Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - I. The Eskimo tribes, their common origin, their dispersion and their diversities in general - Religion and folklore
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
they perform this at once by their often described descent to
the goddess Arnakuagsak who resides on the bottom of the
ocean and is able at her will to keep the animals imprisoned
or set them free to the benefit of the sealhunters.
Now tradition tells that Arnakuagsak was the daughter of a
mighty angakok who travelling with her in an umiak (skinboat)
was overtaken by a gale and in order to save himself threw her
overboard. As she would cling to the sides of the boat he by
and by cut off her fingers and hands. But these parts of her
body were then converted into seals and whales, and she
herself entrusted with the sway over them in connection with her
submarine residence to which she was taken on going to the
bottom. On the opposite side of Davis Strait we recognise the
same myth among the traditions collected by Dr. Boas. He gives
an interesting version of it in which Sedna (Sana?) is treated by
her father as just described and in dying also becomes a demon
or spirit but somewhat differing from Arnakuagsak. According
to Petitot the latter is unknown at the Mackenzie R.; should it
be affirmed, that the Greenland myth is also unknown in Alaska,
we must suppose that it has been invented under the migration
to Greenland, most likely by the angakoks and founded on elder
traditions.
The main material of which the traditional tales are
composed consists of what we may call ELEMENTS OF THE
FOLKLORE, namely events, animate beings or persons, properties of
the same etc., more or less reiterated in different tales. They
are combined in various ways, and such compilations can be
taken out of one story and inserted in another. Finally these
elements or parts are filled out and cemented by what tends to
form a new story. As these tales can serve only through
indirect inferences to indicate the former homesteads and
migrations of the tribes, their historical value will be essentially
increased by having collections of them from different localities
for comparison. Contributions of this kind have lately
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
