point, giving her pot a rap with the
cooking-stick by way of emphasis.

Rooney laughed.

"You think he must be watched, and his mischief prevented?" he said.

"That's what I think," said Okiok firmly.

"Tell me, what are the ceremonies to be gone through by that poor
unwilling Ippegoo, before he can be changed into a wise man?"

"Oh, he has much to do," returned Okiok, with his eyes on the lamp-flame
and his head a little on one side, as if he were thinking. "But I am
puzzled. Ujarak is cunning, though he is not wise; and I am quite sure
he has some secret reason for hurrying on this business. He is changing
the customs, and that is never done for nothing."

"What customs has he changed?" asked Rooney.

"The customs for the young angekok before he gets a torngak," replied
the Eskimo.

Okiok's further elucidation of this point was so complex that we prefer
to give the reader our own explanation.

Before assuming the office of an angekok or diviner, an Eskimo must
procure one of the spirits of the elements for his own particular
familiar spirit or torngak. These spirits would appear to be somewhat
coquettish and difficult to win, and marvellous tales are related of the
manner in which they are wooed. The aspirant must retire for a time to
a desert place, where, entirely cut off from the society of his fellows,
he may give himself up to fasting and profound meditation. He also
prays to Torngarsuk to give him a torngak. This Torngarsuk is the chief
of the good spirits, and dwells in a pleasant abode under the earth or
sea. He is not, however, supposed to be God, who is named Pirksoma,
i.e. "He that is above," and about whom most Eskimos profess to know
nothing. As might be expected, the weakness of body and agitation of
mind resulting from such exercises carried on in solitude throw into
disorder the imaginative faculty of the would-be diviner, so that
wonderful figures of men and monsters swim before his mental vision,
which tend to throw his body into convulsions--all the more that he
labours to cherish and increase such symptoms.

How far the aspirants themselves believe in these delusions it is
impossible to tell; but the fact that, after their utmost efforts, some
of them fail to achieve the coveted office, leads one to think that some
of them are too honest, or too strong-minded, to be led by them.
Others, however, being either weak or double-minded, are successful.
They assert that, on Torngarsu