sealskin. All these things possessed magnetic power, by virtue of their having been given to her by persons who wished her well. Any gift conveys strength. It need not be great or costly in itself; the intrinsic value of the

NOMAD'S LIFE 85

object is nothing, it is the thought which goes with it that gives strength.

Kitmlik was still quite a young woman, very in- telligent, kind-hearted, clean and good-looking, and spoke frankly, without reserve. Igjugarjuk was her brother-in-law, and had himself been her instructor in magic. Her own initiation had been severe; she was hung up to some tent poles planted in the snow and left there for five days. It was midwinter, with intense cold and frequent blizzards, but she did not feel the cold, for the spirit protected her. When the five days were at an end, she was taken down and carried into the house, and Igjugarjuk was in- vited to shoot her, in order that she might attain to intimacy wi$h the supernatural by visions of death. The gun was to be loaded with real powder, but a stone was to be used instead of the leaden bullet , in order that she might still retain connection with earth. Igjugarjuk, in the presence of the assembled villagers, fired the shot, and Krnalik fell to the ground unomscious. On the following morning, just as Igjugarjuk was about to bring her to life again, she awakened from the swoon unaided. Igjugarjuk as- serted that he had shot her through the heart, and that the stone had afterwards been removed and was in the possession of her old mother.

Another of the villagers, a young man named Aggjartoq, had also been initiated into the mysteries of the occult with Igjugarjuk as his teacher; and in his case, a third form of ordeal had been employed; to wit, that of drowning. He was lashed to a long pole and carried out on to a lake, a hole was cut in

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the ice, and the pole with its living burden thrust down through the hole, in such a fashion that Agg- jartoq actually stood on the bottom of the lake with his head tinder water. He was left in this position for five days and when at last they hauled him up again, his clothes showed no sign of having been in the water at all and he himself had become a great wizard, having overcome death.

These inland Eskimos are very little concerned about the idea of death; they believe that all men are born again, the soul passing on continually from one form of life to another. Good men return to earth as men, but evildoers are re-born as beasts, and in this way the earth is replenished, for no life once given can ever be lost or destroyed.

CHAPTER VII

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VV7E very soon realized that the culture of these W Caribou Eskimos was of inland origin. It was the most primitive we had encountered during the whole of the expedition, and all the facts tended to show that we were here well on the way to a solution of one of our most important problems.

Their religion, for instance, was of a pronounced inland type, differing essentially from that of the coast peoples, and in respect of tabu especially unlike that of the sea and shore. The ceremonies attend- ing birth and death in particular were far simpler than those in use among the coast Eskimos, Plainly, the people who first found their way to the sea had seen in it, and in the mode of life which it involved, new and mysterious elements which had given rise to their complicated mythology and ceremonial

The fact that the sea was new to them was further confirmed by the entire absence of any implements, whether among those in use or others now obsolete, such as would be used by dwellers on the coast.

Nevertheless, we soon found that they had many traditions in common with the Greenland Eskimos; indeed, a number of their folk-tales and legends are altogether identical with Greenland stories.

Out of fifty-two stories which I wrote down among

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the Padlermiut at Hikoligjuaq, no fewer than thirty were identical with ones I had already heard in Greenland, and this despite the fact that for thou- sands of years past, no intercourse had taken place between the two groups of people.

An unquestionable connection exists between the Greenlanders_~ and their Canadian kinsfolk in the matter of story and legend. These stories more- over show that the poor Eskimo can at times find room for thought of things beyond the mere material needs of the day; many of them show a forceful simplicity, a touch of epic strength, and a poetic sense, which command our admiration.

Here are several of the shorter ones:

THE OWL THAT WOOED A SNOW BUNTING

There was once a little snow bunting; it sat on a tuft and wept because its husband was dead. Then came a big fat Owl and sang:

Foolish one, weeping For a miserable husband With a spear Made of grass. I— I will be Your husband.

The little bird answered:

Who would ever Have you for a husband? With your lumpy, clumsy And that ugly-fashioned beak, Podgy legs, and fat round face And a head without a neck !

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But the owl was so angry at this, that it swooped down on the little snow bunting, and struck it in the breast and then, when it cried in pain, the owl jeered at it, saying: "Ho, what a woman, that can feel pain in the breast and yet have such a sharp tongue!"

Told by KIVKARJTJK, of Hikoligjuaq. (Known throughout the whole of Greenland.)

