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are to abide by the original state of the natives, before their
contact with the Europeans. The difficulties in following this
rule are especially perceivable in the sections for Sociology and
Religion. The translation of the words from civilised languages
belonging to these domains can hardly be given without adding
explanation. Habits and customs that to the natives have the
same importance as laws, nevertheless, if classified as such
may be misunderstood. A still greater confusion has prevailed
in the designation of ideas relating to religion. For the name
of: «God», in Greenland and Labrador the word simply was
taken from the Danish language. In the Extreme West we meet
with several apparently Eskimo words as translation of «God»
the origin of which however seems very problematic. In the
Mackenzie vocabulary a word is formed signifying something
like «the land its worker». For spirits or the ghostly world in
Greenland and Labrador words have been applied, connected
with the idea of breathing, which evidently is Europeism. In
the Mackenzie we find «Dieu des Esquimaux» translated as
«Great breathing» and «Saint Esprit» as «High (takiyork-long?)
breath or breathing». A similar abnormity has prevailed in the
words referring to moral and physical evil. Some original Eskimo
designations however have been maintained in the Christian
instruction. This chapter on the whole also may be of some
more general interest to the history of culture, by tending to
show the origin and the earliest development or differentiation
of certain important ideas.
The vocabulary offered by the present book of course can
not be compared with dictionaries, it is but a selection taken
from a very large store of words. First a suitable series of
Greenland words had to be set up; then the other dialects had
to be examined in order to pick out what was really deviating
from this standard list, and finally a number of words was
added chiefly as examples, representing diversities either of
minor importance, or merely originated by the often mentioned
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