The Central Eskimo Part 17

At this season the natives visit deer pa.s.ses and lakes, near which they establish their huts. The tents and all the household goods are packed up in heavy bundles, some of which are carried by the dogs, the load hanging on both sides of the back; others, by men and women, being secured by one strap which pa.s.ses over the forehead and by another which pa.s.ses over the breast. Their strength and their perseverance in carrying heavy loads over long distances are remarkable.

The social life in the summer settlements is rather different from that in winter. At this season the families do not cook their own meals, but a single one provides for the whole settlement. The day before it is her turn to cook, the woman goes to the hills to fetch shrubs for the fire.

Three stones are put up near the hut as a fireplace, the opening facing the wind. The kettle is placed on the top of it and the fire is fed with shrubs and blubber. When the meal is ready the master of the house stands beside it, crying Ujo! Ujo! (boiled meat) and everybody comes out of the hut provided with a knife. The dish is carried to a level place and the men sit down around it in one circle, while the women form another. Then large lumps of meat are pa.s.sed around, everybody cutting off a piece and taking a swallow of the soup, which is pa.s.sed around in a large leather cup. These dinners, which are held in the evening after the return from the hunt, are almost always enlivened by a mimic performance. A man or an old woman sits down in the center of the circle and amuses the a.s.sembly by singing and dancing or by making faces.

A favorite performance is one in which a man, with blackened face and with a thong tied around his head, writhes and makes odd grimaces.

After dinner the men sit chatting or gambling before the huts, while the women and children amuse themselves by running about, playing at ball, or dancing.

A strict religious custom forbids the Eskimo to work on the deerskins which are obtained in summer before the ice has formed; they are only dried and tied up in large bundles. In the fall, when on their way to the winter settlements, the Eskimo travel rather quickly. The boats are piled up with the spoils of the summer hunt and the place of destination is generally reached before the stormy weather sets in.

When it gets colder short excursions are made by boat in order to collect shrubs for covering the tents. Several families join in building a common hut, and on a fine day the old tents are torn down and the tent poles are converted into a strong frame, which is covered with a double roof. The bed and the platforms for the lamps are raised and henceforth all the cooking is done inside.

As soon as the first seals are caught with the harpoon the deer skins are prepared. If they were deposited under stones in summer, sledges set out to bring them to the settlements, and then they are distributed for winter clothing. According to Hall the western tribes are in the habit of spreading all the skins on one place and distributing them among the inhabitants of the settlement. I did not observe the same custom among the eastern tribes. Then they devote themselves to dressing the skins.

On Davis Strait this work falls to the share of the women, while among the Hudson Bay tribes it is done by the men. At this season the great religious feasts of the natives are celebrated, which announce, as it were, the commencement of winter.

SOCIAL ORDER AND LAWS.

The social order of the Eskimo is entirely founded on the family and on the ties of consanguinity and affinity between the individual families.

Generally children are betrothed when very young, but these engagements, not being strictly binding, may be broken off at any time. When the children reach maturity the girl learns the duties of a woman and the boy those of a man. As soon as he is able to provide for a family and she can do the work falling to her share, they are allowed to marry. It happens frequently that the young man's parents are unwilling to allow him to provide for his parents-in-law, and then _he_ may be rejected at any moment. Usually the young couple must begin housekeeping with the young wife's family and the young man, if belonging to a strange tribe, must join that of his wife. It is not until after his parents-in-law are dead that he is entirely master of his own actions. Though the betrothal be entered into in the days of childhood the bride must be bought from the parents by some present. In other instances the men choose their wives when grown up and sometimes a long wooing precedes the marriage.

The consent of the bride's parents, or, if they are dead, that of her brothers, is always necessary. Marriages between relatives are forbidden: cousins, nephew and niece, aunt and uncle, are not allowed to intermarry. There is, however, no law to prevent a man from marrying two sisters. It is remarkable that Lyon states just the reverse (p. 353).

I am sure, however, that my statements are correct in reference to the Davis Strait tribes.

