Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/337

318 has been killed by accident, or who has committed suicide, certainly goes to the happy place. "All Innuits who have been bad—that is, unkind one to another—all who have been unhappy while on this earth, will go to Adleparmeun. If an Innuit kill another because he is mad at him, he will certainly go to Adleparmeun." They have a tradition of a deluge, which they attribute to an unusually high tide. On one occasion, when I was speaking with Tookoolito concerning her people, she said, "Innuits all think this earth once covered with water." I asked her why they thought so. She answered, "Did you never see little stones, like clams and such things as live in the sea, away up on the mountains?" The subject of the religious ideas and observances of the Innuits is nearly connected with that of their angekos, who have a great influence among these people, and exercise the only authority to which they in any degree submit. With regard to these angekos, it appeared to me that man or woman could become such if shrewd enough to obtain a mental ascendancy over others.

The angeko's business is twofold: he ministers in behalf of the sick, and in behalf of the community in general. If a person falls ill the angeko is sent for. He comes, and, before proceeding to his peculiar work, demands payment for his services, stating his price, usually some article to which he has taken a liking. Whatever he demands must be given at once, otherwise the expected good result of the ministration would not follow.

When the preliminary arrangements have been satisfactorily disposed of, the family of the sick person sit around the couch of the patient, and with earnestness and gravity join in the ceremonies. The angeko commences a talking and singing, the nature of which it is impossible to state more precisely than to say that it seems to be a kind of incantation or prolonged supplication, perhaps mingled with formulas which are supposed to charm away the disease. At intervals during this performance the family respond, frequently uttering a