Knud Rasmussen 117 yet displaced their traditional beliefs, these Nunivaarmiut were ideal subjects, but he first had to overcome a language barrier. Greenlandic had proven effective for communicating with the various peoples he encountered on his journey across Arctic Canada and northern Alaska, where Inuit dialects were spoken, but in southern Alaska beginning around Norton Sound as well as in Siberia, various dialects of Yupik were in use. This is another widespread Eskimo language that is too distantly related to Inuit for mutual comprehension. Rasmussen was particularly interested in the Nunivaarmiut because of the great importance they assigned to their masks. The Eskimos of Point Hope, whom he had visited and studied earlier, had comparable perceptions, but the Nunivaarmiut had taken the practice of masking much further. They were still confident in their traditional belief that spirits lived randomly as either human beings or as animals. This was expressed in their masks, which could represent an animal such as a walrus, seal, fox, wolf, or bird, often merged with a human face. Each type of mask was credited with a certain power and served to assist the shamans in calling auxiliary spirits that connected ordinary reality with the supernatural realm. Their system of cosmology had long been held in common by many Eskimo groups. With the help of an interpreter, Rasmussen was able to connect with the small group of Nunivaarmiut and, aided by drawings, they in turn described a great deal about their hunting and masking culture. This included images of hunting and sealing as well as the weapons and tackle involved in it. They also drew the masks that were used by shamans and their auxiliary spirits, as well as those used by laymen in connection with the different types of rites and festivals. Rasmussen was so intrigued by the drawings of the masks that he asked the Nunivaarmiut to recreate twenty-eight of the sketched masks upon their return to their village and send them to him in Denmark (figs. 21 and 22). Before he left Nome, Rasmussen met an Inuit shaman named Najagneq, who gave him the following account, which concisely explains a great deal about Eskimo religious belief: Previously, we Inuit believed in a special power, a power we call Sila that cannot be explained in simple words. A strong spirit, the guardian of the universe, the weather, of all life on earth—a spirit so powerful that his message to mankind cannot come to us through mere words but is expressed through the wind, the snow, the rain, the heaving ocean, through all the powerful forces feared by man. But
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