LIBRARY CATALOGUE SLIPS. Smithsonian institution. Jiiireau of ethnolot/i/. Ninth annual report | of the | Bureau of ethnology | to the | secretary of the Smithsonian institution | 1887-'88 | by | J. W. Powell | director | [Vignette] | Washington | government printing office | IrtSfcJ 8°. xlvi. 617 pp. 8 pi. Powell (John Wesley). Ninth annual report | of the | Bureau of ethnology | to the | secretary of the Smithsonian institution | 1887-'88 | by | J. W. Powell | director | [Vignette] | Washington | goverumeut printing office | 8°. xlvi,617pp. 8 pi. [SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. Bureau of ethnology. ] •"! Ninth annual report | of the I Bureau of ethnology | to the | " secretary of the Smithsonian institution | 1887-'88 | by | J. W. 1, Powell | director | [Vignette] | I Washington | government printing office | 1892 g 8°. xlvi, 617 pp. 8 pi. 4, [SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. Bureau of ethnology.] NINTH ANNUAL REPORT BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 1887-'8S . PYJ J. W. ^^-^^BTLL DIRECTOR WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 189 a Us 7 y CONTENTS. REPORT Ob' THE DIRECTOR. Page. Letter of transinittal XXI Introduction xxni Publications xxiv Field work XXV Mound explorations XXV Work of Prof. Cyrus Thomas xx v General Held studies xxvn Work of the Director xxvn Work of Mr. James Stevenson xxvn Work of Mr. W. II. Holmes XXIX Work of Messrs. V. and C. Mimleleft" xxx Work of Mr. A. M. Stephen xxxil Work of Mr. James Mooney xxxil Pictography xxxn Work of Mr. W. J. Hoffman xxxin Work of Col. Garrick Mallery xxxin Office work xxxv Work of the Director xxxv Work of Col. Garrick Mallery xxxv Work of Mr. Walter J. Hoffman xxxv Work of Mr. Hcury W. Henshaw xxxv Work of Mr. Albert S. Gatschet xxxvi Work of Mr. J. Owen Dorsey xxxvil Work of Mr. Jeremiah Curtin xxxvil Work of Mr. James C. Pilling xxxvn Work of Mr. James Mooney xxxvm Work of Mr. Cyrus Thomas xxxvm Work of Mr. Henry L. Reynolds xxxvm Work of Mr. Gerard Kowko xxxvm Work of Mr. William H. Holmes xxxvm Work of Mr. Victor Mindeleff XL Work of Mr. Cosmos Mindeleff XL Work of Dr. Washington Matthews XM Work of Mr. E. W. Nelson XLI Work of Mr. John N. B. Hewitt XLI Accompanying papers XLII Ethnological results of the Point Barrow Expedition, byJohnMurdock.. XLII The Medicine-men of the Apaches, by Capt. John G. Hourke XLIH Financial statement XLVI III IV CONTENTS. ETHNOLOGICAL RESULTS OF THE POINT HARROW EXPEDITION, BY JOHN MURDOCH. Page. Introduction 19 List of works consulted . .• 20 Situation and Burronndings 26 Climate 30 People 33 Physical characteristics 33 Pathology 39 Psychical characteristics 40 Tribal phenomena 42 Social surroundings 43 Contact with uncivilized people 43 Other Eskimo 43 Indians 49 Contact with civilized people 51 Natural resources 55 Animals 55 Mammals 55 Birds 56 Fishes 58 Insects and other invertebrates 59 Plants 59 Minerals 60 Culture 61 Means of subsistence (il Food 61 Substances used for food 61 Means of preparing food 63 Time and frequency of eating 63 Drinks 64 Narcotics 65 Habitations 72 The winter house 72 Arrangement in villages 79 Snow houses 81 Tents 83 I lonsehold utensils 86 For holding and carrying food, water, etc 86 Canteens 86 Wallets, etc 86 Buckets and tubs 86 Meat bowls 89 For preparing food 90 Pots of stone and other miitfrials 90 Bone crushers 93 For serving and eating food 99 Trays 99 Drinking vessels 101 Whalebone cups 101 Spoons and ladles 104 Miscellaneous household utensils 105 Lamps 105 Clothing 109 CONTENTS. V Culture — Continued. Page. Clothing — Continued. Material 109 Style of dress 110 Head clothing 112 Frocks 113 Mantles 121 Raiufrocks 122 Arm clothing 123 Mittens 123 Gloves 124 Leg and foot clothing 125 Breeches 125 Pantaloons 126 Stockings 129 Boots and shoes 129 Parts of dress 135 Belts 135 Ornaments 138 Personal adornment 138 Skin ornamentation 138 Tattooing 138 Painting 140 Head ornaments 140 Method of wearing the' hair 140 Head bands 142 Ear rings 142 Labrets 143 Neck ornaments 148 Ornaments of the limbs 148 Bracelets 148 Finger rings 149 Miscellaneous ornaments 149 Beads 149 Toilet articles 149 Implements of geueral use, etc .' 150 Tools 150 Knives 150 Adzes 165 Chisels 172 Whalebone shaves 173 Saws .'....'.- 174 Drills aud borers 175 Hammers 182 Files 182 Whetstones 183 Tool boxes and bags 185 Weapons 191 Projectile weapons 193 Firearms 193 Whaling guns 195 Bows 195 Arrows 201 Bear arrows 202 Bow cases and quivers 207 Bracers 209 VT CONTENTS. Culture— Continued. I'ag«. Weapons — Continued. Bird darts 210 Seal darts 214 Harpoons 218 Thrusting weapons 233 Harpoons 233 Lances 240 Throwing weapons 244 Hunting implements other than weapons 246 Floats 246 Flipper toggles 247 Harpoon boxes 247 Nets 251 Seal calls 253 Seal rattles 254 Seal indicators 254 Sealing stools 255 Seal drags 256 Whalel>one wolf-killers 259 Traps 260 Snow-goggles 260 Meat cache markers 262 Methods of hunting 263 The polar hear 263 The wolf 263 The fox 264 The reindeer 264 The seal 268 The walrus 272 The whale 272 Fowl 276 Implements for fishing 278 Hooks and lines 278 Nets 284 Spears 286 Flint, working 287 Fire making 289 Drills 289 Flint and steel 291 Kindlings 291 Bow and arrow making 291 The marline spike 291 The twisters 292 The feather setter 294 Skin working 294 Scrapers 294 Scraper cups 299 Combs for deer skins 300 Manufacture of lines of thong 301 Builders' tools 302 For excavating 302 Tools for snow and ice workiir; 304 Snow knives 304 Snow shovels 305 CONTENTS. VII Culture — Continued. Page. Tools for snow and ice working — Continued. Ice picks 307 Ice scoops 308 Implements for procuring and preparing food 310 Blubber hooks 310 Fish sealer 311 Making and working fiber 311 Twisting and braiding 311 Netting 312 Netting weights 315 Weaving 316 Sewing . . 317 Means of locomotion and transportation 328 Traveling l> y water 328 Kaiaks and paddles 328 Umiaks and fittings 335 Traveling on foot 344 Snowshoes 344 Staff 352 Land conveyances 353 Sledges 353 Dogs and harness 357 Hunting scores 3gO Games and pastimes 354 Gambling 354 Festivals 3gg Mechanical contrivances 372 Description of festivals 373 Toys and sports for children and others 376 Playthings 376 Dolls 380 Juvenile implements 3^3 Games and sports 383 Music 3#5 Musical instruments 385 Character and frequency of music 388 Art-- 389 Domestic life 410 Marriage 410 Standing and treatment of women 413 Children 414 Rights and wrongs 419 Social life and customs 420 Personal habits and cleanliness 420 Salutation 422 Healing 422 Customs concerning the dead 423 Abstentious 423 Manner of disposing of the dead 424 Government 427 In the family 427 In the village 427 Religion 430 General ideas 430 Amulets 434 VIII CONTENTS. THE MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE, BY JOHN G. BOUliKK. Page. CHAPTER I. The medicine-men, their modes of treating disease, their super stitions, paraphernalia, etc 451 Medicine-women 468 Remedies and modes of treatment 471 Hair and wigs 474 Mudheads 475 Scalp sliirta 476 The rhombus, or bull roarer 476 The cross 479 Necklaces of human fingers 480 Necklaces of human teeth 487 The scratch stick 490 The drinking reed 493 CHAPTER II. Hoddentin, the pollen of the tule, the sacrificial powder of the Apache; with remarks upon sacred powders and offerings in gen eral 499 The "kunque" of the Zufii and others 507 Use of the pollen by the Israelites and Egyptians 517 Hoddentin a prehistoric food 518 Hoddeutiu the y iauhtli of the Aztecs 521 " Bledos" of ancient writers — its meaning 522 Tzoalli 523 General use of the powder among Indians 528 Analogues of hoddentiir 530 The down of birds in ceremonial observances 533 Hair powder 535 Dust from churches — its use 537 Clay-eating 537 Prehistoric foods used in covenants 540 Sacred breads and cakes 541 Unleavened bread 543 The hot cross buns of Good Friday 544 Galena 548 CHAPTER III. The izze-kloth or medicine cord of the Apache 550 Analogues to be found among the Aztecs, Peruvians, and others 558 The magic wind knotted cords of the Lapps aud others 560 Kosaries and other mnemonic cords 561 The sacred cords of the Parsis and Brahmans 563 Use of cords and knots and girdles in parturition 570 "Medidas," "measuring cords," "wresting threads," etc 572 Unclassified superstitions upon this subject 575 The medicine hat 580 The spirit or ghost dance headdress 585 Amulets and talismans 587 The "tzi-daltai" 587 Chalchihuitl 588 Phylacteries 591 Bibliography 596 ILLUSTRATIONS Va.ee. PL. I. Map of Northwestern Alaska 2 II. Map of tlio hunting grounds of the Point Harrow Eskimo 18 III. Scalp shirt of Little Big Man 476 I V. Necklace of human fingers 480 V. Apache medicine hat used in ghost or spirit daurc 580 VI. Apache medicine shirt 588 VII. Apache medicine shirt 590 VIII. Apache medicine shirt 592 FlG. 1. Unalina, a man of Nu wiik 34 2. Mftmnnina, a woman of Nuwfik 35 3. Akabiana, a youth of Utkiavwifi 36 4. Puka, a young man of Utkiavwifi 37 5. Woman stretching skins 38 6. Pipes: (a) pipe with metal bowl ; (A) pipe with stone bowl; (<•) pipe with bowl of antler or ivory 67 7. Pipe made of willow stick 68 8. Tobacco pouches 69 9. Plans of Eskimo winter house 72 10. Interior of iglu, looking toward door 73 11. Interior of iglu, looking toward bench 74 12. House in Utkiavwiti 70 13. Ground plan and section of winter house in Mackenzie region 77 14. Ground plan of large snow house 82 15. Tent on the beach at Utkiav win 85 16. Wooden bucket 86 17. Large tub 87 18. Whalebone dish 88 19. Meat bowl 89 20. Stone pot 90 21. Small stone pot 91 22. Fragments of pottery 92 23. Stone maul 94 24. Stone maul 94 25. Stone maul 95 26. Stone maul 95 27. Stone maul 96 28. Stone maul 96 29. Bone maul 97 30. Bone maul 97 31 . Bone maul 98 32. Bone maul 98 33. Meat dish 99 IX X ILLUSTRATIONS. Page. Fio. 34. Oblong meat dish 100 35. Oblong meat dish, very old 100 36. Fish dish 100 37. Whalebone cup 101 38. Horn dipper 101 39. Horn dipper 102 40. Dipper of fossil ivory 103 41. Dipper of fossil ivory 103 42. Wooden spoon 104 43. Horn ladle 104 44. Bone ladle 104 45. Hone ladle in the form of a whale 105 46. Bone ladle 105 47. Stone house lamp 106 48. Sandstone lamp 107 49. Traveling lamp 108 50. Socket for blabber holder 108 51. Man in ordinary deerskin clothes 110 52. Woman's hood Ill 53. Man's frock 113 54. Pattern of man's deerskin frock 113 55. Detail of 1 rimming, skirt and shoulder of man's frock 114 56. Man wearing plain, heavy frock 114 57. Man's frock of mountain sheepskin, front and back 115 58. Man's frock of ermine skins 116 59. Pattern of sheepskin frock 117 60. Pattern of ermine frock 1 17 61 . Woman's frock, front and back 118 62. Pattern of woman's frock 119 63. Detail of edging, woman's frock 119 64. Details of trimming, woman's frock 119 65. Man's cloak of deerskin 121 66. Pattern of man's cloak 121 67. Deerskin mittens 123 68. Deerskin gloves 124 69. Man's breeches of deerskin 125 70. Pattern of man's breeches 126 71. Trimming of man's breeches 126 72. Woman's pantaloons 127 73. Patterns of woman's pantaloons 128 74. Pattern of stocking 129 75. Man's boot of deerskin 131 76. Pattern of deerskin boot 131 77. Man's dress boot of deerskin 132 78. Pattern of man's dress boot of deerskin 132 79. Man's dress boot of skin of mountain sheep 133 80. Pair of man's dress boots of deerskin 134 81. Woman's waterproof sealskin boot 135 82. Sketch of '-ice-creepers" on boot sole 135 83. Man's belt woven of feathers 136 84. Diagram showing method of fastening the ends of feathers in belt . . 137 85. Woman's belt of wolverine toes 137 86. Belt-fastener 138 87. Man with tattooed cheeks 139 88. Woman with ordinary tattooing 140 89. Man's method of wearing the hair 141 102. Slate knife 103. Slate hunting-kuifo 104. Hlade of slate hunting-knife. ILLUSTRATIONS. XI Page. FIG. 90. Earrings 143 91. 1'lug for enlarging labret hole 14 1 92. Labret of beads and ivory 145 93. Hlne and white labret from Anderson River 146 94. Oblong labret of bone 147 95. Oblong labret of soapstone 147 96. Ancient labret 148 97. Beads of amber 149 98. Hair combs 150 99. Slate knives 151 100. Slate knife-blade 152 101. Slate knife 152 52 52 53 105. Large slate knife 53 106. Large single-edged slate knife 53 107. Blades of knives 154 108. Peculiar slate knife 154 109. Knife with whalebone blade 155 110. Small iron knife 155 111. Small iron knives 156 112. Iron hunting knife 156 113. Large crooked knife 158 114. Large crooked knife with sheath 158 115. Small crooked knives 159 116. Crooked knife 159 117. Crooked knives, flint-hladed 160 118. Slate-bladed crooked knives 161 119. Woman's knife, steel blade 161 120. Woman's knife, slate blade '. 162 121. Woman's knife, slate blade 162 122. Woman's knife, slate blade 162 123. Woman's knife, slate blade 162 124. Woman's ancient slate-bladcd knife 163 125. Ancient bone handle for woman's knife 163 126. Large knife of slate 163 127. Woman's knife of flaked flint 164 128. Hatchet hafted as an adz 165 129. Hatchet hafted as an adz 166 130. Adz-head of jade 167 131. Adz-head of jade 167 132. Hafted jade adz 168 133. Adz-head of jade and bone 168 134. Adz-head of bone and iron, without eyes 168 135. Adz-head of bone and iron, with vertical eyes 169 136. Adz-head of bone and iron, with vertical eyes 169 137. Hafted bone and iron adz 169 138. Hafted bone and stone adz 17(1 139. Small adz-blade of green jade 170 140. Hafted adz of bone and flint 171 141. Old cooper's adz, rehafted 171 142. Adz with bone blade 172 143. Antler chisel 173 144. Antler chisel 173 XII ILLUSTRATIONS. Pag*. FIG. 145. Spurious tool, flint blade 173 14fi. Whalebone shave, slate blade 174 147. Saw mude of deer's scapula 175 148. Saw made of a case-kuii'e 175 149. Bow drill 17(i 150. Bow drill and mouthpiece 176 151. Bow drill 177 152. Drill bow 177 153. Drill bows 178 154. .Spliced drill bow 178 155. Drill mouthpiece with iron socket 17'J 156. Drill mouthpiece without wings 17!) 157. Bone-pointed drill 179 158. Handles for drill cords 180 159. Flint-blamed reamers 182 160. Fliut-bladed reamers 182 161. Awl 182 162. Jade whetstones 183 163. Jade whetstones 184 164. Wooden tool-boxes 185 165. Large wooden tool-boxes 186 166. Tool-bag of wolverine skin 187 167. Tool-bag of wolverine skin 188 168. Drills belonging to the tool-bag 189 169. Comb for deerskins in the tool-bag 189 170. Bag handles 190 171. Bag of leather 190 172. Little hand-club 191 173. Slungshot made of walrus jaw 191 174. Dagger of bear's bone 192 175. Bone daggers 192 176. So-called dagger of bone 193 177. Boy's bow from Utkiavwifi 196 178. Loop at end of bowstring 197 179. Large bow from Nuwfik 197 180. Large bow from Sidaru 198 181. Feathering of the Eskimo arrow 201 182. Flint-headed arrow (kukiksadlin) 202 183. Long flint pile 202 184. Short flint pile 202 185. Heart-shaped flint pile 203 186. («) Arrow with "after pile" (ipudligndlln) ; (6) arrow with iron pile (savidlln); (<•) arrow with iron pile (savidllfi); (d) arrow with copper pile (savidlln) ; (e) deer-arrow (nfttkodlin) 203 187. Pile of deer arrow (nutkan) 205 188. " Kftnuiudlin " arrow pile 205 189. (a) Fowl arrow (tugaltn) ; (5) bird arrow (kixodwain) 206 190. Bow case and quivers 208 191. Quiver rod 209 192. Cap for quiver rod 209 193. Bracer 210 194. Bracer of bone 210 195. Bird dart 211 19G. Point for bird dart 212 197. Ancient point for bird dart 212 ILLUSTRATIONS. XIII I'uge. FIG. 198. Point for bird dart 213 199. Bird dart with double point 213 200. Ancient ivory dart head 214 201. Bone dart head 214 202. Nozzle for bladder float 215 203. Seal dart 215 204. Foreshaft of seal dart 217 205. Throwing board for darts 217 206. Harpoon head 218 207. Harpoon head 219 208. Ancient bone harpoon head 21!) 209. (a) Ancient bone harpoon head ; (ft) variants of this type 220 210. Bone harpoon head 220 211. Bone harpoon head 220 212. Harpoon head, bone and stone 221 213. Harpoon head, bone and stone 221 214. Walrus harpoons 224 215. Typical walrus-harpoon heads 226 216. Typical walrus-harpoon heads 226 217. Typical walrus-harpoon heads 227 218. Walrus-harpoon head, with ' ' leader " 227 219. Walrus-harpoon head, with line 228 220. Walrus-harpoon head, with line 228 221. Walrus-harpoon head, with line 229 222. Foreshaft of walrus harpoon 230 223. Harpoon head for large seals 230 224. Retrieving seal harpoon 231 225. Details of retrieving seal harpoon 232 226. Jade blade for seal harpoon 233 227. Seal harpoon for thrusting 233 228. Diagram of lashing on shaft 234 229. Model of a seal harpoon 235 230. Largo model of whale harpoon 235 231. Model of whale harpoon, with floats 236 232. Flint blade for whale harpoon 237 233. Slate blade for whale harpoon 237 234. Body of whale harpoon head 238 235. Whale harpoon heads 238 236. Whale harpoon head with ' • leader " 239 237. Foreshaft of whale harpoon 239 238. Whale lance 240 239. Flint head of whale lance 241 240. Flint heads for whale lances 241 241. Bear lance 242 242. Flint head for bear lance 242 243. Deer lance 243 244. Part of deer lance with flint head 243 245. Deer lance, flint head 244 246. Flint head for deer lance 244 247. Bird bolas, looped up for carrying 245 248. Bird bolas, ready for use 245 249. Sealskin float 247 250. Flipper toggles 248 251. Boxes for harpoon heads 249 252. Seal net . . 251 XIV ILLUSTRATIONS. Pae» FIG. 253. Scratchers for decoying seals 253 254. Seal rattle 254 255. Seal indicators 255 256. Sealing stool 255 257. Seal drag and handles 257 258. Whalebone wolf killers 259 259. Wooden snow-goggles 261 2fiO. Bone snow-goggles 262 261. Wooden sno w-goggles, unusual form 262 262. Marker for meat cache .. „.. 262 263. Marker for meat cache 263 264. Tackle for shore fishing 279 265. Knot of line into hook - - - 279 266. Small fish-hooks 280 267. Hooks for river fishing 280 268. Tackle for river fishing - - - 280 269. Burbot hook, first pattern 270. Burbot hook, second pattern 271. Burbot hook, made of cod hook Burbot tackle, baited 281 Ivory sinker Ivory j iggcr for polar cod 275. Section of whalebone net 276. Mesh of sinew net 285 277. Fish trap 278. Fish spear 286 279. Flint flakers 280. Haft of flint flaker 281. Flint fiaker, with bone blade 289 282. Fire drill, with mouthpiece and stock 289 283. Set of bow-and-arrow tools 284. Marline spike 292 285. Marline spike 286. "Twister" for working sinew backing of bow.. 287. "Feather setter" 294 288. Tool of antler 294 289. Skin scraper 290. Skin scrapers— handles only 291. Skin scrapers 292. Skin scraper 293. Peculiar modification of scraper 294. Skin scraper 295. Skin scraper 296. Skin scraper 297. Flint blade for skin scraper 298. Straight-hafted scraper 299. Bone scraper 300. Scraper cups 301. Combs for cleaning deer-skins 302. " Double slit " splice for rawhide lines 303. Mattock of whale's rib 304. Pickax-heads of bone, ivory, and whale's rib 303 305. Ivory snow knife 306. Snow shovels 307. Snow shovel made of a whale's scapula 307 ILLUSTRATIONS. XV Page. FIG. 308. Snow pick 307 309. Snow drill 308 310. Ice scoo]. 308 311. Long blubber hook 310 312. Short'handled blubber hook 310 313. Fish sealer 311 314. Ivory shuttle 311 315. Netting needle 312 316. Mesh stick 312 317. Netting needles 313 318. Netting needles for seal net 314 319. Netting needle 314 320. Mesh sticks 314 321. Netting weights 316 322. Shuttle belonging to set of feather tools 316 323. Mesh stick 317 324. "Sword" for feather weaving 317 325. Quill case of bone needles 318 326. (a) Large bone needle and peculiar thimble; (b) Leather thimbles with bone needles 318 327. Needle cases with belt hooks 320 328. (a) Needle case with belt hook; (ft) needle case open, showing bone needles 321 329. Trinket boxes 323 330. Trinket boxes 324 331. Ivory box 325 332. Hone box 325 333. Little flask of ivory 325 334. I?ox in shape of deer 325 335. Small basket 326 336. Small basket 326 337. Small basket 327 338. Kaiak 329 339. Method of fastening together frame of kaiak 329 340. Double kaiak paddle 330 341. Model kaiak and paddle 334 342. Frame of umiak 336 343. (a) Method of fastening bilge-streaks to stem of umiak; (6) method of framing rib to gunwale, etc 337 344. Method of slinging the oar of umiak 339 345. («) Model of umiak and paddles; (6) model of umiak, inside plan. .. 340 346. Ivory bailer for umiak 340 347. Ivory crotch for harpoon 341 348. Ivory crotch for harpoon 342 349. Crotch for harpoon made of walrus jaw 342 350. Snowshoe 345 351. Knot in snowshoe netting 346 352. (a) First round of heel-netting of snowshoe; (6) first and second round of heel-netting of snowshoe 347 353. (a) First round of heel-netting of snowshoe; (ft) first, second, and third rounds of heel-netting of snowshoe 348 354. Small snowshoe 350 355. Old '• chief," with stalls 353 356. Hailed sledge (diagrammatic), from photograph 354 357. Flat sledge 355 XVI ILLUSTRATIONS. Paw. Flo. 358. Small sledge with ivory runners 355 359. Small toboggan of whalebone 357 360. Hunting score engraved on ivory 361 361. Hunting score engraved on ivory, obverse and reverse 362 362. Hunting score engraved on ivory 362 363. Hunting score engraved on ivory, obverse and reverses 363 364. Game of fox and geese from Plover Hay 365 365. Dancing cap 305 366. Wooden mask 366 367. Wooden mask and dancing gorget 367 368. Old grotesque mask 368 369. Rude mask of wood 369 370. Wolf mask of wood 369 371. Very ancient small mask 369 372. Dancing gorgets of wood 371 373. Youth dancing to the aurora 375 374. Whirligigs .' 377 375. Teetotum 378 376. Buzz toy 378 377. Whiz/ing stick 379 378. Pebble snapper 379 379. Carving of human head 380 380. Mechanical doll— drum-player 381 381. Mechanical toy— kaiak paddler 381 382. Kaiak carved from block of wood 382 383. Drum 385 384. Handle of drum secured to rim 386 385. Drum handles 387 386. Ivory drumsticks 388 387. Ancient carving — human head 393 388. Wooden figures 393 389. Carving — face of Eskimo man 394 390. Grotesque soapstone image — " walrus man " 394 391. Bone image of dancer 395 392. Hone image of man 396 393. Grotesque bone image 396 394. Bone image — sitting man 396 395. Human figure carved from walrus ivory 396 396. Ivory carving — three human heads 397 397. Rude human head, carved from a walrus tooth 397 398. Elaborate ivory carving 398 399. Bear carved of soapstouc 398 400. Bear flaked from flint 399 401. («.) Bear carved from bone ; (/)) bear's head 399 402. Ivory figures of bears 400 403. Rude ivory figures of walrus 401 404. Images of seal — wood and bone 401 405. White whale carved from gypsum 402 406. Wooden carving — whale 403 407. Whale carved from soapstone 403 408. Rude flat image of whale -' 404 409. Ivor}' image of whale 404 410. Ivory image of whale 404 411. Pair of little ivory whales 405 412. Soapstoiie image of imaginary animal 405 ILLUSTRATIONS. XVII Pago. FIG. 413. Ivory carving, seal with fish's head 405 414. Ivory carving, ten-legged bear «... . 406 415. Ivory carving, giant holding whales 4(16 4 16. Double-headed animal carved from antler 407 417. Ivory carving — dog 407 418. (a) Piece of ivory, engraved with figures; (ft) development of pattern 408 419. (a) Similar engraved ivory; (ft) development of pattern 408 420. Ivory doll 409 421. Whale flaked from glass 435 422. Whale flaked from red jasper 435 423. Ancient whale amulet, of wood 436 424. Amulet of whaling— stuffed godwit 438 425. Amulet consisting of ancient jade adz 438 426. Little box containing amulet for whaling 439 427. Amulet for catching fowl with bolas 439 428. Box of dried bees — amulet 440 429. Medicine arrow used by Apache and Pueblo women 468 430. Rhombus of the Apache 477 431. Rhombus of the Apache 478 432. The scratch stick and drinking reed 494 433. Bag containing hoddcntin 500 434. Nau-ta-do-tash's medicine hat 503 435. Single-strand medicine cord (Zuiii) 550 436. Four-strand medicine cord (Apache) 551 437. Three-strand medicine cord (Apache) 552 438. Two-strand medicine cord 553 439. Four-strand medicine cord (Apache) 554 440. Apache war bonnet 581 441. Ghost dauce headdress 582 442. Apache kan or gods. (Drawn by Apache) 586 443. Tzi-daltai amulets (Apache) 587 444. Tzi-daltai amnlet (Apache) 588 445. Tzi-daltai amulet (Apache) 589 446. Tzi-daltai amulet (Apache) 589 447. Phylacteries 593 448. Apache medicine sash 593 9 ETH II REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR. LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY, Washington, D. C., October 1, 1888. SIR : I have the honor to submit herewith my ninth annual report as Director of the Bureau of Ethnology. The first part of the report presents an exposition of the operations of the Bureau during the fiscal year 1887-'88; the second part consists of papers on anthropologic subjects, prepared mainly by my collaborators, which illustrate the methods and results of the work of the Bureau. T desire to express my thanks for your earnest support and your wise counsel in relation to the work under my charge. I am, with respect, your obedient servant, Prof. S. P. LANGLEY, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. NINTH ANNUAL REPORT BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY BY J. W. POWELL, DIRECTOR. INTRODUCTION. The prosecution of research among the North American Indians, as directed by acts of Congress, was continued dur ing the fiscal year 1887-'88. The general plan upon which the duties of the Bureau have been performed from year to year has been fully explained in former reports. As it has seemed to be successful, it remains unchanged. The lines of investigation regarded from time to time as the most important or useful have been confided to persons specially trained in or adapted to their pursuits. The results of their labors, when properly prepared, are presented in the publications of the Bureau, constituting the series of re ports, of monographs, and of bulletins whose publication has been authorized by Congress. A brief statement of the work upon which each one of the special students was actively en gaged during the fiscal year is furnished below ; but it should be noted that this statement does not specify all the studies made or services rendered by them, since in this, as in former years, particular lines of research have been suspended in order to prosecute work regarded as of pressing importance. Explorers, writers, and students who are not officially con nected with the Bureau are again invited to render assistance in the prosecution of its work. Their contributions, whether of suggestions or of extended communications, will be grate- XXIV ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR fully acknowledged, will always receive proper credit, and, when practicable, will be published in the manner provided by law. The present volume contains two valuable papers by collaborators who are not directly connected with the Bureau. The report now submitted consists of three principal divi sions. The first relates to the publications made during the fiscal year, the second to the work prosecuted in the field, and the third to the office work, which consists largely of the preparation for publication of the results of field work, with the corrections and additions obtained from the literature on the subjects discussed and by correspondence relating to them. . PUBLICATIONS. The publications actually issued and distributed during the year were as follows: The Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Smithsonian Institution, 1883-'84. It is an imperial octavo volume of liii-{-560 pages, illustrated by 23 plates (of which 10 are colored) and 77 figures in the text. The official re port of the Director, occupying 37 pages (pp. xvii-liii), is accom panied by the following papers: Burial Mounds of the Northern Section of the United States, by Cyrus Thomas; pp. 3-119, Pis. i-vi, Figs. 1-49. The Cherokee Nation of Indians : A Narrative of their Offi cial Relations with the Colonial and Federal Governments, by Charles C. Royce; pp. 121-378, Pis. vn-ix, of which vm and ix are folding maps in a pocket at the end of the volume. The Mountain Chant : A Navajo Ceremony, by Dr. Wash ington Matthews, U. S. Army; pp. 379-467, Pis. x-xvni, Figs. 50-59. The Seminole Indians of Florida, by Clay MacCauley; pp. 469-531, PI. xix, Figs. 60-77. The Religious Life of the Zuni Child, by Mrs. Tilly E. Steven son; pp. 533-555, Pis. xx-xxin. Also the following bulletins, all 8vo : Bibliography of the Eskimo Language, by James C. Pilling; 1887, pp. v+1-116, with facsimile, on page 73, of first syllabary OF THE BUREAU OB" ETHNOLOGY. XXV used in printing- Eskimo texts, and one on page 97 of Veni- aminoff's Guide Road. Perforated Stones from California, by Henry W. Henshaw; 1887, pp. 34, Figs. 1-1G. The Use of Gold and other Metals among the Ancient Inhab itants of Chiriqui, Isthmus of Darien, by William H. Holmes; 1887, pp. 27, Figs. 1-22. Work in Mound Exploration of the Bureau of Ethnology, by Cyrus Thomas; 1887, pp. If), Fig. 1. Bibliography of the Siouan Languages, by James C. Pil ling; 1887, pp' v+1-87. FIELD WORK. The field work of the year divides into (1) mound explora tions and (2) general field studies, the latter being chiefly di rected to archeology, linguistics, and pictography. MOUND EXPLORATIONS. WORK OF MR. CYRUS THOMAS. The work of exploring the mounds of the eastern United States was, as in former years, under the superintendence of Mr. Cyrus Thomas. During the year his assistants were Messrs. James D. Middleton, Gerard Fowke and Henry L. Reynolds. Much of his attention and that of his assistants was directed to the preparation for publication of his reports on the work of the mound division during previous years. As the work of unfolding and systematizing the field notes, examining the collections and preparing the plats and illustra- trations proceeded, it was found that there were some omissions in the original examinations which left the details of certain sections incomplete, and it became important to obtain as far as possible the missing information. The most serious hiatus was filled by an examination of the lake border of the United States from Detroit westward to the head of Lake Superior, for the purpose of ascertaining whether the historic Indian local ities along that line were marked by mounds or other ancient works. XXVI ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR Another undertaking, which had been begun during the last month of the preceding year, was a survey of several iiiclo- sures and other ancient remains of Ohio, to test the accuracy of the surveys by Squier and Davis and others. This was continued during a portion of the year. A third item con sisted in completing the list of mound localities to be used in preparing the maps. On July 15 Messrs. Middleton and Fowke went to Ohio, where they were engaged about one month in surveying the ancient works of that region. During the same time Mr. Rey nolds was employed in the same State in collecting data tor the archeologic maps. From Ohio Mr. Fowke went to Mich igan, making the tour of the lake border of the United States from Detroit westward to Duluth, at the head of Lake Superior. He made careful examinations of ancient works and aborig inal remains, especially at the following-named points: De troit, Port Huron, Saginaw, Ogemaw County, about Traverse Bay, Beaver Island, Mackinac Island, and the mainland on both sides, Sault Ste. Marie, Marquette, Munissing, the copper region, Ontonagon, Ashland, Bayfield, La Pointe (the old Cha- quamagon), and Duluth. Returning by way of Prairie du Chien, Wis., and Davenport, Iowa, he stopped at Carbondale, 111., the point selected as headquarters for the season. After writing a preliminary report of his trip he went to Kentucky to examine certain works in the northern part of that State, and thence to Washington. During May and June, 1888, he was engaged in exploring mounds in Pike County, Ohio. From Ohio, Mr. Middleton went to Wisconsin to survey certain groups of works in the southern and southwestern part of that State, which occupied him until autumn. Most of the winter he was engaged in working up the plats and other re sults of his surveys. Before spring he made a survey of cer tain groups in southeastern Missouri and of the Seltzertown group in Mississippi. During April, May, and June, he was engaged in surveying and examining groups in southern Ohio and northern Kentucky. Mr. Reynolds, after leaving Ohio, was engaged during the remainder of the summer, and until he went to Carbondale, OK THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. XXVII in the autumn, in collecting map material in Michigan and Wisconsin. He remained at Carbondale until the last of December. GENERAL FIELD STUDIES. WORK OF THE DIRECTOR. While engaged in making a geological reconnaissance of the Tewan Mountains, the Director was enabled to study on the ground a large field of archeology. This is an extensive dis trict of country drained by the Chama 'and Jemez and other tributaries of the Rio Grande del Norte. In prehistoric and early historic times the region was mainly occupied by tribes of the Tanoan stock. The people lived in villages, or pueblos, many of which were built of the rude .stone that abounds in forms and sizes adapted to such structures. The cliffs of the canyons carved by the many streams that drain the mountain area are often composed of volcanic tufa so soft that it can be easily worked with rude stone tools, and many of the people had learned to hew it into shapes convenient for architectural purposes. Some of the tribes at different periods in their history left their stone pueblos and constructed homes for themselves by excavating chambers in the tufa cliffs. These cavate dwell ings, now abandoned and in rains, and the ruins of many other ancient dwellings are scattered throughout this entire country. On the northern flank of the Tewan Mountains, near the River Chama and about 3 miles below Abiquiu, an exten sive ruin was visited, the walls of which were constructed of clay built up in a mass. The mechanical devices by which they were built were not discovered, but it is evident that the clay was not made into adobes. During the study of all these ruins interesting archeologic collections were made, especially of articles in stone and clay. WORK OF MR. JAMES STEVENSON. Mr. James Stevenson, who had accompanied the Director in the above mentioned explorations, proceeded, at the beginning of October, 1887, to the Pueblo of Sia, about 8 miles south XXVIII ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR of Jemez, and spent six remarkably successful weeks in mak ing- a collection and studying the customs, sociology, and my thology of the people. The Sia retain their ancient religion in great purity in spite of the efforts of Christian priests, which have been continued for centuries. Their ceremonial chambers contain brightly colored altars of wood, before which many idols and other sacred objects are placed, while the walls are hung with various mythologic emblems of great delicacy and beauty. Mr. Stev enson was invited to inspect all these freely. The fact was disclosed that these people have a finer variety of fetiches than even the Zufii. Their stone fetiches in human form present a special feature, the carving being of a higher type than any before seen in the region. From one of the large ceremonial chambers he was passed through a concealed opening into a much smaller room liter ally filled with masks made in imitation of their fetiches, all of which he was permitted to examine at leisure, a most unusual privilege, as these people have a superstitious dread of their masks being seen when off the person. The collection of masks made at this place is not only large, but is especially in teresting by reason of the variety in its articles. Sketches were made of many of them. The Sia, like the other Pueblos, have shrines scattered around the village, both near and at a considerable distance from it, which Mr. Stevenson was invited to visit and inspect. Some of them are guarded by colossal stone animals crudely formed. Having unexpectedly discovered, while studying the mythology of these people, that, like the Tusayan Indians, they hold ceremonials with live snakes, including the rattle snake, he asked to be shown the exact place where the snake ceremonials were held. This proved to be 5 or 6 miles dis tant from the pueblo, in a desolate spot among the arid hills, where there is a small square log structure in which the Snake Order hold ceremonies before the dance, the snakes being con tained in two large pottery vases. The cave, when found, was closed and completely concealed by a stone slab, upon the re moval of which two admirable specimens of ancient vases were OP THY. BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. XXIX disclosed, decorated with pictures of the rattlesnake, mountain lion, and bear. One of these vases is now deposited in the National Museum as a part of the collection of the season. This collection, consisting of 864 specimens, is in many re spects the most valuable secured by Mr. Stevenson, as it not only exhibits a great variety of form and decoration in pottery (some of the pieces being very old), but it embraces the larg est and most interesting collection of fetiches yet made. Many of the stone images are in human form and different from any thing possessed by the Zuni or Tusayan Indians, those of the latter being, with few exceptions, carved in wood, while the Sia possessed a large number of well carved stone images in human form. The stone animal fetiches are also superior in workmanship to and larger than any heretofore collected. One of the features of the collection is an unusual variety of beautiful plumed fetiches. Mr. Stevenson made copious notes on the mythology and sociology of the Sia and obtained their cosmogony with completeness. He closed his field season by obtaining from the Zuni priest-doctors additional detailed accounts of their secret "Medicine Order." WORK OF MR. W. H. HOLMES. During the months of August and September Mr. W. H. Holmes was engaged in studying the antiquities of Jemez Val ley, New Mexico. This valley is tributary to the Rio Grande on the west, and its middle porti on is about 50 miles west of Santa Fe. Fifteen important ruined pueblos and village sites were ex amined. They correspond closely in type to those of the north and bear evidence in most cases of pre-Spanish occupation. Besides the larger ruins there are a multitude of minor ones, small houses and lodges of stone, scattered through the forests. Mr. Holmes carried his investigations of the ruins of Colorado and New Mexico as far south as Abiquiu, which village lies at the northern end of the group of mountains in which the Rio Jemez takes its rise. His work < >f the year, therefore, enabled him to connect his studies of the northern localities with those XXX ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR of the south, in which the numerous modern pueblos are situ ated. The chain of observations thus secured is of value in the study of the art products of the vast region formerly oc cupied by town-building tribes. Particular attention was given to an examination of the ce ramic remains. These constitute one of the means of develop ing the history of the pre-Columbian inhabitants. A large series of specimens was forwarded to the National Museum. WORK OF MESSRS. V. AND C. MINDELEFF. Mr. Victor Mindeleff, with Mr. Cosmos Mindeleff as his assistant, left Washington for the field September 1, 1887, and returned March 18, 1888. A group of cave lodges, excavated in the top and sides of a cinder cone at the base of San Fran cisco Mountain, and situated about 18 miles northeast of Flag staff, Arizona, was visited and sketches and diagrams were made. The cliff dwellings of Walnut Canyon, about 12 miles southeast of Flagstaff, were also examined. Later the work of the field party was among the ruined pueblos near Keam Canyon, which connect traditionally with the present Tusayan villages. These ruins, six in number, are distributed on the north border of the Jeditoh Valley and are scattered along for a distance of 12 miles. The party afterwards camped in the vicinity of Oraibi, the largest of the present villages of Tusayan. Here a study was made of the primitive constructional devices still in use. Two interestino- ruins were discovered in this neighborhood and o their ground plans secured. In the northern ruin a cave or underground apartment was found containing vestiges of stone walls and timber supports. The small village of Moen-kopi was surveyed. This is an outlying farming pueblo, occupied mainly during the planting and harvesting seasons. An ex tensive system of irrigation was in operation in. this vicinity. Subsequently the party spent six weeks at the Chaco ruins in Xew Mexico. An accurate architectural survey of the more important ruins was made, and the plans obtained reveal many points of interest. The degree of mechanical knowledge dis played by the builders of these pueblos and also the quality OF THK BURKAU OK ETHNOLOGY. XXXI of the masonry have been greatly exaggerated by earlier ex plorers. Close examination reveals ignorance on the part of the builders of some of the simplest principles of construction. Several ruins not previously known were surveyed and others were visited. Late in the season the party platted the pueblo of Jemez, situated upon the liver of the same name. At various times during the progress of the field work stud ies were made of the more primitive Navajo architecture, and many sketches and diagrams were prepared illustrating the Navajo system of framing their "hogans," or conical wood and earth houses. Several photographs of typical examples were taken. Mr. Cosmos Mindeleff left Washington for the field Sep tember I and returned February 23. He rendered general assistance to the party under the direction of Mr. Victor Min deleff and was in immediate charge of the surveying. Ground plans of thirteen important ruins, in addition to sketch plans of a number of others of less importance, and of two inhabited pueblos were added to those already in the possession of the Bureau. The methods of surveying followed in previous years were continued. The plans, as . XLII ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR It has been the practice to note, hi connection with the name of each Indian photographed, his age, status in the tribe, and such biographic- information as could be obtained. ACCOMPANYING PAPERS ETHNOLOGICAL RESULTS OF THE POINT BARROW EXPEDITION, BY JOHN MURDOCH. Mr. John Murdoch was the naturalist and one of the observ ers detailed in 1881 by the Chief Signal Officer of the Army with the International Polar Expedition to Point Barrow, Alaska. That point was established as one of the stations in the work of circumpolar observation proposed by the International Con ference on that subject. In addition to the specific duties of the expedition, which were connected with meteorology, re- I searches were made by all of its members, during the two / years of their stay, on the habits and customs of the Eskimo / of the neighborhood, and full notes taken. The ethnological I material obtained consisted of those notes and of the objects collected. The notes were so voluminous and the objects which required description and illustration were so many that it was impracticable to publish them in the report of the commanding officer of the expedition, Lieut. P. II. Ray, Eighth Infantry, U. S. Army, which was issued in 188;"). In order that the valuable ethnologic results obtained should not be lost, the Chief Signal Officer permitted the continued employ ment of Mr. Murdoch to complete a special report upon them, and the late Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution furnished him important facilities for the work. It was decided to publish the report with full illustrations, as it now appears, in one of the serial volumes of Annual Reports of this Bureau. The work of collecting the objects mentioned and of making the ethnological notes was continued for more than two years, and two more years were occupied by Mr. Murdoch in the an alytical study of those objects and notes before the present re port could be completed. In this report Mr. Murdoch has pre sented a simple and exhaustive account of the Eskimo of Alaska with comntendable absence of theory. At the same time he OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. XLIII makes judicious comparisons between the people observed and the eastern division of the same race, including the Eskimo of Greenland, and also between all the American divisions and those of Siberia. These comparisons were made possible by his extensive reading and by his study of former collections deposited in the United States National Museum. The ample illustrations of the text, 428 in number, are nearly all sketched or photographed from the articles brought to Wash ington by the expedition, and show in connection with them the numbers attached to those articles as now deposited and displayed in the National Museum. Thus the opportunity for verification and for further examination is proffered. The topics discussed are so many and varied that they can not be recapitulated here with advantage. An examination of the table of contents will be more satisfactory and useful. Such examination will invite the study of the paper, which will prove to be a compendium of all that is noteworthy about a body of peculiar people who have lately been included among the inhabitants of the United States. THE MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE, BY JOHN G. BOURKE, CAP TAIN THIRD CAVALRY, U. S. ARMY. Notwithstanding the length of time, nearly three centuries, during which Europeans have been in contact with the Indian tribes of North America, wholly erroneous ideas of their the ology have prevailed and are still entertained. The popular conception of their religious belief, which has been ascribed to all the tribes of the continent, is that it was substantially mono theistic, a grade of theology connected with the higher civil izations and never appearing in the stages of savagery or bar barism, beyond which no Indian tribe had advanced at the European discovery of America. Captain Bourke recognizes this fact, and believes that the misconception has been disas trous in its influence upon the national treatment of the Indian tribes. The special influence to be considered and combated is that of the " medicine-man," a title for which that of shaman might have been substituted with advantage. The form of XLIV ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR belief and practice called shamanism is well known in many parts of the world as a phase in religious evolution. Although at first applied only to the practices observed among some tribes of northern Asia, it has of late been generally used by scholars to express the placation and control by magic and fetichistic rites of spirits or daimons who are supposed to rule all mankind and indeed the whole realm of nature. The shaman is not only a practitioner of sorcery, able to drive off the spirits which bring' death, sickness, and misfortune, and to invoke others which confer success and love, but he is a priest, who by communion with the higher powers learns and after wards teaches to others the articles of a creed. The term shaman means all that Capt. Ikmrke intends to express by "medicine-man," while that awkward compound, invented by early explorers in North America, must always mislead by conveying some implication of therapeutics. Capt. Bourke, in twenty-two years of active service in the United States Army, has directed his attention to the observa tion and study of the Indian tribes of the Great Plains and of the Southwest. During a considerable part of that time he has enjoyed special facilities and opportunities as aid-de-camp to Maj. Gen. Crook. His familiarity with the tribes in general enables him to introduce many comparisons between the Apache, who are the special subjects of his paper, and many other tribes and to note parallels and contrasts in the practices of all. The extensive reading which is indicated by his copious list of authorities consulted has enabled him to supply anal ogies from foreign lands and remote ages, so that his paper is much more comprehensive than its title. Among the many topics suggestively treated are those of the rhombus or bull roarer, the scratch stick, and the drinking reed, all considered ceremonially; but in especial the discus sions upon hoddentin and the izze-kloth present unsuspected facts and permit curious inferences. Hoddentin is the pollen of the tide, which is a variety of the cat-tail rush growing in all the ponds of the southwestern parts of the United States. It is a yellow powder with which small buckskin bags are filled and those bags then attached to the OF THK BUKKAl' OK ETHNOLOGY. XLV belts of Apache warriors. They are also worn as amulets by other members of the tribe. In dances for the cure of sick ness the shaman applies the powder to the forehead of the patient, then to his breast in the figure of a cross; next he sprinkles it in a circle around his couch, then on the heads of the chanters and the assembled friends of the patient, and lastly upon his own head and into his own mouth. It is also used in other ceremonies described. ('apt. Bourke points out the similarity between the use of the tale pollen and that of the kunque or sacred corn meal of the Zuni, and dwells upon many analogies to their practices found in both hemispheres. The izze-kloth is the magic cord of the Apache, which Capt. Bourke describes and illustrates with full details. He does not mention, however, whether the fact stated about the same articles used among the Zuni is true of the Apache cords, i. e., that they must be made of rawhide or sinew taken from a beast of prey or a human enemy. The cords are often deco rated with beads and shells strung at intervals with pieces of the sacred green chalchihuitl, often called American turquoise, and of petrified wood, and with rock crystal, eagle down, claws of the hawk or eaglet or of the bear, fragments of aba- lone shells from the Pacific, circles of buckskin inclosing pieces of twigs and branches of trees which have been struck by lightning, and other objects of shamanistic sanctity. The use of these cords was reserved for the most sacred and important occasions, such as dances for war, for curing disease, and for conjuration, when ever)" important shaman would appear with one of the cords hanging from his right shoulder over his left hip. They are also used as amulets and charms, (.'apt. Bourke associates these cords with the quipus of the Peruvians and the wampum of the northeastern tribes of America, and then proceeds with enthusiasm to discover analogies among nearly all the races of earth, paying special attention to the rosaries and belt cords of the Roman Catholic Church. Though some readers will hesitate to adopt all his deductions, none will disagree with his concluding remarks upon the necessity of breaking up by the exhibition of true science the sorcery and jugglery practices which both retard the civilization of the XLVI ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR. tribes and shorten and destroy the lives of many individuals among them. FINANCIAL STATEMENT. Classification of t'jrpendilures made from the, appropriation for North American Ktli- nology for Ike fiscal year fiidint/ June 30, 18S8. [Aniiiiinr cit' :ip|ini|in:iiiiin 1887-'88, $40,001). I Kxpenses. Aiuimiil expended. Salaries - 1*28.838.33 Traveling expenses 3. 6:{7. 66 Transportation of property 444. 91 Field subsistence ... 242. 06 Field supplies and expenses 2, 431. 04 Field material. 351.00 Instruments 32.50 Laboratory material 42. 67 Photographic material 116. 17 Books and maps 181. 00 Stationery aud drawing material 9. 10 Illustrations for report 926. 30 KxjH-nses. (ioods Cor distribution to Indians. . - Office furnit are Offiee supplies and repairs Correspondence - Specimens Bonded railroad accounts forwarded to Treasury for settlement Halanee on hand to meet outstanding liabilities .. Total . Amount expended. $511.30 85.00 18.62 0.49 844.95 .74 1, 280. 10 40, 000. 00 ACCOMPANYING PAPERS. 9 ETH 1 BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY 175° 17O° 165° 160 c c r^"AR] e**&>^J*m 17(1" 165° 160 NINTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. I ISO0 MAI1 OF NORTHWESTERN AIASKA Showing the region known to the Point Barrow Eskimo Based, tm, the U.S.CuasI ft Geodetic Sunvy mapof Alaska, /8R4.m'(h addition-* from the I'S.C.&G.S. General Chart of Alaska 1339, and frum Eskimo a cconnt Eskimo ttcancft fjit'ai m the form used at Point Names of "tribes'ttruterlincd r/uia Compiled by JOHN MURDOCH 1889 71 ETHNOLOGICAL RESULTS POINT BARROW EXPEDITION. JOHN MURDOCH, Naturalist and Obserrer, International Polar Kxpeditioit to Point Harrow, Alaska, 1881-1883. CONTENTS. Page. Introduction 19 List of works consulted 20 Situation and surroundings 26 Climate 30 People -" 38 Physical characteristics 33 Pathology 39 Psychical characteristics 40 Trilial phenomena 12 Social surroundings 43 Contact with uncivilized people 43 Other Eskimo 43 Indians 49 Contact with civilized people 51 Natural resources 55 Animals 55 Mammals 55 Birds 56 Fishes 58 Insects and other invertebrates 59 Plants 59 Minerals 60 Culture 61 Means of subsistence 61 Food 61 Substances used for food 61 Means of preparing food 63 Time and frequency of eating 63 Drinks 64 Narcotics 65 Habitations 72 The winter house 72 Arrangement in villages 79 Snow houses .- 81 Tents 83 . Household utensils 86 For holding and carrying food, water, etc 86 Canteens 86 Wallets, etc 86 Buckets and tubs 86 Meat bowls 89 For preparing food 90 Pots of stone and other materials 90 Bone crushers 93 For serving and eating food 99 Trays 99 Drinking vessels 101 Whalebone cups 101 5 6 CONTENTS. Culture — Continued. Page. Spoons and ladles 104 Miscellaneous household utensils 105 Lamps 105 Clothing 10!) Material 109 Style of dress 1 10 Head clothing 112 Frocks 113 Mantles 121 Hainfroeks 122 Arm clothing 123 Mittens 123 Gloves 124 Leg and toot clothing 125 Breeches 125 Pantaloons 126 Stockings 129 Boots and shoes 129 Parts of dress 135 Belts ... 135 Ornaments 138 Personal adornment 138 Skin ornamentation 138 Tattooing 138 Painting 140 Head ornaments 140 Method of wearing the hair 140 Head hands 142 Ear rings 142 Labrets 143 Neck ornaments 148 Ornaments of the limbs 148 Bracelets 148 Finger rings 149 Miscellaneous ornaments 149 Beads 149 Toilet articles 149 Implements of general use, etc 150 Tools .... 150 Knives 150 Adzes 165 Chisels 172 Whalebone shaves 173 Saws 174 Drills and borers 175 Hammers 182 Files 1X2 Whetstones 183 Tool boxes and bags 185 Weapons l!tl Projectile weapons 193 Firearms 193 Whaling guns 195 Bows 195 Arrows . . 201 CONTENTS. » Culture— Continued. Bear arrows Bow cases and quivers 207 Bracers 209 Binl darts 210 Seal darts 214 Harpoons Thrusting weapons Harpoons Lances Throwing weapons Hunting implements other than weapons. . Floats 246 Flipper toggles Harpoon boxes 247 Nets 251 Seal calls 253 Seal rattles 254 Seal indicators 254 Sealing stools 255 •Seal drags 256 Whalebone wolf-killers 259 Traps ...'. 2BO Snow-goggles 260 Meat cache markers 262 Methods of hunting 263 The polar bear 263 The wolf 263 The fox : 264 The reindeer 264 The seal 26K The walrus 272 The whale 272 Fowl 276 Implements for fishing 278 Hooks and lines 278 Nets 284 Spears 286 Flint working 287 Fire making 289 Unlls 289 Flint and steel 2!H Kindlings 291 Bow and arrow making -'ill The marline spike 2!U The twisters 292 The feather setter 294 Skin working 294 Scrapers 294 Scraper cups 299 Combs for deer skins 300 Manufacture of lines of thong 301 Builders' tools 302 For excavating 302 Tools for snow and ice working 304 Snow knives. . - 304 8 CONTENTS. Culture — Continued. Page. Snow shovels 305 Ice picks 307 Ice scoops 308 Implements for procuring and preparing food 310 Blubber hooks 310 Fish sealer 311 Making ami working fiber 311 Twisting and braiding 311 Netting 312 Netting weights 315 Weaving 316 Sewing 317 Means of locomotion and transportation 328 Traveling by water 328 Kaiaks and paddles 328 Umiaks and liftings 335 Traveling on foot 344 Sno wshoes 344 Staff 352 Land conveyances 353 Sledges 353 Dogs and harness 357 Hunting scores 360 Games and pastimes 364 Gambling 364 Festivals 365 Mechanical contrivances 372 Description of festivals 373 Toys and sports for children and others 376 Playthings 376 Dolls 3X0 Juvenile implements > 383 Games and sports 383 Music 385 Musical instruments 385 Character and frequency of music 388 Art 389 Domestic life 410 Marriage 410 Standing and treatment of women 413 Children 414 Kights and wrongs 419 Social life and customs 420 Personal habits and cleanliness 420 Salutation 422 Healing 422 Customs concerning the dead 423 Abstentions 423 Manner of disposing of the dead 424 Government 427 In the family 427 In the village 427 Keligion 4HO General ideas 430 Amulets . . 434 LLUSTRAT10NS. Page. PL. I. Map of Northwestern Alaska 2 II. Map of the hunting grounds of the Point Barrow Eskimo 18 FIG. 1. Unaliua, a man of Xuwiik 34 2. Mi'imufiina, a woman of Xuwiik 35 3. Akabiaua, a youth of I'tkiavwiu 36 4. Puka, a young man of t'tkiavwifi 37 5. Woman stretching skins 38 6. Pipes: (a) pipe witli metal bowl; (fc) pipe with stone bowl; (c) pipe with bowl of antler or ivory 67 7. Pipe made of willow stick 68 8. Tobaeeo pouches 69 9. Plans of Eskimo winter house 72 10. Interior of iglu, looking toward door 73 11. Interior of iglu, looking toward bench 71 12. House in Utkiavwifi ... 76 13. Ground plan and section of winter house in Mackenzie region 77 14. Ground plan of large snow house 82 15. Tent OH the beach at ITtkiavwin 85 16. Wooden bucket 86 17. Large tub 87 18. Whalebone dish 88 19. Meat-bowl 89 20. Stone pot 1)0 21. Small stone pot !tl 22. Fragments of pottery 92 23. Stone maul 94 24. Store maul 94 25. Stone maul 95 26. Stone maul 95 27. Stone maul 96 28. Stone maul 96 29. Bone maul 97 30. Bone maul 97 31 . Bone maul 98 32. Bone maul 98 33. Meat-dish 99 34. Oblong meat-dish 100 35. Oblong meat-dish, very old 100 36. Fish dish 100 37. Whalebone cnp 101 38. Horn dipper 101 39. Horn dipper 102 40. Dipper of fossil ivory 103 9 10 ILLUSTRATIONS. Page. FIG. 41. Dipper of fossil ivory 103 42. Wooden spoon 104 43. Horn ladle 104 44. Bone ladle 104 45. Hone ladle in the form of a whale 105 46. Bone ladle 105 47. Stone house-lamp 106 48. Sandstone lamp 107 49. Traveling lamp 108 50. Socket for blubber holder 108 51. Man in ordinary deerskin clothes 110 52. Woman's hood Ill 53. Man's froe.k 113 54. Pattern of man's deerskin froek 113 55. Detail of trimming, skirt and shoulder of man's frock 114 56. Man wearing plain, heavy froek 114 57. Man's froek of mountain sheepskin, front and back 115 58. Man's frock of ermine skins 116 59. Pattern of sheepskin frock 117 60. Pattern of ermine frock 117 61. Woman's frock, front and back 118 62. Pattern of woman's froek 119 63. Detail of edging, woman's frock 119 64. Details of trimming, woman's frock 119 65. Man's cloak of deerskin 121 66. Pattern of man's cloak 121 67. Deerskin mittens 123 68. Deerskin gloves 124 69. Man's breeches of deerskin 125 70. Pattern of man's breeches 126 71. Trimming of man's breeches 126 72. Woman's pantaloons 127 73. Patterns of woman's pantaloons 128 74. Pattern of stocking 129 75. Man's boot of deerskin 131 76. Pattern of deerskin 1 t 131 77. Man's dress boot of deerskin 132 78. Pattern of man's dress boot of deerskin 132 79. Man's dress boot of skin of mountain sheep 133 80. Pair of man's dress boots of deerskin 134 81. Woman's waterproof sealskin boot 135 82. .Sketch of " ice-creepers " on boot sole 135 83. Man's belt woven of feathers 136 84. Diagram showing method of fastening the ends of feathers in belt .. 137 85. Woman's belt of wolverine toes 137 86. Belt-fastener 138 87. Man with tattooed cheeks 139 88. Woman with ordinary tattooing 110 89. Man's method of wearing the hair 141 90. Earrings 143 91. Ping for enlarging labret hole 144 92. Lahret of beads and ivory 145 93. Blue and white labret from Anderson River 146 94. Oblong labret of bone • 147 95. Oblong labret of soapstone 147 ILLUSTRATIONS. 11 Page. FIG. 96. Ancient labret 148 97. Beads of umber 149 98. Hair combs 150 99. Slate knives 151 100. Slate knife-blade 152 101. Slate knife.. 152 102. Slate, knife 103. Slate hunting-knife 104. Blade of slate hunting-knife. . 105. Large slate knife 106. Large single-edged slate knife 52 52 53 53 53 107. Hlades of knives 154 108. Peculiar slate knife 154 109. Knife with whalebone blade 155 110. Small iron knife 155 111. Small iron knives 156 112. Iron hunting knife 156 113. Large erooked knife 158 114. Large crooked knife with sheath 158 115. Small crooked knives 159 116. Crooked knife 159 117. Crooked knives, flint-bladed 160 118. Slate-bladed crooked knives 161 119. Woman's knife, steel blade KH 120. Woman's knife, slate blade 162 121. Woman's knife, slate blade , 102 122. Woman's knife, slate blade 162 123. Woman's knife, slate blade 162 124. Woman's ancient slate-bladed knife 163 125. Ancient bone handle for woman's knife 163 126. Large knife of slate 163 127. Woman's knife of flaked flint 164 128. Hatchet hafted as an adz . . . 165 129. Hatchet hafted as an adz 166 130. Adz-head of jade. . 167 131. Adz-head of jade 167 132. Halted jade adz 168 133. Adz-head of jade and bone 168 134. Adz-head of bone and iron, without eyes 168 135. Adz-head of bone and iron, with vertical eyes 169 136. Adz-head of bone and iron, with vertical eyes 169 137. Hafted bone and iron adz 169 138. Hafted bone and stone adz 170 139. Small adz-blade of green jade 170 140. Hafted adz of bone and flint 171 141. Old cooper's adz, rehafted 171 142. Adz with bone blade 172 143. Antler chisel 173 144. Antler chisel 1 73 145. Spurious tool, flint blade 173 .146. Whalebone shave, slate blade 171 147. Saw made of deer's scapula 1 75 148. Saw made of a case-knife 175 MH. How drill 176 150. Bow drill and mouthpiece 176 12 ILLUSTRATIONS. Page. FIG. 151. Bow drill 177 152. Drill bow 4 177 153. Drill bows 178 154. Spliced drill bow 178 155. Drill mouthpiece with iron socket 179 156. Drill mouthpiece without wings 179 157. Bone-pointed drill 179 158. Handles for drill cords 180 159. Flint-bladed reamers 182 160. Fliut-b laded reamers 182 161. Awl 182 162. Jade whetstones 183 163. Jade whetstones 184 164. Wooden tool-boxes 185 165. Large wooden tool-boxes 186 166. Tool-bag of wolverine skin 187 167. Tool-bag of wolverine skin 188 168. Drills belonging to the tool-bag 189 169. Comb for deerskins in the tool-bag 189 170. Bag handles 190 171. Bag of leather 190 172. Little hand-club 191 173. Slungshot made of walrus jaw 191 174. Dagger of bear's bone 192 175. Bone daggers 192 176. So-called dagger of bone 193 177. Boy's bow from ITtkiavwifi 196 178. Loop at end of bowstring 197 179. Large bow from Nuwuk 197 180. Large bow from Sidaru 198 181. Feathering of the Eskimo arrow 201 182. Flint-headed arrow (knklksadlln) 202 183. Long Hint pile . . .... 202 184. Short flint pile 202 185. Heart-shaped flint pile -'03 186. (rt) Arrow with "after pile" (ipudligadlln) ; (b) arrow with iron pile (Havidlfn); (c) arrow with iron pile (suvidlln) ; (rf) arrow with copper pile (savidllii) ; (e) deer-arrow (imtkodlin) 203 187. Pile of deer arrow (imtk&n) 205 188. "Kfmmndllii" arrow pile 205 189. (a) Fowl arrow (tugal(n) ; ('') bird arrow (kixodwain) 206 190. Bow case and quivers 208 191. Quiver rod 209 192. Cap for quiver rod 209 193. Bracer 210 194. Bracer of bone 210 195. Bird dart 211 196. 1'oint for bird dart 212 197. Ancient point for bird dart 212 198. Point for bird dart 213 199. Bird dart with double point 213 200. Ancient ivory dart head 214 201. Bone dart head 214 202. Xo/zle for bladder float 215 203. Seal dart.. 215 ILLUSTRATIONS. 13 Pape FIG. 204. Foreshaft of seal dart 217 205. Throwing board for darts -17 206. Harpoon head -'18 207. Harpoon head 219 208. Ancient bone harpoon bead - . 219 209. («) Ancient bone harpoon bead ; (i) variants of this type 220 210. Hone harpoon head 220 211. Bone harpoon head 220 212. Harpoon bead, bone and stone 213. Harpoon bead, bone and stone 221 214. Walrus harpoons 224 215. Typical walrus-harpoon heads 226 216. Typical walrus-harpoon beads 226 217. Typical walrus-harpoon heads 227 218. Walms-harpoou head, with " leader " 227 219. Walrus-harpoon bead, with line 220. Walrus-harpoon head, with line 228 221. Walrus-harpoon bead, with line 229 222. Foreshaft of walrus harpoon 230 223. Harpoon head for large seals 230 224. Retrieving seal harpoon 231 225. Details of retrieving seal harpoon 226. Jade blade for seal harpoon 233 227. Seal harpoon for thrusting 228. Diagram of lashing on shaft 234 229. Model of a seal harpoon 235 230. Large model of whale harpoon 235 231. Model of whale harpoon, with floats 236 232. Flint blade for whale harpoon 237 233. Slate blade for whale harpoon 237 234. Body of wbale harpoon head 235. Whale harpoon heads 236. Whale harpoon head with ' ' leader " 239 237. Foreshaft of whale harpoon 239 238. Whale lance 240 239. Flint head of whale lance 241 240. Flint heads for wbale lances 241. Bear lance 242 242. Flint head for bear lance 243. Deer lance 243 244. Part of deer lance with flint head 243 245. Deer lance, flint head 244 246. Flint head for deer lance 244 247. Bird bolas, looped up for carrying 245 248. Bird bolas, ready for use 249. Sealskin float 247 250. Flipper toggles 248 251. Boxes for harpoon heads 252. Seal net 251 253. Scratchers for decoying seals 254. Seal rattle 254 255. Seal indicators 255 256. Sealing stool 255 257. Seal drag and handles 257 258. Whalebone wolf killers . . . 259 14 ILLUSTRATIONS. Page FIG. 259. Wooden snow-goggles - 261 260. HOIK; snow-goggles 262 261. Woollen snow-goggles, unusual form 262 262. Marker for meat cache 262 263. Marker for meat cache 263 264. Tackle for shore fishing 279 265. Knot of line into hook 279 266. Small fish-hooks 280 267. Hooks for river fishing 280 268. Tackle for river fishing 280 269. Burbot hook, first pattern. 281 270. Burbot hook, second pattern 281 271. Burbot hook, made of eod hook , 281 272. Burbot tackle, baited 281 273. Ivory sinker 282 274. Ivory jigger for polar cod .... - ...*.... 282 275. Section of whalebone net 284 276. Mesh of sinew net 285 277. Fish trap 285 278. Fish spear 286 279. Flint flakers 288 280. Haft of flint flaker 288 281. Flint flaker, with bone blade 289 282. Fire drill, with mouthpiece and stock 289 283. Set of bow-and-arrow tools 291 284. Marline spike 292 285. Marline spike 292 286. "Twister" for working sinew backing of bow 293 287. "Feather setter" 294 288. Tool of antler 294 289. Skin scraper 295 290. Skin scrapers — handles only 295 291. Skin scrapers 296 292. Skin scraper 296 293. Peculiar modification of scraper 296 294. Skin scraper 297 295. Skin scraper 297 296. Skin scraper 297 297. Flint blade for skin scraper 298 298. Straight-hafted scraper 298 299. Bone scraper 299 300. Scraper cups 299 301. Combs for cleaning deer-skins 301 302. " Double slit " splice for rawhide lines 302 303. Mattock of whale's rib 303 304. Pickax-heads of bone, ivory, and whale's rib 303 305. Ivory snow knife 305 306. Snow shovels 305 307. Snow shovel made of a whale's scapula 307 308. Snow pick 307 309. Snow drill 308 310. lee scoop 308 311. Long blubber hook 310 312. Short-handled blubber hook 310 313. Fish sealer . . 311 ILLUSTRATIONS. 15 Page. FIG. 314. Ivory shuttle 311 315. Netting needle 312 316. Mesh stick 312 317. Netting needles 318. Netting needles for seal net 314 319. Netting needle 320. Mesh sticks 314 321 . Netting weights 316 322. Shuttle belonging to set of feather tools . . 316 323. Mesh stk-k 317 324. " Sword " for feather weaving 317 325. Quill case of bone needles 318 326. («) Large bone needle and peculiar thimble; (fc) Leather thimbles with bone needles 327. Needle cases with belt hooks . . 320 328. (a) Needle case with belt hook ; (ft) needle ease open, showing bone needles 329. Trinket boxes 330. Trinket boxes 331. Ivory box 332. Bone box.... 333. Little flask of ivory 334. Box in shape of deer. . . 335. Small basket 326 336. Small basket 326 337. Small basket 327 338. Kaitik 339. Method of fastening together frame of kaiak. . . 340. Double kaiak paddle 330 341. Model kaiak and paddle. . . 334 342. Frame of umiak 336 343. («) Method of fastening bilge-streaks to stem of umiak; (b) method of framing rib to gunwale, etc 337 344. Method of slinging the oar of umiak 345. (a) Model of umiak and paddles; (ft) model of umiak, inside plan.. 346. Ivory bailer for umiak 347. Ivory crotch for harpoon 348. Ivory crotch for harpoon 349. Crotch for harpoon made of walrus jaw 350. Suowshoe 345 351. Knot in siiowshoe netting 352. (a) First round of heel-netting of snowshoe; (6) first and second round of heel-netting of snowshoe 347 353. («) First round of heel-netting of snowshoe ; (ft) first, second, and third rounds of heel-netting of siiowshoe 354. Small snowshoe 350 355. Old '• chief," with start's 353 356. Railed sledge (diagrammatic), from photograph. . 354 357. Flat sledge 355 358. Small sledge with ivory runners 355 359. Small toboggan of whalebone 357 360. Hunting score engraved on ivory 361 361. Hunting score engraved on ivory, obverse and reverse . . 362 362. Hunting score engraved on ivory 362 363. Hunting score engraved on ivory, obverse and reverse .... 363 1 6 ILLUSTRATIONS Pace. Fl(i. 364. (iaine of fox and geese from Plover Bay 365 365. Dancing cap 365 866. Wooden mask 366 367. Wooden mask anil dancing gorget 367 368. Old grotesque mask 36H 369. Rude mask of wood 369 370. Wolf mask of wood 36!) 371. Very ancient small mask 369 372. 1 lancing gorgets of wood 371 373. Youth dancing to the aurora 375 374. Whirligigs 377 375. Teetotum 378 376. Bu/z toy 378 377. Whizzing stick 379 378. Pebble snapper 379 379. Carving of human head 380 380. Mechanical doll— drum-player 381 381. Mechanical toy— kaiak paddler 381 382. Kaiak carved from block of wood 382 383. I )rum 385 384. Handle of drum secured to rim 386 385. Drum handles 387 386. Ivory drumsticks 388 387. Ancient carving — human head 393 388. Wooden figures 393 389. Carving — face of Eskimo man 394 390. Grotesque soapstone image — " walrus man" 394 391. Rone image of dancer 395 392. Bono image of man 396 393. Grotesque bone image 396 394. Hone image — sitting man 396 395. Human figure carved from walrus ivory 396 396. Ivory carving — three human heads 397 397. Rude human head, carved from a walrus tooth 397 398. Elaborate ivory carving 398 399. Bear carved of soapstone 398 400. Hear flaked from flint 399 401. («) Bear carved from bone ; (b) bear's head 399 402. Ivory figures of bears 400 403. Rude ivory figures of walrus 401 404. Images of seal — wood and bone 401 405. White whale carved from gypsum 402 406. Wooden carving — whale 403 407. Whale carved from soapstone 403 408. Rude flat image of whale 404 409. Ivory image of whale 404 410. Ivory image of whale 404 411. Pair of little ivory whales 40r( 412. Soapstone image of imaginary animal 405 413. Ivory carving, seal with fish's head 405 414. Ivory carving, ten-legged bear 406 415. Ivory carving, giant holding whales 406 416. Double-headed animal carved from antler 407 417. Ivory carving — dog 407 ILLUSTRATIONS. 17 Page. FIG. 418. (a) Piece of ivory, engraved with figures; (6) development of Patera 408 419. (a) Similar engraved ivory; (6) development of pattern 408 420. Ivory doll 409 421. Whale naked from glass 435 422. Whale flaked from red jasper 435 423. Ancient whale amulet, of wood 436 424. Amnlet of whaling — stuffed god wit 43# 425. Amulet aousistiug of ancient jade adz 43K 426. Little box containing amulet for whaling 439 427. Amulet for catching fowl with bolas 439 428. Box of dried bees — amulet 440 9 ET1I 2 BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY THE HUNTING GROUNDS OF THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. r on L leu f /.'/// itti/'s'&fdp of NorUtn-tstem Alaska',' S it/rial Service. (fS^A. 1885 John Murdocii 0 ETHNOLOGICAL RESULTS OF THE POINT BARROW EXPEDITION. BY JOHN MUKDOCII. INTRODUCTION. The International Polar Expedition to Point Barrow, Alaska, was organized in 1881 by the Chief Signal Officer of the Army, for the pur pose of cooperating in the work of circumpolar observation proposed by the International Polar Conference. The expedition, which was commanded by Lieut, P. II. Kay, Eighth Infantry, IT. S. Army, sailed from San Francisco July 18, 1881, and reached Cape Smyth, 11 miles southwest of Point Barrow, on September 8 of the same year. Here a permanent station was established, where the party remained until August 28, 1883, when the station was abandoned, and the party sailed for San Francisco, arriving there October 7. Though the main object of the expedition was the prosecution of the observations in terrestrial magnetism and meteorology, it was possible to obtain a large collection of articles illustrating the arts and industries of the Eskimo of the region, with whom the most friendly relations were early established. Nearly all of the collection was made by barter, the natives bringing their weapons, clothing, and other objects to the station for sale. Full notes on the habits and customs of the Eskimo also were collected by the different members of the party, especially by the commanding officer; the interpreter, Capt. E. P. Uerendeen; the surgeon, Dr. George Scott Oklmixon, and myself, who served as one of the naturalists and observers of the expedition. It fell to my share to take charge of and catalogue all the collections made by the expedi tion, and therefore I had especially favorable opportunities for becoming acquainted with the ethnography of the region. Consequently, upon the return of the expedition, when it was found that the ethnological observations would occupy too much space for publication in the official report,1 all the collections and notes were intrusted to me, for the purpose of preparing a special report. The Smithsonian Institution, through the kindness of the late Prof. Spencer F. Baird, then secretary, furnished / ' Report of the International Polar Expedition to Point Barrow, Alaska, by Lieut. P. H. Ray, Wash I ington, 1885. 19 20 THE 1'OINT UAKKOW ESKIMO. a room where the work of studying the collection could be carried on, and allowed me access to its libraries and to the extensive collections of the National Museum for the purposes of comparison. The Director of the Bureau of Ethnology, Maj. J. W. Powell, kindly agreed to furnish the illustrations for the work and to publish it as part of his annual report, while the Chief Signal Officer, with the greatest consideration, permitted me to remain in the employ of his Bureau until the completion of the work. Two years were spent in a detailed analytical study of the articles in the collection, until all the information that could be gathered from the objects themselves and from the notes of the collectors had been recorded. Careful comparisons were made with the arts and industries of the Eskimo race as illustrated by the collections in the National Museum and the writings of various explorers, and these frequently resulted in the elucidation of obscure points in the history of the Point Harrow Eskimo. In the form in which it is presented this work contains, it is believed, all that is known at the present day of the ethnography of this interesting people. Much linguistic material was also collected, which I hope some time to be able to prepare for publication. The observations are arranged according to the plan proposed by Prof. Otis T. Mason in his '• Ethnological Directions, etc.," somewhat modified to suit the circumstances. In writing Eskimo words the alpha bet given in Powell's " Introduction to the Study of Indian Languages" has been used, with the addition » for an obscure a (like the final a in soda), ,? for a similar obscure e, and o for the sound of the German o or French eu. I desire to express my gratitude to the late Prof. Spencer F. Baird, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, to the late Gen. William B. Hazeu, Chief Signal Officer of the Army, and to Maj. J. W. Powell, Di rector of the Bureau of Ethnology, for their kindness in enabling me to carry on these investigations. Grateful acknowledgment is due for valu able assistance to various members of the scientific staff of the National Museum, especially to the curator of ethnology, Prof. Otis T. Mason, and to Mr. William H. Dall. Valuable suggestions were received from Mr. Lucien M. Turner, Dr. Franz Boas, the late Dr. Emil Bessels, and Dr. II. rJink, of fhristiania. LIST OF WORKS CONSULTED. The following list is not intended for a complete bibliography of what has been written on the ethnography of the Eskimo, but it is believed that it contains most of the important works by authors who have treated of these people from personal observation. Such of the less im portant works have been included as contain any references bearing upon the subject of the study. As it has been my object to go, whenever possible, to the original sources of information, compilations, whether scientific or popular, have MURDOCH.] WORKS CONSULTED. 21 not been referred to or included in this list, which also contains only the editions referred to in the text. ARMSTRONG, ALEXANDER. A personal narrative of the discovery of the Northwest Passage ; with numerous incidents of travel am1, adventure during nearly rive years' continuous service in the Arctic regions while in search of the expe dition under Sir John Franklin. London, 1857. BACK, GF.OKGE. Narrative of the, Arctic land expedition to the month of the Great Fish River and along the, shores of the Arctic Ocean, in the years 1833. 1834, and 1835. Philadelphia, 1836. BEECHEY, FREDERICK WILLIAM. Narrative of a voyage to the Pacific and Meeting's Strait to cooperate with the polar expeditions: performed in His Majesty's ship Blossom, under the command of Capt. F. W. Beechey, etc., etc., etc., in the years 1825, 1826, 1827, and 1828. London, 1831. BESSELS, EMIL. Die ainerikanische Nordpol-Expedition. Leip/ig, 1878. - The northernmost inhabitants of the earth. An ethnographic sketch. ^Amer ican Naturalist, vol. 18, pp. 861-882. 1884. Einige Worte iiber die Innit (Eskimo) des Smith-Snndes, ncbst Bemcrknngen iiber Inuit-Schadel. <^Archiv fur Anthropologie, vol. 8, pp. 107-122. Braunschweig, 1875. BOAS, FRANZ. The Central Eskimo. In Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Eth nology, pp. 393-689. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1888. BRODBECK, J. NachOsteu. Untersnchnngsfahrt nach der Ostkuste Gronlauds, vom 2. bis 12. August 1881. Niesky, 1882. CHAPPELL, E. (Lieut., R.N.). Narrative of a voyage to Hudson's Bay in His Majesty's ship Rosamond, containing some account of the northeastern coast of Amer ica, and of the tribes inhabiting that remote region. London, 1817. CHORIS, L. Voyage Pittoresque autonr du Monde, avec des portraits des sauvages d'AmeJrique, d'Asie, d'Afriqne, et des iles dn Grand Oce'an ; des paysages, des vnes maritimes, et plusieurs objets d'histoire naturelle; accompagn^ de descriptions par M. le Barou t'uvicr, et M. A. de Chamisso, et d'observations snr les cranes humains par M. le Doctenr Gall. Paris, 1822. COOK, JAMES, and KING, JAMES. A voyage to the Pacific Ocean, undertaken by the command of His Majesty for making discoveries in the northern hemisphere, to determine the position and extent of the west side of North America ; its distance from Asia; and the practicability of a northern passage to Europe, in the years 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779, and 1780. London, 1784. 3 vols. (Com monly called "Cook's Third Voyage.") "C'ORWiN." Cruise of the revenue steamer Corwin in Alaska and the N. W. Arctic Ocean in 1881. Notes and memoranda. Medical and anthropological ; botan ical; ornithological. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1883. CRANTZ, DAVID. The history of Greenland: containing a description of the country and its inhabitants ; and particularly a relation of the mission carried on for above these thirty years by the I'nitas Fratrum, at New Herrnhuth and Lich- tenfels, in that country. 2 volumes. London, 1767. DALI., WILLIAM HEALY. Alaska and its Resources. Boston, 1870. — On masks, labrets, and certain aboriginal customs, with an inquiry into the bearing of their geographical distribution. o]iuliort bt'skrevcn. Copenhagen, 1887. Hooi'ER, C. L. (Capt.). Report of the cruise of the U. S. revenue steamer Thomas Corwin, iu the Arctic Ocean, 1881. Washington, Government I'rintiug Office, 1884. HOUPKK, WILLIAM HUL.ME (Lieut.). Ten months among the tents of the Tuski, with incidents of an arctic boat expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, us far as the Mackenzie River and Cape Bathurst. London, 1853. KANE, EI.LSHA KENT (Dr.). Arctic explorations iu the years 1853, '54, '53. Two vols. Philadelphia, 1856. The U. S. Grinnell expedition in search of Sir John Franklin. A personal narrative. New York, 1853. KIRKIIV, \V. W. (Archdeacon). A journey to the Yoncan, Russian America. -^An nual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution for the year 1864, pp. 416-420. Washington, 1865. KLUTSCHAK, HEIXRICH W. Als Eskimo unter den Eskimos. Eine Schilderung der Erlebnisse der Schwatka'schen Frauklin-aufsuchungs-cxpedition in deii Jahren 1878-'80. Wien, Pest, Leipzig, 1881. KOTZKBUK, O. VON. A voyage of discovery into the South Sea and Beering's Straits, for the purpose of exploring a northeast passage, undertaken in the years 1815-1818. Three volumes. London. 1821. KKAUSK, AUKEL (Dr.). Die Bevolkerungsverhiiltnisse der Tschiiktscher-Halhiusel. , and '6, per formed by order of His Imperial Majesty Alexander the First, Emperor of Russia, in the ship Neva. London, 1814. LYON, G. F. (Capt.). The private journal of Captain G. F. Lyon, of H. M. S. Hecla, during the recent voyage of discovery under Captain Parry. Boston, 1824. M'Ci.t'KK, ROIIERT LE MESURIER (Capt.). See Osboru, Sherard (editor). MACKENZIE, ALEXANDER. Voyages from Montreal, on the river St. Lawrence, through the continent of North America, to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans, in the years 1789 and 1793. London, 1802. MAGUIRE, ROCHFORT (Commander). Proceedings of Commander Maguire, H. M. dis covery ship "Plover." ^Parliamentary Reports, 1854, XLII, pp. 165-185. London, 1854. — Proceedings of Commander Maguire, Her Majesty's discovery ship "Plover." <^ Further papers relative to the recent arctic expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, etc., p. 905 (second year). Presented to both houses of Par liament, January, 1855. London. MORGAN, HENRY. The relation of the course which the Sunshine, a bark of liftie tunnes, and the, Northstarrc, a small piuuesse, being two vessels of the fleet of M. John Dauis, held after he had sent them from himtodiscouer the pass age between Greenland and Island. Written by Henry Morgan, seruaut to M. William Sanderson, of London. <^Hakluyt, "The prmcipall navigations, voiages, etc.," pp. 787-9. London, 1589. . MURDOCH, JOHN. The retrieving harpoon ; an nudescribed type of Eskimo weapon U I < American Naturalist, vol. 19, 1885, pp. 423-425. *" 24 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. MURDOCH, JOHN. On the Siberian origin of some customs of the western Eskimos. < American Anthropologist, vol. 1, pp. 325-336. Washington, 1888. A study of the Eskimo bows in the U. S. National Museum. <[ Smithsonian Report for 1884, pt. n, pp. 307-316. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1885. NOKDENSKIOLD, ADOLF ERIC. The voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe. Translated by Alexander Leslie. 2 vols. London, 1881. OSIIORN, SHEKAKO (editor). The discovery of the northwest passage by H. M. S. In vestigator, Cant. K. M'Clure, 1850, 1851, ia52, 1853, 1854. Edited by Com mander Shorard Osborn, from the logs and journals of Capt. Robert Le M. M'Clure. Appendix : Narrative of Commander Maguire, wintering at Point Burrow. London, 1856. PARKY, WILLIAM EDWARD (Sir). Journal of a voyage for the discovery of a north west passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific; performed in the years 1819-'20, in His Majesty's ships Hecla and Griper. Second edition. London, 1821. Journal of a second voyage for the discovery of a northwest passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific; performed in the years 1821-'22-'23, in His Majesty's ships Fury and Hecla. London, 1824. PETITOT, EMILK FORTI:N£ STANISLAS JOSEPH, (Rev.). Geographic dc 1'Athabascaw- Mackenzie. -^Bulletin de la Secie'te' de Geographic, [6] vol. 10, pp. 5-12, 126-183, 242-290. Paris, 1875. Vocabulaire Francais-Esquimaux, dialecte des Tchiglit des bouches du Mackenzie et de 1'Anderson, pr6c6d6 d'une monographic de cette tribn et de notes grammaticales. Vol. 3 of Pinart's " Bibliotheque de Linguistique et dr Ethnographic Am6ricaines." PETKOFF, IVAN. Report on the population, industries, and resources of Alaska. or (> feet in height, which are raised by the ice. Masses of old ice, bearing large quantities of gravel, are pushed iij) on the beach during severe storms and melt rapidly in the summer, depositing their load of gravel and pebbles in a heap. These masses are often pushed up out of reach of the waves, so that the heaps of gravel are left thenceforth undisturbed. Between Imeruyu and Elson Hay (Ta'syuk) is a series of large shal low lagoons, nearly circular and close to the beach, which rises in a regu lar sea-wall. All have low steep banks on the land side, bordered with a narrow beach. The first of these, I'kplllii ("that which has high banks"), breaks out in the spring through a narrow channel in the beach in the manner already described, and is salt or brackish. The next is fresh and connected with Ikplllii by a small stream running along be hind the beach. It is called Sl'n-nyii, and receives a rivulet from a small fresh-water lake .'i or 4 miles inland. The, third, Inie'kpiin ("great water"), is also fresh, and has neither tributary nor outlet. The fourth, Imekpii'niglu, is brackish, and empties into Elson Hay by a small stream. Between this stream and the beach is a little fresh-water pond close to the bend of Elson Bay, which is called KIkyukta'ktoro, from one or two little islands (klkyu'ktis) near one end of it. Hack from the shore the land is but slightly elevated, and is marshy and interspersed with many small lakes and ponds, sometimes con nected by inconsiderable streams. This marsh passes gradually into a somewhat higher and drier rolling plain, stretching back inland from the cliffs and growing gradually higher to the south. Dr. Simpson, on the authority of the Point Barrow natives, describes the country as "uniformly low, and full of small lakes or pools of fresh water to a dis tance, of about 50 miles from the north shore, where the surface becomes undulating and hilly, and, farther south, mountainous."1 This descrip tion has been substantially verified by Lieut. Kay's explorations. South of the usual deer-hunting ground of the natives he found the land decid edly broken and hilly, and rising gradually to a considerable range of mountains, running approximately east and west, which could be seen from the farthest point he reached.2 The natives also speak of high rocky land "a long way off to the east," which some of them have visited for the purpose of hunting the mountain sheep. The low rolling plain in the immediate vicinity of Point Barrow, which is all of the country that could be visited by our party when the laud was clear of snow, presents the general appear ance of a country overspread with glacial drift. The landscape is strikingly like the rolling drift hills of Cape Cod, and this resemblance is increased by the absence of trees and the occurrence of ponds in all the depressions. There are no rocks in situ visible in this region, and 1 Arctic papers, p. 233. '' Report U. S. International Polar Expedition to Point Barrow, p. 28. MI-RUOCH.] TOPOGRAPHY OF THE COUNTRY. 29 large bowlders arc absent, while pebbles larger than the fist are rare. The surface of the ground is covered with a thin soil, supporting a rather sparse vegetation of grass, flowering plants, creeping willows, and mosses, which is thicker on the higher hillsides and forms a layer of turf about a foot thick. Large tracts of comparatively level ground are almost bare of grass, and consist of irregular hummocks of black, muddy soil, scantily covered with light-colored lichens and full of small pools. The lowlands, especially those back of the beach lagoons, are marshes, thickly covered with grass and sphagnum. The whole sur face of the land is exceedingly wet in summer., except the higher knolls and hillsides, and for about 100 yards back from the edge of the cliffs. The thawing, however, extends down only about a foot or eighteen inches. Beyond this depth the ground is perpetually frozen for an unknown distance. There are no streams of any importance in the im mediate neighborhood of Point Barrow. On the other hand, three of the rivers emptying into the Arctic Ocean between Point Harrow and the Colville, which Dr. Simpson speaks of as "small and hardly known except to persons who have visited them," ' have been found to be con siderable streams. Two of these were visited by Lieut. Ray in his ex ploring trips in 1882 and 1883. The first, Kua'ru, is reached after trav eling about 50 miles from Point Barrow in a southerly direction. It has been traced only for a small part of its course, and there is reason to believe, from what the natives say, that it is a tributary of the sec ond named river. Lieut. Ray visited the upper part of the second river, Kulugrua (named by him "Meade River"), in March, 1882, when he went out to join the native deer hunters encamped on its banks, just on the edge of the hilly country. On his return lie visited what the natives assured him was the mouth of this river, and obtained observa tions for its geographical position. Early in April, 1883, lie again vis ited the upper portion of the stream, and traced it back some distance into the hilly country. The intermediate portion has never been sur veyed. At the time of each of his visits the river was, of course, frozen and the ground covered with snow, but he was able to see that the river was of considerable size, upwards of 200 yards wide where, he first reached it, about (50 miles from its mouth, and showing evidences of a large volume of water in the spring. It receives several tributaries. (See maps, Pis. i and n.) The third river is known only by hearsay from the natives. It is called I'kplkpun (Great Cliff), and is about 40 miles (estimated from day's journeys) east of Kulu'grua. It is described as being a larger and more rapid stream than the other two, and so deep that it does not freeze down to the bottom on the shallow bars, as they say Kulu'grua does. Not far from its mouth it is said to receive a tributary from the east flowing out of a great lake of fresh water, called Ta/synkpun (Great Lake.) This lake is separated from the sea by a comparatively 1 Op. cit., p. 235. 30 THE POINT HARROW KSKIMO. narrow strip of land, and is so large that a man standing oil the north ern shore, can not see the "very high" laud on the southern. It takes an umiak a day to travel the length of the lake under sail with a fair wind, and when the Xunatanminn coming from the south first saw the lake they said "Taxaio!" (the sea). On Capt. Maguire's map1 this lake is laid down by the name "Taso'kpoh'7 "from native report." It is represented as lying between Smith Hay and Harrison Bay, and connected with each by a stream. Maguire seems to have heard nothing of Ikpikpufi. This lake is not mentioned in the body of the report. Dr. Simpson, however,2 speaks of it in the following words: "They [i. e,., the trading parties when they reach Smith Bay] enter a river which conducts them to a lake, or rather series of lakes, and descend another stream which joins the sea in Har rison Bay." They are well acquainted with the Colville Itiver, which in their intercourse witli us they usually called "the river at Ni'galek," Nl'galgk being the well known name of the trading camp at the mouth. It was also sometimes spoken of as the "river of the Nnnataumiun." The Mackenzie River is known as "Kupiiii'1 (great river). We found them also acquainted with the large unexplored river called "Kok"on the maps, which flows into Wainwright Inlet. They called it "Ku" (the river). The river "Cogrua," which is laid down on the charts as empty ing into Peard Bay, was never mentioned by the Point Barrow natives, but we were informed by Capt. Gilford, of the whaler Daniel Webster, who traveled along the coast from Point Barrow to Cape Lisburne after the loss of his vessel in 1 881, that it is quite a considerable stream. He had to ascend it for about a day's journey — 20 miles, according to Capt. Hooper1 — before he found it shallow enough to ford. CLIMATE. The climate of this region is thoroughly arctic in character, the mean annual temperature being 8° F., ranging from 65° to —52° F. Such temperatures as the last mentioned are, however, rare, the ordinary winter temperature being between —20° and —30° F., rarely rising during December, January, February, and March as high as zero, and still more rarely passing beyond it. The winter merges insensibly by slow degrees into summer, with occasional "cold snaps," and frosty nights begin again by the 1st of September. The sun is entirely below the horizon at Point Barrow for 72 days in the winter, beginning November 15, though visible by refraction a day or two later at the beginning of this period and a day or two earlier at the end. The midday darkness is never complete even at the winter solstice, as the sun is such a short distance below the horizon, but the time suitable for outdoor employments is limited to a short twilight from 9 a. in. to 3 p. m. Theie is, of course, an equal time in the summer 'Parl. Rep., 1854, vol. 42, opp. p. 186. JOp. cit., p. 2C5. 'Corwin Report, p. 72. MURDOCH.] CL1MATK. 31 when the sun is continually above tlie horizon, and for about a month before and after this period the twilight is so bright all night that no stars are visible. The snowfall during the winter is comparatively small. There is probably not more than a foot of snow on a level anywhere on the land, though it is extremely difficult to measure or estimate, as it is so flue and dry that it is easily moved by the wind and is constantly in motion, forming deep, heavy, hard drifts under all the banks, while many ex posed places, especially the top of the sand beach, are swept entirely clean. The snow begins to soften and melt about the first week iu April, but goes off very slowly, so that the ground is not wholly bare before the middle or end of June. The grass, however, begins to turn green early in June, and a few flowers are seen in blossom as early as June, 7 or 8. Rain begins to fall as early as April, but cold, snowy days are not un common later than that date. There is a good deal of clear, calm weather during the, winter, and extremely low temperatures are seldom accom panied by high wind. Violent storms are not uncommon, however, especially iu November, during the latter part of January, and in Feb ruary. One gale from the south and southwest, which occurred January 22, 1882, reached a velocity of 100 miles an hour. The most agreeable season of the year is between the middle of May and the, end of July, when the sea opens. After this there is much foggy and cloudy weather. Fresh-water ponds begin to freeze about the last week in September, and by the first or second week in October everything is sufficiently frozen for the natives to travel with sledges to fish through the ice of the inland rivers. Melting begins with the thawing of the snow, but the larger ponds are not clear of ice till the middle or end of July. The sea in most seasons is permanently closed by freezing and the moving in of heavy ice fields from about the middle of October to the end of .Inly. The heavy ice in ordinary seasons does not move very far from the shore, while the sea is more or less encumbered with floating masses all summer. These usually ground on a bar wliich runs from the Seahorse Islands along the shore parallel to it and about 1,000 yards distant, forming a "barrier" or "land-floe" of high, broken hummocks, inshore of which the sea freezes over smooth and undisturbed by the pressure of the outer pa<;k. Sometimes, however, the heavy pack, under the pressure of violent and long-continued westerly winds, pushes across the bar and is forced up on the beach. The iee sometimes comes in with great rapidity. The natives informed us that a year or two before the station was established the heavy ice came in against the village cliffs, tearing away part of the bank and destroying a house on the edge of the cliff so suddenly that one of the inmates, a large, stout man, was unable to escape through the trap-door and was crushed to death. Outside of the land-floe the ice is a broken pack, consisting of hummocks of fragmentary old and new icer interspersed with comparatively level fields of the former. During the 32 THK POINT BARROW ESKIMO. curly part of the winter this pack is most of the time in motion, some times moving northeastward with the prevailing em-rent and grinding along the edge of the barrier, sometimes moving off to sea before an off shore wind, leaving "leads" of open water, which in calm weather are immediately covered with new ice (at the rate of f> inches in 24 hours), and again coming in with greater or less violence against the edges of this new- ice, crushing and crumpling it up against the barrier. Portions of the land-floe even float off and move away with the pack at this season. The westerly gales of the later winter, however, bring in great quan tities of ice, which, pressing against the land-floe, are pushed up into hummocks and ground firmly in deeper water, thus increasing the breadth of the fixed land-floe until the line of separation between the laud-floe and the moving pack is 4 or 5 or sometimes even 8 miles from land. The hummocks of the laud-floe show a tendency to arrange themselves in lines parallel to the shore, and if the pressure has not been too great there are often fields of ice of the season not, over 4 feet thick between the ranges of hammocks, as was the case in the winter of 1881-'82. In the following year, however, the pressure was so great that there were no such fields, and even the level ice inside of the barrier was crushed into hummocks in many places. After the gales are over there is generally less motion in the pack, until about the middle of April, when easterly winds usually cause leads to open at the edge of the land-floe. These leads now continue to open and shut, varying in size with the direction and force of the wind. As the season advances, especially in July, the melting of the ice on the surface loosens portions of the land-floe, which float oft" and join the pack, bringing the leads nearer to the shore. In the meantime the level shore ice has been cut away from the beach by the warm water running down from the land and has grown "rotten" and full of holes from the heat of the sun. By the time the outside ice has moved away so as to leave only the floes grounded on the bar the inside ice breaks up into loose masses, moving up and down with wind and current and ready to move oft' through the first break in the barrier. Portions of the re maining barrier gradually break off and at last the whole finally floats and moves out with the pack, sometimes, as in 1881 — a very remarkable season — moving out of sight from the land. This final departure of the ice may take place at any time between the middle of July and the middle of August. East of Point Barrow we had opportunities only for hasty and superficial observations of the state of the ice. The land floe appears to form some distance outside of the sandy islands, and from the account of the natives there is much open water along shore early in the season, caused by the breaking up of the rivers. Dr. Simpson1 learned from the natives that the trading parties which left the Point about the 1st of July found open water at Dease Inlet. This is more definite information than we were able to obtain. We only learned that they counted on finding open water a few days' journey east. PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THK PEOPLE. 33 THE PEOPLE. PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS. Ill stature these people are of a medium height, robust and muscular, "inclining rather to spareness than corpulence,"2 though tlie fullness of the face and the thick fur clothing often gives the impression of the latter. There is, however, considerable individual variation among them in this respect. The women are as a rule shorter than the men, occasionally almost dwarfish, though some women are taller than many of the men. The tallest man observed measured 5 feet !>£ inches, and the shortest 4 feet 1 1 inches. The tallest woman was 5 feet 3 inches in height, and the shortest 4 feet i inch. The, heaviest man weighed 204 pounds and the lightest 12(5 pounds. One woman weighed 192 pounds and the shortest woman was also the lightest, weighing only 100 pounds.3 The hands and feet are small and well shaped, though the former soon become distorted and roughened by work. We did not observe the peculiar breadth of hands noticed by Dr. Simpson, nor is the shortness of the thumb which he mentions sufficient to attract attention.4 Their feet are so small that only one of our party, who is much below the ordinary size, was able to wear the boots made by the natives for them selves. Small and delicate hands and feet appear to be a universal characteristic of the Eskimo race and have been mentioned by most observers from Greenland to Alaska.5 The features of these people have been described by Dr. Simpson,6 and are distinctively Eskimo in type, as will be seen by comparing the accompanying portraits (Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4, from photographs by Lieut. Kay) with the many pictures brought from the eastern Arctic « Op. cit., p. 264. 'Simpson, op. cit., p. 238. •See Report of Point Barrow Expedition, p. 50, for a tnlile of measurements of n number of indi viduals selected at random from the natives of both villages and tlieir visitors. 'Op. cit., p. 238. •Davis (1586) speaks of the "small, slender hands and feet" of the Grcenlanders. Uakluyt's Voya ges, etc. (1589), ]>. 782. "Their hands anil feet are little and soft." Crantz, vol. 1, p. 133 (Greenland). Hands and feet "extremely diminutive," Parry 1st Voy., p. 282 (Baflin Land). "Their hands and feet art- small and well formed." Kunilien Contrib., p. 15 (Cumberland Gulf). "Feet extraordinarily small." Ellis, Voyage, etc., p. 132 (Hudson Strait). Franklin (1st Exp., vol. 2, p. 180) mentions the small hands and feet of the two old Eskimo that ho met at the Bloody Fall of the Coppermine River. "... boots purchased on the coast were seldom large enough for our people." Richardson Searching Exp., i, p. 344 (Cape Bathurst). "Their hands and feet are small." Petroff, Report, et«., p. 134 (Kuskoquim River). Chappell (Hudson Bay, pp. 59, 60) has a remarkable theory to account for the smallui'ss of the extremities among the people of Hudson Strait. He believes that "the same intense cold which restricts vegetation to the form of creeping shrubs has also its effect upon the growth of mankind, preventing the extremities from attaining their due proportion" ! •Op. cit., p. 238. 0 ETH 3 34 T1IK 1'OINT KAUKOW KISKJMO. Fio. 1. — Unalina, a man of Nuwfik. PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS. regions by various explorers, some of which might easily pass for por traits of persons of our acquaintance at Point Harrow.1 The faee is broad, flat, and round, with high cheek bones and rather low forehead, broad across the brow and narrowing above, while the head is somewhat pointed toward the crown. The peculiar shape of the FIG. 2. — Mfimfifiina, a woman of Nuwnk. head is somewhat masked by the way of wearing the hair, and is best seen in the skull. The nose is short, with little or no bridge (few Eski mo were able to wear our spring eye-glasses), and broad, especially , across the al;e nasae, with a peculiar rouuded, somewhat bulbous tip, 1 One young man at Point Barrow look.s remarkably like tUe well known "Eskimo Joe," as I remem ber him in Boston in the winter of !H62-'63, 36 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. and large nostrils. The eyes are horizontal,1 with rather full lids, and are but slightly sunken below the level of the face. The mouth is large and the lips full, especially the under one. The teeth are naturally large, awl in youth are white and generally regular, but by middle age they are generally worn down to flat-crowned stumps, as is usual among the Eskimo. The color of the skin is a light yellowish ff A FIG. 3 — AkaMana, a youth of UtkiavwiB. brown, with often considerable ruddy color on the cheeks and lips. There appears to be much natural variation in the complexion, some women being nearly as fair as Europeans, while other individuals seem to have naturally a coppery color.2 In most cases the complexion ap pears darker than it really is from the effects of exposure to the weather. All sunburn very easily, especially in the spring when there is a strong reflection from the snow. 1 The expression of obliquity in the eyes, mentioned by Dr. Simpson (op. cit., p. 239), seems to mo to have arisen from the shape of the eheek hones. I may bo mistaken, however, as no careful compari- sons were made on the spot. * Frobisher says of this people of Baffin Land : ' ' Their colour is not much unlike the sunburnt countrie man." Hakluyt's Voyages, etc. (1589), \>. 627, MURDOCH.] PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS. 37 The old arc much wrinkled, and they frequently suffer from watery eyes, with large sacks under them, which begin to form at a compara tively early age. There is considerable variation in features, as well as complexion, among them, even in cases where there seems to be no sus picion of mixed blood. There were several men among them with de cided aquiline, noses and something of a Hebrew cast of countenance. FIG. 4. — Puka, a mail of Utkiavwifi. The eyes are of various shades of dark brown — two pairs of light hazel eyes were observed — and are often handsome. The hair is black, per fectly straight, and very thick. With the men it is generally coarser than with the women, who sometimes have very long and silky hair, though it generally does not reach much below the shoulders. The eye brows are thin and the beard scanty, growing mostly upon the upper lip and chin, and seldom appearing under the age of 20. In this they resemble most Eskimo. Back,1 however, speaks of the "luxuriant 1 Journey, titc., p. 289. THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. \ A Vxt beards and flowing mustaches" of the Eskimo of the Great Fish River. Some of the older men have rather heavy black mustaches, but there is much variation in this respect. The upper part of the body (as much is commonly exposed in the house) is remarkably free from hair. The general expression is good humored and attractive. The males, even when very young, are remarkable for their graceful 'and dignified carriage. The body is held erect, with the shoulders square and chest well thrown out, the knees straight, and the feet firmly planted on the ground. In walking they move with long swinging elas tic strides, the toes well turned out and the arms swinging. I can not agree with Dr. Simpson that the turning out of the toes gives "a certain peculiarity to their gait difficult to describe." ' I should say that they walked like well built athletic white men. The women, on the other hand, although possessing good physiques, are singularly ungraceful in their movements. They walk at a sort of shuffling half- trot, with the toes turned in, the body leaning forward, and the arms hanging awkwardly.2 A noticeable thing about the women is the remarkable flexibility of the body and limbs, and the great length of time they can stand in a stooping posture. (See Fig. 5 for a posture often assumed in working.) Flo. 5. — Woman stretching skins. Both men and women have a very fair share of muscular strength. Some of the women, especially, showed a power of carrying heavy loads superior to most white men. We were able to make no other compari sons of their strength with ours. Their power of endurance is very great, and both sexes are capable of making long distances on foot. Two men sometimes spend -!4 hours tramping through the rough ice in search of seals, and we knew of instances where small parties made journeys of 50 or 75 miles on foot without stopping to sleep. The women are not prolific. Although all the adults are or have been married, many of them are childless, and few have more than two chil dren. One woman was known to have at least four, but investigations of this sort were rendered extremely difficult by the universal custom 'Op.cit., p. 238. * Cf. Simpson, op. cit., p. 240. MURDOCH.) PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS. 39 of adoption. Dr. Simpson heard of a "rare case" where one woman had borne seven children.1 We heard of 110 twins at either village, though we obtained the Eskimo word for twins. It was impossible to learn with certainty the age at which the women first bear children, from the impossibility of learning the age of any individuals in the absence of any fixed method of reckoning time. Dr. Simpson states that they do not commonly bear children before the age of -!0,2 and we certainly saw no mothers who appeared younger than this. We knew of but five cases of pregnancy in the two villages during the 2 years of our stay. Of these, one suffered miscarriage, and of the other four, only two of the infants lived more than a short time. It is exceedingly difficult, for the reasons stated above, to form any estimate of the age to which these people live, though it is natural to suppose that the arduous and often precarious existence which they lead must prevent any great longevity. Men and women who appeared to be 00 or over were rare. Yiiksi'fia, the so-called "chief" of Nuwtik, who was old enough to be a man of considerable influence at the time the Plover wintered at Point Harrow (1852-'54), was in 1881 a feeble, bowed, tottering old man, very deaf and almost blind, but with his mental faculties apparently unimpaired. Gray hair appears uncommon. Even the oldest are, as a rule, but slightly gray. PATHOLOGY. Diseases of the respiratory and digestive organs are the most frequent and serious ailments from which they suffer. The former are most prevalent toward the end of summer and early in winter, and are due to the natives sleeping on the damp ground and to their extreme care lessness in exposing themselves to drafts of wind when overheated. Nearly everyone suffers from coughs and colds in the latter part of August, and many deaths occur at this season and the beginning of winter from a disease which appears to be pneumonia. A tew cases, < one fatal, of hemorrhage of the lungs were observed, which were proba- / bly aggravated by the universal habit of inhaling tobacco smoke. The , people suffer from diarrhea, indigestion, and especially from constipa- j tion. Gonorrhea appears common in both sexes, but syphilis seems to be unknown in spite of the promiscuous intercourse of the women with the whalemen. One case of uterine hemorrhage was observed. Cutaneous diseases are rare. A severe ulcer on the leg, of long standing, was cured by our surgeon, to whose observations I am chiefly indebted for what I have to say about the diseases of these people; and one man had lost the cartilage of his nose and was marked all over the body with hideous scars from what appeared to be some form of scrofulous disease. A single case of tumor on the deltoid muscle was observed. Rheumatism is rather frequent. All are subject to snow blindness in the spring, and 'Op. cit., p. 254. 'Op.cit. p. 254. 40 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. sores on the face from neglected frost bites are common. Many are blind in one eye from what appears to be cataract or leucoma, but only one case of complete blindness was noticed. Dr. Sutherland states that he does not recollect a single instance of total blindness among the Eskimo that he saw iii-BaffinJjand, and expresses the opinion that "An individual in such a state would be quite unfit for the life of toil and hardship to which the hardy Esquimaux is exposed. The neglect con sequent upon this helpless condition most probably cuts off its afflicted objects." ' This seems quite reasonable on a priori grounds, but nevertheless the blind man at Cape Smyth had lived to middle age in very comfortable circumstances, and though supported to a great extent by his relatives he was nevertheless able to do a certain share of work, and had the reputation of being a good paddler for a whaling umiak. Injuries are rare. One man had lost both feet at the ankle and moved about with great ease and rapidity on his knees. All are subject to bleeding at the nose and usually plug the bleeding nostril with a bunch of deer hair.* This habit, as it has been termed, of vicarious hemorrhage seems to be characteristic of the Eskimo race wherever they have been met with, and has been supposed to be a process of nature for relieving the full ness of the circulatory system caused by their exclusively animal diet.3 Natural deformities and abnormalities of structure are uncommon, except strabismus, which is common and often, at least, congenital. One boy in Utkiavwin had his forehead twisted to one side, probably from some accident or difficulty during delivery. His intelligence did not seem to be impaired. The people are, as a rule, right handed, but that left-handed persons occasionally occur is shown by their having a word for a left-handed man. We also collected a "crooked knife," fitted for use with the left hand.4 --xs i-SS cople are much given to bleed, and, therefore, stoppe theyr noses withdcerc hayre or the liayro of an olau." Hakluyt. Voyages, etc., 15811, p. 782. 3 Kgede, Greenland, p. 120; Crantz, vol. 1, p. 234 (Greenland) ; Southerland. Joiirn. Ethuol. Soc., vol. iv, p. 207 (Baffin Land); Ohappcll, "Hudson ISay," p. 74 (North Shore of Hudson Strait); Lyon, Journal, p. 18 (Hudson Strait); Franklin, 1st Exp., I, p. 29 (Hudson Strait); Parry. 2d Voy., p. 544 (Iglnilik); Hooper, Tents of the Tuski, p. 185 (1'lover Bay. Siberia). ' 1 have an indistinct recollection of having once seen a left-handed person from Xuwftk. 'Holm calls the East Greeulauders "et meget livligt l''olkel'a-rd'' Geogr. Tidskrift, vol. 8, p. 96. MURDOCH.) PSYCHICAL CHARACTERISTICS. 41 even when practiced on theinselves. They are generally peaceable. We did not witness a single quarrel among the men during the two years of our stay, though they told ns stories of fatal quarrels in former years, in which firearms were used. Liquor may have been the cause of these fights, as it is said to have been of the only suicide I ever heard of among them, which I am informed by Capt. E. E. Smith, the whaling master already referred to, occurred in 1885 at Nuwuk. Disagreements between man and wife, however, sometimes lead to blows, in which the man does not always get the best of it. When the station was first established many of the natives began pilfering from our stores, but they soon learned that by so doing they cut themselves off from the privilege of visiting the station and enjoying the opportunity for trading which it afforded, and were glad to promise to refrain from the practice. This promise was very well observed, though I think wholly from feelings of self-interest, as the thieves when detected seemed to have no feeling of shame. Some, I believe, never yielded to the temptation. There was seldom any difficulty in obtaining restitution of stolen articles, as the thief's comrades would not attempt to shield him, but often voluntarily betrayed him. They acknowledged that there was considerable thieving on board of the ships, but the men of Utkiavwlu tried to lay the blame on the Nuwiik people, and we may suppose that the charge was reciprocated, as was the case regarding the theft of the Plover's sails.1 We also heard of occasional thefts among themselves, especially of seals left on the ice or venison buried in the snow, but men who were said to be thieves did not appear to lose any social consideration. liobbery with violence appears to be unknown. We never saw or heard of the "burglar-alarm" described by Dr. Simpson,2 which I am in clined to believe was really a "demon trap" like that described by Lieut. Kay (see below, under Religion). They are in the main truthful, though a detected lie is hardly con sidered more than a good joke, and considerable trickery is practiced in trading. For instance, soon after the station was established they brought over the carcass of a dog, with the skin, head, feet, and tail removed, and attempted to sell it for a young reindeer ; and when we began to purchase seal-oil for the lamps one woman brought over a tin can nearly filled with ice, with merely a layer of oil on top. Clothing and other articles made especially for sale to us were often very carelessly and hastily made, while their own things were always carefully finished.3 Their affection for each other, especially for their children, is strong, 1 Simpson, op. cit., p. 248. 2Op. cit., p. 247. 3 Compare Nordenskiold's experience in Siberia. The "Chukches" sold him skinned foxes with the head and feet eut off for hares, (Vega, vol. 1, p. 44ri), young ivory gulls for ptarmigan, and a dog's skull for a seal's (vol. 2, p. 137). Besides, "While their own things were always made with tin: greatest care, all that they did especially for iis was done with extreme carelessness" (ihid). The Eskimos at Hotham Inlet also tried to sell Capt. Beechey tishakius sewed together to represent fish. (Voyage, p. 285.) 42 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. though they make little show of grief for bereavement, and their minds are easily diverted by amusements. I am inclined to bel'eve, however, from some cases I have observed, that grief is deeper and more perma nent than superficial appearances would indicate. Their curiosity is unbounded, and they have no hesitation in gratify ing it by unlimited questioning. All who have read the accounts of the Eskimo character given by explorers in other parts of the Arctic regions will recognize this as a familiar trait. We also found the habit of begging at first quite as offensive among some of these people as other travelers have found it, but as they grew better acquainted with us they ceased to beg except for trifling things, such as a chew of tobacco or a match. Some of the better class never begged at all. Some of them seemed to feel truly grateful for the benefits and gifts received, and en deavored by their general behavior, as well as in more substantial ways to make some adequate return. Others appeared to think only of what they might receive. Hospitality is a universal virtue. Many of them, from the beginning of our acquaintance with them, showed the greatest friendliness and willingness to assist us in every way, while others, especially if there were many of them together, were inclined to be insolent, and knives were occasionally drawn in sudden fits of passion. These "roughs," however, soon learned that behavior of this sort was punished by prompt ostracism and threats of severer discipline, and before the first nine months were past we had established the most friendly relations with the whole village at Cape Smyth. Some of those who were at first most insolent became afterwards our best friends. Living as these people do at peace with their neighbors, they would not be expected to exhibit the fierce martial courage of many other savages, but bold whalemen and venturous ice-hunters can not be said to lack bravery. In their dealings with white men the richer and more influential among them at least consider themselves their equals if not their supe riors, and they do not appreciate the attitude of arrogant superiority adopted by many white men in their intercourse with so-called savages. Many of them show a grace of manner and a natural delicacy and polite ness which is quite surprising. I have known a young Eskimo so polite that in conversing with Lieut. Kay he would take pains to mispronounce his words in the same way as the latter did, so as not to hurt his feelings by correcting him bluntly.' TRIBAL PHENOMENA. We were unable to discover among these people the slightest trace of tribal organization or of division into geutes, and in this our observa tions agree with those of all who have studied the Eskimos elsewhere. They call themselves as a race "In'uln," a term corresponding to the 'Compare Vega, vol. 1, p. 489. The Clmkches were "so courteous us not to correct but to adopt the mirttake.s in the pronunciation or meaning of word.s that were made on the Vega." MURDOCH.] TRIUAL PHENOMENA. 