overflows it rains on earth. There are many crowberries there, and many ravens, who always settle on the heads of old women[1] and cling on to their hair; it is difficult to drive them off, and they seem to fill the place of lice here on earth. The souls of the dead can be seen up there by night, in the form of northern lights, playing football with a walrus head. On the east coast, however, it is believed that the northern lights are merely the souls of stillborn or prematurely born children, or of those who are killed after their birth. These children's souls 'take each other's hands and dance around in mazy circles. They play at ball, too, and when they see orphan children, they rush upon them and throw them to the ground. They accompany their sports with a hissing, whistling sound.'[2] Therefore, the northern lights are called alugsukat, which appears to mean untimely births, or children born in concealment. This notion of the Greenlanders seems to be closely related to the Indians' belief[3] that the northern lights are the dead in dancing array.
The Eskimos have no hell. Both the above named regions are more or less good, and whether the soul goes to the one or to the other does not
