Two men now stepped forward with rifles loaded with blank
cartridges, while a third brought a vessel of urine and flung it on
the flames. At the same time one of the men fired a shot into the
fire; and as the cloud of steam rose it received the other shot,
which was supposed to finish Tun?a for the time being.
In late autumn, when storms rage over the land and break the icy
fetters by which the frozen sea is as yet but slightly bound, when
the loosened floes are driven against each other and break with loud
crashes, and when the cakes of ice are piled in wild disorder one
upon another, the Esquimaux of Baffin Land fancy they hear the
voices of the spirits who people the mischief-laden air. Then the
ghosts of the dead knock wildly at the huts, which they cannot
enter, and woe to the hapless wight whom they catch; he soon sickens
and dies. Then the phantom of a huge hairless dog pursues the real
dogs, which expire in convulsions and cramps at sight of him. All
the countless spirits of evil are abroad striving to bring sickness
and death, foul weather and failure in hunting on the Esquimaux.
Pages:
1522
1523
1524
1525
1526
1527
1528
1529
1530
1531
1532
1533
1534
1535
1536
1537
1538
1539
1540
1541
1542
1543
1544
1545
1546