. ——— : Se rarer
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= =x =

NINTH ANNUAL REPORT

OF THE

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY

TO THE

SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

a W.. 2 OW. ET
DIRECTOR

WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1892

CONTENTS.

REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR.

Page.

IetLoMomuransmiiuhaln ose eae Maan ere ecsenen ie anatase oui see eee oe XXI
REGO CG GON eee Seen te ae alee mais cra ee Salaried ae ree ee XXIII
ANC aOR se ae et ee ae tae show oss AS aE Sas ceieclease ee XXIV
VOLO SON acsersep ee ate ora See Sh ere Seblsw ts 2 sisjnods oe hereea cid a keemite XXV
IWotin O. 6x3) lonaitOUNe eta sectarian aon Seas see oe aero see Saas XXV
Wiolkonmb ror yrs NOMS m= jo ss—=.s ono s Sos ~ ee sos Seen XXV
Generalefieldistudiestaeern. essai s- Sone ces. cae ese eenee cece kee XXVII
WonsOtLhevirectontsrcc asco =e scence semanas eens cca ses cnicecs XXVII
Wiorkor: Mr: James|Steveusoml..- 2 5.226 snc occ aaseeece ns eee XXVIL

Wonks ne Mine VWVewbt a eLOLMOS iA tegen eee oases as = ete wee XXIX
Wronksot Messrs. iV. .andG. Mindelefi==-2- 22 s2--252+- 20 e-.- 25. XXX

Wonk Ol Mini AG M.S tO ph Ons. a senate wate aa ceekeee ee ae eae XXXII

VOLK Oe V inn) AMES MOONE Year i-c weian sce ele eee eee soe = oe eee XXXII

DRG RON, 2 oop see eb ead seSE Ree sane Cor GP ass Sete] aces arise eeeeene ae XXXII
WWoniccota Min-aVWiare) <p EL OtnM amy on te eens See ee eee Lae XXXIII
Wiorkol Cols GarmickiMalllenyssa 7 hi see te nn des noes ae ees se XXXII

DTS ed Oa J ee co ae as eae eee Aeisietsters scien Sate a etal XXXV
WiorkvomthesDinectonia seams poe amare a eee ote eee see ese XXXV
WiorkofiColi.Garrick Mailery 22 2c2cer = setees = 2 sso se cee de eet eee XXXKV
Wiorksoise Mr aVWVal tens ab Oman iis = e725 cnt = see ee A ee ee XXXV
Wiorkof Mr. JHenryaW, Henshaw = .5. 2-2 <s.2e6 ees ese sa-cneeee ne: XXXV
WorksofMr, Albert SGatschet oes. - ane - 5252s ose ese XXXVI
WiorlsorM ra JmiO wene Worse yiaec et ones Coa eee ee XXXVII
WrorkzoteMr- Jeremiah Curtin@eece-- races ose ee oe ee eee XXXVII

Wiorkao ty Mir.ne ames) Gru illin psoas essere ss = seo ee j er oe XXXVIL

WOT sO fp ners) aes M GONG Vans eee eee neste ae ea eee RCN
WrorkiofMraC virus homagis saaqcet semaeees ase a= serosa ern ee XXX VIII

Worcs on Mrakenryal wheynoldsvea. ce, sasseeccs a aseca eee ene XXXVIII
IWorkiol Mrs Gerard. Howke ieee. 42--- sees ooo ein eee Roe ee oe VII

Works Ofer Walliamab pi olmese anes 22 essence cee ee XXXVUI

Work. otevirwvictore Mind ele fiy= sos. ssa—s- esos Sane ee eee <a

Work of Mr. Cosmos Mindeleff .-.........-. Bee sae eae wees see x

Work of Dr. Washington Matthews -..-.-=--.-:-=--)----.---.2---- XLI

WVOLEs Ott: Meme JN CLNO Mace sae sso ais i a-e aoe oan Se ee ee XLI
WiorkoiMir se GbneN ib) be wilttisss-: a= een ee ose cee eee eee XLI
ACCOMPAnyiN Papa Ole esas mers rae tae sees ashe win Sees oe ci ane ee XLII
Ethnological results of the Point Barrow Expedition, by John Murdock -. XLII
The Medicine-men of the Apaches, by Capt. John G. Bourke --...__-.. XLUI
Binan cial’shatemeontyeece ster cc ac soci otis osersaecigee aece eines sted seco XLVI

IV CONTENTS.

ETHNOLOGICAL RESULTS OF THE POINT BARROW EXPEDITION, BY JOHN MURDOCH.

Page.
Introductions 2522 =p sates ae sos ais a wlalam aimee Salm are ater ore ee ee 19
List.of works consulted: 2-5 2<< 2 saci sein Fo ee sie ee ae ee eee 20
Situation and!'sarroundin gs) 2 ese. - sna = ee laser eee ee ee 26
(Onn ee ie Bee Sond oe Sabah Sn Ege UES SES eb nena Ses age csc ccense soon ese sss aoe! 30
IC OO) -ip seen aS Sen esonne cd tse ee Peee ea anes SEeacnenneandobcetcane sss coueadSone 33
Physical characteristics 2-=--— se -=-- eee eee t een ner ean e eee ee eee 33
LEP Liye Roe Samra matin DELO micbososcne secede ten Sac codSnscoaoscse 39
Psychical’ characteristics: .- 5 = sess a. aoe eee eae sen eee tet 40
Mniballphenomenarsaece == eee ee eae eee See aaa See eee eee eee 42
Soctalisurround in ese cee ecclesia eee te ae eee 43
Contact wathiunecivilazed\peoplessas22 sees ee a= sos esas e eee eee 43
Other skimo® \icshe.55-8 oes fee sence eee minal ae aoe = ee eee 43
lb bE NE SSE Ree gonad Boor a ope eas aq 3 ahecoecnd seco secomasEaSeeHsS sate 49
Contactiwithicivalizedpeople--- me s-aee erie) ee ee eee eae ee 51
AN SUPT LSS OM C OS pee tt ea 55
7 Rabel), Ce Sees obese casa see couse coc oreo =o hbonas6 Seapcesmconbosn a 55
Mammals <= cate s- sect =e tee ws ahaa eee eee ee eee 55
IBS8GE) peo paso ees eso cogs coopeses once wees dats meee rmessdstaesoesonac 56
IUCN seme Soe ao 2 a sneis sade saee yas acb ese toc sss gasemeses sseesSse¢oc5 58
Insectsand!other invertebrates... - = .-- )-6(e = =< nee eee eee 59
Plantisis.sj-;22 soa toc Se eel nis scr eyo see Sateen iaie = Sey eee eioet Se eee ees 59
Mibu Pils 65 Sook es 6s ash ones ssedasresey osdoones stepson denssocascease 60
(QU, Ree Sse tee ceR eee sto oe anes teen sods. Henseees ss See soo sear sessce Ir. VOSS 61
Means (ofiSUDSiS ten COs =m a:~ ae stare ae eee ere tte aoe eee net 61
1G ete ees pptor eRe mmn tb eeeesOA dbs aco bab cco ocean Stee ot as sect 61
Substances used fortood S3-7eys4-- nasa. ern ee eee eee eee 61
IMeans\ofiprepanin food seem cael le = ele eeeie eee ras eee eer 63
Time and) frequen ey Of 6 att ype aera laa alae eal ere 63
(Dyula ee ape ceoe Sane oh Eoanbe Bee Seer ape sence rise Sasnesborescesooecacwes 64
NAT COUCS scm 25528 -= Sofa ees ee sare a ee ee a ee aoe eet 65
Habitations-.-...--.-:-- BESO GE Resa aR ar SBE oan soos ocstoobaseseacces See 72
ihre swan GON N OUSC y= oases aa ee era 72
Axvranrementen! Will ap O82: am ese eee = ae eae eee ee eee 79
PHO 2 LO): Se aaenEsesarae esos ousotc 6504 boneHS cous sepa onsSecusesse 81
LET Reepeosonts cnbcap aucboouEs see Sass ucsocco cusses Ceomeh osesencses 83
ISKUEGIO Glgh RY Cap pase emooonss cons sooo sb Ss poUo bes soesoseadccescs cscs 86
For holding and carrying food, water, etc ...--..-.---..--.-----.------ 86
(GPT ee Gredecssne deca baccas Sosesa sb ss susp osesas cede seep Sescatotinc 86
NWR ia Sees a oecs Sees sSe bce Sonood sesso nocebene sScoccdsemeasince 86
Buckets and! tubs: 3: ssc ose ao cece a= see ae ee eee eee 86
Meat bowls: <= =c 28. <2 azqonts soe caves aca cts eee Sac eae eee ete 89
ING Heyyy Oe unseen oS eS 5 seco ss eons gos ooobareon Nosses osamesc orice 90
Potsiof stone) and othenmaterialse sa) eeaeeeeee seca eee 90
Bone crushers. 2= ces. s =e = see eae eee ee eee eee Se sae eee er 93
Mor'serving.and! eatingttoodii a == sas se osetia eee en ie eee ates 99
UNE i qaeacmcseSontorss arsuqsate soe Seb acne moce eso B Sane SeStOSSeese 99
ID rye abiyeN <r ) Glee aes ae ee Sees Oca orig SOSSCOb ona0 CesEe esos ete SS oanee 101
IWikialebone (cups: 25 - = 22— ss eee ae eee iain ann ees 101
Spoons:andJladles\: 2-5 225-22. ae eases see ee as noses eee 104
Miscellaneousshousehold utensils =- eee sees oe oa) eee 105
AMP SEL Se wala e isin cle cals mieten ee eee sine See hres la cS ee 105

@lothin ras - oe se eete d= - ac Scenes Seaeferepe nessa ce eros aeee ee eee 109

CONTENTS.

Culture—Continued.
Clothing—Continued.

Material em tees mre ae Aan ars bane soe Shon ane sees

RaAINrOCKS cease ese gas a san taese ars aocmee Sec ence
Arm clothing, =< 22 << 2 ene snes = ase eneseaes 2 Sac sae neccce
Mittens-2225.-.2.0sscc0—%<-556 wae demi a aasueciat Seaercae
GION GSE erecta een an ee eines ae sat cce cata sect bee se ee
Hepvand! footiclothing: 22+ 22-25. 22222222252 ses eee sacace
IBLCCCRES = She een a wire eae eee oe Reel erat eea sick oay

STOCRING cnt oo chase saee beh saoe eee er ose EE ee BemeBeme
BOOS and SNOCE =~ — Gers oiaata eee eee cece oescee’
PATS OL OLGss ee aes Ae ee ey Se aS E oS Mews Ah ee cae
Belin cette aac ae eet Sak ee SS cit: Dols stats 2a eS
OnHamenils sem fae ats. s Sta a ets 22 ce meee Sees
Personals dornmenteessas se. 22) een eae Pe a
Ean ornmamentaiion oe eso sen santa ee ae eee ee
TUBERS Seno thos Sam saan ca aOOre HOBO ERES Sees ace Sate
aN Be ame cate e eine sac aoe een E eS Sse pee E Se isccke
EGR drOTM AMEN th coer ts ee aoe cae Soe e aeons ose ee
Method of wearing the hair --.....-...--.--.-=--------
Headthandsea-n--ceiceessls aca aes = fear ncan eee sake oe
STRAT $F eeestatan testa are ote eee a ee oe tS See
(HaTOUs ee mesa mR en See cre ote See ste eek

BAUM OTETIN GS aes ans avo r aoe eee eee Slatin oe ee
MincellaneonsOrnaments 5. 22 seers = oes ences cease

MROOIS eee oe Seok ie oe eee eat eeltaa cia siteee ase c.ce- Pees

SS Buy Steerer ee se ees 2 ir Bye le ce Sen eS Be a

AWiGap ONS cette ee oe eee ek sac a ceme eee ee

NPI 6 ooo upe Sea aS enere EEE Oo Seee Boise roe oes

Bow cases andquivers)=; 2 2-ses5c52.- 2-26 ose eee ese
IBPRCOIB ase orsco se isa cece aoe Sasisls 5 aaioneGlss seeseessee

VI CONTENTS.

Culture—Continued.
Weapons—Continned.
Bird arte i220 52 Skee ee Se OE ere ee
Seal darts 52252 M5 joo oon - = eee eee eee eee
Flan poOons.- . == ere= settee ein ine oot ee een ee
Thrusting: weapons) s3352 a =<) ciao see ae se ee ee rea
PEUA POON Sores ye al ala le eee
1 BE hie) eos SEA SO SS BEMOr = Saar ORO mS Some mmAspoTochonso secs eéESote
TD TO Wal We BY ONS a yer es lal mm rea NS a le lee eee

Uo a eee Se eR ta Sa SecA eese Sc Sasa eot Seas
IV bh yee i aA ace emo nan noo Kee eeemesoocesacesanzastiscsonsess2-
Harp oon boxes e.s aaa see ae eee eee eee eer
IN GUS) 75 25,25 2525.2 5S At seed ess wae Maasai asa See eee ee eee
Sealli¢allls'. £2 =<. as s5 Ssh So has Heys sass ae ee eae ae ee eer
Seallrattles|-.222 352-8 ac be nels soe soso seo aes eae ee eee
Seallindicators2.s< .-. 2c: 5 eos. ao em eee aos eee ee eee eee
Soalin ostoolss2s2-<.2-- 522 22 ss saree ean ae ein ee eee
Senllidirag soe reer se te te arate re ane terse eae ee
Wihalebone wolf callers 3222.5: oo. nase oe een oe ee eee
ANT 0) eee Reese Gs Sei Hee ee een See Se seme mae nerane sore Sookcstecodsss
Srey dsb AE on Kaas aR NAR EE Samm Sane oad sb poco ssuaWscecaccnsescs
Meaticache Markers. es.os oases) -5- <i cis elstsaa ss aes eee ee
Methods.of bunting sacs geass hac se a a ata a ra ee a
ANTE) OER Yer hho Meee Re ons aensooses HempaSatedooncoddomecey ance resc
Theswolf 2... 2222s. seesaw a sess a he ae te oe ee eee Bere
MENG HOR Gs ha see se tes AEE See eo cee re See eee te eae eee oes

The walrus’... 2-222 5 weeee ore Sele aerate aie eet Sere eae ere
hel whales 23 ocn6 225s pee nee teas Sao sitet ee eee ae reer

Implements for fishin gs 25 ae eee ye tee a ee
Hooksiand Jimese.s2 214 3405s snes See oes eae
IG) Ose eeee eee pee ee etn ene seare nena roe rreaccoouanSeaseee cesses

Blint working 258 5.2225. een ese nee eee ene sae eee eee

Riretmalcin® 22 Sassscscs- sae oe eee ice cee eee ine oe a ee
Drills: 22822. Se5e0 222s caste sae cee see ee eae © Ree ae eee ae eee

Hanns) ieee ser SSR eae seracoceosc Ss pecroUoreere me secs cescatoncc
IBS Osos tit CL TO vp a A ee are ale
Mhewnanline spike sseee eee cs eee eee a eee eee eee ee eee

Praha qyrelebe vie - Be oo ese beoee once soon por eoscoreonereonacscesrssoescecee
(Sion Nos) Saseceys Sos oo SS5 cooSeber ache gee scdesosssssencetsasasessc

Gomibs'for' deer skins =a2o24--00en- a2 ese ee ecoce ee e eee ae
NY hehoh fC) THD Ke) OBOE VONR TONE = See io aoa coe See see coop meow coeentocae ass
IONE WOO LY spe emecreeeeeodaes ASR oraca lo po ean sbaasveadsosemcaessocts
ore xcaryecutln pi mane eee eee ieee alee ee
TOOIS MOLT SUO Ws ANG) 106 wOlkin & = sees a crete estate cleats ley ee een

CONTENTS. VII

Culture—Continued. Page.
Tools for snow and ice working—Continned.
Is) FAG ose Baca s eb cena see sees poemason ode csanedaasec 307
TOD GOOAyTS sis a ose enee SASS Sa Sb0bee seo eS ee soaees SonSesee ease 308
Implements for procuring and preparing food_-..-...---..--------------- 310
Bln ber NOOKSE cam mam aaa is a n= = = =n annie in ne 310
IDI. RCAC. .cocmoss seoboras ss bd Dass cause = See a BOSSE asso aaa sare 311
Nia Erin Brae yy ieee Ue SoS Sos oboe cena carmeeae Besse a= eseenaeaacoe 311
Tastee Cin l jenPING bie tse Ae 04 coe 9 noah asad onan sass Sead Meanesesod=s 311
INGTMTG 45 soos cdg soso odo cues nessososaSeeteeses sess sescessseansss 312
IIGHHAUDG: YQUGMNG) ose cSee ssc coe acoS cose os oop ee acuseseoeces Sess 315
\WG@B\ AIG oe es So eels eoede maces nee sre aare sean Sones ce censor so Sec 316
SEM MME o Sate coaed cebeae scons SaSes Saher etaesr es Smsee scene penpee mec 317
Means of locomotion and transportation......-...-------------.--------- 328
TPO [Dy AIUD! 6 otc aeaee ae ee teen Peer esta se Eon ee ree Soemeee 328
IRE) eS puis Pee SA Set gem ae seal ee ae See Boas ants Se eee 328
(UTE ENT GL UTS ean coos cc origee cece sen ere reser se soe onesie 335
TIRED HOON ok ae oocipe cs noee cane nese Deer See cece geateceg ear oases 344
BNO WSDOCSremee fon an eer ania = ee teceminae Stein nee eee eas 344
SFHME eee e snoce seeoor eres eens cee ook enes coe gmr as Cocos san eoene sae 352
ILAieG! COM ENON | 2e oo sees cab soos cece Sess cope cade hors coset sete seesnn 353
SHCGIRGS). so death acetone capnsoeds Sane Sees ene ooscececnee ss soc. 353
IDYefEs) GHG ERENCE ooo oo sose es eee anos atee cease geeess ese eeeseNse 357
ina NOE RCOWES cent oresor doa ech neon s © Sse seen beveessscsc: ssapecconens 360
Grimes iam dp as tlMeOn spent aie ete aral arate oie teeter iereae te Sieh ae ose pe ates ele ele 364
(Gined) QE. 2 oases ceo cine Goce aos poser ao soeose ess atos 3b sesenscscocs 364
INGITIVENS) So peso qne Gmeeoes atmenl oto seenaseseee shan. Soe Soas caae 365
IMechanicalfcontrivanGes) ap pecm eae cese saeene ane mee tee eater 372
IDES AONTL, GkRaR INNES See Coons doce mcescoa= sea somane ReseneaaGaoas = 373
Doysiandsspotts dor childrencamd Ovuhers.--- ~<a - =~ — ae = asl ee a 376
IRR A AMNNG) 2 ooo pac arcnnerec aera sae ee Sana See ase oS Sees Sees Sane 376
IBY) - eo be ed Se se se oase see case nseesese esos. s0 2S soeeco ease 380
EITC CI 700s LOT GIGS ve este ere astern ea ee ee 383
GeaTHe Stall des POLLS eee eee ee nee eee eae oe ee eee 383
WITS, scons seoneadcsccosecces os coSs sores seers sae Sere eagncstocsor oeosco5¢ 385
WWREEN OO ine neiaG) che eo cece sopaa Seco aS een= ae Acasa se ees cee aeeeraaoe 385
Characteriand frequency Of music’. ----)----.--- == 1-1 2 =e 388
INT «= moneceseceesone shot cess meee See ne sae odes Se oees = SS aes Seo seee SS sSse 389
ID OTS TONING sae Ses Goce Sea0 SERS Rade SaeEe oho BERS SSE ESE SSeS = S56 56 eae oe 410
WETS IG 0) BSR aka ess“ mo tin San ona aoee aoe See eS oeee esseses 410
Standing and treatment of women..........-.--.-------.------..---- 413
(Chuldrenee a= sssonee soe ee oe terme saeis, Coe ee a ease ep ein yee 414
LEGA ag RSV AMMVEL SHANO EGS eg = Sanne cose oe Seng Cone ones soe veges see seeoseeee 419
Socialeliteyand) Customs =-meeee= a aces see eee ge a Sn 420
Personalihabitsandicleamliness= 9. e--e)eia= == ee ala 420
SENT UII A SAG has Ar oe eS Rote pi eu ere a es et ee ek 422
LEC LINE Rose WSN Se SEO pene Ces Boe See SER ae aie a a ere aes OES 422
Customsiconcemine the dead. 52-2 sae ne ee ee pee emcees 425
JA DSIGINIG) NS. SSE eRe oes SER eP Reb Op nbs Hea Seen See sea e Bears 425,
Mannerofdisposine of the dead. oc. <2 522. Sasa =a see ace e ee cee 424
Goyer rn rn pee eter a ee amr eae Se ai hes 427
Int thertamulgeete st 4-5. 2 eae oho 2..2t54 ome re ese kee Soke Sebastes He 427
In the! Wa eer no -mne- Sas aoae snes onsen eee eee ee Seesaw sees 427
REIN PLONG = eons sano eee olen miss aoe ne eee ae ate eeie ses aia ek coat em see cic 430
Generalidéas 22. 3c <3 asco se nse aese soe aae Sse eae ee ae oa scns oe meee 430
AMUN tee eaeieae nce ena aes eae eee Ses Oe Serer nace seinceseees 434

Vill CONTENTS.

THE MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE, BY JOHN G. BOURKE.

e.
CuHaPrer I. The medicine-men, their modes of treating disease, their super- a
stitions, paraphernalia, etes=. 25,5: 402-- a2... ee aece ere ee ee 451
Medicine-womens 25.2255. 2 .2-)acte soe 0' so eae Sees aoe padteseceees 468
Remedies and modes oftreataent BOBO RSS Aces ssceeHscon sais mae de waSe 471
Bainiand! Wigs — 2-10 se.2 Soot mw eto ee ee ee 474
Mudheads' =... = 2253 2.2sa-02 scecesennane le soece osteo One eee eee eee 475
Scalp/shirtes: 2-22 Aaas2- Soham ee eee nee eee ee eee 476
The xhombusorbulll rome rwes ee = eee ee eee ee eee 476
Dh CRosse!. 3-52 seo fee yee ae sissies ee ae a eee ee SORA RE ae ee 479
Necklaces ‘of humaniinperss =f -<.2 sees eee eases eee ene ae eee 480
Necklaces: ofhuman teeth'.\s cen ase se ase= eee eee eee eae eee ee eee 487
Whe:scrateh stick 323% 2_ 6 so. in- see ace areal are ee eee a eae 490
The drinking reed 493
CuHapTer II. Hoddentin, the pollen of the tule, the sacrificial powder of the
Apache; with remarks upon sacred powders and offerings in gen-
Oral yale merc: See ae sees hee ae eee sane ee eee oan aS eee 499
The skungne:ofthe:7unitand Othersss-—=-eb see eee ee eee ee 507
Use of the pollen by the Israelites and Egyptians..........--...---..--.- 517
Hoddentinia prehistoric ood sae se- ee seen eas == ae ae eee eee eee 518
Hoddentin the yiauhtiofthe Aztecs! -=- =225-—--5-)9se- nee eee 521
‘“Bledos” of ancient writers—its Meaning.......-----..2-5-222-2---s2-2o- 522
Me0alli. S2cetise Soars ohese Gee StinS Seale. ates eee ce Eee eee eee 523
General use of the powder among Indians ...........--.....--..---.----- 528
Analogues of hod dentin ecreteee cece eeele eee eee ae eee eee 530
The down of birds in ceremonial observances'...........-....------------ 533
IS Erbe WRG ess Seco ec Scum sooaue anne seossosg Ses aan sosS cass sma eeooseaee 535
Dust from chinrehes—ttsiuse -cjjeatrs coe ele teats eee oe ee ee 537
ID eGR Ohh oie cage ecatspseEerns saacnecobonedniedswacaandsnscbsascadesse 537
Prehistoric) foods used imicovenanits’* ==. 2. a ete eee 540
Sacred breads and cakes ........------- SED Oe Sroscoaces auaKde Scadeenasece 541
UWinleawenedi reads se nectar oiatepa ie = eles lo leat at 543
The hoticross) buns of Good Hriday, o-2-—- sss 5-s4e eee eee eee eee 544
LO et eR OeO Raa Dare ere ERE pne me HEE MEO SHn ae DSenr Manes consonecedasance 548
Cuapter III. The izze-kloth or medicine cord of the Apache. .--..-..--..---- 550
Analogues to be found among the Aztecs, Peruvians, and others--.-..----- 558
The magie wind knotted cords of the Lapps and others..--....-.---.---- 560
Rosaries:and other mnemonic cords. ..---..-2-.---- ---. <3 fse- 22322 n= 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
Theimedieine hats 3552. ses ee oa em ae = ee eee ee ee eee ee 580
Dhejspixitior ghost dancesheaddresso--— eee ee eee ae ee eee ee eee 585
Amulets‘and! talismans. 5-222 2.ces jee soe ae eel ae eee eee 587
Mhex zi al taie 2 225 3 appre eetaeta- sas es aoe ae ee 587
Challehthutit a= = aes =a ae esate ae eee meters a eee 588

Phylacteries 52 -:ciis.55 os ats seo be ee fee eles nae ees ae eee eee emo
Bibliography pcs 23-22% -22 vin. a oersuls See sas See eee eae ee cee tee ee eee 596

ILLUSTRATIONS

Page.
Pie eaeManiot Northwestern Alaskas. 2-20-26 22225 .02-2522cene case 4oh< 3 eke 2
Il. Map of the hunting grounds of the Point Barrow Eskimo..---..-..-.-- 18
Le seal p shintorvbitile Bio Man s-22) 51-2222). 2252 eee ances cece 476
Vem Neck acevole DUMAN MN COLA re aims nto ela Senos 5 le one eee ae mene S 480
V. Apache medicine hat used in ghost or spirit dance --......-.-.------ 586
Wir Ap achonmne di ClO SNinbten seats n. eae mean <siaa ne ea Saae 588
WIerApAGheSMmedi Cine Shitt = a2-2 226 a ea = Sener s ee ase one keane nee 590
WIREetApache medicine shirt... 22222 .2s-s.ce2sa02 2522s Se0 ceases 2-225 592
RiGralem@lUinalin a vexmanvon (Ni With ome cn =o ocla cs Soe - cco oo she eat sjnsc aeons e 34
PIVOT dare WOMAN OL NUW UK 28 6 coe omen ne Seen uence a twebewe 35
SA kabiana a youth of UtklaviWille ss 2-.s2ce> foes c scenes sce aces ces 36
qPuUkayasyOUNS MAT Of. UUKLAY Walls sis oe l= 6 hate aoe ce nee ase eaten eeeeeees 37
SAVOUR SEROLCH IN Ges KANN sae om eee ee mae eae aoe as cee See enon eee 38
6. Pipes: (a) pipe with metal bowl; (b) pipe with stone bowl; (c) pipe
WiuhipOWwOtanGglenOreVvolyaccess-c- eee ee oe eae ne ee 67
TaeeUpesiAde OlnwilllowaStlC Kiam ea eae 2 = eee ese encase = seine wees 68
Oak LODAGCONNOUCRERS were a eer nee. ok omeeme aa ne eee ea see aaa 69
OME lankrorskimo; winter DOUSG s<sshes= sees soon a= scene sels sees 72
10. Interior of iglu, looking toward door -....-..------- Benscelss sens sett 73
11. Interior of iglu, looking toward bench ........-..-.--------.-------- 7A
127 sHouse in (Wtkiav will... 225-2 2-222 2: ass - 2s S52 ns se dee eag-- tee see ase 76
13. Ground plan and section of winter house in Mackenzie region ------- tit
14° Ground plan) oflaroe'snow house’ -==---2=- ¢---<«-.---555-)-4- sees 82
i> entoniihe peach atiUtkiav will: =- sco. 52s. 26-2 cscs lee eeccsree cose 85
1S: “MAVGe G8) C00) oa Ce na ee Ne aft eee oe eB 86
TA Gay “LLYN AIREY LT Oat Se he he at gah Spee en et IE nt ee ey 87
LSeaWinalebone dish! = 2 a= 5 se cea = pees cote seek an Sea cease ee eee 88
LO Mea GI DOWL S222 226 cas a Gens ee eee seein ssh ee aot eee ak oe ut cee 89
ZO SUONePOl sce ase a seces seein ~ Ses ore Ree came eee 90
Pay STORET SLOTS OL) hey aie Io Seer me eae roe et fi ete ee 91
So PEMA MEN ts OT POULOLY | a-eae seat ore ee eee re emia cae sees 92
Bom SCONCE me caries aa atacand ale eee SE Beene Sete eens see 94
DAMS tom ey Uae <a sete ae eee ee Be cise ces eee a Beslan esate oasis 94
25e bone MAW ese eee sao sas alone eceaias He eee emis tee eee ase -emee es 95
JOe LONG WAM eee meh eee ease mie a rine cae se cece San a5 oe sess 95
lee LONG MA ee meee Ace hee ee Rete core SUS St <a eee ne faa San 96
Bom TONGA ope tee cee Ree ore en a eae ae ee Ey oe nie ois See 96
ZO BONG MNase eee ese 2 oa CEE ae ee ee eee ae ae oie ned 97
Bulb ASQO GY | ee note 8 Sener ERE ee. ee 97
Le BONG: MAU eee meer eae oe ate ot Saas Seer RNC ae Ha ie 2 se 98
Bos DONE NAM reser a aes ea ae laa eon ae saan 2h yas) nce 98
33

Pee nT Saco mmcenet take AOS BASSE eens ee pees re 99

Ix

x

Fig. 34.
35.
36.
37.
Blom diappetensen > 2c = ce ae ke ate ee eee
MUELorn dip peb sas fas. one nee eae lee eee eee
PDIP POL Of LOS OTs yee eee are eee a ee

Sao
a He

or
-]

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Oy MG vA AGL Ae Oe Rene ree wees Sor edoac soceses 2eeren Sas antee
Oblongeimeat dish; very Oldis2- 5-2 -s.-ee eee ae eee ee
Mish {ishé 2.5% see -Ss cio ete set oe = ert eee ee eee

Whalebone cup... ---

« Bone ladle. oie 22 22555 -Becwnte as See ee eee ee ae eee
. Bone ladleinthe:form of & whales .e-= sss. een ane eee eee
. Bone ladle
S ptone house Lamp fo. =< oan eee ete eee eee ee eee
PHOS tone iam pa a= oe ee eee ae ete oe eee ee
Wetraveling: Lamp ees. se) so seen eee sees eee ee ees
= Socket for blubber' hold éreeveesses sore eee eee eee eee
; Manin ‘ordinary, deerskan) clothesmme-e 5 see= eee] eee eee ae
~ Woman's: hood. 2: . 5255... cee So eee ae er ei eeae eee eee
5; Man’a-frock: . 2.22cc< 25cm. oo Oe eee oes oe ae ee yee
. Pattern of‘man’s)deersicin) trocksosseree sas 2 sees eee ee eet
. Detail of trimming, skirt and shoulder of man’s frock -...-.--------
© Man) wearin plain hea yciro Cems ees eee eee
. Man’s frock of mountain sheepskin, front and back .....-.----------
» Man’sitrock oferminerskins 2-4-5 4-- 2 ae ee eeor ee eee eee eee eae eee
i PRatitiern: of sheepskant iro c kis ee ase se eel eaten ee ae ee te eer ee
(“Pattern of ermine frocks. 0 s-- ssces 2a ln eee eee eee ee ee
, Woman's frocks front amd! Dak eee se ee ele eee etre
weRatterniof womantsctroc kere secemet eyo serena ie sacar eter
© Detail ofied oimp: womans ti 0 Cee emt steele lee
. Details of trimming, woman’s frock. .---.--...-.-----5.-------------
5; Man’s\closk-of deerskin’<22.22222,0- tein ie ee eee eee eee
) Pattern of: man‘’s'cloaks 5... ssseoe seca oe ee eee eee eee eee eae
& DM eerskem mithense se soos acess ee aerate ed eee ete erate
Ree Deerskan elowes = sac sass aor ore oe eal el
P Man‘s breeches of deerskin=see eee aeee Saar e eee eee
Pattern of man’s breeches: -aaceac ss oe Sa ee ae cee ae eee
= Jirimmin 9 ofim ans PLES CHOS a aterate tetera ee eee
SeVV.OIN aN’ S panitall CONS ee er a Seee eee eae ea se ee eee ears
» Patterns of svoman’s pantal Oons)s= =e) = = ee ee eer
5 LEE TIS OLE OVO SSS 5 oo ako sees Aoan once cassSader ores SeSSSecctese
Haan aibootordeerskins sas sects erecisies eee ene teat

» Manisidressboototd cerskine sar seem ee meets ae eee et ees ete
8. Pattern of man’s dress boot of deerskin.....-...---...--------------
uo:
. Pair of man’s dress boots of deerskin-.--.. -.---.---- Jock wxdgen eee Seeeee
. Woman’s waterproof sealskin boot........---.-----.----------------
82.
2 Man's pelt woven OLdeatherse see sse see seen a sama ee eet
. Diagram showing method of fastening the ends of feathers in belt --
PAVWOManls beltior wolverine tOeGse: eseiesaetesne ae ae ee aa ee ene
Belt-tastener®.-- <6 steer o eae eee eee hoa gs oia Seis doe See eee
Manicwith tattooed cheeks o-5 assess eee ajo > Sees eae
; Woman with ordinary tattooing. --5-----=-- == 3-22-22 ee
| Man’s'method of wearing the hain-.---- 222. ---</.--<26-------— ee

Man’s dress boot of skin of mountain sheep ....---------------------

Sketch of ‘‘ice-creepers” on boot'sole. .... -..----.------------------

ILLUSTRATIONS. XI

Page,

Lia Bi), JBOSS 3 S65 2st oo So ease see pedo Hap Sc Sead Se eSoen sae 143
Gieelusorenlatrin ge labret) RO m=. mse ne see ae eet sata 144
a mliabretiol peadsiand MVONy anemic eens morse estate Se cc esses ce~ ens Soe 145
93. Blue and white labret from Anderson River.---.-.-..........-.------ 146
OTRO GON Pel aT OULO LD ON Oleic ats staan fae = osinicte co eiataisiniee er) ay ae re 147
Som Obloney Labretion SOAPSLONG mee. acinar ee =e ele sis eee nee 147
96. Ancient labret -...-.-- Fee ete tee tee acre Sasa U see at eee aes 148
OT eR AS Oi cD Bee none Wes se eee El Set seek ates weirs ce ees GaSe 149
OS EEL COM DS Bees ete SR nies eeiric ais saa aa sce ee Ga eee SER EERE 150
DOM SILO RLV. GS eee nial e cao ce nek ck aie seis AS See mane eaatiatien Soe 151
HOO mS LaueseMile-DlAGOr ase semer- cians a aera ea Ses so seacoast e eee ees 152
ERS FOR RMU O eet eyes Ronis woe Cenc ices ola wininsla eID Eee Soc Saee weet 152
HOZS label kmiet] = -— ht meas Scecse ccc ccas ss Soa eae 5 Ao Soe Se aoeer 152
103. Slate hunting-knife .-...........-... sobsHo cs - om A204 socomeeeetoeoe 152
fot bladerotala te MOT PRN Oe oe ste oe = ee = See eee irene ee 153
horas eto GIstALOIKM Os enioe a ote ene naa sce see nianes Deewecees Senses 153
106: -Haree'single-edged slate knife. .-2. 22. 2-22c2 2522 2222-52--secee-e 153
HO rapes Lad CaO HL VOSA eee ele vaca an oinine Sea a eee oe oer 154
Sse hecu liars abe It eee oe sce neti ace tars tes AO oe Se 154
109s Kniterwithi whalebone blade. << -..2-- 2... <.-c2- 52052504 -os dt dee 155
LOND), CSAP Sean arth Ne Ss OE ee Sree ee en 155
Smal ronvKMUVES hjoa= asses cic as cmisiet esac oe see ee owecw aeee 156
Astron hunter tes =e nna cee= seats cease Sates ease oe Sass oeecene 156
iS helbareercrooked Kile oi = gae oon oe ae ae eae eae wee wiseo eee 158
(14) larreicrooked Icnite with'sheath .2-------2--------- 2222. -e2- == =e 158
flee mallkeroo kedukmiv es seis se seers om emi eraiee teenie oc eee es oes ieee 159
Hel Fal LOO KEG ene oe ote eri cee oe cic pr esiny- en SES easels ee 159
Pipeerookedsknivess fint-bladed 22s coe nacs- aoe eee ee eee ene sees 160
his slibe-piadedscrooked soiiviese coe sec ose ae oie oe = os ae tases 161
AIS SEVWVOnIaN SKE SLOG DI Or. cee ease ean a oeee ease ane aoe nee 161
120E- Woman's) knitter slate blade enna - ss sess sera sen cee sesaos ss sede ates 162
Ele Woman aiknite;slate blader). -4-- 2s<2 222 Soe c0 so senor Se 162
127 awoman's knife; Slateiblades 2-2-2012 ssc ecessee ae coe ake eee 162
L23sowWoman's'knite: slate) blade: -<<2-.--<. =e 2. c2eae- See Pe ee ie 162
124. Woman’s ancient slate-bladed knife......-.--..---.---.--.---...--- 163
125. Ancient bone handle for woman’s knife ......-.......--.-----./--..-- 163
126s hargekonite of Slate: 2.22. s-s-<5 soe es S255 22s ss ieee eoeetecc eee 163
HOT eWoman is kniverof hakedowinte cc asco aa. sees aso tees eee eee 164
12seetatchethattedsag an ayes one ears cin eae ais eeeens Sala cleale sees 165
(oO sHatcheiphattedras+am, Agee. - sone eens coe eee eee eee 2 cess eee 166
PORNO 7-head Oh ade oe. aos pac eee os Saesee ke Saaeaeiees ae s2 ss 5cece 167
LS UeAG7Zaheadio fej md Ob was oe gery eeisece Gare Steen s ste caece se ees noes 167
1S rar bed jAOOrad 2s kaon cdc cece ye =ses Ss oderetecheen eee ncases 168
133, Adz7-head of jadevand bones 22252252 .ce 5-22 tease eas Sec ess cece= 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.....- Bacto creer Se Ne aS aca e ee 169
138s Hatvedsbon ain distone A027... << sae sees ae eee soe See ee eee 170
139h Smalliadzebladeiof preen jade). 2225-2 ao eee seeese Seco ee. - 28 170
140' Hattediadziotmpong andi fint. 2. tosses wees messes ace aasse x -e 171
141. Old cooper’s adz, rehafted ........----- Sa RAE gas outcome See 171
1A 7 Ma zawidhyponeiplade.es === <a- S55 ssneeas= 5 seem aeons eke ese 172
NaS se Am tl ere bine lees «ot ocak one = oe cia Se eee caches 173

144) Antler Chiseltere <5 .45<ns sees oe ose See Ee woot osw ecw ee is Soke 173

XII

Fic. 145.
146.
147.
148.
149,
150.
151.
152.
153.
154.
155.
156.
LT
158.
159.
160.
161.
162.
163.
164.
165.
166.
167.
168.
169.
170.
171. Bag

» Sarttle han d-clibivt 2a see toes ace ae = eee eee ae ee eee eee

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Spunions tool inti blad ees ee eee eee eee ee
Whalebone shave: slate blade. ...o.-. .c-cs2e5. cee ee cee eee enone
Sawunade.of deers scapular. ci ie < osc asst ia eae eee ete
Sav madeion ai case-knitece.<.io-. ~/- - ohne ena see eee ee eter ere
Bow. Grill. i. 2s. aces oats Sans «ee ee ee ee ee ee eee eee
Bow drill’and)mouthpiece! =. -. 0... = scien aie ee
Bow drill s2te = seca e ap owl wie aoe ee ea a eee eee
Drill bow: . .-5:2 20:2 sates sce.c0- 55 ie ecee see ase eee sae EEE eee
Drill bows es222ss5 secs sees seis ieee secee a Oe eee
Splicedidrillibowieo- 2. ees ean = aeeeee eee eee eee
Drill mouthpiece with iron (socket); == 22222" 2 ee eee ee ee
Dr mouthpiece withoutiwings: = oa. - ames nae ee eee eee
Bone-pointedidrills so. -- sae ace shee ae sae eee eee eee eee
Mandlesiforidrill’ cords? cea. 2 cee taste eet= Saeco See ee eee
Flint-bladed reamers: 2-2 -< 32 <2 ssesseG- acts aaicie selene aes see eee
Mimtt-bladedl ne amens ser als tele ele ee ee ee
td EE eee Cee Rema Soe Sey Se cr Be SoS
Jade whetstonesis<o<2ccuec see cee acekee sees scene Lae Ss Se eese eons
Jade whetstones ...---- Bee OO Spo COSCO eRe ee eShade ootosSe ane Reba asaNKs
Wooden tool-boxes = sae = 2a ae Joes enna sre ee ee ere
hargewooden{tool=boxes aa s..c.- ee ae ees ae eae eee eee
Mool-bag of wolverine slam). ..-=2-2s2 === -— === === eee eee
Mool-bag of w.olVerine|s Ny cae etereee ae oie ee
Drillsibelongzin esto whe tool baie me = aera
Comp tor deerskinsim the too0l=bates.-a- see eee eee
Bap vhandlles s:Secasas-scseeeeese se seeh eee ae ee eee eee eee
Bapvotile athens emer cee aes ae else ele ie eae eee eee

Be Lela ney Gb apeg th ete 95m oa SAS Sao erga =S e550 5555655025 558556
wo=called dager of DONG) 2--es8he === a= ees ae ee eee eee
SBoy si bow, trom) WGK sy WAN a ee or aa ee a ee
Selo) au endo fib Oy SGU Oe ae cea alee ee ar ee
Silage Ibo watrona Nuit Kee ar tearm iste eto nee el arte ee
) barrel bow: from) Sid amuls seep secre pectin eee eet eee ee
. Heathering of the Hskimo/anrowe-s--ee =e ee eee ee eee
Se Hlint-headedtarnows (cokksad iin) seers eee eer
p LboeM ibe UE) sa 5- Sons Sea sSo ss Moa banG seme momo SONS sSSG sone eosaeoae
Astor upaibbel ayo Gyo Se ocps aa ea oeoood onan cose Seen Scccemecaouseresseace
5 laeihnesrey ye libtangy ey sohe Boon cao cane Some opes = esgeres care cones
>». (a) Arrow with “after pile” (ipudligadlin); (b) arrow with iron pile

(savidlin); (¢) arrow with iron pile (savidlin); (d) arrow with
copper pile (savidlin); (e) deer-arrow (nfitkodlin).-.-...-.....--.

> Pileiof deer arrow: (M0tKaD)| o<2- 2. os. -e = face y- asec ee se eee se eee

. “Konmidlin” arrowipile ssc n-)- 2 ceeees soceeee eon ena ae eee
. (a4) Fowl arrow (tugalin); (b) bird arrow (kixodwain) .-.....-.-.----
MB OWE CASO: ANG (MUR OLB yore ee ate eres vere peta ten ele ote a ae
MQUEVOD TOG! eso .ocsWnamie ciacise cates oon ate mci ete ete ae eee
Pe (CEMA MAO ENR! Ae A oo soos acoso neds edaosacarigono sas qedess
A Lat OR ie See eRe noc ndoo bfoco copbea boa canigncquacosane sans cS
AS BTACOL Ol" DONE 2/a'=2 10 eps mie ae nite eerie oes olson ste ele ats IS eo eee ee
» Bindi dart << c2 22529 sacceis seen com nine ain ee Se ieee a oe ees
DosR OLIN LOK) WORT CERI Eeyore cao ale et i te
ANGIent point for bird dart): c.ceescis en tee eae eee

ILLUSTRATIONS. XIII

Page.

HIGHS) OM ior DILGOaNt aso. ees ne cee ssw ee gees Saco e en Jess seck ose se 213
199SsBirdidartiwiauh) double point.22- 2222.2. 2222 2 ce vee dese see eee 213
POO) MeanCIOn gy TVOLY Garb Haden odoe. -< ce acece os. cate ae See sole et 214
AV eeBone arti head. oo ese sec ec apa sat mcbis eee ses see a sees oeceee eee ease 214
202 eNoezzletorpladder oat 222 ee a2 sooo eee se sense eee Seee eee: ee 215
BUR) SOE GET ab 450 seogas See anda Sea So ae ae eee gee Seas Sercioae cuss tee e 215
(ASR OTES batt Of SOM Cat fies ase alanine oe tee ae sree te cto ae sain siete 217
DO MLO Wane apDOst OHfOl Gants sa citas eer oan ee em oat a ae eee career see's 217
PDS Harpoon hed wseleeren'- eae cla gae eo ae oie eo teleo i= Seine tote ets eieleie 218
DU RPA T AT OONRN ORG aae mae maar coe arte aR EN Meee ee Senet aces Sees 219
BOS wAN CEN One harp OOM OAD: sanc aes es eee ese sean cee ee nee cs 219
209. (a) Ancient bone harpoon head; (b) variants of this type ----.-.----- 220
PidwiBbone harpoon heads 2-5-2262 sc22 casacs cee s oes seee sce see esses 220
21 eBonej harpoon head. a s/s 2n asses woes acba pees seco oshe eee 220
DowHarpoowhead, Done and: StONG= 222 ces. -saciscas sas eens es cna ae 221
Zissarpoon hese, bone and SONG --.-—-.~ = <-== essen eee eee 221
BU VETERE OS Eee = noe eS CARA en Ee Sen eo re anes Sones ae ete 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
DiGe Walrnus-banpoon head. withiline\ =a. see ce soe ee eee a= eee Lee 228
920. Walrus-harpoon head, with line ................--.---..------.--2- 228
D2 ihe Wialcns harpoon mead, Wwithe 1M eo. ancecc = cee eta cen See 299
DOE ROresharwoh walrus Parpoon «=e 25. os ss cence c= see sees = = ee ee 230
Zao benpoonunea.detor laree Seals oe.-j-cas ice aees Hoek. -oaeeeae ee cleee 230
Ppik Tcinbeyateedts(p Wey eto Seas oe pe Pee ee = Ses See Seeess sae see See seoee= 231
po>. Metals of retneving Seal harpoon). .-<- ---.--- 222 eee eee eee 232
BAG sad OMI AC OAONAOaL Naty OOM] sas aaee see eee eee een 233
ese nacpoonstol UnTOStHN Pewee aa= aoe aoe eee ee eRe = ea ere 233
228. Diapram of lashing on shaft-----.-.----2---.---------._-..--..--.- 234
D90M Modell of. a seal harpoon: sa-= <.5- ssce css soeees eee Seems Soee anes 235
230: Large model of whale harpoon --..-.-. -..-..--..-----------.--..-- 235
231. Model of whale harpoon, with floats. ............-.-.--.----------- 236
232. Flint blade for whale harpoon -.-...---.---:-------- Bee ae ae eee 237
9335 Slateiblade dor whale harpoon .=.--=---2-2. .22-+----<Sse20-ee22-0/5 237
234 Body of whale harpoon head):-------.----.--- = een nna 238
SBS. (MME Gry eG © oe Se pee eo eee oa RB eam eS eee = 238
236, Wihalesharpoon head with “leader”. _-.---...---. 2-2 -2--------en- 239
Sy. GR ENA AE ES Ey el) he So ao ee oe oe Ee = eee 239
ARS. WARDIG) LOO seg oe aoe eee coco See ee Saooet aoor em aes ae 240
250 hint HeacsOLay hale lan COtssa= soe eee ene oem eee oe 241
240: Flint heads for whale lances. ---.--.---..--------------.-----.----- 241
BLU. Sane IMIR 3255 55 ae se oee seco peson aa onases sea eas Soec esses eee reece 242
DAMN HneaG Lol Dear LANCE! eee cone eee nee ee ee wine ae 242
BY Taare ECay 2 Sarge ae eS CREM a Se SS Sop Oso Rosner anon cot ee area ate ae 243
PAs P art OsGeermlance wi Gh tin NGA... j= sa on ew oan ee oe ne 243
DAD ae Ora ar COMA rp on asta ie ie ete Searels See ofelcl cee 244
BNR, Tin niy Wise als Ose GCG ENON Sake See eee eae Ee cer Baa eeeee ens 244
TAT MBITGPOLAS MOUpeOuapmOk CALLVING =. mee= atone eee nese a 245
DAS BInd enol aa PLEA YetOR TRG. 5 tot tao te ae nite ne ale = maint ele 245
249% Seals kin tao ates assaee ee ona. eres eee ee ae ease sees sete sacs 247
SNS, OI eae oo no Sa SEC REE Sa Ome SSIs oe Soe sock SeeE ee EAR SSeee 248
2ol. Boxestor tar pool NCAAs. =. a2 aes se ee a ee om ans le 249

2b Oe SGalune yer E ne is ot Re Sn a ee eee woe nine soe Uae oo Secsele 251

>. UME

Fig.

bo bo be
or St ot St
a

2 to tb

oS
Si

Nbww bh by tw
1
S

be
=
oO ol

to bo
=
0 4)

. Seratchers for decoying seals
> benlinattle:..<. S222 S-eiece see toe eo ee ee eee eee
be ORL NA LC ALORS ee are maya eee ale cea a ea
; mealing stool 22.22.32. use seek o- Sae ete ee ee ees
», Seal-drag and handles 3.22 .:25.2. 222 -.\5 2a eee eee eee
. Whalebone wolf killers

ILLUSTRATIONS.

>, Mackletorshoremishin gy ease eee eee sacks eee Soe esate
5. Knot of line into hook
seoUNallfish=WoOOkSS.s2 52s asec cind- lose teaser Sate ae eee terete
+ Hooks for river fishing <= <2 eee eee eee ee pe ee ee
7 Dackle tor River viShing == sess cas aeacee see See ea eee eee eee
» Burbot hook, first patberne-s-c.= sess] eee eee eee eee an
; eBurbot hook, second pattern) -=- 5 2.022266) ane ee ee eee
; Burbot hook; made\of cod hook......5-2-22- 23222. -=s5 52> see ee
: Burbot tackle, baited!'=..<.2.....5..%.3:2. 0.002 Gee oe eee eee
» Uworysinker-2-.5---s22seccesete ses sans oon iene eee eee
P LVOLY jie cer tor, polaricod! oe. ee ce eres: eee ae ee ee eee
» ection-of whalebone neti... 226s. -<s See eee eee
4 Meshvof:sinew, net: <.2= 2-22 Sec. eaten ake eae EE EEE
RNS bVtTaDp = .22c/ao5< cies aon sancisao Senet ee cee See ae reper
L BSSHCSpOar: - = 25.215 <a sircjacicne eeielewiersic doe see er eee eee
ppt lintiflakers, <2. sexs f.ccse sae soca Sere ates ae eee eee
(abatt of flint faker <.\.-..s%2e2oogestie= sae ce eeer stn eae eee ee
soE lint laker, swith bone blade. y--c ener ees eee = tae eens
2. Fire drill, with mouthpiece and stock..........-...-----.-.--------
. Set of bow-and-arrow tools ...--.-.---...---..-.--- Uae nee
« Marline: spike: 32.22 22.28) co tse cle 2-2) G = ee eee ee eee
5. Marline spike ......---.. wie eine Se, ins ate Sa scote eee See eames
3. “Twister” for working sinew backing of bow.-..-.----------------
« §"Heather setter? =-.< <5... 155.6 2 aes ses ene ee ae ee SARE
» Tool of antler =<... 26s a8 essen se eee ee ee es
Skin scraper :sa20- 222 26 ses oon bee eee see eee
\ Skiniscrapers—nand les tonya. a. eee seen ees
eS) SCTAP OLS) arses ae = aioe el = oe aya ee ee ee eee ee
2s Skinscrapeny: j= -- sense niee ste eee ete ne ee eee eee ee eee ee
» eculiammodificatiomofscrapeteso- ease sae ee eae eee eee
SOONER NYY oo aoB ees a EasHqoon Gob Ssbescoscnshosssrcesiotoere wane
MO KINIS Crap Cleese eee eras a ffo ciose Sie meee eee eee rece
SS MEMES CLA OL) eaters tee eee a eee aati alate ae eee ae ees
peblint blade:for skiniserapertece seer sees aes ae ee
SsSivaicht-hatted scrapetess ec eeeene sees ea ate
ty BODGISCrap ol 2= os poems te eee eee eee eee eae
MOCLaper CUPS 222 seen eee= en ae eee a Rete ere ania nee ete
» Combs:tor cleaning; deer-S kins ees ee ee ele = a eee
» “Double slit” splice for rawhide Jines|----------....-.---- <2 eee eee
‘ Mattockiof whale’s tb) eo. 2.22 essere ere aan ose sere ees
. Pickax-heads of bone, ivory, and whale’s rib.-..--..--.---- speiee oe
SeLVODyISDOW: Knife) n2~ a2 22 see te ete eins eee ete alae et = ae
. PILOW BHOV OlSs o-oo a8. os ah ee een er ae oe ee

ILLUSTRATIONS. XV
Page.
HIG SUSa SUD Wap LO Keer mae aera Sassen sae oe acta ates sacle cis eee came aces 307
SOG MONO MGT eas eerste ete lens aa te seca Se eee ees Gone Eenec ce 308
DIU MILCOINCOOD serait cei aac estes Sates =a son Seto 2 Hose a eieiscaewesacs 308
Sli tone blnbbemhook-2-=.2-20- ances 2 ase OSS goaos ast ALS SO eae EO 310
las nort-nandled blubber Nook... 320. 2.22 22ce esse. esse ccc. ese. -2ee 310
Slop TSHINC ALOE ae ace a sey A we ees seer. setae yee oe 311
Dla BLY OnYI Ann UhLOrmemer n= a eee ene eens eee eee een ee ES es ee 311
SION bE PN eed Gee are ee seen a1 jae Aas eso eae es Seo eee aaa 312
ST SLITS UG) lee = Sa ee eR a a 312
Slee NOLL PED COU LEN tare, ies an eee eee eee ot aes Ree ete ke 313
Clo mNetn Pp Need LESMONRCAl MOUs s5 5 soos ene woc 5. see ck wee se Sees cece 314
BHI IN bee GEE Gers Sa, Be re Ie Ae eae SS a 314
DAA EVLOS MER ULC KA pena eee rete ee eiaraei ae eae RLS | oh eee oe Eons 314
Galop OGuINe Wel SNS ee neo moe oe are creole beam wie eeeeceeee eens sse basses 316
322. Shuttle belonging to set of feather hoo sista e oko ee seek vee Sale 316
Bo eeMCMNTS MOK ee sa cre semen ae joni eee aes hehe eae seas se oce ce cee 317
SoA WOLCOTT OablOl WOaVANS 225 < oan 5 semis eeeiee ess oss-s 317
doen OuTllcaAsecot Done; NGCOLES!—- 2a. = =~ Aeros anne ao ee sioe eee ete se 318
326. (a) Large bone needle and peculiar thimble; (b) Leather thimbles
ELEM ONOMOCO LEN ernest aaah ee eniajee ratte Meee Seno toe 318
Sai NGEO le casesnwithy Deb HOOKS\=-- 2. 2-615 --5/0--6.-0- 2250s ease ceca wees 320
328. (a) Needle case with belt hook; (b) needle case open, showing bone
MOOUIOS seeee sentra eit e ree eel Meee ae Sore teers ee aes 321
DAO LTD OLU OREN seta erate eT a ae ae one a= ee on ciao eins eee 323
DOU mPUEUCOUs ORCS He er aisha Coe acess rer cacie clue cone Bea ae eels 324
So em VOn VERON ear eee hen omen eins eeaeee caer eeee ec s ace ee SS CCN eee 325
Osa DONO O Kee cetera res ene meee coe ene osc e ee sees ee coca ee ee 325
388). IDA TENS ees eee aoe a ee ee OES 22 ee es 325
Sot EOIN Shape OL GCN ss Js. cnseSces ce Ses ni oeee se eae Seeee- sesso e 325
SOM Al NAS KObiee oe eee poe eeeer eee ew eee eee eee asia ce eceeese se 326
DSO SESH DAB KOG see om a see eae se oe se ote eae ee ae eae ee sae ec ceeeees 326
SEITE HY CEC) 5) eo eS ro a ee a a 327
ae SRT icy Seem roe ein. Cee Sais eae Sete ata Sata See wee eed eu ee 329
339. Method of fastening together frameloficaialcoes: Se seee eee ee eae 329
oO Woublevkatak paddle. ces oe sos caewccenseee cscs seGece beeenides 330
oes Model Kkatakvand paddle... =< -c2--b2-2..22c< se san5-- lee ance ce eee 334
LD OU EAMEIO btn Beet em acs staat atone wae lai eet ee Sees - em ace eecce 336
343. (a) Method of fastening bilge-streaks to stem of umiak; (b) method
on framin rib tojeumwale, eb. === ease aera ease oe ao: ee ae 337
344. Method of slinging the oar of umiak........-...--.----.-.---------- 339
345. (a) Model of umiak and paddles; (b) model of umiak, inside plan... 340
SGM lVvOLyAPallerrOn UmMials o= sess oe anh. Se es aa cee Seek Sao oes hae 340
OA ee VOL Crouch Or harpoon eo sos aa ie fo ee eee eae eee coc 341
SAD LVOVAcrOpchuorMatpoOnes.= sce caeaate dese se a Seem Sere see one cece 342
349. Crotch for harpoon made of walrus jaw-...-...-----.-----.-------- 342
BDU MOD ON SROG = Hee e ee cace se Soe ei nak oe tose oe cones owes eee Saco sesces 345
dO KOGAN ANOWANOO NEUIN Gs sa: = <5 -o ose tose ese aoe care cece 346
352. (a) First round of heel-netting of snowshoe; (b) first and second
round of heel-netting of BNO SHO eee eee ee eee eee Saw 347
353. (a) First round of heel-netting of snowshoe; (b) first, second, and
third rounds of heel-netting of snowshoe -..-..---.-------------- 348
DOLE ARN OW SHOGMAR Pee: os cen ceaa oe a eae eee EU NE ie coe Sass 350
ooo. Old Schiekvrwitn aang ==: —=52-+-55-s2easee ee oe Se 353
356. Railed sledge (diagrammatic), from photograph.-........---.------ 354
CHa ORO ES 36 35 ce oe ae ete See Cee ean eee aa ee 355

XVI

FG. 358.
359.
360.
361.
362.
363.
364.
365.
366.
367.
368.
369.
370.
371.
372.
373.
374,
375.
376.
377.
378.
379.
380.
381.
382.
383.
384.
B85.
386.
387.
388.
389.
390.
BOL.
392.
393.
394.
395.
396.
397.
398.
399.
400.
401.
402.
403.
404,
405.
406.
407.
408.
409.
410.
411.
412,

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Small'sledge with ivory runners -- <== - =< 22-222 oe ie ee =
Small toboggan of whalebone --.-.--.-..---..------.-

Hunting score engraved on ivory- ----------------

Hunting score engraved on ivory, obverse and reverse
Hunting score engraved on ivory -..-------------------

Hunting score engraved on ivory, obverse and reverse

Game of fox and geese from Plover Bay..----..--------------------
Dancing Cap cees assem oe ase eas eee ene eae ees eee alee
Wioodenmas kos @ asap oe ee ee ae ae ee eee te
Wooden mask and dancing gorget -.--...--..----------
OldUrrotesque mask: 2255-2 eee ee eee eee eee
Rid esmaskvotaw.0 Ode ee eee ee eee ee ee ee eee
Wiolfm ask ofp wOO0Gl ss. eee sete ee ae ee ee
Weny ancient smialllmasle seme etm ite ete ee
Mancino POLreets) OfewOOU seas. ae emer ee ee ariel ee
Youth dancing to the aurora --- <2 = 2-2: 2 ne oe ee
Wihitli pies 522) seco cms ea eae se ap eee ee ee
Teetotum —-----.--=-- SSS SDs ssn SRE Echos spaecosas
IBILA AON Eeee Reecen aro sae odd ata aee ae oe ee area aoc
Ni PARDO ASK ie Se eines Sanens eames cere en anon oe
Pebble snappetere seas sees eae arose bee eee
Carving: of human head! -. 22-5 -- == 2-26 = = 2s
Mechanical doll—drum-player. -...-------------------
Mechanical toy—kaiak paddler. ..-..---.-------------
Kaiak carved from block of wood ....--.-------------

Mrumbhandlesecee: eee assesses eee ae ee ee eee
IigGny Cha HWE) = Sconces suse soredtceseo acseesaar oc
Ancient carving—human head........----------------
Wooden fiontes = Sse. 2. eee = = eo
Carving—face of Eskimo man. ..-.-------------------
Grotesque soapstone image—“ walrus man”... -------
Boneamaceion dancene ness -eee= = a ee
Boneumape Of Manes. 5 72+ s- ese a ee
Grotesque bone image......-------.--. ---------=------------4-----
Bone image—sitting man-.-.......-------------------
Human figure carved from walrus ivory -.------------
Ivory carving—three human heads ---..--------------
Rude human head, carved from a walrus tooth. ..-----
Elaborate ivory carving ----.-------------------------
Bear carved of soapstone -.-...---.-------------------
Bear flaked from) flintle-. --- <-)-s== = eee
(a) Bear carved from bone; () bear’s head.-.--------
Ivory figures of bears .....-.-.-----------------------
Rude ivory figures of walrus....----------------------
Images of seal—wood and bone -...-------------------
White whale carved from gypsum..--------------.----
Wooden carving—whale ........----------------------
Whale carved from soapstone---.-.---.-----------------
Rude flat.image of whale.....-...-.------------------
Ivory image of whale.-..-.-.--.--.--------------------
Ivory image of whale..--...--------------------------

Pair of little ivory whales..----—--- = 22. 2-6. ----------

Soapstone image of imaginary animal--.-.--.--..------

Page.
355
307
361
362
362
363
365
365
366
367
368

Fic. 413.
414.
415.
416.
417.
418.

419.
420.
421.
422.
23.
424.
425.
426.
427.
428.
429,
430.
431.
432.
433.
434.
435.
436.
437.
438.
439.
440.
441.
442.
443.
444.
445.
446.
447.
448.
9 ETH

ILLUSTRATIONS. XVII
Page
Ivory carving; seal with fish’s head... -....-..-..--+-------------- 405
Ivory, carving, ten-lepred bear--.-.---:.-2-.l2 22-2522 -2-40-12- ===. 406
Ivory carving, giant holding whales... ........-..2.----.---------- 406
Double-headed animal carved from antler-...........--..-----.---- 407
Ivory carving—dog-.-...--- sicossoccd sone eres sess tees+sestseeSa tase 407
(a) Piece of ivory, engraved with figures; (b) development of
TOPIC SSAA Sots certs Ie AC eA ae SoS ee a eer a 408
(a) Similar engraved ivory; (b) development of pattern.......-.-- 408
TiRar ye OO See se ee ee ee ee 409
Witalerinked frome elassae- os tos. 1an- Soe ee a eee 435
Witttlowitakedifrompred jasper s 9522 seecoc Sa ae eee he ene See 435
AMeION wh a eraMminet OfewOOd!s-22 2.2 -s..2ce= on Seek sak ode eee te 436
Amulet of whaling—stuffed godwit...........2.--..--.--------.---- 438
Amulet consisting of ancient jade adz....-....--..----:--.--:------- 43
Little box containing amulet for whaling..-.-.....-.......---.---- 439
Anrulet for catching fowl with bolas........:-..=--2-----2-+:------- 439
Box ofidried) bees—amulet.2.2-. =... 222. 2250522 5-52 v2 e- sae ses 2-2 440
Medicine arrow used by Apache and Pueblo women ...-..---..----- 468
ROM PUR OL UNO PAP AChGNen tytn eee eee Se ol a BO aoe ok ace 477
RnOmbusOL unerspaches: 20. sw: oc essere ste. sets = scent caus locces 478
whetscrarehswekand Grinkine reed. -22-..--5.2<- so. csacee--+--55- 494
Barseontainin onOddentiime so eepeme nace ea ee ae a Ses a eo 500
iNan-ta-do-tash’simedicine hat . 2-2.) ee ene see sees cesees tess ese 503
Single-strand medicine cord (Zuni) -:-.-. .-...----.---------------- 550
Four-strand medicine cord (Apache). .--.--...--..------+----------- 551
Three-strand medicine cord (Apache)..--------.--------.------<s<s 552
o-suban dumedi Giver cOnd rts. a Fa tetee ays any see ee eee sere es 553
Houx-strand) medicine cord (Apache). ...-..--- 4--5<--ss-6--<---5 --<~ 554
ApAC Honan DONNOb eo ssc see wee eo actos See ss ob as Joon eeen cet see 581
Girostidance ead dnessy-ss.ocs2 <a cee ts canes Sac See ssee See sue 582
Apache kan or gods. (Drawn by Apache). -.-....------------.---- 586
Tzi-daltai amulets (Apache) - ------ eae soto ee ces See menos: esse Se 587
Rai daltaamuletix(Apache) = sa. esses Ns secs soe = aaa coees cewees 588
Mzi-daltaiamulebi(Apache)'.==.-- << -<= =< 2 ss4s22-sss2ss2ses6-cesn- 589
zi-daltaramulet: (Apache): =-=)--2-45 2252-2 2s225=25-seece-2 ae 589
Phylacteries): 2). cies bec oe ssaese sete cece eets feel a. cs Sale 592
Apache medicine sash). - 22. .2 22: hes asedss 42 sae ooc= s6-Seeee =e 593

II

REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR.

PEPER OF TRANSMITTAL.

SmirHsonian 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.

I 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,

Yarn

Prof. S. P. LANGLEY,

Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
XXI

PEDTER OF TRANSMITTAL:

SmirHsonian Institution, Bureau oF ETHNoLoey,
Washington, D. C., October 1, 1888.

Str: 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.

I 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,

Wiehe

Prof. S. P. LANGLEY,

Caer of the Smithsonian Institution.
XXI

ee

in &

NINTH ANNUAL REPORT

OF THE

BURHAU OF ETHNOLOGY.

By J. W. Powe, 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-

XXIII

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. 8-119, Pls. -v1, 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, Pls. vi-1x, of which vi and
1x 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. 879-467, Pls. x—xviur, Figs.
50-59.

The Seminole Indians of Florida, by Clay MacCauley; pp.
469-531, Pl. xrx, Figs. 60-77. ‘

The Religious Life of the Zuni Child, by Mrs. Tilly E. Steven-
son; pp. 533-555, Pls. xx—xx1i1.

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 OF ETHNOLOGY. XXV

used in printing Eskimo texts, and one on page 97 of Veni-
aminoft’s Guide Road. 5

Perforated Stones from California, by Henry W. Henshaw;
1887, pp. 34, Figs. 1-16.

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. 15, 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 inclo-
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 for
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, lowa, he stopped at Carbondale,
Ill., 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,

OF 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 clifts 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 ruins, 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 Abiquin, 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
ot 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
eyen the Zuni. Their stone fetiches in human form present a
special feature, the carving being of a higher type than any
betore 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

OF THE 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 humanform. 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 Zufi 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 portion 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 of 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 Washineton 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
interesting ruins were discovered in this neighborhood and
their ground plans secured. In the northern ruin a cave or
underground apartment was found contaiming vestiges of stone
walls and tir ber 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 New 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 THE BUREAU OF 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 river 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 1 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 a rule, are drawn to a scale of
20 feet to 1 inch, and the drawing is finished in the field. The
topography is in all cases indicated by contour lines of 5-foot in-
tervals, sketched upon a basis of a number of points determined
with the level. The ground plan is usually drawn over a
number of points and lines located with an instrument, and
the direction of all the walls is determined by a compass, in
order to detect any irregularities. It was found that the regu-
larity and symmetry of plan which characterize many published
ground plans of ruins in the Southwest—notably, those of the
Chaco ruins—are not justified by the facts as disclosed by a
careful survey of the ruins themselves, though upon cursory
examination, and even upon preliminary survey, the ground
plans of many of them are apparently symmetric. The plans
obtained will be published in articles now in preparation.

XXXII ANNUAL REPORT OF THE .DIRECTOR
WORK OF MR. A. M. STEPHEN.

Mr. A. M. Stephen was engaged during half of the fiscal
year in collecting traditions and other matter from the Tusayan
villages and among the Navajo. He has transmitted a number
of valuable short papers on these topics and also on the house-
lore of the Tusayan Indians, and has furnished descriptions
and drawings of the ‘‘kisis” or rude temporary shelters of the
Tusayan, comparing these with the primitive structures of the
Navajo.

WORK OF MR. JAMES MOONEY.

Mr. James Mooney spent the earlier months of the fiscal
year in making an examination of the northern division of the
Cherokee tribe with reference to the dialectic difference be-
tween its vocabulary and that of the main body of the same
tribe in the Indian Territory, from which it has long been sep-
arated, and also in studying for a like comparison their religious
practices, traditions, social customs, and arts. The northern
Cherokees are found to have been less affected by civilization
than those of the south, and they can therefore be studied
with manifest advantage. Mr. Mooney procured a large amount
of valuable material from them, some of which has been pub-
lished in the Seventh Annual Report of this Bureau.

PICTOGRAPHY.

The publications of Henry R. Schoolcraft, issued in 1853, |
upon the pictographs of the Ojibwa give the impression that
they were nearly as far advanced in hieroglyphic writing as
the Egyptians were immediately before their pictorial repre- |
sentations had become syllabic. Doubts had been entertained
of the accuracy of this account, and it was considered to be
the duty of the Bureau of Ethnology to resolve them. At the |
beginning of the fiscal year, therefore, Col. Garrick Mallery
and Mr. W. J. Hoffman, his assistant, were directed to proceed
to Indian reservations in Minnesota and Wisconsin and study
what might remain accessible on the subject.

OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. XXXIII
WORK OF MR. W. J. HOFFMAN.

Mr. Hoffman proceeded to the White Earth and Red Lake
reservations, Minnesota, and remained for three months, making
researches among the Ojibwa. He found that the most im-
portant birch-bark records are those relating to the Ojibwa cos-
mogony, the institution of the Midéwiwin or Grand Medicine
Society, and the songs used in connection with the ritual and
ceremony pertaining to the initiation of candidates into that
society.

The pictographic charts are, as a rule, in the possession of
the Midé or Grand Medicine men, though records relating to
hunting and personal exploits, as well as directions for killing
game, gathering fruits, and making journeys, and even per-
sonal letters, are made by other members of the tribe who
possess more than the average intelligence.

The great mass of charts consists of mnemonic songs per-
taining to incantations, exorcism, and other ceremonies, and a
considerable number of them were obtained, together with
their interpretations. Sketches of tattooed Indians were also
made, but the custom of tattooing is almost extinct, the only
modern markings being those applied to various portions of
the face for the exorcism of evil spirits which are supposed to
cause neuralgia, headache, and other pains. Hasty sketches
were obtained also of an old Grand Medicine chart at Red Lake,
a protracted examination of it not being permitted by the
keeper of the record.

In addition to the pictographic material, a quantity of myth-
ologic data was collected, all or nearly all of which was in-
timately connected with the rites of the secret society of the
Midéwiwin, or Grand Medicine.

WORK OF COL. GARRICK MALLERY.

Col. Mallery at first directed his attention to the exami-
nation of the Ojibwa on the La Pointe and Red Cliff reser-
vations in Wisconsin, and, although that proved to be a less
favorable field for ethnologic research than those in Minne-

sota, above mentioned, owing to the stronger local influence
9 ETH——III

XXXIV ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR

of civilization, he obtained evidence complementing the obser-
vations and conclusions of Mr. Hoffman. As a general result
it is found that there still exists among the Ojibwa a remark-
able degree of pictographie skill, which is employed in ordi-
nary affairs of life as well as in religious and ceremonial rites.
The statements of Schoolcraft, however, are found to be exag-
gerated and erroneous, especially in their attribution of mystic
symbolism to devices purely ideographic or mnemonic. In
particular the apparently significant coloration of his published
figures is deceptive. Among the large number of genuine
ancient records obtained, no colors appear to have been used,
either symbolically or even in ornamentation, except that the
more recent shamanistic rolls show paintings in red for the
hearts of animals. Indeed the mechanical work of the birch-
bark pictographs was wholly by indented outlines, and the
artists of former generations were not able to fix colors on the
bark surface.

In August, Col. Mallery proceeded to the islands of Cape
Breton and Prince Edward, and thence to Nova Scotia and
Maine, to investigate the bark records and petroglyphs of the
Miemac and the Abnaki. Special study was made as to the
probability of an aboriginal source of many or any of the
characters supposed to have been first used by French mis-
sionaries in 1652, and printed at Vienna, Austria, in 1862,
with additions and changes, under the direction of Rev.
Christian Kauder, and now generally styled the ‘Micmac
Hieroglyphs.” The result of this study was that very few of
the characters could be traced to Indian invention. The picto-
graphy of the Indian tribes was mainly confined to the represen-
tation of ideas or concepts, but the attempt of Father Kauder
was to represent words and grammatic devices by special signs.
His invention, therefore, was an artificial alphabet not naturally
evolved from picture-writing, as has been the course of alpha-
bets in general use over the world.

A most interesting and unique body of rock etchings was
discovered at and near Kejimkoojik Lake, Nova Scotia, and
accurate copies of many of them were secured. On account
of their number, their intrinsic interest, and the evidences of

OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. XXXV

their antiquity, these etchings form a highly important addi-
tion to the collections before made, especially as they are in a
region from which no representation of that nature had been
reported. A petroglyph of interest near Machias, Maine, not
before known, was also copied. A valuable collection was for
the first time obtained of birch-bark pictographs which for-
merly were in general use and still are made by the Passama-
quoddy and Penobscot tribes of the Abnaki in Maine, showing
a similarity in the use of picture-writing between the members
of the extensive Algonquian stock in the regions adjacent to
and west of the Great Lakes and those in the northeast part of
America and on the Atlantic coast. The correlation of the
pictographic practice in manner and extent \ as before infer-
entially asserted, but no satisfactory evidence of it had been
presented until the researches of this year brought into direct
comparison the pictography of the Ojibwa with that of the
Micmacs and Abnaki. Col. Mallery returned to Washington
in October.

OFFICE WORK.

Tue Director was frequently engaged during the year in
examining undetermined problems pertaining to his work upon
the classification of the Indian linguistic stocks, the scope of
which has been explained in his former reports. It was found
necessary to defer decision respecting some of the stocks until
after obtaining the result of additional field-work planned for
the ensuing year.

Co.. Mauuery, after his field-work before mentioned, was
engaged in study of important and novel points developed
thereby, and in continued research and correspondence on sign
language and pictography.

Mr. Horrman, while assisting in the work last mentioned,
prepared a topographic chart showing all the petroglyphs within
the limits of the United States so far recorded by the Bureau,
with the particulars of their workmanship, coloration, position,
and other characteristics.

Mr. Hensnaw was chiefly employed in a solution of prob-
lems relating to the geographic distribution of the linguistic

XXXVI ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR

families of the North American Indians in the territory north
of Mexico. When not engaged in this work or in executive
duties he continued the preparation of a dictionary of the
nature of a synonymy of tribal names of North American In-
dians, the genet ral character and object of which have been
set forth in a former report. While in general charge of that
division of the office work, he specially attended to the Sahap-
tinian, Salishan, Chemakuman, Chinookan, and several other
linguistic stocks of the Pacific slope.

Mr. Atsert 8. GarscHeT was engaged during the first five
months of the year in digesting the results of his recent trip to
Louisiana, Texas, and Mexico, and utilizing them in the com-
pilation of the “adian tribal synonymy in course of prepara-
tion by the Bureau. His designated share in that work com-
prised the families of the southern Indians from the Rio Grande
to the Atlantic seaboard of Florida, namely, the stocks of the
Natchez, Atakapa, Shetimasha, Tonkawé, Pakawa (otherwise
known under the vague designation of ‘ Coahuilteco or Te-
jano”), Tonica, Yuchi, Timucua, and—most important of them
all—the Mask6éki. His work of correlating for the synonymy
the information gained concerning these tribes was completed,
though some important tribes can not be classified linguis-

tic cally, e. g., the extinct Koroas and Pascagoulas, on account of

the abseiic e,in the documents of early chroniclers, of all in-
formation relating to them. The Adi-i, classed by Gallatin
as a distinct family, is believed by Mx. Gatschet to be affiliated
with the Caddoan stock as a dialect distantly related to Yatassi
and Caddo proper.

After concluding his labors on the tribal synonymy, Mr.
Gatschet resumed work on the grammar of the Klamath lan-
guage of southwestern Oregon. He combined all the results
of his recent studies of both dialects, the northern and the
southern, with the facts previously acquired by him and com-
posed a treatise on the morphology of the language. This
was rewritten by him three times in order to secure complete-
ness and accuracy. The “phonetics” and the chapters on
radicals and on prefixion were stereotyped.

OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. XXXVII

Mr. J. Owen Dorsey was engaged from July to December,
1887, in translating the Teton texts of Mr. George Bushotter,
a Dakotan, who was employed under his direction. This col-
lection consists of myths, legends, historical papers, an auto-
biography, accounts of games, folk-lore, and epistles, amount-
ing to two hundred and fifty-eight textual manuscripts. This
joint work was continued until the following December, when
Mr. Bushotter’s employment ceased, leaving one hundred and
twenty-nine texts to be translated. Mr. Dorsey then con-
tinued the work alone until April 18, 1888, when another Da-
kotan, Mr. John Bruyier, of Cheyenne River agency, began
to revise and interpret the Teton texts, making many correc-
tions in the, originals and supplying important parts omitted
by Bushotter. Mr. Bruyier also furnished Mr. Dorsey with
many examples of the Teton as spoken at the Cheyenne River
reservation, which showed that it differed considerably from
that spoken at the Lower Brilé and Pine Ridge reservations.
He also wrote new versions of several myths, continuing his
work until June 30, 1888.

During the autumn of 1887, Mr. Dorsey completed his work
on the Siouan, Caddoan, Athapascan, Takilman, Kusan, and
Yakonan cards for the Indian synonymy. He also prepared
nearly four hundred type-written foolseap pages of Qegiha
epistles, legends, and other texts, which constitute an important
addition to those published in Contributions to North Amer-
ican Ethnology, vol. v1, Part 1. He also transliterated on
slips in alphabetic order his Winnebago material, obtained in
1878~79, collating it with the additional material obtained in
1886. This contains fully four thousand entries. He gave
much attention to the Catawba language, collating parts of a
recent vocabulary which had been procured by Mr. Gatschet
with all others which were accessible.

Mr. Jeremran Currry contributed to the Indian synonymy
with reference to several tribes in Oregon and California and
devoted much study to the large number of myths obtained
by him from the same tribes ; also to those of the Iroquois.

Mr. James C. PILuine continued throughout the year to give
a portion of his time to the preparation of the bibliographies

XXXVIII ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR

of the more important stocks of North American languages.
As stated in the last report, the manuscript for the Siouan bib-
liography, the second of the series, was sent to the printer
late in the fiscal year 1886-87. The proof was read during
the summer months and the work was received from the Pub-
lic Printer in November. Work was then begun on the Iro-
quoian stock of languages, and at the close of the fiscal year
that bibliography was ready for printing. Some preliminary
work was also done on the Muskhogean bibliography. Late

1 December Mr. Pilling made a visit to the library of the
Historic al Society of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia, for the
purpose of inspecting and taking descriptions of several im-
portant manuscripts, temporarily there, written by Moravian
missionaries on Indian languages and permanently preserved
in the Moravian archives at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and
Fairfield, Canada.

Mr. JamEs Mooney, when not in the field, continued to be
charged with the synonymy relating to the Iroquoian and Al-
gonquian linguistic stocks, and also worked upon the vocabu-
laries, myths, and notes of information procured by him from
the northern Cherokee.

Mr. Cyrus THomas during the entire year has been busily en-
gaged upon his report, before mentioned, except at short inter-
vals when he visited the field to make personal observations.
The manuscript for the first volume of that report with the
illustrations was presented for publication about a month be-
fore the close of the fiscal year. Work upon the manuscript,
illustrations, and maps for the second volume was continued.