43 "limit" of other dialects, and meaning ''people," or "human beings." Under this name they include white men and Indians as well as Eskimo, as is the case in Greenland and the Mackenzie River district, and prob ably also everywhere else, though many writers have supposed it to be applied by them only to their own race. They have however special names for the former two races. The people of any village are known as "the inhabitants of such and such a place;" for instance, Nuwu'fimiim, "the inhabitants of the point;" Utkiavwlnmiun, "the inhabittints of Utkiavwln;" Kuiiiniu.ii (in Green- landic " Kungmiut"), "the people who live on the river." The people about Norton Sound speak of the northern Eskimo, especially those of Point Harrow and Gape Smyth, as " Kufimu'dllfi," which is not a name derived from a location, but a sort of nickname, the meaning of which was not ascertained. The Point Barrow natives do not call themselves by this name, but apply it to those people whose winter village is at Demarcation Point (or Herschel Island, see above, p. 20). This word appears in the corrupted form " Kokmullit," as the name of the village at Xuwiik on Petrolf's map. Petroff derived his information regarding the northern coast at second-hand from people who had obtained their knowledge of names, etc., from the natives of Norton Sound. The people of the two villages under consideration frequently go back ward and forward, sometimes removing permanently from one village to the other, while strangers from distant villages sometimes winter here, so that it was not until the end of the second year, when we were inti mately acquainted with everybody at Utkiavwln, that we could form anything like a correct estimate of the population of this village.1 This we found to be about 140 souls. As well as we could judge, there were about 150 or 100 at Nuwtik. These figures show a great decrease in numbers since the end of 1853, when Dr. Simpson2 reckoned the pop ulation of Nuwiik at 309. During the 2 years from September, 1881, to August, 1883, there were fifteen deaths that we, heard of in the village of Utkiavwln alone, and only two children born in that period survived. With this ratio between the number of births and deaths, even in a period of comparative plenty, it is difficult to see how the race can es cape speedy extinction, unless by accessions from without, which in their isolated situation they are not likely to receive.3 SOCIAL SURROUNDINGS. CONTACT WITH UNCIVILIZED I'EOPLK. Other Eskimo. — The nearest neighbors of these people, as has been stated above, are the Eskimo living at Demarcation Point (or Herschel 'See "Approximate Census, etc.." Report of Point Harrow Exp., p. 49. »0p. cit., p. 2:)7. *Petrou"'s estimate (Report, etc., p. 4) of the number of natives on this part of the Aretie coast is much too large. He gives the population of "Ootiwakh" (I'tkiavwln) as £25. Refuge Inlet (where there is merely a summer camp of Ctkiavwifnniun), 40, and " Kokmnllit," 200. The supposed settle ment of 50 inhabitants at the Colville River is also a mere summer camp, not existing in the winter. 44 THE POINT BARKOW ESKIMO. Island), eastward, and those who inhabit the small villages between Point Belcher and Wainwright Inlet. These villages are three in num ber. The nearest to Point Belcher, Nuna'ria, is now deserted, and its inhabitants have established the new village of Sida'ru nearer the inlet. The third village consists of a few houses only, and is called A'time". The people of these villages are so closely connected that they are some times spoken of collectively as Sida'rufimiun. At a distance up the river, which flows into Waimvright Inlet, live the Ku'nmiun, "the peo ple who live on the river." These appear to be closely related to the people of the first village below Wainwright Inlet, which is named Kllamvitawin. At any rate, a party of them who came to Cape Smyth in the spring of 1883 were spoken of indifferently as Kufimiun or Kll- auwitawi'fimiuii. Small parties from all the villages occasionally visit Point Barrow during the winter for the purpose of trade and amusement, traveling with sledges along the land ice where it is smooth, otherwise along the edge of the cliffs; and similar parties from the two northern villages return these visits. No special article of trade appears to be sought at either village, though perhaps the southern villages have a greater supply of skins of the bearded seal, fit for making umiak covers, as I knew of a load of these brought up for sale, and in the spring of 1883 a party went down to the inlet in search of such skins. Single families and small parties like that from Kllauwitawlfi, mentioned above, some times spend the whaling season at Point Barrow, joining some of the whaling crews at the northern villages. The people that we saw from these settlements were very like the northern Eskimos but many of them spoke a perceptibly harsher dialect, sounding the final consonants distinctly. The people at Point Hope are known as Tlkera'fimiun " inhabitants of the forefinger (Point Hope)," and their settlement is occasionally vis ited by straggling parties. No natives from Point Hope came north during the 2 years of our stay, but a party of them visited the Plover in 1853. ' We found some people acquainted by name with the Kuwu'fi- ininn and Silawl'nmiun of the Kuwfik (Kowak or "Putnam") and Sil- awik Itivers emptying into Hotham Inlet, and one man was familiar with the name of Sisualin, the great trading camp at Kotzebue Sound. We were unable to find that they had any knowledge of Asia (" Kokhlit- nuna,") or the Siberian Eskimo, but this was probably due to lack of properly directed inquiries, as they seem to have been well in formed on the subject in the Plover'* time.2 With the people of the Nu'natak (Inland) River, the Nunataiimiun, they are well acquainted, as they meet them every summer for purposes of trading, and a family or two of Nunatanmum sometimes spend the ' Maguire, XW. Passage, p. :t84. * It is to be regretted that the expedition was not supplied with a copy of Dr. Simpson's excellent paper, us much valuable information was missed for lack of suggestions as to the direction of inquiries. NITRIJOCH.] SOCIAL SURROUNDINGS OTHER ESKIMO. 45 winter at the northern villages. One family wintered at Nuwtik in 1881 -'82, and another at Utkiavwlfi the following winter, while a wid ower of this "tribe" was also settled there for the same winter, having married a widow in the village. We obtained very little definite infor mation about these people except that they came from the south and descended the Colville River. Our investigations were rendered difficult by the engrossing nature of the work of the station, and the trouble we experienced, at first, in learning enough of the language to make ourselves clearly understood. Dr. Simpson was able to learn definitely that the homes of these people are on the Nuiiiitilk and that some of them visit Kotzebue Sound in the summer, while trading parties make a portage between the JTunatak and Colville, descending the latter river to the Arctic Ocean.1 I have been informed by the captain of one of the American whalers that he has, in different seasons, met the same people at Kotzebue Sound and the mouth of the Colville. We also re ceived articles of Siberian tame reindeer skin from the east, which must have come across the country from Kotzebue Sound. These people differ from the northern natives in some habits, which will be described later, and speak a harsher dialect. We were informed that in traveling east after passing the mouth of the Colville they came to the Kuumii'dlm ("Kangmali enyuin" of Dr. Simpson and other authors) and still further off' " a great distance " to the Kupun or " Great Kiver" — the Mackenzie — near the mouth of which is the village of the Kiipunmiun, whence it is but a short distance inland to the '' great house" (iglu'kpuk) of the white men on the great river (probably Fort Macphersou). Beyond this we only heard confused stories of people without posteriors and of sledges that run by themselves without dogs to draw them. We heard nothing of the country of Kltiga'ru2 or of the stone-lamp country mentioned by Dr. Simpson.' The Kiifimudllfi are probably, as Dr. Simpson believes, the people whose winter houses were seen by Franklin at Demarcation Point,4 near which, at Icy Eeef, Hooper also saw a few houses.5 As already stated, Capt. E. E. Smith was informed by the natives that there is now no village farther west than Herschcl Island, where there is one of considerable size. If he was correctly informed, this must be a new village, since the older explorers who passed along the coast found only a summer camp at this point. He also states that he found large numbers of ruined iglus on the outlying sandy islands along the coast, especially near Anxiety Point. We have scarcely any information about these people, as the only white men who have seen them had little intercourse with them in passing along the coast.6 The 1 Op. cit., pp. 234 and 236. 'This was the name of a girl at Nuwuk. •Op. cit., p. 269. 4 Second Exp., p. 142. «Tent« of the Tuski, p. 255. *A11 the published information there, is about them from personal observation ran be found in Frank lin, Second Exp., p. 142; T. Simpson, Narrative, pp. 118-123; and Hooper, Tuuts, etc., pp. 255-257 and 46 THE POINT BAKUOW ESKIMO. Point Barrow people have but slight acquaintance with them, as they see them only a short time each summer. Captain Smith, however, in forms me that iu the summer of 1885 one boat load of them came back with the Point Barrow traders to Point Barrow, where he saw them on board of his ship. There was a man at Utkiavwln who was called " the KuiiimYdllii." He came there when a child, probably, by adoption, and was in no way distinguishable from the other people. Father Petitot appears to include these people in the " Tn/>eo/>meut " division of his "Tchiglit" Eskimo, whom he loosely describes as in habiting the coast from Ilerschel Island to Liverpool Bay, including the delta of the Mackenzie,1 without locating their permanent villages. In another place, however, he excludes the " Ta/>eo/>iiieut " from the "Tcliiglit," saying, "Dans 1'ouest, les TcMglit communiquaient avec lours plus proches voisins les Ta/agma/;k (using Petitot's orthography), which with -lik in the plural would make k//agmalit. (According to Petitot's "Grammaire" the plural of -lik in the Mackenzie dialect is -lit, and not -gdlit, as in Green landic). This is the name given by Petitot on his map to the people of the Anderson Kiver,4 while he calls the Anderson Kiver itself Kf/agmalik.5 The father, however, had but little personal knowledge of the natives of the Anderson, having made but two, apparently brief, visits to their village in 18G5, when he first made the acquaintance of the Eskimo. lie afterwards became fairly intimate with the Eskimo of the Mackenzie 1 Monographic, p. xl. 2 Ibid, p. xvi. 'Bull, do la Society do Geographic, 6= ser., vol. 10, p. 256. * Soo also Monographic, etc., p. xi, where the name is spelled Kpamalit 1 Vocabulaire, etc., p. 76. MURDOCH.] SOCIAL SURROUNDINGS OTHER KSKIMO. 47 delta, parties of whom spent the summers of 1869 and 1870 with him. From these parties he appears to have obtained the greater part of the information embodied in his Monographic and Vocabulaire, as he ex plicitly states that he brought the last party to Fort Good Hope "autaut pour les instruire a loisir que pour apprendre d'eux leur idioine." ' Nothing seems to me more probable than that he learned from these Mackenzie people the names of their neighbors oi the Ander son, which he had failed to obtain in his flying visits 5 years before, and that it is the same name, "KufmuVdllii," which we have followed from Norton Sound and found always applied to the people just beyond us. Could we learn the meaning of this word the question might be settled, but the only possible derivation I can see for it is from the Greenlandic KariuaK, a wall, which throws no light upon the subject. Petitot calls the people of Cape Bathurst K/;agmaliveit, which appears to mean " the real Kufimu'dllfi " (" Kunmu'dlln" and the affix -vik, " the real"). The Kupiinmiun appear to inhabit the permanent villages which have been seen near the western mouth of the Mackenzie, at Shingle Point2 and Point Sabine,3 with an outlying village, supposed to be deserted, at Point Kay.4 They are the natives described by Petitot in his Mono graphic as the Tajoeo,«meiit division of the Tchiglit, to whom, from the reasons already stated, most of his account seems to apply. There ap pears to me no reasonable doubt, considering his opportunities for ob serving these people, that Ta/>eo/>meut, " those who dwell by the sea," is the name that they actually apply to themselves, and that Kupiinmiiin, or Kopagnmt, "those who live on the Great River," is a name bestowed upon them by their neighbors, perhaps their western neighbors alone, since all the references to this name seem to be traceable to the author ity of Dr. Simpson. Should they apply to themselves a name of similar meaning, it would probably be of a different form, as, according to Petitot,5 they call the Mackenzie Ku/Arik, instead of Kupuk or Kupun. These are the people who visit Fort Macpherson every spring and summer,6 and are well known to the Hudson Bay traders as the Mac kenzie River Eskimo. They are the Eskimo encountered between Her- schel Island and the mouth of the Mackenzie by Franklin, by Dease and Simpson, and by Hooper and Pulleii, all of whom have published brief notes concerning them.7 We are still somewhat at a loss for the proper local names of the last 'Bull. Soc. de Geog., 6* ser., vol. 10, p. 39. * T. Simpson, Narrative, p. 112. 1 Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 264. «Ibid. p. 263. •Bull. Soc. de Geog., 6 ser., vol. 10, p. 1H2. 6 Petitot, Monographic, etc., pp. xvi and xx, 'Franklin, 2d Exp., pp. 99-101, 105-110, 114-119 and 128; T. Simpson, Narrative, pp. 104-112; Hooper, Tents, etc., pp. 263-264. There is also a brief note by the Rev. W. W.Kirkby, in a "Journey to the Youcau." Smithsonian Report for 1864. These, with Petitot's in many respects admirable Mono- ^nipliie, comprise all the information regarding these people frnm actual observation that lias been pub lished, liirhardson has described them at second hand in his "^searching Expedition" and "Polar Kegions." The "Kopagnmte " of Petroff (Report, etc., p. 125) are a purely hypothetical people in vented to till the space between "the coast people in the north and the Athabascans in the south." 48 THK POINT BAKROW ESKIMO. labrct- wearing Eskimo, those, namely, of the Anderson River and Cape Bathurst. That they are not considered by the Ta/ieo/vmeut as belong ing to the same "tribe" with themselves is evident from the names K/>agmalit and K/iagmali veit, applied to them by Petitot. Sir John Rich ardson, the first white man to encounter them (in 1826), says that they called themselves "Kitte-game-oot,"1 and the Point Barrow people told Dr. Simpson of country called "Kit-te-ga'-ru" beyond the Mac kenzie.2 These people, as well as the Ta/jeo/Jineut, whom they closely resemble, are described in Petitot's Monographic, and brief notices of them are given by Sir John Richardson,3 McClure,4 Armstrong,5 and Hooper.6 The arts and industries of these people from the Mackenzie to the Anderson, especially the latter region, are well represented in the National Museum by the collections of Messrs. Kennicott, Ross, and MacFarlane. The Point Barrow people say that the Kupiinininu are "bad;"7 but notwithstanding this small parties from the two villages occasionally travel east to the Mackenzie, and spend the winter at the Kupiifimiun village, whence they visit the "great house," returning the following season. Such a party left Point Barrow June 15, 1882, declaring their intention of going all the way to the Mackenzie. They returned August 25 or 26, 1883, when we were in the midst of the con tusion of closing the station, so that we learned no details of their jour ney. A letter with which they were intrusted to be forwarded to the United States through the Mackenzie River posts reached the Chief Signal Officer in the summer of 1883 by way of the Rampart House, on the Porcupine River, whence we received an answer by the bearer from the factor in charge. The Eskimo probably sent the letter to the Rain- rpart House by the Indians who visit that post. The intercourse between these people is purely commercial. Dr. Simp son, in the paper so often quoted, gives an excellent detailed description of the course of this trade, which agrees in the main with our observa tions, though we did not learn the particulars of time and distance as accurately as he did. There have been some important changes, how ever, since his time. A small party, perhaps five or six families, of "Nu- natanmiun" now come every summer to Point Barrow about the end of July, or as soon as the shallow bays along shore are open. They estab lish themselves at the summer camping ground at Pernyn, at the south west corner of Elson Bay, and stay two or three weeks, trading with the natives and the ships, dancing, and shooting ducks. The eastward-bound parties seem to start a little earlier than formerly (July 7, 1853, July 3, 1854, R June 18, 1882, and June 29, 1883). From all accounts their rela- 1 Franklin, 2d Exp., p. 203. 2 Ibid., p. 269. 3 Franklin, 2d Exp., pp. 193, 203 and 230; Searching Exp., and Polar Kcgious, p. 300. *N. W. Passage, pp. 84-98. ' Personal Narrative, p. 176. ' Tents, etc., pp. 343-348. 7 Compare what Petitot lias to flay — Monographic, etc., p. xiii and passim — about the turbulent and revengeful character of the "Tchiglit." •Dr. Simpson, op. cit., p. 264. MURDOCH.] SOCIAL SURROUNDINGS OTHKR ESKIMO. 49 tions with the eastern people are now perfectly friendly. We heard nothing of the precautionary measures described by Dr. Simpson,-1 and the women talked frequently of their trading' with the KunimYdliil and even with the Kupuumiun.2 We did not learn definitely whether they met the latter at Barter Point or whether they went still farther east. Some of the I'oint Harrow parties do not go east of the Colville. The articles of trade have changed somewhat in the last 30 years, from the fact that the western natives can now buy directly from the whalers iron articles, arms, and ammunition, beads, tobacco, etc. The Nunataiimiun now sell chiefly furs, deerskins, and clothing ready imule from them, woodemvare (buckets and tubs), willow poles for setting nets, and some times fossil ivory. The double-edged Siberian knives are 110 longer in the market and appear to be going out of fashion, though a few of them are still in use. Beady-made stone articles, like, the whetstones men tioned by Dr. Simpson,3 are rarely, if ever, in the market. We did not hear of the purchase of stone lamps from the eastern natives. This is probably due to a cessation of the demand for them at Point Barrow, owing to the falling off in the population. The Kufimu'dlln no longer furnish guns and ammunition, as the west ern natives prefer the breech-loading arms they obtain from the whalers to the flintlock guns sold by the Hudson Bay Company. The trade with these people seems to be almost entirely for furs and skins, notably black and red fox skins and wolverine skins. Skins of the narwhal or beluga are no longer mentioned as important articles of trade. In return for these things the western natives give sealskins, etc., especially oil, as formerly, though 1 believe that very little, if any, whale bone is now carried east, since the natives prefer to save it for trading with the ships in the hope of getting liquor, or arms and ammunition, and various articles of American manufacture, beads, kettles, etc. I was told by an intelligent native of Utkiavwlfi that brass kettles were highly prized by the Kupufimiun, and that a large one would bring three wolver ine skins,4 three black foxskins, or five red ones. One woman was anxious to get all the empty tin cans she could, saying that she could sell them to the Kunmu'dllfi for a foxskin apiece. We were told that the eastern na tives were glad to buy gun flints and bright-colored handkerchiefs, and that the Xunatanmiun wanted blankets and playing-cards. Indians. — They informed us that east of the Colville they sometimes met " rtkii'dllfi," people with whom they could not converse, but who were friendly and traded with them, buying oil for fox skins. They were said to live back of the coast between the Colville and the Macken zie, and were described as wearing no labrets, but rings in their ears and noses. They wear their hair long, do not tonsure the crown, and are dressed in jackets of skin with the hair removed, without hoods, and >Op. cit., p. 265. 'In the Plover's time they were left a day's journey iii the rear. •Op. cit., p. 266. 4T. Simpson saw iron kettles at Camden Hay which Lad been purchased from the western natives At two wolverine skins apiece. Narrative, p. 171. 9 ETII 1 50 THE POINT BAKROW ESKIMO. ornamented with beads and fringe. We saw one or two such jackets in Utkiavwiii apparently made of moose skin, and a few pouches of the same material, highly ornamented with beads. They have long Hint- lock gnus, white man's wooden pipes, which they value highly, and axes — not adzes — with which they "break many trees." We easily understood from this description that Indians were meaut, and since our return 1 have been able to identify one or two of the tribes with tolerable certainty. They seem better acquainted with these people than in Dr. Simpson's time, and know the word "kiitchin," people, in which many of the tribal names end. We did not hear the names Ko'yukan or Itkalya'ruin which Dr. Simpson learned, apparently from the Nunataiimiun.1 I heard one man speak of the Kutcha Kutchin, who inhabit the "Yukon from the Birch River to the Kotlo River on the east and the Porcupine River on the north, ascending the latter a short distance."2 One of the tribes with which they have dealings is the " Rat Indians" of the Hudson Bay men, probably the Vunta'-Kutchin,3 from the fact that they visit Fort Yukon. These are the people whom Capt. Maguire met on his unsuccessful sledge journey to the eastward to communicate with Collinson. The Point Barrow people told ns that "Magwa" went east to see "Colli'k-sina," but did not see him, only saw the Itkudlin. Collinson,4 speaking of Maguire's second winter at Point Barrow, says: "In attempting to prosecute the search easterly, an armed body of Indians of the Koyukun tribe were met with, and were so hostile that he was compelled to return." Maguire himself, in his official report,5 speaks of meeting four Indians who had followed his party for several days. He says nothing of any hostile demonstration ; in fact, says they showed signs of disappointment at his having nothing to trade with them, but his Eskimo, he says, called them Koyukun, which he knew was the tribe that had so barbarously murdered Lieut. Barnard at Xulato in 1851. Moreover, each Indian had a musket, and he had only two with a party of eight men, so he thought it safer to turn back. However, he seems to have distributed among them printed "informa tion slips," which they immediately carried to Fort Yukon, and return ing to the coast with a letter from the clerk in charge, delivered it to Capt. Collinson on board of the Enterprise at Barter Island, July 18, 1854. The letter is as follows: FOKT YOUCON, June 27, 1854. The printed slips of paper delivered by the officers of H. M. S. Plover on the 25th of April, 1854, to the Rat Indians were received on the 27th of June, 1854, at the Hudson Bay Company's establishment, Fort Youcon. The Rat Indians are in the '"The inland Kskimo also call them Ko'-yu-kan, and divide them into three sections or tribes. * •* * One is called I't-ka-lyi [apparently the plural of Itkndlln], * * * the second It-kal-ya'-ruiii [dirter- ent or other ItkudM]," op. cit., p. 269. 2Dall, Cont. to N. A. Ethn., vol. 1. p. 30, where they are identified with Itkalyaruin of Simpson. 'Ibid., p. 31. •Arctic Papers, ]). 119. * Further papers, etc., pp. 905 et seq. MTKDOTH.] SOCIAL SURROUNDINGS INDIAN. f)l habit of making periodical trailing excursions to the Esquimaux along the eoast. They are a harmless, inoffensive set of Indians, ever ready anil willing to render any assistance they can to the whites. WM. LUCAS HAKUISTY, Clerk in charge.1 Capt. Collinson evidently never dreamed of identifying this " harm less, inoffensive set of Indians" with "an armed body of Indians of the Koynkun tribe." It is important that his statement, quoted above, should be corrected lest it serve as authority for extending the range of the Koynkun Indians2 to the Arctic Ocean. The Point Harrow people also know the name of the U'lia-kho-taiia,3 or En'akotina, as they pro nounce it. Their intercourse with all these Indians appears to be rather slight and purely commercial. Friendly relations existed between the Bat Indians and the " Eskimos who live somewhere near the Oolville " as early as 1S4!),4 while it was still " war to the knife " between the Peel River Indians and the Kupunmiun.5 The name Itku'dlin, of which I't-ka-lyi of Dr. Simpson appears to be the plural, is a generic word for an Indian, and is undoubtedly the same as the Greenland word erKileK — plural eridgdlit — which means a tabu lous " inlander " with a face like a dog. " They are martial spirits and inhuman foes to mankind; however, they only inhabit the east side of the land."6 Dr. Kink7 has already pointed out that this name is in use as far as the Mackenzie River — for instance, the Indians are called "eert-kai-lee" (Parry), or "it-kagh-lie" (Lyon), at Fury and Hecla Strait; ik-kil-lin (Gilder), at the west shore of Hudson Bay, and " itk/>e'le'it " (Petitot) at the Mackenzie. Petitot also gives this word as itkpe'lit in his vocabulary (p. 42.) These words, including the term Ingalik, or In-ka-lik, applied by the natives of Norton Sound to the Indians," and which Mr. Dall was informed meant "children of a louse's egg," all appear to be compounds of the word erKeK, a louse egg, and the affix lik. (I suspect erKileK, from the form of its plural, to be a corruption of "erKiliK," since there is no recognized affix -leK in Greenlandic.) Petitot9 gives an interesting tradition in regard to the origin of this name: "La tradition Innok dedaigne de parler ici des Peaux-liouges. L'ayant fait observer a mem narrate iu* A/tviuna: • Oh !' me repondait-il, 'il ne vaut pas la peine d'en parler. Us naquirent aussi dans 1'ouest, sur Pile du Castor, des larves de nos poux. (J'est pourcpuoi nous les nom- mons Itk/>e'le'it." CONTACT WITH CIVILIZED PEOPLE. Until the visit of the Blosxom's barge in 1820 these people had never / seen a white man, although they were already in possession of tobacco and articles of Russian manufacture, such as copper kettles, which they ' Arctic Papers, i>. 144. «Crautz, vol. 1, p. 208. » Koyu'.ku'kh-ota'na. Dall, Cent, to N. A. Kth., p. 27. '.Journ. Antlirop. Inst.. 1885, p. 344. 1 Ibid., p. 28.. » Dall, Alaska, p. 28, and Contrib., vol. 1, p. 25. 4 Hooper. Teuts, et«., p. 276. 9 Monographic, p. xxiv. • Ibid., p. 273. 52 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. had obtained from Siberia by way of the Diomedes. Mr. Elson's party landed only at liefuge Inlet, and had but little intercourse with the natives. His visit seemed to have been forgotten by the time of the Plover's stay at Point Harrow, though Dr. Simpson found people who recollected the visit of Thomas Simpson in IS.'IT.1 The latter, after he had left the boats and was proceeding on foot with his party, first met the Nuwufimiun at Point Tangent, where there was a small party en camped, from whom he purchased the umiak in which he went on to Point Barrow. He landed there early in the morning of August 4, and went down to the summer camp at Pernyu, where he stayed till 1 o'clock in the afternoon, trading with the natives and watching them dance. On his return to Point Tangent some of the natives accompanied him to Boat Extreme, where he parted from them August (J, so that his whole intercourse with them was confined to less than a week.2 The uext white men who lauded at Point Barrow were the party in the Plover's boats, under Lieuts. Pullen and Hooper, on their way to the Mackenzie, and the crew of Mr. Sheddon's yacht, the Nancy Daicson,in the summer of 1849. The boats were from July 29 to August 3 getting from (Jape Smyth past Point Harrow, when the crews were ashore for a couple of days and did a little trading with the natives, whom they found very friendly. They afterwards had one or two skirmishes with evil-disposed parties of Nuwunmiun returning from the east in the neigh borhood of Return Keef. The exploring ships Enterprise and Investi gator also had casual meetings with the natives, who received tobacco, etc., from the ships. The depot ship Plover, Commander Maguire, spent the winters of 1852-'53 and 1853-'54 at Point Barrow, and the officers and crew, after some misunderstandings and skirmishes, established very friendly aiid sociable relations with the natives. The only published accounts of the Plover's stay at Point Barrow are Commander Maguire's official reports, published in the Parliamentary Keports (Blue Books) for 1854, pp. 105-185, and 1855, pp. 905 et seq., and Dr. Simpson's paper, already mentioned. Maguire's report of the first winter's proceedings is also published as an appendix to Sherard Osborne's " Discovery of the North west Passage." We found that the elder natives remembered Maguire, whom they called " Magwa," very well. They gave us the names of many of his peo ple and a very correct account of the most important proceedings, though they did not make it clear that the death of the man mentioned in his report was accidental. They described "Magwa" as short and fat, with a very thick neck, and all seemed very much impressed with the height of his first lieutenant, "Epi'ana" ( Vertum,) who had "lots of guns." It was difficult to see that the Plover's visit had exerted any perma nent influence on these people. In fact, Dr. Simpson's account of their habits and customs would serve very well for the present time, except 'Op. cit., p. -J«4. 'Narrative, ]>)>. 140-108. Mi-RDorw.] IXTKRC'Ol'KSK WITH WHI'IT. MKN. f)3 in regard to the use of firearms. They certainly remembered no English. Indeed, Dr. Sim})son says1 that they learned hardly any. The Plover's people probably found it very easy to do as we did and adopt a sort of jargon of Eskimo words and "pigeon English" grammar for general in tercourse. Although, according to the account of the natives, there was considerable intercourse between the sailors and the Eskimo women, there are now no people living at either village who we could be sure were born from such intercourse, though one woman was ^inspected of being half English. She was remarkable only for her large build, and was not lighter than many pure-blooded women. Since 1854, when the first whalers came as far north as the Point, there has hardly been a season in which ships have not visited this re gion, and for a couple of months every year the natives have had con siderable intercourse with the whites, going off to the ships to trade, while the sailors come ashore occasionally. We found that they usually spoke of white men as "kablu'na;" but they informed us that they had another word, "tii'n-nyln," which they used to employ among themselves when they saw a ship. Dr. Simpson2 says that they learned the word "kabluna" from the eastern natives, but that the latter (he gives it Tan'-ning or Tau'-gin) came from the Xuiiata'iimitin. I le supposes it to apply to the Russians, who had regular bath days at their posts, and says it is derived from tan-nikh-lu-go, to wash or cleanse the person. The chief change resulting from their intercourse with the whites has been the introduction of firearms. Xearly all the natives are now pro vided with guns, some of them of the best modern patterns of breech loaders, and they usually succeed in procuring a supply of ammunition. This is in some respects a disadvantage, as the reindeer have become so wild that the natives would no longer be able to procure a sufficient i number of them for food and clothing with their former appliances, and they are thus rendered dependent on the ships. On the other hand, ' with a plentiful supply of ammunition it is easier for them to procure abundance of food, both deer and seals, and they are less liable to famine than in former times. There is no reason to fear, as has been suggested, that they will lose the art of making any of their own weapons except in the case of the bow. With firearms alone they would be unable to obtain any seals, a much more important source of food than the reindeer, and their own appliances for sealing are much better than any civilized contrivances. Although they have plenty of the most improved modern whaling gear, they are not likely to forget the manufacture of their own implements for this purpose, as this important fishery is ruled by tradition and superstition, which insists that at least one harpoon of the ancient pat tern must be used in taking every whale. All are now rich in iron, civilized tools, canvas and wreck wood, and in this respect their con dition is improved. 'Op. cit., p. 251. "Op. cit., p. 271. 54 THE POINT BAKKOW KSKIMO. They have, however, adopted very few civilized habits. They have contracted a taste for civilized food, especially hard bread and flour, but this they are unable to obtain for 10 months of the year, and they arc; thus obliged to adhere to their former habits. In fact, except in regard to the use of firearms and mechanics' tools, they struck me as essentially a conservative people. Petroff1 makes the assertion that in late years their movements have been guided chiefly by those of the whalers. As far as we could observe they have not changed the course or time of their journeys since Dr. Simpson's time, except that they have given up the autumn whaling, possibly on account of the presence of the ships at that season. Of course, men who are rich in whalebone now stay to trade with the ships, while those who have plenty of oil go east. They are not absolutely dependent on the ships for anything except ammunition, and even dur ing the short time the ships are with them they hardly neglect their own pursuits. The one unmitigated evil of their intercourse with the whites has been the introduction of spirits. Apart from the direct injury which liquor does to their health, their passionate fondness for it leads them to barter away valuable articles which should have served to procure ammunition or other things of permanent use. It is to be hoped, how ever, that the liquor traffic is decreasing. The vigilance of the revenue cutter prevents regular whisky traders from reaching the Arctic Ocean, and public opinion among the whaling captains seems to be growing in the right direction. Another serious evil, which it would be almost impossible to check, is the unlimited intercourse of the sailors with the Eskimo women. The whites can hardly be said to have introduced laxity of sexual morals, but they have encouraged a natural savage tendency, and have taught them prostitution for gain, which has brought about great excesses, fortunately confined to a short season. This may have some thing to do with the want of fertility among the women. Our two years of friendly relations with these people were greatly to their advantage. Not only were our house and our doings a constant source of amusement to them, but they learned to respect and trust the whites. Without becoming dependent on us or receiving any favors without some adequate return either in work or goods, they were able to obtain tobacco, hard bread, and many other things of use to them, all through the year. Our presence prevented their procuring more than trifling quantities of spirits, and though the supply of breech-loading ammunition was pretty well cut off', they could get plenty of powder and shot for their muz/It; loaders. The abundance of civilized food was undoubtedly good for them, and our surgeon was able to give them a great deal of help in sickness. 1 n all their intercourse with the whites they have learned very little 'Report, etc., p. 125. MURDOCH.] HAWAIIAN WORDS ANIMALS. 55 English, chiefly a few oaths and exclamations like "Get out of here," and the words of such songs as "Little Brown Jug" and "Shoo Fly," curiously distorted. They have as a rule invented genuine Eskimo words for civilized articles which are new to them.1 Even in their intimate relations with us they learned but few more phrases and in most cases without a knowledge of their meaning. There are a few Hawaiian words introduced by the Kanaka sailors on the whaleships, which are universally employed between whites and Eskimo along the whole of the Arctic coast, and occasionally at least among the Eskimo themselves. These are kau-kau,2 food, or to eat; Uana- han((, woik;p4lnf-pdn$) coituts, andjMZtt, not. Wahine, woman, is also used, but is less common. Another foreign word now universally employed among them in their intercourse with the whites, and even, I believe, among themselves, is " kuni-B " for woman or wife. They themselves told us that it was not an Eskimo word — "When there were no white men, there was no kinrio" — and some of the whalemen who had been at Hudson Bay said it was the "Greenland" word for woman. It was not until our return to this country that we discovered it to be the Danish word kone, woman, which in the corrupted form "coony" is in common use among the eastern Eskimo generally in the jargon they employ in dealing with the whites. Kuniv is "coony" with the suffix of the third person, and therefore means "his wife." It is sometimes used at Point Barrow for either of a married couple in the sense of our word "spouse." NATURAL RESOURCES. ANIMALS. These people are acquainted with the following animals, all of which are more or less hunted, and serve some useful purpose. Mammals. — The wolf, amaxo (Cauis lupus griseo-albus), is not uncom mon in the interior, but rarely if ever reaches the coast. Eed and black foxes, kaia'ktiik ( Vulpes fulvus fulvus and argentatus), are chiefly known from their skins, which are common articles in the trade with the eastern natives, and the same is true of the wolverine, ka'vwln (Gulo luscus), and the marten, kabweatyia (Mustela americana). The arctic fox, terlgunii! (Vulpes lagopus), is very abundant along the coast, while the ermine (Putorius ermiuea) and Parry's spermophile (Spermophilus empetra empetra) are not rare. The last is called siksifi. Lemmings, a'vwlnu, of two species (Cuniculus torquatus and Myodes obensis) are 1 See list of "New Words," Rep. Point Barrow Exp., p. 57. "The history of this word, which also appears a.s a Chuekch word in some of the vocabularies col lected by Xordenskiiild's expedition, is rather curious. Chamisso (Kotzebue's Voyage, vol. 2, p. 392, foot-note) says that this is a Hawaiian corruption of the well-known "Pigeon-English" (he calls it Chinese) word "chow-chow" recently (in 1816-'17) adopted by the Sandwich Islanders from the people with whom they trade. I am informed that the word is not of Chinese origin, but probably came from India, like many other words in " Pigeon- English." Chamisso also calls puni-puui a Chinese word, but I have been able to learn nothing of its origin. 56 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. very abundant some years, and they recognize a tiny shrewmouse (Sorex forsteri). This little animal is called ngn'mr, a word corresponding to the name ugssiingnaK given to the same animal in Labrador, which, according to Kleinschmidt,1 is an ironical application of the name of the largest seal, ugssuk (ugrn at Point Barrow), to the smallest mammal known to the Eskimo. The same name is also applied at Point Barrow to the fossil ox, whose bones are sometimes found. The most abundant land animal, however, is the reindeer, tfl'ktu (Kangifer tarandus grosn- landicus), which is found in winter in great herds along the upper waters of the rivers, occasionally coming down to the coast, and affords a very important supply of food. The njoosji, tu'ktuwuii, or "big reindeer" (Alee machlis), is well known from the accounts of the Nunatafimiun, who bring moose skins to trade. Some of the natives have been east to hunt the mountain sheep, i'mnes (Ovis canadensis dalli), and all are familiar with its skin, horns, and teeth, which they buy of the eastern natives. The musk ox^ uminmau (Ovibos moschatus), is known only from its bones, which are sometimes found on the tundra. Inland, near the rivers, they also find a large brown bear, a'kqlak, which is probably the barren ground bear, while on the ice-pack, the polar bear, nii'nu (Thalassarctos maritiruus), is not uncommon, sometimes making raids on the provision storehouses in the villages. The most important sea animal is the little rough seal, netylK (Phoca foetida), which is very abundant at all seasons. Its flesh is the great staple of food, while its blubber supplies the Eskimo lamps, and its skin serves countless useful purposes. The great bearded seal, ugru (Erigna- thus barbatus), is less common. It is especially valued for its hide, which serves for covering the large boats and making stout harpoon lines. Two other species of seal, the harbor seal, kasigfa (Phoca vitulina), and the beautiful ribbon seal, kaixolifi (Phoca fasciata), are known, but both are uncommon, the latter very rare. Herds of walrus, ai'bwek (Odobamus obesus), pass along the coast in the open season, generally resting on cakes of floating ice, and are pursued for their hides and ivory as well as their flesh and blubber. Whales, akbwek, of the species Bahena mysticetus, most pursued for its oil and whalebone, travel along the coast in the leads of open water above described from the middle of April to the latter part of June in large numbers, and return in the autumn, appearing about the end of August. White whales, kilelua (Delphinapterus sp.), are not uncom mon in the summer, and they say the narwhal, tugalm (Monodon monoceros), is occasionally seen. They are also acquainted with aiiother cetacean, which they call axlo, and which appears from their description to be a species of Orca. Birds. — In the spring, that is during May and the early part of June, vast flocks of migrating ducks pass to the northeast, close to the shore, 1 (irenUndBk Ordbof;. p. 386. MURDOCH.] BIRDS. 57 a few only remaining to breed, and return at the end of the summer from the latter part of July to the end of September. Nearly all the returning birds cross the isthmus of Point Barrow at Pernyi; where the natives assemble in large numbers for the purpose of taking them. These migrating birds are mostly king ducks, kliiallfi (Somateria spec- tabilis), Pacific eiders, ainau'llfi (S. v-mgra), and long-tailed ducks, a'dyigi'a, a'hadlln (Clangula hyemalis), with smaller numbers of the spectacled eider, ka'waso (Aretonetta tischeri), and Steller's ducks, Tgni- kau'kto (Eniconetta stelleri). At the rivers they also find numbers of pintails, i'vwugi; (I)afila acuta), which visit the coast in small numbers during the migrations. Ge_ese. of three species, the American white- fronted goose, nu 'gift gnu: (Anser albifrons gambeli), the lesser snow- goose, ku'fio (Chen hyperborea), and the black brant, nughVgni; (Branta nigricaus), are not uncommon on the coast both during the. migrations and the breeding season, but the natives find them in much greater abundance at the rivers, where they also find a species of swan, ku'gru, probably Olor columbianus, which rarely visits the coast. Next in importance to the natives are the gulls, of which the Point Barrow gull, nau'yi!(Larusbarrovianus), is the most abundant all through the season, though the rare rosy gull, k;Vnmaxlu (lihodostethes rosea), appears in multitudes late in the autumn. The ivory gull (Gavia alba), nariyalbwun, and Sabine's gull, yuku'drigugi'i; (Xema Sabinii), are un common, while the Arctic tern, ntyuta'kin (Sterna paradisea), is rather abundant, especially about the sandspits of Nuwuk. All these species, particularly the larger ones, are taken for food. Three species of loons are common: the great white-billed loon, tu'dlln (Urinator adamsi), and the Pacific and red-throated divers (TJ. pacifieus and lumme), which are not distinguished from each other but are both called ka'ksan. They also occasionally see the thick-billed guillemot a'kpa (Uria lomvia arra), and more often the sea-pigeon, sekbwuk (Ce phas mandtii). The three species of jaegers (Stercorarius pomarinus, parasiticus, and longicaudus) are not distinguished from one another but are all called isufit;. They pay but little attention to the numerous species of wading birds which appear in considerable abundance in the migrations and breeding season, but they recognize among them the turnstone, tull'gwa ( Arenaria interpres), the gray plover, ki'raio'n (Cha- radrius squatarola), the American golden plover, tn'dlin (C. dominions), the knot, tu'awi'a (Tringa canutus), the pectoral and Baird's sandpipers, (T. maculata and bairdii), both called ai'bwiikh;, the red-backed sand piper, mekapln (T. alpina pacifioa), the semipalmated sandpiper, nfwil- Iwi'lnk (Brenuetes pusillus), the bnflf-breasted sandpiper, nu'dluayu (Tryngites subruficollis), the red phalarope, sabrafl (Chrymophilus fuli- carins), and the northern plialarope, sabrafnn! (Phalaropus lobatus). The last is rare at Point Barrow, but they see many of them near the Colville. The little brown crane, tutl'drigi; (Gras canadeiisis), is also rare at the Point, but they say they find many of them at the month of Kulu'grua. 58 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. Of land birds, the moat familiar are the little snow bunting, amauligt; (Plectrophenax nivalis), the first bird to arrive in the spring, the Lap- land longspnr, uessau'dligi! (Calcarins lapponicns), and two species of grouse, the willow grouse (Lagopus lagopus) and the rock ptarmigan (L. rupestris), which are both called akii'dlgln. These two birds do not migrate, but are to be seen all winter, as is also the well known snowy owl,u'kpik (Xycten nyctea). A gerfalcon, kl'drlgumlfi (Falco rusticolus), is also sometimes seen, and skins and feathers of the golden eagle, tl'n- mhikpuk, "the great bird" (Aquila chrysretos), are brought from the east for charms and ornaments. The raven, tului? (Corvus corax sin- uatus), was not seen at Point Barrow, but the natives are familiar with it and have many of its skins for amulets. Several species of small land birds also occur in small numbers, but the natives are not familiar with them and call them all "su'ksaxh?." This name appears to mean "wanderer" or "flutterer," and probably belongs, I believe, to the dif ferent species of redpolls (Aegiothus). Fishes. — A few species only of fish are found in the salt water. Of these the most abundant are the little polar cod (Boreogadus saida), which is plentiful through the greater part of the year, and is often an important source of food, and the capelin, anmiYgrfm (Mallotus villosus), which is found in large schools close to the beach in the middle of sum mer. There are also caught sometimes two species of sculpins, ku'naio (Cottus quadricornis and decastrensis), and two species of Lycodes, kn- graums (L. turnerii and coccineus). In the gill nets at Elson Bay they also catch two species of salmon (Onchorhynchus gorbuscha and nerka) and a whitefish (Coregonus laurettae) in small numbers, and occasion ally a large trout (Salveliuus malma). The last-named fish they find sometimes in great numbers, near the mouth of the Colville. The greatest quantities of fish are taken in the rivers, especially Kuaru and Kulugrua, by fishing through the ice in the winter. They say there are no fish taken in Ikpikpuii, and account for this by explain ing that the former two rivers freeze down to the bottom on the shallow bars inclosing deep pools in which the fish are held, while in the latter the Ice never touches the bottom, so that the fish are free to run down to the sea. The species caught are the small (!oregonns laurettae, two large whitefish (0. kennicottii and nelsoni), and the burbot, tita'lin (Lota maculosa). They speak of a fish, sulukpau'ga (which appears to mean "wing-fin" and is applied in Greenland to a species of Sebastes), that is caught with the hook in Kulugrua apparently only in summer, and seems from the description to be Back's grayling (Thymallus sig- nifer). In the river Kn is caught a smelt, Ithoa'nlfi (Osmerus deutex). In the great lake, Tii'syukpuii (see above, p. 29), they tell of an enor mous fish "as big as a kaiak." They gave it no name, but describe it as having a red belly and white flesh. One man said he had seen one 18 feet long, but another was more moderate, giving about 3 feet as the length of the longest he had seen. MURDOCH.] INSECTS PLANTS. 59 Insects and other invertebrates. — Of insects, they recognize the trouble some mosquito, kiktorii! (Culex spp.), flies, humblebees, and gadflies (CEestrus tarandi), both of which they seem much afraid of, and call i'gu- tyai, and the universal louse, ku'iuuk. All the large winged insects, including the rare butterflies and moths and crane flies, are called tu- klhYkica, or tukiliikldja'ksuu, which is also the name of the yellow poppy (Papaver nudicaule). We were told that "by and by" the poppies would turn into " little birds" and fly away, which led us to suppose that there was some yellow butterfly which we should find abundant in the later summer, but we saw none either season. A small spider is sometimes found in the Eskimo houses, and is called pidrairu'ri;, " the little braider." They pay but little attention to other invertebrates, but are familiar with worms, kupidro, a species of crab, kinau'ru, (Hyas latifrous), and the little brauchipus, iritu'na (Greenlandic issitorak, " the little one with big eyes"), of the fresh water-pools. Cockles (Buc- ciiium, etc.) are called siu'tigo (Gr. sinterok, from siut, ear), and clams have a name which we failed to obtain. Jellyfish are called ipiaru'ru, " like bags." They say the " Kuiimiulllfi " eat them! PLANTS. Few plants that are of any service to man grow in this region. The willows, ii'kplk, of various species, which near the coast are nothing but creeping vines, are sometimes used as fuel, especially along the rivers, where they grow into shrubs 5 or 6 feet high. Their catkins are used for tinder and the moss, mu'nik, furnishes wicks for the lamps. We could find no fruit that could be eaten. A cranberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) occurs, but produced no fruit either season. No use is made of the different species of grass, which are especially luxuriant around the houses at Utkiavwln, where the ground is richly manured with various sorts of refuse,1 though the species of mosses and lichens furnish the rein deer with food easily reached in the winter through the light covering of snow. Little attention is paid to the numerous, and sometimes showy, flowering plants. We learned but two names of flowers, the one mentioned above, tukilu'kica, tukilukidja'ksun, which seemed to be applied to all striking yellow or white flowers, such as Papaver, Ranun culus, and Draba, and mai'sun, the bright pink Pedicularis. All the wood used in this region, except the ready-made woodeuware and the willow poles obtained from the Nunatafmiiun, conies from the drift on the beach. Most of this on the beach west of Point Barrow appears to come from the southwest, as the prevailing current along this shore is to the northeast, and may be derived from the large rivers flowing into Kotzebue Sound, since it shows signs of having been long in the water. The driftwood, which is reported to be abundant east of Point Barrow, probably comes from the great rivers emptying into the Arctic ' -'The oil had acted as a manure on the soil, and produced a luxuriant crop of grass from 1 to 2 feet high " (village at Point Atkinson, east of the Mackenzie). Richardson Searching Eip.,vol. 1, p. 254. 60 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. Ocean. This wood is sufficiently abundant to furnish the natives with all they need for fuel and other purposes, and consists chiefly of pine, spruce, and cotton wood, mostly in the form of water- worn logs, often of large size. Of late years, also, much wood of the different kinds used in shipbuilding has drifted ashore from wrecks. MINERALS. The people of this region are acquainted witli few mineral substances, excluding the metals which they obtain from the whites. The most important are flint, slate, soap-stone, jade, and a peculiar form of massive pectolite, first described by Prof. F. W. Clarke1 from specimens brought home by our party. Flint, anma, was formerly in great demand for arrow and spear heads and other implements, and according to Dr. Simpson2 was obtained from the Nunatafimiun. It is generally black or a slightly translucent gray, but we collected a number of arrowheads, etc., made of jasper, red or variegated. A few crystals of transparent quartz, sometimes smoky, were also seen, and appeared to be used as amulets. Slate, ulu'ksu, "material for a round knife,," was used, as its name imports, for making the woman's round knife, and for harpoon blades, etc. It is a smooth clay slate, varying in hardness, and light green, red, purple, dark gray, or black in color. All the pieces of soft gray soap-stone, tuna'kti?, which are so common at both villages, are probably fragments of the lamps and kettles obtained in former years from the eastern natives. The jade is often very beautiful, varying from a pale or bright translucent green to a dark olive, almost black, and was formerly used for making adzes, whetstones, and occasionally other implements. The pectolite, generally of a pale greenish or bluish color, was only found in the form of oblong, more or less cylindrical masses, used as hammerheads. Both of these minerals were called kau'dlo, and were said to come "from the east, a long way off," from high rocky ground, but all that we could learn was very indefinite. Dr. Simpson was informed :1 that the stones for making whetstones were brought from the Kuwiik River, so that this jade is probably the same as that which is said to form Jade Mountain, in that region. Bits of porphyry, syenite, and similar rocks are used for making labrets, and large pebbles are used as hammers and net sinkers. They have also a little iron pyrites, both massive and in the form of spherical concretions. The latter were said to come from the mouth of the Col- ville, and are believed by the natives to have fallen from the sky. Two other kinds of stone are brought from the neighborhood of Nu'rasfiknan, partly, it appears, as curiosities, and partly with some ill defined mysti cal notions. The first are botryoidal masses of brown limonite, resemb ling bog iron ore, and the other sort curious concretions, looking like the familiar "clay stones," but very heavy, and apparently containing a 1 U. S. Geol. Surv., Bull. 9, p. 9, 1884. 30p. cit,, p. 266. 3Op. cit., p. 266. MUBDOCU.] FOOD. 6 1 great deal of iron pyrites. White gypsum, used for nibbing the flesh side of deerskins, is obtained on the seashore at a place called Tu'tye, "one sleep" east from Point Barrow. Bituminous coal, alu'a, is well known, though not used for fuel. Many small fragments, which come perhaps from the vein at Cape Beau fort,1 are picked up on the beach. Shaly, very bituminous coal, broken into small square fragments, is rather abundant on the bars of Kuln- grua, whence specimens were brought by Capt. Ilerendeeu. A native of Wainwright Inlet gave us to understand that coal existed in a regu lar vein near that place, and told a story of a burning hill in that region. This may be a coal bed on fire, or possibly " smoking cliffs," like those seen by the Inrestu/atof in Franklin Bay.2 We also heard a story of a lake of tar or bitumen, adnguu, said to be situated on an island a day's sail east of the point. Blacklead, ml'iiun, and red ocher are abundant and used as pigments, but we did not learn where they were obtained. Pieces of amber are sometimes found on the beach and are carried as amulets or (rarely) made into beads. Amber is called aunre, a word that in other Eskimo dialects, and probably in this also, means "a live coal." Its application to a lump of amber is quite a striking figure of speech. CULTURE. MEANS OF SUBSISTENCE. POOD. Substances used for food. — The food of these people consists almost en tirely of animal substances. The staple article of food is the flesh of the r(High_seal, of which they obtain more than of any other meat. Next in importance is the venison of the reindeer, though this is looked upon as a kind of dainty.3 Many well developed foetal reindeer are brought home from the spring deer hunt and are said to be excellent eating, though we never saw them eaten. They also eat the flesh of the other three species of seal, the wajrus, the polarjsear, the "bowhead" whale, the white whale, and all the larger kinds of birds, geese, ducks, gulls, and grouse. All the different kinds of fish appear to be eaten, with the possible exception of the two species of Lycodes (only a few of these were caught, and all were purchased for our collection) and very little of a fish is wasted except the hardest parts. Walrus hide is sometimes cooked and eaten in times of scarcity. Mollnsks of any kind are rarely eaten, as it is difficult to procure them. After a heavy gale in the autumn of 1881, when the beach was covered with marine animals, mostly lamellibrauch mollusks with their shells and softer parts broken off by 1 Hooper found coal oil the beach at Nuwtik in 1849, showing that this coal has not necessarily been thrown over from ships. Tents of the Tnski, p. 221. 'Discovery of the XorthwenT Passage, p. 100. 'The Eskimo of Iglulik •• prefer venison to any kind of meat." Parry, 2d Voyage, p. fill). 62 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. the violence of the surf, we saw one woman collect a lapful of these "dam-heads," which she, said she was going to eat. The "blackskin" (epidermis) of the whale is considered a great delicacy by them, as by all the other Eskimo who are able to procure it, and they are also very fond of the tough white skin or gum round the roots of the whalebone.1 We saw and heard nothing of the habit so generally noticed among other Eskimo and in Siberia of eating the half-digested contents of the stomach of the reindeer, but we found that they were fond of the faeces taken from the rectum of the deer. I find that this curious habit has been noticed among Eskimo only in two other places — Greenland in former times and Boothia Felix. The Greenlauders ate "the Dung of the Rein-deer, taken out of the Guts when they clean them; the Entrails of Partridges and the like Out-cast, pass for Dainties with them." 2 The dung of the musk ox and reindeer when fresh were considered a delicacy by the Boothians, according to J. 0. Ross.3 The entrails of fowls are also considered a great delicacy and are carefully cooked as a separate dish.4 As far as our observations go these people eat little, if any, more fat than civilized man, and, as a rule, not by itself. Fat may occasionally be eaten (they are fond of the fat on the inside of duck skins), but they do not habitually eat the great quantities of blubber spoken of in some other places 5 or drink oil, as the Hudson Bay Eskimo are said to do by Hall, or use it as a sauee for dry food, like the natives of Norton Sound. It is usually supposed and generally stated in the popular ac counts of the Eskimo that it is a physiological necessity for them to eat enormous quantities of blubber in order to obtain a sufficient amount ot carbon to enable them to maintain their animal heat in the cold climate which they inhabit. A careful comparison, however, of the reports of actual observers6 shows that an excessive eating of fat is not the rule, and is perhaps confined to the territory near Boothia Felix. Eggs of all kinds, except, of course, the smallest, are eagerly sought for, but the smaller birds are seldom eaten, as it is a waste of time and ammunition to pursue them. We saw this people eat no vegetable sub stances, though they informed us that the buds of the willow were some times eaten. Of late years they have acquired a fondness for many kinds of civilized food, especially bread of any kind, flour, sugar, and molasses, and some of them are learning to like salt. They were very 'Compare Hooper, Tents, etc. "This, which the Tuski call their sugar," p. 174; and Hall, Arctic Kesearches, p. 132 (Baffin Land). 8Egede, Greenland, p. 136. 'Appendix to Ross's 2d Voyage, p. xix. 'Compare the passage from Egede. just quoted, and also Kmnlien. Contributions, etc., p. 20, at Cum berland Gulf. 6For instance, Schwatka says that the Nfitclllk of King William Land devour enormous quantities of seal blubber, ''noticeably more in summer than the other tribes," viz, those of the western shores of Hudson's Hay (Science, vol. 4, p. 544). Parry speaks of the natives of the Savage Islands, Hud son's Strait, eating raw blubber and sucking the oil remaining on the skins they had emptied (2d Voy age, p. 14). 6See for example Egede's Greenland, p. 134; Crantz. History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 144; Ball, Alaska, passim; Hooper. Tents of the Tuski, p. 170; Nordenskiold, Vega. p. 110. MURDOCH.] POOD. 63 glad to purchase from us corn-meal "mush" and the broken victuals from the table. These were, however, considered as special dainties and eaten as luncheons or as a dessert after the regular meal. The children and even some of the women were always on the watch for the cook's slop bucket to be brought out, and vied with the ubiquitous dogs in searching for scraps of food. Meat which epicures would call rather "high" is eaten with relish, but they seem to prefer fresh meat when they can get it. Means of preparing food.— Food is generally cooked, except, perhaps, whale-skin and whale-gum, which usually seem to be eaten as soon as obtained, without waiting for a fire. Meat of all kinds is generally boiled in abundance of water over a fire of driftwood, and the broth thus made is drunk hot before eating the meat. Fowls are prepared for boiling by skinning them. Fish are also boiled, but are often eaten raw, especially in winter at the deer-hunting camps, when they are frozen hard. Meat is sometimes eaten raw or frozen. Lieut. Kay found one family in camp on Kulugrua who had no fire of any kind, and were eating everything raw. They had run out of oil some time before and did not like to spend time in going to the coast for more while deer were plentiful. When traveling in winter, according to Lieut. Ray, they prefer frozen fish or a sort of pemmican made as follows : The marrow is extracted from reindeer bones by boiling, and to a quantity of this is added 2 or 3 pounds of crushed seal or whale blubber, and the whole beaten up with the hands in a large wooden bowl to the consistency of frozen cream. Into this they stir bits of boiled venison, generally the poorer portions of the meat scraped off the bone, and chewed up small by all the women and children of the family, "each using some cabalistic word as they cast in their mouthful."1 The mass is made up into 2-pound balls and carried in little sealskin bags. Flour, when obtained, is made into a sort of porridge, of which they are very fond. Cooking is mostly done outside of the dwelling, in the open air in summer, or in kitehens opening out of the passageway in winter. Little messes only, like an occasional dish of soup or porridge, are cooked over the lamps in the house. This habit, of course, conies from the abundant supply of firewood, while the Eskimo most frequently described live in a country where wood is very scarce, and are obliged to depend on oil for fuel. Time and frequency of eating. — When these people are living in the winter houses they do not, as far as we could learn, have any regular time for meals, but eat whenever they are hungry and have leisure. The women seem to keep a supply of cooked food on hand ready for any one to eat. When the men are working in the ku'dylgi.or " club house," or when a number of them are encamped together in tents, as at the whaling camp in 18S3, or the regular summer camp at IVruyu, the women at intervals through the day prepare dishes of meat, which the 1 Lieut. Kay's MS. iiotcs. 64 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. men cat by themselves. When in the (leer-hunting camps, according to Lieut. Ray, they eat but little in the morning, and can really be said to take no more than one full meal a day, which is eaten at night when the day's work is done.1 When on the march they usually take a few moutlifuls of the pemmican above described before they start out in the morning, and rarely touch food again till they go into cam]) at night. When a family returns from the spring deer hunt with plenty of ven ison they usually keep open house for a day or two. The women of the household, with sometimes the assistance of a neighbor or two, keep the pot continually boiling, sending in dishes of meat at intervals, while the house is full of guests who stay for a short time, eating, smoking, and chatting, and then retire to make room for others. Messes are sometimes sent out to invalids who can not come to the feast. One household in the spring of 1883 consumed in this way two whole rein deer in 24 hours. They use only their hands and a knife in eating meat, usually filling the month and cutting or biting oft' the mouthful. They are large eaters, some of them, especially the women, eating all the time when they have plenty, but we never saw them gorge themselves in the manner described by Dr. Kane (2d Griunell Exp., passim) and other writers. Their habits of hospitality prevent their laying up any large supply of meat, though blubber is carefully saved for commercial use, and they depend for subsistence, almost from day to day, on their success in hunting. When encamped, however, in small parties in the summer they often take more seals than they can consume. The carcasses of these, stripped of their skins and blubber, are buried in the gravel close to the camp, and dug up and brought home when meat becomes scarce in the winter. The habitual drink is water, which these people constime in great quantities when they can obtain it, and like, to have very cold. In the winter there is always a lump of clean snow on a rack close to the lamp, with a tub under it to catch the water that drips from it. This is re placed in the summer by a bucket of fresh water from some pond or lake. When the men are sitting in their open air clubs at the summer camps there is always a bucket of fresh water in the middle of the cir cle, with a dipper to drink from. Hardly a native ever passed the sta tion without stopping for a drink of water, often drinking a quart of cold water at a time. When tramping about in the winter they eat large quantities of ice and snow, and on the march the women carry small canteens of sealskin, which they till with snow and cany inside of their jackets, where the heat of the body melts the snow and keeps 1 "They have no set Time for Meals, but every one eat* when lie is hungry, except when they go to BOii, and then Ilieir ehief Kepa-st is ii supper after they are come home in the Evening." (Egede, Green- laud, p. i:;5. Uompan; also, Crantz, vol. 1, p. 145.) MURDOCH.) TOBACCO. 65 it liquid. This great fondness for plenty of cold water has been often noticed among the Eskimo elsewhere, and appears to be quite charac teristic of the race.1 They have acquired a taste for liquor, and like to get enough to produce intoxication. As well as we could judge, they are easily affected by alcohol. Some of them during our stay learned to be very fond of coffee, " ka'fe," but tea they are hardly acquainted with, though they will drink it. I have noticed that they sometimes drank the water produced by the melting of the sea ice along the beach, and pronounced it excellent when it was so brackish that I found it quite uudriukable. NARCOTICS. The only narcotic in use among these people is tobacco, which they obtain directly or indirectly from the whites, and which has been in use among them from the earliest time when we have any knowledge of them. When Mr. Elson, in the Blossom's barge, visited Point Barrow, in 1826, he found tobacco in general use and the most marketable article.2 This undoubtedly came from the Russians by way of Siberia and Ber ing Strait, as Kotzebue found the natives of the sound which bears his name, who were in communication with the Asiatic coast by way of the Diomedes, already addicted to the use of tobacco in 181(5. It is not probable that tobacco was introduced on the Arctic coast by way of the Russian settlements in Alaska. There were no Russian posts north of Bristol Bay until 1833, when St. Michael's Redoubt was built. When Capt. Cook visited Bristol Bay, in 1778, he found that tobacco was not used there,3 while in Norton Sound, the same year, the natives "had no dislike to tobacco."4 Neither was it introduced from the English posts in the east, as Franklin found the "KfifimiYdllfi" not in the habit of using it — "The western Esquimaux use tobacco, and some of our visitors had smoked it, but thought the flavor very disagreeable,"5 — nor had they adopted the habit in 1837.° When the Plover wintered at Point Barrow, according to Dr. Simpson's account,7 all the tobacco, except a little obtained from the English dis covery ships, came from Asia and was brought by the Nunatanmiun. At present the latter bring very little if any tobacco, and the supply is obtained directly from the ships, though a little occasionally finds its way up the coast from the southwest. 'See, for instance, Egcde: "Their Drink is nothing but Water" (Greenland, p. 134), and, "Fur thermore, they put great Lumps of Ice and Snow into the Water they drink, to make it cooler for to quench their Thirst" (p. 135). "Their drink is clear water, which stands in the house in a great copper vessel, or in a wooden tub. * * They bring in a supply of fresh water every day * * * and that their water may be cool they choose to lay a piece of ice or a little snow in it" * * * (Crantz, vol. 1, p. 144). Compare, also. Parry. 2d voy., p. 506, where! the natives of Iglulik arc said to drink a great deal of water, which they get by molting snow, and like very cold. The same fondness for water was observed by Nordenskiiild in Siberia (Vega, vol. 2, p. 114) 2 Becchey, Voyage, p. 308. 3 Third Voyage, vol. 2, p. 437. 1 Ibid, 2, p. 479. 5 Second Exp., p. 130. 6 See T. Simpson, Narrative, p. 156. 7 Op. cit., pp., 235, 236. 260. 9 ETII 5 66 THK POINT BARROW ESKIMO. They use all kinds of tobacco, but readily distinguish and desire the sorts considered better by the whites. For instance, they were eager to get the excellent quality of "Navy" tobacco furnished by the- Com missary Department, while one of our party who had a large quantity of exceedingly bad fine-cut tobacco could hardly give it away. A little of the strong yellow "Circassian" tobacco used by the Russians for trading is occasionally brought up from the south west, and perhaps also by the Nunatanmiun, and is very highly prized, probably because it was hi this form that they first saw tobacco. Snuff seems to bo unknown; tobacco is used only for chewing and smoking. The habit of chewing tobacco is almost universal. Men, women, and even children, though the latter be but 2 or .'i years old and unweaiied,1 when tobacco is to be obtained, keep a "chew," often of enormous size, constantly in the mouth. The juice is not spit out, but swallowed with the saliva, without pro ducing any signs of nausea. The tobacco is chewed by itself and not sweetened with sugar, as was observed by Hooper and Nordenskiold among the "Chukclies."* I knew but two adult Kskimo in Utkiavwin who did not chew tobacco, and one of these adopted the habit to a cer tain extent while we were there. Tobacco is smoked iu pipes of a peculiar pattern called kui'nyi?, of which the collection contains a series of ten specimens. Of these, No. 89288 [705],3 figured in Kay's Point Barrow Report, Ethnology, PL i, Fig. 1, will serve as a type. The bowl is of brass, neatly inlaid on the upper surface with a narrow ring of copper close to the edge, from which inn four converging lines, 90° apart, nearly to the center. Round the under surface are also three concentric rings of copper. The wooden stem appears to be willow or birch, and is in two longitudinal sections, held together by the lashing of sealskin thong which serves to attach the bowl to the stem. This lashing was evidently put on wet and allowed to shrink on, and the snds are secured by tuck ing under the turns. The whipping at the mouthpiece is of fine sinew thread. A picker of steel for cleaning out the bowl is attached to the stem by a piece of seal thong, the end of which is wedged under the turns of the lashing. The remaining pipes are all of the same general pattern, but vary in the material of the bowl and in details of execu tion. The stems are always of the same material and put together in the same way, but are sometimes lozenge-shaped instead of elliptical in section. The lashing is sometimes of three-ply sinew braid. The bowl shows the greatest variation, both in form and material. Fig. Crt (No. 56737 [10], from TJtkiavwin) has an iron bowl, noticeable for the ornamentation of the shank. The metal work has all been done with the file except the fitting of the saucer to the shank. This lias evidently been heated and shrunk on. Three pipes have bowls of 1 Compare J. Siiupsnn, op. cit., p. 250, and Xonlen-skiold, Vejia, vol. 2, p. 116. * Tents, etc., p. 83 ; Vega, vol. 2, p. 1 16. 5 The numbers first given are those of the National Museum ; the numbers in brackets are those of the collector. MURDOCH.] PIPES. 67 smoothly ground stone. No. 89289 [1582] (Fig. 6Z> from Utkiavwiii) is of rather soft greenish gray slate. No. 89290 [864] is of the same shape, but of hard greenish stone, while the third stone pipe (No. 89291 [834], from Utkiavwifi), of gray slate, is of quite a different pattern. Three of the series have bowls of reindeer antler, lined with thin sheet brass, and one a bowl of walrus ivory, lined with thin copper. (See Pig. Gc, Nos. 89285 [954], 8928(5 [915], and 89287 [1129].) FIG. 6.— Pipes : a, pipe with metal bowl : 6. pipe with stone bowl ; c, pipe bowl of antler or ivory. Antler and stone pipes of this pattern and rather small are usually carried by the men out of doors, while; the more elaborate metal pipes, which are often very large and handsome (1 have seen some with a saucer at least 3 inches in diameter) are more frequently used in the house and by the women. The stem is usually 1 foot or 13 inches long, though pipes at least 18 inches long were seen. To most pipes are attached pickers, as in the type specimen. The picker is in all cases of metal, usually iron or steel, but sometimes of copper (see the pickers attached to pipes above). When not in use the point is tucked under the lashing on the stem. The pipes are readily taken apart for cleaning. \J 68 THE POINT 13AKKOW ESKIMO. No. 89292 [1752] (Fig. 7) is an extemporized pipe made in a hurry by a man who wished to smoke, but had no pipe. It is simply a rough willow stick, slightly whittled into shape, split and hollowed out like a pipestem. It is held together by a whipping of sinew thread and a lashing of deerskin thong, fastened by a slip- FIG. 7. — Pipe made of willow stick. knot at one end, the other being tucked in as usual. A small funnel- shaped hole at one end serves for a bowl, and shows by its charred surface that it has been actually used. This pipe was bought from one of the "Nunatanmiun," who were in camp atPernyuin 1883, and shows its inland origin in the use of the deerskin thong. A (toast native would have used seal thong. The pipe is carried at the girdle, either with the stem thrust inside the breeches or in a bag attached to the belt. No. 50744 [55] (Utkiavwln) is the only specimen of pipe bag in the collection. It is a long, narrow, cylindric bag, made of four white ermine skins, with two hind legs and two tails forming a fringe round the bottom, which is of dressed deerskin, in one piece, flesh side out. The band round the mouth is of gray deer skin, running only two-thirds of the way round. The piece which fills the remaining third runs out into the strap for fastening the bag to the belt. The ornamental strips on two of the longitudinal seams and round the bottom are of deerskin. The, seams are all sewed "over and over" on the "wrong" side with sinew thread. This is an unusually handsome bag. Tobacco is carried in a small pouch of fur attached to the girdle, and tucked inside of the breeches, or sometimes worn under the jacket, slung round the neck by a string or the necklace. The collection con tains three of these, of which No. 89803 [889] (Fig. 8a) will serve as a typical specimen. It is made by sewing together two pieces of wolverine fur, hair out, of the same shape and size, and round the mouth of this a band of short- haired light-colored deerskin, also hair out, with the ends meeting at one side in a seam corresponding to one of the seams of the wolverine fur. The mouth is ornamented with a narrow band of wolverine fur, the flesh side, which is colored red, turned out. It is closed by a piece of seal thong about 5 inches long, one end of which is sewed to the middle, of the seam in the deerskin band and the other passed through a large blue glass bead and knotted. This string is wound two or three times round the neck of the bag, and the bight of it tucked under the TOBACCO POI'CHK.S. turns. The spams are all sewed "over and over" on the " wrong" side with sinew thread. These tobacco pouches are usually of a similar pattern, often slightly narrowed at the neck, and generally fringed round the mouth with a narrow strip of wolverine fur as above. They are often ornamented with tags of wolverine fur on the seams (as in No. 89804 [1341, Fig. 8fr]), and borders of different colored skin. No. 80805 [l.'ioOJ is very elaborately ornamented. It is made, of brown deerskin, trimmed with white deerskin clipped close and bordered with narrow braids of blue and red worsted, and little tags of the latter. According to Dr. Simp son,1 these bags are called "del-la-niai'-yn." We neglected to obtain the proper names for them, as we always made use of the lingua franca "tiba' piiksak,"bag for tiba' (tobacco). No. 80903 [889] contains a spec imen of tobacco as prepared for smoking by the Eskimo. This consists fin. 8. — Tobacco pouclien. of common black Cavendish or "Navy" tobacco, cut up very tine, and mixed with finely chopped wood in the proportion of about two parts of tobacco to one, of wood. We were informed that willow twigs were used for this purpose. Perhaps this may have some slight aromatic flavor, as well as serving to make the tobacco go further, though I did not recognize any such flavor in some tobacco from an Eskimo's pouch that I once smoked and found exceedingly bad. The smell of an Eskimo's 'Op. cit., p. 243. 70 THE 1'OIXT liAKKOW ESKIMO. pipe is different from any other tobacco smoke and is very disagreeable. It lias some resemblance to the smell of some of the* cheaper brands of North Carolina tobacco which are known to be adulterated with other vegetable substances. The method of smoking is as follows: After clearing ont the bowl witli the picker, a little wad of deer hair, plucked from the clothes in some inconspicuous place, generally the front skirt of the inner jacket, is rammed down to the bottom of the bowl. This is to prevent the fine tobacco from getting into the stem and clogging it up. The. bowl is then filled with tobacco, of which it only holds a very small quantity. The mouthpiece is placed between the lips, the tobacco ignited, and .all smoked out in two or three strong inhalations. The smoke is very deeply inhaled and allowed to pass out slowly from the mouth and nostrils, bringing tears to the eyes, often producing giddi ness, and almost always a violent fit of coughing. I have seen a man almost prostrated from the effects of a single pipeful. This method (if smoking has been in vogue since the time of our first acquaintance with these people.1 Though they smoke little at a time, they smoke frequently when to bacco is plentiful. Of lateyears, since tobacco hasbecome plentiful, some have adopted white men's pipes, which they smoke without inhaling, and they are glad to get cigars, and, since our visit, cigarettes. In con versation with us they usually called all means for smoking "pai'pa," the children sometimes specifying "pai'pa-sigya"' (cigar) or " rnukpara- pai'pa," paper-pipe (cigarette). The use of the kui'nyi;, which name appears to be applied only to the native pipes, seems to be confined to the adults. We knew of no children owning them, though their parents made no objection to their chewing tobacco or owning or using clay or wooden pipes which they obtained from us. They carry their fondness for tobacco so far that they will even eat the foul oily refuse from the bottom of the bowl, the smallest portion of which would produce nausea in a white man. This habit has been observed at Plover Bay, Siberia.2 Tobacco ashes are also eaten, probably for the sake of the potash they contain, as one of the men at T'tkiavwin was fond of carbonate of soda, which he told the doctor was just like what he got from his pipe. Pipes of this type, differing in details, but all agreeing in having very small bowls, frequently of metal, and some contrivance for opening the stem, are used by the Eskimo from at least as far south as the Yukon delta (as shown by the collections in the National Museum) to the An- 1 Sec T. Simpson : ''Not content with chewing and smoking it, they swallowed the fumes till they became sick, and seemed to revel in a momentary intoxication." Point Harrow (1837), Narrative, p. 156. Also Kot/.ebne: "They chew, snuff, smoke, and even swallow the smoke." Kotzebne Sound (181G) Voyage, vol. 1, p. 237. ]leeehey also describes the people of Hothani Inlet in 182G as smoking in the manner above described, obtaining the hair from a strip of dogskin tied to lite, pipe. Their tobacco •was mixed with wood. Voyage, p. :!00. Petitot (Monographic, etc.. p. xxix) describes a precisely sim ilar method of smoking among the Mackenzie. Eskimos. Their tobacco was "melange a de la raclure de sanle" and the pipe was called •• kwifiepk," ( Voealmlaire, p. 54). * Sec Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 177, and Pall, Alaska, p. 81. MTRDOCH.] DRINKING. 71 derson Kiver and Cape Bathurst,1 and have even been adopted by the Indians of the Yukon, who learned the use of tobacco from the Eskimo. They are undoubtedly of Siberian origin, as will be seen by comparing the figure of a "Chukch" pipe in Nordenskiold's Vega, vol. 2, p. 117? Fig. 7, and the figure of a Timguse pipe in Seebohm's "Siberia in Asia" (p. 149), with the pipes figured from our collection. Moreover, the method of smoking is precisely that practiced in Siberia, even to the proportion of wood mixed with the tobacco.1 The consideration of the question whence the Siberians acquired this peculiar method of smoking would lead me beyond the bounds of the present work, but I can not leave the subject of pipes without calling attention to the fact that Nbrdenskiold3 has alluded to the resemblance of these to the Japanese pipes. A gentleman who has spent many years in China also informs me that the Chinese pipes are of a very similar type and smoked in much the same way.4 The (Jreenlanders and eastern Eskimo generally, who have learned the use of tobacco directly from the Europeans, use large-bowled pipes, which they smoke in the ordinary manner. In talking with us the people of Point Barrow call tobacco " tiba' " or " tibakl," but among themselves it is still known as ta'wak, which is the word found in use among them by the earliest explorers.5 "Tiba" was evidently learned from the American whalers, as it was not in use in Dr. Simpson's time. It is merely an attempt to pronounce the word tobacco, but has been adopted into the Eskimo 1 This is an interesting fact, as it shows that the Kskhno from Demarcation Point cast learned to smoke from the people of Point Barrow, and not from the English or the northern Indians, who use pipes " modeled after the clay pipes of the Hudson Hay Company." (Dull, Alaska, p. 81, Fig. A.) They acquired the habit some time between 18!!", when T. Simpson found them ignorant of the use of tobacco {see reference above, p. G5), and 1849, when they were glad to receive it from Pulli-n and Hooper. (Tents, etc.. p. 258.) Petitot (Monographic, etc., ]>. xxvi) states that the Eskimo of the Mackenzie informed him that the use of tobacco and the form of the pipe, with blue beads, labrets, and other things, came through the neighbors from a distant land called " Xate'povik," which he supposes to mean St. Michaels, but which, from the evidence of other travelers, is much more likelv to mean Siberia. The Eskimo geography, on which Fr. Petitot relies so strongly, is extremely vague west of Barter Island, and savors of the fabulous almost as much a-t the Point Barrow stories about the eastern natives. The evidence which leads Fr. Petitot to believe -Xate'povik" to be St. Michaels is rather peculiar. The Mackenzie natives call the people who arc nearest to Xate'povik on the north "the Sedentary." Now, the people who live nearest to St. Michaels on the north are the "Sedentary American Tchu- katchis '(!); therefore Nato'povik is probably St. Michaels. ("I,e nom \altpomk semble couvenir 4 I'aucieii fort russe Michaelowski, en ce quo la trib:i innok la plus voisine de ce posto, vcrs le nord, est desiguee par nos Tchiglit sous le nom d' Apkivam-meiit on de Sedcntaires; or telle est la position gtographiquo qui convient aux sedentaires Tchukatches americains, dont la limite la plus septcn- trionale, selon le capitaino Beechey, est la pointe Barrow.") A slight acquaintance with the work of of Ball and other modern explorers m this region would have saved Fr. Petitot from this and some other errors. * See Wrangell, Narrative of an Expedition, etc., p. 58. 'The Russians lien- [at Kolymsk, 1820] smoke in the manner common to all the people of northern Asia; they draw in the tobacco smoke swallow it, and allow it to escape again by the nose and ears ( !)." The tobacco is said to be mixed with ••finely powdered larch wood, to make it go further" (ibid.). Sec also Hooper. Tents, etc. : "Gen erally, I believe, about one-third part of wood is used " (pp. 176 and 177: and Nordenskidld, Vega vol. 2, p. 116.) 1 Vega. vol. 2, p. 116. 4 See also Petitot, Monographic, etc.-, p. xxix. 'See Beechey, Voyage, p. 323; T. Simpson, Narrative, p. 156— " tobacco, which * .* * they call tawac, or tawfikh, a name acquired of course from Russian trailers;" Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 239; also Maguire and J. Simpson, loc. cit. passim. Petitot calls ta'wak "mot franc. ii- corrompu "! 72 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. language sufficiently to be used as the radical iu compound words such as "tiba'xutikiVktufiu," "I have a supply of tobacco." There is no evidence that anything else was smoked before the introduction of tobacco, and no pipes seen or collected appear older than the time when we know them to have had tobacco.1 HABITATIONS. The winter house (»'«//«). — The permanent winter houses are built of wood2 and thickly covered with clods of earth. Kach house consists of a single room, nearly square, entered by an underground passage about 25 feet long and 4 to 4£ feet high. The sloping mound of earth which ^^ VERTICAL SECTION. Flo. 9. — Plans of Eskimo winter house. covers the house, grading off' insensibly to the level of the ground, gives the houses the appearance of being underground, especially as the land on which they stand is irregular and hilly. Without very careful measurements, which we were unable to make, it is impossible to tell whether the floor is above or below the surface of the ground. It is certainly not very far either way. I am inclined to think that a space 1 Since the above was written, the word for pipe, "kninyB," has been found to be of Siberian origin. See the writer's article "On the Siberian origin of some customs of the Western Eskimos " (Amer ican Anthropologist, vol. 1, pp. 325-336). HOUSES. 73 at or near the top of a hillock is simply leveled to receive the floor. In this case the back of the house on a hill side, like some in Utkiavwifi, would be underground. The passage is entered at the farther end by a vertical shaft about 6 feet deep in the center of a steep mound of earth. Round the mouth is a square frame or combing of wood, and blocks of wood are placed in the shaft to serve as steps. One or two houses in tltkiavwlii had ship's companion ladders in the shaft. This entrance can be closed with a piece of walrus hide or a wooden cover in severe weather or when the family is away. The passage is about 4 feet wide and the sides and FIG. 10. — Interior of i<;lu, looking toward face p. 160 Parry's Second Voyage. MURDOCH.] HOUSES. 75 for the l)ed, which are rolled up and put under the bench when not in use, and a number of wooden tubs of various sizes — I counted nine tubs and buckets in one house in TJtkiavwIfi — complete the furniture. Two families usually occupy such a house, in which case each wife has her own end of the room and her own lam]), near which on the floor she usually sits to work. Some houses contain but one family and others more. I knew one house in Utkiavwin whose regular occupants were thirteen in number, namely, a father with his wife and adopted daughter, two married sons each with a wife and child, his widowed sister with her son and his wife, and one little girl. This house was also the favorite stopping-place for people who came down from Nuwiik to spend the night. The furniture is always arranged in the same way. There is only one rack on the right side of the house and two on the left. Of these the farther from the lamp is the place for the lump of snow. In this same corner are kept the tubs, and the large general chamber pot and the small male urinal are near the trap door. Dishes of cooked meat are also kept in this corner. This leaves the other corner of the house vacant for women visitors, who sit there and sew. Male visitors, as well as the men of the house when they have nothing to do, usually sit on the edge of the banquette. In sleeping they usually lie across the banquette with their feet to the wall, but sometimes, when there are few people in the house, lie lengthwise, and occasionally sleep on the floor under the banquette. Petitot says that in the Mackenzie region only married people sleep with their heads toward the edge of the banquette. Children and visitors lie with their heads the other way.1 (See Fig. 9, ground plan andsectiou of house, and Figs. 10 and 11, interior, from sketches by the writer. For outside see Fig. 12, from a photograph by Lieut. Kay). At the back of the house is a high oblong scaffolding, made by set ting up tall poles of driftwood, four, six, or eight in number, and fasten ing on cross pieces about 8 or 10 feet from the ground, usually in two tiers, of which the lower supports the frames of the kaiaks and the upper spears ana other bulky property. Nothing except very heavy articles, such as sledges, boxes, and barrels, is ever left on the ground. A man can easily reach this scaffold from the top of the house, but it is high enough to be out of reach of the dogs. The cross pieces are usually supported on crotches made by lashing the lower jaw of a walrus to the pole, so that one ramus lies along the latter. Scaffolds of this sort, usually spoken of as "caches" or "cache frames," are of necessity used among the Eskimos generally, as it is the only way in which they can protect their bulky property.2 1 Monographic, etc., p.xxiii. *Seo for instanee, Crantz, History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 141; Franklin, 1st Expert., vol. 2, p. 194 (Coppermine River) ; 2rt Kxped., p. 121 (Mouth of the Mackenzie, where tliey are made of drift logs stuck up so that the roots serve as crotches to hold the cross pieces) ; Hooper, Tents, ete., pp. 48, 228, and 343 (Plover Hay, Point Harrow, and Toker Point) ; J. Simpson, op. cit., p. 256 (Point Barrow) ; Nor- denskiold, Vega, vol. 2, p. 92 (Pitlekjy). 76 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. Around Norton Sound, however, they use a more elaborate structure, consisting of a regular little house C feet square, raised 6 to 10 feet from the ground on four posts.1 Belonging to each household, and usually near the house, are low scaffolds for the large boats, rows of posts for stretching lines of thong, and one or more small cellars or underground rooms framed with whales' bones, the skull being frequently used for a roof, which serve as store houses for blubber. These may be called "blubber rooms.'' These winter houses can only be occupied when the weather is cold enough to keep the ground hard frozen. During the summer the pas sageways are full of water, which freezes at the beginning of winter FIG. 12.— House iii Utkiavwin. and is dug out with a pickax. The people of Utkiavwin began to come to us to borrow our pickax to clean out their iglus about September 24, 1882, and all the houses were vacated before July 1, both seasons. This particular form of winter house, though in general like those built by other Eskimo, nevertheless differs in many respects from any described elsewhere. For instance, the Greenland house was an oblong flat-roofed building of turf and stones, with the passageway in the middle of one side instead of one end, and not underground. Still, the door and windows were all on one side, and the banquette or "brix" only on the side opposite the entrance. The windows were formerly made of seal entrails, and the passage, though not underground, was still lower than the floor of the house, so that it was necessary to step up at each end.2 A detailed description of the peculiar communal house of the East 1 Van, Alaska, ]>. 13. 'Efiede, Greenland, p. 114; Crautz, History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 139; Iliuk, Tales and Traditions, p. 7. HOUSES. 77 Greenlanders, of which there is only one at each village, will be found in Capt. Holm's paper in the (icogransk Tidskrift, vol. 8, pp. 87-89. This is the long house of West Greenland, still further elongated till it will accommodate "half a score of families, that is to say, 30 to 50 people." John Davis (158(5) describes the houses of the Greeulanders "neere the Sea side," which were made with pieces of wood on both sides, and crossed over with poles and then covered over with earth.1 At Iglulik the permanent houses were dome shaped, built of bones, with the interstices filled with turf, and had a short, low passage.2 No other descriptions of permanent houses are to be found until we reach the. FIG. 13.— (.iroiind phin and section of winter house in Mackenzie region. people of the Mackenzie region, who build houses of timbers, of rather a peculiar pattern, covered with turf, made in the form of a cross, of which three or all four of the arms are the sleeping rooms, the floor being raised into alow banquette.3 (See Fig. 13.) Petitot4 gives a very excellent detailed description of the houses of the Anderson Eiver people. According to his account the passageway is built up of blocks of ice. He mentions one house with a single alcove like those at Point Barrow.5 We have no description of the houses at the villages between Point Barrow and Kotzebue Sound, but at the latter place was found the 1 Hakluyt, Voyages, etc. (1589), p. 788. *I,yon, Journal, p. 171. 8 See Fig. 13, ground plan and section, copied from I'etitot, Monographic, etc., p. XXIll. 4 Monographic, etc., p. xxi. •See also Franklin, 2d Exped., p. 121 (Mouth of the Mackenzie), and pp. 215 and 210 (Atkinson Island. Ilichardson. A ground plan and section closely resembling Petitot's are given here); and Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 243 (Toker Point). 78 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. large triple house described by Dr. Simpson, and compared by him with that described by Richardson, though in some respects it more closely resembles those seen by Hooper.1 This house really has a fire place in the middle, and in this approaches the houses of the southern Eskimo of Alaska. According to Dr. Simpson,2 "a modification of the last form, built of undressed timber, and sometimes of very small dimen sions, with two recesses opposite each other, and raised a foot above the middle space, is very common on the shores of Kotzebue Sound," but he does not make it plain whether houses like those used at Point Barrow are not used there also. This form of house is very like the large snow houses seen by Lieut. Bay at hunting camps on Kulngrua. Dr. Simpson describes less perma nent structures which are used on the rivers, consisting of small trees split and laid "inclining inward in a pyramidal form towards a rude square frame in the center, supported by two or more upright posts. Upon these the smaller branches of the felled trees are placed, and the whole, except the aperture at the top and a small opening on one side, J is covered with earth or only snow."2 These buildings, ami especially the temporary ones described by Dr. Simpson, used on the Nunatak, probably gave rise to the statement we heard at Point Barrow that "the people south had no iglus and lived only in tents." The houses at Norton Sound are quite different from the Point Barrow form. The floor, which is not planked, is 3 or 4 feet under ground, and the passage enters one side of the house, instead of coming up through the floor, and a small shed is built over the outer entrance to the passage. The fire is built in the middle of the house, under the aperture in the roof which serves for chimney and window, and there is seldom any banquette, but the two ends of the room are fenced off by logs laid on the ground, to serve as sleeping places, straw and spruce boughs being laid down and covered with grass mats.3 The houses in the Kuskokwim region are quite similar to those just described, but are said to be built above ground in the interior, though they are still covered with sods.4 There are no published accounts of the houses of the St. Lawrence islanders, but they are known to inhabit sub terranean or partly underground earth-covered houses, built of wood, while the Asiatic Eskimo have abandonded the old underground houses, which were still in use at the end of the last century, and have adopted the double-skin tent of theChukches.5 In addition to the cases quoted by Dall, Capt. Cook speaks of finding the natives of St. Lawrence Bay in 1778 living in partly underground earth-covered houses.6 > See ante. »Op. cit., p. 258. BDaIl, Alaska, pp. 13 and 14, diagram on p. 13. Tetroft1, Kcport, etc., p. 15. 'See Dall, Cont. to N. A. Ethn., vol. 1, p. 105. Mr. E. W. Nelson tells me, however, that the village at East Cape. Siberia, is composed of real iglus. 6Third Voyage, vol. 2, p. 450. MURDOCH.) VILLAGES. 79 Arrangement in village*. — The village, of Utkiavwlii occupies a narrow strip of ground along the edge of the cliffs of ('ape Smyth, about 1 ,000 yards long, and extending some 150 yards inland. The houses are scattered among the hillocks without any attempt at regularity and at different distances from each other, sometimes alone, and sometimes in groups of two contiguous houses, which often have a common cache frame. Xuwiik, from Dr. Simpson's account1 and what we saw in our hurried visits, is scattered in the same way over the knolls of Point Barrow, but has its greatest extension in an east and west direction. From Simpson's account (ibid.) double houses appear more common at Nuwuk than at TTtkiavwIfi, and he even speaks of a few threefold ones. All the houses agree in facing south. This is undoubtedly to admit the greatest amount of light in winter, and seems to be a tolerably general custom, at least among the northern Eskimo.2 The custom of having the dwelling face south appears to be a deeply rooted one, as even the tents in summer all face the same way.3 The tents on the saiulspit at Plover Bay all face west. The same was observed by the Krause brothers at East Cape.4 At Utkiavwln there are twenty-six or twenty-seven inhabited houses. The uninhabited are mostly ruins and are chiefly at the southwest end of the village, though the breaking away of the cliffs at the other end has exposed the ruins of a few other old houses. Near these are also the ruins of the buildings destroyed by the ice catastrophe described above (p. 31). The mounds at the site of the United States signal station are also the ruins of old iglus. We were told that "long ago," before they had any iron, five families who "talked like dogs" inhabited this village. They were called Isu'tkwamiun. Similar mounds are to be seen at Pernyfi, near the present summer camp. About these we only learned that people lived there "long ago." We also heard of ruined houses on the banks of Kulugrua. Besides the dwellings there are in Utkiavwlfi three and in Xuwiik two of the, larger buildings used for dancing, and as workrooms for the men, so often spoken of among other Eskimo. Dr. Simpson states5 that they are nominally the property of some of the more wealthy men. We did not hear of this, nor did we ever hear the different buildings distinguished as "So-and-so's," as I am inclined to think would have been the ease had the custom still prevailed. They are called ku'dylgi or ku'drlgi (karrigi of Simpson), a word which cor responds, mutatis mutandis, with the Greenlandic kagsse, which means, first, a circle of hills round a small deep valley, and then a circle of 1 Op. cit., p. 256. "For example, I find it mentioned in Greenland by Kane, 1st (Irinnell Kxp., p. 40; at Iglulik by Parry, 2d Voy., p. 499; and at tlm month of tbe Mackenzie by Franklin, 2<1 Exp., p. 121, as well as by Dr. Simpson at Niiwiik, op. cit., p. 256. 8 Frobishcr says tbe tents in Meta Incognita (in 1577) were "so pitched up, that tbe entrance into them, is alwaics South, or against tbe Sunuu." Hakluyt's Voyages, etc., (1589) p. 628. 4Geograpbische Blatter, vol. 5, p. 27. «Op. cit., p. 259. 80 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. people who sit close together (and then, curiously enough, a brothel). At Utkiavwlii they are situated about the middle of the village, one close to the bank and the others at the other edge of the village. They are built like the other houses, but are broader than long, with the ridgepole in the middle, so that the two slopes of the roof are equal, and are not covered with turf, like the dwellings, being only partially banked up with earth. The one visited by Lieut. Kay on the occasion of the "tree dance" was 16 by 20 feet and 7 feet high under the ridge, and held sixty people. In the fall and spring, when it is warm enough to sit in the ku'dylgi without fire and with the window open, it is used as a general lounging place or club room by the men. Those who have carpentering and sim ilar work to do bring it there and others come simply to lounge and gossip and hear the latest news, as the hunters when they come in gen erally repair to the ku'dylgi as soon as they have put away their equipments. They are so fond of this general resort that when nearly the whole village was encamped at Imekpiiii in the spring of 188,3, to be near the whaling ground, they extemporized a club house by arranging four timbers large enough for seats in a hollow square near the middle of the camp. The men take turns in catering for the club, each man's wife furnishing and cooking the food for the assembled party when her husband's turn comes. The club house, however, is not used as a sleeping place for the men of the village, as it is said to be in the terri tory south of Bering Strait,1 nor as a hotel for visitors, as in the Nor ton Sound region.2 Visitors are either entertained in some dwelling or build temporary snow huts for themselves. The ku'dylgi is not used in the winter, probably on account of the difficulty of warming it, except on the occasions of the dances, festivals, or conjuring ceremonies. Crevices in the walls are then covered with blocks of snow, a slab of transparent ice is fitted into the window, and the house is lighted and heated with lamps. Buildings of this sort and used for essentially the same purposes have been observed among nearly all known Eskimo, except the Greenlanders, who, however, still retain the tradition of such structures.3 Even the Siberian Eski mo, who have abandoned the iglu, still retained the ku'dylgi until a recent date at least, as Hooper saw at Ooug-wy-sac a performance in a "large tent, apparently erected for and devoted to public purposes (possibly as a council room as well as a theater, for in place of the 1 Totroff, Report, etc., p. 128. 'Dall, Alaska, p. 16. 8 See Riiik, Talc* and Traditions, p. 8; also Geografisk Tidskrift, vol 8, p. 141. Speaking of build- jngs of this sort, Dr. Riiik says: "Men i Grenlaiul kjeudes de vel kun af Sagiiet. Faa Her Disko vil man have paavist Ruint-n af rn saadan Bygning, som bcsyiiderlig nok sa-rlig sagdes at have vaerot benyttettilFestlighederafernti.sk Natur." Boas, "The Central Eskimo," passim; Lyon, Journal, p. 325 (Iglulik); Richardson, in Franklin's 2d Exp., pp. 215-216 (Atkinson Island); Pet: tot, Monographic, etc., xxx; "Keckim, on maison des asscmblccs;" Beeehey, Voyage, p, 268 (Point Hope) ; Pall, Alaska, p. 16 and elsewhere; Petroff, Rep. p. 128 and elsewhere. MCEDOCH.] SNOW HOUSES. • 81 nsual inner apartments only a species of bench of raised earth ran round it)." ' These buildings are numerous and particularly large and much used south of Bering Strait, where they are also used as steam bath houses.2 Snow houses (apiiya). — Houses of snow are used only temporarily, as for instance at the hunting grounds on the rivers, and occasionally by visitors at the village who prefer having their own quarters. For example, a man and his wife who had been living at Nuwiik decided in the winter of 1882-'83 to come down and settle at Utkiavwlii, where the woman's parents lived. Instead of going to one of the houses in the village, they built themselves a snow house in which they spent the winter. The man said he intended to built a wooden house the next season. These houses are not built on the dome or beehive shape so often described among the Eskimo of the middle region of Dr. Kink.3 The idea naturally suggests itself that this form of building is really a snow tupek or tent, while the form used at Point Barrow is simply the iglu built of snow instead of wood. When built on level ground, as in the village, the snow house consists of an oblong room about G feet by 12, with walls made of blocks of snow, and high enough for a person to stand up inside. Beams or poles are laid across the top, and OYer these is stretched a roof of canvas. At the south end is a low narrow covered passage of snow about 10 feet long leading to a low door not over 2i feet high, above which is the window, made, as before described, of seal entrail. The opening at the outer end of the passage is at the top, so that one climbs over a low wall of snow to enter the house. At the right side of the passage, close to the house, is a small fire place about 2£ feet square and built of slabs of snow, with a smoke hole in the top and a stick stuck across at the proper height to hang a pot on. When the first fire is built in such a fireplace there is considerable melting of the surface of the snow, but as soon as the fire is allowed to go out this freezes to a hard glaze of ice, which afterwards melts only to a trifling extent. Opposite to the door of the house, which is protected by a curtain of canvas, corresponding to the Greenlandic ubkuaK, "a skin which is hung up before the entrance of the house,"4 the floor is raised into a banquette about 18 inches high, on which are laid boards and skins. Cupboards are excavated under the banquette, or in the walls, and pegs are driven into the walls to hang things on. 1 Tents, etc., p. 136. y See references to Dall and IVtrofl1, above. 8 Parry, 2nd Voy., p. HX) ami plate opposite; Franklin, 1st Exped. vol. 2, pp. 43-47. ground plan, p. 46; Boas, "Central Eskimo,"pp. 539-553; Kuinlien. ('outributionH, etc., p. 31 ; Petitot, Monographic, etc., p. xvii (a full description with a ground plan and section on p. xix), and all the popular accounts of the Eskimo. 4 Griinlanclsk Ordbog, p. 404; Kane's 1st (irinndl Exp.. p. 40, calls it a "skin-covered door." Com pare, also, the skin or matting bung over the entrance of the houses at Norton Sound, Dall, Alaska, p. 13, and the bear-skin doors of t lie Xuuataiiuiiuii aud other Kotzebue Sound natives, mentioned by l)r. Simpson, op. cit., p. 259. 9 ETH G 82 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. As such a house i.s only large enough for one family, there is only one lamp, which stands at the right-hand side of the house1. At the hunting grounds, or on the road thither in the winter, a place is selected for the house where the snow is deeply drifted under the edge of some bank, so that most of the house can bo made by excavation. When necessary, the walls are built up and roofed over with slabs of snow. Such a house is very speedily built. The first party that goes over the road to the hunting ground usually builds houses at the end of each day's march, and these serve for the parties coming later, who have simply to clear out the drifted snow or perhaps make some slight repairs. On arriving at the hunting ground they establish themselves in larger and more comfortable houses of the same sort ; generally for two families. Lieut. Ray, who visited these camps, has drawn the plan represented in Fig. 14. There is a banquette, a, at each end of the room, g \ c FIG. 14. — Ground plan of large snow house. which is much broader than long (compare the form of house common at Kotzebue Sound, mentioned above, p. 78), but only one lamp, on a low shelf of snow, b, running across the back of the room and excavated below into a sort of cupboard. There are also similar cupboards, c, at dif ferent places in the walls, and a long tunnel,/, with the usual storerooms, «', and kitchen, 7t, from which a branch tunnel often leads to an adjoining house. The floor is marked d, the entrance to the tunnel g, and the door e. The house is lighted by the seal-gut windows of the iglu brought from the village. On going into camp the railed sled is stuck points down into the snow and net-poles, or ice-picks, thrust through the rails, making a tempo rary cache frame/ on which are hung bulky articles — snowshoes and 1 Compare Dr. Simpson's description, op. cit., p. 259. * Compare the woodcut on p. 406, vol. 1. of Kane's 2d Exp., where two sleds are represented as stuck up on end with their " upstanders " meeting to form a platform — Smith Sound. MURDOCH.] SNOW HOUSES TENTS. 83 guns.1 Small storehouses of snow or ice are built to contain provisions. In the autumn many such houses are built in the village, of slabs of clear fresh-water ice about 4 inches thick cemented together by freezing. These resemble the buildings of fresh- water ice at Iglulik, described by Capt. Lyon.2 Other temporary structures of snow, sometimes erected in the village, serve as workshops. One of these, which was built at the edge of the village in April, 1883, was an oblong building long enough to hold an umiak, giving sufficient room to get around it and work, and between 6 and 7 feet high. The walls were of blocks of snow and the roof of can vas stretched over poles. One end was left open, but covered by a canvas curtain, and a banquette of snow ran along each side. It was lighted by oblong slabs of clear ice set into the walls, and warmed by several lamps. Several men in -succession used this house for repairing and rigging up their umiaks, and others who had whittling to do brought their work to the same place. Such boat shops are sometimes built by digging a broad trench in a snowbank and roofing it with canvas. Women dig small holes in the snow, which they roof over with canvas and use for work-rooms in which to dress seal skins. In such cases there is probably some superstitious reason, which we failed to learn, for not doing the work in the iglu. The tools used in building the snow houses are the universal wooden snow-shovel and the ivory snow-knife, for cutting and trimming the blocks. At the present day saws are very much used for cutting the blocks, and also large iron knives (whalemen's "boarding knives," etc.) obtained from the ships. Tents (tupgk}. — During the summer all the natives live in tents, which are pitched on dry places upon the top of the cliffs or upon the gravel beach, usually in small camps of four or five tents each. A few families go no farther than the dry banks just southwest of the village, while the rest of the inhabitants who have not gone eastward trading or to the rivers hunting reindeer are strung along the coast. The first camp below Utkiavwlu is just beyond the double lagoon of Nunava, about 4 miles away, and the rest at intervals of 2 or 3 miles, usually at some little inlet or stream at places called Se'kqluka, Xake'drixo, Kuos- u'gru, Nuna/ktuau, Ipersua, Wa'lakpa (Eefuge Inlet, according to Capt. Maguire's map, Pad. Hep. for 1854, opp. p. 186), Er'mvwlii, SI'naru, and Sa'kamna. It is these summer camps seen from passing ships which have given rise to the accounts of numerous villages along this coast. There is usually a small camp on the beach at SI'nnyu and one at Ime'kpun, while a few go to Pernyu even early in the season. As the sea opens the people from the lower camps travel up the coast and concentrate at Pernyu, where they meet the Nuwuumiun, the Nuna- 1 Firearms can not bo carried into a warm room in cold weather, as the moisture in the air immedi ately condenses (in the cold .surface of the metal. 1 Journal, p. 204; see also the plate opposite p. KH of Parry's 2d Voyage. 84 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. tafiiniun traders, and the whalemen, and are joined later in the season by the trading parties returning from the east, all of whom stop for a few days at Pernyu. On returning to the village also, in September, the tents are pitched in dry places among the houses and occupied till the latter are dry enough to live in. Tents are used in the autumnal deer hunts, before, snow enough falls to build snow houses. In the spring of 1SS3, when the land Hoe was very heavy and rough oft' Utkiavwin,' all who were going whaling in the Utkiavwin boats went into camp with their families in tents pitched on the crown of the beach at Imek pun, whence a path led off to the open water. The tents are nowadays always made of cloth, either sailcloth obtained from wrecks or drilling, which is purchased from the ships. The latter is preferred as it makes a lighter tent and both dark blue and white are used. Reindeer or seal skins were used for tents as lately as 1854. Elson saw tents of sealskin lined with reindeer skin at Refuge Inlet,1 and Iloopep mentions sealskin tents at Cape Smyth and Point Barrow.2 Dr. Simpson gives a description of the skin tents at Point Barrow.3 Indeed, it is probable that canvas tents were not common until after the great "wreck seasons" of 1871 and 1, when so many whaleships were lost. The Nuiiatanmiun at Pernyu had tents of deerskin, and I remember also seeing one sealskin tent at the same place, which, it is my impression, belonged to a.man from Utkiavwin. Deerskin tents are used by the Anderson River natives,4 while sealskins are still in use in Greenland and the east generally.6 The natives south of Kotzebue Sound do not use tents, but have summer houses erected above ground and described as " generally log structures roofed with skins and open in front."6 That they have not always been ignorant of tents is shown by the use of the word "topek" for a dwelling at Norton Sound.7 The tents at Point Barrow are still constructed in a manner very sim ilar to that described by Dr. Simpson (see reference above). Four or five poles about 12 feet long are fastened together at the top and spread out so as to form a cone, with a base about 12 feet in diameter. Inside of these about (i feet from the ground is lashed a large hoop, upon which are laid shorter poles (sometimes spears, umiak oars, etc.). The canvas cover, which is now made in one piece, is wrapped spirally round this 1 Beochey's Voyage, p. 315. 2 Tents, etc., pp. 210, 225. •Op. cit., p. 260. 4 MacFarlane MSS. jftid IVtitot, Monographic, etc., p. XX, "destcntes eoniques (tnppepk) en peaux de reone.1' 6 See Kink, Talcs, etc., p. 7 ("skins" in this passage undoubtedly means sealskins, as they are more plentiful than deerskins among tlie Greenlanders, and were uaedt'or this purpose in Egede's time— Green, land, p. 117; and Kiimlien, op.eit., p. 33.). In east Greenland, according to Holm, "OmSommerenbo Anga- magaalikerne i Teltc, der crobc.truknc med dobbelteSkind <>g have Tarmskinds Forhieug." Geogr. Tids., vol. 8, p. 89. In Frobishcr's description of Meta Incognita (in 1577), he says: "Their houses are tents made of seale skins, pitched up with 4 Firro quarters, foure square, meeting at the toppe, and the skinnea sewed together with sinewcs, and layd thereupon." llakluyt's Voyages, etc. (158!)), p.C28. See also lioaa, "Central Eskimo." •Petroff, op.eit., p. 128. 'Ball, Alaska, p. 13. MURDOCH.) TENTS. 85 frame, so that the edges do not meet in front except at the top, leaving a triangular space or doorway, filled in with a curtain of which part is a translucent membrane, which can be covered at night with a piece of cloth. A string runs from the upper corner of the cloth round the apex of the tent and comes obliquely down the front to about the middle of the edge of the other end of the cloth. The two edges are also held together by a string across the entrance. Heavy articles, stones, gravel, etc., are laid on the nap of the tent to keep it (town, and spears, pad dles, etc., are laid up against the outside. (See Fig. 15, from a photo graph by Lieut. Hay.) Inside of the tent there is much less furniture than in the iglu, as the lamp is not needed for heating and lighting, and the cooking is done outdoors on tripods erected over tires. The sleeping place is at the Fio. 15.— Tent on the beach at TTtkiavwifi. back of the tent, and is usually marked off by laying a log across the floor, and spreading boards on the ground. Not more than one family usually occupy a tent. The tents at the whaling camp mentioned above were, at first, fitted out with snow passages and fireplaces like a snow hut, and many had a low wall of snow around them, but these had all melted before the camp was abandoned. These tents differ considerably in model from those in use in the east, though all are made by stretching a cover over radiating poles. For example, the tents in Greenland have the front nearly vertical,1 while at Cumberland Gulf two sets of poles connected by a ridgepole are used, those for the front being the shorter.2 The fashion at Iglulik is some- 1 Egede, Greenland, p. 117 ; Crautz, vol. 1, p. 141 ; Kink Tales, etc., p. 8 Ruin lit -11. op. cit., p. 33. 