Crepitus."[1] "The other great but malignant spirit is a nameless female," the wife or mother of Torngarsuk. She dwells under the sea in a habitation guarded by a Cerberus of her own, a huge dog, which may be surprised, for he sleeps for one moment at a time. Torngarsuk is not the maker of all things, but still is so much of a deity that many, "when they hear of God and his omnipotence, are readily led to the supposition that probably we mean their Torngarsuk." All spirits are called Torngak, and soak = great; hence the good spirit of the Eskimo in his limited power is "the Great Spirit."[2] In addition to a host of other spirits, some of whom reveal themselves affably to all, while others are only accessible to Angekoks or medicine-men, the Eskimo have a Pluto, or Hades, or Charos of their own. He is meagre, dark, sullen, and devours the bowels of the ghosts. There are spirits of fire, water, mountains, winds; there are dog-faced demons, and the souls of abortions become hideous spectres, while the common ghost of civilised life is familiar. The spirit of a boy's dead mother appeared to him in open day, and addressed him in touching language: "Be not afraid; I am thy mother, and love thee!" for here, too, in this frozen and haunted world, love is more strong than death.[3]
Eskimo myth is practical, and, where speculative, is concerned with the fortunes of men, alive or dead, as far as these depend on propitiating the gods or
- ↑ The circumstances in which this is possible may be sought for in Crantz, History of Greenland, London, 1767, vol. i. p. 206.
- ↑ Crantz, op. cit., i. 207, note.
- ↑ Op. cit., i. 209.