Mr. Henry L. Reynoups was at Washington from Decem-
ber until the close of the fiscal year, occupied in the prepara-
tion of maps, plates, and diagrams for the report last mentioned.

Mr. Gerrard Fowker was engaged during the winter and un-
til the Ist of May, 1888, in preparing a paper for a report on
the articles of stone in the Bureau collections.

Mr. Wruuiam H. Houmes has had charge of the illustrations
intended for the Bureau publications, as in previous years, and
has, so far as possible, continued his studies in aboriginal art
and archeology.

OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. XXXIX

The collections acquired during the summer, although not
lacking in interest and value, are not so extensive as those of
previous years. Acquisitions are made in three modes: first,
through members of the Bureau of Ethnology and of the U.
S. Geological Survey, who act as collectors ; second, by means
of exchange for publications or duplicate specimens from pre-
vious collections ; and, third, by donation. Dr. Thomas and his
assistants, working inthe Mississippi Valley and on the Atlan-
tic slope, report but few accessions during the year. Mr.
James Stevenson secured important collections from the Pueblo
country, as before stated, especially from the villages of Jemez
and Sia in the Jemez Valley, New Mexico. These collections
include about five hundred specimens of pottery and nearly four
hundred of stone, wood and other substances. A large percent-
age of these specimens are ancient. A considerable number
of ancient relics of pottery and stone were obtained from
ruin sites in the Jemezand Rio Grande valleys, New Mexico,
by the Director and Mr. Holmes. Mr. A. P. Davis collected a
number of fragments of ancient pottery from the ruin of
Pueblo Alto, New Mexico. A very interesting series of ob-
jects illustrating the present condition of the arts among the
Cherokee and Catawba Indians was procured by Mr. James
Mooney. Mr. DeLancey W. Gill, of the U.S. Geological Sur-
vey, has added to the collection many specimens of rude stone
implements from the vicinity of Washington. Donations have
been received from the following persons: Mr. C. C. Jones,
fragments of ancient pottery from Stallings Island, near Au-
gusta, Georgia; Doctor Taylor, fragments of ancient pottery
from Baldwin County, Alabama; Gen. G. P. Thruston, frag-
ment of an enormous earthen vase from a suburb of Nashville,
Tennessee; Mr. W. W. Adams, articles of stone from Union
Springs, New York; Mr. C. L. R. Wheeler, cast of a unique
stone knife from Westchester County, New York; and Mr.
James Tilton, fragments of pottery from Plum Island, Massa-
chusetts.

By exchange for books and duplicates from the National
Museum the following acquisitions have been made: from Mr.
H. P. Hamilton, fragments of ancient pottery from Two Rivers,

XL ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR

Wisconsin; and from Mr. H. W. Hakes, fragments of pottery
from Broome County, New York.

By purchase or part purchase the Bureau has obtained from
Mr. J. A. MeNiel one hundred and seventy pieces of ancient
pottery from Chiriqui, Panama, besides some very interesting
objects of stone. From Mr. Ward Bachelor it has acquired a
fine collection of earthen and stone objects from Mexico. From
Dr. E. Boban a few fine samples of Mexican pottery were ob-
tained. All these have been catalogued and turned over to
the National Museum.

Mr. L. B. Case, of Richmond, Indiana, has presented to the
Bureau the records of the State Archeologic Association of In-
diana, which fell into his hands as secretary at the discontin-
uance of the society several years ago.

Valuable photographs of archeologic subjects have been re-
ceived from Prof. Anastasio Alfaro, secretary of the National
Museum of Costa Rica; also, from Mr. C. F. Low, of Cinein-
nati; from Mr. A. F. Sears, of Portland, Oregon; and from
Mr. D.S. Sears, of Cuba, Llinois.

Mr. Vicror MinpeLerr was engaged during the first two
months of the fiscal year upon a report on the architecture of
the Cibola and Tusayan groups of pueblos, in New Mexico
and Arizona. Subsequent to his return from the field, on
March 18, that report was resumed, but it was not completed
at the end of the fiscal year. The additional data secured
from the Tusayan district during the field season are being pre-
pared for incorporation into the same report.

Mr. Cosmos MINDELEFF was occupied during the early part
of the year upon that portion of the report on pueblo archi-
tecture which had been assigned to him. On _ his return
from the field, on February 23, he resumed work upon that
report, but it was suspended in order to take up the prepara-
tion of an exhibit to be made by the Bureau at the Cincinnati
Centennial Exposition. An exhibit to cover nearly 2,000
square feet of floor space was prepared, but, as the space was
limited, only the field work of the Bureau in one special region,
viz, the pueblo country, was illustrated, though a small amount
of other material was added for purposes of comparison. This
work was not completed at the close of the fiseal year.

OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. XLI

The work of the modeling room was continued in his charge
throughout the year. No new work was taken up, all avail-
able labor being used in preparing a series of duplicates of
models previously deposited in the National Museum. This
work was continued from last year. The series is not yet com-
pleted, but the accumulations on hand at the end of the fiscal
year were suflicient to enable the Bureau to make a creditable
display at the Cincinnati Exposition without withdrawing, to
any large extent, the models deposited in the National Mu-
seum. During the year eight models were added to the dupli-
cate series and three other models were commenced.

Dr. Wasuincton Marruews, Surgeon U.S. Army, continued
work upon a grammar and dictionary of the Navajo language.

Mr. W. NeEtson was still engaged in the preparation of his
paper, mentioned in the last report, upon the Eskimo of north-
ern Alaska, comprising a dictionary with notes upon the gram-
mar of the language and also upon the myths and customs of
the people.

Mr. Joun N. B. Hewirr has continued the study of the
Troquoian languages and the preparation of a Tuscarora-Eng-
lish dictionary. He also worked upon the comparison of
words, radicals, and terms in the Iroquoian languages with
those in the Cherokee and in determining the prehistoric hab-
itat of the Iroquois.

For several years past it has been part of the work of the
dsureau to take advantage of the frequent presence in Wash-
ington of parties styled ‘‘delegations” from the several Indian
tribes, for the purpose of photographing all the individuals
composing them. These are generally the prominent men of
the tribes represented by them, and their photographs have
biographie and historic interest as well as anthropologic impor-
tance. Mr. J. K. Hillers has been in charge of this branch of
the Sore and during the last year has secured ninety-nine
photographs of prominent Indians in both full face and profile,
in order to exhibit to better advantage all their facial charae-

teristics. The subjects were from the following tribes, viz:

White Mountain Apache, 15 persons; Chiricahua Apache,
20; Jicarilla Apache, 8; Sac and Fox, 7; Utes, 4; Shawnee,
9; Omaha, 20; Dakota, 11; Oto and Missouri, 5.

XLII ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR

It has been the practice to note, in 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 obsery-
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-
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
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. H. Ray, Eighth
Infantry, U.S. Army, which was issued in 1885. 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 commendable 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. Bourke 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 tule, 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 THE BUREAU OF 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. Capt. Bourke points out
the similarity between the use of the tule 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 deseribes 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 every 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. Capt.
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 expenditures made from the appropriation for North American Bth-
nology for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1888.

(Amount of appropriation, 1887-'88, $40,000. |

Expenses. Seaiot Expenses. eaten
Salaries...-.....-.. Racine See rea $28,838.33 | Goods for distribution to Indians. .-- $511. 30
Traveling expensés....-..------------ $, 637.66. | Office furniture. -----...--=.--------. 85. 00
Transportation of property -.--------- 444.91 | Office supplies and repairs. 18. 62
Ficld subsistence. ........------------ 242.06 | Correspondence ne 6.49
Field supplies and expenses .....-.--- 2,431.04 | Specimens -.---..---.- 844. 95
HUBIGSMAtAPIAL. - 9 < feces y comes cen aa 351.06 | Bonded railroad accounts forwarded
Wnstraments: -.<---+----- <2. -ccse0-- ae 32.50 to Treasury for settlement... --.. --- 74
Laboratory material -....-...--------- 42.67 | Balance on hand to meet outstanding
Photographie material. ..........---.. 116.17 SENS My Ce ataennon | soccer deeen 1, 280. 10
Bookstand mapsise seer eee oe 181.00 |, Tee ee ee 40, 000. 00
Stationery and drawing material. ----. 9.10 |
Illustrations for report..--------.---- 926.30 |

» J
Dd "?

O
3

AU OF ETHNOLOGY

175° 170° 165° 160°

————————

ws,

170° 165° ; 160° 155°

NINTH ANNUAL REPORT

150°

MAP
OF
NORTHWESTERN ALASKA
Showing the region known to the Point Barrow Eskimo
Based on the US.Coast & Geodetic Survey

map of Alaska. /1884,."ith additions trom the US.CEGS.
General Chart of Alaska" 1889, and trom Eskimo account
A N

Eskimo names given turthe torm used at Point Barrow
Names of “atbes*underlined tis Konmudlin

Compiled by JOHN MURDOCH
1889

Beechey Pt

mden Bay

Ca i Manning PE

jor

A perschel Ia.

Rawpart House

Le
Oe se se fee

140°

MAP
NORTHWESTERN ALASKA

Showing the region known to the Point Barrow Eskimo
Based on the U.S.Coast & Geodetic Survey
map of Alaska, 1884,with additions from the U.S.C.&GS.
General Chart of Alaska’ 1889,and from Eskimo account. .

Eskimo names given ir the form used at Point Barrow
Names of “tribes"underlined duis Kadmidlin

Compiled by JOHN MURDOCH
1889

Beechey Pt

Silay,

Tanti

ETHNOLOGICAL RESULTS

OF THE

POINT BARROW EXPEDITION.

BY

JOHN MURDOCH,

Naturalist and Observer, International Polar Expedition to
Point Barrow, Alaska, 1881-18838.

ad
’

CONTENTS.

Page.
AMEROCUCMIOM cease ates as a eee gon es seme conn na ae tae a se SONS aaa aie wk 19
List of works consulted ...............--.- Sees oaeees ces etait Sagas ores oie 20
Situation and surroundings -...--. Hie ee ae Sy ee ee ee a ae eae 26
(HT IRS ot A Se ie, Sito ee Aa ee oe ee ae ea Oe ea ee 30
VEY) Ce tA aE AAS SS oO OU AOS SIF ARE EEO EE So oO SRE oe Ee ice Cope 33
PTeyai cas CH ALACGELIS GUO soem nein aoe cee oe eo eas oe sae Jee see 33
UAL LO PI cee eee eet then ee alls aia hee oye See eee ain ee oem ne 39
Paychical characteristics -.....-.----.--.------«- ce See ee ta hee 40
Srp ake NOMOMI GI is seme aces 5 is ow nme op oe eee nan ee eeames= =, Soe 42
SHURE pre PUP se = ee ge case eos oes o aaa Sesees 43
Contact with uncivilized people. <-- -- 5 2 f4co5 oo ont ngemn enn smo nena == 43
OT COWES OTST Gagne ne SE Ee SS ee ae ee ee eee 43
LOT OT ASP aan A eee Si ORE SO OIE eae ee ee SOLS mah ee Soe 49
Contact with civilized people. ---.....-..-...--------.----- Hans =F AS 51
IN GITITHIBT ER OUNGOR mice nee ese mete ola ioereta aman © ace om a nee in ma a emicce 5d
LST A ee a Se eS ee ere = 5d
IVESRIV EON Eee een See hd el eRe ala ea aeons ote ey Tyee oes 55
LE 2 oie oe Se bee BO te en eS Sr ene te ea ee ERR aE 56
TUTAEN CHER reas es aN he eT oct eter at tats Peto oem Re a mcs cee 58
PNSOCtS And Ober INVECLeDIaves - 2522.5 .\s6:2-5— =~ 5 SSeao.4--e Se em-Saeees 59
RIANA neo pene oo as anes ase conecnsas ec eee se ews weiss sane sages 59
Minerals---. ------<- Sinise soe mi Saree Sas = DORE Sees ee cu seen ademnesas 60
Culture. ...-. Seals ie RoE aes, o's eho = ae os dee Reale oS eae eee bere Sos goqce clos 61
IMeariniotl UDSIStENCE: .-- 62 5-~ soccer en as oes some aes Sgen sy Soac cme 61
LOT ples NE 8 = Pas RE EE ne Peo Soe aac Sot Sonera’ 61
Snbstancesused: 10Y fO0d ss -5 ocak soe sos - nese aes e ew eeele nae 61
Means of preparing food. ...-......-.---.-...... Sawa are arena as 6 ee ee 63
Wine And trequency of Gating =.-2- 2-8 22. wan conan esc c as pone cena nase 63
[0 ec) Secs Be I Sle eo en ne a ee ee eee Seats 64
NAT COMCK © score goo Resta a aoa = sotecicio ae lccisw ss sadalubae vac Semanmaclget 65
ERM c OS Sia eae te ee eee ee eras lao Soe yeas eee LE Oe 72
The winter house ....-...-.- BER hors ert ae eee an sities teats 2
PAD RENTS OY YTS On LD GV ULERY BIS maint tie a Pee lh ae tne ale tn a le wpa os 79
Siitege LPS 8 oe eR SS HES ES SOC EA eee ee eee 81
WRONB stern «Se ae Beka cae etean asc sseer ewe taeen caus oeeees Bere ee 83
HODBENOlA NtensUaS= = 52 = ee ots eos seen Siooie wasnt Se nese gee ck omc cess 86
Por holding and carrying food, water, ete -.-:-5. ----cc 22. ccsie cs caee 86
AGRE DOON saver i ieldions onal ao ore 3 Be ab ete SOG Sad nate bau eine 86
WHRILIODS 1GUG pe EER ae sem, yen Sac See an eee en eee te Sao eases .% 86
IBUCKEIAMNOUUOU DS =e ee ons «ae God donc op pants bat au toes + av elass sce 86
RRC DO WIR sented a So IS ashes Sa Ue ele ms ee cae cous Seer 89
WOLIPEO DARIN TOO mate aria Stress miss ew. ce ee aure Sigil ets Hoe tab Sime 90
Pots of stone and other materials. .......---.-----------------2---25 90
(BON GiOlUANGYS ee etna He Saeco ae sean oe ese te casa westiseds Ques 93
Mox/eervinp and Gating t000.- 2-5. = 2 sera s cen cases eons eese%e-5 99
ALT YR Ose ee ee en Ee ra Ro ee tere -e 99
Ara EIT AV OSSO IBY sae a ie ee oe wee = Gaede os See mee See me cbs 101
VATE) OTIC eS 5 et eee ee ee See a 101

5

6 CONTENTS.

Culture—Continued.

Spoonsiand' ladles 2e ses metre rete eae nal aee eee eee ele eee eee
Miscellaneous household utensils aces ome eat i ee ier ree
TAMA arate: :2<:-/0 sd oreisicteie eisiafei= misweisge ee bale(clne sate Sele ieee tees seer Bi
Cloth in gaa oid = Sect d tele eee hen ees sb ba < ctol Renee aceon eet rae
Mlatexviall: 2 ain eae bss tte fa sees eters oe Dictonn is Scottie Sola RS RC Ser eee ene
StylevoL Regs: 2s 1. cain pais ale wats, eitee eee Sere ear oees eile = eee easy eae
Head clothing: ws 2 .-sccsisetso% ny seed cise e vee be aeereseclonmin ele eine stereiates
BOOKS... ones ss ce oa taee eta seven era aetociee OAaeysaie se ioe Star ee eae
Mantes’ 0-34 ie ate coe eeeere TaD R Eso eon ee ota. Be pice eae ae ck
Rainfrocks ix 2.2 tec oe ace Sereree lave ae 5 tea een aime one ee re eee
Armiclothim gs: pe Soe ros Spee sete sa Efe a eras ate etait ave ames ae eter
Miltitemss (sci <2is, a 2S. icite ann SeiS price bine eteiw ere stale Rte Stare ate gis!o ra atetehe sees etter

Leg and foot clothing . .....-...----- Hod Ctisecie bapa aeR Cee c icici atin atias
Breeches: c's stn 2 se sat Se iv eae aos Oe Re OR So, Saw ae ea a eens
Pantaloons's< -<iacin Ces ncc esc socicce ween oe see lee els eee eee
Stockimiostss. seme tenes AEE Spipddotoadacdmancgenncatocnone
Boots:and) Shoes’: 2 .s0ccu <2:5 oe ccaelaie'm ents 3 ows = cia e cry onde ole. = ies ae

Parts GL GROSS: es cts oe bens aS a a teapot ete ea ave ore eRe
PG VUG ta aise oe eta te meee Sede eo era oie oto Pixs Oe Das, Bee a a neat SS ei ie eee etre

Ornaments oS % a. <a seteosig ose Seise cate cae ob state see eee beaick

Persona] adornment...---...-........ BIE Re i Oe IEE an emacs one

Skin ormmamenttation 2322 sce esc vers Gene seine seine sae eeeeeneeeen Lhe
Tattooin pian cinsciet saci Sots ome site cm etlomecc > Samiaeee Ao ee noises = Se eeatS
LP bhal bse Cea a ASS eee mo Se aMOpe naam ons-ine Osrae ceo ojos be Babe Soosaas

lead: Ormamenits) 6 ooo. o ce -tenwls oom tsa wine pete aio sie sa ae einicia te ate mat etapa
Method! of wearing the Haim -.. =~ 220s < em. eects ee ee eines malate ele
15 fo NolSley hale (: eee ee eR COe ant te adistisch- cer ace ae cee aaa oticeae See
Barsvinie' sys s.25 <a sx os Seccte smn seciciee ce ae = Homes eae ae eee toes peerers
Va bretes.z2c 5 hose 8 sc eee aercen eee sts Hee smismea eee eee

NGC OTM AM OIE S crate :=ttesiaiaat oe a iera cia msm ye ate ote are aerate etter amie aren teraeene

Ormamentsofthelimbse — 3... s.seceee eects ee eee eee eee aie see
BraCel6te is: .scisc% mnis.s dels Se ences Seite Ose wclejs wale alae se ais aise cee
1d ¥e72) go WI 7 2) ae SASS = meas Saep RO mea OCO sce Se oDoarosass 22esenasoes

Miscellaneous ornaments’. 2. 5. sses cc > re eas eee re ee a ain earefaletnte ae
H Sto: Pee nan Ne RE ee Ee AS eA eat ehsiny Soe AB oi

Toiletiartic les s.r erisw as oie ae tetera ae ete ae oe eros

Implementts)of/cenerall W365) UC tee etee iat tctete ia ee alate ete aerate ee

Tools a. tee eine Be aad Bs otis cac de =O e hee eee Hee Saree eine Rees
KoniViese sass se se etree oa aretaleveta's a ware eee Sr aS ays nein eee ee ee Eee
AO ZOB acc Sislc o d acts os Setiar= Sate Oras ©, cos tee eee aeiets tay =) ise ne acta tet ont
(0) 0t1-{c) | RR a een PERC ORnno cacy iene Oo On momaormoracoenacaphchad
Whalebone'shaves* n= = 9s sis- sade aie eb siaess sec emcicmen) testecisincles
SWB wos Seachem aie ie ee ec tetas mie mnie on os Sree lator eae nok inve sinrezet SSL eee ie el or eee
Drills‘and borers 35- 2e se = aa ate eee it atin ele ae a emeeieteree eee
Flammer sits oi. cess) kale te va aie o eieiete ak elt men = a te ita ater
1 C0) (:) en eee Ae eS ee ee Sete Ee a mage eal
WoL 10) 0) eee ne ee aaa: Ree - Amine aR aS SHS peo uTA ado S
Mow lso KOS ser Wo ws eee eee ale ee a eee

NACHT Ie Bo one e SB SeCEtrhe Cpe acco, oObaco Sima acc meetin cay Ope Sa oes. 25:95

Projectiloyweapons. sco. esac cca poe ee eee ae ee eee
Pirearmis 2.3c22. « scefoc steeds ccsen ecole cacies oes oes ae aie stare aerate
Aare Mbbeles eb eee oe Bo ceqamecoce hasoce srogesesns —aongcsogcas 625 agian
130d: eee eee te ors SAR e Seminar a srews octecmocsol sca sbcn

‘Dee

CONTENTS.

Culture—Continued.

BOR ANEO UA ee ete ook mem Camas Sean come cciaes cm aveclckseee veeree
BO (CASGR ANG CUIVEIS <- ae oe claw nte seem Seine a eae ssn wee Coens ee wares
PT AGAT Re oe ctest wa icceslin kipsicaes Pane heim saw enesae ole deent soy bs eeees
BIT AUTA moins o acs om eel ee esineiee aeons o Aedes bie Shen eow vceveweabae

Aowing SUGHPOUS ys co cs mc ccvs sive cccaneccacewecndsavayescee cease pe 'sices

Hunting implements other than weapons........-..5-....-..---+.--------

OMe ie pee emia shel once ro Mieke tee. aca susan adeginast ec close, cose
TESTES ASD SN re lil tam = ie tate eile, Bt ag eo wei ios > a> al
[REV (yi) t) Ms OT ee ee ot ete ep nS Or ar er ee ais oS aaa e
GER eesere CP tet eA Se CSE piesa k Waa as Dee tie io ee oes aus sa ecices
BGM CAN Rie ee alee Aang am ea hetae aa cr kck oe ciuivie «cite dees mc etaie + bra,sere
ROIEN AUD LDR teers cen Aorta t's ea hanes 2 a ons Gn dice Sew Seuiblo’a o's obo
OMNI LORIE Sia0.5 ots carte a2 a Ante a ove Satis sins Sean, Ss Chic Sacer acw ance
BEHELD DIR step ere loot aiden ememeuE.o aot tes ai cepa, doe ace
BpRUOMnDRietctece re ee an. Soe cee aE cies ag teeneenecode
Whalebone wolf-killers ........- eee ere ETE SEIS bois Samtes Da ex oe
ARP) VaccB itt Sine tee Ae Ce S| ee See nee
Snow-goggles........--.---- Seie ic ocacecnne Rae A eoeempe re bncse
Mamit cn CUGUnan hOUN sagan ae it ame esos mee Se nee oe whee to cca seme.

IMeTHGOS OL DUUNUIN Cage te cer Mr ci eal nccatda ce aoe. neler ves Peewseetintee

SEEING LEN ON ccrrers Hemme sin we ee as ta aan Kodevs Some 5c aeeeles
AOU O iterates oe ic eae ion = ava topcase Seri clyd omlawweme se esue eet

AUG cal Ee ee a se ee ee ne
POW se cckac ate ots Seek 2 a ap ERE a a PS es ee Se ed

Implemente for fishing ate pets we ese Be nals =e nin siete aa te ae ee

IDOL SIA WNOR Sst. spot earn oe ce witeeorec casa Ore me ches Eoeen eee ts
NOMS Seticcanc es Rina ping nina eww soi ere a ten eee oie ee ace les sie eaten
STC TS ate ta de ca SESE Gea ere Aen Se ee een Se eae

OLSON OURAN ee en wie as oa eR ee eee Dem G Sap ele Sones Go ee oes
PURER De Ace cee os eae om te ere PACA he a cee eee see we eee ieee

HD TU IY, hee Se RR in Sa ee Sane es See et ee Sins Ceereeen oa we a

NUN OR ise oie ola s aes sates = ince Deaieaasaelsoase aca cn deere s cos pice

IB OWeH ON A) ANE ON BI PS te wo as see ininiaels eee hie oe aes Semerc eam cer Sa =

FEN GOMADIINNG BPIKG ane hee iat tate an ne ea ee ao cm ee cee
The twisters............ Bo ee Po AO Pl Pe of ee ee eS

SONAD Erste cee ae oan sat Celeste mee oem aw nacen seas Secs 2s
BONGO Ol PS Montene ess of a ote a ou nia ate See tea Kes aac pee eee ee:
Combs tori eeriniciunetas sascha nace ea te eae a ncowl ns ae Nec ses cic

Manta GuUrerD i LINER OL UNO Pye 2s os seen ane ais eae ee cece ee ee ce
UTLOBTSeLOO IN acer meee ng cane Eee EN AS cnepce eielae noo

CEO REG SULLA aoe ee etl eS a hm Se eet a a eS cian mat Sha

POO MOT ROO WEAN ICE WORKING bowen spe mma iie ch pre eee a exon e chee sme

SUO Ws RUUV OS! ete ae cle codec see seca tee ee eee eee cece eee

7

Page.
202
207
209
210
214
218
233
233
240
244
246
246
247
247
251
253
254
254
255
256
259
260
260
262
263
263
263
264
264
268
272
272
276.

8 CONTENTS.
Culture—Continued. Page.
Snow shovels: cscs =cieseees Seeeae eee eee eee Swdsls ssiobae seesaee 305
1 RY oC Peon oe pecmortsbe oso cone weceen oe sao cust meso semsteeanooslee 307
[G@'\8COOPS. 2252 22 [se cae soe) ee tes = ee eee eee eee 308
Implements for procuring and preparing food.........-.....-.-----.----- 310
Blabber hooks) o-- se-sa-== tessa chair Re a Ret ee 310
Lb Git (ef Cees orice oe oa creene carer © 92m Sb resecdo tebe deesc on oe! 311
Making and workin piper © eo = sceo)aniata ete shel teen ae 311
MEN ale (npere nna Wi yey ee ee eee en oe Beno occa ree eb tace occ bones 311
Neth t= e= ce aes EEE seb a 2oee ne bona ete sees egtassssdcstae sete 312
IMGianbiFeN Cope Nt pee os Ae boP sence aa ecu ca we aee wee eeeszoseocs 315
MGR At REE See ee o--es apob anon os aseareandareaaaeeoancsscackaen 316
sy MLNS = Seceere nese atone cob osse oe cose e Soaps Sos aces oseagosesans 317
Means of locomotion and transportation. ....-...-...-.------------------ 328
Travelin paD yaa tOler tes ao ectee ate are atcha mies ete eee eee 328
Kaiaksiand: paddles: »222282 02225272 sase-elece ease cee eee ee 328
imiaksand Titties oa ne ae ei nae ee ae en 335
RTAV.CLIM FON OO Geis e a ca cient nee a oe a ee ee a ee
STOW SHOGS se aoe on sera toe ae ieee setae oa eee aie ee ee 344
Stal. coe sh cca. ice eeae een ee oe se eeeeee eae eee ae 352
Land ‘conveyances: ..25..52 ses-sis se cee ee oe eee ai pees eae eee 353
SJ GOVE Se Soose asses Sen a oSpeb Ease ono she ce acte sein San Mo Sor OnE oscsoee 353
DDD og curt Ce Ecce OSS ape tama eee 357
JS Roi obe (oC le mone aras coer ne enOnIaORaUe saree Sa sneaees ado pacer nes ac 360
Games.and) pastimes: }3255-11-t5.5-2 se janes = eee cla eee eee eee 364
Gambling: ---22---- + Sno edgotonor sted acasane sseosteresesag sone tens 364
NOS ELVA 8 ees eo ear ote on ee eee eA ee ee 365
Mechanicalliconinivances's.- son. 2ss-\- oes - nase = ae eee 37:
Deserjpion:of testivalsye=-25-2- ser eeee oS eaee saa ee eee ae eye)
Toys and sports for children and others.......-..-..----.---.------------ 376
Ves ER evt fy eon ne Ber Mer ne an ene ot ac Sen mona SaBeOSinoe sense 376
Dollseee S322 sesh Seo eects ee eke eee eee ee eee 380
Juvenile implements 9-2: =-c6 5-2 eee See eee eee ee eee 383
Gamesiand:sporte:- 2-203 es. ae eee eee ee ae ee ee eee 383
IMUSIC ats ai ae alae See = Spo orien toro oa ea Cee ele ee eee eee 385
Musiecaltinstruments: - -'.-/2 2.22203 2s jese sce tee eee ee ee 385
Character and frequency of music .-.-....-..-.------------------=-:- 388
U3 he Bee ben. ¢ cam IWE TOME ony snes sccm nen Uassbonacar Sogactae sncecesbar cose 389
IY G nC ie ee sacha Leese Deere meee Suck coms seececoestecesndsseesoce 410
Mannie tena ee = epsom = ramateratels Sages aque Sona accoscsosesnsse 410
Standing and treatment of women. .......--.---.-------------------- 413
(O10 3) Nee SoS ee Se oe one pasate eer a dnb acnuseeseceerecee ss: 414
TER Ge Eaibs ennnedrpyer OTN Siete a ee 419
Social life and customs-.--.----..--.--.--.---------2- -.-. 22. -22-=-22---- 420
Personal habits and cleanliness------------- 22. 220 ne es ns eee 420
SUITE OG) eee emene Aa no cee eS asap eno rE anes eachoosbegec ccs 422
PER b ie APE BE NC cea orn consor sooceetosossce poe ees toskipaombboslce 422
Customsiconcerning: the deadsiaes-. see aes a= ne ee 423
Albstenbions.-.2\o2 ane sees saa emesis = se a clole e ae aelaae ert 423
Manner of disposing of the dead 222-22 =<. 22. = 2am ee ee 424
MG, OV OTTUTIN CYNE go ame oe a aN eto eee 427
In) thevfamilly. : 22 sco see tet eee ne ee ae ere ee ete ree 427
ni thesvillace = = 22 222 eee ee eee a a eet eee 427
Lt ME) tone 2S Eee acre. Ad ops Soot Sooner Soc ene tess cdsscetee: 430
Generalideas: =. <2 8. Sareea ne ea ere eee ee 430
AMULET 22-2 ojoice//a spe oe SE cae ae eee gece sinta= salon eee ae 434

Fic.

ILLUSTRATIONS. |

Page.
Toa tlapion NOTE WeSterniAlABK Ass ss o.25 oy. one oo ee theta tes oss eet oe 2
Il. Map of the hunting grounds of the Point Barrow Eskimo...-...-...-. 18
PCAs AAV arrrOm ON TW eo = eee te ee SSE aS 34
See NINA. 1h OMI OL NI Witknws > an eee ees eee se ee che eee 35
3. Akabiana, a youth of Wtklaywih.-..-.:-22-...-4. 2224-2 $sses2-2-- 2222 36
<7 Luka, se younp man of Utkiay wit: 25: 22.:2-25 ieee (ssesead-bes cece 37
5. Woman stretching skins.........-.....-...- se a ee at 38
6. Pipes: (a) pipe with metal bowl; (b) pipe with stone bowl; (ec) pipe
Withibowl ofantler Orivory=..<->.c-sa2 0b sso e-store Scouse 67
ie elpeunade of willow, Stlek =.= <5 soa ata se ese eee tee ketene 68
Sap LOVAGCOMPONCNEB Ss oss Smee Seba senisisinas coos sce ose se eee aes 69
J blansion HSKIMO Winter ROUSE es! os. 45 ne5 cee eons Saee oeeee neers 72
10. Interior of iglu, looking toward door ..-....--.--...-.-.--2.-+.2-.-- 73
11. Interior of iglu, looking toward bench ...-..........---.-----.-----++-- 74
12. House in Utkiaviwifl...------.---..---. a ty hE eR ea a 76
13. Ground plan and section of winter house in Mackenzie region . .----- 77
1A Vexround plat of larre snow NOUse «5523522. sac 2e ee aoe. ee Sees: 82
is bent/on the beach abt Utkiavwitt- 2252 .5h-2.-<2-0 sees ees sons cess 85
Gre VOUCATE DU CKOG/=. ase. ano Sane ses eee See eee aes ee BAe ae eee 86
De Mer ee inp ee sa = aeclecian ae qo arabia sentinels ok geben Sena iatse 87
US ee Wialehonedqish i. soso soo5 = sae cee = eee ae eee ee ake ese eee 88
LOM Meat-Do wills he eae ces pao mtses Sete Sens Beet Jase eee Soh es 89
ZUR USGI CY Wa te Ce ance ec CROPS EIR a: ASA eae Sena S meme 90
Ale OMA SCONG POU- eae se ee = Sat aslo eile ava ee ese ese sae ceeeseaees 91
OPIATE CECT OURS ECOL DEOL] 12) ye ene eR, Se A 92
Dawa LOUC ATE Le eaters eco ent Cee ect Ge Saat cease sis eee cce 94
ES LOMO es ota Sa ee ene eR MC a ees Ste Te 94
Bory OLON OMNI. geen sien os as a sae 4 oe nase kesh ardc S Acc, Jee 95
OM SLONG MAT Meets pam ae te Iannone Fk ce ER Fem aac en Sates et OF
Sai PR ALO TOMI Uemura, ae ae oS yeas em ele oslo tania eee ene ae aoe 96
BPA SIMNO MAU Wan sae to a ae oe aes Bae ste § yethlose sian oie SIE 96
ZOeIBONO MAM e ee SNe pen ees so ane Pet ine wea eee ea ileece ees 2 97
Ur MBOUCHMNANT Ls sages cme ts Sei ce = seeias ee oe eae b ee eben aaee Shek oes 97
Seg ONG Mabie Soe teeraeiare 5 de sewn hs ea eo NR See en See 98
sy oRRES ON GSIL AIT Veta ents ae ae eke ww cin ain See aed Ge Sane am aac awe 98
DOG AU OIRH 22 ae eee Se Soe oe 2k tee oeeas ts SET REELS sae 99
Ji ODION SIMeRL AIR NEE =P eee ee. oo ek oneness acer goes Sco eens 100
Jo sOblongmedt-dishravebywOld 22.0 =, sree seen ae oN eran ae on eae on 100
Obs DISDNOUSDY pemenrer eee 1S Seminole oe ana tes OSE ai wae eae 100
Dice Wale UONe OND erent ao= cen = Se p22 ee San, sees eu zoek ees 101
30 BMOLMIOID DOL eee sees see nae ca eek eee a Sage e sae svoe nace 101
SO MM OTMAIDPOlarerren reer eee ts o- ese os eens nn ne 2 Boa Seek 102
AO DIN TERT LORS LLY OLY ate = eos oa eee ee PO Crh ta cho cate 103

10 ILLUSTRATIONS.
Page.
Fie. 41. Dipper of fossil ivory -......-...--- Renan Stacie nase es cones ANoe 103
a2) Wooden'spoonee. == peer eee seer eee Sle eR eel a ee eee ieee 104
43. orn ladle: =.32~ 2728 gqccee esos psa ees ee eee eee 104
44. ‘Bone ladle... 2292 qeeeteantce 2 aa seaiee «Soe nn aeoenre ee acon Ee Oe ce 104
45. Bone ladlein thetonmiofarwhales=-- 22225-- eee eee aa eee 105
46. Bone ladle_...-.-.-.-- eticincds to ticccitctnet State eee ee eee eee 105
47. ‘Stone hotse-lamp\.-(. = <2-22=2 2.5222 2s) eats te ae 5-2 sas ae 106
48. ‘Sandstone lamp). 2e-<. 5 sacs ones sea eee 28 ee eee ee 107
49. ‘Traveling lamp sae. -<)-- bosses sasse oa on eee oe aor ae Se eas 108
505 Socket for iblubber holder sa. 5= eee eee eee eee reer aaees 108
51. Manjanordinary, deerskiniclothes')s.-----3-4-— 4-5 soe ae eee 110
‘52; Woman’ 8 hood: .: se <eescs-c pemtec foenoan- Ee Scie er ie Coe eee 1i1
Ba. Mantaifrock == 2522 weve 62 oes wee SO ae ore ee 113
p4batterntof man's: deers kin track =. oo aeons oa ee ee 113
55. Detail of trimming, skirt and shoulder of man’s frock -...--.....-.- 114 }
56 Maniwearm | plain, heavy ftock: 2222) a0) eee eres pea eee ae 114 7
57. Man’s frock of mountain sheepskin, front and back -......-.--.-.---- 115 J
58 eMan’sitrock- of ermine SKINBe esses = - eee ae eee See ees 116
59). Pattern. of sheepskin frock. = 2-222 oe. == 2s gee ee 17
60% Pattern: of, ermine frock. =o - eae see aes eee = eee 117
61) Wioman’s frock. trontiand!backe=---e-e= os==s-=-- = eee er ee ee eee 118
62. Pattern-of woman's frock. . 222 22-2 2h ye sees se 2 119
632 Detaillofied anes woman'sitrock: 5 22a ses as eee eee 119
642 Details! oftrimming, woman's trockas. =- 62.) = see=e ee eee eee 119
65s Mam‘sicloalcwofdeerskiniesecesce= sees 2 ea ene ee eee 121
66; Pattern of man’s\cloak = 220.5... -sseise as > ss eee oe ee eee ee 121
67. Deerskin mittens. .-~.-2 2204 cece sae tase eee = ae ee eae ee 123
G82 Deersloims se Ovens ee oe ee octet a aie 124
697"Mam‘s ibreechesio£ deerskan: 222 csscs5 eee oe a Ae ee eee 125
70:, Pattern of man’s breeches) ——-2. 2-5. aon eo) a a eee ee ee 126
ii. (Lrimming ofanan’s breeches): 22.2 +222 -)as-— = eee ees eae 126
12; Womanis pantaloonsi¢ = 325-20 soa ti eee eee eee 127
73. Patterns of woman’s pantaloons -.....---- Jaen Ue PSS sh eee eo as 128
74; Patherniof stocking). 222 2. .222%oes-S0- 22 2 be sec se ae loose ee eee ee eee 129
15.. Man’s' bootiofideersiin) -<-% <a. -,-- = ec ca eons eee eee 131
16: Pattern of deerskinsboot:.=: - ¢-2 35-222 22 see oa cdesose ae ee Pere 131
it. Man's dress boot ofdeerskite-- 2c... === eae ee eee ee eee ee 132
78, Pattern) of man’s) dress boot ofdeerskim. 2-922 22 Jose sini =e ee 132
79. Man’s dress boot of skin of mountain sheep .......--..---..--------- 133
80) Paro fiman’s dress boo psiotc Cerys kins = acpe cee tegen e 134
81. Woman’s waterproof sealskin' boot?.-—*...--- 225.22. 32-55-22 ee 135
82: Sketch of ‘‘ice-creepers” on-bootisole- -.-=---= ---- 22. = --as--- = =e 135
83.7 Man's belt wovenlofteathersts 2 = ss-c ee eee ee eee ee 136
84. Diagram showing method of fastening the ends of feathers in belt -. 137
85. Woman's belt:of wolverine toes. 25-2 6 9-6 eaen = a eee eee 137
86° Belt=fasteners...2. -seheo te ee eee ee sae ne ee eee eee ee eee ee 138
87. Man with tattooed cheeks -......-.-- MUR GEese CaSO oRSaOS acoeicdanaess 139
88. Woman with ordinary tattooing -.......-.-.---..--=---.---...------ 140
89: Man’s method of wearing the hain =.5- 22-52. 222532222 es-e see 141
Dee Ob harbi¥g ss Aeon ae GARR eS One Sh erinch Sees soon sens sae aceSseeasosece7 143
OL Plup:forenlaroin glare tho) 6 sae ese ania te ee ern tere 144
92.. abretiof beads andiivory 2-ce--s2 ase aes e = oe ieee eee eae eee 145
93. Blue and white labret from Anderson River. .-....-.---------.------ 146
94> Oblongvlabret/of bone ss == sees saan ee eee ee eee eee eee 147
955 Oblong Jabretiofsoapstonel =. eeree see =e -Seeer rece se eee eee ere 147

ILLUSTRATIONS.

SPANGIONG La DER tis ae noc ae eee orem ee eee sania sas Sa ee awa oes
PBeEdnioiam ber a= sree acre aon ae Me Sete cis eaSe
MSE TON IDSs ae oe ace ae Re Sine ia wae arama © tao ferate'a stains
BERL SUE RAVINE Se 8 ot eno ale Se eh en a rane alee a me ee
ERS ES Poel aout tos) ) bts Caen ete 2 Cle 6 Coe eee Oe en oe
5 STE o 015 0 Ge 2 EI ee oo OSS Roe Sg eee aioe
Peseta) BALL Oe ee oe ee ee era ea SSS Se Sone are eee ae
L SES Mec i) 3 Eo SS ee ee See eee eee ge ee ee
- DEG GES enie ot nvr oii. Se Bees oe oe oe Ba ee oc eae
_ TILER Mn eno ee ee See ere eco Sees CBr ess atiesseane se
. Large suigle-edged slate knife.._-....----.-..-..-. ----------------
MED ESOON Gir KL COS pete Sere ye ieee eet ete aes Sein ata See
io TRPSCODVU IPE ong VE op Pete WY, PA te Sr ae Ns ee Oe es en ae
ienitenwiuiwialebone DIAG s.s2. soe oe eo elaine a= se
LOTS UTE TOUTED Pah See oe ee Se ect oe ee ree ee ee eee a ee es
be Toute ks TU URI ICay cued say e's We eae ape ren ne Se ore ge I
Belron whut oAROIe eee ee eee ea Seaneianans 2 eee Sade des es< > ==
Were Come ileus 2 ee S25) Soon een eee pe eer a enaeeoeas
. Large crooked knife with sheath --.---.-..-.-----.-----.----------
Small GropkedvknEVERs = aaa" heh. cece s ne as~ Se oe ee ate ae eee
COTO CCUM ISITLOS 29 tree eee ae Sel ace, OS ey ere SE a the Syne ne oe
PE GrOOKeOUNT Kes WIN tS p1aO O0we 4 sae ote andern tates = clan eget gee
. Slate-bladed crooked knives--..-.--.----- Seaicerne Soe dae pase bees
SWOMAI Ss (KNIT. SUGGL DIAOG\ 22. = 52s s2c5 cocene -acecee sean Sena
RVOMams nite Slate DINO ©. .-54-5- 0250-22 tee ae oda qa es Ape ee
eS Womans knite. slaneiplad@ ec -6 22-00 ane ce sane aida een team
peVVOMati A knite. alate Dad eyo... eee cow koe Geek cheese sienae en acwe ee
PO VNOM AMA Tes Bia LOvDIad G)e= 4-25 ce. eee Erne Seceeeeecere ere ces
. Woman’s ancient slate-bladed knife........-...-----+-.------------
. Ancient bone handle for woman’s knife -..-...-.-..-2---..---------
rp LEER E( 0 Sa tC \C0y BET ae eee ee ee ee ee
SVWOMaAn Arion fe of ak GG ihinh ooo eee ace oS ere nin ee = sinta cic

. Adz-head of jade and bone.....--..-------- mets ee fee ete ae ee ae
. Adz-head of bone and iron, without eyes-.....-....-.-----.---.----
. Adz-head of bone and iron, with vertical eyes.......--..-----------
. Adz-head of bone and iron, with vertical eyes.-.....--...---.------
Slatted: DONG AMO MT OMaCLZ see meee ee eames ee oe ares wade helene sen
S Hattedybone.and stone A022 4-2 = ee oe ok oat eoew oeinee Jodo aetna

PAO isecoopersiad 7 melRued! san sock osao one See ee aoe ne
. Adz with bone blade
PAU GL ORICHISG] ten seers a tare oa See ae ee xecig ee sleeet ae ieee see ele’
Sr Am ter, chisel: 22550 3..8 2 = Ge nw ois, Seas Sate see sake ecg eS
PES PUTLOTISELOOSReLINGN DL AOC on. 7a 20 ann eat ler eee nee See fanaa
:» Whalebone:shave; slate blade: .-22-2-222. s-he=c caster e622 -2a5s2ns
MDA WwrMal eon gd COra heap WA = 1) ocr acs sire ee Speaeis ceseos coe ae
. Saw made of a case-knife
. Bow drill

12

Fic. 151.
152.
153.
154.
155.
156.
157:
158.
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160.
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n7By
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ileae
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196.
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198.
199.
200.
201.
202.
203.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

TB Oryy: LTTE se a aaa aa ee
Drillibowe--=2--ee= we Se aah ide Setnlt eee see ee ees aa
Drill bows! 3.023 s9s see a= sas oo oe os oe Se ae ld
Spliced) drill Way eee a cs a a tee eo
Drill mouthpiece with iron socket - --.-.------.--------------------
Drill mouthpiece withoutiwings=— —— = <= 2 Fa sa el ee
Bosie-pornrbe clic ills 5 ees ata me
Handles for drill cords2 523 - = 3-\as5 = ses a ee
Flint-bladed reamers..-----.------------ iS An)s Seale Sum eee
Plant-bladed: reamers 25s. 22 tease eee eee oe ee ete es
SASWH! eae teh SS Sete 5 eo Sa cee ee ee Oe eee ate ee eee
AGO AVG LRUONES hae obo stes = Sore ke Sinha ere kee ey
Jade whetstones: (22252032. 22 eee Ce ee eee
Wooden tool-boxes ......-.-------- »S8e) Beh ee eee eee ee
iargve wooden tool-boxes = 2.2.22. 25-- 5-22. 2- ~ sss aan eee
Tool-bag of wolverine sine 9 -2- e aces ee ee ere
Tool-bac of wolverine sine =. 215 ser ae eae leet eee
Drills belonging: to theitool= ba = — se. a2. = sere re
Comb for deerskins in the tool-bag ---...-----.--------------------
Baie amd les ices = sess a a ee
Bagolledthers ss sac oe oo sae ns ae ee ree
Tnivtilevhan d-elmbe = 22 22 ee sec. ee ei oe ae ee ae
Slungshot made of walrus jaw. ---- -------------------2-2<---~--=- 3
Digrerioh bese sipOne ls gos seals sae aaa ie eee ee
Bonedapererse: -s2scse spe se oe oes sae ae Re ee ee ae eee
So-called! dapferiof bone. <= <-> = = <2. eee ae ae ee
Boy’sibow trom Utkiav, wills: 29 sas ein dee
Moopratiendiof bowsiting ss... s.2e=— eee ee eae
aroe bow from” Nuwitk>--2e..5* epee aan ete a
Warzerbow, from) Sidarue se - a e ee oeae e
Feathering of the Eskimo arrow. .-.--- --.---------2--=-=----------
Plint-headed:arrow; (kukiksadlin))2 > 222 ees eet eet eer
Ibong-flimtupille’ 92 ot ceaa== =e ee eae ae ee oe ee
Short flintipile = 2222... seen oe ee ee
Heart-shaped flint pile:2 = --- ~seeee = eres = ee ee eee
(a) Arrow with “after pile” (ipudligadlin); (b) arrow with iron pile

(savidlin); (c) arrow with iron pile (savidlin); (d) arrow with

copper pile (savidlin); (e) deer-arrow (nfitkodlin)---------------
Pilevof deer ‘arrow; Grltkim)) eens - ee eee eee rat
ECKonmtidlin’ arrow: pul@sa—- 2-2 = =5= jee ae
(a) Fowl] arrow (tugalin); (b) bird arrow (kixodwain) -------------
Bow! case: andiqiivers: s2o52 5 eee ace ea ee eee
Quiver rodhc hs see ee ees eee eee ee ae seer ee
Gap for quiver rod 25 eee = ees sae ee re
IBTACCL as o.5c 2 a ee ee ee ee eee ee eee eee ne = > eee eee ee
Bracer‘o£- DONE <5 see oe ee pete ae aa a ee aero

Bn, GEG eats ce eee a ee a ee ee :

Point for bird! Gert ese ee
Ancient point fom bixditd ant === a a ea = a ae
Poimbtitor bird cd arte se ee ere le
Bird dart with double; poten 22 =— = =a. 3 ee
Ancient, ivory dart head: 2. hese - ne ae a er ee eee
BONS, arb eA oe ee ae eee ee
Nozzle for bladder:float) 222. sees eee eee eee
Seall'dart:--< 26 2 oR ee oe neste ee

Fic. 204.
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256.
257.
258.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Poms eee (3 COT ye oe Re ee oe Se eS ae oe ee
TR Re iG bet eG ENT ins SoS e Bos okeeros sass Se aera a ee
SE gee sal Poe ee St Le Sena eee eee
Harpoon head. .-= - <2 52 ose ete ecw s esas (Pte whehat soe sas eee
ANICIENG HONG Nan POON NEA see ae eer seks en ite ara mee ala ie me
(a) Ancient bone harpoon head; (b) variants of this type --.--.----
IB OEMNAEDOOUM ICRC tere eee ie neers ocean ee
Joye) Ley etree DYES oe OR Se SS eee es a
Hacpoonhead, bone and Stone 2. os. ae a eee eee ee ne
anpoon head, Done ANG StONG! ean saee een ee 2 eee
\QETIR GES TG TON Fie 5 Ee a oe eae Re ee eek eee Aare eee
Typical walrus-harpoon heads. ......-----.--------------------

Typical walrus-harpoon heads..-...--.----=-..---..---:.----...-.-
Typical walrus-harpoon heads. ---- Fee eI eye ete soe cio ee
Walrns-harpoon head, with *“leader”-.-..- -:-- -=-- 2.22 -2,-2---=tc-
Walrus-harpoon head, with line .-.-..---..-.---.----+------ Seer te oP
Walrus-harpoon head, with line ----- santo tos) t ood atse cee hoses
Wialris-narpoonhead. with line 9222-2 cae. deca eaten are
Woreshait of walrusiharpoon -<- --. 222222 s2---2 22525555 222ses- 522
FranpOUMNe stor LAT PO ROIs iano = onsen. casa sa eae oe ome
TAG mete aah rae COE et) Ne eo i eno Se See Sere = Seas See
Details of retrieving seal harpoon . ---- #eeeneE Se ste Sy Screg eae eee
Pade DiaGenor HOAMNARPOON 52s ese eee pee me mpi ma ete ees pasa
Healuanpoon ton WCNA Wl pees ener e een eee ee pena ep eee
Dracramlot, lashing ONVB Nate moe ee ee eee ae ee mee mime ea
Modoh ota Real harpoon: = -- 2 oan oes oe = wae er ne Ses tie
Large model of whale harpoon -.-..-...-.-.--...---.-------.------
Model of whale harpoon, with floats. -..---.-.-...-------.-----------
Flint blade for whale harpoon -.-..-..--.---.---.----- Ba Se sane Renn
Slate blade for whale harpoon ---.-.--..-... --..---..---------«---=-
Bodviot whale harpoon head. = ooo oe eee wires ony
VV eG = Aes eee aot Ouse Sesto sei as aaa
Wihateharnoonthead with Weader’ = — 225 <2 5. ~ aoe ee eens
Horeshatoiol wiale DarpoOM aa oe pee woe ee Ce ee ewe
Wir a AN CO wes or aoe ae Sa eee ce heap ee was epee ee mee
Miminhead of wy hale lancet. ae oe on ee aoe ow cee eee cee oe
Hlint heads for whalelances: -222------2= -2-- s-.5<2aaess0 s2see 50025
(ape IEG). Soe Se sas 62se aa Senin See se Bo Soe Sear ose
Flint head for bear lance --..--.-.--------- Sr ene a SEY Set eter
BY er ah Say) C Otte te et) ee Bre gs aio om pe mee 5 ots erm eI ie wep
Partiot deer lance with flint head * 222+ 2.2.25... 222-0 .-- 2 oe -o
Heoretanees tintG DOA ea ee NR Soe oct a tee See erie ni
Minti head tor deer lance wes = snes seo Mae sein apt ala Mee oe ees ae
Bird bolas, looped, up for camnying- -- -. ---- 2254-2 ------2 === 2 ===
Birdoholas, ead yetORUse 9s Sa6-)o tna e a oe Fee oxen ae
Mealskin lost) season aa score ese ce sie Sue eee tw eee eas
Ih bioyr ere meYeded (ho Se. Se eee BSE Eamets cel Se eee ence
Boxes for arpgon NEGad Aes... eo 5 naa nna eee aan oe ew ene ee
Seal mets =o ee Gan eee an tee Somer ee anbe seecseenlenae Sees ses sce
Scratchers for decoying seals _ - =.= ---5-<- 2522 os aeee oe seeeeeeee ns
Sealitattle enn. 22 see ae mos 7 ace ees enas- + seas cease Sess Sees ep sss
Ned CALOTA eer ee ee see ee een ee eines copie
INORHN OP SUOO NR see ee oo a2 ne ee ee Oa ds deca soe
Seal draptand: handles: f= — he ne me oe near Coster rare eacans ese
Wihalebone wolf killers=-- - <<. 22. 22222... 22-2255: eee

ILLUSTRATIONS.

, Wooden: snow-foreles'=.5 2225. 058 se cb. coe ee ene see eee eee
; Bone snow-goggles:2: 22. 2. -2eaee 2 sees Hee ene se ee eee
. Wooden snow-gorgles, “unusual form: =22- 5 seee eee eee
2: Marker forimeat caches 3258220 2. 6. 22s eee eee eee
. Marker for meat cache. -.--- Pits, oS ae een ee Bee
. Tackle for'shoretiishing: 226/222 23h ee Pee een ea eee eee
5. Knot.ofdine intovhook.3>-22.-4--2 3a 3st eee aoe ee eee
Small tishshooketo +. 2.26. soe oc ee ee eee
(=, Hookstformiver fishing o< 2. sepeoe sete ea eee nae ee ee eee
B. Tackle for river shines. -_ 453-54 nae SOS Lat Soe eee
i Burbotihook: first.pattertis:.9-22s> 9a sae a ae ee ene eae ne
Ss Burbotbook, secondipatberncs =. re ae ae cae ce eee
» Barbot hook, made of cod hookes- 4 asses ae eee
De Burbothtaclile, baited <A 2.46-- sce once ee een ee orate ee
Polivory Ssinken-==--=2e-.= Se ae ae Be eRe eee Nn AO SS BOIS «
SLvOLyjiggerdtor polar cod’ js 4-5¢h ye eee ee eee ee
» Section of whalebone nets. = 2s .h.- 250 seme eee ae eee
+; Mesh of sinew metic]: 2222 ==. Se sas-0e Cos ae ea ele ene
. Fish trap
278. Fish spear
|, Plint flakers' 2.2. 2c so se2h.e ses seas ee ee ee See eee eee
* Haftiofflintflaker2:- 2s: 2sss2scss> sse-eeheeser= eee ne teeta eee
» Hint flaker; swith bone! blade... 2-22-22 22ers non oo ee ee eee
; Bure drill, withsmouthpiece andistock.-2+-s---- 2-2 - oes 22a ee
‘ Set of bow-and-arrow tools! =.-/3.5 2522- 2-2 eeeck ose eee
~ Marline spiel ©). v22.22 so sane Sates aeye eo ee ee
Marline (spike «= 2. 222222228 <2.. 2he ase eee ee oe eee eee
. “Twister” for working sinew backing of bow.-...----.---.--------
. “Feather setter” ....--....-.-- wine = tata see Cohan ne. eerie nese eee
jRoolof antler? 2. a saje soe os Se atte eee ee eo ees
EYES Bol MS CD AOL Se aye = eos ere ara a ere ee ee
i» Skaniscrapers—handles) only\-ce-eece =eee eee he aa eee eee ae
. Skin Scrapers! :2 ss < 22-225 so2 ec See == 2 Sasser eee eee eee
» SKIN SCrape< -.2 Ssesccan Sse eisai esesce esse ee Sees seele eee
» Peculiar modification ofscrapen 22 -se ren ane. ee a eee
MISKiM SCRAP Ole ac teat ce ee eee ier Onee oe are ne ee es
JUS KAS CRAD OT ac ene ee acs See eee ea oa + See era re ee ee ee
sSkin scraper 222 caisson cles a aay lsat ws ts ees ears eee eo
. Klint blade for'skiniserapere. --2-\2 2-5 22 sae eee eee eee
; Straight-hatted! scraper. seq a.2 s-s-cs oe ee er ee eee
WIBOWO IS CLAN OT ere a wera ee ae cree stam = ae eee ee rere
Hpisfidsh Kae ):) ceadnteetaroesrs oosUaseese decn Sars qoeree os sagnecoy ose
+ Combs: for cleaninpydeer-skumsie. == eee ase setae ae eee eee
-“Doubleislit?aplice dor maw iL0.eimes meee ae ae ee eres
» Mattock of whiale’s'nib: .22.22 oc ons sane 2 ae ae alee Se
. Pickax-heads of bone, ivory, and whale’s rib...............-.....--
2 Ewory. snow ‘knife J) 5. = ses Sees eee a oe wae ie eee Re
» SNOW shovels; = =.= cees.5 see ee Bef cla snee face ee Nene Se ee
. Snow shovel made of a whale’siscapula .-.....-..-. 22.2 225-2--25--
WISMOWADICE: <.cc'S = eee = eee ee is ee ee eee
eSnow/ Grill 222.2 So: eae eee eee ee eee see eae See ee ees
MiG@e; SCOOP == ea22= ee a= oa See ae ae ee eelaeenle eee Sener ee eee
; Long blubber hoolk. 2 2222). 2 sstetpe Sees ss sce <a e eee eee
: Short-handled blubber hook= -2e- so = 22-22. -9-= 9s)
S MISh BCaler .2::\2 222 sehen se amuse tam ote warn ae aren Sierene he eae eae eee

Fig. 314.
315.
316.
SLi.
318.
319.
320.
321.
322.
323.
324.
325.
326.

327.
. (a) Needle case with belt hook; (b) needle case open, showing bone
Mee dLOder ene sen ey aetna geese es ON at

ILLUSTRATIONS.

TVORYASHUGH CLs 5. 249 5 ee see ee ee Saas
Nething Needle) c-means ae
INT@SIWS GRC Keeton. pe os ee eras ys Cee on RS Oe
Netimeimecdiies:: 2 ae ae cot ee Mee ene co ee
Netting needles for seal net. --------.....-...:-.-.--
Nebtin cImeed le! ss 22 set ee ee ee ae
EBS NMG OKN ee ns Ghosts Soe gee Siete eee yn eee
INGuiin beyei@hitges ss gee 28 ssa Oe ea es
Shuttle belonging to set of feather tools ....._._._.-
Mea hieuiclogrons see seen ae tek ee Oo Oe Wain
““Sword” for feather weaving ...................---
Quill case’ of bone.needles -.---.-......-..... .-.-s:-
(a) Large bone needle and peculiar thimble; (b) Leather thimbles

Wwalhs DONS Medes ees eva es J

POLO RD OSA Ronen ab 2 acid see = eg S ee <a s bakes
EB ONGA) OX es od ase Le ee a ae eee a
ILO HaelkvOnivory- 2-2 62s05¢552cms oes pele ee
-s bos im Shape Of deer: 2-2. 22. .2ss22-2:-.-5-
SP OUIAUNN AS KO mason he Giese oo Se eer he
MUNA UD ASK Ota aes eor a oes oo see
pm AMIN ARKO Wiens fas eLen oo. hse ome emen esos ae
SAUER CY SSS ae Ce eC SOO SO pees eae
. Method of fastening together frame of kaiak
mH oubleikalskepaddles..2... Los fel P
. Model kaiak and paddle. ___. ee Se ae oe AO Se So SIS
PeLnAMerGhmm ake? Mae ee Jo eee ee a ee
. (a) Method of fastening bilge-streaks to stem of umiak; (b) method
of framing rib to gunwale, ete ....................
. Method of slinging the oar of umiak............___-
- (a) Model of umiak and paddles; (b) model of umiak, inside plan. -.
SRLVOLYED ALOEMOr Uiniakes= seen. eee eee a
elvonw crotch) tox NAarpoOn <a 222-52 oh ee sees a ee
Se eLyOryicrouch tor harpoon)-ee ee 5) sees. o el
. Crotch for harpoon made of walrus jaw-........___-
PE SLO WSNOG Bre ce ht Ie eee: re Soe oo RE Oe
- Knot in snowshoe netting -.....................----
- (@) First round of heel-netting of snowshoe; (b) first and second
round of heel-netting of snowshoe....__.._._..._-
3. (a) First round of heel-netting of snowshoe; (b) first, second, and

third rounds of heel-netting of snowshoe

Penal Snows DOn Ae eee oe ee ee ae ee

. Railed sledge (diagrammatic), from photograph
pala lOd g Gas ere merce ee ie ht ee ae
. Small sledge with ivory runners .-.............-..--
- Small toboggan of whalebone .....-.............-.-
. Hunting score engraved on ivory. --..............--
. Hunting score engraved on ivory, obverse and reverse -
. Hunting score engraved on ivory..............__._.
. Hunting score engraved on ivory, obverse and reverse

16

Fic. 364

365.
366.
367.
368.
369.
370.
371.
372.
373.
374.
375.
376.
377.
378.
379.
380.
381.
382.
383.
384.
385.
386.
387.
388.
389.
390.
391.
392.
393.
394.
395.
396.
397.
398.
399.
400.
401.
402.
403.
404,
405.
406.
407.
408.
409.
410.
411.
412.
413.
414,
415.
416.
417.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

. Game of fox and’ geese from) Plover Bay --2:-- ------ --2 === ==-1- =
Wanein scjp! sae. S ae acto ele ieaee oe sae alee ele eee ee eer ere
Wooden masked 22%) 5 2-25 se Sein 2 Sele eee ee Eee S
Wooden mask andidancin go porpet eee -4 eee eee eee eas
Old grotesque mask’. 2.2 222: Saos cose ree ee eee ees
Rude mask of wood! <2 - 22.520. Sek ee eee oe eee eee
Woltmaskiof woods: 2525.25 e as saree Ce ee eee
Very ancient:small mask a22 2 2-s..2-eae coc’ ase tee eee ee sees
Daneingigoroetsiot wood’: =.= qsceee eae eae eee eee
Youth dancing to;theyauroral cee. ot eee ee eee ee
A (lena blots. ee ae he toe a RAE IS Aer 5e A essa eotot aos ee
Reetobum ses 220~. cee seers oe ee ere tere a Toe Er eet
BUZZ bOy os. o8 see Sac Sates 5 ae oe he senha eee se aee ee eee
Wihizzing, stick? .- 22.25. h ase nies sneer oe tae ee eles aoe a ee
Pebblevsnapper. ==.) asa-se- eee seas = eee ee eee ee ee
Canyvinerofshuman head i.e ser ae eae eee tee a eee eee
Mechanical ‘doll—drum-players 222 = =a. ose ne sae tee eee
Mechanical’ toy—kaiak paddlers. 22. -so= a. ee see ne) eee
Kaiak carved trom block of-wood!=.- 2222 55-555 sess ee eee
IDI yb Seep esate Aaa Ea Mego ABBA aS Seba bond ase Sosa Semease cea Se=
Handlejofidrum secured! to rim =e === ser se ee eee
Drumihan dless2 5 sees cser ara e ysiseeaele ee eee ee eee eee
Ivory drumsticks: 2302-2055 -a5-2 neste oes oaes eee aoe eee eee es
Ancienticarvine—humani heads —- ene. ees see peince ee nee eee
Wioodentfipumnes) 2 occas oe- oe se cen-eeeeen ete ese ear ey emetatee
Carving—face of Eskimo man. .-..-..-----...---.------=-=----+--:-
Grotesque soapstone image—‘‘ walrus man”... .-...---------------
Bonenmape ofidancer sata. sean eee ae eee ae eee ee eae
Boneumape oii ans. sees aes eee ee ee eee eres
Grotesque bone image-.-......---..----.- SF PEO Henao neee GANS AB SOS
Bone image—sitting man): 25. 225-2 see nc ee ee eosse aes eee eee
Human figure carved from walrus ivory -..------------------ rene
Ivory carving—three human heads ..........----------------------
Rude human head, carved from a walrus tooth. ..........---..-----
Hlaboratedyory Gatvin gy <2 26 e-m-e eee eee e a e
Bearicarved of soapstone 252 s<.52- cos sese seek oe eee meee
Bear flaked fromtlint]-s.2pes--)- aoe er eee soe eee ee eee
(a) Bear carved from bone; (6) bear’s head......-.-.-.------------
LVOTY a SUres Ohi DeCash= see eee eee oes ee eee eee eee eee
Rudesivory dipuresiotewalrus sesso = sree eee see ene
Imaces|of seal—wood' and bone: - -. ==. - 2225-22-22 see ee
White whale carved from gypsum... -.-.-.-.----.-----------------
Wioodenjcarying—wihiall eer esa eee ar ate eee i eee
Whale carved from soapstone ---.-----. --- née cbnesecnccee sassscsseese
Rud.etflabimage tots wih all Oe essere
Ivory; dima y elo; wih all eee reet sree aoe le ee eee eee eres
Ivory image. otmwhal@nceaac ee see eaten a ee RE DP Cie
Pair of littlesivonyayhalesasesesce seen eee eee eee eee
Soapstone image of imaginary animal -.-.---.----.-.---------------
Ivory carving, seal with fish’s head_--..-...----....--..-.--.-..---
Ivory carvings; ten-ler o edu be alts ae ma eee lm ne eee eet ett
Ivory carving, giant holding whales-..-......-..--....----..---------
Double-headed animal carved from antler---.-..-..-.-----.---------
Ty.ony7 Carvin P— Wo pees a eee ee eran ater

404
405
405

:
:
q
’
c

ILLUSTRATIONS. 17
Page.
Fic. 418. (a) Piece of ivory, engraved with figures; (b) development of
IOUS Soe sea eick 5 Sho SeconnSo ce sa SOs nro SS Ce eae SEE ner eee 408
419. (a) Similar engraved ivory; (b) development of pattern...-.-..-.--- 408
AZ MEROEY CON ot). ton poe hace se eee Acer Se mae s deena, Sani eee secs 409
ADS Wihaletaked: trom) Class 2 cet ee ae njos est clsa ine pce ae oes a oa asin sie 435
aoe Winle faked trom red jaspete-s yoo. < ice ees ee = sw sos essed S 435
423. Ancient whale amulet, of wood.......- Sonne ee snt seo e 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
aos DOS OMATIOW DECR—AMUNL Cte. ose, «cos siete w Sieisie a siciw eS see awn a eo a aes 440
9 ETH 2
.

ny

,
Ca.
‘ied
a ta
ie:
; = =
eave

ea

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY

THE HUNTING GROUND

OF THE

Point BaRRow Eskimc
Based on Lieut PHRaysMap «
| Explorations in Northwesterm Alu
Signal Service, SA. 1885

Comynted by
John Murdoch

Cc

Ae J

jelcher Pts sala
++ Nunaria (dese tea)

oO NStdaru

Fe yu dae sy lll
ws

NINTH ANNUAL REPORT PL, Il

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY

THE HUNTING GROUNDS

OF THE

Point BARRow ESKIMO.
Based on Lieut PHRays'Map of
Explorations ir Nort/iwester7Alasha;

Signal Service, 1 SA. 1885

Cormpled by
John Murdoch

oO

C

lcher Pegs" 7
+ Nunaria (dese tea)

ON Sidaru
Aline

yy

é

NINTH ANNUAL REPORT PL, II

ETHNOLOGICAL RESULTS OF THE POINT BARROW
EXPEDITION.

By Joun MurpbDocu.

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. H. Ray, Eighth Infantry, U. 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. Herendeen; the
surgeon, Dr. George Scott Oldmixon, 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,! 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
ington, 1885.

19

20 THE POINT BARROW 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 Barrow
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 @ in
soda), a for a similar obscure e, and 6 for the sound of the German 6 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.
Hazen, 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
sarry 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. H. Rink, of Christiania.

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. Dil.

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 anc adventure during nearly five
years’ continuous service in the Arctie regions while in search of the expe-
dition under Sir John Franklin. London, 1857.

Back, GrorGe. 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, 1854,
and 1835. Philadelphia, 1836.

BEEcHEY, FREDERICK WILLIAM. Narrative of a voyage to the Pacific and Beering’s
Strait to cooperate with the polar expeditions: performed in His Majesty’s
ship Blossom, under the commaud of Capt. F. W. Beechey, etc., ete., ete.,
in the years 1825, 1826, 1827, and 1828. London, 1831.

BEssELs, Emit. Die amerikanische Nordpol-Expedition. Leipzig, 1878.

—— The northernmost inhabitants of the earth. An ethnographic sketch. <Amer-
ican Naturalist, vol. 18, pp. 861-882. 1884.

—— Einige Worte iiber die Inuit (Eskimo) des Smith-Sundes, nebst Bemerkungen
iiber Inuit-Schiidel. <Archiy fiir Anthropologie, vol. 8, pp. 107-122.
Braunschweig, 1875.

Boas, Franz. The Central Eskimo. In Sixth Annual Report of the Burean of Eth-
nology, pp. 399-659. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1888.

BropBeck, J. Nach Osten. Untersuchungsfahrt nach der Ostkiiste Grénlands, vom
2. bis 12. August 1881. Niesky, 1882.

CHAPPELL, FE. (Lieut., R.N.). Narrative of avoyage 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. |

Cuorts, L. Voyage Pittoresque autour du Monde, avec des portraits des sauvages
d’ Amérique, d’ Asie, d’Afrique, et des iles du Grand Océan; des paysages, des
vues maritimes, et plusieurs objets d'histoire naturelle; accompagné de
descriptions par M. le Baron Cuvier, et M. A. de Chamisso, et d’observations
sur les crines humains par M. le Doeteur 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.”)

“CoRWIN.” Cruise of the revenue steamer Corwin in Alaska and the N. W. Arctic
Ocean in 1881. Notesand memoranda. Medical and anthropological; botan-
ical; ornithological. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1883.

Crantz, Davip. 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 Unitas Fratrum, at New Herrnhuth and Lich-
tenfels, in that country. 2 volumes. London, 1767.

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[Davis, JoHN]. The first voyage of Master John Danis, vndertaken in June 1585: for
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Dive THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

(Davis, JoHn]. The second voyage attempted by Master John Dauis with others
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Eerpr, Hans. A description of Greenland. Showing the natural history, situation,
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Euuts, H. A voyage to Hudson’s Bay, by the Dobbs Galley and California, in the
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[FROBISHER, MARTIN]. The first voyage of M. Martine Frobisher to the Northwest for
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—— Narrative of the second arctic expedition made by Charles F. Hall: his voyage
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Hou, G. Konehaads-Expeditionen til Grénlands @stkyst 1883-85. <Geografisk
Tidskrift, vol. 8, pp. 79-98. Copenhagen, 1886. :

MURDOCH.) WORKS CONSULTED. 23

Hoim,G. and Garpe, V. Den danske Konebaads-Expeditionen til Gronlands @stkyst,
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KiutscHak, Hernricu W. Als Eskimo unter den Eskimos. Eine Schilderung der
Erlebnisse der Schwatka’schen Franklin-aufsuchungs-expedition in den
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KorzEBur, 0. 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
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Krause, AUREL (Dr.). Die Bevolkerungsverhiltnisse der Tschuktscher-Halbinsel.
<Deutsche geographische Blitter, vol. 6, pp. 248-278. Bremen, 1883.

— and ArtTHUR. Die Expedition der Bremer geographischen Gesellschaft nach
der Tschuktscher-Halbinsel. <Deutsche geographische Blitter, vol. 5, pp.
1-35, 111-133. Bremen, 1882.

— Die wissenschaftliche Expedition der Bremer geographischen Gesellschaft nach
dem Kiistengebiete an der Beringsstrasse. <Deutsche geographische Bliit-
ter, vol. 4, pp. 245-281. Bremen, 1881.

KuMLIEN, Lupwic. Contributions to the natural history of Arctic America, made in
connection with the Howgate polar expedition, 1877-78. Bulletin of the U.
S. National Museum, No. 15. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1879.

LisiaNsky, UREY. A voyage round the world, in the years 1803, “4, 5, 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. Heela,
during the recent voyage of discovery under Captain Parry. Boston, 1824.

M’CLurE, RoBperT LE MESURIER (Capt.). See Osborn, Sherard (editor). :

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the continent of North America, to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans, in the
years 1789 and 1793. London, 1802.

MaGuIrRE, Rocurort (Commander). Proceedings of Commander Maguire, H. M. dis-
covery ship “Plover.” < Parliamentary Reports, 1854, xii, 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, ete., 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 fiftie
tunnes, and the Northstarre, a small pinnesse, being two vessels of the fleet
of M. John Dauis, held after he had sent them from him to discouer the pass-
age between Groenland and Island. Written by Henry Morgan, seruant to
M. William Sanderson, of London. <Hakluyt, ‘‘The principall navigations,
volages, ete.,” pp. 787-9. London, 1589.

Murpocu, Joun. The retrieving harpoon; an undescribed type of Eskimo weapon
< American Naturalist, vol. 19, 1885, pp. 423-425.

5b. Two vols.

24 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

Murpocn, JonNn. 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. m1, pp. 307-316. Washington, Government Printing
Office, 1885.

NerDENSKIOLD, ADoLF Eric. The voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe.

Translated by Alexander Leslie. 2 vols. London, 1881.

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vestigator, Capt. R. M’Clure, 1850, 1851, 1852, 1858, 1854. Edited by Com-
mander Sherard Osborn, from the logs and journals of Capt. Robert Le M.
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Barrow. London, 1856.

Parry, WILLIAM Epwarb (Sir). Journal of a voyage for the discovery of a north-
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—— Journal of a second voyage for the discovery of a northwest passage from the
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<Tenth Census of the U. 8. Washington, Government Printing Office,
1884.

PowELL, Josepn §. (Lieut.). Report of Lieut. Joseph 8. Powell: Relief expedition
to Point Barrow, Alaska. <Signal Service Notes, No. V, pp. 18-23. Wash-
ington, Office of the Chief Signal Officer, 1883.

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and 1847. London, 1850.

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—— Report of Lieut. P. Henry Ray: Work at Point Barrow, Alaska, from Septem-
ber 16, 1881, to August 25, 1882. <Signal Service Notes, No. V, pp. 35-40.
Washington, Office of the Chief Signal Officer, 1883.

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throngh Rupert’s Land and the Arctic Sea, in search of the discovery ships
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1885.

—— Danish Greenland, its people and its products. London, 1877.

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<Deutsche geographische Blitter, vol. 9, pp. 228-239. Bremen, 1886.

Ostgrénlenderne i deres Forhold til Vestgronlenderne og de gvrige Eskimostam-
mer. <Geogratisk Tidskrift, vol. 8, pp. 189-145. Copenhagen, 1886. (Nearly
the same as the above.)

MURDOCH. ] WORKS CONSULTED. 25

Rivk, Henrik [Johan]. Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, with a sketch of their
habits, language, and other peculiarities. Translated from the Danish.
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dence in the arctic regions during the years 1829, 1830, 1831, 1832, 1833. Phila-
delphia, 1835.

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ships Isabella and Alexander, for the purpose of exploring Baftin’s Bay, and
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fishery; including researches and discoveries on the eastern coast of Green-
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burgh, 1823.

SEEMANN, BERTHOLD. Narrative of the voyage of H. M.S. Herald, during the years
1845-51, under the command of Captain Henry Kellett, R. N., C. B.; being
a circumnavigation of the globe and three cruises to the arctic regions in
search of Sir John Franklin. Two vols. London, 1853.

Srmmpson, JOHN (Dr.). Observations on the western Eskimo, and the country they in-
habit; from notes taken during two years at Point Barrow. <A selection of
papers on arctic geography and ethnology. Reprinted and presented to the
arctic expedition of 1875 by the Royal Geographical Society (‘‘ Arctic Blue
Book”), pp. 233-275. London, 1875. (Reprinted from ‘‘Further papers,”
etc., Parl. Rep., 1855.)

Smvupson, THOMAS. Narrative of the discoveries on the north coast of America,
effected by the officers of the Hudson’s Bay Company during the years 1836-39.
London, 1843.

Sotias, W. J. On some Eskimos’ bone implements from the east coast of Greenland.
<Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, vol.
9, pp. 329-336. London, 1880.

SUTHERLAND, P. C. (Dr.). On the Esquimaux. <Journal of the Ethnological So-
ciety of London, vol. 4, pp. 193-214. London, 1856.

WRANGELL, FERDINAND VON. Narrative of an expedition to the Polar Sea in the years
1820, 1821, 1822, and 1823. Edited by Maj. Edward Sabine. London, 1840.

SITUATION AND SURROUNDINGS.

The people whose arts and industries are represented by the collec-
tion to be deseribed are the Eskimo of the northwestern extremity of
the continent of North America, who make permanent homes at the two
villages of Nuwtk and Utkiavwin. Small contributions to the collec-
tion were obtained from natives of Wainwright Inlet and from people of
the Inland River (Nunatafmiun) who visited the northern villages.

Nuwik, “the Point,” is situated on a slightly elevated knoll at the
extremity of Point Barrow, in lat. 71° 23’ N., long. 156° 17’ W., and
Utkiavwin, “the Cliffs,” at the beginning of the high land at Cape
Smyth, 11 miles southwest from Nuwtk. The name Utkiavwin, was ex-
plained as meaning “the high place, whence one can look out,” and was
said to be equivalent to ikpik, a cliff. This name appears on the various
maps of this region under several corrupted forms, due to carelessness
or inability to catch the finer distinctions of sound. It first appears on
Capt. Maguire’s map! as “Ot-ki-a-wing,” a form of the word very near
the Eskimo pronunciation. On Dr. Simpson’s map? it is changed to
“Ot-ke-a-vik,” which on the admiralty chart is misprinted “ Otkiovik.”
Petroff on his map® ealls it ‘“Ootiwakh,” while he gives an imaginary
village “ Ootkaiowik, Arctic Ocean,” of 55 inhabitants, in his census of
the Arctic Division (op. cit., p. 4), which does not appear upon his map.

Our party, I regret to say, is responsible for the name “ Ooglaamie ” or
“Uglaamie,” which hasappeared on many mapssinceourreturn. Strictly
speaking this name should be used only as the official name of the United
States signal station. It arose from a misunderstanding of the name as
heard the day after we arrived, and was even adopted by the natives in
talking with us. It was not until the second year that we learned the
correct form of the word, which has been carefully verified.

The inhabitants of these two villages are so widely separated from
their neighbors—the nearest permanent villages are at Point Belcher
and Wainwright Inlet, 75 miles southwest, and Demarcation Point, 350
miles easti—and so closely connected with each other by intermarriage
and common interests, that they may be considered as a single people.
In their hunting and trading expeditions they habitually range from the
neighborhood of Refuge Inlet along the coast to Barter Island, going
inland to the upper waters of the large rivers which flow northward
into the Arctic Ocean east of Point Barrow. Small parties occasionally
travel as far as Wainwright Inlet and more rarely to Point Hope, and

'Parl. Reports, 1854, vol. 42, p. 186.
2¥Further Papers, &c., Parl. Rep, (1855).
Report on the population, ete., of Alaska.
4Capt. E. E. Smith, who in command of a steam whaler penetrated as far east as Return Reef in the
summer of 1885, says that the natives told him there was no permanent village west of Herschel Island.
26

MURDOCH. ] TOPOGRAPHY OF THE COUNTRY. Prt
some times as far as the Mackenzie River. The extent of their wander-
ings will be treated of more fully in connection with their relations to
the other natives of the Northwest. They appear to be unacquainted
with the interior except for about 100 miles south of Point Barrow.

The coast from Refuge Inlet runs nearly straight in a generally north-
east direction to Point Barrow, and consists of steep banks of clay,
gravel, and pebbles, in appearance closely resembling glacial drift, bor-
dered by a narrow, steep beach of pebbles and gravel, and broken at
intervals by steep gulleys which are the channels of temporary streams
running only during the period of melting snow, and by long, narrow,
and shallow lagoons, to whose edges the cliffs slope gradually down,
sometimes ending in low, steep banks. The mouths of these lagoons
are generally rather wide, and closed by a bar of gravel thrown up by
the waves during the season of open water. In the spring, the snow
and ice on the land melt months before the sea opens and flood the ice
on the lagoons, which also melts gradually around the edges until there
is a sufficient head of water in the lagoon to break through the bar at
the lowest point. This stream soon cuts itself a channel, usually about
20 or 30 yards wide, through which the lagoon is rapidly drained, soon
cutting out an open space of greater or less extent in the sea ice.
Before the sea opens the lagoon is drained down to its level, and the
tide ebbs and flows through the channel, which is usually from knee-
deep to waist-deep, so that the lagoon becomes more or less brackish.
When the sea gets sufficiently open for waves to break upon the beach,
they in a short time bring in enough gravel to close the outlet. The
cliffs gradually decrease in height till they reach Cape Smyth, where
they are about 25 feet high, and terminate in low knolls sloping down
to the banks of the broad lagoon Isitkwe, which is made by the con-
fluence of two narrow, sinuous gulleys, and is only 10 feet deep in the
deepest part.