How THE WHITE MEN AND THE INDIANS CAME

There was once a maiden who refused all men who wished to marry her. At last her father was so annoyed at this that he rowed off with her and his dog to an island out in the lake of Haningajoq, not far from Hikoligjuaq, and left her there with the dog. Then the dog took her to wife, and she gave birth to many whelps. And her father brought meat to the island, that they might not die of hunger. One day when they were grown up, their mother said to them: "Next time your grandfather comes out to the island, swim out to meet "him, and upset his kayak/'

The dogs did so and the girl's father was drowned. Thus she took vengeance upon her father for having married her to a dog. But now that he was dead, there was no one to bring the dogs meat, so the girl cut the soles out of her kamiks, and placed them in the water, and worked magic over them. Then she set some of the dogs on one sole, and said: "Go out into the world and become skilful in aH manner of work!"

And the dogs drifted out away from the island and when they had gone a little way, the sole turned into a ship, and they sailed away to the white men's country and became white men.. And from them, it is said, all white men are descended.

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But the rest of the dogs were set on the other sole, and as it floated away, the girl said: "Take ven- geance for all the wrong your grandfather did to me, and show yourselves henceforward thirsty for blood as often as you meet one of the Inuit."

And the dogs sailed away to a strange land, and went ashore there and became the ItqigdKt. Prom these are descended all those Indians whom our forefathers dreaded, for they slew the Inuit wherever they could find them. And this they continued to do until their brothers, the white men from the island of Anarnigtoq, took land in their country and taught them gentler ways.

Told by IGJUGARJUK, (This story is known in Greenland.)

THE RAVEN AND THE LOON

In the olden days, all birds were white. And then one day the raven and the loon fell to drawing patterns on each others feathers. The raven began, and when it had finished, the loon was so displeased with the pattern that it spat all over the raven and made it black all over. And since that day all ravens have been black. But the raven was so angry that it fell upon the loon and beat it so about the legs that it could hardly walk. And that is why the loon is such an awkward creature on land.

(There is a Greenland version of this.)

THUNDER AND LIGHTNING

In the olden days, nobody ever stole anything. But then one day when a great song festival was being held, two children were left alone in a house. Here they found a caribou skin with the hair off,

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and a firestone, and desired to have these things for their own. But hardly had they taken them when a great fear came upon them.

"What shall we do," cried one, "to get away from people?"

"Let us turn ourselves into caribou," answered the other."

"No; for then they will catch us; let us turn into wolves."

"No; for then they will kill us. Let us turn into foxes."

And so they went on, naming all the ^nfm^fes there were, but always fearing that men should kill them. Then at last one said: Let us be thunder and Eght- ning. For then men could not reach them. And so it came about; they went up into the sky and became thunder and lightning. And now when we hear the thunder it is one of them rattling the dry skin, and when we see the lightning it is the other one striking sparks from the stone.

Told by Arnarqik, of Nahigtartorvik, Kazan River.

(Also known in Greenland)

THE OWL AND THE MARMOT

There was once an owl who went out hunting, and seeing a marmot outside its house, it flew towards it and sitting down in front of the entrance, sang:

" 1 have barred the way of a land beast to its home. Come and fetch it, and bring two sledges."

But the marmot answered: " 0 mighty owl, spread your legs a little wider apart, and show me that powerful chest,"

And the owl hearing this was proud of its broad chest, and spread its legs wider apart.

Then the marmot cried: "Wider, wider still."

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And the owl feeling even prouder than before spread its legs a little wider still, and stretched its chest as far as it could.

But then the marmot slipped between its legs and and ran off into its hole.

Told by Kivkarjuk.

I was told that there should be a larger settlement on the southern shore of Hikoligjuaq, and I deter- mined to cross and pay a visit to the natives there. On the day before our departure, a grand song fes- tival was arranged, to be held in Igjugarjuk's tent. In the afternoon the guests arrived, as many as the tent would hold. The singer stood in the middle with closed eyes, accompanying his song with a sway- ing movement of the hips, while the women, seated in a group on the bench, joined in the chorus every now and then, their voices contrasting pleasantly with the deeper tones of the men.

Here are the words of some of the songs:

IGJUGARJUK'S SONG

Yai — yai — yai

Ya — ayai — ya

I ran with all speed

And met them on the plain,

The great Musk Ox with brilliant black hair —

Hayai — ya — haya.

It was the first time I had seen them, Grazing on the flowers of the plain, Far from the hill where I stood, And ignorantly I thought They were but small and slight . . .

