Carnivore Diet

When he got near he told me that he knew already who I was, and that very likely I knew who he was, for he was a man so much more unfortunate than other men that the story of his misfortune had traveled to distant places. No doubt I had heard the story, he said, but nevertheless he would tell it to me himself so that I might know it from his own lips and take warning from it and tell my friends to do the same. 

Many years ago his house had been standing by itself some distance from the village, but from where he stood beside the seal-hole watching for the seal to come up he could see several other hunters out sealing. The seal, when it came, proved to be a bearded one, but being a strong man he had been able to hold it and to kill it. Without any assistance he had with his ice pick enlarged the breathing-hole enough to pull the animal out. ( It was no mean feat, seeing that a bearded seal will weigh from six hundred to eight hundred pounds. ) Up to this time he had not thought of the other hunters, but now he looked around and saw that they were all far away, and while distinctly visible he felt sure that none of them had any idea what kind of a seal he had caught. ( The hunters' law does not require that the hunters within sight be summoned to share at the cutting up of a common small seal. ) When a bearded seal is killed all the hunters within view must be called in to share the prize. It had occurred to him that by keeping the thing secret (by pretending this was a common seal), he might keep the animal to himself, and especially the skin, for he knew that he could sell pieces of it to a neighboring tribe who seldom catch bearded seals, for numerous articles of value. Accordingly he secretly cut the animal up, gave out the story that he had killed only a small seal, and pledged his wife to secrecy; but the story leaked out as such stories will. People came to him and took away from him both the skin and the meat and reproached him bitterly. He now repented his act and felt crushed by the disapproval of his people, but his punishment was to be made even heavier, for within a year he began to lose his eyesight and in another year he was stone blind. Since then he, poor miserable man, had been blind and a charge upon the community. Thus it was sure to go with those who did wicked things; and while he felt sure that I was a good man, nevertheless to know his story would do me no harm, and he wished I would pass it on to others, warning them to avoid selfish ways. 

I had never heard this tale before, but Natkusiak told me later he had heard it from the Eskimo we had been with the previous summer. After this occurrence, whenever we told that we had visited this particular village, we were always asked whether we had seen the blind man, and then the story would be repeated to us, exactly as the blind man had told it, to illustrate how punishment comes to those who break the law

Range of the Kanghirgyuargmiut. In summer some of them (a few) hunt towards Minto Inlet; some hunt southeast and meet the Puiblirgmiut; most, however, hunt east and meet the Ekallugtogmiut and Ashiagmiut who live “on the east coast of our country, which is not far from here overland, and good sledding because we go by the rivers.” Some join the Ekallugtogmiut for a time and with them visit the Arkilinik (near Baker Lake above the head of Chesterfield Inlet] “where there are trees, and where the people have guns and white men's clothes.” (Have seen many metal articles, one shirt, one red knit woollen hood, etc., brought from these trips. ) They never met the Nagyuktogmiut. One man at least — Hitkoak has been both to the Akilinik and to Umingmuktok.

In the fall they (the Kanghirgyuargmiut] come to Prince Albert Sound and proceed to Banks Island where in winter they live chiefly on bears (some entirely; others partly on seals) off Nelson Head and east of it. When bear hunting they often see Cape Parry [on the mainland to the south ]. Nelson Head can be seen from Parry only from the hill tops, and that rarely, and it is much higher than Parry, so they must hunt almost to the middle of the strait.

They usually have houses on or by the shore when in Banks Island. They often see caribou but “do not know how to hunt them in winter.” They know there are musk-oxen inland but they do not go after them. In spring they return to the Sound and soon scatter to the various hunting places. Those going to the Ekallugtogmiut are already on the way intended starting the day after we came to the village and delayed for us). Those going north towards Minto do not leave the sea till “ the snow gets soft on the ice.” Wednesday, May 17. Have given up going farther in direction of Banks Island, as there are no people that way. Started 3:30 P.M. heading for Cape Back about true southwest. Camped 7:30 P.M. to get chance to write up some of my briefer notes before the fillings-in are forgotten or misremembered. Game. No seals seen on top the ice -- ugrug (bearded seals) are to be expected nearer land and seals are not up yet. Crossed about 400 or 500 caribou tracks, i of them over a week old. Migration seems over, or at least there is a lull. Saw three bands of eight, seven, and three. The latter two Natkusiak tried but got shot at last only three misses on the run at 200 yards. Ptarmigan seen every day, mostly ( or all ?) rock ptarmigan. Crows every day. No snow buntings since leaving Walliraluk. Distance traveled: 12 miles.

