The Popular Science Monthly, October, 1900: Vol. 57, May, 1900 to October, 1900Various
History
The Popular Science Monthly, October, 1900: Vol. 57, May, 1900 to October, 1900
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
begins, all the winter clothing, and the tent that has been in use
during the walrus-hunting season, are buried, and not used again until
the following walrus-hunting season. No walrus hide, or thongs made of
such hide, must be taken inland, where is the abode of the caribou.
Similar laws, although not quite so stringent, hold good in regard
to contact between seal and walrus. The natives always change their
clothing or strip naked before eating seal during the walrus season.
The soul of the salmon is considered to be very powerful. Salmon must
not be cooked in a pot that has been used for boiling other kinds of
meat. It is always cooked at some distance from the hut. Boots that
were used while hunting walrus must not be worn when fishing salmon,
and no work on boot-legs is allowed until the first salmon has been
caught and placed on a boot-leg.
The fact that these taboos are not restricted to caribou and walrus
suggests that the mythical explanation given above does not account for
the origin of these customs, but must be considered as a later effort
to explain their existence.
The transgressions of taboos do not affect the souls of game alone.
It has already been stated that the sea mammals see their effect upon
man also, who appears to them of a dark color, or surrounded by a
vapor which is invisible to ordinary man. This means, of course, that
the transgression also affects the soul of the evil-doer. It becomes
attached to it and makes him sick. The shaman is able to see, by the
help of his guardian spirit, these attachments, and is able to free the
soul from them. If this is not done the person must die. In many cases
the transgressions become attached also to persons who come in contact
with the evil-doer. This is especially true of children, to whose souls
the sins of their parents, and particularly of their mothers, become
readily attached. Therefore when a child is sick the shaman, first of
all, asks its mother if she has transgressed any taboos. The attachment
seems to have a different appearance, according to the taboo that has
been violated. A black attachment is due to removing oil-drippings from
under the lamp. As soon as the mother acknowledges the transgression of
a taboo, the attachment leaves the child’s soul and the child recovers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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