QINGARUVDLIAQ, THE WOMAN WHO KNEW ALL THE MEN'S SONGS AND PROMPTED THEM WHEN THEY FORGOT THE WORDS

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But they grew up out of the earth

As I came within shot,

Great black giant beasts

Far from our dwellings

In the regions of happy summer hunting.

AVANE'S SONG

Lo, alas, I look and seek All impatient, eagerly, For the caribou in the hills; Am I old and worthless now, Since I hunt in vain? I who once could stand and shoot Swiftly without aiming Striking down with sudden arrow Bulls with spreading horn; Saw the great beast fall and lie With muzzle deep in mire.

Women do not as a rule sing their own songs. No woman is expected to sing ttoless expressly invited by an angakoq. As a rule, they sing songs made by the men. Should it happen, however, that a woman feels a spirit impelling her to sing, she may step forth from the chorus and follow her own inspiration. Among the women here, only two were thus favored by the spirits; one was Igjugarjuk's first wife, Kivkarjuk, now dethroned, and the other Akjartoq, the mother of KinaKk.

KIVKARJUK'S SONG

I am but a little woman Very willing to toil,

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Very willing and happy

To work and slave . . .

And in my eagerness

To be of use,

I pluck the furry buds of willow

Buds like beard of wolf.

I love to go walking far and far away,

And my soles are worn through

As I pluck the buds of willow,

That are furry like the great wolf's beard.

AKJARTOQ'S SONG

I draw a deep breath,

But my breath comes heavily

As I call forth the song . . .

There are ill rumors abroad,

Of some who starve in the far places,

And can find no meat,

I call forth the song From above, H ayaya — haya.

And now I forget

How hard it was to breathe,

Remembering old times,

When I had strength

To cut and flay great beasts*

Three great beasts could I cut up

While the sun slowly went his way

Across the sky.

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In addition to ordinary hunting songs and lyrics there are songs of derision, satires with a mercilessly personal address; two men will stand up in turn and accuse each other before the assembled neigh- bors. These accusations, even when well founded, are received with surprising calmness, whereas "evil or angry words" may have far more serious effects.

I give here Utahania's impeachment of one Kanai- juaq who had quarrelled with his wife and attempted to desert her, leaving her to her fate out in the wilds; the woman, however, had proved not only able *to stand up for herself in a rough-and-tumble, but left her husband of her own accord and went to shift for herself, taking her son with her.

Something was whispered

Of man and wife

Who could not agree.

And what was it aft abo&t?

A wife who in rightful anger

Tore her husband's ftirs across,

Took their canoe

And rowed away with her son.

Ay — ay, all who listen,

What do you think of him,

Poor sort of man?

Is he to be envied,

Who is great in his anger

But faint in strength,

Blubbering helplessly

Properly chastised?

Though it was he who foolishly proud

Started the quarrel with stupid words.

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Kanaijuaq retorted with a song accusing Utahatiia of improper behavior at home; his hard words however, seemed to make no difference to their friend- ship. Far more serious was the effect of malicious words in the case of Utahania's foster-son who was once upbraided by his foster-father as follows:

"I wish you were dead! You are not worth the food you eat." And the young man took the words so deeply to heart that he declared he would never eat again. To make his sufferings as brief as possible, he lay down the same night stark naked on the bare snow, and was frozen to death.

Halfway through the festival it was announced that Kinalik, the woman angakoq, would invoke her helping spirits and clear the way of all dangers ahead. Sila was to be called in to aid one who could not help himself. All the singing now ceased, and Kinalik stood forth alone with her eyes tightly closed. She uttered no incantation, but stood trembling all over, and her face twitched from time to time as if in pain. This was her way of " looking inward," and pene- trating the veil of the future; the great thing was to concentrate all one's force intently on the one idea, of calling forth good for those about to set out on their journey.

Igjugarjuk, who never let slip an opportunity of exalting his own tribe at the expense of the "salt water Eskimo," informed me at this juncture that their angakoqs never danced about doing tricks, nor did they have recourse to particular forms of speech; the one essential was truth and earnestness— all the rest wasmere trickwork designed to impress the vulgar.

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When Kinalik had reached the utmost limit of her concentration, I was requested to go outside the tent and stand on a spot where there were no footmarks, remaining there until I was called in. Here, on the untrodden snow, I was to present myself before Sila, standing silent and humble, and desiring sky and air and all the forces of nature to look upon me and show me goodwill.

It was a peculiar form of worship or devotion, which I now encountered for the first time; it was the first time, also, that I had seen Sila represented as a benign power.