Rising from the beach beyond the mouth of this lagoon is a slight ele-
vation, 12 feet above the sea level, which was anciently the site of a
small village, called by the same name as the lagoon. On this elevation
was situated the United States signal station of Ooglaamie. Beyond
this the land is level with the top of the beach, which is broad and nearly
flat, raised into a slight ridge on the outer edge. About half a mile
from the station, just at the edge of the beach, is the small lagoon
Imérnye, about 200 yards in diameter, and nearly filled up with marsh.
From this point the land slopes down to Elson Bay, a shallow body
of water inclosed by the sandspit which forms Point Barrow. This is
a continuation of the line of the beach, varying in breadth from 200 to

600 yards and running northeast for 5 miles, then turning sharply to the
- east-southeast and running out in a narrow gravel spit, 2 miles long,
which is continued eastward by a chain of narrow, low, sandy islands,
which extend as far as Point Tangent. At the angle of the point the
land is slightly elevated into irregular turf-covered knolls, on which the

28 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

village of Nuwitk is situated. At various points along the beach are
heaps of gravel, sometimes 5 or 6 feet in height, which are raised by the
ice. Masses of old ice, bearing large quantities of gravel, are pushed
up 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 Imernyy and Elson Bay (Ta/sytk) 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, kpilin (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 Ikpilin by a small stream running along be-
hind the beach. It is called Si/n-nyt, and receives a rivulet from a
small fresh-water lake 3 or 4miles inland. The third, Imé/kpun (“great
water”), is also fresh, and has neither tributary nor outlet. The fourth,
Imékpti/niglu, is brackish, and empties into Elson Bay 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 Kikytkta/ktoro, from one or two
little islands (kikyt/kty) near one end of it.

Back 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.”! This deserip-
tion has been substantially verified by Lieut. Ray’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.’

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 land 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 Aretic papers, p. 233.
2 Report U.S. International Polar Expedition to Point Barrow, p. 28.

MURDOCH. ] TOPOGRAPHY OF THE COUNTRY. 29

large bowlders are 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 Barrow 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 he visited what the
natives assured him was the mouth of this river, and obtained observa-
tions for its geographical position. Early in April, 1883, he 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 60 miles from its mouth, and showing evidences of a
large volume of water in the spring. It receives several tributaries. (See
maps, Pls. I and 11.)

The third river is known only by hearsay from the natives. It is
called I’/kpikpfii (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/syikpan

30 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

narrow strip of land, and is so large that a man standing on the north-
ern shore can not see the ‘“‘very high” land 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 Nunatanmiun coming from the south first saw the
lake they said ‘“‘Taxaio!” (the sea).

On Capt. Maguire’s map! this lake is laid down by the name
“Taso/kpoh” “from native report.” It is represented as lying between
Smith Bay and Harrison Bay, and connected with each by a stream.
Maguire seems to have heard nothing of Ikpikpain. This lake is not
mentioned in the body of the report. Dr. Simpson, however,’ 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 jake, or rather
series of lakes, and descend another stream which joins the sea in Har-
rison Bay.” They are well acquainted with the Colville River, which in
their intercourse with us they usually called ‘the river at Ni/galék,”
Ni/galék being the well known name of the trading camp at the mouth.
It was also sometimes spoken of as the “river of the Nunatatmiun.”
The Mackenzie River is known as “ Kupin” (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. Gifford, of the whaler Daniel Webster,
who traveled along the coast from Point Barrow to Cape Lisburne after
the loss of his vessel in 1881, that it is quite a considerable stream. He
had to ascend it for about a day’s journey—20 miles, according to Capt.
Hooper*—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 Ist 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 9a.m.to3p.m. There is, of course, an equal time in the summer

1 Parl. Rep., 1854, vol. 42, opp. p. 186. 2Op. cit., p. 265. 3Corwin Report, p. 72.

MURDOCH.) CLIMATE. all

when the sun is continually above the 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 fine
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 in
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 isa 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 in 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 seaopens. After this thereis 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 sufticiently
frozen for the natives to travel with sledges to fish through the ice of
theinlandrivers. 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 moying in of
heavy ice fields from about the middle of October to the end of July.
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 which 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 pack.

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 ice 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 ice,
interspersed with comparatively level fields of the former. During the

32 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

early part of the winter this pack is most of the time in motion, some-
times moving northeastward with the prevailing current and grinding
along the edge of the barrier, sometimes moving off to sea before an oft-
shore wind, leaving “leads” of open water, which in calm weather are
immediately covered with new ice (at the rate of 6 inches in 24 hours),
and again coming in with greater or less violence against the edges of
this new ice, crushing and erumpling 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
Inunmocks and ground firmly in deeper water, thus increasing the breadth
of the fixed land-floe until the line of separation between the land-floe
and the moving pack is 4or5or sometimes even 8 miles from land. The
hummocks of the land-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 hummocks, as was the case in the winter of 188182. In
the following year, however, the pressure was so great that there were
no sueh 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 off and joi 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 off 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. Simpson! 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.

MURDOCH. ] PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PEOPLE. 33

THE PEOPLE.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS.

In stature these people are of a medium height, robust and muscular,
“inclining rather to spareness than corpulence,”? though the 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 94 inches, and
the shortest 4 feet 11 inches. The tallest woman was 5 feet 3 inches in
height, and the shortest 4 feet inch. The heaviest man weighed 204
pounds and the lightest 126 pounds. One woman weighed 192 pounds
and the shortest woman was also the lightest, weighing only 100 pounds.®
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.¢ 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.’

The features of these people have been described by Dr. Simpson,®
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. Ray) with the many pictures brought from the eastern Arctic

‘Op. cit., p. 264.

2Simpson, op. cit., p. 238.

3See Report of Point Barrow Expedition, p. 50, for a table of measurements of a number of indi-
viduals selected at random from the natives of both villages and their visitors.

4Op. cit., p. 238.

Davis (1586) speaks of the ‘‘small, slender hands and feet” of the Greenlanders. Hakluyt’s Voya-
ges, etc. (1589), p. 782.

“Their hands and feet are little and soft." Crantz, vol. 1, p. 133 (Greenland).

Hands and feet ‘‘extremely diminutive," Parry 1st Voy., p. 282 (Baffin Land).

“Their hands and feet are small and well formed.” Kumlien Contrib., p. 15 (Cumberland Gulf).

“Feet extraordinarily small." Ellis, Voyage, ete., p. 132 (Hudson Strait).

Franklin (Ist Exp., vol. 2, p. 180) mentions the small hands and feet of the two old Eskimo that he
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, ete., p. 134 (Kuskoquim River).

Chappell (Hudson Bay, pp. 59, 60) has a remarkable theory to account for the smallness 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.

9 ETH——3

34 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO,

Fic. 1.—Unalina, a man of Nuwuk.

MURDOCH. ] PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS. 35

regions by various explorers, some of which might easily pass for por-
traits of persons of our acquaintance at Point Barrow."

The face 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

Fie. 2.—Miimfiiina, a woman of Nuwik.

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 ale nasz, with a peculiar rounded, somewhat bulbous tip,

! One young man at Point Barrow looks remarkably like the well known ‘‘ Eskimo Joe,’’ as I remem-

ber him in Boston in the winter of 1862-63,

36 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

and large nostrils. The eyes are horizontal,! 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, and 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

Fig. 3.—Akabiana, a youth of Utkiavwin.

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.

! The expression of obliquity in the eyes, mentioned by Dr. Simpson (op. cit., p. 239), seems to me to
have artsen from the shape of the cheek bones. I may be mistaken, however, as no careful compari-
sons were made on the spot.

2 Frobisher says of the people of Baffin Land: ‘ Their colour is not much unlike the sunburnt countrie
man.'' Hakluyt’s Voyages, etc. (1589), p. 627.

MURDOCH. ] PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS. 37

The old are 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.

Fic. 4.—Puka, a young man of Utkiaywit.

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,! however, speaks of the “luxuriant

1 Journey, etc., p. 289.

38 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

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.”! [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.’

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.)

Fic. 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 24 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

1Op. cit., p. 238. 2. 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.’ We heard of no 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 20,” 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 shorttime. 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 60 or over were rare. Yitiksi‘iia,
the so-called “chief” of Nuwtk, who was old enough to be a man of
considerable influence at the time the Plover wintered at Point Barrow
(185254), 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 few 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-
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

1Op. cit., p. 254. 2Op. cit. p. 254.
P

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 leacoma, 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 in Baffin Land, 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.’

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. Wealso collected a “crooked knife,” fitted for
use with the left hand.‘

PSYCHICAL CHARACTERISTICS.

As a rule they are quick-witted and intelligent, and show a great
capacity for appreciating and learning useful things, especially mechan-
ical arts. In disposition they are light-hearted and cheerful, not easily
cast down by sorrow or misfortune, and though sometimes quick-tem-
pered, their anger seldom lasts long.’ They have a very keen sense of
humor, and are fond of practical jokes, which they take in good part,

1 Journ. Ethnol. Soc., vol. 4, p. 206.

2Compare what Davis wrote in 1586 of the Greenlanders: ‘‘These people are much given to bleed,
and, therefore, stoppe theyr noses with deere hayre or the hayre of an elan.’’ Hakluyt, Voyages, etc.,
1589, p. 782.

3 Egede, Greenland, p. 120; Crantz, vol. 1, p. 234 (Greenland); Southerland, Journ. Ethnol. Soc., vol.
Iv, p. 207 (Baftin Land); Chappell, ‘Hudson Bay,’ p. 74 (North Shore of Hudson Strait); Lyon,
Journal, p. 18 (Hudson Strait); Franklin, Ist Exp., 1, p. 29 (Hudson Strait); Parry, 2d Voy., p. 544
(Igluilik); Hooper, Tents of the Tuski, p. 185 (Plover Bay, Siberia).

47 have an indistinct recollection of having once seen a left-handed person from Nuwik.

5 Holm calls the East Greenlanders ‘ct meget livligt Folkefterd’’ Geogr. Tidskrift, vol. 8, p. 96.

MURDOCH.] PSYCHICAL CHARACTERISTICS. 41

even when practiced on themselves. They are generally peaceable.
We did not witness a single quarrel among the men during the two years
of our stay, though they told us 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 Nuwitk. 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 Utkiavwin 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.!. 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.

Robbery with violence appears to be unknown. We never saw or
heard of the “burglar-alarm” described by Dr. Simpson,’ which I am in-
clined to believe was really a “demon trap” like that described by
Lieut. Ray (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?

Their affection for each other, especially for their children, is strong,

1 Simpson, op. cit., p. 248.

2Op. cit., p. 247.

3 Compare Nordenskiéld’s experience in Siberia. The “Chukches” sold him skinned foxes with the
head and feet cut off for hares, (Vega, vol. 1, p. 448), 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 the greatest care, all
that they did especially for us was done with extreme carelessness” (ibid). The Eskimos at Hotham
Inlet also tried to sell Capt. Beechey fishskins 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 believe, 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. [have known a young Eskimo so polite
that in conversing with Lieut. Ray 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 gentes, and in this our observa-
tions agree with those of all who have studied the Eskimos elsewhere.
They call themselves as a race “In/uin,” a term corresponding to the

‘Compare Vega, vol. 1, p. 489. The Chukches were ‘‘so courteous as not to correct but to adopt the
mistakes in the pronunciation or meaning of words that were made on the Vega.”

MURDOCH. ] TRIBAL PHENOMENA. 43

“Inuit” 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, Nuwii/nmiun, ‘the inhabitants of the point;”
Utkiavwitmiun, ‘the inhabitants of Utkiavwin;” Kuimiun (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 Barrow and Cape Smyth, as “ Kainmi/‘dlit,” which is not a name
derived from a location, but a sort of nickname, the meaning of which

ras 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. 26). This word
appears in the corrupted form “ Kokmullit,” as the name of the village
at Nuwtk on Petrofi’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 Utkiavwin, that we could form
anything like a correct estimate of the population of this village.!
This we found to be about 140 souls. As well as we could judge, there
were about 150 or 160 at Nuwiik. These figures show a great decrease
in numbers since the end of 1853, when Dr. Simpson? reckoned the pop-
ulation of Nuwtk at 309. During the 2 years from September, 1881, to
August, 1883, there were fifteen deaths that we heard of in the village
of Utkiavywin 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.*

SOCIAL SURROUNDINGS.

CONTACT WITH UNCIVILIZED PEOPLE.

Other Eskimo.—The nearest neighbors of these people, as has been
stated above, are the Eskimo living at Demareation Point (or Herschel

1See ‘‘Approximate Census, etc.,’’ Report of Point Barrow Exp., p. 49.

20Op. cit., p. 237.

3Petroff’s estimate (Report, etc., p. 4) of the number of natives on this part of the Arctic coast is”
much too large. He gives the population of *Ootiwakh” (Utkiavwii) as 225. Refuge Inlet (where
there is merely a summer camp of Utkiavwitimiun), 40, and ‘‘Kokmullit,’’ 200. The supposed settle-
ment of 50 inhabitants at the Colville River is also a mere summer camp, not existing in the winter.

AA THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

Island), eastward, and those who inhabit the small villages between
Point Belcher and Wainwright Inlet. These villages are three in nun-
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/tiné,
The people of these villages are so closely connected that they are some-
times spoken of collectively as Sida/ruimiun. At a distance up the
river, which flows into Wainwright 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
Kilauwitawin. At any rate, a party of them who came to Cape Smyth
in the spring of 1883 were spoken of indifferently as Kunmiun or Kil-
auwitawi/hmiun.

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

fa 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 Kilauwitawit, mentioned above, some-
times spend the whaling season at Point Barrow, joining some of the
whaling erews 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 Tikera/fmiun “ 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 Kuwt’n-
miun and Silawi/‘fimiun of the Kuwtk (Kowak or “ Putnam”) and Sil-
awik Rivers emptying into Hotham Inlet, and one man was familiar with
the name of Sisualit, 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 informed on
the subject in the Plover’s time.?

With the people of the Nu/natak (Inland) River, the Nunatafimiun,
thes uve well acquainted, as they meet them every summer for purposes
yovading, and a family or two of Nunatafimiun sometimes spend the

41Maguire, NW. Passage, p. 384.
2Tt is to be regretted that the expedition was not supplied with a copy of Dr. Simpson’s excellent
paper, as much valuable information was missed for lack of suggestions as to the direction of inquiries.

MURDOCH.) SOCIAL SURROUNDINGS—OTHER ESKIMO. 45

winter at the northern villages. One family wintered at Nuwik in
1881—82, and another at Utkiavwin 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 Nunatak and that some of
them visit Kotzebue Sound in the summer, while trading parties make
a portage between the Nunatak and Colville, descending the latter
river to the Arctic Ocean.’ 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 deseribed later, and speak a harsher dialect. We were informed
that in traveling east after passing the mouth of the Colville they came
to the Kanmid/dlin (‘* Kangmali enyuin” of Dr. Simpson and 5 ,aer
authors) and still further off “‘ a great distance” to the Kuptmor “ Great
River ”—the Mackenzie—near the mouth of which is the village of the
Kuptnmiun, whence it is but a short distance inland to the “ great
house” (iglu’/kptk) of the white men on the great river (probably Fort
Macpherson). 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 Kitiga/ru? or of the
stone-lamp country mentioned by Dr. Simpson.? The Kanmiadlin are
probably, as Dr. Simpson believes, the people whose winter houses were
seen by Franklin at Demarcation Point,! near which, at Icey Reef, Hooper
also saw a few houses.°

As already stated, Capt. E. E. Smith was informed by the natives
that there is now no village farther west than Herschel 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 sec:
them had little intercourse with them in passing along the coast.2 ‘The

1 Op. cit., pp. 234 and 236.

? This was the name of a girl at Nuwiik.

3Op. cit., p. 269.

4Second Exp., p. 142.

6 Tents of the Tuski, p. 255.

6 All the published information there is about them from personal observation can be found in Frank
lin, Second Exp., p. 142; T. Simpson, Narrative, pp. 118-123; and Hooper, Tents, ete., pp. 255-257 and
260.

46 THE POINT BARROW 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 in 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 Utkiavwin who was called “ the
Kanmi‘dlin.” 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 ‘¢ Tapéopmeut”
division of his “Techiglit” Eskimo, whom he loosely describes as in-
habiting the coast from Herschel Island to Liverpool Bay, including
the delta of the Mackenzie,! without locating their permanent villages.
In another place, however, he excludes the ‘‘ Tapeopmeut” from the
“Tehiglit,” saying, ‘Dans Vouest, les Tehiglit communiquaient avee
leurs plus proches voisins les Tayéop-meut,”? while in a third place * he
gives the country of the “Tchiglit” as extending from the Coppermine
River to the Colville, and on his map in the same volume, the ‘* Tareor-
meut” are laid down in the Mackenzie delta only. According to his
own account, however, he had no personal knowledge of any Eskimo
west of the Mackenzie delta. These people undoubtedly have a local
name derived from that of their winter village, but itis yet to be learned.

It is possible that they do consider themselves the same people with
the Eskimo of the Mackenzie delta, and call themselves by the general
name of ‘ Tapeopmeut” (= Taxaiomiun in the Point Barrow dialect),
‘those who live by the sea.” That they do not call themselves ‘‘ Ktin-
mi/dlin” or “ Kanmali-enyuin” or ‘“ Kangmaligmeut” is to my mind
quite certain. The word “ Kanmi/dlin,” as already stated, is used
at Norton Sound to designate the people of Point Barrow (I was
called a “ Katmia/dlin” by some Eskimo at St. Michaels because I
spoke the Point Barrow dialect), who do not recognize the name as be-
longing to themselves, but have transferred it to the people under con-
sideration. Now, “ Kadmi/dlin” is a word formed after the analogy of
many Eskimo words from a noun ktiimey and the affix lin or dlin (in
Greenlandic lik), ‘sone who has a ”” The radical noun, the mean-
ing of which I can not ascertain, would become in the Mackenzie dialect
kpagmapk (using Petitot’s orthography), which with ik in the plural
would make kpagmalit. (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 River,‘ while he calls the Anderson River itself Kgagmalik.°
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 1865, when he first made the acquaintance of the Eskimo.
He afterwards became fairly intimate with the Eskimo of the Mackenzie

! Monographie, p. x1.
2 Tbid, p. xvi.

3 Bull. de la Société de Géographie, 6° sér., vol. 10, p. 256.

4See also Monographie, etc., p. xi, where the name is spelled Kpamalit
2 Vocabulaire, etc., p. 76.

MURDOCH. ] SOCIAL SURROUNDINGS—OTHER ESKIMO. AT

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 Monographie and Vocabulaire, as he ex-
plicitly states that he brought the last party to Fort Good Hope
“autant pour les instruire a loisir que pour apprendre d’eux leur
idiome.”! Nothing seems to me more probable than that he learned
from these Mackenzie people the names of their neighbors of the Ander-
son, which he had failed to obtain in his flying visits 5 years before, and
that it is the same name, ** Kanmdt/dlin,” 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
Karmak, a wall, which throws no light apon the subject. Petitot calls
the people of Cape Bathurst Kpagmaliveit, which appears to mean
“the real Kanmi/dlin” (* Katmt/dlin” and the affix -vik, “ the real”).

The Kuptnimiun appear to inhabit the permanent villages which have
been seen near the western mouth of the Mackenzie, at Shingle Point?
and Point Sabine,’ with an outlying village, supposed to be deserted, at
Point Kay.*| They are the natives described by Petitot in his Mono-
graphie as the Tapéopmeut 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 Tapeopmeut, “those who dwell by the sea,”
is the name that they actually apply to themselves, and that Kupainmiun,
or Kopagmut, ‘‘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,® they call the Mackenzie Kupvik, instead of Kupaik or Kupan. -

These are the people who visit Fort Macpherson every spring and
summer,® and are well known to the Hudson Bay traders as the Mae-
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 Pullen, all of whom have published brief
notes concerning them.

We are still somewhat at a loss for the proper local names of the last

1 Bull. Soc. de Géog., 6° sér., vol. 10, p. 39.

2?T. Simpson, Narrative, p. 112.

% Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 264.

4Thid, p. 263.

5 Bull. Soc. de Géog., 6 sér., vol. 10, p. 182.

® Petitot, Monographie, ete., pp. xvi and xx.

7¥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
Youcan.” Smithsonian Report for 1864. These, with Petitot’s in many respects admirable Mono-

graphie, comprise all the information regarding these people from actual observation that has been pub-
lished. Richardson has described them at second hand in his ‘‘Searching Expedition” and ‘Polar

,

Regions.’ The ‘““Kopagmute” of Petroff (Report, etc., p. 125) are a purely hypothetical people in-
vented to fill the space between ‘'the coast people in the north and the Athabascans in the south.”

48 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

labret-wearing Eskimo, those, namely, of the Anderson River and Cape
3athurst. That they are not considered by the Tapeopmeut as belong-
ing to the same “tribe” with themselves is evident from the names
Kpagmalit and Kpagmalivéit, applied to them by Petitot. Sir John Rich-
ardson, the first white man to encounter them (in 1826), says that they
called themselves ‘“ Kitte-garroe-oot,”! and the Point Barrow people
told Dr. Simpson of country called “ Kit-te-ga/-ru” beyond the Mae-
kenzie.2, These people, as well as the Tapeopmeut, whom they closely
resemble, are described in Petitot’s Monographie, and brief notices of
them are given by Sir John Richardson,’ MeClure,t Armstrong, and
Hooper... 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 Kuptimiun are
“bad;”7 but notwithstanding this small parties from the two villages
occasionally travel east to the Mackenzie, and spend the winter at
the Kupainmiun village, whence they visit the “‘ great house,” returning
the following season. Such a party left Poimt 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 1885 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 Ram-
part 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-
nataimiun” 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 Pérnye, 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," June 18, 1882, and June 29, 1883). From all accounts their rela-

1 Franklin, 2d Exp., p. 203.

2Tbid., p. 269.

3 Franklin, 2d Exp., pp. 193, 203 and 230; Searching Exp., and Polar Regions, p. 300.

4N. W. Passage, pp. 84-98.

6 Personal Narrative, p. 176.

6 Tents, ete., pp. 343-348.

7Compare what Petitot has to say—Monographie, ete., p. xiii and passim—about the turbulent and
revengeful character of the ‘* Tchiglit.”’

5Dr, Simpson, op. cit., p. 264.

MURDOCH.) SOCIAL SURROUNDINGS—OTHER ESKIMO. 49

tions with the eastern people are now perfectly friendly. We heard
‘nothing of the precautionary measures described by Dr. Simpson, and
the women talked frequently of their trading with the Kanmda/dlii and
even with the Kupttmiun.2 We did not learn definitely whether they
met the latter at Barter Point or whether they went still farther east.

Some of the Point Barrow 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, ete. The Nunataimiun
now sell chiefly furs, deerskins, and clothing ready made from them,
woodenware (buckets and tubs), willow poles for setting nets, and some-
times fossil ivory. The double-edged Siberian knives are no longer in
the market and appear to be going out of fashion, though a few of them
are still in use. Ready-made stone articles, like the whetstones men-
tioned by Dr. Simpson,’ 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 Kanmi/‘dlin 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, ete.,
especially oil, as formerly, though I 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, ete. Iwas
told by an intelligent native of Utkiavwin that brass kettles were highly
prized by the Kupaitmiun, and that a large one would bring three wolver-
ine skins,‘ 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 Kaitmit/dlit 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 Nunatanmiun wanted blankets and playing-cards.

Indians.—They informed us that east of the Colville they sometimes
met “Itkii/dlin,” 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 erown, and are
dressed in jackets of skin with the hair removed, without hoods, and

1Op. cit., p. 265.

2In the Plover’s time they were left a day's journey in the rear.

3Op. cit., p. 266.

4T. Simpson saw iron kettles at Camden Bay which had been purchased from the western natives
at two wolverine skins apiece. Narrative, p. 171.

9 ETH——4

50 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO,

ornamented with beads and fringe. We saw one or two such jackets in
Utkiavwin apparently made of moose skin, and a few pouches of the
same material, highly ornamented with beads. They have long flint-
lock guns, 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 meant, and since
our return I 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
namesend. Wedid not hear the names Ko/yukan or Itkalya/ruin which
Dr. Simpson learned, apparently from the Nunatanmiun.! I heard one
man speak of the Kiitcha Kutchin, who inhabit the “Yukon from the
Birch River to the Kotlo River on the east and the Porcupine River ou
the north, ascending the latter a short distance.”?

One of the tribes with which they have dealings is the ‘* Rat Indians”
of the Hudson Bay men, probably the Vunta’-Kitchin,* 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 us that “Magwa” went
east to see ‘Colli/k-sina,” but did not see him, only saw the Itkidlin.
Collinson,’ 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,°
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
Nulato 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:

Forr Youcon, June 27, 1854.

The printed slips of paper delivered by the officers of H. M. 8. 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

1“'The inland Eskimo 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 Itkfdlin], * * * the second It-kal-ya/-ruin [differ-
ent or other Itkfidlinj,” op. cit., p. 269.

2Dall, Cont. to N. A. Ethn., vol.1, p. 30, where they are identified with Itkalyaruin of Simpson.

3Ibid., p. 31.

4 Arctic Papers, p. 119.

6 Further papers, etc., pp. 905 et seq.

MURDOCH. ] SOCIAL SURROUNDINGS—INDIAN. 51

habit of making periodical trading excursions to the Esquimaux along the coast.
They are a harmless, inoffensive set of Indians, ever ready and willing to render
any assistance they can to the whites.
Wo. Lucas Harpisty,
Clerk in charge.’

Capt. Collinson evidently never dreamed of identifying this ‘‘harm-
less, inoffensive set of Indians” with ‘‘an armed body of Indians of the
Koyukun tribe.” It is important that his statement, quoted above,
should be corrected lest it serve as authority for extending the range of
the Koyukun Indians? to the Arctic Ocean. The Point Barrow people
also know the name of the U/na-kho-tana,’ 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
Rat Indians and the “‘ Eskimos who live somewhere near the Colville”
as early as 1849,* while it was still *‘ war to the knife” between the Peel
River Indians and the Kuptnmiun.’

The name Itkt/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 erkilekK—plural erkigdlit—which means a fabu-
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.”® Dr. Rink? 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 Heela Strait;
ik-kil-lin (Gilder), at the west shore of Hudson Bay, and ‘“itkpe/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.)

Petitot® gives an interesting tradition in regard to the origin of this
name: “La tradition Innok dédaigne de parler ici des Peaux-Rouges.
L’ayant fait observer 4 mon narrateur Apviuna: ‘Oh!’ me repondait-il,
‘jl ne vaut pas la peine d’en parler. Ils naquirent aussi dans l’ouest, sur
Vile du Castor, des larves de nos poux. C’ést pourquoi nous les nom-
mons Itkpe/le/it.”

CONTACT WITH CIVILIZED PEOPLE.

Until the visit of the Blossom’s barge in 1826 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, p. 144. ® Crantz, vol. 1, p. 208.

2 Koya’-ku’kh-ota‘na, Dall, Cont. to N. A. Eth., p. 27. 7 Journ. Anthrop. Inst.. 1885, p. 244.

3Tbid., p. 28. § Dall, Alaska, p. 28, and Contrib., vol. 1, p. 25.
4 Hooper, Tents, ete., p. 276. * Monographie, p. xxiv.

» Ibid., p. 273.

52 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

had obtained from Siberia by way of the Diomedes. Mr. Elson’s party
landed only at Refuge 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 Barrow, though Dr. Simpson found people who
recollected the visit of Thomas Simpson in 1837.' The latter, after he
had left the boats and was proceeding on foot with his party, first met
the Nuwtmmiun 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 Pernyr, 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 6, so that his
whole intercourse with them was confined to less than a week.’

The next white men who landed 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 Dawson, in
the summer of 1849. The boats were from July 29 to August 3 getting
from Cape Smyth past Point Barrow, 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 Nuwtimiun returning from the east in the neigh-
borhood of Return Reef. The exploring ships Enterprise and Investi-
gator also had casual meetings with the natives, who received tobacco,
ete., from the ships.

The depot ship Plover, Commander Maguire, spent the winters of
185253 and 185354 at Point Barrow, and the officers and crew, after
some misunderstandings and skirmishes, established very friendly and
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 Reports (Blue Books) for 1554, pp.
165-185, 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” (Vernon,) 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 faet, Dr. Simpson’s account of their
habits and customs would serve very well for the present time, except

1 Op. cit., p. 264. 2 Narrative, pp. 146-168.

MURDOCH. ] INTERCOURSE WITH WHITE MEN. Do

in regard to the use of firearms. They certainly remembered no English.
Indeed, Dr. Simpson says! 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 suspected 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, ‘ti/n-nyin,” which they used to employ among themselves
when they saw a ship. Dr. Simpson’ says that they learned the word
“kabluna” from the eastern natives, but that the latter (he gives it
Tan/-ning or Tan’-gin) came from the Nunata/tmiun. He 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. Nearly all the natives are now pro-
vided with guns, some of them of the best modern patterns of breech-
loaders, and they usually sueceed in procuring a supply of ammunition.
This is in some respects a disadvantage, as the reindeer haye become so
wild that the natives would no longer be able to procure a sufficient
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 mostimproved 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.

1 Op. cit., p. 251. 2Op. cit., p. 271.

54 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

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
are 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.

Petroff! 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, nen 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 ean 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 muzzle 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.

In all their intercourse with the whites they have learned very little

d

1 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.’ 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,? food, or to eat; hana-
hana, work; puni-pint, coitus, and pau, 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 “‘kunix” for woman or wife. They themselves
told us that it was not an Eskimo word—“ When there were no white
men, there was no kunty”—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. Awnip 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 (Canis lupus griseo-albus), is not uncom-
mon in the interior, but rarely if ever reaches the coast. Red and black
foxes, kaia/kttik (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/vwit (Gulo luscus),
and the marten, kabweatyia (Mustela americana). The arctic fox,
térigtiniy (Vulpes lagopus), is very abundant along the coast, while the
ermine (Putorius erminea) and Parry’s spermophile (Spermophilus
empetra empetra) are not rare. The last is called siksin. Lemmings,
a/vwine, of two species (Cuniculus torquatus and Myodes obensis) are

1See list of ‘‘ New Words,” Rep. Point Barrow Exp., p. 57.

2 The history of this word, which also appears as a Chuckch word in some of the vocabularies col-
lected by Nordenskiéld’'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 181617) 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 trom
India, like many other words in ‘*Pigeon-English.’ Chamisso also calls pini-pini 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 ugriine, a word corresponding to
the name ugssungnak given to the same animal in Labrador, which,
according to Kleinschmidt,! is an ironical application of the name of
the largest seal, ugssuk (ugru 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, ti’/ktu (Rangifer tarandus groen-
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 moose, ti/ktuwitn, or “big reindeer” (Alce machlis), is well known
from the accounts of the Nunatanmiun, who bring moose skins to trade.
Some of the natives have been east to hunt the mountain sheep, i/mnér
(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, ni/nu (Thalassarctos maritimus), is not
uncommon, sometimes making raids on the provision storehouses in
the villages.

The most important sea animal is the little rough seal, nétyik (Phoca
feetida), 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, igru (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, kasigia (Phoca
vitulina), and the beautiful ribbon seal, kaix6lin (Phoca fasciata), are
known, but both are uncommon, the latter very rare.

Herds of walrus, ai/bwék (Odobzenus 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, akbwék, of the species Balena 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 nuinbers, and return in the autumn, appearing about the end of
August. White whales, kilélua (Delphinapterus sp.), are not uncom-
mon in the summer, and they say the narwhal, tugdlin (Monodon
monoceros), is occasionally seen. They are also acquainted with another
cetacean, which they call 4xlo, and which appears from their description
to be a species of Orea.

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,

! Grenlandsk Ordbog, 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 Pernye where the
natives assemble in large numbers for the purpose of taking them.
These migrating birds are mostly king ducks, kinalin (Somateria spec-
tabilis), Pacific eiders, amau‘lin (S. v-nigra), and long-tailed ducks,
a‘dyigi‘a, a/hadlin (Clangula hyemalis), with smaller numbers of the
spectacled eider, ka/waso (Arctonetta fischeri), and Steller’s ducks, igni-
kau/kto (Eniconetta stelleri). At the rivers they also find numbers of
pintails, i’vwtge (Dafila acuta), which visit the coast in small numbers
during the migrations. Geese of three species, the American white-
fronted goose, ni/gligrur (Anser albifrons gambeli), the lesser snow-
goose, kt/no (Chen hyperborea), and the black brant, nigli/gne (Branta
nigricans), 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’/yr (Larus barrovianus), isthe most abundant all through
the season, though the rare rosy gull, ka/Omaxlu (Rhodostethes rosea),
appears in multitudes late in the autumn. The ivory gull (Gavia alba),
nariyalbwin, and Sabine’s gull, yakua/drigigi’e (Xema Sabinii), are un-
common, while the Arctic tern, utyuta’kin (Sterna paradisea), is rather
abundant, especially about the sandspits of Nuwtk. All these species,
particularly the larger ones, are taken for food.

Three species of loons are common: the great white-billed loon, tu/dlin
(Urinator adamsi), and the Pacific and red-throated divers (U. pacificus
and lumme), which are not distinguished from each other but are both
called ka/ksau. They also occasionally see the thick-billed guillemot
a‘/kpa (Uria lomyvia arra), and more often the sea-pigeon, sékbwek (Ce-
phus mandtii). The three species of jaegers (Stercorarius pomarinus,
parasiticus, and longicaudus) are not distinguished from one another
but are all called isune. 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, tili/gwa (Arenaria interpres), the gray plover, ki/raio’n (Cha-
radrius squatarola), the American golden plover, tu/dlin (C. dominicus),
the knot, tu/awi’a (Tringa canutus), the pectoral and Baird’s sandpipers,
(T. maculata and bairdii), both called ai/bwikix, the red-backed sand-
piper, mékapin (T. alpina pacifica), the semipalmated sandpiper, niwil-
iwi/lik (Ereunetes pusillus), the buffbreasted sandpiper, nu/dluayu
(Tryngites subruficollis), the red phalarope, sabrat (Chrymophilus fuli-
carius), and the northern phalarope, sabraine (Phalaropus lobatus).
The last is rare at Point Barrow, but they see many of them near the
Colville. The little brown crane, tuti/drige (Grus canadensis), is also
rare at the Point, but they say they find many of them at the mouth of
Kulu’grua.

58 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

Of land birds, the most familiar are the little snow bunting, amaulige
(Plectrophenax nivalis), the first bird to arrive in the spring, the Lap-
land longspur, néssau/dlige (Calearius lapponicus), and two species of
grouse, the willow grouse (Lagopus lagopus) and the rock ptarmigan
(L. rupestris), which are both called aki’‘digin. These two birds do not
migrate, but are to be seen all winter, as is also the well known snowy
owl,u’kpik (Nyeteanyctea). A gerfalcon,ki/drigtimin (Falco rusticolus),
is also sometimes seen, and skins and feathers of the golden eagle, ti/n-
miekptk, ‘the great bird” (Aquila chryszetos), are brought from the
east for charms and ornaments. The raven, tule (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 ‘“‘st/ksaxiv.” 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, aimt/grait (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 seulpins, kti/naio
(Cottus quadricornis and decastrensis), and two species of Lycodes, kt-
graunr (L. turnerii and coccineus). In the gill nets at Elson Bay they
also catch two species of salmon (Onchorhynehus gorbuscha and nerka)
and a whitefish (Coregonus laurett) in small numbers, and occasion-
ally a large trout (Salvelinus 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 [kpikpiin, 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 Coregonus lauretta, two
large whitefish (C. 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 Ku is caught a smelt, ithoa/nin (Osmerus dentex).
In the great lake, Ta/syikptn (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 haying 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, kiktoriy (Culex spp.), flies, humblebees, and gadflies
(estrus tarandi), both of which they seem much afraid of, and call i’gu-
tyai, and the universal louse, ku/mek. All the large winged insects,
including the rare butterflies and moths and erane flies, are called ta-
kila/kica, or takilakidja/ksim, 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’re, ‘ the
little braider.” They pay but little attention to other invertebrates,
but are familiar with worms, kupidro, a species of crab, kinau’re, (Hyas
latifrons), and the little branchipus, iritu/‘na (Greenlandic issitorak,
“the little one with big eyes”), of the fresh water-pools. Cockles (Bue-
cinum, etc.) are called siu’tigo (Gr. sinterok, from siut, ear), and clams
have a name which we failed to obtain. Jellyfish are called ipiaru’re,
“like bags.” They say the “ Katmudlin” eat them!

PLANTS.

Few plants that are of any service to man grow in this region. The
willows, ii’/kpik, 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, mf/nik, furnishes wicks for the lamps.
We could find no fruit that could be eaten. A cranberry (Vaccinium
vitis-idwa) 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 Utkiavwii, where the ground is richly manured with various
sorts of refuse,' 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, tikila’kica, tikilakidja‘kstin, 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 woodenware and the
willow poles obtained from the Nunatanmiun, comes 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

1 “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 Exp.,vol.1, p. 254.

60 THE POINT BARROW 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 cottonwood, 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 with few mineral substances,
excluding the metals which they obtain from the whites. The most
important are flint, slate, soapstone, jade, and a peculiar form of massive
pectolite, first described by Prof. F. W. Clarke! from specimens brought
home by our party. Flint, 4nma, was formerly in great demand for
arrow and spear heads and other implements, and according to Dr.
Simpson? was obtained from the Nunatanmiun. It is generally black
or a slightly translucent gray, but we collected a number of arrowheads,
ete., 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/ksev, ‘material for a round knife,” was used, as its
name imports, for making the woman’s round knife, and for harpoon
blades, ete. It is a smooth clay slate, varying in hardness, and light
green, red, purple, dark gray, or black in color. ATI the pieces of soft
gray soapstone, tuna/kte, 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® that the stones for making whetstones were
brought from the Kuwitk 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
coneretions. 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/ystknan,
partly, it appears, as curiosities, and partly with some ill defined mysti-
eal 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

1U.S. Geol. Sury., Bull. 9, p. 9, 1884. 2Op. cit., p. 266. 3Op. cit., p. 266.

MURDOCH. } FOOD. 61

great deal of iron pyrites. White gypsum, used for rubbing the flesh
side of deerskins, is obtained on the seashore at a place called Ti'tyé,
‘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,! are picked up on the beach. Shaly, very bituminous coal, broken
into small square fragments, is rather abundant on the bars of Kulu-
grua, whence specimens were brought by Capt. Herendeen. <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 Investigator in Franklin Bay.* We also heard a story
of a lake of tar or bitumen, 4dngun, said to be situated on an island a
day’s sail east of the point. Blacklead, mi/nun, 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 aime,
a word that in other Eskimo dialects, and probably in this also, means
‘sa live coal.” Its application to a lump of amber is quite a striking
figure of speech.

CULTURE.
MEANS OF SUBSISTENCE.
FOOD.

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 rough 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. Many well developed foetal remdeer 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 walrus, the polar bear, 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. Mollusks 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

thrown over from ships. Tents of the Tuski, p. 221.
2Discovery of the Northwest Passage, p. 100.
2The Eskimo of Iglulik ‘prefer venison to any kind of meat.” Parry, 2d Voyage, p. 910.

62 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

the violence of the surf, we saw one woman collect a lapful of these
“clam-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.!

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 feces
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 Greenlanders 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.”? The
dung of the musk ox and reindeer when fresh were considered a delicacy
by the Boothians, according to J. C. Ross.* The entrails of fowls are
also considered a great delicacy and are carefully cooked as a separate
dish.*

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 ® or drink oil, as the Hudson Bay Eskimo are said to do
by Hall, or use it as a sauce 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 observers® 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, ete. ‘This, which the Tuski call their sugar,” p. 174; and Hall, Arctic
Researches, p. 132 (Baffin Land).

2Egede, Greenland, p. 136.

3Appendix to Ross’s 2d Voyage, p. xix.

4Compare the passage from Egede, just quoted, and also Kumlien. Contributions, ete., p. 20, at Cum-
berland Gulf.

5¥For instance, Schwatka says that the Nétcilik 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 Bay (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).

©See for example Egede’s Greenland, p. 134; Crantz, History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 144; Dall,
Alaska, passim; Hooper. Tents of the Tuski, p. 170; Nordenskiéld, Vega, p. 110.

MURDOCH. } FOOD. 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.—F ood 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. Ray 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 bow] 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
east in their mouthful.”' 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 airin summer, or in kitchens 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, comes from the abundant supply of firewood, while the
Eskimo most frequently described live in a country where wood is very
searce, 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 ka‘dyigi,or “ club house,”
or when a number of them are encamped together in tents, as at the
whaling camp in 1885, or the regular summer camp at Pe/rnyt, the
women at intervals through the day prepare dishes of meat, which the

‘Lieut. Ray’s MS. notes.

64 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

men eat by themselves. When in the deer-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 1s done.' When on the march they usually take a few
mouthfuls of the pemmican above described before they start out in
the morning, and rarely touch food again till they go into camp 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 mouth and cutting or biting off 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 Grinnell 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.

DRINKS.

The habitual drink is water, which these people consume 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
samps there is always a bucket of fresh water in the middle of the cir-
ele, 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 fill with snow and carry inside
of their jackets, where the heat of the body melts the snow and keeps

'“They have no set Time for Meals, but every one eats when he is hungry, except when they go to
sea, and then their chief Repast is a supper after they are come home in the Evening.”’ (Egede, Green-
land, p. 135. Compare 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.!. 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
undrinkable.
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.”
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 1816. 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,’ while in Norton Sound, the same year, the natives “had
no dislike to tobacco.”* Neither was it introduced from the English
posts in the east, as Franklin found the “Kanmi/dlin” 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,” °—nor
had they adopted the habit in 1857.°

When the Plover wintered at Point Barrow, according to Dr. Simpson’s
account,’ 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.

1See, for instance, Egede: ‘‘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 asupply of fresh water every day * * * and
that their water may be cool they choose to lay a piece of ice or a little snow init’ * * * (Crantz,
vol. 1, p. 144). Compare, also, Parry, 2d voy., p. 506, where the natives of Iglulik are said to drink a
great deal of water, which they get by melting snow, and like very cold. The same fondness for water
was observed by Nordenski6ld in Siberia (Vega, vol. 2, p. 114)

2 Beechey, Voyage, p. 308.

3 Third Voyage, vol. 2, p. 437.

4Thbid, 2, p. 479.

5 Second Exp., p. 130.

® See T. Simpson, Narrative, p. 156.

7 Op. cit., pp., 235, 236, 266.
9 ETH——)

66 THE 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 “Cireassian” tobacco used by the Russians for
trading is occasionally brought up from the southwest, and perhaps also
by the Nunatafmiun, and is very highly prized, probably because it was
in this form that they first saw tobacco. Snuff seems to be 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 3 years old and unweaned,! 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 Nordenskiéld
among the “Chukches.”? [ knew but two adult Eskimo 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 in pipes of a peculiar pattern called kui/nyr, of
which the collection contains a series of ten specimens.

Of these, No. 89288 [705],° figured in Ray’s Point Barrow Report,
Ethnology, Pl. 1, 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 1un 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 ends 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. 6a (No. 56757 [10], from Utkiavwin) 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 has
evidently been heated and shrunk on. Three pipes have bowls of

1 Compare J. Simpson, op. cit., p. 250, and Nordenskiéld, Vega, vol. 2, p. 116.

2 Tents, etc., p.83; Vega, vol. 2, p. 116.

3 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. 6b from Utkiavwin) 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 Utkiavwin), 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 Fig. 6c,
Nos. 89285 [954], 89256 [915], and 89287 [1129].)

PS Bien

eee 2 Heian wa UEH RE RRTT A

ay

c

Fic. 6.—Pipes: a, pipe with metal bowl; b, pipe with stone bowl; ¢, 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 (I 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.

68 THE POINT BARROW 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-

Fic. 7.—Pipe made of willow stick.

knot at one end, the other being tucked in as usual. A small fannel-
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 at Pernyt in 1883, and shows
its inland origin in the use of the deerskin thong. A coast native would
have used seal thong.

The pipe is carried at the girdle, either with the stem thrust inside
the breeches or ina bag attached to the belt. No. 56744 [55] (Utkiavwin)
is the only specimen of pipe bag in the collection. It is a long, narrow,
eylindrie bag, made of four white ermine skins, with two hind legs and
two tailsforming 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.

Tobaceo 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

MURDOCH.] TOBACCO POUCHES. 69

”

turns. The seams are all sewed ‘over and over
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 [1541, Fig.
8b]), and borders of different colored skin. No. 89805 [1350] 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,! these bags are called “ del-la-mai/-yu.”. We neglected to obtain
the proper names for them, as we always made use of the lingua franca
“tiba’ puksak,” bag for tiba/ (tobacco). No. 89903 [889] contains a spec-
imen of tobacco as prepared for smoking by the Eskimo. This consists

on the “ wrong” side

Fic. 8.—Tobacco pouches.

of common black Cavendish or “ Navy” tobacco, cut up very fine, 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
T once smoked and found exceedingly bad. The smell of an Eskimo’s

1 Op. cit., p. 243.

70 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

pipe is different from any other tobacco smoke and is very disagreeable.
It has 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 out the bowl with 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 tobaceo, 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
of smoking has been in vogue since the time of our first acquaintance
with these people.!

Though they smoke little at a time, they smoke frequently when to-
bacco is plentiful. Oflate years, since tobacco has become 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 “ mttkpara-
pai/pa,” paper-pipe (cigarette). The use of the kui/nye, 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
ina white man. This habit has been observed at Plover Bay, Siberia.
Tobacco ashes are also eaten, probably for the sake of the potash they
contain, as one of the men at Utkiavwin 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-

1See 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 Barrow (1837), Narrative, p. 156.
Also Kotzebue: ‘‘ They chew, snuff, smoke, and even swallow the smoke.’ Kotzebue Sound (1816)
Voyage, vol. 1, p. 287. 3eechey also deseribes the people of Hotham Inlet in 1826 as smoking in the
manner above described, obtaining the hair from a strip of dogskin tied to the pipe. Their tobacco
was mixed with wood. Voyage, p. 300. Petitot (Monographie, ete., p. xxix) describes a precisely sim-
ilar method of smoking among the Mackenzie Eskimos. Their tobacco was *‘melangé 4 de la raclure
de saule”’ and the pipe was called *‘ kwinepk,"”’ (Vocabulaire, p. 54).

2 See Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 177, and Dall, Alaska, p. 81.

MURDOCH.) DRINKING. 71

derson River and Cape Bathurst,! 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 “Chukeh” pipe in Nordenskidld’s Vega, vol. 2, p. 117,
Fig. 7, and the figure of a Tunguse 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.”

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 Nordenskidld® 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.t The Greenlanders
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 withus the people of Point Barrow
eall tobacco “ tiba’” or “ tibaki,” but among themselves it is still known
as ta/wak, which is the word found in use among them by the earliest
explorers.© ‘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 Eskimo from Demarcation Point east 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 Bay Company.” (Dall, Alaska, p. 81, Fig. A.)
They acquired the habit some time between 1837, when T. Simpson found them ignorant of the use of
tobacco (see reference above, p. 65), and 1849, when they were glad to receive it from Pullen and Hooper.
(Tents, ete., p. 258.) Petitot (Monographie, etc., p. xxvi) states that the Eskimo of the Mackenzie
informed bim 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 ‘‘ Nate/povik,”’ which he supposes to mean St.
Michaels, but which, from the evidence of other travelers, is much more likely 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 muchas the Point Barrow stories about the eastern natives.
The evidence which leads Fr. Petitot to believe *‘ Nate’/povik” to be St. Michaels is rather peculiar.
The Mackenzie natives call the people who are nearest to Nate’govik on the north ‘the Sedentary.”
Now, the people who live nearest to St. Michaels on the north are the ‘‘Sedentary American Tchu-
katchis'"(!); therefore Nate'povik is probably St. Michaels. (‘Le nom Natépovik semble convenira
l'ancien fort russe Michaélowski, en ce que la trib: innok la plus voisine de ce poste, vers le nord, est
désignée par nos Tchiglit sous le nom d’ Apkwam-méut ou de Sédentaires; or telle est la position
gcographique qui convient aux sédentaires Tchukatches américains, dont la limite la plus septen-
trionale, selon le capitaine Beechey, est la pointe Barrow.”) A slight acquaintance with the work of
of Dall and other modern explorers in this region would have saved Fr. Petitot from this and some
other errors.

?See Wrangell, Narrative of an Expedition, ete., p. 58. ‘The Russians here [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.). See also Hooper, Tents, etc.: ‘‘Gen-
erally, I believe, about one-third part of wood is used” (pp. 176 and 177; and Nordenskiéld, Vega, vol.
2, p. 116.)

3 Vega, vol. 2, p. 116.

4See also Petitot, Monographie, ete., p. xxix.

5See Beechey, Voyage, p. 323; T. Simpson, Narrative, p. 156—‘tobacco, which * * * they call
tawac, or tawakh, a name acquired of course from Russian traders ;’’ Hooper, Tents, ete., p. 239; also
Maguire and J. Simpson, loc. cit. passim. Petitot calls ta’wak ‘‘ mot frangais corrompu ”’!

72 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

language sufficiently to be used as the radical in compound words such
as “tiba/xutika/kttne,” “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.!

HABITATIONS.

The winter house (v’glu).—The permanent winter houses are built of
wood? and thickly covered with clods of earth. Each house consists of
a single room, nearly square, entered by an underground passage about
25 feet long and 4 to 44 feet high. The sloping mound of earth which

Grounpd Pian.

Vy.
Y
4
ee

Y
Yh

Up TTTITTTTTTTTTTTIT Y Va

VerTICAL SECTION.

Fic. 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

'Since the above was written, the word for pipe, “‘kuinyz,”’ 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).

2In some of the older houses, the ruins of which are still to be seen at the southwest end of the vil-
lage of Utkiavwin, whales’ bones were used for timbers. Compare Lyon Journal, p. 171, where the
winter huts at Iglulik are described as “entirely constructed of the bones of whales, unicorns, wal-
ruses, and smaller animals,'' with the interstices filled with earth and moss.

MURDOCH] 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 Utkiavwin,

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 Utkiavwin 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

Fic. 10.—Interior of iglu, looking toward door.

roof are supported by timbers of whalebone. On the right hand near
the inner end is a good-sized room opening from the passage, which has
a wooden roof covered with earth, forming a second small mound close
- to the house, with a smoke hole in the middle, and serves as a kitchen,
while various dark and irregular recesses on the other side serve as
storerooms. The passage is always icy and dark.

At the inner end of the passage a circular trapdoor in the floor opens
into the main room of the house, close to the wall at the middle of one
end. The floor is at such a height from the bottom of the tunnel that a
man standing erect in the tunnel has his head and shoulders in the
room. These rooms vary somewhat in dimensions, but are generally
about 12 or 14 feet long and 8 or 10 feet wide. The floor, walls, and
roof are made of thick planks of driftwood, dressed smooth and neatly
fitted together, edge to edge. The ridgepole runs across the house and
the roof slopes toward each end. The two slopes are unequal, the front,
or that towards the entrance, being considerably the longer. The walls

74 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

are vertical, those at the ends being between 3 and 4 feet high, while
the sides run up to 6 or 7 feet at the ridgepole. The wall planks run
up and down, and those of the roof from the ridge to the ends of the
house, where there is a stout horizontal timber. In some houses the
walls are made of paneled bulkheads from some wrecked whaler.

In the front of the house over the trapdoor there are no planks for a
space of about 2 feet. The lower part of this space is filled in with
short transverse beams, so as to leave a square hole close to the ridge.
This hole has a stout transverse beam at the top and bottom and serves
as a window. When the house is occupied it is covered by a translucent
membrane made of strips of seal entrail sewed together and stretched

Fig. 11.—Interior of iglu, looking toward bench.

over two arched sticks of light wood—whalebone was used in Dr. Simp-
son’s time'—running diagonally across from corner to corner. The win-
dow is closed with a wooden shutter when the house is shut up in winter,
but both apertures are left open in summer. Just above the window,
close to the ridgepole, is a little aperture for ventilation. Across the
back of the room runs a platform or banquette, about 30 inches high in
front and sloping back a little, which serves as a sleeping and lounging
place. It is about 5 feet wide, and the front edge comes nearly under
the ridgepole. It is made of thick planks running across the house, and
supported at each end by a horizontal beam, the end of which projects
somewhat beyond the bench and is supported by around post. At each
side of the house stands a lamp, and over these are suspended racks in
the shape of small ladders for drying clothing,’ ete. Deerskin blankets

! Op. eit., p. 256.
2 Compare Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 46: “Small lattice shelves * * * on which moccasins * * *
are put todry.” Plover Bay. See also plate to face p.160 Parry’s Second Voyage.

MURDOCH. ] HOU: 75

for the bed, which are rolled up and put under the bench when notin use,
and a number of wooden tubs of various sizes—I counted nine tubs
and buckets in one house in Utkiavwin—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 lamp, 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 Nuwik 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.! (See Fig. 9, ground plan andsection
of house, and Figs. 10 and 11, interior, from sketches by the writer.
For outside see Fig. 12, from a photograph by Lieut. Ray).

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.’

1 Monographie, ete., p. xxili-

2See for instance, Crantz, History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 141; Franklin, Ist Exped., vol. 2, p. 194
(Coppermine River); 2d Exped., p. 121 (Mouth of the Mackenzie, where they 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 Bay, Point Barrow, and Toker Point); J. Simpson, op. cit., p. 256 (Point Barrow); Nor-
denskiéld, Vega, vol. 2, p. 92 (Pitlekaj).

76 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

Around Norton Sound, however, they use a more elaborate structure,
consisting of a regular little house 6 feet square, raised 6 to 10 feet from
the ground on four posts.!

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 in Utkiavy wii.

and is dug out with a pickax. The people of Utkiavwi 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.?

A detailed description of the peculiar communal house of the East

1 Dall, Alaska, p. 13.

2 Kgede, Greenland, p. 114; Crantz, History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 139; Rink, Tales and Traditions,
p.7.

MURDOCH. ] HOUSES. C6

Greenlanders, of which there is only one at each village, will be found
in Capt. Holm’s paper in the Geografisk 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 (1586) describes the houses of the Greenlanders “‘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.!

At Iglulik the permanent houses were dome shaped, built of bones,
with the interstices filled with turf, and had a short, low passage.’ No
other descriptions of permanent houses are to be found until we reach the

Fic. 13.—Ground plan 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.? (See Fig. 13.) Petitot* gives a very
excellent detailed description of the houses of the Anderson River 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.®
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, ete. (1589), p. 788.

2Lyon, Journal, p. 171.

3See Fig. 13, ground plan and section, copied from Petitot, Monographie, etc., p. XXIU.

4 Monographie, ete., p. XXI.

5See also Franklin, 2d Exped., p. 121 (Mouth of the Mackenzie), and pp. 215 and 216 (Atkinson
Island, Richardson. A ground plan and section closely resembling Petitot’s are given here); and
Hooper, Tents, ete., 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.! 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,? “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.
Ray at hunting camps on Kulugrua, 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,
is covered with earth or only snow.” These buildings, and 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.®

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.’ 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 the Chukches.° 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.®

1See ante.

2 Op. cit., p. 258.

3Dall, Alaska, pp. 13 and 14, diagram on p. 13.

4Petroff, Report, ete., p.15.

5See 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.

Third Voyage, vol. 2, p. 450.

MURDOCH] VILLAGES. 79

Arrangement in villages.—The village of Utkiavwin occupies a narrow
strip of ground along the edge of the cliffs of Cape 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. Nuwitk, from Dr. Simpson’s account! 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
Nuwik than at Utkiavwin, 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.’

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.°

The tents on the sandspit at Plover Bay all face west. The same was
observed by the Krause brothers at East Cape.‘ At Utkiavwin 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 Ist/tkwamiun. Similar mounds are to be seen at Pernyi,
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 Utkiavwin three and in Nuwiik
two of the larger buildings used for dancing, and as workrooms for the
men, so often spoken of among other Eskimo.

Dr. Simpson states® 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 case had the custom still prevailed. They
are called ki/dyigi or ki/drigi (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

1Qp. cit., p. 256.

2¥For example, I find it mentioned in Greenland by Kane, Ist Grinnell Exp., p. 40; at Iglulik by
Parry, 2d Voy., p. 499; and at the mouth of the Mackenzie by Franklin, 2d Exp., p. 121, as well as
by Dr. Simpson at Nuwik, op. cit., p. 256.

3 Frobisher says the tents in Meta Incognita (in 1577) were “so pitched up, that the entrance into
them, is alwaies South, or against the Sunne.’’ Hakluyt’s Voyages, etc., (1589) p. 628.

4Geographische Blitter, 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 Utkiavwit they are situated about the middle of the village, one
lose 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. Ray 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 ki/dyigi
without fire and with the window open, it is used as a general lounging
place or club room by the men. Those who have earpentering 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 kf/dyigi 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 Imékpiin in the spring of 1883, 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,’ 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 kf/dyigi 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.’ Even the Siberian Eski-
mo, who have abandoned the iglu, still retained the ka/dyigi until a
recent date at least, as Hooper saw at Oong-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

' Petroff, Report, ete., p. 128.

2Dall, Alaska, p. 16.

3See Rink, Tales and Traditions, p. 8; also Geografisk Tidskrift, vol. 8, p. 141. Speaking of build-
jngs of this sort, Dr. Rink says: ‘‘Men i Grenland kjendes de vel kun af Sagnet. Paa Ger Disko vil
man have paavist Ruinen af en saadan Bygning, som besynderlig nok swrlig sagdes at have veret
benyttet til Festligheder af erotisk Natur.” Boas, ‘The Central Eskimo,” passim; Lyon, Journal, p. 325
(Iglulik); Richardson, in Franklin's 2d Exp., pp. 215-216 (Atkinson Island); Pet: tot, Monographie,
ete., xxx; ‘Kéchim, ou maison des assemblées ;’ Beechey, Voyage, p, 268 (Point Hope) ; Dall, Alaska, p.
16 and elsewhere; Petroft, Rep. p. 128 and elsewhere.

MURDOCH.] SNOW HOUSES. 81

usual 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.?

Snow houses (apiya).—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 Nuwitk decided in
the winter of 1882~835 to come down and settle at Utkiavwin, 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
nextseason. These houses are not built on the dome or beehive shape so
often described among the Eskimo of the middle region of Dr. Rink.’

The idea naturally suggests itself that this form of building is
really a snow ftupek 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 6 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 over 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 24 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 24 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,”
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.

! Tents, etc., p. 136.

2 See references to Dall and Petroff, above.

3 Parry, 2nd Voy., p. 160 and plate opposite; Franklin, 1st Exped. vol. 2, pp. 43-47, ground plan, p. 46;
Boas, ‘‘Central Eskimo,” pp. 539-553; Kumlien, Contributions, ete., p. 31; Petitot, Monographie, ete.,
p. xvii (a full description with a ground plan and section on p. xix), and all the popular accounts of
the Eskimo.

4Gronlandsk Ordbog, p. 404; Kane's 1st Grinnell Exp..p. 40, calls it a ‘‘skin-covered door.'' Com-
pare, also, the skin or matting hung over the entrance of the houses at Norton Sound, Dall, Alaska, p.
13, and the bear-skin doors of the Nunataimiun and other Kotzebue Sound natives, mentioned by Dr.
Simpson, op. cit., p. 259.

9 ETH 6

82 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

As such a house is only large enough for one family, there is only one
lamp, which stands at the right-hand side of the house’.

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 be 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,

Fic. 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, ), running across the back of the room and excavated
below into a sort of cupboard. There are also similar cupboards, ¢, at dif-
ferent places in the walls,and a long tunnel, f, with the usual storerooms,
i,and kitchen, h, 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

1Compare Dr. Simpson's description. op. cit., p. 259.
2 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.' 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.?

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
Jamps. 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,” ete.)
obtained from the ships.

Tents (tupék)—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 Utkiavwiit 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 Sé’kqluka, Naké/drixo, Kuos-
u’gru, Nuni/ktuau, Ipersua, Wa‘likpa (Refuge Inlet, according to Capt.
Maguire’s map, Parl. Rep. for 1854, opp. p. 186), Er/nivwin, Si/naru,
and Sa/kaimna. 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‘nnyt and one
at Imé/kpain, while a few go to Pernyt even early in the season.

As the sea es, the people from the lower camps travel up the coast
and concentrate at Seen where ey meet the Nuwunmiun, the Nuna-

1 Firearms can not be carried into a warm room in cold weather, as the moisture in the air peat
ately condenses on the cold surface of the metal.
2 Journal, p. 204; see also the plate opposite p. 358 of Parry's 2d Voyage.

84 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

tanmiun traders, and the whalemen, and are joined later in the season
by the trading parties returning from the east, all of whom stop for ¢
few days at Pernyai. 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 1883, when the land floe was very heavy and rough off Utkiaywin,
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 Imék
pan, 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,!
and Hooper mentions sealskin tents at Cape Smyth and Point Barrow.?
Dr. Simpson gives a description of the skin tents at Point Barrow.’
Indeed, it is probable that canvas tents were not common until after the
great “wreck seasons” of 1871 and 1876, when so many whaleships
were lost. The Nunatanmiun at Pernyt had tents of deerskin, and I
remember also seeing one sealskin tent at the same place, which, it is
my impression, belonged to aman from Utkiavwin. Deerskin tents are
used by the Anderson River natives,! while sealskins are still in use in
Greenland and the east generally.2 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.?

The tents at Point Barrow are still constructed in a manner very sim-
ilar to that described by Dr. Simpson (see reference above). Four orfive
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 6 feet from the ground is lashed a large hoop, upon which
are laid shorter poles (sometimes spears, umiak oars, ete.). The canvas
cover, which is now made in one piece, is wrapped spirally round this

1 Beechey’s Voyage, p. 315.

2 Tents, etc., pp. 216, 225.

SOp. cit., p. 260.

4 MacFarlane MSS. and Petitot, Monographie, ete., p.xx, ‘‘des tentes coniques (tuppepk) en peaux de
renne.”’

5 See Rink, Tales, ete., p.7 (‘‘skins" in this passage undoubtedly means sealskins, as they are more
plentiful than deerskins among the Greenlanders, and were used for this purpose in Egede's time—Green,
land, p. 117; and Kumlien, op. cit., p.33.). _Ineast Greenland, according to Holm, ‘‘OmSommeren bo Angs-
magsalikerne i Telte, der ere betrukne med dobbelte Skind og have Tarmskinds Forheng.” Geogr. Tids.,
vol. 8, p. 89. In Frobisher’s deseription of Meta Incognita (in 1577), he says: ‘Their houses are tents
made of seale skins, pitched up with 4 Firre quarters, foure square, meeting at the toppe, and the skinnes
sewed together with sinewes, and layd thereupon.” Hakluyt’s Voyages, etc. (1589), p.628. See also Boas,
“Central Eskimo.”

6 Petroff, op. cit., p. 128.

7Dall, 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,
ete., are laid on the flap of the tent to keep it down, and spears, pad-
dles, ete., are laid up against the outside. (See Fig. 15, from a photo-
graph by Lieut. Ray.)

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 fires. The sleeping place is at the

Fic. 15.—Tent on the beach at Utkiavwin.

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,! 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; Crantz, vol.1, p. 141; Rink, Tales, etc., p. 7.
2? Kumlien, op. cit., p. 33.

86 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

what similar.! 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/dliwin,” the place for
working.

HOUSEHOLD UTENSILS.

FOR HOLDING AND CARRYING FOOD, WATER, 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
santeens among the Eskimo elsewhere, except in Baffin Land.

Wallets, ete—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
entrail, 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.—Buekets and tubs of various sizes are used for
holding water and other fluids, blubber, flesh, entrails, etc., in 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-
natanmiun, 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. 56764 [370] (Fig. 16) will
serve as a type of the water bucket
(ktitau’e). A thin strip of spruce
8 inches wide is bent round a cireu-
lar bottom of the same wood 104
inches in diameter. The edge of
the latter is slightly rounded and
fits into a Shallow eroze one-fourth inch from the lower edge of the strip.
The ends of the strip overlap 34 inches and are sewed together with
narrow strips of whalebone in two vertical seams of short stitches, one

Fia. 16.—W ooden bucket.

1 See Parry’s 2nd Voyage, p. 271 and plate opposite. Compare also Chappell, ‘Hudson Bay,” pp. 75-
77, figure on p. 75.

2When 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 1-6 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. 56763 [369] 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 “ kfitaur” corre-
sponds to the Greenlandic katanak, ‘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
(ili/kpain, 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 havy-
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
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. imusyi), 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 kivwit
(“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 chamber pots.

Vessels of this sort are in use throughout Alaska, and have been ob-
served among the eastern Eskimo where they have wood enough to

Fic. 17.—Large tub.

1Grenl. Ordbog., p. 135.

88 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

make them. For instance, the Eskimo of the Coppermine River
‘form very neat dishes of fir, the sides bemg 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,? and “ cirewlar and
oval vessels of whalebone” were in use at Iglulik.2 This is the same
as the Greenlandic vessel called pertak (a name which appears to have
been transferred in the form pi/ttino 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 Nordenskiéld
speaks of vessels of whalebone at Pitlekaj, but does not specify the
pattern. 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 44 inches wide is bent round a nearly circular
bottom of cottonwood 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 Nunatatmiun.’ The
small whalebone vessels will be described under drinking cups, which
see.

Fic. 18.—Whalebone dish.

' Franklin, Ist Exp., vol. 2, p. 181. 4Gronl. Ordbog., p. 293.

2Virst Voy., p. 286. 5 Vega, vol. 2, p. 124.

3Second Voy., p. 503. 6 Op. cit., p. 266.

MURDOCH. } MEAT BOWLS. 89

Meat bowls.—(Pi'tino, 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 cottonwood, and, excepting No. 73570 [408], have been long in
use and are thoroughly impregnated with grease and blood. F

No. 89864 [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. 89863 [1320], is larger and not flattened on the bottom,
and the brim is thinner.

It is also provided with y

a bail of seal thong, very 4
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
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, ete., 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. 89865 [1321], which has been split wholly ACTOSS, 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. Dishes of this descrip-
tion are common throughout Alaska (see the National Museum collec-
tions) and have been noted at Plover Bay.!

Fic. 19.—Meat bowl.

1 Hooper, Tents, ete., p.147.

90 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.
FOR PREPARING FOOD.

Pots of stone and other materials (u‘tkuziv).—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)! 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.

No. 89885-6 [1559] (Fig. 20) is sufficiently 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-
seribed under No.
89865 [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 im 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.’

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.’ The string holes are bored through the corners as before, and

ta

l'1G, 20,—Stone pot

1 Beechey’s Voyage, p. 572

2This specimen was broken in transportation, and the pieces received different Museum numbers.
It is now mended with glue.

3Compare 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, but 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

in 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.!

No. 89883 [1097] (Fig. 21) is a small pot of a quite different shape,
best understood from the figure. Round 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. I 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
very 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.?, The close resemblance of the pots from
Point Barrow to those described by Capt. Parry, taken in connection
with Dr. Simpson’s statement? 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 three 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,‘
and appears to have been baked. They are irregular fragments (No.

Fic. 21,—Small stone pot.

12d Voyage, p. 502.

*T need only refer to Crantz, who deseribes the ‘‘ bastard-marble kettle,” hanging ‘by four strings
fastened to the roof, which kettle is a foot long and half a foot broad, and shaped 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).

8Op. cit., pp. 267-269.

4Compare 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.

89697 [1589], Fig. 22) of perhaps more than one vessel, which appears
to have been tall and eylindrical, 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 with 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
Hotham Inlet in 1826 and 1827, and Mr. E. W. Nelson has collected a

Fic. 22._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 Pittoresque, Pl. 1 (2d), Fig. 2, from Kotzebue Sound. Metal
kettles of various sorts are now exclusively used for cooking, and are
valled 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

MURDOCH. ] BONE CRUSHERS. 93

they use for holding water, ete., and sometimes fit with bails of string
or wire, so as to use them for cooking porridge, etc., over the lamp.
They had learned the value of these as early as Maguire’s time,! as had
the people of Plover Bay in 1849.

Bone 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 pemmican 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, ete., as the first specimen obtained was described as
“savik-pidjik-nunamisini/ktue-kau/te” (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, 15 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.’ 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. 56631 [222], gray porphyry; No.
89654 [906], black quartzite, and No. 89655 [1241], coarse-grained gray
syenite), is massive pectolite (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.*

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 off the grip. The whole is dirty and shows signs of consider-
able age.

1See Further Papers, ete., p. 909.

? Hooper, Tents, ete., p. 57.

3 We saw this done on No. 56634 [83], the head and haft of which were brought in separate and put
together by an Eskimo at the station.

4Figured in Ray’s Point Barrow Report, Ethnology, Pl. u, Fig. 6.

94 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

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 2-4. This is a
very small hammer, No. 56634 [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 oneend 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 or broad,
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 1} 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 Utkiavwin, has the

Fic, 23.—Stone maul.

I'ic. 24.—Stone maul.

MURDOCH. ] STONE MAULS. 95

head of grayish pectolite, rough and unusually large. 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. 56639 [161], from Utkiavwin, is of pectolite, the upper
and lower faces almost black and the sides light gray. The haft is of

Fig. 25.—Stone maul.

hard wood and unusually long (7-2inches). 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. 26, No. 89654 [906], is from Nuwik. The head is an oblong,
nearly cylindrical, water-
worn pebble of black
quartzite, 7-Linches long;
the haft is of reindeer ant-
ler, and the lashing of seal
thong.

Fig. 27, No. 89655
[1241], from Utkiavwin.
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 47 inches
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 in the spiral wrappings.

Fic. 26.—Stone maul.

96 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

Fig. 28, No. 89657 [877], from Nuwitk. 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
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. 56658
[205] has two shallow,
incomplete grooves
round the middle for
lashings, and No. 56655
[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 no way 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

Fig. 27.—Stone maul.

Fic. 28.—Stone maul.

hole in the haft. Among the “Chukches” at Pithkaj, however, Nor-
denski6ld 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.! Lieut. Ray
saw only dogs fed with it in the interior. Nordenskiéld does not men-

1 Vega, vol. 2, p. 113; figures on p. 112.

a

MURDOCH.] 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.
89655 [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
Utkiaywin 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 long 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-

Fic. 30.—Bone maul.

ments: Fig. 29, No. 89847 [1046]: 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 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

is impossible to be sure about it), and is rough and somewhat knobby,
with a rounded knob on the butt and two shallow finger 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, 6 inches long. The deep notches for the
lashing, one on each side, are 1 inch behind the middle. The haft is a

Fig. 31.—Bone maul.

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. Tig.31, No. 89846 [1048]: This is pecul-
iar in having the haft not attached at or near the middle of the head,
but at one end, which is shouldered to receive it. The haft is of the com-
mon pattern and attached as usual, the lashing being made of very stout

Fig. 32.—Bone maul.

sinew braid. The head is a section of a small rib 6 inches long. Fig. 32,
No. 89845 [1049]: This is made in one piece, and roughly carved with
broad cuts from a piece of whale’s jaw. The grooves and holes in the
bone are the natural canals of blood vessels. All these mauls are bat-
tered on the striking face, showing that they have been used.

At the first glance it seems as if we had here a series illustrating the
development of the stone hammer. Fig. 32 would be the first form, while

MURDOCH. ] TRAYS. ag

the next step would be to increase the weight of the head by lashing a
large piece of bone to the end of the haft, instead of carving the whole
laboriously out of a larger piece of bone. The substitution of the still
heavier stone for the bone would obviously suggest itselfnext. The weak
point in this argument, however, is that the advantage of the transition
from the first to the next formis not sufficiently obvious. It seems to me
more natural to suppose that the hafted stone hammer has been de-
veloped here, as is believed to have been the ease elsewhere, by simply
adding a handle to the pebble which had already been used as a hammer
without one. These bone implements are then to be considered as make-
shifts or substitutes for the stone hammer, when stones suitable for
making the latter could not be procured. Now, such stones are rare at
Point Barrow, and must be brought from a distance or purchased from
other natives; hence the occasional use of such makeshifts as these.
This view will account for the rarity of these bone hammers, as well as
the rudeness of their construction... No. 89845 [1049] would thus be merely
the result of individual fancy and not a link in the chain of development.

FOR SERVING AND EATING FOOD.
TRAYS.

Cooked food is generally served in large shallow trays more or less
neatly carved from driftwood and nearly circular or oblong in shape.

Fic. 33.—Meat dish.
The collection contains two specimens of the cireular form and three ob-
long ones. All but one of these have been long in use and are very
greasy. No. 73576 [392] (Fig. 33) has been selected as the type of the

100 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

circular dishes (ilibiy). 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
eracked and chipped. The vessel is very greasy and shows marks in-
side where meat has been cut up in it. No, 89867 [1523] is a very simi-
lar dish, and made
of the same mate-
rial, but elliptical
instead of circular,
and larger, being
22-5 inches long, 15-5
broad, and 2-1 deep. 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 isnewand clean. Thisisacommon form of dish. Fig.35, No.

”

Fig. 34.—Oblong meat dish.

Fic. 35.—Oblong meat dish; very old.

89868 [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 off
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. 89866
[1576], 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 off. 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-

1
Ao

a

Fic. 36.—Fish dish.

MURDOCH. ] DRINKING VESSELS. 101

bone in the usual way. Trays and dishes of this sort are in general use
among all Eskimo,' and are sometimes made of tanned sealskins.?

DRINKING VESSELS.

Whalebone Cup (I’musyt).—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. 88). Of these there are five
specimens in the collection, all from Ut-
kiavwih. No. 89853 [1302] (Pig. 37) will
serve as the type. It is 46 inches long
and made by binding a strip of black
whalebone round a spruce bottom, and
sewing together the ends, which over-
lap each other about 14 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 +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. 56560
[654] was found among the
débris of one of the ruined
houses at Utkiavwit, and
differs from the modern
cups only in having the
ends sewed together with
one seam instead of two,
while No. 89851 [1300],
though it has been in ae-
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,

FiGc.37.—Whalebone cup.

Fie. 38.—Horn dipper.

1See for example, Crantz, vol. 1, p. 144, Greenland; Parry, 2d. Voy., p. 503, Iglulik; and Hooper.
Tents, etc., p. 170, Plover Bay.
2 Bessels, Naturalist, Sept. 1884, p. 867.

102 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

apparently softened and molded into shape, cut only on the 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 [1293] 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. Fig.
39, No. 89739 [774], is a horn dipper, but one that is very old and of a
pattern no longer in use. The bow],
which is much broke» 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,
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 of
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.! Those made of the enlarged base of horn’ have a short
handle and a nearly square bowl, while the hollow top of the horn is
used for acup without alteration beyond sometimes bending up the
end, which serves as a handle.’ Curiously enough, cups of this last
pattern appear not to be found anywhere else except at Plover Bay,
astern 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, Nuwttk, Utkiavwin, and Sidaru, and all were 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. 56535 [871] (Fig. 40),
which will serve as the type of the ivory dipper (i/musyt, kiligwt’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

ly
7,

Fia. 39.—Horn dipper.

1 Second Voyage, p. 503.
2See Fig. 26, plate opposite p. 550.
3See Figs. 8 and 9, opposite p. 548.

MURDOCH.] IVORY DIPPERS. 103

horn dipper. The rounded gap in the brim opposite the handle is an
accidental break. Another, No. 89830 [1259], from Sidaru, is a long
trough-like cup, with rounded ends and ashort flat 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 insertea in the end of
the handle. This cup is especially interesting from its resemblance to
the one obtained by Beechey (Voyage, Pl. 1, Fig. 4) at Eschscholtz

Fig, 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.! Fig. 41, No. 89833
(933], from Nuwittk, has a large bowl, nearly cireular, 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 1? 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 in the brim opposite to the handle, and the edges of it have been

Fia. 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 engray-
ings were originally colored with red ocher, but are now filled 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. 56535
[371] was obtained from the Nunatanimiun.

1 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, ete. The large spoon is for
stirring and ladling soup, ete. There is only one specimen in the col-
lection, No. 89739 [1352] (Fig. 42). This is a new one, made by a native
of Utkiavwin, whom I asked to make himself a new spoon and bring
me his old one. He, how-
ever, misunderstood me and
brought over the new one,
which Lieut. Ray pur-
chased, not knowing that
T had especially asked for
the old one. These spoons
seem to be in such constant
use that the natives did not
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. 89416 [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

Fia 42.—Wooden spoon.

Fic, 43.—Horn 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
filling the lamp. The collection contains one of horn and four of bone.

No. 89415 [1070], Fig. 45, is made of a single piece of mountain-sheep
horn, dark brown from age and use, softened and molded into shape.

”

SS

Fic. 44.—Bone 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. $9412 [1102] (Fig. 45, from
Nuwiik) is earved 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. 46, from Utkiavwin) has
the handle carved into a rude
bear’s head, which has the eyes,
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, kiliu/te, 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

Fia. 45.—Bone ladle in the form of a whale.

Fic. 46.—Bone ladle.

cognate Greenlandic kiliortit, ‘a scraper; especially a mussel shell (a
natural seraper).” 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.

MISCELLANEOUS HOUSEHOLD UTENSILS.

Lamps (kédlé)—Mention has already been made of the stone lamps
or oil-burners used for lighting and warming the houses, which, in Dr.
Simpsoun’s time, were obtained by trading from the “Kfinima/dlin,” 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
small traveling lamp, 6 or 8 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 eurved side
against the wall, and raised by blocks a few inches from the floor. In
one large house, that of old Yiksi/na, the so-called “chief,” at Nuwik,

106 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

there were three lamps, the third standing in the right-hand front cor-
ner of the house. The dish is filled with oil, which 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/potin (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 alsobe 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

—_

Lae

Fic. 47.—Stone house lamp.

bright flame, the size of which is regulated by kindling more or less of
the wick, and is usually kept filled by the drip from a lump of blubber
stuck on a sharp stick (aja/ksixbwin) projecting from the wall about a
foot above the middle of the lamp."

In most houses there is a long slender stick (kukun, ‘a 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. No food, except an occasional

1Compare the custom noticed by Parry, at Iglulik, of hanging a lone thin strip of f plubber near the
flame of the lamp to feed it (24 Voyage, p. 502). According to Petitot (Monographie, ete., p. xviii), the
lamps in the Mackenzie district are fed by a lump of blubber stuck on a stick, as at Point Barrow.
2Compare Nordenskidld, Vega, vol. 2, p. 119: ‘The wooden pins she uses to trim the wick
are used when required as a light ortoreh . . . tolight pipes, ete. In the same way other pins
dipped in train-oil are used” (Pitlekaj), and foot-note on same page: “IT have seen such pins, also oblong
stones, sooty at one end, which, after having been dipped in train-oil, have been used as torches.
in old Eskimo graves in northwestern Greenland.”

MURDOCH. ] LAMPS. 107

luncheon of porridge or something of the sort, is now cooked over these
lamps. Two such lamps burning at the ordinary rate give light enough
to enable one to read and write with ease when sitting on the ban-
quette, and easily keep the temperature between 50° and 60° F. in the
coldest weather. In the collection are three house lamps, two complete
and one merely a fragment, and three traveling lamps.

Fig. 47 (No. 89879) [872] is a typical house lamp, though rather a
small specimen. It iscarved 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 eut 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 15 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 lamp

ics

Fic. 48.—Sundstone 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. No.
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 difficult 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 lamp, which is very old and sooty, was made at
Point Barrow and was an attempt to imitate the imported lamps with
stone obtained from the beds reported by Lieut. Ray in Kulugrua.
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 Bay in the National Museum are made of some hard
gray stone.

