race, with some slight shades of difference, displays the same
religious sentiments prevalent among all its tribes. Their
loose morality renders the men addicted to polygamy, and
causes them to prostitute without shame their wives and
daughters, whom they regard as creatures of an inferior order,
to be disposed of according to their pleasure.
In Greenland, and in Labrador, missionaries of the United
Brethren have long had-settlements among the native people,
who are of the same race which is elsewhere spread
along the; shores of the Polar Seas. From these missionaries
we have obtained much more accurate information
respecting the habits of the people than from any other
quarter. The following particulars, which I extract. from
their accounts, relate chiefly to the Esquimaux of Greenland,
from whom, however, it is well known that the western tribes
of the same race differ but in accidental circumstances.
Paragraph 1.—^
The voyagers who first described the natives of Greenland
formed very erroneous opinions respecting them. It was
reported that,they worshipped the sun, and sacrificed; to the
devil. Sailors who had observed them look intentlyon the heavens,
on rising in the morning, hence derived the first of these
notions: the second arose "from the discovery of fiat square
stones, strewn with cinders and bones: it was concluded that
these were places of sacrifice, and to whom should they sacrifice
but to the devil ? When the Moravian missionaries learnt
their-language, and were able , to converse with them, they
found these notions to be quite erroneous.
The Greenlanders, like other nations, believed in the existence
of supernatural powers exercising control over the destinies
of men. It-appears, however, as we might a priori
imagine, that they had in general no clear idea of a Creator
or a creation. “ They knew not, and perhaps the generality of
them never considered, whether things were always as they
are or not.” Yet, if we may believe the Moravian missionaries,
whose good faith seems above suspicion, there were
some philosophers among these Pagan seal-catchers, who
speculated on the doctrine of final causes. An Esquimaux
told one of the missionaries that hé had often reflected that a
kadjak, with all its tackle and implements, does not grow of
itself into existence, but must be made with labour and contrivance.
But a bird, he added, is constructed with greater
skill than the best kadjak, and no man bin make a bird.
“ I bethought me,” said the Greenlander, “ that he pro-
cèeded from his parents, and they from their parents; but
there must have- been some first parents-^-whence did they
corned Certainly, I concluded there must'be a being able to
make them and all other things; a ’being infinitely more
mighty ahd knowing than the wisest man.”
The Greenlanders believed universally in the existence of
spirits, good and evil, besides the souls of men. The ange^-
koks, or diviners, who pretended to have visited frequently
the realm of sousls^ describe them, as pale and soft; not to be
felt, if any one should attempt to vgrasp. ■ them. They be-
rlié^’é'd» 40- a future existence, which, was to be without end;
This elysium was generally placed by them in the abyssës
of the ocean, to which th e deep cavities of rocks are avenues.
There dwells the great spirit Torngarsuk, and his mother,
under a joyous and perpetual summer, white a shining sun
is obstfured- by no night ; there is a fine limpid stream,
abounding with fine.Seals, fish, and fowls easyito: be caught,
and even t|" be found boiling alive in a great kettle. But
these seats’ of the. gods cän ’ be approached i only by those
who* have displayed great courage and address, who have
mastered many seals, a id have undergone hardships, have
been drowned in the sea, or by women who have died in
child-bed. Here is obviously the persuasion| that virtue,
bravery at least, is rewarded in the futures life. Before the
disembodied sou! enters Tomgarsuk’s realm, it undergoes a
sort of purgation by sliding, five days or longer, down a
rigged rock, which is thereby full of blood aind gore. Unfortunate
souls who perish in cold winter, or boisterous
weather, incur a risk of being utterly destroyed on the road.
Annihilation is regarded by the Greenlanders, as by other
nations, with'peculiar horror; and to prevent it, the survivors
abstain for five days from certain meats, and from all noisy