After I had stood thus for a time, I was calkd in again. Kirialik had now resumed her natural ex- pression, and was beaming all over. . She assured me that the Great Spirit had heard her prayer, and that all dangers should be removed from our path; also, that we should have success in our hunting whenever we needed meat.

This prophecy was greeted with applause and general satisfaction; it was plain to see that these good folk, in their simple, innocent fashion, gave us their blessing and had done all they could to render it effective. There was no doubting the sincerity of their goodwill.

On the following night we were racing at full speed over the wintry surface of Lake Hikoligjuaq. The firm ice was spread with a thin layer of soft, moist snow, acting as a soft carpet to the dogs' paws, and the long rest in complete idleness with plenty of fresh caribou meat had given them a degree of vitality that made it a pleasure to be out once more.

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We had two lads with us as guides, who had borrowed Igjugarjuk's dogs, but it was not long before they were hopelessly out-distanced, and we had to con- tent ourselves with a guess at our direction.

Early in the morning, before the sun was fairly warm, we reached the southern shore of the lake and camped in a pleasant little valley, fastening the dogs in a thicket of young willow that stood bursting in bud to greet the spring.

In the course of the day we went out to reconnoitre. And it was not long before we came upon a solitary caribou hunter observing us from a little hill. He was just taking to flight when the two lads from the last village, who had now come up, recognized him and called him by name, when he walked up smiling to meet them. He informed us that there was a village of five tents a couple of hours' journey farther inland, and that we could reach the place without difficulty, although the ground was bare. We tried to persuade him to come back with us to the camp, but he preferred to go on ahead and tell his comrades of the strange meeting. And before we had gone far, the whole party came down and overtook us, they had been too impatient to wait for our arrival. It was hard work for the dogs to get the sledge over the numerous hills, and even the level grotmd was difficult going, sodden as it was with water and broken by tussocks and pools. There were plenty of willing hands, however, and we made our way, albeit slowly, with a great deal of merriment. Miteq and I had to face an endless rain of questions. These inland folk look upon the sea as something wonderful

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and mysterious, far beyond their ken; and when we explained that we had had to cross many seas in coming from our own land to theirs, they regarded our coming in itself as something of a marvel. And we agreed with them in their surprise at our being able to understand one another's speech.

Suddenly speech and laughter died away; the dogs pricked up their ears, and a strange silence fell upon all. There, full in our way, lay the body of a woman prone on the ground* We stood for a moment at a loss. Then the men wait forward, while we held back our dogs* The figure still lay motionless* A loud wailing came from the party ahead, and Miteq and I stood vaguely horrified, not knowing what it meant. Then one of the men came back and explained that we had found the corpse of a woman who had been, lost in a blizzard the winter before — and he pointed to one of those bending over her; that was her husband.

It had been a hard winter, and just when the cold was most severe, six of those in the village had died of hunger. A man named Atangagjuaq then deter- mined to set out for a neighboring village in search of aid, and his wife, fearing lest, weak as he was, he might be unable to complete the journey, had followed after him. She herself, however, had been lost in the snow before coming up with him. They had searched for her that winter, and in the following spring, but without result; and now here she lay, discovered by the merest accident right athwart our course,

I walked forward to view the body of this woman

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who had lost her life in a vain attempt to help her husband. There was nothing repulsive in the sight; she just lay there, with limbs extended, and an expression of unspeakable weariness on her face. It was plain to see that she had walked on and on, struggling against the blizzard till she could go no farther, and sank exhausted, while the snow swiftly covered her, leaving no trace.

The body was left lying as it was; no one touched it. We drove on, and in an hour's time reached the Eskimo camp.

These people are quick to change from one extreme of feeling to another. We had not gone far on our way before the dead woman, to all seeming, was forgotten, and the merriment that had met with so sudden a check broke out afresh. As soon as we had put up our tent, the men got hold of our ski, and went off to try them in a good deep snowdrift that still lay in a gap. They had never seen ski before, and great shouts of laughter greeted the first attempts of those venturesome enough to try them. One of the gayest of the party was Atangagjuaq, who but a few minutes earlier had stood weeping beside the body of his wife,

By the 2 ist of June, we were once more on the ice of Lake Hikoligjuaq, and on the morning of the 22nd, just at stinrise, we reached the spot where the others of our party were encamped. That sunrise was, I think, the most remarkable I have ever seen. To the north, on the horizon, was a dense white mass of cloud, like a reflection from the lake itself, but with a narrow belt of delicate green below. The country

YOUNG WOMEN

They were always happy and smiling, and handsome as well.