Fig. 49, No. 56673 [133], is a traveling lamp, and is a miniature of the
large lamp, No. 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. No. 89882 [1298] is another traveling lamp,
also of soapstone, and made of about half of a large lamp. It has been

108 THE POINT BARROW 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 6-3 inches long:
No. 89881 [1209] is a mini-
ature of No. 89880, 8-1
inches long, and is made
of the saine gritty stone.
Suitable material is not
ada at hand for the proper
Fig. 49.—Traveling lamp. comparison of the Jamps
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. Bessels! figures
a lamp of soapstone from Ita, Smith
Sound, closely resembling No. 89880,
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” 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, ete.
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? Such
a rough lamp was brought by Lieut.
Stoney, U. 8S. Navy, from Kotzebue
Sound. No such highly finished and
elaborate lamps as the large house
lamps at Point Barrow are mentioned
except by Nordenskidld, who figures
one from Siberia. This lamp is inter-
esting as the only one described with a
ledge comparable to the shelf of No.
89879. Lampsfromtheregion between
Point Barrow and Boothia Felix are especially needed to elucidate the
distribution and development of this utensil. The rudely hollowed peb-

Fic. 50.—Socket for blubber holder.

' Naturalist, September, 1884, p. 867, Fig. 2.

? Parry, Second Voyage, Pl. opposite p. 548, Fig. 2.

%See Dall, Alaska, p. 387; and Petroff, Report, ete., p. 141. See also the collections of Turner and
Fischer from Attu and Kadiak.

‘Vega, vol. 2, p. 23, Fig. b on p. 22, and diagrams, p. 23.

MURDOCH. ] CLOTHING. 109

ble 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. 56492 [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 asort of socket or escutcheon to be fastened to the wall
above a lamp 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 14 thick, very rudely carved
into a human head and body without arms, with a large round hole
about 14 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. Petroff' 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
crew 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 used 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 “ Nunatatmiun,” 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

! Report, ete., p. 125.

110 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

having the flesh side colored red,! 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
off—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. Nordenskiéld,? however,
found it in use among the Chukches for this
purpose. It is considered an excellent ma-
terial for soles at Point Barrow, 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. Simpson® gave an excellent general de-
scription of the dress of these people, which is
Fig. 51.—Man in ordinary deer- the game at the present day. While the same
skin clothes. .
in general pattern as that worn by all other
Eskimo, it differs in many details from that worn by the eastern Eskimo,*
and most closely resembles the style in vogue at and near Norton Sound.
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 eut

‘Compare Nordenskiédld, Vega, vol 2. p. 213.

2Vega, vol. 2, p. 98.

3Op. cit., pp. 241-245.

4See for example, Egede, p. 219; Crantz, vol. 1, p. 136; Bessels, Op. cit., pp. 805 and 868 (Smith
Sound); Kane, lst Grinnell Exp., pp. 45 (Greenland) and 132 (Cape York); Brodbeck, ‘‘ Nach Osten,”
pp. 23, 24, and Holm, Geografisk Tidskrift, vol. 8, p. 90 (East Greenland); Parry, 2d Voy., pp. 494-6
(Iglulik) ; Boas, ‘‘ Central Eskimo,” pp. 554-6; Kumlien, loc. cit., pp. 22-25 (Cumberland Gulf); also, Fro-
bisher, in Hakluyt's Voyages, 1589, ete., p. 628.

5Dall, Alaska, pp. 21 and 141.

MURDOCH. } STYLE OF DRESS. 111

off square, and is usually confined by a girdle at the waist. Under this
garment is worn a similar one, usually of lighter skin and sometimes 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, ete., 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 that the rifle 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

FG. 52.—Womans’ hood.

Le, THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

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 deseribed, 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 clothing.—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 indistinet 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-
aywin (Niigawau/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.

MURDOCH. ] MAN’S FROCK. als}

Frocks (atigé).—Two frocks are always worn by both sexes except in
the house, or in warm weather, the inner (ilupa) with the hair next the
skin, and the outer (kalfiru’rr)
with the hair out. The outer
frock is also sometimes worn with
the hair in, especially when it is
new and the flesh side clean and
white. This side is often orna-
mented with little tufts of marten A
fur and stripes of red ocher. The iy Se
difference in shape between the rz SAS VANS Ae
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 off 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 onthe nape. Thefrontedge
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. 56751 [184]
(Fig. 53), brown deerskin, will serve as the type. The pattern can best

Fig. 53.—Man's frock.

Fic. 54.—Pattern of man's deerskin frock.

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 coming at the edges. The head of the

Fig. 55.—Detail of trimming, skirt and shoulder of man’s frock,

animal is made into the hood, which is continuous with the back,
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
sxach wrist with the fur in-
ward. The binding round
the skirt (Fig. 55a) is 24
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
wolverine fur, sewed on with the flesh side, which is colored red, prob-
ably with ocher, outward. A band of similar materials, arranged a

¥iG, 56.—Man wearing plain, heavy frock.

MURDOCH. ] MAN’S FROCK. 115

little differently (Fig. 55b) and 14 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

Fic. 57.—Man's frock of mountain sheepskin, front and back.

is always used for the back of the hood, as Capt. Parry observed to be
the custom at Iglulik.! A plain frock is sometimes used for rough
work, hunting, ete. 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.? Instead of a fringe
the hood sometimes has three tufts of fur, one on each side and one
above.

'Second Voy., p. 537. ?Compare Dall, Alaska, p. 22.

116 THE POINT BARROW 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 “ Kinmiadln” fashion.' Nearly all the natives wear outer
frocks of deerskin, but on great occasions elaborately made garments
of other materials are sometimes seen. Nos. 56758 [87] (Fig. 57, a and
b) and 56757 [11] (Fig. 58, @ and b) are two such frocks. No. 56758 [87]
is of mountain sheep skin, nearly white. As shown in the diagrams
(Fig. 59, a, b, c,) 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 offered for sale,

No. 56757 [11] is a very handsome garment (Fig. 58). The body
and sleeves are of white and brown (winter and summer) ermine skins
arranged in an elegant pattern, and the hood of reindeer and mountain
sheep 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 Cape Bathurst at
least to Norton Sound. The pattern of the hood is shown by the dia-

1 There are several frocks so trimmed 1m the National Museum, from the Mackenzie and Anderson
region,

MURDOCH. ] MAN’S FROCK. a7

gram (Fig. 60 a). The middle piece is the skin of a reindeer head,
the two cheek pieces and median chin piece of mountain sheep skin.
When the hood is put together the lower edge of it is sewed to the neck
of the body, which has the back and front of nearly the same size and
shape (diagram, Fig. 60 b), though the back is a little longer in the

oS
S
eli
i
ae
\ $2
\.—_
v4
oe
a
Sleeve Cussee,

side Gusset

Fig. 59.—Pattern of sheepskin frock.

skirt. There is no regular seam on the shoulders, where irregular bits
of white ermine skin are 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.

a
They are arranged in a pat-
tern of vertical stripes, two Front & Buck 2
singe faa on ar \
skins fastened together end Les
to end making a stripe, \
Back. :

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 anda border round the skirt of edging of the usual materials, but
slightly different arrangement, and tagged with small red glass beads.

Fic. 60.—Pattern of ermine frock. a, hood; b, body.

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

Fic. 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 [1791] (Fig.
61, a and b), 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 Grinnell Exp., vol. 1, p. 203.

MURDOCH. ] WOMAN’S FROCK. 119

light and dark stripes. The pattern is shown in the diagram, Fig. 62.
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,and1. <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 //ff. 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 sewed 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, 52 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, 62.—Pattern of woman's frock.

Fic. 63.—Detail of edg-
ing, woman’s frock.

Fia. 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 frmge cut from deerskin. The

120 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

women nowadays often line the outer frock with 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 River. 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 flaps
(see illustrations in Rink’s Tales, etc., pp. 8 and 9), 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.? Petitot® gives a full description of the dress of a “chief” from
the Anderson River. He calls the frock a “blouse échanerée par cété et
terminée en queues arrondies par devant et par derriére.” 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. The frock
worn in Kadiak was hoodless and long, with short sleeves and large
armholes beneath these.°

The men of the Siberian Eskimo and sedentary Chukches, 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.

! Egede, p.131; Crantz, i, p. 137 and Pl. 1m. (Greenland); Bessels, op. cit., p. 865 (Smith Sound—married
women only); Parry, 2nd Voy., p. 494, andnumerous illustrations, passim (Iglulik); Packard, Naturalist
Vol. 19, p. 6, Pl. xxi (Labrador), and Kumilien, 1. ¢., p.33 (Cumberland Gulf). See also several speci-
mens in the National Museum from Ungava (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 Barrow, are not so enormous as the more easternones. The little
peak on the top of the woman's hood at Point Barrow may be a reminiscence of the pointed hood worn
by the women mentioned by Bessels, op. cit.

2 Parry, 2d Voy., p. 494, and Ist Voy., p. 283.

* Monographie, etc., p. xiv.

4 Petroff, op. cit. p. 134, Pls.4 and 5. See also specimens in the National Museum.

® Petroff, op. cit., p. 139, and Liscansky, Voy., ete., p. 194.

MURDOCH. ] MANTLES.

serted in the edge.”!
wear the hoodless frock summer and winter,
arate hoods in winter.
which I saw worn at Plover Bay, namely,
thin reindeer skin tied under the chin. The
dress of the Siberian women consists of frock
and baggy kneebreeches in one piece, sewed
to tightfitting boots reaching to the knees.?
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 hole 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. 56760 [94] (Fig. 65).

121

According to Nordenski6ld,’? the men at Pitlekaj

putting on one or two sep-

The under hood appears to be like one or two

a close-fitting nightcap of

Fic. 65.—Man’s cloak of deerskin.

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.

é

Fic. 66.—Pattern of man’s cloak.

For pattern see diagram
(Fig. 66). 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 ¢ is
turned over toward the hair
side and “run” down in a
narrow hem. The points b
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 e
makes a round hole for the
neck. The width of the
mantle is 60 inches and its
depth 39. It is worn with

the white flesh side out, as is indicated by the seams being sewed “over

' Dall, Alaska, p. 379.
2 Vega, vol. 2, p. 98.

3 Nordenskidld, Vega, vol. 2, p. 100 and Fig. on p.57; Dall, Alaska, p. 379 and plate opposite.
Compare also Krause Brothers, Geogr. Blatter, vol. 5, No.1, p. 5,

ticed this dress at Plover Bay in 1881.

Talsono-

where the dress along the coast from East Cape to Plover Bay is described as we saw it at Plover Bay.

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 few narrow stripes of red ocher.
This garment appears to be peculiar to northwestern America. Nomen-
tion is to be found of any such a thing except in Mr. MacFarlane’s
MS. notes, where he speaks of a deerskin blanket ‘attached with a line
across the shoulders in cold weather,” among the Anderson River 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 Nunata‘tmiun who were at
Nuwitk in the autumn of 1881.

Rain-frocks.—The rain-frock (silti/ta) is made of strips of seal or wal-
rus intestines about 5 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 entrail
sewed together vertically, thus making a garment at once waterproof
and warm, which is worn alone in summer with 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 Crantz' as used in
Greenland in their time. Ellis also” 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 kamleika (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 on the ice or snow. Similar frocks are worn by the
natives at Pitlekaj.’

1Vol. 1, p. 137.
2 Voyage to Hudsons Bay, p. 136.
3 Nordenskiéld, Vega, vol. 2, p. 98.

MURDOCH. ] MITTENS. 123

ARM CLOTHING.

Mittens —The hands are usually protected by mittens (aitka’ti) of
different kinds of fur. The commonest kind are of deerskin, worn with
the flesh side out. Of these the collection contains one pair, No. 89828
[973] (Fig. 67). They are 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 74 inches long and 45 broad. The free part of the thumb is
only 24 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. Petitot! says the Anderson River * chief” wore pualuk ‘“ mi-
taines en peau de morse, aussi blanches et aussi soyeuses que de belle
laine.” These were probably of bearskin, as a mitten of walrus skin
is not likely to be * blanche” or ‘‘soyeuse.” Gloves are 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 hunting, 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.

Fic. 67.—Deerskin mittens.

1 Monographie, etc., p. xv.
2?Compare Parry, 2d Voy., p. 494, where a simila habit is mentioned at Iglulik.

124 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

Gloves.—Gloves of thin 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.
89829 [974] (Fig. 68) illustrates a very common style called a/drigtdrin.
They are made of thin reindeer skin, with the white flesh side out, and

4

ie

we
Fig. 68.—Deerskin gloves.
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. Each 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 83
inches, with fingers (all of the same length) 45 inches long, while the
other is 8 inches long with fingers of 34 inches. No. 56747 [128] is a
pair of gloves made in the same way but more elaborately ornamented.
There is a band of deerskin but no fringe round the wrist. The back
of the hand is covered with brown deerskin, hair out, into which is in-
serted the square ornamental pattern in which the light stripes are
white deerskin and the dark pipings the usual almost hairless fawn-
skin. Gloves like this type are the most common and almost univer-
sally have a fringe round the wrist. They are also usually a little
longer-wristed than the mittens.

MURDOCH. ] BREECHES. 125

Mittens are universally employed among the Eskimo, but gloves
with fingers, which, as is well known, are a much less warm covering
for the hand than mittens, are very rare. They are in use at Norton
Sound! and in the Mackenzie district,? and have even been observed
among the Arctic ‘Highlanders of Smith Sound, who, however, gener-
ally wear mittens.? Dr. Simpson‘? mentions both deerskin and bear-
skin mittens as used at Point Barrow, but makes no reference to
gloves. The natural inference from this is that the fashion of wearing
gloves has been introduced since his time. It is quite probable that
the introduction of firearms has favored the general adoption of gloves.
The following hypothesis may be suggested as to the way the fashion
reached Point Barrow: We may suppose that the Malimiut of Norton
Sound got the idea directly from the Russians. They would carry the
fashion to the Nunatanmiun at Kotzebue Sound, who in their turn
would teach it to the Point Barrow traders at the Colville, and these
would carry it on to the eastern natives.

LEG AND FOOT CLOTHING,

Breeches (ka’kli)—The usual leg-covering of the men is one or two
pairs of knee breeches, rather
loose, but fitted to the shape of
the leg. They are very low in
front, barely covering the pubes,
but run up much higher behind,
sometimes as high as the small
of the back. They are held in
place by a girdle of thong round
the waist, and are usually fas-
tened below the knee, over the
boots, by a drawstring. There
is one pair in the collection, No.
56759 [91], Fig. 69. They are
of short-haired brown reindeer
skin, from the body of the ani-
mal, worn with the hair out.
The waist is higher behind than
in front, and each leg is slightly
gathered to a band just be-
low the knee. Pattern (see
diagram, Fig. 70): There are
two pieces in each leg, the in-
side and the outside. The
spaces between the edges e of the two legs is filled by the gusset,

F iG. 69.—Man’s breeches of deerskin.

!Dall, Alaska, pp. 23,152, and 153. He speaks of the thumb (p. 23) as ‘‘a triangular, shapeless pro-
tuberance"’; a description which applies well to those in our collection.

2 MacFarlane MS., and Petitot, Monographie, ete., p. xv.

3Bessels, Naturalist, vol. 18, p. 865.

4 Op. 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 15 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

are of clipped mountain sheepskin;

Se the dark one of dark brown deerskin;
the pipings of the thin fawn skin, and
a e 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 14 inches
apart. A straight strip, 2 inches wide,
is inserted obliquely across the outside
piece from seam to seam. It is of the
Fia. 70.—Pattern of man’s breeches. same materials, but differs slightly in

o
oe

pattern. The knee-band is of the same materials and 24 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 Sea
over a pair of deerskin drawers. The ordinary {
breeches are of heavier deerskin, made perfectly ois] = -|M
plain, being usually worn alone, with the hair turned — /f | ‘ hh
in. When a pair of under breeches is worn, however, foie bt el ioe
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 4,,. Theanine
sometimes, but rarely, used for summer breeches, — ofman’sbreeches.
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.

Pantaloons (kimin)—The women and children, and occasionally the
men, wear pantaloons (stricly speaking), 1. e., 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. 73a):
Each leg is composed of four long pieces (front 1, outside 2, back 3,
and inside 4), five gussets (one on the thigh 5, and four on the calf,
6, 6, 6, 6), which enlarges the garment to fit the swell of the ealf and

thigh and the half-waistband (7). The two legs are put together by

MURDOCH. ] WOMEN’S PANTALOONS. UT

joining the edges d dd of the opposite legs and sewing the gusset (8)
into the space in front with its base joined to the edges e e 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
14 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
34 inches is left uncrimped 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 uncrimped space,
but “run” through the gathers at the
ends, so as to draw them up. The
upper is in two pieces (heel, 9, and
toe, 10). The heel piece is folded round
the heel, and the toe piece doubled
along the line /, and the curved edges
gg jomed to the straight edges h h,
which makes the folded edge f, fit the
outline of the instep. The bottom is
then cut off accurately to fit the sole 4
and sewed tothe edge of the band. The ma
trousers and shoes are sewed together ae
attheankles. The whole ismadeof the
short-haired skin from the deer’s legs. Pieces 2, 4, 7, 8,9, 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. 56748 [136] is a
pair of pantaloons of nearly the same pattern (see diagram, Fig. 73))
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

ee creas ere

=

Fig. 72.—Woman’s pantaloons.

128 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

the pattern of No. 56748 [136], 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 we 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

Zz
J
@
; :
al . @
4
/ ;
b
[ ;
i
9|| Ile |
iy
| 9 iB
9, g

Fic. 73.—Patterns of woman'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 fit 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-
seribed 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 Kotzebue 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.!

water-tight sealskin boots”), but probably refers to these as well as to the knee boots. The “outside
coat of the same material,” and the boots 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 of fashion since his
time. At all events, we saw neither, though we 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—BOOTS 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 Petitot!
describes them thus: “Le pantalon * * * fait corps avee 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.?

Stockings.—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 snowshoes. 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 shoes —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 moceasin 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-
ning at one side of the ball of the foot, 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

Fic. 74.—Pattern of stocking.

1 Monographie, ete., p. xv.

2 Bessels, Naturalist, vol. 18, p. 865, SmithSound; Egede, p. 131, and Crantz, vol. 1, p. 138, Greenland;
Parry, 2d Voy., p. 495 and 496, Iglulik, and Kumlien, op. cit., p. 23, Cumberland Gulf. Also in Labra-
dor, see Pl. xvi, Naturalist, vol. 19, No. 6. The old couple whom Franklin met at the Bloody Fall of
the Coppermine appear to have worn pantaloons, for he speaks of their ‘tight leggings sewed to
shoes” (1st Exp., vol. 2, p. 180).

9 ETH 9

130 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

the teeth along a line parallel to the folded edge and at a distance
from it equal to the depth of the intended fold. This bitten line runs
from the edge of the leather as far as it is intended to turn up the side
of the sole. A series of similar folds is carried round the toe to a point
on the other side of the sole opposite the starting point. In the same
way a series of crimps is carried round the heel, leaving an uncrimped
space of 2 or 3 inches on each side of the foot. The sole is then sewed
to a band or to the edge of the upper, with the thread run through each
fold of the crimps. This gathers the sole in at the heel and toe and
brings the uncrimped part straight up on each side of the shank. When
the folds are all of the same length and but slightly gathered the sole is
turned up nearly straight, as at the heel usually, and at the toe also of
waterproof boots. When the folds are long and much gathered the sole
slopes well in over the foot. Some boots, especially those intended for full
dress, have the sole deeper on the sides than at the toe, so that the top of
the sole comes to a point at the toe. The ordinary pattern is about the
same height all round and follows the shape of the foot, being rather more
gathered in over the toe than at the heel. The “blank” for the sole is cut
out by measuring the size of the foot on the leather and allowing by eye
the margin which is to be turned up. The crimping is also done by
eye. Any irregularity in the length of the crimps can be remedied by
pressing out the crease. I have never seen at Point Barrow the ivory
knives, such as are used at Norton Sound for arranging the crimps.
Different kinds of leather are used for the soles, and each kind is
supposed to be best suited for a particular purpose. The beautiful
white urine-tanned sealskin is used for winter wear when the snow is
dry, but is not suited for standing the roughness and dampness of the
salt-water ice. For this purpose sealskin dressed with the hair on and
worn flesh side out is said to be the very best, preferable even to the
various waterproof skins used for summer boot soles. For waterproof
soles are used oil-dressed skins! of the walrus, bearded seal, polar bear,
or, best of all, the white whale. This last makes a beautiful light yellow
translucent leather about 0-1 inch thick, which is quite durable and
keeps out water for a long time. It is highly prized and quite an article
of trade among the natives, a pair of soles usually commanding a good
price. These Eskimo appear to be the only ones who have discovered
the excellence of this material for waterproof soles, as there is no men-
tion to be found of its use elsewhere. The ‘‘narwhal skin” spoken of
by Dr. Simpson? is probably this material, as he calls it ‘‘ Kel-lel’-lu-a,”
which is the ordinary word for white whale at Point Barrow. The nar-
whal is very rare in these waters, while the white whale is comparatively
abundant. Dr. Simpson appears not to have seen the animal from which
the skin was obtained. Itis, however, by no means impossible that some
skins of the narwhal, which when dressed would be indistinguishable

'Probably prepared like the boat covers described by Crantz, vol.1, p. 167, by drying them without
removing all of their own blubber. ‘
2Op. cit., pp. 242-266.

MURDOCH. ] BOOTS. wet

from the white whale skins, are obtained from the eastern natives or
elsewhere. Such crimped soles are in use among the Eskimo every-
where, varying but little in general pat-
tern. The Greenland boots are specially
noticeable for the neatness of the crimp-
ing, while specimens in the Museum from
the central region are decidedly slovenly
in their workmanship. The boots worn
by the natives of Plover Bay have the
sole narrowed at the shank and hardly
coming over the foot except at the toe
and heel, where they are crimped, but
less deeply than usual. This style of sole
very much resembles those of a pair of
Kamehatdale boots in the National Mu-
seum, which, however, are turned up with-
out crimping, as is the case with the boots
used by the Aleuts on the Commander
Islands, of which Dr. L. Stejneger has
kindly shown me a specimen. There is a
folded ‘‘ welt” of sealskin in the seam be-
tween the upper and sole of the Plover
Bay boots. Iam informed by Capt. Heren-
deen that the natives have been taught to
put this in by the whalemen who every
year purchase large numbers of boots on
the Siberian coast, for use in the Arctic. Similar welts, which are very
unusual 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
thelegs. 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
z to it badly. There are four pairs of men’s
winter boots in the collection, from which
No. 56750 [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,! back 1, two sides 2 2, and front 3;
1 and 5 are gored at aaa to fit the swell
of the calf; 1 and 3 are of dark skin, and 2 2 lighter colored, especially
along the middle. The bottom is cut off accurately to fit the sole but the
top is left irregular, as this is concealed by the breeches. The boots are

Fie. 75.—Man's boot of deerskin.

3

Fic. 76.—Pattern of deerskin boot.

1See diagram, Fig. 76.

132 THE

POINT BARROW 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

\
Fig, 77.—\Man's dress boot of deer-
skin.

twice round the ankle, which fits 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 slippmg). These patches are
varefully ‘‘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. 56759 [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 No. 56750, 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 mimountain-sheep skin and the dark
ones the usual young fawnskin, tagged
with red worsted. The leg reaches to g
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. 79, No. 89834 [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 — Fi. 78.—Pattern of man’s dress boot of

the edge, black, white,and black. Edg-

deerskin.

ing is inserted into both the seams on each side. It is of strips of moun-

1 See diagram, Fig. 78.

MURDOCH.] ~ BOOTS. 1 33

tain-sheep skin anda dark brown deerskin, tagged with red worsted, with
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
Nuwitk trading parties in 1882. Fig. 80, No. 56749 [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. 56750, 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. Edging
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- igs
strings just below the knee, and rig. 79—Man’s dress boot of skin of mountain
often have no tie-strings at the hee
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 Barrow, 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. 865), 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

134 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

the other, which is then “blind-stiteched” 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
“rn” 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 fine
sinew thread and very fine
round needles (the women used
to ask for “little needles, like
a hair”), and the edge of the
leather 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 in the collection
(No. 76182 [1794] Fig. 81). The
tops are of black dressed seal-
skin, reaching to the knee and
especially full 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 14 inches all around. The leg and upper
are nade 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 “run” 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. Round 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 fit
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

Fic. 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 are 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. The natives prefer to dry them in the
sun. When the black epidermis wears off this leather is no longer

raterproof, 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-

“3 ing, the natives make a kind of “creeper”

out of strips of sealskin. These are doubled

Fig. 82.—Sketch of ‘‘ice-creepers” on lengthwise, and generally bent into a half-

pot aule: moon 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.

Woman’s waterproof sealskin boot.

PARTS OF DRESS.

Belts (tapst)—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

136 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

full dress, the men wear a handsome belt woven from feathers, and the
women one made of wolverines’ toes. There are in the collection two
of the former and one of the latter.

No. 89544 [1419] (Fig. 83a) 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

with bIQ QI

aan

Ct i

sa gangs
Fia. 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. 83), a long stitch on each side, three very short ones
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

MURDOCH. | BELTS. 13 7

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. 83).
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 pA peta ean He
the belt are trimmed off even and bound with ends of feathers in belt.

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 16 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

Ni La

Fic, 85.—Woman's belt of wolverine toes.

this style appear to be peculiar to the Poimt 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 THE 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 14 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. 56, No. 89718 [1055], 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-
sig). I have seen a brass clock wheel used on a girl’s
belt for the same purpose. This specimen is very old,

Fie. 86.—Belt-fast- Neatly made, and polished smooth, probably from long
ener. use.

Ornaments.—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
oneis worn out. This is perhaps an amulet as well as an ornament, as Dr.
Simpson states.! 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,” in describing the dress of the
Anderson River “chief,” says: ‘“‘par derriére il portait aux reins une
queue épaisse et ondoyante de renard noir.” According to him® it is
the women of that region, who wear, ‘a titre de talismans, des defroques
empaillées de corbean, de faucon, ou @hermine.” The custom of wear-
ing an ermine skin on the jacket was observed by Dr. Armstrong of the
Investigator at Cape Bathurst.*

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
forma verysimple pattern. This consists of one, three, five, or perhaps as

' Op. cit., p. 243. 3 Tbid.
* Monographie, ete., p. xiv. + 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. When 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, Atoru had a broad band across
each cheek from the corners of the mouth (Fig. 87, from a sketch by the
writer), made up of many indistinct lines, which was said to indicate
“many whales.” Amaiyuna had the “flukes” of seven whales in a line
across his chest, and Mai/nialu had a couple of small marks on one fore-
arm. Niaiksara, the wite of Anoru, 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 (Monographie, ete., p. xv) are a part
of the usual pattern in the Mackenzie distriet—
“deux traits aux commissures de la bouche.” One
or two men at Nuwik had each a narrow line 4,, 97 stan with tattooed
across the face, over the bridge of the nose, which cheeks.
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. It 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 H. M.S. Investigator, at Cape Bathurst, where, according to Mc-
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 Narrative, p-. 176), he has a
line tattooed from the inner angle of the eye across the cheek, a new one being added for every whale
hestrikes. Petitot, however (Monographie, etc., p. xxv), says that in this region whales are “scored” by
tattooing crosses on the shoulder, and 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 Nuwik told
us that he had killed a man. According to Holm, at Angmagsalik (east Greenland), ‘‘Mzndene ere
kun undtagelsvis tatoverede og da kun med enkelte mindre Streger paa Arme og Haandled, for at
kunne harpunere godt” (Geogr. Tids., vol. 8, p. 88). Compare also Hooper, 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 Iglulik are said to be 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.!

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
Eskimo? and those of Siberia, St. Lawrence Island, and

Ca ee the Diomedes.
withordinary tattoo, Fig. 88, from asketch made on the spot by the writer,
ing. shows the Point Barrow pattern.

Painting—On great occasions, such as dances, ete., 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.’ 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 ORNAMENTS.

Method of wearing the hairy.—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 elip-
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

1 Bessels, Naturalist, vol. 18, p. 875 (Smith Sound): Egede, p. 1382, and Crantz, vol. 1, p. 138, already
given up by the Christian Greenlanders (Greenland); Holm, Geogr. Tids., vol. 8, p. 88, still practiced
regularly in east Greenland; Parry, Ist Voyage, p. 282 (Baffin Land); 2d Voyage, p. 498 (Iglulik) ;
Kumlien, Contrib., p. 26 (Cumberland Gulf, aged women chiefly); Boas, ‘‘Central Eskimo,” p. 561;
Chappell, ‘‘ Hudson Bay,” p. 60 (Hudson Strait); Back, Journey, ete., p. 289 (Great Fish River); Frank-
lin, 1st Exped., vol. 2, p. 183 (Coppermine River); 2d Exped., p. 126 (Point Sabine); Petitot, Mono-
graphie, ete., p. xv (Mackenzie district) ; Dall, ‘‘Alaska,”’ pp. 140, 381 (Norton Sound, Diomede Islands,
and Plover Bay); Petroff, Report, etc., p. 139 (Kadiak); Lisiansky, Voyage, p. 195 (Kadiak in 1805,
‘the fair sex were also fond of tattooing the chin, breasts, and back, but this again is much out of
fashion”); Nordenskiéld, Vega, vol. 2, pp. 99, 100, 251, and 252, with figures (Siberia and St. Lawrence
Island); Krause brothers, Geographische Blatter, vol. 5, pp.4,5 (East 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 blewe streekes downe the cheekes and round about the eies” (p.621). * * *
‘Also, some of their women race their faces proportionally, as chinne, cheekes, 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.

* Holm (East Greenland) says: ‘‘et Paar korte Streger paa Hagen" (Geogr. Tids. vol. 8, p. 88).

’Compare Kotzebue’s Voy., vol. 3, p. 296, where Chamisso describes the natives of St. Lawrence
say, Siberia, as having large quantities of fine graphite, with which they painted their faces.

4 Petroff Report, ete., p. 139.

MURDOCH.} HAIR-DRESSING. 141

tonsure que portent nos Tchiglit a pour but, m’ont-ils dit, de permettre
au soleil de rechauffer leur cerveau et de transmettre par ce moyen
sa bienfaisante chaleur & leur cceur pour les faire vivre.”! Some of the
Nunatatminun and one man from Kilauwitaiwin 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.’ It is universal at the present day, as
it was in Dr. Simpson’s time.* The western Eskimo 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,‘
and was occasionally observed at [ghulik by Capt. Parry (2d Voy., p. 493).
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.°. 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 Rivers, where the women
bring the hair up from behind into a sort of high
top-knot, with the addition in the latter district of
large bows or pigtails on the sides.° The hair is
parted in the middle from the forehead to the nape
of the neck, and gathered into a club on each side !'° SE roa gir os
behind the ear. The club is either simply braided % 7%

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. Herendeen 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, Monographie, ete., p. xxxi.

2 Tents, etc., p. 225.

3 Op. cit., p. 238.

4Petitot, Monographie, ete., p. xxxi. See also Franklin, 2d Exp., p. 118.

®See also Nordenskidld, Vega, vol. 2, pp. 9 and 252, and figures passim, especially pp. 84 and 85;
Hooper, Tents, ete., p. 27; and Dall, Alaska, p. 381.

®See Kane, 2d Grinnell Exp. Many illustrations, passim, Smith Sound; Egede, p. 132, and Crantz,
Vol. 1, p. 128, Greenland ; Brodbeck, ‘‘ Nach Osten,” p. 23, and Holm, Geogr. Tids., vol.8, p.90, East Green-
land; Frobisher, in Hakluyt, Voyages, ete. (1589), p. 627, Baffin Land; Parry, 2d Voy., p. 494, and
Lyon, Journal, p. 230, Iglulik; Petitot, Monographie, ete., p. xxix, Mackenzie district; Hooper, Tents,
etc., pp. 257, Iey Reef, and 347, Maitland Id.; Franklin, 2d Exp., p. 119, Point Sabine; Dall, Alaska,
pp- 140 and 381, Norton Sound and Plover Bay. See also references to Nordenskiéld, 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 a bald woman, and
there were only two bald men at the two villages. Neither of these
men was very old.

Head-bands.—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 sunilar head-dress worn at the Anderson River, “ 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 use 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.” !
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 deevr’s teeth,
observed by Capt. Parry at Iglulik,? which “‘was understood to be
worn on the head by men, though we did not learn on what occasions.”

Barrings (négolu).—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 are 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.’ 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. 89387 [1540] (Fig. 90) will serve as
the type. They are of coarse, white walrus ivory.

‘See Dr. Simpson, op. cit., p. 243. Compare also Brodbeck, ‘* Nach Osten” (p.23). Speaking of ‘ein
Kopf- oder Stirnband,” he says: ‘ Vielleicht gilt es ihnen als eine Art von Zauberschitzmittel, denn
es ist um kein Geld zu haben. Driéngt man sie, so sagen sie wohl, es sei nicht ihr eigen.”’

2Second Voy., p. 498 and Fig. 7, pl. opposite p. 548.

3Op. cit., p. 241.

MURDOCH. | LABRETS. 143

No. 89386 [1340] is a similar pair of earrings, in which the hook pro-
jects at right angles and terminates in a flat, round button. Both of the
specimensare of theusual pattern, but very roughly made. Thecustom 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 Jip 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.!
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 Mackenzie and Anderson district, and
were also worn by Aleuts in ancient times.’ East of the Mackenzie dis-
trict no traces of the habit are to be observed. Petitot® 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 Investi-
gator, expressly states that he saw none
there in 1850. At Plover Bay, eastern
Siberia, however, I noticed one or two
men with a little cross or circle tattoed
under each corner of the mouth, just in
the position of the labret. This may bea
reminiscence of an ancient habit of wear-
ing labrets, or may have been done in imi-
tation of the people of the Diomedes and
the American coast. Fig. 90.—Earrings.

At Point Barrow at the present day the lip is always pierced for two
labrets, one at each corner of the mouth, though one or both of them
are frequently left out. They told us, however, that in ancient times
a single labret only was worn, for which the lip was pierced directly in
the middle. Certain old and large-sized labrets in the collection are said
to have been thus worn. The incisions for the labrets appear to be made
about the age of puberty, though I knew one young man who had been
married for some months before he had the operation performed. From
the young man’s character, I fancy shyness or timidity, as suggested by
Dr. Simpson,* had something to do with the delay. Contrary to Dr.
Simpson’s experience, I did not see a single man above the age of 18 or
19 who did not wear the labrets. It seems hardly probable that ability

' This subject has been thoronghly treated by Mr. W.H. Dall in his admirable paper in the Report of
the Bureau of Ethnology, No.3 for 1881-'82, pp. 67-203.

2See Dall, Contrib., etc., vol. 1, p. 87, and the paper just referred to.

3 Monographie, etc., p. xxvi.

4Op. cit., p., 241.

144 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

to take a seal entitles a boy to wear labrets, as he suggests. We knew
a number of boys who were excellent seal hunters and even able to
manage a kaiak, but none had their lips pierced under the age of 14 or
15, when they may be supposed to have reached manhood. ‘The in-
cisions are at first only large enough to admit a flat-headed pin of wal-
rus ivory, about the diameter of. a crow quill, worn with the head rest-
ing against the gum. These are soon replaced by a slightly stouter
pair, and these again by stouter ones, until the holes are stretched to a
diameter of about one-half inch, when they are ready for the labrets.

We heard of no special ceremonies or festivals connected with the
making of these incisions, such as Dall observed at Norton Sound,! but
in the one case Where the operation was performed at the village of
Utkiavwin during our stay, we learned that it was done by a man out-
side of the family of the youth operated upon. We were also informed
that the incisions must be made with a little lancet of slate. The em-
ployment of an implement of ancient form and obsolete material for this
purpose indicates, as Dall says in the passage referred to aboye, “some
greater significance than mere ornamentation.”

The collection contains two specimens of such laneets. No. 89721
[1153] (figured in Rept. Point Barrow Expedition, Ethnology, Pl. v,
Fig. 4) is the type. A little blade of soft gray slate is carefully inclosed
in a neat case of cottonwood. The blade is lanceolate,
1:3 inches long, 0-6 broad, and 0-1 thick, with a short,
broad tang. The faces are somewhat rough, and ground
with a broad bevel to very sharp cutting edges. The
case is made of two similar pieces of wood, flat on one
side and rounded on the other, so that when put together
they make a rounded body 3 inches long, slightly flat-
tened, and tapering toward the rounded ends, of which
Fig. 91.—Plug for OME IS Somewhat larger than the other. Round each

paige labret end is a narrow, deep, transverse groove for a string to

hold the two parts together. A shallow median groove
connects these cross grooves on one piece, which is hollowed out on the
flat face into a rough cavity of a Shape and size suitable to receive the
blade, which is produced into a narrow, deep groove at the point, prob-
ably to keep the point of the blade from being dulled by touching the
wood. The other piece, which serves as a cover, has merely a rough,
shallow, oval depression near the middle. The whole is evidently very
old, and the case is browned with age and dirt.

No, 89579 [1200] is a similar blade of reddish purple slate, mounted
ina rough haft of bone. Fig. 91, No. 89715 [1211], is one of a pair of
bone models, made for sale, of the ivory plugs used for enlarging the
holes for the labrets, corresponding in size to about the second pair used.
It is roughly whittled out of a coarse-grained compact bone, and closely

1 Alaska, p. 141.

MURDOCH. ]} LABRETS. 145

resembles the plugs figured by Dall from Norton Sound,! but lacks the
hole in the tip for the transverse wooden peg, which is not used at Point
Barrow. One youth was wearing the final size of plugs when we landed
at the station. These were brought to a point like the tip of a walrus
tusk, and had exactly the appearance of the tusks of a young walrus
when they first protrude beyond the lip. The labrets worn at Point
Barrow at the present day are usually of two patterns. One is a large,
flat, circular disk about 1$ inches in diameter, with a flat stud on the
back something like that of a sleevebutton, and the other a thick
cylindrical plug about 1 inch long, and one-half inch in diameter, with the
protruded end rounded and the other expanded into an oblong flange,
presenting a slightly curved surface to the gum. These plug labrets
are the common. fashion for everyday wear, and at the present day,
as in Dr. Simpsows time, are almost without exception made of stone.
Granite or syenite, porphyry, white marble, and sometimes coal (rarely
jade) are used for this purpose.

One of the Nunatatmiun wore a glass cruet-stopper for a labret, and
many natives of Utkiavwin took the glass stopples of Worcestershire
sauce bottles, which were thrown away at the station, and inserted them
in the labret holes for everyday wear, sometimes grinding the round
top into an oblong stud. There is one specimen of the plug labret
in the collection. Labrets of all kinds are very highly prized, and it
was almost impossible to obtain them.? Though we repeatedly asked
for them and promised to pay a good price, genuine labrets that had
been worn or that were intended for actual use were very rarely offered
for sale, though at one time a large number of roughly made models or
imitations were brought in. The single specimen of the plug labret
(tu’te) is No, 89700 [1163] (figured in Point Barrow Report, Ethnology,
Pl. v, Fig. 3). It is a cylindrical plug of hard, bright green stone
(jade or hypochlorite), 1-1 inches long and 0-6 in diameter at the outer
end, which is rounded off, tapering slightly inward
and expanded at the base into an elliptical disk 1-2
inches long and 0-9 broad, slightly concave on the
surface which rests against the teeth and gum. The
specimen is old and of a material very unusual at
Point Barrow. Fig. 92, No. 89719 [1166], from Nu-
witk, may also be called a plug labret, but is of a
very unusual pattern, and said to be very old. It
has an oblong stud of walrus ivory surmounted by
a large, transparent, slightly greenish glass bead, 16. 92.—Labret of beads
on top of which is a small, translucent, sky-blue eer
bead. The beads are held on by a short wooden peg, running through
the perforations of the beads and a hole drilled through the ivory,

There is a somewhat similar labret in the Museum collection (No. 48202)

1 Alaska, p. 140.
2The men whom Thomas Simpson met at or near Barter Island sold their labrets, but demanded a
hatchet or a dagger for a pair of them (Narrative, p. 119).

9 ETH 10

146 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

from Cape Prince of Wales, also very old. It is surmounted by a single
oblong blue bead.

Lsaw but one other labret made of whole beads, and this had three
good sized oval blue beads, in a cluster, projecting from the hole. It
was worn by a man from Nuwitk. This may be compared with a speci-
men from the Mackenzie district, No. 7714, to which two similar beads
are attached in the same way. The disk labret is the pattern worn on
full-dress occasions, seldom when working or hunting. One disk and
one plug labret are frequently worn. Disk labrets are made of stone,
sometimes of syenite or porphyry, but the most fashionable kind is made
of white marble, and has half of a large, blue glass bead cemented on
the center of the disk. These are as highly prized as they were in Dr.
Simpson’s time, and we consequently did not succeed in procuring a
specimen.

I obtained one pair of syenite disk labrets, No. 56716 [197] (figured in
Point Barrow Rept., Ethnology, Pl. v, Fig. 2). Each is a flat circular
disk (1-7 and 1-6 inches in diameter, respectively) of rather coarse-grained
black and white syenite, ground very smooth, but not polished. On the
back of each is an elliptical stud, like that of a sleeve-button, 1-2 and
1-1 inches long and 0-8 and 0-6 broad, respectively.

Fig. 93, No. 2083, is one of the blue and white disks said to come from
the Anderson River. This is introduced to represent those worn at
Point Barrow, which are of precisely the same pattern. The disk is of
white marble, 14 inches in diameter, and in the center of it is cemented,
apparently with oil dregs,
half of a transparent blue
glass bead, three-quarters of
an inch in diameter, around
the middle of which is cut a
shallow groove. Similar mar-
ble disks without the bead

TRG BE JECT PRIS HE ete rats) Eason LENG are sometimes worn. These
blue and white labrets appear to be worn from Cape Bathurst to the
Kaniag peninsula, including the Diomede Islands (see figure on p.
140 of Dall’s Alaska). There are specimens in the Museum from the
Anderson River and from the north shore of Norton Sound and we
saw them worn by the Nunatatmiun, as well as the natives of Point
Barrow and Wainwright Inlet. The beads, which are larger than those
sold by the American traders, were undoubtedly obtained from Siberia,
as Kotzebue, in 1816, found the people of the sound which bears his name
wearing labrets ‘“‘ornamented with blue glass beads.”! The high value
set on these blue-bead labrets has been mentioned by Franklin? and T,
Simpson,’ as well as by Dr. Simpson.‘ The last named seems to be the

' Voyage, vol. 1, p. 210. Labrets of precisely the same pattern as the one described are figured in the
frontispiece of this volume. (See also Choris, Voyage Pittoresque).

22d Exp., p. 118.

* Narrative, p. 119.
4 Op. cit., p. 239.

MURDOCH. ] LABRETS. 147

first to recognize that the disks were made of marble. All previous
writers speak of them as made of walrus ivory.

There are still at Point Barrow a few labrets of a very ancient pattern,
such as are said to have been worn in the middle of the lip. These are
very rarely put on, but are often carried by the owners on the belt as
amulets. All that we saw were of light green translucent jade, highly
polished. I obtained one specimen, No, 89705 [866] (figured in Point
Barrow Rept., Ethnology, Pl. v, Fig. 1), a thin oblong disk of light green,
translucent, polished jade, 2-6 inches long, 1-1 wide in the middle, and
0-8 wide at the ends, with the outer face slightly convex. On the back
is an oblong stud with rounded ends, slightly curved to fit the gums.

Labrets of this material and pattern do not seem to be common any-
where. Beechey saw one in Kotzebue Sound 3 inches long and 14 wide,!
and there is a large and handsome one in the Museum brought by Mr.
Nelson from the lower Yukon. <A similar one has recently been re-
ceived from Kotzebue Sound.

Fig. 94, No. 89712 [1169], from Sidaru is a labret of similar shape, 3
inches long and 14 broad, but made of compact bone, rather neatly
‘carved and ground
smooth. It shows
some signs of having
been worn. There
are marks on the stud
where it appears to
have been rubbed Lave OU fae 2) OLIN
against the teeth, and it is probably genuine. The purchase of this
specimen apparently started the manufacture of bone labrets at Utki-
avwin, 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-

reals a Maa a ch leg brets), like Fig. 95, No. 89707
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 1826,
for Elson saw many of the men at Point Barrow wearing oblong labrets
of bone (ef. No. 89712 [1169] and stone, 3 inches long and 1 broad.’ Un-
fortunately, he does not specify whether they were worn in pairs or

' Voyage, p. 249. ~?Beechey’s Voy.. p. 308.

148 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

singly, and if singly, as would be natural from their size and shape,
whether in the middle of the lip or at one side.

Nos. 89304 [1715], 89716 [1042], and 89717 [1051] (Fig. 96) are very old
labrets, which are interesting from their resemblance to the ancient
Aleutian single labrets found by Dall in the cave on Amaknak Island.!
No. 89304 [1713] is an elliptical plug of bituminous coal, with a projecting
flange round the base, which is slightly concave to fit the curve of the
jaw. This labret is very old and was said to have been found in one of
the ruined houses in Utkiavwin. The other two labrets are of walrus
ivory and of similar shape, but have the flange only at the ends of the
base. All of these three are large, the largest being 2-2 inches wide and

Fic, 96,—Ancient labrets.

0-7 thick, and the smallest 1-3 by 0:5, so that they required a much larger
incision in the lip than is at present made. In connection with what
has been said of the ancient habit of wearing labrets in the middle of the
lip, it is interesting tonote that Nordenski6ld saw men at Port Clarence
who had, besides the ordinary labret holes, ‘‘a similar hole forward in
the lip.”2. The various portraits of natives previously inserted show the
present manner of wearing the labrets at Point Barrow.

NECK ~ »RNAM ENTS.

Most of the womea and girls wear necklaces made of strings of beads,
large or small, frequently strung together with much taste. The tobacco
pouch is often attached to this necklace.

ORNAMENTS OF THE LIMBS.

Bracelets.—The women all wear bracelets, which are sometimes strings
of beads, but more commonly circles of iron, brass, or copper wire, of
which several are often worn on the same wrist, after the fashion of
bangles. Themen also sometimes wear bracelets. These consist of eir-

1See Contrib., ete., vol. 1, p. 89, and the two upper figures on the plate opposite.

2 Vega, vol. 2, p. 233.

MURDOCH: BEADS—COMBS. 149

cles of narrow thong, upon which are strung one or two large beads or
a couple of Dentalium shells (pu‘ta).?

We brought home one pair of men’s bracelets (newly made), one of
which (89388 [1355] ) is figured in Point Barrow Rept. Ethnology, PI. 1,
Fig. 4. They are made of strips of seal thong 0-2 inch broad, bent
into rings (9-4 and 8-6 inches in circumference, respectively), with the
ends slightly overlapping and sewed together. On each is strung a
cylindrical bead of soapstone about one-half inch long and of the same
diameter. <A single bracelet is generally worn.

Finger-rings.—Both sexes now frequently wear brass finger-rings,
called kati’/kqlérain, from katti/kqlin, the middle finger, upon which
the ring is always worn.

MISCELLANEOUS ORNAMENTS.

Beads.—In addition to the ornaments already described, the women
use short strings of beads, buttons, ete., to ornament various parts of
the dress, especially the outer side of the inner frock (i/lupa), and
strings of beads are often attached to various objects, such as pipes,
tobacco pouches, etc. One or two women were also observed to wear
large bunches of beads and buttons attached to the inner girdle in
front so as to hang down between the legs
inside of the pantaloons. A similar strange
custom was observed by Beechey at Hotham
Inlet, where a young woman wore a good-
sized inetal bell in the same uncomfortable
manner.’ These people appear to have at-
tempted the manufacture of beads in former
times, when they were not so easily obtained
as at present. There is in the collection a Kia. 97-—Beads of amber.
string of four small beads made from amber picked up on the beach
(Fig. 97, No. 89700 [1716] ). They are of dark honey-colored transparent
amber, about one-third inch long and one-half inch diameter at the
base. Such beads are very rare at the present day. The above speci-
mens were the only ones seen.

TOILET ARTICLES.

The only object in use among these people that can be considered a
toilet article is the small hair comb (ilai/atin), usually made of walrus
ivory.

The collection contains ten specimens, from which No. 56566) [182]
(Fig. 98a) 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

1 There is in the collection a bunch of five of these shells (No. 89530 [1357], which are scarce and highly
valued as ornaments. Mr. R. E. C. Stearns, of the U.S. National Museum, has identified the species
as Dentalium Indianorum Cpr. (probably=D. pretiosum, Sby.), called ‘‘alikotei’k"’ by the Indians of
northwest California, and ‘thiqua”’ (J. K. Lord) or ‘‘hya-qua"’ (F. Whymper) by the Indians round
Queen Charlotte Sound.

2Voyage, p. 295.

150 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

side of the neck. This 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 Fig. 98), No. 56569 [194], or sometimes with a plain top, like
No. 56572 [210] (Fig. 98c). Nine of the ten combs, all from Utkiavwin,
are of walrus ivory, but No. 89785 [1006], which was the property of
lit’bwega, the Nunatatmiun, who spent the winter of 1882783 at Utk-

wi

avwin, is made of reindeer antler. This was probably made in the
interior, where antler is more plentiful than ivory. AJ] 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 piece of
tin, as we had refused to loan him a fine saw. This kind of comb is very
like that described by Parry from Telvlik.!

Fic, 98.—Hair combs.

IMPLEMENTS FOR GENERAL USE.
TOOLS.

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 wlnar 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-

' 2nd Voyage, p. 194, Fig. 12, Pl. opp. p. 548.

MURDOCH. | KNIVES. 151

tling at Winter Island, says: ‘As is customary with negroes, he cut to-
ward the 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 first class
consists of rather small knives with ;
the edges straight or only slightly L
curved, tapering to a sharp 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 [1107] (figured in Point
Barrow Rept., Ethnology, Pl. 111,
Fig. 5), will represent this class.
It is a blade of dark purple slate,
ground smooth, 3:5 inches long,
tapering from a width of 1:5 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 awhipping 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. 99a, No. 89581
[1011], is a knife of the same class and about the same size, having a haft 4
inches and a blade 3 inches long. The blade is secured by two 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. 99d), has a blade of dark gray slate, and the haft,
which appears to be of cottonwood, is in two longitudinal sections. The

éb

Fic. 99.—Slate knives.

' Journal, p. 92.

152 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

lashing which holds these 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 34
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 4-9 inches,
with the blade projecting
only 1:4 inches.

Fig. 101, No. 89583 [1805],
is a knife of this class, with
the blade a nearly equilat-
eral triangle (1-4 inches long and 1:5 inches wide at the base), with
a flat wooden haft as wide as the
blade and 34 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 alanyard. 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. This has a blade of soft, light green-

Fie. 100.—Slate
knife-blade.

Fic, 101.—Slate knife.

1
4
FG, 102.—Slate knife.

Fie. 103.—Slate hunting-knife.

a

MURDOCH. ] KNIVES. 153

ish slate, 6 inches long and 2-6 inches broad, with the edges broadly bey-
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,
but is undoubtedly a correct
model of an ancient pattern,
as No. 56676 [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, 6-2 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 gladius. 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. The 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 25 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 unhafted blades.
No. 89597 [1052] (Fig. 106) isa typ-
ical knife of thiskind. Theblade
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 hay-
ing the tang inserted in a cleft in the end of the haft, and No. 89539a

Fia. 104.—Blade of slate hunting-knife.

Fic. 105.—Large slate knife.

Fic. 106.—Large single-edged slate knife.

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 yery 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, 56712 [226] (Fig. 107a) is noticeable for the
extreme “belly” of the edge and the
smoothness with which the faces are
beveled from back to edge. Such
knives approach the woman’s round
knife (ulu, ulu’ra). No. 89601 [776]
(Fig. 107) is almost double-edged,
the back being rounded off. Fig.
108, No. 89651 [1081], is a very re-
markable form of slate knife, of
which this was the only specimen
b seep. In shape it somewhat resem_
IG. 107.--Blades of knives. bles a hatchet, having a broad tri-
angular blade with astrongly curved cutting edge, along the back of which
is fitted a stout haft of bone 124 incheslong. The bladeis 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 haftis
the foreshaft 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 deep channel, so that the lashing is countersunk below the surface of

Fic. 108.—Peculiar slate knife.

the haft. This implement was brought down from Nuwtk and offered
for sale as a knife anciently used for cutting off 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.

MURDOCH.} KNIVES. 155

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 cutis 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. 109, No. 89477 [1422], is a very extraordinary implement, which
was brought down from Point Barrow 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.

I 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 case-knives and bits of
tools, fitting them with hafts of their own make. All agree in haying
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. 89296 [970], from
Nuwtk, has a blade
of iron, and the flat
haft is made of two
longitudinal sec-
tions of reindeer
antler, held together
with four large rivets nearly equidistant. The two which pass through
the tang areof brass and the other two of iron. The blade is 5-6 inches
long, the haft 4:1 long and 0-9 broad. Fig. 110, No, 89294 [901], from
Utkiaywin, 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. 11la, No. 89297 [1125], from
Nuwik, has a short blade, 24 inches long, and the two sections of the

Fic. 109—Knife with whalebone blade.

Fic. 110—Small iron knife.

156 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

haft are held together, not by rivets, but by a close spiral lashing of
stout seal thong extending the whole length of the haft. No. 89293
[1330], Fig. 111), from Utkiavwin, 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

b

Fig, 111,—Small iron 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 185254.

There is in the collection one large double-edged knife (Fig. 112, No.
89298 {1162]) 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 alarge copper rivet

Fie. 112.—Lron hunting knife.

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 knivesstillin 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
acertain amount of superstitious regard. These knives are undoubtedly
the same as the ‘double-edged knives (pan/-na)” mentioned by Dr.

MURDOCH. ] CROOKED KNIVES. L5G

Simpson (op. cit., p. 266) as brought for sale by the Nunatantmiun, who
obtained them from the Siberian natives, and which he believes to be
varried as far as the strait of Fury and Hecla. It would be interesting
to decide whether the stone hunting 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
savik, 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 Bathurst westward,
the natives of Point Barrow use for fine whittling and carving on wood,
ivory, bone, ete., ‘‘ecrooked 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 carying knife so generally used by the Indians of
North America. As a rule the latter has only the blade (which is

_otten 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/dlin, with a haft 10 to 20 inches long, intended
for working on wood, and a small one, savigro/n (lit. ‘an instrument for
shaving”), with a haft 6 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 close 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.

There are in the collection four large knives and thirteen small ones.
No. 89278 [787] (Fig. 113) will serve as the type of the large knives.
The haftt 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

336). The almost exclusive use of the double-edged pan’na is the reason their work is so ‘‘ remarkably

coarse and clumsy.

158 TEE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

the tip, and the lower edge is sloped off so that the end of the haft is
flat and narrow, with a slight twist. The blade is riveted to the flat
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 haftt, 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

Fic. 113.—Large crooked knife

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
filled with dirt.

Fig. 114, No. 89780 {1004d], is a very long hafted knife (the haft is
12-3 inches long), but otherwise resembles the type, though not so
elaborately ornamented. The blade is also a bit of a saw. It is pro-
vided with a sheath 34 inches long, made of black sealskin with the
black side out, doubled over at one side, and sewed “over and over”
down the other side and round one end. To the open end is sewed a bit
of thong with a slit in the end of it, into which one end of a lanyard of
Seal twine 15 inches long is fastened with a becket-hitch. When the

Fie. 114.—Large crooked knife, with sheath.

sheath is fitted over the blade the lanyard is passed through a hole in
the haft and made fast by two or three turns around it. Such sheaths
are often used by careful workmen. This particular knife was the
property of the ‘‘inlander” Ili’/bwge, previously mentioned. No. 89283
[967], from Nuwitk, is interesting as being the only left-handed tool we
obtained. The fourth knife has a blade with a cutting edge of 34 inches,
while that of each of the others is 3 inches.

The small knife differs little from the mi/dlin except in having the
haft very much shorter and not tapered off at the tip. Fig. 115a, No.
56552 [145], from Utkiavwin, shows a common form of this kind of
knife, though the blade usually has a sharp point like those of the large

MURDOCH. } CROOKED KNIVES. ] 59

knives, projecting beyond the end of the haft. This knife has a blade
of iron riveted on with two iron rivets to a haft of reindeer antler. The
edges of the haft close to the blade are roughened with crosscuts to
prevent slipping.

The blades of the small knives are frequently inserted into a cleft in
the edge of the haft, as in Fig. 115), 89632 [827], and 89277 [1172]. 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 haft and round the
heel of the blade. The blade is usually of steel, in most cases a bit of

Fig. 115.—Small crooked knives

a saw and the haft of reindeer antler, generally plain, unless the cireular
hollows, such as are to be seen on No. 89277 [1172], which are very com-
mon, are intended for ornament. Fig. 116, No, 89275 [1183], from Ut-
kiavwin, 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.

Fic. 116.—Crooked knite.

All of the crooked knives in the collection are genuine implements
which have been actually in use, and do not differ in type from the
crooked knives in the Museum from the Mackenzie district, Kotzebue
Sound, and other parts of Alaska. Similar knives appear to be used
among the Siberian Eskimo and the Chukches, who have adopted their
habits. Hooper (Tents, ete., 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 BARROW ESKIMO.

as at Point Barrow.' 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
Tglulik ‘+ 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 Greenlanders, except the follow-
ing definition in Kleinsehmidt’s “Grénlandsk Ordbog”: “2. Specially
a narrow, long-hafted knife, which is sharpened on one side and slightly
curved at the tip (and which is a Greenlander’s chief tool).” This seems
to indicate that this knife, so common in the West, is equally common
in Greenland.’

Whether these people used crooked kntves before the introduction of
iron is by no means certain, though not improbable. Fig. 117a, No.
89633 [1196], from Utkiavwii, 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 midlin handle. The haft is soiled and
undoubtedly old, while
the flaked surfaces ofthe
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. 117.—Crooked knives, flint bladed. itation in pronouncing it a pre-
historic knife, and the ancestor of the present steelone. 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 soiled by the maker.

Ten of these knives of flint were purchased within a fortnight before
we detected the deceit. Fig. 117), No. 89636 [1212] is one of the
best of these counterfeits, made by wedging a freshly flaked flint blade
into the haft of an old savigrén, 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 Utkiavwit. Another suspicious circumstance
is that a few days previously two slate-bladed crooked knives had been
brought down from Nuwittk 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.

2A specimen has lately been received at the National Museum. It is remarkably like the Indian
knife in pattern

MURDOCH. ] CROOKED KNIVES—ROUND KNIVES. 161

are as certainly new. Fig. 118a, 118), represent these two knives
(89580 [1062], 89586 [1061]), which have the blades lashed on with deer
sinew. It is worthy of note in this connection that there are no stone
knives of this pattern in the museum from any other locality.

The women employ for all purposes for which a knife or scissors could
be used a semicircular knife of the same general type as those described
by every writer from the days of Egede, who has had to deal with the

Fia. 118.—Slate-bladed crooked knives.

Eskimo. The knives at the present day are made of steel, usually, and
perhaps always, of a piece of a saw blade, which gives a sheet of steel of
the proper breadth and thickness, and are manufactured by the natives
themselves. Dr. Simpson says! that in his time they were brought
from Kotzebue Sound by the Nunataimiun, who obtained them from the
Siberian Eskimo. There are in the collection three of these steel knives,
all of the small size generally called wltry (‘little alu”). No, 56546 [14]
has been picked out for description (Fig. 119).
The blade is wedged into a handle of walrus
ivory. The ornamentation on the handle is
of incised lines and dots blackened. The cut-
ting edge of the blade is beveled on one face
only. This knife represents the general
shape of knives of this sort, but is rather 7% '—Woman's kuife,steel blade.
smaller than most of them.- I have seen some knives with blades fully
5 or 6 inches long and deep in proportion. The handle is almost always
of walrus ivory and of the shape figured. I do not remember ever
seeing an tu blade secured otherwise than by fitting it tightly into a
narrow slit in the handle, except in one case, when the handle was part
of the original handle of the saw of which the knife was made, left
still riveted on.

It is not necessary to specify the various purposes for which these
knives are used. Whenever a woman wishes to cat anything, from her
food to a thread in her sewing, she uses an tlu in preference to anything
else. The knife is handled precisely as described among the eastern
Eskimo, making the cut by pushing instead of drawing,’ thus differing
from the long-handled round knife mentioned above. Knives of this

! Op. cit., p. 266. ?See for example, Kumlien, op. cit., p. 26.

9 ETH——11

162 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

pattern are very generally used among the western Eskimo, but in
the east the blade is always separated from the handle by a short shank,
as in our mincing knives.

The natives of Point Barrow used round knives long before the intro-
duction of iron. There are in the collection twenty-three more or less
complete round knives of stone, most of which
are genuine implements that have been used.
Of these a few, which are perhaps the more
recent ones, have blades not unlike the modern
steel knife. For instance, No. 89680 [1106] Fig.
120, has a blade of hard gray mica slate of al-
most precisely the modern shape, but both
faces are gradually worked down to the cut-
ting edge without a bevel on either. The
handle is very large and stout and made of
coarse whale’s bone. This knife was said to have come from the ruined
village at Pernyr. Fig. 121, No. 89679 [971], from Nuwik, was made
for sale, but is perhaps a model of a form sometimes
used. The shape of the blade is quite different from
those now in use, in-having the cutting edge turned
so strongly to the front. The handle is of oak and the
blade of rather hard, dark purple slate. Fig. 122, 89689
[985], also from Nuwtk, and made for the market, is
introduced to show a method of hafting which may
have been formerly employed. The haft is of reindeer Fic. 121.— Woman's
antler in two longitudinal sections, between which peas ae
the blade is wedged. These two sections are held together by lashings
of sinew at each end, passing through holes in each piece and round the
ends. These lashings being put on wet, have shrunk
so that the blade is very tightly clasped between the
two parts of the handle. The commoner form of
these stone knives, however, has the back of the
blade much longer, so that the sides are straight in-
stead of oblique and usually round off gradually at
: the ends of the cutting edge without being produced
Fig.122.Woman’s knife, Lnto a point at either end. No. 89682 [953] is a form

abiea nal intermediate between this and the modern shape,
having a blade with a long back, but pro-
duced into a sharp point at one end. The han-
dle is of reindeer antler and the blade rather
soft black slate. This specimen is a very cleverly
counterfeited antique.

No. 89636 [1122], Fig. 123, approaches yet
nearer the ancient shape, but still has one end aot eae
slightly produced. The handle is also of reindeer * “slate blade.
antler, which seems to haye been very commonly used with the slate
blades. The lashing round the blade close to the handle is of seal

Fic. 120.—Woman’s knife, slate
blade.

knife,

of

MURDOCH. ] ROUND KNIVES. 163

thong, with the end wound spirally round all the parts on both sides
and neatly tucked in. It seems to serve no purpose beyond enlarging
the handle so as to make it fit the hand better. One beautiful blade
of light olive green, clouded jade,
No. 89675 [1170], belonged to a
knife of this pattern. The older
pattern is represented by No.
89676 [1586], a small knife blade
from Ukiavwint, which has been
kept as an amulet. No. 56660
[129], isa blade of the same type,
but elongated, being 74 inches
long and2 broad. This isa very beautiful implement of pale olive jade,
ground smooth. The beyel along the back of each of these blades indi-
pates that they were to be fitted into a narrow slit in a long haft, like
that of No. 89684 [886], Fig. 124, from Nuwtk. Though both blade and
handle of this specimen are very old, and have been put together in their
present shape for a long time, the
handle, which is of whale’s bone, evi-
dently belonged to a longer blade,
which fitted in the cleft without the
need of any lashing. Fig. 125, No.
Fi. 125.—Ancient bone handle for woman's 89693 [874], shows a form of handle
evidently of very great antiquity,
as the specimen shows signs of great age. It was purchased from a
native of Utkiavwin. It is made of a single piece of coarse whale’s
bone. It was intended for a blade at least 7 inches long.
Fig. 126, No. 56672 [191], from Utkiaywin, is a very crude, large knife,
intended for use without a handle. It is of rough, hard, dark purplish

Fic. 124.—Woman’s ancient slate-bladed knife.

Fic. 126.—Large knife of slate.

slate. The upper three-quarters of both faces are almost untouched
cleavage surfaces, but the lower quarter is pretty smoothly ground down
to a semivircular cutting edge, which is somewhat nicked from use.

164 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

The angular grooves on the two faces were evidently begun with the
intention of cutting the knife in two. We were told that this large
knife was specially for cutting blubber. It is a genuine antique.

While ground slate is a quite common material for round knives, flint
appears to have been rarely used. We obtained only three of this mate-
rial. No, 89690 [1311] is a flint knife hafted with a rough, irregular lump
of coarse whale’s bone. The blade is arather thin “spall” of light gray
flint, flaked round the edges into the shape of a modern uliry 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 a
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. 89691 [1360], Fig. 127, from Sidaru, 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. No. 89692 [1178] 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
EEE SIS EY SS AE softness and easy cleavage, for making such

knives would soon be recognized, and we
should expect to find, as we do, knives like No. 56672 [191]. 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. Round
knives of slate are not peculiar to Point Barrow, but have been collected
in many other places in northwestern America.!

The relationship between these knives and the semilunar slate blades
found in the North Atlantic States has already been ably discussed by
Dr. Charles Rau 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

'See, especially, Dall, Contrib., vol. 1, pp. 59 and 79, for figures of such knives from the caves of Una-
lashka.
2Prehistoric Fishing, pp. 183-188,

MURDOCH.] ADZES. 165

distinctive than the name ‘tobacco-cutter” for a Yankee’s jack-
knife.!

Adzes (udlimau).—Even at the present day the Eskimo of Point Bar-
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 rehatted so as to make an adz of it. This
habit is not peculiar to the people of Point Barrow. There is a hatchet
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 Capt. Lyon® and at Iglulik by Capt. Parry.’ Mr. L. M. Turner in-
forms me that the Eskimo of Ungava, on the south side of Hudson’s
Strait, who have been long in contact with the whites, have learned to
use axes. The collection contains two such adzes made from small
hatchets. No. 89873 [972], Fig. 128, is the more typical of the two. The
blade is the head of a small hatchet or tomahawk lashed to the haft
of oak with a stout thong of seal hide. The lashing is one piece, and

Fic. 128.—Hatechet hafted as an adz.

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 [509], from Utkiavwin, 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 Dr. Rau to say that he recognized the fact that these implements are not exelu-
sively tish-eutters, and applies this name only to indicate that he has treated of them simply in refer-
ence to their use as such. The idea, however, that these, being slightly different in shape from the
Greenland olw orulu, are merely fish knives, has gained a certain currency among anthropologists
which it is desirable to counteract.

Journal, p. 28.

32d Voyage, p. 536, and pl. 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 14 inches apart. This is pref-
erable to trimming it down to a proper thickness from 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. Adzes of this sort are used for all large pieces of wood
work, such as timbers for boats, planks, and beams for houses, ete.
After roughly dressing these out with the adz they are neatly smoothed
off 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,

Fig. 129.—Hatchet hafted as 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 size 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 adz 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 adzes 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, with 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 adzes are of jade, a material
well adapted for the purpose by its hardness, which, however, renders

MURDOCH. ] STONE ADZES. 167

it difficult to work. Probably the oldest of these adzes is No. 56675
[69], 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, 2-8 wide, and 1:3 thick, and smoothly
ground on the broader faces. The cutting edge is much broken from
longuse. One broad face is pretty smoothly ground, but left rough at the
buttend. The other is rather flatter, 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.

Fic. 130.—Adz-head of jade. FG. 131.—Adz-head of jade.

No. 89662 [900], from Nuwitk, 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 jade as the preceding.
No. 89689 [792], from Utkiavwin, is of rather light olive, opaque jade
and a trifle better finished than the type, while No. 89661 [1155], Fig.
131, also from Utkiavwin, 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 off. We 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
eut 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 BARROW ESKIMO.

into a saw (No. 89476 [1206], Fig. 147), but without teeth, was used for
this purpose.

That such stone blades were used with a haft is shown by the only
hafted specimen, No. 56628 [214], Fig. 152, from Nuwitk. This is a rather
small adz. The head of dark green jade differs from those already de-

Fic. 132.—Hafted jade adz.

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. 56638
[309], 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.
89673 [1423] is.an old black adz from Sidaru of thé same
pattern as those described, but very Smoothly and
neatly made. About one-half of this
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. 56667
[215], figured in Point Barrow Rept..
Ethnology, P1.u, Fig.5,an adz of dark
olive green jade, from Utkiavwin,
which shows two such grooves, broad
and shallow, running across the
upper face. Of these two classes the :

Fic. 133.—Adzhead Collection contains thirteen unhafted 7 {23{Aazheador
ofjade and bone. Specimens and one hafted specimen, — °*&*

all of jade. As cutting 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. 89658 {1072}, from Utkiavwin, 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

MURDOCH. ] COMPOSITE ADZES. 169

it and a shallow socket on the face to receive the end of the haft. Adz
heads of this same type continued in use till after the introduction of
iron, which was at first utilized by inserting a flat blade of iron into
just such a body, as is shown in Fig. 134 (No. 89877 [752], from the cem-
etery at Utkiavwin).

From this type to that shown in Fig. 135 (No. 89876 [696] brought
by the natives from the ruins on the Kulugrua) the transition is easy.
Suppose, for the greater protection of the lashings, we inclose the chan-
nels on the sides of the head —in
other words, bore holesinstead of cut-
ting grooves—we have exactly this
pattern, namely, verticaleyeson 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. 136, No, 56640 [260] has two eyes
on each side, and shows a different
method of attaching the blade, which
is countersunk flush with the upper
bates surface of the body and secured with
Wig. 135—Adz-head of three SLCASES BEB Ss Le MEXOSHEY Fig. 136.—Adz-head of

with verticaleyes. | iS to Substitute horizontal eyes for the ee a ee

vertical ones, so as to have only one :

set of holes to thread the lashings through. This is seen in No. 89869
[878], Fig. 137, from Nuwik, which in generai pattern closely resembles
No. 89876 [696], 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. 56638
[309].

Fic. 137.—Hafted bone and iron adz.

That this final type of hafting was reached before stone had gone
out of use for such implements is shown by Fig. 158, No. 89839 [769],
from Utkiaywit, which, while very like the last in shape, has a blade

170 THE POINT BARROW 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 and when iron first came into use in small quantities,
and a good many have been preserved until the present day. We
obtained four hafted and six unhafted specimens, besides seven jade
blades for such composite adzes, which are easily recognizable by

Fig. 138.—Hafted bone and stone adz.

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. 56685 [71], a
beautiful little adz of bright green jade 2-8 inches long and 2-5 wide,
from Utkiaywin. No. 56670 [246] also from Utkiaywin, is a similar
blade of greenish jade slightly larger,
being 3-4 inches long and 2 inches wide.
No. 89670 [1092] is a tiny blade of hard,
fine-grained black stone, probably oil-
soaked jade, only 1:7 inches long and 1:5
wide. Itisverysmoothly ground. Such
little adzes, we were told, were especially
used for cutting bone. The implement,!
which Nordenskj6ld calls a “stone
chisel,” found in the ruins of an old Es-
kimo house at Cape North, isevidently the
head of one of these little bone adzes, as is
plainly seen on comparing this figure with the larger adzes figured above.

IT have figured two more composite adzes, which are quite different
from the rest. No. 89838 [1109], Fig. 140, has a blade of neatly flaked
eray flint, but this as well as the unusually straight haft is newly

Fic. 139.—Small adz-blade of green jade.

' Figured in the Voyage of the Vega, vol. 1, p. 444, Fig. 1.

»

MURDOCH. ] ADZES. Al

made. These are fitted to a very old bone body, which when whole

ras not over 5 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. 89872 [785], isintroduced to show how the native has utilized
an old cooper’s adz, of which the eye was probably broken, by fitting it
with a bone body.

Fic. 140.—Hafted adz of bone and flint.

While the adzes already described appear to have been the predomi-
nating types, another form was sometimes used. Fig. 142, No.89874 [964],
from Nuwtk, 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 2-8 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

Fig. 141.—Old cooper's adz, rehafted.

probable. No. 59540 [1317], 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 hafted 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 BARROW ESKIMO.

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 haft 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 lash@a
exactly alike. The plan may be summarized as follows: One end of the

Fic, 142.—Adz with bone 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 end 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.
Jade adz blades, like those already described, have been brought by
Mr. Nelson from Kotzebue Sound, the Diomedes, St. Michaels, ete., and
one came from as far south as the Kuskoquim River. :
Chisels—We collected a number of small short handled chisels, re-
sembling the implements called “trinket makers,” of which there are so
many inthe National Museum. Wenever happened to see them in actual
use, but were informed that they were especially designed for working

MURDOCH.] ANTLER CHISELS. 173

on reindeer antler. Of the eight specimens collected No. 89302 [884],
Fig. 143, has been selected as a type of the antler chisel (ki/Nnusa). 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 24 inches from
the butt. The square tip of the blade is beveled on both
faces to arough cutting edge. Fig. 144
(No. 89301) [1000] has a small blade with
an oblique tip not beveled to an edge,
and a haftof walrusivory 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 stitch of
whalebone.

The rest of the steel-bladed chisels,
four in number, are all of “about the
same size and hafted with antler. The
! blades are somewhat irregular in shape,
Fig. 143.— Antler Dut all have square or oblique tips and Fie. 144.— Antler

os a no Sharp edge. Three of them have ehisel:

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.
89637 [1207], has a haft of walrus ivory, of the usual
pattern, fastened together by a bone treenail and two
stitches, one of sinew braid and one of seal thong.
The lashing of seal twine near the tip serves to mend
acrack. The hatt is old and rusty about the slot into
which the blade is fitted, shewing that it originally
had an iron blade. The flint blade was probably put 4, , 45 -—spucibas
in to make it seem ancient, as there was a special tel, flint blade.
demand for prehistoric articles. No. 89653 [1290], Fig. 145, 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 shaves.—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, ete. The

174 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

.
thin, long shavings which eurl 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 on 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 (savige), repre-
sented by No. 89306 [885] (figured in Point Barrow Report, Ethnology,
Pl. m1, Fig.6). This has a steel blade and ahaft of walrus ivory. The
upper face of the haft is convex and the under flat, and the blade,
which is beyeled 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 0:3 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. 146, No.
89649 [1213], from Utkiaywin, 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, 89652
[1225] is like the others in shape, but more
Fic. he nalehne shave, slate 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 toend. 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. 89616 [1176] 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 surtace of the
slab, which is drawn rapidly under it.

Saws.—lIf 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. Crantz' speaks of “a
little lock saw” as one of a Greenlander’s regular tools in his time, and
Egede? mentions handsaws as a regular article of trade. Capt. Parry?

| History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 149. 2 Greenland, p. 175. 32d Voyage, p. 536,

MURDOCH. } SAWS—DRILLS. 175

found the natives of Iglulik, in 1821-1823, using a saw made of a notched
piece of iron. On our asking Nikawa/alu, one day, what they had for
tools before they got iron he 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. 89476 {1206}, repre-
sents 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. Itis a common case knife
stamped on the blade, ‘ Wilson, Hawksworth, ———n & Co., Sheffield,”

which perhaps came
— 2 from the Plover, with
een Naan ae saw teeth cut on the
edge. Itwas picked
up at the Utkiavwin
cemetery, where it
had been 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.

Drills and borers.—The use of the bow drill appears to be universal
among the Eskimo. Those at present employed at Point Barrow 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 fits 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 Rept., Ethnology, P1. 1, Fig. 1,
has been selected as a typical drill (nia/ktun). 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 163.

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

Fic. 147.—Saw made of deer’s scapula.

Fig. 148.—Saw made of a case-knife.

176 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

than it has done already. The drill is of iron and the shaft of spruce,
which was once painted with red ocher.

No. 89497 [819] (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.

89595 [875] (Fig. 151) is figured to
show the way in which the shaft
has beenmended. A wedge-shaped
piece 34 inches long and 0:3 to O-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. 89515 [861], figured in Point
Barrow Report, Ethnology, Pl. 0,

Fig. 2, is a typical bow (piziksua)
for use with these drills. It is of
‘walrus ivory, 16 inches long and
ovalin 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
Hig 1" bow 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 16 inches
long, and are almost always of walrus ivory.
No. 89508 [956] (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 bone drill,
No. 89498 [956]. Both came from Nuwitk.
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 6 1°—Bow (ut and mouth.
styles of ornamentation.

Fig. 153a, No. 56506 [298] is unusually broad and flat and was prob-
ably made for a handle to a tool bag. Such handles, however, appear

MURDOCH. ] DRILLS AND BOWS. wii

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. Therest of the ornamentation is incised and blackened.
Fig. 153b, No. 89421 [1260], from Utkiavwit, 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. Fig. 153c, No. 89425 [1752], from Utkiavwin, isa
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. 153d, No. 89509 [914], from Nuwik, is a
bow of the common pattern, but ornamented by carving the
back into a toothed keel.

Fig. 153e, No. 89510 [961], from Utkiavywit, is ornamented
on one side only with an incised pattern, which is blackened.
Fig. 153f, No. 89511 [961], also from Utkiavwin, has, in addi-
tion to the incised and blackened pattern, a small transparent
sky-blue glass bead inlaid in the middle of the back. Fig.
153g, No. 89512 [836], from the same place, is a flat bow with
the edges carved into scallops. The incised line along the
middle of the back is colored with red ocher. The string is
made of sinew braid.

Fig. 154, No. 89777 [1004b], which belongs in the “kit” of Fis. 151—
It’bw’ga, the Nunataiimiun, previously mentioned, is inter- Fowl
esting from having been lengthened 34 inches by riveting on a piece of
reindeer antler at one end. The two pieces are neatly joined in a “lap
splice” about 2 inches long and fastened with three iron rivets. The
owner appears to have concluded that his drill bow was too short when

Fig. 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 (ki/Nmia) consists of a block of hard stone (rarely
iron), in which is hollowed out around 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 ETH 12

178 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

on each side, which rest against the cheeks. Such mouthpieces are
common all along the coast from the Anderson River to Norton Sound,
as is Shown by the Museum collection, No, 89500 [800], figured in Point
Barrow Report, Ethnology, Pl. 1, Fig. 3, is a type of the flanged mouth-
piece. The block is of rine, 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

ena
220

Fia. 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-half inch in diameter and of nearly the
same depth. This is a rather large mouthpiece, being 6 inches across
from one end of the arch to the other.

Fic. 154.—Spliced drill bow.

There are two otherspecimens of the same pattern, both rather smaller.
No. 89503 [891], Fig. 150, from Nuwitk, 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
[1004¢], 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 Ili‘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-
ing three specimens are of the same pattern and of the same material as
the last, except No. 89507 [908], from Nuwittk, 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 Report, Ethnology, Pl. 1, 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 94 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. 156.—Drill mouthpiece with- 89498 [956], Fig. 157, is one of these,

tee from Nuwittk. 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 jg. 157
[1258] was made forthe market. It has a rude shaft of whale’s Bone-pointed
bone, but a carefully made bone point of precisely the pattern ae
of the modern iron oues. No. $9520 [1182] has no shaft, and appears to
be an old unfinished drill fitted into a carelessly made bone ferrule.

Fic. 155.—Drill mouthpiece, with iron socket.

180 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

The drill at the present day is always worked with a bow, which allows
one hand to be used for steadying the piece of work. We were informed,
however, that formerly a cord was sometimes used without the bow, but
furnished with a transverse handle at each end.

We collected six little handles of ivory, carved into some ornamental
shape, each with an eye in the middle to which a thong could be attached.
All were old, and we never saw them in use. The first two were col-
lected at an early period of our acquaintance with these people, and from
our imperfect knowledge of the language we got the impression that
they were handles to be attached to a harpoon line.

We were not long, however in finding out that the harpoon has no
such appendage, and when the other four came in a year later, at a time
when the press of other work pre-
vented careful inquiry into their
use, we supposed that they were
meant for handles to the lines used
for dragging dead seals, as they
somewhat resemble such an im-
plement. On our return home,
when I had opportunities for mak-
ing a careful study of the collec-
tion, I found that none of the drag
lines, either in our own collection
or in those of the Museum, had
handles of this description. On
the other hand, I found many sim-
ilar implements in Mr. Nelson’s
collection labeled ‘drill-cord han-
dles,” and finally one pair (No.
36319, from Kashunuk, near Cape
Romanzoff), still attached to the
drill cord. These handles are al-
most identical in shape with No.
89458 [835], from Utkiavwin. This leaves no doubt in my mind that
the so-called “drag-line handles” in our collection are nothing more than
handles for drill cords, now wholly obsolete and supplanted by the bows
already described. I have figured all six of these handles to show the
different patterns of ornamentation. They are all made of walrus ivory,
and are all “odd” handles, no two being mates. Fig. 158a (No. 56526)
[86], is 5-2 inches long, and light blue beads are inserted for eyes in the
seal’s heads. The eye for the drill cord is made by boring two median
holes at the middle of one side so that they meet under the surface and
make a longitudinal channel.

