Page:The Netsilik Eskimos (1931).djvu/278

The powers that rule the earth and all the animals and the lives of mankind on earth are the great spirits who live in the sea, on land, out in space and in the Land of the Sky. There are many, and many kinds of spirits, but there are only three really great and really independent ones, and they are: Nuliajuk, Nârssuk and Tatqeq. These three are looked upon as directly practising spirits, and the most powerful of them all is Nuliajuk, the mother of animals and mistress both of the sea and the land. At all times she makes mankind feel how she vigilantly and mercilessly takes care that all souls, of both animals and mankind, are shown the respect that ancient rules of life demand.

She rules through to·nrät, both the ordinary to·nrät and to·nrät kiglɔrigtut: the evil spirits. By means of these she either makes the animals visible and easy to hunt, so that people have food enough and clothing and warmth, or she makes them invisible, lets them disappear entirely, so that mankind has to go hungry and cold.

Through the same spirits she can influence wind and weather, especially pᴇrsɔq: blizzard, which prevents hunting trips and hunting at the breathing holes.

Nârssuk or Sila, and Tatqeq or Aningait, are more subordinate: nevertheless, they work quite independently, especially Nârssuk out in space; for Tatqeq in the Land of the Sky seems mostly to serve the souls in the Land of the Dead and therefore is the least feared.

In consequence, life on earth is a constant alternation between evil and good, between mankind and the universe, the powers of the sea, the land, space and the Land of the Sky. Mankind is held in awe through its fear of hunger and sickness.

I once asked the following question of Qaqortingneq:

"What is it you desire most of life?"

He answered: "I would like at all times to have the food I require,