Man himself, according to the Greenlanders, consists of at least two parts: the body and the soul—and these they hold to be quite distinct from each other. The soul can only be seen by aid of a particular sense which is found in men under certain conditions, or in those who possess a special gift: to wit, the angekoks. It appears in the same shape as the body, but is of a more airy composition. The angekoks explained to Hans Egede that souls were quite soft to the touch, indeed scarcely tangible at all, just as if they had neither muscle nor bone.'[1] The people of the east coast hold that the soul is quite small, no larger than a hand or a finger. The Greenlanders' word for the soul is tarnik; this resembles the word tarrak, which signifies shadow, and I think there can be no doubt that they have originally been the same word, since the Eskimo, as before indicated, used to regard the soul and the shadow as one and the same thing.[2] This tallies exactly with what we find among other peoples. The Fijian, for example, calls his shadow his dark soul, which leaves him during the night; his image in the mirror is his
- ↑ As to the constitution of the soul see also Paul Egede, Efterrelinger om Grönland, p. 149, and Cranz, Historie von Grönland, p. 258.
- ↑ Paul Egede says expressly (Efterretinger om Grönland, p. 126) that the natives make no distinction between tarrak and tarnek (tarnik), and he himself uses the two words indifferently. See also the same work, p. 92.
