A Description of Greenland/Chapter 20
CHAP. XX.
Greenland Tales of the Origin of the Stars and Planets.The Notions the Greenlanders have of the Origin of heavenly Lights, as Sun, Moon, and Stars, are very nonsensical; in that they pretend that they have formerly been so many of their Ancestors, who, on different Accounts, were lifted up to Heaven and became such glorious Celestial Bodies.
The Sun and Moon formerly Greenlanders, Brother and Sister.Their silly Stories concerning this Matter have been related in the Continuation to the Greenland Memoirs, or Relations; but as this Book, very likely, may not come to the Hands of every Body, I shall shortly remember some of them here. The Moon, as they will have it, has been a young Man, called Anningait, or Anningasina; whose Sister was the Sun, named Malina, or Ajut (by which latter Name they call any handsome Woman, for whom they have a Value, Ajuna.) The Reason why these two were taken up into Heaven, they give is this: There were once a Number of young Men and Women assembled to play together in a House made of Snow, (according to their Custom in the Winter Season) when the Moon or Anningait,Cause of their Transformation. who was deeply in Love with his Sister, who assisted at this Assembly, was used every Night to put out the Light, that he might caress her undiscovered: But she not liking these stolen Caresses, once blackened her Hands with Soot, that she might mark the Hands, Face, and Clothes of her unknown Lover, who in the dark made Addresses to her, and by that discover who he was: (Hence, they say, come the Spots that are observed in the Moon) for as he wore a Coat of a fine white Rain-Deer Skin, it was all over besmeared with Soot) hereupon Malina, or the Sun, went out to light a Bit of Moss; Anningait or the Moon did the same, but the Flame of his Moss was extinguished; this makes the Moon look like a fiery Coal,Why the Moon shines not so bright as the Sun. and not shine so bright as the Sun. The Moon then run after the Sun round about the House for to catch her; but she, to get rid of him, flew up into the Air, and the Moon pursuing her, did likewise; and thus they still continue to persue one another, though the Sun's Career is much above that of the Moon[1].
The Moon seeks yet his Livelihood out of the Seas.They also tell us, that the Moon is yet obliged to seek for his Livelihood upon the Earth and Sea, in catching of Seals, as a Food he formerly was used to; which they pretend he is a doing, when he appears not in the Air: Nay, they do not stick to say, that he now and then comes down to give their Wives a Visit, Caresses their Wives.and caress them; for which Reason no Woman dare sleep lying upon her Back, without she first spits upon her Fingers, and rubs her Belly with it.
For the same Reason the young Maids are afraid to stare long at the Moon, imagining they might get a Child by the Bargain. During the Eclipse of the Sun no Man dare stir out of the House; and likewise, when the Moon is eclipsed, no Women goes abroad, because they fancy, that both hate the Sex of the other. The Sun rejoices at the Death of a Man.The Sun for Joy puts on her Pendants, or Ear-bobs; the Reason of which they take to be the Hatred she bears against her Brother, which also reaches to his Sex. As on the contrary, the Greenland Women wear their Pendants at the Birth of a Boy, because so useful a Creature is come into the World. Their Notion about the Stars is,Origin of the Stars. that some of them have been Men, and other different sorts of Animals and Fishes. The faint Light of some Stars they attribute to their eating the Kidney; and Brightness of others, to their feeding upon Liver. They give also Names to many Stars and Constellations, viz. the three Sons in the Belt of Orion, they name Siektut, that is separated; because these three, they say, before their Metempsychosis, or rather Metamorphosis, were three honest Greenlanders, who being out at Sea, a Seal catching, were bewildred, and not being able to find the Shore again, were taken up into Heaven.
Ursa Major, the great Bear Star, is stiled by those that dwell in the 64 Degree, Tugto, or Rain-Deer; while they that live in the Bay of Disco at 99 Degrees, call it Asselluit, the Name of a Tree, to which they tie their Line, when they shoot Seals. Taurus, the second Sign in the Zodiac, is named Kellukturset, or Kennel of Hounds, who seem to have a Bear among them; by this Constellation they reckon their Hours by Night. Iversuk, that is, two Persons that contend with Songs or Verses in taunting one another, as is customary among the Greenlanders. These two Stars are in the Constellation Taurus, of which heretofore. Aldebaren or Nennerroak, that is, a Light who lights the two Singers. Canis Major is called Nelleraglek, which is a Name of a Man amongst them; this they say has got on a Coat of Rain-Deers Skin. Gemini, Auriga and Cupella are named Killaub Kuttuk, that is, the Breast Bone of Heaven.
When two Stars seem to meet together, they say, that they are a visiting one another; others will have it to be two Women, who being Rivals, take one another by the Hair.
What they take Thunder to be.Concerning Thunder and Lightning, they say, that two old Women live together in one House in the Air, who now and then fall out and quarrel about a thick and stiff outstretched Seal Skin (because such a Skin, if beaten as a Drum, has some Likeness to the Noise of Thunder;) whilst they are thus by the Ears together, down comes the House with great bouncing and cracking, and the Lamps are broken, the Fires and broken Pieces fly about in the Air, and this, in their Philosophy, is Thunder and Lightning.
In their astronomical System, the Heaven turns about upon the Point ofa huge Rock. The Snow, according to their Fancy, is the Blood of the Dead, on account that it turns reddish if you keep it in the Mouth. The Rain comes from a Ditch or Weer above in Heaven;What the Rain is. when it overflows there, it Rains here below.
They measure the Time by Months.They have no Calendar or Almanacks, nor do they compute or measure the Time by Weeks or Years, but only by Months; beginning their Computation frum the Sun's first rising above their Horizon in the Winter; from whence they tell the Month, for to know exactly the Season, in which every sort of Fishes, Sea Animals, or Birds seek the Land; according to which they order their Business.
As nonsensical now as these Notions of the Greenlanders are (as they in reality are) yet they come short of the Egyptian King Ptolomy's Infatuation, who by the loathsome Flattery of his Astronomers was persuaded that his Queen Berenice's Head of HairBerenice's Hair turned into Stars. was translated into Heaven and astrifed, if I may say so; which Constellation to this Day goes by the Name of Coma Berenices, or Berenice's Hair: And what Travellers relate of China and the East-Indies, where some are of Opinion, that the Sun's Eclipse is nothing but, that a certain Devil or Spright sometimes swallows up the Sun, and then again spews it out.
- ↑ They assign the Moon a House in the Western Part of the World, where he is often visited and restored to by the Angekkuts. And the Sun, they say, has her Abode in the East; but she is inaccessible on account of her Heat, which keeps the Angekkuts at a Distance; at which she is sorely grieved, because she cannot learn by them, how Matters stand upon Earth.