86 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. what similar.1 Small rude tents only large enough to hold one or two people are used as habitations for women during confinement, and for sewing rooms when they are working on deerskins in the autumn. Tents for the latter purpose are called "su'dliwln," the place for working. HOUSEHOLD UTENSILS. FOR HOLDING AND CARRYING FOOD, WATKR, ETC. Canteens (i'mutin). — None of the canteens, the use of which has been described above (under "Drinks"), were obtained for the collection. They were seen only by Lieut. Ray and Capt. Herendeen, who made winter journeys with the natives. They describe them as made of seal skins and of small size. I find no published mention of the use of such canteens among the Eskimo elsewhere, except in Baffin Land.2 Wallets, etc. — Food and such things are carried in roughly made bags of skin or cloth, or sometimes merely wrapped up in a piece of skin or eutrail, or whatever is convenient. Special bags, however, are used for bringing in the small fish which are caught through the ice. These are flat, about 18 inches or 2 feet square, and made of an oblong piece of sealskin, part of an old kaiak cover, doubled at the bottom and sewed up each side, with a thong to sling it over the shoulders. Buckets and tubs. — Buckets and tubs of various sizes are used for holding water and other fluids, blubber, flesh, entrails, etc., iii the house, and are made by bending a thin plank of wood (spruce or fir) round a nearly circular bottom and sew ing the ends together. These are probably all obtained from the Nu- natafimiun, as it would be almost impossible to procure suitable wood at Point Barrow. The col lection contains four specimens — two tubs and two buckets. No. 567C4 [370] (Fig. 16) will serve as a type of the water bucket (kiitau't?). A thin strip of spruce 8 inches wide is bent round a circu lar bottom of the same wood 10J inches in diameter. The edge of FlQ. 16.— Wooden bucket. the latter is slightly rounded and fits into a shallow croze one-fourth inch from the lower edge of the strip. The ends of the strip overlap 3£ inches and are sewed together with narrow strips of whalebone in two vertical seams of short stitches, one 1 See Parry's 2nd Voyage, p. 271 and plate opposite. Compare also Chappoll, "Hudson Bay," pp. 75- 77, figure on p. 75. * "When out traveling, they mostly carry their water supply in a seal's stomach, prepared for the purpose." Kumlien, op. cit., p. 41. Compare also Hall, Arctic Researches, p. 584. MURDOCH.] BUCKETS AND TUBS. 87 seam close to the outer end, which is steeply chamfered off and painted red, and the other 1-0 inches from this. Both seams are countersunk in shallow grooves on the outer part. The bucket is ornamented with a shallow groove running round the top, and a vertical groove between the seams. These grooves and the seam grooves are painted red. The bail is of stout iron wire fastened on by two ears of white walrus ivory cut into a. rude outline of a whale, and secured by neat lashings of whale bone passing through corresponding holes in the ear and the bucket. The bucket has been some time in use. No. 507G3 [300] is a bucket with a bail, and very nearly of the same shape and dimensions. It has, however, a bail made of rope yarns braided together, and the ears are plain flat pieces of ivory. Buckets of this size, with bails, are especially used for water, particularly for bringing it from the ponds and streams. The name "kfitauu" corre sponds to the Greenlandic katauaK, " a water-pail with which water is brought to the house." ' No. 89891 [1735] (Fig. 17), which is nearly new, is a very large tub (ilull'kpfin, which appears to mean "a capacious thing '') without a bail, and is 11 inches high and 20 in diameter. The sides are made of two pieces of plank of equal length, whose ends overlap alter nately and are sewed together as before. The bottom is in two pieces, one large and one small, neatly fastened together with two dowels, and is not only held in by hav ing its edge chamfered to fit the croze, but is pegged in with fourteen small treenails. The seams, edges, and two ornamental grooves around the top are painted red as Fio. 17.— Largo tub. before. No. 89890 [1753] is smaller, 9-7 inches high and 14-5 in diameter. It has no bail, and is ornamented with two grooves, of which the lower is painted with black lead. The bottom is in two equal pieces, fastened together with three dowels. This is a new tub and has- the knotholes neatly plugged with wood. There are a number of these tubs in every house. They are known by the generic name of imusiaru (which is ap plied also to a barrel, and which means literally "an unusual cup or dipper," small cups of the same shape being called i'musyu), but have special names signifying their use. For instance, the little tub about 6 inches in diameter, used by the males as a urinal, is called kuvwlfi ("the place for urine.") One of these large tubs always stands to catch the drip from the lump of snow in the house, and those of the largest size, like No. 89891 [1735], are the kind used as chamberpots. Vessels of this sort are in use throughout Alaska, and have been ob served among the eastern Eskimo where they have wood enough to 1 Grenl. Ordbog., p. 135. 88 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. make them. For instance, the Eskimo of the Coppermine lliver " form very neat dishes of fir, the sides being made of thin deal, bent into an oval form, secured at the ends by sewing, and fitted so nicely to the bottom as to be perfectly water-tight." ' There are specimens in the Museum from the Mackenzie and Anderson Rivers, described in the MacFarlane MS. as "pots for drinking with, pails for carrying and keeping water, and also as chamber pots. Oil is also sometimes carried in them in winter." In some places where wood is scarce vessels of a similar pattern are made, of whalebone. Vessels " made of whalebone, in a circular form, one piece being bent into the proper shape for the sides," are mentioned by Capt. Parry on the west shore of Baffins Bay,2 and " circular and oval vessels of whalebone " were in use at Iglulik.3 This is the same as the Greenlandic vessel called pertaK (a name which appears to have been transferred in the form pi'tufio to the wooden meat bowl at Point Barrow), " a dish made of a piece of whalebone bent into a hoop, which makes the sides, with a wooden bottom inserted."4 Nordeuskiold speaks of vessels of whalebone at Pitlekaj, but does not specify the pattern.6 Whalebone dishes were used at Point Barrow, but at the present day only small ones for drinking-cups are in general service. One large dish was collected. (Fig. 18. No. 89850 [1199] ). A strip of whalebone 4J inches wide is bent round a nearly circular bottom of cotton wood so as to form a small tub. The edges of the bot tom are chamfered to fit a shallow croze in the whale bone. The overlapping ends of the whalebone are sewed together with a strip of whalebone in long stitches. This dish is quite old and impregnated with grease. Vessels of this kind are un common, and it is probable that none have been made since whalebone acquired its present commercial value. They were very likely in much more general use formerly, as when there was no such market for whalebone as at present it would be cheaper to make tubs of this material than to buy wooden ones. In corroboration of this view it may be noted that Dr. Simpson does not mention wooden- ware among the articles brought for sale by the Nunatanmiun.6 The small whalebone vessels will be described under drinking cups, which see. FIG. 18.— \Vhulclrane dish. ' Franklin, 1st Exp., vol. 2, p. 181. > First Voy., p. 286. •Second Voy., p. 503. 'Grenl. Orclbog., p. 293. 6 Vega, vol. 2, p. 124. «0p. cit., p. 266. MURDOCH.] MEAT BOWLS. 89 Meat botcls. — (PI'tiino, see remarks on p. 88.) Large wooden bowls are used to hold meat, fat, etc., both raw and cooked, which are gen erally served on trays. These are of local manufacture and carved from blocks of soft driftwood. The four specimens collected are all made of cotton wood, and, excepting No. 73570 [408], have been long in use and are thoroughly impregnated with grease and blood. No. 89804 [1322] (Fig. 19) will serve as the type. This is deep and nearly circular, with flat bottom and rounded sides. The brim is orna mented with seven large sky-blue glass beads imbedded in it at equal intervals, except on one side, where there is a broken notch in the place of a bead. Another, No. 89803 [1320], is larger and not flattened on the bottom, and the brim is thinner. It is also provided with \j a bail of seal thong, very neatly made, as follows: One end of the thong is knotted with a single knot into one of the holes so as to leave one long part and one short part (about 3 inches). The long part is then carried Flu 19._Meat bowl. across and through the other hole from the outside, back again through the first hole and again across, so that there are three parts of thong stretched across the bowl. The end is then tightly wrapped in a close spiral round all the other parts, including the short end, and the wrapping is finished off by tucking the. end under the last turn. The specimen shows the method of mending wooden dishes, boxes, etc., which have split. A hole is bored on each side of the crack, and through the two is worked a neat lashing of narrow strips of whalebone, which draws the parts together. In No. 898C5 [1321], which has been split wholly across, there are six such stitches, nearly equidistant, holding the two parts together. This bowl is strengthened by neatly riveting a thin flat " strap" of walrus ivory along the edge across the end of the crack. These three bowls are of nearly the same shape, which is the common one. The new bowl (No. 73570 [408] ) is of a less common shape, being not so nearly hemis pherical as the others, but shaped more like a common milk pan. It is ornamented with straight lines drawn in black lead, dividing the sur face into quadrants. These were probably put on to catch the white man's eye, as the bowl was made for the market. I Mshes of this descrip tion are common throughout Alaska (see the National Museum collec tions) and have been noted at Plover Bay.' 1 Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 147. 90 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. FOR PREPARING FOOD. Pots of atone and other materials (u'tkuzm). — In former times, pots of soapstone resembling those employed by the eastern Eskimo, and probably obtained from the same region as the lamps, were used for cooking food at Point Barrow, but the natives have so long been able to procure metal kettles directly or indirectly from the whites (Elson found copper kettles at Point Barrow in 1826)1 that the former have gone wholly out of use, and at the present day fragments only are to be found. There are four such fragments in the collection, of which three are of the same model and one quite different. ISTo. 89885-6 [1559] (Fig. -'0) is sufliciently whole to show the pattern of the first type. It is of soft gray soapstone. A large angular gap is broken from the middle of one side, taking out about half of this side, and a small angular piece from the bot tom. From the cor ner of this gap the pot has been broken obliquely across the bottom, and mended in three places with stitches of whale- bone made as de scribed under No. 89805 [1321]. One end is cut down for about half its height, and the edge carried round in a straight line till it meets the gap in the broken side. This end appears to have been pieced with a fresh piece of stone, as there are holes for stitches in the edge of the whole side and in the upper edge of the broken side. There are also two "stitch holes" at the other side of the gap, showing how it was originally mended. A low transverse ridge across the middle of the whole end was probably an ornament. Holes for strings by which the pot was hung up are bored one-fourth to one-half inch from the brim. Two of these are bored obliquely through the corners, which are now broken off. The holes in the sides close to the corners were probably made to take the place of these. The pot is neatly and smoothly made, and the brim is slightly rounded. It shows signs of great age, and is blackened with soot and crusted with oil and dirt.2 Nos. 89886 [680] and 89868 [1096] are much less complete. They are the broken ends of pots slightly smaller than the above, but of pre cisely the same pattern, even to the ornamental transverse ridge across the end.3 The string holes are bored through the corners as before, and "Beechey's Voyage, p. 572. 2 This specimen was broken in transportation, and the pieces received different Museum numbers. It is now mended with glue. 3 Compare these pots with the two figured in Parry's 2d Voyage (plate opposite p. 160). The smaller of these has a ridge only on the end. hut on the larger the ridge runs all the way round. The plate also shows how the pots were hung up. See also Fig. 1, plate opposite p. 548. MURDOCH.] STONE POTS. 91 iii both pots are holes showing where they have been mended by whale bone stitches, fragments of which are still sticking in one pot. This method of mending soapstone vessels by sewing is mentioned by Capt. Parry as practiced at Iglulik.1 No. 89883 [1097] (Fig. 21) is a small pot of a quite different shape, best understood from the figure. Ilomul the edge are eight holes for strings nearly equidistant. The outside is rough, especially on the bottom. One of the sides is much gapped, and the acute tip has been broken off obliquely and mended with a stitch of whalebone. The care used in mending these vessels shows that they were valuable and not easily replaced. 1 can find no previous mention ^/ of the use of stone ves sels for cooking on the western coast, and there are no specimens in the National Museum collec tions. The only Eskimo stone vessels are a couple of small stone bowls from Bristol Bay. These are FIG. 21.— Small stone pot. rery much the shape of the wooden bowls above described, and appear to have been used as oil dishes and not for cooking, as the inside is crusted with grease, while the outside is not blackened. On the other hand, stone cooking pots are very generally employed even now by the eastern Eskimos, and have been frequently described.2 The close resemblance of the pots from Point Barrow to those described by Capt. Parry, taken in connection with Dr. Simpson's statement3 that the stone lamps were brought from the east, renders it very probable that the kettles were obtained in the same way. The absence of this utensil among the southern Eskimo of Alaska is probably due to the fact that being inhabitants of a well wooded district they would have no need of contrivances for cooking over a lamp. I obtained thfee fragments of pottery, which had every appearance of great age and were said to be pieces of a kind of cooking-pot which they used to make "long ago, when there were no iron kettles." The material was said to be earth (nu'na), bear's blood, and feathers,4 and appears to have been baked. They are irregular fragments (No. '2d Voyage, p. 502. *I need only refer to Craiitz, who describes the "bastard-marble kettle," hanging "by four strings fastened to the roof, which kettle is a foot long and half a foot broad, and shajH-'d like a longish box" (vol. 1, p. 140) ; the passage from Parry's 2d Voyage, referred to above; Kumlien, op. cit., p. 20 (Cum berland Gulf); Boas, "Central Eskimo," p. 545; and Gilder, Schwatka's Search, p. 260 (West Shore of Hudson Bay). •Op. cit., pp. 267-269. 4 Compare the cement for joining pieces of soapstone vessels mentioned by Boas {"Central Eskimo," p. 526) consisting of "seal's blood, a kind of clay, and dog's hair." 92 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 89G97 [1589], Fig. 22) of perhaps more than one vessel, which appears to have been tall and cylindrical, perhaps shaped like a bean-pot, pretty smooth inside, and coated with dried oil or blood, black from age. The outside is rather rough, and marked witli faint rounded transverse ridges, as if a large cord had been wound round the vessel while still soft. The largest shard has been broken obliquely across and mended with two stitches of sinew, and all are very old and black. Beechey (Voyage, p. 295) speaks of "earthen jars for cooking" at Ilotham Inlet in 1S2G and 1S27, and Mr. E. W. Kelson has collected a Flu. 2'J. — Fragments of pottery. few jars from the Norton Sound region, very like what those used at Point Barrow must have been. Choris figures a similar vessel in his Voyage Fittoresque, PI. in (2d), Fig. 2, from Kotzebue Sound. Metal kettles of various sorts are now exclusively used for cooking, and are called by the same name as the old soapstone vessels, which it will be observed corresponds to the name used by the eastern Eskimo. Light sheet-iron camp-kettles are eagerly purchased and they are very glad to get any kind of small tin cans, such as preserved meat tins, which MUEDOCH.] BONE CRUSHERS. 93 they use for holding water, etc., and sometimes fit with bails of string or wire, so as to iise them for cooking porridge, etc., over the lamp. They had learned the value of these as early as Maguire's time,1 as had the people of Plover Bay in 1849.2 Hone crushers. — In preparing food it is often desirable to break the large bones of the meat, both to obtain the marrow and to facilitate the trying out of the fat for making the peminican already described. Deer bones are crushed into a sort of coarse bone-meal for feeding the dogs when traveling. For this purpose heavy short-handled stone mauls are used. These tools may have been formerly serviceable, as hammers for driving treenails, etc., as the first specimen obtained was described as "savik-pidjfik-nunannsiin'ktuij-kaii'ti!" (literally "iron-not-dead-ham- mer"), or the hammer used by those now dead, who had no iron. For this purpose, however, they are wholly superseded by iron hammers, and are now only used for bone crushers. The collection contains a large series of these implements, namely, 13 complete mauls and 13 unhafted heads. All are constructed on the same general plan, con sisting of an oblong roughly cylindrical mass of stone, with flat ends, mounted on the expanded end of a short haft, which is applied to the middle of one side of the cylinder and is slightly curved, like the handle of an adz. Such a haft is frequently made of the "branch" of a rein deer antler, and the expanded end is made by cutting off a portion of the "beam" where the branch joins it. A haft so made is naturally elliptical and slightly curved at right angles to the longer diameter of the ellipse, and is applied to the head so that the greatest thickness and therefore the greatest strength comes in the line of the blow, as in a civilized ax or hammer. The head and haft are held together by a lashing of thong or three-ply braid of sinew, passing through a large hole in the large end of the haft and round the head. This lashing is put on wet and dries hard and tight.3 It follows the same general plan in all the specimens, though no two are exactly alike. The material of the heads, with three exceptions (No. 56031 [222], gray porphyry; No. 89654 [906], black quartzite, and No. 89655 [1241], coarse-grained gray syenite), is massivepectolite (see above, p. 60), generally of a pale .greenish or bluish gray color and slightly translucent, sometimes dark and opaque. No. 56635 [243] will serve as the type of these implements.4 The head is of light bluish gray pectolite, and is lashed with a three- ply braid of reindeer sinew to a haft of some soft coniferous wood, prob ably spruce, rather smoothly whittled out and soiled by handling. The transverse ridge on the under side of the butt is' to keep the hand from slipping oft' the grip. The whole is dirty and shows signs of consider able age. 1 Sec Further Papers, etc., p. 909. * Hooper, Tenta, etc., p. 57. 1 We saw this done on No. 500:14 [83], Hie head and haft of which were brought in separate and put together hy an Eskimo at the station. •Figured iu Kay's Point Harrow Report, Ethnology, PI. II, Fig. 6. 94 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. Via. 23.— Stono maul. These mauls vary considerable in size. The largest is 7-1 inches long and 2-5 in diameter, and the smallest 2-1 inches long by 24. This is a very small hammer, No. 50634 [83] having a haft only 4-7 inches long. The haft is usually about 5 inches long. The longest (belonging to one of the smaller heads, 4 inches by 2) is 7-2 inches long, and the shortest (belonging to a slightly larger head, 4-7 by 3-1 inches) is 4-5 inches. The largest two heads, each 7-1 by 2-5 inches, have hafts 5 inches long. The lashing of all is put on in the same general way, namely, by se curing one end round the head and through the eye, then taking a varia ble number of turns round the head and through the hole, and tightening these up by wrapping the end spirally round all the parts, where they stretch from head to haft on each side. Seal thong, narrow orbroad, is more generally used than sinew braid (only three specimens out of the thirteen have lashings of sinew). When broad thong is used the loop is made by splicing, as follows: A slit is cut about 1J inches from the end of the thong, and the end is doubled in a bight and passed through this slit. The end is then slit and the other end of the thong passed through it and drawn taut, making a splice which holds all the tighter for drawing on it. A simple loop is tied in sinew braid. The following figures will illustrate the most important variations in the form of this imple ment. Fig. 23, No. 56634 [83] from Utkiavwin, has a head of light gray pectolite, slightly trans lucent, and evidently ground flat on the faces, and the haft is of reindeer antler, with a slight knob at the butt. A square piece of buckskin is doubled and inserted between the head and haft. The lashing is of fine sealskin twine, and the spiral wrapping is carried wholly round the head. This was the first stone maul collected, and was put together at the station, as mentioned above. It is rather smaller than usual. Fig. 24, No. 56637 [196], from Utkiavwm, has the FIG. 24. — Stone maul. MURDOCH.] STONE MAULS. 95 head of grayish pectolite, rough and unusually largo. The haft is of some soft coniferous wood soaked with grease. It is nearly round, in stead of elliptical, with an irregular knob at the butt, and not curved, but fastened obliquely to the head. The loop of double thong attached to the haft is probably to go round the wrist. Fig. 25, No. 56039 [1(51], from Utkisivwlfi, is of pectolite, the upper and lower faces almost black and the sides light gray. The haft is of Flo. 25. -Stone maul. hard wood and unusually long (7-2 inches). It is noticeable for being at. tached at right angles to the head, by a very stout lashing of thong of the usual kind, and further tightened by a short flat stick wedged in below the head on one side. There appears to have been a similar " key " on the other side. This is an unusual form. Fig. 20, No. 89654 [900], is from Niiwiik. The head is an oblong, nearly cylindrical, water- worn pebble of black quartzitc, 7-1 inches long ; thehaft is of reindeer aiit- ler, and the lashingof seal thong. Fig. 27, Xo. 89055 [1241], from Utkiavwm. The head of this maul is a long pebble of rather coarse-grained gray sy enite, and is peculiar in having a shallow groove roughly worked out round the middle to keep the lashing from slip ping. It is 4-7 inches F». ».-«<«,« m«,,i. long and 3-1 in diameter. The haft is of reindeer antler 4-5 inches long, and the lashing of seal thong peculiar only in the large number of turns iu the spiral wrappings. 96 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. Fig. 28, No. 89057 [877], from Nuwttk. This is peculiar in having the haft fitted into a deep angular groove on one side of the head, which is of pectolite and otherwise of the common pattern. The haft of reindeer antler and the lashing of broad thong are evidently newer than the head and are clumsily made and put on, the latter making several turns about one side of the VQ haft as well as through it and round the head. None of the unmount ed heads, which are all of pectolite, are, grooved in this way to receive the haft, but No. 50(558 [205] lias two shallow, i ncomplet e grooves round the middle for lashings, and No. 50055 [218], which is nearly square in section, has shallow notches on the edges for the same purpose. One specimen of the series comes from Sidaru, but differs in noway from specimens from the northern villages. Stonemauls of this type have previously been seldom found among the American Eskimo. The only specimens in the Museum from America are two small unhafted maul heads of pectolite, one from Hotham Inlet and the other from Cape Nome, and a roughly made maul from Norton Sound, all collected by Mr. Nelson. The last is an oblong piece of dark- colored jade rudely lashed to the end of a short thick stick, which has a lateral projection round which the lashing passes instead of through a .Fill. '27. — Stono maul. FIG. 28. — Stone maul. hole in the haft. Among the "Ohukches" at Pithkaj, however, Nor- denskiold found stone mauls of precisely the same model as ours and also used as bone crushers. He observed that the natives themselves ate the crushed bone after boiling it with blood and water.1 Lieut. Hay saw only dogs fed with it in the interior. Nordenskiold does not inen- 1 Vega, vol. 2, p. 113 ; figures ou p. 112. MriiDOCH.] BONE MAULS. 97 tion the kind of stone used for these tools, but the two in the National Museum, collected by Mr. Nelson at Cape Wankarem, are both of granite or syenite and have a groove for the lashing. (Compare No. 89055 [1241], fig. 27.) In addition to the above-described stone mauls, there are in the col lection five nearly similar mauls of heavy bone, which have evidently -™— ' FIG. 29 — Bone maul. served the same purpose. They were all brought over for sale from Utkiavwifi at about the same time, and from their exceedingly oily con dition were evidently brought to light in rummaging round in the old "blubber-rooms," where they have loiig lain forgotten. Four of these differ in no respect from the stone mauls except in having the heads made of whale's rib; the fifth is all in one. piece. The following figures will illustrate the. general form of these imple- FICI. 30.— Bone maaL incuts: Fig. 29, No. 89847 [1040]: The head is a section of a small rib, 4-8 inches long, and has a deep notch on each side to receive the lashing. The haft is probably of spruce (it is so impregnated with grease that it 9 ETH 7 98 TIIF, POINT HAItKOW HSKIMO. is impossible to be sure about it), and is rough and somewhat knobby, with a rounded knob on the. butt and two shallow linger notches on the under side of the grip. It is attached by a lashing of stout thong of the, ordinary pattern. Fig. 30, No. 89849 [1047]: The, head is a straight four-sided block of whale's rib, (! inches long. The dee]) notches for the lashing, one on each side, are 1 inch behind the middle. The haft is u Fig. ::i.— Jionc roughly whittled knotty piece of spruce, and instead of a knob has a thick flange on the lower side of the butt. The lashing is of fourteen or fifteen turns of seal twine, and keyed upon each side by a roughly split stick thrust in under the head. Fig. 31, No. 8984 [1040] would thus be merely the result of individual fancy and not a link in the chain of development. FOR SERVING AND EATING FOOD. Cooked food is generally served in large shallow trays more or less neatly carved from driftwood and nearly circular or oblong in shape, Fin. 33.— Mwit dish. The collection contains two specimens of the, circular form and three ob long ones. All but one of these have been long in use and are very greasy. No. 73576 [.'J'JJJ (Fig. 33) has been selected as the type of the 100 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. circular dishes (i'libii;). This is very smoothly carved from a single, piece of pine wood. The brim is rounded, with a large rounded gap in one side, where a piece has probably been broken out. The, brim is slightly cracked and chipped. The vessel is very greasy and shows marks in side where meat has been cut up in it. No. 89SG7 [1323] is a very simi lar dish, and made of the same mate rial, but elliptical instead of circular, and larger, being . . ., ° 22-0 inches long, I;r5 It has been split in two, and mended with whale bone stitches in the manner previously described. No. 73575 [223] (Fig. 34) is a typical oblong dish. It is neatly hol lowed out, having a broad margin painted with red ocher. It measures 24 inches in length, is made of pine, rather roughly carved on the out side, and is new and cleau. This is a common form of dish. Fig. 35, No. broad, and 2-1 deep. Flu. U5. — Oblouy incut dish; very old. 898G8 [1377], is an old tray of an unusual form. It is rudely hewn out of a straight piece of plank, 34-8 inches long, showing inside and out the marks of a dull adz, called by the seller " kau'dlo tu'mai," " the foot prints of the, stone (scil. adz)." The excavation is shallow and leaves a margin of 2 inches at one end, and the outside is roughly beveled oft' at the sides and ends. The holes near the ends were evidently for handles of thong. The material is spruce, discolored and somewhat greasy. Fig. 36, No. 898CC [1370], was said by the native who brought it over for sale to be especially intended for fish- It is much the shape of No. 73575 [223], but broader, slightly deeper, and more curved. The brim is narrow and rounded and the bottom smoothly rounded off1. It measures 23-3 inches in length, and is made of pine. It has been deeply split in two places and stitched together with whale- FlG. ^6. — Fiyh dish. DRINKING VESSELS. 101 Fia.37 — Wliak-bono cup. bone in the usuiil way. Trays and dishes of this sort are in general use among all Eskimo,1 and are sometimes made of tanned sealskins.2 DRINKING VESSELS. \YhnlclMHC Cup (I'mitxyit).— One of the commonest forms of drinking vessels is a little tub of whalebone of precisely the same shape as the large whalebone dish described above (p. SS). Of these there are live specimens in the collection, all from Ut- kiavwlii. No. 80853 [1302] (Fig. 37) will serve as the type. It is 4-0 inches long and made by binding a strip ot black whalebone round a spruce bottom, and sewing together the ends, which over lap each other about 1^ inches, with coarse strips of whalebone. There are two vertical seams three- fourths inch apart. The bottom is held in by fitting its slightly chamfered edge into a shallow croze cut in the whalebone. All these cups are made almost exactly alike, and nearly of the same size, varying only a frac tion of an inch in height, and from 4-2 to 5-5 inches in length. The only variation is in the distance the ends overlap and the number of stitches in the seams. Such cups are to be found in nearly every house, and one is generally kept conveniently near the water bucket. Though the pattern is an ancient one, they are still manufactured. No. 5(>5(i() [G54] was found among the debris of one of the ruined houses at UtkiavwTii, and differs from the modern cups only in having the ends sewed together with one seam instead of two, while No. 80851 [1300], though it has been in ac tual use, was made after our arrival, as the bottom is made of a piece of one of our cigar boxes. Dippers of horn are in very general use for drinking water. These are all of essentially the same shape, and are made of the light yellow translucent horn of the mountain sheep. There are three specimens in our collection, of which No. 56534 [28] (Fig. 38) has been selected as the type. This is made of a single piece of pale yellow translucent horn, 'Sec for example, Crantz. vol. 1, ]>. 144, Unt:nl.iiiil; 1'arry. 2cl. Voy.. ]i. f>U3, Iglulik; and Hooper Tents, otc., p. 170, Plover Bay. 'Beasels, Naturalist, Sept. 1884, p. 807. Km. 38.— Horn clipper. 102 THK POINT BARROW ESKIMO. apparently softened and molded into slia]>e, cut only on tlie edges and the handle. A stout peg of antler is driven through the handle, 1 inch from the tip, and projects behind, serving as a hook by which to hang the dipper on the edge of a bucket. The other two are similar in shape and size, but No. 89831 [1U93] has no peg, and has one side of the handle cut into a series of slight notches to keep the hand from slipping, while No. 89832 [1577] is rather straighter and has a smaller, shallower bowl, and the grip of the handle roughened with transverse grooves. Pig. 39, No. 89739 [77-lj, is a horn dipper, but one that is very old and of a pattern no longer in use. The bowl, which is much broken and gapped, is oval and deep, with a thick handle at one end, running out in the line of the axis of the bowl. This handle, which is the thick part of the horn, Fio. 39.— Horn dipper. near the tip, is flat above, rounded below, and has its tip slightly rounded, apparently by a stone tool. Just where the bowl and handle meet there is a deep transverse saw- cut, made to facilitate, bending the handle into its place. The material is horn, apparently of the mountain sheep, turned brown by age and exposure. The specimen had been long lying neglected round the vil lage of Utkiavwin. Horn dippers of the same general pattern as these are common throughout Alaska. The Museum collection contains a large series ol such utensils, collected by Mr. Nelson and others. The cups and dip pers of musk-ox horn found by Parry at Iglulik are somewhat different in shape.1 Those made of the enlarged base of horn2 have a short handle and a nearly square bowl, while the hollow top of the horn is used for a cup without alteration beyond sometimes bending up the end, which serves as a handle.3 Curiously enough, cups of this last pattern appear not to be found anywhere else except at Plover Bay, eastern Siberia, where very similar vessels (as shown by the Museum collections) are made from the horn of the Siberian mountain sheep. An unusual form of dipper is beautifully made of fossil ivory. Such cups are rare and highly prized. We saw only three, one from each village, Nuwuk, Utkiavwin, and Sidaru, and all Mrere obtained for the collection. They show signs of age and long use. They differ some what in shape and size, but each is carved from a single piece of ivory and has a large bowl and a straight handle. No. 50535 [371] (Fig. 40), which will serve as the type of the ivory dipper (i'musyu, kiligwu'garo), is neatly carved from a single piece of fine-grained fossil ivory, yel lowed by age. The handle, polished by long use, terminates in a blunt, recurved, tapering hook, which serves the purpose of the peg in the 1 Second Voyage, p. 503. *St'O Fig. 2G, plate opposite p. 550. >Sec Figs. 8 ami 9, opposite p. 548. MrKKOCII.] IVORY DIPPERS. 103 horn dipper. The rounded gap in the brim opposite the handle is an accidental break. Another, No. 81)830 [125!)], from Sidarn, is a long trough-like cup, with rounded ends and a short H:tt handle at one end, made of a short transverse section of a rather small tusk, keeping the natural roundness of the tusk, but cut off flat on top and excavated. A wooden peg, like those in the horn dippers, is inserted in the end of the handle. This cup is especially interesting from its resemblance to the one obtained by Beechey (Voyage, PI. I, Fig. 4) at Eschscholtz Flo. 40 Dipper of fossil ivory. Bay, from •which it differs only in being about 2 inches shorter and deeper in proportion. Thomas Simpson speaks of obtaining an ivory cup from some Point Barrow natives at Dease Inlet exactly like the one figured by Beechey, but with the handle broken off.1 Fig. 41, No. 80833 [933], from Xtiwfik, has a large bowl, nearly circular, with a broad, straight handle and a broad hook. The part of the bowl to which the handle is attached, a semicircular piece 3 inches long and If wide, has been split out with the grain of the tusk, and mended with three stitches, in this case of sinew, in the usual manner. There was an old gap ill the brim opposite to the handle, and the edges of it have been FIG. 41. — Dipper of fossil ivory. freshly and roughly whittled down. The ornamentation of the outside and handle, consisting of narrow incised lines and small circles, each with a dot in the center, is well shown in the figure. These engrav ings were originally colored with red ocher, but are now tilled with dirt and are nearly effaced by wear on the handle. This dipper is not of such fine quality of ivory as the other two. It is not unlikely that all these vessels were made by the natives around Kotzebue Sound, where ivory is plenty, and where Beechey, as quoted above, found one so like one of ours. We were informed by the owner that No. 50535 [371] was obtained from the Nuiiatanniiun. ' Narrative, p. 148. 104 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. Spoons and ladles. — Each family has several spoons of various sizes, and narrow shallow ladles of horn, bone, etc. The large spoon is for stirring and ladling soup, etc. There is only one specimen in the col lection, No. 89739 J1352] (Fig. 42). This is a new one, made by a native of UtkiavwTfi, whom I asked to make himself a new spoon and bring me his old one. lie, how ever, misunderstood me and brought over the new one, which Lieut. Kay pur chased, not knowing that I had especially asked for the old one. These spoons seem to be in such constant use that the natives did not -Woo( ' offer them for sale. This specimen is smoothly carved from a single piece of pine, and painted all over, except the inside of the bowl, with red ocher. A cross of red ocher is marked in the middle of the bowl, and there is a shallow groove, colored with blacklead, along the middle of the handle on top. The length is 13-2 inches. A small spoon of light-colored horn, No. 89410 [1379], has a bowl of the common spoon shape with a short, flat handle. Spoons of this sort were not seen in use, and as this is new and evidently made for sale it FIG. 43.— Ilorn ladle. may be meant for a copy of one of our spoons. The narrow ladles of horn or bone may formerly have been used for eating before it was so easy to get tin pots, but at present are chiefly used for dipping oil, especially for lilling the lamp. The collection contains one of horn and four of bone. No. 89415 [1070], Fig. 43, is made of a single piece, of mountain-sheep horn, dark brown from age and use, softened and molded into shape. FIG. 44.— Bono ladle. It is impregnated with oil, showing that it has been long in use. This utensil closely resembles a great number of specimens in the Museum from the more southern parts of Alaska. No. 89411 [1294] (Fig. 44) is MURDOCH.] LADLES LAMPS. 105 a typical bone ladle. The material is rather coarse-grained, compact bone from a whale's rib or jawbone. No. 89414 [1013] closely resembles this but is a trifle larger. The other two specimens are interesting as showing an attempt at ornamentation. No. 89412 [1102] (Fig. 45, from Nuwfik) is carved smoothly into a rude, flattened figure of a whale (Ba- laena mysticetus). The flukes form the handle and the belly is hollowed out into the bowl of the ladle. No. 89413 [934] (Fig. 4(i, from UtkiavwTfi) has , | the handle carved into a rude wS bear's head, which has the eyes, » J nostrils, and outline of the mouth incised and filled in with dark oil dregs. All these ladles have the curved side of the bowl on the left, showing that they were meant to be used with the right hand. The name, kTliu'tu, obtained for these ladles is given in the vocabulary col lected by Dr. Oldmixon as " scraper," which seems to be the etymological meaning of the word. These implements may be used for scraping blubber from skins, or the name may correspond in meaning to the Fid. 45.— Hour lailli- in tl Fl«. 46. — Hoiio l,n Hi-. cognate Greenlandic kiliortut, "a scraper; especially a mussel shell (a natural scraper)." The resemblance of these ladles to a mussel shell is sufficiently apparent for the name to be applied to them. Indeed, they may have been made in imitation of mussel shells, which the Eskimo, in all probability, like so many other savages, used for ladles as well as scrapers. MISCKLLANKOUS IIOl'SEHOLI) UTENSILS. Lamps (kt'xUo}. — Mention has already been made of the stone lamps or oil-burners used for lighting and warming the houses, which, in Dr. Simpson's time, were obtained by trading from the "Kftiimii'dllii," who in turn procured them from other Eskimo far to the east. These are flat, shallow dishes, usually like a gibbous moon in outline, and are of" two sizes: the larger house lamp, 18 inches to 3 feet in length, and the sniiill traveling lamp, 0 or S inches long. The latter is used in the tem porary snow huts when a halt, is made at night. In each house are usually two lamps, one, standing at each side, with the curved side against the wall, and raised by blocks a few inches from the floor. In one large house, that of old Yfiksl'na, the so-called "chief," at Nuwuk, 10G TIIK POINT HAKKOW ESKIMO. there were three lamps, the third standing in the right-hand front cor ner of the house. The dish is filled with oil, whieh is burned by means of a wick of moss fibers arranged along the outer edge. Large lamps are usually divided into three compartments, of which the middle is the largest, by wooden partitions called sii'potln (corresponding to the Greenlandic saputit, "(1) a dam across a stream for catching fish, (2) a dam or dike in general"), along which wicks can also be arranged. The women tend the lamps with great care, trimming and arranging the wick with little sticks. The lamp burns with scarcely any smoke and a FIG. 47. — Stonu house lamp. bright flame, the size of which is regulated by kindling more or less of the wick, and is usually kept tilled by the drip from a lump of blubber stuck on a sharp stick (ajiVksuxbwin) projecting' from the wall about a foot above the middle of the lamp.1 In most houses there is a long slender stick (knkun, ua lighter"), which the man of the house uses to light his pipe with when sitting on the banquette, without the trouble of getting down, by dipping the end in the oil of the lamp and lighting this at the flame. The sticks used for trimming the wick also serve as pipe-lighters and for carrying fire across the room in the, same way.2 No food, except an occasional 1 Compare the custom noticed by Parry, at Iglulik, of hanging a long thin strip of blubber near the of the lamp to feed it (2il Voyage, p. 502). According to Petitot (Monographic, lamps iu t lie Mackenzie district are fed by ;t lump of blubber st uek on a stick, as at 1 2Comparo XordenskiiHd, Vega, vol. 2, p. 119: "The wooden pins she* uses to triii are, used when required :is a. light or torch to light pipes, etc. In the sain tc., p. xviih, the >int Harrow, the wick . . . way other pins pins, fUso oblong dipped in train oil are used" (Pitlckaj), and foot note on same page: "I have seen sue stones, sooty at one end, which, after having hern dipped in train-oil, have, been used as torches, in old Kskimo graves in northwestern Greenland." MURDOCH.] LAMPS. 107 luncheon of porridge or something of the sort, is now cooked over tlics:1 lamps. Two such lamps burning at the ordinary rate give light enong'i to enable one to read and write with ease when sitting on the ban quette, and easily keep the temperature between 50° and 00° V. in the coldest weather. In the collection are three house lamps, two complete and one merely a fragment, and three traveling lamps. Pig. 47 (Xo. 8987!)) [872] is a typical house, lamp, though rather a small specimen. It is carved out of soft gray soapstone and is 17 inches long. The back is nearly vertical, while the front flares strongly out ward. The back wall is cut down vertically inside with a narrow rounded brim and the front curves gradually in from the, very edge to the bottom of the cavity, which is H inches deep in the middle. The posterior third of the cavity is occupied by a flat, straight shelf with a sloping edge about 0-7 inch high. About a third of one end of the lam]) FlG. 48. — Sandstone lamp. has been broken off obliquely and mended, as usual, with stitches. There are two of these neatly countersunk in channels. The, specimen has been long in use and is thoroughly incrusted with oil and soot. Xo. 89880 [1731] (Fig. 48) is peculiar, from the material of which it is made. This is a coarse, gritty stone, rather soft, but much more diflicult to work than the soapstone. It is rudely worked into something the same shape as the type, but has the cavity but slightly hollowed out, without a shelf, and only a little, steeper behind than in front. The idea at once sug gests itself that, this lain]), which is very old and sooty, was made at Point Harrow and was an attempt to imitate the, imported lamps with stone obtained from the beds reported by Lieut, liay in Ivulugrua. There is, of course, no means of proving this supposition. There, is no mention of any material except soapstone being made into lamps by the Greenlanders or other eastern Eskimo, but the lamps from Kadiak and Bristol Hay in the Xational Museum are made of some hard gray stone. Fig. 49, No. 501)73 [133], is a traveling lamp, and is a miniature of the large, lam]), Xo. 89879 [872], 8-7 inches long, 4-2 wide, and 1 inch high, also of soapstone and without a shelf. The front also is straighter, and the whole more roughly made. Xo. 89882 [ 1298] is another traveling lamp, also of soapstone, and made of about halt of a large lamp. It has been 108 THE POINT ISARROW ESKIMO. used little if at all since it was made over, as the inside is almost new while the outside is coated with soot and grease. It is (»•;? inches long- No. 8988 1 [1200] is a mini ature of No. 80880, 8-1 inches long, and is made of the same gritty stone. Suitable material is not at hand for the proper FIO. 49.— Traveling lamp. comparison of the lamps used by the different branches of the Eskimo race. All travelers who have written about the Eskimo speak of the use of such lamps, which agree in being shallow, oblong dishes of stone. Dr. Bessels1 figures a lamp of soapstone from Ita, Smith Sound, closely resembling No. 80880, and a little lamp in the Museum from Greenland is of essentially the same shape, but deeper. The same form ap pears at Hudson Strait in the lamps collected by Mr. L. M. Turner, while those used at Iglulik are nearly semi circular.2 South of Kotzebue Sound lamps of the shape so common in the east are used, but these, Mr. Turner in forms me, are never made of soapstone, but always of sandstone, shale, etc. The people of Kadiak and the Aleuts anciently used lamps of hard stone, generally oval in shape, and sometimes made by slightly hollowing out one side of a large round pebble.3 Such a rough lamp was brought by Lieut. Stoney, II. S. Nav>, from Kotzebue Sound. No such highly finished and elaborate lamps as the large house lamps at Point Barrow are mentioned except by Nordenskiold, who figures one from Siberia.4 This lamp is inter esting as the only one described with a ledge comparable to the shelf of No. 80870. Lamps from the region between Point Barrow and Boothia Felix are especially needed to elucidate the distribution and development of this utensil. The rudely hollowed peb- Fin. 50.— Socket for blubber holder. 1 Naturalist. September, 1884, p. 867, Fig. 2. * Parry, Second Voyage, 1*1. opposite p. 54S, Fijj, 2. 3 See Pall, Alaska, p. 387; and Tetroff, Report, etc., p. 141. See also Fischer from Attu and Kndiak. 4 Vega, vol. 2, p. 23, Fig. b on p. 22, and diagrams, p. 23. the collections (if Turner and MURDOCH.] CLOTHING. 109 blo of the ancient Aleut and the elaborate lamp of the Point Barrow Eskimo are evidently the two extremes of the series of forms, but the intermediate patterns are still to be described. Fig. 50, No. 504!t2 [108], is a peculiar article of which only one specimen was collected. We were given to understand at the time of purchasing it that it was a sort of socket or escutcheon to be fastened to the wall above a lam]) to hold the blubber stick described above. No such escutcheons, however, were seen in use in the houses visited. The article is evidently old. It is a flat piece of thick plank of some soft wood, 11-4 inches long, 4-2 broad, and about li thick, very rudely carved into a human head and body without arms, with a large round hole about 1^ inches in diameter through the middle of the breast. The eyes and mouth are incised, and the nose was in relief, but was long ago split off. There is a deep furrow all around the head, perhaps for fastening on a hood. CLOTHING. MATERIAL. The clothing of these people, is as a rule made entirely of skins, though of late years drilling and calico are used for some parts of the dress which will be afterwards described. Petroff1 makes the rather sur prising statement that " a large amount of ready-made clothing finds its way into the hands of these people, who wear it in summer, but the ex cessive cold of winter compels them to resume the fur garments formerly in general use among them." Fur garments are in as general use at Point Barrow as they ever were, and the cast-off clothing obtained from the ships is mostly packed away in some corner of the iglu. We landed at Cape Smyth not long after the wreck of the Daniel Webster, whose erew had abandoned and given away a great deal of their clothing. During that autumn a good many men and boys wore white men's coats or shirts in place of the outer frock, especially when working or loung ing about the station, but by the next spring these were all packed away and were not resumed again except in rare instances in the sum mer. The chief material is the skin of the reindeer, which is used in various stages of pelage. Fine, short-haired summer skins, especially those of does and fawns, are used for making dress garments and underclothes. The heavier skins are ilsed for everyday working clothes, while the heaviest winter skins furnish extra warm jackets for cold weather, warm winter stockings and mittens. The white or spotted skins of the tame Siberian reindeer, obtained from the "Nunatafimiun," are espe cially valued for full-dress jackets. We heard no mention of the use of the skin of the unborn reindeer fawn, but there is a kind of dark deer skin used only for edgings, which appears to be that of an exceedingly young deer. This skin is extremely thin, and the hair so short that it is almost invisible. Siberian deerskins can always be recognized by 1 Kcport, etc., p. 125. 110 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. having the flesh side colored red,1 while American-dressed skins are worked soft and rubbed with chalk or gypsum, giving a beautiful white surface like pipe-clayed leather. The skins of the white mountain sheep, white and blue fox, wolf, dog, ermine, and lynx are sometimes used for clothing, and under jackets made of eider duck skins are rarely used. Sealskin dressed with the hair on is used only for breeches and boots, and for those rarely. Black dressed sealskin — that is, with the epidermis left on and the hair shaved oft' — is used for waterproof boots, while the white sealskin, tanned in urine, with the epi dermis removed, is used for the soles of winter boots. Waterproof boot soles are made of oil- dressed skins of the white whale, bearded seal, walrus, or polar bear. The last material is not usually mentioned as serving for sole leather among the Eskimo. Nordenskiold,2 however, found it in use among the Chukches for this purpose. It is considered an excellent ma terial for soles at Point Burrow, and is some times used to make boat covers, which are beautifully white. Heavy mittens for the win ter are, made of the fur of the polar bear or of dogskin. Waterproof outer frocks are of seal entrails, split and dried and sewed together. For trimmings are used deerskin of different colors, mountain-sheep skin, and black and white sealskin, wolf, wolverine, and marten fur, and whole ermine skins, as well as red worsted, and occasionally beads. STYLE OF DRESS. Dr. Simpson3 gave an excellent general de scription of the dress of these people, which is KK.. r.l.-Man in ordinary deer- t]R, s.l)lle .^ flle present day. While the SUllIC in general pattern as that worn by all other Eskimo, it differs iii many details from that worn by the eastern Eskimo,4 and most closely resembles the style in vogue at and near Norton Sound.5 The man's dress (Fig. 51, from a photograph of Apaidyao) consists of the usual loose hooded frock, without opening except at the neck and wrists. This reaches just over the hips, rarely about to mid-thigh, where it is cut 1 Compare Nordenskiold, Vega, vol 2. p. 213. 'Vega, vol. 2, p. 98. 'Op. cit., pp. 241-245. 'See for example, Egede, p. 219; Crantz, vol. 1, p. 130; ISessels, Op. cit., pp. 805 and 808 (Smith Sound) ; Knne, 1st Grinnell Exp., pp. 45 (Greenland) and KJ2 (Cape York) ; Brodbcck, "Nach Osten," pp. 23, 24, and Holm, Geografisk Tidskril't, vol. 8, p. 90 (East Greenland); 3'arry, 2d Voy., pp. 494-6 (Iglulik) ; l.oas, " Central Eskimo," pp. 554-0; Runilien, loc. cit., pp. 22-25 (Cumberland Gulf) ; also, Fro- bislier, in Ilakluyt's Voyages, 1589, etc., p. 628. 'Uall, Alaska, pp. 2] and 141. .Ml'liUOCH.; STYLE OF DRESS. Ill off square, and is usually Confined by a girdle at the waist. Under this garment is worn ;i similar one, usually of lighter skin and sonietinu's with out a hood. The thighs are clad in one or two pairs of tight-fitting knee breeches, confined round the hips by a girdle and usually secured by a drawstring below the knee which ties over the tops of the boots. On the legs and feet are worn, first, a pair of long, deerskin stockings with the hair inside; then slippers of tanned sealskin, in the bottom of which is spread a layer of whalebone shavings, and outside a pair of close-fitting boots, held in place by a string round the ankle, usually reaching above the knee and ending with a rough edge, which is covered by the breeches. Dress boots often end with an ornamental border and a drawstring just below the knee. The boots are of reindeer skin, with white sealskin soles for winter and dry weather, but in summer waterproof boots of black sealskin with soles of white whale skin, etc., are worn. Over shoes of the same material, reaching just above the ankles, with a draw string at the top and ankle strings, are sometimes worn over the winter boots. When traveling on snowshoes or in soft dry snow the boots are replaced by stockings of the same shape as the under ones, but made of very thick winter deerskins with the flesh side out. Instead of breeches and boots a man occasionally wears a pair of pantaloons or tight-fitting trousers terminating in shoes such as are worn by the women.. Over the usual dress is worn in very cold weather a circular mantle of deerskin, fastened by a thong at the neck — such mantles are nowadays occasionally made of blankets — and in rainy weather both sexes wear the, hooded rain frock of seal gut. Of late years both sexes have adopted the habit of wearing over their clothes a loose hoodless frock of cotton cloth, usually bright-colored calico, especially in blustering weather, when it is useful in keeping the drift ing snow out of their furs. Both men and women wear gloves or mittens. These are of deer skin for ordinary use, but in extreme weather mit tens of polar bear skin are worn. When hunting in winter it is the custom to wear gloves of thin deer skin under the bearskin mitten, so (hat the ritle can be handled without touching the bare hand, to the cold iron. The women have a common trick of wear ing only one mitten, but keeping the other arm with drawn from the sleeve and inside of the jacket. The dress of the women consists of two frocks, which differ from those of the men in being con tinued from the waist in two rather full rounded skirts at the front and back, reaching to or below the knee. A woman's frock is always distinguished by a sort of rounded bulge or pocket at the nape of the neck (see Fig. 52, from a sketch by the writer), which is intended to receive the head of the infant when carried in the jacket. The little peak at the top of the. hood is also characteristic of the ;. 52. — Womans' hood. 112 THE POINT HARROW KSKIMO. woman's frock. On her legs a woman wears a pair of tight-fitting deerskin pantaloons with the hair next the skin, and outside of these a similar pair made of the skins of deer legs, with the hair out, and having soles of sealskin, but no anklestrings. The outer pantaloons are usually laid aside in spring, and waterproof boots like the men's, but fastened below the knee with drawstrings, are worn over the under pantaloons. In the summer pantaloons wholly of waterproof sealskin are often put on. The women's pantaloons, like the men's breeches, are fastened with a girdle just .above the hips. It appears that they do not stay up very well, as the women are continually " hitching" them up and tightening their girdles. Until they reach manhood the boys wear pantaloons like the women, but their jackets are cut just like those of the men. The dress of the girls is a complete miniature of that of the women, even to the pocket for the child's head. Those who are well-to-do generally own several complete suits of clothes, and present a neat appearance when not en gaged in dirty work. The poorer ones wear one suit on all occasions till it becomes shabby. New clothes are seldom put on till winter. The outer frock is not often worn in the iglu, being usually taken off before entering the room, and the under one is generally dispensed with- Men habitually leave off their boots in the house, and rarely their stockings and breeches, retaining only a pair of thin deerskin drawers. This custom of stripping in the house has been noticed among all Es kimos whose habits have been described, from Greenland to Siberia. The natives are slow to adopt any modifications in the style of dress, the excellence and convenience of which has been so frequently com mented upon that it is unnecessary to refer to it. One or two youths learned from association with us the convenience of pockets, and accord ingly had "patch pockets" of cloth sewed on the outside of the skirt of the inner frock, and one young man in 1883 wore a pair of sealskin hip boots, evidently copies from our india-rubber wading boots. I now proceed to the description of the clothing in detail. Head cloth intj. — The only head covering usually worn is the hood of the frock, which reaches to about the middle of the head, the front being covered by the hair. Women who are carrying children in the jacket sometimes wrap the head in a cloth. (I have an indistinct rec ollection of once seeing a woman with a deerskin hood, but was too busy at the time to make a note or sketch of it.) One man at Utki- avwlfi (Nagawau'ra, now deceased), who was quite bald on the forehead, used to protect the front of his head with a sort of false front of deer skin, tied round like a fillet. No specimens of any of these articles were obtained. Fancy conical caps are worn in the dances and theat rical performances, but these belong more properly under the head of Games and Pastimes (where they will be described) than under that of Clothing. MANS FROCK. 113 Frocks (tt-tige). — T\vo frocks are always worn Dy both soxos except in the house, or in warm weather, the inner (ilupa) with the hair next the skin, and the outer (kaluru'ri!) with the hair out. The outer frock is also sometimes worn with the hair in, especially when it is new and the nesh side clean and white. This side is often orna mented with little tufts of marten fur and stripes of red ocher. The ditVerence in shape between the frocks of the two sexes has been already mentioned. The man's frock is a loose; shirt, not fitted to the body, widening at the bottom, and reaching, when unbelted, just below the hips. The skirts are cut oft' square or slightly rounded, and are a little longer behind than in front. The hood is rounded, loose around the neck, and fitted in more on the sides than on the nape. Thefroiit edge, of the hood, when drawn up, comes a little forward of the top of the head and runs round under the chin, covering the ears. There are in the collection three specimens, all rather elaborate dress frocks', to be worn outside. All have been worn. "No. 5(!7."il [LSI] (Fig. 53), brown deerskin, will serve as the type. The pattern can best I'lO. 53.— Man's frock. FIG. 54. — Pattern of man's drcrskin fro<-k. be explained by reference to the accompanying diagrams (Fig. 54). The body consists of two pieces, front and back, each made of the 9 ETH 8 114 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. greater part of the skin of a reindeer fawn, with the back in the middle and the sides and belly coining at the edges. The head of the a. FIG. 55. — Detail uf trimming, skirt and shoulder of man's frock. animal is made into the hood, which is continuous with the baek. Each sleeve is in two pieces, front and back, of the same shape, which are sewed together along the upper edge, but separated below by the arm flap of the front, which is bent down and inserted like a gusset from the arm pit nearly to the wrist. A band of deerskin an inch broad is sewed round the edge of the hood, flesh side out. The trimming consists, first, of a narrow strip of long haired wolfskin (taken from the middle of the back) sewed to the outer side of the bind ing of the hood, its ends sep arated by the chin piece, so that the long hairs form a fringe around the face. Sim ilar strips are sewed round each wrist with the fur in ward. The binding round the skirt (Fig. 55rt) is 2J inches broad. The light- colored strips are clipped mountain sheep skin, the narrow pipings are of the dark brown skin of a very young fawn, the little tags on the second strip are of red worsted and the fringe is of FIG. 56.— Man wearing plain, heavy frock. wolverine fur, sewed on with the flesh side, which is colored red, prob ably with ocher, outward. A baud of similar materials, arranged a MURDOCH.] MAN'S FROCK. 115 little differently (Fig. 55ft) and 1J inches broad, is inserted into the body at each shoulder seam, so that the fringe makes a sort of epaulet. This jacket is 24-5 inches long from the chin to the bottom of the skirt, 21 inches wide, across the shoulders, and 24'5 inches wide at the bottom. Apart from the trimming this is a very simple pattern. There, are no seams except those absolutely necessary for producing the shape, and the, best part of each skin is brought where it will show most, while the poorer portions are out of sight under the arms. The, chief variation in deerskin frocks is in the trimming. All have the hood fitted to the head and throat, with cheek and throat pieces, and these are invariably white or light colored, even when the frock is made of white Siberian deer skin. When possible the head of the deer FIG. 57. — Man's frock of mountain sheepskin, front ami back. is always used for the back of the hood, as (Japt. Parry observed to be the custom at Iglulik.1 A plain frock is sometimes used for rough work, hunting, etc. This has no fringe or trimming round the hood, skirt, or wrists, the first being smoothly hemmed or bound with deer skin and the last two left raw-edged. Fig. 56 shows such a jacket, which is often made of very heavy winter deerskin. Most frocks, how ever, have the border to the hood either of wolf or wolverine skin, in the latter case especially having the end of the strips hanging down like tassels under the chin. The, long hairs give a certain amount of protection to the face when walking in the wind.2 Instead of a fringe the hood sometimes has three tufts of fur, one on each side and one above. 1 Second Voy., p. 537. 1 Compare Ball, Alaska, p. 22. 110 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. Trimmings of edging like that above described, or of plain wolverine fur round the skirts and wrists, are common, and the. shoulder straps rather less so. Frocks are sometimes also fringed on the skirts and seams with little strips of deerskin, after what the Point Barrow people called the " Kuiimudlifi " fashion.1 Nearly all the natives wear outer frocks of deerskin, but on great occasions elaborately made garments of other materials are sometimes seen. Nos. 50758 [87] (Fig. 57, ft and b) and 50757 [11) (Fig. 58, a and b) are two such frocks. No. 50758 [87] is of mountain slice]) skin, nearly white. As shown in the diagrams (Fig. 59, n, b, <;,) the general pattern is not unlike the type described, but there are more pieces in the hood and several small gussets are in serted to improve the set of the garment. The trimmings are shoulder FIG. 58. — Man's frock of ermine skins, front and back. straps, and a border round the skirt of edging like that described above, and the seams of the throat pieces are piped with the dark almost hairless deerskin, which sets them off' from the rest of the coat. The wrists have narrow borders of wolf fur, and there was a wolfskin fringe to the hood, which was removed before, the garment was ottered for sale. No. 50757 [11] is a very handsome garment (Fig. 58). The body and sleeves arc of white, and brown (winter and summer) ermine skins arranged in an elegant pattern, and the hood of reindeer and mountain slice]) skin. This is the only frock seen in which the hood is not fitted to the sides of the, throat by curved and pointed throat pieces, after the fashion universal among the western Eskimo, from Oape Bathurst at least to Norton Sound. The pattern of the hood is shown by the dia- 1 TLwe are several frocks so trimmed in llio Katioual Museum, from the Maekeu/ie uml Anderson region. Ml'HDOOII.] MAN'S FROCK. 117 gram (Fiji. '>" ")• The middle piece is the skin of ;i reindeer head, the two clieek pieces and median chin piece of nioiiiitain sheep skin. When the hood is put together the lower edge of it is sewed to the neck of the body, which has the hack and front of nearly the same si/.e and shape (diagram, Fig. (it) l>), though the back is a little longer in the SHirt Km. .19.— Piittrm i.fslnv]mkiii frock. skirt. There is no regular seam on the shoulders, where irregular bits of white ermine skin -AW. pieced together so as to fit. From the armpit on each side runs a narrow strip of sheepskin between back and front. The sleeve is a long piece made of three white ermine skins put together lengthwise, doubled above, with a straight strip of sheepskin let in be low, and enlarged near the body by two triangular gussets (front and back) let in between the ermine and sheepskin. The wristbands are broad pieces of sheepskin. The skirts are of white ermine skins pieced together irregularly, but the skins composing the front, back, and sleeves are split down the back of the animal and neatly cut into long rectangular pieces, with the feet and tails still attached. They are arranged in a pat tern of vertical stripes, two skins fastened together end to end making a stripe, which is the same on the front and the back. There is a brown stripe down the middle, then two white stripes on each side, and a brown stripe on each edge. The hood is bound round the edge with white sheepskin and bordered with wolfskin. There are shoulder straps and a border round the skirt of edging of the usual materials, but slightly different arrangement, and tagged with small red glass beads. Sftrrt . Flo. 00.— Pattern of ermine frock, a, hood; b, \uu\\. 118 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. The former owner of this beautiful frock (since dead) was always very elegantly dressed. His deerskin clothes were always much trimmed, and he owned an elegant frock of foxskins, alternately blue and white, with a hood of deerskin, which we did not succeed in obtaining for the col lection. (The "jumper of mixed white and blue fox pelts," seen by Dr. Kane at Ita,' must have been like this.) The, woman's frock differs from that worn by the men, in the shape of the hood and skirts, as mentioned above, and it is also slightly fitted FIG. 61. — Woman's frock, front and back. in to the waist and made to "bag" somewhat in the back, in order to give room for carrying the child. The pattern is considerably different from that of the, man's frock, as will be seen from the description of the type specimen (the only one in the collection), No. 74041 [17!)lj (Fig. 61, a and I), which is of deerskin. The hood is raised into a little point on top and bulges out into a sort of rounded pocket at the nape. This is a holiday garment, made of strips of skin from the shanks and belly of the reindeer, pieced together so as to make a pattern of alternating 'Second Crinuell Eip., vol. 1, p. 203. Ml'RDOCII.] WOMAN S FROCK. 119 Flo. 62.— ruttcru of woman's frock. light and dark stripes. The pattern is shown in the diagram, Fig. 02. The sleeves are of the same pattern as those of No. 56751 [184]. The edge of the hood is bound with deerskin, hair outwards. Trim ming: a strip of edging (Fig. 63) in which the light stripes are clipped white mountain sheep skin, the dark pipings brown, almost hairless, fawnskin, and the. tags red worsted, is inserted in the seam between 7 on each side and 6 and 2, and a similar strip between the inner edge of 3, 2, 7, 9, and 1. A broader strip of simi lar insertion, fringed below with marten fur, with the flesh side out and colored red, runs along the short seam ffff. The seam between 9 and 7 has a narrow piping of thin brown deerskin, tagged with red worsted. A strip of edging, without tags and fringed with marten fur (Fig. 64), is inserted in the seam gggg. The border of the skirt is 1 inch wide (Fig. 64). The dark stripe is brown deerskin, \, the white, mountain sheep, and the fur, marten, with the red flesh side out. The fringes are double strips of white deerskin sewred to the inside of the last seam, about 3 inches apart. The shoulder straps are of edging like that at g, but have the fur sewed on so as to show the red flesh side. The hood has a fringe of wolfskin sewed to the outside of the binding. This frock measures 45 inches in the back, 32 in the front, 19 across the shoulders, and 17 at the waist. The skirts are 21 inches wide, the front 18, and the back 20 inches long. The pieces 7, 8, and 9 of the hood are white. This is an unusually handsome garment. FIG. 63.— Untail of edg ing, woman's frock. FIG. 64. — Details of trimming, woman's frock. Deerskin garments rarely have the ornamental piecing seen in this frock. Each one of the numbered parts of the pattern is generally in one piece. The pieces 8 and 9 are almost universally white, and 7 is often so. About the same variety in material and trimming is to be found as in the men's frocks, though deer and mountain sheep skins were the only materials seen used, and the women's frocks are less often seen without the fringe round the hood. Plain deerskin frocks are often bordered round the skirts with a fringe cut from deerskin. The 120 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. women nowadays often line the outer frock witli drilling, bright calico, or even bedticking, and then wear it with this side out. The frocks for both sexes, while made on the same general pattern as those of the other Eskimo, differ in many details from those of east ern America. For instance, the hood is not fitted in round the throat with the pointed throat pieces or fringed with wolf or wolverine skin until we reach the Eskimo of the Anderson Kiver. Here, as shown by the specimens in the National Museum, the throat pieces are small and wide apart, and the men's hoods only are fringed with wolverine skin. The women's hoods are very large everywhere in the east for the better accommodation of the child, which is sometimes carried wholly in the hood.' The hind flap of the skirt of the woman's frock, except in Greenland, has developed into a long narrow train reaching the ground, while the front flap is very much decreased in size (see references just quoted). The modern frock in Greenland is very short and has very small Haps (see illustrations in Kink's Tales, etc., pp. $ and 0), but the ancient fashion, judging from the plate in Crantz's History of Greenland, re ferred to above, was much more like that worn by the western Eskimo. In the Anderson and Mackenzie regions the flaps are short and rounded and the front flap considerably the smaller. There is less difference in the general shape of the men's frocks. The hood is generally rounded and close fitting, except in Labrador and Baffin Land, where it is pointed on the crown. The skirt is sometimes prolonged into rounded flaps and a short scallop in front, as at Iglulik and some parts of Baffin Land.2 Petitot3 gives a full description of the dress of a "chief" from the Anderson River. He calls the frock a " blouse e'chaucree par cot<§ et termin^e eii queues arrondies par devant et par derriere." The style of frock worn at Point Barrow is the prevalent one along the western coast of America nearly to the Kuskokwim. On this river long hoodless frocks reaching nearly or quite to the ground are worn.4 The frock worn in Kadiak was hoodless and long, with short sleeves and large armholes beneath these.5 The men of the Siberian Eskimo and sedentary Ohukches, as at Plover Bay, wear in summer a loose straight-bottomed frock without a hood, but with a frill of long fur round the neck. The winter frock is described as having "a square hood without trimmings, but capable of being drawn, like the mouth of a bag, around the face by a string in. 1 Egede, p. 131 ; Crantz, i, p. 137 and PI. III. (Greenland) ; Hesscls, op. cit., p. SKi (Smith Sound— married women only) ; Parry, 2nd Voy., p. 494, ami numerous illustrations, passim (Iglulik) ; Packard, Naturalist Vol. 19, p. 6, PI. XXIII (Labrador), and Kumlien, 1. c., p. 33 (Cumberland Gulf). See also several speci mens in the National Museum from I'ngava (collected by L. M. Turner) and the Mackenzie and Ander son rivers (collected by MacFarlane). The hoods from the last region, while, still much larger and wider than those in fashion at Point Harrow, an1 not so enormous as the more eastern ones. The little peak on the top of the woman's hood at Point Harrow may be a reminiscence of the pointed hood worn by the women mentioned by liessels, op. cit. 2 Parry, 2d Voy., p. 494. and 1st Voy., p. 283. 3 Monographic, etc., p. xiv. 4 Petroff. o]i. cit, p. 134. Pis. 4 and !>. Sec also specimens in the National Museum. c Petrotl", op. cit., p. 139, and Liscansky, Voy., etc., p. 194. MURDOCH.] MANTLES. 121 Ra.ro.— Man's cloak of deerakin. serted in the edge."1 According to Nordenskiold,2 the men at Pitlckaj wear the hoodless frock suniiner and winter, putting on one or two sep arate hoods in winter. The under hood appears to be like one or two which I saw worn at Plover Hay, namely, a close-fitting nightcap of thin reindeer skin tied under the chin. The dress of the Siberian women consists of frock and baggy kneebreeches in one piece, sewed to tightntting boots reaching to the knees.3 Mantles. — "Circular" mantles of deerskin, fastened at the neck by a thong, and put on over the head like a poncho, are worn by the men in very cold weather over their other clothes when lounging in the open air about the village or watching at a seal holt; or tend ing the seal nets at night. The cloaks are especially affected by the older men, who, having grown-up sons or sons-in-law, do not have to go sealing in winter, and spend a great deal of their time in bright weather chatting together out of doors. There is one specimen in the collection, No. 5(5700 [94] (Fig. 05). It is made of fine summer doe-reindeer skin, in three pieces, back and two sides of dark skin, sewed to a collar of white skin from the belly of the animal. For pattern see diagram (Fig. 00). The seams at a are gored to make the cloak hang properly from the shoulder. The collar is in two pieces, joined in the middle, and the edge c is turned over toward tliehair side and "run" down in a narrow hem. The points & of the collar are brought together in the middle and joined by a little strap of deerskin about an inch long, so that the edge c makes a round hole for the neck. The width of the mantle is (JO inches and its depth 39. It is worn with the white flesh side out, as is indicated by the seams being sewed "over 1 Dull, Alaska, p. 379. ' Voga, vol. 2, p. * V o<;a, vol. 2, p. 98. "Nordenskiold, Vt'^a. vol. 2, p. 100 and Fi£. on p. 57; Dull, Alaska, p. 379 and plate opposite. I also no ticed this dress at Plover Hay in 1881. Compare also Krauso Urotliers. Geogr. Hliitter, vol. 5, No. 1, p. 5, where the dress along the coast from Kast Cape to Plover Hay is described aa we saw it at Plover Kay, 122 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. and over" on the hair side. All the, mantles seen were essentially of the same pattern. The edge is sometimes cut into an ornamental fringe, and the flesh side marked with a tew narrow stripes of red oeher. This garment appears to be peculiar to northwestern America. No men tion is to be found of any such a thing except in Mr. MacFarlaue's MS. notes, where he speaks of a deerskin blanket " attached with aline across the shoulders in cold weather," among the Anderson liiver Es kimo. We have no means at present of knowing whether such cloaks are worn by the coast natives between Point Barrow and Kotzebue Sound, but one was worn by one of the Nuiiata'nmiun who were at Nuwuk in the autumn of 1S81. Bain-frocks, — The rain-frock (silfi'fia) is made of strips of seal or wal rus intestines about 3 inches broad, sewed together edge to edge. This material is light yellowish brown, translucent, very light, and quite waterproof. In shape the frock resembles a man's frock, but the hood comes well forward and fits closely round the face. It is generally plain, but the seams are nowadays sewed with black or colored cotton for orna ment. The garment is of the same shape for both sexes, but the women frequently cover the flesh side of a deerskin frock with strips of en trail sewed together vertically, thus making a garment at once waterproof and warm, which is worn alone in summer witli the hair side in. These gut shirts are worn over the clothes in summer when it rains or when the wearer is working in the boats. There are no specimens in the col lection. The kaiak jacket of black sealskin, so universal in Greenland, is un known at Point Barrow. The waterproof gut frocks are, peculiar to the western Eskimo, though shirts of seal gut, worn between the inner and outer frock, are mentioned by Egede (p. 130) and Crantz1 as used in Greenland in their time. Ellis also2 says: " Some few of them [i. e., the Eskimo of Hudsons Strait] wear shifts of seals' bladders, sewed to gether in pretty near the same form with those in Europe." They have been described generally under the name Icamle'ika (said to be a Siberian word) by all the authors who have treated of the natives of this region, Eskimo, Siberians, or Aleuts. We saw them worn by nearly all the natives at Plover Bay. One handsome one was observed trimmed on the seams with rows of little red nodules (pieces of the beak of one of the puffins) and tiny tufts of black feathers. The cotton frock, already alluded to as worn to keep the driving snow out of the furs, is a long, loose shirt reaching to about midleg, with a round hole at the neck large enough to admit the head. This is gener ally of bright-colored calico, but shirts of white cotton are sometimes worn when hunting 011 the ice or snow. Similar frocks are worn by the natives at Pitlekaj.3 'Vol. 1, p. 137. 2 Voyage to ITuclHons Bay, p. 136. 1 Nordenakiiild, Vega, vol. 2, p. 98. MURDOCH.] MITTENS. 123 ARM CLOTHING. Mittens. — The hands are usually protected by mittens (aitkfi'ti) of different kinds of fur. The commonest kind arc of deerskin, worn with the flesh side out. Of those the collection contains one pair, No. 8H8U.S [!)73j (Fig'. 07). They arc made of thick winter reindeer skin, with the white flesh side outward; in the shape of ordinary mittens but short and not narrowed at the wrists, with the thumb short and clumsy. The seams are all sewed "over and over" on the hair side. These mittens are about 7 A inches long and 4£ broad. The free part of the thumb is only 2^ inches long on the outer side. Such mittens are the ordinary hand covering of men, women, and children. In extreme cold weather or during winter hunting, very heavy mittens of the same shape, but gathered to a wristband, are worn. These are made of white bearskin for men and women, for children of dog skin, with the hair out. When the hand covered with such a mitten is held upon the windward sideof the face in walking, the long hair affords a very efficient pro tection against the wind. The long stiff hair of the bear skin also makes the mitten a very con venient brush for re moving snow and hoar frost from the clothes. It is even sometimes used for brushing up the floor. In the MacFarlane collection are similar mittens from the Mackenzie region. 1'etitot1 says the Anderson liiver "chief" wore pualuk "mi- taines en peau de morse, aussi blanches et aussi soyeuses <[iie de belle laine." These were probably of bearskin, as a mitten of walrus skin is not likely to be "blanche" or " soyeuse." (1 loves arc worn under these as at Point Barrow. All these mittens are short in the wrist, barely meeting the frock sleeve, and leaving a crack for the cold to get in, which is partially covered by the usual wolf or wolverine skin fringe of the sleeve. I have already mentioned the common habit among the women of carrying only one mitten and drawing one arm inside of the frock.2 The men, except when limiting, frequently wear only one of these heavy mittens, which are called pu'alu. Waterproof mittens of black sealskin, coming well up over the forearm, were also observed, but not obtained, i do not remember ever seeing them in use. 'Monographic, etc., p. xv. 'Compare Parry, 2d Voy., p. 494, where a siinilav habit is mentioned at Iglnlik. I'm. 67.— Dud-skin mittens. 124 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. Gloves. — Gloves of tliin deerskin, worn with the hair in, and often elegantly ornamented, are used with full dress, especially at the dances. As already stated, the men wear such gloves under the pualu when shooting in the winter. When ready to shoot, the hunter slips off the mitten and holds it between his legs, while the glove enables him to cock the rifle and draw the trigger without touching the cold metal with his bare hands. There are two pairs of gloves in the collection. No. SIISL'il [974] (Fig. OS) illustrates a very common style called a'drigudrTn. They are made of thin reindeer skin, with the white flesh side out, and Fid. 68.— Deerskin glove: are rights and lefts. The short and rather clumsy fingers and thumbs are separate pieces from the palm, which is one straight, broad piece, doubled so as to bring the seam on the same side as the thumb. The thumbs are not alike on both hands. The outside piece of the thumb runs down to the wrist on the left glove, but is shorter on the right, the lower "2 inches of the edge seam being between the edges of the palm piece. Kach finger is a single piece doubled lengthwise and sewed over the tip and down one side. The wrists are ornamented with an edging of two narrow strips of clipped mountain sheep skin, bordered with a narrow strip of wolverine fur with the reddened flesh side out. These gloves were made for sale and are not well mated, one being 8£ inches, with fingers (all of the same length) 4J inches long, while the other is S inches long with ringers of 3£ inches. No. 5(i747 [1-nkH at the thumb (p. 211 as "a triangular, ahapelesa pro tuberance* '' ; a description which applies well to those in our collection. * MacKarlane MS., anil Petitot, Monographic, etc., p. xv. 3 HcHscls, Naturalist, vol. 18, p. »05. »0p.cit.,p.242. 126 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. made of five pieces, which covers the pubes. The crotch is reinforced by a square patch of white deerskin sewed on the inside. The trim ming consists of strips of edging. The first strip (Fig. 71) is 1£ inches wide, and runs along the front seam, inserted in the outside piece, to the knee-band, beginning 5 inches from the waist. The light strips an; of clipped mountain sheepskin; the dark one of dark brown deerskin ; the pipings of the thin fawn skin, and the tags of red worsted. The edges of the, strip are fringed with narrow double strips of mountain sheepskin '2 inches long, put on about 1£ inches apart. A straight strip, 2 inches wide, is inserted obliquely across the outside piece from seam to seam. It is of the FIG. 70.— Pattern «f man's invents. same materials, but differs slightly in pattern. The knee-band is of the same materials and 2J inches deep. The length from waist to knee is 24 inches behind, 23 in front; the girth of the leg 24 inches round the thigh and 14 round the knee. These represent a common style of full-dress breeches, and are worn with a pair of trimmed boots held up by drawstrings They are always worn with the hair out and usually over a pair of deerskin drawers. The ordinary breeches are of heavier deerskin, made perfectly plain, being usually worn alone, with the hair turned in. When a pair of under breeches is worn, however, the hair of the outer ones is turned out. Trimmed breeches are less common than trimmed frocks, as the plain breeches when new are often worn for full dress. The clean, white flesh side presents a very neat appearance. The skin of the rough seal is sometimes, but rarely, used for summer breeches, which are worn with the hair out. With this exception, breeches seem to be invariably made of deerskin. This garment is practically uni versal among the Eskimo and varies very little in pattern. Pant-aloonx (Jciimiin). — The women and children, and occasionally the, men, wear pantaloons (stricly speaking), i. c., tight-fitting trousers con tinuous with the foot covering. Of the two pairs of pantaloons in the collection, No. 74042 [1792] (Fig. 72) will serve as the type. The shoes with sealskin moccasin soles and deerskin uppers are sewed at the ankles to a pair of tight-fitting deerskin trousers, reaching above the hips and higher behind than in front. Pattern (diagram, Fig. 73«): Each leg is composed of four long pieces (front 1, outside 2, back 3, and inside 4), five gussets (one on the thigh o, and four on the calf, 6, 6, 6, (5), which enlarges the garment to fit the swell of the calf and thigh and the half- waistband (7). The two legs are put together by 'fl FIG. 71.— Trimming of man'Hlnv»'*'hcH. WOMEN'S PANTALOONS. 127 joining the edges d d d of the opposite, legs mid sewing the gusset (8) into the space in front with its base joined to the edges e c of the two legs. The sole of each shoe is a single piece of white tanned sealskin with the grain side out, bent up about 1J inches all round the foot, rounded at the toe and heel and broadest across the ball of the foot. The toe and heel are "gathered "into shape by crimping the edge vertically. A space of about 3i inches is left uncriinped on each side of the foot. (The process of crimp ing these soles will be described under the head of boots and shoes, where it properly belongs). Around the top of this sole is sewed a narrow band of white sealskin, sewed ''over and over" on the edge of the uncriinped space, but "run" through the gathers at the ends, so as to draw them up. The upper is in two pieces (heel, !), and toe, 10). The heel piece is folded round the heel, and the toe piece doubled along the line/, and the curved edges g g joined to the straight edges h h, which makes the folded edge /', fit the outline of the instep. The bottom is then cut off accurately to fit the sole and sewed to the edge of theband. The trousers and shoes are sewed together at the ankles. The whole is made of the short-haired skin from the deer's legs. Pieces 2, 4, 7, 8, 0, and 10 are of dark brown skin (10 put on so that the tuft of coarse hair on the deer's ankle comes on the outside of the wearer's ankle), while, the remain ing pieces are white, making a pleasing pattern of broad stripes. The, inner edge of 5 is piped with dark brown fawnskin, and a round piece" of white skin is inserted at the bottom of 2. No. 50748 [130] is a pair of pantaloons of nearly the same pattern (see diagram, Fig. T,M>) and put together in a similar way. These pantaloons have soles of sealskin with the hair left on and worn inside, and are made of deer leg skin, wholly dark brown, except the gussets on the calf, which are white. There is a piece of white skin let out, 2, as before, and the ankle tuft is in the, same position. From the general fit of these, garments they appear to be all made on essentially the same pattern, probably without greater variations than those already described. When worn by the, women the material is usually, if not always, the skin of reindeer legs, and most commonly of Flo. 72. — Woman's pantaloons. 128 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. the pattern of No. 50748 [130], namely, brown, with white leg gussets. Pantaloons wholly of brown skin are quite common, especially for every day wear, while striped ones, like No. 74042 [1792], are much less usual and worn specially for full dress. Children's pantaloons are always brown, and I have seen one pair, worn by a young lad, of lynx skin. The two or three pairs which wre saw worn by men were wholly brown. These pantaloons of leg skin with sealskin soles are always worn with the hair out and usually over a pair of under pantaloons of the same shape, but made of softer skins with longer hair, which is worn next the skin, and with stocking feet. The outer pantaloons are discarded FIG. 73. — Patterns of won an's pantaloons. in summer and the inner ones only worn, the feet being protected by sealskin waterproof boots, as already stated. The waterproof sealskin pantaloons mentioned in the same, connection do not tit so neatly, as they are made with as few seams as possible (usually only one, up the 'leg) to avoid leakage. They are sewed with the waterproof seam, and held up round the ankle by strings, like the waterproof boots to be de scribed further on. This last- mentioned garment seems to be peculiar to the Point Barrow region (including probably Wainwright Inlet and perhaps the rest of the coast down to Kot/ebue Sound). No mention of such a complete protection against wet is to be found in any of the published accounts of the Eskimo elsewhere, nor are there any speci mens in the Museum.1 'Dr. Simpson's language (op. cit., p. 243) is a little indefinite ("The feet and legs arc incased in water-tight sealskin boots"), hut probably refers to these jw well as to the, knee boots. The "outside coat of the same material." and the hoots and outside coat "made all in one, with a drawing string round the face," mentioned in the same* place, appears to have gone wholly out ot fashion since his time. At all events, we saw neither, though wo continually saw the natives when working in the boats, and these garments, especially the latter, could hardly have failed to attract our attention. MURDOCH.] STOCKINGS HOOTS AND SHOES. 129 Boots and breeches united in this way so as to form pantaloons are peculiar to the west of America, where they are universally worn from the Mackenzie district westward and southward. We have no speci mens of women's leg coverings from the Mackenzie district, but Petitot1 describes them thus : >(Lepantalon * * * fait corps avec la chaus- sure." In the east the women always wear breeches separate from the boots, which usually differ from those of the men in their size and length, often reaching to the hips.2 Stocking*. — Next to the skin on the feet and legs the men wear stock ings of deerskin, usually of soft, rather long-haired skin, with the hair in. These are usually in three pieces, the leg, 1, toe piece, 2, and sole, 3 (see diagram, Fig. 74). A straight strip about 1 inch wide often runs round the foot between the sole and the other pieces. Stockings of this pattern, but made of very thick winter deerskin, are sub stituted for the outer boots when deer-hunt ing in winter in the dry snow, especially when snowshoes are used. They are warm ; the flesh side sheds the snow well and the thick hair acts as a sort of wadding which keeps the feet from being galled by the bars and strings of the suowslioes. Many of the deer-hunters in 1883 made rough buskins of this pattern out of the skins of freshly killed deer simply dried, without further preparation. Boots and nhoe*. — Over the stockings are worn boots or shoes with uppers of various kinds of skin, with the hair on, or black tanned sealskin, always fitted to heelless crimped moccasin soles of some different leather, of the pattern which, with some slight modifications of form, is universal among the Eskimo. These soles are made as follows: A "blank" for the sole is cut out, of the shape, of the foot, but a couple of inches larger all round. Then, begin •i j- 4., u 11 4- 4.1 f Fl°- "•'•-I'attcrn «f stocking. mug at one side ot the ball oi the toot, the toe part is doubled over toward the inside of the sole, so that the •edges just match. The two parts are then pinched together with 1 Monographic, etc., p. xv. 2 Bessels, Naturalist, vol. 18, p. 865, Smith Sounfl ; Kgcde. p. 131, and Crantz, vol. 1, p. 138, Greenland ; Parry, 2d Voy., j>. 495 and 496, Iglulik. and Kumlien. up. cit., p. 23, Cumberland Gulf. Also in Labra dor, see PL XVII. Naturalist, vol. 19, \u. 6. The old eouple whom Franklin met at the liloody Fall of the Coppermine appear to have worn pantaloons, for he speaks of their "tight leggings sewed to • shoes" (1st Erp., vol. 2. p. 180). 9 ETH 9 130 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. the teeth along a line parallel to the folded edgcand at a distance from it equal to the depth of the intended fold. Tis bitten line runs from the edge of the leather as far as it is intended <> turn up the side of the sole. A series of similar folds is carried ronn the toe to a point on the other side of the sole opposite the starting uint. In the same way a series of crimps is carried round the heel, les/ing an uncrimped space of 2 or 3 inches on each side of the foot. Thattern is about the same height all round and follows the shape of the fof, being rather more gathered in over the toe than at the heel. The "blak" for the sole is cut out by measuring the size of the foot on the leathered allowing by eye the margin which is to be turned up. The criming is also done by eye. Any irregularity in the length of the crimp can be remedied by pressing out the crease. I have never seen at Poit Barrow the ivory knives, such as are used at Norton Sound for arraging the crimps. Different kinds of leather are used for the soss, and each kind is supposed to be best suited for a particular purose. The beautiful white urine-tanned sealskin is used for winter war when the suow is dry, but is not suited for standing the roughness, nd dampness of the salt-water ice. For this purpose sealskin dressed nth the hair on and worn nesh side out is said to be the very best, referable even to the various waterproof skins used for summer boot >ies. For waterproof soles are used oil-dressed skins' of the walrus, bei'ded seal, polar bear, or, best of all, the white whale. This last makes a >eautifiil light yellow translucent leather about ((•! inch thick, which * quite durable and keeps out water for a long time. It is highly pri/il and quite an article of trade among the natives, a pair of soles usual' commanding a good price. These Eskimo appear to be the only oiie;-wlio have discovered the excellence of this material for waterproof sols, as there is no men tion to be found of its use elsewhere. The "urwhal skin" spoken of by Dr. Simpson2 is probably this material, as he alls it " Kel-lel'-lu-a," which is the ordinary word for white whale at Pint Barrow. The nar whal is very rare in these waters, while the white -hale is comparatively abundant. Dr. Simpson appears not to have seeithe animal from which the skin was obtained. It is, however, by no meas impossible that Home skins of the narwhal, which when dressed woul be indistinguishable 'Probably prepared like the boat covers described by Grant/,, vol. p. 167, by drying them without removing ull of their own blubber. 'Op.cit., pp. 242-266. HUlili >(.] BOOTS. 131 fron the white whale skins, are obtained from the eastern natives or else'here. Such crimped soles are in use among the Kskimo every- whea, varying but little in general pat tern The Greenland boots are specially notieable for the neatness of the. crimp ing, •hile specimens in the Museum from the entral region arc decidedly slovenly iu tbir workmanship. The boots worn by to natives of Plover Bay have the sole .arrowed at the shank and hardly comig over the foot except at the toe and eel, where they are crimped, but less eeply than usual. This style of sole very nuch resembles those of a pair of Kamtiatdale boots in the National Mu seum which, however, are turned up with out cimpiug, as is the case with the boots used >y the Aleuts on the Commander Islans, of which Dr. L. Stejneger has kind] shown me a specimen. There is a foldc' '' welt" of sealskin iu the seam be- tweei the upper and sole of the IMover Bay hots. I am informed by ('apt. Heren- deen lat the natives have been taught to put tis in by the whalemen who every year urchase large numbers of boots on the S>erian coast, for use in the Arctic. unusul on Eskimo boots, are to be seen on some brought by Mr. Nelson from Kings Island and Norton Sound. The winter boots usually have uppers of deer skin, generally the short-haired skin from the legs. Mountain-sheep skin is sometimes used for full-dress boots, and sealskin with the hair out for working boots. The latter is not a good material, as the snow sticks to it badly. There are four pairs of men's winter boots in the collection, from which No. 50750 [111] (Fig. 75) has been selected as the type of the everyday pattern. They are made of deer-leg skin with white seal skin soles. Leg and upper are in four pieces,1 back 1, two sides 2 2, and front 3; 1 and 3 are gored at a a a to fit the swell of the alf; 1 and 3 are of dark skin, and 2 2 lighter colored, especially along ie middle. The bottom is cut off accurately to tit the sole but the top is it't irregular, as this is concealed by the breeches. The, boots are FIG. 75.— Man's l«»>t c>f deerskin. Similar welts, which are very KIM. I' deerskin boot. 1 See diagram, Fig. 76. 132 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. held up round the ankles by two tie-strings of sealthong. sewed in be tween the sole and the band, one on each side just under the middle of the ankle. They are long enough to cross above the heel, pass once or twice round the ankle, which lits more loosely than the rest of the boot, and tie in front. On each heel is a large round patch of sealskin with the hair on and pointing toward the toe (to prevent slipping). These patches are carefully "blind-stitched" on so that the stitches do not show on the outside. Boots of this style are the common every day wear of the men, sometimes made wholly of dark deerskin and sometimes variegated. They are often made of a pattern like that of the lower part of the women's pantaloons; that is, with the uppers separate from the leg pieces, which are brown, with four white gus sets on the calf. Fig. 77, No. 5(5759 [91], is one of a pair of full-dress boots of a slightly different pattern. The leg pieces are the same in number as in Xo. 50750, and put to gether in the same way, but 2 and 3 are of a different shape.' They are made of deer- leg skins, each piece with a lighter streak down the middle. The soles are of white sealskin, finely crimped, with the edge com ing to a point at the toe, and the five ornamental bands are of seal skin, alternately black and white. A strip of edging three-fourths of an inch wide is inserted in the seam between 2 and 3 on each side. The light stripes are mountain-sheep skin and the dark ones the usual young fawnskin, tagged with red worsted. The leg reaches to just below the knee, and is hemmed over on the inside, to hold the draw string, which comes out behind. There are strings at the ankles as before. Fig. 7!), No. S9834 [770], is one of a pair of almost precisely the same pat tern as the last, but made of mountain- sheep skin. The soles are more deeply turned up all round and have three ornamental bands of sealskin around the edge, black, white, and black. Edg ing is inserted into both the seams on each side. . 77. — Man's dross boot of deer skin. Fici. 78. — 1'atleru of man's dress boot of deerskin. It is of strips of inoun- 1 See diagram, Fi|f. 78. MfRDOCII.] BOOTS. 133 tain-sheep skin and a dark brown deerskin, tagged with red worsted, witli the edge which laps over the side piece cut into oblique tags. There are no tiestrings, as the soles are turned up high enough to stay in place without them. These boots were brought from the east by one of the Nuwttk trading parties in 1882. Fig. 80, No. 5674!) f 110], is also a full- dress boot, with soles like the last and no tiestrings. The leg is of two pieces of dark brown deerskin with the hair clipped short. These pieces are shaped like 2 in No. f><>750, and the inner is larger, so that it laps round the leg, bringing the seam on the outside. The leg is en larged to fit the swell of the calf by a large triangular gusset from the knee to the midleg, meeting the in side piece in an oblique seam across the calf. Instead of a hem, the top of the leg has a half-inch band sewed round it and a binding for the drawstring above this. EJTging is inserted in the front seam, and obliquely across the outside of the leg. That in the front seam is three narrow strips of deerskin, dark in the middle and light on each side. The other is of mountain-sheep skin in three strips, piped with fawnskin and tagged with worsted. The boots belong with the breeches, No. 56759. They fairly represent the style of full-dress boots worn with the loose-bottomed breeches. They all have draw strings just below the knee, and often have no tie-strings at the ankles. The eastern Eskimo are everywhere described as wearing the boots tied at the top with a drawstring and the bottoms of the breeches usually loose and hanging down on them. Tying down the breeches over the tops of the boots, as is done at Point Harrow, is an improve ment on the eastern fashion, as it closes the garments at the knee so as to prevent the entrance of cold air. The same result is obtained in an exactly opposite way by the people of Smith Sound, who, according to Bessels (Naturalist, vol. 18, p. 805), tie the boots over the breeches. All fur garments, including boots, are sewed in the same way, usually with reindeer sinew, by fitting the edges together and sewing them "over and over" on the "wrong" side. The waterproof boots of black sealskin, however, are sewed with an elaborate double seam, which is quite waterproof, and is made as follows: The two pieces are put to gether, flesh side to flesh side, so that the edge of one projects beyond FIG. kin of mountain 134 THE .POINT BARROW KSKIMO. the other, which is then "blind -stitched" down by sewing it "over and over" on the edge, taking pains to run the stitches only part way through the other piece. The seam is then turned and the edge of the outer piece is turned in and "run "down to the grain side of the under with fine stitches which do not run through to the flesh side of it. Thus in neither seam are there holes through both pieces at once. The sewing is done with flue sinew thread and very flue round needles (the women used to ask for "little needles, like a hair"), and the edge of the feather is softened by wetting it in the mouth. A similar wa terproof seam is used in sewing together boat covers. There is one pair of water proof boots iu the collection (No. 76182 [1794] Fig. SI). The tops are of black dressed seal skin, reaching to the knee and especiallyfull on the instep and ankle, which results from their being made with the least possible num ber' of seams, to reduce the chance of leaking. The soles are of white whale skin, turned up about 1£ inches all around. The leg and upper are made all in one piece so that the double water-tight seam runs down the front of the leg to the instep, and then diagonally across the foot to the quarter on one side. The bottom is cut off' accurately to fit the top of the sole. The edges of the upper and the sole are put together so that the inside; of the former comes against the inside of the latter, and the two are "run7' together with fine stitches, with a stout double under-thread running through them along the surface of the upper. The ornamental band at the top is of white sealskin "run" on with strong dark thread, and the checkered pattern is made by drawing a strip of black skin through slits in the white. Hound the top of the band is sewed a binding of black sealskin, which holds a drawstring of sinew braid. The sole is kept up in shape and the boot made to tit round the ankle by a string of sealskin twine passed through four loops, one on each side just back of the ball of the foot, and one on each quarter. These loops are made of little strips of white whale skin, doubled over and sewed to the edge of the sole on the outside. The ends of the string are passed through the front loop so that the bight FIG. 80. — Pair of man's dress boots of deerskin. MURDOCH.) BOOTS. 135 comes across the ball of the foot, then through the hinder loops, and are crossed above the heel, carried once or twice around the ankle, and tied in front. Such boots are universally worn in summer. The men's boots are usually left with an irregular edge at the top, and are held up by the breeches, while the women's usually have white bands around the tops with drawstrings. Half-boots of the same material, reaching to mid- leg, without drawstrings, or shoes reaching just above the ankle with a string round the top are some times worn over the deerskin boots. Similar shoes of deerskin afe some times worn in place of boots. Waterproof boots of black seal skin are universally employed by Eskimo and by the Aleuts. These boots stand water for a long time without getting wet through, but when they become wet they must be turned inside out and dried very slowly to prevent them from shrink ing, and worked soft with a stone skin-dressing tool or the teeth. Th sun. When the black epidermis wears off this leather is no longer waterproof, so that the women are always on the watch for white spots, which are mended with water-tight patches as soon as possible. In the early spring, before it thaws enough to render waterproof boots necessary, the surface of the snow becomes very smooth and slippery. To enable them selves to walk on this surface without fall ing, the natives make a kind of "creeper" out of strips of sealskin. These are doubled lengthwise, and generally bent into a half- nioon or horseshoe shape, with the folded edges on the outside of the curve, sewed on the toe and heel of the sealskin sole, as represented in Fig. 82. I'AHTS OK DRKSS. Belt* (tapsi). — The belt which is used to hold up the pantaloons or breeches is simply a stout strip of skin tied round the waist. The gir dle, which is always worn outside of the frock, except when the weather is warm or the wearer heated by exercise, is very often a similar strap of deerskin, or perhaps wolfskin. Often, however, and especially for KIG. 81.— W Iskin boot. s waterpi natives prefer to dry them in the FIG. 82. — Sketch of • ' toe-creeper boot sole. 136 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. full dress, the men wear a handsome belt woven from feathers, aiid the women one made of wolverines' toes. There are iu the collection two of the former and one of the latter. No. 89544 [1419] (Fig. 83«) has been chosen as the type of a man's belt. It is 35 inches long and 1 inch broad, and made of the shafts of feathers woven into an elegant pattern, bordered on the edges with deerskin, and terminating in a leather loop at one end and a braided string at the other. The loop is a flat piece of skin of the bearded seal, in which is cut a large oblong eye. The weaving begins at the square end of the loop. The warp consists of nine long strands sewed through the inner face of the leather so as to come out on the hinder edge. The middle strand is of stout sinew braid, ending in a knot on the Flo. 83.— Man's belt woven of feathers. The lower cut shows detail of pattern. inner side of the leather. The four on each side are of fine cotton twine or stout thread, each two being one continuous thread passing through the leather and out again. The woof is the shafts of small feathers regularly woven, the first strand woven over and under, end ing over the warp, the next under and over, ending under the warp, and so on alternately, each strand extending about one-fourth inch beyond the, outer warp-strand on each side. This makes the pattern shown in Fig. 836, a long stitch on each side, three very short one* on each side of the middle, and a slightly longer one in the mid dle. The strips of feathers forming the woof are not joined together, but one strip is woven in as far as it will go, ending always on the inner side of the belt, a new strip beginning where the other ends. The shafts of black feathers, with a few of the barbs attached, are BELTS. 137 woven into the woof at tolerably regular intervals. Each black strand starts under the first strand of the warp, making the outer and inner of the three short stitches on each side black. This produces a checkered pattern along the middle of the belt (see enlarged section, Fig. 8,'M). The, woof strands are driven home tightly and their ends are secured on each side by a double thread of cotton sewed into the corner of the leather loop. One thread runs along the out side of the belt and the other along the inside, passing between the ends of the feathers about every ten feathers and making a turn round the outer thread, as in Fig. 84. The edges of the belt are trimmed off even and bound with a narrow strip of deerskin with the flesh side out and painted red. The binding of the upper edge makes an irregular loose lining on the inside of the belt. Across the end of the belt is sewed on each side a narrow strip of sealskin, and the ends of the warp are gathered into a three-ply braid 1(5 inches long, which is used to fasten the belt by drawing it through the loop and knotting it. An ancient bone spear head is attached to the belt as an amulet by a stout strap. No. 89543 [1420] is a similar belt worn in precisely the same way, but with the black feathers introduced in a different pattern. The weaving is done by hand with the help of some little tools, to be described under implements for making and working fiber. Belts of FIG. 84. — Diagram showing method of fast cuing the ends of feathers in belt. FIG. 85. — Woman's belt of wolverine toes. this style appear to be peculiar to the Point Barrow region. Indeed, girdles of any kind are seldom worn over the jacket by the men in the eastern regions. The women never wear anything except a simple strip of skin or the wolvervine belt mentioned above. No. 89542 [1421], Fig. 85, is one of these. It is made of nine strips of dark brown skin from round the foot of the wolverine, sewed together end to end. Each strip, except the one at the end, has a claw at the lower corner (on some of the strips the bit of skin bearing the claws is pieced in) so that there are 138 THK POINT BARROW ESKIMO. eight nearly equidistant claws making a fringe round the lower edge of the belt. There is a hole at each end into which is half-hitched the end of a narrow strip of deerskin about 8 inches long. These strings serve to tie the girdle. This belt is 33 inches long and 1£ inches wide, and has been worn so long that the inside is very dirty. Such belts are very valuable and highly prized, and are worn exclusively by the women. Fig. *<>, Xo. S!)718 [105.5], is an object which is quite, uncommon and seldom if ever now seen in use. It is of walrus ivory, very old and yellow. It served as a belt-fastener (tap- sigii). I have seen a brass clock wheel used on a girl's belt for the same purpose. This specimen is very old, FIG SB— Beit-fast- neatly made, and polished smooth, probably from long 'eam- use. Ornament*. — In addition to the trimmings above described there are certain ornamental appendages which belong to the dress, but can not be considered as essential parts of any garments, like the trimmings. For instance, nearly every male in the two villages wears dangling from his back between the shoulders an ermine skin either brown or white, or an eagle's feather, which is transferred to the new garment when the old one is worn out. This is perhaps an amulet as well as an ornament, as Dr. Simpson states.1 An eagle's feather is often worn on the outside of the hood, pendant from the crown of the head. Attached to the belt are vari ous amulets (to be described under the head of "Religion") and at the back always the tail of an animal, usually a wolverine's. Very seldom a wolf's tail is worn, but nearly all, even the boys, have wolverine tails, which are always saved for this purpose and used for no other. This habit among the Eskimo of western America of wearing a tail at the girdle has been noticed by many travelers, and prevails at least as far as the Anderson River, since Petitot,2 in describing the dress of the Anderson River "chief," says: " par derriere il portait aux reins une queue e"paisse et ondoyante de reriard noir." According to him3 it is the women of that region, who wear, " a titre de talismans, des defroques empaille'es de corbeau, de faucon, on d'hermine. " The custom of wear ing an ermine skin on the jacket was observed by Dr. Armstrong of the Investigator at Cape Bathnrst.4 PERSONAL ADORNMENT. • SKIN ORNAMENTATION. Tattooing. — The custom of tattooing is almost universal among the women, but the marks are confined almost exclusively to the chin and form a very simple pattern. This consists of one, three, five, or perhaps as 'Op. cit., p. 24:). 3Il)id. " Monographic, etc., p. xiv. 4 Personal Narrative, p. 176. MURDOCH.] TATTOOING. 139 many as seven vertical lines from the under lip to the tip of the chin, slightly radiating when there are more than one. \Vhen there is a single line, which is rather rare, it is generally broad, and the middle line is sometimes broader than the others. The women as a rule are not tattooed until they reach a marriageable age, though there were a few little girls in the two villages who had a single line on the chin. I remember seeing but one married woman in either village who was not tattooed, and she had come from a distant settlement, from Point Hope, as well as we could understand. Tattooing on a man is a mark of distinction. Those men who are, or have been, captains of whaling umiaks that have taken whales have marks to indicate this tattooed somewhere on their persons, sometimes forming a definite tally. For instance, Afioru had a broad band across each cheek from the corners of the month (Fig. S7, from a sketch by the writer), made up of many indistinct lines, which was said to indicate "many whales." Amaiyuua had the ''flukes" of seven whales in a line across his chest, and MiYnialu had a couple of small marks on one fore arm. Niaksara, the wife of Afioru, also had a little mark tattooed in each corner of her mouth, which she said were "whale marks," indicating that she was the wife of a successful whaleman. Such marks, accord ing to Petitot (Monographic, etc., p. xv) are a part of the usual pattern in the Mackenzie district— "deux traits anx commissures de la bonche." One , or two men at Xuwfik had each a narrow line Fl(). 87._Mal, with ,,,„„„„, across the face, over the bridge of the nose, which were probably also " whale marks." though we never could get a definite answer concerning them.' The tattooing is done with a needle and thread, smeared with soot or gunpowder, giving a peculiar pitted appearance to the lines. Ft is rather a painful operation, producing considerable inflammation and swelling, which lasts several days. The practice of tattooing the women is almost universal among the Eskimo, from Greenland to Kadiak, including the Eskimo of Siberia, the only exception being the 'Compare the custom observed by II. M. S. Investigator, at Cape liathurst, where, according to Me- Clure (Discovery of the Northwest Passage, p. 93), a successful harpooner has a blue line drawn across his face over the bridge of the nose; or, according to Armstrong (Personal Xarrative, p. ITfi). lie has a line tattooed from the inner angle of the eye across the cheek, a now one being added for every whale he strikes. Petitot, however (Monographic, etc., p. xxv), says that in this region whales are "scored" by tattooing crosses on the shoulder, anil that a murderer is marked across the nose with a couple of hori zontal lines. It is interesting to note in this connection that one of the "striped" men at Nuwuk told us that he had killed a man. According to Holm, at Angmagsalik (east Greenland), "Ma-ndeneere kun undtagelsvis tatoverede og da kun lued enkelte mindre Streger paa Anne og Haandled, for at kunne harpuuere godt ' (Geogr. Tids., vol. 8, p. 88). Compare also Hoo]M>r, Tents, etc.. p. 37, "Men only make a permanent mark on the face for an act of prowess, such as killing a bear, capturing a whale, etc.;" and Parry, 2d Voyage, p. 449. where some of the men at Tglulik are said to lie tattooed on the back of the hand, as a souvenir of some distant or deceased person . 140 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. natives of Smith Sound, though the custom is falling into disuse among the Eskimo who have much intercourse with the whites.1 The simple pattern of straight, slightly diverging lines on the chin seems to prevail from the Mackenzie district to Kadiak, and similar chin lines appear always to form part of the more ela borate patterns, sometimes extending to the arms and other parts of the body, in fashion among the eastern Eskimo2 and those of Siberia, St. Lawrence Island, and the Diomedes. FIG. 88. — Woman .. • withordinary tattoo- FlS- 88< tn)m a «ketch made on the spot by the writer, ing. shows the I'oiut Barrow pattern. Painting. — On great occasions, such as dances, etc., or when going whaling, the face is marked with a broad streak of black lead, put on with the finger, and usually running obliquely across the nose or one cheek.3 Children, when dressed up in new clothes, are also frequently marked in this way. This may be compared with the ancient custom among the people of Kadiak of painting their faces "before festivities or games and before any important undertaking, such as the crossing of a wide strait or arm of the sea, the sea-otter chase, etc."4 HEAD ORNAMKSTS. Method of icearing the hair. — The men and boys wear their hair combed down straight over the forehead and cut off square across in front, but hanging in rather long locks on the sides, so as to cover the ears. There is always a small circular tonsure on the crown of the head, and a strip is generally clipped down to the nape of the neck. (See Fig. 89, from a sketch from life by the writer.) The natives believe that this clip ping of the back of the head prevents snow blindness in the spring. The people of the Mackenzie district have a different theory. " La large 'Bessels, Naturalist, vol. 18, p. 875 (Smith Sound) : Egede, p. 132, and Crautz, vol. 1, p. 138, already given up by the Christian Greenlanders (Greenland) ; Holm. Gcogr. Tids., vol. 8, p. 88, still practiced regularly in east Greenland; Parry, 1st Voyage, p. 282 (Baffin Laud) ; 2d Voyage, p. 498 (Iglulik); Kumlien, Coutrib., p. 26 (Cumberland Gulf, aged women chiefly); Boas, "Central Eskimo," p. 561; Chappell, "Hudson Bay," p. 60 (Hudson Strait) ; Back, Journey, etc., p. 289 (Great Fish River) ; Frank lin. 1st Exped., vol. 2, p. 183 (Coppermine River) ; 2d Exped., p. 126 (Point Sabine) ; Petitot. Mono- graphie, etc., p. xv (Mackenzie district) ; Dall, "Alaska," pp. 340, 381 (Xorton Sound, IMomede Islands, and Plover Bay) ; Petroff, Report, etc., p. 139 (Kadiak) ; Lisiansky, Voyage, p. 195 (Kadiak in 1805, "the fair aex were also fond of tattooing tin; chin, breasts, and back, but this again is much out of fashion") ; Xordenskiold. Vega, vol. 2, pp. 99, 100, 251, and 252, with figures (Siberia and St. Lawrence Island); Krause brothers, Geographische Blatter, vol.5, pp. 4, f> (Ea-st Cape to Plover Bay); Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 37, " Women were tattooed on the chin in diverging lines " (Plover Bay) ; Rosse, Cruise of the Corwin, p. 35, fig. on p. 36 (St. Lawrence Island). Frobisher's account, being the earliest on record, is worth quoting: » * * * The women are marked on the face with blewo streekes dowue the cheekes and round about the eies " (p. 621). * ''Also, some of their women race their faces proportionally, as chinne, eheekes, and forehead, and the wristes of their hands, whereupon they lay a colour, which continueth dark azurine" (p. 627). Hak- luyt's Voyages, etc., 1589. 