It seems to me clear that this belief in the tornarssuk, no less than in the tornat, must be traced to a belief in the spirits or ghosts of ancestors. We may possibly find evidence of this in the words themselves. It seems probable that _tôrnak_ may have been the same word as _tarnik_ or _tarne_ (that is, soul), which again resembles _tarrak_ (shadow--compare p. 226). We find some support for this theory in the fact that _tôrnak_ appears on the east coast in the form of _tartok_ or _tartak_, which is the same word as _tarrak_.[87] Thus it appears to me probable that all these words were originally one and the same, signifying shadow, reflection, or soul, and also designating the souls of the dead. _Tôrnârssuk_, again, is certainly a derivative of _tôrnak_, having probably been in its origin the same as _tôrnârssuak_, that is to say, 'the big, or the bad and horrible, tornak.' This implies that he was originally a particularly powerful tornak, which, among some tribes, has gradually obtained a sort of dominion over the other tornat or souls of the dead.
That these souls should have become the subject of peculiar superstitions is readily comprehensible when we observe the fear with which they still regard the dead, and still more, of course, their spectres. These _gengangere_ are often visible and may be very dangerous, though sometimes, too, they are tolerably well-disposed. The most amiable way in which they can manifest themselves is in a whistling sound, or a singing in people's ears. In the latter case they are begging for food, and to such a request a Greenlander will reply: 'Help yourself'--meaning 'from my stores.'[88] That the ghost is not always hostile appears from what Niels Egede[89] relates of a boy at Godthaab who, playing one day with several others in the neighbourhood of his mother's grave, suddenly saw a shape rising up from it. He and the others took to their heels, but the ghost ran after them, caught her son, 'embraced him, kissed him, and said, "Do not be frightened of me; I am your mother, and love you";' with more to the same effect.
Their customs at the death and burial of their friends show how much they fear the dead, and especially their souls or ghosts. The dying are often dressed in their grave-clothes--that is to say, in their best garments--a little while before death. The legs, too, are often bent together, so that the feet come up under the back, and in this position they are sewed or swathed in skins. The object is, no doubt, that they may take up less space and need a smaller grave; and it is done during their life in order that the survivors may have to handle their corpses as little as possible. This dread of touching a dead body goes so far (as before-mentioned on page 137) that they will not help a man in danger--for example, a kaiak-man who is drowning--when they believe that he is at the point of death.