10 s. XL APRIL 17, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
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able ; but it is the death-note of their unspoiled
individuality."
Mr. Kasmussen thus relates the origin of his sojourn among the Eskimos : " When I was a child I used often to hear an old Greenlandic woman tell how, far away north, at the end of the world, there lived a people who dressed in bear skins and ate raw flesh. Their country was always shut in by ice, and the daylight never reached over the tops of their high f jelds. Who- ever wished to go there must travel with the south wind, right up to the Lord of the northern gales." So he determined to go and see " the new people," as the old story-teller called them, and relate his recollections of them, and this very interesting volume is the result.
We have an account of his first meeting with the Polar Eskimos. He soon encountered a magician, Sagdloq, the oldest magician of his tribe, who " could crawl out of his skin, and then draw it on again " ; but " any man who saw a magician in this state, ' flesh bare,' would die," so he was quite safe in making the assertion. He was, however, very candid, and laughingly told Mr. Rasmussen it was " all foolery, silly humbug, nothing but lies ! "
As regards women, the men love their wives, when the fancy takes them, but their idea is " if affection is to be kept alive the woman must feel occasionally that the man is strong," and in order to show this the wives are often brutally maltreated.
The Eskimos' views of life are, of course, very primitive. They believe that " when the earth was made it dropped down from above ; the soil, the hilis, and the stones came down from the heavens," and people came up out of the earth.
Then there is a story of a man and a woman. Men increased ; they grew more and more numerous ; they did not know death, and they grew very old ; nor did they know the sun ; they lived in the dark ; it was only inside the houses that there was light ; they burnt water in the lamps at that time water would burn. The people who did not know how to die grew too many : they overfilled the earth. Then there came a mighty flood, when many were drowned. The traces of this flood are to be found on the tops of the high hills, where you often find shells."
The Eskimos believe that every person con- sists of a soul, a body, and a name. The soul is immortal ; it is outside the person, but follows it, as his shadow follows a man in the sunshine. " Although the soul is thus not inside the body, the body and the soul are nevertheless inseparable as long as a person is to continue alive ; for when the soul leaves the body, the body pines away and dies. After death the soul ascends to heaven or goes down into the sea ; it is good to be in either place." They believe that punish- ment overtakes an evildoer in this world, and that the soul of a man who has been murdered avenges itself by frightening his murderer to death.
The book is a most valuable addition to the small knowledge we possess of the people of the Polar North ; it is full of illustrations, some coloured from sketches made by Count Harold Moltke, who unfortunately became very ill. Some of the drawings were executed when he was in great pain, but he bravely persevered. We do not think that many of our readers would care to go out sketching in a temperature of 30 -below zero.
BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES. APRIL.
MR. F. C. CARTER of Hornsey has issued three short lists, Nos. 13, 14, and 15. " The first contains books on Italy, Switzerland, Portugal, and Spain ; No. 14 is devoted to books, maps, and views relating to America ; and No. 15 includes India, Persia, and China. In the last are an oil painting, in frame, of natives and forest scenery, 1800, 4Z. 4s. ; and a pair of pictures of tigers in the jungle, 18s. 6d. Under China are three paintings of harbours, besides Chinese views of tortures on rice paper.
Mr. Bertram Dpbell begins his Catalogue 170 with three collections of water-colour drawings. The first contains seventy, done about 1790-95 by J. Walton, forming a series of views of the Lake district as known to Wordsworth, 151. 15s. A companion volume of sixty-nine drawings is 14Z. 14s. : and the third also consists of Lake views, 151. They are mounted in large folio volumes bound in russia. The next items are books from the Britwell Court Library, the famous collection formed by Mr. Christie Miller. Then we find books on Freemasonry from the library of Mr. Thomas Francis of Havant (P.M. 804), the list opening with a collection of upwards of two hundred pamphlets bound in 17 vols., half -vellum, 30Z. They date from 1751 to 1892, and, Mr. Dobell says, " would prove invaluable to any one conducting researches into the history and mystery of the craft." Many of the pamphlets are rare, while others are of high historical importance. In the miscellaneous portion of the Catalogue are items under Drama and a large number of pamphlets and poetical tracts. The following, although cheap books, have their own special interest : Allan Cunning- ham's ' Maid of Elvar,' 1832, 2s. 6d. ; D'Israeli's ' Amenities of Literature," first edition, 3 vols., uncut, 1841, 5s. ; Hunt's ' Reflector,' 2 vols., 1811, 12s. 6d. ; Barbara's ' Life of Hook,' 2 vols., 1849, 2s. 6d. ; Kenny Meadows's ' Heads of the People,' 2 vols., Anthony Trollope's copy, 1840 1841, 6s. 6d. ; Lady Morgan's ' Dramatic Scenes from Real Life,' 2 vols., 1833, 2s. 6d. ; Edward Moxon's ' Sonnets,' privately printed, 1830, Is. r and Francis Newman's ' Hebrew Monarchy,' 1853, 3s. 6d. There are 100 items relating to Chess, and 150 under Incunabula and Early Printed Books.
Messrs. W. Heffer & Sons of Cambridge include in their Catalogue 48 Burne-Jones's ' The Flower Book,' 61. 6s. ; Stubbs's ' Cambridge,' with 24 lithographs by Railton, 1904, 51. 5s. ; and Cameron's ' Baths of the Romans,' 1772, II. 10s. There is a fine set of The Studio, including the extra numbers and the folding plate to No. 1, 11. Is. A list under Bibliography includes Blades's ' Caxton,' 1863, 51. 5s. ; and Hain's ' Repertorium,' 4 vols., 1826, 51. There are a number of Greek and Latin classics, also many items under Philology. In the general list we- find Arnold's ' The Strayed Reveller ' and ' Empedocles on Et;na,' both first editions morocco by Zaehnsdorf, 1849-50, 13Z. 13s Browning first editions include ' Paracelsus, uncut, original boards, 1835, 61. 6s. ; ' Strafford, morocco, 1837, 51. ; ' Bordello,' 1840, 4Z. 4s. ' The Statue and the Bust ' and ' Cleon,' 2 vols. morocco, 1855, 15Z. 15s. ; and ' Gold Hair.' morocco, 1864, 11. 7s. Under Coleridge is the