2 Holm (East Greenland) says: "et Paar korte Streger paa Hagen" (Geogr. Tids. vol. 8, p. 88). s Compare Kotzebue's Voy., vol. 3, p. 296. where Chamisso describes the natives of St. Lawrence Bay, Siberia, as having large (juantities of fine graphite, with whieh they painted their faces. 4 Petroff Report, etc., p. 139. MURDOCH.] HAIR-DRESSING. 141 tonsure que portent nos Tchiglit a pour but, m'ont-ils clit, do permettre au soleil de rechauffer leur cerveau et de trausmettre par ce inoyen sa bieufaisante chaleur a leur cour les t'aire vivre."' Sonic of the Nuuatafimiun and one man from Kilauwitaiwlfi that we saw wore their front hair long, parted in the middle, and confined by a narrow fillet of leather round the brow. The hair on the tonsure is not always kept clipped very close, but sometimes allowed to grow as much as an inch long, which probably led Hooper to believe that the tonsure was not common at Point Barrow.2 It is universal at the present day, as it was in Dr. Simpson's time/' The western Kskimo generally crop or shave the crown of the head, while those of the east allow their hair to grow pretty long, sometimes clipping it on the forehead. The practice of clipping the crown appears to be general in the Mackenzie district,4 and was occasionally observed at Iglnlik by Capt. Parry (2d Voy., p. 403). The natives of St. Lawrence Island and the Siberian coast carry this custom to an extreme, clipping the whole crown, so as to leave only a fringe round the head.5 The women dress their hair in the fashion common to all the Eskimo ex cept the Greenlanders and the people about the Mackenzie and Anderson Ilivers, where the women /\ bring the hair up from behind into a sort of high [ top-knot, with the addition in the latter district of tr- ;„•.,, large bows or pigtails on the sides.6 The hair is parted in the middle from the forehead to the nape of the neck, and gathered into a club on each side behind the ear. The club is either simply braided or without further dressing twisted and lengthened out with strips of leather, and wound spirally for its whole length with a long string of small beads of various colors, a large flat brass button being stuck into the hair above each club. The wife of the captain of a whaling umiak wears a strip of wolfskin in place of the string of beads when the boat is "in commission" (as Capt. Ilerendeen observed). Some of the little girls wear their hair cut short behind. The hair is not arranged every day. Both sexes are rather tidy about arranging their hair, but there is much difference in this between individuals. The marrow of the reindeer is sometimes used for pomatum. Baldness 1 Petitot, Monographic, etc., p. xxxi. 2 Tents, etc., p. 225. 3 Op. cit., p. 238. 4 Petitot, Monographic, et<-., p. xxxi. See also Franklin, 2il Exp., p. 11H. *See also Nordenskiiild, Vega, vol. 2, pp. 9 and '252, and figures passim, especially pp. H4 and 85; Hooper, Tents, et«., p. 27; and Dull, Alaska, p. 381. *See Kane, 2cl Grinncll Exp. Many illustrations, passim. Smith Sound; Egede, p. 132, and Grant?,, vol. I,p.l28, Greenland ; Brodbeck, "XachOsten," p. 23, and Holm, Geogr. Tids., vol.8, p. 90, East Green land; Frobisher, in Haklu.vt, Voyages, etc. (1589), p. 627, Baffin Land; Parry, 2d Voy., p. 494, and Lyon, Journal, p. 230, Iglulik; Petitot, Monographie. et«., p. xxix, Mackenzie district; Hooper, Tents, «tc., pp.257, Icy Iteef, and 347, Maitland Id.; Frankliii, 2d Exp.. p. 119. Point Sabino; Ball, Alaska, pp. 140 and 381, Norton Sound and Plover Hay. See also references U> Nordmiskio'ld, given above, and Krause Bros., Geographische Blatter, vol. 5, pt. 1, p. 5. 142 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. in either sex is rare. 1 do not remember ever seeing ;i bald woman, and there were only two bald men at the two villages. Neither of these men was very old. Head-band*. — Some of the men and boys wear across the forehead a string of large blue glass beads, sometimes sewed on a strip of deer skin. Occasionally, also a fillet is worn made of the skin of the head of a fox or a dog, with the nose coming in the middle of the forehead. Such head-dresses are by no means common and seem to be highly prized, as they were never offered for sale. MacFarlane (MS.) speaks of a similar head-dress worn at the Anderson liiver, " generally made of the skin of the fore part of the head skins of wolves, wolverines, and marmots. Very often, however, a string of beads is made iise of in stead." Another style of head-dress is the badge of a whaleman, and is worn only when whaling (and, I believe, at the ceremonies in the spring preparatory to the whaling). This seems to be very highly prized, and is, perhaps, "looked upon with superstitious regard."1 None were ever offered for sale and we had only two or three oppor tunities of seeing it. It consists of a broad fillet of mountain-sheep skin, with pendants of flint, jasper, or crystal, rudely flaked into the shape of a whale (see under "Amulets," where specimens are described and figured), one in the middle of the brow and one over each ear. Some of them are also fringed with the incisor teeth of the mountain sheep attached by means of a small hole drilled through the end of the root, as on the dancing cap (see under " Games and Pastimes"). The cap tain and harpooner of a whaling crew which I saw starting out in the spring of 1882 each wore one of these fillets. The harpooner's had only the whale pendants, but the captain's was also fringed with teeth. This ornament closely resembles the fillet fringed with deer's teeth, observed by Capt. Parry at Iglulik,2 which " was understood to be worn on the head by men, though we did not learn on what occasions." Earring* (nogolu). — Nearly all the women and girls perforate the lobes of the ears and wear earrings. The commonest pattern is a little hook of ivory to which arc attached pendants, short strings of beads, etc. Large, oblong, dark-blue beads and bugles are specially desired for this purpose. Cheap brass or "brummagem" earrings are some times worn nowadays. The fashion in earrings seems to have changed somewhat since Dr. Simpson's time, as I do not remember ever having seen the long strings of beads hanging across the breast or looped up behind as he describes them/1 At present, one earring is much more frequently worn than a pair. There; are in the collection two pairs of the ivory hooks for earrings, which, though made for sale, are of the ordinary pattern. Of these No. 80387 [1340] (Fig. 90) will serve as the type. They are of coarse, white walrus ivory. 1 Sec Dr. Simpson. op. cit., p. 243. Compare also Brodbeck, '• Nach Oaten '' (p. 23). Speaking of " ein Kopf- oder Stirnband," lie says: "Vielleieht gilt es ilmen als eine Art voii /aiiberschiitzmittel. denu 68 iat uin kein (leld zu haben. Draugt man sie, so sagen me wohl, es sei nicht ihr eigen." '* Second Voy., p. 498 and Fig. 7. ]»1. opposite p. 548. H)p. cit., p. 241. MURDOCH.) LABKETS. 143 Xo. 89380 [l.'UO] is a similar pair of earrings, in which the hook pro jects at right angles and terminates in a flat, round burton. Hoth of the specimensare of theiisnal pattern, but very roughly made. The custom of wearing earrings is very general among the, Eskimo. I need only refer to the descriptions of dress and ornaments already quoted. Labrets. — As has been stated by all travelers who have visited Point Barrow since the time of Elson, all the adult males wear the labrets or stud-shaped lip ornaments. The discussion of the origin and extent of this habit, or even a comparison of the forms of labrets in use among the Eskimo, would lead me far beyond the scope of the present work.1 They are or have been worn by all the Eskimo of -western America, including St. Lawrence Island and the Diomedes, from the most south ern point of their range to the Macken/ie and Anderson district, and were also worn by Aleuts in ancient times.2 Kast of the Macken/ie dis trict no traces of the habit are to be observed. Petitot3 says that Cape Bathurst is the most eastern point at which labrets are worn. The custom of wearing them at this place is perhaps recent, as Dr. Armstrong, of the Invetsti- f i,0m-. against the teeth, and it is probably genuine. The purchase of this specimen apparently started the manufacture of bone labrets at Ttki- avwlfi, where no bone labrets, old or new, had previously been seen. For several days after we bought the specimen from Sidaru the natives continued to bring over bone labrets, but all so newly and clumsily made that we declined to purchase any more than four specimens. About the same time they began to make oblong labrets out of soapstone (a material which we never saw used for genuine la brets), like Fig. 95, No. 89707 Flo. 95. — Oblnny labret of N [1215]. The purchase of three specimens of these started a whole sale manufacture of them, and we stopped purchasing. The oblong labret appears to have been still in fashion as late as 182<>, for Elsou saw many of the men at Point Barrow wearing oblong labrets of bone (if. No. 89712 [11(59] and stone, 3 inches long and 1 broad.2 Un fortunately, he does not specify whether they were worn in pairs or 1 Voyage, p. 249. ! lieechey's Voy.. p. 308. IVEI. 148 THE POINT BAEEOW ESKIMO. singly, iin5(>(i6 [181!] (Fig. 08«) has been selected as the type. It is made of walrus ivory (from near the root of the tusk). When in use, it is held with the tip of the forefinger in the ring, the thumb and middle finger resting on each 'There is in the collection a bunch of live of these shells (No. 89530 [1357], which are scarce ami highly valued as ornaments. Mr. K. E. C. Steams, (if the U. S. National Museum, has identified the species ;i* I)i-alalium Indianorum Cpr. (probably = 7). prctiontm, Shy.), called "allkotci'k " by the Indians of northwest California, and "hiqua" (J. K. Lord) or "bya-qua" (F. Whymper) oy the Indians round Queen Charlotte Sound. "Voyage, p. 295. 150 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. side of the neck. Tlii.s is perhaps the commonest form of the comb, though it is often made with two curved arms at the top instead of a ring, as in Pig. 98&, No. 565(59 [194], or sometimes with a plain top, like No. 56572 [210] (Fig. 98c). Nine of the ten combs, all from UtkiavwTn, arc of walrus ivory, but No. 89785 [100(5], which was the property of Ilii'bwga, the Nunrttafiniinn, who spent the winter of 1882-'83 at Utki- Fio. 98.— Hair combs. avwifi, is made of reindeer antler. This was probably made in the interior, where antler is more plentiful than ivory. All these combs are made with great care and patience. The teeth are usually cut with a saw, but on one specimen the maker used the sharp edge of a pieee of tin, as we had refused to loan him a tine saw. This kind of comb is very like that described by Parry from [glulik.1 IMPLEMENTS FOR GENERAL USE. Knives. — All the men are now supplied with excellent knives of civil ized manufacture, mostly butcher knives or sheath knives of various patterns, which they employ for numerous purposes, such as skinning and butchering game, cutting up food, and rough whittling. Fine whittling and carving is usually done with the "crooked knife," to be described further on. In whittling the knife is grasped so that the blade projects on the ulnar side of the hand and is drawn toward the workman. A pocketknife, of which they have many of various patterns, is used in the same way. I observed that the Asiatic Eskimo at Plover Bay held the knife in the same manner. Capt. Lyon, in describing a man whit- 1 2nd Voyagw, p. 194, Fig. 12, PI. opp. p. 548. KNIVES. 151 tliug at Winter Island, says: "As is customary with negroes, lie cat to ward tlic left hand and never used the thumb of the right, as we do, for a check to the knife."' This apparently refers to a similar manner of holding- the knife. Before the introduction of iron, knives appear to have been always made of slate, worked by grinding. We obtained twenty-six more or less complete knives, most of which are genuine old implements, which have been preserved as heirlooms or amulets. These knives are either single or double edged, and the, double-edged knives may be divided into four classes, according to their shape. The lirst class consists of rather small knives with the edges straight or only slightly curved, tapering to a sjiarp or trun cated point, with the butt termina ting in a short broad tang slightly narrower than the blade, which is inserted in the end of a straight wooden haft, at least as long as the blade. The commonest mate rial is a hard, dark purple slate, though some are of black or dark gray slate. Of this class we have three complete knives and five blades without the haft. No. 89584 [HOT] (figured in Point Barrow Kept., Ethnology, IM. Ml, Fig. 3), will represent this class. It is a blade of dark purple slate, ground smooth, .'5-5 inches long, tapering from a width of 1-3 inches at the butt, with curved edges to a sharp point, and beveled on both faces from the middle line to the edges, and the flat tang is inserted into a cleft in the end of a straight haft of spruce. The blade is se cured by a •whipping of about fifteen turns of sinew braid lodged in a broad shallow groove round the end of the haft. In ahole in the other end of the haft is looped a- short lanyard of seal thong. Fig. 99«, No. 8! 1581 [1011], is a knife of the same class and about the same size, having a haft 4 inches and a blade .'5 inches long. The blade is secured by t wo lashings, of which the first is a narrow strip of whalebone, and the other of sinew braid. The materials of blade and haft are the same as before. No. 89585 [1710] (Fig. !)9/y), has a blade of dark gray slate, and the haft, •which appears to be of cotton wood, is in two longitudinal sections. The a. V\(i. 9!).— Slalc knives 1 Journal, p. 92. 152 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. FlQ. 100.— Slate knife-blade. lashing which holds those two sections together is of braided sinew. Of the blades, the only sharp-pointed one, No. 56684 [228] (Fig. 100), is like the blade of 89584 [1107], but rather larger. The others, all have rounded or truncated points and are not over 3£ inches long, including the tang, but otherwise closely resemble the blades already described. They all show signs of considerable age and several of them are nicked and gapped on the edge from use. Knives of this class- are not like any in use at the present day, and it was not possible to learn definitely whether this shape served any special purpose. We were, however, given to under stand that the sharp-pointed ones were sometimes, at least, used for stabbing. Perhaps they were used specially for cutting up the smaller animals. The second class, of which there are four specimens, is not unlike the first, but the blade is short and broad, with strongly curved edges, and always sharp pointed,, while the haft is always much longer than the blade. Instead of being evenly beveled off on both faces from the middle line to the edges, they are either slightly convex, worked down gradually to the edge, or flat with narrowly beveled edges. They are all small knives, the longest being 8-3 inches long, with the blade projecting 3-1 inches from the haft, and the shortest 4-0 inches, with the blade projecting only 1-4 inches. Fig. 101, No. 89583 [1305], is a knife of this class, with the blade a nearly equilat eral triangle (-1-4 inches long and 1-3 inches wide at the base), with a flat wooden haft as wide as the blade and 3.J inches long, cleft at the tip and lashed with thirteen or fourteen turns of sinew braid. The holes near the butt of the haft were probably to receive a lanyard. Fig. 102, No. 89591 [1016], is another form of the same class. The blade is secured by a single rivet of wood. The third class consists of large knives, with long, broad, lanceolate blades, and short straight hafts. There is only one complete specimen, No. 89592 [1002], Fig. 103. FIG. 101.— Slate knifi-. 1'IU. 101'.— Slate knife. lniiitiiiL'-kiiil'r. This has a blade of soft . light green- Ml-RDOTH.] KNIVES. lf>3 I'IQ. 104.— llladu iil'slutu hunting-knife. ish slate, 0 inches long and 2-0 inches broad, with the edges broadly bev eled on both faces. The haft of spruce is in two longitudinal sections, put together so as to inclose the short tang of the blade, and is secured by a tight whipping of eighteen turns of fine seal twine, and painted with red ocher. This knife is new and was made for sale, 4 ^&^ but is undoubtedly a correct model of an ancient pattern, as No. 50076 [204] (Fig. 104), which is certainly ancient, ap pears to be the blade of just such a knife. We were told that the latter was intended for cutting blubber. This perhaps means that it was a whaling knife. Mr. Nelson brought home a magnificent knife of precisely the same pattern, made of light green jade. The two knives, representing the fourth class, are both new and made for sale, having blades of soft slate. As we obtained no genuine knives of this pattern, it is possible that they are merely commercial fabrications. The two knives are very nearly alike, but the larger, No. 89590 [984] (Fig. 105), is the more carefully made. The blade is of light green ish gray slate, 0-2 inches long and 2 inches broad, and is straight nearly to the tip, where it curves to a sharp point, making a blade like that of the Roman gladins. The haft is a piece sawed out of the beam of an antler, and has a cleft sawed in one end to receive the short broad tang of the blade. Tlje -whipping is of sinew braid. The single-edged knives were probably all meant specially for cut ting food, and are all of the same general pattern, varying in size from a blade only 2i inches long to one of 7 inches. The blade is generally more strongly curved along the edge than on the back and is usually sharp-pointed. It is fitted with a broad tang to a straight haft, usually shorter than the blade. There _ are in the collection four complete knives and five unhai'ted blades. No. 89597 [1052] (Fig. 100) isa typ ical knife of thiskind. Thebladc is of black slate, rather rough, and is 5-6 inches long (including the tang). The tang, which is about one-half inch long and the same breadth, is lashed against one end of the flat haft of bone which is cut away to receive it, with five turns of stout seal thong. No. 89594 [1053] differs from the preceding only in hav ing the tang inserted in a cleft in the end of the haft, and No. 89589«. Flu. 10!>.— Large slate knife. { 'li Fir,. lOfi.—Lar^L- si ilgi^l slate kuife. 154 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. [1054] has the back more curved than the edge, the haft of antler and the lashing of whalebone. All three are of very rude, workmanship. No. 89587 [1587] is a small knife with a truncated point and the tang imbedded without lashing in the end of a roughly made haft of bone. Most of the blades are those of knives similar to the type, more smoothly finished, but No. 5) is almost double-edged, the back being rounded oft'. Fig. 108, No. 8!«>31 [1081], is a very re markable form of slate knife, of which this was the only specimen seen. In shape it somewhat resem bles a hatchet, having a broad tri angular blade with a strongly curved cutting edge, along the back of which is fitted a stout haft of bone llij inches long. The blade is of soft, dark purple slate, ground smooth, and resembles the modern knives in having the sharp cutting edge beveled almost wholly on one face. The haft is the foreshal't of an old whale harpoon, and is made of whale's bone. The back of the blade is fitted into a deep narrow saw cut, and held on by three very neat lashings of narrow strips of whalebone, each of which passes through a hole drilled through the blade close to the haft and through a pair of vertical holes in the haft on each side of the blade. These holes converge towards the back of the haft and are joined by a dee]> channel, so that the lashing is countersunk below the surface of Fl(i. 107. — lUaiU's ul' knive.s. Klu. 108.— Peculiar sltitu knife. the haft. This implement was brought down from Xuwftk and offered for sale as a knife anciently used for cutting oft' the blubber of a whale. The purchaser got the impression that it was formerly attached to a long pole and used like a whale spade. On more careful examination after our return it was discovered that the haft was really part of an old harpoon and that the lashings and holes to receive them were evidently newer than the haft. iiriiDorn.J KNIVES. 1")5 It is possible that the blade may have been long ago fitted to the haft and that the tool may have been used as described. That knives of this sort were occasionally used by the Eskimo is shown by a speci men in the Museum from Norton Sound. This is smaller than the one described but has a slate blade of nearly the same shape and has a haft, for hand use only, put on in the same way. With such knives as these the cut is made by drawing the knife toward the user instead of pushing it away, as in using the round knife. We found no evidence that these Eskimo ever used knives of ivory (except for cutting snow) or ivory knives with bits of iron inlaid in the edge, such as have been observed among those of the East. Fig. 100, No. 89477 [1422], is a very extraordinary implement, which was brought down from Point Harrow and which has evidently been exposed alongside of some corpse at the cemetery. The blade is a long, flat, thin piece of whale- bone wedged between the two parts of the haft, which has been sawed lengthwise for 64 inches to receive it. The haft is a slender piece of antler. No other specimens of the kind were seen, nor have similar implements, to my knowledge, been observed elsewhere. The natives insisted that it was genuine, and was formerly used for cutting blubber. 1 have introduced four figures of old iron or steel knives, of which we have six specimens, in order to show the way in which the natives in early days, when iron was scarce, utilized old ease-knives and bits of tools, fitting them with hafts of their own make. All agree in having the edge beveled on the upper face only. All the knives which they ob tain from the whites at the present day are worked over with a file so as to bring the bevel on one face only. Fig. 110, No. 89290 [970], from Nmvuk, has a blade of iron, and the flat haft is made of two longitudinal sec tions of reindeer Flu. 110— Small inm knifi-. an tier, held together with four large rivets nearly equidistant. The two which pass through the tang are of brass and the other two of iron. The blade is 3-(! inches long, the haft 4-1 long and 0-9 broad. Fig. 110, No. 89294 [901], from Utkiavwin, has a short, thick, and sharp-pointed blade, and is hafted in the same way with antler, one section of the haft being cut out to receive the short, thick tang. The first two rivets are of iron, the other three of brass and not quite long enough to go wholly through the haft. The blade is barely 2 inches long. Fig. 111«. No. 89297 [1125). from Nuwuk, has a short blade, 24 inches long, and the two sections of the 156 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. haft are held together, not by rivets, but by a close spiral lashing of stout seal thong exteuding the whole length of the haft. No. S9293 [1830], Fig. llli, from Utkiavwlii, has a peculiarly shaped blade, which is a bit of some steel tool imbedded in the end of a straight bit of antler 4 inches long. One of these knives, not figured, is evidently part of the blade of an old-fashioned curved case knife. It is stamped FIG. 111. — Small iroii knives. with the name "Wilson," and underneath this are three figures, of which only <^> can be made out. This may be a table knife bought or stolen from the Plover in 1852-'54. There is in the collection one large double-edged knife (Fig. 112, No. 89298 [Hfi2]) of precisely the same form as the slate hunting knife (Fig. 103) and Mr. Nelson's jade knife previously mentioned. The blade is of thick sheet iron, which has in it a couple of rivet holes, and the haft of reindeer antler in two sections, held together by a large copper rivet Flo. 112.— Iron hunting kllUe. at each end and a marline of sinew braid. Each edge has a narrow bevel on one face only, the two edges being beveled on opposite faces. There are a small number of such knives still in use, especially as hunting knives (for cutting up walrus, one man said). They are considered to be better than modern knives for keeping off evil spirits at night. As is not unusual, the antiquity of the object has probably invested it with a certain amount of superstitious regard. These knives are undoubtedly the same as the "double-edged knives (paii'-na)" mentioned by Dr. MI-KUOCH.] CROOKED KNIVES. 157 Simpson (op. cit., p. 200) as brought for sale by the Nunatafiminn, who obtained them from the Siberian natives, ai'd which he believes to be carried as far as the strait of Fury and Hecla. It would be interesting' to deeide whether the stone limiting knives were an original idea of the Eskimo, or whether they were copies, in stone, of the first few iron knives obtained from Siberia; but more material is needed before the matter can be cleared up. The natives of Point Barrow, in ordinary conversation, call all knives savlk, which also means iron, and is identically the same as the word used in Greenland for the same objects. If, then, there was a time, as these people say, when their ancestors were totally ignorant of the use of iron — and the large number of stone implements still found among them is strongly corroborative of this — the use of this name indicates that the first iron was obtained from the east, along with the soap- stone lamps, instead of from Siberia. Had it first come from Siberia, as tobacco did, we should expect to find it. like the latter, called by a Russian or Siberian name. Like all the Eskimo of North America from Cape Batlmrst westward the natives of Point Barrow use for tine whittling and carving on wood, ivory, bone, etc., "crooked knives," consisting of a small blade, set on the under side of the end of a long curved haft, so that the edge, which is beveled only on the upper face, projects about as much as that of a spokeshave. The curve of blade and haft is such that when the under surface of the blade rests against the surface to be cut the end of the haft points up at an angle of about 45°. This knife differs essentially from the crooked carvi ig knife so generally used by the Indians of North America. As a rule the latter has only the blade (which is often double edged) curved and stuck into the end of a straight haft. These knives are at the present time made of iron or steel and are of two two sizes, a large knife, mi'dllfi, with a haft 10 to -!() inches long, intended for working on wood, and a small one, savigro'n (lit. "an instrument for shaving"), with a haft (5 or 7 inches long and intended specially for cut ting bone and ivory. Both sizes are handled in the same way. The knife is held clow to the blade between the index and second fingers of the right hand with the thumb over the edge, which is toward the work man. The workman draws the knife toward him, using his thumb as a check to gauge the depth of the cut. The natives use, these knives with very great skill, taking off long and very even shavings and producing very neat workmanship.1 There are in the collection four large knives and thirteen small ones. No. 89^78 [787J (Fig. 113) will serve as the type of the large knives. The haft is a piece of reindeer antler, flat on one face and rounded on the other, and the curve is toward the rounded face. The flat face is hollowed out by cutting away the cancellated tissue from the bend to 'Compare this with what Capt. Parry nays of the workmanship of the people of Iglnlik (2d Voy.,p. 336). The almost exclusive use of the double-edged pan'na is the reason their work is so "remarkably coarse anil clumsy." 158 TEE POINT BARKOW ESKIMO. the tip, aud the lower edge is sloped oft' so that the end of the haft is flat and narrow, with a slight twist. The blade is riveted to the Hat face of the haft with three iron rivets, and is a piece of a saw counter sunk flush with the surface of the haft, so that it follows its curvature. The cutting edge is beveled only on the upper face. The lower edge of the haft, from the blade to the place where it begins to narrow, is pierced with eleven equidistant holes, through which is laced a piece of seal skin thong, the two parts crossing like a shoe-lacing, to prevent the FIG. 113.— Lar<;e «.Took«-il knifi-. hand from slipping. The ornamental pattern on the upper face of the haft is incised and was originally colored with red ocher, but is now tilled with dirt. Fig. 114, No. 89780 [1004277 [ 1 1 72]. The blade, in such cases, is secured by wedging it tightly, with sometimes the addition of a lashing of thong through a hole in the halt and round the heel of the blade. The blade is usually of steel, in most cases a bit of Flu. 115.— Small cnioktil knives. a saw and the haft of reindeer antler, generally plain, unless the circular hollows, such as are to be, seen on No. S9277 [11 72], which are very com mon, are intended for ornament. Fig. 116, No. 89275 [1183], from Tt- kiavwln, is a rather peculiar knife. The haft, which is the only one seen of walrus ivory, is nearly straight, and the unusually long point of the blade is strongly bent up. The rivets are of copper. This knife, the history of which we did not obtain, was very likely meant both for wood and ivory. It is old and rusty and has been long in use. KlO. 116.— CYiHikcd knifi-. All of the, crooked knives in the collection are genuine implements which have been actually in use, and do not (litter in type from the (•rooked knives in the Museum from the Mackenzie district, Kotxebue Sound, and other parts of Alaska. Similar knives appear to be used among the Siberian Eskimo and the (Jlmkches, who have adopted their habits. Hooper (Tents, etc., p. 175), mentions "a small knife with a, bent blade and a handle, generally made of the tip of a deer's horn," as one in general use at Plover Bay, and handled in the same skillful way 160 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. as at Point Barrow.1 Among the Eskimo of the central region they are almost entirely unknown. The only mention I have seen of such tools is in Parry's Second Voyage (p. 504), where he speaks of seeing at Iglulik " several open knives with crooked wooden handles," which he thinks "must have been obtained by communication alongshore with Hudson Bay." I can find no specimen, figure, or description of the sa'nat ("tool"), the tool par excellence of the Greenlauders, except the follow ing definition in Kleinschrnidt's ."GiVulandsk Ordbog": "2. Specially a narrow, long-hafted knife, which is sharpened on one side and slightly curved at the tip (and which is a Greeulander's chief tool)." This seems to indicate that this knife, so common in the West, is equally common in Greenland.2 Whether these people used crooked knives before the introduction of iron is by no means certain, though not improbable. Fig. Ilia, Xo. 89033 [11%], from Utkiavwlu, is a knife made by imbedding a flake of gray flint in the lower edge of a haft of reindeer antler, of the proper shape and curvature for a midllii handle. The haft is soiled and undoubtedly old, while the flaked surfaces of the flint do not seem fresh, and the edge shows slight nicks, as if it had been used. Had this knife been fol lowed by others equally genuine looking, I should have no hes- FIG. ii7.— crooked knives, flint biaded. itation in pronouncing it a pre historic knife, and the ancestor of the present steel one. The fact, how ever, that its purchase gave rise to the manufacture of a host of flint knives all obviously new and more and more clumsily made, until we refused to buy any more, leads me to suspect that it was fabricated with very great care from old material, and skillfully soiledby the maker. Ten of these knives of flint were purchased within a fortnight before we detected the deceit. Fig. 1176, No. 8!)636 [1212] is one of the best of these counterfeits, made by wedging a freshly flaked flint blade into the haft of an old savigron, which has been somewhat trimmed to receive the blade and soiled and charred to make it look old. Other more carelessly made ones had clumsily carved handles of whale's bone, with roughly flaked flints stuck into them and glued in with oil dregs. All of these came from Utkiavwlu. Another suspicious circumstance is that a few days previously two slate-bladed crooked knives had been brought down from Nuwttk and accepted without question as ancient. On examining the specimens since our return, I find that while the hafts are certainly old, the blades, which are of soft slate easily worked, 'Lisiansky also mentions "a small crooked knife" (Voyage, p. 181), as one of the tools used in Ka- diak in 1805. '' A specimen lias lately been received at the National Museum. It i* remarkably like the Indian knife in pattern. KUDOOH.] CUOOKK1) KMVKS KOUMJ KNIVES. Ifil arc as certainly new. Fig. llSrt, 118/>, represent these two knives (8!)r»S()[l(l(»2], SOr»S3 Flu. 124. — Woman's am'ieiit .slate-bliuk-d kuil'f. thong, with the fiid wound spirally roun!tO [ 1311 ] is a flint knife hafted with a rough, irregular lump of coarse whale's bone. The blade is a rather thin '' spall " of light gray Hint, flaked round the edges into the shape of a modern uli'iri: blade, with a very strongly curved cutting edge. Though the handle is new, the flaking of the blade does not seem fresh, so that it is possibly u genuine old blade fitted with a new haft for the market. A similar flint blade, more neatly flaked, was brought from Kotzebue Sound by Lieut. Stoney, U. S. Navy, in 1884. The other two flint knives are in teresting from being made for use without handles. No. 8l(i!91 [1300], Fig. 127, from Sidani, is an oblong, wedge-shaped spall of gray flint, of which the back still preserves the natural surface of the pebble. It is slightly shaped by coarse flaking along the back and one end, and the edge is finely flaked into a curved outline round ing up at the ends. The specimen is old and dirty, and was probably preserved as a sort of heirloom or amulet. Xo. SiHiKli [ 1 178] is a similar spall from a round pebble. Such knives as these are evidently the first steps in the de velopment of the round knife. The shape of the spalls, produced by breaking a round or oval pebble of flint, would naturally sug gest using them as knives, and the next step would be to improve the edge by flaking. The greater adaptability of slate, from its j Km. I-JT.— Woman's kuiiv of nuked softness and easy cleavage, for making such knives would soon be recognized, and we should expect to find, as we do, knives like No. 5(!li72 [1!H j. The next step would naturally be to provide such a knife with a haft at the point where the stone was grasped by the hand, while reducing this haft so as to leave only just enough for the grasp and cutting away the superfluous corners of the blade would give us the modern form of the blade. Hound knives of shite are not peculiar to Point Barrow, but have been collected in many other places in northwestern America.1 The relationship between these knives and the seiiiilunar slate blades found in the North Atlantic, States has already been ably discussed by Dr. Charles Han.2 It must, however, be borne in mind that while these are sufficiently "fish-cutters" to warrant their admission into a book on fishing, the cutting of fish is but a small part of the work they do. The name "fish-cutter,'' as applied to these knives, would be no more 1 See, I'Hpecially, Dull, ('onti-ili., vol. 1. pp. f>fl and 79, Cor fij;im'H of mich knives froin tin- i-avea of Una- Iwhka. 'Prehistoric Kishitij:, pp. 183-188, ADZKS. 165 distinctive thiiii the nanu' '* tobacco-cutter " for ;i Yankee's jack- knife.1 Atlzcs (itiUuiMii). — Even at the present day the Eskimo of Point Har row use no tool for shaping large pieces of woodwork, except a short- handled adz, hafted in the same manner as the old stone tools which were employed before the introduction of iron. Though axes and hatch ets are frequently obtained by trading, they are never used as such, but the head is removed and rehafted so as to make an ad/ of it. This habit is not peculiar to the people of Point Harrow. There is a liatchet head, mounted in the same way, from the Anderson River, in the Museum collection, and the same thing was noted in Hudson's Strait by ('apt. Lyon2 and at Iglulik by rapt. Parry/1 Mr. I>. M. Turner in forms me that the Eskimo of I'ngava, on the south side of Hudson's Strait, who have been long in contact with the whites. Imvc learned to use axes. The collection contains two such adzes made from small hatchets. No. 8987:1 (972), Fig. 128, is the more typical of the two. The blade is the head of a small, liatchet or tomahawk lashed to the haft of oak with a stout thong of seal hide. The lashing is one piece, and Km. 128.— Hatchet hatted MS an iiilz. is put on wet and shrunk tightly on. This tool is a little longer in the haft than those commonly used, and the shape and material of the haft is a little unusual, it being generally elliptical in section and made of soft wood. Fig. 129, No. 56638 [309], from Utkiavwlfi, is a similar adz, but the head has been narrowed by cutting off pieces from the sides (done by filing part way through and breaking the piece off), and a deep trans verse groove has been cut on the front face near the butt. Part of the lashing is held in this groove as well as by the eye, the lower half of which is filled up with a wooden plug. The haft is peculiar in being a . 'It is but .just to I>r. Kan to say that ho recognized tin- fart that tliene implements are not exclu sively rish-eutt r«. and applies this name only to indicate that lit- has treated of them simply in refer ence In thrir ti r as sueli. The idea, however, that these. In-ini; slightly diHerent in sh;tpe from the Greenland oln which it miles irulu, are merely fish knives, has gained a certain currency .minim anthropologists rable to counteract. ''Journal, p. 8. 3L'd Voyage, p. .WO, and pi. opp. p. 548. fig. 3. 166 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. piece of reindeer antler which has been reduced in thickness by sawing out a slice for 8 inches from the butt and bringing the two parts together with four stout wooden treenails about li inches apart. This is pref erable to trimming it down to a proper thickness irom the surface, as the latter process would remove the compact tissue of the outside and expose the soft inside tissue. The whipping of seal thong just above the flange of the butt helps to give a better grip and, at the same time, to hold the parts together. As before, there are two large holes for the lashing. Ad/es of this sort are used for all large pieces of wood work, such as timbers for boats, planks, and beams for houses, etc. After roughly dressing these out with the ad/ they are neatly smoothed ott' with the crooked knife, or sometimes, of late years, with the plane. The work of "getting out" the large pieces of wood is almost always done where the drift log lies on the beach. When a man wants a new stem or sternpost for his umiak, or a plank to repair his house, he searches along the beach until he finds a suitable piece of driftwood, Flo. 129.— Hatchet hnfterl ;is an adz. which he claims by putting a mark on it, and sometimes hauls up out of the way of the waves. Then, when he has leisure to go at the work, he goes out with his adz and* spends the day getting it into shape and reducing it to a convenient si/e to carry home, either slung on his back or, if too large, on a dog-sled. A man seldom takes the trouble to carry home more of a piece of timber than he actually needs for the purpose in hand. The ad/ was in general use long before the introduction of iron. There is in the collection a very interesting series of ancient tools, showing the gradual development of the implement from a rude oblong block of stone worked down to a cutting edge on one end, to the steel ad/.es of the present day. They have, however, not even yet learned to make an eye in the head of the tool in which to insert the haft, but all tools of this class — adzes, hammers, picks, and mattocks — are lashed, witli one face resting against the expanded end of the haft. Firmness is obtained by putting the lashing on wet and allowing it to shrink tight. Nearly all these ancient ad/es are of jade, a material well adapted for the purpose by its hardness, which, however, renders Mt'RUOCH.] STONE ADZES. 1G7 it difficult to work. Probably the oldest of these, adzes is No. 5GG75 [09], Fig. 130, which has been selected as the type of the earliest form we have represented in the collection. This is of dark olive green, almost black, jade, 7-2 inches long, -i-8 wide, and 1-.'? thick, and smoothly ground on the broader faces. The cutting edge is much broken from long use. One broad face is pretty smoothly ground, but left rough at the butt end. The other is rather natter, but more than half of it is irregu larly concave, the natural inequalities being hardly touched by grinding. Like the other dark-colored jade tools, this specimen is very much lighter on a freshly fractured surface. The dark color is believed to be due to long contact with greasy substances. Fin. ISO.— Adz-hcuil (if .jade. Kio. 1:U.— Adz- head of jade. No. 89002 [900], from Nuwuk, is an exceedingly rough adz of similar shape, but so slightly ground that it is probably one that was laid aside unfinished. From the battered appearace of the ends it seems to have been used for a hammer. It is of the same dark jude as the preceding. No. 89(589 [792], from Utkiavwlfi, is of rather light olive, opaque jade and a trifle better finished than the type, while No. 89001 [1155], Fig. l.'Jl, also from I'tkiavwin, is a still better piece of workmanship, the curve of the faces to the cutting edge being very graceful. The inter esting point about this specimen is that a straight piece has been cut off from one side by sawing down smoothly from each face almost to the middle and breaking the piece oft'. \Ve were informed that this was done to procure rods of jade, for making knife sharpeners. We were informed that these stones were cut in the same way as marble and freestone are cut with us, namely, by sawing with a flat blade of iron and sand and water. A thin lamina of hard bone was probably used before the intro duction of iron. Possibly a reindeer scapula, cut like the one made 168 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. into 11 saw (No. 80470 | 1200], Fig. 147), but without teeth, was used for tliis purpose. That such stone blades were used with a haft is shown by the only hafted specimen, No. 5002S [214], Fig. 1.'52, from Nuwfik. Tliis is a rather small adz. The head of dark green jade (lifters from those already de- m^^mf^y^ rp „-, . ••'•,' ,f}'\ 'fr.It// i •! i . . •' , ii.'t • . J J - _.: f-. r .. f ".' •>•'. .- .j Fio. 132.— Hafted Jade ndl. scribed only in dimensions, being 4 inches long, 2-1 wide, and 1-7 thick. The haft is of reindeer antler and in shape much like that of No. 5(50;{8 [300], but has only one hole for the lashing. The lashing is of the usual stout seal thong and put on in the usual fashion. No. 80073 f 1423] is an old black adz from Sidaru of the same pattern as those described, but very smoothly and neatly made. About one-half of tliis specimen has been cut off for whet stones, etc. The next step is to make the lash ing more secure by cutting trans verse grooves on the upper face, of the head to hold the thong in place. This has been done on No. 500(57 [215], figured in Point Barrow Kept., Ethnology, PI. n, Fig. 5, an adz of dark olive green jade, from Utkiavwifi, which shows two such grooves, broad and shallow, running across the upper face. Of these two classes the collection contains thirteen unhafted specimens and one hafted specimen, all of jade. As (rutting these grooves in the stone is a laborious process, the device of substituting some more easily worked substance for the back part of the head would naturally suggest itself. Fig. 133, No. 80058 [1072], from Utkiavwlfi, has a long blade of black stone with the butt slightly tapered off and imbedded in a body of whale's bone, which has a channel 1 inch wide, for the lashing, cut round Flo. ]:t't. — Adz-head of jude and bom-. FlQ.134.— Adl-tmtdof bone and iron. with out i-vcs. MfRIXXJI!.] COMPOSITE ADZES. 109 it and a shallow socket on the face to receive the end of the haft. Adz heads of this same type continued iu use till after the, introduction of iron, which was at lirst utilized by inserting a Hat blade of iron into just such a body, as is shown in Fig. l.'U (No. 8!)S77 [752], from the cem etery at Utkiavwlfi). From this type to that shown in Fig. l.V» (No. 80876 fO!»«] brought by the natives from the ruins on the Kuliignia) the transition is easy. Suppose, for the greater protection of the lashings, we incloxe the chan nels on the sides of the head — in other words, bore holes instead of cut- tin};' grooves — we have exactly this pattern, namely, vertical eyes on each side of the head joined by transverse channels on the upper face. The specimen figured has on each side two oblong slots with a round eye be tween them. The blade is of iron, Fig. VM. No. .-><;<;4<) [i»«0] has t\vo eyes on each side, and shows a different method of attaching the blade, which is countersunk flush with the upper surface of the bodv and secured with ••}••:. i:;i. -Adz head of three stout iron rivets. Thenextstep IHHIC and and iron. with vertical eyes. Flo. 136.— Adz-head 01 IllUn- Mild il nil. With vertical eves. is to substitute horizontal eyes forth* vertical ones, so as to have only OIK set of holes to thread the lashings through. This is seen in No. sos<;o [878], Fig. 137, from Nitwiik, which in general pattern closely resembles No. 80876 [606], but has three large horizontal eyes instead of the ver tical ones. The blade is of iron and the haft of whale's bone. The lashing is essentially the same as that of the modern adz. No. 560&S [309]. ilz. That this final type of hafting was reached before, stone; had gone out of use for such implements is shown by Fig. l.'W, No. S08.'{0 [700|, from UtkiavwTfi, which, while very like the last in shape, has n blade 170 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. of hard, dark purple, slate. The, haft is of reindeer antler. The lash ing has the short end knotted to the, long part after making the first round, instead of being slit to receive the latter. Otherwise it is of the, usual pattern. These composite adzes of bone and stone or iron seemed to have been common at the end of the period when stone was exclusively used arid when iron first came into use in small quantities, and a good many have been preserved until the present day. We obtained four halted and six unhafted specimens, besides seven jade blades for such composite adzes, which are easily recognizable by Flo. 138. — Hafted bone and stono ailz. their small size and their shape. They are usually broad and rather thin, and narrowed to the butt, as is seen in Fig. 139, No. 50085 [71], a beautiful little adz of bright green jade 2-8 inches long and 2-3 wide, from TTtkiavwIfi. No. 50070 [240] also from Utkiavwin, is a similar blade of greenish jade slightly larger, being 34 inches long and 2 inches wide. No. 89070 [1092] is a tiny blade of hard, fine-grained black stone, probably oil- soaked jade, only 1-7 inches long and 1-5 wide. It is very smoothly ground. Such little adzes, we were told, were especially used for cutting bone. The implement,1 which Nordenskjold calls a "stone chisel," found in the ruins of an old Es kimo house at Cape North, isevidently the FIQ. 189.— Small adz-blade of green jade. . , „ ,.,, i-iii i i head of oneoi these little bone adzes, as is plainly seenon coinparingthis figure with the larger adzes figured above. I have figured two more composite adzes, which are quite different from the rest. No. 89838 [1109], Fig. 140, has a blade of neatly flaked gray Hint, but this as well as the unusually straight haft is newly 1 Figured iu tin; Voyage of tile Vega, vol. 1, p. 444, Fig. 1. ADZES. 171 made. These are fitted to a very old bone body, which when whole was not over .'* inches long, and was probably part of a little bone adz. There is no evidence that these people ever used flint adzes. Fig. 141, No. 8!(87:i [785], isintroducedtoshowhowthenativehasutilized an old cooper's adz, of which the eye was probably broken, by fitting it with a bone body. FIG. UO.— Batted adz of bone and Hint. While the adzes already described appear to have been the predomi nating types, another form was sometimes used. Fig. 142, No.8!(874 [!K>4], from Nuwuk, represents this form. The haft is of whale's rib, 1 foot long, and the head of bone, apparently whale's scapula, 5-6 inches long and 12-8 inches wide on the edge. There is an adze in the Museum from the Mackenzie River region with a steel blade of precisely the same pattern. That adzes of this pattern sometimes had stone blades is Flo. 141. — Old roojuT's adz. rehafted. probable. Mo. 81(840 [K>17|. is a clumsily made commercial tool of this type, with a small head of greenish slate. It has an unusually straight haft, which is disproportionately long and thick. All these adzes, ancient and modern, are hatted upon essentially the same pattern. The short curved haft, the shape of which is sufficiently well indicated by the figures, seems to have been generally made of whale's rib or reindeer antler, both of which have a natural curve suited 172 THE POINT HARROW KSKIMO. to the shape, of the haft. A "branch" of a reindeer's antler is particu larly well suited for the haft of a small adze. Not only does it have naturally the proper dimensions and a suitable curve, but it is very easy, by cutting out a small segment of the ''beam" where the "branch" starts from it, to make a flange of a convenient shape for fitting to the head. Antler is besides easily obtained, not only when the deer is killed for food, but by picking up shed antlers on the tundra, and is consequently employed for many purposes. The halt usually has a knob at the tip to keep the hand from slipping, and the grip is sometimes roughened with cross cuts or wound with thong. There are usually as many holes for the lashing as there are eyes in the head, though there are two holes when the head has only one large eye. On the bone heads, the surfaces to which the haft is applied and the channels for the lash ings are roughened with cross cuts to prevent slipping. The lashing always follows the same general plan, though no two. adzes are lashed exactly alike. The plan may be summarized as follows: One end of the FIG. 142.— Adz with bom- blade. thong makes a turn through one of the holes in the haft, and around or through the head. This turn is then secured, usually by passing the long (Mid through a slit in the short end and hauling this loop taut, sometimes by knotting the short end to the long part, or by catching the short end down under the next turn. The long part then makes several turns round or through the head and through the haft, sometimes also crossing around the latter, and the whole is then finished off by wrapping the end two or three times around the turns on one side and tucking it neatly underneath. This is very like the method of lashing on the heads of the mauls already described, but the mauls have only one hole in the haft, and there' are rarely any turns around the latter. .lade adz blades, like tho'se already described, have been brought by Mr. Nelson from Kotzebue Sound, the Diomedes, St. Michaels, etc., and one came from as far south as the Kiiskoqnim River. CMnels. — We collected a number of small short handled chisels, re sembling the implements called "trinket makers," of which there are so many in the National Museum. We never happened to see them in actual use, but were informed that, they were especially designed for working MUKIHICII.1 ANTLEIt CHISELS. 173 on reindeer antler. Of the eight specimens collected No. Sfl.'Wli [SS4], Fig. 143, has been selected as a type of the antler chisel (kl'fmusa). The blade is of steel, and the haft is of reindeer antler, in two longitudinal sections, put together at right angles to the plane of the blade, held together by a stout round bone treenail -i inches from the butt. The square tip of the blade is beveled on both faces to a rough cutting edge. Fig. 144 (No. 89,'?01) [10(H)| lias a small blade with an oblique tip not beveled to an edge, and a haft of walrus ivory yellowed from age. and ornamented with rows of rings, each with a dot in the center, all incised and colored with red ocher. The two parts of the haft are fastened together by a stout wooden treenail and a ittitcli of whalebone. The rest of the steel-bladed chisels, four in number, are all of about the same size and hatted with antler. The blades are somewhat irregular in shape, but all have square or oblique tips and no sharp edge. Three of them have FIG. 143. — Antler chiael. Flu. - A nt ler the sections of the haft put together as described, and fastened by a treenail and a whipping of seal twine or sinew braid at the tip. One has the two sections put together in the plane of the blade and fastened with a large copper rivet, which also passes through the butt of the blade, and three stout iron ones. The hafts of all these tools show signs of much handling. The remaining two specimens have blades of black flint. No. 89(i:57 (1207), has a haft of walrus ivory,jof the usual pattern, fastened together by a bone treenail and two stitches, one of sine^w braid and one of seal thong. The lashing of seal twine near the tip serves to mend a crack. The haft is old and rusty about the slot into which the blade is fitted, showing that it originally had an iron blade. The flint blade was probably put in to make it seem ancient, as there was a special demand for prehistoric articles. No. SiM>r>;5 [129UJ, Fig. 14.5, is nothing but a fanciful tool made to meet this demand. The haft is of light- brown mountain sheep horn, and the blade of black flint. Such flint- bladed tools may have been used formerly, but there is no proof that they were. Whalebone shares. — There is in use at Point Barrow, and apparently not elsewhere among the Eskimo, a special tool for shaving whalebone, a substance which is very much used in the form of long, thin strips for fastening together boat timbers, whipping spear shafts, etc. The 174 THE POINT HARROW KSKIMO. tliin, long shavings which curl up like "curled hair," are carefully saved and used for the padding between stocking and boot. Whalebone is also sometimes shaved for this special purpose. The tool is essentially a little spokeshave about 4 inches long, which is held by the index and second finger of the right hand, one oil each handle, with the thumb pressed against one end, and is drawn toward the workman. The col lection contains three specimens of the ordinary form (savigu), repre sented by No. 89300 [885] (figured in Point Barrow lleport, Ethnology, PL in, Fig. 0). This has a steel blade and a haft of walrus ivory. The upper face of the haft is convex and the under flat, and the blade, which is beveled only on the upper face, is set at a slight inclination to the flat face of the haft. The edge of the blade projects 0-2 inch from the haft above and 0-,'J below. The hole at one end of the haft is for a lanyard to hang it up by. The other two are of essentially the same pattern, but have hafts of reindeer antler. The collection also contains six tools of this description, with stone blades, but they are all new and very carelessly made, with hafts of coarse-grained bone. The shape of the tools is shown in Fig. 14(3, No. 89049 [1213], from Utkiavwln, which has a rough blade of soft, light greenish slate. The other five have blades of black or gray flint, roughly flaked. All these blades are glued in with oil dregs. No. 89C52 [1225] is like the others in shape, but more FIO. 146.— whalebone snavp. siatc neatly made, and is peculiar in having a blade of hard, compact bone. This is inserted by saw ing a deep, narrow slit along one side of the haft from end to end. The blade is wedged into the middle of the slit, the ends of which are neatly filled in with slips of the same material as the haft. This was the only tool of the kind seen. It is very probable that shaves. of stone were formerly used, though we obtained no genuine specimens. The use of oblong chips of flint for this purpose would naturally suggest itself to a savage, and the convenience of fitting these flakes into a little haft would soon occur to him. No. 89010 [1170] is such an oblong flint, flaked to an edge on one face, which is evidently old, and which was said to have been used for shaving whalebone. The material is black flint. Whalebone is often shaved nowadays with a common knife. The slab of bone is laid upon the thigh and the edge of the knife pressed firmly against it, with the blade perpendicular to the surface of the slab, which is drawn rapidly under it. Sau-ts. — If the Eskimo had not already invented the saw before they became acquainted with the whites they readily adopted the tool even when they had scanty materials for making it. Grant/.1 speaks of " a little lock saw" as one of a Greenlander's regular tools in his time, and Egede2 mentions handsaws as a regular article of trade. Capt. Parry3 1 History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 149. 2 Greenland, p. 175. 3 2d Voyage, p. 536. MUBDOCH.] SAWS PRILLS. 1 75 found the natives of Iglulik, in 1821-1 S2,'5, using a saw made of a notched piece of iron. On our asking Nlkawa'alu, one day, what they had for tools before they got iron lie said that they had drills made of seal bones and saws made of the shoulder blade of the reindeer. Some time after wards he brought over a model of such a saw, which he said was ex actly like those for merly used. Fig. 147, No. 89470 112061, repre- 1 • l FIG. 147. — haw miult1 nt deer s scapula. seiits this specimen. It is made by cutting off the anterior edge of a reindeer's scapula in a straight line parallel to the posterior edge and cutting fine saw teeth on this thin edge. The spine is also cut off nearly flat. This makes a tool very much like a carpenter's backsaw, the narrow part of the scapula forming a convenient handle. Fig. 148, No. 56559 [15], shows how other implements were utilized before it was easy to obtain saws in plenty. It is a common case knife stamped on the blade, "Wilson, Hawksworth, — — n & Co., Sheffield," which perhaps came from the I'lorer, with saw teeth cut on the edge. It was picked Fio. 148.-Saw made of a case-kulfe. ul> !l't the 1 tldavwlll cemetery, where it had beeii exposed with a corpse. Saws are now a regular article of trade, and most of the natives are provided with them of various styles and makes. The name for saw is ulua'ktun. Drill* and borers. — The use of the bow drill appears to be universal among the Eskimo. Those at present employed at Point Harrow do not differ from the large series collected at the Mackenzie and Ander son rivers by MacFarlane. The drill is a slender rod of steel worked to a drill point and imbedded in a stout wooden shaft, which is tapered to a rounded tip. This tits into a stone socket imbedded in a wooden block, which is held between the teeth, so that the, point of the drill can be pressed down against the object to be drilled by the head, leaving both hands free to work the short bow, which has a loose, string of thong long enough to make one turn round the shaft. The collection contains ten of these modern steel or iron drills, fifteen bows, and seven mouthpieces. No. 89502 [853], figured in Point Barrow Kept., Ethnology, PI. n, Fig. 1, has been selected as a typical drill (nia'ktuu). The drill is a cylindrical rod of steel beaten out into a small lanceolate point, which is filed sharp on the edges. The shaft is made of hard wood. The remaining drills are of essentially the same pattern, varying in total length from about 11 inches to 164. Fig. 149, No. 89499 [968] shows a somewhat unusual shape of shaft. The lashings round the large end are to keep it from splitting any more 176 THK 1'OINT HAKHOW ESKIMO. than it has done already. The drill is of iron and the shaft of spruce, which was once painted with red ocher. No. 80407 [810] (Fig. 150) has a ferrule of coarse-grained bone neatly pegged on with two small pegs of the same material. This is unusual with steel drills. The- shaft is of spruce and of the same shape as in the preceding specimen. No. 8050") [875] (Fig. 151) is figured to show the way in which the shaft has been mended. A wedge-shaped piece 3i inches long and 0-3 to 0-4 inch wide has been split out of the large end and replaced by a fresh piece of wood neatly fitted in and secured by two tight whippings of sinew braid, each in a deep groove. No. 80515 [801], figured in Point Barrow Heport, Ethnology, PI. u, Fig. 2, is a typical bow (piziksuA) for use with these drills. It is of walrus ivory, 10 inches long and oval in section. Through each end is drilled a transverse hole. A string of seal thong 21 inches long is looped into one of these holes by passing one end of the thong through the hole, cutting a slit in it, and passing the other end through this. The other end is passed through the other hole and knotted at the tip. These bows vary slightly in dimensions, but are not less than a foot or more than 10 inches long, and are almost always of walrus ivory. No. 80508 [050] (Fig. 152), is an old and rudely made bow of whalebone, which is more strongly arched than usual, and has the string attached to notches at the ends instead of into holes. This was said to belong with an old hone drill, No. 80408 [050]. Moth came from Nuwilk. These bows are often highly ornamented both by carving and with incised patterns colored with red ocher or soot. The following figures are introduced to show some of the different '''"" iri°— ""p,™11 "'"' """"h styles of ornamentation. Fig. 153ff, No. 50500 [208] is unusually broad and fiat and was prob ably made for a handle to a tool bag. Such handles, however, appear I'll;. 149.— Bow drill. \ MURDOCH.] DRILLS AND BOWS. 177 to be also used for drill bows. The tips of this bow represent seals heads, and have good sized sky-blue glass beads inserted for eyes. The rest of the ornamentation is incised and blackened. Fig. 1536, No. 89421 [12(50], from rtkiavwifi. is a similar bow, which has incised on the back figures of men and animals, which, perhaps, tell of some real event. Mr. L. M. Turner informs me that the natives of Norton Sound keep a regular record of hunting and other events engraved in this way upon their drill bows, and that no one ever ventures to falsify these records. We did not learn definitely that such was the rule at Point Barrow, but we have one bag-handle marked with whales, which we were told indicated the number killed by the owner. Pig. 153c, No. 89425 [1732], from TJtkiavwifi, is a similar bow, ornamented on the back with simply an incised border colored red. On the other side* are the figures of ten bearded seals, cross-hatched and blackened. These are per haps a "score." Fig. 153rf, No. 89509 [914], from Nuwuk, is a bow of the common pattern, but ornamented by carving the back into a toothed keel. Fig. 153e, No. 89510 [9(51], from TJtkiavwIfi, is ornamented on one side only with an incised pattern, which is blackened. Fig. 153/, No. 89511 [9(51], also from Utkiavwlii, has, in addi tion to the incised and blackened pattern, a small transparent sky-bine glass bead inlaid in the middle of the back. Kig. 153o\v drill. Fio. 152.— Drill bow. he was at home, in the interior, where he could obtain no walrus ivory. The incised pattern on the back is colored with red ocher. The mouthpiece (kl'fimia) consists of a block of hard stone (rarely iron), in which is hollowed out a round cup-like socket, large enough to re ceive the tip of the drill shaft, imbedded in a block of wood of a suit able size to hold between the teeth. This block often has curved flanges 9 BTH 12 178 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. on each side, which rest against the cheeks. Such mouthpieces are common all along the coast from the Anderson Itiver to Norton Sound, as is shown by the Museum collection. No. 89500 [800J, figured in Point Barrow Iteport, Ethnology, PL II, Fig. 3, is a type of the flanged mouth piece. The block is of pine, carved into a thick, broad arch, with a large block on the inside. Into the top of the arch is inlaid a piece of gray FlQ. 153.— Drill bows. porphyry with black spots, which is slightly convex on the surface, so as to project a little above the surface of the wood. In the middle of the stone is a cup-shaped cavity one-halt inch in diameter and of nearly the same depth. This is a rather large mouthpiece, being 0 inches across from one cud of the arch to the other. Flo. 154.— Spliced drill bow. There are two other specimens of the same pattern, both rather smaller. No. 89503 [891], Fig. 150, from Nuwuk, has the stone of black and white syenite. This specimen is very old and dirty, and worn through to the stone on one side, where the teeth have come against it. No. 89787 [1004c], Fig. 155, is almost exactly the same shape as the type, but has MURDOCH.] DRILL MOUTHPIECE. 179 for a socket a piece of iron 1-1 inches square, hollowed out as usual. The outside of the wood has been painted with red ocher, but this is mostly worn off. This mouthpiece belonged to Iln'bw'ga. Fig. 156, No. 89505 [892 ],from Utkiavwin, represents the pat tern which is perhaps rather commoner than the preceding. The wood, which holds the socket of black and white sy enite, is simply an elliptical block of spruce. The remain- ~I)ri" m»°u'P'«*. " ith iro" 90ckct- ing three specimens are of the same pattern and of the same material as the last, except No. 89507 [908], from Nuwuk, in which the wood is oak. As it appears very old, this wood may have come from the Plover. When not in use, the point of the drill is sometimes protected with a sheath. One such sheath was obtained, No. 89447 [1112], fig ured in Point Barrow Iteport, Ethnology, PL n, Fig. 1. It is of walrus ivory, 3-6 inches long. The end of a piece of thong is passed through the eye and the other part fastened round the open end with a marline-hitch, catching down the end. This leaves a lanyard 9J inches long, which is hitched or knotted round the shaft of the drill when the sheath is fitted over the point. The drills above described are used for perforating all sorts of material, wood, bone, ivory, metal, etc., and are almost the only boring implements used, even awls being unusual. Before the in troduction of iron, the point was made of one of the small bones from a seal's leg. We obtained four specimens of these bone drills, of which two, at least, appear to be genuine. No. FIG. i56.-Drm mouthpiece with- 89498 [95G], Fig. 157, is one of these, from Nuwuk. The shaft is of the ordinary pattern and made of some hard wood, but the point is a roughly cylindrical rod of bone, expanding at the point, where it is convex on one face and concave on the other and beveled on both faces into two cutting edges, which meet in an acute angle. The larger end of the shaft has been split and mended by whipping it for about three-quarters of an inch with sinew braid. No. 89518 [1174], is apparently also genuine, and is like the preceding, but beveled only on the concave face of the point, which is rather obtuse. No. 89519 [1258] was made for the market. It has a rude shaft of whale's Bone pointed bone, but a carefully made bone point of precisely the pattern 2] (from Sidaru) is of olive green, translucent jade, 6-1 FIG. 163.— Jade wli«t»lonra. inches long, and shaped like the type, but chamfered only at the small end. The lanyard of seal thong is secured in the eye by a large round knot in one end. No. 89(51!) [837] (from Utkiavwlfi) is of bright green, translucent jade, 5-1 inches long, and unusually thick, its greatest diam eter being ()•(> inch. The tip is gradually worked oft' to an oblique edge, and it has ornamental grooves running through the eye like No. 5(50(52 No. 80(520 [8(55 1 (from Nuwfik) is shaped very much like, the type, but has the tip tapered off almost to a point. It is of olive green, slightly translucent jade and is 7 inches long. The lanyard is a piece of sinew MrRDOCII.J WHETSTONES TOOL BOXES. 185 braid with the ends knotted together and the, bight looped into the eye. A large sky-blue glass bead is slipped on over both parts of the lanyard and pushed up close to the loop. Fig. 103a (No. 89021 [757], from Utkiavwln) is very short and broad (3-0 inches by 0-G), is chamfered at both ends, and has the ornamental grooves at the eye. The material is a hard, opaque, bluish gray stone, veined with black. A whetstone of similar material was brought by Lieut. Stoney from Kotzebue Sound. The long lanyard is of sinew braid. Fig. U>3b (No. 89022 [951], also from Utkiavwln) is a very small, slender whetstone, .'5-3 inches long, of dark olive green semitrauslucent jade, polished. The tip is not chamfered, but tapers to a blunt point. It has the ornamental grooves at the eye. These are undoubtedly the "stones for making . . . whetstones, or these ready-made" referred to by Dr. Simpson (Op. cit., p. 200) as brought by the Nunatanmiun from the people of FIG. 164.— Wooden tool boxes. the " Ko-wak River." A few such whetstones have been collected on other parts of the northwest coast as far south as the northern shore of Norton Sound. The broken whetstone mentioned above is of a beautiful bluish green translucent jade. Bits of stone are also used for whetstones, such as No. 89780 [1004/], which belong in IhVbw'ga's tool bag. They are two rough, oblong bits of hard dark gray slate, appar ently split off a flat, weathered surface. Tool boxes and bags. — We collected six specimens of a peculiarly shaped long, narrow box, carved from a single block of wood, which we were informed were formerly used for holding tools. They have gone out of fashion at the present day, and there are but few of them left. No. 89800 [1152], Fig. 104a, represents the typical shape of this box. It is carved from a single block of pine. The cover is slightly hollowed on the under side and is held on by two double rings of twine (one of seal twine and the other of sinew braid), large enough to slip over the 18fi THK POINT HARROW ESKIMO. end. Each ring is made, by doubling a long piece of twine so that the two parts are equal, passing one end through the bight and knotting it to the other. The box and cover seem to have been painted inside and out with red ocher. On the outside this is mostly faded and worn oft' and covered with dirt, but inside it has turned a dark brown. Fig. 1 (!4/> (No. 89858 [1310], from Utkiavwin,) is a similar box, 21-1 inches long. The cover is held on by a string passing over little hooked ivory studs close to the edge of the box. There were originally live of these studs, two at each end and one in the middle of one side. The string started from one of these studs at the pointed end. This stud is broken and the string fastened into a hole close to it. To fasten on the cover the string was carried over and hooked under the opposite stud, then crossed over the cover to the middle stud, then across to the end stud on the other side, and the loop on the end hooked onto the last stud. No. 80850 [1318] is a smaller box (10 inches long) of the same pat tern, with only four studs. The cover has three large blue glass beads, FIG. 165.— Large wooden tool boxes. like those used for labrets, inlaid in a line along the middle. No. 89858 [1144], from Utkiavwin, is the shape of the type, but has a thicker cover and six stud holes in the margin. No. 80861 [1151], Fig. 1C5«, from the same place, is shaped something like a violin case, 22-2 inches long. The cover has been split and "stitched" together with whale bone, and a crack in the broader end of the box has been neatly mended by pegging on, with nine little wooden treenails, a strap of reindeer antler of the same width as the edge and following the curve of its outline. There are four studs, two at each end. The string is made fast to one at the smaller end, carried over to the opposite one, then crossed to the opposite stud at the other end and back under the last one, a bight of the end being tucked under the string between the two last-mentioned studs. The string is made of sinew braid, rope-yarns, and a long piece of seal thong. It was probably at nrst all of sinew MriiDorii.] TOOL BOX, TOOL HAG. 187 braid, and, gradually growing too short by being broken and knotted together again, was lengthened out with whatever came to hand. No. 89802 [1593], Fig. 1052*, is a large box, of a very peculiar shape, best understood from the figure. The outside is much weathered, but appears to have been roughly carved, and the excavation of the box and cover is very rudely done, perhaps with a stone tool. A hole in the larger end is mended by a patch of wood chamfered off to fit the hole and sewed on round the edges with "over-aud-over" stitches of whale bone. The string is arranged in permanent loops, under which the cover can be slipped off and on. The arrangement, which is rather complicated, is as follows: On one side of the box, one-half inch from the edge and about 7 inches from each end, are two pairs of holes, one-half inch apart. Into each pair is fastened, by means of knots on the, inside, a loop of very stout sinew braid, 3 inches long, and similar loops of seal thong, 5 inches long, are Fio. 16«._Tool bag of wolverine skin. fastened into corresponding pairs of holes on the other side. A piece of seal thong is fastened with a becket-hitch into the loop of seal thong at the small end of the box, passes through both braid loops on the other side, and is carried over through the loop of seal thong at the large end. The end of the thong is knotted into one of the pairs of holes left by the breaking away of a stitch at the edge of the wooden patch above mentioned. All these boxes are very old and were painted inside with red ocher, which has turned dark brown from age. Tools are nowadays kept in a large oblong, flat satchel, Ikquxbwin, which has an arched handle of ivory or bone stretched lengthwise across the open mouth. These bags are always made of skin with the hair out, and the skins of wolverines' heads are the most desired for this purpose. The collection contains four such bags. No. 8!»7!)4 [1018], Fig. 100, is the type of these bags. The bottom of the bag is a piece of short-haired brown deerskin, with 188 THE POINT BARROW KSKIMO. the hair out, pieced across the middle. The sides and ends are made of the skins of four wolverine heads, without the lower jaw, cut off at the nape and spread out and sewed together side by side with the hair out ward and noses up. One head comes on each end of the bag and one on each side, and the spaces between the noses are filled out with gus sets of deerskin and wolverine skin. A narrow strip of the latter is sewed round the mouth of the bag. The handle is of walrus ivory, 14| inches long and about one-half inch square. There is a vertical hole through it one-half inch from each end, and at one end also a trans verse hole between this and the tip. One end of the thong which fastens the handle to the bag is drawn through this hole and cut off close to the surface. The other end is brought over the handle and down through the vertical hole and made fast with two half-hitches into a hole through the septum of the nose of the head at one end of the bag. The other end of the handle is fastened to the opposite nose in the same way, but the thong is secured in the hole by a simple knot in the end above. On one side of the handle is an unfinished incised pattern. Flu. 1C7. — Tool bag of wolverine skin. Fig. 167, No. 8977G [1004], is a similar bag, made of four wolverine heads with the lower jaws attached. The bottom is of stout leather without hair. The mouth is tied up by a bit of thong passed thrcragh the nostrils of the two side heads so that it can spread open only about If inches. The haiidle is broad and flat, made of walrus ivory, and ornamented with an incised border on top. One end is broken and pieced out with reindeer antler secured by a clumsy "fishing" of seal twine, which is passed through holes in the two parts. The pieces seem to have been riveted together as in the drill bow, No. 80777 [1004&] (Fig. 154), which belongs to this bag. There is a rivet still sticking in the antler. It is possible that the ivory may have broken in the process of riveting the two together. The handle has two vertical holes at each end for the thong, by which it is fastened to the end noses, both in the MURDOCH.] KIT OF TOOLS. 189 median line and joined by a short channel on top of the handle. This bap was the property of the Nunatiifmiiun Ilubw'ga, so frequently men tioned, and was purchased with all its contents. These are two bow drills, one large, and one small (Figs. IGSa and 1G8&, Nos. 89778 and 89779 [1004«|); a drill bow (Fig. 154, No. 89777 [10046]); a mouthpiece (Fig. 15"), No. 89787 [1004c]); a large crooked knife with a sheath (Fig. 114, No. 89780 [1004*?]); aflintflaker (No. 89752 (1004ej); a comb for deerskins (Fig. 1G9, No. 89781 [1005]); a haircomb made of antler (No. 89785 [1000]); a fishhook (No. 89783 [1007]); and a small seal harpoon head (No. 89784 [1008]). No. 89790 [1118], from Nuwttk, is of rather unusual materials. The bottom is of brown reindeer skin and the sides and ends are the heads of two wolves and a red fox. The wolf heads meet on one side, and the fox head is put in between them on the other. The fox head has no lower jaw, and one wolf head has only the left half of the lower jaw. The vacant spaces around the mouth are filled by triangular gussets of wolf and reindeer skin. The eyeholes are patched on the inside with deerskin. It has no handle, No. 89795 [1309], the remaining bag, is of the usual pattern, but carelessly made of small pieces of deerskin, with a handle of coarse-grained whale's bone. It was probably made for sale. I have figured four handles of such bags to show the style of ornamentation. Fig. 170« (No. 89420 FIO. les.-Driiis belong [1111], from Nuwflk) has incised figures of men and .,,g to the tool bag. rein(leor on tue back? OIlce coiore(i Wjth ocher, of which traces can still be seen. This is perhaps a hunting score. (See remarks on this subject under "Bow drills.") Fig. 170ft (No. 89423 [990], from Utkiavwlii) is a very elaborate handle, with scalloped edges and fluted back, which is also ornamented with an incised pattern colored with red ocher. The other side is covered with series of the incised circles, each with a dot in the center, so frequently mentioned. Fig. 170c (No. 89424 [890], from Nuwttk) has on the under side two rows of figures representing the flukes and "smalls" of whales. This is the specimen already mentioned, which the natives called an actual score. The series of twenty-six tails were said to be the record of old Yviksl'iia (" Erksinra" of Dr. Simpson), the so-called "chief" at Nuwttk. All the, above handles are of walrus ivory, and have been in actual use. Fig. 170c (No. 5G513 Fm. 169.— rnmb for deerskins ill the tool bag. 190 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. [43], from Utkiavwlil) is a handle of different material (reindeer antler) and of somewhat different pattern. One end is neatly carved into an exceedingly accurate image of the head of a reindeer which has shed Fio. 170.— Bag handles. its antlers, with small blue beads inlaid for the eyes. The back of the handle is ornamented with an incised pattern colored with red ocher. We were told that such handles were sometimes fitted to the wooden buckets, but I never saw one so used. No. 89798 [1075], Fig. 171, is a bag of rather unusual pattern, the only one of the kind we saw. The bottom is a single round piece, 9 inches in diameter, of what seems to be split skin of the bearded seal, flesh side out, and the rest of the bag is of white -tanned seal leather. The sides are of five broad pieces (G, 4£, 4, o£, and 5 inches broad at the bottom, re spectively, narrowing to 2£, 1£, 1J, 2, and 2J, respectively, at the top), alternating with five straight strips, respectively 1J, 1, 1£, 1J, and 1£ inches broad. The edges of these strips overlap the edges of the broad pieces, and are neatly stitched with two threads, as on the soles of the waterproof boots. The outer thread, which is caught in the loop of each stitch of the other, is a slender fila ment of black whale-bone. This produces a sort of embroidery. The neck is stitched to the bag with the same seam, but the hem at the mouth is merely "run" round with sinew. This bag was probably for holding small tools and similar articles. HUKUUCU.J CLUBS. WEAPONS. 11)1 As would naturally be exported from what lias boon said of the peaceful character of these people, offensive weapons, specially intended for use against men, are exceedingly rare. In case of quarrels between individuals or parties the bows, spears, and knives intended for hunting or general use would be turned against their enemies. Even their rifles, nowadays, are kept much more for hunt ing than as weapons of offense, and the revolvers of various patterns which many of them have obtained from the ships are chiefly carried when traveling back and forth between the two villages as a protection against a possible bear. We, however, obtained a few weapons which were especially designed for tak ing human life. One of these was a little club (tl'glun) (Xo. 89492 [1310], Fig. 172, from Utkiavwffi) made of the butt end of an old pickax head of whale's bone, with the point cut down to a blunt end. It is 64 inches long and meant to be clenched in the hand like a dagger, and used for striking blows, prob ably at the temple. The transverse grooves for haft- ing give a good hold for the fingers. This was the only weapon of the kind seen. We collected a single specimen of a kind of slung shot, No. 89472 [905J (Fig. 173), made of a roughly ovoid lump of heavy bone, the symphysis of the lower jaw of a walrus, ,'5£ inches long. At the smaller end two large holes are bored in obliquely so as to meet under the sur face and form a channel through which is passed a slip of white seal skin about 15 inches long, the ends of which fasten together with two slits, so as to make a loop. This may be compared with the stone balls used by the ancient Aleuts for striking a man on the temple. The commonest weapon of offense was a broad dagger made of a bone of the polar bear. This was said to be especially meant for killing a "bad man," possibly for certain specified offenses or perhaps in cases of insanity. Fio.i73.-siungshot made of walrus jaw. insane persons were sometimes killed in Greenland, and the act was considered "neither decidedly admissi- Fio. 172.— Little hand- club. 192 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. ble nor altogether unlawful." ' The use ot bears' bones for these weapons points to some superstitious idea, perhaps having reference to the ferocity of the animal. We collected five specimens of these daggers, of which No. 89484 [767], Fig. 174, has been selected as the type. It is the distal end of the ulna of a polar bear, with the neck and condyles forming the hilt, and the shaft split so as to expose the medullary cavity and cut into a pointed blade. It is very old, blackened, and crumbling on the surface, and is a foot long. Fig. 175a, No. 89475 [988], from Nuwttk, is made of a straight splinter from the shaft of one of the long bones, 9f inches long. No. 89480 [1141], from Utkiavwln, has a roughly whittled hilt and a somewhat twisted blade, rather narrow, but widened to a sharp lanceolate point. It is 12 inches long. No. 89481 [1175], from the same place, has the roughly shaped hilt whipped with two turns of sinew. No. 89482 [1709], Fig. 1756, also from Utkiavwln, is dirk-shaped, having but one edge and a straight back. The hilt, as before, is roughly sawed from the solid head of the bone. No. 89485 [965], ^, Fig. 176, from Nuwttk, was also said to be a dagger, but could not have been a very effective weapon. It is of whale's bone, 5 inches long. It is rather rudely carved, old, and dirty, but the notches on the haft are newly cut. Dirks or daggers of bear's bone, like those described, are really rather formidable weapons, as it is easy to give the splinter of bone a very keen point. The Museum con tains a bone dagger curiously like these Eskimo weapons, but made of the bone of the FIQ. 174.— Dagger of griz/ly bear, and used by the Indians of the McCloud River, northern California. They believe that the peculiar shape of the point, having a hollow (the medullary cavity) on one face, like the Eskimo daggers, causes the wound to bleed internally. FIG. 175. — Bone daggers. 1 Kink, Tales and Traditions, p. 35. HruDocn.] FIHKARMS. 193 PROJECTILE WEAPONS. Firearms. — When Dease and Simpson first met these people, in 1837, they had no firearms, but the next party of whites whoeame in contact with them (Pullen and Hooper, in 1849) found the "chief" in possession of an old shaky musket of English make, with the name "Barnett" on the lock.1 Hooper believed this to be the gun lost by Sir John Frank lin's party in 1826.2 This gun was, however, often seen by the people of the Plover (in fact, Capt. Maguire kept it on board of the Plover for some time3), and was found to have on the lock, besides the name " Bar nett," also the date, "1843," so that of course it was not lost in 182(5. Armstrong4 also mentions seeing this gun, which, the natives told him, they had procured "from the other tribes to the south ward." In the summer of 1853 they began to purchase guns and ammunition from the eastern natives. Yukslua and two other men each bought a gun this year.5 As the whalers began to go to Point Barrow in 1854, the opportunity for obtaining firearms has been afforded the natives every year since then, so that they are now well supplied with guns, chiefly of American manufacture. That all their firearms have not been obtained from this source is probable from the fact they have still in their possession a number of smoothbore percussion guns, double and single barreled, of Russian manufacture. They are all stamped in liussian with the name of Tula, a town on the Oopa, 105 miles south of Moscow, which has received the name of the " Sheffield and Birmingham of Russia," from its vast manufactory of arms, established by Peter the Great. These guns must have come from FIG. i76.-So.caiied the "Nunatafimiun," who obtained them either from (1»sKcr of l>«n"- the Siberian traders or from the Russians at Norton Sound through the Malemiut. Both smoothbore and rifled guns are in general use. The smoothbores are of all sorts and descriptions, from an old flintlock musket to more or less valuable single and double percussion fowling- pieces. Three of the natives now (1883) have cheap double breechloaders and one a single breechloader (made by John P. Lovell, of Boston). Guns in general are called " cup un," an onomatopoeic word in general use in western America, but many of the different kinds have special names. For instance, a double gun is called madro'lln (from madro, tico). The rifles are also of many different patterns. The kind preferred by the natives is the ordinary Winchester brass-mounted 15-shot repeater, which the whalers and traders purchase cheaply at wholesale. This is 1 Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 239. 2 Franklin, 2d Exp., p. 148. In the hurry of leaving liarter Island "one of the crew of the Heliancc left his gun and ammunition.'' 3 See McClnre's N. W. Passage, p. 390. 4 Narrative, p. 109. 6 Maguire, Further Papers, p. 907. 9 ETH 13 194 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. called aklmhillii ("that which has fifteen," sc., shots). The whalers are also in the habit of buying up all sorts of cheap or second-hand guns for the Arctic trade, so that many other kinds of guns are also common. Of breech loaders, we saw the Sharpe's rifle, savlgro'llii (from a fancied resemblance between the crooked lever of this gun and the crooked knife, savigro'u); other patterns of Winchester; the Spencer repeater, kai'psualin (from kaipsl, cartridge); the peculiar Sharps- Ilankins, once used in the U. S. Navy, and which was the favorite weapon of the rebel Boers in South Africa; the Peabody-Martiui, made in America for the Turkish Government, marked on the rear sight with Turkish figures, and, exposed with a corpse at the cemetery, one English Snider. The regulation Springfield rifles belonging to the post, which were often loaned to the natives for the purpose of hunting, were called mnkpa- ra'llfi (from muJcpara', book, referring to the breech action, which opens like a book). They formerly had very few muzzle-loading rifles, but of late years, since the law against trading arms to the natives has been construed to refer solely to breech-loading rifles, the whalers have sold them yiiger rifles, of the old II. S. Army pattern, Enfield rifles, ship's mus kets with flu1 Tower mark on them, and a sort of bogus rifle made especially for trade, in imitation of the old-fashioned Kentucky rifle, but with grooves extending only a short distance from the muzzle. They of course depend on the ships for their supplies of ammunition, though the Xunataiimiun. sometimes bring a few cartridges smuggled across from Siberia. They naturally are most desirous to procure cartridges for the rim-fire Winchester guns, as these are not intended to be used more than once. They have, however, invented a method of priming these rim-fire shells so that they can be reloaded. A common "G. ])." percussion cap is neatly fitted into the rim of the shell by cutting the sides into strips which are folded into slits in the shell, a little hole being drilled under the center of the cap to allow the flash to reach the powder. This is a very laborious process, but enables the natives to use a rifle which would otherwise be useless. Such car tridges reloaded with powder and home-made bullets — they have many bullet molds and know how to use them — are tolerably effective. Great care must be taken to insert the cartridge right side up, so that the cap shall be struck by the firing pin, which interferes with using the gun as a repeater. They are very careless with their rifles, allowing them to get rusty, and otherwise misusing them, especially by firing small shot from them in the duck-shooting season. As a rule they are very fair shots with the rifle, but extremely lavish of ammunition when they have a sup ply. The only economy is shown in reloading cartridges and in loading their shotguns, into which they seldom put a sufficient charge. In spite of this some of them shoot very well with the shotgun, though many of them show great stupidity in judging distance, firing light ML-RDOCH.] FiRKARM'S HOWS. 105 charges of shot at short rirte range (100 to 200 yards). Though they mold their own bullets, I have never known any of them to attempt making shot or slugs. This, which they call kftkrura (little bullets, from kit/km, originally meaning arrow and now used for bullet as well) is always obtained from the whites. The gun is habitually carried in a case or holster long enough to cover the whole gun, made of sealskin, either black-tanned or with the hair on the outside. This, like the bow ease, from which it is evidently copied, is slung across the back by a thong passing round the shoulders and across the chest. This is the method universally practiced for carrying burdens of all sorts. The butt of the gun is on the right side, so that it can be easily slipped out of the holster under the right arm without nnslinging it. Revolvers are also carried slung in holsters on the back in the same way. Ammunition is carried in a pouch slung over the shoulder. They are careless in handling firearms and ammunition. We knew two men who shot off the tip of the forefinger while filing cartridges which had failed to explode in the gun. Whaling (/mix. — In addition to the kinds of firearms for land hunting above described a number of the natives have procured from the whalemen, either by purchase or from wrecks, whaling guns, such as are used by the American whalers, in place of the steel lance for dis patching the, whale, after it is harpooned. These are of various pat terns, both muzzle and breech loading, and they are able to procure nearly every year a small supply of the explosive lances to be shot from them. They use them as the white men do for killing harpooned whales, and also, when the leads of open water are narrow, for shooting them as they pass close to the, edge of the ice. Botcx (pixl'kucj. — In former times the bow was the only projectile weapon which these people possessed that could l>e used at a longer range than the "dart" of a harpoon. It was accordingly used finr hunting the bear, the wolf, and the reindeer, for shooting birds, and in case of necessity, for warfare. It is worthy of note, in this connection, as showing that the use of the bow for fighting was only a secondary con sideration, that none of their arrows are regular " war arrows" like those made by the Sioux or other Indians; that is, arrows to be shot with the breadth of the head horizontal, so as to pass between the horizontal ribs of a man. Firearms have now almost completely superseded the bow for actual work, though a few men, too poor to obtain guns, still use them. Every boy has a bow for a plaything, with which lie shoots small birds and practices at marks. Very few boys, however, show any great skill with it. We never had an opportunity of seeing an adult shoot with the bow and arrow; but they have not yet lost the art of bow- making. The newest boys' bows are as skillfully and ingeniously con structed as the old bows, but are of course smaller and weaker. The bow in use among these people was the uuiversal sinew-backed bow of 196 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. the Eskimo carried to its highest degree of efficiency.' It was of what I have called the "Arctic, type," namely, a rather short bow of spruce, from 43 to 52 inches in length, nearly elliptical in section, but flatter on the back than on the belly, and slightly narrowed and thickened at the handle. The greatest breadth was usually about 1J inches and the thickness at the handle about three-fourths of an inch. The ends were often bent up as in the Tatar bow, and were sometimes separate pieces mortised on. Strength and elasticity was given to the brittle spruce by applying a number of strands of sinew to the back of the bow in such a way that drawing the bowstring stretched all these elastic cords, thus adding their elasticity to that of the wood. This backing was always a continuous piece of a three-ply braid of sinew, about the size of stout pack thread, and on a large bow often 40 or 50 yards long. It began, as on all Eskimo bows which I have been able to examine (ex- 5 FIG. 177.— Boy's bow from Utkiavwln. cept those from St. Lawrence Island and the mainland of Siberia — my "western type"), with an eye at one end of the cord looped over one nock of the bow, usually the upper. The cord was then laid on the back of the bow in long strands running up and down and round the nocks, as usual on the other types of bow, but after putting on a num ber of these, began running backward and forward between the bends (if the bow was of the Tatar shape), or between corresponding points on a straight bow, where they were fastened with complicated hitches around the bow in such a way that the shortest strands came to the top of the backing, which was thus made to grow thicker gradually toward the middle of the bow, where the greatest strength and elas ticity were needed. When, enough strands had been laid on they were divided into two equal parcels and twisted from the middle into two tight cables, thus greatly increasing the tension to be overcome in drawing the bow. These cables being secured to the handle of the bow, the end of the cord was used to seize the whole securely to the bow. This seizing and the hitches already mentioned served to incorporate the backing very thoroughly with the bow, thus equalizing the strain and preventing the bow from cracking. This made a very stiff' and powerful bow, capable of sending an arrow with great force. We were told by a reliable native that a stone-headed arrow was often driven by 'Seo the writer's paper on the subject of Eskimo bows in the Smithsonian Roport for 1884, Part II, pp. M7-;il6. MURDOCH.] BOWS. 197 I/ : one of these bows wholly through a polar bear, "if there was no bone." Three bows only were obtained: One from Nuwiik, one from Utkiav- wln (a lad's bow), and one from Sidam. The bow from Utkiavwln, No. 89!>04 [786] (Fig. 177), though small, is in some respects nearer the type than the other two, and has been selected for description. The body of the bow is a single piece of the heart of a log of spruce drift wood 30^ inches long, elliptical in section, flattened more on the back than on the belly. It is tapered to the nocks, which are small club-shaped knobs, and narrowed and thickened at the handle. The backing is of round three-ply braid of sinew in one continuous piece. The string is a round four-ply braid with a loop at each end, made by tying a single knot in the standing part, passing the end through this and taking a half hitch with it round the standing part (Fig. 178). The upper loop is a little the larger. No. 89245 [25J (Fig. 179), from Nuwttk, is a full- sized man's bow, which is old and has been long in use. It is of the same material, and is 47-3 inches long. Its greatest breadth is 1£ FIG. i78.-Loop at end of inches, and it is 0'8 inch thick at the handle. It is slightly narrowed and thinned off from the broadest part to about 0 inches from each tip, and is then gradually thickened to the nocks and bent up so that the ends make an angle of about 45° with the bow when unstrung. The ends are separate pieces fitted on at the bends. The ends of the body are chamfered off' laterally to a wedge which fits into a corresponding notch in the end piece, making a scarf 3^ inches long, which is strengthened by a curved strap of antler, convex above and thick est in the middle, fitting into the bend on the back. The joint is held together wholly by the backing. We never saw bows of this pattern made and con sequently did not learn how the bending was accom plished. The method is probably the same as that seen by Capt. Beechey in 1820, at Kotzebue Sound (Voyage, p. 575). The bow was wrapped in wet • FIG. i79._Lar?o i«>w from shavings and held over the fire, and then pegged Nuwak. down on the ground (probably on one side), into shape. A strip of raw hide (the split skin of the bearded seal, with the grain side out), 1 inch wide, runs along the back from bend to bend under the backing. The chief peculiarity of this bow is the third cable, above the other two, and the great and apparently unnecessary complication of the hitches. 198 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. a, No. 72771 [234], from Sidaru (Fig. 180« and li), is a bow with l>ent ends like the last, but all in one piece and smaller. Its length is 43A inches and its greatest breadth 1J. The backing has only two cables, and its chief peculiarity is in having' the loose end of the last strand twisted into one of the cables, while the seizing, of the same pattern as in the last bow, is made of a separate piece. The workmanship of this bow is particularly neat, and it is further strengthened with strips of rawhide (the skin of the bearded seal, split), under the backing. The method of making the string is very inge nious. It appears to have been made on the bow, as follows: Having the bow sprung back one end of a long piece of sinew twine was made fast temporarily to the upper nock, leaving an end long enough to finish off the bowstring. The other end was carried round the lower nock and the returning strand half-hitched round the first snugly up to the nock, and then carried round the upper nock and back again. This was repeated, each strand being half-hitched round all the preceding at the lower nock until there were eight parallel strands, and an eye fitted snugly to the lower nock. The bight was then slipped off the upper nock, the end untied and the whole twisted tight. This twisted string is now about 2 inches too long, so the upper eye is made by doubling over 2 inches of the end and stopping it down with the free end mentioned above, thus making a long eye of seven strands. With the end, six similar strands are added to the eye, each being stopped to the twist with a half hitch. The end is neatly tucked in and the strands of the eye twisted tightly together. In my paper on Eskimo bows^already men tioned, I came to the conclusion that the bows formerly used by the Eskimo of western North America and the opposite coast of Asia were constructed upon three well defined types of definite geographical distribution, and each easily recognized as a development of a simple original type still to be found in Baffin Land in a slightly modified form. These three types are: I. The Southern type, which was the only form used from the island of Kadiak to Cape Itomanzoff, and continued in frequent use as far as Norton Sound, though separated by no hard and fast line from II. The Arctic type, to which the bows just described belong, in use Flo. 180.— Largo bow from Sidaru. MURDOCH.] BOWS. 199 from the Kaviak peninsula to the Mackenzie and Anderson rivers; and III. The Western type, confined to St. Lawreuee Island and the main land of Siberia. I have shown how these three types differ from each other and from the original type, and have expressed the opinion that these differences result from the different resources at the command of the people, of dif ferent regions. I have also endeavored to account for the fact that we find sporadic examples of the Arctic type, for instance as far south as the Yukon, by the well knowii habits of the Eskimo in regard to trad ing expeditions. Outside of the region treated in my paper above referred to, there is very little material for a comparative study of Eskimo bows, either in the Museum or in the writings of travelers. .Most writers have con tented themselves with a casual reference to some of the more, salient peculiarities of the weapon without giving any detailed information. Beginning at the extreme north of Greenland, we find that the so-called "Arctic Highlanders" have hardly any knowledge of the bow. Dr. Kane saw none during his intercourse with them, but Dr. Bessels1 men tions seeing one bow, made of pieces of antler spliced together, in the possession of a man at Ita. In Danish Greenland, the use of the bow has been abandoned for many years. When Crantz2 wrote it had already gone out of use, though in KgedeV time it was still employed. It ap pears to have been longer than the other Eskimo bows. Nordenskidld' reproduces a picture of a group of Greenlanders from an old painting of the date of 1(!54 in the Ethnographical Museum of Copenhagen. The man holds in his left hand a straight bow, which appears to have the backing reaching only part way to the ends like a western bow without the end cables, and yet twisted into two cables. If this representation be a correct one, this arrangement of the backing, taken in connection with what Crantz and Egede say of the great length of the bow, would be an argument in favor of my theory that the St. Lawrence Island bow was developed from the primitive form by lengthening the ends of the bow without lengthening the backing. The addition of the end cables would then be an after invention, peculiar to the western bow. In Baffin Land the bow is very rudely made, and approaches very closely to my supposed primitive form. Owing to the scarcity of wood in this region the bow was frequently made of reindeer antler, a substance still more unsuitable for the purpose than the soft coniferous woods used elsewVre. There are in the Museum three specimens of such antler bows, brought from Cumberland Gulf by Mr. Kumlien. 'Naturalist, vol 8, No. 9, p. 800. 3 "III former times they made use of bows for land game; they were made of soft Jir. a fathom in length, and to make it the still'er it was bound round with whalebone or sinews." History of Green land, vol. 1, p. 140. 3 "Their How is of an ordinary Make, eoinmonly made of Fir Tree, . . . and on the Back strengthened with Strings made of Sinews of Animals, twisted like Thread." ''The liow is a good fathom long." Greenland, p. 101. *Voyage of the Vega, vol. 1, p. 41. 200 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. The first mention of the Eskimo bow with sinew backing will be found in Frobisher's account of his visit to Meta Incognita in 1577 :' "Their bowes are of wood of a yard long, sinewed on the back with strong sinewes, not glued too, but fast girded and tyed on. Their bowe strings are likewise sinewes." Of the bow used at the straits of Fury and Hecla we have a most excellent figure in Parry's Second Voyage (LM. opposite p. 550, Fig. 22), and the most accurate description to be found in any author. It is, in fact, as exact a description as could be made from an external examina tion of the bow. From the figure the bow appears to have been almost of the arctic type, having an unusual number of strands (sometimes sixty, p. 511) which are not, however, twisted, but secured with a spiral wrapping, as on southern bows. The backing is stopped to the handle, but not otherwise seized. It appears to have been rather a large bow, as Parry gives the length of one of their best bows, made of a single piece of fir, as "4 feet 8 inches" (p. 510). "A bow of one piece is, however, very rare ; they generally consist of from two to five pieces of bone of unequal lengths, fastened together by rivets and treenails" (p. 511). Parry also speaks of the use of wedges for tightening the backing. Schwatka2 speaks of the Netyllik of King Williams Land as using bows of spliced pieces of musk-ox horn or driftwood, but gives no further description of them. Ellis3 describes the bow in use at Hud son's Strait in 1740 as follows: Their greatest Ingenuity is shown in the Strnetnre of their I!ows, made commonly of three Pieces of Wood, each making a part of the same Arch, very nicely and exactly joined together. They are commonly of Fir or Larch, which the English there call Juniper, and as this wants Strength and Elasticity, they supply both by bracing the Back of the Bow with a kind of Thread or Line made of the Sinew of their Deer, and the Bowstring of the same material. To make them draw more stiffly, they dip them into Water, which causes both the Back of the Bow and the String to contract, and consequently gives it the greater force. H Ellis's figure (plate opposite p. 132) shows a bow of the Tatar shape, but gives no details of the backing, except that the latter appears to be twisted. We have no published descriptions of the bows used in other regions. As far as 1 have been able to ascertain, the practice of backing the bow with cords of sinew is peculiar to the Eskimo, though some Ameri can Indians stiffen the bow by gluing flat pieces of sinew upon the back. One tribe of Indians, the "Loueheux" of the Mackenzie district, however, used bows like those of the Eskimos, but Sir Alexander Mac kenzie5 expressly states that these were obtained from the Eskimo. 1 Hakluy fa Voyages, 1580, p. 628. 'Sciem'p, vol. 4 , 98, ]>. 543. 3 Voyage to Hudson's Hay, p. 138. 4Compare what I have already said about tin- backing beinf; put on wot. fi Voyages from Montreal . . . to the Kroy.tm and Paeitu: Ocoana, p. 48. MURDOCH.] ARROWS. 201 Arrotrs. — With these bows were used arrows of various patterns adapted for different kinds of game. There are in the collection fifty-one arrows, which are all about the same length, 25 to 30 inches. In describ ing these arrows I shall employ the terms used in modern archery1 for the parts of the arrow. The greatest variation is in the shape and si/e of the pile. The stele is almost always a straight cylindrical rod, almost invariably 0-4 inch in diameter, and ranging in length from 20 to 28 inches. Twenty-five inches is the commonest length, and the short steles, -when not intended for a boy's bow, are generally fitted with an unusually long pile. From the beginning of the feathering the stele is gradually flattened above and below to the nock, which is a simple notch almost always 0-2 inch wide and of the same depth. The stele is sometimes slightly widened just in front of the nock to give a better hold for the fingers. The feathering is G or 7 inches long, con sisting of two, or less often, three feathers. (The set of sixteen arrows from Sidaru, two from Nuwfik, and one from Utkiavwlfi, have three, feathers. The rest of the fifty-one have two.) The shaft of the feather is split and the web is cut nar row, and tapered off to a point !tteachend(Fig.l81). Theends of the feathers are fastened to the Stele with whippings of fine '•'"•• 1*1— Feathering of the Eskimo arrow. sinew, the small end of the feather which, of course, comes at the nock, being often wedged into a slit in the wood (with a special tool to be described below), or else doubled back over a few turns of the whip ping and lashed down with the rest. The small end of the feather is almost always twisted about one turn, evidently to make the arrow revolve in flight, like a rifle ball. Generally, if not universally, the feathering was made of the feathers of some bird of prey, falcon, eagle, or raven, probably with some notion of giving to the arrow the death- dealing quality of the bird. Out of the fifty -one arrows in the collec tion, only nine are feathered with gull's feathers, and of these all but two are new, or newly feathered for sale to us.2 Dr. Simpson3 says that in his time "feathers for arrows and head-dresses," probably the eagles' feathers previously mentioned, were obtained in trade from the "Nuna- tanmiun." Four kinds of arrows were used : the bear arrow, of which there were three varieties, the deer arrow, the arrow for geese, gulls, and other large fowl, and the blunt headed arrow for killing small birds without man gling them. 'Encyclopedia Britannica, Oth edition, article Archery. 3 On this subject of using the feathers of birds of prey for arrows, compare Grant?,, History of Green, land, i, p. 146, "the arr \v . . . winded behind with a couple of raven's feathers." Bessels, Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 9, j 511, " Toward the, opposit neatly hushed on ;'' and K from the primaries of »Vr any feathers except those of birds of prey. 'Op.cit.,p.206. HG9 (t lie three arrows at Ita had ravrn's feathers). Parry, 2d Voyage, p. end of the arrow are two feathers, generally Of the spotted owl. not very llnlien, Contributions, p. 37, "The feather-vanes were nearly always made x Kcantltaca or Onculut carbo." The last is the oiilv mention I lind of using 202 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. Hear arrows. — These are of three kinds, all having a broad, sharp pile, often barbed. The first kind has a pile of flaked flint, called kfiki ("claw" or "nail "), and was known as knkl'ksadlin ("provided or fitted with claw material"). Of this kind we have eight complete arrows and one shaft. No. 89240 [2")], Fig. 182, will serve as the type. The pile is of black flint, double, edged and sharp pointed, 2 inches long, with a short tang inserted into a cleft in the end of the stele, and secured by a whipping of about fifteen turns of fine sinew. The stele is of spruce, 25 £ inches -rjffit ^ — ""I- Fin. 182.— Flint-lieadcil arrow (kuklksatlllii). long and four-tenths inch in diameter, and painted with red ocher from the feathering to 5 inches from the pile. The three feathers, apparently those of the gyrfalcon, have their ends simply whipped to the stele. They are G inches long. This is one of the two arrows from Nuwuk with three feathers. No. 72780 [234 a], from Sidaru, is feathered with three raven feathers, of which the small ends are wedged into slits in the wood. The pile is of brown jasper, long and IB) lancet-tipped, expanding into rounded wings at each side of the base. The stele is peculiar only in being slightly widened in front of the nock. It is of pine, 20-8 inches long, and painted with two rings, one red and one green, at the middle of the feathering. The only variations of importance in these arrows are in the shape of the pile, which is made of black or gray flint, or less often of jasper, mostly variegated, brown and gray. There are four pat terns to be found in the series of eight arrows and twenty-two stone piles. The first is long and narrow, like No. 5G704 [232], Fig. 183, from Utkiavwin, which i'io. i»4.— short flint is of gray flint. The next is similar in shape, but shorter, as shown in Fig. 182 (No. 89240 [25], from Nuwiik), which is only 2 inches long, exclusive of the tang. The third pattern, which is less common than ^'•t&$ the others, is about the si/e of the last, but rhombqidal . in shape (Fig. 184, No. 5(J(!91c [G4f], from Utkiavwin, of FIG. 1H3. — Long flint v i'ii". dark grayish brown flint, rather coarsely flaked). The fourth kind is very short, being not over l.J inches, including the half- inch tang, but is 1 inch broad, thick and convex on both faces. It is triangular, witli a square base and curved edges (Fig. 185, No. 56702ft ], from Utkiavwlu, newly made for sale). ARROWS. 203 No stone arrow or dart heads made by these people have anything like barbs except the square shoulders at the base. They seem never to have attained to the skill in flint-working which enabled many other savages to make the beautiful barbed heads so often seen. To keep the flint-headed arrow from dropping out of the wound they hit upon the contrivance of mounting it not directly in the stele but in a piece of bone upon which barbs could be cut, or, as is not unlikely, having already the deer arrow witli the barbed head of antler, they added the flint head to this, thus combining the penetration of the flint arrow with the holding power of the other. 1 was at first inclined to think that this piece of bone bore the same relation to the rest of the arrow as the fore shaft of many Indian arrows, and was to be considered as part of the stele. Considering, however, that its sole function is to furnish the pile with barbs, it evidently must be considered as part of the latter. I shall designate it as "after-pile." Arrows with this barbed "after-pile " form Fro. 185.— Heart-s1iai>(>,) arrow with iron pile (saviilllfi ; (ct arrow with iron pile (savidlln) ; (d) arrow with cop|HT pile (savidllfi) ; {?) deer-arrow (nfitkodHfi). the second kind of bear arrows, which arc called ipudll'gadllii ("having the ipu'dligu" [dr. ipuligak, the similar bone head of a seal lance with iron tip]). After the introduction of iron, metal piles sometimes re placed the flint in arrows of this kind. We collected eight with flint and two with metal piles. No. 727S7 [li.'U«j, Fig. L8(ia, has been selected to illustrate this form of arrow. This pile is of gray flint with the tang wedged by a slip of sealskin into the tip of the after-pile, which is cleft to receive it and kept from splitting by a whipping of sinew. The after-pile is fitted into the tip of the stele with a rounded sharp- pointed tang, slightly enlarged just above the tip. It is of reindeer 204 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. antler. The rest of the arrow does not differ from those previously described. The stele is of pine and is feathered with three gyrfalcon feathers. Two others from Sidaru have only a single barb on the after-pile, but the ether four have two, one behind the other on the same side. No. 89237 [104], from Utkiavwifi, differs in no respect from the single-barbed flint arrows from Sidaru, but No. 7270.'? [104], from the same village, has four small barbs on the after-pile, which is unusually (nearly 7 inches) long, and a pile of sheet brass. This has the basal angles on each side cut into three small, sharp, backward-pointing teeth. The total length of this arrow is 28 inches. The after-piles of all arrows except one were of reindeer antler, which is another reason for supposing" that this form of arrow is a modification of the deer arrow. After the introduction of iron, this metal or copper was substituted for the flint pile of the kuki'ksadlifi, making the third and last form of bear arrow, the sa'vldlln ("fitted with iron"). This arrow differs from the others only in the form of the pile, which is gen erally broad and flat, and either rhomboidal, with the base cut into numerous small teeth, or else triangular, with a shank. The barbs are usually bilateral. No. 72758 [25], from Nuwuk, represents the first form. The pile is of iron, rough and flat, 2£ inches long. No. 72770 [241&], from Utki avwifi, is of the same form. No. 72700 [105], Fig. 180c, from Utkiavwifi, has a similar pile 3-3 inches long, but has each of the under edges cut into four sharp, backward-pointing teeth. No. 72778 [234&], Fig. LSGrf, has a pile of sheet copper 2-3 inches long, of the same shape, but with six teeth. This arrow came from Sidaru. No. 72705 [25], from Nuwuk, is a long, narrow iron pile with three bilateral barbs, all simple. Nos. 72755 [25], from Nuwuk, 72759 [25], also from Nuwiik, and 72704 [105], from Utkiavwm, show the shanked form. The first is triangular, with a flat shank and a simple barb at each angle of the base. It is of steel (piece of a saw) and 2-8 inches long. The second resembles No. 72700 [105], with more teeth, mounted on a slender cylindrical sliank 1J inches long. It is of iron and 3-9 inches long. The third is a long pile with a sinuate outline and one pair of simple bilateral barbs, and a flat shank one-half inch long. Nos. 72757 [25] (Fig. 1806) and 72702 [25], both from Nuwuk, are peculiar in being the only iron-pointed arrows with un ilateral barbs. The piles are made of the two blades of a pair of large scis sors, cut oft' at the point, with enough of the handle left to make a tang. The unilateral barb is filed out on the back of the blade, which has been beveled down on both faces to a sharp edge. All of these broadheaded arrows have the breadth of the pile at right angles to the plane of the nock, showing that they are not meant to fly like the Sioux war arrows. Although iron makes a better material for arrow piles and is more easily worked than flint, the quivers which some men still carry at Point Barrow contain flint as well as iron headed arrows. They are probably MURDOCH.] ARROWS. 205 kept hi use froin the superstitious conservatism already mentioned. It is certain that the man who raised a couple of wolf cubs t'oi the sake of their fur was obliged by tradition to have a Hint-headed arrow to kill them with. These arrows, we were informed, were especially designed for hunting: " nii'nu, " the polar bear, but of course they also served for use against other dangerous game, like tlie wolf and brown bear, and FIG. 187.— Pile of deer arrow (nutk&fi). there is no reason to believe that they were not also shot at reindeer, though the hunter would naturally use his deer arrows first. Deer arrows have a long trihedral pile of antler from 4 to 8 inches long, with a sharp thin-edged point slightly concaved on the faces like the point of a bayonet. Two of the edges are rounded, but the third is sharp and cut into one or more simple barbs. Behind the barb the pile takes the form of a rounded shank, ending in a shoulder and a sharp rounded tang a little enlarged above the point. No. 72768 [102], Fig. 186e from Utkiavwln, has a pile 3£ inches long with two barbs. The pile of No. 89238 [ 1 (52] from the same village is 3£ inches long and has but one barb, while that of No. 89241« [162] is 7-8 inches long and has three barbs. The rudely incised figure on the shank of No. 89238 [162] represents a wolf, probably a talisman to make the arrow as fatal to the deer as the wolf is. No. 56588 [13], Fig. 187, is a pile for one of these arrows slightly peculiar in shape, being elliptical in sec tion, with one edge sharp and two-barbed and a four-sided point. The figure shows well the shape of the tang. The peculiarity of these arrows is that the pile is not fastened to the shaft, but can easily be detached.1 When such an arrow was shot into a deer the shaft would easily be shaken out, leaving the sharp barbed pile in the wound. The Eskimo told us that a deer wounded in this way would "sleep once and die," meaning, apparently, that death would ensue in about twenty-four hours, probably from peritonitis. The bone pile is called nu'tkafi, whence comes the name of the arrow, mYtko'dliii. We collected ten arrows and three piles of this pattern. No. 89460 [1263], Fig. 188, is a peculiar bone arrow 2 pile, perhaps intended for a deer arrow. It is 7 inches long and rm.iss.