Should the newly married couple join the wife's family this would serve as a check to polygamy, which, however, is quite allowable. It is only when the new family settles on its own account that a man is at full liberty to take additional wives, among whom one is always considered the chief wife. Monogamy is everywhere more frequent than polygamy, only a very few men having two or more wives. According to Ross polyandry occurs with the Netchillirmiut (II, pp. 356, 373). As long as the mother-in-law lives with the young family the wives are subordinate to her, while the mothers of both parties are independent of each other. No example came to my notice of both parents living with the newly married couple. Sometimes the man and wife do not set up a new household at once, but each remains at home. The property necessary for establishing a new family is the hunting gear of the man and the knife, sc.r.a.per, lamp, and cooking pot of the women.

A strange custom permits a man to lend his wife to a friend for a whole season or even longer and to exchange wives as a sign of friendship. On certain occasions it is even commanded by a religious law (see p. 605).

Nevertheless I know of some instances of quarrels arising from jealousy.

Lyon states, however, that this pa.s.sion is unknown among the Iglulirmiut (p. 355). The husband is not allowed to maltreat or punish his wife; if he does she may leave him at any time, and the wife's mother can always command a divorce. Both are allowed to remarry as soon as they like, even the slightest pretext being sufficient for a separation.

I may be allowed to refer once more to the division of labor between the man and woman. The princ.i.p.al part of the man's work is to provide for his family by hunting, i.e., for his wife and children and for his relatives who have no provider. He must drive the sledge in traveling, feed the dogs, build the house, and make and keep in order his hunting implements, the boat cover and seal floats excepted. The woman has to do the household work, the sewing, and the cooking. She must look after the lamps, make and mend the tent and boat covers, prepare the skins, and bring up young dogs. It falls to her share to make the inner outfit of the hut, to smooth the platforms, line the snow house, &c. On Davis Strait the men cut up all kinds of animals which they have caught; on Hudson Bay, however, the women cut up the seals. There the men prepare the deerskins, which is done by the women among the eastern tribes.

Everywhere the women have to do the rowing in the large boats while the man steers. Cripples who are unable to hunt do the same kind of work as women.

Children are treated very kindly and are not scolded, whipped, or subjected to any corporal punishment. Among all the tribes infanticide has been practiced to some extent, but probably only females or children of widows or widowers have been murdered in this way, the latter on account of the difficulty of providing for them. It is very remarkable that this practice seems to be quite allowable among them, while in Greenland it is believed that the spirit of the murdered child is turned into an evil spirit, called angiaq, and revenges the crime (Rink, p. 45).

Besides the children properly belonging to the family, adopted children, widows, and old people are considered part of it. Adoption is carried on among this people to a great extent.

If for any reason a man is unable to provide for his family or if a woman cannot do her household work, the children are adopted by a relative or a friend, who considers them as his own children. In the same way widows with their children are adopted by their nearest relative or by a friend and belong to the family, though the woman retains her own fireplace.

It is difficult to decide which relative is considered the nearest, but the ties of consanguinity appear to be much closer than those of affinity. If a woman dies the husband leaves his children with his parents-in-law and returns to his own family, and if a man dies his wife returns to her parents or her brothers, who are the nearest relatives next to parents or children. When a woman dies, however, after the children are grown up the widower will stay with them. In case of a divorce the children generally remain with the mother.

As a great part of the personal property of a man is destroyed at his death or placed by his grave, the objects which may be acquired by inheritance are few. These are the gun, harpoon, sledge, dogs, kayak, boat, and tent poles of the man and the lamp and pots of the woman. The first inheritor of these articles is the eldest son living with the parents. Sons and daughters having households of their own do not partic.i.p.ate in the inheritance. An elder adopted son has a preference over a younger son born of the marriage. Details of the laws which relate to inheritance are unknown to me.

Sometimes men are adopted who may almost be considered servants.

Particularly bachelors without any relations, cripples who are not able to provide for themselves, or men who have lost their sledges and dogs are found in this position. They fulfill minor occupations, mend the hunting implements, fit out the sledges, feed the dogs, &c.; sometimes, however, they join the hunters. They follow the master of the house when he removes from one place to another, make journeys in order to do his commissions, and so on. The position, however, is a voluntary one, and therefore these men are not less esteemed than the self dependent providers.

Strangers visiting their friends for a season are generally in a similar position, though they receive a wife if the host happens to have more than one; if the friend has hunting gear, a sledge, and dogs of his own, he can arrange a separate fireplace in the hut.

In summer most families have each their own tent, but in the fall from two to four join in building a house. Frequently the parents live on one side, the family of the son-in-law on the other, and a friend or relative in a small recess. Sometimes two houses have a common entrance or the pa.s.sages communicate with one another. The inhabitants of both parts usually live quite independently of one another, while the oldest man of every house has some influence over his housemates.

If the distance between the winter and the summer settlement is very great or when any particular knowledge is required to find out the haunts of game, there is a kind of chief in the settlement, whose acknowledged authority is, however, very limited. He is called the pimain (i.e., he who knows everything best) or the issumautang. His authority is virtually limited to the right of deciding on the proper time to shift the huts from one place to the other, but the families are not obliged to follow him. At some places it seems to be considered proper to ask the pimain before moving to another settlement and leaving the rest of the tribe. He may ask some men to go deer hunting, others to go sealing, but there is not the slightest obligation to obey his orders.

Every family is allowed to settle wherever it likes, visiting a strange tribe being the only exception. In such a case the newcomer has to undergo a ceremony which consists chiefly in a duel between a native of the place and himself. If he is defeated he runs the risk of being killed, by those among whom he has come (see pp. 465, 609).

There are numerous regulations governing hunting, determining to whom the game belongs, the obligations of the successful hunter towards the inhabitants of the village, &c.

When a seal is brought to the huts everybody is ent.i.tled to a share of the meat and blubber, which is distributed by the hunter himself or carried to the individual huts by his wife. This custom is only practiced when food is scarce. In time of plenty only the housemates receive a share of the animal.

A ground seal belongs to all the men who take part in the hunt, the skin especially being divided among them. A walrus is cut up at once into as many parts as there are hunters, the one who first struck it having the choice of the parts and receiving the head. A whale belongs to the whole settlement and its capture is celebrated by a feast (p. 603).

A bear or a young seal belongs to the man who first saw it, no matter who kills it.

Lost objects must be restored to the owner if he is known, game, however, excepted; for example, if a harpoon line breaks and the animal escapes, but is found later by another man, the game belongs to the latter. In Hudson Bay he is also allowed to keep the harpoon and line.

There is no way of enforcing these unwritten laws and no punishment for transgressors except the blood vengeance. It is not a rare occurrence that a man who is offended by another man takes revenge by killing the offender. It is then the right and the duty of the nearest relative of the victim to kill the murderer. In certain quarrels between the Netchillirmiut and the Aivillirmiut, in which the murderer himself could not be apprehended, the family of the murdered man has killed one of the murderer's relations in his stead. Such a feud sometimes lasts for a long time and is even handed down to a succeeding generation. It is sometimes settled by mutual agreement. As a sign of reconciliation both parties touch each other's b.r.e.a.s.t.s, saying, Ilaga (my friend) (Klutschak, p. 70).

If a man has committed a murder or made himself odious by other outrages he may be killed by any one simply as a matter of justice. The man who intends to take revenge on him must ask his countrymen singly if each agrees in the opinion that the offender is a bad man deserving death. If all answer in the affirmative he may kill the man thus condemned and no one is allowed to revenge the murder. (See Appendix, Note 4.)

Their method of carrying on such a feud is quite foreign to our feelings. Strange as it may seem, a murderer will come to visit the relatives of his victim (though he knows that they are allowed to kill him in revenge) and will settle with them. He is kindly welcomed and sometimes lives quietly for weeks and months. Then he is suddenly challenged to a wrestling match (see p. 609), and if defeated is killed, or if victorious he may kill one of the opposite party, or when hunting he is suddenly attacked by his companions and slain.

RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND THE ANGAKUNIRN (PRIESTHOOD).

Although the princ.i.p.al religious ideas of the Central Eskimo and those of the Greenlanders are identical, their mythologies differ in many material points. I will only mention here that they believe in the Tornait of the old Greenlanders, while the Tornarsuk (i.e., the great Tornaq of the latter) is unknown to them. Their Supreme Being is a woman whose name is Sedna.

The first report on this tradition is found in Warmow's journal of his visit to c.u.mberland Sound (Missionsblatt aus der Brudergemeinde, 1859, No. I, p. 19). The editor says:

The name of the good spirit is Sanaq or Sana, and he seems to be worshiped as the unknown deity. n.o.body could give a definite answer to Brother Warmow's frequent questions as to what they believed he was. They only said they invoked his help if they were in need. "Then we ask him," one of the men said, "and Takaq (the moon) gives us what we want, seals and deer." Another one said that Sanaq had lived on the earth and afterwards ascended to the moon.