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round was outlined in masses of black. Then suddenly there was a glow of fire, a tongue of flame broke through the pale green below the cloud, lighting up all the sky; light, fragile veils of rosy cloud-stuff floated by overhead, and the ice below was tinged with the palest mauve. The contours of shore and hill stood out now darker than before, while flowers of fire appeared on the horizon Eke fairy-lamps Ht one after another, gradually merging into a®& great con- flagration. Then up came the stm iteelf, and all the varied colors were lost ixi oae stark fed glow reflected in our faces as we looked.

It was like driving into a burning city; and we remained spellbound ttntil the barking of dogs and shouts of welcome from our companions brought us back to reality and busy freshness of a new day. * . *

CHAPTER VIII

BETWEEN TWO WINTERS

IGJUGARJUK had for some time past been talking * of making a trip down to Baker Lake, and was now getting ready for the journey. Then one day a canoe came up from the south, in charge of a young man, Equmeq, by name. It was decided that Birket- Smith and Bangsted, with the greater part of our ethnographical collections, should start with this party for Baker Lake, Igjugarjuk taking the rest, and Miteq and I going by sledge — a plan which caused much head-shaking among the natives, who regarded sledging as dangerous or impossible at this season.

Certainly, our journey turned out worse than we had expected. The ground was soft and wet, and very uneven, at the best, added to which we came every now and then to swollen streams, often so deep that we had to follow them some distance up to find a practicable crossing among the ice of the lakes. The constant detours, again, took up so much time that we had little left for hunting, and had to reduce our rations and those of the dogs accordingly. Igjugarjuk and the lake party had simply to follow the river and we were supposed to come up with them every evening. Actually we often failed to make their camp in time, but Igjugarjuk always waited

1 02

BETWEEN TWO WINTERS 103

faithfully till we did come up, and gave us directions for the next day's route. On one occasion we came within a hair's breadth of losing the canoe with its precious load. We had just got in to camp, on the bank of a stream flowing into the main river, and found that our companions had laid out some newly slain carcases on the other side. Crossing in the canoe, we suddenly perceived the dogs making straight for the meat, and in hurrying to save it, we omitted to pull the canoe far enough up sliore; when we turned, it was floating rapidly away down to the main channel. Guns, ammunition* cameras, diaries, and everything of value was on board; in addition to .which, the canoe itself was our only practicable means of transport.

The feverish chase that followed was beyond description. Igjugarjuk, — who, by the way, could not swimr— jobbed me in a mad obstacle raoe in and out of water, each of tis witfa one end of a line fastened roimdtliebody. Tfiet% w&e masses of looseiceia the fairway, aadl tna&aged toswimfrom floe to fioe, hatd- ingup Igjugarjtik to each before making for the next. So we went on, clambering and struggling desperately in pursuit. Fortunately, the canoe itself was checked in its progress by these same masses of ice; never- theless, we dared not relax our efforts. Our hands were torn and bleeding from the sharp ice crystals; and when at last we reached the canoe itself and dragged it into safety, we were so exhausted that we sank down helplessly beside it. Another few yards and it would have been carried into the main river, to certain destruction— and ourselves with it.

106 ACROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

It is difficult for a Greenlander to understand how these natives here can give up and lie down to die in a country so rich in game. But it is not laziness, I fancy the wretched footwear they use in summer has a great deal to do with it. They have not the thick stout sealskin or walrus hide, but only light caribou skin, pleasant enough in winter on the cold dry snow, but miserably inadequate in the swampy tundra during summer, and with no sort of wear in it over rocky ground; a couple of days will wear through perfectly new soles.

Late that night we reached the river Kunuag. After a difficult crossing, we took leave of our com- panions, who with their kayaks on their heads hurried back to their own people. We built a great fire, and roasted steaks of freshly killed meat on flat stones. All was clear ahead now, down to Baker Lake; the weather was fine, and as sleep is not so essential in summer, we were soon on our way once more.

It was slow going over the swampy tundra, that squelched underfoot at every step. By six the next morning we reached a group of three tents, and were surprised to find the inmates here also on the verge of starvation. We had the better part of two caribou carcases with us, and seeing no reason to carry a heavier load than needed, we invited the vil- lage to a feast. The fine fresh meat was disposed of with remarkable celerity, and I had once more an opportunity of witnessing the feats of which an Eskimo is capable in this direction. Hunger how- ever, had by no means impaired the spirits qf these

BETWEEN TWO WINTERS 107

good folk; they smiled as they showed us their cook- ing pots, scraped dean and empty for the past week. And they broke up their tobacco pipes to get a taste of tobacco after the heavy meal.

