Note 55 — XXI. AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE OF THE RITES CONNECTED WITH THE WORSHIP OF BEL-PHEGOR.
Reading edition
“The Eskimo call the better being ‘Torngarsuk.’ They don’t all agree about his form or aspect. Some say he has no form at all; others describe him as a great bear, or as a great man with one arm, or as small as a finger. He is immortal, but might be killed by the intervention of the god Crepitus.”—(“Myth, Ritual, and Religion,” Andrew Lang, London, 1887, vol. ii. p. 48.) A footnote to the above adds, “The circumstances in which this is possible may be sought for in Crantz, ‘History of Greenland,’ London, 1767, vol. i. p. 206.”
Crantz says of Torngarsuk: “He is immortal, and yet might be killed, if any one breaks wind in a house where witchcraft is carrying on.”—(Crantz, as above.)