— made of one of the long bones of some large bird, split length .mr,'''"," wise so that it is rounded on one side and deeply concave on row i'ile- the other, with two thin rounded edges tapered to a sharp point. Each 'Compare the passage in Frobisher's Second Voyage (Ilakluyt. 1589, p. 628). After describing the different forms of arrowheads used by the Eskimo of "Meta Incognita" (lialh'n Land) in 1.777 he says: "They are not made very fast, but lightly tyod to, or else set in a uocke, that upon small occa sion the arrowe leaveth these heads behind them." 200 THE POINT BABBOW ESKIMO. edge has three little barbs about tlie middle of the pile. This was the only arrowhead of the kind seen at Point Barrow, and the native who sold it said it was a "Kufiinud'lifi" arrow. I was pleased to find the truth of this corroborated by the Museum collection. There are two arrows from the, Mackenzie region (Nos. 110(i and 190G) with bone piles of almost the same form. For shooting gulls, geese, and other large fowl they used an arrow with a straight polygonal pile of walrus ivory, 5 or 0 inches long and about one-half inch in diameter, terminating in a somewhat obtuse polygonal point, and having one or more unilateral barbs. These piles are gener ally live-sided, though sometimes trihedral, and have a long, rounded tang inserted into the end of the shaft. Fig. 189« (No. 8934!) [119] from Utkiavwiii), represents one of these arrows with a five-sided pile 5-5 inches long, with four simple barbs. The rest of the arrow does not differ from the others de scribed. No. 89238 [25], from Nuwuk, has a trihedral pile C-(t inches long, with a single barb. Another from Nuwfik (No. 89241 [25]) has a trihedral pile 5-3 inches long, with two barbs, and one from Utkiavwffi (No. 89241 [11!)]) has a live-sided pile with three barbs. The remaining three, from Sidaru, all have five-sided piles with one barb. Arrows of this pattern are called tuga'lin (from tu'ga, walrus ivory). There are also in the collection two small arrows of this pattern suited for a boy's bow. They are only 25 inches long, and have roughly trihedral sharp- pointed ivory piles about 4 inches long, without barbs. (No. 89904rt [78(i] from Utkiavwlfi). These arrows are new and rather carelessly made, and were intended for the lad's bow (No. 89904 [780]) already described. The three kinds of arrows which have been described all have the pile secured to the stele by a tang fitting into a cleft or hole in the end of the latter, which is kept from splitting by whipping it with sinew for about one-half inch. The fourth kind, the blunt bird arrow (ki'xodwain), on the other hand, has the pile cleft to receive the wedge- shaped tip of the stele and secured by a whipping of sinew. FIG. 189.— Arrows : The four arrows of this kind in the collection are almost (a) fowl arrow .. ... .. , , . . . ,, (tngniin) ; (6) exactly alike, except that three of them, belonging to the i.mi arrow (kix. sej from gifiarUi have three feathers. Fig. 189ft, No. 72773 [234c] from Sidaru represents the form of arrow. The pile is of hard bone 2-3 inches long. A little rim at each side of the butt keeps the whipping of sinew from slipping off. The rest of the arrow differs from the others described only in having the end of the stele chamfered down to a wedge-shaped point to fit into the pile. This is the kind of arrow mostly used by the boys, whose game is almost exclusively small birds or lemmings. Nowadays the bone pile MURDOCH.) ARROWS ARROW RELEASE. 207 is often replaced by an empty cartridge shell, which makes a very good head. I have seen a phalarope transfixed at short range by one of these cartridge-headed arrows. An assortment of the different kind of arrows is usually carried in the quiver. The lot numbered L>5, from Niiwfik, which I believe to be a fairly average set, contains two Hint-headed bear arrows, one barbed bear arrow with a steel pile, six bear arrows with iron piles, one deer arrow, two fowl arrows, and one bird arrow. As I have already said, all these arrows are flattened above and below at the nocks. This indicates that they were intended to be held to the string and let go after the manner of what is called the " Saxon release," namely, by hooking the ends of the index and second fingers round the string and holding the arrow between them, the string being released by straightening the fingers. This is the "release" which we actually saw employed both by the boys and one or two men who showed us how to draw the bow. This method of release has been observed at Cum berland (riilf and at East Cape, Siberia, and is probably universal among the Eskimo, as all the Eskimo arrows in the National Museum are fitted for this release. There is ample material in the Museum col lections for a comparative study of Eskimo arrows, which I hope some day to be able to undertake, when the material is in a more available condition. One or two references to other regions will not, however, be out of pla<;e. The arrow with a barbed bone after-pile seems a very general form, being represented in the Museum from most of the Alaskan regions, as well as from the Mackenzie. Scoresby mentions finding the head of one of these at the ancient settlements in east Greenland.2 The arrow, however, described by Capt. Parry3 has a real foreshaft of bone, not a barbed after pile. One of these arrows from the Mackenzie has the after pile barbed on both sides, the only instance, I believe, in the Museum of a bilaterally-barbed Eskimo arrow where the pile is not wholly of metal. Bow CHHCX (onl quirerx. — The bow and arrows were carried in a bow case and quiver of black sealskin, tied together side l^v side and slung across the back in the same manner as the gnu holster already de scribed. We obtained one case mid quiver which belong with the bow and arrows (No. 125, from Niiwiik) and a single quiver with the bow and arrows (No. L>34, from Sidaru.) The case, No. .S!»l'4"> [L>5J, Eig. 190a (pizl'kslzax), is of such a shape that the bow can be carried in it strung and ready for use. It is made by folding lengthwise a piece of black sealskin with the flesh side in and sewing up one side, "over and over" from the outside. The bag is wide enough — <» inches at the widest part— to allow the bow to slip in easily when strung, and the small end '"In shooting tins weapon the string is plaee) is a long, straight bag of the same material, open at one end, with a seam down one side, and the ysrl -' :£ FIG. UK). — Ho\v C;IMC and quivers. edge of the month opposite to the seam forming a rounded flap 2 inches long. The other end is closed by an elliptical cap of white tanned seal skin, turned up about 2 inches all round, and crimped round the ends like a boot sole. Its extreme length is 30 inches, and its circumference 1 foot. Inside along the seam is a roughly rounded rod of wood about £ inch in diameter, with one end, which is pointed, projecting about 1 \ inches through a hole in the bottom, and the other projecting about 1 MURDOCH.) QUIVERS. 209 inch beyond the mouth, where it is secured by a bit of thong knotted through a couple of small holes in the bag close to the edge and pass ing round a notch on the stick. The stick serves to stiffen the quiver when there are no arrows in it. A bit of thong is knotted round the middle, one end being hitched into a loop on the other, for tightening up the quiver and confining the arrows. The quiver from Sidaru (No. 72788 [234] Fig. 190<;) is like the preceding, but larger at the bottom than at the mouth. The latter is 8i inches in circumference and the former 12£, and the seam is left open for about 7£ inches from the mouth to facilitate getting at the arrows. The stiffening rod is made of pine, and does not project through the bottom or reach the edge of the mouth. It is held in by two pieces of thong about 10 inches long, which also serve to fasten it to the bow case. This quiver is nearly new. It is probable that the form of the bow case and quiver varied but little, among the American Eskimo at least. Those figured by Capt. Lyoii1 are almost exactly like the ones AVC collected at Point Barrow, even to the crimped cap on the bottom of the quiver. A similar set belong with a lad's bow in the Museum FIG. 192.-Cap for quiver rod. from Point Hope (No. 03611). Nordenskiold, however, figures a very elaborate flat quiver,2 in use at Pitlekaj, which is evidently of genuine Asiatic origin. Some pains seem to have been bestowed on ornament ing the quiver in former times, when the bow was in more general use. Fig. 191, No. 5(5505 [231 ], from Nuwftk, rep resents what we understood had been a stiffening rod for a quiver or bow case. It is of reindeer antler, 17 inches long, and one end is very neatly carved into the head and shoulders of a reindeer, with small, blue glass beads in serted for the eyes. The lanceolate point at the tip was probably made with an idea of improving it for sale. The hole at the back of the neck is for a thong to fasten it on with. A similar reindeer head of antler, Fig. 192, No. 89449 [1006], also from Nuwiik, seems to have been a cap for a quiver stick. The back of the neck makes a half-ferrule, iii which are three holes for rivets or treenails. Bracers. — In shooting the bow, the wrist of the bow hand was pro- '3 FIG. 191— Quiver rod. 9 ETH- 1 Parry's 2d Voyage, PI. opposite p. 550, Fig. 24. 2Vega, vol. 2. p. 106. -14 210 TIIF. POINT BARROW ESKIMO. tected from being chafed by the. bowstring by a small shield or "bracer" of bone or horn, strapped on with a thong. We never saw these in use, as the bow is so seldom employed except by the children. Two of these, newly made, were offered for sale. I will describe one of these, Xo. S!»410/> [1233], Fig. 1!»3. It is of pale yellow mountain sheep horn, convex on the outer face and concave on the inner and considerably arched lengthwise. In the. middle are two straight longitudinal FIG. 193.— Bracer. narrow slots, which serve no apparent pur pose except ornament. The short slot near the edge at the middle of each side, however, is for the thongs which strap the bracer to the wrist. One of these is short and made into a becket by fastening the ends together with double slits. One end of the other is passed through the slot, slit, and the other end passed through this and drawn taut. A knot is tied on the free end. This thong is just long enough to fasten on the bracer by passing round the wrist and catching the knot in the loop opposite. The other, No. 8941 Ort [1233], is like this, but 1 inch shorter and nearly Hat. The arch of the specimen figured is probably unintentional and due to the natural shape of the material, as it does not lit well to the wrist. It is probable that these people used a Hat bracer, as Fig. 1!)4, No. S9350 [l.'!S2], from Utkiavwlfi, is apparently such an im plement. It is a thin elliptical plate of hard bone, 2£ inches long and 11 wide, with two rows of holes crossing at right angles in the middle. The holes at the side were probably for the thong and the others for ornament, as some of them go only part way through. Four small pebbles are lodged in the tour holes around the center in the form of a cross. Mr. Nelson collected several specimens of bracers from Kotzebue Sound and St. Lawrence Island. These are all slightly larger than our specimens, and bent round to fit the wrist. They are of bone or copper. When Beechey visited Kotzebue Sound, in 1820, he found the bracer in general use.1 I lind no other mention of this implement in the writers who have described the Eskimo. Bird darts. — For capturing large birds like ducks or geese, sitting on the water, especially when they have molted their wing feathers so as to be unable to escape by Hight, they use the universal Eskimo weapon, found from Greenland to Siberia, namely, a dart with one or more points at the tip, but carrying a second set of three ivory prongs FIG. 194.— Bracer of bone. 1 " They buckle on a piece of ivory, called man-era, alnmt 3 or 4 inches long, hollowed out to the wrist, or :i guard made of several pieces of ivory or wood fastened together like an iron-holder." Voyage, p. 570. HIK1) DART. 211 in a circle round the middle of the shaft. The object of these prongs is to increase the chance of hitting the bird if he is missed by the head of the, dart. They always curve forward, so that the points stand out a few inches from the shaft, and are barbed on the inner edge in such a way that, though the neck of a fowl will easily pass in be tween the prong and the shaft, it is impossible to draw it back again. The weapon is in very general use at Point Harrow, and is always thrown from the boat with a handboard (to be described below). It can be darted with considerable accuracy 20 or 30 yards. We seldom saw this spear used, as it is chiefly employed in catch ing molting fowl, in the summer season, away from the immediate neighborhood of the station. It is called nuiiYkpai, which is a plural referring to the number of points, one of which, is called nuia'kpuk ("the great nuiak'1).1 No. S!)244 [1325], Fig. 195, from tltkiavwln, has been selected as the type of this weapon. The shaft is of spruce, *>1.^ inches long and ()•" inch in diameter at the head. The end of the butt is hollowed out to fit the catch of the throwing board. The head, of white wal rus ivory, is fitted into the cleft end of the shaft with a wedge-shaped tang as broad as the shaft. The head and shaft are held together by a spaced lashing of braided sinew. To the enlargement of the shaft, '22 inches from the butt, are fastened three curved prongs of walrus ivory at C()ual distances from each other round the shaft. The inner side of each prong is cut away obliquely for about 2 inches, so that when this edge is applied to the shaft, with the point of the prong forward, the latter is about 1 inch from the shaft. Each prong has two little ridges on the outside, one at the lower end and the other about 1 inch above this. They are secured to the shaft by three separate lashings of sinew braid, two narrow ones above the ridges just mentioned and one broad one just below the barb. In making this the line is knotted round one prong, then carried one-third of the distance round the shaft to the prong; half hitched round this, and carried round next the next prong; half bitched round this, and carried round to the starting point, and half hitched round 'Tliis word appears to be a diminutive of the Grecnlandic nuek— nuik, now used only in tin- plural, nugfit, for the spear. These change's of name may rep resent corresponding changes in the weapon in former times, since, unless we may suppose that the bird dart was made small and called the ''little nuik," and enlarged again after the meaning of the name wa.s forgotten, il is hard present name, " big little iiuik." a c Fi<; 195. — 1'iinl dart. o see any sense ]U the 212 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. this. It goes around in this way seven times, and then is carried one prong farther, half hitched again, and the end taken down and made fast to the first narrow lashing. The shaft is painted with red ocher to within 13£ inches (the length of the throwing board) from the butt. This is an old shaft and head fitted with new prongs, and was made by NTkawa'alu, who was anxious to borrow it again when getting ready to start on his summer trip to the east, where he would find young ducks and molting fowl. The form of head seen in this dart appears to be the commonest. It is called by the same name, nfi'tkan, as the bone head of the deer arrow. There is considerable variation in the number of barbs, which are always bilateral, except in one instance, No. 56590 [122], Fig. 196, from Utkiav win, which has four barbs on one side only. It is 7£ inches long exclusive of the tang. Out of eight specimens of such heads one has one pair of barbs, one two pairs, two three pairs, one four unilateral barbs, one five pairs, one six pairs, and one seven pairs. The total length of these heads is from 9 inches to 1 foot, of which the tang makes about 2 inches, and they are generally made of walrus ivory, wherein they differ from the nugfit of the Greenlauders, which, since Crantz's time1 has always had a head of iron. Iron is also used at Cumberland Gulf, as shown by the specimens in the National Musuem. Fig. 197 represents a very ancient spearhead from Utkiavwin, No. 89372 [760]. It is of compact whale's bone, dark ened with age and impregnated with oil. It is 8-7 inches long and the other end is beveled off into a wedge-shaped tang roughened with cross cuts on both faces, with a small hole for the end of a lashing as on the head of No. 89244 [1325]. This was called by the native who sold it the head of a. seal spear, a/kqllgiik, and it does bear some slight resemblance to the head of weapon used in Greenland and called by a similar name2 (agdligak). The roughened tang, however, indi cates that it was intended to be fixed permanently in the shaft, and this, taken in connection with "fdr biniTiari"' its ^rmS resemblance to the one-barbed head of the Greenland nugflt3 as well as to the head of the Siberian bird dart figured by Nordenskiold4, makes it probable that it is really the form of bird dart head anciently used at Point Barrow. It is pos- 1 History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 148. "Grant/,, vol. 1, p. 147, and Figs. 8 and 7, PI. V. 3 Ibid., Fig. 8. 4 Vega, vol. 2, p. 105, Fig. 5. • p _ Vn dent point for l)ir<1 . 7:t. ''History of Greenland, vol. 1, ]i. 147, PI. v, Figs. C and ' ''Tales, etc., ri. opposite p. 12 ( "bladder ;irro\v "}. MI'HDOCIl.] SEAL DART. 215 Kia. 202.— Nozzle fo flout. Greenlandie fif/tllifiak, is still in use, but was always applied to the old bone harpoon heads, which are, however, of the toggle-head pattern (described below). It seems as if the Point Barrow natives had for gotten all about the ;1'k(|ltgfik except that it was a harpoon with a bone head for taking seals. At the present time the small bladder float, permanently attached to the shaft of the harpoon, is never used at Point Barrow. That it was used in ancient times is shown by our finding in one of the ruined houses in Utkiavwlfi a very old broken nozzle for inflating one of these floats. Fig. 202, No. ,S!»720 [75(5|, is this specimen, which was picked up by Capt. Herendeen. This is a rounded tube of fossil ivory, 1-3 inches long and about one-half inch in diameter, slightly contract ed toward one end and then expanded into a stout collar. At the other is a stout longi tudinal llange, three -fourths inch long, perforated with an oblong slot. Between the flange and the collar the sur face is roughened with cross cuts, and the other end is still choked with the remains of a wooden plug. This nozzle was inserted intoa hole in the blad der as far as the flange and secured by tying the bladder above the collar. The whole was then secured to the shaft by a lashing through the slot, and could be inflated at pleas ure and corked up with the wooden plug. As I have already said, the only harpoon of this kind now used at Point Barrow is a small one intended only for the capture of small seals. It has no bladder, but the rather long line is attached to the shaft by a martingale which makes the shaft drag sideways ''"• -li:; *'••'' llilrt through the water. Three of these little darts, which are thrown with a handboard like the bird dart, make a set. The resistance of the shafts 216 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. of these three spears darted into the seal in succession is said to be suf ficient to fatigue the seal so that he can be easily approached and dis patched. We never saw these weapons used, though they are very com mon, as they are intended only for use from the kaiak, which these people seldom use in the neighborhood of the villages. When in the umiak, shooting with the rifle is a more expeditious means of taking seals. We collected three sets of these darts (kukigu). No. 89240& [523], Fig. 203, has been selected for description. The shaft is of spruce, 54£ inches long, and 0-8 inch in diameter at the tip, tapering slightly almost to the butt, which is hollowed on the end to fit the catch of the throwing board. The foreshaft is of white walrus ivory 5 inches long, and is fitted into the tip of the shaft with a wedge-shaped tang. This foreshaft, which has a deep oblong slot to receive the head in the middle of its flat tip, serves the double purpose of making a strong solid socket for the head and giving sufficient weight to the end of the dart to make it fly straight. The head is a simple flat barbed arrow-head of hard bone 2-3 inches long and one-half inch broad across the barbs, with a flat tang, broadest in the middle, where there is a hole for attach ing the line. This head simply serves to attach the drag of the shaft to the seal as it is too small to inflict a serious wound. It is fastened to the shaft by a martingale made as follows: One end of a stout line of sinew braid 5£ feet long is passed through the hole in the head and se cured by tying a knot in the end. The other end of this line divides into two parts not quite so stout, one 3 feet long, the other 2 feet 8 inches. The latter is fastened to the shaft 18£ inches from the butt by a single marling hitch with the end wedged into a slit in the wood and seized down with fine sinew. The longer part serves to fasten the fore- shaft to the shaft, and was probably put on separately and worked into the braiding of the rest of the line at the junction. The foreshaft is kept from slipping out by a little transverse ridge on each side of the tang. When the weapon is mounted for use the two parts of the bridle are brought together at the middle of the shaft and wrapped spirally around it till only enough line is left to permit the head to be inserted in the socket, and the bight of the line is secured by tucking it under the last turn. When a seal is struck with this dart his sudden plunge to escape unships the head. The catch of the martingale immediately slips; the latter unrolls and drags the shaft through the water at right angles to the line. The shaft, besides acting as a drag on the seal's motions, also serves as a float to indicate his position to the hunter, as its buoyancy brings it to the surface before the seal when the latter rises for air. The shaft is usually painted red except so much of the end as lies in the groove of the throwing-board, in the act of darting. These darts vary but little in size and material, and are all of essentially the same pattern. They are always about 5 feet in length when mounted for use. (The longest is 64£ inches, and the shortest 57.) The head, as MFRnOCH.] THROWING BOARDS. 217 well as the foreshaft, is sometimes made of walrus ivory, and the latter sometimes of whale's bone. The chief variation is in the length of the martingale, and the details of the method of attaching it. No two are precisely alike. The foreshaft is generally plain, but is occasionally highly ornamented, as is shown in Fig. 204, No. 56516 [105]. The figures are all incised and colored, some with ocher and some with soot. Both of the kinds of darts above described are thrown by means of a hand board or throwing-board. This is a flat, narrow board, from 15 to 18 inches long, with a handle at one end and a groove along the upper surface in which the spear lies with the butt resting against a catch at the other end. The dart is pro pelled by a quick motion of the wrist, as in casting with a fly-rod, which swings up the tip of the board and launches the dart forward. This con trivance, which practically makes of the hand a lever 18 inches long, enables the thrower by a slight motion of the Avrist to impart great ve locity to the dart. The use \, of this implement is universal ^ FIO. 204.-Fore. ainongthc Eskimo, though not shaft of seal dart, peculiar to them. The Green- landers, however, not only use it for the two kinds of darts already mentioned, but have adapted it to the large harpoon.1 This is undoubtedly to adapt the large harpoon for use from the kaiak, which the Greenlanders use more habitually than most other Eskimo. On the other hand, the peopleof Baffin Land and the adjoining regions, as well as the inhabitants of northeastern Siberia, use it only with the bird dart.2 Throughout west ern North America the throwing-board is used essentially as at Point Barrow. Prof. „ _ ,-. Flo. 205.— Throwing board for darts. O. T. Mason has given3 an interesting ac count of the different forms of throwiug-board used by the Eskimo and Aleuts of North America. 1 Crantz, vol. 1, p. 146, PI. v. Figs. 1 and 2, and Kink as quoted above, also Kane, First Exp., p. 478. 1 Parry, Second Voyage, p. 508 (Iglulik) ; and Nordenskiold, Vega, vol. 2, p. 105, Fig. 5. 'Smithsonian Report for 1884, part n , pp. 279-289. ^ 218 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. We obtained five specimens of the form used at Point Barrow. No. 89233 [523], Fig. 205«, belonging to the set of seal darts bearing the same collector's number, has been selected as the type. This is made of spruce, and the hole is for the forefinger. A little peg of walrus ivory, shaped like a flat-headed nail, is driven through the middle of the tip so that the edge of the head just projects into the groove. This fits into the hollow in the butt of the dart and serves to steady it. It is painted red on the back and sides. Fig. 205ft, No. 89235 [GO], differs from this in having a double curve instead of being flat. A slight ad vantage is gained by this as in a crooked lever. The catch is a small iron nail. The others are essentially the same as the type. No. 89234 [528], has a small brass screw for the catch, and No. 89902 [1320], has an ivory peg of a slightly different shape, the head having only a pro jecting point on one side. They are generally painted with red ocher except on the inside of the groove. There appears to be no difference between throwing-boards meant for seal darts and those used with the bird dart. Unfortunately I had no opportunity of observing accu rately how the handle was grasped, but it is probably held as seen by Beechey at Eschscholtz Bay,' namely, with the fore finger in the hole, the thumb and middle finger clasped round the spear, and the third and little fingers clasping the handle 1 under the spear. This seems a very natural way of holding it. Of course, the fingers release the spear at the moment of casting. All the throwing-boards from Point Barrow are right-handed. Harpoons. — All kinds of marine animals, including the smaller seals, which are also captured with the darts just described and with nets, are pursued with harpoons of the i/ same general type, but of different patterns for the different FIG. 206.— Har- animals. They may be divided into two classes — those iu- poon hwui. tended for throwing, which come under the head of projectile weapons, and those which do not leave the hand, but are thrust into the animal. These fall properly under the head of thrusting weapons. Both classes agree in having the head only attached permanently to the line, fitted loosely to the end of the shaft, and arranged so that when struck into the animal it is detached from the shaft, and turns under the skin at right angles to the line, like a toggle, so that it is almost impossible for it to draw out. No. 89793 [873], Fig. 200, is a typical toggle head of this kind, in tended for a walrus harpoon (tuku), and will be described in full, as the names of the different parts will apply to all heads of this class. The lxnly is a conoidal piece, 4£ inches in length, and flattened laterally so that at the widest part it is 1 inch wide and 0-7 thick. On one side, which may be called the loiccr, it is cut off straight for about half the 'Voyage, p. 324. HUKOOOH.J HARPOONS. 219 j,-IQo07_ longer diameter, while the upper side is produced into a long, four- sided spur, the barb. Tlie Una hole is a round hole about one-fourth inch in diameter, a little back of the middle of the body, at right angles to its longer diameter. From this, on each side, run shallow line grooves to the base of the body, gradually deepening as they run into the line hole. In the middle of the base of the body is the deep, cup-shaped nhtift- aocket, which fits the conical tip of the shaft or fore shaft. In the tip of the body is cut, at right angles to the longer diam eter of the, body, and therefore at right angles to the plane of the barb, the narrow blade slit, 1-1 inches deep, into which fits, secured by a single median rivet of whalebone, the flat, thin blade of metal (brass in this case). This is triangular, with curved edges, narrowly beveled on both faces, and is !•!) inches long and 1 broad. The body is sometimes cut into faces so as to be hexagonal instead of elliptical in section as in Fig. 207 (No. 80701 [873]), and intermediate forms are common. When such a head is mounted for use a bight of the line or leader, a short line for connecting the head with the main line, runs through the line hole so that the head is slung in a loop in the end of the line. The tip of the shaft is then fitted into the shaft socket and the line brought down the shaft with the parts of the loop on each side resting in the line grooves and is made fast, usually so that a slight pull will detach it from the shaft. When the animal is struck the blade cuts a wound large enough to allow the head to pass in beyond the barb. The struggles of the animal make the head slip off the tip of the shaft and the strain on the line imme diately toggles it across the wound. The toggle head of the whale harpoon is called kiafron, of the walrus harpoon, tuk j. i • i A- i but since the different kinds as mentioned above practically differ only in size, their development was probably the same. The earliest form in the collection is No. 89382 [1383], Fig. 208, from Nmviik, which is evidently very old, as it is much worn and weathered. It is a single flat piece of fine-grained bone 3 inches long, pointed at the end and provided with a single, unilateral barb. Be- 220 THE POIXT BARROW ESKIMO. hind this it is narrowed and then widened into a broad flat base pro duced on one side into a sharp barb, in the same plane as the other barb, which represents the blade, but on the opposite side. The line hole is large and irregularly tri angular, and there are no line grooves. Instead of a shaft socket bored in the solid body, one side of the body is excavated into a deep longi tudinal groove, which was evidently converted into a socket by a transverse band, probably of sealskin, running round the body, and kept in place by a shallow transverse groove on the convex side of it. A harpoon head with the socket made by inclosing a groove with thongs was seen by Dr. Kane at Smith Sound.1 The next form, No. 89331 [932], Fig. 209«, has two bilateral barbs to the blade part, thus increasing its holding power. Instead of an open transverse groove to hold the thong, it has two slots parallel to the socket groove running ob. liqiiely to the other side, where they open into a shallow depression. Figs. 209& and 210, Nos. 89544 [1419] and 89377 [766], are variants of this form, probably intended for the larger seal, as the blade part is very long in proportion. No. 89544 [1419] is interesting from its close resemblance to the spear head figured by NordenskioUl2 from the ancient "Onkilon" house at North Cape. No. 89377 [706] is a pe culiar form, which was perhaps not general, as it has left no descendants among the modern harpoon. Instead of the bilateral blade barbs it has an irregular slot on each side, which evidently served to hold a blade of stone, and the single barb of the body is replaced by a cluster of four, which are neither in the plane of the blade nor at right angles to it, but between the two. No modern harpoon heads from Point Barrow have more than two barbs on the body. The next improvement was to bore the shaft socket FIQ. 211.— Bone instead of making it by inclosing a groove with thongs, harpoou bead, fliis is shown in Fig. 211 (No. 89379 [795], from Utkiavwin), which is just like No. 89544 [1419] except in this respect. The line grooves first appear at this stage of the development. Fio. 209.— Harpoon heads: (a) an cient bone, harpoon head ; (&) va riant of the type. Fio. 210.— Bone harpoon head. • 1 Second Grinnell Exp., vol. 1, Figa. on pp. 412 and 413. 2 Vega, vol. 1, p. 444, Fig. 5. HARPOONS. 221 The next step was to obtain greater penetration by substituting a triangular blade of stone for the barbed bone point, with its breadth still in the plane of the body barb. This blade was either of slate (No. 89744 [909] from Nuwiik) or of flint, as in Fig. 212 (No. 89748 [928], also from Nuwiik). Both of these are whale harpoons, such as are sometimes used even at the present day. Before the introduction of iron it was discovered that if the blade were inserted at right angles to the piano of the body barb the harpoon would have a surer hold, since the strain on the line would always draw it at right angles to the length of the wound cut by the blade. This is shown in Fig. 213 (No. 5<>(>20 [199], a walrus harpoon head from Utkiavwlfi), which has the slate blade inserted in this posi tion. Substituting a metal blade for the stone one gives us the modern toggle head, as already described. That the insertion of the stone blade, preceded the rotation of the plane of the latter is, I think, conclusively shown by the whale harpoons' already mentioned, in spite of the fact that we have a bone har poon head in the col- lection, No. 89378 [1201], figured in Point Barrow report, which is exactly like No. 89379 [795], ex cept that it has the blade at right angles to the plane of the body barb. This is, how ever, a newly made model in rein deer antler of the ancient harpoon, and was evidently made by a man so used tothe modern pattern that he forgot this important distinc tion. The development of this spear head has been carried no further at Point Barrow. At one or two places, however, namely, at Cumberland Gulf in the east" and at Sledge Island in the west Fio. 213.-Harpoon head, bone and stone. (as shown ill Mr. Nelson's COllCC- tion), they go a step further in making the head of the seal harpoon, body and blade, of one piece of iron. The shape, however, is the same as those with the ivory or bone body. FIG. 212.— Har poon head, bone and stuiie. 'Compare, also, llio walrus harpooii iiguml by Capt. I*yon, Parry's Second (Voyage, I'l. opposite p. 550, Fig. 13. *Soo Kumlien, Contributions, p. 35, and Boas, "Central Eskimo," p. 473, Fig. 393. 222 TMK 1'OINT HARROW ESKIMO. All of the Eskimo race, as far as I have any definite information, use toggle harpoon-heads. There are specimens in the National Museum from Greenland, Cumberland Gulf, the Anderson and Mackenzie region, and from the Alaskan coast from Point Harrow to Kadiak, as well as from St. Lawrence Island, which are all of essentially the same type, but slightly modified in different localities. The harpoon head in use at Smith Sound is of the same form as the walrus harpoon heads used at Point Harrow, but appears always to have the shaft socket made by a groove closed with thongs.1 In Danish Greenland, however, the body has an extra pair of bilateral barbs below the blade. The Greenlanders have, as it were, substituted a metal blades for the point only of the barbed blade portion of such a bone head as No. 89379 [795].2 Curiously enough, this form of the toggle head appears again in the Mackenzie and Anderson region, as shown by the extensive collections of Itoss, MaeFarlane, and others. In this region the metal blade itself is often cut into one or more pairs of bilateral barbs. At the Straits of Fury and Ilecla, Parry found the harpoon head, with a body like the walrus harpoon heads at Point Harrow,3 but with the blade in the plane of the body barb. Most of the pictures scattered through the work represent the blade in this position, but Fig. 19 on the same plate has the blade at right angles to the barb, so that the older form may not be universal. At Cumberland Gulf the form of the body is considerably modified, though the blade is of the usual shape and in the ordinary position. The body is flattened at right angles to the usual direction, so that the thickness is much greater than the width. .It always has two body barbs. On the western coast the harpoon heads are much less modified, though there is a tendency to increase the number of body barbs, at the same time ornamenting the body more elaborately as we go south from Hering Strait. Walrus harpoon heads with a single barb, hardly dis tinguishable from those used at Point Harrow, are in the collection from the Diomedes and all along the northern shore of Norton Sound, and one also from the mouth of the Ivuskoqiiini. They are probably also used from Point Harrow to Kotzebue Sound. At St. Lawrence Island and on the Asiatic shore they are the common if not the universal form.4 The seal harpoon head (iiaulu) at Point Harrow appears always to have the body barb split at the tip into two, and this is the ease rarely with the tu'ku. This form, which appears occasionally north of Norton Sound (Port Clarence, Cape Nome), appears to be more common south of this locality, where, however, a pattern with the barb divided into three points seems to be, the prevailing form. I will now proceed to the de scription of the different forms of harpoon with which these toggle- heads are used. "Kane, 2il Griimcll Ex]i., vol. 1, pp. 412 and 413 (Fig. 1), ami Bossells, Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 9, p. 869, Figs. 6-12. 2 Grant/., vol. 1, p. 14G, and 1*1. v, Figs. 1 and 2, and Kink Talcs, etc., 1*1. opposite p. 1(1. •'I'd Voyage, PI. opposite p. ").">!), Fig. 13. 4 Museum eolleetions and Xordenskicild, Vega, vol. 2. p. 105, Fig. 1. This figure shows the blade in h>' plane of the barb, but none of the specimens from Plover Uay are of this form. Mrmiorii.] HARPOONS. 2'23 Throwing-harpoons are, always thrown from the hand without a throwing-board or other assistance, and are of two sixes, one for the walrus and bearded seal, and one for the small seals. Both have a long shaft of wood to the tip of which is attached a heavy bone or ivory fore- shaft, usually of greater diameter than the shaft and somewhat club- shaped. This serves the special purpose of giving weight to the head of the harpoon, so it can be darted witli a sure aim. The native name of this part of the spear, ukumailuta (Greeulaudic, okimailutaK, iceiylit), indicates its design. This contrivance of weighting the head of the harpoon with a heavy foreshaft is peculiar to the western Eskimo. On all the eastern harpoons (see figures referred to above and the Museum collections) the foreshaft is a simple cap of bone no larger than the shaft the tip of which it protects. Between the foreshaft and the toggle-head is interposed the looxe xliaft (i'gimu), a slender rod of bone whose tip fits into the shaft socket of the head, while its butt fits loosely in a socket in the tip of the foreshaft. It is secured to the shaft by a thong just long enough to allow it to be unshipped from the foreshaft. This not only prevents the loose shaft from breaking under a lateral strain, but by its play facilitates unshipping the head. On these harpoons intended for throwing, this loose shaft is always short. This brings the weight of the foreshaft close to the head, while it leaves space enough for the head to penetrate beyond the barb. The walrus harpoon varies in size, being adapted to the strength and stature of the owner. Of the six in our collection, the longest, when mounted for use, is 9 feet 0 inches long, and the shortest 5 feet 8 inches. The ordinary length appears to be about 7 feet. It has a long, heavy shaft (ipua) of wood, usually between 5 and (! feet long and tapering from a diameter of 1 £ inches at the head to about 1 inch at the butt. The head is not usually fastened directly to the line, but has a leader of double thong 1 to 2 feet long, with a becket at the end into which the main line is looped or hitched. At the, other end of the line, which is about 30 feet long, is another becket to which is fastened a float consisting of a whole sealskin inflated. When the head is fitted on the tip of the loose shaft the line is brought down to the middle of the shaft and hooked by means of a little becket to an ivory peg (ki'Ierb- wlfi) projecting from the side of the shaft. The eastern Eskimo have, in place of the simple becket, a neat little contrivance consisting of a plate of ivory lashed to the line with a large slot in it which hooks over the catch, but nothing of the sort was observed at Point Barrow. The harpoon thus mounted is poised in the right hand with the fore finger resting against a curved ivory projection (ti'ka) and darted like a white man's harpoon, the float and line being thrown overboard at the same time. When a walrus is struck the head slips off and toggles as al ready described ; the line detaches itself from the catch, leaving the shaft free to float and be picked up. The float is now fastened to the wal rus, and, like the shaft of the seal dart, both shows his whereabouts 224 THE POINT BAKROW ESKIMO. and acts as a drag on his movements until he is "played" enough for the hunters to come up and dispatch him. This weapon is called u'nakpuk, "the great u'na or spear." U'na (unak, u'nan) appears to be a generic term in Eskimo for harpoon, but at Point Barrow is now restricted to the harpoon used for stabbing seals as they come up to their breathing holes. We collected six of these walrus harpoons complete and forty-two separate heads. Of these, No. 50770 [534], Fig. 214«, has the most typical shaft and loose shaft. The shaft is of spruce 71 inches long, roughly rounded, and tapering from a diameter of 1£ inches at the tip to 0-8 at the butt. The foreshaft is of white walrus ivory, G-7 inches long, exclusive of the wedge-shaped tang which fits into a cleft in the tip of the shaft. It is somewhat club-shaped, being 1-6 inches in diameter at the tip and tapering to 1-3 just above the butt, which expands to the diameter of the shaft, and is separated from the tang by a square transverse shoulder. The shaft and foreshaft are fastened together by a whip ping of broad seal thong, put on wet, one end passing through a hole in the foreshaft one- quarter inch from the shaft, and kept from slipping by a low transverse ridge on each side of the tang. In the tip of the foreshaft is a deep, round socket to receive the loose shaft, which is a tapering rod of walrus ivory 4-4 inches long, shouldered off at the butt, which is 0-7 inch in diameter, to a blunt, rounded tang 0-9 inch long. It fits loosely , into the foreshaft up to the shoulder, and is '5 secured by a piece of narrow seal thong which passes through a transverse hole one- half inch above the shoulder. The end is spliced to the standing part with double slits about 0 inches from the loose shaft, and the other end makes a couple of turns outside of the lashing on the shaft mentioned above and is secured with two half-hitches. The line catch (ki'lerbwlii) is a little, blunt, backward-pointing hook of ivory inserted in the shaft 17 inches from the tip and projecting about one-third inch. Ten and one-fourth inches farther back and 90 MURDOCH. ] WALRUS HAHPOONS. 225 round the shaft from the line catch is the finger rest — a conical recurved piece of ivory 1 inch high, with a Hat base, resting against the shaft and secured by a lashing of whalebone, which passes through two corresponding holes, one in the rest and one in the shaft. The head and line belonging to this harpoon are intended for hunting the bearded .seal, and will be described below. No. 56772 [536], Fig. 1214ft, from Utkiavwlii,.is fitted with fairly typical walrus gear. The head is of the typical form, (i inches long, with a conoidal body of walrus ivory, ornamented with incised lines colored with red ocher, and a blade of steel secured by a whalebone rivet. The "leader," which is about la inches long, is made by passing one end of apiece of stout walrus-hide thong about one-quarter inch wide through the line hole and doubling it with the head in the bight, so that one part is about 0 inches the longer. The two parts are stopped together about 2 inches from the head with a bit of sinew braid. The ends are joined and made into a beoket, as follows: The longer end is doubled back for 7 inches and a slit cut through both parts about 2 inches from the end. The shorter end is passed through this slit, and a slit is cut 5 inches from the end of this, through which the loop of the other end is passed and all drawn taut. The whole joint is then tightly seized with sinew braid so as to leave a becket .'5 inches and a free end 4 inches long. This becket is looped into an eye 1£ inches long at the end of the main line, made by doubling over 5 inches of the end and stopping the two parts firmly together with sinew braid. The line is of the hide of the bearded seal, about the same diameter as the leader, and 27 feet long. It is in two nearly equal parts, spliced together with double slits, firmly seized with sinew braid. There is a becket about 8 inches long at the other end of the lino for attaching the float, made by doubling over the end and tying a carrick bend, the end of which is stopped back to the standing part with sinew braid. The becket to hook upon the line catch is a bit of sinew braid, fastened to the line 2i feet from the head, as follows: One end being laid against the line it is doubled in a bight and the. end is whipped down to the line by the other end, which makes five turns round them. I will now consider the variations of the different parts of these har poons in detail, beginning with the head. Our series is so large, con taining in all forty-eight heads, besides some spare blades, that it probably gives a fair representation of the common variations. The longest of this series is 6 inches long and the shortest 3£, but by far the greater number are from 4£ to 5 inches long. Their proportions are usually about as in the types figured, but the long head just figured (No. 56772 [534] ) is also unusually slender. Sheet brass is the com monest material for the blade (thirty blades are of this material), though iron or steel is sometimes used, and rarely, at present, slate. There is one slate-bladed head in the scries (Xo. 56620 [100]) figured above, and four blades for such heads. The blade is commonly of the shape of the 0 KTH - 15 226 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. FIG. 215.— Typical walrus-har poon heads. type figured, triangular with curved edges, varying from a rather long triangle like the slate blade just mentioned to a rather short one with very strongly curved edges like Fig. 215a (No. 89750 [1038]), which is peculiar as the only walrus harpoon head with a body of reindeer antler. It also has an iron blade and a rivet of iron, not seldom with rounded basal an gles so as to be almost heart-shaped, like Fig. 215& (No. 56021 [28.S] ). A less common shape of blade is lanceolate, with the base cut oft' square as in Fig. 21(J«, (Xo. 897<>4 [!»40] ). Only eight blades out of the series are of this shape. A still more peculiar shape of blade, of which we saw only one specimen, is shown in Fig. 21G& (No. 89790 [94:?] ). This is made of brass. It was perhaps meant for an imitation of the barbed blades used at the Mackenzie, of which I have already spoken. The blade, when of metal, is generally fastened ju with a single rivet. One only out ot the whole number .has two rivets, and three are simply wedged into the blade slit. The slate blades appear never to have been riveted; Nordens- kiold, however, figures a walrus harpoon from Port Clarence1 with a jade blade riveted in. The rivet is generally made of whalebone, but other materials are sometimes used. For in stance, in the series collected two have rivets of iron, two of wood, and five of rawhide. The body is generally made of white walrus ivory, (five of those col lected are of hard bone, and one already mentioned and figured, No. 89750 [1038], Fig. 215«, is of reindeer antler), and the hexagonal shape, often with rounded edges, and the line grooves continued to the tip, as in Fig. 217o, No. 89757 [947], appears to be the commonest. Three out of the forty-eight have four-Sided bodies. It is unusual for the body barb to be bifurcated, as is common farther south. .-Typical walru-harpoon hemb. , vol. 2. p. 229, Fif;. 3. Ml'KUOCH.] WALRUS HARPOONS. 227 Only three out of the forty-eight show this peculiarity, of which No. 56013 [53], Fig. HI 7ft, is an example. The specimens figured show the different styles of ornamentation, which always consist of incised patterns colored with red ocher or rarely with soot. These never rep resent natural objects, but are always conventional pat terns, generally a single or double border on two or more faces with short ob lique cross-lines and branch es. Harpoon heads at Point Harrow are probably never ornamented with the ''cir cles and dots," so common on other implements and on the harpoons of the south ern Eskimo. Twenty-eight of the heads still have the leaders at tached to them. The object of this short line is to ena ble the hunter to readily de tach a broken head and put on a fresh one without going to the trouble of undoing a splice, which must be made a 5 strong to keep tllC head from Fio. 217.— Typical walrus harpoon heads. separating from the line. It is made of a stout piece of rawhide thong, the skin of the walrus or bearded seal, about one-third inch in diameter, and usually from 2 to 3 feet long. It is al ways passed through the line hole, as in the specimen described, and the ends are made into a becket for attaching the line, with an end left to . serve as a handle for pulling the two beck- ets apart when the FIG. 218. — Walrus-harpoon lifjid. with leader. maill HlIC ends ill a becket. Occasionally (two are made this way) the longer end is simply doubled in a bight, and the three parts are then sei/ed together with sinew braid, but it is generally made with a splice, the details of which differ slightly on the different leaders. 228 THE POINT BAEUOW ESKIMO. The commonest method is that already described. When the longer end is doubled over, a slit is cut through both parts close to the end of this through which the shorter end is passed. A slit is then cut a few inches from the tip of this part, the bight of the becket passed through this slit and all drawn taut. This makes a very strong splice. Fourteen beck- ets are spliced in this way. A variation of this splice has a slit only through the end part of the longer end, the shorter end be ing passed through and slit as before. In one becket the standing part of the longer end is passed through the slit of the end part before going through the line hole, while the rest of the becket is made as be fore. A reversed splice is found on three of the leaders, which is made as follows: When the long end is doubled over, the short end is slit as usual and the longer end passed through this and slit close to the tip. Through this slit is passed the head and all drawn taut. The splice is always firmly seized with sinew braid. The main line, which serves to attach the head to the float, is always made of stout thong, prefer ably the skin of the bearded seal (very fine FIG. 219. — AValrus-harpoon head, line. lines are sometimes made of beluga skin), about one -third inch square, and, when prop erly made, trimmed off on the edges so as to be almost round. It is about 10 yards long. It is fastened into the becket of the leader with a becket hitch tied upside down (No. 50771 [535], Fig. 218), or by means of made either as on the specimen described (No. 50770 spliced with double slits. The long becket at the other with liur. a small 5], Fig. end for becket, 210), or attach- MrRDOTlI.) WALRUS HARPOONS. 229 ing the float is made either by tying a carrick bend with the end stopped back to the standing part (Fig. 220, Xo. 50707 [531]), or by splicing (Fig. 221, Xo. The loose shaft varies very little in shape, though it is sometimes rounded off' at the butt without a shoulder, but the line which secures this to the foreshaft is put on differ ently on each of the six spears. Five of them have the end simply passed through the hole in the loose shaft and spliced to the standing part, but two (the type figured and Xo. 5070S [532 1) have the other end carried down and hitched round the tip of the shaft: another has it passed through a hole in the foreshaft. taken U turns round this and knotted (Xo. 50771 [535]); another has a loop as long as the foreshaft with the short end passed under the first turn of the shaft lashing before it is spliced, and the long end secured as on the first mentioned; and the fifth has the end passed through a hole in the foreshaft and carried down and wrapped round the shaft lashing. The sixth has one end passed through a hole in the smallest part of the foreshaft and knotted at the end, the other end carried up through the hole in the loose shaft and down to a second hole in the foreshaft close to the first, then up through the loose shaft, and down through the first hole, and tucked under the two parts on the other side. The foreshaft is made of walrus ivory or the hard bone of the walrus jaw and varies little in f<»;-:ii and dimensions. It is some times ornamented by carving, as in No.' 50772 [530], or by incised patterns, as in Fig. 222, Xo. 50538 [()«], and generally has one or two deep longitudinal notches in the thickest part, in which the lines can be drawn snugly down. It usually is joined to the shaft by a stout, wedge-shaped tang, which fits into a corresponding cleft in the shaft, and is secured by wooden treenails and a wrapping of seal thong or sinew braid, sometimes made more secure by passing Fl0' 221— w"Ir»»u'||>nKM«i im«i, with 230 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. one end through holes in the foreshaft. No. 50708 [532] is peculiar in having the tang on the shaft and the corresponding cleft in the fore- shaft. The shaft itself varies little in shape and proportions, and at the present day is sometimes made of ash or other hard wood obtained from the ships. The line catch is gener ally a little hook of ivory or hard bone like the one de scribed, but two specimens have small screws fastened into the shaft to serve this purpose. The tinger rest is ordinarily of the same shape as on the type and fastened on in the same way, but No. 56771 [535] has this made of a knob of ivory elaborately carved into a seal's head. The eyes are represented by round bits of ivory with pupils drilled in them inlaid in the head. This is evi dently the knob of a seal drag (see below) as the longitud inal perforation from chin to nape now serves no purpose. It is fastened on by a lashing of whalebone, which runs round the shaft and through a transverse hole in the knob. Harpoons closely resembling these in type are used by the Eskimo of western North America wherever they habit ually hunt the walrus. At many places this heavy spear is armed at the bnttwith a long sharp pick of ivory like the smaller seal spear. Two of these large harpoons ap pear to be rigged especially for the pursuit of the bearded seal, as they have heads which are of precisely the same shape and material as the small seal harpoons in the col lection. Both these heads have lanceolate iron blades, conoidal antler bodies with double barbs, and are more slender than the walrus harpoon heads. No. 50770 [534], Fig. 210, has a head 4 inches long and 0-7 broad at the widest part, and fastened to a very long line (12 fathoms long) without a leader, the end being simply passed through the line hole and seized down to the standing part with sinew braid. This is the method of attaching the head of the small seal harpoons. This line is so long that it may have been held in the boat and not attached to a float. No. 50708 [532], however, has a leader with a becket of the ordinary style. Fig. 223, No. 50011 [8!l], is a head similar to those just described, and probably, from its size, intended for large seals. It is highly orna mented with the usual reddened incised pattern. The throwing harpoon for small seals is an exact copy in miniature of the walrus harpoon, with the addition of a long bayonet-shaped pick of ivory at the butt. The line, however, is upwards of 30 yards long, and the end never leaves the hcaliV.r larg" hand. The line is hitched round the shaft back of the line »«»i»- catch, which now only serves to keep the line from slipping forward, as the shaft is never detached from the line. This harpoon is. used exclu- FlQ. 222.— Fore- shaft of walrus harpoon. FIG. 223.— SEAL HAKPOONS. 231 sively for retrieving seals that liave been shot in open holes or leads of water within darting distance from the edge of the solid ice, and is thrown precisely as the walrus harpoon is, except that the end of the, line is held in the left hand. In traveling over the ice the line with the head attached is folded' in long hanks and slung on the gun case at the back. The rest of the weapon is carried in the hand and serves as a staff in walking and climbing among the ice, where the sharp pick is useful to prevent slipping and to try doubtful ice, and also enables the hunter to break away thin ice at the edge of the hole, so as to draw his game up to the solid floe. It can also serve as a bayonet in case of necessity. This peculiar form of harpoon is confined, to the coast from Point Barrow to Bering Strait, the only region where the seal is hunted with the rifle in the small open holes of water.' Since my nole in the Naturalist was written, 1 have learned from Mr. Henry Balfonr, of the museum at Ox ford, that their collection contains two or three speci mens of this very pattern of harpoon, undoubtedly col lected by some of the officers of the Blossom. Conse quently, my theory that the retrieving harpoon was a modern invention, due to the introduction of firearms, becomes untenable, as the Blossom visited this region before firearms were known to the Eskimo. It was probably originally intended for the capture of seals "hauled out" on the ice in the early summer. There is no doubt, however, that it is at the present day used for nothing but retrieving. Though this weapon was universally used at Point Barrow, we happened to obtain only two specimens, possibly because the natives thought them too neces sary an implement to part with lightly. No. 800(17 [1695], Figs. 224, 225, has a new shaft, etc., but was used several times by the maker before it was offered for sale. Such a retrieving harpoon is called naiillgi:. The shaft (ipua) is of ash, 4 feet "> inches long and 1 inch in diameter, tapering very slightly to each end. The ice, pick (tun) of walrus ivory, 14 inches long and 1 inch wide, has a round tang fitting into a hole in the butt of the shaft. Close to the shaft a small hole is drilled in one edge o" the pick, and through this is passed a bit of sea' ~'iong, the ends of which arc laid along the shaft and neatly whipped down with sinew braid, with the end wedged into a slit in the wood. Flo. 224.— Retrieving sea! harpoon. 1 See tbe writer's note on this weapon. American Naturalist, vol. 19, jt. 423. 232 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. The foreshaft (ukumailuta) is of walrus ivory, 4£ inches long and 1£ inches in diam eter at the thickest part, and secured to the shaft by a whipping (ni'mxa) of seal thong. The loose shaft (igimu) is also of ivory and 2 inches long and secured by a thong (ipiuta) spliced into a loop through the hole at the butt, as previously described. The end is hitched round the tip of the shaft with a marling hitch, followed by a clove hitch be low the whipping. The ivory finger rest (ti'ka) is fastened on with a lashing of whip cord (white man's) passing round the shaft. The line catch (ki'lerbwlfi), which was of ivory and shaped like those on the walrus harpoons, has been lost in transportation. The head differs only in size from those just described as intended for the bearded seal, i except in having a hexagonal body. It is \ 3-3 inches long and has a blade of iron fas- • toned into a body of walrus ivory with a I single wooden rivet. While there is no f detachable leader, the head is attached by 1 a separate piece of the same material to the 5 line (tukak.sia), which is 86 feet 10 inches S long and made of a single piece of fine seal I thong about one-eighth inch thick. This t shorter piece is about 27 inches long and 8 is passed through the line hole and doubled ~ so that one part is a little the longer. It is fastened strongly to the end of the line by a complicated splice made as follows: A slit is cut in the end of the main line through which are passed both ends of the short line. The longer part is then slit about 2 inches from the end and the shorter part passed through the slit, and a slit cut close to the end of it, through which the longer end is passed. The whole is then drawn taut and the longer end clove hitched round the main line. No. 89008 [1058] is one of these spears rigged ready for darting. The line is se cured at about the middle of the shaft with a couple of marling hitches. This specimen, except the head, is new and was rather carelessly made for the market. ^ It has neither line catch nor finger rest. The MfKDOTH.] SEAL HARPOONS. 233 § FIG. 226 — Jade blade for seal harpoon. foresliat't and ice pick arc lashed in with sinew braid, which is first knotted round the tip of the shaft and then hitched round witli a series of left-handed soldier's hitches. The end of the thong which holds the loose shaft is passed through the hole in it and knotted and the other end hitched into the pulley at the smallest part of the foreshaft. The head is- like that of the preceding, but has a colloidal body of reindeer antler, a common material for seal-harpoon heads, and the line, which is of stout sinew braid 4.'5 feet long, is attached to it simply by passing the end through the line hole and tying it with a clove hitch to the standing part 9.J inches from the head. This spear is about the same size as the preceding. These weapons are all of the same general pattern, but vary in length according to the height of the owner. The heads for these harpoons, as well as for the other form of seal har poon, are usually about 3 inches long, ! and, as a rule, have lanceolate blades. The body is generally conoidal, often made of reindeer antler, and always, apparently, with a double barb. It is generally plain, but sometimes orna- ' mented like the walrus-harpoon heads. No. S!I7S4 [100S | was made by Ilu'bw'ga, the Nimatanineuii, •when thinking of coming to winter at ITtkiavwin. He had had no experience in sealing, having apparently spent all his winters on the rivers inland, and this harpoon head seems to have been condemned as unsatisfactory by his new friends at Utkiavwin. It looks like a very tolerable naula, but is unu sually small, being only 2i inches long. We saw only one stone blade for a seal harpoon, No. 89023 [1418], Fig. 22a inches long and 0-9 inch in diameter, shouldered at the butt and iitted into the tip of the shaft with a round tang. The latter is very neatly whipped with a narrow strip of white whalebone, which makes eleven turns and has the end of the last turn forced into a slit in the wood and wedged with a round wooden peg. Under this whipping is the bill of a tern as a charm for good luck. (As the boy who pointed this out to me said, "Lots of seals.") The loose shaft (igimu) is of bone, whale's rib or jaw, and has two transverse holes above the shoulder to receive the end of the assembling line (sabromia), which not only holds the loose shaft in place, but also connects the other parts of the shaft so that in case the wood breaks the pieces will not be dropped. It is a long piece of seal thong, of which one i.i end makes a turn round the loose shaft between the holes; the other end is passed through the lower hole, ofiashing'onebaft. then through the upper and carried down to the tip of the shaft, where it is hitched just below the whalebone whipping, as fol lows: three turns are made round the shaft, the first over the standing part, the second under, and the third over it; the end then is passed under 3, over 2, and under 1 (Fig. 228), and all drawn taut; it then runs down the shaft almost to the butt-lashing and is secured with the same hitch, and the end is whipped around the butt of the ice pick with five turns. The head (natilu) is of the ordinary pattern, 2-8 inches long, with a copper blade and antler body. The line (tukaktln) is a single piece of seal thong 9 feet long, and is fastened to the head without a leader, by simply passing the end through the line-hole, doubling it over and stopping it to the standing part so as to make a becket 21 inches long. The other end is made fast round the shaft and assembling line just back of the middle, as follows: An eye is made at the end of the line, by cutting a slit close to the tip and pushing a bight of the line through this. The end then makes a turn round the shaft, and the other end, with the head, is passed through this eye and drawn taut. When mounted for use, the head is fitted on the tip of the loose shaft as usual ' Parry, Second Voyage, ]». 507, Iglulik. MURDOCH.] HARPOONS 8KAL AND WHALE. 235 and the lino brought down to the tip of the shaft and made fast by t\ro or three round turns with a bight tucked under, so that it can be easily slipped. It is also confined to the loose shaft by the end of the assembling line, which makes one or two loose turns round it. The slack of the line is doubled into "fakes" and tucked between the shaft and assembling line. The other specimen is of the same pattern, but slightly different proportions, having1 a shaft 184 inches long and a pick lit inches long. The loose shaft is of ivory, and there are lashings of white whalebone at each end of the shaft. The assem bling line is hitched round the foreshaft as well as round the two ends of the shaft, and simply knotted round the pick. The line is of very stout sinew braid, and has an eye neatly spliced in the end for looping it round the shaft. Fig. 229, Xo. 89551 [1082], is a model of one of these harpoons, made for sale. It is 10J inches long, and correct in all its parts, except that the whole head is of ivory, even to having the ends of the shaft whipped with light-colored whalebone. The shaft is of pine and the rest of walrus ivory, with lines of sinew braid. We also collected four loose shafts for such harpoons. One of these, Xo. 8!)48'J [802], is of whale's bone and unusually short, only 14 inches long. It perhaps belonged >j to a lad's spear. The other three are long, 20 to 25 inches, and are made of narwhal ivory, as is shown by the spiral twist in the grain. The harpoon used for the whale fishery is a heavy, bulky weapon, which is never thrown, but thrust with both hands as the whale rises under the bows of the umiak. When not in use it rests in a large ivory crotch, shaped like a rowlock, in the bow. The shaft is of wood and 8 or 9 feet long, and there is no loose shaft, the bone or ivory foreshaft being tapered off to a slender point of such a shape that the head .easily un- Fio.-j-j9.- ships. This foreshaft is not weighted, as in the seal bar' walrus harpoon, since this is not necessary in a . poon. weapon which does not leave the hand. The harpoon line is h'tted witli two inflated sealskin floats. Xo complete, genuine whaling harpoons were ever of- ^ fered for sale, but a man at Xuwfik made a very excel- F"' 'm— Lar!!B _ model oi a whale har- leut reduced model about two-thirds the usual size (Xo. poon. 89909 [1023], Pig. 230), which will serve as the type of this weapon 236 THE POINT BARKOW ESKIMO. (a'jyufi). This is 6 feet 11 inches in length when rigged for use. The shaft is of pine, 5 feet 8£ inches long, with its greatest diameter (14 inches) well forward of the middle and ta pered more toward the butt than toward the tip, which is chamfered off on one side to fit the butt of the foreshaft (igimu), and shouldered to keep the lashing in place. The fore- shaft is of whale's bone, 11 £ inches long, three- sided with one edge rounded off, and tapers from a diam eter of 1 inch to a tapering rounded point 1J inches long, and slightly curved away from the flat face of the foreshaft. It will easily be seen that the shape of this tip facilitates the unshipping of the head. The butt is chamfered off on the flat face to tit the chamfer of the shaft, and the whole foreshaft is slightly curved in the same direction as the tip. It is seciired to the shaft by a stout whip ping of seal thong. The head is 7 inches long, and has a body of wal rus ivory, which is ornamented with incised patterns colored red with ocher, and a blade of dark reddish brown jasper, neatly flaked. This blade is not unlike a large arrow head, being triangular, with curved edges, and a short, broad tang im bedded in the tip of the body, which is seized round with sinew braid. The body is unusually long and slen der and is four sided, with a single long, sharp barb, keeled on the outer face. The line hole and line grooves are in the usual position, but the peculiarity of the head is that the blade is inserted witli its breadth in the plane of the body barb. In other words, this head has not reached the last stage in the development of the Fio. 231. -Model of whale harpoon with floats, toggle-head. The line is of stout thong (the skin of the bearded seal) and about 84 feet long. It is passed MUKDOCH.] WHALE HAKPOON'S. 237 232.— Flint l.lailo Itarpoon. for -whale through the line hole, doubled in the middle, the two parts are h'rnilv stopped together with sinew in four places, and in the ends are cut long- slits for looping on the floats. When the head is fitted on the foreshaft the line is secured to the flat face of the foreshaft by a little stop made of a single strand of sinew, easily broken. About 28 inches from the tip of the shaft the line is doubled forward and the bight stopped to the shaft with six turns ol seal thong, so that the line is held in place and yet can be easily de tached by a straight pull. The ends are then doubled back over the lashing and stopped to the shaft with a single thread of sinew. Fig. 231 is a toy model of the whale harpoon, No. 50502 [233], 18i inches long, made of pine and ivory, and shows the manner of attaching the floats, which are little blocks of spruce roughly whittled into the shape of inflated seal skins. A piece of seal thong 13£ inches long has its ends looped round the neck of the floats and the harpoon-line is looped into a slit in the middle of this line. 5 "VVe collected thirteen heads for such harpoons, which have been in actual use, of which two have Hint blades like the one described, two have brass blades, and the rest either blades of slate or else no blades. The flint blades are either triangular like, the, one described or lanceolate and are about 3 inches long exclusive of the tang. The three separate flint blades which we, obtained (Fig. 232, No. 50708 [114], from Utkiavwln, is one of these, made of black flint) are about 1 inch shorter and were perhaps intended for walrus har- Lpoons, though we saw none of these with flint blades. [They are all newly made, for the market. The, slate blades of which we collected eleven, some old and some new, besides those in the heads, are all triangular, with curved edges, as in Fig. 233 (No. 50709 [139] from Ftkiavwlii, made of soft purple slate), except one new one. No. 5G097« [188«], which has the corners cut off' so as to give it a rhomboidal shape. The cor- 233.-suto Wade ners are sometimes rounded off' so that they are nearly r -whale harpoon, heart-sha j)ed. These blades are usually about 2j inches long and 2 broad; two unusually large ones are 3 inches long and nearly 2J broad, and one small one 2-1 by 1-0 inches, and are simply wedged into the blade slit without a rivet. The brass blades are of the same shape. The common material for the body seems to have been rather coarse whale's bone, from the rib or jaw. Only two out of the thirteen have ivory bodies, and these are both of the newer 1 >rass-bladed pattern. The body is very long and slender, being usually about 8 or 8i inches long (one is 9£ inches long) and not over 1J inches broad at the widest part. 238 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. It is always cut off very obliquely at the base, and the part in front of the line hole is contracted to a sort of shank, as in Fig. 234 (No. 89747 [1044]), a head with slate blade (broken) and bone body. This represents a very common form in which the shank is four-sided, while ba<;k of the middle the outer face of the barb rises into a ridge, making this part of the body five-sided. The edges of the shank are sometimes rounded olf so as to make this part elliptical in section, and all the edges of the body except the keel, on the outer face of the barb, are frequently rounded off as in Fig. 235«, Xo. 89745 [1044], which has a slate blade wedged into the bone body with a bit of old cloth and a wooden wedge. Fig. 235fr, 'No. 50002 [157], from Utkiavwin, is a head of the same shape, but has a brass blade and a body of ivory. This blade is wedged in with deer hair, but the other brass- bladed harpoon, Xo. 56G01 [137], has a single rivet of whalebone. The blade slit, and consequently the blade, is always in the plane of the barb, which position, as I have said before, cor responds to the last step but one in the develop ment of the harpoon-head. When the blade is of flint and inserted with a tang, the tip of the body is always whipped with sinew braid, as in Fig. 212, Xo. 89748 [928], from Xuwuk. This specimen is remarkable as being the only one in the series with a double point to the barb. These bodies are sometimes ornamented with incised lines, in conventional patterns, as shown in the different figures. A short incised mark somewhat resembling an arrow (see above, Fig. 234, Xo. 89747 [1044] ) may have some signifi cance as it is repeated on several of the heads. Harpoon-heads of this peculiar pattern are to be found in the Museum collection from other localities. As we should naturally expect, they have been found at the Diomede Islands, St. Lawrence Island, and Plover Bay. It is very interesting, however, to find a specimen of pre cisely the same type, from ( J-reenhmd, where the modern harpoons are so different from those used in the west. That the line connecting the head with the float line is not always so FICI. 234.— Body of whale harpoon head. FIG. 23">. — Whale harpoon heads. MURDOCH. 1 WHALE HARPOONS. 239 long in proportion as represented on the two models is shown by Fig. 230, No. 81*744: [0(59], the only specimen obtained with any part of the line attached. A piece of stout wal rus-hide thong 2 feet long is passed through the line-hole and doubled in two equal parts, which are firmly stopped together with sinew about 2 inches from the head. Another piece of similar thong 4 feet 2 inches long is also doubled into two equal parts and the ends firmly spliced to those of the short piece thus: The two ends of the long piece are slit and one end of the shortpiece passed through each slit. One of these ends is then slit and through it are passed the other end of the short piece and the bight of the longpiece,andall is drawn taut and securely seized with sinew. The 1) e C k (' t t ll U S Fl0p 236-— Wlinlc harpoon head with "leader." formed was probably looped directly into the bight of the float line. The foreshat't is much larger than that of the model, though of the same shape. No. 5<>r>,'!7 [07], Fig. 237, from Utkiavwln, is of walrus-ivory and 15.8 inches long with a diameter of li inches at the butt. The oblong slot at the beginning of the chamfer is to receive the end of the lashing which secured this to the shaft. This form of foreshaf't is very well adapted to insure the unshipping of the toggle-head, but lacks the special advantage of the loose-shaft, namely, that under a violent lateral strain it unships without break ing. The question at once suggests itself, why was not the improvement that is used on all the other harpoons applied to this one? In my opinion, the reason for this is the same as for retaining the form of toggle-head, which, as I have shown, is of an an- nt pattern. That is to say, the modern whale harpoon is the same pattern that was once used for all harpoons, Fin. SIT.— Fun-shaft of preserved for superstitious reasons. It is a well whale harpoon. known fact, that among many peoples implements, ideas, and language have been preserved in connection with religious 240 THE POINT BARROW KSKIMO. x\ ceremonies long after they have gone out of use in every-' "«ai1- (No. 89900 [1157] from Nuwuk). The shaft is new and rather carelessly made of a rough, knotty piece of spruce, and is 5 feet 5f inches long. The head is of black flint and 2 inches long, exclusive of the tang, and the tip of the shaft is whipped with a narrow strip of light-colored whalebone, the end of which is secured by passing it through a slit in the side of the shaft and wedging it into a crack on the opposite side. This is an old head newly mounted for the market, and the head is wedged in with a bit of blue flannel. No. 89897 [1324], Fig. 245, from Utkiavwlfi, on the other hand, is an old shaft 5 feet 7i inches long, fitted with a new head, which is very broad, and shaped like the head of a bear lance. It is of variegated 1 Crantz, vol. 1, p. 147, PI. V, Fig. 5; and Kane, 1st Grinuell Exp., p. 479 (fig. at bottom). FIG. 243.— Deer lane 244 TIIK POINT BARROW ESKIMO. jasper, brown and gray, and lias a piece of white sealskin kipped over the cleft of the shaft at each side of the tang so that the edges of the two pieces almost meet in the middle. They are secured by a spaced whipping of sinew braid. This shaft, wrkich is painted red, evidently had a broad head formerly, as it is expanded at thetip. No. 89S9G [1321] is the mate to this, evi dently made to match it. We also obtained one other flint- headed lance. The mate to No. 89900 [1157], No. 89898 [1157], has a head of dark gray slate 2-3 inches .long. This spear ap pears to be wholly old, except the whipping of sinew braid. The, shaft is of spruce, 5 feet 4f inches long, and painted red with ocher. We also collected three stones heads for such lances. Fig. 24(1, No. .'58711 [US], from Utkiavwlfi, shows the shape of the tang. It is of gray flint, and 3-7 inches long. No. 89G10 [1154] is a beautiful lance head of polished olive green jade, 4-3 inches long. The hole in the tang is probably not intended for a rivet, as none of the lance heads which we saw were fastened in this way. It is more likely that it was perforated for attaching it to the belt •a as an amulet. We were told that this lance head a % was brought from the west. A large slate lance 53 head found by Nordenskiold1 in the old "•( hikilon" £ house at North Cape is of precisely the same shape 3 as these deer-lance heads, but from its size was J- probably intended for a whale laiice. 3 THItOWINd WEAPONS. The only throwing weapon which these people use is a small bolas, designed for catching birds on the wing. This consists of six or seven small lance. ivory balls, each attached to a string about 30 inches long, the ends of which are fastened together to a tuft of feathers, which serves as a handle and perhaps directs the flight of the missile. When not in use the strings are shortened up, as in Fig. 247, No. 759(59 [1793], for convenience in carrying and to keep them from tangling, by tying them into slip knots, as follows: All the strings being straightened out and laid parallel to each other, they are doubled in a bight, with the end under the standing part, the bight of the end passed through the preced ing bight, which is drawn up close, and so on, usually five or six times, till the strings are sufficiently shortened. A pull on the two ends slips all these knots and the strings come out straight and untangled. The bolas is carried knotted up in a pouch slung round the neck, a native frequently carrying several sets. When a flock of ducks is seen approaching, the handle is grasped in the right 1 Vega, vol. 1, p. 444, Fig. 7. Ml'KDOCH.] HIR1) 1SOLAS. 245 hand, the balls in the left, and the strings are straightened out with a quick pull. Letting go with the left hand the balls are whirled round the head and let fly at the passing flock. Tin- balls spread apart in flying through the air, so as to cover considerable space, like a charge of shot, and if they are stopped by striking a duck, the strings immediately wrap around him and hamper his flight so that he comes to the ground. The na tives said that the balls flew with sufficient force to stun a duck or break his wing, but we never hap pened to see any taken except in the way just described. A duck is occasionally left with sufficient freedom of motion to escape with the bolas hanging to him. The weapon is effective up to 30 or 40 yards, but the natives often throw it to a longer distance, frequently missing their aim. It is univer sally employed, especially by those who have no guns, and a good many ducks are captured with it. ducks are flying, the women and children hardly ever stir out of the house without one or more of these. We brought home one specimen of this implement (kelaui- tau'tIn),No. 75969 [1793], Fig. 248, which is new and lias the balls rather carelessly made. The balls, which are six in number, are of walrus ivory, 1-0 to 1-8 inches long and 1 inch in diameter (except one which is flattened, 2 inches long and 1*3 wide; they are usually all of the same shape). Through the larger end is drilled a small hole, the ends of which are joined by a shallow groove, running over the end, into which the ends of the strings are. fastened by three half-hitches each. There is one string of sinew braid to each set of two balls, doubled in the middle, so that all six parts are equal and about 28 inches long. They are fastened to the feather handle as follows: Nine wing feathers of the eider duck are laid side, by side, butt to point, and doubled in the, middle so that the FIG. 248.-I!ird * ... ., . . m. . . .. „ boias, ready quills and vanes stand up on all sides. The middle of each for use string is laid across the bight of the feathers, so that the six parts come out on all sides between the feathers. The latter are then lashed tightly together with a bit of sinew braid, by passing the end over the bend of the feathers and tying with the rest of the string round the feathers. 1'IQ. 247.— Bird bolas, looped up tor currying. In the spring, when the 246 THK POINT BAKROW ESKIMO. These weapons are generally very much like the- specimen described, but vary somewhat in the shape and material of the balls, which are sometimes simply ovoid or spherical, and often made of single teeth of the walrus, instead of tusk ivory. Hone is also sometimes used. In former times, the astragalus bones of the, reindeer, perforated through the ridge on one end were used for balls. No. 8941)0 [1342], is a pair of such bones tied together with a bit of thong, which appear to have been actually used. No. 89537 [1251] from TTtkiavwIn is a very old ball, which is small (1-1 inches long) and unusually flat. It appears to have been kept as a relic. There is very little information to be found concerning the extent of the region in which this implement is used, either in the Museum col lections or in the writings of authors. A few points, however, have been made out with certainty. The, bolus are unknown among all the Eskimo east of the Anderson Eiver, and the, only evidence that we have of their use at this point is an entry in the Museum catalogue, to which I have been unable to find a corresponding specimen. Dease and Simpson, in 1837, did not observe them till they reached Point Barrow.1 They were first noticed by Beechey at Kot/ebue Sound in 1820.2 Mr. Nelson's collections show that they are, used from Point Barrow along the Alaskan coast, at least as far south as the Yukon delta, and on St. Lawrence Island, while for their use on the coast of Siberia as far as Cape North, we have the authority of Nordenskiold,3 and the Krause Brothers.4 HUNTING IMPLEMENTS OTHER THAN WEAPONS. Floats. — I have already spoken of the floats (apotu'kpun) of inflated sealskin used in capturing the whale, and walrus. We obtained one specimen, No. 73578 [538] Fig. 249. This is the whole skin, except the FIG. 249.— Seal skin float. head, of a male rough seal (Phoca fotida), with the hair out. The car cass was carefully removed without making any incision except round the neck and a few inches down the throat, and skinned to the very 1 T. Simpson's Narrative, p. 1.10. 2 Voyage, p. 574. 3Veca, vol. 2, p. 109, and Fig. 3, ]>. 105. 4Geoyiapliischc Blatter, vol. 5, pt. 1, p. 32. See also Rosso, Arctic Cruise of the Corwin, p. 34 MUHDOCH.] FLOATS TOOGLES. 247 toes, leaving the claws on. All natural or accidental apertures are care fully sewed up, except the genital opening, into which is inserted a ring of ivory, which serves as a mouthpiece for inflating the skin and is corked with a plug of wood. The cut in the throat is carefully sewed up, and the neck puckered together, and wrapped with seal thong into a slender shank about! inch long, leaving a flap of skin which is wrapped round a rod of bone 4 inches long and 1 in diameter, set across the shank, and wound with thong. This makes a handle for looping on the harpoon line. All the floats used at Point Barrow arc of the same, general pattern as this, and are generally made of the skin of the rough seal, though skins of the harbor seal (!'. vitulina) are sometimes used. One of these floats is attached to the walrus harpoon, but two are used in whaling.1 Five or six floats are carried in each boat, and are inflated before starting out. I have seen them used for seats during a halt on the ice, when the boat was being taken out to the '-lead." The use of these large floats is not peculiar to Point Barrow. They are employed by all Eskimo who pursue the larger marine mammals. Flipper toggles. — We collected two pairs of peculiar implements, in the shape of ivory whales about 5 inches long, with a perforation in the belly through which a large thong could be attached. We understood that they were to be fastened to the ends of a stout thong and used when a whale was killed to toggle his flippers together so as to keep them in place while towing him to the ice, by cutting holes in the flip pers and passing the ivory through. We, unfortunately never had an opportunity of verifying this story. Neither pair is new. Pig. 250a represents a pair of these implements (ka'gotln) (No. 56580 [227]). They are of white walrus ivory. In the middle of each belly is exca vated a deep, oblong cavity about three-fourtjis of an inch long and one- half wide, across the middle of which is a stout transverse bar for the attachment of the line. One is a "bow-head" whale (Bahenamys- ticetus), 4£ inches long, and the other evidently intended for a "Cali fornia gray" (Khachinectes glaucus). It lias light blue glass beads inserted for eyes and is the same length as the other. Fig. 250 (No. 5(5508 [407]) is a similar pair, which are both "bowheads" nearly 5 inches long. Both have cylindrical plugs of ivory inserted for eyes, and are made of a piece of ivory so old that the surface is a light chocolate color. The name, kagotln, means literally " a pair of toggles." Harpoon boxes (ii'dlini or u'blun, literally "a nest.'")— The, slate harpoon blades already described were very apt to be, lost or broken, so they always carried in the boat a supply of spare blades. These were kept in a small box carved out of a block of soft wood, in the shape of the animal to be pursued. 1 1 learn from our old intarpreter.'Capt. E. P. Hcrendoen, who has spent three years in whaling at Point Barrow since the return of the expedition, that a third tlciat is also used. It is attached hy a longer lino than the others, and serves as a sort of " telltale," coining l« the surface some time ahead of the whale. 248 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. Fig. 251a represents one, of these boxes (No. 50505 [138]) intended for spare blades for the whale harpoon. This is rather neatly carved from a single block of soft wood, apparently spruce, though it is very old and much weathered, in the shape of a "bowhead" whale, 9 £ inches long. The ends of the flukes are broken short off, and show traces of having been mended with wooden pegs or dowels. The right eye is indicated by a simple incision, but a tiny bit of crystal is inlaid for the left. Two little bits of crystal are also inlaid in the middle of the back. The belly is flat and excavated into a deep triangular cavity, with its base just forward of the angle of the mouth and the apex at the Fio. 250.— I'lipiicr toggles. "small." It is beveled round the edge, with a shoulder at the base and apex, and is covered with a flat triangular piece of wood beveled on the under face to fit the edge of the cavity. About half of one side of the cover has been split off and mended on with two "stitches" of whalebone fiber. The cover is held on by three strings of seal thong passing through holes in each corner of the cover and secured by a MURDOCH.] HARPOON HOXKS. 249 knot in the end of each string- They then pass through three corre sponding holes in the bottom of the cavity, leaving outside of the back two ends 7 inches and one 15 long, which are tied together. The cover can be lifted wholly oft' and then drawn back into its place by pulling the string. Flo. 251.— lioxcs for harpoon heads. We collected seven such whale-harpoon boxes, usually about 0 to 9£ inches long. Nearly all have bits of crystal, amber, or pyrite, inlaid for the eyes and in the middle, of the back, and the cover is generally rigged in the way described. No. 56502 [198], from Utkiavwln, is a 250 THK POINT BARROW ESKIMO. largo, whale, a foot long, and lias the tail bent up, while the animal is usually represented as if lying still. It has good-sized sky-blue beads inlaid for the eyes. Fig. 2516 (No. 89733 [1161], from Nuwiik) represents a small box 4J indies long, probably older than the others, and tlie only one not carved into the shape of a whale. It is roughly egg-shaped and lias no wooden cover to the cavity, which is covered with a piece of deerskin, held on by a string of seal thong wrapped three times around the body in a rough, deep groove, with the end tucked under. In this box are five slate blades for the whale harpoon. We also collected two boxes for walrus harpoons made in the shape of the walrus, with ivory or bone tusks. No. 81)732 [SUO], Fig. 251c, from Nuwiik, is old, and 7 inches long, and has two oval bits of ivory, with holes bored to represent the pupils, inlaid for the eyes. There is no cover, but the cavity is filled with a number of slate blades, carefully packed in whalebone shavings. There is a little eyebolt of ivory at each end of the cavity. One end of a bit of sinew braid is tied to the anterior of these, and the other carried down through the hinder one, and then brought up and fastened round the body with a marling hitch. The other (No. 56489 [127], is new and rather roughly made, 5 inches long and painted all over with red ocher. It has a cover, but no strings. No. 56501 [142], Fig. 25W, from Utkiavwin, is for carrying harpoon blades for the chase of the bearded seal (Erignathus barbatus), and is neatly carved into the shape of that animal. It is 7-4 inches long and has ivory eyes like the walrus box, No. 89732 [SCO]. The cover is fitted to the cavity like those of the whale boxes, but is held on by one string only, a piece of seal thong about 3 feet long passing through the mid dle of the cover and out at a hole on the left side, about one-fourth inch from the cavity. The box is filled with raveled rope-yarns. Fig. 251e (No. 89730 [981], from Utkiavwffi) is like this, but very large, 9-3 inches long. The cover is thick and a little larger than the cavity, beveled on the upper face and notched on each side to receive the string, which is a bit of sinew braid fastened to two little ivory hooks, one on each side of the body. It is fastened to the right hook, carried across and hooked around the, left-hand one, then carried over and hooked round the other, and secured by tucking a bight of the end under the last part. The box contains several slate blades. We also collected one other large seal box (No. 89731 [859], from Nuwiik), very roughly carved, and 9-8 inches long. The cover is fitted into the cavity and held on by a narrow strip of whalebone running across in a transverse groove in the cover and through a hole in each side of the box. Nets (ku'bra}. — The smaller seals are captured in large-meshed nets of rawhide. We brought home one of these, No. 50756 [ 109], Figs 252«- 252/> (detail of mesh). This is a rectangular net, eighteen meshes long and twelve deep, netted of flue seal thong with the ordinary netting knot. The length of the mesh is 14 inches. MURDOCH.] NET FOR SEALS. 251 Such nets are set under the ice in winter, or in shoal water along the shore by means of stakes in summer. In the ordinary method of setting the net under the ice two small holes are cut through the ice the length of the net apart, and between them in the same, straight line is cut a third Via. 252.— Seal nut. large enough to permit a seal to be drawn np through it. A line with a plummet on the end is let down through one of the small holes, and is hooked through the middle, hole, with a long slender pole of willow, often made of several pieces spliced together, with a small wooden hook on the 252 THK POINT BARROW ESKIMO. end. The, line, is then detached from the, plummet and fastened to one upper corner of the net, and a second line is let down through the other small hole and made, fast in the same way to the other upper corner. By pulling on these, lines the net is drawn down through the middle and stretched like a curtain under the ice, while a line at the middle, serves to haul it up again. The eiid lines are but loosely made fast to lumps of ice, so that when a seal strikes the net nothing hinders his wrapping it completely around him in his struggles to escape. When the hunter, who is usually watching his net, thinks the seal is sufficiently entangled he hauls him up through the large hole and sets the net again. I had no opportunity of observing whether any weights or plummets were used to keep down the lower edge of the net. These nets are now universally employed, but one native, spoke of a time "long ago" when there were no nets and they captured seals with the, spear (ii'ius) alone. The net was used in seal catching in Dr. Simpson's time, though he makes but a casual reference to it,1 and Beechey found seal nets at Kotzebue Sound in 1826.2 The net is very generally used for sealing among the, Eskimo of western America and in Siberia. We observed seal nets set with stakes along the shore of the sandspit at Plover Bay, and Nordenskiold speaks of seal nets " set in summer among the ground ices along the shore,"3 and at open leads in the winter, but gives 110 description of the method of setting these nets beyond mentioning the "long pole which was used in setting the net,"4 as none of his party ever witnessed the seal fishery.5 [ am informed by Mr. W. H. Dall that the winter nets in Norton Sound are not set under the ice as at Point Barrow, but with stakes in shoal water wherever there are open holes in the ice. " Ice nets" are spoken of as in use for sealing in Greenland, but I have been able to find no description of them. As they are not spoken of by either Egede or Crantz I am inclined to believe that they were introduced by the Europeans.6 Mr. L. M. Turner informs me that such is the case at Un-gava Bay on the southern shore of Hudson Strait, where they use a very long net set under the ice very much as at Point Barrow. I can find no mention of the use of seal nets among any other of the eastern Eskimo. It is well known that seals have a great deal of curiosity, and are easily attracted by any unusual sounds, especially if they are gentle and long-continued. It is therefore easy to entice them into the nets by making such noises, for instance, gentle whistling, rattling on the ice with the pick, and so forth. Two special implements are also used for this purpose. The first kind I have called: l Op. cit., p. 262. 'Voyage, pp.295, 574. 3 Vega, vol. 2, p. 108. « Ibid., p. 98. 5 See also the reference t*» Hooper's Corwin Report, quoted below under Hunting. 8 See, however, the writer's paper in the Aineriean Anthropologist, vol. 1, p. 333. MURDOCH.] SEAL CALLS. 253 Seal calls (adrigautln). — This implement consists of three! or four claws mounted on tlie. end of n short wooden handle, and is used to make a gentle noise by scratching on the ice. It is a common implement, though I never happened to see it in use. We obtained six specimens, of which No. 56555 [90] Fig. 253 (No. 8!)454 [1114], from Nuwuk) is a similar indicator, 13£ inches long and flat (0-3 inch wide and 0-1 thick). The upper end is carved into scallops for ornament and has a small eye into which a- Flo. 255.— Seal indicators. was knotted a bit of whalebone fiber. The tip is beveled off with a concave bevel on both faces to a sharp edge, so that it can be used for a "feather setter" (fgngwau) in feathering arrows. Such implements are mentioned in most popular accounts of the Eskimo of the east, and Capt. Parry describes it from personal observation at Iglulik.1 I have been unable to find any mention of its use in western America, and have seen no specimens in the National Museum. Sealing utooh. — When a native is watching a seal-hole he frequently has to stand for hours mo tionless on the ice. His feet would become exceedingly cold, in spite of the excel lence of his foot covering, were it not for a little three- legged stool about 10 inches high upon which he stands. This stool is made of wood, with a triangular top just large enough to accommo date a man's feet, with the, heels together over one leg of the stool, and the other two legs supporting the toes of each foot, respectively. FKI.'J.M;.- -sealing »t«oi. The stool is neatly made, and is as light as is consistent with strength. It is universally employed and carried by the hunter, slung on the gun cover with the legs projecting behind. When the hunter has a long time to wait, he generally squats down so as almost to sit on his heels, holding his gun and spear in readiness, and wholly covered with one of the deerskin cloaks already described. They sometimes use this stool to sit on when waiting for ducks to tly over the ice in the spring. 'Second Voyage, p. 510; also pi. opposite p. 550, Fig. 17. 256 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. We brought home two specimens of this common object (nlgawau- otln). No. 81)887 [1411], Fig. 250, will serve as the, type. The top is of spruce, 8^ inches long and 10^ wide. The upper surface is flat and smooth, the lower broadly beveled off on the edges and deeply excavated in the middle, so that there are three straight ridges join ing the three legs, each of which stands in the middle of a slight prominence. The object of cutting away the wood in this way is to make the stool lighter, leaving it thick only at the points where the pressure comes. The large round hole in the middle, near the front, is for convenience in picking it up and hanging it on the cache frame, where, it is generally kept. The three legs are set into holes at each corner, spreading out so as to stand on a base, larger than the top of the stool. Where they fit into the holes they are 0-7 inch in diameter, tapered slightly to fit the hole, and then tapering down to a diameter of one-third inch at the tip. On the under side of the top they are braced with a lashing of stout seal thong. A split on the right-hand edge of the top has been mended, as usual, with a stitch of whalebone. This stool is quite old and has been actually used. No. 89888(1412), from the same village, is new and a little larger, but differs from the type only in having a triangular instead of a round hole in the top and no lashing. Those of our party who lauded at Sidaru September 7, 1881, saw one of these stools hanging up in the then vacant village, and there is a precisely similar stool in the Mu seum from the Anderson region. MacFarlane, in his manuscript notes, describes the use of these stools as follows: "Both tribes kill seals under ice; that is, they watch for them at their holes (breathing) or wherever open water appears. At the former they generally build a small snow house somewhat like a sentinel's box, on the bottom of which they fix a portable three-cornered stool, made of wood. They stand on this and thereby escape getting cold feet, as would be the case "were they to remain for any time on ice or snow in the same immovable position." Beyond this I find no men tion of the use of any such a utensil, east or west, except in Greenland, where, however, they used a sort of one-legged chair to sit on, as well as a footstool, which Egede pictures (PI. 9) as oval, with very short legs.1 Seal dra/i* (ukgiu'tifi.) — Every seal hunter carries with him a line for dragging home his game, consisting of a stout thong doubled in a bight about 18 inches long, with an ivory handle or knob at the other end. The bight is looped into an incision in the seal's lower jaw, while the knob serves for attaching a longer line or the end of a dog's harness. The seal is dragged on his back and runs as smoothly as a sled. We '"They first look nut for Holes, which the Seals themselves make with their Claws about the Big ness of a Halfpenny ; after they have found any Hole, they seat themselves near it upon a Chair, made for the Purpose; and as soon as they perceive the Seal coming up to the Hole and put his snout into it for some Air, they immediately strike him with a small Harpoon." Egede, Greenland, p. 104. " The seals themselves make sometimes holes in the Ice, where they come and draw breath i near such a hole a Greenlander seats himself on a stool, putting his feet on a lower one to keep them from the cold. Now when the seal comes and puts its nose to the hole, he pierces it instantly with his har poon." Crantz* History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 156. MURDOCH.] SEAL DRAGS. 257 collected eight of these drag lines, from which I have selected No. r>OG24 [44], Fig. 257«, as the type. This consists of a stout thuug of rawhide (the skin of the bearded Via. 257.— Seal drags and handlex. seal) 0-3 inch wide and 37 inches long, and doubled in a bight so that one end is about 2£ inches the longer. These ends are fastened into a handle of walrus ivory, consisting of three pieces, namely : a pair of 9 ETH 17 258 THE POINT HARROW KSKIMO. neatly carved, mittens, respectively 1-9 and 1-8 inches long, put together wrist to wrist with the palms up; and lying across the joint above, a little seal 1£ inches long, belly down. A hole runs through each wrist and through the belly of the seal. The, mittens are ornamented on the back with a blackened incised pattern, and the seal has blue glass beads for eyes and blackened incised spots on the back. The longer end of the thong runs up through the right mitten, across through the seal, and down through the left mitten. It is then passed through a slit 1 inch from the end of the shorter part and slit itself. Through this slit is passed the bight of the thong, all drawn up taut and seized with sinew braid. No. 89467 [755], from Utkiavwlfi, is a similar drag, put together in much the same way, but it has the mittens doweled together with two wooden pins, and a seal's head with round bits of wood inlaid for eyes, ears, and nostrils, in place, of the seal. The longitudinal perforation in this head shows that it was originally strung lengthwise on one of these lines. The "double slit splice" of the two ends of the thong is worked into a complicated round knot, between which and the handle the two parts of the line are confined by a tube of ivory 1 inch long, ornamented with deeply incised patterns. Fig. 257ft is the upper part of a line (No. 56622 [36], from Utkiavwfii), with a similar tube If inches long, and a handle carved from a single piece into a pair of mittens like the others. No. 56625 [81], also from Utkiavwiii, is almost exactly similar to the one first described, but has the seal belly up. Fig. 257« (No. 89470 [1337], from the same village) lias a seal 2-3 inches long for the handle, and No. 56626 [212], from tltkiavwlii, is like, it, No. 89469«, [755aJ Fig. 251d, from Utkiavwln, has for a handle the head of a> bearded seal 1-6 inches long, neatly carved from walrus ivory, with round bits of wood inlaid for the eyes and ears. It is perforated longitudinally from the chin to the back of the head, and a large hole at the throat opens into this. The longer end of the thong is passed in at the chin and out at the back of the head ; the shorter, in at the baek of the head and out at the throat; the two ends brought together between the standing parts and all stopped together with sinew braid. No. 56627 [45], Fig. 257e, has a handle made of two ivory bears' heads, very neatly carved, with circular bits of wood inlaid for eyes, and per forated like the seal's head just described. The thong is doubled in the middle and each end passed through oue of the heads lengthwise, so as to protrude about 7 inches. About 4 inches of end is then doubled over, thrust through the throat hole of the opposite head, and brought down along the standing parts. All the parts are stopped together witli sinew braid. This makes a small becket above the handle. We collected seven knobs for these drag lines, of which six are seals' heads and one a bear's. They are all made of walrus ivory, apparently each a single tooth, and not a piece of tusk, and are about 1 £ inches to 2 inches long. They are generally carved with considerable skill, and MCRDOCH.] WOLF-KILLERS. 2f>9 often have the ears, roots of the whiskers, nostrils, and outline of the month incised and blackened, while small bine beads, bits of ivory, or wood are inlaid for the eyes. Implements of this sort are in common use among Eskimo generally wherever they are so situated as to he able to engage in seal-hunting. Mr. Nelson's collection contains speci mens from as far south as Cape Darby. Whalebone irolf-ki-llerit (tsibru). — Before the introduction of the steel traps, which they now obtain by trade, these people used a peculiar con trivance for catching the wolf. This consists of a stout rod of whale bone about 1 foot long and one-half inch broad, with a sharp point at each end. One of these was folded lengthwise in the, form of a Z,1 wrapped in blubber (whale's blubber was used, according to our inform ant, NIkawaalu), and frozen solid. It was then thrown out on the snow where the wolf could find and swallow it. The heat of the animal's body would thaw out the blubber, releasing the whalebone, which would straighten out and pierce the walls of the stomach, thus causing the FIG. 258.— Whalebone wolf-killers. animal's death. Nikawaalu says that a wolf would not go far after swallowing one of these blubber balls. We collected four sets of these contrivances, one set containing seven rods and the others four each. Fig. 258« gives a good idea of the shape of one of these. It belongs to a set of seven, No. 89538 [1229], Fig. 258ft, from IJtkiavwIfi, which are old and show the marks of having been doubled up. It is 12i inches long, 0.4 broad, and 0.2 thick. The little notches on the opposite edges of each end were probably to hold a lashing of sinew which kept the folded rod in shape while the blubber was freezing, being cut by thrusting a knife through the par tially frozen blubber, as is stated by Schwatka.2 Two of the sets are new, but made like the others. This contrivance is also used by the Eskimo of Hudson Bay3 and at Norton Sound, where, according to Petroff,4 the rods are 2 feet long and wrapped in seal blubber. The name Isl'bru appears to be the same as the (ireenlandic (isavssok), found only in the diminutive isavssoraK, a provincial name for the somewhat similar sharp-pointed stick baited with blubber and used for catching gulls. The diminutive form of this 'It is twisted into ''a compact helical mass like a watch-sprinp " in the Hudson Bay region. Schwatka, " Jfimrod in the North." p. 133. See also Klutschak, "Als Kskimo," pp. 194. 195. " "Ximrod in the North," p. 133. 'See Gilder. Schwatka's Search, p. 225: see also. Klutschak, "Als Eskimo." etc., pp. 194-5, where the whalebones are said to have little knives on the ends. 4Keport, etc., p. 127. 260 THE POINT 13AKROW ESKIMO. word in (ireenlandic may indicate that their ancestors once used the large wolf-killer, when they lived where wolves were found. The defi nition of u ju'kuaK, the ordinary word for the gull-catcher (see below) — in the Gr^nlandske Ordbog — is the only evidence we have of the use of this contrivance in Greenland. This is one of the several cases in which we only learn of the occurrence of customs, etc., noted at Point Barrow, in Greenland, by finding the name of the thing in question defined in the dictionary. Trapx. — Foxes are caught in the winter by deadfalls or steel traps (uiinori'a), set generally along the beach, where the foxes are wander ing about in search of carrion thrown up by the sea. In setting the deadfalls a little house about 2 feet high is built, in which is placed the bait of meat or blubber. A heavy log of driftwood is placed across the entrance, with one end raised high enough to allow a fox to pass under it, and supported by a regular "figure of four" of sticks. The fox can not get at the bait without passing under the log, and in doing so he must touch the trigger of the "figure of four" (4)> which brings down the log across his back. When a steel trap is used it is not baited itself, but buried in the snow at the entrance of a similar little house, so that the fox can not reach the bait without stepping on the plate of the trap and thus springing it. Many foxes are taken with such traps in the course of the winter. The boys use a sort of snare for catching setting birds. This is simply a strip of whalebone made into a slip-noose, which is set over the eggs, with the end fastened to the ground, so that the bird is caught by the leg. Once or twice, when there was a light snow on the beach, we saw a native catching the large gulls as follows : He had a stick of hard wood, pointed at each end, to the middle of which was fastened one end of a stout string about 6 feet long. The other end was secured to a stake driven into the frozen gravel, and the stick wrapped with blubber and laid on the beach, with the string carefully hidden in the snow. The gull came along, swallowed the lump of blubber, and as soon as he tried to fly away the string made the sharp stick turn like a toggle across his gullet, the points forcing their way through, so that lie was held fast. A similar contrivance, but somewhat smaller and made of bone, is used at Norton Sound for catching gulls and inurres, a nnmber of them being attached to a trawl line and baited with fish. Mr. Nelson collected a large number of these.1 In regard to the use of this contrivance in Greenland, see above under " wolf-killers." Snow-goggles. — The wooden goggles worn to protect the eyes from snow -blindness maybe considered as accessories to hunting, as they are worn chiefly by those engaged in hunting or fishing, especially when deer-hunting in the spring on the snow-covered tundra or when in the whaleboats among the ice. They are simply a wooden cover for the 1 See Dr. Rail's Prehistoric Fishing, ]>. 12. Fig. 2, p. 13, represents oue of these from Norton Sound, and Figs. :i-S, a series of similar implements from the bone caves of France. m'RDOC!!.] SNOW-GOGGLES. 261 eyes, admitting the light by a narrow horizontal slit, which allows, only a small amount of light to reach the eye and at the same time gives sufficient range of vision. Such goggles are universally employed Ijy the Eskimos everywhere1 except in Siberia, where they use a simple shade for the eyes.2 We brought home four pairs of these goggles (i'dylgiin), of which No 89894- [1708], Fig. 259, represents the common form. These are of pine wood, 5-8 inches long and 1-1 inches broad, and deeply excavated on the inside, with a narrow horizontal slit with thin edges on each side of the middle. In the middle are two notches to fit the nose, the one in the lower edge deep and rounded, the upper very shallow. The two holes in each end are for strings of sinew braid to pass round the head. They are neatly made and the outside is scraped smooth and shows traces of a coat of red ocher. The history of this particular pair of goggles is peculiarly interesting. Though differing in no important respect from those used at the present day, they were found on the site of the ancient village of Isu'tkwa, where our station stood, buried at a depth of 27 feet in undis turbed frozen ground, and were uncovered in digging the shaft sunk by Lieut. Bay for obtaining earth temperatures.3 The layer in which they were found was evidently an old sea beach, con sisting of sand and gravel mixed FIG. 259.— Wooden snow with broken shells, among which Mya truncata was recognized. The amount of the superincumbent gravel and similar material above this object does not necessarily indicate any very great length of time since they were first buried, as will be readily understood from what 1 have said above (p. 28) about the rapidity with which high hummocks of gravel are pushed up by the ice. The unbroken layer of turf, however, nearly a foot thick, with which the ground was covered at this point, shows that a considerable period must have elapsed since the gravel had reached nearly to its present level. The pattern of these goggles is to my mind a very decided proof that at that early date this region was inhabited by Eskimo not essentially different from its present inhabitants. Goggles worn at the present day are almost always of the shape of these, though I remember seeing one pair made in two pieces joined by short strings of beads across the nose. They are, I think, universally painted with red ocher on the outside and 'See Parry, 2d Voyage, p. 547, Iglulik and Hudson Strait. ]>1. opposite p. 548, Fig. 4. anil pi. opposite p. 14; Crantz, History of Greenland, vol. I. p. 234; Ball. Alaska, p. 1(15, figure (Norton Sound); also MaoFarlane, MS., No. 2920 (Anderson Riven. '\ordeiiskiiild. Vega, vol.2, p. !WI. *Ki-port U.S. International Polar K\]M-«lition to I'oint Harrow, p. 37. 262 THK POINT HARROW ESKIMO. blackened inside. They were not always made of wood, as there are two specimens in the collection made of a piece of antler, following the natural curve of the beam, divided longitudinally, with the softer inside tissue hol lowed out. Fig. 260 (No. 89701 [763], from Utkiavwlii) represents F,G.260._BoueS11,,wK, ()m> of ^^ specimens [ do not recollect ever seeing goggles of this material in actual use. No. 89703 [754], Fig. 261, is an unusual pattern, having along the top a hori zontal brim about one-half inch high, which serves for an additional shade to the eyes. Above this are two oblique holes opening into the cavity inside, wliich are probably for the purpose of ventilation, to prevent the moisture from the skin from being deposited as frost on the inside of the goggles or on the eyelashes. I do not remember having seen such goggles WOrn. Dall figures Fl° 261.— Wooden snow goggles, unusual form. a similar pair from Norton Sound, and those brought by Mr. Turner from Ungava have a similar brim and ventilating holes. The snow goggles mentioned in Parry's Second Voyage (p. 547) as occasion ally seen at Iglulik, but more common in Hudson's Strait, appear to have resembled these, but had a brim 3 or 4 inches deep. Meat - cache markertt. — We purchased a couple of little ivory rods, each with a little bunch of feathers tied to one end, which we were told were used by the deer hunters to mark the place where they had buried the flesh of a deer in the snow. This implement is called tu'kusia. no. 282.-.Mark,.r i»r mrat ca.he. -pig. 262, represents one of these (No. 89531 [978] from Nuwuk). It is a flat, slender rod of white walrus ivory. Hi indies long, and evidently broken off at the tip. The MUBDOCH.] HUNTING. 263 other end is cut into ornamental notches, and ornamented with an incised pattern colored with red ocher, consisting of conventional lines and the figure of a reindeer on each face, a Imck on one face and a doe on the other. Tied by a bit of sinew to the uppermost notch are four legs and three wing tips (three or four primaries, with the skin at the base) of the buff-breasted sandpiper (Tryngites subruficollis). This was evidently Fltt. 2&I. — Marker for meat cache. longer when new aird perhaps was originally used for a seal indicator (which 'see above). Fig. 2cH.] HUNTING REINDEER. 265 reindeer, so that we did not learn where they went to. When the fawns are perhaps a month old a small party, say a young man and his wife, sometimes makes a short journey to the eastward to procure fawn skins for clothing. They say that the fawns at this age can be caught by running them down. During the summer again the deer come down to the coast in small numbers, taking to the water in the lagoons, or even in the sea, when the flies become troublesome. Sometimes in warm, calm weather the flies are so numerous that the deer is driven perfectly frantic, and runs along without looking where he is going, so that, as the natives say, a hunter who places himself in the deer's path has no difficulty in shooting him. Flies were unusually scarce both summers that we were at the station, so that we never had an opportunity of seeing this done. When a deer is seen swimming he is pursued with the kaiak and lanced in the man ner already described . [n July, 1883, one man from Utkiavwlfi made a short journey inland, "carrying" his kaiak from lake to lake, and killed two deer in this way without firing a shot. I believe this method of hunting is frequently practiced by the parties who go east for trading in the summer, and those who visit the rivers for the purpose of hunting. The natives seemed to expect deer in summer at the lagoons, as along the isthmus between Ime'kpuii and Imekpfmlglu they had set up a range of stakes, evidently intended to turn the deer up the beach where he would be seen from the camp at Perniju. Only one deer, however, came down either summer, and he escaped without being seen. This contrivance of setting up stakes to guide the deer in a certain direction is very commonly used by the Eskimo. Egede gives a curious description of the practice in Greenland in his day: They "chase them [i. e., the reindeer] by Clap-hunting, setting upon them on all sides and surrounding them with all their Women and Children to force them into Denies and Narrow Passages, where the Men armed lay in wait for them and kill them. And when they have not People enough to surround them, then they put up white Poles (to make up the Number that is wanted) with Pieces of Turf to head them, which frightens the Deer and hinders it from escaping."1 PI. 4, of the same work, is a very curious illustration of this style of hunting. A similar method is practiced at the Coppermine River, where the deer are led by ranges of turf toward the spot where the archer is hidden.2 Franklin also noticed between the Mackenzie and the Colville similar ranges of driftwood stumps leading across the plain to two cairns on a hill,3 and Thomas Simpson mentions a similar range near Herschel Island,4 and double rows of turf to represent men leading down to a small lake near Point Pitt, for the purpose of driving the deer into the water where they could be speared.5 This is 1 Greenland, p. 62. 'Franklin, 1st Expert., vol.2, p. 181. »2dExped., ]>. 137. 1 Narrative, p. 114. •Ibid., p. 138. 266 THE POINT BAKKOW ESKIMO. similar to the practice described by Schwatka1 among the " Netschilluk" of King William's Laud, where a Hue of cairns as high as a man and 50 to 100 yards apart is built along a ridge running obliquely to the water. When deer are seen feeding near the water the men form a skirmish line from the last cairn to the water and advance slowly. The deer mistake the cairns for men and take to the water, where they are easily speared. The most important deer hunt takes place in the late fall and early spring, when the natives go inland 50 or 75 miles to the upper waters of Kuaru and Kulugrua, where the deer are exceedingly plentiful at this season. Capt. Herendeen, who went inland with the deer hunters in the autumn of 1882, reports that the bottom lands of Kulugrua " looked like a cattle yard," from the tracks of the reindeer. They start as soon as it is possible to- travel across the country with sledges, usually about the first of October, taking guns, ammunition, fishing tackle, and the nec essary household utensils for themselves and their families, and stay till the daylight gets too short for hunting. In 1882, many parties got home about October 27 or 28. At this season there is seldom snow enough to build snow huts, so they generally live in tents, always close to the rivers from which they procure water for household use. The men spend their time hunting the deer, while the women bring in the game, attend to drying the skins and the household work, and catch whitefish and burbot through the ice of the rivers, which are now- frozen hard enough for this purpose. Some, of the old men and those who have not a supply of ammunition engage in the same pursuit. A comparatively small number of the people go out to this fall deer hunt, which appears to be a new custom, adopted since Dr. Simpson's time. It was probably not worth while to go out after deer at seasons when there was not enough snow for digging pitfalls, since they depended chiefly on these for the capture of the reindeer before the introduction of firearms. Fully half of each village go out on the spring deer hunt, as they did in Maguire's time, the first parties starting out with the return of the sun, about January 23, and the others following in the course of two or three weeks, and remain out till about the middle of April, when it is time to come back for the whale fishery. The people of Utkiavwm always travel to the hunting grounds by a regular road, which is the same as that followed by Lieut. Ray in his exploring trips. They travel along the coast on the ice wherever it is smooth enough till they reach Sl'fiaru, and then strike across country, crossing Kuaru and reaching Kulugrua near the hill Nuasu/knan. (See map, PI. n.) The people from Nuwuk travel straight across Elsoii Bay to the south till they reach nearly the same region. Some parties from Nuwtik also hunt in the rough country between Kulugrua and Ikplkpun. As the sledges are heavily laden with camp equipage, provisions and oil for the lamps, they travel slowly, taking four or five days for the journey, 1 Science, vol. 4. 9, pp. 543-544. MURDOCH.] HUNTING REINDEER. 267 stopping for the night with tolerable regularity at certain stations where the first partyjhat travels over the trail build snow huts, which are used by those who follow them. At the rivers they are scattered ill small camps of four or live families, about a day's journey apart. As well as we could learn these camps are in regularly established places, where the same people return every year, if they hunt at all. It even seemed as if these localities were considered the property of certain influential families, who could allow any others they pleased to join their parties.1 It is certain, at all events, that the people of Utkiavwln did not hunt on the Ikpikpun with the men of Nuwfik. At this season they live entirely in snow huts, often excavated in the deep drifts under the river bluffs, and the men hunt deer whiles the women, as before, catch fish in Kuarti and Kulugrua. None are taken in Ikpikpun. (See above, p. 58.) Deer are generally very plentiful at this season, though sometimes, as happened in February, 1883, there comes a warm southerly wind which makes them all retreat farther inland for a few days. They are gener ally hunted by chasing them on snowshoes, in the manner already de scribed, but with much better chances of success, since when a number of hunters are out in the same region the deer are kept moving, so that a herd started by one hunter is very apt to run within gunshot of an other. The natives have generally very good success in this spring hunt. Two men who were hunting on shares for the station killed up ward of ninety reindeer in the season of 1883. A great deal of the meat is, of course, consumed on the spot, but a good many deer are brought home frozen. They are skinned and brought home whole, only the heads and legs being cut off. The latter are disjointed at the knee and elbow. These frozen carcasses are usually cut up with a saw for cooking. At this season the does are pregnant, and many good-sized fetuses are brought home frozen. We were told that these were excellent food, though we never saw them eaten. For the first two or three days after the return of the deer hunters to the village all the little boys are play ing with these fetuses, which they set up as targets for their blunt arrows. Before starting for the deer hunt the hunters generally take the mov able property which they do not mean to carry with them out of the house and bury it in the snow for safe keeping, apparently thinking that while a dishonest person might help himself to small articles left around the house, he could hardly go to work and dig up a cache without at tracting the attention of the neighbors. If both families from a house go deer hunting, they either close it up entirely or else get some family who have no house of their own to take care of it during their absence. During the season, small parties, traveling light, with very little bag gage, make flying trips to the village, usually to get a fresh supply of 'Dr. Richardson believes tbiit the hunting grounds of families are kept sacred among tho. Eskimo. Searching Expedition, vol. 1. pp. 244.351. See. also, the name author's paper. New Philosophical Jour nal, Tol. 52, p. 323. 208 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. ammunition or oil, and at the end of the season a lucky hunter almost always sends in to borrow extra dogs and hire women and children to help bring in his game. The skins, which at this season are very thick and heavy, suitable only for blankets, heavy stockings, etc., are simply rough dried in the open air, and brought in stacked up on a flat sled. Lieut. Hay met a Xuwiik party returning in 1882 with a pile of these skins that looked like a load of hay. With such heavy loads they, of course, travel very slowly. A few natives, especially when short of ammunition, still use at this season the snow pitfalls mentioned by (Japt. Maguire.1 The following is the description of those seen by Lieut. Ray in 1883: A round hole is dug in the drifted snow, along the bank of a stream or lake. This is about 5 feet in diameter and 5 or (i feet deep, and is brought up to within 2 or 3 inches of the surface, where there is only a small hole, t hrough which the snow was removed. This is carefully closed with a thin slab of snow and baited by strewing reindeer moss and bunches of grass over the thin surface, through which the deer breaks as soon as he steps on it. The natives say that they sometimes get two deer at once. This method of hunting the reindeer appears uncommon among the Eskimo. I find no mention of it except at Repulse Bay.2 and among the Netsilliugmiut, where dogs' urine is said to be sprinkled on the snow as a bait to attract the deer by its " Salzgehalt."3 Lieut. Ray was informed by the natives that the "Nunatafimiun" also captured deer by means of a rawhide noose set across a regular deer path, when they discovered such. The noose is held up and spread by a couple of sticks, and the end staked to the ground with a piece of antler. A sim ilar method was practiced by the natives of Norton Sound.4 A few parties visit the rivers in summer for the purpose of hunting reindeer, but most of the natives are either off on the trading expeditions pre viously mentioned or else settled in the small camps along the coast, 3 or 4 miles apart, whence they occasionally go a short distance inland in search of reindeer. The steal. — The flesh of the smaller seals forms such a staple of food, and their blubber and skin serve so many important purposes, that their cap ture is one of the most necessary pursuits at Point Barrow, and is car ried on at all seasons of the year and in many different methods. During the season of open water many seals are shot from the umiaks engaged in whaling and walrus hunting or caught in nets set along the shore at Elson Bay. This is also the only season when seals can be captured with the small kaiak darts. The principal seal fishery, however, begins with the closing of the sea, usually about the middle of October. When the pack ice comes in there are usually many small open pools, to which the seals resort for air. Most of the able-bodied men in the village are out every day armed 1 Northwest Passage, Appendix, p. 387. 3 Klntachak. "Als Kskimo," etc., p. 13L 2 Rae, Narratives, etc., p. 135. 4 Uall. Alaska, p. 147. MURDOCH. SEAL HUNTING. 269 with the rifle and retrieving harpoon, traveling many miles among the ice hammocks in search of such holes. When a seal shows his head he is shot at with the rifle, and the hunter, if successful, secures his game with the harpoon. This method of hunting is practiced throughout the winter wherever open holes form in the ice. A native going to visit his nets or to examine the condition of the ice always carries his rifle and retrieving harpoon, in case he should come across an open hole where seals might be found. The hunt at this season is accompanied with considerable danger, as the ice pack is not yet firmly consolidated and portions of it frequently move offshore with a shift of the wind, so that the hunter runs the risk of being carried out to sea. The natives exercise considerable care, and generally avoid crossing a crack if the wind, however light, is blowing offshore; but in spite of their precautions men are every now and then carried oft' to sea and never return. The hunters meet with many exciting adventures. On the morning of November 24, 1882, all the heavy ice outside of the bar broke away from the shore, leaving a wide lead, and began to move rapidly to the northeast, carrying with it three seal hunters. They were fortunately near enough to the village to be seen by the loungers on the village hill, who gave the alarm. An umiak was immediately mounted on a flat sled and carried out over the shore ice with great rapidity, so that the men were easily rescued. The promptness and energy with which the people at the village acted showed how well the danger was appre ciated. At this season of the year a single calm night is sufficient to cover all the holes and leads with young ice strong enough to support a man, and occasionally before the pack comes in the open sea freezes over. In this young ice the seals make their breathing holes (adlu), " about the Bigness of a Halfpenny," as Egede says, and the natives employ the stabbing harpoon for their capture. At the present day this is seldom used alone, but the seal is shot through the head as he comes to the surface, and the spear only used to secure, him. Seals which have been shot in this way are sometimes carried off by the current before they can be harpooned. As far as I can learn, this practice of shooting seals at the adlu is peculiar to Point Barrow (including probably the rest of the Arctic coast as far as Kotzebue Sound), though the use of the una, as already stated, is very general. This method of hunting can generally be prosecuted only a few days at a time, as the movements of the pack soon break up the fields of young ice, though new fields frequently form in the course of the season. After the January gales the pack is so firmly consolidated that there are no longer any open holes or leads, and when the spring leads open young ice seldom forms, so that this method of hunting is as a rule con fined to the period between the middle of October and the early part of January. With the departure of the sun, about the middle of November, begins 270 THE POINT BAKKOW ESKIMO. the netting, which i.s the most important fishery of the year, but which can be prosecuted with success only in the darkest nights. The natives say that even a bright aurora interferes with the netting. At this sea son narrow leads of open water are often formed parallel to the shore, and frequently remain open for several days. The natives are constantly reeonnoitering the ice in search of such leads, and when one is found nearly all the men in the village go out to it with their nets. A place is sought where the ice is tolerably level and not too thick for about a hundred yards back from the lead, at which distance the nets are set, often a number of them close together, in the manner already described, so that they hang like curtains under the ice, parallel to the edge of the open water. When darkness conies on the hunters begin to rattle on the ice with their ice picks, scratch with the seal call, or make some other gentle and continuous noise, which soon excites the curiosity of the seals that are swimming about in the open lead. One at length dives under the ice and swims in the direction of the sound, which of course leads him directly into the net, where he is entangled. On favorable nights a great many^eals are captured in this way. For instance, on the night of December 2, 1882, the uetters from Utkiav- wiu alone took at least one hundred seals. Such lucky hauls are not common, however. As the weather at this season is often excessively cold, the seals freeze stiff soon after they are taken from the net, and if sufficient snow has fallen they are stacked up by sticking their hind flippers in the snow. This keeps them from being covered up and lost if the snow begins to drift. I have counted thirty seals, the property of one native, piled up in this way into a single stack. The women and children go out at their convenience with dog sleds and bring in the seals. A woman, however, who is at work on deerskin clothing must not touch a hand to the seals or the sled on which they are loaded, but may lend a hand at hauling on the drag line. When the seals are brought to the edge of the beach they must not be taken on laud till each has been given a mouthful of fresh water. We did not learn the object of this practice, but Xordenskiold, who observed a similar custom at Pitlekaj, was informed that it was to keep the leads from closing.1 When the lead keeps open for several days, or there is a prospect of its opening again, the hunter leaves his gear out on the ice, sometimes bringing his ice pick, scoop, and setting pole part way home and sticking them iij) in the snow alongside of the path. In 1884 a lead remained open for several days about 3 or 4 miles from the village, and the natives made a regular beaten trail out to it. When we visited the net ting ground the lead had closed, but nearly all the men had left their gear sticking up near it, with the nets tied up and hung upon the ice picks. They had built little walls of snow slabs as a protection against the wind. The season for this netting ends with the January gales, which close the leads permanently. 1 Vega, vol. 2, p. 130. Compare the custom observed in Baffin Laud, ol' sprinkling a few (Imps of water on tlio head of the seal before it is cut up, mentioned by Hall, Arctic Researches, p. 573. MURDOCH.] SEAL HUNTING. 271 Later in the winter the seals resort to very inconsiderable cracks among the hummocks for air, and nets are set hanging around these iTiicks, so that a seal can not approach, the crack without being caught. There was such a crack just in the edge of the rough land floe, not half a mile from Utkiavwlfl, in February, 1883, from which two men took several seals, visiting the nets every day or two. Those men who do not go off on the deer hunt keep one or more seal nets set all winter, either in this way or in the third method, which can be practiced only after the daylight has come back, when the ice is thick. At this sea- sou there are frequently to be found among the, hummocks what the natives call i'glus, dome-shaped snow houses about (! feet in diameter and '2 or 3 feet high, with a smooth round hole in the top, and commu nicating with the water. These are undoubtedly the same as the snow burrows described by Kumlieu,1 which the female seal builds to bring forth her young in.2 They are curious constructions, looking astonish ingly like a man's work. The natives told me that nets set at these places were for the capture of young seals (netyiaru). It appears that these houses are the property of a single female only until her young one is able to take to the water, as a net is kept set at one of these holes, as well as I could understand, sometimes capturing several seals. The net is set flat under the hole, the corners being drawn out by cords let down through small holes in a circle round the main opening, through which the net is drawn. A seal rising to the surface runs his head through the meshes of the net. The small holes and sometimes the middle one are carefully covered with slabs of snow. The officers of the revenue steamer Coricin, who made the sledge journey along the northeast coast of Siberia in the early summer of 1881, saw seal nets set in this way, flat, under air holes in the ice. with a hole for each corner of the net. When a seal was caught the net was drawn up through the middle hole with a hooked pole.3 In 1883 they began setting these nets at Point Barrow about March 4, and probably about the same date, the, year before, though we did not happen to ob serve this method of netting until considerably later. In June and July, when the ice becomes rotten and worn into holes, the seals " haul out" to bask in the sun, and are then stalked and shot. They are exceedingly wary at this season. The seal usually taken in the methods above described is the rough or ringed seal (Phoca fcetida), but in 188L a single inale ribbon seal (Ilistriophoca fasciata) was netted, and in 1882 a native shot one at the breathing hole, but it was carried away by the current before he could secure it. The natives said that they sometimes caught the harbor seal (P. vitulina) in the shore nets in Elson Bay. The bearded seal (Eriguathus barbatus), whose skin is especially prized for making harpoon lines, boot soles, umiak covers, 1 Contributions, p. 57. * Hull. Arctic Researches, pp. 507 and 578, with diagrams. 'Hooper, Corwiu Report, p. 25. 272 THK POINT BAKKOW ESKIMO. etc., is never very abundant, and occurs chiefly in the season of open water, when it is captured from the umiak with harpoon and rifle, but they are sometimes found in the winter, as two were killed at breathing holes in the rough ice January 8, 1883. The walrus. — The walrus occurs only during the season of open water, and is almost always captured from the umiak with the large harpoon and rifle. The whaling boats usually find a few, especially late in the season, and after the trading parties have gone in the summer the natives who remain are generally out in the boats a good deal of the time looking for walrus and seals. As a general thing walrus are espe cially plenty in September, when much loose ice is moving backwards and forwards with the current, frequently sleeping in large herds upon cakes of ice. The boats, which are out nearly every day at this season with volunteer crews, not regularly organized as for whaling, paddle as near as they can to these sleeping herds and try to shoot them in the head, aiming also to " fasten " to as many as they can with the har poon and float as they hurry into the water. A harpooned walrus is followed up with the boat and shot with the rifle when a chance is offered. Swimming walruses are chased with the boat and " fastened to" by darting the harpoon. When a walrus is killed it is towed up to the nearest cake of ice and cut up on the spot. We never knew of the kaiak being used in walrus-hunting, as is the custom among the eastern Eskimo. The whale. — The pursuit of the"bowhead" whale (Balajna mysticetus), so valuable not only for the food furnished by its flesh and " blackskin " and the oil from its blubber, but for the, whalebone, which serves so many useful purposes in the arts of the Eskimo and is besides the chief article of trade with the ships, is carried on with great regularity and formality. In the first place all the uinialiks (boat-owners) or those who are to be the captains of whaling umiaks, before the deer hunters start out in January, bring all the gear to be used in the whale fishery to the ku'dylgl, where it, is consecrated by a ceremony consisting of drumming and singing, perhaps partaking of the nature of an incan tation. ('apt. Hereudeeu was the only one of our party who witnessed this ceremony, which took place at Utkiavwril on January 9, 1883, and he did not bring back a detailed account of the proceedings. Duri«g part of the ceremony all the uinialiks were seated in a row upon the floor, and a woman passed down the line marking each across the face with an oblique streak of blacklead. As soon as the deer hunters ^re turn in the spring they begin getting ready for the whales, covering the boats, fitting lines to harpoons, and putting gear of all sorts in per fect order, livery article to be used in whaling — harpoons, lances, pad dles, and even the timbers of the boats — must be scraped perfectly clean.1 This work is generally done by the umiallk himself and his 1 Compare Egede, Greenland, p. 102. The whale ' ' »-an't bear gloven and dirty habits." MI-HOOCH.] WHALING. 273 family, as the crews do not enter , lias the body made of a strip of thin brass to the back of which is fastened a lump of lead or pewter. The hook appears to be made of a common copper tack. We were informed that these lures were also used for catching small fish, trout, smelts, and perhaps gray ling in the rivers in sum mer. No. 89554 [950], Fig. 267 a, from Utkiavwlfi, is per haps intended exclusively for this purpose, as it is larger than the others, (1.9 inch long) and highly ornamented with beads. Fig. 2676, No. 89783 [1007], is one of these beaded lures (2£ inches long), with an iron hook, undoubtedly for river fishing, as it belonged to the "inland" native, Ilu'bw'ga. It differs slightly in shape from the others, having two eyes at the small end into which is fastened a leader of sinew braid 3 inches long. On this are strung four blue glass beads and one red one. No. ' [151] Fig. 268, from Utkiavwlfi, is a rod rigged for fishing in the rivers. The rod is a roughly whittled stick of spruce or pine, 27 inches long. One line is 43 and the other 36 inches long and each is made of two strips of whalebone of which the lower is light colored as usual. The shorter line carries a FIG. 267.-Hooks for river small plain ivory lure of the common pattern, and the tishmg. longer one a little flat barbless hook of copper with a broad flat shank. This was probably scraped bright and used without bait. The lines are FIG. 268.— Tackle for river fishing. reeled in the usual manner on the rod, and the hooks caught into notches on the sides of it. The small lures are called ni'kslfi. 1 Museum number effaced. MURDOCH.] FISHING-TACKLE. 281 When at the rivers in the autumn and early spring, they fish for burbot, with a line carrying a peculiar large hook called iukqlun, which is baited with a piece of whitefish. There are two forms of this hook, which is from 3 to 5^ inches long. One form differs in size only from the small ni'ksln, but is always of white ivory and not beaded (Fig. 209, Xo. 89550 [780] from Utkiavwtn, which is 4i inches long and has a copper hook). The hook is of copper, brass or iron. The other form, which is perhaps the commoner, has a narrow flat body, slightly bent, and serrated on the edges to give a firm attachment to the bait. This body is usually of antler, and has a copper or iron hook either spur- shaped or of the common form as in Fig. 270, Xo. FI«. 270.— 8955,'i [704] from Utkiavwlfi, which has a body of l\"'2^t walrus ivory 4 inches long and a copper hook. Of 2"""'"'• the hook is baited. Xo. 50594 [I07| from I'tki- avwlii, has the hook fastened to the back of the body in stead of the flat side. The manner in which these hooks are baited is shown in Fig. 272, which represents a complete rij°'1^1' -~l!"ri)"t set of burbot tackle (Xo. 89540 [940]) brought in and sold by e.»i iio.,k-. some Utkiavwlfi natives, just as they had been using it in the autumn of 1882 at Kuaru or Kulugrua. A piece of whitetish, flesh and skin, FIG. 272.— Burbot tackle, baited. with the scales removed is wrapped round the hook so as to make a club- shaped body 4£ inches long and is sewed up along one side with cotton twine. The copper spur projects through the skin on the other side. 282 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. This hook would not hold the lish unless it were/" gorged, " but the vora cious burbot always swallows its prey. In dressing these fish for the table, whitefish of considerable size were frequently found in them. The line is of whalebone like those already described but a little stouter, 78 inches long, and made of seven pieces, all black. The end of the line is fastened into an eye in the small end of a rough club-shaped sinker of walrus ivory, 4f inches long. There is another eye at the large end of the sinker, for the attachment of a leader of double, sinew braid 5£ inches long connecting the hook with the sinker. The reel, which serves also as a short rod, is of yellow pine 10 J inches long. When the line is reeled up, the hook is caught into the wood on one side of the reel. No. 80545 [040] is a similar set of baited tackle, bought from the same natives, differing from the preceding only in pro portions, having a longer line — 0 feet and G inches — and a somewhat larger bait. We also jH-ocured two sets of burbot tackle unbaited. One of these (No. 56543 [33] from Utkiavwffi) has a whale bone line 14 feet long, and a roughly octahedral sinker of walrus ivory 3 inches long and 1£ in diameter. The hook, which is joined to the sinker as before by a leader of stout sinew braid, is of the second pattern, with serrated edges, and a copper hook. The leader is neatly spliced into this. The other, No. 50544 [187], also from ITtkiavwIn, has no sinker and a hook with a club-shaped body and iron spur. It was probably put together for sale, as it is new. The sinkers, of which Ave collected five, besides those already mentioned, are always about the same weight and either club-shaped or roughly octahedral. They are always of walrus ivory and usually carelessly made. Fig. 273 (No. 50577 [200]) repre sents one of these sinkers (kibica), on which there is some attempt at ornamentation. On the larger are two eyes and the outline of a mouth like a shark's, incised and filled in with black refuse oil. A similar line and reel are used for catching polar cod in the spring and late winter through the ice at some distance from the shore. These lines are 10 or 15 fathoms long, and provided with a heavy sinker of ivory, copper, or rarely lead, to Avhich are attached by whalebone leaders of unequal length, two little jiggers like Fig. 274 (the property of the writer, from ITtkiavwIn). This is of Avhite walrus ivory, 2£ inches long and g in diameter at the largest part. The two slender hooks are of copper and are secured by wedges of whalebone. This makes a contrivance re sembling the squid jigs used by our fishermen. These jiggers are sometimes made wholly of copper, Avhich is scraped bright. Fl°- ?'*•- This fishery begins with the return of the sun, about the ] FlO. 273 Ivorv sinker. MURDOCH.] ICE FISHING. 283 1st of February, and continues when the ice is favorable until/the season is so far advanced that the ice has begun to melt and become rotten. The fish are especially to be found in places where there is a good-sized field of the season's ice, 3 or 4 feet thick, inclosed by hummocks, and they sometimes occur in very great numbers. In 1882 there was a large field of this kind about 2 miles from the village and the fishing was carried on with great success, but in 188.3 the ice was so much broken that the fish were, very scarce. Some lads caught a few early in the season, but the fishery was soon abandoned. A hole about a foot in diameter is made through the ice with an ice pick, and the fragments dipped out either with the long-handled whale bone scoop, or the little dipper made of two pieces of antler mounted on a handle about 2 feet long, which everybody carries in the winter. The line is unreeled and let down through the hole till the jigs hang about a foot from the bottom. The fisherman holds in his left hand the dipper above mentioned, with which he keeps the hole clear of the ice crystals, which form very quickly, ami in his right the reel which he jerks con tin ually up and down . The fish, attracted by the white « j iggers,'' begin nosing around them, when the upward jerk of the line hooks one of them in the under jaw or the belly. As soon as the fisherman feels the fish, he catches a bight of the line with the scoop in his left hand and draws it over to the left; then catches the line below this with the reel and draws it over to the right, and so on, thus reeling the line up in long hanks on these two sticks, without touching the wet line with his fingers. When the fish is brought to the surface of the ice, he is detached from the barbless hook with a dextrous jerk, and almost instantly freezes solid. The elastic whalebone line is thrown off the stick without kinking and let down again through the hole. When fish are plentiful, they are caught as fast as they can be hauled up, sometimes one on each "jigger." If the fisherman finds no fish at the first hole he moves to another part of the field and tries again until he succeeds in "striking a school." The fish vury in abundance on different days, being sometimes so plentiful that I have known two or three children to catch a bushel in a few hours, while some days very few are to be taken. In addition to the polar cod, a few sculpins are also caught, and occasionally the two species of Lycodes (L. turnerii and coccineus) which voracious fish sometimes seize the little polar cod struggling on the "jigger" and are thus caught themselves. This fishery is chiefly carried on by the women, children, and old men, who go out in parties of five or six, though the hunters sometimes go fishing when they have nothing else to do. There were generally thirty or forty people out at the fishing-ground every day in 1882. Jiggers of this pattern appear to be used at Pitlekaj, from Nordeuds- kiold's description,' but I have seen no account either there or elsewhere 'Vega, vol. 2, p. 110. 284 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. of the peculiar method of reeling up the line such as we saw at Point Barrow. Lines of whalebone are very common among the Eskimo generally, ' and perhaps this material is preferable to any other for fishing in this cold region, for not only does the elastic whalebone prevent kinking, but the ice which forms instantly on the wet line in winter does not adhere to it, but can easily be shaken off. Xo. 5<>545 [410] is a line 51 feet and 10 inches long and 0-05 inch in diameter, made of human hair, neatly braided in a round braid with four strands. This was called a fishing line, but was the only one of the kind seen. Fishhooks of the kind described, with a body of bone or ivory, which serves for a lure, armed with a spur or bent hook of metal, without a barb, seem to be the prevailing type amongst the Eskimo. In the region about Norton Sound (as shown by the extensive collections of Mr. Nelson and others) this is often converted into an elaborate lure by attaching pendants <>M>eads, bits of the red beak of the puffin, etc. Orantz mentions a similar custom in Greenland of baiting a hook with beads.2 ^Tets (Kttbrd). — The most important fishery at the rivers is carried on by means of gill-nets, set under the ice, and visited every few days. In these are taken large numbers of all three species of whitefish (Core- goiius kenicotti, ('. nelsoni, and C. lanrettte.) The collection contains three specimens of these nets, two of whalebone and one of sinew. No. 56754 [147], Fig. 275, is a typical whalebone net. It is long and shal low, 79 meshes long and 21 deep, made of fine strips of whalebone fast ened together as in the whalebone fishing lines. Most of the whalebone is black, but a few light col ored strips are intermixed at random. The length of the mesh is 3J inches, and the knot used in mak ing them is the ordinary netting-knot. When not in use the net is rolled up into a compact ball and tied up with a bit of string. When set, this net is 21 feet 7 inches long and 3 feet 4 inches deep. The other whalebone net (No. 5C753 [172], also from Utkiavwin), is similar to this, but slightly larger, beiug 87 meshes (25 feet) long and 22 (3 feet 0 inches) deep. The length of mesh is 3J inches. 1 "Their Lines are made of Whalebones, cut very small and thin, and at the End tacked together." Egede, Greenland, p. 107. See also, CYantz, vol. 1, p. 95; Dall, Alaska, p. 148; and the Museum Collec tions which contain many whalebone lines from the Mackenzie and Anderson rivers, collected by MacFarlaiie, and from the whole western region, collected by Nelson. 21 Instead of abait, they put on the hook a white bone, a glass bead, or a l»it of red cloth " (when fishing for srnlpins). History of (Ireenland, vol. 1. p. 05. FIG. 275. — Section of whalebone net. MURDOCH.] NETS. 285 Fig. 270 (unit of web) is a net (No. 56752 [171] from the, same village) of the same mesh and depth, but 284 meshes (00 feet) long and made of twisted sinew twine. 1 had no opportunity of seeing the method of setting these nets under the ice, but it is proba bly the same as that used in setting the seal nets. When in camp at IVruyu in the summer, the FIG. 276.-Me.h of sinew n<*. natives set these nets in the shoal water of Elson Bay, at right angles to the beach, with a stake at each end of the net. They are set by a man in a kayak, ami in them are gilled considerable numbers of white- fish, two species of salmon (Oncorhynchns gorbuscha and O. nerka) and an occasional trout (Salvelinus malma). They take these nets east with them on their-snmmer expeditions, but we did not learn the method of using them at this season. Perhaps they are sometimes used for seining on the beach, as Thomas Simpson says that the Eskimo at Herschel Island (probably Kfifimiid'liii) sold his party "some fine sal mon trout, taken in a seine of whalebone, which they dragged ashore by means of several slender poles spliced together to a great length."1 An Utkiavwifi native told us that he found trout (Sal velinus malma) so plentiful at or near the mouth of the Colville, in 1882, that he fed his dogs with them. Fig. 277 is a peculiar net or fish-trap (No. 55 [100]) from I'tkiavwin, the only specimen of the kind seen. It is a conical, wide-mouthed bag, 8 feet 4 inches long and T>i feet wide at the mouth, netted all in one piece of twisted sinew, with a 2^-inch mesh. This was brought over for sale at an early date, before we were well ac quainted with the natives, and we only learned that it was set permanently for catching fish. Unfortunate ly, we never saw another specimen, and through the press of other duties never happened to make further FIG. 277.— Fish trap. I Narrative, p. 11'.. 286 THE POINT BAKKOW ESKIMO. inquiries about it. From its shape it would appear as if it were meant to be set in a stream with the mouth towards the current. This con trivance is called sapotin, which corresponds to the Greenlandic saputit, a dam for catching h'sh. From all accounts, the natives east of the Anderson Kiver region were ignorant of the use of the net before they made the acquaintance of the whites,1 though they now use it in several places, as in Greenland and Labrador. Theearliest explorerson the northwest coast, however, found -\ both h'sh and seal nets in use, though, as I have already mentioned, the seal net was spoken of at Point Barrow as a comparatively recent in vention. At the present day, nets are used all along the coast from the Mackenzie and Anderson rivers (see, MacFarlane's Col lection ) as far south at least as the Yukon delta.2 1 have not been able to learn whether gill nets are used in the delta of the Kuskoquini. I'etroft'3 mentions tish traps and dip nets merely. That the natives of Kartiak formerly had no nets I infer from Petroff 's statement4 that " of late they have begun to use seines of whale sinew." Nets are generally used on the Siberian coast. We observed them ourselves at Plover Bay, and Nor- denskiold5 describes the nets used at Pitlekaj, which are made of sinew thread. It is almost certain that the American Eskimo learned the use of the net from the Siberians, as they dirt the habit of smoking, since the use of the gill net appears to have been limitert to precisely the same region as the Siberian form of tobacco pipe.6 Spears. — The only evidence which we have of the use of spears for catching fish in this region is a single specimen, No. 89901 [1227], Fig. 278, from Utkiavwin, which was newly and rather carelessly made for sale, but intended, as we were told, for spear ing fish. This has a roughly whittled shaft, of spruce, 21 £ inches long, armed at one end with three prongs. The middle prong is of whalebone, 4J inches long, inserted into the tip of the shaft, which is cut into a short neck and whipped with sinew. FIG -'78 - The side prongs are also of bone, 9 inches long. Through the ti p Fish spear. of each is driven a sharp, slender slightly recurved spur of bone, about 1 J inches long. Each prong is fastened to the shaft with two small wooden treenails, and they are braced with a figure-of-eight lashing of sinew through holes in the side prongs and around the middle one. The side prongs are somewhat elastic, so that when the spear is struck down I The Greenlanders used a sort of sieve or .scoop net, not seen at Point Harrow, for catching caplin (Mallotus villosus). Ejjede, Greenland, p. 108; and Crantz, vol. 1, p. 95. John Davis, however, says of the Grecnlanders in 15811, "They make nets to take their fish of the tiune of a whale." Hakluyt's Voyages, etc. (1589), p. 782. 'Ball, Alaska, p. 147; anil Petroff, Report, etc.. p. 127. 3 Op cit., p. 711. 'Opcit., p. 142. •Vega, vol. 2, p. 109. 6 See the writer's paper in the American Anthropologist, vol. 1, pp. 325-31(0. MURDOCH.] FLINT WOKKING. 287 on the back of a fish they spring apart and allow the middle prong to pierce him, and then spring back so that the spurs either catch in his sides or meet below his belly, precisely on the principle- of the "patent eel spear." This implement is almost identical with one in the National Museum from Hudson Hay, which appears to be in general use among the eastern Eskimo.1 The name, kaki'bua, is very nearly the same as that used by the eastern natives (kakkle-wei, Parry, and kaki'vak, Kumlien). This spear is admirably adapted for catching large fish in shallow rocky streams where a net can not be used, or where they are caught by dams in tidal streams in the manner described by Egede and Crautz. There is so little tide, however, on the northwest coast, that this method of fishing can not be practiced, and, as far as I know, there is no locality in the range of the Point Barrow natives, a region of open shoal beaches, and rivers free of rocks, where this spear could be used in which a net would not serve the purpose much better. Taking into consideration the scarcity of these spears and the general use of nets, I am inclined to believe that this spear is an ancient weapon, formerly in general use, but driven out of fashion by the introduction of nets. FLINT WORKING. These people still retain the art of making flint arrow and spear heads, and other implements such as the blades for the skin scrapers to be hereafter described. Many of the flint arrowheads and spear points al ready described were made at Nitwit k or UtkiavwJn especially for sale to us and are as finely formed and neatly finished as any of the ancient ones. The flints, in many cases water-worn pebbles, appear to have been splintered by percussion into fragments of suitable sixes, and these sharp-edged spalls are flaked into shape by means of a little instru ment consisting of a short, straight rod of some hard material mounted in a short curved haft. We collected nine of these tools (ki'gli) of which two have no blades. No. 892(52 [1223] figured in Point Barrow Report, Ethnology, PI. in, Fig. 7, has been selected as the type. The handle is of walrus ivory,- 7'8 inches long, straight and nearly cylin drical for about 4£ inches, then bending down like a saw handle and spread out into a spatulate butt. Fitted into a deep groove on the top of the handle so that its tip projects 1-8 inches beyond the tip of the latter is a slender four-sided rod of whale's bone, 4-7 inches long. This is held in place by two simple lashings, one of cotton twine and the other of seal thong. The flint to be flaked is held in the left hand and 1 Kumlien'.s description (Contributions, p. :i7, Cumberland 60[794] Fig.279Z> and 89261 [1216| both from Utkiavwin) have blades of the peculiar Nnisstiknan concretions previously described. Each is an oblong pebble wedged into the groove and secured by a lashing as usual. No. 89260 [794] has a haft of antler. This is rather the com monest material for the haft. Two specimens have hafts of walrus ivory and three of fossil ivory. The length of the haft is from (i to 8 inches, of the blade 1-5 to 4-7 inches. Fig. 280 (No. 89265 |979] fromNuwuk) is t-he haft of one of these tools, made, of fossil ivory, yellow from age and stained brown in blotches, which shows the way in which the groove for the blade was excavated, namely, by boring a series of large round holes and cutting away the material between them. The re mains of the holes are still to be seen in the bottom of the groove. The tip of this haft has been roughly carved into a bear's head with the eyes and nostrils incised and filled with t^ac^ dirt, illl(^ *ue eves) nostrils, and mouth of a human of flint Maker, face have been rudely incised on the under side of the butt and also blackened. All this carving is new and was done with the view of increasing the market value- of the object. The- original orna- ' mentation consists of an incised pattern on the upper surface of the butt, colored with red ocher which has turned black from age and dirt. MI'RIKICH.] FIKK MAKING. 289 Fig. 281 (No. 89781' [1004c]) is OTIC of those tools, very neatly made, with a haft of reindeer antler and a bone, blade, se- eured by a whipping of seal thong which belongs with the "kit" of tools owned by the "inland" na tive, llu'bw'ga. Mr. Nelson collected a number of specimens of this tool at various points on the north west coast from Point Hope as far south as Norton Bay, but I can find no evidence of its use elsewhere. FIKK MAKING. />/•(//*. — In former times fire was obtained in the method common to so many savages, from the heat developed by the friction of the end of a stick worked like a drill against a piece of soft wood. This in strument was still in use at least as late as 1837,' but appears to have been wholly abandoned at Point Barrow at the time of the P/ofvr's visit, though still in use at Kot/ebue Sound.2 A native of Nuwfik one day brought down for sale what he said was an exact model of the ancient fire drill, niootJn. This is No. 89822 [1080], Fig. 282. The drill is a stick of pine 12 inches long, shaped like the shaft of a common perforatingdrill, brought to a blunt but rounded Via. 281.— Flint flaker with IKIUO blade. c - Fia. 28'J. — Fire drill with mouthpiece and stock. point. This is worked by a string, without bow or handles, consisting of a strip of the skin of the bearded seal, 40 inches long, and has for a mouthpiece the astragalus bone of a reindeer, the natural hollow on one side serving as a socket for the butt of the drill/' The point of the drill 1 "Their own dnniay method of producing fire in by friction wilh two pieces of dry wood iu the manner of a drill." — (T. Simpson, Narrative, p. 162.) •'Dr. Simpson, op. i-it., p. 242. 31 Compare Nordenskiold's figure of the lire drill in u.se at I'itlekaj (Veya, vol. 2, p. 121), which has a similar hone for a socket, held not in the mouth hut in the left hand. 9 KTH- -19 2!)0 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. is made to work against the split surface of a stick of spruce IS inches long, along the middle of which is cut a gash, to give the drill a start. Three equidistant circular pits, charred and blackened, were bored out by the tip of the drill, which developed heat enough to set lire to the sawdust produced. Tinder was probably used to catch and hold the fire. Most authors who have treated of the Eskimo have described an instrument of this sort in use either in former times or at the present day.1 Among most Eskimo, however, a bow is used to work the drill. The only exceptions to this rule appears to have been the ancient Greenland- ers and the people of Hudson Bay (see the passages from IFakluyt, Crantz, and Kllis, just quoted.) Chamisso, however,2 speaks of seeing the Aleutians at Unalaska produce fire by means of a stick worked by a string making two turns about the stick and held and drawn with both hands, with the upper end of the stick turning in a piece of wood held in the mouth. When a piece of flr was turned against another piece of the same wood fire was often produced in a few seconds. This passage appears to have escaped the usually keen observation of Mr. W. H. Dall, who, speaking of the ancient Aleutians, says: " The 'fiddle-bow drill' was an instrument largely used in their carving and working bone and ivory; but for obtaining fire but two pieces of quarz were struck together, " etc.3 1 liessels, Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 0, p. 867, speaks of a fire drill used at Smith Sound with a bow and a mouthpiece of ivory. . A Greonlander; seen by John Davis, in 1586, '• beganne to kindle a fire, in his manner: he took , continued Motion the Fir catches Fire." — Egedo, Greenland, p. i:(7. "If their tire goes out, they can kindle it again by turning round a stick very quick with a string through a hole in a piece of wood." — Crantz, History of Greenland, vol. 1, ]>. 145. Lyon (Journal, p. 210) says that at Tglulik they were ablo to procure " tire by the friction of a pin of wood in the hole of another piece and pressed down like a drill from above." This was worked with a bow and willow catkins were used for tinder. A man informed them that "he had learned it from his father rather for amusement tlmn for utility; the two lumps of iron pyrites certainly answering tho purpose a great deal better." "They have a very dextrous Method of kindling Fire; in order to which, they prepare two small Pieces of dry Wood, which having made flat, they next make a small Hole in eo<'h, and having flttixl into these Holes a little, cylindrical Piece of "Wood, to which a Thong is fastened, they whirl it about thereby with such a Velocity, that by rubbing the. Pieces of Wood one against tin* other, this Motion soon sets them on lire."— Ellis, Voyage to Hudsons Kay, p. 2'.14. A picture of the process is given opposite page 132, in which a man holds the socket, while a woman works the thong (western shore of Hudson Bay, near Chesterfield Inlet). Ilao also mentions a similar drill used in the same region in 1847 (Narrative, p. 187) : and there is a specimen in the National Museum, collected by MacFarlano, and said to bo the kind "in use until lately" in the Mackenzie and Anderson region. Dall figures a fire drill with bow and mouthpiece formerly in use at Norton Sound (Alaska, p. 142) ; and Hooper (Tents, etc., p. 187) describes a similar drill at Plover Bay. From Nordenskiiild's account (Vega, vol. 2, p. 121) the tircdrill seems to be still generally used by tho natives at tho Vega's winter quarters. He says that the women appeared more accustomed to the use of tho drill than tho men, and that a little oil was put on the end of the drill. "Kotzobuo's Voyage, vol. :t, p. 200. •Contribution to N. A. Ethnology, vol. 1, p. 82. KIKE MAKING. 291 1 had no opportunity of seeing this drill manipulated, but I have con vinced myself by experiment that the stick or " light-stock," to use Nor- denskiold's expression, must be held down by one foot, the workman kneeling on the other knee. Flint 5 [902], from Utkiavwifi. The pieces of this set are perforated and strung on a piece of sinew braid, 4 inches long, with a knot at each end. The Marline spike. — This is aflat, four-sided rod of walrus ivory, 5-0 1 Compare this with Dr. Simpson's statement, quoted above, that stones for arrowheads were brought by the Xunatanmiun from the Ku'wnk Kiver. "Op. cit., p. 24:i. 3 Naturalist, vol. 18, pt, 9, p. X07. 4 Journal, pp. 210 and 231. •Fraukliu, First Expecl., vol. 2, p. 1HK. FIG. 283.— Sot of bow- mill arrow ((Mils. 292 THE POINT BABROW ESKIMO. inches long, tapering to a sharp rounded point at one end, and tapered slightly to the other, which terminates in a small rounded knob. It is very neatly made from, rather old yellow ivory, and ornamented on all four faces with conventional incised patterns colored with red ochre. This implement is used in putting on the backing of a bow to raise parts of the cord when an end is to be passed under and in tucking in the ends in finishing off a whipping. It was probably also used in putting whippings or seizings on any other implements. We collected 10 of these tools, all quite similar, and made of walrus ivory, yellow from age and handling. They vary in length from 4£ to 0 inches, and are always contracted at the upper end into a sort of neck or handle, surmounted by a knob or crossbar. No. 89403 '[836] Fig. 284, from Utkiavwffi has FIG. 281.— -Marline spike. the crossbar carved very neatly into the figure of an Amphipod crus tacean without the legs. The eyes, mouth, and vent are indicated by small round holes filled with some black substance, and there is a row of eight similar holes down the middle of the back. The tip of this tool, which is 5-9 inches long, has been concaved to an edge so as to make a feather-setter of it. Through the knob at the butt there is soine- I'lG. 283.— Marline spike. times a large round eye, as in Fig. 285 (No. 89404 [842] from Utkiavwln, 4-7 inches long). These tools are sometimes plain, like the specimens last figured, and sometimes ornamented with conventional patterns of incised lines, colored with red ocher, like the others. The twisters (No. 89405 [902]) are flat four-sided rods of walrus ivory, respectively 4-4 and 4-7 inches long. At each end one broad face is raised into a low transverse ridge about 0-1 inch high and the other rounded off, with the ridge 011 opposite faces at the two ends. They are ornamented on all four fanes with longitudinal incised lines, colored with red ocher. The use of these tools, which was discovered by actual experiment after our return to this country1 is for twisting the strands of the sinew backing after it has been put on the bow into the cables already de- 1 See the writer's paper on Eskimo bows, Smithsonian Report for 1884, pt. 2, p. Iil5. MURDOCH.] now TOOLS. 293 scribed. The manner in which this tool is used is as follows: The end is inserted between the strands at the middle of the bow, so that the ridge or hook catch us the lower strands, and the end is carried over through an arc of 180°, which gives the cable a half turn of twist. This brings the twister against the bow, so that the twisting can be carried no further in this direction, and if the tool were to be removed for a fresh start the strands would have to be held or fastened in some way, making the process a slow one. Instead, the tool is slid back be tween the strands till the other end comes where the first was, so that the hook at this end catches the strand, and the workman can give to the cable another half turn of twist. This is continued until the cable is sufficiently twisted, the tool sliding back and forth like the handle of a vise. The tools are used in pairs, one being inserted in each cable and manipulated with each hand, so as to give the same amount of twist to each cable. At the present day, these tools are seldom used for bow making, since the sinew-backed bow is so nearly obsolete, but are em ployed in playing a game of the nature of pitch-penny. (See below, under games and pastimes.) These tools, of which we collected twenty-six specimens, are all of walrus ivory, and of almost exactly the same shape, varying a little in size and ornamentation. They vary in length from 3 to 5-7 inches, but are usually about 4£ inches long. The commonest width is 04 inches, the narrowest being 0-3 and the width 0-7 broad, while the thickness is almost always 0-3, varying hardly 0-1 inch. Most of them are plain, but a few are ornamented with incised lines, and two are marked with "circles and dots" as in Fig. 286, one of a rather large pair (No. 5G521 Flo. 286. — Twister 1'nr working sinew backing of Imw. [249] from Utkiavwlfi). These are 5-4 inches long, neatly made and quite clean. All the others show signs of age and use. There are large numbers of these tools in the, National Museum from various points in the region where bows of the Arctic type are used, namely, from the Anderson River to Norton Sound, and one from St. Lawrence Island, whence we have received no twisted bows. Their use was, however, not definitely understood, as they are described simply as u bow tools," "bow string twisters" or even "arrow polishers." Mr. Nelson informs me, that the, tool is now not used in Norton Sound, except for playing a game, as at Point Harrow, but that the natives told him that they were formerly used for tightening the backing on a bow and also for twisting the hard-laid sinew cord, which is quite as much, if not more, used at Norton Sound as the braid so common at Point Harrow. 1 lind no mention of the, use of this tool in any of the authors who have 294 THK POINT HARROW ESKIMO. treated of the, Eskimo, except the following in ('apt. Beechey's vocab ulary, collected at Kotzebue Sound: "Marline spike, small of ivory, for lacing bows — ke-poot-tak." The specimens from the Mackenzie, and Anderson rivers are almost without exception made of hard bone, while walrus ivory is the common material elsewhere. The name (kaputi;) means simply a "twister." The feather-setter (V gugirau) (No. 8!t4(!5 [!K52]) is a flat, slender, rounded rod of walrus ivory, 7 inches long, with the tip abruptly concaved to a thin rounded edge. The faces are ornamented with a pattern of straight incised lines, colored with red ocher. This tool is used for squeezing the small ends of the feathering into the wood of the. arrow shaft close . PIQ. 287.— "Feather-getter." to the nock. Fig. 287 is a similar tool (No. 89480 [1285] from (Ttkiavwlu) also of walrus ivory, (! inches long, with the upper end roughly whittled to a sharp point. It is probably made of a broken seal indicator or meat-cache marker. Several other ivory tools previously mentioned have been concaved to an edge at the. tip so that they can be used as feather-setters. I do not find this tool mentioned by previous observers, nor have I seen any specimens in the National Museum. Fig. 288 (No. 8045!) [1282] from Utkiavwin) represents an unusual • •- -•'•£* •':£'•' - Via. 'JOS.— Tool of antler. tool, the use of which was not ascertained in the hurry of trade. It has a point like that of a graver, and is made of reindeer antler, orna mented with a pattern of incised lines and bands, colored with red ocher, and was perhaps a marline spike for working with sinew cord. SKIN-WORKING. Ftcrapertt (ikun). — For removing bits of flesh, fat, etc., from a "green" skin, and for "breaking the grain" and removing the subcutaneous tis sue from a dried skin, the women, who appear to do most if not all of this work, use a tool consisting of a blunt stone blade, mounted in a short, thick haft of wood or ivory, h'tting exactly to the inside of the hand and having holes or hollows to receive the tips of the fingers and thumb. The skin is laid upon the thigh and thoroughly scraped with SKIN SCKAl'KRS. '205 Fid. 2H!>.— Skin scraper. this tool, which is grasped firmly in the right hand and poshed from the worker. This tool is also used for softening up skins which have become stiffened from being wet and then dried. The teeth appear to be less often used for such purposes than among the eastern Eskimo. We obtained eighteen such scrapers, some without blades, and two unmounted blades. Every woman owns one of these tools. While they are all of the same general model, they vary a good deal in de tails. Four different forms or subtypes have been recognized in the series collected, all modifications of the form seen in Fig. 289, No. 89313 [955], which may be called the type. The blade is of brown jasper, rather coarsely flaked, 1-1 inches long. It is wedged with pieces of skin, into a deep slot in the tip of the handle, which is of fossil ivory, slightly yellowed from handling. The left side against which the thumb rests is slightly flattened, and the right, slightly ex cavated to receive the third and fourth fingers, which are bent round under the lobe, their tips pressing against the concave under surface of the latter. The fore and middle fingers rest upon the upper surface. No. 89320 [1171] from Utkiavwifi, without a blade, is of the same general pattern, but is slightly excavated on the left as well as the right side so as to make a sort of shank. It is of fossil ivory, stained a dingy orange, from age and grease. The two incised circles and dots on the upper surface close to the slot make the end of the handle look like the head of a Lophius, which it is perhaps meant to represent. No. 89321 (S58), an old fossil ivory handle, has the left side slightly hol lowed to receive the tip of the thumb, and a median keel on the upper surface with a barely perceptible hollow on each side of it for the tips of the fingers. This is a step toward the second subtype as shown in Fig. 290 (No. 89317 [748] from Utkiavwifi, which lias no blade). This is of fossil ivory, thicker and more strongly arched than the type de scribed, deeply ex cavated below so as to form a broad lobe at the butt, with the upper surface deeply grooved to receive the tips of the fore and middle fingers, and a slight hollow on the left side for the thumb. This specimen is very neatly made and polished, andalltheedges are rounded oft'. One-half of the handle (lengthwise) and the outer quar ter of the other half are stained with age and grease a beautiful amber Fio. 2(Ml. — Skin scrapors— bamllcH only. 296 THH POINT BARKOW ESKIMO. FIG. 2'.)l.~-Skin scrapers. brown. This specimen was said to bo as old as the time when men wore but one labret. The only essential difference between this subtype and the preced ing is that the former has deep groovesor hol lows for the thumb and two fingers. We col lected five specimens of this pattern, all but one with handles of fossil ivory. The single ex ception, which came from Sidaru, has a han dle of walrus ivory, yellowed with age aiid grease. This specimen (Fig. 291a, No. 89322 [1420]) has an unusually short blade (only 0-4 inch long), and is much cut out on the right side so as to make a sort of nick. Fig. 2916 (No. 89314 [1780] ) is a nearly new handle of this pattern, which was bought of the "Nunatanmiun," who came to Pernyft in 1883. It is very highly ornamented, both with incised patterns, colored black, and by carving the space between the unusually deep thumb hollow and those for the fingers into what seems to be meant for an ear, in high relief, colored red inside. The third subtype has the- lobe separated Fl° 292,-skm S<.T..P,T. from the body on the right side only, leaving the left sideunexcavated, except by the thumb-hollow, as is shown in Fig. 292 (No. 89310 [1177] from Utkiavwln) which has a handle of yellowed fossil ivory and a black flint blade. No. 89310 [1071] Fig. 293, from Utkiavwln, is a rather unusual modifica tion of this pattern, with a wooden handle, in which the bottom is not cut out. The thumb groove is deep ened into a large hole, which opens into the excavation on the right side, while a large oblong slot on top, Fro. 293 Peculiar modification of scraper. Opening into these Cavities, takes the place of the two finger hollows. The blade was cf gray flint and rather longer than usual. The last subtype which, according to my recollection, is the one most MUHUOCH.J SKIN SCRAPERS. 297 frequently seen in use at the present day, lias the butt produced horizon tally into a broad, flat lobe. The excavation of the right side may be continued through to the left in the form of a notch, as shown in Fig. 294 (No. 80315 [1365] from Sidaru) which has a blade of black flint and a handle of fossil ivory, with hollows for the thumb and fingers; or the left side may be unexcavated except for the thumb groove as in Fig. 295 (No. 89300 [1135] from Utkiavwiii). This specimen has a rather large wooden handle, with the grooves as before. It appears, however, to have been remodeled to fit a smaller hand than that of the original owner, as the thumb groove has been deepened for about two-thirds of its original length, and there is a dee]), round holo in the middle of the groove for FIG. :>94.-sk in FIG. £)5. — Skin scraper. the second linger. The peculiarity of this specimen, however, is that it has a blade of sandstone, flat and rather thin, with a smooth, rounded edge. The natives told us that scraper blades of sandstone were the prevailing form in old times. Fig. 290 (No. cS9312 [1330] from ITtkiavwtii) is another wooden handle, in which the excavation for the third and fourth fingers is merely a large round hole on the right side, while in front the han dle is cut into two short lobes, between which in a deep groove the forefinger lits. There is a hollow for the thumb under the left lobe and one on the right for the middle finger. No. 80311 [1070] Fio.2w.-skii,»,r1ii«T. frmn thc S!Hne village is almost exactly similar. These are the only two specimens of the kind which 1 recol lect seeing. A rather large, flint-bladed scraper with a wooden handle very much the shape of that of No. S0309 [1135] is the tool most gener ally used at the present day. The blades arc all of the same general shape and vary in size from the little one above mentioned (No. 89322 298 THE POINT BAKKOW ESKIMO. [1420], Fig. 291a), only 0-4 inch long, to blades like No. 89012 [820], Fig. 297, from Utkiavwlfi. This is newly made from light gray translucent flint and is 5 inches long. The, name kibugu, applied to this specimen by the native from whom it was purchased, appears to refer either to the material or the unusual si/e. The blade is ordinarily called kuki, "a claw." With the ivory handles a blade about 1 or 1£ inches is com monly used and with the wooden ones a considerably larger one, 2 to 3 inches in length. The handles vary in size to lit the hands of the owners, but are all too small for an average white man's hand. All ^— ^ that we collected are for the right hand. This pattern of skin scraper which ap pears from the Museum collections to be the prevailing one from Point Barrow to Norton Sound, is evidently the direct de scendant of the form used still farther south, which consists of a stone or bone FIO. 207.— Flint blade blade of the same shape, mounted on a forskiu scraper, wooden handle often a foot or 18 inches long, which has the other end bent down into a handle like the butt of a pistol. Shortening this handle (aproc- ess shown by specimens in the Museum) would bring the worker's hand nearer to the blade, thus enabling him to guide it better. Let this process be continued till the whole handle is short enough to be grasped in the hand and we, have the first subtype described, of which the others are clearly improvements. A still more primitive type of scraper is shown by Fig. 298, No. 89051 [1295] from Utkiavwlfi, the only specimen of the kind seen. This has a, flint blade,, like those of the modern scrapers, inserted in the larger end of a straight haft of reindeer antler, 5£ inches long. We did not learn the history of this tool in the hurry of trade, but from the shape of the blade it is evidently a scraper. Its use as a skin scraper is rendered still more probable by the fact that the scrapers used by some of the eastern no. 298.-stmight- Kskimo (there are specimens in the Museum from (Jum- iiafurscraiicr. berland Gulf and Pelly Bay) have straight handles, though shorter than this. The Siberian natives use an entirely different form of scraper which has a long handle like that of a spoke-shave with a small blade of stone or iron in the middle and is worked with both hands.1 Fig. 299 (No. 89488 [1578] from Utkiavwin) is a tool which we never saw in use but which we were told was intended for scraping skins. It is prob ably an obsolete tool, as a knife would better serve the, purpose of re- >l 1 Nordeuakiiild, Vega, vol. 2, \i\t. 122, ami Fi«. 1, I>. 117. SCRAPER CUPS. 299 moving the subcutaneous tissue, etc., while, the, stone, scrapers just de scribed are, better for softening the skin. It is the distal end of the "cannon" bone or metacarpal, of a reindeer, G-2 inches long, with the two condyles forming the handle. At the other end the posterior face of the shaft is chamfered off so as to expose the, medullary cavity for about 2£ incites, leaving a sharp edge, on each side. The tip is roughly broken off. The tool appears to be old but the two condyles have been recently carved rudely into two human faces, one male (with marks for labrets) and the other female. There is a somewhat similar tool in the Museum brought by Mr. Nelson from Norton Sound. Scraper cupx (ohovwln). — In removing the last of the blubber from the skins of seals or walruses when they wish to save the oil, they scrape it off with a little oblong cup of walrus ivory with a sharp edge, at one or both ends. The cup, of course, catches the oil which is trans ferred to a dish. These cups are sometimes, I believe, also used for dipping oil. We collected ten of these cups, of which No. 89251 [1287], Fig. 300a, will serve as the type. This is 3-7 inches long, carved out of a single piece of walrus ivory, and worked down from the inside to a sharp edge on each end. The carving is smoothly done on the outside, but more roughly within, where it is somewhat hacked. It is stained a dark yellow with oil and polished on the outside, probably by much handling. Fig. 3006 (No. 89258 [ 10110] also from Utkiavwm) is a sim ilar cup, but has a sharp edge only at one, end which is cut out in a. concave curve. The, ten cups in the collection arc all about the same shape and size and all of walrus ivory, stained yellow with oil. The largest is 4 inches long and 2j£ wide, and the smallest, 3 by 2-1 inches. The majority are Fid. 290.— Bone scraper. a 6 FUJ. 300.— ScTapor (Mips. about 3£ by 2i inches. Five, of the ten have sharp edges at both ends, the rest at one only. Mr. Nelson brought home, specimens of this im plement front Point Hope and St. Lawrence Island, but I do not find it mentioned elsewhere. With these tools and their knives, they do all the work of preparing skins for clothing, boat covers, etc. I had no opportunity of seeing the 300 THE POINT BARKOW ESKIMO. process in all its stages, and can therefore give only a general account of it. Deerskins are always dressed as furs, with the hair on. The skin is rough-dried in the open air, with considerable subcutaneous tissue adhering to it, and laid aside until needed. When wanted for use, a woman takes the skin and works it over carefully with a stone scraper on the flesh side, removing every scrap of subcutaneous tissue and "breaking the grain " of the skin, which leaves a surface resembling white chamois leather and very soft. This is then rubbed down with a flat piece of sandstone or gypsum, and finally with chalk, so that when finished it seems like pipeclayed leather. All furs are prepared in the same way. Small seal skins to be worn with the hair on are scraped very clean and, I think, soaked in urine, before they are spread out to dry. The black waterproof seal skin has the hair shaved off close to the skin, great care being taken to leave, the epidermis intact, and also has a certain amount of tanning in urine. It is probable that a little of the blubber is left on these skins, to make them oily and waterproof. When, however they wish to prepare the white-tanned seal skin, the skins are brought into the warm house, thawed out or dampened and then rolled up and allowed to ferment for several days, so that when they are unrolled hair and epidermis are easily scraped off together. The skin is then soaked in urine, stretched 071 a large hoop, and put out to dry in the sun and air. Many of these skins are prepared during the first sunny weather in the early spring. The skins of the large seal, walrus or bear when used for boat-covers or boot soles appear to be sweated in the same way, as the epidermis is always removed. We did not learn whether urine was employed on these skins, but I think from their ordinary appearance that they are simply stretched and dried in their own fat, as appears to be the case with the skin of the beluga, from which the epidermis is easily scraped without sweating. ' Combs for deerskins. — The loosened hairs on a deerskin garment are removed by means of a comb made of a section of the beam of an ant ler, hollowed out and cut into teeth on the end. This instrument prob ably serves also to remove vermin, as its name "kumotm" looks very much as if derived from kumiik, louse. I 'must say, however, that the na tives whom I asked if kumotin had anything to do with kiimiik said it had not. When vermin get troublesome- in a garment, it is taken out on the tundra, away from the houses, and beaten with rods like a carpet. Very old garments when much infested with lice are taken out back of the village, cut into small pieces, and burned. It is no un common sight in the spring to see an old woman sitting out on the tun dra, busy with her knife cutting up old clothes. We brought home nine of these combs, of which No. 89354(1879], Fig. ;j()l«, has been selected as the type. It is 4£ inches long and has 1 Crantz describes the process of preparing boat covers as follows: " The boat skins uro selected out of the stoutest seals' bides, from which the fat is not, quite taken off; they roll them up, and sit on them, or let them lie in the sun covered with grass several weeks, 'till the hair will eomo otf." History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 167. MURDOCH.] COMHS FOR UKF.USKIXS. 301 sixteen teeth about 1 inch long. The. small holes near the other end are for a lanyard to hang it up by. • FIG. 301.— Combs for eleaninK deerskins. Six of these combs have teeth at one. end only, the other three at both ends. These teeth are generally about fifteen in number, and 1 inch or a little over long. No. 89781 [1005], a very small comb only 2-9 inches long, which belonged to the "inland" native Ilubw'ga, has twenty teeth 0-0 inch long. These combs are usually about -1 or 4£ inches long. No. 89550 [1017], Fig. 301 />, from Utkiavwln is an unusually long comb, 5-3 inches long, which is peculiar in being solid except at the end which is cut into teeth. Fig. 301c (No. 89359 [993]), from Utkiavwln is a double-ended comb, having ten teeth on one end and thirteen on the other. It is 4-1 inches long and made with considerable care, being ornamented with incised rings colored with red ocher. This is a common implement at Point Barrow, but seems unusual elsewhere. There is a single specimen from the Diomedes in Mr. Nelson's collection. MANUFACTURE OF LINES OF THONG. No tools are iised for this purpose except a knife. I have seen a small jackknife used for cutting the fine seal skin lines. The, workman takes a wet skin from which the hair and epidermis have been removed and sits down cross-legged on the ground with somebody else to hold the skin stretched for him. Then holding the knife vertically up with the edge away from him, he starts at one corner of the skin and cuts a narrow strip in one continuous piece, going round and round the 302 THK POINT HARROW ESKIMO. skin, gathering and stretching the strip with the left hand. They do this work quite rapidly and with great skill, cutting single lines upward of !K) feet long and only one-eighth inch in diameter, almost perfectly even. These fine lines of seal-skin thong, which serve a great variety of purposes, are usually made when they are in the summer camps, before the breaking up of the ice. They arc dried by stretching them between stakes 0 inches or a foot high, driven into the ground. The. stout thongs of the hide of the bearded seal, walrus, or beluga are usually made in the winter and stretched to dry between posts of whales' bones set up in the village, about breast high. While they are drying, the maker carefully trims and scrapes the edges with his knife, so as to make an almost round line.1 The, usual diameter is about 0-3 inch. These lines are not always made with such care, being often merely flat thongs. Fine deer-skin twine, or "babiche," as it is called by the voyageurs, for making the nettings of snow shoes, is made in the same way. A deer skin is dampened, rolled up, and put up over the lamp for a day or two to remove the hair by sweating, and then cut into a single long piece of flue thong. All the men do not appear able to do this fine work. For instance, our friend Mu'fiialu had the babiche for his new snowshoes made by his house mate, the younger Tunazu. When it is desired to fasten together two pieces of the stouter kinds of thong, what I have so often referred to as the '"double-slit splice" is generally employed. This i8 milde !ls follows: The two ends to be joined to- for rawhide lines. getlier are each slit lengthwise, and one is passed through the slit in the other. The other end of this piece is then passed through the slit in the first piece, and drawn through so that the sides of each slit interlace, like the loops of a square knot (see diagrams, Fig. 1502). The splice is often further secured by a seizing of sinew braid. Most writers on the Eskimo have not gone sufficiently into the details of their arts to describe their methods of splicing. One writer,2 however, in describing some Eskimo implements from East Greenland, describes and figures several splices somewhat of this nature, and one in particu lar especially complicated by crossing the sides of the slits and passing the end through several times. This method of uniting thongs is prob ably very general among the Eskimo and is also common enough among civilized people. BUILDERS' TOOLS. For excavating. — At the present day they arc very glad to use white men's picks and shovels when they want to dig in the gravel or clean out the ice from their houses. They, however, have mattocks and pick 1 Gilder describee a similar proeess of manufacturing these, lines at Hudson's Bay. (Sehwatka'n Scardi, p. 170.) '' W. J. Sullaa, in Jour. Authrop. lust, of Croat Britain and Ireland, vol. 9, pp. :!29-33C. Mt'UUUOII.) PICKAXES. 303 axes (sikla) of their own manufacture, which arc still in use. These are always single-pointed and have a bone or ivory head, mounted, like an ad/- head on a rather short haft. The haft, like those of the mauls and adzes already described, is never fitted into the head, but always applied to the under surface of the latter and held on by a lashing of thong. The only complete implement of the kind which we ob tained is No. 73574 [297], Fig. 303. The head is of whale's rib, 17^ inches long. The butt is shoul dered on the under surface to receive the haft and rough ened with crosscuts to prevent slipping, with two shallow rough transverse notches on the upper surface for the lashings. The haft is of pine, 24i inches long. The lashing is of stout thong of bearded seal hide, in two pieces, one of four turns passing through the hole, round the front edge of the haft, over the lower notch in the head, and back across the haft to the hole again. The ends are knotted together on top Fid. 303.— Mattock of whale's rib. FIG. 304. — Pickax heads of bone, ivory, ami whale's ribs. of the head by becket-hitching one end into an eye in the other, made by slitting it close to the tip and passing a bight of the standing part through this slit. The other part is of seven turns, put on in the same way, but crossing back of the haft, and started by looping one end round the head and through the eye by means of an eye at the end made as before. 304 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. It is finished off by windingthe end three or four times round these turns, so as to tighten them up, and hitching it round two of them on cue side. This method of hurting differs in no essential respect from that used on the muuls and adzes above described. We have also two heads for such mattocks, which hardly differ from the one described, except the No. 00494 [285] has the notches for the lashings on the side of the head instead of on the upper surface. It is 16 inches long. The other, No: 89843 [1043], Fig. 3<)4«, is a very rude head made of an almost cylindrical piece of rib. This is a very old tool, which from its oily condition has evidently been long laid away in some blubber room at Utkiavwlfi. It is 15-2 inches long. These blunt-pointed mattocks are not so much used at present as picks with a sharp point mounted in the same way, and specially adapted for working iu'ice or hard frozen soil. I have, however, never seen them used for cutting holes in the ice for fishing, which some authors have sup posed to be what they were meant for. Their shape makes them very inconvenient for any such a purpose, except when the ice is very thin. The ice pick, like those carried on the butt of the spear, is under any circumstances a more serviceable tool. These sharp pickax heads are generally made of a walrus tusk, the natural shape of which requires very little alteration to fit it for the purpose. We collected three of these ivory heads, all very nearly alike, of which No. 565396 [9(5], Fig. 304/>, will serve as the type. This is the tip of a good-sized walrus tusk, 14-2 inches long, preserving very nearly the natural outline of the tusk except at the point, where it is rounded off rather more abruptly above. It is keeled along the upper edge and on the lower edge at the point, so that the latter is four-sided, and the sides of the butt are flattened. On the under side the butt is cut off flat for about 3£ inches, leaving a low flange or ridge, and roughened with crosscuts to fit the end of the haft, and the butt is perforated with two large tranverse eyes for the lashing. The other two heads are almost exactly like this and very nearly the same size. Sharp-pointed pick heads of whale's bone appear also to have been used, probably at an earlier date than the neatly finished ivory ones, as we collected three such heads, all very old and roughly made, and hav ing notches or grooves for the lashings instead of eyes. Fig. 304c is one of these, No. 89844 [1315], from Utkiavwlu, very rudely cut from a piece of whale's rib, 12 inches long. 1 do not recollect seeing any of these bone-headed picks in use, while the ivory-headed one was one of the commonest tools. This Eskimo tool is in use at Pitlekaj, a village supposed to be wholly inhabited by sedentary Chukches.1 TOOLS FOR SNOW AND ICE WORKING. Snow knives.— For cutting the blocks of snow used in building the 'NimlcDskiiild's figures, Vega, vol. 2, p. 123. SNOW TOOLS. 305 apu'ya, or snow hut, they at the present day prefer a saw or a large steel knife (for instance, a whaleman's boarding knife), if they can procure it, but they still have many of the large saber-shaped ivory knives so com monly used by the Eskimo everywhere for this purpose. These are. however, more generally used for scraping snow oft' their clothing, etc., at Flo. 305.— Ivory snow knife. present. We brought home two of these knives, which do not differ in any important respect from the many specimens collected by other ex plorers in Alaska. No. 89478 [759], Fig. 305, is one of these— saviu'ra, " like a knife." It is of walrus ivory (following the natural outline of the tusk), l(i inches Km. 306. -Snow shovels. long. The blade is double-edged, the haft rounded on the edges and laced along the lower edge for 3J inches with a double piece of sinew braid. The object of this is to give the hand a firmer grip on the haft. These knives are also used for cutting the blocks of snow to supply the house with water. Snow shovels. — The broad, short -handled snow shovel of wood with a 9 ETH 20 306 THE POINT BAKROW ESKIMO. sharp edge of ivory is the tool universally employed whenever snow is to be shoveled, either to clear it away or for excavating houses or pit falls in the snowdrifts, or '• chinking " up the crevices in the walls of the snow house, and i.s an indispensable part of the traveler's outfit in winter. The shovels (pl'ksun) are all made on essentially the same pat tern, which is well shown by Fig. 306«, No. 50739 (30). The blade i.s 14 inches broad and 11 long. The whole upper surface of the shovel is flat. The handle is beveled off on the side to a rounded edge below, and is quite thick where it joins the blade, tapering off to the tip. The blade is thick and abruptly rounded off on the upper edge below and gradually thinned down to the edge. The edge of the wood is fitted with a tongue into a grove in the top of the ivory edge, which is 1£ inches deep. It is fastened on by wooden tree-nails at irregular intervals, and at one end, where, the edge of the groove has been broken, by a stitch of black whalebone. The wooden part of the shovel is made of four unequal pieces of spruce, neatly fitted and doweled together and held by the ivory edge and three stitches of black whalebone close to the upper edge, and countersunk below the flat surface. The whippings of sinew braid on the handle are to give a firm grip for the hands. No. 5G73cS [27], Fig. 3006, is a similar shovel of the same material and almost exactly the same dimensions, figured to show the way it has been pieced together and mended. The maker of this shovel was able to procure a broad piece of wood which only had to be pieced out with a narrow strip on the left side, which is fastened on as before. It was, however, not long enough to make the whole of the handle, which has a piece 8£ inches long, neatly scarfed on at the end and secured by six stout treenails of wood; three at each end of the .joint, passing through the thin part of the scarf into the thick, but not through the latter. Nearly the whole handle was seized with sinew braid put on as before, but much of this seizing is broken off'. At the right side of the blade the grain takes a twist, bringing it parallel to the ivory edge,, and ren dering it liable to split, as has happened from the warping of the ivory since the shovel has been in the Museum. The owner sought to pre vent this by fastening to the edge a stout " strap " of walrus ivory 4£ inches, which appears to be an old bird spear point. The lower end of this fitted into the groove of the ivory edge, and it was held on by three equidistant lashings of narrow whalebone, each running through a hole in the edge of the wood and round the ivory in a deep transverse groove. This pattern of snow shovel is very like that from Iglulik, figured by Capt. Lyon,' but the handle of the latter is so much shorter in propor tion to the blade that there is an additional handle like that of a pot lid near the head of the blade on the upper surface. The ivory edge also appears to be fastened on wholly with stitches. 1 Parry's Second Voy., pi. opposite p. 548, Fitf. 5. HritllOCH.] SNOW AND ICE TOOLS. 307 Km. 307.— Snow shovel made of a whale's scapula. been a makeshift or an Fig. 307 (No. 89775 [ll>50| from Utkiavwlii) is a peculiar implement, the only one of the kind that we saw. It is a shovel. 17 inches long, made of a whale's scapula, with the anterior and posterior borders cut off straight so as to make it 1.'3^ inches broad, and Hie superior margin beveled off to an edge. Tim handle is made, by flattening the neck of the scapula and cutting through it a large horizontal elliptical slot, below which the end of the scapula is worked into a rounded bar 1 inch in diameter. The cutting around this slot appears new, and red ocher has been rubbed into the crevices. On the other hand, the bev eling of the digging edge appeared to be old. Though colored with red ocher, the edge is gapped as if from use, and there are fragments of tun dra moss sticking to it. It is probably an old imple ment " touched up " for sale. We did not learn whether such tools were now gener ally used. This may have individual fancy. Fig. 308 (No. 89521 [1249] from Utkiavwlfi) is an other peculiar tool of which we saw no other speci men. It appears to be really an old implement and was said to have been used for digging or picking in the snow. It is a stout sharp-pointed piece, of bone, 3 inches long, inserted in the end of a piece of a long bone of some animal, 4-7 inches long and about 1£ wide, which serves as a haft. Icepick* — The ivory ice pick (tu'u) always attached to the Real-harpoon has been already described. This differs from the tdk of the (ireenlanders and other eastern Eskimo in having a sharp bayonet point, while the latter is often chisel-pointed. All the men now have iron ice picks which they use for cutting the holes for fishing, setting seal nets, and such pur poses. These are made of some white man's tool which has a socket, like a harpoon iron, a whale lance, FIG. sog.— SHOW pick. ;l boarding knife or bayonet, and usually have a rather slender blade about a foot long, mounted on a pole 6 or 8 feet long. The point is sharp and polygonal, generally four-sided. The tool is managed with both hands and used to split off fragments of ice by rather ohliijuc blows. In other words, it is used in precisely the same way as the little single-handed pick which we use in refrigerators. For chiseling off pro jecting corners of ice when making a path out through the ice pack, they 308 THE POINT BAKKOW ESKIMO. often use whale spades, of which they have obtained a great many from wrecks. Xo. 89483 [1313] from Utkiavwln, is a very old pick made of a piece of reindeer antler, 11^ inches long, split lengthwise, and tapered to a sharp curved point. The butt is cut into a sort of tang with a low shoulder. The split face is concave, the soft interior tissue having been removed by decay and perhaps also intentionally. Another peculiar tool is shown in Fig. 309 (Xo. 89479 [1064] from Utkiavwln). This was called k&kaiyaxion, and is a rounded piece of antler 10-4 inches long, tapering from the butt where there is a low shoulder and the broken remains of a rounded tang to be fitted to a shaft. One side is cut oif flat from the shoul der to the tip, gradually becom ing concave. The concavity is deepest near the middle. The tip is slightly expanded,rounded, and somewhat bent toward the convex side. The specimen is smoothly and neatly made and dark brown from age. Xo other FIO 309 -snow specimens were seen. We were ami. told that this tool was mounted on a long pole and used for drilling holes in the ice by making the pole revolve with the hands. Ice scoops. — When picking a hole through the ice they use a long-handled scoop, made of a piece of antler bent round into a hoop, and netted across the bottom with strips of whalebone, so that the water may drain off in dipping pieces of ice out of the water. We brought home one specimen of this uni versal implement (Xo.89903 [1696], Fig. 310). The handle is of oak, 5 feet If inches long and elliptical in section. The rim of the bowl is a long thin strip of antler, appar ently from the "palm," bent round into a pointed oval, 8J inches long and 5f wide, with the ends of the strip overlapping about 3 inches at the broader end. The ends are sewed together with two vertical stitches of whale- ,!/, FIO. sio.— ice scoop. MURDOCH.] SCOOPS AND SKIMMERS. 309 bone. The left end has been broken across obliquely near the joint and mended with whalebone stitches. Round the lower edge of the rim runs a row of twenty-seven pairs of small holes 0-2 inch from the edge. The holes of each pair are connected by a deep channel, and a narrow shallow groove, probably for ornament, joins the pairs. On the left side are eight extra holes between the pairs, which are not used. Through these holes, omitting the first two pairs in the right-hand end, is laced a piece of seal thoiig, thus : Starting at the point of the oval, the two ends of the thong are passed through the pair of holes there from the outside and the bight drawn home into the channel; the ends are crossed, the left end going to the right, and vice versa, and passed out through the farther hole of the next pair and in through the nearer, and so on till the ends meet at the broad end of the oval where they are tied together, thus making twenty-five loops on the inside of the rim into which the netting is fastened. This is made of strips of thin whale bone, interwoven, over and under each other, passing up through one loop and down through the next. There are eleven longitudinal strands passing obliquely from right to left, the same number from left to right, and eleven transverse strands, making a network with elongated hex agonal apertures. The strips are not one continuous piece. The bowl thus made is fastened to the handle by three pieces of stout seal thoiig. The whole lashing was put on wet, and allowed to shrink. Nordenskiold mentions and figures a scoop of almost identically the same pattern, but smaller, in general use for the same purposes at Pitlekaj.1 A smaller scoop or .skimmer (elauatln) is also universally used. We inadvertently neglected to preserve a specimen of this very common implement, though we had two or three about the station for our own use. I shall therefore have to describe it from memory. The handle is a flat, straight stick with rounded edges, about 18 inches or 2 feet long, 1 £ inches broad, and three-fourths inch thick. The bowl is made of two pieces of antler " palm " of such a shape that when they are fastened together on the end of the stick they make a shallow cup about 3£ inches long by 3 wide, with a longitudinal crevice along the middle which allows the water to drain off. The tip of the handle is beveled off on both sides so as to fit into the inside of this cup, along the junction of the two pieces, each of which is fastened to it by one or two neat stitches of whalebone. The two pieces are fastened together in front of the handle with a stitch. In addition to the use of these scoops for skimming the fishing holes, and reeling up the line, as already described, they also serve as scrapers to remove snow and hoarfrost from the clothing. In the winter most of the men and boys, epecially the latter, carry these skimmers whenever they go out doors, partly for the sake ot having something in their hands, as we (tarry sticks, and partly for use. The boys are very fond of using them to pick up and sling snowballs, bits of ice, or frozen dirt, which they do with considerable force and accuracy. 1 Vega. vol. 1, ]>. 4il3. 310 THE POINT BAKROW ESKIMO. IMPLEMENTS FOR PROCURING AND PREPARING FOOD. Blubber hooka (nl'kslgu).— For catching hold of pieces of blubber or" flesh when "cutting in" a whale or walrus, or dragging them round on shore or on the ice, or in the blubber rooms, they use hooks made by fastening a backward-pointing prong of ivory on the end of a wooden handle, which is bent into a crook at the other end. Those specially in tended for use in the boats have handles 7 or 8 feet long, while those for shore use are only 2 or 3 feet long. These implements, which are com mon all along the Alaskan coast, may sometimes be used as boathooks, as ap pears to be the case farther south, though ] never saw them so employed. We brought home two short hooks and one long one, No. 50760 [120],Fig.311. This has a prong of walrus ivory fastened to a spruce pole, 7 feet 7| inches long, to the other end of which is fastened a short crook of antler. The pole is ellip tical in section. The crook is a nearly straight "branch" of an antler with a transverse arm at the base made by cut ting out a piece of the "beam" to fit against the pole, and is held on by three neat lashings of whalebone of the usual pattern. The upper two of these are transverse lashings passing through cor responding holes in the pole and crook. The lowest, which is at the tip of the arm, is at right angles to these, passing through wood and antler. The lashing of whalebone close to the tip of the crook, passing through a hole and round the under side of the latter, is to keep the S'i'jfbhib.hand from slipping off. The prong is bi-rhm.ii. held on by two lashings of small seal thong, each passing through a large transverse hole in the prong and a corresponding one in the pole. The upper pair of holes do not exactly match. There are also two unused holes, one F,O. 8i2.-Short-bandied blubber in the pole below the upper hole and one above hook the upper hole in the prong. These holes and the new appearance of the lashings indicate that the prong is part of another hook recently fitted to this pole. The two lashings are made by a single piece of thong. MUKUOCH.J BLUBBER HOOKS, ETC. 311 The whole is old and weathered and rather greasy about the prong and the tip of the pole. Fig. 312 (No. 8083(5 [1203] from Utkiavwln) is a similar hook with a short handle, 34 inches long, for use on land. The crook is made by bending the handle. The prong, of walrus ivory as before, is 7 inches long, and held on by two stout lashings of whalebone, which pass round the end of the handle instead of through it. The prong and tip of the handle are very greasy. No. 89837 [1353], from the same village, is a similar hook rather rudely made. The crook is bent only at an angle of about 45°, and there is somewhat of a twist to the whole han dle. The prong, which is of antler, is 7J inches long and shoul- y dered at the butt like that of the long hook described. It is fastened on by two thick lashings of stout seal thong passing around prong and handle and kept from slipping by notches in tlrt* latter, and on the butt end of the former and by a large flat-headed brass stud driven into the prong below the upper lashing. Fish sealer.— Fig. 313 (No. 89401 [1279] from Utkiavwlu) rep resents a little implement which we never saw in use, but which we were told was intended for scraping the scales oft' a fish. The specimen does not appear to be newly made. It is a piece of hollow "long" bone, 8 inches long, cut into the shape of the blade of a case knife, flat on one face with a broad, shallow, longitudinal groove on the other. MAKING AND WORKING FIBER. Flo ' *caier. Ticisting and braiding — We had no opportunity of seeing the process of twisting the sinew twine, which is sometimes used in place of the braid so often mentioned but more generally when an extra strong thread is desired, as in sewing on boot soles. Fig. 314 (No. 89431 [1332] from Utkiavwln) is a little shuttle of walrus ivory, 3 inches long and 1£ broad, which we were told was used in this process. The body of this shuttle is reduced to a narrow crosspiece, and the prongs at one end are twice as long as those at the other. The tips of the long prongs are about ^ inch apart, while those1 of the short ones nearly meet. There is a small round hole in one side of the body. This speci men was made for sale. As well as I could understand the seller, the ends of several strands of tine sinew were fas tened into the hole in the shuttle and twisted by twisting it with one hand, while the other end was held perhaps by FIG 3u— ivon the other hand. The part twisted was then wound on the shuttle. shuttle and a fresh length twisted. This would be a very No special implements for twisting have been described among other simple form of spinning with a spindle. 312 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. Eskimo. Mr. K. W. Nelson (in a letter to the writer) says that the iiatives of Norton Sound informed him that the cable twisters (kaputa — klbu'tuk at Norton Sound) were also used for making twisted cord. He describes their use as follows : ';The ends of the sinew cord are tied to the center holes in the two ivory pieces, one of the latter at each end of the cord, and then they are twisted in opposite directions, thus get ting the hard-laid sinew cord used on the bows." The sinew twine used af Point Barrow is generally braided, almost * Fin. 315.— yetting nwHlle. always in a three-ply braid, usually about the size of stout packthread, such as is found on many Eskimo implements from all localities repre sented in the Museum collections. That they also know how to braid with four strands is shown by the hair line already described (No. 56545 [410]). They also have a special word (which T can not recall) for braid ing with four strands in distinction from braiding with three (pidr4). Netting. — Two implements are used as usual in netting, a needle or long flat shuttle for carrying the twine (Fig. 315, No. 56570 [101]), and a mesh stick for gauging the length of the mesh. The knot is the universal "fisherman's knot" or becket hitch made in the usual manner. The method of using the mesh stick, however, is rather peculiar, and somewhat clumsy compared with that used by civilized net-makers, as it serves only to measure the mesh and not also to hold the successive meshes as they are made. It is a long flat piece of bone or antler, shaped like a case knife, with a blade square at heel and point. There is often also a little blunt hook (as in Fig. 316, No. 56581 [1021]) at the point, bending upward or toward the back of the blade. The blade is the part of the stick which measures the mesh, and its length from heel to point is always precisely half the length of the mesh to be made. It is used as follows: The workman, holding the mesh stick by the han dle in his left hand, with the blade downward, catches the mesh into which the knot is to be made with the hook, and holds it while the twine is carried down the left side of the Fjo 3ie _ blade, round the heel and through the mesh as usual, and drawn Mesh stick- tip till the preceding knot comes just to the point of the blade. This makes a loop of the proper length for a mesh round the stick. The point where the next knot is to be made is now caught between the thumb and finger of the right hand and the mesh stick taken out of the loop. The left thumb and finger, while the other fingers of this hand still hold the MVKDOTH.I NETTING NEEDLES. 313 handle of the stick, relieve the fingers of the right hand, which goes on to make the knot in the usual manner.1 We collected thirteen needles of different patterns and sizes. Xo. 56570 [101], Fig. ,'$15, has been selected as the type (I'ninuvwln,mii'kntln.) It is of walrus ivory, 11-9 inches long. The small hole near the tip of one prong is for a lanyard to hang it up by when not in use. This needle could be used only for making a large meshed net, perhaps a seal net. We collected seven needles of almost the same pattern as this, varying a little in proportions. The faces are usually more deeply hollowed out and the ends usually sinuate instead of being straight. Three of these are of reindeer antler and the rest of ivory. The longest is 9-9 inches long and the shortest 4J. This needle (No. 56574 [24], from Utkiavwlfi) is rather broad in proportion, being nearly 1 inch wide. It is of walrus ivory. Xo. 89433 [942] is better suited for netting a small mesh, being only 0-7 inch broad at the widest part. It is made of reindeer antler and FIG. 317.— Netting needles. is 7-3 inches long. These needles sometimes have a small hole through one end of the body for fastening the end of the twine, and most have some arrangement for fastening on a lanyard, either a hole as in the type or a groove round the tip of one prong as in Xo. 5G574 [24j. Xo. 89427 [1283], from Utkiavwlfi, is a needle of a slightly different pattern, being rather thick and not narrowed at the middle. It is of rein deer antler, 8-7 inches long and 1 wide. Xo. 89430 [1286], Fig. 31 7«, from Utkiavwlfi, is a very broad needle, with short body and long prongs, one of which is expanded at the tip and perforated for a lanyard. It is a piece of the outside hard tissue of a reindeer antler, 5-4 inches long and 1-2 broad. It is but slightly narrowed at the middle, while Xo. 89428 [1381], Fig. 3176, from Utkiavwlu, a somewhat similar broad needle of the same material is deeply notched on each side of the body. This is made from antler of smaller diameter than the preceding, and conse- 1 We bad no special opportunities for watching the natives at work netting, as but few nets hap pened to be made at the village daring our stay. It was. however, observed that the mesh stick was taken out every time a knot was tied. Since my return, after a careful study of the different mesh sticks in our collection. I have convinced myself by experiment that the above method of using the tool is the only one which will account for the shape of the different parts. 314 THK POINT BAKKOW ESKIMO. qiiently i.s not fiat, but strongly convex, on one face and correspondingly concave on the other. It is 8-2 inches long and 1£ wide. For making the seal nets a very large, needle is used. The one in the collection, No. 56581 [102], Fig. 318, from Utkiavwlfl, is 20£ inches long and only 1 J wide. It is made of two nearly equal pieces of antler, which are nearly flat, and lap over each other about 3f inches near the middle. FIG. :I18.— Netting needle for seal net. They are strongly fastened together by five whalebone stitches, one at each corner of the splice and one in the middle. The corner stitches run round the edge of the two parts, and through a hole through both parts. The prongs are stout and curved, nearly meeting at the tips. They are about 3 inches long. The lateral distortion appears to be due to warping. FIG. 319.— Xottinjr ueeclle. A peculiar netting needle is shown in Fig. 319 (No. 89429 [1333], from TJtkiavwIn), which is new and rather carelessly made from very coarse walrus ivory. The tips of the prongs, after nearly meeting, diverge again in the form of the letter IT. This needle, which is 9£ inches long, was said by the 7iiaker to be of the pattern used by the "Kuiimu'd'llii." Flo. 320. -Mesh sticks. There are no specimens resembling it in the museum collections, though it curiously suggests certain implements from Norton Sound, labeled ''reels for holding fine cord," consisting of slender rods of antler, termi nating at each end in similar shallow ('-shaped forks. ML-RDOTH.I MESH STICKS. 315 The mesh stick (ku'brln) belonging to the large netting needle, No. 50581 [102J, may be taken as the type of this implement. It is a piece of the hard outside tissue of a reindeer antler. The three notches on the lower edge of the haft are for the fingers. The incised line along one face of the blade is probably a mark to which the twine is to be drawn in making a mesh. The blade is just the proper length, 7J inches, for the large mesh of the seal net. The remaining four mesh sticks are all small, and intended for making fish nets. Three are of reindeer antler and the fourth of hard bone, with a wooden haft. Fig. 320a (No. 89436 [1284], from Utkiavwffi) is of antler, 1-2 inches long, with a blade of 2-7 inches, protected from splitting by a stout round peg of hard bone, driven through the handle so as to lie against the heel of the blade. It terminates in a blunt point instead of a hook, and has three finger notches in the haft. No. 811437 [942]. also from Utkiavwln, is of the same material, 5-2 inches long, without a hook and with a blade only 1 inch long. There are two finger notches in the haft. The last of the antler mesh sticks (No. 89439 [983], from Utkiavwln, Fig. 320&) is double ended, having a hook and a short blade at each end. The blades are respectively 1*5 and 1-0 inches long, and the total length is C-G inches. Fig. 320c (No. 89435 [1019], also from Utkiavwln) has a blade, with a small hook, of white compact bone, and what would be the handle lashed to one side of a haft of soft wood, which is shouldered to receive it. The haft is 4-3 iuches long, and the two parts are held together by two lashings of fine sinew, kept from slipping by notches. The total length is 7-3 inches, that of the blade 2-7. Netting needles and mesh sticks of essentially the same type as those just described, but varying in material and dimensions, are in general use from the Ander son Kiver to Bristol Bay, as is shown by the Museum collections. Netting weights. — We collected 16 little ivory implements, each, when complete, consisting of the image of a fish about 3£ to 4 inches long, suspended by a string about 4 inches long to a little ivory spring hook. We never happened to see these implements in use, but we were told that they were used in netting to keep the meshes in proper shape. They generally were made in pairs. The only way of using them that I can think of is first to hook one into the bight of the first mesh made in starting the net. This would make the successive meshes, as they were netted, hang down out of the way. On starting the next row in the opposite direction, the second weight hooked into the first mesh of this row would draw the successive meshes down on the left-hand side of the stick, while the other weight would keep the meshes of the first row stretched so that one could be easily caught at a time. On begin ning the third row the first weight would be transferred to the first mesh of this, and so on. Fig. 321« is one of a pair of these nepitaura (No. 50591! [207]) which has been selected as the type. It is a rather rude figure of a salmon or trout 4 inches long, neatly carved out of walrus ivorv. The string is of braided sinew and the hook of walrus ivorv. 316 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. Fig. 3216 (No. 89442 [899] from Nuwuk) i.s a weight without the hook and made of compact whale's bone. It is 4-1 inches long, and very neatly carved, having all the fins in relief, the gill openings, mouth, and eyes incised. No. 56582 [173] from Utkiavwlfi is one of a pair very rudely carved out of a piece of snow -shovel edge. The mouth and gill openings are indicated by incised and blackened lines, the latter fringed with short lines, each endinginadot, perhaps to represent the gill filaments. It is 4-2 inches long, and hastily made for sale. Fig. 321c (No. 56578 [201 1 from Ut kiavwlfi) seems to be in tended for a polar cod, and has the hole drilled through the root of the tail. The lateral line is marked by a scratch, col ored with black lead, and the dark color of the back is represented by curved, transverse scratches also colored with black lead. When the carving is suf ficiently good to show what sort of a fish is (meant, it is generally a salmon or trout. Only 3 FIG. 32i.— Netting weights. out of the 16 are of any thing but walrus ivory. These 3 are of compact whale's bone, and one had small blue glass beads inlaid for eyes, of which one still remains. FIG. :i'J2.— Shuttle belonging to yet of feather tools. The shortest is 3-4 inches long, and the longest 4-3, but most of them are almost exactly 4 inches long. Wearing. — A set of little tools made of bone and reindeer antler were brought over for sale, which were said to be those used in weaving the MURDOCH.) WEAVING TOOLS. 317 feather belts. I had no opportunity of seeing- a belt made, but the work evidently does not require all three of these tools. The little netting needle or shuttle of bone (Fig. 322, No. 89434 [1338]) can not be used in feather weaving, because, as already mentioned, the strips of feather are FIG. ;ia:i.— Mi-nil stick. hot fastened together into a continuous cord which could be carried on a shuttle. It is .V9 inches long and 0-7 wide. There is also a little mesh stick of antler (Fig. 323, No. 89438 [1338]) 6-7 inches long, with a blade 1-9 inches in length, and a little hook, which appears to be fitted for nothing except netting a small net. The lower edge of the handle, however, is cut into 10 deep rounded notches, which perhaps serve the purpose of a rude "frame" for keeping apart the strands of the warp, while the woof of feather is passed through with the fingers. It would be held with this edge up, and the beginning of the belt being fastened to the wall, the warp strands would be stretched over this, as over a violin bridge, each resting in one of the notches. The last tool of the set (Fig. 324, No. 89402 [1338]) is undoubtedly a "sword" for pushing home the woof, and probably also serves to separate the strands of the warp into a "shed." It is a flat, thin piece of antler, 9 inches long and three-fourths wide, of which about 6£ inches forms a straight blade 0£ inches long, and the rest is bent round to one side and slightly down, forming a handle. When the strands of the warp are stretched over the bridge as above de scribed, pushing this horizontally through them alter nately over and under the successive strands, would make a " shed " through which the end of the woof could be thrust with one motion, and pushed up against the preceding strand of the woof by sliding tjie sword forward. It would then be withdrawn and passed through again, going over the strands it went under before and vice versa, so as to open a "shed" for the next strand of the woof. Sewing. — For sewing furs and leather they always ' use thread made by stripping off thin fibers from a *'io- 321.— -sword for piece of dried sinew of the reindeer, as is usual witli Eskimo. Cotton or linen thread of civilized manufacture is now often used for sewing the cotton frocks, etc., and sometimes for making an or- 318 THE POINT BARKOW ESKIMO. namental seam on the waterproof gut shirts. The stitches employed have already been described under the head of clothing (which see). They hold the needle between the thumb and middle linger, with the thimble on the forefinger (both are called by the same name, tl'kya) and sew toward them. This appears to be the regular Eskimo method of sewing.1 At the present day they are well supplied with steel needles (iniksun) of all sixes arid patterns, but formerly they used bone needles made from the fibula (amllygruu) of the reindeer. We collected sixty of these needles, eighteen of which appear to be old and genuine. The rest were more or less carefully made for sale. Nlka- waalu told us that once when he and a young man were out deer hunting a long distance from camp their boots gave out. Having killed a deer he made thread from the sinew, a needle from the bone, and with pieces of the skin repaired their boots, so that they got home in comfort. No. 89.'589 [1191], Fig. 325 will serve as the type of these needles. This is a case 3£ inches long, made of no. 325,-Quiii case of the butt of a large quill, closed with a plug of walrus bone needles. hide, and contains 6 needles. One is 1-8 inches long, stout, and round-pointed, with a large eye. It is much discolored from age. The second is also round-pointed but more slender, 1-9 inches long, and flattened and expanded at the butt. The third is 2-4 inches long, and has a four- sided point like a glov er's needle. All three of these are very neatly made and appear old. The other three are stout, roughly made, and flat, respectively 2-1, 2-2, and 2-5 inches long. Two of them look suspiciously new. This setwassaidto havebeen the property of the wife of Puka, Nlkawaalu's father. Fi^'. 326ft is olle '"M"n"s die (No. 89392 [1195] from Utkiavwlii) 3-2 inches long, with a round, sharp point and a large eye, with little grooves running to the butt on each side for the thread to lie in. This needle was perhaps specially 'Sw Parry. Second Voy., p. 337; Lyoll, Journal. ]>. 93; Kiimlirn, Contributions, J>. 25. MURDOCH.] NEEDLES AND THIMHLES. 319 meant for sewing boat skins. With this needle belongs a peculiar large bone or ivory thimble. The remaining needles are all very much alike, though some are more roughly made than the others. Three of them have the butt square instead of rounded, and half of them, including some which are undoubtedly old, are four-sided at the point like a glov er's needle. The longest is 3 inches long and the shortest 1-4 inches, but the commonest length is about li or 2i inches. Similar bone needles are mentioned by various authors.1 Nearly all the women now use ordinary metal thimbles, obtained in trade, but they wear them in the old-fashioned way, on the tip of the forefinger. Some of the older women, however, still prefer the ancient leather thimble. There are two patterns of these: one intended for the fore-finger only, and the other of such a shape that it may also be worn on the other fingers as a guard against chafing in pulling stout thread through thick leather. It is often so used at the present day. We collected three of the first-mentioned pattern, which is represented by Fig. 3266 (No. 89390 [1202, 1240] ). It is made by cutting out a narrow ring of raw sealskin 0-7 inch in diameter, with a circular flap 0-5 inch in diameter on the outside of the ring and a corresponding one on the inside of the same size, cut out of the middle of the ring. The Haps are doubled over so as to make a pad on the inside of the forefinger when the tip of the latter is inserted into the ring. The butt of the needle presses against this pad. The third thimble, which belongs with the needlecase (No. 89371 [127(5]), is of precisely the same form and dimensions. There appeared to be little if any variation among those which we saw. Capt. Lyon2 figures two similar thimbles from Iglulik, which are described on page 537 of the same work as being made of leather. The flaps, however, seem to be only semicircular and not folded over, so that the shield consists of only one thickness of leather. A similar thimble with the flap also not folded is used at Cumberland Gulf.3 The other pattern, of which we brought home nine specimens, is rep resented by No. 89389 [1191], which belongs with the set of bone needles of the same number. It is a tube, open at both ends, one of which is larger than the other, made by bending round a strip of split walrus hide and sewing the ends together. It is 0-4 inch long and 2-1 in circumference at the larger end. It is worn smooth with handling, and impregnated with grease and dirt and marked with small pits where it has been pressed against the butt of the needle in use. Four other old thimbles (No. 89393 [1194], from tltkiavwln, are made 'Formerly they used the bones of finhes nr thti very flue bones of birds instead of needles. f'ranU, viil. 1. ]>. 136. "Their own clumsy needles of bone." 1'arry. Second Voy.. p. 587 and pi. opposite p. 548, ¥1*. 11. Kumlien also speaks of "steel needles or bone ones made after Tin- same pattern "at Cumberland (lulf (Contributions, p. 25). 'Parry, Second Voy., pi. opposite p. 550, Fip. 25. 3l!oa.8. Central Eskimo, p. 524. Fig. 47:j and Kumlicn. Contributions, p. 25. 320 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. in the same way, but are a trifle larger. As they show no needle-marks, they were probably used only as finger guards. The remaining four are similar to the above, but newly made, for sale. A most peculiar thimble, the only one of the kind seen, is shown in Fig. 32G« (No. 89392 [1195] from Utkiavwffi, belonging with the large bone needle of the same number already described and figured). This is made of a single piece of walrus ivory, browned with age, and the round shallow socket is for the butt of the needle. The ends of the half ring are slightly expanded and notched on the outside to receive a string to complete the ring so that it can be fitted round the finger, with the flange in the same position as the pad of a leather thimble. Needles are kept in a case (ujyami), consisting of a tube of bone or ivory about 5 or G inches long, through which is drawn a broad strap of leather furnished with a knot at one end to keep it from slipping wholly through. Into one side, of this strap the needles are thrust obliquely, so that when the strap is pulled in they are covered by the tube. To the other end of the strap is usually attached an ivory snap hook for fastening the needle case to the girdle of the pantaloons. These needle cases are made of two slightly different patterns, of which the first is represented by No. 89365 [1277], Fig. 327a. It is of white walrus ivory, 4£ inches long, and the strap is of seal thong about 11 inches long and 0-3 inch wide. At one end of this is a pear- shaped knob of walrus ivory, which is shouldered off at the small end and worked into a short flattened shank perforated with a large eye, through which the end of the strap, which is cut narrow, is thrust. It is fastened bv doubling it back and sew- Fio. 827.— Needle cases with bolt hooks. ing it to the standing part. A sky-blue transparent glass bead is inlaid in the large end of the knob. The other end of the strap is fastened in the same way into a tranverse slot in the end of the belt hook (ti'tkibwln) of ivory, 4-7 inches long. This pattern appears to be usually made of walrus ivory. Only one of the six brought home is of bone, and this is an unusually small one, only 3-0 inches long, made for sale. The usual length is 4£ to 5 inches. No. 893G3 [1105], Fig. 3276, from Utkiavwlfi, is a tube very much like the one described, but is ornamented with an incised pattern colored with red ocher, and has a differently shaped belt hook. When the latter is hooked over the girdle the ring is pushed up the shank over the point of the hook till it tits tight, and thus keeps the hook from slipping off the belt. MURDOCH.) NEEDLE CASES. 321 Fig. 328« (No. 89364 [1243] from rtkiavwlfi) i> another ivory needle case, 4-7 inches long. The tube was once ornamented with incised patterns, but these are almost wholly worn off by constant handling. The knob is carved into an ornamental shape, having a circle of six round knobs round the middle. It has been suggested that this is meant to represent a cloud-berry (Rubus chanuemorus), a fruit known to the "Nunatafimiun" though not at Point Barrow. The hook is a snap hook very much like those described in connection with the netting weights, but larger (3 inches long) and very broad at the upper end, which is made into a broad ring. The point of a steel needle still stick ing in the flesh side of the strap shows how the needles arc carried with the points toward the knob. No. 89370 [1083], also from Utkiav- •wlii, has no kuob,but the end of the strap is kept from slipping through by rolling it up transversely and catching it with a stitch of sinew. It has a broad flat snap hook similar to the last, but cut on the edges into ornamental scallops. The tube is ornamented with an incised pattern colored red with ocher, and is 5-2 long. No. 5(5575 [7] is au old tube of brown walrus ivory, enlarged into a knob at one end. It has no knob or hook, but a new strap of white seal skin, in the lower end of which is tied a large knot. The other pattern has the cylinder made of a hollow '• long" bone, in its natural shape. This bone appears to be almost always the hu- merus of some large bird, probably a SWan. The strap has usually HO Fio.:i28.— Needle cases: (a) case with belt hook ; -, T . ,. i • ' (&) cast' opiin. showing bone uetMllos. knob, but is kept from slipping through by knotting the end or tying on a large bead or a bear's toe, or some such object too large to go through the tube. None of these have belt hooks except one new and roughly made specimen. These bone tubes are apparently older than the neat ivory cylinders, and it is not unlikely that the belt hook was not invented till the former was mostly out of fashion. No. 89301 [1239], Fig. 3286 from Utkiavwln, is one of these which has for knob one of the large dark blue glass \ beads which used to bring such enormous prices in the early days of Arctic trading, and which are still the kind most highly prized. The 9 ETH 21 322 THE POIXT HARROW ESKIMO. end of the strap is cut narrow, passed through the bead, and knotted on theend. This case carries a half-dozen of the old-fashioned hone needles, which appear to be genuine. It is 3-7 inches long and, roughly speak ing, 0-4 in diameter. No. 89156!) [1U01], also from Utkiavwln, resembles the above, but has a wolverine's toe sewed to the end of the strap. No. 80:571 [1270] , from Utkiavwln, also has the toe of a wolverine for a knob, and has a belt hook with two tongues made of reindeer antler. No. 89300 [1137], from Utkiavwln, is a highly ornamented case of this pattern, which has a short cylindrical knob, also ornamented. No. 89308 [1089], from Utkiavwlu, is not made of bird's bone, but is a piece of a long bone from some mammal, and has a brown bear's toe for a knob. No. 89307 [1339], from the same village, is roughly made of a branch of antler, 3-9 inches long and 0-8 wide, hollowed out. It has a knob of whale's bone, but no belt hook, the end of the strap being knotted into a leather thimble of the first pattern. Of the six specimens of this pattern in the collection only the first is a genuine old implement. All the others are merely commercial imitations rather carelessly made. This kind of needle case is very commonly used throughout Alaska, as is shown by the enormous collections in the National Museum brought home by various explorers, Nelson, Turner, Dall and others. The needle case from Iglulik, figured byOapt. Lyou,1 resembles the second or older pattern, being of bone, not tapered at the ends, and having neither knob nor belt hook. To the ends of the strap are hung thimbles "and other small articles liable to be lost. " 2 Dr. Simpson3 speaks of the needle case in use at Point Barrow, but merely describes it as "a narrow strip of skin in which the needles are stuck, with a tube of bone, ivory, or iron to slide down over them, and kept from slipping oft' the lower end by a knob or large bead.'' This appears to refer only to the second or older pattern. The old-fashioned ring thimbles were usually carried on the belt hook of the, needlecase, but modern thimbles require a box. These boxes (kigiuii'e), which are usually small and cylindrical, also serve for holding thread, beads, and all sorts of little trinkets or knickknacks, and many of them are so old that they were evidently used for this purpose long before the introduction of metal thimbles. Little tin canisters, spice boxes, etc-., are also used for the same purpose nowadays. We brought home thirteen of these boxes, of which No. 89407 [1158] Fig. 329« has been chosen as the type. It is a piece of the beam of a stout antler, 4-3 inches long, cut off square on the ends and hollowed out. Into the large end is fitted a flat bottom of thin pine, fastened in by four little treenails of wood. The cover is of the same material. It is held on by a string of sinew braid about 11 inches long, which passes out through the lower of the two little holes on one side of the box, being held by a knot at 1 Tarry's Second Voyage. \>\. opposite p. 550. Fij:. '25. "Ibid.. ]i. .1:17. »Op. i-it. ]). LM5. MURDOCH.] TRINKET HOXES. 323 the end, iu through the upper, then out and in through two similar holes in the. middle of the cover, and out through a hole on the other side of the box. Pulling the end of this string draws the cover down snugly into its place. Some of the remaining boxes are made of antler, and vary in length from 4-7 to . lit. BASKETS. 327 workmanship ot those baskets, and the statement that one of them came from the "great river, south,'' I am well convinced that they were made by the Indians of the region between the Koyukuk and Silawlk Rivers, and sold by them to the Kuwfifiniiun, whence they could easily find their way to Point Barrow through the hands of the "Nunatan- miun" traders. The Eskimo of Alaska south of Bering Strait make and use bas kets of many patterns, but east of Point Barrow baskets are exceed ingly rare. The only mention of anything of the kind will be found in Lyon's Journal.1 He mentions seeing at Ighilik a "small round bas ket composed of grass in precisely the same manner as those constructed by the Tibboo, in the southern part of Fe/zan, and agreeing with them also in its shape." Now, these Africans make baskets of precisely the same "coiled" work (as Prof. Mason calls it) as the Thine, so that in all probability what Lyon saw was one of these same baskets, carried east in trade, like other western objects already referred to. The name ama applied to these baskets at Point Barrow (the other two names appear to be simply "bag" or receptacle) corresponds to the Greenlandic amiit, the long thin runners from the root of a tree, "at present used in the plural also for a basket of European basketwork," (because they had no idea that twigs could be so small) — (Jr^nlaudske Ordbog. No. 89709 [i:U9] from Utkiavwiii, is a peculiar bag, the only one of the kind seen, used for the same purpose, as the boxes and baskets just described. It is the stomach of a polar bear, with the muscular and glandular layers removed, dried and carefully worked down with a skin scraper into something like goldbeater's skin. This makes a large, nearly spherical bag^TJ inches in diameter, of a pale brownish color, soft and wrinkled, with a mouth 0 inches wide. A small hole has been mended by drawing the skin together and winding it round tightly on the inside with sinew. Fio. 337.— Small basket. 328 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. MEANS OF LOCOMOTION AND TRANSPOKTATION. TRAVELING BY WATEli. Kaialat and paddle*. — Like all the rest of the Eskimo race, the natives of Point Barrow use the kaiak, or narrow, light, skin-covered canoe, completely decked over except at the middle, where there is a hole or cockpit in which the man sits. Although nearly every male above the age of boyhood owns and can manageone of these canoes, they are much less generally employed than by any other Eskimo whose habits have been described, except the "Arctic highlauders,'' who have no boats, and perhaps those of Siberia and their (Jhuckche companions. The kaiak is used only during the season of open water, and then but little in the sea in the neighborhood of the villages. Those who remain near the villages in the summer use the kaiak chiefly for making the short excursions to the lakes and streams inland, already described, after reindeer, and for making short trips from camp to camp along the coast. At Pernyu they are used in setting the stake-nets and also for retriev ing fowl which have fallen in the water when shot. According to Dr. Simpson1 the men of the parties which go east in the summer travel in their kaiaks after reaching the open water u to make room in the large boat for the oil-skins." We obtained no infor mation regarding this. It is at this time, probably, that the kaiak comes specially in play for spearing molting fowl and "flappers", and for catch ing seals with the kiikiga. They manage the kaiak with great skill and confidence, but we never knew them to go out in rough weather, nor did we ever see the practice, so frequently described elsewhere, of tying the skirts of the waterproof jacket round the coaming of the cockpit so as to exclude the water. It should, however, be borne in mind that from the reasons above stated our opportunities for observing the use of the kaiak were very limited. At all events it is certain that the people depend mainly on the umiak, not only for traveling, but for hunting and fishing as well, which places them in strong contrast with the Greenlanders, who are essentially a race of kaiakers and have consequently developed the boat and its appendages to a high state of perfection. We brought home one complete full-sized kaiak, with its paddle, No. 57773 [~>39], Fig. 3.'58« and l>, which is a very fair representative of the canoes used at Point Barrow. This is 19 feet long and 18 inches wide amidships. The gunwales are straight, except for a very slight sheer at the bow, and the cockpit is '21 inches long and 18i inches wide. It has a frame of wood, which appears to be all of spruce, held together by treenails and whalebone lashings, and is covered with white- tanned seal skins with the grain side out. The stoutest part of the frame is the two gunwales, each3£ inches broad and J-iuch thick, flat, and rounded oft' on the upper edge inside, running the whole length of the boat and meet- 1 Op. cit. p. 264. MURDOCH. 1 KAIAKS. 329 ing at the stein and stern, gradually tapered up on the lower edge at each end. The ribs, of which there are at least forty-three, are bent into nearly a half-circle, thus making a U-shaped midship section, and are j-inch wide by J-inch thick, flat 071 the outer side and round on the inner. Their ends are mortised into the lower edge of the gunwale and fas tened with wooden treenails. They are set in about 3 inches apart and decrease gradually in si/e fore and aft. Outside of these are seven equidistant streaks running fore and aft, ^ inch to 1 inch wide and J inch FIG. Ktg.~ Kaiak. thick, of which the upper on each side reaches neither stem nor stern. These are lashed to the ribs witli a strip of whalebone, which makes a round turn about one rib, above the streak, going under the rib first, and a similar turn round the next rib below the streak (Fig. 380). There is a stout keelson, hemi-elliptical in section, under the cockpit only. This is 4£ feet long, about 2 inches deep, and li inches wide, and is fastened in the middle and about 1 foot ____ from each end by a strip of whalebone, which passes through a transverse hole in the keel son, round the rib on one side, back through the keelson, and round the rib on the other side twice. The end is wrapped spirally round the turns on one side and tucked into the hole in the keelson. The deck beams are not quite so stout as the ribs and are mortised into the upper edge of the gunwales a little below the level of the deck. The ends are secured by lashings or stitches of some material which are concealed by the skin cover. They are about as far apart as the ribs, but neither exactly correspond nor break joints with the latter. At the after end of the cockpit is an extra stout beam or thwart to support the back, 1J inches wide and three-quarters inch thick, with rounded edges, the ends of which are apparently lashed with thong. The first beam forward of the cockpit is rounded, and appears to be a natural crook forming a U-snal>^d arch, and is followed by seven V-shaped knees, thickest in the middle and enlarged a little at the ends, successively decreasing in height to the seventh, which is almost straight. This makes the rise in the deck forward of the cockpit. Kio. 339.— Method of fa«t™inj,'to- m-tlirr frawr of kaiak. 330 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. Every an obliq alternate deck beam is braced to the gunwale at each end by ue lashing of whalebone, running from a transverse hole in the beam about 1 inch from the gunwale to a corresponding hole in the gunwale, three-quarters inch from the lower edge. The lashing makes three or four turns through these holes and around the lower edge of the gunwale, and the end is wrapped spirally round these turns for their whole, length. Above these beams a narrow batten runs fore and aft amidships from cockpit to stem and stern, mortised into the two beams at the cockpit, and lashed to the others with whalebone. The coaming of the cock pit is made of a single flat piece of wood, 1J inches broad and one-quarter inch thick, bent into a hoop with the ends lapping about (i inches and "sewed" together with stitches of whalebone. Round the upper edge of this, on the out side, is fitted a "half-round " hoop, which appears to be made of willow, three-quarters by one-third inch, with its ends lapped about 4 inches, this lap coming over the joint of the larger hoop. It is fastened on by short stitches of whalebone about 5 or (> inches apart, leaving room enough between the two hoops to allow a lacing of fine whalebone to pass through. The coaming is put on over the edge of the skin cover, which is drawn up tight inside of the coam ing and over its upper edge and fastened by a lacing of whalebone, which runs spirally round the outer hoop and through holes about one-half inch apart in the edge of the The coaming fits over the crown of the arch of the for ward deck beam and rests on the middle of the thwart aft, and is secured by lashings of whalebone, which pass through holes in the coaming and over its upper edge. The forward lashing makes three turns, which pass round the beam with the end wrapped spirally round the parts between beam and coaming; the after lashing, four similar turns, which pass through a hole in the thwart and around its forward edge. On each side is a stout vertical brace of wood 3^ inches long, \ inch wide, and one-half inch thick, with rounded edges and corners. The ends are cut out paral lel to the breadth, so that one end tits on to the upper edge of the gunwale, while the other receives the lower edge of the coaming, protruding on the outside through a hole in the cover. The cover is of six sealskins, put together heads to tails, so that there is only one longitudinal seam, which runs irregularly along the deck. The transverse seams, which run obliquely across the bottom are double and sewed KAIAKS. 331 with a bliiul stitch, like the seams already described on the waterproof boots, from the inside. These seams are nearly 2 inches wide. The longitudinal seam is sewed in the same way from the outside, but not so broadly lapped, with the edge turned over into a roll. There are two pieces of stout thoug stretched across the deck, one forward of the cockpit and the other aft, which serve to fasten articles to the deck. The thong passes out through a hole in the gunwale, one- half inch from the up]»er edge and t> inches from the cockpit, on the starboard side forward and on the port side aft, and is secured by a knot in the end inboard. The other end passes in through a cor- resixmding hole in the other gunwale and is loosely knotted to the deck beams, so that the line can be slackened off or tautened up at pleasure. Three feet from the bow is a becket for holding spears, etc.. fastened into two little holes bored diagonally outward through the edge of the gunwales. It is of two parts of seal thong, one part twisted round the other, but is broken in the middle, so that only one-half of it is left. The weight of this kaiak in its present dry condition is 32 pounds. This is about the ordinary pattern of kaiak used at Point Barrow, and is a medium-sued one. These boats are made to tit the sixe of the owner, a youth or small man using a much smaller and lighter kaiak than a heavy adult. They are never made to carry more than one per sou, and I have never heard of their being used by the women. In carrying the kaiak across the land from lake to lake, it is held hori zontally against the side with the bow pointing forward, by thrusting the forearm into the cockpit. We never saw them carried on the head, in the manner practised at Fury and Hecla Straits.1 In entering the canoe the man takes great care to wipe his feet clean of sand and gravel, which would work down under the timbers and chafe the skin. The canoe is launched in shoal water, preferably alongside of a little bank, and the man steadies it by sticking down his paddle on the outer side and holding it with his left hand, while he bal ances himself on his right foot, and with his free hand carefully wipes his left foot. He then steps with his left foot into the kaiak, and still balancing himself with the help of the paddle, lifts and wipes his right foot before he steps in with that. He then pushes his feet and legs fin- ward under the raised deck, settles himself in a proper position for trimming the boat, and shoves off. As elsewhere, the kaiak is always propelled with a paddle. No. S924t> [539J, Fig. 340, is the paddle which belongs to the kaiak just described. It is 7 feet long. The shaft joining the blades is elliptical in section, with its greatest width at right angles to the plane of the blades so to present the greatest resistance to the strain of pad dling. The shape of the blade, with rounded tip and thin rounded edges is admirally adapted to give the blade a clean entry into the 'Lyon, Journal, p. 233. See also Capt. Lyon's figure iu Parry's 2il Toy., pi. opposite p. '.'74. 332 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. water. The whole is very neatly and smoothly made, and the blades are painted with red ocher. This is a much more effective paddle than those used by the Greenlanders and other eastern Eskimo, the blades of which, probably from the scarcity. of wood1 are very narrow, not exceeding 4 inches in width. In Greenland and Labrador, also, the blades are square at the ends like those of ordinary oars, and are usually edged with bone to prevent them from splitting. The absence of this bone edging on the paddles from Point Barrow perhaps indicates that they are meant for summer use only and not for working among the ice. In accordance with the general custom in northwestern America, the double-bladed paddle (pautifi) is used only when great speed is desired, as in chasing game. It is handled in the usual way, being grasped with both hands near the middle, and dipped alternately on opposite sides. For ordinary traveling they use a single-bladed paddle (afiun), of the same shape as those used in the umiak but usually some what smaller, of which we neglected to procure a specimen. With this they make a few strokes on one side, till the boat begins to sheer, then shift it over and make a few strokes on the other side. They do this with very great skill, getting considerable speed, and making a remark ably straight wake. The use of this single paddle appears to be uni versal along the coast of Alaska, from Point Barrow southward, and it is also used at the Mackenzie and Anderson rivers, as shown by the models collected by MacFarlane in that region. It is, however, unknown among the eastern Eskimo about whom we have any definite information on the subject, namely, the Greeulanders, the* people of Baffin Land, Hudson Strait, and Labrador.2 Curiously enough the Greenlanders had a superstition of a sort of malevolent spirits called kajariak, who were "kayakmen of an extraor dinary size, who always seem to be met with at a distance from land beyond the usual hunting grounds. They were skilled in the arts of sorcery, particularly in the way of raising storms and bringing bad weather. Like the umiarissat [other fabulous beings], they use one- bltided paddles, like those of the Indians."3 This tradition either refers back to a time when the ancestors of the Greeulanders used the single paddle or to occasional and perhaps hostile meetings between eastern and western Eskimo. Though the kaiak is essentially the same wherever used, it differs considerably in size and external appearance in different localties. The kaiak of the Greenlanders is perhaps the best-known model, as it has 1 It is a curious fact, however, that the narrowest kaiak paddles I have ever seen belonged to some Eskimo that I saw in 1876, at Kignlcttc, Labrador, who lived in a region sufficiently well wooded to furnish them with lumber for a small schooner, which they had built. '' Kor information concerning the last two regions I. am indebted to Mr. L. M. Turner; for the others to the standard authorities. 3 Kink, Tales and Traditions, p. 47. See also p. 374 for a story of the meeting of a Ureeulauder with one of these beings. MURDOCH.] KAIAKS. 333 been figured and described by many authors. It is quite as light and sharp as the Point Harrow model, but has a flat floor, the bilge being angular instead of rounded, and it has considerably more sheer to the. deck, the stem and stern being prolonged into long curved points, which project above the water, and are often shod with bone or ivory. The coaming of the cockpit also is level, or only slightly raised forward. The kaiaks used in Baffin Land, Hudson Straits, and Labrador are of a very similar model, but larger and heavier, having the projecting points at the bow and stern rather shorter and less sharp, and the coaming of the cockpit somewhat more raised forward. Both of these forms are represented by specimens and numerous models in the museum collections. I have seen one flat-floored kaiak at Point Barrow. It belonged to a youth and was very narrow and light. The kaiak in use at Fury and Hecla Straits, as described by Oapt. Lyon1 and Capt. Parry'-' is of a somewhat different model, approaching that used at the Anderson River. It is a large kaiak 25 feet long, witli the bow and stern sharp and considerably more bent up than in the Greenland kaiaks, but round-bottomed, like the western kaiaks. The deck is flat, with the cockpit coaming somewhat raised forward.3 In the kaiaks used at the Anderson and Mackenzie rivers, as shown by the models in the National Museum, the bending up of the stem and stern posts is carried to an extreme, so that they make an angle of about 130° with the level of the deck. The bottom is round and the cockpit nearly level, but sufficient room for the knees and feet is obtained by arching not only the deck beams just forward of the cockpit, but all of them from stem to stern, so that the deck slopes away to each side like the roof of a house. At Point Barrow, as already described, the deck beams are arched only just forward of the cockpit, and the stem and stern are not prolonged. This appears to be the prevailing form of canoe at least as far south as Kotzebue Sound and is sometimes used by the Malemiut of Norton Sound. At Port Clarence the heavy, large kaiak, so common from Norton Sound southward, appears to be in use from Nordenskiold's description, as he speaks of the kaiaks holding two persons, sitting back to back in the cockpit.4 The kaiaks of the south western Eskimo are, as far as I have been able to learn, large and heavy, with level coamings, with the deck quite steeply arched fore and aft, and with bow and stern usually of some peculiar shape, as shown by models in the Museum. See also Ball's figure (Alaska, p. 15.)* '.Journal, p. 233. "Second voyage, p. 506, and pis. opposite pp. '-'74 and 508. 3 There is quite a discrepancy in regard lo this between Capt. Lyon's description referred to above and the two platesdrawn by him in Parry's second voyage. In his journal hi- speaks of .tho coaming of the cockpit being about 9 inches higher forward than it i.s aft, while from his figures the difference does not appear to be more than 3 or 4 inches. 4 Vega, vol. 2, p. 228. 6 1 have confined myself in the above comparison simply to the kulaks used by undoubted Eskimo. I find merely casual references to the kaiak* used on the Siberian coast by the .Awiatic Kskinm and their companions the Sedentary Chuckchis. while a discussion of the canoes of the Aleuts would carry me beyond the limits of the present work. 334 THE POINT BAKKOW ESKIMO. While the kaiuk, however, (lifters so much in external appearance iu different localities, it is prolmble that in structure it is everywhere essentially the same. Only two writers have given a detailed descrip tion of the frame of a kaiak, and these are from widely distant localities, Ig'lulik and western Greenland, both still more widely distant from Point Barrow, and yet both give essentially the same component parts as are to be found at Point Barrow, namely, two comparatively stout gunwales running from stem to stern, braced with transverse deck- beams,1 seven streaks running' tore and aft along the bottom, knees, or ribs in the form ofhoops, and a hoop for the coaming, bound together with whalebone or sinew.2 FIG. y41.— Model kaiak anil puddle. The double-bladed paddle is almost exclusively an Eskimo contri vance. The only other hyperborean race, besides the Aleuts, who use it? are the Yukagirs, who employ it in their narrow dugout canoes on the River Kolyma in Siberia.3 Double-bladed paddles have also been ob served in the Malay Archipelago. Fig. 341, (No. 5<)501 [224] from Utkiavwin) is a very neatly made model of a kaiak, 13-3 inches long. It is quite accurate in all its de tails, but lias only five streaks on the bottom, and its width and depth are about twice what they should be in proportion to the length. The frame is lashed together with fine sinew and covered with seal en- trail. The paddle is also out of proportion. Many similar neatly fin- 1 Since the above was written Boas has published a detailed description of the central kaiaks. in which lie says there are only four streaks besides the keel (Central Eskimo, p. 486) ^v- al)r. Kane's description, though the best that we have of the flat-bottomed Greenland kaiak and ac companied by diagrams, is unfortunately vague in some important respects. It is in brief as follows: "The skeleton consists nf thive longitudinal strips of "wood on each side * * stretching from end to end. * * The upper of these, the gunwale ; * is somewhat stouter than the others. The liottom is framed by three similar longitudinal strips. These are crossed by other strips or hoops, which perform the office of knees and ribs. They are placed at a distance of not more than 8 to 10 inches from one jinother. Wherever the parts of this framework meet or cross they are bound together with reindeer tendon very artistically. • The^aA or manhole * has a rim or lip secured upon the gunwale and rising a couple of inches above the deck." (First Grinnell Exp.. p. 477.) It will be seen that he does not mention any deck beams, which would be very necessary to keep the gunwales spread apart. They are shown, however, in Crautz's crude section of a kaiak frame. (History of Greenland, vol. 1, pi. vii), and are evidently mortised into the gunwale, as at Point Harrow. Crantx also (op. cit., p. 1 .")()) speaks of the use of whalebone for fastening the frame together. Oapt. Lyon's description of the round-bottomed kaiak used at Fury and Hecla Straits (Journal, p. 2IW) is much more explicit. He describee the frame as consisting of a gunwale on each side 4 or 5 inches wide in the middle and three-fourths inch thick, tapering at each end, sixty-tour hoop-shaped ribs (on a cauoe 25 feet long), seven slight rods outside of the ribs, twenty-two deck-beams, and a batten run ning fore and aft, and a hoop round the cockpit. These large kaiaks weigh f>0 or 60 pounds. There is a very good figure of the Point Barrow kaiak. paddled with a single puddle, in Smyth's view of Xuwftk (lieeehey's Voyage, pi. opposite p. 307). 3\Vraiigell. Narrative of an Expedition, etc., p. 161, footnote. Mi-nwK-n.1 UMIAKS. 335 ished models were made for sale. The natives are so skillful in making them that it is possible that they are in the habit ot making them for the children to play with. L do not, however, recollect ever seeing a child with one. rmidkx itnd iittiniiK. — The large skin-covered open boat, essentially the same in model as that employed by almost all Eskimo, as well as the Aleuts and some Siberian races, is the chief means of conveyance by water, for traveling, hunting, and fishing. Though the women do a great share of the work of navigating the boat when a single family or a small party is making a journey, it is by no means considered as a woman's boat, as appears to be the case among the Greenlanders and eastern Eskimo generally.1 On the contrary, women are not admitted into the regularly organized whaling crews, unless the umialik can not procure men enough, and in the "scratch" crews assembled for walrus hunting or sealing there are usually at least as many men as women, and the men work as hard as the women. 1 do not, however, recollect that I ever saw a man pull an oar in the umiak. They appear always to use paddles alone. This is interesting in connection with the Green land custom mentioned by Egede in the continuation of the passage just quoted : •• And when they first set out for the whale fishing, the men sit in a very negligent posture, with their faces turned towards the prow, pulling with their little ordinary paddle; but the women sit in the 'ordinary way, with their faces towards the stern, rowing with long oars." We were unable to bring home any specimen of these boats on ac count of their size, but Fig. 342, from a photograph by Lieut. Kay, will give a good idea of the framework. These, boats vary considerably in size, but are usually very nearly the dimensions of an ordinary whale- boat — that is, about 30 feet in length, with a beam of 5 or (! feet and a depth of about 2A feet. The boat resembles very much in model the American fisherman's dory, having a narrow flat bottom, sharp at both ends, with flaring sides, and considerable rake at stem and stern. Both floor and rail have a strong sheer, fore and aft, and the gunwales ex tend beyond the stem so as to meet at the bow. Both stem and stern are sharp nearly to the rail, where they flare out and are cut oft' square. These boats are exceedingly light and buoyant, and capable of consid erable speed when fully manned. They are very "quick" in their mo tion and quite (-rank till they get down to their bearings, but beyond that appear to be very stiff. I never heard of one being capsized, though the natives move about aboard of them with perfect freedom. The frame is neatly made of pieces of driftwood, which it usually takes a considerable-time to accumulate.2 1 For example: "For they lliink it unbecoming a man t*> row such a boat, unless great necessity requires it." Kyede, Greenland, p. 111. "It would he ji scandal for a man to meddle, except the greatest necessity compels him to lend a band." Crantz. vol. 1, p. 149. * I'arl iif tin- description of the umiak frame is taken from the model (No. 5G5IM (225)1. as the writer not "iily bad few opportunities for careful examination of these canoes, hnt unfortunately did not reali/.e at the time tJie importance of detail. 336 THE POINT BARBOW ESKIMO. A .stout square timber, of perhaps 3 inches scantling, runs along the middle of the bottom forming a keel or keelson. This of necessity is usually made of several pieces of wood scarfed together and fastened with treenails and whalebone lashings. At each end it is fastened in the .same way to the stem and sternpost, which are both of the same shape, broad and flat above or inside, but beveled off to a keel outside, and curving up in a knee, at the same time tapering off to the point where the bow (or stern) begins to flare. Here it is mortised into the under side of a trapezoidal block of wood, widest and thickest on the inboard end, and concaved off on the under face, to a thin edge outboard. It is held on by a transverse lashing passing through holes in the end of the post and the thickest part of the block. Along each side of the bottom, at what would be the bilge of a round bottom boat, runs a stout streak, Flo. 342.— Frame of umiak. thinner and wider than the keelson and set up edgewise. These are spread apart amidships, but bent together fore and aft so as to be scarfed into the stem and sternpost (see diagram, Fig. 343a). On the model they are fastened here with treenails, and this is prob ably also the case on the large canoes. They are spread apart by cross pieces or floor timbers, flat rather broad boards laid across the keelson with their ends mortised into the bilge streaks. These are longest amidships and decrease regularly in length fore and aft. There were fifteen of them ou Nika waalu's umiak. On the model they are pegged to the keelson and bilge streaks. The ribs are straight, slender, square timbers, eighteen on each side(ou Xikawaalu's umiak: the canoe photo graphed has fifteen). These are all of the same length, but fitted obliquely to the outer edge of the bilge-streaks in such a way (see diagram, Fig. MUKIXJCH.J UMIAKS. 337 34M) that those amidships slant considerably outward while the others become gradually more and more erect fore and aft, thus producing the sheer in the lines. To these ribs, inside, a little below the middle of each, is fastened a streak on each side, of about the dimensions of the bilge streak, running from stem to stern, and the gunwales are fitted into the notched ends of the ribs, where they are secured by lashings of whale bone. These on Nikawaalu's umiak were each a single round pole about 2 inches in diameter. Such long pieces of wood as this were proba bly obtained by trade from the Ximatanmeun. These extend about 2£ or 3 feet beyond the stem, to which they are fastened on each side by whalebone lashings, and meet at a sharp angle, being lashed together with whalebone. On the model, this lashing passes through holes in both gunwales and round underneath. The gunwales are fastened to the sternpost in the same way as to the stem, in both cases resting on the upper surface of the block so as to form a low rail, but project only 5 or 0 inches. Between the post and the last pair of long ribs at each end are two pairs of short ribs running only from the gunwale to the in side streak. The frame is still further strengthened by an out side streak between the bilge streak and the inside streak, and Nikawaalu's canoe had an extra streak of "half- round" willow out side of the latter. The thwarts rest on the inside streak and are secured by whalebone lashings. The block or head of the stern-post serves as a high seat for the steersman. ( 'rautz's' description and diagram show that the frame of the Greenland umiak consists of essentially the same timbers, lacking only the two outside streaks. The cover is made of the skins of the larger marine animals. Walrus hide is often used and sometimes the skin of the polar bear, which makes a beautifully white cover, but the skin of the bearded seal is preferred, the people from Point Barrow sometimes making journeys to Wainwright Inlet in search of such skins, which are dressed with their oil in them in the manner already referred to. We were informed that six of these skins were required to cover one umiak. They are put together in the same way as the skins for the kaiak and sewed with the same seam. The edges of the cover are stretched over the gunwale, and laced to the inside; streak with a stout thong, which passes through holes in the edge of the cover. At stem and stern the cover is laced with a separate thong to a stout transverse lashing of thong running from gunwale to gunwale close to the edge of the postliead. Fro. 343.— Construction of umiak: (a) method of fastening liilfrf stn-uk.s to Htem; (6) method of framing rib to gunwale, ete. 9 ETH- Ilistory of (Jivenlaud, vol. 1, p. 148. and pi. vi. 338 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. The cover is removed in the winter and stowed away on the cache frame or some other safe place plufiiahi, when preparing to start for the spring deer hunt in 1883, carefully buried his boat cover in a snow bank) out of reach of the dogs, and the frame is placed bottom up wards on a staging 4 or 5 feet from the ground. When they are ready to refit the canoe for the spring whaling, a hole is cut in the sea ice close to the shore, and the cover immersed in the sea water for several days to soften it, the hole being covered with slabs of snow to keep it from freezing up. Crantz * mentions a similar custom in Greenland. After removing the hair from the boat-skins "they lay them in salt water for some days to soften them again, and so cover the women's boats and kajaks with them." When not in use, the umiak is drawn up on the beach and usually laid bottom upward with the gear, spears, etc., underneath it, but sometimes propped up on one gunwale to make a shelter against the wind. This is a common practice in the camp at Pernyu, where there is usually at least one boat set up edgewise, sheltered by which the men sit to whittle and gossip. In the whaling camp at Imekpfifi in 1883, the boats which were not ready to go out to the open water were laid up bottom up with one end resting on a sled set up on its side and the other supported by a block of snow. They do not appear to be in the habit of using the canoe for a tent, as is said to be the custom among the more southern natives,2 as they always carry a tent with them on their journeys. The umiak is propelled by paddles, oars, and a sail, and in smooth weather when the shore is clear of ice by "tracking" along the beach with men and dogs, one person at least always remaining on board to steer with a paddle at the stem. The sail, which they are only able to use with a free wind, is square, narrow, and rather high, and is nowadays always made of drilling. Dark blue drilling appeared to be the most popular sort at the time of our visit. The head of the sail is laced to a light yard, and hoisted to the masthead by a halyard through a hole in the latter. The mast is a stout square pole 10 or 12 feet long and is set up well forward of amid ships, without a step, the square butt resting against a bottom board, and held up by two forestays and two backstays, running from the masthead to the inside streak. All the rigging, stays, halyards, towing line, etc., are made of stout thong. The Greenlanders set up the mast in the bow of the umiak — as a sailor would say, "in the very eyes of her,"3 but as far as 1 can learn the Western Eskimo all set it up as at Point Barrow. The oars are very clumsily made with very narrow blades not over 3 inches broad. They are about 7 feet long and somewhat enlarged at the loom. Instead of resting in rowlocks, they are secured by two long 'Vol. 1. ]).167. sS<>o Kotzebue's Voyage, etfl., vol. 1, p. 'Jltf. 3This i« also the custom among the C'eutral Eskimo. (See IJoas "Central Eskimo." p. -jliri, Fig. 481.) MURDOCH.) UMIAKS. 331) loops of thong as in the diagram Fig. ,'544. To keep the oar from chaf ing the skin on the gunwale, they lash to the latter a long plate of bone. No. 89<>9<> [1197] from Utkiavwln is one of these plates. Two of these oars are commonly used in an umiak, one forward and one aft, and the women row with great vigor, swinging well from the hips, but do not keep stroke. The use of oars is so unusual among savages that it would be natural to suppose that these people had adopted the cus tom from the whites. If this be the case, the custom reached them long ago, and through very indirect channels. When Thomas Simpson, in 1837, bought an umiak from some Point Barrow natives at Dease Inlet, he bought with it "four of their slender oars, which they used as tent poles, besides a couple of paddles; lifted the oars with lashings, and arranged our strange vessel so well that the ladies were in raptures, declaring us to be genuine Esquimaux, and not poor white men."1 The custom, moreover, appears to be wide spread since Lyon speaks of see ing in 1821, "two very clumsy oars with flat blades, pulled by women." in the umiaks at Hud son Strait.2 It was practiced at a still earlier date in Greenland;1 While at Point Barrow the oars have very narrow blades and the double paddles very broad ones, the reverse seemed to be the case in Greenland, where the double paddle, as already noticed, has blades not over 3 or 4 inches broad. Crautz describes the oars as " short and broad before, pretty much like a shovel, but only longer, and * * eon fined to their places on the gunnel with a strap of seal's leather." (Vol. 2, p. 149 and pi. VI ) Although both oars and sails are un doubtedly quite ancient inventions (Frobisher in his description of Meta Incognita in Hakluyt's Voyages (1589) pp. 621 and C28, speaks of skin boats with sails of entrail),4 I am strongly inclined to believe that they are both considerably more recent than the paddles, not only on general principles, but from the fact that the whaling umiaks -t Point Barrow use only paddles. There is no practical reason agaius t using either oars or sails, and in fact the latter would often be of great advantage in silently approaching a whale, as the American whalemen have long 1 Narrative, p. 148. 'Journal, p. 30. Compare also Chappell, " Hudson Bay," p. 57. 3See Eged*', Greenland, p. 111. 'These passages beiug, as far as I know, the earliest description of the umiak und kaiak are worth quotation: "Their boats are made all of Seale skins, with a keel of wood within the skinne; the proportion of them is like a Spanish shallop, sane only they be flat in the hottome, and sharp at both endes " (p. fil!l, 157ti). Again: "They haue two sorts of boats made of leather, set out on the inner side with quarters of wood, artificially tyed with thongs of the same; the greater sort are not much unlike our wherries, wherein sixt<-ene or twenty men may sitte; they have for a sayle, drest the guttes of sueh beasts as they kill, very fine and thinne, which they aewe together; the other boate is but for one man to eitte and rowe in, with one oarc " (p. 628, 1577). 340 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. ago discovered. It seems to me that this is merely another ease of ad hering to an obsolete custom on semireligious grounds. The paddles are usually about -i or 5 feet long, made of one piece of driftwood, with slender round shafts, and lanceolate blades about 0 inches broad, and a short rounded cross handle at the upper end. (Fig. 345 shows two of the paddles belonging to the model.) The steersman uses a longer paddle, and stands in the stern or sits up on the head of the stern post. Fiu. 345.— Model of umiak aud paddles : (a) side view ; (W inside plan. Fig. 345« represents the model (No. 56563 [225] from Utkiavwin), which gives a very good idea of the shape of one of these boats. It is quite correct in all its parts, though the timbers are rather too heavy, and there are not so many ribs and floor timbers as in a full-sized canoe. The breadth of beam, 6-2 inches, is at least 1 inch too great in propor tion to the length, 25 inches. The cover is one piece of seal skin which has been partially tanned by the "white-tanning" process, and put on wet. In drying it has turned almost exactly the color of a genuine FIG. 340. — Ivory bailer for umiak. boat cover. The frame, as is often the case with a full-sized boat, is painted all over with red ocher. (See Fig. 345&, inside plan.) For bailing these boats a long narrow dipper of ivory or bone is used, of such a shape as to be especially well suited for working in between the floor timbers. Fig. 346 represents one of these (No. 50536 [40] from Utkiavwin). It is a piece of walrus tusk 16-3 inches long. The cavity is 1-1 inches deep and was excavated by drilling vertical holes and cutting away the substance between them. Some of the holes have not been completely worked out. A similar bailer (No. 89835 [1010] also HARPOON CROTCHES. 341 from [Ttkisivwlfi ) is made of reindeer antler, a substance much more easily worked than the ivory, as the soft interior tissue exposed by cutting the upper side Hat is readily carved out. As with the walrus tusk, the natural curve of the material gives the proper inclination to the handle. It is 18-3 inches long. When the umiak is fitted out for whaling a stout U-shaped crotch of ivory or bone, about 7 indies long and ."> wide, is lashed between the gunwales where they meet at the bow. In this the heavy harpoon rests when they are approaching a whale. It is only used when whaling. The Museum collection contains specimens of this sort from as far south as the Diomede Islands. We brought home live specimens of these ku'nnu, of which No. ."ilJ510 [1.1 7 1 Fig. 347 has been selected as the type. This is made of two bilat erally symmetrical pieces of white wal rus ivory, each piece consisting of one arm of the crotch and half the shank. Its total length is 7-8 inches. The two pieces are held together by a stout wooden tree-nail, and above this a lashing of sinew-braid, lodged in two dee]) vertical channels one on each side of the shank just below the arms, and wedged above and below on both sides with slips of wood. A hole is drilled through each side of the butt close to the end, and through these, a ' lashing is stretched across the reen- tering angle of the butt consisting of four turns of sinew braid with the end closely wrapped round the parts between the holes, and neatly tucked in. Just at the bend of each arm is a small round becket hole, running obliquely from the back to the outer side. In each of these is a neat becket, about J inches long, made of several turns of sinew braid, with the end neatly wrapped around them. These beckets serve to receive the lashings for attaching the crotch to the gunwales. All the orna mental figures are incised and blackened. Three ot the' remaining four specimens are of walrus-ivory, and of essentially the same pattern, differing only in ornamentation and other minor details. Xo. o(!511 [110], from TJtkiavwIn, is almost exactly like the type inches. This specimen from its soiled condition is undoubtedly quite ancient, and probably of an older type than the highly ornamented ivory crotches MUKDOOI.] UMIAKS. 343 of the present day. The latter are evidently only copies of the jaw bone eroteh in a material susceptible of a higher finish than the coarse bone. The only reason for making them in two pieces is that it is im possible to get a single piece of walrus ivory large enough for a whole one. It seems to me highly probable that the crotch was suggested by the natural shape of the walrus jaw, since these are frequently used for crotches to receive the cross pieces of the cache frames. Perhaps, for a while, the whole jaw was simply lashed to the bow of the boat. The next step would obviously be to cut out the shank and reduce the weight of the crotch by trimming off the superfluous material. The reason for making the crotch of ivory is perhaps purely esthetic; but more likely connected with the notions already referred to which lead them to clean up their boats and gear and adorn themselves and paint their faces when they go to the whale fishery. Although, as I have already stated, there appears to be no essential difference in the general plan of the frame of the Greenland umiaks and those used at Point Barrow, there seems to be considerable differ ence in the size and outward appearance. As well as can bo judged from the brief descriptions and rude figures of various authors' and various models in the National Museum (the correctness of which, how. ever, I can not be sure of, without having seen the originals) the umiak not only in Greenland, but among the Eskimo generally as far west as the Mackenzie, is a much more wall sided square ended boat than at Point Barrow, having less sheer to the gunwales with the stem and stern-post nearly vertical.2 Mr. L. M. Turner informs me that this is the case at T^ngava Bay. It was also a larger boat. Egede says that they " are large and opeii * * * some of them 20 yards long;'" Orantz gives their length as "commonly (5, nay 8 or 9 fathoms long;"4 Kumlien says that it required "about fifteen skins of Phoca barbata'' to cover an umiak at Cumberland Gulf,5 and Mr. Turner informs me that eight are used at Ungava. Capt. Parry found no umiaks at Fury and Hecla straits6 and Kumlien saysthatthey are becoming rare at Cumberland Gulf. The so-called Arctic Highlanders of Smith Sound have no boats of any kind. The model used at Point Barrow probably prevails as far south as Kot/ebue Sound. The boats that boarded us off Wainwright Inlet in the autumn of 1883, and those of the Xutiatafimiun who visited Point Barrow, seemed not to differ from those with which we were familiar, except that the latter were rather light and low sided, nor do I remember anything peculiar about the boats which we saw at Plover Bay in 1881. 1 Compart- lor instance Kane's figure 1st (Jriimell Exp. p. 422, and Lyon, Journal, p. 30. •See Beeehey Voyage, p. 252. In describing the umiaks at Hotharn Inlet he says: " The model differs from that of the umiak of the Hudson Bay i" being sharp ;tt both ends." Smyth gives a good figure of the Hot ham Inlet craft in the plate opposite p. 250. 'Greenland, p. 111. * Vol. 1. p. 148. * Contributions, p. 4:f. Boas, however, says three to live akins. (Central E. kitno. p. 528.) S2d Voy.,p. 507 ."> I 1 TIIK roiNT HAKKO\V KSKIMO. There is very little accessible detailed informtion regarding the umiaks used in (lie rest of Alaska. From Dall's figure1 and a few modi-Is in the Museum, the Norton Sound umiak appears to have the gunwales united at both stem and stern. Those that we saw at St. Michael's in ISS.'i, were so much modified by Russian ideas as to bo wholly out of the lino of comparison. The same is true of the Aleutian "baidara." if, indeed, the latter be an umiak at all. THAVKl.INli UN FOOT. Snoicakoen (tiii/lii.) — Snowshoes of a very efficient pattern and very well made are now universally employed at Point Harrow. Although the snow never lies very deep on the ground, and is apt to pile up in hard drifts, it is sufficiently deep and soft in many places, especially on the grassy parts ofthe tundra, to make walking without snow shoes very inconvenient and fat-inning. 1 have even seen them used on the sea ice for crossing level spaces when a few inches of snow had fallen. Prac tically, every man in the two villages, and many of the women and boys, have each their own pair of snowshoes, tittedto their six.e. Ivich shoe- consists of a rim of light wood, bent into the shape of a pointed oval, about five times as long as the greatest breadth, and much bent up at tho rounded end, which is the* toe. The sides are braced apart by two stout cross-bars (tor and href bar) a little farther apart than the length of the wearer's foot. The space between these two bars is net ted iu large meshes (foot netting) with stout thong for tho foot to rest upon, and the spaces at tho ends are closely netted with line deerskin ''babiche'"-' (toe and heel netting). The straps for the foot are fastened to the foot netting in such a way that while the strap is firmly fastened round tin- ankle the snowshoe is slung to the toe. The wearer walks with long swinging strides, lifting the toe ofthe shoe at each step, while the tail or heel drags in the snow. The straps are so contrived that the foot can be slipped in and out of them without touching them with the fingers, a great advantage in cold weather. When deer hunt ing, according to Lieut. Hay, they take a long piece of thong and knot each end of it to the toe of one snowshoe. The bight is then looped into the belt behind so that the snowshoes drag out of the way of the heels. When they wish to put on the shoes they draw them up, insert their feet in the straps, and fasten the slack of the lines into the belt in front with a slip knot. When, however, they come to a piece of ground where snowshoes are not needed, they kick them off. slip the knots, and let them "drop astern." We brought home three pairs of snowshoes, which represent very well the form in general use. No. SSKU2 [1730], Fig. 350, has been selected as the type. The rim is of willow, ,">! inches long and KU inches 1 Alaska, p. 15. "'rwisto»l sinew is sometimes used. A pair of snowshoes from l*oint Barrow, owiu-il l>\ the writer, »r* urtutl with thin material. MTKDOOL] SXOWSHOKS. 345 jtmttffHfl >.ffAVftffit wide at the broadest part, and is made of two strips about 1 inch thick and 5 wide, joined at the toe by a long lap-splice, held together by four short horizontal or slightly oblique stit<;hes of thong. Each strip is elliptical in section, with the long axis vertical, and keeled on the inner face, except between the bars. Kach is tapered off considerably from the toe bar to the toe, and slightly tapered toward the heel. The two points are fastened together by a short hori zontal stitch of whalebone. The tip is produced into a slight " tail,"1 and the inner side of each shoe is slightly straighter than the outer — that is to say, they are "right* and lefts.'' The bars are elliptical in section, flattened, and have their ends mortised into the rim. They are about a foot apart, and of oak. the toe bar 9-2 inches long and the heel bar 8v>. Both are of the same breadth and thickness, 1 by £ inch. There is also an extra bar for strength ening the back part of the shoe 10 inches from the point. It is also of oak, 4-8 inches long, 0-5 wide, and 0-3 thick. The toe and heel nettings are pnt on first. Small equidistant vertical holes run round the inside of each space. Those in the rim are drilled through the keel already mentioned, and joined by a shallow groove above and below; those in the bars are about £ inch from the edge and joined by a groove on the under side of the toe bar only. Into these holes is laced a piece of babiche, which is knot ted once into each hole, making a series of beckets about f inch wide round the inside of the space. There are no lacing holes in the parts spliced at the toe, but the lacing passes through a bight of each stitch. At the toe bar the lacing is carried straight across from rim to rim about three times, the last part being wound rouud the others. On the left shoe the end is brought back on the left-hand side, passed through the first hole in the bar from above, carried along in the groove on the underside to the next hole, up through this and round the lacing, and back FIG. 350 — Bnowibm. through the same hole, the two parts being twisted together between the bar and lacing. This is continued, '' stop ping " the lacing in festoons to the bar. to the last hole on the right, !'•»»• H r, t . /4 IV I flux 34fi THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. whore it is finished oft' by knotting the end round the lust " stop." The stops are made, apparently, by a separate pieee 011 the right shoe. The lacing on the heed bar is also double or triple, but the last part, which is wound round the others, is knotted into each hole as on the rim. The lacings on the rim of the heel space are knotted with a single knot round each end of the extra bar. In describing the nettings it will always be understood that the upper surface of the shoe is toward the workman, with the point upward, if describing the heel nettings, and viee versa for the toe. To begin with the heel netting, which is the simpler: This is in two parts, one from the heel bar to the extra bar (heel netting proper) and one from the latter to the point (point netting). The netting is invariably fastened to the lacing by passing the end through the becket from above and bringing it back over itself, [n making the point netting the end of the babiche is knotted round the bar at the right-hand lower corner with a single knot. The other end goes up to the lacing at the point and comes down to the left-hand lower corner, where it is hitched round the bar, as in Fig. 351, then goes up to the lowest becket on *ne l^ s'3/)). The successive odd rounds follow the first and the even rounds the second, bringing the longitudinal strands alternately to the right and left of the first round, until the ends of the hind bar are reached — that is to say, till the space outside of the first round is filled — each transverse strand coming above the preceding. This is done reg ularly on the left shoe, the tenth round coming to the left end of the bar, and the eleventh to the right. The twelfth round comes to the beeket in the left hand upper corner, and crosses to the corresponding beeket on the other side. It then follows the odd rounds, thus making six strands, four longitudinal and two transverse, as in the point net tings. All the remaining rounds follow this till the whole space is filled in, which brings the end of the last round to the middle of the heel bar, where it is knotted do the beeket. On the right shoe the maker seems to have made a mistake at the eighth round, which obliged him to alter the order of the other strands 348 TIIK POINT BARROW ESKIMO. and finish with half a round. Instead of taking the end of the eighth round down to the preceding transverse strand only, he has brought it down to the heel bar, which brings the ninth round to the left, following the even rounds, and coming to the end of the hind bar, the tenth to the right end of the bar, so that it is the eleventh which makes the first transverse turn at the top. The pattern is the same as in the point nettings. The right shoe has 25, 24, and 19 strands in the three sets respectively, and the left, 25, 25, and 19. The toe nettings are put on in the same way, the first round going to the middle becket at the toe, and crossing to the first becket on the right hand, the second going to the first becket on the left hand and crossing on the right to the first round, and the third going to the first round at the toe and crossing on the right to the becket. Flo. :tf>;t.— Heel netting of snow shoe; (a) tirst round; (6) first, second, and third rounds. All the even rounds go to the becket at the toe and cross to the pre ceding even round, and all the odd rounds go to the preceding odd round at the toe and cross to the becket, until the space outside of the first round is filled with longitudinal strands, when they begin to make descending transverse turns across the toe, going from the becket on the left to the corresponding one on the right and thus following the odd rounds. The fourteenth round on the right shoe begins this, the twelfth on the left. This brings the end of the last round to the middle of the toe bar. It is then carried up to the becket at the toe, brought down and up again, and the end is used to fasten these three parts to the netting with equidistant half hitches — fourteen on the right shoe and thirteen on the left. The pattern, of course,'is the same as before, with 33, 33, and 26 strands on the right shoe, and 31, 31, and 25 on the left, in each set respectively. MI-RUOCH.J SNOWSHOES. 341) The loot-netting is of a very different pattern, and consists of seven transverse and thirteen longitudinal strands, of which six, in the mid dle, do not reach the toe bar, leaving an oblong transverse hole, through which the toe presses against the snow at the beginning of the step. The cross strands are a piece of stout thong (the, skin of the walrus or bearded seal), to the end of which is spliced with double slits a long piece of thinner seal thong, which makes the longitudinal ones. The seven transverse strands pass in and out through holes in the rim, while the longitudinal strands pass over the bars, except the middle three pairs, which pass round the horizontal strand behind the toe hole, drawing it down to the next strand. The end of the thirteenth strand wattles these two firmly together, as it does also the two pairs of longitudinal strands on each side of the toe hole, and finishes ott' the netting by whipping the two sets of strauds together with a "bird cage stitch." The object of the complicated wattling round the toe hole is, first, to strengthen the hind border against which the toe presses in walking, and second to give a firm attachment for the straps, which are fastened at the junction of the doubled and twisted longitudinal strands witli the first and second transverse ones. Each strap is a single piece of stout seal thong fastened to the shoe with two loops as follows : At the inner side of the shoe the end is passed into the toe hole and makes a round turn about the doubled longitudinal strands, and then goes un der the two cross strands, coming out behind them and between the twelfth and thirteenth longitudinal strands. It is then spliced into the standing part with two slits, making a becket about 3 inches in diameter. The other end, leaving a loop large enough to go round the wearer's heel, is passed through the becket just made, wound in the same way as before round the strands at the other corner of the toe hole, and made into a similar becket by knotting the end to the stand ing part with a marlinghitch with the bight left in. On the right shoe this hitch is made in a slit in the standing part. The end is probably left long for the purpose of adjusting the length of the strap to the wearer's foot. In putting on the shoe, the toe is thrust sideways through the loop till the bight comes well up over the heel, and then turned round and stuck under the two beckets, which together form a strap to fasten the toe down to the shoe, leaving the latter free to swing when the heel is raised. By reversing the process the shoe is easily kicked off. These straps must be fitted very nicely or else the shoe is apt to come off. This is a very neatly made pair of shoes, and the woodwork is all painted red above. No. 89913 [ 1737 ] is a pair of similar shoes also from Utkiavwln. The frame is made in the same way and is wholly of willow except the extra hind bar, which is of walrus ivory. These shoes are shorter and some what broader than the preceding and not so well made. They are 48v5 350 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. inches long and 11 broad. The two shoes are not perceptibly different in shape. The lacing-, which is of sinew braid, is put on in the same way as on the preceding pair, except that it is fastened directly into the holes on the toe bars. The whole of the heel netting is in one piece, and made precisely in the same way as the point nettings of the first pair, the end being carried up the middle to the point of the heel and brought down again to the bar as on the toe nettings, but fastened with marl ing hitches. The number of strands is the same in each shoe, twenty- three in each set. The toe nettings follow quite regularly the pattern ofthe preceding pair. The shoes are not quite the same size, as the right lias 35, 35, and 28 strands, and the left 33, 33, and 25, in each set respectively. There is no regular rule about the number of strands in any part of the netting, the object being simply to make the meshes always aboiit the same size. The foot netting is made of stout and very white thong from the bearded seal. These shoes have no strings. No. 89914 [1738j is a pair of rather small shoes from Utkiavwln, one of which is shown in Fig. 354. They are rights and lefts, and are 42 inches long by 10 broad. The frame is wholly of oak, and differs from the type only in having no extra hind bar, and having the heel and toe bars about equal in length. The points are fastened together with a treenail, as well as with a whalebone stitch. The heel-nettings are put on with perfect regu larity, as on the pair last described, but the toe- nettings, though they start in the usual way, do not follow any regular rule of sucession, the rounds being put on sometimes inside and some times outside of the preceding, till the whole space is filled. The foot-nettings are somewhat clumsily made, especially on the right shoe, which appears to have been broken in several places, and "cobbled" by an unskillful workman. There are only five transverse strands which are double on the left shoe, and the longitudinal strands are not whipped to these, but interwoven, and each pair twisted together between the trans verse strands. There is no wattling back of the toe hole, and one pair of longitudinal strands at the side of the latter is not doubled on the left shoe. The strings are put on as on the type except that the ends are knotted instead of being spliced. This pair of shoes was FIG. 354. — Small .snowshoe. MURDOCH.] SNOWSHOES. 351 used by the writer on many short excursions around the station during the winters of 1881-'8U and 1882-'83. They were old when pur chased. 1 had but one opportunity of seeing the process of making the frames of the snowshoes. Ilubw'ga, the "inland" native frequently mentioned, a particularly skillful workman, undertook to make a pair of snow- shoes for Lieut. Bay at our quarters, but did not succeed in finishing them, as the ash lumber which we brought from San Francisco proved too brittle for the purpose. Having a long piece of wood, he "got out" the whole rim in one piece. Ordinarily the splice at the toe must be made, at least temporarily, before the frame can be bent into shape. He softened up the wood by wrapping it in rags wet with hot water. Some of the other natives, however, recommended that the wood should be immersed in the salt water for a day or two, from which I infer that this is a common practice. After slowly bending the toe, with great care, nearly into shape, he inserted into the bend a flat block of wood of the proper shape for the toe and lashed the frame to this. A poijited block was also used to give the proper shape to the heel; the bars being inserted in the mortises before the ends were brought together. The temporary lashings are kept on till the wood dries into shape. The toes are turned up by tying the shoes together, sole to sole, and inserting a transverse stick between the tips of the toes. The use of finely finished suowshoes of this pattern is of compara tively recent date at Point Barrow. Dr. Simpson1 is explicit concern ing the use of snowshoes in his time (1853-'5f>). He says: •' Snowshoes are so seldom used in the north where the drifted snow presents a hard frozen surface to walk upon, that certainly not half a dozen pairs were in existence at Point Barrow at the time of our arrival, and those were of an inferior sort." 1 have already mentioned the universal employ ment of these suowshoes at the present day, so that the custom must have arisen in the last thirty years. The pattern of shoe now used is identical with those of the Tinne or Athabascan Indians (as is plainly shown by the National Museum collections), and 1 am inclined to be lieve that the Point Barrow natives have learned to use them from the "Nunatafimiun," from whom, indeed, they purchase ready-made snow- shoes at the present day, as we ourselves observed. The "Nunatan- miun," or the closely related people of the Kuwftk River, are known to have intimate trading relations with the, Indians, and even in Simp son's time2 used the, Indian shoe, sometimes at least. The fact that in recent times families of the "Nunatanmiun" have established the habit of spending the winter with the people of Point Barrow and associat ing with them in the winter deer-hunt, would explain how the latter came to recognize the superior excellence of the Indian shoe. This is more likely than that they learned to use them from the east ern natives, whom they only meet for a short time in summer, though 'Op. cit., p. 243. 'Op. cit., p. 2J4. 352 THE POINT BAKROW ESKIMO. tlie latter used the Indian style of snowshoes at least as early as 1826. Franklin1 speaks of seeing', at Demarcation Point, a pair of suowshoes netted with cords of deerskin and shaped like those of the Indians of the Mackenzie. Most of the other Eskimo of Alaska, who need to use snowshoes at all, use a style of shoe very much less efficient aud more roughly made, the rim being of heavy, rather crooked pieces of willow or alder. Simp son's description will apply very well to this form, which is used even as far north as Icy Cape, whence Mr. Nelson brought home a pair. It also appears to be the prevailing, if not the only, form on the Siberian coast and St. Lawrence Island, judging from Nordinskiiild's figure2 and Mr. Nelson's collections. Simpson says:3 "The most common one is two pieces of alder, about two feet and a half long, curved towards each other at the ends, where they are bound together, and kept apart in the middle by two cross- pieces, each end of which is held in a mortise. Between the crosspieces is stretched a stout thong, lengthwise and across, for the foot to rest upon, with another which first forms a loop to allow the toes to pass beneath; this is carried round the back of the ankle to the opposite side of the foot, so as to sling the snowshoe under the joint of the great toe.'' When there are toe and heel nettings, they are of seal thong with a large open mesh. The snowshoe from Norton Sound, figured by Dull,4 is a rather neatly made variety of this form. South of the Yukon, the use of the suowshoe appears to be confined to the Indians. As shown by the Museum collections, the strings are always of the pattern de scribed throughout the whole northwestern region.5 Snowshoes appear to be rarely used among the eastern Eskimo. The only writer who mentions them is Kumlieii.6 He says: "When traveling over the frozen wastes in winter, they [i. e., the natives of Cumberland Gulf] use snow-shoes. These are half-moon shaped, of whalebone, with sealskin thongs tightly drawn across. They are about 16 inches long. Another pattern is merely a frame of wood, about the same length and 8 or 10 inches wide, with sealskin thongs for the foot to rest on." The latter is apparently quite like the western snowshoes described by Simpson. Staff. — The only staff' used by the young and vigorous is the shaft of the spear, when one is carried. The aged and feeble, however, sup port their steps with one or two staffs about 5 feet long, often shod with bone or ivory. (The old man whom Franklin met on the Copper mine River walked with the help of two sticks.7) Fig. 355 from a photo graph represents old Yuksina from Nuwuk, with his two staffs, without which he was hardly able to walk. '2d Exped., ]>. 142. ' Ala-ska. p. 190, Fig.A. 'Contrilmtions. p. 42. * Vi-jia, vol. -', p. 102 a. • See, also, Ball, Alaska, p. ' 1st Exp., vol. 2, p. 180. »Op. cit., p. 243. 190, and Fij;». A and C. MURDOCH.] SLEDGES. LAN I) CONVKYAXCKS. Skdt/es. — The only land conveyance employed at Point Barrow iis the universal sledge of the Eskimo, of which there are two forms in general use, one. ka'mott, with a high rail on each side, and especially intended for carrying loads of the smaller articles, clothing, camp equipage, etc., and the other (uuia) low and flat, without rail or "up- stander," for carrying bulky objects, like whole carcasses of deer, frozen seals, rough dried deerskins, etc., and especially used for carrying the umiak across the land or solid ice. Both kinds are made without nails, but are fast ened together by mortises and lashings and stitches of thong and whalebone. I have, however, seen one unia, which was made in 1883, fastened together witli nails, a rather inferior substitute for the lashings, as they not only would not hold so firmly, but would also be liable to break in cold weather. Both kinds of sledge are made of drift wood and shod with strips of whale's jaw, about three-fourths of an inch thick, fas tened on with bone treenails. These bone runners, which are about 2 inches wide, run sufficiently well over ice, hard snow, the frozen gravel of the beach or even on the bare tundra, but for carrying a heavy load over the softer snow of the interior they are shod with ice in a manner peculiar to this region. It is well known that not only the Eskimo generally, but other hyper borean people coat the runners of their sleds with ice to make them run more smoothly, but this is usually only a comparatively thin crust, pro duced by pouring water on the runners or applying a mixture of snow or mud and water.1 Mr. Turner informs me that at Ungava they are particular to use fine black vegetable mold for this purpose. The method at Point Barrow is quite different from this. To each 1 For example, Lyon says that at Fury and Herla Straits the runner** are coated with ire hy mixing snow and fresh water (Journal, p. 2.'t5) ; (See also Parry, 2d Voyage, p. 515). At Cumberland (Julf "they pour warmed blood on the under surface of the bone shoeing; Home use water, but this does not last nearly so long as the blood and is more, apt to ehip off.1' Kumlien, Contributions, p. 42; (See also Hall, Arctic Researches, p. 582). Around Repulse Jiay they ice the runners by squirting over them water which has been warmed in the mouth, putting on successive layers till they get a smooth surface. This is renewed the first thing every morning. Gilder, Schwatka's Search, p. 66. A na tive of the eastern shore of Labrador, according to Sir John Richardson (Searching Expedition, vol. 2, p. 82), applied to the runners coat after coat of earth or clay tempered with hot water, and then washed the runners with water, polishing the ico with his naked hand. MacFarlane in his MS. notes speaks of covering the sled runners with "earth, water, and ice" in the Mackenzie region. I'etitot (Monographic, etc., p. XVII) says the runners in the Mackenzie and Anderson district areshod with "un bonrrelet de linion et de glace.'' which has to bo often renewed. Nordenskiiild says that at Pitlekaj "the runners, before the start, are care-fully covered with a layer of ice from two to three millimeters in thickness by repeatedly pouring water over them," (Vega, vol.2, p. 91). and accord ing to Wrangell (Narrative, etc., p. 101, footnote) it is the common custom in northern Siberia to pour water over the runners every evening to produce a thin crust of ice. Kill. :i5f>. -Old "Chief with .stalls. . 498. 3 Compare also the various illustration** in Hooper's "Tents of the Tuski." 358 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. very little difficulty in petting the half dozen dogs which we had at the station, and they grew to be very much attached to the laborer who used to feed them. The natives treat their dogs well as a rule, seldom beating them wantonly or severely. Though they do not allow them to come into the houses, the dogs seem to have considerable at tachment to their masters. Considerable care is bestowed on the pup pies. Those born in winter are frequently reared in the iglu, and the women often carry a young puppy around in the jacket as they would a child. We saw no traces of the disease resembling hydrophobia, which has wrought such havoc in Greenland and Baffin Land. I once, however, saw a puppy apparently suffering from fits of some kind, running wildly round and round, yelping furiously, and occasionally rolling over and kicking. The natives said, " Miilnkii'lirua, asi'rua", ("He is howling [ ?] ;l he is bad" ), and some of the boys finally took it out on the tundra and knocked it on the head. The dog harness, anun (Gr. aiiut), consists of a broad strip of stout rawhide (from the bearded seal or walrus), with three parallel loops at one end, frequently made by simply cutting long slits side by side in the thong and bending it into shape. The head is passed through the middle loop and a foreleg through each of the side-loops, bringing the main part of the thong over the back. This serves as a trace, and is furnished at the end with a toggle of bone or wood, by which it is fastened to beckets in a long line of thong, the end of which is usually made fast to the middle of the first slat of the sledge. The dogs are attached in a long line, alternately on opposite sides of this trace, just so far apart that one dog can not reach his leader when both are pulling. The most spirited dog is usually put at the head of the line as leader, and the natives sometimes select a bitch in heat for this position, as the dogs are sure to follow her. The same custom has been observed by Kumlien at Cumberland Gulf.2 Ten dogs are considered a large team, and few of the natives can muster so many. When the sledge is heavily loaded men and women frequently help to drag it. The dogs are never driven, and except over a well known trail, like that between Utkiavwln and the whaling camp in 1883, will not travel unless a woman trots along in front, encouraging them with cries of " An ! ail ! tu'lla! tu'lla! (Come! come on!), while the manor woman who runs be hind the sled to guide it and keep it from capsizing, urges them on with cries of" Kti ! ku ! (Get on ! get on !), occasionally reproving an individual dog by name. After they are well started, they go on without much urg ing if nothing distracts their attention. It is not easy to stop a dog team when the destination is reached. Commands and shouts of " Lie down ! " are seldom sufficient, and the people generally have to pull 1 1 failed to get the translation of this word, but it seems to bo connected with the Greeulaudic malavok, he howls (a dog — ). •Contributions, p. 51. MURDOCH.] DOGS AND DRIVING. 359 back on the sled and drag back on the harness till the team comes to a halt. The leader, who is usually a woman or child sometimes guides the team by a line attached to the trace, and Lieut. Kay says he has seen them, when traveling in the interior, tie a piece of blubber or meat on the end of a string and drag it on the snow just ahead of the leader. The natives seldom ride on the sledge except with a light load on a smooth road. A few old and decrepit people like Yu'ksifia always trav eled on sledges between the villages, and the people who came down with empty sledges for provisions from the whaling camp, always rode on the well beaten trail where the dogs would run without leading.1 The dog whip so universally employed by the eastern Eskimo, is not used at Point Barrow, but when Lieut. Ray made a whip for driving his team, the natives called it Ipirau'ta, a name essentially identical with that used in the east. They especially distinguished Ipirau'ta, a whip with a lash, from a cudgel, anau'ta. The latter woitl has also the same meaning in the eastern dialects. We saw nothing of the custom of protecting the dogs' feet with seal skin shoes, so prevalent on the Siberian coast.2 Curiously enough the only other localities in which the use of this contrivance is mentioned are in the extreme east.'1 During the first warm weather in the spring, before the dogs have shed their heavy winter coats, they suffer a great deal from the heat and can go only a short distance without lying down to rest. The method of harnessing and driving the dogs varies considerably m different localities. Among the eastern natives the dogs are usually harnessed abreast, each with a separate trace running to the sledge. and the driver generally rides, guiding the dogs with a whip. The leader usually has a longer trace than the, rest. The harness used at Fury and Hecla Straits is precisely the same as that at Point Barrow, but in Greenland, according to Dr. Kane, it consists of a "simple breast- strap," with a single trace. The illustration, however, in Rink's Tales and Traditions, opposite p. 232, which was drawn by a native Green- lander, shows a pattern of harness similar to that used in Siberia and described by Nordeiiskiold4 as "made of inch- wide straps of skin, form ing a neck or shoulder band, united on both sides by a strap to a girth, to one side of which the draft strap is fastened." It is a curious fact that the two extremes of the Eskimo raee (for even if the people of Pitle- kaj be Chukchi in blood, they are Eskimo in culture) should use the same pattern of harness, while a different form prevails between them. The Siberians also habitually ride upon the sledges, and use a whip, and on some parts of the coast, at least, harness the dogs abreast. In 'Compare Dull. Alaska, p. 25. 'See Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 195, and Nunlenakiiild, Vega, vol. 2, p. 96, where one of these shoes is fig ured. *See Kiimlii n Contributions, p. 42. •Vega, vol. 2, p. 95. 300 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. the region about Pitlckaj, however, the dogs are harnessed "tandem" in pairs, as is the case at Norton Sound, where a more efficient har ness is also used, which is probably not Eskimo, but learned from the whites. ' Nordenskiold2 expresses the opinion that the Eskimo method of harnessing' the dogs abreast indicates that the Eskimos have lived longer than the Chukchis north of the limit of trees; in other words, that the method of harnessing the dogs tandem is the older one, and that the Eskimo have learned to harness them abreast since they left the woodland regions. I can hardly agree with these conclusions, for it seems tx> me that the easiest and most natural method of attaching the, dogs would be, to fasten each directly to the, sled by its own trace. Now, when many dogs are, attached to the sled in this way, the outer dogs can not apply their strength in a direct line but must pull obliquely, and, moreover, as we know to be the case, so many long traces are constantly becoming entangled, and each individual dog has to be kept straight by the driver. If, however, the dogs be made fast to a long line, one behind the other, not only does each pull straight ahead, but if the leader be kept to the track he pulls the other dogs after him, re lieving the driver of the greater part of the care of them. It seems to me therefore, that the tandem method is an improvement in dog harnessing, which has been adopted only by the natives of northeastern Siberia, and northwestern America, and has no connection with the wooded or unwooded state of the country.3 HUNTING SCORES. The only thing that we saw of the nature of numerical records were the series of animals engraved upon ivory, already alluded to. Iii most cases we were unable to learn whether the figures really represented an actual record or not, though the bag handle, No. 89424 [890] already figured, was said to contain the actual score of whales killed by old Yu'ksifia. The custom does not appear to be so prevalent as at Norton Sound (see above, p. 1?7). Many of these possible scores being engraved on ivory implements have already been described. With one exception they only record the capture of whales or reindeer. The exception (No. iS!»42~> [17.32], Fig. l~>3b) presents a series of ten bearded seals. The reindeer are usually depicted in a natural attitude, and some of the circumstances of the hunt are usually represented. For instance, a man is figured aiming with a bow and arrow toward a a line of reindeer, indicating that such a number were taken by shoot ing, while a string of deer, represented without legs as they would ap- 'Scc Dull, Alaska, pp. 16,1 ami 166. *Ve<;a, v(.l. 2, p. 05, footnote*. s For deseriptions of the sledjjt-3 and methods of harnessing used hy the eastern Eskimo, see r.essel's Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 9, p. 868, figs. 4 and 5 (Smith Sound) ; Kane, 2(1 Crinnell Exp., vol. 1, p. 205 (Smith Sound) and iiixt (Vrinnell Kxp., p. 44:t (Greenland) ; KuniHen, Contributions, p. 42, and lioa.s, "Central Kskimo, " pp. 52fl-5:tK (Cumberland Gulf ) ; Parry, 2d voyage, p. f>14, and Lyon, Journal, p. 235 (I^lnlik); Cilder, Seliwatka's Search, pp. 511, 52, and fill, and Schwatka's "Niturod in the North," pp. 152, 153 (NW. shore of Hudson Day and Kiutf Williams Land). Mi'imocn.] HUNTING SCORES. 3C1 pear swimming, followed by a rude figure of a man in a kaiak, moans that so many wore lanced in the water. Other incidents of the excur sion are also sometimes represented. On these records the whale is al ways represented by a rude figure of the tail cut off at the " small," and often represented as hanging from a horizontal line. We also brought home four engraved pieces of ivory, which are nothing else than records of real or imaginary scenes. ] have figured all of these. Fig. 3«0 (No. S!»4S7 [1020] from Nuwuk) is a narrow Hat tablet of ivory, -i-8 inches long and 1 inch wide, with a string at one end to hang it up by. On each face is an ornamental border inclosing a number of incised figures, which probably represent actual scenes, as the tablet is not new. The figures on the obverse face are colored with red ocher. At the upper end. standing on a cross line, witli his head toward the end, is a rudely drawn man, holding his right hand up and his left down, with the fingers outspread. At his left stands a boy with both hands down. These figures probably represent the hunter and his son. Just below the cross line is a mini raising a spear to strike an animal which is perhaps meant for a reindeer without horns. Three deer, also without horns, stand with their feet on one border with their heads toward the upper end, and on the other border near the other end are two bucks with large, antlers heading the other way, and behind them a man in a kaiak. I5etweeu him and the animal which the first man is spearing is an object which may represent the crescent moon. The story may perhaps be freely translated as follows: "When the moon was young the man and his son killed six reindeer, two- of them bucks with large antlers. One they speared on land, the rest they chased with the kaiak." On the reverse the figures and border are colored black with soot. In the left-hand lower corner is a she bear and her cub heading to the left, followed by a man who is about to shoot an arrow at them. Then come two more, bears heading toward the right, and in the, right-hand FIG. 360.— Hunting; srnrr mg;raviil on ivory. 3G2 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. lower corner is a whale with two floats attached to him by a harpoon line. Above this is an umiak with four men in it approaching another whale, which has already received one harpoon with its two floats. The harpoon which is to be thrust at him may be seen sticking out over the bow of the boat. Then come two whales in a line, one heading to the left and one to the, right. In the left-hand upper corner is a figure which may represent a boat, bottom up, on the staging of four posts. We did not learn the actual history of this tablet, which was brought down for sale with a number of other things. Fig. 301 (No. 89473 [1340] from Utkiavwifi) is a piece of an old suow- shovel edge with freshly incised figures on both faces, which the artist FIG. 361. — Hunting score engraved on ivory, obverse and reverse. said represented his own record. The figures are all colored with red ocher. On the obverse the figures all stand on a roughly drawn ground line. At the left is a man pointing his rifle at a bear, which stands on its hind legs facing him. Then comes a she bear walking toward the left followed by a cub, then two large bears also walking to the left, and a she bear in the same attitude, followed by two cubs, one behind the other. This was explained by the artist as follows : " These are all the bears I have killed. This one alone (pointing to the 'rampant' Flo. 362. — Hunting scons engraved oil ivory. one) was bad. All the others were good." We heard at the time of his giving the death shot to the last bear as it was charging his comrade, who had wounded it with his muzzle-loader. On the reverse, the figures are in the same position. The same man points his rifle at a string of three wolves. His explanation was: " These are the wolves 1 have killed." Fig. 362 (No. 89474 [1334] from Utkiavwlil) is newly made, but was said to be the record of a man of our acquaintance named Muiiiiiolu. It is a flat piece of the outside of a walrus tusk 9-7 inches long and 1-8 wide at the broader end. The figures are incised on one face only, and HUNTING SCORES. 3G3 colored with red oclier. Thefaceis divided lengthwise into two panels by a horizontal line. In the upper panel, at the left, is a man facing to the right and pointing- a gnn at a line of three standing deer, facing toward the left. Two are bucks and one a doe. Then come two bucks, represented without legs, as if swimming in the water, followed by a rude figure of a man in a kaiak. Below the line at the left is aii umiak with five men, and then a row of twelve conventionalized whales' tails, of which all but the first, second, and fifth are joined to the hor izontal line by a short straight line. The record may be freely trans lated as follows: " I went out with my gun and killed three large reindeer, two bucks and a doe. I also speared two large bucks in the water. My whaling crew have taken twelve whales." The number of whales is open to suspicion, a.s they just till up the board. Flo. 363.— Hunting score engraved on ivory, obverse ami reverse. Fig. 363 (No. 56517 [121] from Utkiavwln) is a piece of an- old snow- shovel edge 4-2 inches long, with a loop of thong at the upper side to hang it up by. It is covered on both faces with freshly incised figures, colored with red ocher^represeuting some real or imaginary occurrence. The obverse is bordered with a single narrow line. At the left is a man standing with arms outstretched supporting himself by two slen der staffs as long as he is. In the middle are three rude figures of tents, very high and slender. At the right is a hornless reindeer head ing to the left, with a man standing on its back with his legs straddled I A. 304 THE POINT TSAKUOW KSKIMO. apart and his arms uplifted. On the reverse, tli ere is no border, but a single dog and a man \vlio supports himself with a long staff' arc. drag ging an empty rail sledge, toward the left. I find no mention of the use of any such scores among the eastern Eskimo, but they are very common among those of the west, as shown by the Museum collections. They record in this way, not only hunting exploits but all sorts of trivial occurrences. (iAMBS AND PASTIMES. Gamblint/. — These people have only one game which appears to be of the nature, of gambling. It is played with the twisters and marline spikes used for backing the bow, and already described, though Lieut. Kay says he has seen it played with any bits of stick or bone. I never had an opportunity of watching a game, of this sort played, as it is not •often played at the village. It is a very popular amusement at the deer-hunting camps, where Lieut. Bay often saw it played. According to him the players are divided into sides, who sit on the ground about 3 yards apart, each side sticking up one of the marline spikes for a mark to throw the twisters at. Six of the latter, he believes, make a full set. One side tosses the whole set one at a time, at the opposite stake, and the points which they make are counted up by their op ponents from the position of the twisters as they fall. He did not learn how the points were reckoned, except that twisters with a mark on them counted differently from the plain ones, or how long the game lasted, each side taking its turn of casting at the opposite stake. He, however, got the impression that the winning side kept the twisters belonging to their opponents. Mr. Nelson informs me in a letter that a similar game is played with the same implements at Norton Sound. No. 56532 [9J, from Utkiavwln, is a bag full of these tools as used for playing this game. It contains 18 twisters, of different patterns, and 7 marline spikes. The bag is of membrane, perhaps a bladder. It is ovoid in shape, all in one piece, with a long opening in one side, which is closed by a piece of sinew braid about 40 inches long. This is knotted by one end round a fold of membrane at one end of the mouth, and when the bag is shut up is wrapped round the middle of it. Some of these people have learned what cards are from the Nunatan- niiun. though they do not know how to use them. They described how they were used by the "Nunatafimiun," however, going through the motions of dealing cards. They told us that the latter played a great deal, and "gave much." This "giving much" evidently referred to gambling, for they told Capt. Herendeeu how two of the "Nunatan- miun" would sit down to play, one with a big pile of furs and one with out any, and when they got up the furs would all belong to the other man. Fig. 304 (No. 50531 [21]) represents some of a bunch of 25 little ivory images which were strung on a bit of seal thong. One is a neatly carved fox, 2'7 inches long, and the rest are ducks or geese, rather MURDOCH. 1 GAMES FESTIVALS. 3(55 roughly carved, with flat bellies. The largest of these is 1-3 inches long and the smallest 0-8 inch. These were purchased at 1 Mover Bay, eastern Siberia, during our brief visit in August, 1881, and were sup- Fw. 3r4.-G.aiue of fox and p-eso. from Plover liay. posed to be merely works of art. I was, however, very much interested on my return to Washington to find that Dr. Fran/ Boas had brought from Cumberland Gulf a. number of precisely similar images, which arc there used for playing a game of the nature of "jackstones." The player tosses up a handful of these images, and scores points for the number that sit up right when they fall.1 It is therefore quite likely that they are used for a similar pur pose at Plover Bay. If this be so, it is a re markable point of similarity between these widely separated Eskimo, for I can learn nothing of a similar custom at any interme diate point. FcKtiral*. — The most important festivals are apparently semireligious in character and partake strongly of the nature, of dramatic representations. At these festivals they make use of many articles of dress and adornment, not worn on other occasions, and even some "properties" and mechani cal contrivances to add to the dramatic effect. All festivals are accompanied by singing, drumming, and dancing. At the formal festivals, in the early winter, the performers tire dressed in new deerskin clothing, with the snow-white flesh side outward, and in certain parts of the perform- FIG. sas.— Dancing cap. ance wear on their heads tall conical caps covered with rows of mountain sheep teeth which rattle as the wearer dances. We brought home one of these dancing caps (ka'bru, kiiluka') (No. 89820 [8. 570. 366 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. clipped close. The outside is painted all over with red ocher. The front is nearly all in one piece, but the back is irregularly pieced and gored. It is surmounted by a thick tuft of brown and white wolverine fur about 5 inches long, sewed into the apex. To the middle of one side at the edge is sewed .a. narrow strip of deerskin with the hair clipped close, which is long enough to go under the wearer's chin and be knotted into a slit close to the edge of the other side of the cap. On the front edge is sewed a row of thirty-five incisor teeth of the mountain sheep by a thread running through a hole drilled through the root of each. The series is regularly graduated, having the largest teeth in the middle and the smallest on the ends. Above this is a narrow strip of brown deerskin running two-thirds round the cap and sewed on flesh side out so that the hair projects as a fringe below. Above this are three ornamental bands about 2 inches apart running two- thirds round the cap, each fringed on the lower edge with sheep teeth strung as on the edge of the cap. The lower row contains 54 teeth, the middle 29, and the upper 31. The lowest band is made of 2 strips of mountain sheepskin with a narrow strip of black sealskin be- tweeu them, and a narrow strip of brown deerskin with the hair out; the next is of coarse gray deerskin with the hair out; and the uppermost of brown deerskin with the flesh side out The cap is old and dirty, and has been long in use. The custom of wearing this style of cap appears to be peculiar to the northwestern Eskimo, as I find no mention for it elsewhere. It is perhaps derived indirectly from the northern Indians, some of whom are represented as wearing a similar headdress. In certain parts of the same ceremony as witnessed by Lieut. Ray the dancers also wore rattle mittens, which were shaken in time to the music. A pair of these were offered for sale once, but Lieut. Eay did not consider them sufficiently of pure Eskimo manufacture to be worth the price asked for them. They were made of sealskin and covered all over the back with empty Winchester cartridge shells loosely attached by a string through a hole in the bottom, so as to strike against each other when the mitten was shaken. The five men who wore these mit tens wore on their heads the stuffed skins of various animals, the wolf, bear, fox, lynx, and dog, which they were supposed to represent. These articles were never offered for sale, as they were probably too highly valued. We collected twelve wooden masks, which we were told were worn in some of these ceremonies, though none of our party ever witnessed any MURDOCH.] MASKS. 367 performance in which they were used. Some of them are of undoubted age. No. 50499 [0] (Fig. 300) has been selected as the type of these masks, (ki'nau, from ki'na, face). This is a rather good representation of a male human face, 8-8 inches long and 5-8 wide. It is quite smoothly carved out of cotton wood, and theback is neatly hollowed out, being more deeply excavated round the eyes and mouth and inside of the nose. The mouth is represented as wide open, showing the tip of the tongue at tached to the underlip, and has six small teeth which look like dog's incisors inserted in a row in the middle of the upper lip. The eye brows and moustache are marked out with blacklead, and there are traces of red ocher on the cheeks. The, holes for the strings are in the edge about on a level with the eyes. One end of a string of seal thong long enough to go around the wearer's head is passed out through the hole on the right side, slit close to the tip, and the other end passed through this. The other end is passed out through the hole on the left Flo. 367. — Wooden mask and dancing gorget. and made fast with two half hitches. A row of small holes round the edge of the mask shows where a hood has been tacked on. This mask is rather old and somewhat soiled. A very old weathered mask (No. 50497 [235] from Utkiavwiii), 7-8 inches long, and made of soft wood, apparently pine, is similar to the preceding, but has no tongue, and the teetli in both jaws are rep resented as a continuous ridge. It has an "imperial" as well as a moustache, marked with blacklead like the eyebrows. The cheeks are colored with red ocher. The edge is much gapped and broken, but shows the remains of a deep narrow groove running round on the outside about | inch from the edge, and pierced with small holes for fastening on a hood. Figure 307 (No. 89817 [850] also from Utkiavwin) is a mask much like the preceding, 7-5 inches long, and made of spruce. It is peculiar 368 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. ill having the outer corners of the eyes rather depressed, and in ad dition to the moustache and imperial has a broad "whaleman's mark" drawn with black lead across the eyes. It is grooved round the edge for fastening on a hood. The lower part of the face has been split off at the corners of the mouth and mended on with two stitches of whale bone, and a piece which was broken out at the left-hand corner of the mouth is secured by a wooden peg at the inner edge and a stitch of whalebcne on the lower side. This mask has been for a long time fastened to an ornamented wooden gorget, and appeared to have been exposed to the weather, perhaps at the cemetery. The string is made of unusually stout sinew braid. The remaining four ancient human masks are all masculine, and only one has any indication of labrets. On this mask, No. 80812 [10(53], there are two small holes in the position of the labrets. It is probable that the wearers of these masks are supposed to represent the ancient Eskimo, who wore no labrets. A mask which was carelessly made for sale (No. 89814 [105813) [1074] from Ftkiavwm) is very elaborate, but roughly and care lessly made. It is almost flat, with the features hardly raised in relief. In each corner of the mouth is in serted a slender ivory tusk about 1 inch long, and besides the eyebrows, moustache, and imperial, there is a broad "whaleman's mark" running obliquely across the right cheek from the bridge of the nose. Six long feathers are stuck in the edge of the forehead. Curiously enough these are the feathers of the South Ameri can ostrich, and came from the feather duster in use at our station. Fig. 370 (No. 5G496 [258] from Utkiavwln) represents, rather rudely, a wolf's face and ears, and is the only animal mask we obtained or saw. It is of cotton wood, old and weathered, and is 4-7 inches long and C-5 wide. It is painted on the edge with red ocher and has a streak of the same color down the ridge of the nose. The string is of whalebone and uu- braided sinew pieced together. Fig. 371 (Xo. 89815 [1050] from ITtkiav- wifi) is a mask that seems almost too small to have been worn, being only 0-1 inches long and 4-7 wide. It is very old, made of black enedcot- tonwood, and is the rudest representation of the human face which we saw. It is simply an oval disk, concavo-convex, with holes cut for the eyes, nostrils, and mouth. The rough cutting about the chin ap pears to have been done with a stone tool, and the mouth seems to be, smeared with blood. The string passed through the holes in the fore head to hang it up by is much newer than the mask, being braided from cotton twine and fastened to a common galvanized boat nail. 9 ETH 24 Kid. 370.— Wolf mask of woixl. Fin. 371. —Very ancient sin fill mask. 370 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. The more southern Eskimo of Alaska are in the habit of using in their dances very elaborate and highly ornamented and painted masks, of which the National Museum possesses a very large collection. The ancient Aleuts also used masks.1 On the other hand, no other Eski mo, save those of Alaska, ever use masks in their performances, as far as I can learn, with the solitary exception of the peoples of Baffin Land, where a mask of the hide of the bearded seal is worn on certain occa sions.2 Nordenskiold saw one wooden mask among the people near the Vctja'x winter quarters, but learned that this had been brought from Bering Strait, and probably from America.1' The masks appear to become more numerous and more elaborate the nearer we get to the part of Alaska inhabited by the Indians of the T'linket stock, who, as is well known employ, in their ceremonies re markably elaborate wooden masks and headdresses. It may be sug gested that this custom of using masks came from the influence of these Indians, reaching in the simple form already described as far as Point Barrow, but not beyond.4 With these masks was worn a gorget or breast-plate, consisting of a half-moon shaped piece of board about IS inches long, painted with rude figures of men and animals, and slung about the neck. We brought home three of these gorgets, all old and weathered. No. 89818 [1132], Fig. 372«, has been selected as the type of the gor get (sukimuii). It is made of spruce, is 18-5 inches long, and has two beckets of stout sinew braid, one to go round the neck and the other round the body under the wearer's arms. The figures are all painted on the front face. In the middle is a man painted with red ocher; all the rest of the figures are black and probably painted with soot. The man with his arms outstretched standson a large whale, represented as spouting. lie holds a small whale in each hand. At his right is a small cross-shaped object which perhaps represents a bird, then a man facing toward the left and darting a harpoon with both hands, and a bear facing to the left. On the left of the red man are two umiaks with five men in each, a whale nearly effaced, and three of the cross-shaped ob jects already mentioned. Below them, also, freshly drawn with a hard, blunt lead pencil or the point of a bullet, are a whale, an umiak, and a three-cornered object the nature of which I can not make out. Fig. 312h (No. 50493 [2] from Utkiavwm) is a similar gorget, which has evidently been long exposed to the weather, perhaps at the ceme tery, as the figures are all effaced except in the middle, where it was probably covered by a mask as in Fig. 307 (No. 89817 [855] from the same village). There seems to have been a red border on the serrated edge. In the middle is the same red man as before standing on the ' Sec Ball, Alaska, p. 389, and contributions to N. A. Ethn., vol. 1, p. 90. 2Sec Kuinlien. Contributions, p. 43. Kunilien says merely "a mask of Hkins." Dr. Boas is my au- tbority for the statement that the skin of the bearded seal is used. 3 Vega. vol. 2, p. 21. 4 See also Dall's paper in the Third Annual Keport of the liureau of Ethnology, pp. 07 2M, where the subject of mask-wearing is very thoroughly discussed in its most important relations MCUIXICH.] GORGETS. 371 black whale and holding a whale in each hand. At Ids right is a black umiak with five men in it, and at his left :i partially effaced figure which is perhaps another boat. The strings are put on as before, except that the two beckets are separate. The upper is made of sinew braid, and the lower, which is now broken, of seal thong. This gorget is 15-5 inches long and 4-7 wide. No. 89S17 [S.rMJ (Fig. 307 already referred to) has a mask tied over the middle by means of the beckets, so that the figures in the middle are much fresher than those on the ends. The edges are Fio. 372.— Dancing «or. 1' wood. painted red. In the middle is the same red man or giant, holding the whale. The other figures are painted with soot. This man or giant, able to hold out a whale, appears to be a legend ary character, as we have his image carved in ivory. We unfortunately did not succeed in learning anything more about him, except that his name (apparently) was "kikamigo.'' Hanging by the head to each elbow of this figure is a seal, and opposite its thighs two of the usual conventional 372 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. whale's tails, one on each side, with the flukes turned from him. The one on his left is attached to his waist by a straight line from its upper corner. At its right hand are a number of objects irregularly grouped. At the top an umiak with five men towing at a three-cornered object, which probably represents a dead whale; then a smaller umiak con taining five men and apparently "fast" to a whale, which is spouting. A figure above this, almost obliterated, appears to be a small whale. Below are a large seal, three of the cross-shaped figures, four small whales, and one figure so much effaced that it can not be made out. On the left hand of the figure are two umiaks, and a whale with a line and float attached to him, then four crosses and a large seal in the corner. Below are four whales of different sizes, two bears, and a dog or wolf. These gorgets appear to have gone out of fashion, as we saw none which were not very old, or which appeared to have been used recently. From the nature of the figures upon them, they were probably used in some of the ceremonies connected with the whale fishing. Kika'migo may be the "divinity" who controls the whales and other sea animals.1 Mechanical contrivances. — In one of the performances which Capt. Ilerendeen witnessed, there stood in the middle of the floor facing each other, the stuffed skins of a fox and a raven. These were mounted on whalebone springs and moved by strings, so that the fox sprang at the raven and the raven pecked at the fox, while the singing and dancing went on. These animals were never offered for sale, but they brought over a stuffed fox very cleverly mounted so as to spring at a lemming, which by means of strings was made to run in and out of two holes in the board on which the fox was mounted. (Xo 89893 [1378] from Utkiavwifi.) We unfortunately did not learn the story or myth con nected with this representation.2 It was the skin of an Arctic fox in the summer pelage, with the paws and all the bones removed, and clum sily stuffed with rope yarn, not filling out the legs. A stick was thrust into the tail to within about two inches of the tip, so that it was curled up over the back. The skin was taken off whole by a single opening near the vent, which was left open, and through which was thrust into the body a strip of whaleboiie 2 inches wide and about J inch thick, which protruded about 4J inches and was fastened to the front edge of the hole by tying the flap of skin to the whalebone with three or four turns of sinew braid, kept from slipping by a notch in each edge of the whalebone. The fox was attached to a piece of the paneling of a ship's bulkhead, 29 inches long and 7-5 wide, by bending forward 2J inches of the end of the whalebone, and lashing it down parallel to the length of the board with four turns of stout thong, kept from slipping by a notch in each edge of the whalebone and running through holes in the board. 'Cf.Crmrtz.voI. l,p.206. 3 This very interesting specimen was unfortunately destroyed by moths at the National Museum after the description was written, but before it eould be figured. MURDOCH.] MECHANICAL ANIMALS. 373 The fox was thus held up by the spring parallel to the length of the board with its head and forelegs raised. A string of sinew braid 10 feet long was passed through a hole in the septum of the fox's nose and knotted once so as to leave two equal ends. These ends were carried down through two holes, one in each edge of the board 94 inches from the forward end, and each was tied to a roughly-rounded bit of pine stick round which it was reeled when not in use. By pulling these strings together, the fox \vas made to dart down his head, which was raised by the spring as soon as the string was slackened. By pulling one or the other string the fox could be made to dart to one or the other side of the board. One man manipulated the fox, pulling a string with each hand. The lemming's holes were about 1J inches in diameter, one in each edge of the board and at such a distance from the end that when the string, which was 7 feet 4 inches long, was drawn through them, it crossed the board just where the fox's nose struck, when it was pulled down. The ends of the string were reeled round bits of stick. The lemming was a narrow strip of wolfs fur, about 3 inches long, doubled in the mid dle, with the middle of the string hitched into the bight. By pulling the ends of the string alternately, the lemming was made to jump out of the hole on one side, run across the board and into the other, very much as a live lemming runs from one tunnel to another on the tundra. It took two persons, one on each side, to handle the lemming. The fox- skin and spring appeared to be older than the rest of the machine. The board was originally 10 inches or 1 foot longer at each end, but had to be cut off to pack it. Petroff mentions a similar custom among the " Nushegagmute" of Bristol Bay, of introducing stuffed animals moved with hidden strings in their performances;1 and Dall2 describes a festival at Norton Sound, where a dead seal was brought in and moved about with strings. Description of festivals. — It is greatly to be regretted that we had not established such intimate relations with the natives, as afterwards was the case, in the winter of I881-'82, since this was the only one of the two seasons that the great winter festival was held at Utkiavwin. In the winter of 1S82-'S3 there had been so many deaths in the village that the natives did not feel like celebrating any regular festival, and only indulged in a few impromptu dances late in the season. These were unfortunately held in the evening when the writer's tour of duty at the station prevented his witnessing them. Those of the party who did go over brought back only fragmentary and rather vague accounts of the performance. The confining nature of the work at the station prevented our witnessing any of the celebrations at Xuwfik or at Pernyu, when the "Nonatanmiun" visitors were entertained. The best accounts we have of any performance is given by Lieut. 1 Kcpurt, p. 135. ' Alaska, p. 15fi. 374 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. Kay. He and Capt. Herendeen went over to Utkiavwlfi by special invi tation on December 3, 1881, and witnessed one scene of the " wood," or " tree dance." Many visitors were present from Nuwiik on the occasion of this dance, which lasted for two days and nights. On arriving at the village they found a crowd of upwards of 200 people assembled round the entrance of the ku'dyigl. In front of the entrance were drawn up in line five men and two women dancing to the music of a drum and two singers. They were all dressed in new deerskin clothes, with the snow-white flesh side turned out, and wore conical dance caps like that already described. They kept time to the music with their feet, moving their bodies to right and left with spasmodic jerks. To quote from Lieut. Kay's MS. notes : Each dancer in turn sprang to the front and in extravagant gestures went through the motions of killing seal, walrus, and deer, and the pursuit <>f the whale. Each, as he finished, took his jilace in the, line, was cheered by the crowd, then added his voice to the monotonous chant of the singers. After all had finished as many as could get in entered the "dance house." At one end of this a small space was partitioned off with a piece of an old sail, and from the roof in the middle hung an object in tended to represent a tree. This was made of two oblong boxes about 6 inches in diameter, open at both ends, the lower about -!£ feet long and the upper about 1£, hinged together with seal thong. At one side hung a wolfs skull, and on the other a dried raven. Two performers sat in the middle of the floor with their legs extended one between the other's legs, with his nose touching the tree. A row of old men beat drums and sang, while the performers chanted a monotonous song, in which could be heard the words "rum, tobacco, seal, deer, and whale." Presently the bottom of the curtain was lifted and out crawled five men on all fours, wearing on their heads the stuffed skins of the heads of different animals — the wolf, bear, fox, lynx, and dog. They swung their heads from side to side in unison, keeping time to the music, uttering a low growl at each swing and shaking their rattle mittens. This they kept up for fifteen or twenty minutes, while the chant still went on, and the chief performer, with excited gestures, embraced the tree and rubbed his nose against it from time to time. At last all "sprang to their feet with a howl, and ended the dance with wild ges tures." Similar scenes, with new performers, which our party did not stay to witness, succeeded this, with feasting in the different houses. Capt. Herendeen also witnessed a small dance, lasting only one even ing, which bore a curious resemblance to some of the so-called "favor figures" performed in the "German cotillon" of civilized dancers. This kind of dance was performed purely for pleasure, and had nothing re- Ml'RDOCn.) DANCING. 37f) ligious or dramatic about it. The music was furnished by the usual orchestra of old men, who beat drums and sang a monotonous song. Each person who intended to take part in the dance came provided with some small article to be given away as a " favor," and rising in his turn, danced a few minutes, and then called out the name of the part ner he wished to give it to. The latter then rose, and having received the "favor," danced awhile with him, and then both resumed their places among the spectators. We never heard of any such elaborate "donation parties" as are de scribed at Norton Sound and the Yukon region, where a man ''saves up his property for years" to distribute it among his guests.1 A festival, however, was held at Xuwiik in June, 18X3, which, apparently resembled the second kind described by Dal I.'- Two men came down from Nuwfik to invite Lieut. Kay and Capt. Herendeen, telling them what presents they were expected to bring, rnfortunately it was considered that too much was asked and the invitation was declined. The messengers car ried "notched sticks."3 Dances in which the children only take part, entirely for amusement, sometimes take place in the, ku'dylgl, and people occasionally amuse themselves by dancing in the iglu. 1 have often seen the natives, especially the children and young people, dancing in the open air, and the dancing was always of very much the same char acter. The feet were but slightly moved, keep ing time to the music, while the body swayed gracefully and the arms were waved from side to side. All the dancing which I saw was rather quiet and graceful, but they told us that when they got warmed up at a great dance they went at it with tremendous vigor, throwing off their garments to the waist. The dance which accom panies the song sung by the children to the aurora, however, is more violent. The dancer clenches his fists and, bending his elbows, strikes them against the sides of his body, keeping time Fm. 37:!._Yo,,th dancing to to the song and stamping vigorously with the right foot, springing up and down with the left from a sketch by the writer). We never heard of any of the licentious festivals or orgies described by Egede4 and Kuinlien/' the aurora. knee (see Fig. .373, 'Sue Uall, Alaska, p. 151. !Ibid, p. 1M. 'Compare tin; wand "curiously ornamented and carved '' carried by the messenger who was sent out to invite the guests* to the festival at Norton Sound, Alaska, p. 154. « Greenland, p. 139. sContriblitions, p. 43. 376 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. The festivals of the eastern Eskimo appear to be less formal and elaborate than those in the west, consisting simply of singing and dancing.1 TOYS AND SPORTS FOR CHILDREN AND OTHERS. Playthings. — Though the children amuse themselves with a great many sports and plays, we saw very few toys or playthings in use. We brought home six objects which appear to have no use except as play things. Fig. 374« (No. 89800 [1189] from Nuwiik) is a whirligig in principle very like that made for civili/ed children. It is a block of spruce, fitted with a shaft of narwhal ivory. This fits loosely in the straight tubular handle, which is a section of the branch of an antler, with the soft inside tissue cut out. A string of seal thong passes through a hole in the middle of the handle and is fastened to the shaft. This string is about 8 feet long, and about half of it is tied up into the hank to make a handle for .pulling it. It works very much like a civilized child's whirli gig. The string is wound around the shaft and a smart pull on the handle unwinds it, making the block spin round rapidly. The reaction, spinning it in the opposite direction, winds up the string again. A couple of loose hawk's feathers are stuck into the tip of the block, which is painted with red ocher for about an inch. Four equidistant stripes of the same color run down the sides to a border of the same width round the base. This was made for sale and appears to be an unusual toy. I do not recollect ever seeing the children play with such a toy. It is called kai'psa (Gr. kavsak, "a whirligig or similar toy"). Fig. 374/> is a similar whirligig from Utkiavwlfi (No. 89807 [1350]). The block, which is 4-12 inches long, is made of the solid tip of a mountain sheep's horn, and is elaborately ornamented with a conventional pat tern of lines and "circles and dots," incised and colored red with ocher. The shaft is of hard bone, and the line has a little wooden handle at the end. The block is so heavy that it will hardly spin. Fig. 375 (So. 50491 [40] from Utkiavwifi) is a teetotum (also called kaipsa). The shaft is of pine and the disk of spruce and is ornamented with black lead marks, forming a border about one quarter inch broad 'Description* of Eskimo festivals are to be found in Egede's Greenland, p. lf>2, and Crantz, History of Greenland, vol. ], p. 17."), -where ho mentions the sun feast held at the winter solstice. This very likely corresponds to the Decenibcr festival at Point Barrow. If the latter be really a rite instituted by the ancestors of the present Eskimo when they lived in lower latitudes to celebrate the winter sol stice, it is easy to understand why it should he held at about the same time by the people of Kotzebuo Sound, as stated by Dr. Simpson, op. cit., p. 202, where, as be says, the reindeer might be successfully pursued throughout tho winter. It is much more likely, considering the custom in Greenland, that this is the reason for having the festival at this season than that the time should ho selected by tho people at Point Barrow as a season when "hunting or fishing can not well be attended to," as Simp son t liinks. AVe should remember that this is the very time of the year that the seal netting is at its height at Point Harrow. Sec also Parry, Second Voyage, p. 538; Kumlien, Contributions, p. 43: Gilder, Schwatka's Search, p. 43; lieechey, Voyage, p. 288 (Kotzelme Sound); Dall, Alaska, p. 149 (very full and detailed) ; Potroff, Report, etc., pp. 125, 126. 129, 131 (quoted from Zagoskin), 135, 137 (quoted from Sliclikhof), and 144 (quoted from Davidof) ; Hooper. Tents, etc., pp. 85, 136; and Nordeuskiiild, Vega, vol. 2, pp. 22, 131. MURDOCH.] TOYS. 377 on each face. The upper face is divided into quadrants by four narrow lines radi.itiug from the hole, and each quadrant is divided into two by bands one-quarter inch broad. The order of these lines is reversed on FIG. 374.— Whirligigs. the under face. This is spun, like a common teetotum, with the fingers, and doe's not seem to be common. I do not recollect ever seeing any- oue except the maker of this toy spinning one. 378 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. The same is true of No. 89722 [1087] (Fig. 370, from Utkiavwlfi) which is what American boys would call a "buz/-" toy. It is of pine wood, and through two round holes in the middle are passed the ends of a piece of stout sinew braid, which are knotted togethtr. When the board is placed in the middle of the string it can be made to spin round and whiz by alter nately pulling and relaxing the ends of the string. The board is rather elabor ately painted. One end has a border of black lead on both faces, the other a similar border of red paint, which ap pears to be red lead. Broad red bands form a square 1 inch across around the holes, with lines radiating from each cor ner to the corners of the board, on both faces. On the spaces between these lines are figures rudely drawn with black lead. On one face, in the first space, is a goose; in the second, a man with a staff'; in the third, the conventional figure of a whale's tail; and in the fourth, a whale with line and float attached to him, pursued by a whal ing umiak. On the other side, the first space contains a dog or wolf walking; the second, two of these animals, sitting on their haunches, facing each other; the third, another walking; and the fourth, a rein deer in the same attitude. FIG. 375.— Teetotum. FIG. 370.— Buzz toy. Fig. 377 (Xo. 8!)800 [1331] from Utkiavwin),on the other hand, is a toy which the children often play with. It is the well known " whiz- zing-stick" found among savages in so many widely distant parts of the world, and often used in religious ceremonies. The Eskimo name is Imigliita. It consists of a thin board of pine wood, fastened by a string MURDOCH.] TOYS. 379 of sinew braid about 1 toot long to the end of a slender rod, which serves as a handle. When swung rapidly round by the handle it makes a loud, whiz/ing sound. It is very neatly made, and painted with black lead and red ocher. The tips of the board are black for about one-half inch and the rest is red, and the upper half of the handle marked with five rings about one-half inch wide and 1 inch apart, alternately black and red. This appears to be purely a child's toy and has no mystical signification. I never saw one in the hands of an adult. This speci men was made and brought over for sale by a lad about thirteen or fourteen years old. Fig. 378 (No. 506S7 [181] from Utkiavwlii) is another plaything rather common with the boys, which takes the place of the American boy's "bean snapper." It is known by the name of miti'- gllgaun, and is a rod of whalebone, stiff and black, 4-8 inches long and 0-3 wide, narrowed and bent sharply up for about an inch at one end. On the upper side of this end, close to the tip, is a little hollow, large enough to hold a small pebble, and the other is cut into sharp teeth. This is purely an instru- '2 ment of mischief and is used for shooting tiny pebbles at peo ple when they are looking the other way. Miifiialu showed us, with great glee, in an expressive pantomime, how a boy would hit a person in the eye with a little pebble, and, when the man turned round angrily, would have the snapper slipped up his sleeve and be \poking earnestly in another direction. The toothed end, he said, was for mischievously scratching hairs out of a man's coat when he was looking another way. The "snapper" is used as follows: It is held in the left hand, a little pebble is set in the socket, and the tip of the whalebone bent back with the right hand. When this end is let go the elasticity of the whalebone drives the pebble at the mark with considerable force. As far as I can learn this mischievous toy is peculiar to the Northwest. Km. 377.— Whining si ii-k. FIG. :!78.— IVIililc miap- per. 380 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. Dolls. — Though several dolls and various suits of miniature clothing were made and brought over for sale, they do not appear to be popular with the little girls. I do not recollect ever seeing a child playing with a doll. Those in the collection, indeed, seem rather less intended for playthings than as, so to speak, works of art to catch the fancy of the strangers. Such an object is No. 89728 [1304] ( Fig. 379 from Utkiavwm.) This is a human head carved out of pine wood, and shouldered off' at the neck into a stout round peg, which is titted into the middle of a thick elliptical pedestal of the same wood, flat on the bottom and con vex on top. The head is dressed in a neatly made hood of thin deerskin with the flesh side cut off round the shoulders and ex posing only the face. The face is very neatly carved, and has bits of green oxidized copper inlaid for the eyes. The cheeks, gums, and inside of the mouth are colored with red ocher, and the hair, eyebrows, and beard with black lead. The top of the pedestal is painted red and di vided into eight equal parts by shallow grooves colored with black lead. The height of the whole object is 4£ inches, and the workmanship is remarkably good. Xo. 89827 [1138] (from Utkiav- \vifi), on the other hand, is very roughly and carelessly made. It is 18-2 inches long, roughly whit tled out of a flat piece of redwood board into the shape of a man with his legs wide apart and holding up his hands on each side of his head. The arms are very short and broad, with five fingers all nearly of the same length, and the legs are simply two straight four-sided pegs rounded on the edges. It is dressed in a hooded frock of seal gut reaching to the knees and leaving only the face and hands uncovered, and has sealskin knee boots on the legs. The face is rudely in relief, with two narrow bits of ivory inlaid for eyes, and a long canine tusk of the same material inserted in each corner of the mouth. Three small round bits of wood are inlaid in the forehead, one in the middle and one over each eye, and one in the right cheek above the corner of the mouth. The gut frock is carelessly made of irregular pieces. It is trimmed round the bottom and the edge of the hood with a strip of dogskin, but is left with a raw FIG. 157!*. — Carving ol' human head. MURDOCH.] DOLLS. 381 edge round the wrists. The boots arc rather well made models of the regular waterproof boots, with soles of white sealskin and a band round the top 1 inch wide of the same mate rial. A short peg projects from the top of the forehead. A string of stout sinew braid about 2 feet long is passed through a hole in the middle of the body and a knot tied iu the end in front. Though the design is elaborate the workmanship is very rude, and the clothes seem to be made of odds and ends. The maker perhaps had in mind a fabulous man with teeth like a walrus, about whom we heard some fragmentary traditions. Fig. 380 (No. 89826 [1358J from Utkiavwlfi) is a clever, though somewhat roughly made, mechanical doll. It represents a man dressed in deerskins sitting with his legs outstretched and holding in his extended left hand a drum and in his right a stick, as if beating the drum. The arms are of whalebone, and by pressing them he can be made to beat the drum. The doll is made of a single piece of wood— a knot with two branches, which make the legs. (I learned this from Capt. Heren- deen, who saw this doll at the village before it was finished.) The height of the sitting figure is 11£ inches. Fm. 380.— Mechanical doll: drum player. Flo. 381. — Mechanical toy ; kaiak paddler. A still more ingenious mechanical toy which, however, like the pre ceding, was ?nade for sale, is shown in Fig. 381 (No. .SO.S.j.") [1351] from Utkiavwlfi). This is a man sitting in a k^iak in the attitude of paddling 382 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. on the left side with a single-bladed paddle. His arms are of whale bone, and by means of strings he can be made to paddle and turn his head from side to side. The kaiak is 29 inches long, very neatly carved from a single block of wood, and solid except at the cockpit. The bot tom is flat, to allow it to stand on the floor, but it is otherwise precisely of the model of the kaiaks in the Museum from the Mackenzie and Anderson region. The nation who made it called it a "Kuiimu'd'lin" kaiak. It is painted all over with red ocher, except on the bottom. The figure lias no legs and fits into the cockpit, which is without any coam ing. The head is separate and mounted on a long, slender pivot, which is fitted into a hole in the neck just loosely enough to allow it to turn easily. It is dressed in a hood of seal gut. The face is very natural, though rather rudely carved, and is lightly colored all over with red ocher, with the mouth painted deeply red, and the eyebrows, eyes, nos trils, and beard marked with black lead. The arms are narrow strips of whalebone, the ends of which protrude at the wrists, and are tied to the paddle by the ends of the strings which work it. The body is cov ered with a gut shirt. The paddle is of the common shape, and has the blade and the lower end of the shaft painted red. The strings for working this contrivance are of fine sinew braid. One string is tied into a little hole in the edge of the hood, where the left ear would be, the other passes round the Km. 382.— Kaiak carved from a block of wood. edge of the hood, and is tied at the right ear. These strings cross back of the head, and pass through two neat little ivory eyebolts inserted in the deck, 1 inch abaft the cockpit, and 1 inch apart. The strings from the hands are not crossed, but pass through two similar eyebolts, one at each edge of the deck, 2-5 inches from the cockpit. The ends of each set of strings are tied together. When the right pair and left pair of strings are pulled alternately, the man makes a stroke and looks to the right, then "recovers" and looks to the left. Both stroke and "recovery" are aided by the elasticity of the arms. This specimen shows a gueat deal of mechanical ingenuity, and was the only finished object of the kind seen. Fig. 382 (No. 89856 [783] from Utkiavwin) is a kaiak intended for a similar toy, which, when brought over for sale, had an unfinished arm less doll in the cockpit. This was, unfortunately, lost in unpacking. The kaiak, which is 27-6 inches long, is not new, but has been freshly scraped and painted on deck. It is also a foreign kaiak, being precisely like a model brought by Mr. Nelson from Norton Sound. It is not un likely that this boat itself came from that region through the " Nunataii- MURDOCH.] TOYS SPORTS. 383 miuii," unless, possibly, a southern kaiak had passed through the hands of enough people to reach a point where some Point Barrow native might see it. As far as we know no Point Barrow natives visit the regions where this form is used, and the model seems too accurate to have been made from a description. Jurenile implements. — We sometimes saw the children playing with little models of the implements and utensils used by their parents. Perhaps the commonest thing of this sort is the boy's bow. As soon as a boy is able to walk his father makes him a little bow suited to his strength, with blunt arrows, with which he plays with the other boys, shooting at marks — for instance, the fetal reindeer brought home from the spring hunt — till he is old enough to shoot small birds and lemmings. We also saw children playing with little drums, and one man made his little boy an elaborate ka'moti about 4 feet long. In the collection are a number of miniature implements, spears, etc., some of which have been already described, which were perhaps intended as playthings for the children. As, however, they wrere all newly made, it is possible that they were merely intended to catch the fancy of the strangers. No. 89451 [1113], from Nuwiik, is a little snow shovel 4-5 inches long, with a blade 2-1 inches wide, rather roughly carved from a piece of wal rus ivory. No. 89095 [1280] from Utkiavwifi, is a similar model of a deer lance, 7 inches long, all in one piece and made of reindeer antler. No. 89797 [1186] from Utkiavwlfi, is a quite well made model of the drum used for accompanying singing and dancing, and is almost large enough to have been used for a plaything. The stick is entirely out of proportion, being merely a roughly whittled bit of lath, 13 inches long. Games and sports.— The men have very few sports, though I have sometimes known them to amuse themselves by shooting at a mark with their rifles, and I once heard of a number of them wrestling. As far as I could learn, they wrestle " catch-as-catch-can " without any particular system. We never heard of anything like the athletic; sports mentioned by Bgede1 and Orantz2 or the pugilism described by Schwatka among the people of King William's Laud, when two men stand up to each other and exchange buffets till one or the other gives in.3 The women are very fond of playing " cat's cradle " whenever they have leisure, and make a number of complicated figures with the string, many of which represent various animals. One favorite figure is a very clever representation of a reindeer, which is made by moving the fingers to run down hill from one hand to the other.4 Another favorite amusement with the women and children is tossing three bullets or small pebbles with the right hand, after the manner of a juggler, 1 Greenland, p. 162. 'Vol. 1. p. 177. ' Scienor, vol. 4, Xo. 98, p. 545. 3 Science, vol. 4, No. 98, p. 545. 'Hall (Arctic Itesearches, p. 120) says the " cat's cradle " is a favorite amusement in Baffin I.aud, where they make many ligure.s, including representation* of the deer, whale, seal, and walrus. 384 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. keeping one ball constantly in the air. Some of the women are very skillful at this, keeping the balls up for a long time. This play is accompanied by a chant sung to a monotonous tune with very little air, but strongly marked time. 1 never succeeded in catching the words of this chant, which are uttered with considerable rapidity, and do not appear to be ordinary words. It begins " yut: yive yuka, yi'iB yuB yuka ; " and some of the words are certainly indelicate to .judge from the une quivocal gestures by which I once saw them accompanied. In the winter the young women and girls are often to be seen tossing a snowball with their feet. A girl wets some snow and makes a ball about as big as her two fists, which of course immediately becomes a lump of ice. This she balances on the toe of one foot and with a kick and a jump tosses it over to the other foot which catches it and tosses it back. Some women will keep this up for a number of strokes. The young people of both sexes also sometimes play football, kicking about an old mitten or boot stuffed with rags or bits of waste skin. I never saw them set up goals and play a regular game as they did in Greenland.1 The little girls also play with the skipping rope. I once watched three little girls jumping. Two swung the rope and the other stood in the middle and jumped. First they swung the rope under her feet to the right, then back under her feet to the left, and then once or twice wholly round under her feet and over her head, and then began again.2 They also play at housekeeping, laying sticks round to represent the sides of the house, or outlining the house by pressing up ridges of snow between their feet. Sometimes they mark out a complicated laby rinth on the snow in this way, and the game appears to be that one shall guard this and try to catch the others if they come in, as in many of the games of civilized children. I have already spoken of the formal children's dances. They often also dance by themselves, beating on old tin cans for drums. One night I saw a party of children having quite an elaborate performance near our station. The snow at the time was drifted up close under the eaves of the house. On the edge of the roof sat three little boys, each beating vigorously on an empty tomato can and singing at the top of his lungs, while another boy and a little girl were dancing on the snow waving their arms and singing as usual, and at the same time trying to avoid another girl about thirteen years old, who represented a demon. She was stooping forward, and moving slowly round in time with the music, turning from side to side and rolling her eyes fiercely, while she licked the blade of an open clasp knife, drawing it slowly across her lips. They seemed intensely in earnest, and were enjoying themselves hugely. After dancing a while at the station they went over to the village, and as they told me the next day spent the whole night singing in a vacant snow-house. 1 Sw Egedc, p. 161, and Crantz, vol. 1, p. 177. 3 Comparo Parry's Secoiid Voyage, p. 541. MUSIC. 385 They also amuse themselves in the winter by sliding on their knees down the steepest snowdrifts under the cliffs. A good deal of the time, however, they are following their parents or other grown people, catching little tish or fetching twigs for firewood or helping drive the dogs, though as a rule they are not made to do any regular work until they are pretty well grown. MUSIC. Musical instruments. — The only musical instrument in use among these people is the universal drum1 or tambourine (kelyau), consisting of a membrane stretched over a hoop with a handle on one side, and used from Greenland to Siberia. It is always accompanied by the voice singing or chanting. The player holds the handle in his left hand with the membrane away from him, and strikes alternately on each side of the rim with a short heavy piece of ivory, or a long slender wand, ro tating the drum slightly at the same time to meet the stroke. This produces a loud, resonant, and somewhat musical note. There appears, however, to be no system of tuning these drums, the pitch of the note depending entirely on accident. We collected four of these drums, of which every household possesses at least one. They are all of essentially the same con struction, but vary in size. No. 50741 [79], Fig. 3S,'$, has been selected as the type. The frame is a flat strip of willow (!7 inches long, 1 inch wide, and 0-3 inch thick, bent till the two ends meet, thus making a hoop 22-2 inches long and 19 inches wide. The ends are fastened together by a strap of walrus ivory on the inside of the hoop, secured to the wood by neat stitches of black whalebone. The handle is of walrus ivory 5-2 inches long. The larger end is rather rudely carved intx> a human face. Back of this head and 1 inch from the large end of the handle is a square transverse notch, deep and sufficiently wide to fit over both rim and strap at the joint. It is held on by a lashing of sinew braid passing through holes in rim and strap, one on each side of the handle, and a large transverse hole in the latter, below and a little in front of the notch. The membrane, which appears to be a sheet of the peritoneum of a seal, is stretched over the other side of the hoop, which is beveled on the outside edge, and its edge is brought down to a deep Fio. 3811. —Drum. 1 Xordenskiold calls this " the drum, or more correctly, tambourine, so common among most of the Polar peoples, European. Asiatic, and American ; among the Lapps, the Samoyeds, the Tunguses, and the Eskimo." (Vega, vol. 2, p. 128). 9 ETH 25 386 TIIIC POINT HARROW ESKIMO. groove 0-2 inch from the edge of the hoop and ()..'{ inch wide, running round the hoop, where it is secured by three or four turns of sinew braid. The end of this string is crossed back and forth four or five times round the handle, where it is fitted to the hoop and then wrapped around it and finished off with a knot. No. 50742 [514], from Utkiavwifi, is a similar drum, but somewhat larger, the hoop being 24-G inches long and 22 inches wide. It is of the same materials, except that the strap at the joint is of reindeer antler. Opposite the joint the hoop appears to have shown signs of weakness, as it has been strengthened with two straps of walrus ivory, one on the inside and one on the outside of the hoop, fastened together by stitches of sinew which pass through the wood and through both straps. The inside strap is 4-7 inches long, the outer .'5-5 inches long, and only half the width of the rim, and is let into the latter. This strap ap pears to have been put on first, as at each end there, is a stitch which only runs through the wood. The handle is fastened on as before, but has two transverse holes instead of one, and has four deep rounded notches for the lingers. (See Fig. ,'584.) The joint is tightened by driving a thin sliver of wood in at the bottom of the notch. No. 5). Handles with grooves for the fingers and sometimes for the thumb seem to be quite as common as the plain handles. Fig. 385« represents an ivory handle from Nuwiik (No. 802(57 [808] ), which has a groove for each finger and a shallow one on the right side for the thumb. It is 5 inches long. With one exception all these handles have the large end more or less neatly carved into a human face, with the mouth open as if singing, Flo. ^84. — Handle of drum secured to rim MfRDOCII.] MUSIC. 387 probably from an idea similar to that which makes the decorative artists of civilized countries ornament the pipes of a great organ with singing faces. This face is usually in the position shown in the specimens figured, but No. 8!)2<56 [784] (Fig. :«.->/,), a handle of antler from Utkiavwin, has the axis of the face parallel to that of the handle. Nos. 8!>2(»!> [!)75] and f>(ir>l,'> [7(5], both from Utkiavwin, are peculiar in their ornamentation. They are both of walrus ivory. The former has a well carved face at the large end with small blue beads inlaid for eyes. In addition to this the small end has been rather freshly carved into a rather rude seal's head, and an ornamental pattern has been incised round the middle. This specimen exhibits the grooves for the fingers very well. The latter is a plain handle, but has a little sharp tusk Flu. :I85.— Uruui hiinilles. inserted at each corner of the mouth. The only handle without a human face on the large end (Xo. r>ii.~>14 [(>.">] Fig. SS.'ic, from (Itkiavwin) is peculiar in many respects. It is the butt end of a small walrus tusk, with a large pulp cavity, the edges of which are much notched and irregularly broken. The notch for fitting it to the handle is at the smaller end, which is neatly carved into a very good figure of a walrus head, with the tusks bent back to the under side of the handle. The head has oval bits of wood inlaid for eyes. None of the drums or handles in the collection are newly made. The stick employed for beating these drums is commonly a slender elastic wand about 2£ feet long, but they also sometimes use a short 388 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. thick stick of ivory resembling that used by the eastern Eskimo. ' We brought home two of these sticks, both of which belong with the drum No. 50743 [31]. Fig. 386o. (No. 56540 [-'51]) is a roughly cylindrical rod of ivory with a hole for a lanyard. The larger end is ornamented by rudely incised and darkened lines which represent the eyes and outline of the mouth of a "bow-head" whale. Fig. 386ft (No. 50540 [31«,]) is a plain round stick of ivory 9-4 inches long. It is rather roughly made and somewhat warped. The use of the long stick is perhaps derived from Siberia, where the short thick stick does not appear to be used.2 Holes in the membrane of the drum are sometimes mended with pieces of the crop of the ptarmigan. At any rate, this is what I was told by a native, who begged from me the crops of two of these birds that I was skinning, saying that he wanted them to mend his drum. These drums are always beaten as an accompaniment to invocations of spirits or incantations. This practice is so common that some authors are in the habit of always speaking of them as " shaman drums". As I have 6 FIG. 386. — Ivory drumsticks. already stated, their most common use? is purely as a musical instru ment, and they are used not only by the so-called "shamans" but by everybody. Character and frequency of music. — Their music consists of monoto nous chants, usually with very little perceptible air, and pitched gener ally in a minor key. I could not perceive that they had any idea of " tune," in the musical sense, but when several sang together each pitched the tune to suit himself. They, however, keep excellent time. The ordinary songs are in " common" or \ time.3 The words are often extemporaneous, and at tolerably regular intervals comes the refrain, " A yafia yafia, a yana ya," which takes the place of the " amua aja" of the eastern Eskimo. Sometimes, when they are humming or singing to themselves, the words are nothing but this refrain. Their voices^ as a general thing, are musical. Like all Eskimo, they are very fond of music, and are constantly 1 See, for example, Bessell's Naturalist, vol. 18. pt. 9, p. 881. (The people of Smith Sound use the femur of a walrus or seal. Cf. C'apt. Lyou's picture. Parry's 2d Voyage, pi. opposite p. 530. and (lilder, Schwatka's Search, p. 43, where the jK-oplc of the west shore of Hudson Hay are desrrihed as using a "wooden drumstick shaped like a potato-m;iMher.'') 2See Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 51, and Nordenskiold, Vejja, vol. 2, pp. 23 and 128; figure on p. 24. •Compare Crantz, vol. 1, p. 176. MURDOCH.] MUSIC. 389 singing and humming to themselves, sometimes, according to Gapt. Herendeen, waking up iu the night to sing. Besides their regular fes tivals they often amuse themselves in their houses by singing to the drum. They are fond of civilized music, and, having usually very quick and rather acute ears, readily catch the tunes, which they sing with curiously mutilated words. We found " Shoo Fly" and " Little Brown Jug" great favorites at the time of our arrival, and one old woman from Xnwftk, told us with great glee, how Magwa (Maguire) used to sing '' Tolderolderol." Our two violins, the doctor's and the cook's, were a constant source of delight to them. ('apt. Parry1 gives an excellent account of the music of the people of Fury and Hecla Straits.2 I regret extremely that 1 was not enough of a musician to write down on the spot the different tunes sung by these people. The ordinary monotonous chant is so devoid of air that I can not possibly recollect it, and the same is true of the chant which accompanies the game of pebble-tossing. [ was able, however, to catch by ear the song sung by the children when they dance to the aurora. 1 never had the whole of this song, which we were told had a large number of stanzas. The first three are as follows: 1. Ki6ya ke, kiciya ke, A, yaTit!, yafli!, ya, H\vi, hwi, Lwi, h\vi! 2. Tiidllmanrf, tiiclllmana', A yaTii:, yafiu, ya, Hwi, hwi, hwi, hwi! 3. Kalutaud, kalutaua, A yam:, yaTi«, ya, Hwi, liwi, liwi, hwi! We did not succeed in learning the meaning of these words, except, of course, that the first word, kioya, is aurora. When there is a bright aurora, the children often keep on dancing and singing this song till late into the night. A tune was introduced in the spring of 1883 by a party of men from Kilauwltawlfi, who came up to take part in the whale-fishing at Utkiavwlfi. It became at once exceedingly popular, and everybody was singing or humming it. It is peculiar in being in waltz or j| time, and has considerably more air than the ordinary tunes. I heard no words sung to it except: "O hai hai yafia, O hai yaiia, O haija he, haija he." Mr. Dall informs me that he recognizes this tune as one sung by the Indians on the Yukon. ART. The artistic sense appears to be much more highly developed among the western Eskimo than among those of the east. Among the latter, '2<1 Voyage. ]>. 541. *See also the pas-sage 1'roui Crantz, (gtioted above; Dall, Alaska, p. 16; and Xurdennkiold, Vega, vol. 2, pp. 23 aud 130. 390 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. decoration appears to be applied almost solely to the clothing, while tools and utensils are usually left plain, and if ornamented are only adorned with carving or incised lines.1 West of the Mackenzie Kiver, and especially south of Bering Strait, Eskimo decorative art reaches its highest development, as shown by the collections in the National Museum. Not only is everything finished with the most extreme care, but all wooden objects are gaily painted with various pigments, and all articles of bone and ivory are covered with ornamental carvings arid incised lines forming conventional patterns. There are in the collections also many objects that appear to have been made simply for the pleasure of exercising the ingenuity in repre senting natural or fanciful objects, and are thus purely works of art. Want of space forbids any further discussion of these interesting objects. There is in the Museum sufficient material for a large mono graph on Eskimo art. As would naturally be expected, art at Point Barrow occupies a somewhat intermediate position between the highly developed art of the southwest and the simple art of the east. I have given sufficient figures in my description of their clothing and various implements to illustrate the condition of purely decorative art. A few words may be added by way of resume. It will be noticed that when ever the bone or ivory parts of weapons are decorated the ornamenta tion is usually in the form of incised lines colored with red ocher or soot. These lines rarely represent any natural objects, but generally form rather elegant conventional patterns, most commonly double or single borders, often joined by oblique cross lines or fringed with short, pointed parallel lines. A common ornament is the incised "circle and dot," so often referred to in the foregoing descriptions. This is a circle about one-quarter inch in diameter, described as accurately as if done with compasses, with a deeply incised dot exactly in the center. This ornament is much more common south of Bering Strait, where, as Mr. L. M. Turner informs me, it is a conventionalized representation of a flower. Some of the older implements in our collection, ornamented with this figure, may have been obtained by trade from the southern natives, but the Point Barrow people certainly know how to make it, as there are a number of newly made articles in the collection thus ornamented. Unfortunately, we saw none of these objects in the process of manufacture, as they were made by the natives during odd moments of leisure, and at the time I did not realize the importance of finding out the process. No tool by which these figures could be made so accurately was ever offered for sale. Neither Mr. Turner nor Mr. I )all, both of whom, as is well known, spent long periods among the natives of the Yukon region, ever observed the, process of making this ornament. The latter, however, suggests that it is perhaps done with an improvised ceuterbit, made by sticking 1 See the various accounts ol1 tin- eastern Eskimo already referredto. MURDOCH.] ART. 391 two iron points close together in the end of a handle. While weapons are decorated only with conventional patterns, other implements of bone or ivory, especially those pertaining to the chase, like the seal drags, etc., already mentioned, are frequently carved into the shape of animals, as well as being ornamented with conventional patterns. Carv ings of animals' heads usually have the month, nostrils, etc., indicated by blackened incisions, and often have small, colored heads, bits of wood, or ivory inlaid for the eyes. When heads are used, the perfora tion of the bead is generally made to represent the pupil of the eye. Beads were also nsed for ornamenting dishes and other wooden objects. The harpoon blade boxes of wood carved into the shape of the animal to be pursued have been already described. Other wooden objects, like the shafts of lances, and arrows, paddles, boxes, dishes, the woodwork of snowshoes, sledges, umiaks, ete., are frequently painted either all over, or in stripes or bands. The pigment generally used is red ocher, some times set off with stripes of black lead. The only case in which a differ ent pigment is used is that of some arrows from Sidaru, which, in addi tion to the usual black or red rings, have a rather dingy green ring round the shaft. This green looks as if it might have been derived from the "green fungus w ]><'ziz«" mentioned by Dall as in use among the an cient Aleuts.1 The red ocher is applied smoothly in a, rather thin coat which looks as if it were always put on in the manner observed by Capt. Herendeen, who saw a man painting a new sled at Utkiavwln. He licked the freshly scraped wood with his tongue, so as to moisten it witli saliva and then rubbed it with a lump of red ocher. The custom of painting wooden objects with red ocher seemed to be rather more common among the "Nunataiimiun," from whom perhaps the Point Barrow people borrowed the fashion, which is not mentioned among the eastern Eskimo. Noidenskiold states that red is the favorite color among the n'atives of Pitlekaj.2 The painting of the arrow shafts in many cases curiously resembles the marks used by modern archers to distinguish the ownership of their shafts, and may have formerly served the same purpose. We made no inquiries about the matter on the spot, and there is no certain evidence in the series of arrows collected that these are or are not marks of own ership. Some arrows, apparently the property of the same man, have different marks, while arrows from different villages are similarly marked. On examining our series of fifty arrows from the three villages (t'ourteeen from Xuwfik, twenty from Utkiavwifi, and sixteen from Sidaru) it will be seen that the commonest style of painting is to have the shaft painted red from the beginning or middle of the feathering to about one-fifth of its length from the head. Twenty arrows are marked in this way — eleven from Nuwfik, belonging to at least two distinct sets, and nine from Utkiavwifi, belonging to three sets. Nine have 'CoutributioiiH to N. A. Ethll., vol. 1, p. 86. ''Vega, vol. 2, p. IK. 392 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. about 8 inches of the middle of the shaft painted red, with a black ring at the middle of the feathering, Seven of these are from Sidaru, one from Nuwiik, and one from UtkiavwTn. Five from Sidaru have a red ring round the middle, and a green one about the middle of the feather ing, and four of the same set have also a red ring in front of the green one. Three from Utkiavwlfi, belonging to different sets, have the shaft painted red from the middle to the beginning of the feathering, and three red rings 2 inches from the nock. Seven belonging to these sets from the two northern villages are unpainted. A set of two small arrows which belong with the boy's bow No. 89!M)4 [786] are peculiar in their marking. About 5.J inches of the middle of the shaft is painted red, there is a black ring round the middle, aud a black spiral running the whole length of the feathering. The only decorative work in metal is to be seen in the pipes and their accompanying picks and fire steel which have already been described. In addition to these illustrations of decorative art, we brought home a series of seventy-nine objects which may be considered as purely works of art without reference to decoration. Some of the older objects in this series perhaps also served the purpose of amulets or charms,1 but a number of the new ones were made simply as works of fancy for sale to us. These objects are all carvings of various materials, some times very rude and sometimes very neatly finished, but in most cases even when rudely made highly characteristic of the object represented.2 Walrus ivory, usually from the tusks, but sometimes from the teeth, is the commonest material for these carvings. Thirty-six of the series are made of this material, which is very well suited for the purpose, being worked with tolerable ease, and capable of receiving a high finish. Soapstone, from the ease with which it can be cut, is also rather a favorite material. Seventeen of these, carvings are made of soapstoue, in many cases evidently pieces of an old lamp or kettle. Other mineral substances appear to be rarely used. Three images, all made for sale and by the same hand, are of soft white gypsum and one tiny image of a bear is rudely naked out of gray flint. (There are in the collection a number of rude images of whales, made by flaking from flint, jasper, aud glass, but as these were ascertained without doubt to be amulets, they will be described under that head.) Kleven are made of wood, nine of bone, one of antler, and one of the tooth of the polar bear. Twenty-three of these carvings represent human beings, sometimes in tentionally grotesque, ana caricatured; twenty -one, bowhead whales; fourteen, polar bears; five, seals; three, walruses; one, a beluga; one, a fish ; and seven, fanciful monsters. Pour are ornamented objects made for sale; not, strictly speaking, images. Six of the representations of the human face or figure are of wood, 1 Compare Nordenskiold, Vega, vol. 2, p. 126 and Kink, Tales, etc.., p. 52. "Compare liessels, Naturalist, vol. 18, No. 9, p. 880, when- he speaks of finding among the. people of Smith Sound ivory carvings representing animals and human figures '• exceedingly characteristic." (See also Fig. 21 of the same paper.) IMAGES. 303 and with one exception were all freshly made for sale. Fig. 387 repre sents the only antique specimen of this kind (No. 5li4!»<> |05.")]). This was found among the debris in one of the old ruined houses in Utki- avwlfi by Lieut. Kay, and is very old, blackened, and dirty. The carv ing' was evidently done with a blunt instrument, probably a stone tool. This specimen, which was perhaps the head of a doll, is 7-1 inches in total length, with ahead 3-4 inches long. We saw no similar object of modern construction. Figs. 388« and 388& (Nos. 8072<> [1102] and 897:27 [1103], from Ttki- avwifi) are a pair of rather roughly whittled human figures, a man and woman, respectively, both without clothes (except that the woman has a black-lead mark round the calf of each leg to indicate the tops of FIG. 387. — Ancient rarvinji, human head. Fio. 388.— Woo495a [203], from UtkiavwTfi, is of a pair of very rude images, also made solely for the, market. Each is S inches long, and is merely an oblong piece of board, flat and rough on the back, roughly beveled from the middle to each side in front. One end is surmounted by a rather rudely carved human head, with the features in relief and the eyes and mouth incised. The eye brows are marked out with black lead, and there is a longitudinal line of black lead down the middle o f t h e front. Fig. 389 (No. 89724 Flo. :!H9.— Carving, face of Eskimo man. [1123] from NllWUlv) JS the face of a male Eskimo, 3-2 inches long, carved out of a flat piece of some coniferous wood weathered to a dark, reddish brown. The labrets are represented by two small, red glass beads with white cen ters, fastened on in the proper position with wooden pegs. There is a deep groove around the edge of the face into which is fastened a strip of yellowish wolfskin with long fur to represent the trimming around the hood of the jacket. This specimen was made for sale, and the carving is well executed. It is a characteristic Eskimo face, and would pass for a portrait of Apaidyao, a well known young Eskimo, who was employed by Lieut. Kay as a guide and hunter. \Ve collected only two soap-stone carvings representing men, both of -which were newly made;. One of these, Fig. 390 (No. 89509 [1095 1 from Nuwuk), is a grotesque image 2-9 inches FIO.WO.— Groteaqnewiaprtone ,. , -, ima-if, "walrus man." long, roughly carved from a flat piece or an old lamp or pot. This is almost exactly the form in which the Eskimo, especially the children, usually draw a man. The writer's portrait MURDOCH.] IMAOES. has been drawn in very much the same shape. Tlie features are very rudely indicated, and a long projecting tusk of bone is inserted at each corner of the mouth and glued in with refuse oil. This figure is probably meant to represent the- " man with tusks,'' before referred to, who figures in several of the legendary fragments which we obtained. No. SO.'iOS [1108], from Utkiavwlfi, probably represents the same being. It is a mask of soapstone, a piece of an old lamp, 2-S inches long, with very characteristic features in low relief, and a, pair of sharp, projecting, decurved tusks, about 1 inch long, which appear to be made of the vihrissre of the walrus. The back of the mask is roughly hol lowed out. No. 89575 [1014], from Ninvfik, is a clumsy and carelessly made image of a man, 3-4 inches long, whittled out of a flat, rough piece of soft, white gypsum. The arms are short and clum sy and the legs straddling, and there is a large ellip tical hole through the middle of the body. The features are indicated only by digging little cavities for the eyes, nostrils, and mouth. This and two other images of the same material, a be.ir equally rude, and a very well carved and characteristic be luga, were made by the ingenious young native, Yoksu, previously mentioned. The best bone figure of a man is shown in Fig. 301 (No. S0353 [1025], from Nuwuk), also newly made. This is an image, 5 inches long, of the giant " Kika- migo,'1 previously mentioned, and is a very excellent piece of workmanship. The material is rather vas cular compact bone. On the head is a conical dancing cap, 1-4 inches high, made of deerskin, with the flesh side out, and colored with red ocher, with a tuft of wolf hairs, .'? inches long, protruding from the apex. Around the middle of the cap is a narrow strip of the same material fringed on the lower edge with fifteen flat, narrow pendants of ivory, made to represent mountain-sheep teeth. To the back of this strip is fastened a half-downy feather nearly 4 inches long. A slender wooden stick is stuck into the strip behind, so that the tip reaches just above, the apex of the cap. To a notch in the end of this is tied a bit of dressed deerskin, 1^ inches long, cut into three ships. Fig. 302 (No. 80348 [1127], from rtkiavwln) is an image neatly carved from whale's bone, which may have been meant for an amulet, or pos sibly the handle of a drill cord, as it is not new, and has two oblique holes in the middle of the back, which meet so as "to form a longitudinal channel for a string. The eyes, mouth, and labret holes are incised anil tilled with black dirt. The total length is .''>•:{ inches. Km. ::91.— lioiit- image of dancer. 390 THE POINT BARKOW ESKIMO. Flo. ;i92.— lione im:ii:'- of man. Fig. .'{93 (No. 89344 [1272], from Utkiavwlfi) is a very grotesque image of a iiiikeil man, rudely carved from compart, rather porous hone, im pregnated with oil, but scraped smooth. It is 5 inches long. The mouth and eyes are incised and blackened, and the nos trils simply bored out. The ivory carvings representing hu man figures are all of rather rude work manship. No. 89352 [1100], Fig. 394, from Niiwfik, is a tolerably good figure, 3-3 inches long, of a sitting man hold ing up his bands before his face. This specimen is old and is made of walrus ivory yellow from age aiid oil. No. 89351 [1085] from Nuwuk, is a similar image, 3-8 inches long, newly made, with the arms at the sides, roughly carved from coarse wal rus ivory. The eyes and mouth are incised and filled with dark colored dirt. Fig. 395 (No. S9349 1 980], from Nuwuk) is an old image made of yellow walrus ivory and closely resembling the bone image (No. 89348 [1127] ) already figured, but with the hands by the sides. It is 2-7 inches long and has a string 4 inches long tied into the channel in the back. Nos. 8934G and 89347 [990], from Nuwuk, are a pair of little men, standing erect, about 2 inches high, rather roughly carved, of slightly yellow walrus ivory. Both have large, clumsy feet and legs, and the eyes, nostrils, and mouth incised and filled in as usual with dark colored dirt. The arms are in high relief. No. 89340 [99()/>J has his hands clasped in front of him, while No. 89347 [990«] has them clasped behind his back. The legs of the latter are excavated on the inside as if to fit it upon the end of some object. • It is more probable, however, that this image was carved from the foreshaft of a seal-dart, and that the excavation is merely the slot in the end of the latter. These two images are evidently modern, but do not appear freshly made. No. 89345 [1273] from Utkiavwin is a very rude image, 2-(i inches long, having a very small head and no arms. It is somewhat dis colored walrus ivory and quite dirty, and though evi dently modern, from the appearance of the ivory, does not appear to Km. 393. — Grotesque Fro. 395.— Hu- niaii figure carved from walrus ivory. Flo. :t94.— Ivory im ago, sitting jiiiin. CARVINGS. 397 FIG. 390. — Ivory carviuy;, tliree liiiinan heads. woman on each side, joined to- be freshly ma7 [1274], from UtkiavwTfi) is the best in execution. It is made of white ivory and is ,'!•:{ inches long. No. 5G524, [92], from Nuwfik, is a small bear, 1-7 inches long, not quite so well carved, and disproportionally long-legged. The left hind leg ha»s been broken oft' close to the body and doweled on \vith a wooden peg. Another little bear from Nuwuk (No. 89841 [992]) is still more rudely carved, but closely resembles the preceding. 400 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. A larger carving, rather roughly executed (No. 89338 [1098], from Nuwfik), represents a standing bear 3-2 inches long, holding a whale crosswise, in his mouth. The whale is a separate piece, held in by a wooden peg driven through the bear's lower jaw. This specimen is newly made from rather coarse walrus ivory. Fig. 4026 (No. 89340 [953], from Utkiavwifi) is a very ancient ivory image of a bear, 3-4 inches long, which was evidently intended for an amulet, as there is a stout lug on the belly, into which are bored two oblique holes, so as to make a longitudinal channel for a string. Into this is knotted a stout cord of loosely twisted sinew. The execution of the image is particularly good, but the design is very rude. The speci men is so ancient that the ivory of which it is made has become almost black. No. 56528a [5<>«] from Utkiavwifi is a walrus tooth, 1-6 inches long, carved into the shape of a bear's head. Both design and execution are very rude. Light blue glass beads are inlaid for the eyes, and the nostrils and outline of the mouth are incised and tilled in with black dirt. It was made for sale. A still more rude carving, also made for sale, is No. 56528, from Utkiavwifi, which is an old and weathered canine tooth of the polar bear, with the point freshly whittled so as to look something like a bear's head. Two sky-blue glass beads are inlaid to represent the eyes Fli:. 4U2.-Ivory (iguiTs of lirars. ill I (I O116 for the 11OSC, aild tllO mouth is incised and blackened. The walrus does not appear to be a favorite subject for representation. The part of the collection already described shows that it occurs very seldom as a decoration, and we obtained only three images of this ani mal, one in Hoapstone and two in ivory, all small and very rude, both in design and execution. They are all newly made. The best image is shown in Fig. 403« (No. 89333 [1384] from Utkiavwffi). This is 2-3 inches long and made of coarse; walrus ivory. The head is rather good, but the body simply tapers to a broken point. A bit of wood is inlaid for the left eye, but the right is merely represented by a hole. Fig. 403& (No. 89334 [1.0(57], from Utkiavwifi) is exceedingly rude, The eyes, nostrils, and mouth are incised and blackened as usual, ami the vibrissas ("whiskers") are represented by rather large round pits on the snout, also filled in with black dirt. It is 2-9 inches long, and appears MURDOCH.] CARVINGS ANIMALS 401 to have been dipped in the oil-bucket to make it look. old. Both the images bear a strong re semblance to the rude carvings of walruses from Siberia figured by Nordenskiold.' No. 89570 [1271] from Nil- wttk is of soapstone, 2 inches long, with tusks rudely carved from wal rus ivory. The head is but roughly indicated, while the body is shaped like a slug, and is bifid at the pointed end to '^B W represent the hind flip pers. The eyes and nos trils are roughly incised. The seal, on the other hand, is a favorite object for artistic represen tation. It is seen often, as already described, as a decoration on vari ous implements, especially the drag lines, generally in a very charac teristic shape, and the five seal images in the collection are excellent in design and execution. Almost all are decidedly superior to those from Flo. 4UU. — Kudu ivory figures oi' walrus. Flo. 404. — Images of seal — wood and lione. Pitlekaj, figured by Nordenskiold.' All are newly made except No. 89737 [857«j. Fig. 40-trt, from Utkiavwlii, which is 4-2 inches long, and made of spruce, very old, weathered, and discolored with dirt and grease. It is nicely carved and scraped smooth, and is very good in its general proportions, though the details are not represented as in the other images. 9 ETH- -26 'Vega, vol. 2, p. 142. 402 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. The best figure, (No. 89330 [!»!)!)] figured in the Point Barrow Kept. Kthnol., PL v, Fig.6, from Utkiavwlfi) is carved from walrus ivory and is 4-3 inches long. It represents a male rough seal, and is exceedingly accurate and highly finished. The lower jaw is perforated and a bit of sinew thread tied in to represent the drag line. Small red glass beads with white centers are inlaid for the eyes. The other three are all of bone and represent dead male seals stretched on their backs with the drag line in their jaw as they are dragged home. No. 56579 [75], Fig. 404/>, from UtkiavwTn, is 5-7 inches long, and very smoothly carved from walrus jaw bone, with round bits of wood inlaid for the eyes. The proportions are excellent, but the details are not strongly brought out. This specimen is a little older than the rest, and may have been an amulet for good luck in seal catching. The other two are of compact white bone, perhaps that of the reindeer. No. 89331 [1143 1, from Utkiavwifi, is 3-4 inches long, and has the breast and back flattened and the flippers in high relief. The anus, genital opening, and eyes are incised, the latter two tilled in, as usual, with black dirt. The drag line is of sinew braid and has an ivory cylinder slipped over it. No. 89328 [1167], from ITtkiavwIn, is the poorest in design. It is 5-6 inches long and has the neck bent up as in dragging. The back of a freshly caught seal is always somewhat flattened by dragging it over the ice, and this flattening is very much exaggerated in this carving by the natural shape of the bone. The fore nippers are in high relief, with three toes to each flipper, colored round the edge with red ocher. The tips of the hind flippers are joined together, and each has only two toes. The eyes, genital opening, and the spots on the back and belly arc indi cated by shallow round pits colored with red ocher. The drag line is a double bit of sinew braid, which has on it two ivory cylinders, one ornamented with an incised pattern. We found but a single figure of the beluga, which is such a favorite subject for Kskimo artists farther south. This is the gypsum carving already mentioned (No. 89573 [1015J, Fig. 405, from Nuwuk). It is 3-5 inches long and is very characteristic, though rather short in proportion to its girth. It was neatly carved with a knife. The "bow-head" whale (Balasna mysticetus), is a very favorite sub ject, appearing often as a decoration and represented by 21 carvings. Three of these are of wood, very much resembling in design and exe cution the harpoon boxes already described. They are all very old, and Fio.405.— Wliitc wlml from gypsum. MURDOCH.] CARVINGS WH.ALKS. 403 perhaps were charms to be carried in the boat to secure good hick in whaling. No. 897.'?] from t'tkiavwifi, is also a rather well proportioned figure, rude in execution, with no details carved out except the flukes-, one of which is broken. An angular bit of iron pyrites is inlaid to represent the left eye, and a similar piece appears to have been lost from the right eye. The anus is represented by a light blue glass bead inlaid in the belly. It is 8-8 inches long and made of soft wood, probably cottonwood, weathered and stained to a dark brown. It is very old and much chipped and cracked. Two small oblique holes in the middle of the back make a transverse channel for a string. This specimen was said by the man who sold it to have been dug up among the ruins of one of the old houses in the village. Ho. 89734 [987] from Nuwuk, is 12 inches long, very broad in propor tion to its length, and rather rude in design, with a Hat belly, though FIG. 4UO. — Wooden cnrvini: — uliale. Km. 4117. — Whale carved i'nmi soapstone. neatly carved and scraped smooth. The spiracles and the outline of the mouth are incised and little angular bits of brown quartz are inlaid for the eyes. Both flukes have been split off and part of the right fluke has been fastened on again with a single wooden treenail. It is of spruce or hemlock and has weathered to a brown color. Fig. 407 (No. 89561 [125:5] from Utkiavwln) represents the best image of a whale in the collection. It is very well proportioned, though per haps a little clumsy about the flukes, with the external details correctly represented. It is 4-5 inches long, neatly carved from soapstone, scraped smooth and oiled. It was made for sale. There are five other round soapstone carvings of whales in the collection, but none so good IT V VVXVlIUiTT 404 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. as this except a little one from Nuwiik, (Xo. 80563 [986]) 2 inches long, which is almost an exact miniature of the preceding. This specimen is not new. Fig. 408 (Xo. 89557 [1267] from Utkiavwifi) is a rude/erf representation of a whale seen from above. It is 5-2 inches long and Flo. 409.— Ivory image of whale. Fio. 40».— Kude flat image of whale. roughly whittled out of the bottom of an old stone pot. The flippers are large and clumsy, and the spiracles slightly incised. The specimen appears to be old, as does a similar one from Xuwiik (Xo. 89559 [1188«]). No. 89558 [1266] from Utkiavwifi, and Xo. 89572 from Xuwuk, both flat images, are carelessly made for sale. The latter is simply a representation in soapstone of the conventional " whale's tail" with the " small" cut off to an angular point. Xo. 89325 [1160] from Utkiavwifi is a clumsy, broad whale with a flat belly, 4-1 inches long, freshly carved from whale's bone, and soaked in oil to make it look old. The eyes, spiracles, and outline of the mouth are incised and filled in with dark oil lees. None of the ivory carvings of whales have any special artistic merit. Fig. 409 (Xo. 89323 [1024fl.] from Xuwfik) is the best of these. It is a little better in design and execution than the preceding, which it re sembles considerably. It is the female of a pair of little whales made of old brown walrus ivory, which is much cracked. The male differs from the female only in the shape of the external sexual organs, the male having a little round pit and the iemale a lojig sulcus. This, as well as the eyes, spiracles, and outline of the mouth, is incised and filled in with dark colored dirt. The female is 3-1 inches long, the male (Xo. 89324 [1024&]) 0-1 inch longer. These specimens appear to be quite ancient. Fig. 410 (Xo. 89326 [1086] from Xuwttk) is very long and slender— 4-3 inches long and only 0-7 inch wide — with the belly perfectly flat, Fl(i. 410. — Ivory ininjre of whale. CARVINGS WHALES, ETC. 405 rv wliiilf but otherwise a very good representation, neatly carved. The flukes in particular are especially well done, and the flippers are in high relief. The eyes, the spiracles, and the out line of the mouth are incised and the first blackened. The material is a rather poor quality of walrus ivory, about half "core." The specimen was made for sale. No. 89327 [991] from Nuwiik was also made for sale. It is a little whale 1-6 inches long, rudely carved in walrus ivory. Fig. 411 (No. 56G19 [60] from TJt- kiavwlii) represents a pair of little whales, each carved from a walrus tooth, which probably served for buttons or toggles of some sort, though 1 do not recollect ever seeing such objects in use. The belly of each is flat and has in the middle a stout lug perforated with a transverse eye, and they are tied together by a piece of thong about 14 inches long. They are quite well designed and executed, but rather "stumpy" in outline, with the outline of the mouth and the spiracles incised and blackened, and little round bits of tooth inlaid for eyes. In the middle of the back of each was inlaid a small blue glass bead, which still re mains in one of them. They are old and dirty and somewhat chipped about the flukes. Fig. 412 (No. 89507 [904] from Nuwiik) represents an imaginary quadruped 2-5 in ches long, with a short, thick body and legs, no neck, and a human head, with the eyes and mouth in cised. It is roughly carved from light gray soapstone, and ground pretty smooth. This figure is not new, and has ]> rob ably connected with it some story whicli we did not succeed in learning. The seller called it an " old man." No. 89332 [994] from Nuwfik, is a fanciful monster, 4-2 inches long, carved in ivory. It has a human head with the tusks of a walrus, the body, tail, and nippers of a seal, with human arms. The hands, each of which has four fingers, clasp some round object against the belly. It is not old, but apparently was not made Fio.412.— Snap- BtoDe image of imaginary ani mal. a FIG. 413. — Ivory curving, seal with fish's head. 406 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. ..1. Flo. 414.— Ivory i-arving, tou-k-ggeil lnair. for the market. It was called a "walrus man;" but we did not learn whether it was simply a fancy figure or whether there was any story connected with it. Fig. 413 (No. 89329 [1101] from Nuwuk) is another monster, 3-9 inches long, carved in ivory. It has a fish's head with large canine teeth, and a seal's body, tail, and hind flippers. The eyes, nostrils, gill slits, the outlines of the tail, and the toes, of which there are six on each flip per, are incised and blackened. A row of nineteen small round pits, filled with dark colored dirt runs nearly straight from the nape to the tail. Fig. 414 (No. 89339 [1099] from Nuwfik) is a newly made ivory figure, which is interesting from its resemblance to one of the fabulous animals which figure in the Greenland legends. It is 4 indies long and repre sents a long-necked bear with ten legs, an animal which the maker gave us to understand had once • been seen at Point Barrow. The resemblance of this ani mal to the" kiliopak" or "kilif- vak" of the Greenland stories, which is described as "an ani mal with six or even ten feet" ' is quite striking. Fig. 415 (No. 89723 [1084] from Nuwfik) is another rep resentation of the giant who holds a whale in each hand. He was called in this instance ''Kaioasu," and not "Kikami- go." This image is carved from very old pale brown wal rus ivory, and is 2-3 inches high. A transverse incised line across each cheek from the wing of the nose, indicates the whale man's tattoo mark of the Eastern fashion. The image is ancient, but is mounted in a socket in the middle of a newly made wooden stand, which has a broad border of red ocher and a broad streak of the same paint along each diameter. Fig. 410 (No. 8933(i [1309]) is a curious piece of carving, which Xika- wdalu said he found in one of the ruined houses on the river Kulugrua. -• Fin. 415. — Ivory carviug, giant holding whales. 1 Riiik, Tales, etc., p. 48. Sue also same- work, passim, among the stories. CARVINGS. 407 The carving is well executed and really seems to be old, although it has evidently been retouched in a good many places. It is made from an irregularly flattened bit of reindeer antler, .'i-ti inches long, blackened by the weather on the flat surfaces, and represents an animal with four legs, which appear to be dog's legs, and at each end what appears to be a dog's head. One of these is smaller than the other and both have the ears in re lief, and the eyes, nostrils, and outlines of the mouth incised. Fig. 417 (No. 5G520 [85] from Nuwfik) is a fanci ful object made solely for the market. It consists of the rudely carved head of some carnivo rous animal, made of ivory, and 2-0 inches long, fitted to the broad end of a flat-pointed wooden handle, painted red. The head was called a " dog", but it looks more like a bear. Small bits of wood are inlaid for the eyes, and the outline of the mouth is deeply incised and colored with red ocher, having bits of white ivory inlaid to represent the canine teeth. The ears, nostrils, vibrissa-, and hairs on the muzzle are in dicated by blackened incisions. There is an ornamented collar round Flu. 411).— I>onlili--hf:iilf!> (Greenland) ; Knmlien, Contribution!), p. 164 (Cumberland Cull') ; Hall, Arctic Researches, p. 567 (liatiin Laud) ; Tarry, 2nd Voyage, p. 528 (Fury and Ilecla Straits) ; Sehwatka, Science, vol. 4, No. 98, p. r>44 (King William's Land); Gilder, Sehwatka's Search, p. 250 (Hudson's Bay) ; Franklin, First Exp., vol. '2, p. 41 (Chesterfield Inlet) ; Hooper, Telits, etc., p. 209 (Plover Bay) ; Norclenskiiild, Vega, vol. 2, p. 26 (Pitlekaj). "Op. eit., p. 252. MURDOCH.] MARRIAGE. 411 discover that she was treated as a servant. She went with them to the spring deer hunt, but we were distinctly given to understand that the young couple would not be married till after the return from this hunt, and that no intercourse would take place between them before that time. When the season came for catching reindeer fawns, the couple started off together, with sled and dogs aiid camp equipage in pursuit of them, and always afterwards were considered as man and wife. Most of the marriages took place before we heard of them, so that we had no opportunity for learning what ceremony, if any, occurred at the time. Some of the party, however, who went over to make a visit at Utkiavwln one evening, found the house full of people, who were singing and dancing, and were told that this was to celebrate the mar riage of the daughter of the house. Marriage ceremonies appear to be rare among the Eskimo. A pretended abduction, with the consent of the parents, is spoken of by Bessels at Smith Sound1 and Egede in Greenland (p. l-i'2), and Kumlicn was informed that certain ceremonies were sometimes practiced at Cumberland Gulf.2 Elsewhere I have, not been able to find any reference to the subject. A man usually selects a wife of about his own age, but reasons of interest sometimes lead to a great disparity of age between the two. I do not recollect any case where an old man had a wife very much younger than himself, but we knew of several men who had married widows or divorced women old enough to be their mothers,3 and in one remarkable case the bride was a girl of sixteen or seventeen, and the husband a lad apparently not over thirteen, who could barely have reached the age of puberty. This couple were married late in the winter of 1882-'8.3, and immedi ately started off to the rivers, deer hunting, where the young husband was very successful. This union, however, appeared to have been dis solved in the summer, as I believe the girl was living with another and older man when we left the station. In this case, the husband came >s' to live with the wife's family. As is the case with most Eskimo, most of the men content them selves with one wife, though a few of the wealthy men have two each. I do not recollect over half a dozen men in the two villages who had more than one wife each, and one of these dismissed his younger wife during our stay. We never heard of a case of more than two wives. As well as we could judge, the marriage bond was regarded simply as a contract entered into by the agreement of the contracting parties and, without any formal ceremony of divorce, easily dissolved in the same way, on account of incompatibility of temper, or even on account of temporary disagreements. We knew of one or two cases where wives left their husbands on 1 Naturalist, vol. 18. pt. 9, p. 877. ^Contributions, p. Hi. H'ompare Holm's observations in East Om'nlaml — "iilH rt jiansko, un^t Menuosko kan vstre gift meil en Konu. sum kimdo vjtro hans Mod«r." (Jeogralisk Tidskrit't, vol. 8, p. 91. 412 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. account of ill treatment. One of these cases resulted in a permanent separation, each of the couple finally marrying again, though the hus band for a long time tried his best to get his wife to come back to him. In another case, where the wife after receiving a beating ran away to Nuwuk, and, as we were told, married another man, her first husband followed her in a day or two and either by violence or persuasion made her come back with him. They afterwards appeared to live together 011 perfectly good terms. On the other hand, we know of several cases where men discarded wives who were unsatisfactory or made themselves disagreeable. For instance, the younger Tunazu, when we first made his acquaintance, was married to a widow very much his senior, who seemed to have a disa greeable and querulous temper, so that we were not surprised to hear in the spring of 1882 that they were separated and Tunazu married to a young girl. His second matrimonial venture was no more successful than his first, for his young wife proved to be a great talker. As he told us : " She talked all the time, so that he could not eat and could not sleep." So he discarded her, and when we left the station he had been for some time married to another old widow. In the case above mentioned, where the man with two wives discard ed the younger of them, the reason he assigned was that she was lazy, would not make her own clothes, and was disobedient to the older wife, to whom he was much attached. As he said, Kakaguua (the older wife) told her, "Give me a drink of water," and she said, "No!" so Kaka- guna said, "Go!" and she went. He did not show any particular con cern about it. Dr. Simpson says, "A great many changes take place before a per manent choice is made;" and again, "A union once apparently settled between parties grown up is rarely dissolved."1 And this agrees with our experience. The same appears to have been the case in Greenland. Crantz2 says, "Such quarrels and separations only happen between people in their younger years, who have married without due fore thought. The older they grow, the more they love one another." I Easy and unceremonious divorce appears to be the usual custom I among Eskimo generally, and the divorced parties are always free to t marry again/1 The only writer who mentions any ceremony of divorce is Bessels, who witnessed such among the so-called "Arctic Highland ers" of Smith Sound (Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 9, p. 877). Dr. Simp- 'Op. oit., p. 253. 'Vol. 1, p. 100. 3 " They often repudiate and put away their wives, if either they do not suit their humors, or else if they are harren, * * * and marry others." Egede, Greenland, p. 143. Compare also Crantz, vol. 1, p. 160; Parry, Second Voyage, p. 528 (Fury and Heela Straits) ; Kumlien, Contributions, p. 17 (Cumber land (iulf); and Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 100 — "repudiation is perfectly recognized, and in instances of misconduct and sometimes of dislike, put in force "without scruple or censure. * * * The rejected wife * * does not generally wait long for another husband ;" (Plover Bay.) Compare also Holm, Geografisk Tidskrift. vol. 8, pp. 91-92, where he gives an account of marriage and divorce in east Green- laud, remarkably like what we observed at Point liarrow. MURDOCH.] MARRIAGE. 413 son, in the, paragraph referred to above, says that "A man of mature age chooses a wife for himself and fetches her home, frequently, to all appearance, much against her will." The only case of the kind which came to our notice was in 188.'5, when one of the Kllauwitawlnmeun at tempted by blows to coerce AdwtVna, an Utkiavwifi girl, to live with him, but was unsuccessful. A curious custom, not peculiar to these people, is the habit of ex changing wives temporarily. For instance, one man of our acquaint- , ance planned to go to the rivers deer hunting in the summer of 1882, and borrowed his cousin's wife for the expedition, as she was a good shot and a good hand at deer hunting, while his own wife went with his cousin on the trading expedition to the eastward. On their return the wives went back to their respective husbands. The couples sometimes find themselves better pleased with their new mates than with the former association, in which case the exchange is made permanent. This happened once iu Utkiavwifi to our certain * knowledge. This custom lias been observed at Fury and Hccla Straits,1 Cumberland Gulf,' and in the region around Repulse Bay, where it seems to be carried to an extreme. According to Gilder3 it is a usual tiling among friends in that region to exchange wives for a week or two about every two mouths. Among the Greenlanders the only custom of the kind mentioned is the tempo rary exchange of wives at certain festivals described by Egede.4 Holm also describes "the game of putting out the lamps," or "chang ing wives," as a common winter sport in East Greenland. He also, however, speaks of the temporary exchange of wives among these people much as described elsewhere.5 I am informed by some of the whalemen who winter in the neighbor hood of Repulse Bay, that at certain times there is a general exchange of wives throughout the village, each woman passing from man to man till she has been through the hands of all, and finally returns to her husband. All these cases seem to me to indicate that the Eskimo have not wholly emerged from the state called communal marriage, in which each woman is considered as the wife of every man in the com munity. Standing and treatment of women. — The women appear to stand on a footing of perfect equality with the men both in the family and in the community. The wife is the constant and trusted companion of the man in everything except the hunt, and her opinion is sought in every bargain or other important undertaking." 1 Parry, 2nd Voyage, p. 528. 2Kurulien, Contributions, p. 16. •Schwatka's Search, p. 197. •Greenland, p. 139. •Geogr.. Tids., vol. 8, p. 92. •Compare Parry, 2d Voyage, pp. 526-528, Nordenskiold (Vega, vol. 1, p. 449) : The women are "treated as the equals of the men, and the, wife was always consulted by the husband when a more important bargain than usual was to be made." (Pitlekaj.) This statement is applicable, word for word, to the women of Point IJarrow. 414 THE POINT HARROW KSKIMO. Dr. Simpson's description1 of the standing of the women at Point Barrow in his time is so true at the present day that I may be par doned for quoting the whole of it: A man suonin to have unlimited authority in his own hut, but, as with few excep tions his rule is mild, the domestic and social position of the wom'en is one of com fort and enjoyment. AH there is no affected dignity or importance in the- men, they do not make mere slaves and drudges of the women ; on the contrary, they endure their full share of fatigue and hardship in the coldest season of the year, only calling in the assistance of the women if too wearied themselves to bring in the fruits of their own industry and patience; and at other seasons the women appear to think it a pri vation not to share the labors of the men. A woman's ordinary occupations are sew ing, the preparation of skins for making and mending, cooking, and the general care of the supplies of provisions. Occasionally in the winter she is sent out on the ice for a seal which her husband lias taken, to which she is guided by his footmarks; and in. spring and summer she takes her place in the boat if required. The statement in the first sentence that the husband's rule is mild is hardly consistent with that on the following page that " obedience seems to be the great virtue required, and is enforced by blows when necessary, until the man's authority is established." According to our experience the first statement is nearer the truth. We heard of few cases of wife-beating, and those chiefly among the younger men. Two brothers, who habitually ill-treated their wives, were looked upon with disfavor, by some of our friends at least. We heard of one case where a stalwart wife turned the tables on her husband who attempted to abuse her, giving him a thorough beating and then leaving his house. Wife-beating was not uncommon among the Greenlanders.2 We did not learn whether a woman brought anything like a dowry, but Simpson3 says: " The woman's property, consisting of her beads and other ornaments, her needlecase, knife, etc., are considered her own ; and if a separation takes place the clothes and presents are re turned and she merely takes away with her whatever she brought." According to Crantz 4 a widow in Greenland had no share of her hus band's property, but owns only what she brought with her, and I am inclined to believe that this is the case at Point Barrow. One widow of my acquaintance, who appeared to have no relatives in the village, was reduced almost to beggary, though her husband had been quite well-to-do. All his property and even his boy were taken from her by some of the other natives. Widows who have well-to-do relatives, especially grown-up sons, are well taken care of and often marry again. According to Captain Parry,5 unprotected widows were robbed at Iglulik. Children. — From the small number of births which occurred during our stay at Point Barrow, we were able to ascertain little in regard to this subject. When a woman is about to be confined, she is isolated in 1 Op. cit., p 252. 2 See Ejii'de, p. 144, " for according to them il signifies uolbiiig that a man beats biawife." 3 Op. cit., p 253. 1 Vol. 1, ]>. 165. * Second Voyage, p. 522. MURDOCH.] CHILDREN. 415 n little snow hut iu winter or a little tent in summer, in which she re mains for some time — -just how long we were, unable to learn. Captain Herendeen sawa pregnant woman in Utkiavwlfi engaged, on March 31 , in building a little snow house, which she told him was meant for her con finement, but she had evidently somehow miscalculated her time, as her child was not boru till much later, when the people had moved into the tents. She and her child lived in a little tent on the beach close to her husband's tent, evidently in a sitting position, as the tent was not large enough for her to lie down in. Her husband was desirous of going oft on the summer deer hunt, but, under the circumstances, custom forbade his leaving the neighborhood of the village till the ice at sea broke up. The same custom of isolating the women during childbirth has been observed by Kumlien and Boas at Cumberland Gulf1, and in Greenland the mother was not allowed to eat or drink in the open air.2 Lisiansky describes a similar practice in Kadiak in 1805, :i and Klutschak also notes it among the Aivillirniiut.1 The custom of shutting up the mother and child in a snow house in winter must be very dangerous to the infant, and, in fact, the only child that was born in winter during our stay lived but a short time, (.'apt. Herendeen visited this family at ^mvttk shortly after the death of the child, and saw the snow house in which the woman had been con fined. Fie was about to take a drink of water from a dipper which he saw in the iglu, but was prevented by the other people, who told him that this belonged to the mother and that it was " bad" for anyone else to vise it. In Greenland the mother had a separate water pail.5 For a time, our visitors from Utkiavwlfi were very much afraid to drink out of the tin pannikin in our washroom, for fear it had been used by Niak- silra, a woman who had recently suffered a iniscarriage. One man told us that a sore on his face was caused by his having inadvertently done-so. This same woman was forbidden to go out among the broken ice of the land floe, during the spring succeeding her miscarriage, though she might go out on the smooth shore ice. Her husband also was forbidden to work with a hammer or adz or to go seal-catching for some, time after the mishap. Children are nursed until they are II or 4 years old, according to what appears to be the universal habit among Eskimo, and which is prob ably due, as generally supposed, to the fact that the animal food on which the parents subsist is not fit for the nourishment of young chil dren. The child is carried naked on the mother's back under her clothes, and held up by the girdle, tied higher than usual. When she wishes to nurse it, she loosens her girdle and slips it round to the breast 1 Contributions, p. 28. anil "Central Enkim<>," p. 610. "Egede, p. 192; Crantz. veil. 1, p. 215. and Kink, Tales, etc., p. 54. •Voyage, p, 200. •"Als Eskimo, etc.,' p. 199. * Egede, p. 192; Crantz, vol. 1, p. 21f>. " no one else in nut drink out of their cup;" a>*d liink. Tales and Traditions, p. 54 416 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. without bringing it out into the air. Children are carried in this way until they are able to walk and often later. A large child sits astride of his mother's back, with one leg under each of her arms, and has a little suit of clothes in which he is dressed when the mother wishes to set him down. When the child is awake, this hood is thrown back and the child raised quite high so that he looks over his mother's shoulder, who then covers her head with a cloth or something of the sort. The woman appears to be very little incon venienced by her burden, and goes about her work as usual, and the child does not seem to be disturbed by her movements. The little girls often act as nurses and carry the infants around on their backs, in the same way. It is no unusual sight to see a little girl of ten or twelve carrying a well grown, heavy child in this way. This custom or a very similar one seems to prevail among the Eskimo generally. In Greenland, the nurse wears a garment especially de signed for carrying the child, an amaut, i. e., a garment that is so wide in the back as to hold a child, which generally tumbles in it quite naked and is accommodated with no other swaddling clothes or cradle.1 In East Greenland, according to Capt. Holm, " Saa leeiige B^rnene ere smaa, ba3res de i det fri paa Moderens Ryg."2 Petitot's description of the method of carrying the children in the Mackenzie district is so naive that it deserves to be quoted entire.3 Les meres qui allaitent portent une jaquette ample et serre'e autour des reins par une ceinture. Elles y enformentleurchere proge'niture qu'elles peuvent, par ce moyen, allaiter sans 1'exposer a un froid qui lui serait mortel. Ces jeunes onfants sont sans aucun vfitement jusqu'a 1'age d'environ deux ans. Quant aux incongruities que ces potites creatures peuvent se permettre sur le dos de leur mere, qui leur sert de calo- rifere, 1'amour matcrnel, le meme chez tous les peuples, les endure patiemment et avec indifference. At Fury and Hecla Straits, according to Parry4, the children are carried in the hood, which is made specially large on purpose, but sometimes also on the back, as at Point Barrow. The enormous hoods of the Eskimo women in Labrador also served to hold the child. The same custom prevails at Cumberland Gulf. 5 In some localities, for in stance the north shore of Hudson's Straits, where the woman wear very long and loose boots, the children are said to be carried in these.6 Frank lin7 refers to the same custom "east of the Mackenzie Eiver." The Siberian children, however, are dressed in regular swaddling clothes of deerskin, with a sort of diaper of dried moss.8 We never heard of a single case of infanticide, and, indeed, children 'Crantz, vol. 1, p. 138. See also Egede, p. 131, and the picture in Rink's Tales, etc., opposite p. 8. iGeografisk Tidskrift, vol. 8, p. 91. 'Monographic, etc., p. xv. 4 Second Voyage, p. 495. •Kumlion. Contributions, p. 24. •See Ellis, Voyage, etc., p. 136, and plate opposite p. 132. ' Second Ex., p. 226. 'Nordenskiold. Vega, vol.2, p. 101. MfKi.orn.1 CHILDREN. 417 were so scarce and seemed so highly prized that we never even thought of inquiring if infanticide was ever practiced. Nevertheless, Simpson speaks of the occurrence of a case during the IMover's visit; "but a child, they say, is destroyed only when afflicted with disease of a fatal tendency, or, in scarce seasons, when one or both parents die.1" Infan ticide, according to Bessels, is frequently practiced among the Eskimo of Smith Sound, without regard of sex,2 and Schwatka speaks of fe male infanticide to a limited extent among the people of King Wil liam's Land.3 The affection of parents for their children is extreme, and the chil dren seem to be thoroughly worthy of it. They show hardly a trace of the fretfulness and petulance so common among eivili/ed children, and though indulged to an extreme extent are remarkably obedient. Corpo ral punishment appears to be absolutely unknown and the children are rarely chidden or punished in any way. Indeed, they seldom deserve it, for, in spite of the freedom which they are allowed, they do not often get into any mischief, especially of a malicious sort, but attend quietly to their own affairs and their own amusements. The older children take very good care of the smaller ones. It is an amusing sight to see a little boy of six or seven patronizing and pro tecting a little toddler of two or three. Children rarely cry except from actual pain or terror, and even then little ones are remarkably patient and plucky. The young children appear to receive little or no instruc tion except what they pick up in their play or from watching their elders. Boys of six or seven begin to shoot small birds and animals and to hunt for birds' eggs, and when they reach the age of twelve or fourteen arc usually intrusted with a gun and seal spear and accompany their fathers to the hunt. Some of them soon learn to be very skillful hunters. We know one boy not over thirteen years old who, during the winter of 188L-'82, had his seal nets set like the men and used to visit them regu larly, even in the roughest weather. Lads of fourteen or fifteen are sometimes regular members of the whaling crews. In the meantime the little girls are learning to sew, in imitation of their mothers, and by the time they are twelve years old they take their share of the cooking and other housework and assist in making the clothes for the family. They still, however, have plenty of leisure to play with the other chil dren until they are old enough to be married. Affection for their children seems a universal trait among the Eski mo and there is scarcely an author who does not speak in terms of commendation of the behavior and disposition of the Eskimo children. Some of these passages are so applicable to the people of Point Barrow that I can not forbear quoting them. Kgede says:4 They have a very tender Love for their Children, and the Mother always carries the infant Child about with her upon her back. They suck them till they are 1 Op. cit., p. 250. 'Naturalist, vol. 18. pt. 9, p. 874. * Science, vol.4, p. 544. * Greenland, p. 146. !> ETH '21 418 THE POINT BAKROW ESKIMO. three or four years old or more, because, in their tender Infancy, they cannot digest the strong Victuals that the rest must live upon. The Education of their Children is what they seem little concerned about, for they never make use of whipping or hard words to correct them when they do anything amiss, but leave them to their own Discretion. Notwithstanding which, when they are grown, they never seem inclined to Vice or Roguery, which is to be admired. It is true, they show no great Respect to their Parents in any outward Forms, but always are very willing to do what they order them, though sometimes they will bid their Parents do it themselves. According toCapt. Holm,' in East Greenland, "De opvoxe i denmest ubuudne Frihed. Forseldrene mere en ubeskrivelig Kjierlighcd til dem og straffe dem derfor aldrig, selv oni de ere nok saa gjenstridige. Man maa imidlertid beuudre, hvor velopdragne de smaa alligevel ere." Parry speaks still more strongly:" The affection of parents for their children was frequently displayed by these people,, not only in the mere passive indulgence and abstinence from corporal punishment for which Esquimaux have been before remarked, but by a thousand playful endear ments also, such as parents and nurses practice in our own country. Nothing, indeed can well exceed the kindness with which they treat their children. ' It must be confessed, indeed, that the gentleness and docility of the children are such as to occasion their parents little trouble and to render severity towards them quite un necessary. Even from their earliest, infancy, they possess that quiet disposition, gentleness of demeanor, and uncommon evenness of temper, for which in more mature age they are for the most part distinguished. Disobedience is scarcely ever known; a word or even a look from a parent is enough; and I never saw a single instance of that frowardness and disposition to mischief which, in our youth, so often requires the whole attention of a parent to watch over and to correct. They never cry from trifling accidents, and sometimes not even from very severe hurts, at which an English child would sob for an hour. It is, indeed, astonishing to see the indifference with which, even as tender infants, they bear the numerous blows they accidentally receive when carried at their mothers' backs. I should be willing to allow this passage to stand as a description of the Point Barrow children. It is interesting to compare with these pas sages Nordenskiold's account3 of the children at Pitlekaj, who, if not as he and other writers believe, of pure (Jliukch blood, are at any rate of mixed Chukch and Eskimo descent: The children are neither chastised nor scolded. They are, however, the best be haved I have ever seen. Their behavior in the tent is equal to that of the best brought up European children in the parlor. They are not perhaps so wild as ours, but are addicted to games which closely resemble those common among us in the country. Playthings are also in use. If the parents get any delicacy they always give each of their children a bit, and there is never any quarrel as to the size of each child's portion. If a piece of sugar is given to one of the children in a crowd it goes from mouth to mouth round the whole company. In the same way the child offers its father and mother a taste of the bit of sugar or piece of bread it has got. Even in childhood the Ohukchs are exceedingly patient. A girl who fell down from the ship's stairs head foremost and thus got so violent a blow that she was almost de prived of hearing scarcely uttered a cry. A boy three or four years of ago, much rolled up in furs, who fell down into a ditch cut in the ice on the ship's deck, and in consequence of his inconvenient dress could not get up, lay quietly still until he was observed and helped up by one of the crew. "Geograttak Ticlskrift. vol R, p. 91. 2 Second Voyage, p. 529. 3Vega, vol. 2, p. UO. MCKDOCII.J CHILDREN RIGHTS AND WRONGS. 419 The only extraordinary tiling about the Chukch children is their large number, mentioned by the same author.1 This looks as if the infusion of new blood had increased the, fertility of the rare. All authors who have described Eskimo of unmixed descent a {free in regard to the generally small number of their offspring. < >ther accounts of Eskimo children are to be found in the writings of Bessels,2 Crantz,3 Sclvwutka,4 Gilder,5 J. Simpson,6 and Hooper.7 The custom of adoption is as universal at Point Harrow as it appears to be among the Eskimo generally, and the adopted children are, treated by the parents precisely as if they were their own flesh and blood. Orphans are readily provided for, as there are always plenty of families ready and willing to take them, and women who have sev eral children frequently give away one or more of them. Families that have nothing but boys often adopt a girl, and, of course, vice versa, and we know of one case where, a woman who had lost a young infant had another given her by one of her friends. This very general custom of giving away children, as well as the habit already mentioned of temporarily exchanging wives, rendered it quite difficult to ascertain the parentage of any person, especially as it seems to be the custom with them to speak of tirst cousins as "milu atauzik" ("one breast," that is, brothers and sisters). While a boy is desired in the family, since he will be the support of his father when the latter grows too old to hunt, a girl is almost as highly prized, for not only will she help her mother with the cares of housekeeping when she grows up, but she is likely to obtain a good husband who may be induced to become a member of his father-in-law's family.8 RIGHTS AND WRONGS. I have already spoken of the feelings of these people in regard to offenses against property and crimes of violence. As to the relations between the sexes there seems to be the most complete absence of what we consider moral feelings. Promiscuous sexual intercourse between married or unmarried people, or even among children, appears to be looked upon simply as a matter for amusement. As far as we could learn unchastity in a girl was considered nothing against her, and in fact one girl who was a most abandoned and shameless prostitute among the sailors, and who, we were told, had had improper relations with some of her own race, had no difficulty iii obtaining an excellent husband. Iteuiarks of the most indecent character are freely bandied back and forth between the sexes in public, and are received with shouts of laughter by the bystanders. Nevertheless, some of the women, espe 'Vega, vol. 1, p. 449. 'Science, vol. 4, No. 98, p. 544. 'Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 9, p. 874. 'Schwatka's Search, p. 287. "History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 162. 'Op. cit., p. 250. 'Tents, etc., pp. 24, 201. 8 Accounts of this custom of adoption are to be found in Crantz, vol. 1, p. 165; I'arry. Second Voy age, p. 531 ; Kuralien, Contributions, ]>. 17; Gilder, Schwatka's Search, p. 247, and the passage con cerning children quoted above, from Dr. Simpson. 420 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. chilly tho.se of the wealthier class, preserve a very tolerable degree of conjugal fidelity and certainly do not prostitute themselves to the sail ors. 1 believe that prostitution tor gain is unknown among themselves, hut it is carried to a most shameless extent^ with the sailors of the whaling fleet by many of the women, and is even considered a laudable thing by the husbands and fathers, who are perfectly willing to receive the price of their wives' or daughters' frailty, especially if it takes the form of liquor. Dr. Simpson1 says: •' It is said by themselves that the women are very continent before marriage, as well as faithful after ward to their husbands; and this seems to a certain extent true." But he goes on to add: "In their conduct toward strangers the elderly women frequently exhibit a shameless want of modesty, and the men an equally shameless indifference, except for the reward of their part ner's frailty." It seems to me that he must have been deceived by the natives concerning the first statement, since the immorality of these people among themselves, as we witnessed it, seeins too purely animal and natural to be of recent growth or the result of foreign intlueuce. Moreover, a similar state of affairs has been observed among Eskimo elsewhere, notably at Iglulik at the time of Parry's visit.- SOCIAL LIFK AND CUSTOMS. Pemonal habits, cleanliness, etc.. — Though the idea of cleanliness among these people differs considerably from our ideas, they are as a rule far from being as filthy as they appear at first sight. Considering the difficulty of obtaining water, even for purposes of drinking, iu the winter season, the iglu, unless dirty work, like the dressing of skins, etc.; is going on, is kept remarkably clean. The floor and walls are scrupulously scraped and all dirt is immediately wiped up. They are particularly careful not to bring in any snow or dirt on their feet, and the snow and hoar frost is carefully brushed off from the outer garment, which is often removed before entering the room and left in the passage. They are also careful not to spit on the floor or in the passage, but use for this purpose the large urine tub. This is practically the only offen sive object in the house, as it is freely used by both sexes in the presence of the rest. This is done, however, with less exposure and immodesty than one would suppose/' ''Op. cit., p. 252. 2 Second Voyage, p. 529. 3 Compare! Xordcnskiold's account of the comparative cleanliness of the Cliukrli dwellings at Pith- kaj : ''On the other hand it may he stated that in order not to make a stay in the confined tent chamher too uncomfortable certain rules are strictly observed. Thus, for instance, it is not permitted in the interior of the tent to spit on the floor, but this must be done into a vessel which, in case of necessity, is used as a night utensil. In every outer tent there lies a specially curved reindeer horn, with which snow is removed from the clothes ; the outer pegk is usually put off before one goes into the inner tent, and the shoes are carefully freed from snow. The carpet of walrus skins which covers the floor of the inner tent is accordingly dry and clean. Even the outer tent is swept clean and free from loose snow, and the snow is daily shoveled away from the tent doors with a spade of whalebone. Every article, both iu the outer and inner tent, is laid in its proper place, and so on." (Vega, vol.2, p. KM.) Mi-nnoi-ii.1 1'KUSOX.U. I1AIUTS. 421 The contents of this vessel, being mixed with t'eces, is not fit tor tunning skins, etc., and is consequently thrown out doors. The men use a small tub (kuovwlfi) as a urinal, and the contents of this is care fully saved. Though the interior of the house is thus kept clean, as much can not be said for its surroundings. All manner of rubbish and filth is simply thrown out upon the ground, without regard to decency or comfort, and this becomes exceedingly offensive when the snow melts in summer. The only scavengers are the dogs, who greedily devour old pieces of skin, refuse meat, and even feces. In regard to personal cleanliness, there is considerable difference between individuals. Some people, especially the poorer women and children, are not only careless about their clothes, going about dressed in ragged, greasy, filthy gar ments, but seldom wash even their faces and hands, much less their whole persons. One of these women, indeed, was described by her grown-up daughter as "That woman with the black on her nose." On the other hand most of the wealthier people appear to take pride in being neatly clad, and, except when actually engaged in some dirty work, always have their faces and hands, at least, scrupulously clean and their hair neatly combed. Even the whole person is sometimes washed in spite of the scarcity of water. Many are glad to get soap (mkiikun) and use it freely. Lieut. Ray says that his two guides, Mu'nialu and Apaidyao, at the end of a day's march would never sit down to supper without washing their faces and hands with soap and water, and combing their hair, and I recollect that once, when I went over to the village to get a young man to start with Lieut. Kay on a boat journey, he would not start until he had hunted up a piece of soap and washed his face and hands. These people, of course, practice the usual Eskimo habit of washing themselves with freshly passed urine. This custom arises not only from the scarcity of water and the diffi culty of heating it, but from the fact that the ammonia of the urine is an excellent substitute for soap in removing the grease with which the skin necessarily becomes soiled.1 This fact is well known to our whale men, who are in the habit of saving their urine to wash the oily clothes with. The same habit is practiced by the " Chukches" of eastern Siberia.2 All, however, get more or less shabby and dirty in the summer, when they are living in tents and boats. All are more or less infested with lice, and they are in the habit of searching each others' heads for these, which they eat, after the fashion of so many other savages. They have also another filthy habit — that of eating the mucus from the nos trils. A similar practice was noticed in Greenland by Egedc," \\1io goes on quaintly to say: •' Thus they make good the old proverb, • What drips from the nose falls into the mouth, that nothing may be lost.'"' 1 Compare Ball. Alaska, p. 20. 2S«! JforileiiKkiokl, Vega. vol. :!. p. 104. 3p. W, 145. anil 227. 'Petroff, Report. i>. 127. 4 Alaska, p. 403. and Voyage, p. 200. 6 Com pan1. arnon<; other instances, Capt, Holm's oi» -ervatioji* in East Greenland: "Soni Overhoved i Hnset [wlm-h is the village] funpeivr den it-ldeste Mand, luiar han er eii god Fanger, olc.'' (tteogr. Tills., vol. 8. p. 90.) 428 THE I'OINT BARKOW ESKIMO. formulated certain rules in regard to some kinds of property and the division of game, which are remarkably like those noticed among Ks- kimo elsewhere, and which may be supposed to have grown np among the ancestors of the Kskiiuo, before their separation. For instance, in Greenland,' "Anyone picking up pieces of driftwood or goods lost at sea or on land was considered the rightful owner of them; and to make, good his possession he had only to carry them up above high-water mark and put stones upon them, no matter where his homestead might be." Now, at Point Harrow we often saw the natives dragging driftwood up to the, high-water mark, and the owner seemed perfectly able to prove his claim. Lieut. Itay informs me that he has seen men mark such sticks of timber by cutting them with their adzes and that sticks so marked were respected by the other natives. On one occasion, when lie was about to have a large piece of drift- timber dragged up to the station, a woman came up and proved that the timber belonged to her by pointing out the freshly cut mark. I have myself seen a native claim a barrel which had been washed ashore, by setting it up on end. As far as we could learn, the smaller animals, as for instance, birds, the smaller seals, reindeer, etc., are the property of the hunter, instead of being divided as in some other localities, for example at Smith Sound.2 The larger seals and walruses appeared to be divided among the bout's crew, the owner of the bout apparently keeping the tusks of the walrus and perhaps the skin. A bear, however, both flesh and skin, is equally divided among all who in any way had a hand in the killing. We learned this with certainty from having to purchase the skin of a bear killed at the village, where a number of men had been engaged in the hunt. When a whale is taken, as 1 have already said, the whalebone is equally divided among the crews of all the boats in sight at the time of killing. All comers, however, have a right to all the flesh, blubber, and blackskin that they can cut off.11 Dr. Kink, in describing the social order of the ancient Greenlanders,4 says: •• Looking at what has been said regarding the rights of prop erty and the division of the people into certain communities, in connec tion with t lie division of property into the classes just given, we are led to the conclusion that the right of any individual to hold more than a certain amount of property was. if not regulated by law, at least jealously watched by the rest of the community, and that virtually 1 Kink. Talcs mid Traililious. p. 28. Compare also Crantz, vol. 1. p. 181. 2 Keasels, Naturalist, vol. -J'.t, ]it. p. ST:I. 'Compare Itink, Tales, etc.. p. U'J: " l!nt it :m animal of the lari was captured, it was MriiiM»-ii.| (JOVKHXMKXT. 42!> tin- surplus of any individual or community., fixed by the arbitrary rule which tradition or custom liad assigned, was made over to those who had less.'' At Point Barrow, however, the idea of individual ownership appears to be much more strongly developed. As far as we could learn, there is no limit to the amount of property which an individual, at least the head of a family, may accumulate. 1C veil though the whale bone be, as already described, divided among all the boats' crews " in at the death," no objection is made to one man buying it all up, if he has the means, foi his own private use. This has given rise to a regular wealthy and aristocratic, class, who, however, are not yet sufficiently differentiated from the poorer people to refuse to associate on any terms but those of social equality. The men of this class are the nmialiks, a word which appears in many cor rupted forms on the coast of Western America and is often supposed to mean " chief.'' Dr. Simpson ' says : '' The chief men are called O-nie- liks (wealthy)," but '• wealthy " is au explanation of the position of these men, and uot a translation of the title, which, as we obtained it, is pre cisely the same as the Greenland word for uirner of er "Chief UjedesMal (lerreichste Mann, ein ' biir man.' " •See, also, Dr. Simpson, op. eit., p. 27:f. 6 Report, etc., p. 12o. 430 THK I'OINT BARROW ESKIMO. thus selected, is generally shrewd enough to make the most of the great ness thrust upon him, and no doubt often pretends to more influence and power than he actually possesses.' As to the story of the whalemen, that the " chieftainship" is the re ward of the best fighter, who holds it like a -'challenge cup," subject to being called out at anytime to defend his rank iu a duel, as far as concerns Point Barrow, this is a sheer fable, perhaps invented by the Eskimo to impose upon the strangers, but more likely the result of misunderstanding and a vivid imagination on the part of the whites. Among umialiks, one, or two appear to have more wealth and influence than the rest. Tcufiaura in Utkiavwlil and the late Katiga at Xuwftk were said, according to Captain llerendeen, to be " great umialiks " and Tcufiaura was always spoken of as the foremost man in UtkiavwTfi. We knew of one party coming up from Hidaru with presents for Tcufiaura, and were, informed that the other Kskimo never sold to him, but only gave him presents. It was also said that Katiga's infant son would one day be a " great umialik.'' All these men are, or have been captains of whaling umiaks, and the title nmialiks appears to be applied to them in this capacity, since many of the poorer men, who, as far as we could learn, were not con sidered umialiks, own umiaks which they do not fit out for whaling, but use only to transport their families from place to place iu thesummer. RELIGION. General ideax. — It was exceedingly difficult to get any idea of the religious belief of the people, partly from our inability to make ourselves understood in regard to abstract ideas and partly from ignorance on our part of the proper method of conducting such inquiries. For instance, in trying to get at their ideas of a future life, we could only ask " Where does a man go when he dies?" to which we, of course, received the obvious answer, " To the cemetery ! " Moreover, such a multitude of other and easier lines of investigation presented themselves for our at tention that we were naturally inclined to neglect the difficult field of religion, and besides under the circumstances of our intercourse it was almost impossible to get the attention of the natives when their minds were not full of other subjects. Nevertheless, many of the fragments of superstition and tradition that we were able to collect agree remarkably with what has been observed among the Eskimo elsewhere, so that it is highly probable, that their religion is of the same general character as that of the Green - landers, namely, a belief in a multitude of supernatural beings, who are to be exorcised or propitiated by various observances, especially by the performances of certain specially gifted people, who are something of the nature of wizards. So much has been written by many authors 1 Comparu the rase of the alleged " c'hiefn " of tlm Chukches, in NordensktSWa Vega, vol. 1. H>. 44» and 495. MI-RIXM ii.] RELIGION. 431 about these wizards or *' doctors," the angekut of the eastern Eskimo, the so-called '< shamans " of Alaska and Siberia, that 1 need make no special reference to their writings except where they happen to throw light on our own observations. Dr. Simpson succeeded in obtaining more information concerning the religious belief of these people than our party was able to do, and his observations,' to which ours are in some degree supplementary, tend to corroborate the conclusion at which I have arrived. Our information in regard to the special class of wizards was rather vague. We learned that many men in the village, distinguishable from the rest by no visible characteristics, were able to heal the sick, procure good weather, favorable winds, plenty of game, and do other things by "talking" and beating the drum. We did not learn the number of these men in either village, but we heard of very many dif ferent men doing one or the other of these things, while others of our acquaintance never attempted them. Neither did we learn that any one of these men was considered superior to the rest, as appears to be the case in some regions, nor how a man could attain this power. Some of these men, who appeared to give particular attention to curing the sick, called themselves •' tu'kte1' ("doctor"), but, probably for want of properly directed inquiries, we did not learn the Eskimo name of these people. We were definitely informed, however, that their " talk," when treating disease or trying to obtain fair weather, etc., was ad dressed to " tu'efia," or a supernatural being. This name, of course, differs only in dialectic form from that applied in other places to the universal familiar spirits of Eskimo superstition. We at first supposed that "tuufia "meant some particular individ ual demon, but Dr. Simpson is probably right in saying that the Point Barrow natives, like the rest of the Eskimo, recognize a host of tuufiain, since "tivefia" was described to us under a variety of forms. Most of the natives whom we asked if they had seen tuufia, said that they had not, but that other men, mentioning certain " doctors," had seen him. One man, however, said that he had seen tuufia in the kudyigi, when the people ''talked" sitting in the dark, with their heads bowed and faces covered, and tuufia came with a noise like a great bird.3 He had raised his head and saw tuufia, like a man with bloodless cheeks.3 Tuufia again was called "a bad man, dead" (appar- 'Op. cit., p. 273 et «eq. 2 Compare Graah'rt account of the ceremony of summoning a tunifjak in East Greenland (Narrative. p. 123). "Come he dill, however, at last, and his approach was announced by a strange rushing sound, very like the sound of a large bird flying beneath the roof." (The italics are my own.) The angflnit evidently have some, juggling contrivance, carefully concealed from laymen, perhaps of the nature of a 'Compare Rink's description of the ceremony of summoning a tornak to ask his advice, in Green land (Talcs, etc., p. GO). This was performed before a company in 11 darkened house. The angekok lay on the floor, beside a suspended skin and drum, with his hands tied behind his back and bis head be tween his legs. A song was sung by the audience, and tin; angekok invoked bis tornak, beating on the skin and the drum. The spirit announced his arrival by a peculiar sound l.nd the appearance of a, light or fire. 432 THE POINT BARKOW ESKIMO. ently a ghost), sometimes as largo as a man and sometimes dwarfish, sometimes a tleshless skeleton, while one man, to describe him, made the same grimace that a white man would use to indicate a hobgoblin, with staring eyes, gaping mouth, and hands outstretched like claws. Apparently "tuuiia" in conversation with us was used to designate all the various supernatural objects of their belief, ghosts as well as familiar spirits. For instance, in Greenland, according to Rink,1 a ghost "manifests himself by whistling or singing in the ears." Now, Lieut. Ray was walking rapidly one day in the winter with an Eskimo and his wife, and the woman suddenly stopped and said she "heard tiiBiia" — that he made a noise like Hinging in the ears. The people generally have a great dread of "tuefia," who they say would kill them, and are very averse to going out alone in the dark. One of each party that came over from the village in the evening usu ally carried a drawn knife, preferably one of the large double-edged knives, supposed to be Siberian and already described, in his hand as defense against tut:Fia, and a drawn knife was sometimes even carried in the daylight "nanumunlu tuunamunlu," ''for bear and demon." Not withstanding their apparently genuine dread of "tmjfia," they are by no means averse to talking or even joking about him. The knife also serves as a protection against the aurora, which most of them agree is bad, and when bright likely to kill a person by strik ing him in the back of the neck. However, brandishing the knife at it will keep it off. Besides, as a woman told me one night, you can drive off a "bad" aurora by throwing at it dog's excrement and urine.2 Lieut. Ray saw in one of the houses in Utkaiwifi, a contrivance for frightening away a "tuena" from the entrance to a house should he try to get in. The man had hung in the trapdoor the handle of a seal-drag by means of a thong spiked to the wall with a large knife, and told Lieut. Ray that if "tiiBfia" tried to get into the house he would undoubtedly catch hold of the handle to help himself up, which would pull down the knife upon his head and frighten him off. We never had an opportu nity of witnessing the ceremony of summoning "tunna," nor did we ever hear of the ceremony taking place during our stay at the station, but we were fortunate enough to observe several other performances, though they do not appear to be frequent. The ceremony of healing the sick and the, ceremonies connected with the whale-fishery have already been described. On the -1st of February, 1883, Lieut. Ray and Gapt. Herendeen hap pened to be at the village on time to see the tuttfia, who had been causing the bad weather, expelled from the village. Some of the natives said the next day that they had killed the tnitiia, but they said at the same time he had gone "along way off." When Lieut. Ray reached 1 Tales, etc.. p. 14. 2Coinpare Kink (Tales, etc. p. 56) : "Several fetid and stinking matters, such as iilil urine, are excel lent means for keeping away all kinds of evil-iutentioned spirits and ghosts." MURDOCH.] INCANTATION. 433 the village, women were standing at the doors of the, houses armed with snow-knives and clubs with which they made passes over the en trance when the people inside, called out. He entered one house and found a woman vigorously driving the tuBiia out of every corner with a knife. They then repaired to the kudylgi, where there were ten or twelve people, each of whom, to quote from Lieut. Ray's note book, "made a charge against the evil spirit, telling what injuries they had , received from it." Then they went into the open air, where a tire had been built in front of the entrance, and formed a half circle around the fire. Each then went up and made a speech, bending over the fire (according to Simpson, who describes a similar ceremony at Xnwfik on p. 274 of his paper, coaxing the tuiifia to come under the tire to warm him self). Then they brought out a large tub full of urine, to which, Simp son says, each man present had contributed, and held it ready near the fire, while two men stood with their rifles in readiness, and a boy stood near the fire with a large stone in his hands, bracing himself firmly with his feet spread apart for a vigorous throw. Then they chanted as follows (the words of this chant were obtained afterward by the writer) : Ttik tiiktak tohd! NVjii'nM! lie! he! ho! Hsiyahe! Yaiyaho! Hwi! And instantly the contents of the tub were dashed on the fire, the stone thrown into the embers, and both men discharged their rinVs, one into the embers, and one into the cloud of steam as it rose. Then all brushed their clothes violently and shouted, and the tuufia was killed. By a fortunate coincidence, the next day was the finest we had had for a long time. Sacrifices are also occasionally made to these supernatural beings as in Greenland "gifts were offered to the inue of certain rocks, capes and ice firths, principally when traveling and passing those places." ' Capt. Herendeen, in the fall of 1882, went to the rivers in company with one of the "doctors." When they arrived at the river Kuaru, where the latter intended to stay tor the fishing, he got out his drum and "talked" for a long time, and breaking off very small pieces of tobacco threw them into the air, crying out, "Tuima, tmjiia, I give you tobacco! give me plenty of fish." When they passed the dead men at the cemetery, he gave them tobacco in the same way, asking them also for fish.2 We noticed but few other superstitious observances which have not been already described. As in Greenland and elsewhere, super stition requires certain persons to abstain from certain kinds of food. For instance, Mufiialu, and apparently many others, were not permitted 1 Rink. Tales, etc., p. 56. 1 "When an Innuit passes the place where a relative has died, ho paiUGfl and deposits a piece of meat near by." Baffin Land. Hall, Artie Researches, p. 574. 9 ETH 28 434 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. to eat the burbot, another man was denied ptarmigan, and a woman1 at Nuwttk was not allowed to eat "earth food," that is, anything which grew upon the ground. Lieut. Kay also mentions a man who was for bidden bear's flesh.2 We observed some traces of the superstition concerning the heads of seals and other marine animals taken in the chase, which has been noticed elsewhere. Crantz says:3 "The heads of seals must not be fractured, nor must they be thrown into the sea, but be piled in a heap before the door,4 that the souls of the seals may not be enraged and scare their brethren from the coast." And Capt. Parry found that at Winter Island they carefully preserved the heads of all the animals killed during the winter, except two or three of the walrus which he obtained with great difficulty. The natives told him that they were to be thrown into the sea in the summer, but at Iglulik they readily sold them before the summer arrived.5 I tried very hard to get a full series of skulls from the seals taken at Utkiavwlii in the winter of 1882-'83, but though I frequently asked the natives to bring them over for sale, they never did so, till at last one young woman promised to bring me all I wanted at the price of half a pound of gunpowder a skull. Nevertheless, she brought over only two or three at that price. We did not observe what was done with the skulls, but frequently observed quantities of the smaller bones of the seals carefully tucked away in the crevices of the ice at some distance from the shore. We had comparatively little difficulty in obtaining skulls of the walrus, but I observed that the bottom of Tuseraru, the little pond at the edge of the village, was covered with old walrus skulls, as if they had been deposited there for years. The superstition appears to be in full force among the Chukches, who live near the place where the Vega wintered. Nordenskjiild was unable to purchase a pair of fresh walrus heads at the first village he visited, though the tusks were offered for sale the next day6 and at Pitlekaj.7 " Some prejudice * * * prevented the Chukches from parting with the heads of the seal, though * * * we offered a high price for them. ' Irgatti ' (to-morrow) was the usual answer. But the promise was never kept." Amulets. — Like the Greenlanders8 and other Eskimos, they place great reliance on amulets or talismans, which are carried on the person, in the boat, or even inserted in weapons, each apparently with some 'Keport Point Harrow Expedition, p. 46. ! Compare Kink, Talcs, ete., p. (>4; CranU. vol. 1, p. 215, and Parry, 2d voyage, p. 548: "Seal's flesh is forbidden, for instance, in one disease, that of the walrus in the other; the heart is denied to Home, and the liver to others." 'Vol.1, p. 216. 4Becchey saw the skulls of seals and other animals kept in piles round th« houses at Hothani Inlet (Voyage, p. 259). 6 Second Voyage, p. 510. 'Vega, vol. 1, p. 435. 'Vega, vol.2, p. 11)7. 8 John Davis describes the Greenlanders in 158G as follows: "They are idolaters, and have images great store, wlneli they won- about them, and in their boats, which we suppose they worship." (llak- luyt, Voyages, etc., 1589, p. 782.) MURDOCH.] AMULETS. 435 Huke(1 from specific purpose, which indeed we learned in the case of some of those in the collection. Like the amulets of the Green landers, they appear to be ' "certain animals or things which had belonged to or been in contact with certain persons (e. g., the people of an cient times, or fortunate hunters) or supernat ural beings," and "objects which merely by their appearance recalled the effect expected from the amulet, such as figures of various objects." To the latter class belong the rudely flaked flint images of whales, already mentioned, and prob ably many of the other small images of men and animals already described, especially those fitted with holes for strings to hang them up by. The flint whale is a very common amulet, in tended, as we understood, to give good luck in whaling, and is worn habitually by many of the men and boys under the clothes, suspended around the neck by a string. The captain and harpooner of a whaling crew also wear them as pendants on the fillets already described, Fl°- 1 and on the breast of the jacket. We obtained five of these objects, all of very nearly the same shape, but of differ ent materials and varying somewhat in size. Fig. 421 represents one of these (No. 5G703 [208] from Utkiavwlfi) made of a piece of hard colorless glass, probably a fragment of a ship's " deadlight." It is rather roughly flaked into a figure of a " bo whead" whale, 34 inches long, as seen from above and very much flattened with exaggerated flukes. The flippers were rudely indicated in the outline, but the left one is broken off. No. 89613 [771] from Utkiavwlfi is a very similar image, 2-4 inches long, which perhaps is of the same material, though it may be made of rock crystal. No. 56707 [159] from Utkiavwlfi is a very small whale (1-4 inches long), chipped in large flakes out of a water- worn pebble of smoky quart/, while No. 89577 [939] Fig. 422, from the same village, wrhich is a trifle larger (2 inches long), is made of dark crimson jasper. The large black flint whale, No. 56683 [01], also from Utkiavwlfi, which is 3-0 inches long, is the rudest of all the figures of the whales. It is precisely the shape of the blade of a skin scraper, except for the roughly indicated flukes. Fig. 423 (No. 8(1524 [1209] from Utkiavwlfi) is a rude wooden image of the same animal, 3i inches long, very broad and flat-bellied. It is Flo. 422.— Whale flaked from red jasper. 1 Kink, Tales, etc., p. 52. -186 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. smoothly carved and has a fragment of sky-blue glass inlaid to repre sent the left eye and a bit of iron pyrites for the right. The flukes have been split wholly oil' and fastened on with a lashing of narrow whalebone passing through a vertical hole in the <; small" and round the edge of the flukes. The flukes themselves have been split across and appear to have been doweled together. This shows that the owner attached considerable value to the object, or he would not have taken the trouble to mend it when another could have been so easily whittled out. In the middle of the belly is an oblong cavity, contain ing something which probably adds greater power to the charm, What this is can not be seen, as a band of sealskin with the hair shaved oft' has been shrunk on round the hinder half of the body and secured by a seam on the right side. A double turn of sinew braid is knotted round the middle of the body, leaving two ends which are tied together in a loop, showing that this object was meant to beattached somewhere about the person. To this class also probably belong the skins or pieces of animals worn as am ulets, probably with a view of obtaining the powers of the particular animal, as in so many cases in the stories related in liink's Tales and Traditions. We frequently saw men wearing at the belt bunches of the claws of the bear or wolverine, or the metacarpal bones of the wolf.1 The head or beak of the gull or raven2 is also a common personal amulet, and one man wore a small dried flounder.3 We collected a number of these animal amulets to be worn on the person, but only succeeded in learning the special purpose of one of them, No. 89532 [1307], from ITtkiavwin, which was said to be intended to give good luck in deer hunting. It is a young unbranehed antler of a reindeer,