We were past astonishment when a gramophone was produced, and kept going for the rest of the afternoon. The natives declared, in sober earnest, that jazz tunes were no less comforting to an empty stomach than soothing to a full one.

We had hoped to push on from here without further delay, but many obstacles lay between us and our return to Chesterfield, — too maay to recount* The partial break-up of winter ice meant for us that progress by boat and progress by dog sledge were alternately barred. Once, native kayaks which we hired were crushed in the rocky narrows of a swollen river. Again, we had to cross a lake on a block of ice, with, our dogs drawing the whole mass across by swimmftig in harness. And wiaen, after days of soggy going, we finally' readied Baker Lake, we could not rouse the people of the trading post oat cm the island, though we burned signal fires for eight hours continuously. So we finally ferried across on an ice floe, using our skis as paddles.

We found Birket-Smith and Helge Bangsted at the island, but they wished to continue their botanical studies, so we pushed on to Chesterfield without them. We met with more delays on the way down to the Inlet, — chiefly from ice jams, — and not until July 31 did we reach our destination.

We had first visited Chesterfield in winter, and passed it in a blizzard, when everything was as arctic

io8 ACROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

as could be; when one's nostrils froze in the icy blast and the blood fairly hardened in one's cheeks. Our own experience had taught us to appreciate the natives' power of adapting themselves to their sur- roundings. Their extraordinary clothing, of soft caribou skin from head to foot, inside and out, enabled not only the men, but also women and children, to move abroad in all manner of weather; as long as they could manage to procure food enough, the cold of winter seemed hardly to affect them at all.

Coming back now, in the summer, we found all changed to a surprising degree. The handsome dresses of caribou skin, so admirably suited to the racial type of the wearers, and to their surroundings, had given place to the cheap and vulgar products of the trading station. The men went about in jerseys and readymade slacks, their flowing locks sur- mounted by a cheap cloth cap, while the women had exchanged their quaint swallow-tailed furs, long boots and baggy breeches, for shapeless European dresses of machine-made stuff, in which grace and character alike were utterly obliterated.

So also with their dwellings; the wonderful snow huts, fashioned, as it were, of the cold itself as a protection from the cold, were now replaced by big white canvas tents, which made the place look more like a holiday camp than an Eskimo settlement* And one could not go near them without finding one's ears assailed by the noise of some modern mechanical contrivance, either a gramophone or a sewing machine.

I noted now for the first time how oddly these

BETWEEN TWO WINTERS 109

quondam inland folk — they were mainly from the neighborhood of Baker Lake — felt lost and out of their element here on the shore of the open sea. Just outside Chesterfield Inlet was a veritable high- road for the seal; and all round the adjacent Marble Island the walrus might be seen blowing and steaming at the surface of the water; yet never a man in all the settlement went out hunting either. The natives here, despite their astonishing agility and skill with kayak and spears among the turbulent waters of tlie rivers, were content now to let all this meat go by, while they themselves lived on tea and pancakes. The most they ever attempted in the way of hunting wastolayouta net in the bay just outside their tents and catch a few fish.

This indifference to the abundance offered them by the sea was not due to laziness however, but rather a peculiarity of their inland culture itself. They could not <ispeese with their caribou; and it was a principle handed down through gesemt&oes that OIK could not mingle sea bunting with tfaat of the laad without losing the latter altogether.

After a pleasant two-weeks stay at CSiesterfidd, during which Bkket-Smith and Bangsted rejoined us, and during which we received and sent off letters by the Hudson's Bay steamer, Nascopie, we set off on the long journey back to headquarters at Danish Island. It was already later in the summer than I wished, and plans whidi we had hopefully made for spending the summer in useful work together began to grow impracticable. I was anxious to see what the rest had been doing, — Mathiassen and Freuchen

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in their investigation of ancient culture, particularlye We were fortunate in getting passage by motor- schooner as far as Repulse Bay, which we made in three days. Here we should, by agreement, have found Peter Freuchen encamped waiting for us with the motor boat we had built especially for summer work. The migratory ice, however, had kept him from getting out with it.

We accordingly hired a whaleboat belonging to an Eskimo from Southampton Island, who was known to the traders as "John Ell." As it turned out, we needed him for various errands during most of the winter following, so we grew to know and admire John Ell.

