Editing Journal Archives (section)

===The Lights that Sport With Gods===

'''Abstract'''

Photographs, in rough Autochrome color, of the Aurora Borealis in the skies over the Alaskan Territory and a series of folktales from the Inuit peoples who inhabit the region, depicting what the northern lights mean to their people.  Included are stories of the ancestors, seen dancing or playing in the lights, and the ability of some angakuq (holy men) to communicate with the honored dead and beseech them for blessings.  Of darker import are stories of the gods that live in the lights and their cannibalistic tendencies – to gaze at the lights was to risk attracting their attention and getting carried off and eaten.  The Inuit believe that their diet consists entirely of souls – animals are souls with physical form – and that to offend a spirit is potentially fatal for an entire tribe.  Says one shaman quoted in the article, "We don't believe.  We fear!"

'''About the Explorer'''

Knud Rasmussen is a Greenlandic polar explorer and anthropologist.  This article represents a portion of his findings from his fifth trip to the Alaska Territory, from which he has just returned (the first was from 1902 – 1904).  He does not work for the Trust, but the Trust funded this expedition in exchange for this article and the collection of Inuit artifacts (see New York archives).  Rasmussen has recently obtained a post as lecturer at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark