Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/339

320 his incantations; and on that day it had been noticed by the ship's company that the Innuits went on board the vessel in their best attire, though no one then knew the cause. The general deference to the wishes of the angeko has some exceptions, though they are rare. One such exception was this: One day in the month of July, 1861, the angeko Mingumailo, who had two wives, sent from his tupic among the mountains to Koojesse, who was then staying at Cape True, with an order for the exchange of wives. Now Koojesse's wife, Tunukderlien—"Isabel," as we sometimes called her—was something of a belle, and, though Koojesse had been a good disciple of the angeko, he would not now yield to his demands. He refused to exchange his Tunukderlien for either of the two wives sent for his choice, and the latter returned to their husband. Thereupon the angeko became so enraged that he immediately came from the mountains, and entered the village of tupics like a demon. He first tried to negotiate a peaceable exchange, and then attempted by threats to effect what he wanted. With a loaded musket and a large knife, he prowled all night long around Koojesse's tupic, trying to take his life; but Koojesse had been warned, and finally took up his abode in one of the white men's tents near by. The next day Mate Rogers arrived, and the angeko, fearing him, fled away to his haunt in the mountains. Another instance of inattention to the angeko's advice I will relate here. One of the former husbands of Suzhi was sick. The angeko said Kokerjabin, who was at that time the wife of Sampson, must live with the invalid husband for two or three months, or he would die before spring. All the Innuits thought the angeko should be obeyed, but Kokerjabin refused to comply, declaring that she did not believe what the angeko said. Before spring, Suzhi's husband died as the angeko predicted, and therefore all the people despised Kokerjabin.

I will now mention various customs which have relation to the religious belief of the Innuits, though many of them can be explained only by the broad phrase, "The first Innuits did