He was a man in many ways unlike the average type of native, having been educated to begin with on board a whaler, thus learning not only to speak English fluently, but also to manage a boat with remarkable skill, especially among the ice. He was looked up to as a leader by his fellows, and was also a man of property, having a fine team of dogs and a range of sledges designed for work at different seasons, a well-equipped whaleboat, and furthermore, a motor boat of his own. This last is uncommon among the Eskimos; John Ell had bought it for 75 fox skins. He carried on an extensive correspond- ence with people in the neighborhood, using the sign language invented by a missionary named Peck, which is here generally employed. And he kept a regular account of his income and expenditure throughout the year. It was the more remarkable, seeing how much he had lived and learned among

BETWEEN TWO WINTERS m

white men, to find that lie was a distinguished anga- koq, with a faith in native magic eqtial to his reputation.

Winter weather on land and ice in the channel held us at Repulse Bay till September i , and then we crossed in a day as far as Kurd Channel, Here again we were held up for twelve days. We used the interval in hunting meat for our dogs, and other employments. Then we crossed at a favorable moment to Vansittart Island, and three <Jays later got through to headquarters.

We found an empty house. Whereas we fead expected a rousing welcome after our long absence, there wasn't even a letter to tell us where our other comrades were.

However, Freuchen and the Eskimos were only out at the hunting grounds, and they hadn't believed that we could get through the broken ice. We went out and found them* and our reunion was as joyous as any meeting in the Arctic is likely to be between Ioi3g separated.

MatMassen, with Jacob Olsen, was still at South- ampton Island studying the traces of former Eskimo culture. It was not until February 1 8, and only after causing us anxiety for his safety, that he finally returned, and completed the final retanion of our party.

Meantime, the rest of us were held at Danish Island, or nearby, for most of the winter, Freuchen, who started out in January for Baffinland, to begin studies later to be carried out in cxx^eration with Mathiassen, was quickly brought back with a bad

H2 ACROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

case of frostbite which made him temporarily an invalid. Birket-Smith and Bangsted were held at headquarters looking after him.

I was occupied during the winter with two main tasks, — completing my study and comparison of the various ethnographical collections, and round- ing them out with materials secured on another visit to the natives around Lyon Inlet.

With regard to one item of our study, I felt that we had already secured satisfactory data; namely, the investigation of the culture of the Tunit. Therkel Mathiassen's work1 here proved to be of greatest importance to our study of the people and their history as a whole.

There are no written sources for the early history of the Eskimo people; it is to the spade that we must turn if we would learn something of their life in ages past. We have to dig and delve among the ruins of their dwellings, in the kitchen middens of their settlements, for proof of how they lived and hunted, how they were housed and clad. It is often a labo- rious task, but not less interesting on that account. And it was one of the principal tasks of the Fifth Thule Expedition to investigate, by means of archaeo- logical excavations, the history and development of the Eskimo people, and their migrations into Green- land. Our work in this field has brought to light some six or seven thousand items which afford a good

1 Space forbids the inclusion here of my companions1 reports in full, and I can give but the briefest indication of their main features. Both Freuchen's and Therkel Mathiassen's reports are published— or shortly to be published — in English elsewhere. The pages here following are taken from Therkel Mathiassen's own text.

BETWEEN TWO WINTERS 113

idea as to the mode of life prevailing among the Central Eskimos here in those distant ages.

Naujan lies on the northern shore of Repulse Bay, a little to the east of the trading station. The name, which means "the place of the young seamews," is taken from a steep bird cliff on the banks of a small lake. From the lake, a valley runs down towards the shore, where it opens out into a bay, and it is in this valley, just south of the lake, that the great settlement of Naujan existed in ancient times.

The Eskimos of the present day in these regions use only snow huts in winter; it was the more sur- prising therefore to come upon remains of quite a different type of house. We found at Naujan a whole little township of these houses, constructed of stone, turf, and the bones of whales. They were built so as to be partly underground and must have been far more substantial and warm, though less hygienic perhaps, than the light, cool, healthy snow huts of today. Various features placed it beyond question that at the time when these houses wene built, the land must have lain some ten metres lower than it does now; and this, too, explains why the settlement was found at some distance from what is now the beach, instead of practically on it as is custo- mary. Similarly, in confirmation of our theory, we found, on a little island near by, a pair of kayak stands — pillars of stone on which the skirt kayaks are laid to be out of reach of the dogs — some 15 metres up from sea;, actually, of course, they would have been built at the water's edge, to save hauling, up and down.