Fig. 158) (No. 56527 [23] from Utkiavwin), is 4°3 inches long, and is
very accurately carved into the image of a man’s right leg and foot,
dressed in a striped deerskin boot. The end opposite to the foot is the

Fig. 158.—Handles for drill cords.

MURDOCH.] DRILL-CORD HANDLES. 181

head of some animal, perhaps a wolf, with bits of dark wood inlaid for
eyes. The eye is a simple large transverse hole through the thigh.

Fig. 158¢ (No. 89455 [929] from Nuwitk), is 5-9 inches long. The eye
is drilled lengthwise through a large lump projecting from the middle
of one side. Small blue beads are inlgid for the eyes, and one to indi-
cate the male genital opening.

Fig. 158d (No. 89456 [930] from Nuwitk) is like No. 56527 [23], but
represents the left foot and is not so artistically carved. It is 3-7 inches
long.

Fig. 158e (No. 89457 [925] from Nuwittk) is 47 inches long, and re-
sembles No. 89455 [929], but has instead of the seal’s tail and flippers
a large ovoid knob ornamented with incised and blackened rings. The
“eye” is bored transversely.

Fig. 158f (No. 89458 [835| from Utkiavwin) differs from No. 89455 [925]
in having a transverse eye, and being less artistically carved. Bits of
lead are inlaid for the eyes. It is 4-4 inches long. The name of this
implement is kt/n-i.

We obtained six specimens of an old flint tool, consisting of a rather
long thick blade mounted in a straight haft about 10 inches long,of
which we had some difficulty in ascertaining the use. We were at last
able to be quite sure that they were intended for drilling, or rather
reaming out, the large cavity in the base of the ivory head of a whale
harpoon, which fits upon the conical tip of the fore-shaft. The shape
of the blade is well fitted for this purpose. It is not unlikely that such
tools, worked as these are, by hand, preceded the bone drills for boring
all sorts of objects, and that the habit of using them for making the
whale harpoon was kept up from the same conservatism founded on
superstition which surrounds the whole whale fishery. (See under
“Whale fishing,” where the subject will be more fully discussed.) No.
89626 [870], figured in Point Barrow Report, Ethnology, Pl. 1, Fig. 4,
is a typical implement of this class (itaun, i/ttigetsau’). The blade is
of black flint, flaked, 2 inches long, imbedded in the end of a haft of
spruce, 10-5 inches long. The blade is held in place by whipping the
eleft end of the haft with smew braid.

Two of the other specimens, No. 89627 [937] and No. 89628 [912], are
of essentially the same pattern and material, but have rounded hafts.
No. 89629 |960] and No. 89630 [1068], Figs. 159a, 159b, have blades of the
same pattern, but have hafts fitted for use with the mouthpiece and
bow, showing that sometimes, at least in later'times, these tools were so
used. No. 89625 [1217] (Fig. 160) has no haft, but the blade, which is
rather narrow in proportion to its length (2:3 inches by 0:5), is fitted
into a shortferrule of antler, with a little dovetail on the edge for attach-
ing it to the haft.

Of awls we saw only one specimen, which, perhaps, ought rather to
be considered a little hand drill. This is No. 89308 [1292], Fig. 161,
from Utkiavwin. The point is the tip of a common three-cornered file,

182 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

sharpened down. It is imbedded in a handle of fossil ivory which has
turned a light yellowish brown from age. Its total length is 2-8 inches.

Fig, 159,—Flint-bladed reamers.

Hammers.—At the present day nearly every man has been able to
procure an iron hammer of some kind, which he uses with great handi-
ness. Before the introduction of iron, in addition to the bone and
stone mauls above described as bone crushers, unhafted pebbles of con-
venient shape were also employed. No. 56661 [274] is such a stone. It
is an ovoid water-worn pebble of greenish gray quartzite, 34 inches long.
The ends are battered, showing how it had been used. It was brought
from one of the rivers in the interior by one of the natives of Utkiav-
win.

Files.—Files of all kinds are eagerly sought after by the natives,
who use them with very great skill and patience, doing nearly all their
metal work with these tools. For instance,
one particularly ingenious native con-
verted his Winchester rifle from a rim fire
to a central fire with nothing but a file. To
do this he had to make a new firing pin, as
the firing pin of the rim-fire gun is too short
to reach the head of the cartridge. He
accomplished this by accurately cutting off.
to the proper length, an old worn-out three-
cornered file. He then filed off enough of
each edge so that the rod fitted evenly in
the cylindrical hole where the firing pin
works. The work was done so carefully
that the new firing pin worked perfectly,
and he had only to complete the job by
cutting off his central fire cartridge shells

Fic. 160.—Flint- to a proper length to fit the chamber of
bladed reamer.
the gun.

They have almost no knowledge of working metal with
the aid of heat, as is natural from the scarcity of fuel. 7%!
I have, however, seen them roughly temper small articles, such as fire
steels, etc., by heating them in the fire and quenching them in cold

—Awl.

MURDOCH. ] WHETSTONES. 183

One native very neatly mended a musket barrel which had been

water.
He cut a section from another old

cracked by firing too heavy a charge.
barrel of somewhat larger caliber, which he heated until it had expanded
enough to slip down over the crack, and then allowed it to shrink on.
Whetstones (ipiksaun).—Knives are generally sharpened with a file,
cutting a bevel, as before mentioned, on one face of the blade only.
To “set” or “turn” the edge they use pieces of steel of various shapes,
generally with a hole drilled in them so that they can be hung to the
breeches belt by a lanyard, One man, for instance, used about half of

b
:
&
3
i “
kK
& 2
i
t.
E
3
i

Fic. 162.—Jade whetstones.

a razor blade for this purpose, and another a small horseshoe magnet.
In former times they employed a very elegant implement, consisting of
aslender rod of jade from 3 to 7 inches long, with a lanyard attached to
an eye in the larger end. These were sometimes made by cutting a
piece from one of the old jade adzes in the manner already described.
There are a few of these whetstones still in use at the present day, and
they are very highly prized. We succeeded in obtaining nine speci-
mens, of which No. 89618 [801], Fig. 162a, has been selected as the type.
It is of hard black stone, probably jade, 6°3 inches long. Through the
wider end is drilled a large eye, into which is neatly spliced one end
of a stout flat braid of sinew 43 inches long.

184 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

The remaining whetstones are of very much the same pattern. I
have figured five of them, to show the slight variations. Fig. 162b (No.
56662 [393], from Utkiavwin) is of light grayish green jade, smoothly pol-
ished and 4:1 inches long. It is chamfered only on the small end at
right angles to the breadth, and has the eye prolonged into ornamental
grooves on the two opposite faces. The long lanyard is of common
sinew braid. No, 56663 [229] (from the same village) is of olive green,
slightly translucent jade, 6-8 inches long, and elliptical in section, also
chamfered only at the small end. The lanyard, which is a strip of seal
thong 9 inches long, is secured in the eye, as described before, with
two slits, one in the standing part through which the end is passed
and the other in the end with the standing part passed through it.
No, 89617 [1262] (from Sidaru) is of olive green, translucent jade, 6:1

Fig. 163.—Jade whetstones.

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. 89619 [837] (from Utkiavwin) is of bright green,
translucent jade, 5-1 incheslong, and unusually thick, its greatest diam-
eter being 0-6 inch. The tipis gradually worked off to an oblique edge,
and it has ornamental grooves running through the eye like No. 56662
[393].

No. 89620 [865] (from Nuwitk) is shaped very much like the type, but
has the tip tapered off alinost to a point. It is of olive green, slightly
translucent jade and is 7 inches long. The lanyard is a piece of sinew

MURDOCH. ] 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. 163a (No. 89621 [757], from
Utkiavwin) is very short and broad (3-6 inches by 0-6), 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. 163b (No.
89622 [951], also from Utkiavwin) is a very small; slender whetstone,
3°3 inches long, of dark olive green semitranslucent jade, polished. The
tip is not chamfered, but tapers toa 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. 266) as brought by the Nunatafimiun from the people of

Fia. 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. 89786 [1004/], which belong in It’/bw’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. 89860 [1152], Fig. 164a, 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

186 THE POINT BARROW 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 off
and covered with dirt, but inside it has turned a dark brown. Fig. 164)
(No. 89858 [1319], 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 five 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. 89859 [1318] is a smaller box (19 inches long) of the same pat-
tern, with only four studs. The cover has three large blue glass beads,

Fia. 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. 89861 [1151], Fig. 165a,
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 first all of sinew

MURDOCH. ] TOOL BOX, TOOL BAG. 187

braid, and, gradually growing too short by being broken and knotted
together again, was lengthened out with whatever came to hand.

No. 89862 [1593], Fig. 165), 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-and-over” stitches of whale-
pone. 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

Fia. 166.—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 ina
large oblong, flat satchel, ikqixbwin, 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. 89794 [1018], Fig. 166, is the type of these bags.
The bottom of the bag is a piece of short-haired brown deerskin, with

188 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

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, 144
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.

Fig. 167.—Tool bag of wolverine skin.

Fig. 167, No. 89776 [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 through
the nostrils of the two side heads so that it can spread open only
about 13 inches. The handle 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. 89777 [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
bag was the property of the Nunatatmiun Ilibw’ga, so frequently men-
tioned, and was purchased with all its contents.

These are two bow drills, one large and one small (Figs. 168a and 168),
Nos. 89778 and 89779 [1004a]); a drill bow (Fig. 154, No. 89777 [10040)) ;
a mouthpiece (Fig. 155, No. 89787 [1004c]); a large
crooked knife with a sheath (Fig. 114, No. 89780
[1004d]); a flint flaker (No, 89752 [1004e|); a comb for
deerskins (Fig. 169, No. 89781 [1005]); a haircomb
made of antler (No. 89785 {1006]); a fishhook (No.
89783 [1007]); and a small seal harpoon head (No.
89784 [1008]).

No. 89796 [1118], from Nuwitk, 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 4,4 169 Comb for
patched on the inside with deerskin. deerskins in the
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. 170a (No. 89420
Fic. 168.—Drills belong- [1111], from Nuwitik) has incised figures of men and

ing to the tool bag. peindeer on the back, once colored with ocher, of which
traces can still be seen. This is perhaps a hunting score. (See remarks
on this subject under “Bow drills.”) Fig. 170) (No. 89423 [996], from
Utkiavwin) 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 Nuwittk) 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 anactual score. The series of
twenty-six tails were said to be the record of old Yaksi‘fa (“ 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. 170¢ (No. 56518

190 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

[43], from Utkiavwii) 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

Fia. 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
inchesin diameter, of vhatseems
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 (6, 44, 4, 55, and
5 inches broad at the bottom, re-
spectively, narrowing to 24, 14,
14, 2, and 24, respectively, at
the top), alternating with five
straight strips, respectively 14,
1, 14, 14, and 14 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.

Fig. 171—Bag of leather.

MURDOCH. ] CLUBS. 191
WEAPONS.

As would naturally be expected from what has been 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
(ti’glun) (No. 89492 [1310], Fig. 172, from Utkiavwint)
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
6-4 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. SE eRe. ee
We collected a single specimen of a kind of slung club.

Shot, No. 89472 [905] (Fig. 173), made
of a roughly ovoid lump of heavy bone,
the symphysis of the lower jaw of a
walrus, 34 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.
Fia. 173.—Slungshot made of walrus jaw. Tysane persons were sometimes killed
in Greenland, and the act was considered ‘neither decidedly admissi-

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 Nuwittk, is made of a straight splinter
from the shaft of one of the long bones, 9? inches long. No. 89480 [1141],
from Utkiavywin, has a roughly whittled Lilt 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.
175d, also from Utkiavwin, 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 Nuwtk, 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 thenotches
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
Fic.174.—Daggerof grizzly bear, and used by

bear's bone. the Indians of the MeCloud
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.

Fia. 175.—Bone daggers.

! Rink, Tales and Traditions, p. 35.

MURDOCH. ] FIREARMS. 193

PROJECTILE WEAPONS.

Firearms.—When Dease and Simpson first met these people, in 1837,
they had no firearms, but the next party of whites who came 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.! Hooper believed this to be the gun lost by Sir John Frank-
lin’s party in 1826.22. 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 time’), 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 1826.
Armstrong‘ 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. Yuaksina
and two other men each bought a gun this year.

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 Russian 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 ye. 176.—so-called
the “Nunatafimiun,” who obtained them either from 4@gger of bone.
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 “‘cupin,” an onomatopeie word in general
use in western America, but many of the different kinds have special
names. For instance, a double gun is called madro‘lin (from madro, two).
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

Xx

1 Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 239.

2 Franklin, 2d Exp., p. 148. In the hurry of leaving Barter Island “‘one of the crew of the Reliance
left his gun and ammunition.”

3See McClure’s N. W. Passage, p. 390.

4 Narrative, p. 109.

5 Maguire, Further Papers, p. 907.

9 ETH 13

194 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

ealled akimiyvlin (‘that which has fifteen,” se., 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 breechloaders, we saw the Sharpe’s rifle, savigro/lin (from a fancied
resemblance between the crooked lever of this gun and the crooked
knife, savigro’n); other patterns of Winchester; the Spencer repeater,
kai/psualin (from kaipsi, cartridge); the peculiar Sharps-Hankins, once
used in the U. 8S. Navy, and which was the favorite weapon of the rebel
Boers in South Africa; the Peabody-Martini, 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 mitkpa-
ra/lin (from mtkpara’, 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 U. S. Army pattern, Enfield rifles, ship’s mus-
kets with the Tower niark 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 Nunataimiun 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, D.” 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

MURDOCH. ] FIREARMS—BOWS. 195

charges of shot at short rifle range (100 to 200 yards). Though they
mold their own bullets, | have never known any of them to attempt
making shot or slugs. This, which they call kakrira (little bullets,
from ka/kru, originally meaning arrow and now used for bullet as well)
is always obtained from the whites. The gun is habitually carried in a
vase 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 case, 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 unslinging 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 guns.—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.

Bows (pizvksé)—In former times the bow was the only projectile
weapon which these people possessed that could be used at a longer range
than the “dart” of a harpoon. It was accordingly used for 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 he 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 universal sinew-backed bow of

196 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

the Eskimo earried to its highest degree of efficiency.' It was of what
T 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 14 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-

MECC Pit Mii

b

Fia. 177.—Boy’s bow from Utkiavwin.

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

1See the writer's paper on the subject of Eskimo bows in the Smithsonian Report for 1884, Part I,
pp. 307-316,

MURDOCH. ] BOWS. MUS}Yi

one of these bows wholly through a polar bear, “if there was no bone.”
Three bows only were obtained: One from Nuwitk, one from Utkiav-
win (a lad’s bow), and one from Sidaru.

The bow from Utkiaywin, No. 89904 [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 driftwood 364 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 [25| (Fig. 179), from Nuwitk, is a full-

te sized man’s bow, which is old and

has been long in use. It is of the

CSet= same material, and is 47:3 inches
long. Its greatest breadth is 14

Fia. 178.—Loop at end of inches, and it is 0-8 inch thick at
howeming: thehandle. Itis slightly narrowed

and thinned off from the broadest part to about 6
inches from each tip, and is then gradually thickened
to the nocks and bent up so that the ends make an

vom Fe

a

disnnda

angle of about 45° with the bow when unstrung. The :
ends are separate pieces fitted on at the bends. The 4
ends of the body are chamfered off laterally to a wedge z
which fits into a corresponding notch in the end piece, is

making a scarf 34 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 wholiy 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 1826, at Kotzebue Sound
(Voyage, p. 575). The bow was wrapped in wet we.179—1arcebowfrom
shavings and held over the fire, and then pegged Nuwik.
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.

\ ir sems PTE

198 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

No. 72771 [234], from Sidaru (Fig. 180@ and b), is a bow with bent
ends like the last, but all in one piece and smaller. Its length is 433
Inches and its greatest breadth 14. 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 tree
end mentioned above, thus making a iong 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

oat ee ee bow from SMerica and the opposite coast of Asia were

Sidaru. 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 Romanzoff, and continued in frequent use as far as
Norton Sound, though separated by no hard and fast line from

Il. The Arctic type, to which the bows just described belong, in use

g

MURDOCH. ] BOWS. 199

from the Kaviak peninsula to the Mackenzie and Anderson rivers; and

Il]. The Western type, confined to St. Lawrence 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 sporadie examples of the Arctic type, for instance as far south as
the Yukon, by the well known 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. Bessels! 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 Crantz* wrote it had already
gone out of use, though in Egede’s’ time it was still employed. It ap-
pears to have been longer than the other Eskimo bows. Nordenskiéld*
reproduces a picture of a group of Greenlanders from an old painting
of the date of 1654in 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 lengthenimg the backing. The addition of the end
cables would then be an after invention, peculiar to the western bow.
In Baftin 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
elsewhere. There are in the Museum three specimens of such antler
bows, brought from Cumberland Gulf by Mr. Kumlien.

1Naturalist, vol 8, No. 9, p. 869.

2‘‘In former times they made use of bows for land game; they were made of soft fir, a fathom in
length, and to make it the stiffer it was bound round with whalebone or sinews.”’ History of Green-
land, vol. 1, p. 146.

3Their Bow is of an ordinary Make, commonly made of Fir Tree, . . . and on the Back
strengthened with Strings made of Sinews of Animals, twisted like Thread.” ‘‘The Bow is a good
fathom long.” Greenland, p. 101.

4 Voyage of the Vega, vol. 1, p. 41.

200 THE POINT BARROW 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 (PI. 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. Schwatka? speaks of the Netyilik of King Williams Land as
using bows of spliced pieces of musk-ox horn or driftwood, but gives
no further description of them. Ellis* describes the bow in use at Hud-
sows Strait in 1746 as follows:

Their greatest Ingenuity is shown in the Structure of their Bows, 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.*

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 I have been able to ascertain, the practice of backing the
bow with cords of sinew is peculiar to the Eskimo, though some Ameri-

van Indians stiffen the bow by gluing flat pieces of sinew upon the
back.

One tribe of Indians, the “ Loucheux” of the Mackenzie district,
however, used bows like those of the Eskimos, but Sir Alexander Mae-
kenzie® expressly states that these were obtained from the Eskimo.

1Hakluyt’'s Voyages, 1589, p. 628.

2Science, vol. 4 , 98, p. 543.

3 Voyage to Hudson's Bay, p. 138.

4Compare what I have already said about the backing being put on wet.
®Voyages from Montreal . . . tothe Frozen and Pacific Oceans, p. 48.

MURDOCH.) ARROWS. 201

Arrows.—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 archery ! for
the parts of the arrow. The greatest variation is in the shape and size
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 6 or 7 inches long, con-
sisting of two, or less often, three feathers. (The set of sixteen arrows
from Sidaru, two from Nuwik, and one from Utkiaywin, 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
ateachend(Fig.181). Theends ©
of the feathers are fastened to
the stele with whippings of fine Fig. 181.—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. Simpson’ 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.

1 Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th edition, article Archery.

2On this subject of using the feathers of birds of prey for arrows, compare Crantz, History of Green.
land, i, p.146, “the arrow . . . winged behind with a couple of raven’s feathers.” Bessels,
Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 9, p.869 (the three arrows at Ita had raven's feathers). Parry, 2d Voyage, p.
511, ** Toward the opposite end of the arrow are two feathers, generally of the spotted owl, not very
neatly lashed on;"’ and Kumlien, Contributions, p.37, ‘* The feather-vanes were nearly always made
from the primaries of Striz seandiaca or Graculus carbo.” The lastis the only mention I find of using
any feathers except those of birds of prey.

3 Op. cit., p. 266,

202 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

Bear arrows.—These are of three kinds, all having a broad, sharp pile,
often barbed. The first kind has a pile of flaked flint, called kiki (*¢ claw”
or “nail”), and was known as kuki/ksadlin (“provided or fitted with claw
material”). Of this kind we have eight complete arrows and one shaft.

No. 89246 [25], 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 smew. The stele is of spruce, 254 inches

%

Fic. 182.—Flint-headed arrow (kukiksadlin).

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 6 inches long. This is one of the two arrows
from Nuwittk 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
lancet-tipped, expanding into rounded wings at each
side of the base. The stele is peculiar
ouly in being slightly widened in front
of the nock. It is of pine, 26:3 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. 56704 y
[252], Fig. 183, from Utkiavwin, which Fic. 184,—Short flint
is of gray flint. The next is similar in ees
shape, but shorter, as shown in Fig. 182 (No. 89240 [25],
from Nuwtk), which is only 2 inches long, exclusive of
thetang. The third pattern, which is less common than
the others, is about the size of the last, but rhomboidal
Fie. 183.—Long flint in shape (Fig. 184, No. 56691¢ [64¢], from Utkiavwin, of

pile. dark grayish brown flint, rather coarsely flaked). The
fourth kind is very short, being not over 14 inches, including the half-
inch tang, but is | inch broad, thick and convex on both faces. It is
triangular, with a square base and curved edges (Fig. 185, No. 56702
[113], from Utkiaywin, newly made for sale).

i
} \ by it
EIN
Mi

MURDOCH.) 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
with 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. I yy¢. 15._treart-shaped
was at first inclined to think that this piece of bone flint pile.
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

Fig. 186.—Arrows: (a) Arrow with ‘after-pile” (ipudligadlin); (6) arrow with iron pile (savidlit;
(c) arrow with iron pile (savidlin); (d) arrow with copper pile (savidlin); (e) deer-arrow (nfitkodlin).
.the second kind of bear arrows, which are called ipudli/gadlin (“having
the ipu’dlige” [Gr. 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. 72787 [234a], Fig. 186a, 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 cther four have two, one behind the other on the same side. No.
89237 [164], from Utkiavwin, differs in no respect from the single-barbed
flint arrows from Sidaru, but No. 72763 [164], 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/ksadlin, making the third
and last form of bear arrow, the sa/vidlin (‘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 Nuwitk, represents the first form. The pile is
of iron, rough and flat, 245 inches long. No. 72770 [2416], from Utki-
avwin, is of the same form. No. 72760 [165], Fig. 186c, from Utkiavwin,
has a similar pile 3°3 inches long, but has each of the under edges cut
into four sharp, backward-pointing teeth. No. 72778 [234b], Fig. 186d,
has a pile of sheet copper 23 inches long, of the same shape, but with six
teeth. This arrow came from Sidaru. No. 72765 [25], from Nuwiuk, isa
long, narrow iron pile with three bilateral barbs, all simple.

Nos. 72755 [25], from Nuwittk, 72759 [25], also from Nuwik, and 72764
[165], from Utkiavwin, 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.
72760 [165], with more teeth, mounted on a slender cylindrical shank 14
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-halfinch long. Nos. 72757 [25] (Fig. 186b) and 72762 [25], both
from Nuwtk, are peculiar in being the only iron-pointed arrows with un-
lateral barbs. Thepiles are made of the two blades of a pair of large scis-
sors, cut off 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 in use from the superstitious conservatism already mentioned. It
is certain that the man who raised a couple of wolf cubs for the sake of
their fur was obliged by tradition to have a flint-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 the wolf and brown bear, and

2D

Fic. 187.—Pile of deer arrow (nfitkai).

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 [162], Fig. 186e from Utkiavwin, has a pile 34 inches
long with two barbs. The pile of No, 89238 [162] from the same
village is 34 inches long and has but one barb, while that of
No. 89241a [162] is 7-3 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.!’ 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 nt’tkan, whence comes the name of the
arrow, ni/tko’/dlin. We collected ten arrows and three piles of
this pattern, No.89460 [1263], Fig. 188, is a peculiar bone arrow
pile, perhaps intended for adeer arrow. It is 7 inches long and Fig. 188.—
made of one of the long bones of some large bird, split length- qua =
wise so that it is rounded on one side and deeply concave on 7W Pile-
the other, with two thin rounded edges tapered to asharp point. Each

1Compare the passage in Frobisher’s Second Voyage (Hakluyt, 1589, p. 628). After describing the
different forms of arrowheads used by the Eskimo of ‘‘ Meta Incognita” (Baffin Land) in 1577 he
says: ‘They are not made very fast, but lightly tyed to, or else set in a nocke, that upon small occa-
sion the arrowe leaveth these heads behind them.”

206 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

edge has three little barbs about the 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 “ Kthmid/lin” arrow. I was pleased to find the
truth of this corroborated by the Museum collection. There are two
arrows from the Mackenzie region (Nos. 1106 and 1906) with bone piles
of almost the same form.

For shooting gulls, geese, and other large fowl they used an arrow
with astraight polygonal pile of walrus ivory, 5 or 6 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 five-sided, though sometimes trihedral, and have a long, rounded
tang inserted into the end of the shaft. Fig. 189a@ (No. 89349 [119]
from Utkiavwin), 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-
seribed. No. 89238 [25], from Nuwitk, has a trihedral pile
6-6 inches long, with a single barb. Another from Nuwtk
(No, 89241 {25]) has a trihedral pile 5:3 inches long, with
two barbs, and one from Utkiavwin (No, 59241 {119]) has
a five-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. 899044 [786] from Utkiavwin). These arrows are new
and rather carelessly made, and were intended for the
lad’s bow (No. 89904 [786]) already deseribed. 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.
ne eee The four arrows of this kind in the collection are almost

(tugalin); (b) exactly alike, except that three of them, belonging to the

pena (kix- set from Sidaru, have three feathers. Fig. 189b, No. 72775

(254¢| 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

a b

MURDOCH. } ARROWS—ARROW RELEASE. 207

is often replaced by an empty cartridge shell, which makes a very good
head. Ihave seen a phalarope transfixed at short range by one of these

vartridge-headed arrows. Anassortment of the different kind of arrows
is usually carried in the quiver. The lot numbered 25, from Nuwitk,
which I believe to be a fairly average set, contains two flint-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 Gulf! 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 place. 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. The arrow, however, described by Capt. Parry? 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 cases and quivers.—The bow and arrows were carried in a bow
case and quiver of black sealskin, tied together side by side and slung
across the back in the same manner as the gun holster already de-
scribed. We obtained one case and quiver which belong with the bow
and arrows (No, 25, from Nuwittk) and a single quiver with the bow and
arrows (No. 234, from Sidaru.) The case, No. 89245 [25], Fig. 190a
(pizi’/ksizax), is y 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 plaek
sealskin with the flesh side in and sewing up one side “over and over’
from the outside. The bag is wide enough—6 inches at the widest
part—to allow the bow to slip in easily when strung, and the small end

Tn shooting this weapon the string is pl a on the first joint of the first and second fingers of the
right hand."’. (Kumlien, Contributions, p. 37.)

* Beim Spannen wird der Pfeil nicht zwischen Daumen und Zeigetinger, sondern zwischen Zeige. und
Mittelfinger gehalten,” Krause Brothers, Geographische Blitter, vol. 5, p. 33.

2Voyage to the Northern Whale Fishery, p. 187.

32d Voyage, p. 511, and figured with the bow (22) on Pl. opposite p. 550.

208 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

is bent up into the shape of the end of the bow. Along the folded edge
are three round holes about 10 inches apart, through which a round
stick was formerly thrust, coming out from the inside through the first
hole, in through the second and out through the third again. This
served to hold the case in shape when the bow was withdrawn, and to
its ends were fastened the thong for slinging it across the shoulders. It
was gone from the specimen before we obtained it.

The quiver (No. 89240-1 [25], Fig. 190)) is a long, straight bag of the
Same material, open at one end, with a seam down one side, and the

pf

a
Fic. 190.—Bow case and quivers.
edge of the mouth 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
4 inch in diameter, with one end, which is pointed, projecting about 14
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 init. <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. 190c) is
like the preceding, but larger at the bottom than at the
mouth. The latter is 84 inches in circumference and the
former 123, and the seam is left open for about 74 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. Lyon! are almost pel like the
ones we 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 Fic, 192.—Cap for quiver rod.
from Point Hope (No. 63611). Nordenskidld, however,
figures a very elaborate flat quiver,’ 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. 56505 [231], from Nuwitk, 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

Fig. 191.—Quiver hole at the back of the neck is for a thong to fasten it on

oil: with. <A similar reindeer head of antler, Fig. 192, No.
89449 [1066], also from Nuwiik, seems to have been a cap for a quiver
stick. The back of the neck makes a half-ferrule, in which are three
holes for rivets or treenails.

Bracers.—In shooting the ay the wrist of the bow hand was pro-

Parry's 2d Voyage, Pl. praia p. 550, Fig. 24.
2Vega, vol. 2, p. 106.
9 ETH——14

210 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

tected from being chafed by the bowstring by a small shield or ‘‘bracer”
of bone or horn, strapped on witha 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, No. 89410) [1233], Fig. 193.

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

Fic. 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. 89410a [1233], is like this, but 1 inch
Shorter and nearly flat. The arch of the specimen figured is probably
unintentional and due to the natural shape of the material, as it does
not fit well to the wrist. It is probable that these —_
people used a flat bracer, as Fig. 194, No. 89350 a
[1382], from Utkiavwin, is apparently such an im- ie
plement. It is a thin elliptical plate of hard bone,
23 inches long and 145 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
four 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 1826, he found the bracer in general use.! I find 7" 184—Bracer of Done.
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 flight, 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

SiG

1“ They buckle ona piece of ivory, called mun-era, about 3 or4 incheslong, hollowed out to the wrist,
or a guard made of several pieces of ivory or wood fastened together like an iron-holder.” Voyage,
p. 575,

a

MURDOCH. ] BIRD 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 Barrow, 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. Weseldom
saw this spear used, as it is chiefly employed in cateh-
ing molting fowl, in the summer season, away from the
immediate neighborhood of the station. It is called
nwia/kpai, which is a plural referring to the number
of points, one of which is called nuia/kpiak (‘the great
nuiak”).!

No. 89244 [1325], Fig. 195, from Utkiavwin, has been
selected as the type of this weapon. The shaft is of
spruce, 614 inches long and 0-7 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 equal distances from each other
round the shaft. The inner side of each prong is eut
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 hitched round this, and carried
round to the starting point, and half hitched round

'This word appears to be a diminutive of the Greenlandic nuek—nuik, now
used only in the plural, nugfit, for the spear. These changes 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 nnik,”
and enlarged again after the meaning of the name was forgotten, it is hard to see any sense m the
present name, ‘‘ big little nuik.”

Fie. 195.—Bird dart.

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 134 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 Nikawa/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, nf’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 Utkiay-
win, which has four barbs on one side only. It is
74 inches long exelusive 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 Greenlanders, which, since Crantz’s time!
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/kqligik, and it does bear
some slight resemblance to the head of weapon
used in Greenland and called by a similar name?
(agdligak). The roughened tang, however, indi-
cates that it was intended to be fixed permanently |. 197 an.
in the shaft, and this, taken in connection with © cient point
jts strong resemblance to the one-barbed head of 1" "det
the Greenland nugfit? as well as to the head of the Siberian
bird dart figured by Nordenskiéld*, makes it probable that it is really
the form of bird dart head anciently used at Point Barrow. It is pos-

Fia. 196.—Point
for bird dart.

' History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 148.

2Crantz, vol. 1, p. 147, and Figs. 6 and 7, Pl. v,
3Thid., Fig. 8.

4Vega, vol. 2, p. 105, Fig. 5,

MURDOCH. ] BIRD DART. 213

sible that this pattern has been so long out of use that the natives have
forgotten what this old point was made for and supposed it to belong to
a Seal spear.

One of the eight heads of the ordinary pattern in the collection, No.
56592 [284], a genuine one, old and dirty, is made of coarse-grained
whale’s bone, an unusual material. No. 89373 [948], from
Utkiavwin, an ivory head of a good typical shape, has
been figured (Fig. 198) to show a common style of orna-
menting these heads. A narrow incised line, colored
with red ocher, runs along the base of the barbs on each
side for about three-fourths the length of the
blade. These heads are sometimes secured by
treenails as well as by a simple lashing, as is
shown by the holes through the tang of this
specimen.

An improvement on this style of dart, which
appears to be less common, has two prongs at
the tip instead of a sharp head, so that the bird
may be caught if struck on the neck with the
point of the spear. No. 89905 [1326], Fig. 199,
from Utkiaywin, is one of this pattern. The
two prongs are fastened on with a lashing of
fine sinew braid. The rest of the dart does
not differ from the one described except in the
method of attaching the three prongs at the
middle (Fig. 199). These are fitted into slight
grooves in the wood and secured by two neat
lashings of narrow strips of whalebone, one

just above a little ridge at the lower end of

Fig. 198.— . :

Point for each prong and one through little holes in each
bird dart. prong at the top of the oblique edge. Each
lashing consists of. several turns with the end closely
wrapped around them. There is one specimen, No. 89242
[526], in the collection which not only has not the prongs
at the middle, but lacks the enlargement of the shaft to Fie. 199.—Bird dart
receive them. The head is undoubtedly old and gen- “it? “eu?le point
uine, but the shaft and fittings, though dirty, look suspiciously fresh.
I am inclined to believe that this head was mounted for sale by a man
who had no prongs ready made, and was in too much of a hurry to get
his price to stop to make them. Imperfect or unfinished objects were
frequently offered for sale.

The bird darts used at Point Barrow, and by the western Eskimo
generally, are lighter and better finished than those used in the east.
The latter have a heavy shaft, which is four-sided in Baffin Land, and
the prongs are crooked and clumsy.’

1See Crantz’s figure referred to above; also one in Parry’s second voyage, Pl. opposite p. 550, Fig.
19, and Rink, Tales., etc., Pl. opposite p. 12.

214 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

Fig. 200, No. 89380 [793], is a fragment of a very ancient narwhal ivory
spearhead, dark brown from age and shiny from much handling, which
appears to have been worn as an amulet. It was said to have come
from the east and to belong to a bird dart, though it does not
resemble any in use at the present dayin this region. Itisa
slender four-sided rod, having on one side three short oblique
equidistant simple barbs. The resemblance of this specimen
to the bone dart heads from Scania figured by Dr. Rau! is
very striking.

Seal darts—The Eskimo of nearly all localities use a dart
or small harpoon to capture the smaller marine animals, with
a loose, barbed head of bone fitted into a socket in the end of
the shaft, to which it is attached by a line of greater or less
length. It is always contrived so that when the head is
struck into the quarry, the shaft is detached from the head
pis ee and acts as a drag upon the animal. This is effected by

cient ivory attaching an inflated bladder to the shaft, or else by attach-

darthead. ing the line with a martingale so that the shaft is dragged
sideways through the water. Nearly all Eskimo except those of Point
Barrow, as shown in the National Museum collections and the figures
in Crantz? and Rink*, use weapons of this kind of considerable size,
adapted not only to the capture of the small seals (Phoca vitulina and
P. fetida), but also to the pursuit of the larger seals, the nar-
whal and beluga. At Point Barrow, however, at the present
day, they employ only a small form of this dart, not over 5 feet
long, with a little head, adapted only for holding the smallest
seals. That they formerly used the larger weapon is shown
by our finding a single specimen of the head of such a spear,
No. 89374 [1281] Fig. 201. Itis of hard, compact bone, impreg-
nated with oil, 8-1 inches long. The flat shank is evidently
intended to fit into a socket. The two holes through the widest
part of the shank are for attaching the line.

This is very like the head of the weapon called agligak
(modern Greenlandic agdligak), figured by Crantz, and re-
ferred to above, except that the barbs are opposite each other.
Mr. Lucien M. Turner tells me that it is precisely like the head
of the dart used at Norton Sound for capturing the beluga. The
native who sold this specimen called it ‘“nuia&/kpai nfi/tkoa,”
“the point of a bird dart,” to which it does bear some resem-
blance, though the shape of the butt and the line holes indicate Lars Sa
plainly that it was adetachable dart head. Probably, as in the pone dart
case of the ancient bird dart point, No. 89372 [760], referred to — bed.
above, this weapon has been so long disused that the natives have
forgotton what it was. The name 4/kqligtk, evidently the same as the

' Prehistoric fishing, Figs. 94 and 95, p. 73.
?History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 147, Pl. v, Figs. 6 and 7.
3 Tales, etc., Pl. opposite p. 12 ( ** bladder arrow"’).

MURDOCH.] SEAL DART. 215

Greenlandic agdligak, 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 asif the Point Barrow natives had for-
gotten all about the a’/kqligik 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
Fi1g.202_Nozzle forbladaer 26 Point Barrow. That it was used in ancient times

float. is shown by our finding in one of the ruined houses
in Utkiaywin a very old broken nozzle for inflating one of these floats.
Fig. 202, No. 89720 [756], is this specimen, which was picked up by Capt.
Herendeen. This is arounded
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 flange, 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. Thisnozzle 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 SE as EO CLK
through the water. Three of these little darts, which are thrown with
a handboard like the bird dart, make aset. 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 wniak,
shooting with the rifle is a more expeditious means of taking seals. We
collected three sets of these darts (kikigi).

No. 89249) (523), Fig. 203, has been selected for description. The shaft
is of spruce, 544 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 cateh
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 aserious wound. It is fastened to
the shaft by a martingale made as follows: One end of a stout line of
sinew braid 54 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 184 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 644 inches, and the shortest 57.) The head, as

MURDOCH. ]

. 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

No two are precisely alike.

in Fig. 204, No. 56516 [105].

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 witha
fly-rod, which swings up the
tip of the board and launches
the dart forward. This con-
trivanee, which practically
makes of the hand a lever
18 inches long, enables the
thrower by a slight motion of
the wrist to impart great ve-
locity to the dart. The use
of this implement is universal
Fic. 201.—Fore. Mong the 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.’ 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 people of 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.
O. T. Mason has given? an interesting ac-

martingale, and the details of the method of attaching it.
The foreshaft is generally
plain, but is oceasionally highly ornamented, as is shown
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

Fic. 205.—Throwing board for darts.

count of the different forms of throwing-board used by the Eskimo and

Aleuts of North America.

1 Crantz, vol. 1, p. 146, Pl. v, Figs. 1 and 2, and Rink as quoted above, also Kane, First Exp., p. 478.
2 Parry, Second Voyage, p. 508 (Iglulik); and Nordenskiéld, Vega, vol. 2, p. 105, Fig. 5.

3 Smithsonian Report for 1884, part 11, pp. 279-289.

218 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

We obtained five specimens of the form used at Point Barrow. No.
89235 [523], Fig. 205a, 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. 205b, No. 89235 [60], differs
from this in haying 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 [1326], 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 aceu-
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
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
deseribed and with nets, are pursued with harpoons of the
same general type, but of different patterns for the different
Fig. 206.—Har- Animals. They may be divided into two classes—those in-

poon head. tended for throwing, which come under the head of projectile
weapons, and those which do not leave the hand, but are thrust into the
anual. 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. 206, is a typical toggle head of this kind, in-
tended for a walrus harpoon (ttike), and will be described in full, as the
names of the different parts will apply to all heads of this class. The
body is a conoidal piece, 44 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 lower, it is cut off straight for about half the

1 Voyage, p. 324.

MURDOCH. } HARPOONS. 219

longer diameter, while the upper side is produced into a long, four-
sided spur, the barb. The line 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 shaft-
socket, 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 1-9 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. 89791 [873]), 4%
and intermediate forms are common. When such a head is x4 997
mounted for use a bight of the line or leader, a short line for Harpoon
connecting the head with the main line, runs through the line nea.
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
kia¢ron, of the walrus harpoon, tuke, and of
the seal harpoon, nauly. They are all of
essentially the same pattern, differing chiefly
in size.

There is in the collection an interesting
series of old harpoon-_heads, showing a num-
ber of steps in the development of the modern
pattern of harpoon head from an ancient form.
These heads seem to have been preserved as
amulets; in fact one of them is still attached
toa belt. They are not all of the same kind,
Ancient bone harpoon heal. ut 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 Nuwtk, 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-

Fie, 208.—

220 THE POINT 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.!

The next form, No. 89331
[932], Fig. 209a, has two
bilateral barbs to the blade
part, thus increasing its
holding power. Instead of
an open transverse groove
Wie. 208 -Harpoon head@: (a) ane LO hold the thong, it has

cient bone harpoon head; (6) va- two slots parallel to the
Se ee ea socket groove running ob-
liquely to the other side, where they open into a
Shallow depression. Figs. 209b 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 io, 210. Rete haspeon
interesting from its close resemblance head.
to the spear head figured by Nordenski6ld2 from the ancient
“Onkilon” house at North Cape. No. 89377 [766] is a pe-
cular 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
Fig. 211._Bone Instead of making it by inclosing a groove with thongs.
harpoon head. This 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.

' Second Grinnell Exp., vol. 1, Figs. on pp. 412 and 413. 2 Vega, vol. 1, p. 444, Fig. 5.

MURDOCH. } 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 [969] from Nuwik) or of flint, as in Fig.
212 (No. 89748 [928], also from Nuwttk). 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 plane 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. 56620 [199], a walrus harpoon head from
Utkiavwin), 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
[1261], figured in
Point Barrowreport,
which is exactly like yyg. 912 Har.
No. 89379 [795], ex- poo head, bone
cept that it has the pee
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 aman
so used tothe modern pattern that
he forgot this important distine-
tion. The development of this
spear head has been earried 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

Hie.215.—Harpoonihead, hone /and atone: (as Shown in Mr. Nelson’s collec-
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.

‘Compare, also, the walrus harpoon figured by Capt. Lyon, Parry’s Second \Voyage, Pl. opposite
p. 550, Fig. 13.

2See Kumlien, Contributions, p- 35, and Boas, ‘‘ Central Eskimo,” p. 473, Fig. 393,

222 THE POINT BARROW 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 Barrow 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 Barrow, but appears always to have the shaft socket made by
a groove closed with thongs.'! 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 blade for the point only of the
barbed blade portion of such a bone head as No. 89379 [795].?

Curiously enough, this form of the toggle head appears again in the
Mackenzie and Anderson region, as shown by the extensive collections
of Ross, MacFarlane, and others. In this region the metal blade itselfis
often cut into one or more pairs of bilateral barbs. At the Straits of Fury
and Hecla, Parry found the harpoon head, with a body like the walrus
harpoon heads at Point Barrow,’ 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
Bering Strait. Walrus harpoon heads with a single barb, hardly dis-
tinguishable from those used at Point Barrow, are in the collection from
the Diomedes and all along the northern shore of Norton Sound, and
one also from the mouth of the Kuskoquim. They are probably also
used from Point Barrow to Kotzebue Sound. At St. Lawrence Island
and on the Asiatic shore they are the common if not the universal form.*
The seal harpoon head (nauly) at Point Barrow appears always to have
the body barb split at the tip into two, and this is the case rarely with
the tu’ke. 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.

1Kane, 2d Grinnell Exp., vol. 1, pp. 412 and 413 (Fig. 1), and Bessells, Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 9, p.
869, Figs. 6-12.

2Crantz, vol. 1, p. 146, and Pl. v, Figs. 1 and 2, and Rink Tales, ete., Pl. opposite p. 10.

32d Voyage, Pl. opposite p. 550, Fig. 13.

4 Museum collections and Nordenskiéld, Vega, vol. 2, p. 105, Fig. 1. This figure shows the blade in
he plane of the barb, but none of the specimens from Plover Bay are of this form.

MURDOCH. ] HARPOONS. 223

Throwing-harpoons are always thrown from the hand without a
throwing-board or other assistance, and are of two sizes, 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 with a sure aim. The native name
of this part of the spear, ukumailuta (Greenlandic, okimailutak, weight),
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 loose shaft (i’gimi), 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
statnre of the owner. Of the six in our collection, the longest, when
mounted for use, is 9 feet 6 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 6 feet long and
tapering from a diameter of 14 inches at the head to about Linch 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/lerb-
win) 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. Whena 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 BARROW ESKIMO.

and acts as a drag on his movements until he is “played” enough for

Fig. 214.— Walrus harpoons.

about one-third inch.

the hunters to come up and dispatch him.
This weapon is called u/nakptk, “the great
wha or spear.” Una (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. 56770 [534], Fig. 214a, has the most
typical shaft and loose shaft. The shaft is
of spruce 71 inches long, roughly rounded,
and tapering from a diameter of 14 inches at
the tip to 0-8 at the butt. The foreshaft is of
white walrus ivory, 6-7 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

4 } 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
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 6 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/lerbwin) is a little, blunt,
backward-pointing hook of ivory inserted in
the shaft 17 inches from the tip and projecting

Ten and one-fourth inches farther back and 90

MURDOCH. } WALRUS HARPOONS. 225

degrees round the shaft from the line catch is the finger rest—a conical
recurved piece of ivory 1 inch high, with a flat 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. 214b, from
Utkiavwin, is fitted with fairly typical walrus gear. The head is of
the typical form, 6 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 15 inches
long, is made by passing one end of a piece 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 6 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 becket,
as follows: The longer end is doubled back for 7 inches and a slit eut
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 feetlong. 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
line for attaching the float, made by doubling over the end and tying a
earrick bend, the end of which is stopped back to the standing part
with sinew braid. The becket to hook upon the line cateh is a bit of
sinew braid, fastened to the line 25 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 34, but by far the
greater number are from 44 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 series (No, 56620 [199]) figured above, and
four blades for such heads. The blade is commonly of the shape of the

9 ETH 15

226 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

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. 56621 [283]). A less common shape of blade
is lanceolate, with the base cut off square as in
Fig. 216a (No. 89764 |940]). 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. 216) (No. 89790
[943]). 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.
aa aia sal ates The blade, when of metal, is generally fastened

poon heads. in with a single rivet. One only out of 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-
kidld, however, figures a walrus
harpoon from Port Clarence!
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. 215a, is
of reindeer antler), and the
hexagonal shape, often with
rounded edges, and the line
grooves continued to the tip,
as in Fig. 217a, 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.

Fic. 216.—Typical walrus-harpoon heads.

'Vega, vol. 2, p. 229, Fig. 3.

MURDOCH. ] WALRUS HARPOONS. 227

Only three out of the forty-eight show this peculiarity, of which No.
56613 [53], Fig. 217), 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
arealwaysconventional 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
Barrow 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 tothem. The object
of this short line is to ena-
ble the hunter to readily de-
tach a broken head and put
ona fresh one without going
to the trouble of undoing a
splice, which must be made
strong to keep the head from Fic. 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, asin 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
Fic. 218.—Walrus-harpoon head, with leader. main line ends in a

becket. Occasionally (two are made this way) the longer end is simply
doubled in a bight, and the three parts are then seized 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 BARROW 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 eut 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:
1 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. Throvgh 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

oft it. 7

Fic. 219.—Walrus-harpoon head, with
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 IG. 220.—Walrus-harpoon head, with line.

upside down (No, 56771 [535], Fig. 218), or by means of a small becket,
made either as on the specimen described (No. 56770 [536], Fig. 219), or
spliced with double slits. The long becket at the other end for attach-

MURDOCH.] 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, No. ;
56767 [531]), or by splicing (Fig. 221, No.
56769).

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- at,
ently on each of the six spears. Five of 8
them have the end simply passed through £33

the hole in the loose shaft and spliced to

the standing part, but two (the type figured eS
and No. 56768 [532]) have the other end =
carried down and hitched round the tip of VJ
the shaft; another has it passed through a ¢
hole in the foreshaft, taken 14 turns round \ia

this and knotted (No. 56771 [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 rorm and dimensions. It is some-
times ornamented by earving, as in No.
56772 [536], or by incised patterns, as in
Fig. 222, No, 56538 [98], 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, =

“ 5 Ss 009 a ee : .
sometimes made more secure by passing '! 7! —~Walmusharpoon head, with

230 3 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

one end through holes in the foreshaft. No. 56768 [532] is peculiar in
having the tang on the shaft and the corresponding cleft in the fore-
shatt. 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 finger 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 butt with 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-

Fic. 222.—Fore- 5 5
shaft of walrus lection. Both these heads have lanceolate iron blades,

harpoon. conoidal antler bodies with double barbs, and are more

slender than the walrus harpoon heads. No. 56770 [534], Fig. 219,
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 r
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. 56768 [552], however, has a leader
with a becket of the ordinary style. Fig. 223, No. 56611
[89], 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, F!6- 223.—
is upwards of 30 yards long, and the end never leaves the ners
hand. The line is hitched round the shaft back of the line seals.
vatch, 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-

MURDOCH. | SEAL HARPOONS.

sively for retrieving seals that have 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 a
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 pruned
with the rifle in the small open holes of water.

Since my note in the Naturalist was written, I have
learned from Mr. Henry Balfour, 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 A
probably originally intended for the capture of seals
“hauled out” on theice 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. 89907
[1695], Figs. 224, 225, has a new shaft, ete., but was
used several times by the maker before it was offered
for sale. Such a retrieving harpoon is called natlige.
The shaft (iptia) is of ash, 4 feet 5 inches long and 1
inch in diameter, tapering very slightly to each end. Ao ‘5
The ice pick (tau) of walrus ivory, 14 inches long and y
1 inch wide, has a round tang fitting into a hole in the é
butt of the shaft. Close to the shaft a small hole is .F|
drilled in one edge o° the pick, and through this is
passed a bit of seal “iong, the ends of which are laid
along the shaft and neatly whipped down with sinew
braid, with the end wedged into a slit in the wood.

Fig. 224.—Retrieving
seal harpoon.

‘See the writer’s note un this weapon, American Naturalist, vol. 19, p. 423.

232

THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

225. —Details of retrieving seal har

The foreshaft (ukumailuta) is of walrus
ivory, 44 inches long and 14 inches in diam-
eter at the thickest part, and secured to the
shaft by a whipping (ni/mxa) of seal thong,
The loose shaft (igimt) 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/lerbwin), 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,
except in having a hexagonal body. It is
3°3 inches long and has a blade of iron fas-
tened into a body of walrus ivory with a
single wooden rivet. While there is no
detachable leader, the head is attached by
a separate piece of the same material to the
line (ttikaksia), which is 86 feet 10 inches
long and made of a single piece of fine seal
thong about one-eighth inch thick. This
shorter piece is about 27 inches long and
is passed through the line hole and doubled
so that one part is a little the longer. Itis
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. 89908 [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

MURDOCH.) SEAL HARPOONS. Dae

foreshaft and ice pick are lashed in with sinew braid, which is first
knotted round the tip of the shaft and then hitched round with
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 conoidal body of reindeer antler, a common material
for seal-harpoon heads, and the line, which is of stout sinew braid
43 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 94 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
Fig. 226.—Jade blade for seal generally plain, but sometimes orna-

harpoon. mented like the walrus-harpoon heads.

No. 89784 [1008] was made by Ilt’bw’ga, the Nunatanmeun,
when thinking of coming to winter at Utkiavwin. 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 24 inches long.

We saw only one stone blade for a seal harpoon, No. 89623
[1418], Fig. 226. This is of light olive green jade, and trian-
gular, with peculiarly dull edges and point. Each face is con-
eaved, and there is a hole for a rivet. (Compare the jade-
bladed harpoon figured by Nordenski6éld and referred to above.)
It is 2 inches long and 0-7 inch wide at the base. It appears
to have been kept as an amulet. The other form of seal har-
poon comes properly under the next head.

“SuLsniy} Loy Wwoodsrey [REGS—"LZZ “HLL

Fs sn es aNd anes fe ene

THRUSTING WEAPONS.

Harpoons.—For the capture of seals as they come up for air
to their breathing holes or cracks in the ice a harpoon is used
which has a short wooden shaft, armed, as before, with an ice
pick and a long, slender, loose shaft suited for thrusting down through:

234 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

the small breathing hole. It carries a ntale like the other harpoon, but
has only a short line, the end of which is made fast permanently to the
shaft. Such harpoons are used by all Eskimo wherever they are in the
habit of watching for seals at their breathing holes. The slender part
of the shaft, however, is not always loose.! The foreshaft is simply a
stout ferrule for the end of the shaft. These weapons are in general use
at Point Barrow and are very neatly made.

We obtained two specimens, of which No, 89910 [1694], Fig. 227, will
serve as the type. The total length of this spear when rigged for use
is 5 feet 38 inches. The shaft is of spruce, 205 inches long and 1-1 inches
in the middle, tapering to 0-9 at the ends. At the butt is inserted, as
before, an ivory ice pick (tttu) of the form already described, 153 inches
long and lashed in with sinew braid. The foreshaft (katt) is of walrus
ivory, nearly cylindrical, 52 inches long and 0-9 inch in diameter,
shouldered at the butt and fitted 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 (igimt) is of bone, whale’s rib or jaw, and has two
transverse holes above the shoulder to receive the end of the assembling

i 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

* end makes a turn round the loose shaft between the

ee appt holes; the other end is passed through the lower hole,
of lashing on shaft. 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 (nate) is of the ordinary pattern, 2-8 inches long, with
a copper blade and antler body. The line (tikaktin) 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 tum 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, p. 507, Iglulik.

MURDOCH.] HARPOONS—SEAL AND WHALE. 235

and the line brought down to the tip of the shaft and made fast by two
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, having a shaft 153
inches long and a pick 19 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 hitehed 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, No.
89551 [1082], is a model of one of these harpoons,
made for sale. It is 164 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, No.
89489 [802], is of whale’s bone and unusually
short, only 14 inches long. It perhaps belonged
to a lad’s spear. The other three are tong, 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-
Fic. 29— ships. This foreshaft is not weighted, as in the
Model of a . oe ase J
seal har. Walrus harpoon, since this is not necessary in a
poon. weapon which does not leave the hand. The
harpoon line is fitted with two inflated sealskin floats.

No complete, genuine whaling harpoons were ever of-
fered for sale, but a man at Nuwik made a very excel- AN aie eee
lent reduced model about two-thirds the usual size (No. poon.

89909 [1023], Fig. 230), which will serve as the type of this weapon

236 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

(a‘jyin). This is 6 feet 11 inches in length when rigged for use. The
shaftis of pine, 5 feet 84 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 (igimt), and shouldered to
keep the lashing in place. The fore-
shaft is of whale’s bone, 114 inches
long, three-sided with one edge
rounded off, and tapers from a diam-
eter of 1 inch to a tapering rounded
point 1$ 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 fit
the chamfer of the shaft, and the
whole foreshaft is slightly curved in
the same direction as the tip. It is
secured 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 with 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

FIG. 231.—Model of whale harpoon with floats. togele-head. The line is of stout
thong (the skin of the bearded seal) and about 84 feet long. It is passed

MURDOCH.] WHALE HARPOONS. 237

through the line hole, doubled in the middle, the two parts are firmly
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 of 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. 56562 [233], 18} 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 154 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. Fic. 232.—Flint blade for whale

We collected thirteen heads for such harpoons, harpoon.
which have been in actual use, of which two have flint 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, 56708
[114], from Utkiavwin, is one of these, made of black flint) are about 1
inch shorter and were perhaps intended for walrus har-
#4 poons, though we saw none of these with flint blades.
i@ 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. 56709
[139] from Utkiavwin, made of soft purple slate), except
one new one, No. 566974 [188a], which has the corners
cut off so as to give it a rhomboidal shape. The cor-

a 293 Slate blade BEES are sometimes rounded off so that they are nearly

for whale harpoon. heart-shaped. These blades are usually about 23 inches
long and 2 broad; two unusually large ones are 3 inches long and nearly
21 broad, and one small one 2-1 by 1-6 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 brass-bladed pattern. The
body is very long and slender, being usually about 8 or 8} inches long
(one is 94 inches long) and not over 14 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. 254 (No.
89747 [1044]), a head with slate blade (broken) and
if bone body. This represents a very common form
in which the shank is four-sided, while back 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 off 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. 235a, No. 89745 [1044], which has a slate blade
wedged into the bone body with a bit of old cloth
and a wooden wedge. Fig. 235b, No. 56602 [157],
from Utkiavwii, 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, No, 56601 [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-

TeAo A See responds to the last step

harpoon head. but one in the develop-
ment of the harpoon-head. When the blade is
ot flint and inserted with a tang, the tip of the
body is always whipped with sinew braid, as in
Fig. 212, No. 89748 [928], from Nuwtk. 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, asshown
in the different figures. A short incised mark |j
somewhat resembling an arrow (see aboye, Fig.
234, No, 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
haye 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 Greenland, where the
modern harpoons are so different from those
used in the west.

That the line connecting the head with the float line 1s not always so

Fic. 235.—Whale harpoon heads.

MURDOCH.)

WHALE

HARPOONS.

239

lorrg in proportion as represented on the two models is shown by Fig.
236, No. 89744 [969], the only specimen obtained with any part of the

lineattached. 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 short piece 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
long piece, and all
is drawn taut and
securely seized
with sinew. The
becket thus

the float line.

ing.

cient pattern.

Fic. 237.—Foreshaft of
whale harpoon.

Fic. 236.—W hale harpoon head with “leader.”

formed was probably looped directly into the bight of

The foreshaft is much larger than that of the model,
though of the same shape.
from Utkiaywin, is of walrus-ivory and 15.8 inches
long with a diameter of 15 inches at the butt.
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 foreshaft 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-
The question at once suggests itself, why was
not the improvement that is used on all the other
harpoons applied to this one?
reason for this is the same as for retaining the form
of toggle-head, which, as I have shown, is of an an-

No. 56537 [97], Fig. 237,

The

In my opinion, the

,

That is to say, the modern whale harpoon is the
saine pattern that was once used for all harpoons,
preserved for superstitious reasons.
known fact, that among many peoples implements,

It is a well

ideas, and language have been preserved in connection with religious

38.—W hale lan

)

Tia. :

THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

ceremonies long after they have gone out of use in every-day
life. Now, the whale fishing at Port Barrow, in many respects
the most important undertaking in the life of the natives, is so
surrounded by superstitious observances, ceremonies to be per-
formed, and other things of the same nature as really to assume
a distinetly religious character. Hence, we should naturally
expect to find the implements used in it more or less archaic in
form. That this is the case in regard to the toggle-head I think
I have already shown. It seems to me equally evident that this
foreshatt, which contains the loose shaft and foreshaft, undiffer-
entiated, is also the older form.

Why the development of the harpoon was arrested at this par-
ticular stage is not so easily determined. A natural supposition
would be that this was the form of harpoon used by their an-
cestors when they first began to be successful whalemen.

That they connect the idea of good luck with these ancient
stone harpoons is shown by what occurred at Point Barrow in
1883. Of late years they have obtained from the ships many
ordinary “ whale-irons,” and some people at least had got into
the habit of using them.

Now, the bad luck of the season of 1882, when the boats of
both villages together caught only one small whale, was attrib-
uted to the use of these “irons,” and it was decided by the elders
that the first harpoon struck into the whale must be a stone-
bladed one such as their forefathers used when they killed many
whales.

In this connection, it is interesting to note a parallel custom
observed at Pot Hope. Hooper! says that at this place the
beluga must always be struck with a flint spear, even if it has
been killed by a rifle shot.

Lances.—As I have said on a preceding page, some of the na-
tives now use bomb-guns for dispatching the harpooned whale,
and all the whaleboats are provided with steel whale lances
obtained from the ships. In former times they used a large and
powerful lance with a broad flint head. They seem to have con-
tinued the use of this weapon, probably for the same reasons
that led them to retain the ancient harpoon for whaling until
they obtained their present supply of steel lances, as we found
no signs of iron whale lances of native manufacture, such as
are found in Greenland and elsewhere. We obtained nine
heads for stone lances (kaluwir) and one complete lance, a very
fine specimen (No, 56765 [537|, Fig. 238), which was brought
down as a present from Nuwittk. The broad, sharp head is of
light gray flint, mounted on a shaft of spruce 12 feet 6 inches
long.’ It has a broad, stout tang inserted in the cleft end of the

1 Corwin Report, p. 41.

MURDOCH. ] WHALE LANCE. 241

shaft. The shaft is rhomboidal in section with rounded edges, and
tapers from a breadth of 2 inches and a
thickness of 1 at the tip to a butt of 0-7 inch
broad and 1 thick. The tip of the shaft has
a whipping of sinew-braid 1? inches deep,
“kackled” down on both edges, one end of
the twine on each edge, so that the hitch
made by one end crosses the round turn of
the other, making in all twenty-six turns.
The shaft has been painted red for 15 inches
below the whipping.

No. 89596 [1032] is the head and 5 inches
of the shaft of a similar lance. The head is
of black flint, and the sinew-braid forms a
simple whipping. The remaining heads are
all unmounted. I have figured several of
them to show the variations of this now
obsolete weapon. Fig. 239, No. 56677 [49],
from Utkiaywin, is of gray flint chipped in
large flakes. The total length is 6-9 inches.
The small lugs on the edges of the tang are
to keep it from slipping out of the whipping.
No. 56679 [259], also from Utkiaywin, is of
black flint and broader than the preceding.
Its length is 6:3 inches. No. 56680 [394], Fic. 239.—Flint head of whale lanco.

Fic. 240.—F lint heads for whale lances.

is 5-4 inches long. No. 56681 [5], from Utkiavwin, is another broad

9 ETH 16

242 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

head of black flint, 6 inches long. Fig. 240a, No. 89597 [1054], from
Nuwitk, is of black flint, and unusually long in proportion, running into
the tang with less shoulder than usual. Much of the original
surface is left untouched on one face. This is probably very old.
No. 89598 [1361] is a head of similar shape of dark gray flint from
Sidaru. It is 6 inches long. Fig. 240b, No. 89599 [1373], from
the same place and of similar material, is shaped very like the
head of a steel lance. It is 5 inches long. Fig. 240ce, No. 89600
[1069], from Utkiavwin, is still broader in proportion and almost
heart-shaped. It is of bluish gray flint and 4°8 inches long.
These heads probably represent most of the different forms in
use. Only two types are to be recognized among them, the long-
pointed oval with a short tang, and the broad leaf-shaped head
with arather long tang, which appears to be the commoner form.

We obtained one newly made lance of a pattern similar to the
above, but smaller, which was said to be a model
of the weapon used in attacking the polar bear
before the introduction of firearms. The name,
pa/nna, is curiously like the name panna given
by Dr. Simpson and Capt. Parry to the large
double-edged knife. The specimen, No. 89895
[1230], Fig. 241, came from Utkiavwin. It has <
head of gray flint 34 inches long, exclusive of the
tang, roughly convex on one face, but flat and
merely beveled at the edges on the other. The
edges are finely serrate. The shaft is of spruce,
6 feet 8 inches long, rounded and somewhat flat-
tened at the tip, which is 1 inch wide and taper- py. 242, -Fiint
ing to a diameter of 0-7 at the butt, and is painted head for bear lance.
red with ocher. The tip has a slight shoulder to keep the whip-
ping in place. The tang is wedged in with bits of leather and
secured by a close whipping of sinew braid 14 inches deep. Fig.
242, No, 89611 [1034], from Nuwtik, was probably the head of such
a lance, although it is somewhat narrower and slightly shorter.
Its total length is 3-4 inches. The other two large lance-heads,
No. 56708a [114a] and No, 56708) [1146], are both new, but were
probably meant for the bear lance. They are of gray flint, 3$
inches long, and have the edges regularly serrate.

One form of lance is still in general use. It has a sharp metal
head, and a light wooden shaft about 6 feet long. It is used in
Fie.o4 the kaiak for stabbing deer swimming in the water, after the

Bear manner frequently noticed among other Eskimo.' A pair of

lance. these spears is carried in beckets on the forward deck of the
kaiak. On approaching a deer one of them is slipped out of the
becket and laid on the deck, with the butt resting on the combing of

1 Parry, 2d Voy., p. 512 (Iglulik); Kumlien, Contributions, p. 54 (Cumberland Gulf); Schwatka,
Science, vol. 4, No. 98, p.544 (King Williams Land).

MURDOCH. ] DEER LANCE. 243

the cockpit. The hunter then paddles rapidly up alongside of the deer,
grasps the lance near the butt, as he would a dagger,
and stabs the animal with a quick downward thrust.
This spear is called ka/pun, which in the Point Barrow
dialect exactly corresponds to the Greenlandic word
kaput, which is applied to the long-bladed spear or long
knife used for dispatching a harpooned seal.!| The word
ka/pun means simply ‘‘an instrument for stabbing.”

No. 73183 [524], Figs. 245a, 243) (head enlarged), will
serve as a type of this weapon, of which we have two
specimens. All that we saw were essentially like this.
The head is iron, 43 inches long exclusive of the tang,
and 14 inches broad. The edges are narrowly beveled
on both faces. The shaft is 6 feet 2 inches -
long, and tapers from a diameter of 0-8 inch
about the middle to about one-half inch at ¢
eachend. The tip is cleft to receive the tang f&
of the head, and shouldered to keep the whip-
ping from slipping off. The latter was of
sinew braid and 2 inches deep. The shaft is
painted with red ocher.

The other has a shaft 6 feet 4 inches long,
but otherwise resembles the preceding. The
heads for these lances are not always made of
iron. Copper, brass, etc.,are sometimes used.
No. 56699 [166] is one of a pair of neatly made
copper lance heads. It is 5-9 inches long and
14 wide, and ground down on each face to a
sharp edge without a bevel, except just at the :
point. Before the introduction of iron these “7
lances had stone heads, but were otherwise F1¢.244—
of the same shape. Fig. 244 represents the eee a
head and 6 inches of the shaft of one of these — Aint head.
(No. 89900 [1157] from Nuwittk). The shaft is new and
rather carelessly made of a rough, knotty piece of
spruce, and is 5 feet 53 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
Fic. 243.—Deer lance. the head is wedged in with a bit of blue flannel.

No. 89897 [1524], Fig. 245, from Utkiavwit, on the other hand, is an
old shaft 5 feet 74 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, Pl. y, Fig. Be and Kane, Ist Grinnell Exp., p. 479 (fig. at bottom).

244

THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

jasper, brown and gray, and has a piece of white sealskin lapped over

Fic. 245.—Deer lance, flint head.

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, which is
painted red, evidently had a broad head formerly, as it is
expanded at the tip. No. 89896 [1524] 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 43 inches long, and painted red
with ocher. We also collected three stone heads for such lances.
Fig. 246, No, 38711 [148], from Utkiavwin, shows the shape of
the tang. It is of gray flint, and 3-7 inches long. No, 89610
[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 3

saw were fastened in this way. It is more likely
that it was perforated for attaching it to the belt
asanamulet. We were told that this lance head
was brought from the west. <A large slate lance
head found by Nordenski6ld' in the old “Onkilon”
house at North Cape is of precisely the same shape
as these deer-lance heads, but from its size was
probably intended for a whale lance.

THROWING WEAPONS.

The only throwing weapon which these people

as 3 ae S 2 Fie. 246. —Flint
use is a small bolas, designed for catching birds ~j0q tr deer
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. 75969 [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

1Vega, vol. 1, p. 444, Fig. 7.

MURDOCH. ] BIRD BOLAS. 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. The :
balls spread apart in flying through the air,
WW) so as to cover considerable space,
H 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 — yy¢, 247.—Bird bolas, looped up
who have no guns, and a good for carrying.

many ducks are captured with it. In the spring, when the
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 has the
balls rather carelessly made. The balls, which are six in
number, are of walrus ivory, 1-6 to 1-8 inches long and 1 ineh
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 23incheslong. 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

Fic. 248.—Bird “‘. 5 ; p
bolas, ready “Uills and vanes stand up on all sides. The middle of each
foruse. 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.

246 THE POINT BARROW 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, aud often made of single teeth of
the walrus, instead of tusk ivory. Bone 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. 89490 [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 Utkiavwin 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 bolas are unknown among all the
Eskimo east of the Anderson River, 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.!
They were first noticed by Beechey at Kotzebue Sound in 1826.2 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 Nordenskiéld,’? and the Krause
Brothers.*

HUNTING IMPLEMENTS OTHER THAN WEAPONS.

Floats.—I have already spoken of the floats (apott’/kptn) 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

Fic. 249.—Seal skin float.

head, of a male rough seal (Phoea feetida), with the hair out. The ear-
cass was carefully removed without making any incision except round
the neck and a few inches down the throat, and skinned to the very

!'T. Simpson's Narrative, p. 156.
2 Voyage, p. 574.

3 Vega, vol. 2, p. 109, and Fig. 3, p. 105.

4Geographische Blatter, vol. 5, pt. 1, p. 32. See also Rosse, Aretic Cruise of the Corwin, p. 34.

MURDOCH. ] FLOATS—TOGGLES. 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
aslender shank about 1 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 are of the same general pattern
as this, and are generally made of the skin of the rough seal,
though skins of the harbor seal (P. vitulina) are sometimes used.
One of these floats is attached to the walrus harpoon, but two are used
in whaling.' 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. Fig. 250a
represents a pair of these implements (ka’/gotin) (No. 56580 [227]).
They are of white walrus ivory. In the middle of each belly is exca-
vated a deep, oblong cavity about three-fourths 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 (Balzna mys-
ticetus), 44 inches long, and the other evidently intended for a“ Cali-
fornia gray” (Rhachinectes glaucus). It has light blue glass beads
inserted for eyes and is the same length as the other.

Fig. 250 (No. 56598 [407]) is asimilar 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, kagotin, means literally “a pair of toggles.”

Harpoon boxes (u'dlun or w'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.

1T learn from our old interpreter, Capt. E. P. Herendeen, who has spent three years in whaling at
Point Barrow since the return of the expedition, that a third float is also used. It is attached by a
longer line than the others, and serves as a sort of *' telltale," coming to the surface some time ahead
of the whale.

248 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

Fig. 251a represents one of these boxes (No. 56505 [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, 94 inches
long. The ends of the flukes are broken short off, and show traces of
haying been mended with wooden pegs or dowels. The right eye is
indicated by a simple incision, but a tiny bit of erystal 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

Fig, 250,—F lipper 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 BOXES. 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 off and then drawn back into its place by pulling
the string. -

e

Fig. 251.—Boxes for harpoon heads.

We collected seven such whale-harpoon boxes, usually about 9 to 92
inches long. Nearly all have bits of erystal, 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 Utkiavwin, is a

250 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

large whale, a foot long, and has 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. 251b (No. 89733 [1161], from Nuwittk) represents a small box 44
inches long, probably older than the others, and the only one not carved
into the shape of a whale. Itis roughly egg-shaped and has 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. 89732 [860], Fig. 251¢, from
Nuwitk, 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. 251d, 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 [860]. 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 ata 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 Utkiaywin) 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 Nuwtk), 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. 56756 [109], Figs 252
252b (detail of mesh). This is a rectangular net, eighteen meshes long
and twelve deep, netted of fine 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

OS PSS
SRO

SORE
SOO x

Fic. 252.—Seal net.

large enough to permit a seal to be drawn up through it. A line witha
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 THE 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 end 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 (u/ne) alone.
The net was used in seal catching in Dr. Simpson’s time, though he
makes but a casual reference to it,’ 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 Nordenskiéld speaks of seal nets “ set in summer among the ground
ices along the shore,”*and at open leads in the winter, but gives no
description of the method of setting these nets beyond mentioning the
“long pole which was used in setting the net,”4as none of his party
ever witnessed the seal fishery. I 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 Ungava 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:

1Op. cit., p. 262.
2 Voyage, pp. 295, 574.

3 Vega, vol. 2, p. 108.

4Thid., p. 98.

® See also the reference to Hooper's Corwin Report, quoted below under Hunting.
° See, however, the writer's paper in the American Anthropologist, vol. 1, p. 333.

MURDOCH. ] SEAL CALLS. 253

Seal calls (adrigautin).—This implement consists of three or four claws
mounted on the end of a 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. 255a, is the type. It is 114 inches long.
The round handle is of ash, the claws are those of the bearded seal,
secured by a lashing of sinew braid, with the end brought down on the
under side to a little blunt, backward-pointing hook of ivory, set into
the wood about 1 inch from the base of the arms.

Fig. 253b (No. 56557 [93] from Utkiavwin) is 94 inches long and has
four prongs. The haft is of spruce, and instead of an ivory hook there
is around-headed stud of the same material, which is driven wholly
through the wood, having the point cut off flush with the upper sur-

Fic, 253.—Scratchers for decoying seals.

face. It has a lanyard of seal twine knotted into the hole in the haft.
The other two specimens of this pattern, Nos. 56556 [100] and 56558
[51] have each three claws, and hafts of soft wood, painted with red
ocher, with lanyards, and are respectively 10-4 and 10-7 inches long.
One has an ivory hook, but the other in place of this has a small iron
nail, and is ornamented with a medium-sized sky-blue glass bead inlaid
in the back. The other two are both new and small, being respectively
7-5 and 7:6 inches long. The hafts are made of reindeer antler and
have only two prongs. No. 89467 [1512] from Utkiavwin, has the haft
notched on each side, and has an irregular stud of bone for securing
the lashing.

No, $9468 [1354], Fig. 253e¢, from Utkiavwin, has no stud and the claws
are simply held on by a slight lashing of twisted sinew. Both of these
were made for the market, but may be models of a form once used.
There are two old seal calls in the Museum from near St. Michaels,
made of a piece of reindeer antler, apparently the spreading brow
antler, in which the sharp points of the antler take the place of claws.

254 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

The use of this implement, as shown by Mr. Nelson’s collection, extends
or extended from Point Barrow to Norton Sound. He collected speci-
mens from St. Lawrence Island and Cape Wankarem in Siberia. Nor-
denskidld speaks of the use of this implement at Pitlekaj and figures
a specimen.’ The other instrument appears to be less common. I have
‘called it a seal rattle.

Seal rattle—We obtained only two specimens, No. 56533 [409], which
seem to be a pair. Fig. 254 is one of these. itis of cottonwood and 4
inches long, roughly carved into the shape of a seal’s head and painted
red, with two small transparent blue glass beads inlaid for the eyes.
The neat becket of seal thong consists of three or four turns with the
end wrapped spirally around them. The staple on which the ivory
pendants hang is of iron. This is believed to
be a rattle to be shaken on the ice by a string
tied to the becket for the purpose of attracting
seals to the ice net. It was brought in for sale
at a time during our first year when we were
very busy with zoological work, and as some-
thing was said about “nétyi” and “kubra”
(“seal” and “net”) the collector concluded
that they must be floats for seal nets, and they
were accordingly catalogued as such and laid
away. We never happened to see another
specimen, and as these were sent home in 1882
we learned no more of their history. The late
Dr. Emil Bessels, however, on my return called
my attention to the fact that in the museum at
Copenhagen there is a single specimen very
similar to these, which was said to have been
used in the manner described above. It came
from somewhere in eastern America. There is

Fig, 254.—Seal rattle. one, he told me, in the British Museum from
Bering Strait. The National Museum contains several specimens col-
lected by Mr. Nelson at Point Hope. It is very probable that this is
the correct explanation of the use of these objects, as it assigns a func-
tion to the ivory pendants which would otherwise be useless. They
have been called “dog bells,” but the Eskimo, at Point Barrow, at least,
are not in the habit of marking their dogs in any way.

Seal indicators—When watching for a seal at his breathing hole a
native inserts in the hole a slender rod of ivory, which is held loosely in
place by a cross piece or a bunch of feathers on the end. When the
‘seal rises he pushes up this rod, which is so light that he does not no-
tice it, and thus warns the hunter when to shoot or strike with his
spear. Most of the seal hunting was done at such a distance from the
station that I remember only one occasion when this implement was

1 Vega, vol. 2, p, 117, Fig. 3.

MURDOCH. ] SEAL INDICATORS—STOOL. 255

seen in use. We collected two specimens, of which No. 56507 [104],
Fig. 255a, will serve as the type. It is of walrus ivory, 144 inches long
and 0-3 in diameter, with a small lanyard of sinew. The curved cross
piece of ivory, 14 inches long, is inserted into a slot one-fourth of an
inch from the end and secured by a little treenail of wood.

Fig. 255b (No. 89454 [1114], from Nuwittk) is a similar indicator, 134
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

FiG. 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” (igugwau) 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 I glulik.' I
have been unable to find any mention of its use in western America,
and have seen no specimens in the National Museum.

Sealing stools —When a native is watching a seal-hole he frequently
has to stand for hours mo- i
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. Fig. 256.—Sealing stool.

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 fly
over the ice in the spring.

“1Second Voyage, p- 510; also pl. opposite p- 550, Fig. 17. :

256 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

We brought home two specimens of this common object (nigawat-
otin). No, 89887 [1411], Fig. 250, will serve as the type. The top
is of spruce, 82 inches long and 103 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 inthis 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 landed 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 (P1.9) as oval, with very short legs.!

Seal drags (uksiu'tin.)—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 out 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; 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, 56624
[44], Fig. 257a, as the type.
This consists of a stout thong of rawhide (the skin of the bearded

c

Fig. 257.—Seal drags and handles.
seal) 0-3 inch wide and 37 inches long, and doubled in a bight so that
one end is about 24 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 BARROW ESKIMO.

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 14 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 Utkiavwin, 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. 257) is the upper part of a line (No.
56622 [36], from Utkiavwin), with a similar tube 13 inches long, and a
handle carved from a single piece into a pair of mittens like the others.

No. 56625 [81], also from Utkiavwin, is almost exactly similar to the
one first described, but has the seal belly up. Fig. 257¢ (No. 89470
[1337], from the same village) has a seal 2-3 inches long for the handle,
and No, 56626 [212], from Utkiavwin, is like it. No. 894694 [755a] Fig.
257d, from Utkiavwin, 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 back 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 one 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
with 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 14 inches to
2 inches long. They are generally carved with considerable skill, and

MURDOCH. ] WOLF-KILLERS. 259

often have the ears, roots of the whiskers, nostrils, and outline of the
mouth incised and blackened, while small blue 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 be
able to engage in seal-hunting. Mr. Nelson’s collection contains speci-
mens from as far south as Cape Darby.

W halebone wolf-killers (istbru).—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,!
wrapped in blubber (whale’s blubber was used, according to our inform-
ant, Nikawdéalu), 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

Fie. 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. 258a gives a good idea of the shape
of one of these. It belongs to a set of seven, No. 89538 [1229], Fig. 258d,
from Utkiavwin, which are old and show the marks of having been
doubled up. It is 124 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.? Two of the sets are
new, but made like the others.

This contrivance is also used by the Eskimo of Hudson Bay? and at
Norton Sound, where, according to Petroff,* the rods are 2 feet long and
wrapped in seal blubber. The name isi/bru appears to be the same as
the Greenlandic (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-spring’’ in the Hudson Bay region.
Schwatka, ‘* Nimrod in the North,” p. 133. See also Klutschak, ‘t Als Eskimo,’’ pp. 194, 195.

2\‘Nimrod in the North,” p. 133.

3See 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.

4 Report, etc., p. 127. :

260 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

word in Greenlandic may indicate that their ancestors once used the
large wolf-killer, when they lived where wolves were found. The defi-
nition of uju/kuak, the ordinary word for the gull-catcher (see below )—in
the Gronlandske 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, ete., noted at Point Barrow, in
Greenland, by finding the name of the thing in question defined in the
dictionary.

Traps.—Foxes are caught in the winter by deadfalls or steel traps
(niinori/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
he was held fast. A similar contrivance, but somewhat smaller and
made of bone, is used at Norton Sound for catching gulls and murres,
a number of them being attached to a trawl line and baited with fish.
Mr. Nelson collected a large number of these.! 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 may be 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

and Figs. 3-8, a series of similar implements from the bone caves of France.

MURDOCH. ] 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
by the Eskimos everywhere! except in Siberia, where they use a simple
shade for the eyes.’

We brought home four pairs of these goggles (i/dyigi), 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 Ist’tkwa,
where our station stood, buried
at a depth of 27 feet in undis-
turbed frozen ground, and were
uncovered in digging the shatt
sunk by Lieut. Ray for obtaining
earth temperatures. The layer
in which they were found was
evidently an old sea beach, con- z
sisting of sand and gravel mixed Fic. 259.—Wooden snow goggles.
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 I 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, pl. opposite p. 48, Fig. 4, and pl.
opposite p. 14; Crantz, History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 234; Dall, Alaska, p. 195, figure (Norton Sound) ;
also MacFarlane, MS., Ni 29 (Anderson River).