Pamiungittok tells : The Banks Island people used to be well off. They killed so many deer and [musk ] oxen that their dried meat sometimes lasted the year round. They got to killing each other. One man killed had relatives in the Sound. For this reason (i.e. because of witchcraft practised by the dead man's relatives in the Sound ) food became scarce [ in Banks Island ); there were no seals for food or fuel and the people died of hunger -those that had not been murdered in the feuds. This happened some fifteen years ago i.e. when Agleroittok (who is now about twenty - five) was a boy but [after] his two brothers (were] grown up.

General [ Comment). The Sound people are evidently the most prosperous Eskimo we have seen; they are the most " travelled ” and the best informed about their own country (Victoria Island) and its surroundings. While they have been to the Bay of Mercy on north Banks Island and west beyond Nelson Head on south Banks Island they do not seem any of them to have been across the [ Dolphin and Union) straits to the Akuliakattak summer hunting grounds ( near Cape Bexley on the mainland) , or to the sea anywhere on south Victoria Island except among the Haneragmiut and Puiblir miut. Those who have been to a little west of Uminmuktok have come from the east to it as visitors of the Ahiagmiut in most cases ( Hanbury's Arctic Coast Huskies? ). Hitkoak, about the most travelled of any, has been at the Bay of Mercy, well west of Nelson Head, to Uminmuktok and into Bathurst Inlet, and to the Arkilinik ( near Chesterfield Inlet]. He looks not over thirty -five. He says he has ceased travelling, for he has seen “ many places and none are so good as the [ Prince Albert] Sound country.” He told us that he and some other families with him killed not a single seal last winter - lived on polar bears alone. They got seal oil to burn from others in trade for bear fat and meat. Honesty seems on a higher level among them than among any other people we have seen except the Akuliakattagmiut and Haneragmiut. Their clothes are far the best, their tents the largest. They use far more copper than any other people — doubtless because it is more abundant [in their country ).

The Kogluktogmiut [of the Coppermine River] are very eager for metal rods for the middle piece of the seal spear. They never make any of copper, no doubt because copper is too scarce. Their ice picks are small : their seal hole feelers are all of horn or iron. In the Sound ( on the other hand] the copper ice picks are in some cases three quarters by one and a quarter inch and fifteen inches long. Most seal spears have middle pieces of copper the rest have iron (from McClure's ship? ). The seal hole feelers are most [ of them ) of copper. Some of their tent sticks are of local driftwood, some are round young spruce which they get from the Puiblirmiut who get them from our neighbors of last August. Some sleds come from Dease River; some from Cape Bexley, but in either case they have been bought of the Puiplirgmiut or the Haneragmiut. Their stone pots are said to be all from the Utkusiksialik or Kogluktualuk ( Tree River). Some they got from the Puiplirgmiut by the road Natkusiak and I came last week, some around the point [ Cape Baring) from the Hanerag miut by the road we are taking now. Their fire stones [iron pyrite for striking fire) are some from the Haneragmiut, some picked up in the mountains north of the Sound. The copper is all from the mountains northeast of the bottom of the Sound. They say some [detached ] pieces of pure copper (in those mountains) are as high as a man's shoulder and as wide as high; others project out of the hill side and are of unknown size. East of Prince Albert Sound (on the Kagloryuak River) they use willows chiefly for fuel in summer these are four to five feet high in places. Heather [for fuel] is also abundant. The musk oxen are confined to the unpeopled sections of north and northeast Victoria Island and to Banks Island. They think there are a few deer in north Victoria Island in winter but none in south Victoria Island. The charms that starved the Banks Island people ( see above] deprived that country (sea and land both ) of food animals for a time, but these have gradually increased and are Banks Island has again become a good country. Nevertheless people never hunt there summers. There is plenty driftwood along the south shore of Prince Albert Sound, some along the north shore. There is plenty (drift ]wood northwest of Nelson Head [ Banks Island) and considerably east of it, but it is hard to find in winter. There are plenty of macu roots (polygonum bistontum) on the Peninsula between the Sound and Minto (Inlet] — and elsewhere. People eat plenty of them. Many good fishing places here and there, but they do not live to nearly such an extent on fish as do the Ekalluktogmiut, who eat fish all winter, as well as seal.

These macu roots form on the mainland the chief food of the marmot and the grizzly bear, both of which are absent from Victoria Island. All Eskimo known to me use this root as food —the Alaskans extensively , but the Victorians to a negligible extent only.

