Among unknown Eskimo: An account of twelve years intimate relations with the primitive Eskimo of ice-bound Baffin Land, with a description of their ways of living, hunting customs & beliefsBilby, Julian W.
Religion
Among unknown Eskimo: An account of twelve years intimate relations with the primitive Eskimo of ice-bound Baffin Land, with a description of their ways of living, hunting customs & beliefs
Bilby, Julian W.
Baffin Island (Nunavut); Eskimo mythology; Eskimos -- Religion
The tribesfolk are ranged in two long lines, the men and women facing
each other, and a lane between. Then the “Kailuktetak” (a minor order
among the initiate) open the ceremonies. Each conjuror is furnished
with a deer-horn scraper like a long curved knife (used in the ordinary
course of things for scraping the newly formed ice from the kyaks as
they are drawn out of the water), to which is attached a small piece of
bearskin. He starts off down the living lane, dancing and shouting in
glee, touching first a man and then a woman with the wand as he goes.
The two thus indicated pair off, and are man and wife for the next
twenty-four hours, or perhaps a little longer. The fun is fast and
furious. Much of the whole thing has been prearranged, and the element
of surprise is rather subordinate to that of anticipation. The
conjurors choose among the women for themselves first, and next for
those hunters who have had sufficient eye for beauty and sufficient of
this world’s goods to mention the fact privately and persuasively
beforehand.
There has been quite a stream of visitors to the conjuror’s house of
late, and quite a number of presents made, which forgetfulness on the
part of that worthy has failed to return. So that the pairing off on
this auspicious day is largely a prearranged affair. However, it
occasions plenty of Eskimo laughter and delight. The enceinte (and the
old folks) are not included in this adventure. They play the part of
spectators only, but applaud or deride as heartily as the rest over
each mating. These women are Kooveayootiksatyonerktoot, i.e.,
“no-longer-the-material-for-a-rejoicing,” having apparently given
hostages to fortune already, or having sufficiently fulfilled the hopes
of the community. Children are paired off first—boys and girls of no
more than twelve years—and then the adults.
Each couple, as they are selected, join hands and walk away towards the
man’s dwelling, attended for a little distance by the Kiluktetak who
has picked them out, dancing all round them and about them like a mad
thing. If they chance to touch him, they too begin to dance, and to
voice their excitement in no uncertain manner. On entering the
dwelling, each drinks a little water and mentions the place of his or
her birth.
The conjuror has an âvetak slung upon his breast, that is, the entire
skin of a seal which, inflated, is generally used as a float on the
kyak. On this day, however, it serves another purpose. As the couple
presently return to the Kilukletak, they pour water into this, and each
individual, drinking from it again and again, mentions the place of his
or her birth a second time. The rite is official, and sets the
conjuror’s seal upon the proceedings and its consequences.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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