2 Nordenskiéld, Vega, vol. 2, p. 99.

sReport U.S. International Polar Expedition to Point Barrow, p. 37.

262 THE POINT BARROW 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 Utkiavwin) represents
one of these specimens. I
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, which 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. Ido not
remember having seen such
goggles worn. Dall figures Fig. 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 markers.—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
inthesnow. This implement
is called ti’kusia.

Fig. 262, represents one of
these (No. 89531 [978] from Nuwitk). It is a flat, slender rod of white
walrus ivory, 114 inches long, and evidently broken off at the tip. The

Fic. 260.—Bone snow goggles.

Fic. 262.—Marker for meat cache.

MURDOCH. } 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 buck 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
buti-breasted sandpiper (Tryngites subruficollis). This was evidently

Fic. 263.—Marker for meat cache.

longer when new and perhaps was originally used for a seal indicator
(which see above). Fig. 263 (No. 89453 [1581] from Utkiavwin) is a
similar rod, the tip of which has been brought to an edge so that it can
be used as a “ feather-setter” in feathering arrows. The remains of two
wing tips of some small bird are tied to one of the notches at the upper
end.

METHODS OF HUNTING.

Haying now described in detail all the weapons and other implements
used in hunting, Iam prepared to give an account of the time and
methods of pursuing the different kinds of game.

The polar bear.—Bears are occasionally met with in the winter by
the seal hunters, roaming about the ice fields at some distance from the
shore. They usually run from a man and often do not make a stand
even when wounded. Occasionally, however, a bear rendered bold by
hunger comes in from the sea and makes an attack on some native’s
storehouse of seal meat even in the midst of the village. Of course, in
such a case he has very little chance of escape, as the natives all turn
out with their rifles and cut off his retreat. Two bears were killed in
this way at Utkiavwin in the winter of 188283. The bear is always
attacked with the rifle, often with the help of dogs to bring him to bay.
The umiaks when walrus hunting sometimes meet with bears among
the loose ice. If the bear is caught in the water, there is very little
difficulty in paddling up close enough to him to shoot him.

The wolf—The wolf can hardly be considered a regular object of
pursuit. Wolves are often seen and occasionally shot by deer hunters
in the winter, and one family in the summer of 1883 managed to catch
a couple of young wolf cubs alive, somewhere between Point Barrow
and the Colville. These they brought home with them and kept them
picketed on the tundra just outside of the village, with a little kennel
of snow to shelter them, carefully feeding them till winter, when their
fur had grown long enough for use in trimming hoods. They were then

264 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

killed with a stone-headed arrow, which we were told was necessary
for the purpose, and their skins dressed and cut into strips which were
sold around the village. Superstition required that the man who killed
these wolves should sleep outside of the house in a tent or snow hut for
“one moon” after killing them. We did not learn the reason for this
practice beyond that it would be “bad” to do otherwise.

The fox.—Foxes are sometimes shot, but are generally taken in the
traps described above, which are usually set some distance from the
village so as to avoid catching prowling dogs. Though generally ex-
ceedingly shy, the fox is sometimes rendered careless by hunger. One
of the women at the deer-hunters’ camp in the spring of 1882 caught
one in the little snow house built to store the meat and killed him with
a stick.

The reindeer.—Reindeer are comparatively scarce within the radius
of a day’s march from Point Barrow, though solitary animals and small
parties are to be seen almost any day in the winter a few miles inland
from the seacoast. In the autumn, which is the rutting season, they
occasionally wander down to the lagoons back of the beach. Nearly
every day in the autumn and winter, when the weather is not stormy,
one or more natives are out looking for reindeer, usually traveling on
snowshoes and carrying their rifles slung on their backs. The deer are
generally very wild and often perceive a man and begin to run at a dis-
tance of a mile or two, though a rutting buck will sometimes fancy that
a skin-clad Eskimo is a rival buck, and come toward him, especially
if the hunter crouches down and keeps perfectly still.

The usual method of hunting is to walk off inland until a deer is
sighted, when the hunter moves directly toward him at a rapid pace,
without regard to the wind or attempting to conceal himself, which
would be almost hopeless in such open country. As soon as the deer
starts to run, the hunter quickens his pace—to a run, if he has “ wind”
enough—and follows the game as long as he can keep it in sight, trust-
ing that the well known curiosity of the deer will induce it to “ circle”
round, in order to see what it is that is following him with such perti-
nacity. Should the deer turn, as often happens, especially if there is
more than one of them, the hunter alters his course so as to head him
off, and as soon as he gets within long rifle range opens fire, and keeps
it up till the animal is hit or escapes out of range. Strange as it may
seem, a number of deer are killed every winter in this way.

If a deer be killed, the hunter usually “butchers” him on the spot,
and brings in as much of the meat as he can carry on his back, leaving
the rest, carefully covered with slabs of snow to protect it from the foxes,
to be brought in as soon as convenient by a dog sled, which follows the
hunter’s tracks to the place.

During the spring the deer retire some distance from the Point, and
the does then drop their fawns. At this season nearly all the natives
are busily engaged in the whale fishery, and pay little attention to the

MURDOCH.] 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. In July, 1883, one man from Utkiavwii 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 Imé/kpan and Imékptniglu 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 Perniji. 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 Defiles 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 inake up
the Number that is wanted) with Pieces of Turf to head them, which
frightens the Deer and hinders it from escaping.”! 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.? Franklin also noticed between the Mackenzie and the
Colville similar ranges of driftwood stumps leading across the plain
to two cairns on a hill, and Thomas Simpson mentions a similar
range near Herschel Island,‘ 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.’ This is

' Greenland, p. 62.

? Franklin, Ist Exped., vol. 2, p. 181.
32d Exped., p. 137.

4 Narrative, p. 114.

5Tbid., p. 138.

266 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

similar to the practice described by Schwatka! among the “ Netschilluk”
of King William’s Land, where a line 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 Kiulugrua, 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 Utkiaywin 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 Si/naru, and then strike across country, crossing Kuaru and
reaching Kulugrua near the hill Nuasu’/knan. (See map, Pl. 11.)

The people from Nuwtik travel straight across Elson Bay to the south
till they reach nearly the same region. Some parties from Nuwik also
hunt in the rough country between Kulugrua and Ikpikptin. 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,

' Science, vol. 4, 9, pp. 543-544.

MURDOCH. ] HUNTING—REINDEER. 267

stopping for the night with tolerable regularity at certain stations where
the first party that travels over the trail build snow huts, which are
used by those who follow them. At the rivers they are scattered in
small camps of four or five 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.’ It is certain, at all events, that the people of Utkiavwin
did not hunt on the Ikpikpain with the men of Nuwik. At this season
they live entirely in snow huts, often excavated in the deep drifts under
the river bluffs, and the men hunt deer while the women, as before,
catch fish in Kuara and Kulugrua. None are taken in Ikpikptin. (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 1umber
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 wp-
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 themeaten. 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 moy-
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 that the hunting grounds of families are kept sacred among the Eskimo.
Searching Expedition, vol. 1, pp. 244,351. See, also, the same author's paper, New’Philosophical Jour-
nal, vol. 52, p. 323.

268 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, ete., are simply
rough dried in the open air, and brought in stacked up on a flat sled.
Lieut. Ray met a Nuwttk 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
Capt. Maguire.!

The following is the description of those seen by Lieut. Ray in 1885:
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 6 feet deep, and is brought
up to within 2 or 3 inches of the surface, where there is only a small
hole, through 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 stepson 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.’ and among
the Netsillingmiut, where dogs’ urine is said to be sprinkled on the
show as a bait to attract the deer by its “Salzgehalt.”’> Lieut. Ray
was informed by the natives that the ‘‘Nunatanmiun” 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 witha piece of antler. A sim-
ilar method was practiced by the natives of Norton Sound.* 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 seal_—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 Klutschak, ‘‘Als Eskimo,” ete., p.13L
2 Rae, Narratives, etc., p. 135. 4 Dall, Alaska, p. 147.

MURDOCH.] SEAL HUNTING. 269

with the rifle and retrieving harpoon, traveling many miles among the
ice hummocks 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 off 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
ean 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 wna,
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 BARROW ESKIMO.

the netting, which is 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
reconnoitering 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 comes 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 seals are captured in this way.
For instance, on the night of December 2, 1882, the netters from Utkiay-
wit 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 land till
each has been given a mouthful of fresh water. We did not learn the
object of this practice, but Nordenski6ld, who observed a similar custom
at Pitlekaj, was informed that it was to keep the leads from closing.!

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 up in the snow alongside of the path. In 1834 a lead remained
open for several days about 3 or 4 miles from the village, and the
natives made a regular beaten trail out toit. 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 asa protection against
the wind. The season for this netting ends with the January gales,
which close the leads permanently.

‘Vega, vol. 2, p. 130. ‘Compare the custom observed in Baffin Land, of sprinkling a few drops of
water on the head of the seal before it is cut up, mentioned by Hall, Aretie Researches, p. 573.

MURDOCH.] SEAL HUNTING. 271

Later in the winter the seals resort to very ineonsiderable cracks
among the hummocks for air, and nets are set hanging around these
cracks, 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 Utkiavwin, 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-
son there are frequently to bé found among the hummocks what the
natives eall i/glus, dome-shaped snow houses about 6 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 Kumlien,! which the female seal builds to bring
forth her young in.? 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 (nétyidru). 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 Corwin, 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. 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 feetida),
but in 1881 a single male ribbon seal (Histriophoca 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 (Erignathus barbatus), whose skin is
especially prized for making harpoon lines, boot soles, umiak covers,

! Contributions, p. 57.
? Hall, Arctic Researches, pp. 507 and 578, with diagrams.
* Hooper, Corwin Report, p. 25.

272 THE POINT BARROW 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, 183835,

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
sakes 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 (Balzena 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 umialiks (boat-owners) or those
who are to be the captains of whaling wniaks, before the deer hunters
start out in January, bring all the gear to be used in the whale fishery
to the kt/dyigi, where it is consecrated by a ceremony consisting of
drumming and singing, perhaps partaking of the nature of an incan-
tation.

Capt. Herendeen was the only one of our party who witnessed this
ceremony, Which took place at Utkiavwin on January 9, 1883, and he
did not bring back a detailed account of the proceedings. During
part of the ceremony all the umialiks 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. Every article to be used in whaling—harpoons, lances, pad-
dies, and even the timbers of the boats—must be scraped perfectly
clean.! This work is generally done by the umialik himself and his

‘Compare Egede, Greenland, p. 102. The whale ‘can’t bear sloven and dirty habits.”

MURDOCH. ] WHALING. 273

family, as the crews do not enter on their duties till the whaling actually
commences. The crews are regularly organized for the season, and are
made up during the winter and early spring. They consist of eight or
ten persons to each boat, including the captain, who is always the
owner of the boat, and sits in the stern and steers, using a larger pad-
dle than the rest, and the harpooner, who occupies the bow. When a
bombgun is carried it is intrusted to a third man, who sits in the
waist of the boat, and whose duty it is to shoot the whale whenever he
sees a favorable opportunity, whether it has been harpooned or not.
The rest are simply paddlers.

When used for whaling, the umiak is propelled by paddles alone,
sails and oars never being even taken on board. Men are preferred for
the whaling crews when enough can be secured, otherwise the vacancies
are filled by women, who make efficient paddlers. Some aunialiks hire
their crews, paying them a stipulated price in tobacco and other arti-
cles, and providing them with food during the season. Others ship
men on shares. We did not learn the exact proportions of these shares
in any case. They appear to concern the whalebone alone, as all seem
to be entitled to as much of the flesh and blubber as they can cut off
in the general scramble. At this season exploring parties are out every
day examining the state of the ice to ascertain when the pack is likely
to break away from the landfloe, and also to find the best path for the
wniaks through the hummocks.

In 1882 the condition of the ice was such that the boats could be
taken out directly from Utkiaywin, by a somewhat winding path, to the
edge of the Jand floe about five or six miles from the shore. This path
was marked out by the seal-hunters during the winter, and some of the
natives spent their leisure time widening and improving it, knocking
off projecting points of ice with picks and whale spades, and filling up
the worst of the inequalities. Much of the path, however, was exceed-
ingly rough and difficult when it was considered finished. In 1883
the land floe was so rough and wide abreast of the village that no
practicable path could be made, so all the whalemen with their families
moved up to Imé/kptn and encamped in tents as already described
(see p. 84) for the season. From this point a tolerably straight and
easy path was made out to the edge of the land floe. The natives in-
formed me as early as April 1 that it weuld be necessary for them to
move up to Imé/kpin, adding that the ice abreast of the village was
very heavy and would move only when warm weather came. This pre-
diction was correct, as the-season of 1883 was so late that no ships
reached the station until August 1.

About the middle of April the natives begin anxiously to expect an
east or southeast wind (nigya) to drive off the pack and open the leads,
and should it not speedily blow from that quarter recourse is had to
supernatural means to bring it. A party of men go out and sit in a
semicircle facing the sea on the village cliff, while one man in the mid-

9 ETH 18

274 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

dle beats a drum and sings a monotonous chant, interrupted by curious
vibrating cries, accompanied with a violent shaking of the head from
side to side. This ceremony is conducted with great solemnity, and
the natives seemed disinclined to have us witness it, so that we learned
very little about it. They, however, told us that the chant was ad-
dressed to a tuana or spirit, requesting him to make the desired wind
blow.! It does not appear to be necessary that the man who delivers
the invocation should be a regular magician or ‘‘ doctor.” A sueces-
sion of unsuccessful attempts were made in 1882, some of them by men
who never to our knowledge practiced incantations on other occasions.
During this period, and while the whaling is going on, no pounding
must be done in the village, and it is not allowable even to rap with
the knuckles on wood for fear of frightening away the whales.’ It is
interesting to find that at Norton Sound, where the whale is not pur-
sued, this superstition has been transferred to the salmon fishery,
one of the most important industries of the year. Mr. Dall* says:
“While the fishery lasts no wood must be cut with an axe, or the sal-
mon will disappear.”

As soon as the lead opens, and sometimes :before when the prospect
looks promising, the boats are taken out to the edge of the land floe
and kept out there during the season, which lasts till about the last
week in June, when they are brought in and got ready for the summer
expeditions. When the lead closes, as often happens, the boats are
hauled up on the ice and many or all of the crews come home until
there are prospects of open water. When there is open water, the
boats are always on the lookout for whales, either cruising about in
thé lead or lying up at the edge of the floe, the crews eating and sleep-
ing when they can get a chance and shooting seals and ducks when
there are no whales in sight. The women and children travel back
and forth between the village and the boats, carrying supplies of food
for the whalemen.

In 1883, there was a regular beaten trail along the smooth shore ice
between Imé/kptin and Utkiavwin, where people were constantly tray-
eling back and forth. When the boats are out no woman is allowed to
sew, as was noticed by Dr. Simpson. To carry the wniak out over
the ice it is lashed on a flat sled and drawn by dogs and men. A de-
scription of one of these boats which I accompanied for part of its jour-
ney out tothe open water, will show how a whaleboat is fitted out. The
rifles, harpoons, lances, and other gear of the party were sent on ahead
on a sled drawn by half a dozen dogs, with a woman to lead them.
After these had made a short stage, they were unfastened from this

' Hall speaks of seeing the angeko “ very busy ankooting on the hills'’"—‘tTo try and get the pack
ice out of the bay."’— Arctic Res., p. 573.

2Compare Rink, Tales, ete., p. 55: ‘To the customs just enumerated may be added various regula-
lly that of the whale, this animal being easily scared away by vari-
ous kinds of impurity or disorder.”

8Alaska, p. 147.

4 Loc, cit., p. 261.

tions regarding the chase, especi:

MURDOCH. ] WHALING. 275

sled and brought back and harnessed to the flat sled on which the
umiak was lashed. The party, which consisted of five men and two
women, one of whom remained with the sled load of gear, then started
ahead, the women running in front of the dogs and the men pushing at
the sides of the boat. The boat travels very easily and rapidly on
smooth ice, but among the hummocks the men have hard work pushing
and scrambling, and occasional stops have to be made to widen narrow
places in the path and to chisel off projecting points of ice which might
pierce the skin cover of the boat. When they came up to the first
sled the women were again sent on with this while the men rested.
The inflated sealskin floats, five or six in number, the whale harpoon,
and whale spades, and ice picks were carried in the boats.

A whaling umiak always carries a number of amulets to insure sue-
cess. These consisted in this case of two wolf skulls, a dried raven,
the axis vertebra of a seal, and numerous feathers. The skin of a
golden eagle is considered an excellent charm for whaling, and Nika-
waalu was particularly desirous to secure the tip of a red fox’s tail,
which he said was a powerful amulet. The captain and harpooner
wore fillets of mountain sheepskin, with a little crystal or stone image
of a whale dangling at each side of the face, and the captain’s fillet was
also fringed with the incisor teeth of the mountain sheep. Both wore
little stone whales attached to the breast of the jacket, and one woman
and one or two of the men had streaks of black lead on their faces.!

When they are on the watch for whales the great harpoon is kept
always rigged and resting in a crotch of ivory in the bow of the boat.
When a whale is sighted they paddle up as close as possible and the
harpooner thrusts the harpoon into him. The whale dives, with the
floats attached to him, and the shaft, which is retained, is rigged for
striking him when he Tises again. The other boats, if any are near,
join in the chase until the whale is so wearied that he can be lanced
or a favorable opportunity occurs for shooting him. All boats in sight
at the time the whale is struck, as I understood, are entitled to an
equal share of the whalebone.

As soon as the whale is killed he is towed up to the edge of the land
floe and everybody standing on the edge of the ice and in the boats
begins hacking away, at random, at the flesh and blubber, some of
them going to work more carefully to cut out the whalebone. The
“cutting in” is managed without order or control, everybody who can
be on the spot being apparently entitled to all the meat, blubber, and
blackskin he or she can cut off. The same custom was practiced in
Greenland, and is to this day in eastern Siberia.

‘Compare Egede, Greenland, p. 102. ‘*When they go a Whale-catching they put on their best Gear
or Apparel, as if they were going toa Wedding Feast, fancying that if they did not come cleanly and
neatly dressed the Whale, who can’t bear sloven and dirty Habits, would shun them and fly from them.”

See also Crantz, History of Greenland, Vol. 1, p. 121. ‘They dress themselves in the best manner
for it, because, according to the portentous sayings of their sorcerers, if any one was to wear dirty
cloaths, especially such in which he had touched a dead corpse, the whale would escape, or, even if it
was already dead, would at least sink.”

276 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

While they are very particular in all superstitious observances re-
garding the whales, they are less careful about certain things, such as
loud talking and firing guns at seals and fowl when they are wait-
ing for whales, which really hurt their chances with the timid animals.
They are less energetic than one would suppose in pursuit of the whale,
according to Capt. Herendeen, who spent several days each season with
the whaleboats. Instead of cruising about the lead in search of whales
they are rather inclined to lie in wait for them at the edge of the floe,
so that when the open water is wide many whales escape.

When the leads are very narrow the whales are sometimes shot with
the bombgun from the edge of the ice. Success in this appears to be
variable. In 1882 only one small whale was secured, and in 1883 one
full-grown one, though several were struck and lost each season. The
veteran whaling-master, Capt. L. C. Owen, informs me that one season
the boats of these two villages captured ten. The season of 1885 was
very successful. The natives of the two villages are reported to have
taken twenty-eight whales. Capt. E. E. Smith, however, informs me
that only seven of these were full-grown.

When actually engaged in whaling the umialik exercises a very fair
degree of discipline, but at other times he seems hardly able to keep
his men from straggling off to go home or to visit their seal nets, ete.,
so that he sometimes has to chase a whale “short-handed.”

Nowhere else among the Eskimo does the whale fishery appear to be
conducted in such regular manner with formally organized crews as
upon this northwest coast. From all accounts the animal is only cas-
ually pursued elsewhere with fleets of kaiaks or umiaks manned by
volunteer crews.!

The beluga or white whale is only casually pursued, and as far as |
could learn is always shot with the rifle. It is not abundant.

Fowl.—During the winter months a few ptarmigan are occasionally
shot, but the natives pay no special attention to birds until the spring
migrations. The first ducks appear a little later than the whales, about
the end of April or the first week of May, and from that time till the
middle of June searcely a day passes when they are not more or less
plenty. The king ducks (Somateria spectabilis) are the first to appear,
while the Pacifie eiders (S. v-nigra) arrive somewhat later, and are
more abundant towards the end of the migrations. At this season all
women and children, and many men, go armed with the bolas, and
everybody is always on the lookout for flocks of ducks. On four or five
favorable days each season, at intervals of a week or ten days, there
are great flights of eiders coming up in huge flocks of two or three hun-
dred, stretched out in long diagonal lines. These flocks follow one
another in rapid succession and keep the line of the coast, apparently
striking straight across Peard Bay from the Seahorse Islands to a point

lSee Egede, Greenland, p. 102; Crantz, History of Greenland, Vol. 1, p. 121; Parry, 2d. Voy., p. 509
(Iglulik); McClure, Northwest Passage, p. 92 (Cape Bathurst).

MURDOCH.] FOWLING. 2

four or five miles below Utkiavwin, and most of them fly up along the
smooth shore-ice to Pernya or Point Barrow. Some flocks always fly
up among the hummocks of the land floe, and a few others turn east-
ward below the village and continue their course to the northeast across
the land.

On the days between the great flights there are always a few flocks
passing, and some days when there is no flight along shore they are
very abundant out at the open water, where the whalemen shoot them
in the intervals of whaling. When a great flight begins the people at
the village hasten out and form a sort of skirmish line across the shore
ice from the shore to the hummocks, a few sometimes stationing them-
selves among the latter. They take but little pains to conceal them-
selves, frequently sitting out on the open ice-field on sealing stools or
squares of bearskins. The ducks generally keep on their course with-
out paying much attention to the men, and in fact one may often get a
shot by running so as to head off an approaching flock, Firing, how-
ever, frightens them and makes them rise to a considerable height,
often out of gunshot. Many ducks are taken with guns and bolas in
these flights.

Rather late in the season the old squaws (Clangula hyemalis) pass
to the northeast in large flocks, but usually go so high than none are
taken. A good many of these, however, with a few eiders, geese, brant,
and loons, remain and breed on the tundra, and are occasionally shot
by the natives, though most of them are too busy with whaling and seal
and walrus hunting to pay much attention to birds. Small parties of
two or three lads or young men, sometimes with their wives, make short
excursions inland to the small streams and sand islands east of Point
Barrow, after birds and eggs, and the boys from the small camps along
the coast towards Woody Inlet are always on the lookout for eggs and
small birds, such as they can kill with their bows and arrows or catch
in snares. They say that the parties which go east, and those which
visit the rivers in summer, get many eggs and find plenty of ducks,
geese, and swans, which have molted their flight feathers so that they
are unable fly. :

About the end of July the return migration of the ducks begins. At
this season the flocks, which are generally smaller and more compact
than in the spring, come from the east along the northern shore, and
cross out to sea at the isthmus of Pernyt, where the natives assem-
ble in large numbers to shoot them as well as to meet with the Nuna-
tanmiun. All the people who have been scattered along the coast in
small camps gradually collect at this season at Pernyt, and the return-
ing eastern parties generally stop there two or three days; while, after
they have brought their families back to the village, the men frequently
walk up to Pernyti for a day or two of duck shooting. The tents are
pitched just in the bend of Elson Bay, and north of them is a narrow

eplace in the sandspit over which the ducks often pass. Here the na-

278 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

tives dig shallow pits in the gravel, in which they post themselves with
guns and bolas. A line of posts is set up along the bend of the beach
from the tents almost to the outlet of Imékptniglu.

When a light breeze is blowing from the northeast the ducks, no
matter how far off shore they are when first seen, always head for the
point of land on the other side of this outlet, probably with the mten-
tion of following the line of lagoons and going out to sea farther down
the coast, as they sometimes do. When, however, they reach this critical
point they catch sight of the posts, and the natives who are watching
them sharply set up a shrill yell. Frightened by this and by the line
of posts, nine times out of ten, if the cry is given at the right moment,
the ducks will falter, become confused, and, finally, collecting into a
compact body will whirl along the line of posts, past the tents, flying
close to the water, and turn out to sea at the first open space, which is
just where the gunners are posted. This habit of yelling to frighten
the ducks and bring them within gunshot has been observed on the
Siberian cost in places where the ducks are in the habit of flying in
and out from lagoons over low bars.! Should the wind blow hard from
the east, however, or blow from any other quarter, the ducks do not
fly in such abundance, nor do they pay much attention to the posts or
the yelling, but often keep on their course down the lagoons, or head
straight for the beach and eross wherever they strike it. The latter is
generally the habit with the old squaws, who come rather late in the
migrations, while the black brant (Branta nigricans) are more apt to go
down the lagoons. <A few pintail ducks (Dafila acuta), are occasionally
shot at this season, and are sometimes found in the two little village
ponds (Taseraru). The shooting at Pernyii usually lasts till the mid-
dle or end of September, during which month the natives also shoot a
good many gulls (Larus barrovianus and Rhodostethia rosea) as they
fly along the shore.

IMPLEMENTS FOR FISHING.

Hooks and lines.—The streams and lakes in the immediate neighbor-
hood of Point Barrow contain no fish, and there is comparatively little
fishing in the sea. When the water first closes in the autumn narrow
tide cracks often form at the very edge of the beach. At these cracks
the natives frequently catch considerable numbers of Polar cod (Baore-
ogadus saida) and small sculpins (Cottus quadricornis and C. decas-
trensis), with the hook and line. The tackle for this fishing consists of

'Von der Lagune aus pflegten jeden Morgen und Abend grosse Entenschaaren iiber den Ort hin-
sn. Dann wurden durch Pfeifen und Schreien die Thiereso geiingstigt,

weg nach dem Meere zu flie
dass sie ihren Flug abwiirts richteten und nun dureh die mit grosser Sicherheit geworfene Schleuder
oder durch Flintenschiisse erreicht werden konnten. (East Cape), Krause Brothers, Geographische
Blatter, Vol. 5, pt. 1, p. 32.

“The birds were easily called from their course of flight, as we repeatedly observed. If a flock
should be passing a hundred yards or more ta one side, the natives would utter a long, peculiar ery,
and the flock would turn instantly to one side and sweep by in a circuit, thus affording the coveted
opportunity for bringing down some of their number.” (Cape Wankarem), Nelson, Cruise of the
Corwin. p. 100. »

MURDOCE.] FISHING-TACKLE. 279

a short line of whalebone, provided with a little “squid” or artificial
bait of ivory, and fastened to a wooden rod about 18 inches or 2 feet
long. The lure, which is apparently meant to represent a small shrimp,
is kept moving, and the fish bite at it. We brought home two com-
plete sets of tackle for this kind of fishing, two lines without rods and
twelve lures or hooks. No, 89548 [1753] Fig. 264, has been selected
for description.

The line is 40 inches long and made of four strips of whalebone 0-1
inch wide, fastened together with what appear to be ‘+ waterknots.”
Two of these strips are of black whalebone, respectively 44 and 9 inches
long; the other two are of light colored whalebone and 153 and 11 inches
long. The light colored end is made fast to the eye in the small end of
the hook as follows: The end is passed through the eye, doubled back

Fic. 264.—Tackle for shore fishing.

and passed through a single knot in the standing part, and knotted
round the latter with a similar knot (Fig. 265). This knot is the one
generally used in fastening a fishing line to the hook. The other end
is doubled in a short bight into which is becket-hitched one end of a bit
of sinew thread about 3 inches long, and the other end is knotted
into a notch at one end of the rod, as the whalebone would be too stiff
to tie securely to the stick. The rod is a roughly whittled splinter of
California redwood, 143 inches long. The body of the lure is a piece
of walrus ivory 1$ inches long. Through a hole in the large end of this
is driven the barbless brass hook, with a broad thin plate at one end
bent up, flush with the convex side. When notin use the line is reeled
lengthwise on the rod, secured by a notch at each end of the latter, and
the hook stuck into the wood on one side of
the red. The hook is wedged into the body —=—>>
of the lure with a bit of whalebone. The
other specimen, No. 89547, [1733] from the
same village, is almost exactly like this, but
has a slightly shorter line, made of three strips of bone, of which the
lower two, as before, are of light colored whalebone. The object of
using this material is probably to render the part of the line which is
under water less conspicuous, as we use leaders and casting lines of
transparent silkworm gut. The body of the lure is made of old brown
walrus ivory. These lures are 1 inch to 14 inches long, and vary little
in the shape of the body which is usually made of walrus ivory, in
most cases darkened on the surface by age or charring, so that when
carved into shape itis parti-colored, black and white. The body is often
ornamented with small colored beads inlaid for eyes and along the back
(Fig. 266a, No. 56609 [153], from Utkiavwin).

The hook is usually of the shape described but is sometimes simply a
slightly recurved spur about J-inch long as in Fig. 266b (No. 56610 [160],

FG. 265.—Knot of line into hook.

280 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

also from Utkiavwin). It is usually of brass or copper, rarely of iron.
Two peculiar lures from Utkiavwin, are No, 56705 [150a and 1506).

—< The first, a, has a body of
=> brass of the usual shape,
5)

and a copper hook, and the
other, b, has 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
acommon copper tack. We
were informed that these
lures were also used for
catching small fish, trout,
smelts, and perhaps gray-
3 \ ling in the rivers in sum-
2 b mer. No, 89554 [950], Fig.
Bra: 266. Sinall aebhooks: 267a, from Utkiavwin, 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. 267b, No. 89783
[1007], is one of these beaded Tures (24 inches long), with an iron hook,
undoubtedly for river fishing, as it belonged to the
“inland” native, Ili/bwga. 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 Utkiavwin, is a rod
rigged for fishing in the rivers. The rod is aroughly \
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 ~, 5
is light colored as usual. The shorter line carries a Fie. 267.—Hooks for river
small plain ivory lure of the common pattern, and the ashing:
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

Fic. 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/ksin.

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 earrying a peculiar large hook called iekqlin, which is baited
with a piece of whitefish. There are two forms of this hook,
which is from 3 to 54 inches long. One form differs in size only
from the small ni/ksin, but is always of white ivory and not
beaded (Fig. 269, No. 89550 [780] from Utkiaywin, which is 44
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, No. Fie. 270.—
89553 [764] from Utkiavwin, which has a body of un"
walrus ivory 4 inches long and a copper hook. Of 24 pattern.
late years, small cod hooks obtained from the ships have
been adapted to these bodies, as is seen in Fig. 271, No, 89552
[S841] from Utkiavwin. The shank of the hook
has been half imbedded in a longitudinal groove
on the flatter side of the body, with the bend of
the hook projecting about 4 inch beyond the tip
of the latter. The ring of the hook has been
bent open and the end sunk into the body. The
hook is held on by two lashings of sinew, one at
each end of the shank.

No, 56594 [52] from Utkiavwin is like the pre-
ceding, but has a larger hook, which from the
bend to the point is wrapped in a piece of deer
skin with the flesh side out, and wound with
a sinew having a tuft of hair at the point of the

bot hook, ist hook. This is probably to hide the point when

DERI the hook is baited. No. 56594 [167] from Utki-
avwin, 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 710-27'— Burbot
set of burbot tackle (No. 89546 [946]) brought in and sold by cod hook.
some Utkiavwin natives, just as they had been using it in the autumn
of 1882 at Kuaru or Kulugrua. <A piece of whitefish, flesh and skin,

Fic. 272.—Burbot tackle, baited.
with the scales removed is wrapped round the hook so as to make a club-
shaped body 44 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 fish 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, 42 inches long. There is another eye at the large end of
the sinker, for the attachment of a leader of double sinew braid 53 inches
long connecting the hook with the sinker.

The reel, which serves also as a short rod, is of yellow pine 194 inches
long. When the line is reeled up, the hook is caught into the wood on
one side of the reel. No. 89545 [946] is a similar set of baited tackle,
bought from the same natives, differing from the preceding only in pro-
portions, having a longer line—9 feet and 6 inches—and a somewhat
larger bait. We also procured two sets of burbot tackle unbaited.

One of these (No. 56543 [53] from Utkiavwin) has a whale-
bone line 14 feet long, and a roughly octahedral sinker of
walrus ivory 3 inches long and 14 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. 56544[187], also from Utkiavwin, has no sinker
and a hook with a elub-shaped body and iron spur. It was
probably put together for sale, as it is new. The sinkers, of
which we 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. 275 (No. 56577 [260]) repre-
sents one of these sinkers (kibica), on which there is some

Fie. 273.— attempt at ornamentation. On the larger are two eyes
Ivory sinker. 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 linestare 10 or 15 fathoms long, and
provided with a heavy sinker of ivory, copper, or rarely
lead, to which are attached by whalebone leaders of unequal
length, two little jiggers like Fig. 274 (the property of the
writer, from Utkiavwin). This is of white walrus ivory, 2
inches long and 2 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, which is

scraped bright. Fie. 274,—

ao : : : Ivory jigger for
his fishery begins with the return of the sun, about the Saintes os

MURDOCH. | ICE FISHING. 283

Ist 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, 5 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 1885 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 everyvody 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, and in his right the reel which he
jerkscontinually upand down. The tish, attracted by the white “jiggers,”
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 vary in abundance on different days, being sometimes so plentiful ,
that L 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 nen, 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 Nordends-
kidld’s description,! but I have seen no account either there or elsewhere

1 Vega, vol. 2, p. 110.

284 THE POINT BARROW 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. No. 56545
[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 of beads, bits of the red beak of the puffin, ete.
Crantz mentions a similar custom in Greenland of baiting a hook with
beads.”

Nets (Kubra).—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-
gonus kenicotti, C. nelsoni, and C. laurette.) 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 54 inches,
and the knot used in mak-

Fig. 275.—Section of whalebone net. 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. 56753 [172], also from
Utkiavwin), is similar to this, but slightly larger, being 87 meshes (25

99 /2

feet) long and 22 (3 feet 9 inches) deep. The length of mesh is 34 inches.

' “Their Lines are made of Whalebones, cut very small and thin, and at the End tacked together.”
Egede, Greenland, p. 107. Seealso. Crantz, vol. 1, p. 95; Dall, Alaska, p. 148; and the Museum Collee-
tions which contain many whalebone lines from the Mackenzie and Anderson rivers, collected by
MacFarlane, and from the whole western region, collected by Nelson.

2“ Tnstead of a bait, they put on the hook a white bone, a glass bead. or a bit of red cloth” (when
fishing for senlpins). History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 95.

- MURDOCH. ] NETS. 985

ae

Fig. 276 (unit of web) is a net (No. 56752 [171] from the same village)

of the same mesh and depth, but 284 meshes 4
(60 feet) long and made of twisted sinew 2
twine.

I 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 Pernytt in the summer, the
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, and in them are gilled considerable numbers of white-
fish, two species of salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha and O, nerka)
and an occasional trout (Salvelinus malma). They take these nets east
with them on their summer 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 Kiimiad/lin) 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.”!

An Utkiavwin 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, 56755 {190])
from Utkiavwin, the only
specimen of the kind seen.
It is a conical, wide-nouthed
bag, 5 feet 4 inches long and
54 feet wide at the mouth,
netted all in one piece of
twisted sinew, with a 24-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

”

1G. 276.—Mesh of sinew net.

: EES EI RUSE NE happened to make further

1 Narrative, p. 115

286 THE POINT BARROW 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 fish.

From all accounts, the natives east of the Anderson River region were
ignorant of the use of the net before they made the acquaintance of the
whites,! though they now use it in several places, as in Greenland and
Labrador. Theearliest explorerson the northwest coast, however, found
both fish 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 ali along the coast
from the Mackenzie and Anderson rivers (see MacFarlane’s Col-
lection) as far south at least as the Yukon delta.2 I have not
been able to learn whether gill nets are used in the delta of the
Kuskoquim. Petroff’ mentions fish traps and dip nets merely.
That the natives of Kadiak formerly had no nets I infer from
Petroft’s statement? 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-
denskidld° describes the nets used at Pitlekaj, which are made
of sinew thread. Itis almost certain that the American Eskimo
learned the use of the net from the Siberians, as they did the
habit of smoking, since the use of the gill net appears to have
been limited to precisely the same region as the Siberian form
of tobacco pipe.®

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. Thishas a roughly whittled shaft, of spruce, 214
inches long, armed at one end with three prongs. The middle
prong is of whalebone, 44 inches long, inserted into the tip of
the shaft, which is cut into a short neck and whipped with sinew.
Fig.278,_ Lhe side prongs are also of bone, 9inches long. Through the tip
Fish spear. of each is driven a sharp, slender slightly recurved spur of bone,
about 14 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

1 The Greenlanders used a sort of sieve or scoop net, not seen at Point Barrow, for catching caplin
(Mallotus villosus). Egede, Greenland, p. 108; and Crantz, vol. 1, p. 95. John Davis, however, says
of the Greenlanders in 1586, ‘‘They make nets to take their fish of the finne of a whale.” Hakluyt's
Voyages, etc. (1589), p. 782.

2Dall, Alaska, p. 147; and Petroff, Report, ete., p. 127

3Op cit., p. 73.

4Op cit., p. 142.

5 Vega, vol. 2, p. 109.

® See the writer's paper in the American Anthropologist, vol. 1, pp. 325-336,

;

aa

MURDOCH. ] FLINT WORKING. 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 beliy, precisely on the principle of the ‘‘ patent
eel spear.” This implement is almost identical with one in the National
Museum from Hudson Bay, which appears to be in general use among
the eastern Eskimo.’ The name, kaki/bua, is very nearly the same as
that used by the eastern natives (kakkie-wéi, Parry, and kakivak,
Kwnlien). 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
Crantz. 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 eof making flint arrow and spear-
heads, and other implements suchas the blades for the skin scrapers to be
hereafter described. Many of the flint arrowheads and spear points al-
ready described were made at Nuwitk or Utkiavwin 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 sizes, 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. 89262 [1223] figured in Point Barrow
Report, Ethnology, Pl. 11, 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 45 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 1:5 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

to this spear, and Captain Parry, (Second Voyage, p. 509) describes a very similar one in use at Iglulik.
The ‘Perch, headed with two sharp-hooked Bones,” for spearing salmon—called in the Grenlandsk
Ordbog, kakiak, ‘‘en Lyster (med to eller tre Pigge"’)—mentioned by Egede (Greenland, p. 108) is prob-
ably the same thing, and a similar spear is spoken of by Rae (Narrative, p. 172) as in use at Repulse
Bay. A similar weapon, described by Dr. Rink as ‘‘ Mit einem in brittischen Columbien vorkommenden
identisch,’’ was found in east Greenland (Deutsche Geographische Blitter, vol. 9, p. 234). See the
description of the spear found by Schwatka at Back’s Great Fish River (Nimrod in the North, p. 139),
also described by Klutschak (Als Eskimo, ete., p. 120).

288 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

pressed against the fleshy part of the palm which serves as a cushion
and is protected by wearing a thick deer-skin mitten. The tool is firmly
grasped well forward in the right hand with the thumb on top of the
blade and by pressing the point steadily on the edge of the flint, flakes
of the desired size are made to fly-off from the under surface.

These tools vary little in pattern, but are made of different materials.

é

Fig. 279.—Flint tlakers

Hard bone appears to have been the commonest material for the blade,
as three out of the seven blades are of this substance. One specimen
(No. 89263 [796] from Utkiavwin) has a blade of iron of the same shape
but only 2 inches long. No. 89264 [1001] also from Utkiaywit, Fig.
279a, has a short blade of black flint flaked into a four-sided rod 14
inches long. This is held in place by a whipping of stout seal thong
tightened by thrusting a splinter of wood in at the back of the groove.

Two specimens (Nos. 89260[794| Fig. 279) and 89261 [1216]
both trom Utkiavwin) have blades of the peculiar Nuesuknan
concretions previously described. — Each isan 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. Twospecimens have hafts of
walrus ivory and three of fossilivory. The length of the haft
is from 6 to 8 inches, of the blade 1-5 to 4:7 inches. Fig. 280
(No. 89265 [979] from Nuwitk) is the 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 excayated, 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
Fro. 290._Haf; Plack dirt, and the eyes, nostrils, and mouth of a human
ofilintflaker. 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.

MURDOCH.] FIRE MAKING. 289

Fig. 281 (No, 89782 [1004e]) is one of these tools, very neatly made,
with a haft of reindeer antler and a bone blade, se-
cured by a whipping of seal thong which belongs
with the “kit” of tools owned by the “inland” na-
tive, Dli/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.

FIRE MAKING,

Drills.—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 astick 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 Plover’s visit, though still
in use at Kotzebue Sound.’ Fic. 281.—Flint flaker

A native of Nuwitk one day brought down for sale “'t bene Pade.
what he said was an exact model of the ancient fire drill, niootin. Thisis
No. 89822 [1080], Fig. 282. The drill isastick of pine 12 inches long, shaped
like the shaft of acommon perforating drill, brought toa blunt but rounded

Fic, 282.—Fire drill with mouthpiece and stock.

point. This is worked bya 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

manner of a drill.’’"—(T. Simpson, Narrative, p. 162.)

2 Dr. Simpson, op. cit., p. 242.

3 Compare Nordenski6ld’s figure of the fire drill in use at Pitlekaj (Vega, vol. 2, p. 121), which has a
similar bone for a socket, held not in the mouth but in the left hand.

9 ETH 19

290 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

is made to work against the split surface of a stick of spruce 18 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 fire 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.

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 Hakluyt,
Crantz, and Ellis, just quoted.) Chamisso, however,’ 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. Whena piece of fir was turned against another piece
of the same wood fire was often produced ina 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,” ete.’

1Bessels, Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 9, p. 867, speaks of a fire drill used at Smith Sound with a bow and
a mouthpiece of ivory.

A Greenlander; seen by John Davis, in 1586, ‘‘ beganne to kindle a fire, in his manner: he took a piece
of a boord, wherein was a hole halfe thorow: into that he puts the end of a rofid sticke like unto a
bedstaffe, wetting the end thereof in traine, and in fashion of a turner, with a piece of lether, by his
violent motion doth very speedily produce fire.".—Hakluyt'’s Voyages, ete. (1589), p. 782.

“They take a short Block of dry Fir Tree, upon which they rub another Piece of hard Wood, till by the
continued Motion the Fir catches Fire.""—Egede, Greenland, p. 137.

“Tf their fire 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, p. 145.

Lyon (Journal, p. 210) says that at Iglulik they were able to procure “fire 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 than for utility; the two lumps of iron pyrites certainly answering the
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 each, and having fitted 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 the other, this Motion soon sets
them on fire.”—Ellis, Voyage to Hudsons Bay, p. 234.

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).

Rae also mentions a similar drill used in the same region in 1847 (Narrative, p. 187); and there isa
specimen in the National Museum, collected by MacFarlane, and said to be the kind ‘tin 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, ete., p. 187) describes a similar drill at Plover Bay.

From Nordenskiéld’s account (Vega, vol. 2, p. 121) the fire drill seems to be still generally ased by the
natives at the Vega’s winter quarters. He says that the women appeared more accustomed to the use
of the drill than the men, and that a little oil was put on the end of the drill.

2 Kotzebue's Voyage, vol. 3, p. 260.

3Contribution to N. A. Ethnology, vol. 1, p. 82.

SEEDoGEs| FIRE MAKING. 291

I had no opportunity of seeing this drill manipulated, but I have con-
vineed myself by experiment that the stick or “ light-stock,” to use Nor-
denskiéld’s expression, must be held down by one foot, the workman
kneeling on the other knee.

Flint and steel.—Fire is usually obtained nowadays by striking a
spark in the ordinary method from a bit of flint with a steel, usually a
bit of some white man’s tool. Both are carried, as in Dr. Simpsons time,
in a little bag slung around the neck, along with some tinder made of
the down of willow catkins mixed with charcoal or perhaps gunpowder.
The flints usually carried for lighting the pipe, the only ones I have seen,
are very small, and only a tiny fragment of tinder is lighted which is
placed on the tobacco. Lucifer matches (kilaksagau) were eagerly
begged, but they did not appear to care enough for them to purchase
them. Our friend Nikawaalu, from whom we obtained much information
about the ancient customs of these people, told us that long ago, “when
there was no iron and no flint”—*savik pinmut, 4nma pinmtt”!—they
used to get “ereat fire” by striking together two pieces of iron pyrites.
Dr. Simpson speaks? of two lumps of iron pyrites being used for striking
fire, but he does not make it clear whether he saw this at Point Barrow
or only at Kotzebue Sound. Iron pyrites appears to have been used
quite generally among the Eskimo. Bessels saw it used with quartz
at Smith Sound, with willow catkins for tinder* and Lyon mentions the
use of two pieces of the same material, with the same
kind of tinder, at Iglulik.* Willow catkins are also
used for tinder at the Coppermine River.°

No. 89825 [1133 and 1722] are some of the catkins
used for making the tinder, which were gathered in
considerable quantities at the rivers. They are called
kimmiuru, which perhaps means ‘little dogs,”
say ‘‘catkins” or ‘‘ pussy willows.”

Kindlings.—From the same place they also brought
home willow twigs, 9 inches long, and tied with sinews
into bunches or fagots of about a dozen or a dozen
and a halfeach, which they said were used for kindling
fires. (No. 89824 [1725].)

Bow-and-arrow making.—A complete set of bow-
and-arrow tools consists of 4 pieces, viz: a marline f
spike, two twisters, and a feather setter, as shown in — Fie. 283.—Set of bow-
Fig. 283, No. 89465 [962], from Utkiavwin. The ®24arrow tools.
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 a flat, four-sided rod of walrus ivory, 5-6

as we

‘Compare this with Dr. Simpson's statement, quoted above, that stones for arrowheads were brought
by the Nunatanmiun from the Ku’whk River.

2 Op. cit., p. 243.

3 Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 9, p. 867.

4Journal, pp. 210 and 231.

6 Franklin, First Exped., vol. 2, p. 188

292 THE POINT BARROW 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 isto be passed under and in tucking in the
ends in finishing off a whipping. It was probably also used in putting
whippings or seizings onany otherimplements. 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 6 inches, and are always
contracted at the upper end into a sort of neck or handle, surmounted
by a knob or crossbar. No. 89463 [836] Fig. 284, from Utkiavwit has

Fic. 284.—Marhne 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 some-

Fig, 285.—Marline spike.

times a large round eye, as in Fig. 285 (No. 89464 [S42] from Utkiavwin,
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. 89465 [962]) are flat four-sided rods of walrus ivory,
respectively 44 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 on opposite faces at the two ends. They
are ornamented on all four faces with longitudinal incised lines, colored
with red ocher.

The use of these tools, which was discovered by actual experiment
after our return to this country' 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. 315.

Murpocn. ] ROW TOOLS. 293

seribed. 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 catches the lower strands, and the end is carried over
through an are 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 sufliciently twisted, the tool sliding back and forth like the handle of
avise. The tools are used in pairs, one being inserted in each cable
and manipwated 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 5 to 5:7 inches, but
are usually about 45 inches long. The commonest width is 0-4 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
“eireles and dots” as in Fig. 286, one of a rather large pair (No. 56521

%4

—— Sanaa EEE ecesneemeneeaeeeciee

Fig. 286.—Twister for working sinew backing of bow.

[249] from Utkiavwin). These are 5-4 inches long, n satly made and
quite clean. All the others show signs of age and use.

There are large numbers of these tools in the National Museum trom
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 “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 Barrow, 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 Barrow.
I find no mention of the use of this tool in any of the authors who have

294 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

treated of the Eskimo, except the following in Capt. 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 (kapute)
means simply a “twister.”

The feather-setter (v'gugwau) (No. 89465 [962}) is a flat, slender, rounded
rod of walrus ivory, 7 inches long, with the tip abruptly concayved 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

“43

Vic. 287.—‘‘ Feather-setter .”

to thenock. Fig. 287 is asimilar tool (No. 89486 [1285] from Utkiaywin)
also of walrus ivory, 6 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 concayved 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. 89459 [1282] from Utkiavwin) represents an unusual

FG. 288.—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,

Scrapers (ikun).—For removing bits of flesh, fat, ete., 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, fitting 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

MURDOCH. ] SKIN SCRAPERS. 295

this tool, which is grasped firmly in the right hand and pushed 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 Utkiavwin, 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. ‘Fhe 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 (858), an old fossilivory 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 Utkiavwin, which has no blade). This
is of fossil ivory,
thicker and more
strongly arched
than the type de-
seribed, deeply ex-
cavated below so as
to form a broad lobe
at the butt, with
the upper surface
Fic. 290.—Skin serapers—handles only. deeply grooved to

receive the tips of

the fore and middle fingers, and a slight hollow on the left side for the
thumb. This specimenis very neatly made and polished, and all theedges
are rounded off. One-half of the handle (lengthwise) and the outer quar-
ter of the other half are stained with age and grease a beautiful amber

Fic. 289.—Skin scraper.

296 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

brown. This specimen was said to be 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 grooves or 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 and
grease. This specimen

INGE PMO) SERS (Fig. 291a, No. 89322
[1426]) 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. 291) (No.
89314 |1780]) is a nearly new handle of this pattern, which was bought
of the “ Nunatanmiun,” who came to Pernya
in 1883. It is very highly ornamented, both
with incised patterns, colored black, and by
varving 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
from the body on the right side only, leaving the left side unexcayated,
except by the thumb-hollow, as is shown in Fig. 292 (No. 89316 [1177]
from Utkiaywin) which has a handle of yellowed fossil ivory and a black

: flint blade. No.89310[1071|
Fig. 293, from Utkiav win, 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,
Fie. 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

MURDOCH. | SKIN SCRAPERS. 297

frequently seen in use at the present day, has 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. 89315 [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. 89309 [1135] from
Utkiavwin). This specimen
has a rather large wooden Hig. 294.—Skin scraper.

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 deep, round hole in the middle of the groove for

Fic. 295.—Skin seraper.

the second finger. 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. 296 (No, 89312 [1336] from Utkiavwin) 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
fits. There is a hollow for the thumb
under the left lobe and one on the right
for the middle finger. No. 89311 [1079]
from the same village is almost exactly
similar. These are the only two specimens of the kind which I recol-
lect seeing. A rather large flint-bladed scraper with a wooden handle
very much the shape of that of No. 89309 [1135] is the tool most gener-
ally used at the present day. The blades are all of the same general
shape and vary in size from the little one above mentioned (No. 89522

Fia. 296.—Skin seraper.

298 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

[1426], Fig. 291), only 0-4 inch long, to blades like No, 89612 [820], Fig.
297, from Utkiavwin. This is newly made from light gray translucent
flint and is 5 inches long. The name kibfigf, applied to this specimen
by the native from whom it was purchased, appears to refer either to
the material or the unusual size. The blade is ordinarily called kuki,
“a claw.” With the ivory handles a blade about 1 or 14 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 fit 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
Fig. 297.—Flint blade blade of the same shape, mounted on a

forskin 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 (aproe-
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. 89651 [1295] from Utkiavwin, 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, 54 incheslong. 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 serapers used by some of the eastern fre. 298.—Straight-
Eskimo (there are specimens in the Museum from Cum- _ hafterseraper.
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.’ 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-

' Nordenskiéld, Vega, vol. 2, pp. 122, and Fig. 1, p. 117.

MURDOCH. ] SCRAPER CUPS. 299

moving the subcutaneous tissue, etc., while the stone scrapers just de-
seribed are better for softening the skin.

It is the distal end of the “cannon” bone or metacarpal, of a reindeer,
6-2 inches long, with the two condyles forming the handle. At the other
end the posterior tace of the shaft is chamfered off so as to expose the
medullary cavity for about 25 inches, 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.

Seraper cups (6hovwin).—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. 5... eae ee
Fig. 300b (No. 89258 [1090] also from Utkiaywin) is a sim- scraper.
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 are all about the same shape and size
and all of walrus ivory, stained yellow with oil. The largest is 4 inches
long and 23 wide, and the smallest, 3 by 2-1 inches. The majority are

Fig. 300.—Seraper cups.
about 34 by 24 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 from 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, ete. I had no opportunity of seeing the

300 THE POINT BARROW 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 sealskin 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 on 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 “kimotin” looks very
muchasif derived from ktmiuk,louse. Imustsay, however, thatthe na-
tives whom I asked if kimotin had anything to do with kumtk 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 ofthe 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. 301a, has been selected as the type. It is 4} inches long and has

1 Crantz describes the process of preparing boat coyers as follows: ‘‘ The boat skins are selected out
of the stoutest seals’ hides, 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 come off.” History of
Greenland, vol. 1, p. 167.

MURDOCH. } COMBS FOR DEERSKINS. 301

sixteen teeth about 1 inch long. The small holes near the other end
are for a lanyard to hang it up by.

Fia. 301.—Combs for cleaning 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 [libw’ga, has twenty teeth
0-6 inch long. These combs are usually about 4 or 44inches long. No.
89556 [1017], Fig. 301), from Utkiavywin 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. 301¢ (No. 89359 [993]), from Utkiavwin 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 used 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 THE POINT BARROW 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 90 feet long and only one-eighth inch in diameter, alinost 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 are dried by stretching them between
stakes 6 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.!- 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 fine thong.

All the men do not appear able to do this fine
work. For instance, our friend Mit/nialu 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

FIG. 302.—Donble-slit splice Ss Made as follows: The two ends to be joined to-

for rawhide lines. gether are each slit lengthwise, and one is passed
through the slitin 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.
302). 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,? however,
in describing some Eskimo implements from Hast Greenland, deseribes
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 are 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 describes a similar process of manufacturing these lines at Hudson’s Bay. (Sehwatka’s
Search, p. 176.)
2W. J. Sollas, in Jour. Anthrop. Inst. of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 9, pp. 329-336.

.

Po

MURDOCH.) PICKAXES. 803

axes (sikla) of their own manufacture, which are still in use. These are
always single-pointed and have a bone or ivory head, mounted like an
adz 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, 173 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, 245 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

F1G. 303.—Mattock of whale’s rib.

Fic. 304.—Pickax heads of bone, ivory, and 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 loopmg one end round the
head and through the eye by means of an eye at the end made as before.

304 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

It is finished off by winding the end three or four times round these turns,
so as to tighten them up, and hitching it round two of them on one side.
This method of hafting differs in no essential respect from that used on
the mauls and adzes above described.

We have also two heads for such mattocks, which hardly differ from
the one described, except the No. 56494 [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, $9843 [1043], Fig. 304a, 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 Utkiavwin. 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 in 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. 56539) [96], 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 35 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 hay-
ing notches or grooves for the lashings instead of eyes. Fig. 304¢ is
one of these, No. 89544 [1515], from Utkiaywit, very rudely cut from a
piece of whale’s rib, 12 inches long.

I 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.!

TOOLS FOR SNOW AND ICE WORKING.

Snow knives.—For cutting the blocks of snow used in building the

INordenskiéld’s figures, Vega, vol. 2, p. 123.

MORDOCH.] 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 off their clothing, ete., at

Fia. 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), 165 inches

Fic. 306.—Snow shovels.

long. The blade is double-edged, the haft rounded on the edges and
laced along the lower edge for 34 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 BARROW 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 is an indispensable part of the traveler’s outfit in
winter. The shovels (pi/ksun) are all made on essentially the same pat-
tern, which is well shown by Fig. 306a, No. 56739 [50]. The blade is 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
14 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. 56738 [27], Fig. 306), 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 84 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 44
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 shoyel 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.

! Parry's Second Voy., pl. opposite p. 548, Fig. 5.

MURDOCH.] SNOW AND ICE TOOLS. 307

Fig. 307 (No. 89775 [1250] trom Utkiaywif) 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 134 inches broad, and the superior margin
beveled off to an edge. The 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
inchin 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 toit. It
is probably an old imple- [
ment “touched up” for sale. Wy
We did not learn whether =

oT: Fic. 307._Snow shovel made of a
such tools were now gener- whale’s scapula.
ally used. This may have been a makeshift or an
individual fancy.

Fig. 508 (No. 89521 [1249] from Utkiavwin) 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 14
wide, whieh serves as a haft.

Ice picks—The ivory ice pick (tu’u) always attached
to the seal-harpoon has been already described. This
differs from the tok of the Greenlanders 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,

Fi. 808.—Snow pick. 4 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 oblique
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

508 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

often use whale spades, of which they have obtained a great many from
wrecks.

No. 89483 [1313] from Utkiavwin, isa very old pick made of a piece of
reindeer antler, 114inches 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 (No,.89479 | 1064] from
Utkiavwin). This was called
kakaiyaxion, 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 toa shaft. One
side is cut off 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. No other
Fic. 309._Snow Specimens were seen. We were

drill. 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.—W hen 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 (No. 89903 [1696], Fig.310).
The handle is of oak, 5 feet 13 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 inte a
pointed oval, 83 inches long and 52 wide, FIG. 310.—Ice scoop.
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-

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 thong, 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 thong.
The whole lashing was put on wet, and allowed to shrink.

Nordenskiéld mentions and figures a scoop of almost identically the
same pattern, but smaller, in general use for the same purposes at
Pitlekaj.!. A smaller scoop or skimmer (€lauatin) 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 frommemory. The
handle is a flat, straight stick with rounded edges, about 18 inches or 2
feet long, 14 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 34 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 hoar frost from the clothing. In the winter most
ofthe men and boys, epecially the latter, carry these skimmers whenever
they go out doors, partly for the sake of having something in their
hands, as we carry 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, p. 493.

310 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.
IMPLEMENTS FOR PROCURING AND PREPARING FOOD.

Blubberhooks (ni‘ksigt),—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
I never saw them so employed. We
brought home two short hooks and one
long one, No. 56766 [126], 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, pa
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
Loe blab band from slipping off. The prong is
ber hook. 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 py. 312. Short-handled 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.

ssing

MURDOCH. ] 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. 89836 [1203] from Utkiavwiti) isa 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 ig somewhat of a twist to the whole han-
dle. The prong, which is of antler, is 72 inches long and shoul- ye Hl §
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 the 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. p

Fish scaler.—Fig. 315 (No. 89461 [1279] from Utkiavwin) rep-
resents a little implement which we never saw in use, but which
we were told was intended for scraping the scales off 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.

Twisting and braiding—We had no opportunity of seeing the yp. 313 —
process of twisting the sinew twine, which is sometimes used Fish sealer.
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 Utkiavwin) is a little shuttle of walrus ivory, 3 inches
long and 14 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 4
inch apart, while those 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
J seller, the ends of several strands of fine 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
Fic. 314.Ivory the other hand. The part twisted was then wound on the

shuttle. shuttle and a fresh length twisted. This would be a very
simple form of spinning with a spindle.

No special implements for twisting have been described among other

‘\
i

oie THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

Eskimo. Mr. E. W. Nelson (in a letter to the writer) says that the
natives of Norton Sound informed him that the cable twisters (kaputa—
kibu’tik 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 at Point Barrow is generally braided, almost

Fig, 315.—Netting needle.

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 I can not recall) for braid-
ing with four strands in distinction from braiding with three .
(pidra).

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 meshstick 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 NY
mesh into which the knot is to be made with the hook, and fs
holds it while the twine is carried down the left side of the yyg. 336
blade, round the heel and through the mesh as usual, and drawn Mesh stick.
up 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

MURDOCH. | 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.’

We collected thirteen needles of different patterns and sizes. No.
56570 [101], Fig. 315, has been selected as the type (/nmuywint, mi’ kutin. )
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 44. This needle (No. 56574 [24], from Utkiavwin)
is rather broad in proportion, being nearly 1 inch wide. It is of walrus
ivory. No. 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

Fic. 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 No. 56574 [24].

No. 89427 [1283], from Utkiaywii, is a needle of a slightly different
pattern, being rather thick and not narrowed at the middle. Itis of rein-
deer antler, 8-7 inches long and 1 wide. No. 89430 [1286], Fig. 317a, from
Utkiavwin, 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 No. 8942
[1381], Fig. 317), from Utkiavwit, 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 had no special opport unities for watching the natives at work netting, as but few nets hap-
pened to be made at the village during 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 haye 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 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

quently is not flat, but strongly convex, on one face and correspondingly
concave on the other. It is 8:2 inches long and 14 wide.

For making the seal nets a very large needle is used. The one in the
collection, No. 56581 [102], Fig. 318, from Utkiavwin, is 205 inches long
and only 1§ wide. It is made of two nearly equal pieces of antler, which
are nearly flat, and lap over each other about 32 inches near the middle.

Fic. $18.—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 5 inches long. The lateral distortion appears to be due to warping.

Fic. 319,—Netting needle.
A peculiar netting needle is shown in Fig. 319 (No. 89429 [1333], from
Utkiavwin), which is new and rather carelessly made from very coarse
valrus ivory. The tips of the prongs, after nearly meeting, diverge
again in the form of the letter U. This needle, which is 95 inches long,
was said by the maker to be of the pattern used by the “ Ktnimaé/dlin.”

Fic, 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 U-shaped forks.

MURDOCH. } MESH STICKS. 315

The mesh stick (ki/brin) belonging to the large netting needle, No.
56581 [102], 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, 74 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 Utkiaywin) is of antler, 7-2 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. 89437 [942], also from
Utkiavwin, 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 Utkiavwin,
Fig. 320)) is double ended, having a hook and a short blade at each end.
The blades are respectively 1°5 and 1:6 inches long, and the total length
is 6:6 inches. Fig. 320c¢ (No. 89435 [1019], also from Utkiavwin) 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 43 inches 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 River to Bristol Bay, as is shown by the Museum collections.

Netting weights.—W e collected 16 little ivory implements, each, when
complete, consisting of the image of a fish about 34 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 népitaira
(No. 56596 [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
ivory. The string is of braided sinew and the hook of walrus ivory.

316 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

Fig. 321b (No. 89442 [899] from Nuwtk) is 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 Utkiavwin 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 ending ina dot,
perhaps to represent the
gill filaments. It is 4:2
inches long, and hastily
made for sale. Fig. 321¢
(No. 56578 [201] from Ut-
kiavwin) 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
jwhat sort of a fish is
Jmeant, it 1s generally a
salmon or trout. Only 3
Fic. 321.—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.

PG. $22.—Shuttle belonging to set 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.

Weaving.—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. Srila

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. 89454 |1338]) can not be used in
feather weaving, because, as already mentioned, the strips of feather are

Fic }.—Mesh stick

not fastened together into a continuous cord which could be carried on
ashuttle. It is 5-9 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
arude “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, 89462
[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 64 inches forms a straight blade 64
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
the 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 Fie. 324—“Sword” for
piece of dried sinew of the reindeer, as is usual with — tet Weaving.
Eskimo. Cotton or linen thread of civilized manufacture is now often
used for sewing the cotton frocks, ete., and sometimes for making an or-

318 THE POINT BARROW 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 finger, with the
thimble on the forefinger (both are called by the same
name, ti/kya) and sew toward them. This appears to
be the regular Eskimo method of sewing.

At the present day they are well supplied with steel
needles (miksun) of all sizes and patterns, but formerly
they used bone needles made from the fibula (amilyértin)
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. Nika-
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. 89389 [1191], Fig. 325 will serve as the type of

“9 these needles. This is a case 35 inches long, made of
Fia. 325.—Quill ease 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
set was said to have been
the property of the wife
of Puka, Nikawaalu’s
father.

Fig. 326a is a pecul- Fic. 326.—Needles and thimbles: {a) large bone needle and peculiar
iarly large and flat nee- thimble; (+) leather thimbles with bone needles.
dle (No. 89392 [1195] from Utkiavwin) 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

1See Parry, Second Voy., p. 537; Lyon, Journal, p. 93; Kumlien, Contributions, p. 25.

MURDOCH. ] NEEDLES AND THIMBLES. BY)

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 gloy-
er’s needle. The longest is 3 inches long and the shortest 1:4 inches,
but the commonest length is about 2 or 24 inches. Similar bone needles
are mentioned by various authors.!

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. 326) (No. 89396 [1202, 1246] ). 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 flaps
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
[1276]), is of precisely the same form and dimensions.

There appeared to be little if any variation among those which we
saw. Capt. Lyon? 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.

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
ofthe samenumber. It isa 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. 893593 [1194], from Utkiavwin, are made

'Formerly they used the bones of fishes or the very fine bones of birds instead of needles. Crantz,
vol. 1, p. 136.

“Their own clumsy needles of bone,” Parry, Second Voy., p. 537 and pl. opposite p. 548, Fig. 11.
Kumlien also speaks of ‘steel needles or bone ones made after the same pattern’ at Cumberland Gulf
(Contributions, p. 25).

?Parry, Second Voy., pl. opposite p. 550, Fig. 25.

3 Boas, Central Eskimo, p. 524, Fig. 473 and Kumlien, Contributions, p. 25.

320 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

in the same way, but areatrifle 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. 326a (No. 89392 [1195] from Utkiavwin, belonging with the large
bone needle of the same number already deseribed 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 6 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, 44 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.
Itis fastened by doubling it back and sew-
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/tkibwin) 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 36 inches long, made for sale. The usual length is 43 to 5
inches. No. 89363 [1105], Fig. 327), from Utkiavwin, 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 fits tight, and thus keeps the hook from slipping off
the belt.

Fia. 327.—_Needle cases with belt hooks.

MURDOCH. ] NEEDLE CASES. 321

Fig. 328 (No. 89364 (1243] from Utkiavwin) is another ivory needle
case, 47 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 chamemorus), a fruit known
to the “Nunatanimiun” 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 are carried
with the points toward the knob.

No. 89370 [1033], also from Utkiay-
win, has no knob,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. 56575 [7] is an 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
alarge knot. The other pattern has
the cylinder made of a hollow “long”
bone, inits natural shape. This bone
appears to be almost always the hu-
merus of some large bird, probably
a swan. The strap has usually No Fia. 328.—Needle cases: (a) case with belt hook;
knob, but is kept from slipping (b) case open, showing bone needles.
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. 89361 [1239], Fig. 328) from Utkiavwin,
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
Aretie trading, and which are still the kind most highly prized. The

9 ETH 21

322 THE POINT BARROW 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 bone needles,
which appear to be genuine. It is 3-7 inches long and, roughly speak-
ing, 0-4 in diameter. No. 89369 [1201], also from Utkiavwin, resembles
the above, but has a wolverine’s toe sewed to the end of the strap. No.
89371 [1276], from Utkiavwin, also has the toe of a wolverine for a knob,
and has a belt hook with two tongues made of reindeer antler. No.
89366 [1137], from Utkiavwin, is a highly ornamented case of this
pattern, which has a short cylindrical knob, also ornamented. No.
89368 [1089], from Utkiavwin, is not made of bird’s bone, but is a piece
of a long bone from some mamial, and has a brown bear’s toe for a
knob. No, 89367 [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. AIL
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
ease from Iglulik, figured by Capt. Lyon,' 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.”? Dr. Simpson* 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 off 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
(kigiuny), 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. 329a 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

! Parry's Second Voyage, pl. opposite p. 550, Fig. 25.
2 Thid., p. 537.
8Op. cit, p. 245.

MURDOCH. ] TRINKET BOXES. 323

the end, in 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
trom 4:7,to 8 inches. The last is, however, unusually large, most of
the others being about 5 inches long. The covers are generally held on
by strings much in the manner described, and the ends are both usually
of wood, though two old boxes have both ends made of antler, and one
has atop of hard bone. The last is a specimen newly made for sale.
These boxes are sometimes ornamented on the outside with incised lines,
colored red or blackened, either conventional patterns as in Fig. 329)

Fic. $29.—Trinket boxes.

(No. 89405 [1335], from Utkiavwin) or figures of men and animals as in
Fig. 329¢ (No. 56615 [41] from the same village). The former is a new
box, 4:7 inches long, and has the wooden ends both shouldered to fit
tightly. The cover is worked with a string.

No. 56615 [41] on the other hand is very old, and has lost its cover.
The wooden bottom is shouldered and held in with treenails. The sur-
face is elaborately ornamented with incised and blackened figures.
It is divided by longitudinal lines into four nearly equal panels, on
which the figures are disposed as follows (the animals all being repre-
sented as standing on the longitudinal lines, and facing toward the
right, that is, toward the open end of the box): On the first panel are
4 reindeer, alternately a buck and a doe, followed by a man ina kaiak,
and over his head two small ‘circles and dots,” one above the other.

324 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

All the deer on this box are represented strictly in profile, so as to show
only two legs and one antler each. On the second panel are 4 deer, all
does, followed by a man with a bow slung across his back. On the
third, a man in the middle appears to be calling 2 dogs, who, at the
left of the panel, are drawing arailed sled. Reversed, and on the upper
border of the panel, is a man pushing behind a similar sled drawn
by 3 dogs. The head dog has stopped and is sitting down on his
haunches. The dogs, like the reindeer, are all strictly in profile and
rather conventionalized. In the fourth panel are 3 reindeer followed
by a man in his kaiak, and upside down, above, a deer without legs,

Fie. $30.—Trinket boxes.

supposed to be swimming in the water, and a very rude figure of a man
in his kaiak. These figures probably represent actual occurrences,
forming a sort of record.

Fig. 330a (No. 89408 [1371] from Sidaru) is a piece of stout antler,
4-7 inches long, which has the bottom of pine fitted tightly in without
fastenings. The cover is of wood, covered, to make it fit tight, with
parchment, apparently shrunk on and puckered on the upper surface.
A thick hank of untwisted sinew is fastened as a handle through the
middle of the cover. This box is old and dirty, and contains an unfin-
ished flint arrow-head. No. 56505 [59| from Utkiavwin, is a new box,
closed at the ends with thick shouldered plugs of pine wood. The tube
is 8 inches long and ornamented with a conventional pattern of incised
lines colored with red ocher.

MURDOCH. ] TRINKET BOXES. 325

Fig. 330) (No. 89402 [1359] also from Utkiavwin), is peculiar from the
material of which it is made. It is of about the same pattern as the
common antler boxes, but is made of
the butt end of the os penis of a large
walrus, cut off square and hollowed out,
and has ends of hard whale’s bone. Its
length is 4:2 inches. No. 89403 {1425}
Fig. 331 from Sidaru, is made of the hol-
low butt of a good-sized walrus tusk, 3-2
inches long. It has a neatly fitted
wooden bottom, held in with 6 tree-
nails, two of ivory and four of wood.
The box has been cracked and split and
mended with stitches
of sinew and whale-
bone. Peculiar con-
ventional patterns are
incised on the box and
cover. A peculiar box is shown in Fig. 332 (No. 56583
[37] from Utkiavwin). This is of compact white bone,
with a flat wooden bottom. I do not recollect seeing
any other boxes of the same sort.

Fig. 333 (No. 89409 [1372]) is the tip of a walrus tusk
cut off and hollowed out into a sort of flask, 3-8 inches
long, closed at the large end by a flat wooden bottom, fastened in with
treenails and at the small end by a stopper of soft wood.

The most peculiar box of all, how-
ever, is Shown in Fig. 334 (No. 56512
[2| from Utkiavwin), the only speci-
men of the kind seen. It is 55
inches long, made of reindeer antler,
and very neatly carved into a most
excellent image of a reindeer lying
on its left side, with the head, which
has no antlers, turned down and to
the left. The legs are folded up
against the belly, the forelegs with
the hoofs pointing backward, the
hind hoofs pointing forward. The
eyes are represented by small sky-
blue glass beads, and the mouth,
nostrils, and navel neatly incised,
the last being particularly well-
Fic. 333._Little marked. The tips of the hoofs are

task ofivery- rounded off, which, taken in connec- ''-3%4—Box in shape of
tion with the attitude and the well marked navel, lead me to believe

Fic. 331.—Ivory box.

FiG. 332.—Bone box.

326 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

that the image is meant to represent an unborn fetus. The whole
of the body is hollowed, the aperture taking up the whole of the but-
tocks, and closed by a flat, thick plug of soft wood. A round peg of
wood is driven in to close an accidental
hole just above the left shoulder. The
box is old and discolored, and worn smooth
with much handling.

Rarely these little workboxes are made
of basketwork. We obtained four speci-
mens of these small baskets, of which
No. 56564 [88] Fig. 335, workbasket (agu-
ma, ama, ipidru), will serve as the type.
The neck is of black tanned sealskin, 24
inches long, and has 1 vertical seam, to
the middle of which is sewed the mid-
dle of a piece of fine seal thong, a foot
long, which serves to tie up the mouth.
The basket appears to be made of fine
twigs or roots of the willow, with the bark removed, and is made by
winding an osier spirally into the shape of the basket, and wrapping
a narrow splint spirally around the two adjacent parts of this, each
turn of the splint being separated from the next by a turn of the sue-
ceeding tier. The other basket from Utkiavwin (No. 56565 [135]) is
almost exactly like this, but larger (3-5 inches in diameter and 2-2
high), and has holes round the top of the neck for the drawstring.

Two baskets from Sidaru are of the same material and workman-
ship, but somewhat larger and
of a different shape, as shown
in Fig. 336, No. 89801 [1366],
and Fig. 337, No. 89802 [1427].

Fia. 335.—Small basket.

This was the only species of Me

basketwork seen among these — yyy

people and is probably not of — pRn ae rh oo ink

native manufacture. Bh A ‘ aR ia
ek Wiadital

Prof. O. T. Mason, of the Na-
tional Museum, has called my
attention to the fact that the
method of weaving employed in making these baskets is the same as
that used by the Apaches and Navajos, who have been shown to be
linguistically of the same stock as the Athabascan or Tinné group of
Indians of the North. The first basket collected, No. 56564 [88], was
said by the owner to have come from the ‘‘great river” in the south.
Now, the name Kuwtk or Kowak, applied to the western stream flow-
ing into Hotham Inlet, means simply ‘great river,” and this is the
region where the Eskimo come into very intimate commercial relations
with Indians of Tinné stock.' Therefore, in consideration of the Indian

FiG, 336.—Small basket.

1 Dall, American Association, Address, 1885, p. 15.

— pas ‘

MURDOCH. ] BASKETS. Bo

workmanship of these 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 Silawik
Rivers, and sold by them to the Kuwtntmiun, 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.'! He
mentions seeing at Iglulik a “small round bas-
ket composed of grass in precisely the same
manner as those constructed by the Tibboo, in
the southern part of Fezzan, and agreeing with
Aah ‘ them also in its shape.” Now, these Africans
A RAN make baskets of precisely the same “coiled”
work (as Prof. Mason calls it) as the Tinné, 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 4ma applied to these baskets at
Point Barrow (the other two names appear to
be simply ‘*bag” or receptacle) corresponds to
the Greenlandic amat, 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)—Gr@nlandske Ordbog.

No. 89799 [1329] from Utkiavwin, 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 74 inches in diameter, of a pale brownish color,
soft and wrinkled, with a mouth 6inches wide. A small hole has been
mended by drawing the skin together and winding it round tightly on
the inside with sinew.

J

Fic. 337.—Small basket.

'P. 172,

328 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.
MEANS OF LOCOMOTION AND TRANSPORTATION,
TRAVELING BY WATER.

Kaiaks and paddles.—Like all the rest of the Eskimo race, the natives
of Point Barrow use the kaiak, or narrow, light, skin-coyered 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 manage one of these canoes, they are much
less generally employed than by any other Eskimo whose habits have
been described, except the ‘Arctic highlanders,” who have no boats,
and perhaps those of Siberia and their Chuckche 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 Pernyt 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, Simpson! the men of the parties which go east in
the summer travel in their kaiaks after reaching the open water “to
make room in the large boat for the oil-skins.” We obtained no infor-
mation regarding this. Itis at this time, probably, that the kaiak comes
specially in play for spearing molting fowl and “flappers”, and for eatch-
ing seals with the kikiga. They manage the kaiak with great skill and
contidence, 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 [539], Fig. 38a and b, whichis a very fair representative of the
sanoes 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 184 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, each 34 inches broad and $-inch thick, flat, and rounded off on
the upper edge inside, running the whole length of the boat and meet-

1 Op. cit. p. 264.

MURDOCH.] KAIAKS. 329

ing at the stem and stern, gradually tapered up on the lower edge at
eachend. Theribs, of which there are at least forty-three, are bent into
nearly a half-cirele, thus making a U-shaped midship section, and are
3-inch wide by 4-inch thick, flat on 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 size fore and aft. Outside of these are seven
equidistant streaks running fore and afc, ? inch to 1 inch wide and finch

Fic. 338.—Kaiak.

thick, of which the upper on each side reaches neither stem nor stern.
These are lashed to the ribs with 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. 339).

There is a stout keelson, hemi-elliptical in section, under the cockpit
only. This is 4$ feet long, about 2 inches deep, and 14 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 !% Oe tii ols
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, 1? 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-shaped 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.

330

THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

Every alternate deck beam is braced to the gunwale at each end by
an oblique lashing of whalebone, running from a transverse hole in the

Fic. 340.—Dou-
ble kayak
paddle.

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, 13 inches broad
and one-quarter inch thick, bent into a hoop with the ends
lapping about 6 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 6 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
cover.

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. Oneach side is a stout vertical brace of wood 34
inches long, 1 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 fits 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

MURDOCK. } KAIAKS. 331

with a blind 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 thong 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 upper edge and 6 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-
responding 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, ete., 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 1s 32 pounds.

This is about the ordinary pattern of kaiak used at Point Barrow,
and is a medium-sized one. These boats are made to fit the size 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-
son, 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 hovri-
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.!

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 steadiesit 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 stepsin with that. He then pushes his feet and legs for-
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. 89246 [539|, Pig. 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 in Parry’s 2d Voy., pl. opposite p. 274.

DOL THE POINT BARROW 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 wood! 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 (pautin) 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
(anun), of the same shape as those used in the wniak 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 Greenlanders, the people of
Baffin Land, Hudson Strait, and Labrador.”

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-
bladed paddles, like those of the Indians.”* This tradition either refers
back to a time when the ancestors of the Greenlanders 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

'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 Rigolette, Labrador, who lived in a region sufticiently well wooded to
furnish them with lumber for a small schooner, which they had built.

? For information concerning the last two regions I am indebted to Mr. L. M. Turner; for the others
to the standard authorities.

‘Rink, Tales and Traditions, p. 47. See also p. 374 for a story of the meeting of a Greenlander 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 Barrow 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 Capt.
Lyon! and Capt. Parry® is of a somewhat different model, approaching
that used at the Anderson River. It is alarge kaiak 25 feet long, with
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.’

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 Nordenskiéld’s description, as he speaks of the kaiaks holding two
persons, sitting back to back in the cockpit.t| 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 Dall’s figure (Alaska, p. 15.)°

‘Journal, p. 233.

?Second voyage, p. 506, and pls. opposite pp. 274 and 508.

3There is quite a discrepancy in regard to this between Capt. Lyon's description referred to above
and the two platesdrawn by himin Parry’s second voyage. In his journal he speaks of the coaming of
the cockpit being about 9 inches higher forward than it is aft, while from his figures the difference
does not appear to be more than 3 or 4 inches.

4 Vega, vol. 2, p. 228.

5T have confined myself in the above comparison simply to the kaiaks used by undoubted Eskimo.
I find merely casual references to the kaiaks used on the Siberian coast by the Asiatic Eskimo 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 BARROW ESKIMO.

While the kaiak, however, differs so much in external appearance in
different localities, it is probable 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,
Iglulik 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,! seven streaks running fore and aft along the bottom, knees, or
ribs in the form of hoops, and a hoop for the coaming, bound together
with whalebone or sinew.’

Fia, 341.—Model kaiak and paddle,

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.’ Double-bladed paddles have also been ob-
served in the Malay Archipelago.

Fig. 341, (No. 56561 [224] from Utkiavwin) is a very neatly made
model of a kaiak, 13-3 inches long. It is quite accurate in allits de-
tails, but has 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-

1Since the above was written Boas has published a detailed description of the central kaiaks, in
which he says there are only four streaks besides the keel (Central Eskimo, p. 486).

