The People of the Polar North/Chapter 14
Originally the Eskimos regarded the name as a kind of soul, with which was associated a certain amount of vitality and dexterity. The man who was named after one deceased, inherited the qualities of his name; and it was said that the dead man had no peace, and that his soul could not pass to the land of the departed, before his name had been given again.
Connected with this idea is the dread of mentioning a dead person by name before his name has been given again. If one did so, the name might easily lose some of its force.
After the death of the body, the name takes up its abode in a woman who is about to bear a child, and it keeps her pure internally as long as her condition lasts. It is born with the child at the same time as the child.
The child cries at birth: ateqarumavdlune, because it wants its name. But an ordinary person cannot decide upon it; a magician, or a "wise woman" (ilisttsoq[1]) must be appealed to, and his or her helping spirits say what the child's name is to be.
This view was upheld by the before-mentioned Nivigkana, the woman who had been to the country of the dead. But the greater number of her compatriots now declare the belief antiquated. Majaq, a young sceptic, defined it as follows:—
"One person must be distinguished from another, and as a mark of distinction, we give our children names. It pleases people to see their dear deceased ones live again in name; that is why we take the names of the dead for our children."
He, consequently, does not believe that the name is a soul. And all young people hold the same opinion as he.
But, as old Aisivak once said, when a young fellow shot a gull from a village where there lay a person who had just died: "Ah! the young people believe nothing and reverence nothing, as long as they are well and have food in plenty!"
- ↑ The word ilisitsoq is never used, for either sex, as suggesting a benignant influence.—G. H.