In Hall's account of his explorations in Frobisher Bay it is mentioned that the tribes of that country, the Nugumiut, believe in a Supreme Being, and the following statement is given (Hall I, p. 524):

There is one Supreme Being, called by them Anguta, who created the earth, sea, and heavenly bodies. There is also a secondary divinity, a woman, the daughter of Anguta, who is called Sidne.

She is supposed to have created all things having life, animal and vegetable. She is regarded also as the protecting divinity of the Inuit people. To her their supplications are addressed; to her their offerings are made; while most of their religious rites and superst.i.tious observances have reference to her.

It is of great importance that in the journals of Hall's second journey Sedna is mentioned a few times (spelled Sydney), this being the only proof that she is known among the tribes of Hudson Bay.

The statements of the whalers visiting the Sikosuilarmiut and the Akuliarmiut of Hudson Strait correspond with my own observations. Before entering into a comparison of this tradition with similar ones belonging to other tribes, I will give the particulars of the myth as I received it from the Oqomiut and the Akudnirmiut.

SEDNA AND THE FULMAR.

Once upon a time there lived on a solitary sh.o.r.e an Inung with his daughter Sedna. His wife had been dead for some time and the two led a quiet life. Sedna grew up to be a handsome girl and the youths came from all around to sue for her hand, but none of them could touch her proud heart. Finally, at the breaking up of the ice in the spring a fulmar flew from over the ice and wooed Sedna with enticing song. "Come to me,"

it said; "come into the land of the birds, where there is never hunger, where my tent is made of the most beautiful skins. You shall rest on soft bearskins. My fellows, the fulmars, shall bring you all your heart may desire; their feathers shall clothe you; your lamp shall always be filled with oil, your pot with meat." Sedna could not long resist such wooing and they went together over the vast sea. When at last they reached the country of the fulmar, after a long and hard journey, Sedna discovered that her spouse had shamefully deceived her. Her new home was not built of beautiful pelts, but was covered with wretched fishskins, full of holes, that gave free entrance to wind and snow. Instead of soft reindeer skins her bed was made of hard walrus hides and she had to live on miserable fish, which the birds brought her. Too soon she discovered that she had thrown away her opportunities when in her foolish pride she had rejected the Inuit youth. In her woe she sang: "Aja. O father, if you knew how wretched I am you would come to me and we would hurry away in your boat over the waters. The birds look unkindly upon me the stranger; cold winds roar about my bed; they give me but miserable food.

O come and take me back home. Aja."

When a year had pa.s.sed and the sea was again stirred by warmer winds, the father left his country to visit Sedna. His daughter greeted him joyfully and besought him to take her back home. The father hearing of the outrages wrought upon his daughter determined upon revenge. He killed the fulmar, took Sedna into his boat, and they quickly left the country which had brought so much sorrow to Sedna. When the other fulmars came home and found their companion dead and his wife gone, they all flew away in search of the fugitives. They were very sad over the death of their poor murdered comrade and continue to mourn and cry until this day.

Having flown a short distance they discerned the boat and stirred up a heavy storm. The sea rose in immense waves that threatened the pair with destruction. In this mortal peril the father determined to offer Sedna to the birds and flung her overboard. She clung to the edge of the boat with a death grip. The cruel father then took a knife and cut off the first joints of her fingers. Falling into the sea they were transformed into whales, the nails turning into whalebone. Sedna holding on to the boat more tightly, the second finger joints fell under the sharp knife and swam away as seals (_Pagomys ftidus_); when the father cut off the stumps of the fingers they became ground seals (_Phoca barbata_).

Meantime the storm subsided, for the fulmars thought Sedna was drowned.

The father then allowed her to come into the boat again. But from that time she cherished a deadly hatred against him and swore bitter revenge.

After they got ash.o.r.e, she called her dogs and let them gnaw off the feet and hands of her father while he was asleep. Upon this he cursed himself, his daughter, and the dogs which had maimed him; whereupon the earth opened and swallowed the hut, the father, the daughter, and the dogs. They have since lived in the land of Adlivun, of which Sedna is the mistress.