2Dr. 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 of three longitudinal strips of wood on each side * * * stretching from end

toend. * * * Theupper of these, the gunwale * * * issomewhat stouter than the others. The
bottom 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 another. Wherever the parts of this framework meet or cross they are bound together
with reindeer tendon very artistically. * * * The pah or manhole * * has arim or lip secured
upon the gunwale and rising a couple of inches above the deck.’ (First Grinnell Exp., p.477.) Tt 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 Crantz’s crude section of a kaiak frame. (History of
Greenland, vol. 1, pl. vii), and are evidently mortised into the gunwale, as at Point Barrow. Crantz
also (op. cit., p. 150) speaks of the use of whalebone for fastening the frame together.

Capt. Lyon’s description of the round-bottomed kaiak used at Fury and Hecla Straits (Journal, p. 233)
is much more explicit. He describes 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-four hoop-shaped ribs (on
a canoe 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 50 or 60 pounds. There is
a very good figure of the Point Barrow kaiak, paddled with a single paddle, in Smyth’s view of Nuwak
(Beechey's Voyage. pl. opposite p. 307).

3 Wrangell, Narrative of an Expedition, ete., p. 161, footnote.

eneora UMIAKS. 3039

ished models were made forsale. The natives are so skillful in making
them that it is possible that they are in the habit of making them for
the children to play with. I do not, however, recollect ever seeing a
child with one.

Umiaks and fittings—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.!. 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 nen as women,
and the men work as hard as the women. I 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. Ray, 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 50 feet in length, with a beam of 5 or 6 feet and a
depth of about 25 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 off 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 crank 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-treedom. The frame is neatly made of pieces
of driftwood, which it usually takes a considerable time to accumulate.”

1For example: ‘‘For they think it nnbecoming a man to row such a boat, unless great necessity
requires it.’ Egede, Greenland, p. 111. ‘It would be a scandal for a man to meddle, except the
greatest necessity compels him to lend a hand.’ Crantz, vol. 1, p. 149.

? Part of the description of the umiak frame is taken from the model (No. 56563 [225]), as the writer
not only had few opportunities for careful examination of these canoes, but unfortunately did not
realize at the time the importance of detail.

336 THE POINT BARROW 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. Itis
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,

Fig, 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 on Nikawaalu’s umiak. Onthemodelthey are pegged
to the keelson and bilge streaks. The ribs are straight, slender, square
timbers, eighteen on each side (on Nikawaalws umiak; the canoe photo-
graphed has fifteen). These are allof the same length, but fitted obliquely
to the outer edge of the bilge-streaksin such a way (see diagram, Fig.

MURDOCH. ] UMIAKS. 337

343b) 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 Nikawd4alu’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 Nunataimeun. These extend about 24
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 6 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 ,,,, 415 Construction of umiak: (a) method of
Nikawaalw’s canoe had an extra fastening bilge streaks to stem; (b) method of
streak of “half-round” willow out- ing rib to gunwale, ete. ;
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. Crantz’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 inthe manner already referred to. We were informed
that six of these skins were required to cover one umiak. They are put
together in the saine 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 theinside 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 posthead.

'! History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 148, and pl. vi.
9 ETH——22

338 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

The cover is removed in the winter and stowed away on the cache
frame or some other safe place (Muanialu, 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 seaice 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 Pernyt, 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 Inékptin 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,’
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 stern.

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,”*
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

1Vol. 1, p. 167.
2See Kotzebue’s Voyage, ete., vol. 1, p. 216.
3This is also the custom among the Central Eskimo. (See Boas ‘‘Central Eskimo,”’ p. 528, Fig. 481.)

MURDOCH. ] UMIAKS. 339

loops of thong as in the diagram Fig. 344. To keep the oar from chaf-
ing the skin on the gunwale, they lash to the latter a long plate of
bone. No, 89696 [1197] from Utkiavwin 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; fitted
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.”! 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.®

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. Crantz describes the oars as “ short and
broad before, pretty much like a shovel, but only longer, and * *
confined to their places on the gunnel with a strap of seal’s leather.”
(Vol. 2, p. 149 and pl. vr) 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 628, speaks of skin
boats with sails of entrail),‘ 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 agaimt 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

Fic, 344.—Method of slinging the oar of umiak.

1 Narrative, p. 148.

? Journal, p. 30. Compare also Chappell, ‘‘ Hudson Bay,” p. 57.

3See Egede, Greenland, p. 111.

4These passages being, as far as I know. the earliest description of the umiak and 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 bottome, and sharp at both
endes ™ (p. 621, 1576). 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 sixteene or twenty men may sitte; they have for a sayle, drest the
guttes of such beasts as they kill, very fine and thinne, which they sewe together; the other boate is
but for one man to sitte and rowe in, with one oare”’ (p. 628, 1577).

340 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

ago discovered. It seems to me that this is merely another case of ad-
hering to an obsolete custom on semireligious grounds. The paddles
are usually about 4 or 5 feet long, made of one piece of driftwood, with
slender round shafts, and lanceolate blades about 6 inches broad, and
a short rounded cross handle at the upper end. (Fig. 345 shows two
of the paddles beionging to the model.) The steersman uses a longer
paddle, and stands in the stern or sits up on the head of the sternpost.

Fia. 345,—Model of umiak and paddles: (a) side view; (b) inside plan.

Fig. 345a represents the model (No. 56563 {225| from Utkiaywin),
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

Fic. 346.—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. 56536 [40] from
Utkiavwin). It is a piece of walrus tusk 16:3 inches long. The cavity
is 11 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

MURDOCH. ] HARPOON CROTCHES. 341

from Utkiavwin) 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 flat 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 inches long and 5 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 five specimens of these ki/nne, of which No, 56510
[117| 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
deep 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 # 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 of the remaining four specimens are of walrus-ivory, and of
essentially the same pattern, differing only in ornamentation and other
minor details. No, 56511 [116], from Utkiavwin, is almost exactly like
the type and of very nearly the same size. Itis fastened together with
a lashing only, but no treenail, and the beckets have been removed from
the becket holes. The border is colored with red ocher, and there are
two whales’ tails instead of one on the shank. The other two have the
tips of the arms carved into the shape of whales’ heads. No. 89418
[1224], Fig. 348, from Utkiaywin, is otherwise of the same shape as
those already described, but is lashed together with stout seal thong,

FiG. 347._Ivory crotch for harpoon.

342 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

and has four beckets of the same material, two in the usual position
and two at the widest part of the shank. These take the place of the
loop running across the butt. On the middle of the back of each arm
is a small cross incised and blackened with a small blue glass bead in-
laid in the center, and there are two whale’s tails on the opposite face
of the shank. It is 8 inches long.

No. 89419 [926], from Nuwittk, has a nearly straight shank with a
flange on each side at the butt. It is lashed together with whalebone
and has also a treenail, like the type. The upper beckets are of sinew-
braid. A large becket at the butt is made by looping and knotting
the ends of a bit of thong into a hole in each flange. There is one
whale’s tail engraved on the front of the shank. When lashed in posi-

FG, 348.—I vory crotch for

F1G. 349.—Croteh for hapoon made
harpoon

of walrus jaw.
tion the front or ornamental side faces inboard, as is indicated by the
shape of the shank, which is slightly narrower behind than in front,
so as to fit between the converging gunwales. No. 8917 [1104], Fig.
349, from Nuwuk, the only one of the kind seen, is a very interesting
form. It is made by cutting a horizontal slice out of the lower jaw of
a walrus, so that it form the arms of the crotch, while the thick sym-
physis is cut into a shank of the usual shape, with the two upper beckets
in the usual place and a large one at the butt, passing through a trans-
verse hole. These beckets are roughly made of thong. Its total length
js 6°6 inches.

This specimen from its soiled condition is undoubtedly quite ancient,
and probably of an older type than the highly ornamented ivory crotches

MURDOCH. ] UMIAKS. 343

of the present day. The latter are evidently only copies of the jaw-
bone crotch 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 be 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.” Mr. L. M. Turner informs me that this is the
ease at Ungava Bay. Itwasalsoalargerboat. Egedesaysthatthey “are
large and open * * * some of them 20 yards long;”* Crantz gives their
length as “‘commonly 6, nay 8 or 9 fathoms long;”* Kumlien says that
it required ‘about fifteen skins of Phoca barbata” to cover an umiak
at Cumberland Gulf,? and Mr. Turner informs me that eight are used
at Ungava. Capt. Parry found no umiaks at Fury and Heecla straits®
and Kumlien says that they 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
Kotzebue Sound. The boats that boarded us off Wainwright Inlet in
the autumn of 1583, and those of the Nunatatmiun 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 Compare for instance Kane’s figure 1st Grinnell Exp. p. 422, and Lyon, Journal, p. 30.

2See Beechey Voyage, p. 252. In describing the umiaks at Hotham Inlet he says: ‘t The model differs
from that of the umiak of the Hudson Bay in being sharp at both ends.’ Smyth gives a good figure
of the Hotham Inlet craft in the plate opposite p. 250.

3 Greenland, p. 111. -

4 Vol. 1, p. 148.

5 Contributions, p. 43. Boas, however, says three to five skins. (Central E. kimo, p. 528.)

62d Voy., p. 507

344 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

There is very little accessible detailed informtion regarding the
umiaks used in the rest of Alaska. From Dall’s figure! and a few
models 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 1883, were so much modified by Russian ideas as to be
wholly out of the line of comparison. The same is true of the Aleutian
“baidara,” if, indeed, the latter be an umiak at all.

TRAVELING ON FOOT.

Snowshoes (tuiglu.)—Snowshoes of a very efficient pattern and very
well made are now universally employed at Point Barrow. 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 of the tundra, to make walking without snowshoes very
inconvenient and fatiguing. Ihave even seen them used on the sea ice
for crossing level spaces when a few inches of snow had fallen. Prae-
tically, every man in the two villages, and many of the women and
boys, have each their own pair of snowshoes, fitted to their size. Each
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, aad much bent
up at the rounded end, which is the toe. The sides are braced apart
by two stout cross-bars (toe and heel bar) a little farther apart than the
length of the wearer’s foot. The space between these two bars is net-
ted in large meshes (foot netting) with stout thong for the foot to rest
upon, and the spaces at the ends are closely netted with fine 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 the ankle the snowshoe is slung to the toe. The wearer walks
with long swinging strides, lifting the toe of the shoe at eaeh 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. Ray, 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. 89912 [1736], Fig. 350, has been
selected as the type. The rim is of willow, 51 inches long and 104 inches

1 Alaska, p. 15.
2 Twisted sinew is sometimes used. A pair of snowshoes from Point Barrow, owned by the writer,
are netted with this material.

MURDOCH. ] SNOWSHOES. 345

wide at the broadest part, and is made of two strips about 1 inch thick
and 3 wide, joined at the toe by a long lap-splice, held together by
four short horizontal or slightly oblique stitches of thong. Each strip
is elliptical in section, with the long axis vertical, and keeled on the
inner face, except between the bars. Each is
tapered off considerably from the toe bar to the

toe, and slightly tapered toward the heel. The /
. 5 $ : ay
two points are fastened together by a short hori- [ney
é 5‘ ; PPS ‘ BAN AUN’
zoutal stitch of whalebone. The tip is produced vA

into a slight “tail,” and the inner side of each
shoe is slightly straighter than the outer—that
is to say, they are “rights 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 85. 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 put 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
4 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 ? 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
round 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
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,

Fie. 350.—Snowshoe.

346 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

where it is finished off by knotting the end round the last ‘“ stop.”
The stops are made, apparently, by a separate piece on the right shoe.
The lacing on the heel 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 deseribing the nettings it will always be understood thatthe upper
surface of the shoe is toward the workman, with the point upward, if
describing the heel nettings, and vice 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. In 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,
Ve: / then goes up to the lowest becket on
the left side, crosses to the corre-
sponding one on the right, and comes
3 down and is hitched as before round
the bar inside of the starting point.
This makes a series of strands round
the outside of the space, two running obliquely from right to left, a
long one on the right side and a short one on the left side; two similar
strands from left to right, the long one on the left and the short one
on the right, and one transverse strand at the base of the triangle
(see diagram, Fig. 352a). The next round goes up to the first becket at
the top on the left hand, crosses to the corresponding one on the
right, and then makes the same strands as the first round, running
parallel to them and about half an inch nearer the center of the space
(see diagram, Fig. 352). Each successive round follows the last, com-
ing each time about $ inch nearer the center, till the space is all filled
in, which brings the end of the last round to the middle of the bar,
round whieh it is knotted with a single knot. This makes three sets
of strands, two obliquely longitudinal, one set from right to left and
one from left to right, and one transverse, all of each set parallel and
equidistant, or nearly so, and each interwoven alternately over and
under each successive strand it meets.

The right shoe has fourteen longitudinal strands in each set and
thirteen transverse; the left, one less in each set. On the left shoe the
end is carried up from the last knot to the lacing at the point, and then
comes back to the bar, fastening the other part to the netting with six
equidistant half-hitches. The heel netting proper is put on in a slightly

Fig. 351.—Knot in snowshoe.

MURDOCH. |} SNOWSHOES. 347

different fashion, as the space to be filled is no longer triangular. It
starts as before in the right hand lower corner, where it is knotted into
the becket, running across from the rim to the heel-bar; goes up to the
middle of the extra bar, round which it is hitched as already described,
then down to the left hand lower corner; up to the first becket on the
left rim, across to the corresponding one on the right, and down to the
first becket on the heel bar. This completes the first round (see dia-
gram, Fig. 353a). The second round goes up to the hind bar at the left
of the first, comes down only to the transverse strand of the first round
on the left, goes up to the becket on the rim above the first, crosses to
the right, and comes back to the transverse turn of the first rounds.
All these strands except the transverse one are on the left of the first
round. The third round follows the first, which brings all its strands
except the transverse one to the right of the first round (see diagram,

Fie. 352.—Point netting of snowshoe heel: (a) first round; (6) first and second rounds.

Fig. 353)). 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
becket in the left hand upper corner, and crosses to the corresponding
becket 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 becket.

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 THE 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.

/

Fig. 353.—Heel netting of snow shoe; (a) first 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 hiteches—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.

MURDOCH. } SNOWSHOES. 349

The foot-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 off the
netting by whipping the two sets of strands 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 with
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
wearers 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 1s 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 isa very neatly made pair of shoes, and the woodwork is all painted
red above. :

No. 89918 [ 1737] is a pair of similar shoes also from Utkiavwin. 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 48:5

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 tollow quite regularly the pattern
ofthe preceding pair.

The shoes are not quite the same size, as the
right has 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 about 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 (1738, is a pair of rather small shoes
from Utkiavwit, one of which is shown in Fig.
304, 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 extrz
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

Fia. 354.—Small snowshoe.

MURDOCH.] SNOWSHOES. adil

used by the writer on many short excursions around the station
during the winters of 1881-82 and 1882-83. They were old when pur-
chased.

I had but one opportunity of seeing the process of making the frames
of the snowshoes. Utbw’ga, the “inland” native frequently mentioned,
a particularly skillful workman, undertook to make a pair of snow-
shoes for Lieut. Ray 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
ot wood of the proper shape for the toe and lashed the frame to this.
A pointed 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 snowshoes of this pattern is of compara-
tively recent date at Point Barrow. Dr. Simpson! is explicit concern-
ing the use of snowshoes in his time (185355). 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.” I have already mentioned the universal employ-
ment of these snowshoes 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 Tinné or Athabascan Indians (as is plainly
shown by the National Museum collections), and I am inclined to be-
lieve that the Point Barrow natives have learned to use them from the
“Nunatanmiun,” 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 Kuwtk River, are known to
have intimate trading relations with the Indians, and even in Simp-
son’s time? 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

1 Op. cit., p. 243. 2Op. cit., p. 244.

352 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

the latter used the Indian style of snowshoes at least as early as 1826.
Franklin! speaks of seeing, at Demarcation Point, a pair of snowshoes
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 and more roughly made,
the rim being of heavy, rather crooked pieces of willow or alder. Simp-
sows description will apply very well to this form, which is used even
as far north as Icey 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 Nordinskiéld’s figure?
and Mr. Nelson’s collections.

Simpson says:° ‘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 Dall,*
is a rather neatly made variety of this form. South of the Yukon, the
use of the snowshoe 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.°

Snowshoes appear to be rarely used among the eastern Eskimo.
The only writer who mentions them is Kumlien.6 He says: ‘* When
traveling over the frozen wastes in winter, they [i.e., the natives of
Cumberland Gulf] use snowshoes. 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—tThe 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.*) Fig. 355 from a photo-
graph represents old Yuksina from Nuwttk, with his two staffs, without
which he was hardly able to walk.

12d Exped., p. 142. 4 Alaska, p. 190, Fig. A. © Contributions. p. 42.
2Veua, vol. 2, p.102 a ®See, also, Dall, Alaska, p. 71st Exp., vol. 2, p. 180.
3Op. cit., p. 243. 190, and Figs. A and C,

MURDOCH. ] SLEDGES. 353
LAND CONVEYANCES.

Sledges—The only land conveyance employed at Point Barrow is
the universal sledge of the Eskimo, of which there are two forms in
general use, one, ka/moti, with a high rail on each side, and especially
intended for carrying loads of the smaller articles, clothing, camp
equipage, etc., and the other (unia) low and flat, without rail or ‘ up-
stander,” for carrying bulky objects, like whole carcasses of deer, frozen
seals, rough dried deerskins, ete., 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 with 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.' 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

Fig. 355.—Old “Chief” with staffs.

1for example, Lyon says that at Fury and Hecla Straits the runners are coated with ice by mixing
snow and fresh water (Journal, p. 235); (See also Parry, 2d Voyage, p. 515). At Cumberland Gulf
“they pour warmed blood on the under surface of the bone shoeing; some use water, but this does
not last nearly so long as the blood and is more apt to chip off.’ Kumlien, Contributions, p. 42; (See
also Hall, Arctic Researches, p. 582). Around Repulse Bay 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 ice with his naked hand. MacFarlane in his MS.
notes speaks of covering the sled runners with ‘‘earth, water, and ice” in the Mackenzie region.
Petitot (Monographie, ete., p. XVII) says the runners in the Mackenzie and Anderson district are shod
with ‘‘un bourrelet de limon et de glace,"' which has to be often renewed. Nordenskiéld says that
at Pitlekaj ‘‘the runners, before the start, are carefully covered with a layer of ice from two to three
millimeters in thickness by repeatedly pouring water over them,’ (Vega, vol. 2, p. 94). and accord-
ing to Wrangell (Narrative, ete., 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.

9 ETH 23

354 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

runner is fitted a heavy shoe of clear ice, as long as the runner, and
fully 1 foot high by 6 inches thick. The sledge with these ice runners
is estimated to weigh, even when unloaded, upwards of 200 or 300
pounds, but it appears that the smoothness of running more than
counterbalances the extra weight. At any rate these shoes are almost
universally employed on the sleds which make the long journey from
the rivers in the spring with heavy loads of meat, fish, and skins. One
native, in 1883, shod his sledges with salt-water ice in this way before
starting for the hunting grounds. As these ice shoes are usually put
on at the rivers, I had no opportunity of seeing the process, though I
have seen the sledges thus shod after their return to the village.
Lieut. Ray, who saw the process, describes it as follows:

“From the ice on a pond that is free from fracture they cut the pieces the length
of a sled runner, 8 inches thick and 10 inches wide; into these they cut a groove
deep enough to receive the sled runner up to the beam; the sled is carefully fitted
into the groove, and secured by pouring in water, a little at a time and allowing it
to freeze. Great care is taken in this part of the operation, for should the workman
apply more than a few drops at a time, the slab of ice would be split and the work
all to do over again; after the ice is firmly secured the sled is turned bottom up and
the ice-shoe is carefully rounded with a knife, and then smoothed by wetting the
naked hand and passing it over the surface until it becomes perfectly glazed.” !

Fic. 356.—Railed sledge, diagrammatic (from photograph).

In traveling they take great care of these runners, keeping them
smooth and polished, and mending all cracks by pouring in fresh water.
They are also careful to shade them from the noonday sun, which at
this season of the year is warm enough to loosen the shoes, for this
purpose hanging a cloth or skin over the sunny side of the sled.’

We were unfortunately not able to bring home specimens of either style
of large sled. The rail sled (kimoti) isusually about 8 or 9 feet long, and
24 to 3 feet wide, and the rail at the back not over 24 feet high. The
thick curved runners, about 5 or 6 inches wide (see diagram, Fig. 356,

‘Rep. Point Barrow Exp., p. 27.

?Schwatka, in ‘‘ Nimrod in the North," (p. 159) describes a practice among the ‘‘ Netschillik,” of
King William's Land, which appears very much like this, though his description is somewhat obscure
in details. Itis as follows: ‘‘We found the runners shod with pure ice. Trenches the length of
the sledge are dug in the ice, and into these the runners are lowered some two or three inches, yet
not touching the bottom of the trench by fully the same distance. Water is then poured in and al-
lowed to freeze, and when the sledge is lifted out it is shod with shoes of perfectly pure and trans-
parent ice.’ Strangely enough, these curious ice shoes are not mentioned by Schwatka’s companions,
Gilder and Klutsehak, nor by Schwatka himself in his paper on the “Netschillik” in Science, al-
though Klutschak describes and figures a sledge made wholly of ice among the Netsillingmiu..
(‘Als Eskimo, ete.” p. 76). Also referred to by Boas (‘‘ Central Eskimo,” p. 533).

MURDOCH. ] SLEDGES. 355

made from a small photograph) meet the curved slender rails (which
are usually round) in front, but are separated from them behind by four
stout vertical posts on each side, increasing in length toward the other
end and mortised into the runners and rails. An equal number of stout
wooden arches half the height of the posts are mortised into the run-
ners, each arch a little in front of each pair of posts. A longitudinal
strip runs along the middle of each side, and slats are laid across these,
supported by the arches. The sledge is rather heavy and clumsy, but
usually carefully made and often painted with red ocher.

Fic. 357.—Flat sledge.

Of the unia or flat sledge we have, fortunately a good photograph,
Fig. 357. To the thick straight wooden runners are fastened directly
seven cross slats, which project about 2 inches at each end beyond the
runner, to which they are fastened by two stitches of whalebone each.
A longitudinal strip runs along above the slats on each side. These
sledges are generally made on the same pattern, varying somewhat in

Fig. 358.—Small sledge with ivory runners.

size. A common size is about 6 feet long, about 24 feet wide, and 9 or
10 inches high. Very small sledges of this pattern are sometimes made,
especially for the purpose, as we were told, of carrying provisions, per-
haps when one or two persons desire to make a rapid journey of some
length, or for carrying a small share of meat from camp to camp.

One of these (Fig. 358, No. $9889 [1140], from Utkiavwit), which shows
signs of long use, was brought home. It is 20-7 inches long and 13 broad,
and has ivory runners, with three wooden slats across them, held down

‘The word used was ‘‘kau-kau.”” Perhapsit referred to a seal for food, as the sledge appears very like
one described by Hooper (Corwin Report, p. 105) as used on the “ Arctic Coast.” “* When sealing on
solid ice a small sled is sometimes used, the ronners of which are made of walrus tusks. It is per-
haps 16 inches long by 14 inches wide and 3 inches high. It is used in dragging the carcass of the
seal over the ice.”

We, however, never saw such sleds used for dragging seals. This one may have been imported from
farther south. See also, Beechey, Voyage, etc., p. 251, where he speaks of seeing at Kotzebue Sound, a
drawing on ivory of ‘‘a seal dragged home on a small sledge.”

356 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

by a low wooden rail on each side. Each runner isa slice from a single
large walrus tusk, with the butt at the back of the sled. The slats,
which are pieces of a ship’s paneling, are lashed to the upper edge of
the runners so as to project about one-half inch on each side. The rails
flare slightly outward. The whole is fastened together by lashings of
rather broad whalebone, passing through a hole near the upper edge of
the runner, a notch in the end of the slat and a hole in the slat inside of
the rail. There are two lashings at each end of each broad slat and
one in the middle, ateach end of the narrow one. The last and the ones
at each end of the sled also secure the rail by passing through a hole
near its edge, in which are cut square notches to make room for the
other lashings. The trace is a strip of seal thong about 5 feet long and
one-fourth inch wide, split at one end for about 1 foot into two parts.
The other end is slit in two for about 3 inches. This is probably a
broken loop, which served for fastening the trace to a dog’s harness.

I donotrecollect ever seeing so small a sled in actual use, though Lieut.
Ray says he has frequently seen them drawn by one dog. The people
who came down from Nuwitk with a small load of things for trade
sometimes used a small unia about 3 feet long, with one dog, and the
same was often used by the girls for bringing in firewood from the
beach.

A very peculiar sled was formerly used at Point Barrow, but we have
no means of knowing how common it was. It was a sort of toboggan,
made by lashing together lengthwise slabs of whalebone, but is now
wholly obsolete, since whalebone has too high a market value to per-
mit of: its being used for any such purpose. We obtained one speci-
men about 10 feet long, but it was unfortunately im such a dilapidated
condition that we were unable to bring it home. I find no previous
mention of the use of such sleds by any Eskimo. It is not necessary
to suppose that this sled is modeled after the toboggan of the Hudson
Bay voyagers, of which these people might have obtained knowledge
through the eastern natives, since the simple act of dragging home a
“slab” of whalebone would naturally suggest this contrivance.

We did bring home one small sled of this kind (No. 89875 [772], Fig.
359, from Utkiavwin), which from its size was probably a child’s toy,
though from its greasy condition it seems to have been used for drag-
ging pieces of blubber. It is made of the tips of 6 small “slabs” of
black whalebone, each about 2 inches wide at the broad end, and put
together side by side so as to form a triangle 194 inches long and 92
wide, the apex being the front of the sled, and the left-hand edge of each
slab slightly overlapping the edge of the preceding. They are fastened
together by three transverse bands, passing through loops in the upper
surface of each slot, made by cutting two parallel longitudinal slits
about one-half inch long and one-fourth inch apart part way through,
and raising up the surface between them. The hindmost band is a
strip of whalebone nearly one-half inch wide, passing through these

MURDOCH. ] SLEDGES. 357

loops, and wound closely in a spiral around a straight rod of whalebone,
0-4 inch wide and 0-1 inch thick, as long as the band. The ends of the
band are knotted into 1ings or beekets about 24 inches in diameter.
The other two bands are simple, narrow strips of whalebone, running
straight across through the loops and knotted at the ends into similar
beckets. These beckets were obviously for tying on the load.

The sled with side rails does not appear to be used east of the Mae-
kenzie region, but is found only slightly modified at least as far south
as Norton Sound.! The sledge used on the Asiatic coast, however, as
shown in Nordenskiéld’s figure,? belongs to a totally different family,
being undoubtedly borrowed from the reindeer Chukches.* The sleds
of the eastern Eskimo vary somewhat in pattern and material, but
may be described in general terms as essentially the same as_ the unia,
but usually provided with what is called an “ upstander,” namely, two
upright posts at each side of the back of the sled, often connected by a

Fig. 359.—Small toboggan of whalebone.

cross rail, which serve to guide the sled from behind. Many deserip-
tions and figures of these sleds will be found in the various descriptions
of the eastern Eskimo.

Dogs and harness.—TVhese sledges are drawn by dogs, which, as far as I
am able to judge, are of the same breed as those used by the eastern
Eskimo. They are, as a rule, rather large and stout. A number of the
dogs at Utkiavywin would compare favorably in size with the average
Newfoundland dogs, and they appear to be capable of well sustained
exertion. The commonest color is the regular “ brindle” of the wolf,
though white, brindle-and-white, and black-and-white dogs are not un-
common. There was, however, but one wholly black dog in the two
villages. Thiswasa very handsome animal known by the name of Allia
(“coal”).

Every dog has his name and knows it. Their disposition is rather
quarrelsome, especially among themselves, but they are not particu-
larly ferocious, seldom doing more than howl and yelp at a stranger,
and it is not difficult usually to make friends with them. There was

' See Dall’s figure, Alaska, p. 165.
2 Vega, vol. 1, p. 498.
3 Compare also the various illustrations in Hooper's ‘Tents of the Tuski.”

358 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

very littie 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, “ Malukd/lirua, asi/rua”, (‘* He is
howling | ?];! he is bad”), and some of the boys finally took it out on the
tundra and knocked it on the head.

The dog harness, 4nun (Gr. anut), 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? 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 neyer driven, and except over a well known trail, like that between
Utkiavwid and the whaling camp in 1883, will not travel unless a
woman trots along in front, encouraging them with cries of “ An! an!
tala! tila! (Come! come on!), while the man or woman who runs be.
hind the sled to guide it and keep it from capsizing, urges them on with
cries of “ Kit! kit! (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

'T failed to get the hue ition of this word, but it seems to be connected with the Greenlandic
milavok, he howls (a dog—).
2Contributions, 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. Ray 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 Ya/ksina 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.'
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 calledit 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 word 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.? Curiously enough the
only other localities in which the use of this contrivance is mentioned
are in the extreme east.’ 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 ashort distance without lying down
to rest.

The method of harnessing and driving the dogs varies considerably
in 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 Nordenskiéld* 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 race (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 Dall. Alaska, p. 25.

2See Hooper, Tents, ete., p. 195, and Nordenskiéld, Vega, vol. 2, p. 96, where one of these shoes is fig-
ured.

%See Kumlien, Contributions, p. 42.

4Vega, vol. 2, p. 95.

360 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

the region about Pitlekaj, 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.!. Nordenski6ld? 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 to 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.°

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. In most
“ases 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 Yt’/ksima. The custom does not appear to be so prevalent
as at Norton Sound (see above, p. 117). 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, 89425 [1732], Fig. 153) 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-

ISee Dall, Alaska, pp. 163 and 166.
2Vega, vol. 2, p. 95, foot note.

3 For descriptions of the sledges and methods of harnessing used by the eastern Eskimo, see Bessel’s
Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 9, p. 868, figs. 4 and 5 (Smith Sound); Kane, 2d Grinnell Exp., vol. 1, p. 205
(Smith Sound) and first Grinnell Exp., p. 448 (Greenland); Kumlien, Contributions, p. 42, and Boas,
“Central Eskimo, '' pp. 529-538 (Cumberland Gulf) ; Parry, 2d voyage, p. 514, and Lyon, Journal, p.
235 (Iglulik); Gilder, Schwatka’'s Search, pp. 50, 52, and 66, and Schwatka’s ‘‘ Nimrod in the North,”
pp. 152, 153 (NW. shore of Hudson Bay and King Williams Land).

MURDOCH. ] HUNTING SCORES. 361

pear swimming, followed by a rude figure of a man in a kaiak, means
that so many were lanced in the water. Other incidents of the exeur-
sion are also sometimesrepresented. 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. I
have figured all of these. Fig.
360 (No. 89487 [1026] from
Nuwitk) is a narrow flat tablet
of ivory, 4:8 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, with 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 @ man 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. Between 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

Fi. 360.—Hunting score engraved on ivory.

362 THE POINT BARROW 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. 361 (No. 89473 [1349] from Utkiavwin) is a piece of an old snow-
shovel edge with freshly incised figures on both faces, which the artist

Fic. 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’

Fig. 362.—Hunting score engraved on 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
] have killed.”

Fig. 362 (No. 89474 [1534] from Utkiavwin) is newly made, but was
said to be the record of a man of our acquaintance named Maninolu.
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

MURDOCH. | HUNTING SCORES. 363

colored with red ocher. The faceis 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 gun ata 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 an
wniak 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, as they just fill up the board.

Fic. 363.—Hunting score engraved on ivory, obverse and reverse.

Fig. 363 (No. 56517 [121] from Utkiavwin) 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, representing 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

364 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

apart and his arms uplifted. On the reverse, there is no border, but
a single dog and a man who supports himself witha long staff are 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.

GAMES AND PASTIMES.

Gambling.—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.
Ray 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. Ray often saw it played. According
to lim 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 atime 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 {9}, from Utkiavwin, 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-
miun, though they do not know how to use them. They described how
they were used by the “Nunatanmiun,” 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. Herendeen 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. 364 (No. 56531 [21]) represents some of a bunch of 25 little ivory
images which were strung on a bit of seal thong. One is a neatly

9.7

carved fox, 2-7 inches long, and the rest are ducks or geese, rather

MURDOCH. ] GAMES—FESTIVALS. 365

roughly carved, with flat bellies. The largest of these is 1:3 inches

long and the smallest 0-8 inch. These were purchased at Plover Bay,
s ] ;

eastern Siberia, during our brief visit in August, 1881, and were sup-

Fic. 364.—Game of fox and geese, from Plover Bay.

posed to be merely works of art. I was, however, very much interested
on my return to Washington to find that Dr. Franz Boas had brought
from Cumberland Gulf a number of precisely similar images, which are
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.! It is therefore quite
likely that they are used for a similar pur-
pose at Plover Bay. Ifthis 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.

Festivals.—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-
‘val 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 are dressed in new deerskin
clothing, with the snow-white flesh side
outward, and in certain parts of the perform- Fie. 365.—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 (ki/bri, kiluka’)
(No. 89820 [863] Fig. 365), made of deerskin with the hair inward and

' This game is briefly referred to by Hall, Arctic Researches, p. 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-
tween 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. Ray 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

Fa. 366,—Wooden mask.

MURDOCH. ] MASKS. 367

performance in which they were used. Some of them are of undoubted
age. No.56499 [6] (Fig. 366) has been selected as the type of these masks.
(ki/nau, from ki/na, face). Thisisarather good representation of a male
human face, 8-8 inches long and 5:8 wide. It is quite smoothly carved
out of cottonwood, and the back isneatly 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

Fic. 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 tackedon. This mask
is rather old and somewhat soiled.

A very old weathered mask (No. 56497 [235] from Utkiavwin), 7-8
inches long, and made of soft wood, apparently pine, is similar to
the preceding, but has no tongue, and the teeth 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 4 inch from the edge, and pierced with small holes for
fastening on a hood.

Figure 367 (No. 89817 [856] 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.

in 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
whalebene on the iower 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. 89812 [1063],
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 [1056] from Utkiavwin), however, has large plug-labrets
carved out. Though roughly carved this mask
is a very characteristic Eskimo face, and would
almost pass as the portrait of a man of our
acquaintance in Utkiavwin. The two little
roughly carved human faces on the top of
this mask are probably merely for ornament.
No such things are to be seen on any of the
old masks which have been actually used.
This mask seems to have been whittled out of
the bottom of an old meat tray, and has a
string of whalebone. Most of the genuine
masks are of excellent workmanship, but two
are quite roughly carved. One of these espe-
cially is such a bungling piece of work that it would be set down as
commercial were it not weathered and evidently old. The painting
never goes farther than marking out the beard and eyebrows with soot
or black lead, and sometimes reddening the cheeks with ocher. Fig.
368 (No. 89816 [1583] from Utkiavwin) is a very old mask of cotton-
wood, blackened with age and so rudely carved that the work was prob-
ably done with a stone tool. It is grooved around the edge for fastening
on a hood and is 6°8 inches long.

The only female human masks seen are new and made for sale. One
of these (No. 89819 [1057], Fig. 369, from Utkiavwin) is roughly whittled
from the bottom of an old meat tray, and has the hair, eyebrows, and
a single line of tattooing on the chin painted with soot. Itis 8-7 inches
long and has strings of whalebone.

Another (No. 56498 [73] from Utkiavwin) is about the size of the
common masks and tolerably well made. It has the hair and eyebrows
marked with black lead. The last is afoot long, and like the one fig-

Fia. 368.—Old grotesque mask.

MURDOCH.] MASKS. 369

ured is roughly whittled out of the bottom of an old meat tray. It has
the hair, eyebrows, and a single stripe of tattooing on the chin marked
with black lead. This came from Utkiavwin (No. 89811 [1037]).

Another “commercial” mask (No.
89813) [1074] from Utkiavwin) 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. 56496 [258] from Utkiaywin) represents, rather rudely,
a wolf’s face and ears, and is the only animal mask we obtained or saw.
It is of cottonwood, old and weathered, and is 4:7 inches long and 6:5
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 un-
braided sinew pieced
together.

Fig. 371 (No. 89815
[1050] from Utkiay-
win) is a mask that
seems almost too
small to have been
worn, being only 6-1
inches long and 4:7 ;
wide. It is very old, Fic. 371.—Very ancient
made of blackened cot- SHEMDEE
tonwood, and is the rudest representation of the human face which
we saw. It is simply an oval disk, concavo-conyex, with holes cut for
the eyes, nostrils, and mouth. The rough eutting 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

FiG, 369. —Rude mask of wood.

Fig. 370.—Wolf mask of wood.

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.) On the other hand, no other Eski-
mo, save those of Alaska,ever use masks in their performances, as far
as Lean learn, with the solitary exception of the people of Baftin Land,
where a mask of the hide of the bearded seal is worn on certain occa-
sions.2 Nordenskiéld saw one wooden mask among the people near the
Vegws winter quarters, but learned that this had been brought from
3ering Strait, and probably from America.*

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
Tlinket 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.* With these masks was worn a gorget
or breast-plate, consisting of a half-moon shaped piece of board about
18 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. 372a, has been selected as the type of the gor-
get (sikimin). It is made of spruce, is 18:5 inches long, and has two
beeckets 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. He holds a small whale ineach hand. At his rightis asmall
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 tothe left. On the left of the red man are two wmiaks 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. 372b (No. 56493 [266] from Utkiavwin) 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. 367 (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

1See Dall, Alaska, p. 389, and contributions to N. A. Ethn., vol. 1, p. 90.

2See Kumlien, Contributions, p. 43. Kumlien says merely ‘‘a mask of skins.’ Dr. Boas is my au-
thority for the statement that the skin of the bearded seal is used.

3 Vega, vol. 2, p. 21.

4See also Dall’s paper in the Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 67-203, where
the subject of mask-wearing is very thoroughly discussed in its most important relations

MURDOCH. ] GORGETS. 371

black whale and holding a whale in each hand. At his right isa black
umiak with five men in it, and at his left a 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. 89817 [855] (Fig. 367 already referred to) hasa
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

Fig. 372. Dancing gorgets of 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 liis image carved inivory. 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. Atits 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.!

Mechanical contrivances.—In one of the performances which Capt.
Herendeen witnessed, there stood in the middle of the floor facing each
other, the stuffed skins of a fox and araven. 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. (No 89893 [1378] from
Utkiavwin.) We unfortunately did not learn the story or myth con-
nected with this representation.? It was the skin of an Arctie 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 whalebone 2 inches wide and about $¢ inch thick,
which protruded about 44 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 2? 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. Crantz, vol. 1, p. 206.
2 This very interesting specimen was unfortunately destroyed by moths at the National Museum
after the description was written, but before it could be figured.

\

MURDOCH. ] MECHANICAL ANIMALS. oo

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 95 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 was 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 14 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 erossed
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 wolf’s 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 ;' and Dall? 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 185182, since this was the only one of
the two seasons that the great winter festival was held at Utkiavwin.
In the winter of 1852-’83 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 Nuwiik or at
Pernyt, when the “ Nunataimiun” visitors were entertained.

The best accounts we have of any performance is given by Lieut.

‘Report, p. 135. ? Alaska, p. 156.

374 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

Ray. He and Capt. Herendeen went over to Utkiavwin by special invi-
tation on December 3, 1881, and witnessed one scene of the ‘ wood,” or
“tree dance.” Many visitors were present from Nuwtk 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 ki/dyigi. 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.
Ray’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 of the whale. Each,
as he finished, took his place 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 25 feet long
and the upper about 14, hinged together with seal thong. At one side
hung a wolf’s 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 musie,
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-

MURDOCH. } DANCING. 375

ligious or dramatic about it. The musie 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 a while 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.’ A festival,
however, was heldat Nuwiik in June, 1883, which apparently resembled
the second kind described by Dall.2. Two men came down from Nuwttk
to invite Lieut. Ray and Capt. Herendeen, telling them what presents
they were expected to bring. Unfortunately it was considered that too
much was asked and the invitation was declined. The messengers car-
ried “notched sticks.”

Dances in which the children only take part, entirely for amusement,
sometimes take place in the ki/dyigi, and people occasionally amuse
themselves by dancing in the iglu. I 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 jg. 373 youth sesSing es
to the song and stamping vigorously with the the aurora.
right foot, springing up and down with the left knee (see Fig. 373,
from a sketch by the writer).

We never heard of any of the licentious festivals or orgies described
by Egedet and Kunilien.°

'See Dall, Alaska, p. 151.

2Tbid, p. 154.

3Compare the 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.

4Greenland, p. 139.

5Contributions, 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.!

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. 374a (No. 89806 [1189]*from Nuwik) is a whirligig in principle
very like that made for civilized children. It is a block of spruce, fitted
with a shaft of narwhalivory. 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 Utkiavwin (No. 89807 [1356}).
The block, which is 4-2 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 (No. 56491 [46] from Utkiavwit) 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

‘Descriptions of Eskimo festivals are to be found in Egede’s Greenland, p. 152, and Crantz, History
of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 175, where he mentions the sun feast held at the winter solstice. This very
likely corresponds to the December 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 be held at about the same time by the people of Kotzebue
Sound, as stated by Dr. Simpson, op. cit., p. 262, where, as he says, the reindeer might be successfully
pursued throughout the 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 be selected by the
people at Point Barrow as a season when ‘‘hunting or fishing can not well be attended to,” as Simp-
son thinks. We should remember that this is the very time of the year that the seal netting is at its
height at Point Barrow. See also Parry, Second Voyage, p. 538; Kumlien, Contributions, p.43; Gilder,
Schwatka’s Search, p. 43; Beeehey, Voyage, p. 288 (Kotzebue Sound); Dall, Alaska, p. 149 (very full
and detailed); Petroff, Report, ete., pp. 125, 126, 129, 131 (quoted from Zagoskin), 135, 137 (quoted from
Shelikhof), and 144 (quoted from Davidof); Hooper, Tents, ete., pp, 85,136; and Nordenskiéld, Vega,
vol. 2, pp. 22, 131.

MURDOCH. ] TOYS. 77

on each face. The upper face is divided into quadrants by four narrow
lines radiating 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 does not seem to be common. I do not recollect ever seeing any-
one except the maker of this toy spinning one.

378 ‘THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

The same is true of No. 89722 [1087] (Fig. 376, from Utkiavwin) which
is what American boys would call a “buzz” 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 together. 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-
J ner to the corners of the board, on both

Tae ave sor Sate 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.

Fic. 376.—Buzz toy.

Fig. 377 (No. 89800 [1531] from Utkiaywin),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
imigluta. It consists of a thin board of pine wood, fastened by a string

Tay 7
|

MURDOCH. ] ; TOYS. 379

of sinew braid about 1 foot long to the end of a slender rod, which
serves as a handle. When swung rapidly round by the handle it
makes a loud, whizzing 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. 56687 [181] from
Utkiaywin) is another plaything
rather common with the boys,
which takes the place of the
American boy’s “bean snapper.”
Tt is known by the name of miti’-
gligaun, and is arod of ¢
whalebone, stiff and
black, 4:8 inches long
and.0 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- 72
ment of mischief and is used for shooting tiny pebbles at peo-
ple when they are looking the other way. Miunialu 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 ooking 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. pubic suap-
The “snapper” is used as follows: It is held in the left hand, bie
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.

Fi4. 377.— W hizzing stick.

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 Utkiavwin.)
This is a human head carved out of pine wood, and shouldered off at
the neck into a stout round peg, which is fitted 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
i 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 44 inches, and
the workmanship is remarkably
good.

No. 89827 [1138] (from Utkiay-
win), on the other hand, is very

Fig. 379.—Carving of human head. 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

5

x

MURDOCH. ] DOLLS. 381

edge round the wrists. The boots are 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
in the end in front. Though
the design is elaborate the
workmanship is very rude,
and the clothes seem to be
made ofoddsand 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 [1358]
from Utkiavwin) 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 115 inches.

Fic. 380.—Mechanical doll: drum player.

Fic. 381.—Mechanical toy; kaiak paddler.

A still more ingenious mechanical toy which, however, like the pre-

ceding, was made for sale, is Shown in Fig. 381 (No. 89855 [1351] from
Utkiaywin). Thisis a man sitting in a kaiak in the attitude of paddling

382 THE POINT BARROW 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 “ Ktinmi/dlin”
kaiak. It is painted all over with red ocher, except on the bottom. The
figure has 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 coy-
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 alittle hole in the edge
of the hood, where the left ear would be, the other passes round the

Fig, 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
cach 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 great 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
seraped 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 “ Nunatan-

D.
:
4

MURDOCH. } TOYS—SPORTS. 383
miun,” 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.

Juvenile 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, ete., some of
which have been already described, which were perhaps intended as
playthings for the children. As, however, they were all newly made,
it is possible that they were merely intended to catch the fancy of the
strangers.

No. 89451 [1115], from Nuwitk, 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, 89695 [1280] from Utkiavwin, is a similar model of a deer lance,
7 inches long, all in one piece and made of reindeer antler.

No. 89797 [1186] from Utkiavwin, 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, 15 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-cateh-can” without
any particular system. We never heard of anything like the athletic
sports mentioned by Egede! and Crantz? or the pugilism described
by Schwatka among the people of King William’s Land, when two men
stand up to each other and exchange buffets till one or the other gives
in.’ 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? 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,

' Greenland, p. 162.

2 Volos penile

3 Science, vol. 4, No. 98, p. 545.

4 Hall (Arctic Researches, p. 129) says the ‘cat's cradle’ is a favorite amusement in Baffin Land,
where they make many figures, including representations 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. I 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 “yt yar yuka, ye yar 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.!

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.’
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 See Egede, p. 161, and Crantz, vol. 1, p. 177.
2? Compare Parry’s Second Voyage, p. 541.

arene 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 fish 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 drum! or tambourine (kélyau), 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 sleuder 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. 56741 [79],
Fig. 383, has been selected as the type. The
frame is a flat strip of willow 67 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 into a
haman face. Back of this head and 1 inch from the large end of th2
handle is a square tranSverse notch, deep and sufficiently wide to fit
over both rim and strap at the joint. Itis 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

Fig. 383.—Drum.

1 Nordenskiéld 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 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

groove 0-2 inch from the edge of the hoop and 0.3 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. 56742 [514], from Utkiavwin, is a similar drum, but somewhat

larger, the hoop being 24°6 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 3:5 inches long,
and only half the width
of the rim, and is let into
thelatter. This strap ap-
pears to have been put
on first, as at each end
there is a stiteh 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 fingers.
(See Fig. 384.) The joint is tightened by driving a thin sliver of wood
in at the bottom of the notch.

No. 56743 [31], from Utkiavwin, closely resembles the type, but has
a notch for the thumb as well as for the forefinger on the handle. The
hoop is 25:5 inches long and 21 wide. No. 56740 [80] from the same
village is rather smaller than the ordinary drums, having a hoop 16-2
inches long and 14:7 wide. The handle is of antler, but has the usual
face on the large end.

We also brought home eight handles for these drums, which exhibit
but slight variations. The commonest material for the handle is wal-
rus ivory. Only two out of the twelve are of antler. They are usually
about 5 inches long (the longest is 5:4 inches and the shortest 4:6).
Handles with grooves for the fingers and sometimes for the thumb seem
to be quite as common as the plain handles. Fig. 385a@ represents an
ivory handle from Nuwittk (No. 89267 [898] ), 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,

Ita, 384.—Handle of drum secured to rim.

MURDOCH.] 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. 89266 [784] (Fig. 385b), a handle of antler from
Utkiavwin, has the axis of the face parallel to that of the handle. Nos.
89269 [975] and 56515 [76], 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

Fic. 385.—Drum handles.

inserted at each corner of the mouth. The only handle without a human
face on the large end (No. 56514 [65] Fig. 385c, from Utkiavwin) 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 25 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. 56743 [31]. Fig. 386a (No. 56540 [31]) 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. 386) (No. 56540 [31a]) 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.”

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

Fic. 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 4 time.’ The words are often
extemporaneous, and at tolerably regular intervals comes the refrain,
“ A yana yaa, a yana ya,” which takes the place of the “ 4mna 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

‘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. Capt. Lyon's picture, Parry's 2d Voyage, pl. opposite p. 530, and
Gilder, Schwatka’s Search, p. 43, where the people of the west shore of Hudson Bay are described as
using a ‘wooden drumstick shaped likea potato-masher.”)

2See Hooper, Tents, ete., p. 51, and Nordenskiéld, Vega, vol. 2, pp. 23 and 128; figure on p, 24.
3Compare Crantz, vol. 1, p. 176. ‘

MURDOCH. ] MUSIC. 389

singing and humming to themselves, sometimes, according to Capt.
Herendeen, waking up in 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 Nuwtk, 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.

Capt. Parry' gives an excellent account of the musie of the people of
Fury and Hecla Straits.’

I regret extremely that I 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. I was able, however, to catch by ear the song sung
by the children when they dance to the anrora. I never had the whole
of this song, which we were told had a large number of stanzas. The
first three are as follows:

1. Kiéya ke, kidya ke,

A, yar, yar, ya,
Hwi, hwi, hwi, hwi!

2. Tidlimana, tidlimana,
A yanr, yane, ya,
Hwi, hwi, hwi, hwi!

3. Kalutand, kalutana,
A yan, yar, ya,
Hwi, hwi, hwi, hwi!

We did not succeed in learning the meaning of these words, except,
of course, that the first word, kiéya, 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 Kilauwitaéwin, who came up to take part in the
whale-fishing at Utkiavwin. It became at once exceedingly popular,
and everybody was singing or humming it. It is peculiar in being in
waltz or } time, and has considerably more air than the ordinary tunes.
I heard no words sung to it except: “O hai hai yéna, O hai yana, 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,

12d Voyage, p. 541.
?See also the passage from Crantz, quoted above; Dall, Alaska, p. 16; and Nordenskiéld, Vega, vol.
2, pp. 23 and 130.

390 THE POINT BARROW 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.!. West of the Mackenzie River,
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 caryings and
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 résumé. 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
ew 9

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 ont the process. No
tool by which these figures could be made so accurately was ever offered
for sale.

Neither Mr. Turner nor Mr. Dall, 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 centerbit, made by sticking

1See the various accounts of the 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, ete., already mentioned, are frequently carved into the shape of
animals, as well as being ornamented with conventional patterns. Cary-
ings of animals’ heads usually have the mouth, nostrils, ete., indicated
by blackened incisions, and often have small, colored beads, bits of
wood, or ivory inlaid for the eyes. When beads are used, the perfora-
tion of the bead is generally made to represent the pupil of the eye.
Beads were also used 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 “ereen fungus or peziza,” mentioned by Dall as in use among the an-
cient Aleuts.'. 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 aman painting anew sled at Utkiavwin. He
licked the freshly scraped wood with his tongue, so as to moisten it
with 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 ‘“Nunatanmiun,” from whom perhaps the Point
Barrow people borrowed the fashion, which is not mentioned among the
eastern Eskimo. Nordenskidld states that red is the favorite color
among the natives of Pitlekaj.?

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
(fourteeen from Nuwtk, twenty from Utkiavywin, 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 Nuwik, belonging to at least two distinet
sets, and nine from Utkiavwin, belonging to three sets. Nine have

‘Contributions to N. A. Ethn., vol. 1, p. 86. *Vega, vol. 2, p. 185.

392 THE POINT BARROW 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 Nuwittk, and one from Utkiayvwin. 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 Utkiavwin, 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.
89904 [786] are peculiar in their marking. About 54 inches of the
middle of the shaft is painted red, there is a black ring round the middle,
and 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 seyenty-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,!
but a number of the new ones were made simply as works of faney for
sale tous. 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.?
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 soapstone,
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 flaked out of gray flint. (There are in the collection a
number of rude images of whales, made by flaking from flint, jasper,
and glass, but as these were ascertained without doubt to be amulets,
they will be described under that head.) Eleven 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. Four are ornamented objects made
for sale; not, strictly speaking, images.

Six of the representations of the human face or figure are of wood,
‘Compare Nordenskiéld, Vega, vol. 2, p. 126 and Rink, Tales, ete., p. 52. :
?Compare Bessels, Naturalist, vol. 18, No. 9, p. 880, where 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.)

MURDOCH. ] IMAGES. 393

and with one exception were all freshly made for sale. Fig. 387 repre-
sents the only antique specimen of this kind (No. 56496 [655]). This
was found among the débris in one of the old ruined houses in Utki-
avwin by Lieut. Ray, and is very old, blackened, and dirty. The cary-
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 a head 3-4 inches long. We saw no similar object of
modern construction.

Figs. 388a and 388) (Nos. 89726 [1192] and 89727 [1193], from Utki-
avwin) 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

é}

Fig. 387.—Ancient carving, human head. Fig. 388.— Wooden figures.

the boots). They were made for sale, and are perhaps unfinished dolls.
The man (No. 89726 [1192])is 11 inches long and tolerably well pro-
portioned, except about the feet, which are very clumsily made. The
eyes and mouth are incised and the hair colored with black-lead. The
woman (No. 89727 [1193]) is a very similar figure, but only 9-2 inches
long. She has prominent breasts, and her legs are shorter in propor-
tion than the man’s.

No. 89725 [1185], from Utkiavwin, is a clumsy image of a man, rudely
whittled out of a flat, hard-wood stick, 74 inches long. The body and
legs are long, the latter somewhat straddling, with clumsy feet. The
outstretched arms are very short and stumpy. It has been painted all

394 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

over with a thin coat of red ocher, and the legs and feet have a coat of
black lead over this. The hair also is marked out with black lead, and a
small opaque white bead is fastened with a peg to the middle of the
breast. This image was made for the market.

No. 56495¢ [203], from Utkiaywin, is of a pair of very rude images,
also made solely for the market. Each is 8 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 of the
front.

Fig. 389 (No. 89724

Fia. 389.—Carving, face of Eskimo man. {1123} from Nuwik) is
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. Ray as a guide and hunter.

We collected only two soap-stone carvings
representing men, both of which were newly
made. One of these, Fig. 390 (No. 89569 {1095 +
from Nuwittk), is a grotesque image 2-9 inches F1¢.390.—Grotesque soapstone
long, roughly carved from a flat piece of an old ™8% “Walrus man”
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. ] IMAGES. 395

has been drawn in very much the same shape. The 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. 89568 [1108], from Utkiavwin, probably represents the same being.
It is a mask of soapstone, a piece of an old Jamp, 2-8 inches long, witb
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 vibriss:e of
the walrus. The back of the mask is roughly hol-
lowed out. No. 89575 [1014], from Nuwitk, 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 bear equally
rude, and a very well carved and characteristic be-
luga, were made by the ingenious young native,
Yo6ksa, previously mentioned.

The best bone figure of a man is shown in Fig. 391
(No. 89353 [1025], from Nuwitk), also newly made.
This is an image, 5 inches long, of the giant * Kika-
migo,” previously mentioned, and is a very excellent
piece of workmanship. The material is rather vas-
eular 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, 3 inches Jong, protruding from
the apex. Around the middle of the cap is a narrow strip of the same
material frimged 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, 14 inches long, cut into three strips.

Fig. 392 (No. 89348 [1127], from Utkiavwin) 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 and
filled with black dirt. The total length is 3:3 inches.

IG. 391—Bone image of
dancer.

396 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

Fig. 893 (No. 89344 [1272], from Utkiavwin) is a very grotesque image
of a naked man, rudely carved from compact, rather porous bone, im-
pregnated with oil, but scraped smooth.
Itis5inches 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 Nuwitk, is a tolerably good figure,
3°3 inches long, of a sitting man hold
ing up his hands before his face. This
specimen is old and is made of walrus
Pier ant ivory yellow from age and oil. No.

image of man. 89391 [1085] from Nuwitk, 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. 89349
{980}, from Nuwitk) 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. Fig. 393.— Grotesque
Nos. 89346 and 89347 [990], from Nuwittk, are a pair bone image.

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.
89346 [990b] has his hands clasped in
front of him, while No. 89347 [990a] 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, EA
but do not appear freshly made. No. man figure
89345 [1273] from Utkiavwin is a very carved from
rude image, 2:6 inches long, having a apiece
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

Fic. 394.— Ivory im-
age, sitting man.

MURDOCH. ] CARVINGS. 397

be freshly made. This figure is even ruder in design than those from
Siberia figured by Nordenskiéld.

The best of our human figures from Point Barrow show much greater
art, both in workmanship and design, than those just mentioned, but
can not compare with the elegant
figures in the museum from the
more southern parts of Alaska.
The four remaining ivory carvings
represent the human face alone.
No. 89342 [989], Fig. 396, from
Nuwik, is a thick piece of walrus
ivory 33 inches Jong and 1-6
wide, carved into three human
faces, a man in the middle and a woman on each side, joined to-
gether at the side of the head. Though the workmanship is rough,
the faces are characteristic. The man has labrets and a curved line of
tattooing at each corner of the mouth, indicating the suecessful whale-
marr, and the women, the usual tattooing on the chin. The eyes, nos-
trils, mouths, labrets, and tattooing are incised and blackened as usual.
This specimen, though apparently modern, does not seem fresh enough
to have been made for sale. The seller called it “a man and his two
wives” without giving them any names. It may be intended as a por-
trait of some celebrated whaleman.

Fig. 397 is one of a pair of very rude faces (No. 56523 [52| from Ut-
kiavwin), 14 inches long, which were made for sale. It is simply a wal-
rus-tooth cut off square on the ends and on one side rudely carved into
a face, with the eyes and mouth incised and filled in
with dark colored dirt. Fig. 398 (No. 89343 [1124] from
Nuwitk) is a flat piece of ivory (a bit of an old snow
shovel edge), 4 inches long and 1-2 inches wide, roughly
carved and covered with incised figures. The upper
edge is carved into five heads: First, a rude bear’s
head, with the eyes and nostrils incised and blackened
as usual; then four human heads, with a face on each
side. The front faces have the noses and brows in low
relief and the eyes, nostrils, and mouths incised and
SNe yor Pa) blackened ; the back ones are flat, with the last three

head carved from features indicated as before. At the end is a rude fig-

awalrus tooth. wre of a bear, heading toward the right, with the ears
in relief, the eyes and mouth roughly incised and blackened, and
the legs indicated b¥ roughly incised and blackened lines on the ob-
verse face. Both faces are covered with rudely incised and blackened
lines.

On the obverse there is a single vertical line between each pair ot
heads. Below the bear’s head is a bear heading toward the right;

Fic. 396.—Ivory carving, three human heads.

1 Vega, vol. 2, p. 127.

398 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

under the first human head, an umiak with four men; under the second,
a “killer” (Orea) heading toward the right; under the third, two of
the usual conventionalized whales’ tails suspended from a cross-line;
and under the last, a “killer” with very large “flukes” heading toward
the left.

Fic. 398.—Elaborate ivory carving.

On the reverse there are, below the bear, a bear heading toward the
right, below each of the human heads a whale’s tail with the flukes up,
and under the bear’s head a bear heading toward the right. This end
is perforated with a large round hole, into which is knotted a bit of
deer sinew about 3 inches long, the other end of which is tied round
the junction of two little bowhead whales, each about 1 inch long and
carved out of a single piece of ivory, head to head. They are rather
rudely carved and have the spiracles incised and blackened. This ob-
ject appears freshly made, but perhaps commemorates the exploits of
some four hunters. It was purchased along with other objects and its
history was not learned at the time.

Perhaps the best image of a polar bear is No, 89566 [1252], Fig. 599,
from Utkiavwin, which is
quite characteristic. It
represents the bear stand-
ing and was carved out of
soft, gray soapstone with
a knife, and finished off
smoothly with a file. It
is 4 inches long. No.
89571 [116], from Nu-
wuk, is a very rude flat
soapstone bear, 1:9 in-
ches long, in profile, showing only one fore and one hind leg. It was
made for sale, but No, 89576 [966], from the same village, which is almost
exactly like this, though smaller, is old. No. 89574 [1027], from Nuwik,
is the gypsum carving of a bear, above referred to, which is very like

Fia. 399.—Bear carved of soapstone.

MURDOCH. } CARVINGS—ANIMALS, 399

9.5

the preceding two specimens. It is 25> inches long and has a large
tail and large clumsy legs.

No, 89578 [1051], Fig. 400, from Utkiavwin, is a thin profile figure of
a polar bear, made by flaking from dark gray flint. It is 1-4 inches
long, and the tail is disproportionately long.
The specimen does not appear to be new, and
was perhaps intended for an amulet, like the
flint whales already mentioned.

The only bone figure of a bear in the collee-
tion, No, 89335 [1275], Fig. 401a, from Utkiav-
Will, is very crude. It hasa very long, slim body ¥'6- 400.—Bear flaker from flint.
and neck, and short, slender legs. The mouth, eyes, and nostrils are
incised and are blackened as usual. The carving is rudely done, but
the specimen, which was made for sale, has been scraped smooth. It is
5.5 inches long, and made of whale’s bone, soaked in oil to make it

appear old.
Fig. 401) (No. 89471 [997], from Utkiavwin) is the end of some old
implement, 6 inches long, one end of which is carved into a rather rude

Fic. 401 —Bone figures: (a) bear; (b) bear’s head.

bear’s head, with the ears, nostrils, outline of the mouth, and the
vibrissee incised and blackened. Sky-blue glass beads are inlaid for
the eyes and bits of tooth for the canine tusks. On the throat is a
a conventional figure with two ‘“cireles and dots,” all incised and
blackened. The carving is freshly done, but soiled, to make it look
old.

The three newly made ivory bears are all represented standing and
are quite characteristic. All have the eyes, nostrils, and mouth incised
and blackened. Fig. 402a (No. 89337 [1274], from Utkiavwin) is the
best in execution. It is made of white ivory and is 3:3 inches long.
No. 56524, [92], from Nuwitk, is a small bear, 1:7 inches long, not quite
so well carved, and disproportionally long-legged. The left hind leg
has been broken off close to the body and doweled on with 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
Nuwitk), 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. 402b (No. 89340 [953], from Utkiavwin) 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 [56a] from Utkiavwin is a walrus tooth, 1-6 inches long,
sarved 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
filled in with black dirt. It
was made for sale. <A still
more rude carving, also made
for sale, is No. 56528, from
Utkiavwin, 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

FG. 402.—Ivory figures of bears. and one for the nose, and the
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 soapstone 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. 403a (No, 89333 [1384] from Utkiavwin). 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. 403b (No. 89334 [1067], from Utkiavwin) is exceedingly rude. The
eyes, nostrils, and mouth are incised and blackened as usual, and the
vibrisse (‘‘ 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
Nordenskiéld.' No.
89570 [1271] from Nu-
wik 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
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

Fic. 403.—Rude ivory tigures of walrus.

Fic. 404.—Images of seal—wood and bone.

Pitlekaj, figured by Nordenskidld.' All are newly made except No.

89737 [857a]. Fig. 404a, from Utkiavwin, 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.

' Vega, vol. 2, p. 142.

9 ETH 26

402 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

The best figure (No. 89330 [999] figured in the Point Barrow Rept.
Ethnol., Pl. v, Fig.6, from Utkiavwim) is carved from walrus ivory and
is 43 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 Utkiavwin, 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], from Utkiavwin, 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
filled in, as usual, with
black dirt. The drag line
is of sinew braid and has
/ an ivory cylinder slipped

ye over it.
wl No. 89328 [1167], from
Utkiavwin, is the poorest
Na in design. It is 5-6 inches
3 long and has the neck bent
Fi, 405.—W hite whale carved from gypsum. ~ 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 flippers 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 are indi-
sated 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 Eskimo artists farther south. This is the gypsum carving

“already mentioned (No, 89573 [1015], Fig. 405, from Nuwttk). 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 (Baleena 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

MURDOCH.] CARVINGS—WHALES. 403

perhaps were charms to be carried in the boat to secure good luck in
whaling. No. 89736 [857b|, Fig. 406, from Utkiavwin, is perhaps the
best proportioned of these figures, though the only details represented
are the flukes (which are broken), and the incised spiracles. It is 5-4
inches long and made of
spruce or hemlock, stained
almost: black by dirt,
grease, and weathering. A
long string of sinew braid
is tied round the “small.”
No. 89735 [1036] from
Utkiavwin, is also arather
well proportioned figure,
eG 0G Wand entcaiein ee wunle: 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 fora 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.
No. 89754 [987] from Nuwiik, is 12 inches long, very broad in propor-
tion to its length, and rather rude in design, with a flat belly, though

Fic. 407.—Whale carved from soapstone.

neatly carved and seraped 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 [1253] from Utkiavwin) 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 45 inches long, neatly carved from soapstone,
scraped smooth and oiled. It was made for sale. There are tive other
round soapstone carvings of whales in the collection, but none so good

404 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

as this except a little one from Nuwuk, (No. 89563 [986]) 2 inches long,
which is almost an exact miniature of the preceding. This specimen is
not new. Fig. 408 (No. 89557 [1267] from Utkiavwin) is a rude flat
representation of a whale seen from above. It is 5-2 inches long and

Fic. 408,—Rude 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 Nuwik (No, 89559 [{1188a]).

No. 89558 [1266] from Utkiavwin, and No. 89572 from Nuwik, both
flat images, are carelessly nade
for sale. The latter is simply
a representation in soapstone
of the conventional ‘“ whale’s
tail” with the “ small” cut off
to anangular point. No, 89325
[1160] from Utkiavwin 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 (No. 89323 |1024a] from Nuwitk) 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 p
sexual organs, the male having a little round pit Farner |
and the female a long sulcus. This, as well as the — Fra. 410.—Ivory image of
eyes, spiracles, and outline of the mouth, is incised ee
and filled in with dark colored dirt. The female is 3-1 inches long, the
male (No, 89824 [10245]) 0-1 inch longer. These specimens appear to be
quite ancient.

Fig. 410 (No. 89326 [1086] from Nuwitk) is very long and slender—
4:3 inches long and only 0-7 inch wide—with the belly perfectly flat,

Fic. 409,—Ivory image of whale.

7

MURDOCH. ] CARVINGS—WHALES, ETC. 405

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 Nuwitik was also made for sale.
It is a little whale 1-6 inches long,
rudely carved in walrus ivory.

Fig. 411 (No. 56619 |66| from Ut-
kiavwin) represents a pair of little
whales, each carved from a walrus
tooth, which probably served for Big, AU — Pair of Uiblle-tvory, whales.
buttons or toggles of some sort, though I 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

Te eRe “stumpy” in outline, with the outline of the mouth and
stone image of the spiracles incised and blackened, and little round

Mga ani pits of tooth inlaid for eyes. In the middle of the back

oe 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. 89567 [904| from Nuwitk) represents an imaginary
quadruped 2-5 in-
ches long, with a Bs ET
short, thick body and Ae =
legs, no neck, and a Qe) gee ee oe
human head, with the ae sa
eyes and mouth in-
cised. It is roughly
carved from light
gray soapstone, and
ground pretty
smooth. This figure
is not new, and has
probably connected
with it some story which we did not succeed in learning. The seller
called it an “old man.” No. 89332 [994] from Nuwitk, 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 flippers 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

Fig. 413.—Ivory carving, seal with fish’s head.

406 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

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 Nuwtk) 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.
a ee ) The eyes, nostrils,

i fe 9 oil slits, the outlines

— fe Pay of the tail, and the

| Be 73 \* i fs toes, of which there
oer ,

es Es : are six on each flip-

Fic. 414.—Ivory carving, ten-legged bear. 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 Nuwitk) is anewly made ivory figure,
which is interesting from its resemblance to one of the fabulous animals
which figure in the Greenland legends. It is 4 inches 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 Nuwtk) is another rep-
resentation of the giant who
holds a whale in each hand.
He was called in this instance
‘“Kaidasu,” and not “ Kikaémi-
go.” This image is carved
from very old pale brown wal-
rus ivory, and is 2°35 inches
high. A transverse incised
line across each cheek from the wing of the nose, indicates the whale-
man’s tattoo mark of the Hastern 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. 416 (No. 89336 [1369]) is a curious piece of carving, which Nika-
wdalu said he found in one of the ruined houses on the river Kulugrua.

Sa

Fig. 415.—Ivory carving, giant holding whales.

1 Rink, Tales, ete., p.48. See also same work, passim, among the stories.

MURDOCH. ] 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, 3-6 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. 56520 [85]
from Nuwittk) 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 2-6 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, vibrisse, and hairs on the muzzle are in-
dicated by blackeved incisions. There is an ornamented collar round

Fig. 416.—Double-headed animal, carved from antler.

<

{\

Hi

With

iN

— “
LS
PAI

Lig:

Fic. 417._Ivory carving, dog.

the neck, to which is joined a conventional pattern of triangular form on
the throat, and a somewhat similar pattern on the top of the head
between the ears.

One of the natives at Utkiavwin, in May, 1882, conceived the fancy of
smoothing off the tip of a walrus tusk into the shape of a pyramid,
surmounted by a little conical cap and ornamenting it with incised
figures, which he colored with red ocher. It appears to have been
purely an individual fancy, as it has no utility, nor are such objects
made by the Eskimo elsewhere, as far as [ know. Having succeeded
in finding a sale for this object, either he or one of his friends, I do not

408 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

now recollect which, made another, which was brought over for sale
about ten days later. We saw no others afterwards.

a
Hi

Uf

Fig, 418.—Engraved ivory: (a) piece engraved with figures; (b) development of pattern.

Vig. 418a (pattern developed in Fig. 418), No. 56530 [220]) represents
the first of these. It is made of solid white walrus ivory. The work-

Fic, 419.—Engraved ivory: (a) piece with engraving; (b) development of pattern.
manship is quite rude, and the cap has been broken off and neatly
fastened on with a wooden dowel. The other, Fig. 419a, 419) (No. 56529
[254]) is 3-7 inches long.

MURDOCH. ] CARVINGS, ETC. 409

Fig. 420 (No. 89741 [1012] from Nuwitk) is an ivory cross 15-5 inches
long. The cross is ornamented by incised rings and dots colored
with red ocher. The shaft of the cross is surmounted by a female
human head neatly carved from soapstone, fastened on by a lashing of
smnew braid, which passes through a transverse hole in the head and
round the crosspiece. No. 89742 [1091], also from Nuwitk, closely re-
sembles the preceding, but is slightly shorter
and has a four-sided shaft. The head, more-
over, which is made of bone, represents a man,
as is shown by the little pits, which indicate the
labrets. The cheeks and crown of the head are
colored slightly red with red ocher.

The ingenious Yébksa, so often mentioned,
made the first image and brought it down for
sale. All he could or would tell us about it

vas that it was “tund/ktip kuni/a,” “A kuni/a
(jargon for woman) of-soapstone.” The suc-
cessful sale of this first cross encouraged him
to make the second, but we saw no others be-
fore or after. Other natives who saw these
objects only laughed. The whole may be simply
a fanciful doll, perhaps meant for a caricature,
the shaft representing the body, and the cross-
piece the outstretched arms. The object is
very suggestive of a crucifix, and there is a
bare possibility that the maker may have seen
something of the sort in the possession of some
of the eastern natives who have been visited
by a missionary of the Roman Catholic Church
(Father Petitot).

Under the head of works of art may properly
be included No. 89823 [1130], from Utkiaywin.
This is the skeleton of the jaws of a polar bear,
cut off just back of the nose, neatly sewed up
in a piece of sealskin with the hair out, so as
to leave uncovered only the tips of the jaw-
bones and the canine teeth. This specimen
was put up by the same quick-witted young
native after his removal from Nuwik to Utki-
avwin, evidently in imitation of the work of
preparing specimens of natural history, which
he had seen done at the station. For the same Fig. 420.—Ivory doll.
reason he dried and carefully preserved in a little box whittled out of
a block of wood and tied up with sinew a little fresh-water sculpin
(Cottus quadricornis), which he had caught at Kulugrua (No, 89536
[1145}).

410 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

I regret much that we did not save and bring home any of the pencil
drawings made by these people. ‘The children especially were anxious
to get lead pencils, and made themselves rather a nuisance by covering
the painted walls of the observatory with scrawls of ships and various
other objects, perhaps rather more accurately done than they would
have been by white children of the same age. The style of the figures
on the hunting scores already described, however, is very like that of the
pencil drawings.!

DOMESTIC LIFE.

Marriage.—As far as we could learn, the marriage relation was en-
tered upon generally from reasons of interest or convenience, with very
little regard for affection, as we understand it, though there often ap-
peared to be a warm attachment between married people. A ian de-
sires to obtain a wife who will perform her household duties well and
faithfully, and will be at the same time an agreeable companion, while
he often plans to marry into a rich or influential family. The woman,
on the other hand, appears to desire a husband who is industrious and
a good hunter. There were, nevertheless, some indications that real
love matches sometimes took place. Marriages are usually arranged by
the parents of the contracting parties, sometimes when the principals
are mere children. We knew of one case when a young man of about
twenty-two offered himself as the prospective husband ofa girl of eight
or ten, when she should reach a marriageable age. This practice of
child betrothal seems to be practically universal among the Eskimo
everywhere.” :

Dr. Simpson, in describing the marriage customs at Point Barrow,
says:

The usual case is, that as soon as the young man desires a partner and is able to
support one, his mother selects a girl according to her judgment or fancy, and invites
her to the hut, where she first takes the part of a ‘“kivgak” or servant, having all
the cooking and other kitchen duties to perform during the day, and returns to her
home at night. If her conduct proves satisfactory, she is further invited to become
a member of the family.*

We only knew this to be done on one occasion; and on the contrary
knew of several cases where the bridegroom became a member of the
wife’s family.

One youth, who had had his lips pierced for the labrets just previ-
ously to our arrival, was, we soon learned, betrothed to a young girl
at Nuwttk. This girl frequently came down from Nuwik and visited
her lover’s family, staying several days at a time, but we could not

'Compare these with Nordenskiéld’s figures of ‘‘Chukch” drawings, Vega, vol. 2, pp. 132, 133. The
latter are completely Eskimo in character.

*Compare Crantz, vol. 1, p.159 (Greenland) ; Kumlien, Contributions, p. 164 (Cumberland Gulf); Hall,
Arctic Researches, p. 567 (Baffin Land); Parry, 2nd Voyage, p. 528 (Fury and Hecla Straits) ; Schwatka,
Science, vol. 4, No. 98, p. 544 (King William’s Land); Gilder, Schwatka’s Search, p. 250 (Hudson's

say); Franklin, First Exp., vol. 2, p. 41 (Chesterfield Inlet); Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 209 (Plover Bay) ;
Nordenskiéld, Vega, vol. 2, p. 26 (Pitlekaj).
8Op. cit., p. 252.

wunDpocH.] 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 and 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 Utkiavwin 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 Sound! and Egede in
Greenland (p. 142), and Kumlien was informed that certain ceremonies
were sometimes practiced at Cumberland Gulf? 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 meu who had married widows or divorced women old
enough to be their mothers,’ 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 1882~83, 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
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

' Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 9, p. 877.
2Contributions, p. 16.

*Compare Holm’s observations in East Greenland—‘‘idet et ganske ungt Menneske kan vere gift
med en Kone, som kunde vere hans Moder.” Geografisk Tidskrift, 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
Nuwik, 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
on 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, Kakaguna (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.” And this agrees with our
experience. The same appears to have been the case in Greenland.
Crantz? 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.”

Easy and unceremonious divorce appears to be the usual custom
among Eskimo generally, and the divorced parties are always free to
marry again.’ 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-

1Qp. cit., p. 253.
2Vol. 1, p. 160.
3°They often repudiate and put away their wives, if either they do not suit their humors, or else if
they are barren, * * * and marry others.” Egede, Greenland, p. 143. Compare also Crantz, vol. 1,
p.160; Parry, Second Voyage, p.528 (Fury and Hecla Straits); Kumlien, Contributions, p. 17 (Cumber-
land Gulf); and Hooper, Tents, ete., p. 100—‘trepudiation is perfectly recognized, and in instances of
misconduct and sometimes of dislike, put in. force without seruple 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-
land, remarkably like what we observed at Point Barrow.

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
2ame to our notice was in 1883, when one of the Kilauwitawinmeun at-
tempted by blows to coerce Adwi/na, an Utkiavwin 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 in Utkiavwin to our certain
knowledge. This custom has been observed at Fury and Hecla Straits,!
Cumberland Gulf, and in the region around Repulse Bay, where it
seems to be carried to an extreme.

According to Gilder’ it is a usual thing among friends in that region
to exchange wives for a week or two about every two months. Among
the Greenlanders the only custom of the kind mentioned is the tempo-
rary exchange of wives at certain festivals described by Egede.*

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.®

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.®

' Parry, 2nd Voyage, p. 528.

2Kumlien, Contributions, p. 16.

3Schwatka’s Search, p. 197.

4Greenland, p. 139.

5 Geogr., Tids., vol. 8, p. 92.

6 Compare Parry, 2d Voyage, pp. 526-528, Nordenskiéld (Vega, vol. 1, p. 449): The women are ‘‘ treated
as the equals of the men, and the wife was always consulted by the husband whe. a more important
bargain than usual was to be made." (Pitlekaj.) This statement is applicable, word for word, to the
women of Point Barrow.

414 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

Dr. Simpson’s description! 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 seems to have unlimited authority in his own hut, but, as with few excep-
tions his rule is mild, the domestie and social position of the women is one of com-
fort and enjoyment. As 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. Occ
a seal which her husband has taken, to which she is guided by his footmarks; and in
spring and summer she takes her place in the boat if required.

sionally in the winter she is sent out on the ice for

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
-ases 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.” We
did not learn whether a woman brought anything like a dowry,
but Simpson*® 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* 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,’ 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 Egede, p. 144, *‘ for according to them it signifies nothing thata man beats his wife.”
3 Op. eit., p 253.

4Vol. 1, p. 165.

5 Second Voyage, p. 522.

MURDOCH.] CHILDREN. A415

a little snow hut in 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 saw a pregnant womanin Utkiaywin 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 born 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 Gulf’, 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,° and Klutschak also
notes it among the Aivillirnuut.*

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.
Capt. Herendeen visited this family at Nuwik shortly after the death of
the child, and saw the snow house in which the woman had been con-
fined. He 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
use it. In Greenland the mother had a separate water pail. Fora
time, our visitors from Utkiaywin were very much afraid to drink out
of the tin pannikin in our washroom, for fear it had been used by Niaik-
sara, a woman who had recently suffered a miscarriage. 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-cateching for some time
after the mishap.

Children are nursed until they are 3 or4 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

‘Contributions, p. 28, and ‘Central Eskimo,” p. 610.

?Egede, p. 192; Crantz, vol. 1, p. 215, and Rink, Tales, etc., p. 54.

3 Voyage, p, 200.

4“ Als Eskimo, ete.,’ p. 199.

5 Egede, p. 192; Crantz, vol. 1, p. 215, °‘no one else mnst drink ont of their cup; and Rink, Tales and
Traditions, p. 54

416 THE POINT BARROW 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. Itis 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.!
In East Greenland, according to Capt. Holn, ‘‘Saa lenge Bérnene ere
smaa, beeres dei det fri paa Moderens Ryg.”?

Petitot’s description of the method of carrying the children in the
Mackenzie district is so naive that it deserves to be quoted entire.’

Les meres qui allaitent portent une jaquette ample et serrée autour des reins par
une ceinture. Elles yenfermentleurcheére progéniture qu’elles peuvent, par ce moyen,
allaiter sans l’exposer 4 un froid qui lui serait mortel. Ces jeunes enfants sont sans
aucun vétement jusqu’a Page d’environ deux ans. Quant aux incongruités que ces
petites créatures peuvent se permettre sur le dos de leur mére, qui leur sert de calo-
rifere, ’amour maternel, le méme chez tous les peuples, les endure patiemment et
avec indifférence.

At Fury and Hecla Straits, according to Parry*, 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.* 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.® Frank-
lin? refers to the same custom “east of the Mackenzie River.” The
Siberian children, however, are dressed in regular swaddling clothes
of deerskin, with a sort of diaper of dried moss.*

We never heard of a single case of infanticide, and, indeed, children

1Crantz, vol. 1, p. 138. See also Egede, p. 131, and the picture in Rink’s Tales, etc., opposite p. 8.
2Geografisk Tidskrift, vol. 8, p. 91.

3 Monographie, ete., p. xv.

4Second Voyage, p. 495.

