Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo - Alternative Religions ...

Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo - Title Page
accordance with what will be explained in the following introduction, we likewise suppose the principal
part of the folk-lore to have originated about this period, the subjects mentioned in the tales would
constitute a means for guiding us in search of the locality where the first settling on the sea-shore is
likely to have taken place. For this purpose it will be sufficient to call to mind the tales treating of the
following subjects:
1. An expedition to the inlanders for the purpose of procuring metal knives.
2. A man descended both from the coast people and the inlanders, and his deeds among both.
3. The brothers visiting their sister, who had been married into a tribe of cannibals.
4. An onslaught on the coast people, from which only a couple of children were saved, who went off
roaming far and wide, and performed great deeds.
5. A woman living alternately among the coast people and the inlanders, persuading them to wage war
against each other.
6. Women who from different causes went and settled down among the inlanders.
7. A man taming wild animals for the purpose of crossing the frozen sea.
8. Different travels to Akilinek.
On comparing these subjects of the tales with the present geographical conditions, we will find that in all
respects they suggest America and not Asia. The probable identity of the "inlanders" with the Indians has
already been remarked on. When the new coast people began to spread along the Arctic shores, some
bands of them may very probably have crossed Behring Strait p. 73 and settled on the opposite shore,
which is perhaps identical with the fabulous country of Akilinek. On the other hand, there is very little
probability that a people can have moved from interior Asia to settle on its polar sea-shore, at the same
time turning Eskimo, and afterwards almost wholly emigrated to America.
On comparing the Eskimo with the neighbouring nations, their physical complexion certainly seems to
point at an Asiatic origin; but, as far as we know, the latest investigations have also shown a transitional
link to exist between the Eskimo and the other American nations, which would sufficiently indicate the
possibility of a common origin from the same continent. As to their mode of life, the Eskimo decidedly
resemble their American neighbours; whereas all the northernmost nations of the Old World, with the
exception of the Kamtskadales, are pastoral tribes, regarding fishing on their rivers as only a secondary
occupation; and when some of them have settled on the river-sides, or even on the sea-shore, given up
their reindeer, and made fishing and hunting their main means of subsistence, these have still been
families originally belonging to the pastoral tribes, who have changed their mode of life chiefly on
account of poverty. In the Old World we nowhere find anything at all like a coast race as opposed to an
inland people, with the exception of the Asiatic Eskimo or the Coast-Tschoukschees, who are quite
different from, but still live in friendly relations with, the pastoral Tschoukschees. As to religion, the
Eskimo are also allied to the Americans, and differ from the Asiatic nations, who have a more perfect
system of deities, worship idols, and with whom sacrifices form the principal part of their religious rites.
With regard to their language, the Eskimo also appear akin to the American nations in regard to its
decidedly polysynthetic structure. Here, however, on the other hand, we meet with some very remarkable
similarities between the Eskimo idiom and p. 74 the language of Siberia, belonging to the Altaic or Finnish
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