. Report of the Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913-18. Scientific expeditions. 172 Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 The soul is the mainspring of a man's vital strength. A dead man, or more accurately his shade, tarrak, may steal the soul of a living man, who will then pine away and die. In the winter of 1915 a Puivlik Eskimo named Wikkiak and the little boy Haugak were both ill at the same time. Wikkiak recovered soon after I visited their settlement, whereupon a shaman announced that his soul had been carried away by the shade of a dead man, but that my dog Jumbo had brought it back. Higilak
. Report of the Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913-18. Scientific expeditions. 172 Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 The soul is the mainspring of a man's vital strength. A dead man, or more accurately his shade, tarrak, may steal the soul of a living man, who will then pine away and die. In the winter of 1915 a Puivlik Eskimo named Wikkiak and the little boy Haugak were both ill at the same time. Wikkiak recovered soon after I visited their settlement, whereupon a shaman announced that his soul had been carried away by the shade of a dead man, but that my dog Jumbo had brought it back. Higilak therefore tied a strip of white deerskm round Jumbo's neck, thinking that perhaps he might be grateful for its warmth and bring back Haugak's soul also. The boy recovered, but a few months later. Fig. 53. A Tree river Eskimo wearing a fillet of caribou-skin around his forehead to cure a headache Higilak fell ill herself, and Jumbo had to come to the rescue once again. In the eyes of the Eskimos he was clearly not an ordinary dog, but possessed an unusual amount of vital force. On this occasion, therefore, Higilak rubbed his saliva over her forehead in order that some of this force might enter into her and overcome her sickness. Jumbo's reward was another neckband of white deerskin. Sometimes a friend will lend some of his vital force to drive away a disease. For example, if a man has stomach trouble, a comrade will often spit on his hand and rub the afflicted part, thereby instilling some of his own surplus strength to aid in the patient's recovery.' The calves of Avranna's legs were sore one day, and the natives asked me to rub them with my saliva. On another occasion Avranna bound my belt around his head to cure a headache; vitality communicated itself to my belt, passed into his body and effected a cure. A charm too will often keep off an aihnent. The bill of the yellow- billed loon {Gavia adamsi) will help to ward off snow blindness, so in spring some of the natives w
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