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The houses themselves had fallen to pieces long since, and the remains were scattered, weatherworn and overgrown with grass and moss to such an extent that our excavations gave but a poor idea of their original appearance. The implements and objects found among the ruins, however, gave an excellent view of the culture of the period from which they were derived. The materials comprised bone, walrus tusk and caribou antler, flint, slate and soapstone, whalebone, some wood, and occasionally metal, this last in the form of cold hammered copper (probably obtained by barter from the Eskimos of the west), with a single fragment of meteoric iron forming the point of a harpoon.

It is of course impossible to mention more than a very few of the finds here; often, too, the most insignificant objects to all outward seeming prove most important from the scientific point of view. Among our most valuable finds, for instance, were three odd broken fragments of rough earthenware vessels. These are only known to exist among the Alaskan Eskimos, and the finding of them here was of importance; few, however, would have attached any value to those three dirty scraps of pottery.

And now as to the age of this Naujan material. We may at once assert that nothing was found which could suggest any intercourse with Europeans. There were no glass beads — which are ordinarily the first thing the Eskimos procure, and always found in their villages — and the only fragment of iron found was of meteoric origin. This at once carries us back 300 years. Beyond this, we have only the alter-

BETWEEN TWO WINTERS 115

ation in the level of the land to fall back upon. It takes a considerable period, of course, for the land to rise ten metres, but there is no definite standard by which to measure the lapse of time involved. In the north of Sweden, for instance, the land rises i metre in a hundred years; allowing the same rate of progress here, this would give us an age of 1000 years — but this is, of course, mere guesswork.

As to the people who lived here in those days, they were beyond doubt genuine Eskimos; they lived on the shore in regular winter dwellings, drove dog sledges, and hunted whale, seal and walrus, besides bear and caribou; they trapped foxes, and caught salmon. They had at any rate no lack of meat, to judge from the enormous quantities of bones, which indeed, almost smothered the remains of the houses themselves* If we ask the present inhabitants of these regions, the Aivilik, as to the folk who dwelt in these now ruined houses, they will say, it was the TttBit. These Tunit were a mce of big, strong men who Eved in permanent dwellings and hunted whale and walrus; the men wore bearskin breeches and the women long sealskin boots just like the Polar Eskimos of today. When the Aivilik settled on the coast, the Tunit moved away to the northward; only on the inaccessible Southampton Island did a party remain, and the Sadlermiut, who died out here in 1903, were the last descendants of the Tunit in the country. Thus the Aivilik tradition, and it agrees in all essentials with the results of our investigations.

For on comparing these Tunit of ancient Naujan with the present inhabitants, we find a great differ-

Ii6 ACROSS ARCTIC AMERICA

ence between them. The Naujan Eskimos lived on the shore, hunted the whale, and built their houses from the skeletons. The Aivilik live in snow huts, and spend most of the year hunting caribou up in the interior. Many of the implements and utensils in use among the Naujan folk, such as the bola, the bird dart, and earthenware vessels, are unknown among the Aivilik; the latter, on the other hand, have others unknown to the ancients, such as combs, big ladles made of musk ox horn, and toggles for dog harness. And on examining the types of implement in use among the two peoples, many distinct points of difference are found.

Where did the Naujan Eskimos come from, and what became of them?

It soon becomes apparent that they link up in two directions across the Eskimo region; with Alaska on the one hand and Greenland on the other. At Thule, in northern Greenland, a find has been made, the oldest of any extent from the whole of Greenland, which points to precisely the same type of culture as that which we found at Naujan; and we have therefore called it the Thule type. Similar finds have been made both in west and north Greenland, and the Polar Eskimos of the present day are very much like these Thule folk in many respects. The Greenland Eskimos, then, must have passed through these central regions at a time when they were still inhabited by the Thule folk.

Looking now to the westward, we find in Alaska a race of big men, who hunt the whale, live in per- manent dwellings on the coast, use the bola, make

BETWEEN TWO WINTERS 117

earthenware, and have almost the same types of implements generally as those we found at Naujan; old finds from Alaska also exhibit even more marked resemblance to the Naujan type. The Thule folk then, must have come from Alaska, this is beyond question. They spread in a mighty wave from west to east, reaching right across to Greenland. At some time now far distant there was a more or less uniform type of culture prevailing throughout the whole of the Eskimo region; that which we now call the Thule type; then, in the central districts, an advance took place of people