Superstition. "Superstition” is perhaps more in evidence here than anywhere else. At the large village I could get no single individual to be photographed. An attempt to get a sample of “ auburn ” hair was futile and caused much (unfavorable) comment and suspicion. I tried first to trade some of my hair for itſa sample of the hair of a European looking Eskimo), then to buy it. There were continual requests that I should next summer " think away ” sickness from them and “think them ” plenty game and good fortune. There have been requests of this sort at all villages, but nowhere so serious, insistent and often repeated. Pamiungittok gave me a pair of breeches and an arrow to make me “ think good ” for his son who was sick - Agleroittok [is his name]. He asked repeatedly that I give him nothing in return, for he feared if I paid for the breeches I would not “ think good ” for his The blind man, Avranna, in Clouston Bay ( there is also a blind man at Prince Albert village - old man about 60) told us the reason of his blindness was that he had killed a large ugrug and when the people came wanting to cut it up he grudged to let them help themselves, therefore he became blind. I could not make out if the grudging' of itself caused the blindness, or if some “doctor” (shaman) was angered by it and made him blind — I believe the former. Natkusiak says it is no doubt true, for he knows of parallel cases in his own country. Usually there, however, it was this way : some one committed a bad deed (grudged to give something, stole, etc.) in secret. The “doctor” would then so ordain “ magically ” that the guilty person would in some way suffer then not only was the guilt punished but also people found out who was guilty (e.g. if an article had been stolen). 

At the first Nagyuktogmiut village in April some noise was heard outside our snowhouse. Our visitors of the time decided it was our son. (or my) turnnrak (familiar spirit] and forthwith started a chorus of requests and prayers to me (not to the turnnrak) to have the turnnrak provide plenty seals, good weather, good health, the safe birth of expected children, etc. As we were leaving there was a concerted request by all present that we intercede with the turnnrak for two women , Arnauyak and Anaktok ( both young, though only Anaktok recently married - other two or three years) that they might have children born to them . At last village (May 16) I staid over a day to see if a few lead and opium pills would do Agleroittok any good - he had had chronic diarrhoea since the summer 1908. They did seem to do good , but they were not satisfied with that — I must " pat” his stomach before going. Hitkoak made for me and bound on me a charm sash (usual type) so that I should remember and “ keep thinking that his wife should have safe delivery of a healthy child ” event about a month distant. 

Natkusiak says the angatkuk performances are very different here from (those among] his people he does not seem to think Victoria people are very powerful angatkuk (shamans] but has firm faith in all the claims of his own people's angatkuk. 

The woman's performance [described above) was very similar to that of Ovayuak [a Mackenzie River shaman] in January, 1907. The Sound people would not do cats' cradles for me because it is now in the long days — they play them only when sun is away — cf. Akulia kattagmiut as well as Ilavinirk's account of [cat's cradle customs in] Kotzebue Sound. 

Natkusiak tells : Some or all children are turnnrak [spirits] before birth . A few people can remember the things they knew when they were (prenatally) turnnrak. These are powerful angatkuk and can tell people many things they must not do (i.e. , [these shamans) impose taboos) . He has known one such man. He came as a turnnrak along the coast from the east and north, following every curve of the coast. Like other turnnrak of his class he was looking for a mother through whom to be born. He found her at Prince of Wales. The man when he grew up could tell many wonderful things that he knew before incarnation . Among other things, he told that the reason people don't see these turnnrak that are looking for mothers is that they iglaurut tautugnaittuagun (literally : travel through, or by, unseen regions ). Natkusiak does not know just how this is —he has merely heard the expression. Perhaps it means they travel underground , ” he says. He learnt in Prince Albert Sound (that there are there] some men who remember their prenatal existence.

During the two or three weeks that followed our crossing south from Victoria Island , our progress westward along the mainland coast was slow on account of frequent troubles in getting around the open spaces in the sea ice created by the mouths of small rivers, each of which was bringing its quota of warm inland water to help thaw out the sea. We had now and then to make a considerable detour to seaward through rough ice to avoid these river deltas. We lived during this time entirely on seals; for the grizzly bears, which had been numerous here a month earlier in the season the year before, had now all moved inland. The small seals were out in numbers, basking on the ice. Although white men agree in general in preferring the flesh of the bearded to that of the small seal, my tastes are in that matter, as in most other things, with the Eskimo, so we shot only common seals, though the bearded variety were also abundant.

I neglected to say that on our way from Bell Island across the Straits to Point Tinney Natkusiak killed a polar bear which was the largest animal of its kind I have ever happened to see, although not quite so large as others the skins of which I have seen among the Eskimo. I measured it with a common string, for my tape did not happen to be convenient at the moment, and then of course I lost the string before the measurements got recorded. I suppose the animal would have weighed in the neighborhood of eight hundred pounds. According to our custom we carried with us only about two days' supply of this bear meat. This was our only change in diet from the time we left the Victoria Island Eskimo, May 17th, until about a month later, when we shot some sea gulls near Cape Lyon. Otherwise we lived entirely on seals.