114 Rasmussen’s lover). Hansen, the expedition’s photographer, joined this small group at Kent Peninsula, midway between Hudson Bay and Alaska, on November 1, 1923. Along the way, Rasmussen found ten Tuniit buildings at Malerualik on King William Island, west of the region that the expedition had previously examined. This was an area then inhabited by the Seal Eskimo, but the objects he excavated there further confirmed the close connection between the Tuniit and Thule cultures, as well as their ties to Alaska. Rasmussen’s party arrived at Point Hope on the north coast of Alaska after a journey across the entire length of the North American Arctic. There, Rasmussen continued his documentation, in the course of which he visited a spirit house, where he found a group of six intriguing masks. He negotiated to purchase them and brought them back to Denmark (figs. 18–20). An elderly man named Qalajaoq related the background of the carving of the masks: When a shaman returned from a journey to the land of the spirits, he would enter a trance and talk about the supernatural things he had seen, about the many strange entities he had encountered, and about the experiences he had participated in. But it was not just during this trance that the shaman expressed these events. He would also recount his experiences during mystical festivals where the spirits themselves were thought to be present. To accomplish this, the shaman needed masks representing the creatures he had met during his spiritual journeys. He was aided in this by the most skilled woodcarvers of the tribe. Before they started working the wood, the shaman would describe in great detail how the masks should look, so that in the ensuing song and dance performance they could be presented in the same way he had experienced in the land of the spirits (Rasmussen 1934: 369). On August 31, 1924, Rasmussen landed by ship in Nome, which proved to be the ultimate terminus of the Fifth Thule Expedition since an attempt to continue on to Siberia was repulsed for visa reasons. His arrival in Nome happened to be at a very fortuitous time because Eskimo from all across Alaska were there for the annual trading rally. These included people from King Island, the so-called Ukiuvangmiut; inland dwellers from the Seward Peninsula; Qavjasâmiut and Kingingmiut from Cape Prince of Wales; Ungalardlermiut from Norton Sound and the Yukon Delta; Siorarmiut from St. Lawrence Island; and finally Nunivaarmiut from Nunivak Island to the south. Save for the latter, all of these FIG. 14: Doll. Copper Eskimo, Northwest Territories. Collected in 1923–24. Leather. H: 31.5 cm. The National Museum of Denmark, Ethnographic collection, inv. P30.313. © The National Museum of Denmark. greatly offended the spirits and as punishment they had sent disease and hunger to the island. This created an unexpectedly perilous situation: One night when he had not yet fallen asleep, Olsen overheard Niviatsanaq saying to her husband, “The only thing that can make the disease disappear from this island is to have the two strangers killed—now, while they are sleeping!” He was jumping out of bed to confront them, only to hear Angutimarik answer that he did not want them dead. Despite this slight reassurance, from that night onward they did not feel safe on the island (Mathiassen 1926: 98). After being stranded for six months, in February Mathiassen and Olsen were finally able to leave Southampton Island. Frozen Strait lived up to its name—it had frozen to such an extent that they were able to cross directly to Danish Island via dog sled. In other ruins near Pond Inlet near the northern end of Baffin Island, Mathiassen excavated another 2,000 objects, mainly bone and stone tools. Among these there was a simple but greatly significant object: a scraper made from walrus ivory that was of the same form as those used by the Eskimo of Alaska. Comparing these finds to the recently excavated objects from the settlement at Naujan Lake, it was clear that the same Tuniit culture had also reached Pond Inlet during its eastward migration (figs. 11–13). It has since been scientifically demonstrated that the Tuniit belonged to a group whose migration had started in Alaska more than 5,000 years ago, traversed Arctic Canada, and finally crossed the Nares Strait to Greenland, where objects belonging to the same culture also have been found. There they are more commonly known as the Thule culture. In the spring of 1923 the expedition team gathered for the last time at The Bellows on Danish Island to regroup and take leave of each other. A great deal of material had been gathered during the year and a half since the expedition vessel, the Søkongen (Little Auk), had deposited the team and their equipment on Danish Island. After this final meeting, the expedition members were to leave for their final tasks and then, in autumn, most would travel home individually. Rasmussen’s path lay in a different direction. On March 11, 1923, he embarked on what has come to be known as “The Great Sled Journey” west along the coast of the Arctic Ocean across Canada to Alaska. During this sixteen-month journey, he was accompanied only by two Greenlanders from the expedition named Qâvigarssuaq (literally, “Common Eider,” better remembered by the name Miteq), and his cousin Arnarulúnguaq (“Small Female,” reputed to have been
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