6 Kumlien, Contributions, p. 24.

6 See Ellis, Voyage, ete., p. 136, and plate opposite p. 132.

7 Second Ex., p. 226.

8 Nordenskiold, Vega, vol. 2, p. 101.

aay? a:

MURDOCH.} 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 ofa case during the Plover’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.'” — Infan-
ticide, according to Bessels, is frequently practiced among the Eskimo
of Smith Sound, without regard of sex,? and Schwatka speaks of fe-
male infanticide to a limited extent among the people of King Wil-
liam’s Land.*

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 civilized 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 instrue-
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, aud when they reach the age of twelve or fourteen
are 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
188182, 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. Egede says: +

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. .
3 Science, vol. 4, p. 544. 4 Greenland, p. 146.

9 ETH 25

418 THE POINT BARROW 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 to Capt. Holm,! in East Greenland, ‘De opyoxe i den mest
ubundne Frihed. Forzldrene nere en ubeskrivelig Kjerlighed til dem
og straffe dem derfor aldrig, selv om de ere nok saa gjenstridige. Man
maa imidlertid beundre, hvor velopdrague 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. * * * Itmustbe
confessed, indeed, that the gentleness and docility of the children are such as to
occasion their parents little tronble 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 Nordenski6ld’s account? of the children at Pitlekaj, who, if not as
he and other writers believe, of pure Chukech 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.
Eyen in childhood the Chukchs 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 ery, A boy three or four years of age, much
rolled up in furs, who fell down into a ditch eut 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.

1Geografisk Tidskrift, vol 8, p. 91.
2Second Voyage, p. 529.
3 Vega, vol. 2, p. 140.

MURDOCH. ] CHILDREN—RIGHTS AND WRONGS. : A419

The only extraordinary thing about the Chukeh children is their
large number, mentioned by the same author.’ This looks as if the
infusion of new blood had increased the fertility of the race. All
authors who have described Eskimo of unmixed descent agree in
regard to the generally small number of their offspring. Other accounts
of Eskimo children are to be found in the writings of Bessels,’? Crantz,’
Schwatka,* Gilder,> J. Simpson,® and Hooper.’

The custom of adoption is as universal at Point Barrow 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 sey-
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 first cousins as ‘milu
atatizik” (“‘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.®

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 in obtaining an excellent husband.

Remarks 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

1 Vega, vol. 1, p. 449. 4Science, 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. SOp. cit., p. 250.

7 Tents, etc., pp. 24, 201.

§ Accounts of this custom of adoption are to be found in Crantz, vol. 1, p. 165; Parry, Second Voy-
age, p. 531; Kumlien, Contributions, p. 17; Gilder, Schwatka’s Search, p. 247, and the passage con-
cerning children quoted above, from Dr. Simpson.

AAV. THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

cially those of the wealthier class, preserve a very tolerable degree of
conjugal fidelity and certainly do not prostitute themselves to the sail-
ors. I believe that prostitution for gain is unknown among themselves,
but 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. Simpson! 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 toadd: “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} seems too purely animal
and natural to be of recent growth or the result of foreign influence.
Moreover, a similar state of affairs has been observed among Eskimo
elsewhere, notably at lglulik at the time of Parry’s visit.

SOCIAL LIFE AND CUSTOMS.

Personal habits, cleanliness, ete—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, in the
winter season, the iglu, unless dirty work, like the dressing of skins,
ete., 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.

2Second Voyage, }. 529.

* Compare Nordenskiéld’s account of the comparative cleanliness of the Chukch dwellings at Pitle-
kaj: ‘On the other hand it may be stated that in order not to make a stay in the confined tent chamber
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 pesk is usually put off before one goes into the inner tent,
and the shoes are carefully treed from snow. The carpet of walrus skins which covers the floor of the
inner tent is accordingly dry and clean. Eyen 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 in the outer and inner tent, is laid in its proper place, and so on.’ (Vega, vol. 2, p. 104.)

Aw

MURDOCH. ] PERSONAL HABITS. 42]

The contents of this vessel, being mixed with feces, is not fit for
tanning skins, ete., and is consequently thrown out doors. The men
use a small tub (kuoywin) 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
(izkikun) and use it freely. Lieut. Ray says that his two guides,
Mivnialu 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. Ray 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.! 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.”
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 Egede,* who
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.’”

1Compare Dall, Alaska, p. 20.
2See Nordenskiéld, Vega, vol. 2, p. 104.
3Greenland, p. 127.

422 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

Salutation.—We had no opportunity of witnessing any meeting be-
tween these people and strange Eskimo, so that it is impossible to tell
whether they practice any particular form of salutation on such occa-
sions. We saw nothing of the kind among themselves. White men
are saluted with shouts of “Nakurak!” (good), and some Eskimo
have learned to shake hands. They no longer practice the common
Eskimo salutation of rabbing noses, but say that they oncedid. Seret.
Middleton Smith, of our party, informs me that he once saw a couple
of natives in Capt. Herendeen’s trading store give an exhibition of the
way this salutation was formerly practiced.

This custom was perhaps falling into disuse as early as 1837, since
Thomas Simpson,! in describing his reception at Point Barrow, says:
“We were not, however, either upon this or anyother occasion, favored
with the kooniks or nose-rubbing salutations that have so annoyed
other travelers.” Mr. Elson, however, expressly states that the people,
probably Utkiavwinmiun, whom he met at Refuge Inlet eleven years
before, rubbed noses and cheeks with him? and Maguire® narrates how
the head of the party of visitors from Point Hope saluted him. He says:
‘‘He fixed his forehead against mine and used it as a faulerum to rub
noses several times.”

Healing—As is the case with Eskimo generally, these people rely
for curing disease chiefly upon the efforts of certain persons who have
the power of exorcising the supernatural beings by whom the disease
is caused. A large number of men and, I believe, some women were
supposed to have this power and exercise it in cases of sickness, in
some instances, at least, upon the payment of a fee. These people
correspond closely to the angekut of the Greenlanders and Eastern Hs-
kimo, and the so-called “shamans” of southern Alaska, but, as far as
we could see, do not possess the power and influence usually else-
where ascribed to this class.

It was exceedingly difficult to obtain any definite information con-
cerning these people, and we only discovered casually that such and
such a person was a “doctor” by hearing that he had heen employed
in a certain case of sickness, or to perform some ceremony of incanta-
tion. We did not even succeed in learning the name of this class of
people, who, in talking with us, would call themselves “tikté,” as they
did our surgeon. On one occasion some of the party happened to visit
the house of a sick man where one of these “doctors” was at work. He
sat facing the entrance of the house, beating his drum at intervals, and
making a babbling noise with his lips, followed by long speeches ad-
dressed to something down the trapdoor, bidding it ‘*go!” We were
given to understand that these speeches were addressed to a tuyna or
supernatural being.!. Their only idea of direct treatment of disease is

' Narrative, p. 155.
2 Beechy's Voyage p. 312.
3N. W. Passage, p. 385.

4 Dr. Simpson says (op. cit., p. 275): ‘! Diseases are also considered to be turn’gaks.”

MURDOCH. ] HEALING. 423

apparently to apply a counterirritant by scarification of the surface of
the part affected.

We know of one case where a sufferer from some liver complaint had
inflicted on himself, or had had inflicted upon him, quite a cousiderable
cut on the right side with a view of relieving the pain. We also know
of several cases where the patients had themselves cut on the scalp or
back to relieve headache or rheumatism, and one case where the latter
disorder, I believe, had been treated by a severe cut on the side of the
knee. A similar practice has been observed at Plover Bay, Siberia, by
Hooper,! who also mentions the use of a kind of seton for the relief of
headache.

They also practice a sort of rough-and-ready surgery, a8 in the case
of the man already mentioned, whose feet had both been amputated.
One of the men who lost the tip of his forefinger by the explosion of a
cartridge was left with a stump of bone protruding at the end of the
finger. Our surgeon attempted to treat this, but after two unsuccessful
trials to etherize the patient he was obliged to giveit tp. When, how-
ever, the young man’s father-in-law, who was a noted “doctor,” came
home he said at once that the stump must come off, and the patient
had to submit to the operation without ether. The “doctor” tried to
borrow Dr. Oldmixon’s bone forceps, and when these were refused him
cut the bone off, I believe, with a chisel. They appear to have no cure
for blindness. We heard nothing of the curious process of *‘ couching”
described by Egede in Greenland, p. 121. We had no opportunity of
observing their methods of treating wounds or other external injuries.
Sufferers were very glad to be treated by our surgeon, and eagerly ac-
cepted his medicines, though he had considerable difficulty in making
them obey his directions about taking care of themselves.

After they had been in the habit of receiving the surgeom’s medicine
for some time, one of the Utkiavwin natives gave Capt. Herendeen what
he said was their own medicine. It is a tiny bit of turf which they
called nuna kinmélq, and which, therefore, probably came from the high-
land of the upper Meade River, which region bears the name of
Kinmélq. We were able to get very little information about this sub-
stance, but my impression is that it was said to be administered in-
ternally, and I believe was specially recommended for bleeding at the
lungs. Possibly this is the same as “the black moss that grows ou the
mountain,” which, according to Crantz? was eaten by the Greenlanders
to stop blood-spitting.

CUSTOMS CONCERNING THE DEAD.

Abstentions.—F rom the fact that we did not hear of any of the deaths
until after their occurrence, we were able to learn very few of their

1 Tents, ete., p. 185.
2Vol. 1, p. 235

424 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

eustoms concerning the dead. The few observations we were able to
make agree in the main with those made elsewhere. For instance, we
learned with tolerable certainty that the relatives of the dead, at least,
must abstain from working on wood with an ax or hammer for a certain
period—I believe, four or five days. According to Dall,' in the region
about Norton Sound the men can not cut wood with an ax for five days
after a death has occurred. In Greenland the household of the de-
ceased were obliged to abstain for a while from certain kinds of food and
work.’

A woman from Utkiavwin, who came over to the station one day in
the autumn of 1881, declined to sew on clothing, even at our house,
because, as she told Lieut. Ray, there was a dead man in the village
who had not yet been carried out to the cemetery and ‘he would see
her.” After consulting with her husband, however, she concluded she
could protect herself from him by tracing a circle about her on the floor
with a snow-knife. In this cirele she did the sewing required, and was
careful to keep all her work inside of it.

One of the natives informed me that when a man died his labrets were
taken out and thrown away. Iremember, however, seeing a young man
wearing a plug labret of syenite, which he said had belonged to an old
man who died early in the winter of 188182. It was perhaps removed
before he actually died.

Manner of disposing of the dead.—The corpse is wrapped up in a piece
of saileloth (deerskin was formerly used), laid upon a flat sled, and
dragged out bya small party of people—perhaps theimmediate relatives
of the deceased, though we never happened to see one of these funeral
processions except from a distance—to the cemetery, the place where
“they sleep on the ground.” This place at Utkiavwin is arising ground
about a mile and a half east of the village, near the head of the south-
west branch of the Isitkwa lagoon. At Nuwittk the main cemetery is
at “‘ Nexeura,” between the village and Pernyt. The bodies are laid out
upon the ground without any regular arrangement apparently, though
it is difficult to be sure of this, as most of the remains have been broken
up and scattered by dogs and foxes. Witha freshly wrapped body it is
almost impossible to tell which is the head and which the feet. We
unfortunately never noticed whether the heads were laid toward any
particular point of the compass, as has been observed in other localities.
Dr. Simpson says that the head is laid to the east at Point Barrow.

Various implements belonging to the deceased are broken and laid be-
side the corpse, and the sled is sometimes broken and laid over it. Some-
times, however, the latter is withdrawn a short distance from the cemetery
and left on the tundra for one moon, after which it is brought back to
the village. Most people do not seem to be troubled at having the

' Alaska, p. 146.
2Egede, Greenland, p. 150.

A oe eS See gor

MURDOCH.] DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD. 425

bodies of their relatives disturbed by the dogs or other animals,’ but
we know of one case where the parents of two children who died very
nearly at the same time, finding that the dogs were getting at the
bodies, raised them on stages of driftwood about 4 or 5 feet high.
Similar stages were observed by Hooper at Plover Bay ;? but this method
of disposing of the dead appears to have gone out of use at the present
day, since Dall* describes the ordinary Siberian method of laying out
the dead in ovals of stone as in use at Plover Bay at the time of his
visit.

The cemetery at Utkiavwin is not confined to the spot I have men-
tioned, though most of the bodies are exposed there. A few bodies
are also exposed on the other side of the lagoon, and one body, that of
aman, was laid out at the edge of the higher tundra, about a mile due
east from the station. The body was covered with canvas, staked
down all round with broken paddles, and over it was laid a flat sledge
with one runner broken. At one end of the body lay a wooden dish,
and under the edge of the canvas were broken seal-darts and other
spears. The body lay in an east and west line, but we could not tell
which end was the head. All sorts of objects were scattered round the
cemetery—tools, dishes, and even afew guns—though we saw none that
appeared to have been serviceable when exposed, except one Snider
rifle. If, as is the case among Eskimo in a good many other places,
all the personal property of the deceased is supposed to become unclean
and must be exposed with him, it is probable that his friends manage
to remove the more valuable articles before he is actually dead.*

The method of disposing of the dead varies slightly among the
Eskimo in different localities, but the weapons or other implements
belonging to the deceased are always laid beside the corpse. The cus-
tom at Smith Sound, as described by Bessels,° is remarkably like that
at Point Barrow. The corpse was wrapped in furs, placed on a sledge,
and dragged out and buried in the snow with the face to the west. The
sledge was laid over the body and the weapons of the deceased were de-
posited besideit. Unlike the Point Barrow natives, however, they usually
cover the body with stones. In the same passage Dr. Bessels describes
a peculiar symbol of mourning, not employed, so far as I can learn,
elsewhere. The male mourners plugged up the right nostril with hay
and the females the left, and these plugs were worn for several days.

1 Compare Lyon, Journal, p. 269.
2 Tents, etc., p. 88.
3 Alaska, p. 382.
4Compare Samoyed grave described and figured by Nordenskiéld (Vega, vol. 1, p. 98), where a broken
sledge was laid upside down by the grave.
§ Compare Holm, Geogratisk Tidskrift, vol. 8, p. 98: “kun Kostbarheder, saasom Knive eller lignende
Jernsager beholde den afdedes efterladte.” —East Greenland.
6 Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 9, p. 877.

Ps se 7 > a

426 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

The custom of covering the body with stones appears to be universally
prevalent east of the Mackenzie region.'

The bodies seen by Dr. Richardson in the delta of the Mackenzie
were wrapped in skins and loosely covered with driftwood. and a sim-
ilar arrangement was noticed at Kotzebue Sound by Beechey, who fig-
ures’ a sort of little wigwam of driftwood built over the dead man.
At Port Clarence Nordenskiéld* saw two corpses ** laid on the ground,
fully clothed, without protection of any coffin, but surrounded by a
close fence consisting of a number of tent-poles driven crosswise into the
ground. Alongside one of the corpses lay a kayak with oars, a loaded
double-barreled gun with locks at half-cock and caps on, various other
weapons, clothes, tinder-box, snowshoes, drinking-vessels, two masks,
* * * and strangely shaped animal figures.” On the Siberian coast
the dead are sometimes burned.*

Nordenskiéld believes that the coast Chukches have perhaps be-
gun to abandon the custom of burning the dead. but I am rather in-
clined to think that is a custom of the “*deermen,” which the people of
the coast of pure or mixed Eskimo blood never fully adopted. Dall,
indeed, was explicitly informed that the custom was only used with the
bodies of ** good” inen, and at the time of Nordenski6ld’s visit he found
it ‘at least certain that the people of Pitlekaj exclusively bury their dead
by laying them out on the tundra.” The body is surrounded by an
oval of stones, but apparently not covered with them as in the east.®
The Krause brothers observed by the bodies, besides * die erwihnten
Geriithschaften ” [Lanzen, Bogen und Pfeile fiir die Manner, Koch- und
Hausgeriithe fiir die Weiber], ‘unter einen kleinen Steinhaufen ein
Hunde-, Renthier-. Biiren- oder Walross-Schidel.” This custom shows a
little Children die and are buried, they put the Head of a Dog near the
curious resemblance to that described by Egede’ in Greenland: ** When
Grave, fancying that Children, having no Understanding, they can not

1 See the passage quoted from Bessels. for Smith Sound; Egede, Greenland, p. 148; Crantz’s History of
Greenland, vol. 1, p. 237; East Greenland, Holm. Geografisk Tidskrift. vol. & p. 98, and Scoresby,
Voyage to Northern Whalefishery. p. 213 (where he speaks of finding on the east coast of Greenland
graves dug and covered with slabs of stone. Digging graves is very unusual among the Eskimo, as
the nature of the ground on which they live usually forbids it. Parry mentions something similar at
Tglulik: **The body was laid in a regular, but shallow grave, * * * covered with flat pieces of lime-
stone” (Second Voyage. p. 551): Lyon, Journal, p. 268 (Iglulik): Kumlien, Contribution, p. 44 (Camber-
land Gulf) ; Hall, Arctic Researches, p. 124 (Baffin Land): Rae Narrative, pp.22 and 187 (northwest shore
of Hudson Bay), and Ellis, Voyage to Hudson's Bay, p- 148 (Marble Island). I myself have noticed the
same custom at the old Eskimo cemetery near the Hudson Bay post of Rigolette, Hamilton Inlet,
on the Labrador coast. Chappel. however. saw a body ‘‘closely wrapt in skins and laid in a sort of a
gally,” Hudson’s Bay. p. 113 (north shore Hudson Strait), and Davis's account of what he saw in
Greenland is as follows: **We found on shore three dead people, and two of them had their staues
lying by them and their olde skins wrapped about them.” Hakluyt . Voyages. 1589, p: 788.

? Franklin, Second Expedition, p. 192.

3 Voyage, pl. opposite p. 332.

+ Vega, vol. 2. p. 238, and figure of grave on p. 239.

5 See Nordenskiéld. Vega, vol. 2. p. 88, and Dall, Alaska, p. 382.

®See Nordenskiold, Vega, vol. 2. pp. 88-9 (Pitlekaj), and 225 (St. Lawrence Bay); Krause Bros., Geo-
graphische Blatter, vol. 5, p. 18 (St. Lawrence Bay, East Cape, Indian Point, and Plover Bay) and Dall.
Alaska, p. 382.

7 Greenland, p. 151- See also Crantz, vol. 1, p. 237.

Ce? a

MURDOCH.] GOVERNMENT. AQT

by themselves find the Way, but the Dog must guide them to the Land
of the Souls.” The body is usnally laid out at full length upon the
ground. Among the ancient Greenlanders,' however, and in the Yukon
region the body was doubled up. In the latter region the body was laid
onits side in a box of planks four feet long and raised on four sup-
ports? or wrapped up in mats and covered with rocks or driftwood.
The custom of inclosing the dead in a short coffin, to judge from the
figures given by the latter writer in Pl. v1. of his report, appears also
to prevail at the mouth of the Kuskokwim. In the island of Kadiak,
according to Dall and Lisiansky,* the dead were buried.

GOVERNMENT.

In the family—t can hardly do better than quote Dr. Simpson’s
words, already referred to (op. cit. page 252), on this subject: **A man
seems to have unlimited authority in his own hut.” Nevertheless, his
rule seems to be founded on respect and mutual agreement, rather than
on despotic authority. The wife appears to be consulted, as already
stated, on all important occasions, and, to quote Dr. Simpson again
(ibid.): ‘Seniority gives precedence when there are several women in
one hut, and the sway of the elder in the direction of everything con-
nected with her duties seems never disputed.” When more than one
family inhabit the same house the head of each family appears to have
authority over his own relatives, while the relations between the two
are governed solely by mutual agreement.

In the village —These people have no established form of government
nor any chiefs in the ordinary sense of the word, but appear to be
ruled by a strong public opinion, combined with a certain amount of
respect for the opinions of the elder people, both men and women, and
by a large number of traditional observances like those concerning the
whale fishery, the deceased, etc., already described. In the ordinary
relations of life a person, as a rule, avoids doing anything to his neigh-
bor which he would not wish to have done to himself, and affairs
which concern the community as a whole, as for instance their relations
with us at the station, are settled by a general and apparently infor-
mal discussion, when the opinion of the majority carries the day. The
majority appears to have no means, short of individual violence, of en-
forcing obedience to its decisions, but, as far as we could see, the mat-
ter is left to the good sense of the parties concerned. Respect for the
opinions of elders is so great that the people may be said to be practi-
cally under what is called “simple elder rule.”° Public opinion has

'Egede, Greenland, p. 149, and Crantz, vol. 1, p. 237.

2Dall, Alaska, pp. 19, 145, and 227.

3 Petroff, Report, p. 127.

4 Alaska, p. 403, and Voyage, p. 200.

5Compare, among other instances, Capt. Holm’s obzervations in East Greenland: ‘Som Overhoved i
Huset [which is the village] fangerer den eldeste Mand, naar han er en god Fanger, ete."’ (Geogr.
Tids., vol. 8, p. 90.)

428 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

formulated certain rules in regard to some kinds of property and the
division of game, which are remarkably like those noticed among [s-
kimo elsewhere, and which may be supposed to have grown up among
the ancestors of the Eskimo, 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 Barrow we often saw the
natives dragging driftwood up to the high-water mark, and the owner
seemed perfectly able to prove his claim. Lieut. Ray informs me that
he has seen men mark such sticks of timber by cutting them with their
adzes and that sticks so inarked were respected by the other natives.
On one oceasion, when he 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 wp 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,?
The larger seals and walruses appeared to be divided among the boat’s
crew, the owner of the boat 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. Whena whale is taken, as I have already said, the whalebone
is equally divided among the crews of allthe boats in sight at the time
of killmg. All comers, however, have a right to all the flesh, blubber,
and blackskin that they can cut off.’

Dr. Rink, in describing the social order of the ancient Greenlanders, *
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 the 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

‘Rink, Tales and Traditions, p. 28. Compare also Crantz, vol. 1. p. 181.

2 Bessels, Naturalist, vol. 23, pt. p. 873.

’Compare Rink, Tales, ete., p. 29: ‘* But if an animal of the largest size, more especially a whale,
was captured, it was considered common property, and as indiseriminately belonging to every one
who might come and assist in flensing it, whatever place he belonged to and whether he had any
share in capturing the animal or not.’ (Greenland). Gilder (Sehwatka’s Search, p. 190) says that on
the northwest shore of Hudson Bay all who arrive while a walrus is being cut up are entitled to a
share of it, though the man who struck it has the first choice of pieces. At East Cape, Siberia, the Krause
Brothers learned: ‘‘ Wird. niimlich ein Walfisch gefangen, so hat jeder Ortsbewohner das Recht, so
viel Fleisch zu nehmen, als er abzuschneiden vermag.’ (Geographische Blitter, vol. 5, pt. 2, p. 120).

4 Tales, ete., p. 29.

MURDOCH. | GOVERNMENT. 429

the surplus of any individual or community, fixed by the arbitrary rate
which tradition or custom had assigned, was made over to those who
had Jess.” 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. Even though the whale
bone be, as already described, divided among all the boats’ crews ‘ in
at the death,” no objeetion is made to one man buying it all up, if he
has the means, for 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 umialiks, 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-me-
liks (wealthy),” but ‘“‘ wealthy ” is an explanation of the position of these
men, and not a translation of the title, which, as we obtained it, is pre-
cisely the same as the Greenland word for owner of a boat, umialik
(from umia(k), and the terinination lik or lini. This is one of the few
cases in which the final & is sounded at Point Barrow as in Greenland).

Dr. Rink has already observed? that the word used by Simpson ‘no
doubt must be the same as the Greenlandish umialik, signifying owner
of a boat,” and as [ heard the title more than once carefully pronounced
at Point Barrow it was the identical word. The umialiks, as Simpson
says,’ “have acquired their position by being more thrifty and intelli-
gent, better traders, and usually better hunters, as well as physically
stronger and more daring.” They have acquired a certain amount of
influence and respect from these reasons, as well as from their wealth,
which enables them to purchase the services of others to man their
boats, but appear to have absolutely no authority outside of their own
families Petroff® considers them as a sort of ‘middlemen or spokes-
men,” who make themselves “ prominent by superintending all inter-
course and traffic with visitors.”

This sort of prominence, however, appears to have been conferred
upon them by the traders, who, ignorant of the very democratic state of
Eskimo society, naturally look for “ chiefs” to deal with. They pick out
the best looking and best dressed man in the village and endeavor to
win his favor by giving him presents, receiving him into the cabin, and
conducting all their dealings with the natives through him. The chief,

1Op. cit ,p. 272.

2 Tales, ete., p. 25.

3p. cit.

4Compare what the Krause Brothers say of the ‘‘ chiefs”’ on the Siberian coast (Geographische Blat-
ter, vol. 5, pt. 1, p. 29): ‘Die Autoritiit, welche die obenerwihnten Manner augenscheinlich aus-
iiben, ist wohlauf Rechnung ihres grésseren Besitzes zu setzen. Der ‘‘Chief” is jedes Mal der reichste
Mann, ein ‘big man.”

5 See, also, Dr. Simpson, op. cit., p. 273.

® Report, ete., p. 125.

430 THE POINT 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 any time to defend his rank in 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 wnialiks, one or two appear to have more wealth and influence
than the rest. Teunaura in Utkiavwin and the late Katiga at Nuwttk
were said, according to Captain Herendeen, to be “ great umialiks ” and
Teunaura was always spoken of as the foremost manin Utkiavwin. We
knew of one party coming up from Sidaru with presents for Teunaura,
and were informed that the other Eskimo 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 umialiks appears to be applied to them in this ¢: pacity, 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 in the summer,

RELIGION.

General ideas.—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 sane 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

‘Compare the case of the alleged ‘chiefs’ of the Chukches, in Nordenskiéld's Vega, vol. 1, pp. 449
and 495,

MURDOCH. ] RELIGION. 431

about these wizards or ** doctors,” the angekut of the eastern Eskimo,
the so-called “shamans” of Alaska and Siberia, that I 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 regious, nor how a man could attain this power. Some
of these men, who appeared to give particular attention to curing the
sick, called themselves ‘“ ti’kte” (“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/ena,” 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 ‘‘tuena” 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
tuvhain, since * tuena” was described to us under a variety of forms.
Most of the natives whom we asked if they had seen tuefa, said that
they had not, but that other men, mentioning certain ‘“ doctors,” had
seen him. One man, however, said that he had seen tuena in the
kiidyigi, when the people ‘‘talked” sitting in the dark, with their
heads bowed and faces covered, and tuena came with a noise like a
great bird.? He had raised his head and saw tuvna, like a man with
bloodless cheeks.? Turna again was called ‘¢a bad man, dead” (appar-

'Op. cit., p. 273 et seq. .

2Compare Graah's account of the ceremony of summoning a torngak in East Greenland (Narrative,
p- 123). ‘Come he did, 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 angekut
evidently have some juggling contrivance, carefully concealed from laymen, perhaps of the nature of a
“whizzing-stick.”

3Compare Rink's description of the ceremony of summoning a tornak to ask his advice, in Green-
land (Tales, ete., p. 60). This was performed beforea company in a darkenedhouse. The angekok lay
on the floor, beside a suspended skin and drum, with his hands tied behind his back and his head be-
tween his legs. A song was sung by the audience, and the angekok invoked his tornak, beating on
the skin and the drum. The spirit announeed his arrival by a peculiar sound and the appearance of a
light or fire.

432 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

ently a ghost), sometimes as large as a man and sometimes dwartfish,
sometimes a ftleshless 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 elaws.
Apparently “ turia” 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,! 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
turna”—that he made a noise like singing in the ears.

The people generally have a great dread of ‘‘tuena,” 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 turnia, and a drawn knife was sometimes even carried
in the daylight “nanumunlu tuynamunlu,” “for bear and demon.” Not-
withstanding their apparently genuine dread of “tuena,” 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.’

Lieut. Ray saw in one of the houses in Utkaiwin, 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 “tuena” tried to get into the house he would undoubtedly
cateh 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 ‘ tuena,” 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 21st of February, 1883, Lieut. Ray and Capt. Herendeen hap-
pened to be at the village on time to see the turna, who had been
causing the bad weather, expelled from the village. Some of the natives
said the next day that they had killed the turna, but they said at the
same time he had gone “a long way off.” When Lieut. Ray reached

' Tales, ete., p. 14.
2Compare Rink (Tales, ete. p. 56): ‘Several fetid and stinking matters, such as old urine, are excel-
lent means for keeping away all kinds of evil-intentioned 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 tuena out of every corner with
a knife. They then repaired to the kidyigi, 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 fire 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 Nuwik on p.
274 of his paper, coaxing the turiia to come under the fire 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):

Tak tak tak toha!

Niju’a ha!

He! he! he!

Haiyahe!

Yaiyahe!

Hwi1!

And instantly the contents of the tub were dashed on the fire, the
stone thrown into the embers, and both men discharged their rifles, one
into the embers, and one into the cloud of steam as it rose. Then all
brushed their clothes violently and shouted, and the turfa 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 for 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, “‘Tuvna, turna, 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.

2 When an Innuit passes the place where a relative has died, he pauses and deposits a piece of meat
near by.’”’ Baffin Land, Hall, Artic Researches, p. 574.
9 ETH 28

434 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

to eat the burbot, another man was denied ptarmigan, and a woman! at
Nuwitk was not allowed to eat “earth food,” that is, anything which
grew upon the ground. Lieut. Ray also mentions a man who was for-
bidden bear’s flesh.?

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:’ “‘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,‘ that the souls of the seals may not be enraged and
seare 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.®

I tried very hard to get a full series of skulls from the seals taken at
Utkiaywin 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 askull. 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 Ttseraru, 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. Nordenskjéld 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 day® 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 Greenlanders* 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

! Report Point Barrow Expedition, p. 46.

?Compare Rink, Tales, ete., p. 64; Crantz, vol. 1, p. 215, and Parry, 2d voyage, p. 548: ‘'Seal’s flesh
1s forbidden, for instance, in one disease, that of the walrus in the other; the heart is denied to some,
and the liver to others.”

3Vol. 1, p. 216.

4 Beechey saw the skulls of seals and other animals kept in piles round the houses at Hotham Inlet
(Voyage, p. 259).

5 Second Voyage, p. 510.

® Vega, vol. 1, p. 435.

7 Vega, vol. 2, p. 137.

SJohn Davis describes the Greenlanders in 1586 as follows: ‘‘They are idolaters, and have images
great store, which they wore about them, and in their boats, which we suppose they worship."’ (Hak-
luyt, Voyages, etc., 1589, p. 782.)

MURDOCH.) AMULETS. 435

specific purpose, which indeed we learned in the case of some of those
in the collection. Like the amulets of the Greenlanders, 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, cag JIAREH oe
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. 56703 [208] from Utkiaywin) made of a piece of hard
colorless glass, probably a fragment of a ship’s “deadlight.” Itis rather
roughly flaked into a figure of a “bowhead” whale, 3-4 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 Utkiavwin is a very similar image, 2-4 inches
long, which perhaps is of the same material, though it may be made of
rock erystal. No. 56707 [159] from
Utkiavwin is a very small whale (1-4
inches long), chipped in large flakes
out of a water-worn pebble of smoky
quartz, while No. 89577 [939] Fig.
422, from the same village, which is
a trifle larger (2 inches long), is made
of dark crimson jasper. The large

Fi. 422,—Whale flaked from red jasper. black flint whale, No. 56683 [61],
also from Utkiavwin, which is 3-9 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. 89524 [1299] from Utkiavwin) is a rude wooden image
of the same animal, 34 inches long, very broad and flat-bellied. It is

! Rink, Tales, ete., p. 52.

436 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 off 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, asa band of sealskin with the hair shaved off
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-
wlets, probably with a view of obtaining the powers of the particular
animal, as in so many cases in the stories related in Rink’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! The head or beak of the gull or raven? is also a common personal
amulet, and one man wore a small dried flounder.*

We collected a number of these animal amulets to be worn on the
person, but only sueceeded in learning the special purpose of one
of them, No. 89532 [1507], from Utkiavwin, which was said to be
intended to give good luck in deer hunting. It is a young unbranched
antler of a reindeer, 6 inches long, and apparently separated from the
skull at the “bur,” with the “ velvet” skin still adhering, though most
of the hair is worn off except at the tip. A bit of sinew is tied round
the base.

Fig. 423.—Ancient whale amulet, of wood.

No. 89522 [1573], from Utkiavwin, is an amulet consisting of the last

‘Parry mentions bones of the wolverine worn as amulets at Fury and Hecla’s Strait (second voyage,
p- 497).

?Compare the Greenland story told by Rink (Tales, etc., p. 195), when the man who has a gull for
his amulet is able to fly home from sea because the gull seeks his prey far out at sea, while the one
whose amulet is a raven can not, because this bird seeks his prey landward. Such an amulet as the
latter would probably be chosen with a view to making a man a successful deer hunter.

’Compare the Greenland story, where a salmon amulet makes a man too slippery to be caught by
his pursuers. (Rink Tales, ete., p. 182.)

MURDOCH.] AMULETS. 437

three joints of the foot of a reindeer fawn, with the skin and hoof and
about 14 inches of tendon attached behind, through a hole in the end
of which is knotted about 3 inches of seal thong. No. 89525 [1314] from
the same village, is a precisely similar charm. No. 89699 [779] from
Utkavwin, is the subfossil incisor tooth of some ruminant with a hole
drilled through the root for a string to hang it wp by. It was said to
be the tooth of the “ug’ru/nt,” a large animal, long extinct. As the
natives said, ‘‘ Here on the land are none, only the bones remain.” No.
89743 [1110], from Utkiavwit, is a molar tooth of the same animal,
probably, weathered and old, with a hole freshly drilled through one
root and a long piece of sinew braid with the ends knotted together
looped into it. There are also in the collection two very old teeth
which probably were inclosed in little sacks of skin and worn as amu-
lets.

No. 89698 [1580], from Utkiavwin, is the tusk of a very young walrus,
only 24 inches long, and No. 89452 [1148] from Utkiavwin, is the canine
tooth of a polar bear. No. 56547 [656], from the same village, is a simi-
lar tooth.!

The only amulet attached to a weapon, which we collected, is the
tern’s bill, already alluded to, placed under the whalebone lashing on
the seal-spear, No. 89910 [1694]. Perhaps theidea of this charm is that
the spear should plunge down upon the seal with as sure an aim as the
tern does upon its prey.”

A number of amulets of this class are always carried in the whaling-
umiak. I have already mentioned the wolf-skulls, stuffed ravens and
eagles, fox-tails’ and bunches of feathers used for this purpose. Most
of these charms are parts of some rapacious animal or bird, but parts
of other animals seem to have some virtue on these occasions.

For instance, I noticed the axis vertebra of a seal in one whaling-
umiak, and we colleeted a rudely stuffed skin of a godwit (Limosa
lapponica baueri), which, we were informed, was “for whales.” ‘This
specimen (No. 89526 [1328], Fig. 424, from Utkiavwin) is soiled and
ragged, and has a stick thrust through the neck to hold it out. The
neck is wrapped around with a narrow strip of whalebone and some
coarse thread, part of which serves to lash on a slip of wood, apparently
to splice the stick inside. A bit of white man’s string is passed around
the body and tied in a loop to hang it up by. This charm is perhaps
to keep the boat from capsizing, since Crantz says that the Greenlanders
“like to fasten to their kajak a model of it * * * or only a dead

1Compare Kumlien, Contributions, p. 45. ‘‘Another charm of great value to the mother who has a
young babe is the canine tooth of the polar bear. This is used as a kind of clasp to a seal-skin string,
which passes round the body and keeps the breasts up. Her milk supply cannot fail while she wears
this. (Cumberland Gulf.)

2Compare the story in Rink’s Tales and Traditions (p. 445), where the kaiak, which had a piece of
sheldrake fastened into the bow for an amulet, went faster than the sheldrake flies.

3Compare Crantz, vol. 1, p. 216. ‘The boat [for whaling] must have a fox’s head in front, and the
harpoon be furnished with an eagle's beak.” The latter statement is interesting in connection with
the tern’s bill on the seal harpoon, from Point Barrow, already referred to.

438 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

sparrow or snipe, or a bit of wood, stone, some feathers or hair, that
they may not overset” (vol. 1, p. 216), and perhaps the bone of a marine
animal, like the seal, is to protect the crew from drowning should the
boat upset, after all.

No, 89529 [1150] from Utkiavwin is a bunch of feathers to be carried
in the boat. It consists of nine wing feathers of the golden eagle, four
tied in a bunch with a bit of sinew round the quills, four tied up with
one end of the short bit of seal thong which serves to tie the whole
bundle together, one of which has all the light-colored parts of the
feather stained with red ocher, and a single feather shaft carefully
wrapped up in a piece of entrail and wound spirally with a piece of

sinew braid. |

No, 89527-8 [1327| from Utkiavwin is the charm which will secure
good success in deerhunting if it is hung up outside of the snow house
in which the family is encamped. It consists of two roughly stuffed
skins of the black bellied plover (Charadrius squatarola), each with a

Fic. 424. Amulet of whaling; stuffed godwit.

stick run through the body so that one end supports the neck and the
other the tail, and the necks wound with sinew. One has no head.
A string of sinew braid is tied around the body of each, so as to leave
a free end at the back, to which is fastened a little cross piece of bone, by
which it may be secured to a becket. Like the rest of the amulets in
the collection this has evidently seen service, being very old, worn, and
faded.

The other class of amulets, namely objects which have belonged to or
been in contact with certain persons or supernatural beings, or I may
add apparently certain localities, is represented
by a number of specimens. To the custom of
using such things as amulets, we undoubtedly owe
the preservation of most of the ancient weapons and
Fic. 425,—Amulet consist. Other implements, especially those made of wood,

ing of ancient jade adz. hone, or other perishable substances, like the an-
cient harpoon heads already described, one of which, No. 89544 [1419],
is still attached to the belt on which it was worn.

Fig. 425, No. 56668 [308], from Utkiavwin is one of the ancient black

MURDOCH. ] AMULETS. 439

jade adzes 5:1 inches, slung with thong and whalebone, making a becket
by which it can be hung up. We did not learn the history of this
amulet, which at the time of collecting it was supposed to be a net
sinker. There would, however, be no reason for using so valuable an
object for such a purpose, when a common beach pebble would do just
as well, unless it was intended as a charm to insure success in fishing.
It may even have been carried as a charm on the person, since we
afterwards saw a still more bulky object used for such a purpose.

Such an object seems rather heavy to be carried on the person, but
a well known man in Utkiavwin always carried with him when he went
sealing a large pear-shaped stone, which must
have weighed upwards of two pounds, suspended
somewhere about his person. It isnot unlikely
that this stone acquired its virtue as an amulet
from having been a sinker used by some lucky
fisherman in former time or in a distant coun- &
try. Mr. H.W. Henshaw has already referred to J
the resemblance of this amulet to the plummet- Fs ae tte lele containing,
like “‘medicine stones” of some of our Indians.! 3

Fig. 426, (No. 89534 [1506] from Utkiavwin) is an amulet for success
in whaling. It consists of three little irregular water-worn fragments
of amber carefully wrapped in a bit of parchment and inclosed in a lit-
tle wooden box 14 inches long, made of two semicylindrical bits of cot-
tonwood, with the flat faces hollowed out and put together and fas-
tened up by three turns of sinew braid round the middle, tied in a loose
knot. The box is old and brown from age and handling. We heard
of other pieces of amber and earth (“nuna”) worn as amulets, wrapped
up in bits of leather and hung on the belt.

No. 89533 [1247], from Utkiavwin, is simply a nearly square peb-
ble, 1-4 inches long, of dark red jasper, slung in a bit of sinew braid
so that it can be hung on the belt. Fig. 42
(No. 89525 [1308] from Utkiavwin) is some small
object, placed in the center of the grain side of a
square bit of white sealskin, the edges of which
are folded up around it and tied tightly round
with deer sinew, so as to make a little round
knob. I collected this amulet, and was particu-
larly informed how it was to be used. If it be
fastened on the right shoulder it will insure sue-
cess in taking ducks with the “bolas.” Fig. 428
Pan Toate GI (No. 89535 [1244] from Utkiavwin) is an amulet

whose history we did not learn. It is a little ob-
long box 5:3 inches long, carved from a block of cottonwood, with a
flat cover tied on with nine turns of sinew braid, and contains twenty-
one dried humble-bees, which it was said came from the river Kulu-

! American Journal of Archeology, vol. 1.

440 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO.

grua. The natives have a great dread, apparently superstitious, of
these bees and the large gadflies (CEstens tarandi), one of which IT
have seen scatter half a dozen people. A man one day caught one of
these, and whittled out a little
box of wood, in which he shut
the insect up and tied it up
with a shred of sinew, telling
Capt. Herendeen that it was
“tuenamun,” for “ tuena.”

A small lump of indurated
gravel (No. 56725) [273] was

Fig. 428.—Box of dried bees—amulet. one day brought over from

Utkiavwin, with the story that it was a “‘medicine” for driving away
the ice. The man who uses this charm stands on the high bank at the
village, and breaking off grains of the gravel throws them seaward.
This will cause the ice to move off from the shore.

The essential identity of the amulets of the Point Barrow natives
with those used by the Eskimo elsewhere is shown by the following
passages from other writers. Egede says:!

A Superstition very common among them is to load themselves with Amulets or
Pomanders, dangling about their Necks and Arms, which consist in some Pieces of
old Wood, Stones or Bones, Bills and Claws of Birds, or Anything else which their
Fancy suggests to them.

Crantz says:

They are so different in the amulets or charms they hang on people, that one laughs
at another’s. These powerful preventives consist in a bit of old wood hung around
their necks, or a stone, or a bone, or a beak or claw of a bird, or else a leather strap
tied round their forehead, breast, or arm.

Parry speaks* of what he supposes were amulets at Iglulik, consist-
ing of teeth of the fox, wolf, and musk-ox, bones of the ‘‘kablééarioo”
(supposed to be the wolverine), and foxes’ noses. Kumilien says * that
at Cumberland Gulf, “among the many superstitious notions, the wear-
ing of charms about the person is one of the most curious. These are
zalled angoouk or amusit, and may be nothing but pieces of bone or
wood, birds’ bills or claws, or an animal’s teeth or skin.” <A little
girl “ had a small envelope of sealskin that was worn on the back of her
inside jacket” containing two small stones.

Such little pockets of skin sewed to the inner jacket are very com-
mon at Point Barrow, but we did not succeed in any case in learning
their contents. At Kotzebue Sound, Beechey saw ravens’ skins on
which the natives set a high value, while the beaks and claws of these
birds were attached to their belts and headbands.’ Petitot describes®
the amulets used in the Mackenzie district, in the passage already quoted,
as “(défroques empaillées de corbeau, de faucon ou @hermine.” It is

'Greenland, p. 194. 4Contributions, p. 45.
* History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 216. 5 Voyage, p. 333.
3Second voyage, p. 497. ®Monographie, ete., p. xv.

AMULETS. 44]

not likely that the use of these is confined to the women, as his words,
“Ellesy portent,” would seemtoimply. Among the sedentary Chukches
of Siberia amulets were seen consisting of wooden forks and wood or ivory
carvings.’ A wolf’sskull, hung up by athong; theskin, together with the
whole cartilaginous portion of a wolf’s nose, and a flat stone, are also men-
tioned.” Capt. Holm also found wonderfully similar customs among
the East Greenlanders. He says,* “bere alle Folk Amuletter af de
mest forskjelligartede Ting” to guard against sickness and to insure
long life, and also for specific purposes. The men wear them slung
round the neck or tied round the upper arm, the women in their knot
of hair or “i Snippen foran paa Pelsen.”

'Nordenskiéld, Vega, vol. 2, p. 126.
2 Vega, vol. 1, p. 503.
3Geografisk Tidskrift, vol. 8, p. 94.

THE MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

MKOISUIN, Gre 187Oy OP RS IEC TA

* Captain, Third Cavalry, U. S. Army.

COMPLE NEES:

Page.

CHaPptTeR I. The medicine-men, their modes of treating disease, their super-
stitions, paraphernalia, ete ..... -....-----.-.--.---------.------.- 451
Mediciiie-WwOMen = see= sere ae oases ee ae tee sa a ei mon = 468
Remedies and modes of treatment .---...-.--.-----.--------------------- 471
TBI A AOU AYES «Gone ee or Copees cosas sc oases Of eee Sere S SOD ES ORS EOeSIe ATA
MPEG) poocececocses dete SSeungne oe e seer ener aces oop Soaeebaonec ae ss 475
Stoel GMA Re oot 50 cod meet eoeSader eabeees oconbognscosSessencsnesSnesemaee 476
Mi Giad rap Tit Ce lM a ee BR ES ee eee 476
UGG) ORNS soc aaa em ede once nhs SES Ae Obie ane emesis Pie Ia aSceereees ee ine 479
RE GRECO e NNT TCS SA este Sootemer qe ages there oe cee eee SeSOooS 480
Necklacestots human) tee this. a= mee ein ase ae eee ete a= 487
PRO SOLA LCHIA UIC Kiso ren ae eee ene tere oe eee mine ee eee eee 490
Mag hain te HARA ease Sede Sascoscoce- se eb Ceo Ss toa cope seoscoescg errs 493

Cuapter II. Hoddentin, the pollen of the tule, the sacrificial powder of the

Apache; with remarks upon sacred powders and offerings in gen-
Chr Seber sp oec es sede se cbse cee Saba Seso does sapenesicescboeee ease 499
he. koungne?/ of the Zuni and otherse =. sess. eae =e na a= lee eee 507
Use of the pollen by the Israelites and Egyptians ...-....-.---------.---- 517
Hoddentin aprehistoric foods a= so e- sseese eee a ek = oases wen eee seen 518
Hoddentin the yiauhtli of the Aztecs -*......-..--=-.-------------------- 652i
“‘Bledos” of ancient writers—its meaning -.........--..----------------- 522
IVAN 528 ee as oine Saco ares cochbclsgaana ca eSabanan bec poe semaeeseaseccos 23
General use of the powder among Indians .............-.-.-------------- 528
Analogues of hoddentin' s.2- 5 s22=- ses- ne os sen so scone tees sens eee See 530
The down of birds in ceremonial observances ..---...-------.------------ 533
Hain POW Obs a ees se ee eaten se eee esis cys ncn anes 2 cece 535
IDustifrom!churches— ts Uses eee terete eee ea lel oo meets Silo sea ae = Sele 537
(Clay-eatin gsm ene meet ete eee ine pene aN ae eae Ses cls acl 537
Prehistoric toodsjusedlnycovenants saa. -e see nase eee 5410
Sacred readsand’cakegs--oster sae cate sna eee eis oe nae as 541
Wnleavened. bread) 222-222 52 seco acer eces race cce see eemse ces sees cece 543
The hot ‘cross buns/of Good) Priday s---22s5 =< 22 2--cre == seen eee nen soe 544
(EGE A Aer OSS PSS Sada Ueeme Ret Sod eens Ss Pac aes Aas be 25 AU OR Oe eee ee 548
CHAPTER III. The izze-kloth or medicine cord of the Apache. .-..-.---..----- 550
Analogues to be found among the Aztecs, Peruvians, and others-. ---- ---- 5D8
The magic wind-knotted cords of the Lapps and others .-----...-..------ 560
Rosariesiandother mnemonic cords! <-2-- 2 soo. seeeee ee sas Se. - Sees se= 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
Theimedicinedhatis - 222th se bs ee ee Seas = soe esses 580

a? f al ’ “ ) = . ; :
ie * ~ ease J ae ep 8
446 | CONTENTS.
CuapTer I1I—Continned.
The spirit or ghost dance headdress .....--.---.--------- :
. Amulets and talismans --.---.--- an Sos = ase ae ee ee eee Eee
The ‘Stzi-daltai) 2 ee eae te oo ee ae ee eee
(elie) trip ihWU RR es oo se see ee ser SeEDa eee sass SScosdereSecesbasactes
IRM ECG) Soca pase seg cee ag oe ea Sad pepe dowse co saosooee Secearonse sess
Bibliognaphiyieeee eae ete eee eee eee Posse elses ceeesesecees
* p
*
% San
ee Sh up? Sa a 7 7 7

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PLATE SU: Scalp shirt of Mittle Big Man. -_.. -.-<2-.-2- 2.2 22-2022 ee 476
hyeeNeckizce othumanhinpers’ 22 62.5 <2 85-862 ce se oe Sak 2 480

V. Apache medicine hat used in ghost or spirit dance -.........___- 586

Wil Apanhe medicine ishitte--2--i2.5- les .c0- ke cen sexe cnccnsceneeces 588
WilrApache medicine shintessas nee sone. =e sce Se cee meee see see ce 590
MINE Apachemedicmershints. er pas) eae oo oe ee ce eee ce eee lee eS 592
Fic. 429. Medicine arrow used by Apache and Pueblo women _.........------ 468
430 sRhombus:of ihe Apachemeronecot aoe tesa nee SE = ee e 477
AoU bom busior the: Apache. cos ences seaice nee oases ese ck. ee 478
432. The scratch stick and drinking reed -.....--.....--------+--------- 494
4530 bao containing hodd entin=ae sac eaacen ee eee eee oat ea eee 500
434. Nan-ta-do-tash’s medicine hat ..... ....:<=.22 .<2.222-2s++2--22-ene- 503
435. Single-strand medicine cord (Zufii) ..........._....-.---.---------- 550
436. Four-strand medicine cord (Apache) ...........-....-..-.-.-------- 551
437. Three-strand medicine cord (Apache) -.....--.--.---------.----2:-- 552
A350 sel vO-Sturanonmeagi cine COLG a= = aoe eee ee eae Le se es a ee ne 553
439. Four-strand medicine cord (Apache) ..............--.-.------------ 554
AGO SPA DaChe wal, DONDE sao. ncte ean a am oer Ae eee ee 581
S41-) Ghostdeance head Qressr 5.2 oe 4 eal onsen pen eee eae Sere 582
442. Apache kan or gods. (Drawn by Apache) .............-----....--- 586
443. hzi-daltal.amnlete (Apache)is sco. . ss. 2-5 <2 12 cee des s- conse 587
a42- sez i-daltaiamuleb (APACHE) in se2s2es 65 aia ses See ee ee. oe 588
445.) Tzi-daltaisamulet (Apache)}42o9-2 se. oc ant oe esses a sce Seed ee = 589
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PELTER OF TRANSMITTAL:

WASHINGTON, D. C., February 27, 1891.
Sir: Herewith I have the honor to submit a paper upon the para-
phernalia of the medicine-men of the Apache and other tribes.
Analogues have been pointed out, wherever possible, especially in
the case of the hoddentin and the izze-kloth, which have never to my
knowledge previously received treatment.
Accompanying the paper is a bibliography of the principal works
cited.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
JOHN G. BOURKE,
Captain, Third Cavalry, U. S. Army.
Hon. J. W. POWELL,
Director Bureau of Ethnology.

449

bo
R=)

9 ETH

THE MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

By Joun G. BOURKE.

CePA POP SsB ery iT:

THE MEDICINE-MEN, THEIR MODES OF TREATING DISEASE,
THEIR SUPERSTITIONS, PARAPHERNALIA, ETC,

The Caucasian population of the United States has been in inti-
mate contact with the aborigines for a period of not less than two hun-
dred and fifty years. In certain sections, as in Florida and New
Mexico, this contact has been for a still greater period; but claiming
no earlier date than the settlement of New England, it will be seen
that the white race has been slow to learn or the red man has been
skillful in withholding knowledge which, if imparted, would have less-
ened friction and done much to preserve and assimilate a race that,
in spite of some serious defects of character, will for all time to come
be looked upon as ‘the noble savage.”

Recent deplorable occurrences in the country of the Dakotas have
emphasized our ignorance and made clear to the minds of all thinking
people that, notwithstanding the acceptance by the native tribes of
many of the improvements in living introduced by civilization, the
savage has remained a savage, and is still under the control of an in-
fluence antagonistic to the rapid absorption of new ideas and the
adoption of new customs.

This influence is the ‘* medicine-man.”

Who, and what are the medicine-men (or medicine-women), of the
American Indians? What powers do they possess in time of peace or
war? How is this power obtained, how renewed, how exercised?
What is the character of the remedies employed? Are they pharma-
ceutical, as we employ the term, or are they the superstitious efforts of
empirics and charlatans, seeking to deceive and to misguide by pre-
tended consultations with spiritual powers and by reliance upon mys-
terious and occult influences?

Such a discussion will be attempted in this paper, which will be
restricted to a description of the personality of the medicine-men. the
regalia worn, and the powers possessed and claimed. To go farther,

451

452 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

and enter into a treatment of the religious ideas, the superstitions,
omens, and prayers of these spiritual leaders, would be to open a road
without end.

As the subject of the paraphernalia of the medicine-men has never,
to my knowledge, been comprehensively treated by any writer, I ven-
ture to submit what I have learned during the twenty-two years of my
acquaintance with our savage tribes, and the studies and conclusions
to which my observations have led. While treating in the main of the
medicine-men of the Apache, I do not intend to omit any point of im-
portance noted among other tribes or peoples.

First, in regard to the organization of the medicine-men of the
Apache, it should be premised that most of my observations were made
while the tribe was still actively engaged in hostilities with the whites,
and they-cannot be regarded as, and are not claimed to be, conclusive
upon all points. The Apache are not so surely divided into medicine
lodges or secret societies as is the case with the Ojibwa, as shown by Dr.
W.J. Hoffman; the Siouan tribes, as related by Mr. J. Owen Dorsey; the
Zuni, according to Mr. F. H. Cushing; the Tusayan, as shown by myself,
and other tribes described by other authorities.

The Navajo, who are the full brothers of the Apache, seem to have
well defined divisions among their medicine-men, as demonstrated by
Dr. Washington Matthews, U. S. Army; and I myself have seen
great medicine lodges, which must have contained at least a dozen
Apache medicine-men, engaged in some of their incantations. I
have also been taken to several of the sacred caves, in which solemn
religious dances and other ceremonies were conducted under the same
superintendence, but never have I witnessed among the Apache any
rite of religious significance in which more than four or five, or at the
most six, of the medicine-men took part.

The difficulty of making an accurate determination was increased by
the nomadic character of the Apache, who would always prefer to live
in small villages containing only a few brush shelters, and not needing
the care of more than one or two of their “doctors.” These people show an
unusual secretiveness and taciturnity in all that relates to their inner
selves, and, living as they do in a region filled with caves and secluded
nooks, on clits, and in deep canyons, have not been compelled to celebrate
their sacred offices in ‘“estufas,” or “plazas,” open to the inspection of
the profane, as has been the case with so many of the Pueblo tribes.

Diligent and persistent inquiry of medicine-men whose confidence I
had succeeded in gaining, convinced me that any young man can be-
come a “doctor” (‘¢diyi” in the Apache language, which is translated
“sabio” by the Mexican captives). It is necessary to convince his
friends that he “has the gift,” as one of my informants expressed it;
that is, he must show that he is a dreamer of dreams, given tu long
fasts and vigils, able to interpret omens in a satisfactory manner, and
do other things of that general nature to demonstrate the possession of

BOURKE. ] THE MAKING OF THE MEDICINE-MAN. 453

an intense spirituality. Then he will begin to withdraw, at least tem-
porarily, from the society of his fellows and devote himself to long ab-
sences, especially by night, in the “high places” which were inter-
dicted to the Israelites. Such sacred fanes, perched in dangerous and
hidden retreats, can be, or until lately could be, found in many parts
in our remote western territory. In my own experiences I have found
them not only in the country of the Apache, but two-thirds of the way
up the vertical face of the dizzy precipice of Taaiyalana, close to Zuni,
where there is a shrine much resorted to by the young men who seek to
divine the result of a contemplated enterprise by shooting arrows into
a long cleft in the smooth surface of the sandstone; [ have seen them
in the Wolf Mountains, Montana; in the Big Horn range, Wyoming; on
the lofty sides of Cloud Peak, and elsewhere. Maj. W. S. Stanton,
Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army, ascended the Cloud Peak twice, and,
reaching the summit on the second attempt, he found that beyond the
position first attained and seeming then to be the limit of possible ascent,
some wandering Indian had climbed and made his ‘* medicine.”

While it is regarded as a surer mode of learning how to be a medicine-
man to seek the tuition of some one who has already gained power and
influence as such, and pay him liberally in presents of all kinds for a
course of instruction lasting a year or longer, I could learn of nothing
to prohibit a man from assuming the role of a prophet or healer of the
sick, if so disposed, beyond the dread of punishment for failure to cure
or alleviate sickness or infirmity. Neither is there such a thing as
settled dogma among these medicine-men. Each follows the dictates
of his own inclinations, consulting such spirits and powers as are
most amenable to his supplications and charms; but no two seem
to rely upon identically the same influences. Even in the spirit dance,
which is possibly the most solemn function in which the Apache medi-
cine-men can engage, the head-dresses and kilts adhered closely enough
to the one pattern, but the symbolism employed by each medicine-man
was entirely different from that adopted by his neighbors.

Schultze, Perrin du Lac, Adair, and others allude to “houses of mercy,”
the “right of asylum” in certain lodges and buildings, or even whole
villages, to which if the pursued of the tribe or even an enemy could
obtain admission his life was secure. Frank Gruard and others who
have lived for years among the Sioux, the Cheyenne, and other tribes
of the plains have assured me that the same right of asylum obtains
among them for the fugitive who takes shelter in the medicine lodge or
the council lodge, and almost parallel notions prevail among the
Apache. I have heard that the first American who came into one of
their villages, tired and hungry, was not molested in the slightest de-
gree.

It is stated by Kelly’ that all warriors who go through the sun dance
of the Sioux rank thereafter as medicine-men. This statement seems

' Narrative of Captivity, Cincinnati, 1871, p. 141.

454 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

to me to be overdrawn. Nothing of the kind was learned by me at the
sun dance of the Sioux which I noted in 1881, and in any event the re-
mark would scarcely apply to the medicine-men of the Apache, who
have nothing clearly identifiable with the sun dance, and who do not
cut, gash, or in any manner mutilate themselves, as did the principal
participants in the sun dance, or as was done in still earlier ages by the
galli (the priests of Cybele) or the priests of Mexico.

Herodotus tells us that the priests of Egypt, or rather the doctors,
who were at one time identified with them, were separated into classes;
some cured the eyes, some the ears, others the head or the belly. Such
a differentiation is to be observed among the Apache, Mohave, and
other tribes; there are some doctors who enjoy great fame as the bring-
ers of rain, some whe claim special power over snakes, and some who
protess to consult the spirits only, and do not treat the sick except
when no other practitioner nay be available. Among the Mohave, tlie
relatives of a dead man will consult one of these spirit-doctors and get
him to interview the ghosts who respond to his call and learn from them
whether the patient died from ignorance or neglect on the part of the
doctor who had charge of the case. If the spirits assert that he did,
then the culprit doctor must either flee for his life or throw the onus of
the crime upon some witch. This differentiation is not carried so far
that a medicine-man, no matter what his class, would decline a large
fee.

The right of sanctuary was conceded to all criminals who sought
shelter in the vanquech or temple of Chinigchinich.!

The castration of the galli, or priests of Cybele, is described by
Dupuis.’

Diego Duran asserts that the Mexican priests ‘‘se endian por medio
los miembros viriles y se hacian mil cosas para volverse impotentes
por no ofender 4 sus Dioses.”®

The hierophants at Athens drank of the hemlock to render them-
selves impotent, that when they came to the pontificate they might
cease to be men.*

One class of the Peruvian priests, the Huachus, made auguries from
grains of corn or the excrement of animals.°

Balboa tells us*® that the Peruvian priesthood was divided into classes,
each with its appropriate functions—the Guacos made the idols for the
temples, or rather, they made the idols speak; the others were necro-
mancers and spoke only with the dead; the Huecheoe divined by means
of tobacco and coco; the Caviocae became drunk before they attempted
to divine, and after them came the Rumatinguis and the Huachns al-
ready mentioned.

‘Padre Boscana, Chinigchinich, in Robinson's California, p. 261.
7 Origine de tous les Cultes, vol. 2, pt. 2, pp. 87. 88

3 Diego Duran, vol. 3, pp. 237, 238.

4Higgins, Anacalypsis, lib. 2, p. 77

5 Balboa, Hist. du Pérou, in Ternanx-Compans, Voy., vol. 15.

BOURKE. ] THE MAKING OF THE MEDICINE-MAN. 455

The Oregon tribes have spirit doctors and medicine doctors.!

The Chinese historians relate that the shamans of the Huns possessed
the power “to bring down snow, hail, rain, and wind.” ?

In all nations in the infancy of growth, social or mental, the power
to coax from reluctant clouds the fructifying rain has been regarded
with highest approval and will always be found confided to the most
important hierophants or devolving upon some of the most prominent
deities; almighty Jove was a deified rain-maker or cloud-compeller.
Rain-makers flourished in Europe down to the time of Charlemagne,
who prohibited these *‘tempestiarii” from plying their trade.

One of the first requests made of Vaca and his comrades py the
people living in fixed habitations near the Rio Grande was ‘to tell the
sky to rain,” and also to pray for it.®

The prophet Samuel has been alluded to as a rain-maker.*

There does not seem to have been any inheritance of priestly fune-
tions among the Apache or any setting apart of a particular clan or family
for the priestly duties.

Francis Parkman is quoted as describing a certain family among the
Miami who were reserved for the sacred ritualistic cannibalism perpe-
trated by that tribe upon captives taken in war. Such families devoted
more or less completely to sacred uses are to be noted among the
Hebrews (in the line of Levi) and others; but they do not occur in the
tribes of the Southwest.

One of the ceremonies connected with the initiation, as with every
exercise of spiritual functions by the medicine-man, is the “ ta-a-chi,”
or sweat-bath, in which, if he be physically able, the patient must par-
ticipate.

The Apache do not, to my knowledge, indulge in any poisonous in-
toxicants during their medicine ceremonies; but in this they differ to
a perceptible degree from other tribes of America. The “ black
drink” of the Creeks and the “ wisoccan” of the Virginians may be
cited as cases in point; and the Walapai of Arizona, the near neighbors
of the Apache, make use of the juice, or a decoction of the leaves, roots,
and flowers of the Datura stramonium to induce frenzy and exhilara-
tion. The laurel grows wild on all the mountain tops of Sonora and
Arizona, and the Apache credit it with the power of setting men crazy,
but they deny that they have ever made use of it in their medicine or
religion. Picart® speaks of the drink (wisoecan) which took away the
brains of the young men undergoing initiation as medicine-men among
the tribes of Virginia, but he does not say what this ‘“‘ wisoccan” was.

In Guiana, ® the candidate for the office of medicine-man must, among

‘Ross, Fur Hunters, quoted by Spencer, Desc. Soc.

?Max Miiller, Science of Religion, p. 88.

3 Davis, Spanish Conq. of N. M., p. 98.

4T Samuel, x, 17, 18.

5 Cérémonies et Coutumes, vol. 6, p. 75.

* Everard im Thurn, Indians of Guiana, London, 1883, p. 334.

456 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

other ordeals, ‘drink fearfully large drafts of tobacco juice, mixed
with water.” The medicine-men of Guiana are called peaiman.

I have never seen tobacco juice drank by medicine-men or others,
but I remember seeing Shunca-Luta (Sorrel Horse) a medicine-man of
the Dakota, chewing and swallowing a piece of tobacco and then going
into what seemed to be a trance, all the while emitting deep grunts or
groans. When he revived he insisted that those sounds had been
made by a spirit which he kept down in his stomach. He also pre-
tended to extract the quid of tobacco from wnderneath his ribs, and

vas full of petty tricks of legerdemain and other means of mystifying
women and children.

All medicine-men claim the power of swallowing spear heads or
arrows and fire, and there are at times many really wonderful things
done by them which have the effect of strengthening their hold upon
the people.

The medicine-men of the Ojibwa thrust arrows and similar instru-
ments down their throats. They also allow themselves to be shot at
with marked bullets.!

While I was among the Tusayan, in 1881, I learned of a young boy,
quite a child, who was looked up to by the other Indians, and on special
oceasions made his appearance decked out in much native finery of
beads and gewgaws, but the exact nature of his duties and supposed
responsibilities could not be ascertained.

Diego Duran? thought that the priesthood among the Mexicans was
to a great extent hereditary, much like the right of primogeniture
among the people of Spain. Speaking of the five assistants who held
down the human victim at the moment of sacrifice, he says:

Los nombres de los cinco eran Chachalmeca, que en nuestra Lengua quiere tanto
decir como Levita 6 ministro de cosa divina 6 sagrada. Era esta dignidad entre ellos
muy suprema y en mucha tenida, la cual seheredaba de hijos a padres como cosa de
mayorazgo, sucediendo los hijos 4 los Padres en aquella sangrienta Dignidad endemo-
niada y cruel.

Concerning the medicine-men of Peru, Dorman? says:

The priestly office among the Peruvians appears to have been hereditary; some
attained it by election; a man struck by lightning was considered as chosen by
heaven; also those who became suddenly insane. Mr. Southey says that among the
Moxos of Brazil, who worshiped the tiger, a man who was rescued from but marked
by the claws of the animal, was set apart for the priesthood, and none other.

I shall have occasion to introduce a medicine-woman of the Apache,
Tze-go-juni, or “ Pretty-mouth,” whose claims to preeminence among
her people would seem to have had no better foundation than her es-
cape from lightning stroke and from the bites of a mountain lion, which
had seized her during the night and had not killed her.

I remember the case of an old Navajo medicine-man who was killed

1Tanner's Narrative, p. 390.
2Diego Duran, lib. 3, cap. 3, p. 201.
3 Dorman, Primitive Superstitions, p. 384.

BOURKE. ] THE MAKING OF THE MEDICINE-MAN. 457

by lightning. The whole tribe participated in the singing, drumming,
and dancing incident to so important an event, but no white men were
allowed to be present. My information was derived from the dead
man’s young nephew, while I was among that tribe.

Among the Arawak of South America there are hereditary conjurers
who profess to find out the enemy who by the agency of an evil spirit
has killed the deceased.!

Picart says of the medicine-men of the tribes along Rio de la Plata:
“ Pour étre Prétre ou Médecin parmi eux, il faut avoir jeiné longtems
& souvent. Il faut avoir combatu plusieurs fois contre les bétes Sau-
vages, principalement contre les Tigres, & tout au moins en avoir été
mordu ou égratigné. Apres cela on peut obtenir Ordre, de Prétrise;
ear le Tigre est chez eux un animal presque divin.” ?

The medicine-men of the Apache are not confined to one gens or clan,
as among the Shawnee and Cherokee, according to Brinton,* neither
do they believe, as the Cherokee do, according to the same authority,
that the seventh son is a natural-born prophet with the gift of healing
by touch, but upon this latter point I must be disereet, as I have never
known an Apache seventh son.

The Cherokee still preserve the custom of consecrating a family of
their tribe to the priesthood, as the family of Levi was consecrated
among the Jews.*

The neophytes of the isthmus of Darien were boys from ten to twelve
years “selected for the natural inclination or the peculiar aptitude
and intelligence which they displayed for the service.” °

Peter Martyr says of the Chiribchis of South America: “ Out of the
multitude of children they chuse some of 10 or 12 yeeres old, whom they
know by conjecture to be naturally inclined to that service.” ®

The peculiarity of the Moxos was that they thought none designated
for the office of medicine-man but such as had escaped from the claws
of the South American tiger which, indeed, it issaid they worshiped as
agod.?

Contrary to what Spencer says, the chiefs of the tribes of the South-
west, at least, are not ipso facto medicine-men; but among the Tonto
Apache the brother of the head chief, Cha-ut-lip-un, was the great medi-
cine-man, and generally the medicine-men are related closely to the
prominent chiefs, which would seem to imply either a formal deputation
of priestly functions from the chiefs to relatives, or what may be prac-
tically the same thing, the exercise of family influence to bring about
a recognition of the necromantic powers of some aspirant; but among

1 Spencer, Desc. Sociology.

2 Picart, Cérémonies et Coutumes Religieuses, Amsterdam, 1735, vol. 6, p. 122.
3 Myths of the New World, p. 281.

4Domenech, Deserts, vol. 2, p. 392.

5 Bancroft, Nat. Races, vol, 1, p. 777.

°Hakluyt, Voyages, vol. 5, p. 462.

7 Brinton, Myths of the New World, p. 281.

458 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

the Apache there is no priest caste; the same man may be priest, war-
rior, ete.!

“The juice of the Datura seed is employed by the Portuguese women
of Goa: they mix it, says Linschott, in the liquor drank by their hus-
bands, who fall, for twenty-four hours at least, into a stupor accom-
panied by continued laughing; but so deep is the sleep that nothing
passing before them affects them; and when they recover their senses,
they have no recollection of what has taken place.” ”

“The Darien Indians used the seeds of the Datura sanguinea to bring
on in children prophetic delirium, in which they revealed hidden treas-
ure. In Peru the priesfs who talked with the “huaca” or fetishes used
to throw themselves into an ecstatic condition by a narcotic drink called
“tonea,” made from the same plant.” *

The medicine-men of the Walapai, according to Charlie Spencer, who
married one of their women and lived among them for years, were in
the habit of casting bullets in molds which contained a small piece of
paper. They would allow these bullets to be fired at them, and of
course the missile would split in two parts and do no injury. Again,
they would rolia ball of sinew and attach one end to a small twig,
which was inserted between the teeth. They would then swallow the
ball of sinew, excepting the end thus attached to the teeth, and after
the heat and moisture of the stomach had softened and expanded the
sinew they would begin to draw it out yard after yard, saying to the
frightened squaws that they had no need of intestines and were going
to pull them all out. Others among the Apache have claimed the
power to shoot off guns without touching the triggers or going near the
weapons; to be able to kill or otherwise harm their enemies at a dis-
tance of 100 miles. In nearly every boast made there is some sort of a
saving clause, to the effect that no witchcraft must be made or the
spell will not work, no women should be near in a delicate state from
any cause, etc.

Mickey Free has assured ine that he has seen an Apache medicine-
man light a pipe without doing anything but hold his hands up toward
the sun. This story is credible enough if we could aver that the medi-
cine-man was supplied, as I suspect he was, with a burning glass.

That the medicine-man has the faculty of transforming himself into a
coyote and other animals at pleasure and then resuming the human
form is as implicitly believed in by the American Indians as it was by
our own forefathers in Europe. This former prevalence of lycanthropy
all over Europe can be indicated in no more forcible manner than by
stating that until the reign of Louis XIV, in France, the fact of being
a were-wolf was a crime upon which one could be arraigned before a
court; but with the discontinuance of the crime the were-wolves them-

1 Spencer, Ecclesiastical Institutions, cap. Vv.
2 Salverte, Philosophy of Magic, vol. 2, pp. 6-7.
4 Tylor. Primitive Culture, London, 1871, vol. 2, p. 377.

|

BOURKE. ] POWERS CLAIMED BY THE MEDICINE-MAN. 459

selves seem to have retired from business.!| In Abyssinia, at the pres-
ent day, blacksmiths are considered to be were-wolves, according to
Winstanley. The Apache look upon blacksmiths as being allied to the
spirits and call them “pesh-chidin”—the witch, spirit, or ghost, of the
iron. The priestly powers conceded to the blacksmith of Gretna Green
need no allusion here.

According to Sir Walter Scott,’ trials for lycanthropy were abolished
in France by an edict of Louis XIV.

Parkman? describes, from the Relations of Pére Le Jeune, how the
Algonkin medicine-man announced that he was going to kill a rival
medicine-man who lived at Gaspé, 100 leagues distant.

The Abipones of Paraguay, according to Father Dobrizhoffer, “‘ credit
their medicine-men with power to inflict disease and death, to cure all
disorders, to make known distant and future events; to cause rain,
hail, and tempest; to call up the shades of the dead and consult them
concerning hidden matters; to put on the form of a tiger; to handle
every kind of serpent without danger, ete.; which powers they imagine
are not obtained by art, but imparted to certain persons by their grand-
father, the devil.”

The medicine-men of Honduras claimed the power of turning them-
selves into lions and tigers and of wandering in the mountains.‘

“Grandes Hechiceros i Bruxos, porque se hacian Perros, Puercos i
Ximios.”°

Gomara also calls attention to the fact that the medicine-men, “hechi-
ceros” and ‘“brujos,” as he calls them, of the Nicaraguans, possessed
the power of lycanthropy; ‘“‘segun ellos mismos decian, se hacen per-
TOs, puercos y gimias.”°

Great as are the powers claimed by the medicine-men, it is admitted
that baleful influences may be at work to counteract and nullify them.
As has already been shown, among these are the efforts of witches, the
presence of women who are sometimes supposed to be so ‘antimedici-
nal,” if such a term may be applied, that the mere stepping over a war-
rior’s gun will destroy its value.

There may be other medicine-men at work with countercharms, and
there may be certain neglects on the part of the person applying for aid
which will invalidate all that the medicine-man can do for him. For
example, while the ‘hoop-me-koft” was raging among the Mohave the
fathers of families afflicted with it were forbidden to touch coffee or salt,
and were directed to bathe themselves in the current of the Colorado.
But the whooping cough ran its course in spite of all that the medicine-

'“St. Patrick, we are told, floated to Ireland on an altar stone. Among other wonderful things, he
converted a marauder into a wolf and lighted a fire with icicles.’.—James A. Froude, Reminiscences
of the High Church Revival. (Letter V.)

? Demonology and Witcheraft, p. 184.

3 Jesuits in North America, pp. 34, 35.

4 Herrera, dec. 4, lib. 8, cap. 5. 159.

6 Thid.. dec. 3, lib. 4, p. 121.

© Hist. de las Indias, p. 283.

460 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

men could do to check its progress. When the Walapai were about to
engage in a great hunt continence was enjoined upon the warriors for a
certain period.

Besides all these accidental impairments of the vigor of the medicine-
men, there seems to be a gradual decadence of their abilities which can
be rejuvenated only by rubbing the back against a sacred stone pro-
jecting from the ground in the country of the Walapai, not many miles
from the present town of Kingman, on the Atlantic and Pacific Rail-
road. Another stone of the same kind was formerly used for the same
purpose by the medicine-nen of the pueblos of Laguna and Acoma, as
IT have been informed by them. I am unable to state whether or not
such recuperative properties were ever ascribed to the medicine stone
at the Sioux agency near Standing Rock, 8. Dak., or to the great stone
around which the medicine-men of Tusayan marched in solemn pro-
cession in their snake dance, but I can say that in the face of the latter,
each time that I saw it (at different dates between 1874 and 1881), there
was a niche which was filled with votive offerings.

Regnard, a traveler in Lapland, makes the statement that when the
shamans of that country began to lose their teeth they retired from
practice. There is nothing of this kind to be noted among the Apache
or other tribes of North America with which I am in any degree fanfiliar.
On the contrary, some of the most influential of those whom I have
known have been old and decrepit men, with thin, gray hair and teeth
gone or loose in their heads. In a description given by Corbusier of a
great ‘‘medicine” ceremony of the Apache-Yuma at Camp Verde, it is
stated that the principal officer was a ‘toothless, gray-haired man.”!

Among many savage or barbarous peoples of the world albinos have
been reserved for the priestly office. There are many well marked ex-
amples of albinism among the Pueblos of New Mexico and Arizona,
especially among the Zuni and Tusayan; but in no case did I learn that
the individuals thus distinguished were accredited with power not
ascribable to them under ordinary circumstances. Among the Chey-
enne I saw one family, all of whose members had the crown lock white.
They were not medicine-men, neither were any of the members of the
single albino family among the Navajo in 1881.

It is a well known fact that among the Romans epilepsy was looked
upon as a disease sent direct from the gods, and that it was designated
the ‘sacred disease ”—morbus sacer. Mahomet is believed to have
been an epileptic. The nations of the East regard epileptics and the
insane as inspired from on high.

Our native tribes do not exactly believe that the mildly insane are
gifted with medical or spiritual powers; but they regard them with a
feeling of superstitious awe, akin to reverence. I have personally
known several cases of this kind, though not within late years, and am
not able to say whether or not the education of the younger generation

1 American Antiquarian, November, 1886, p. 334.

BOURKE. ] TASKS OF THE MEDICINE-MEN. 461

in our schools has as yet exercised an influence in eradicating this sen-
timent.

Strange to say, 1 was unable to find any observance of lucky or
unlucky days among the Apache. The Romans in the period of their
greatest enlightenment had their days, both “fasti” and “ nefasti.”
Neither was I able to determine the selection of auspicious days for
marriage; indeed, it was stated that the medicine-men had nothing to
do with marriage. Among the Zapotecs the wedding day was fixed
by the priests. In this the Apache again stands above the Roman who
would not marry in the month dedicated to the goddess Maia (May),
because human sacrifice used to be offered in that month. This super-
stition survived in Europe until a comparatively recent period. Accord-
ing to Picart the Hebrew rabbis designated the days upon which
weddings should take place.

Herbert Spencer? says that the medicine-men of the Arawaks claimed
the “jus prime noctis.” There is no such privilege claimed or conceded
among the North American tribes, to my knowledge, and the Arawaks
would seem to be alone among the natives of the whole continent in
this respect.

In the town of Cumanaé, in Amaracapanna, apparently close to
Carthagena, in the present republic of Colombia, South America, the
medicine-men, according to Girolamo Benzoni, exercised the ‘jus
prime noctis.”®

To recover stolen or lost property, especially ponies, is one of the
principal tasks imposed upon the medicine-men. They rely greatly
upon the aid of pieces of crystal in effecting this I made a friend of
an Apache medicine-man by presenting him with a large crystal of den-
ticulated spar, much larger than the one of whose mystical properties
he had just been boasting tome. I can not say how this property of
the erystal is manifested. Na-a-cha, the medicine-man alluded to, could
give no explanation, except that by looking into it he could see every-
thing he wanted to see.

The name of an American Indian is a sacred thing, not to be divulged
by the owner himself without due consideration. One may ask a
warrior of any tribe to give his name and the question will be met with
either a point-blank refusal or the more diplomatic evasion that he ean
not understand what is wanted of him. The moment a friend ap-
proaches, the warrior first interrogated will whisper what is wanted,
and the friend can tell the name, receiving a reciprocation of the cour-
tesy from the other. The giving of names to children is a solemn mat-
ter, and one in which the medicine-men should always be consulted.
Among the Plains tribes the children were formerly named at the
moment of piercing their ears, which should oceur at the first sun
dance after their birth, or rather as near their first year as possible.

' Dorman, Primitive Superstitions, p. 380, quoting Herrera, dec. 3, p. 262.
? Descriptive Sociology.
3 Admiral Smyth's translation in Hakluyt Society, London, 1857, vol. 21, p. 9%

462 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

The wailing of the children at the sun dance as their ears were slit
will always be to me a most distressing memory.

The warriors of the Plains tribes used to assume agnomens or battle
names, and [ have known some of them who had enjoyed as many as
four or five; but the Apache name once conferred seems to remain
through life, except in the case of the medicine-men, who, I have always
suspected, change their names upon assuming their profession, much
as a professor of learning in China is said to do.

The names of mothers-in-law are never mentioned and it would be
highly improper to ask for them by name; neither are the names of the
dead, at least not for a long period of time. But it often happens that
the child will bear the name of its grandfather or some other relative
who was a distinguished warrior.

All charms, idols, talismans, medicine hats, and other sacred regalia
should be made, or at least blessed, by the medicine-men. They assume
charge of all ceremonial feasts and dances—such as the nubile dance,
which occurs when any maiden attains marriageable age, and war
dances preceding battle. Nearly all preparations for the warpath are
under their control, and when on the trail of the enemy their power is
almost supreme. Not a night passes but that the medicine-men get
into the “ta-a-chi,” or sweat bath, if such a thing be possible, and
there remain for some minutes, singing and making “ medicine” for the
good of the party. After dark they sit around the fire and sing and
talk with the spirits and predict the results of the campaign. I have
alluded quite fully to these points in a previous work.

When a man is taken sick the medicine-men are in the zenith of their
glory. One or two will assume charge of the case, and the clansmen
and friends of the patient are called upon to supply the fire and help
out in the chorus. On such occasions the Apache use no music except
a drum or a rawhide. The drum is nearly always improvised from an
iron camp kettle, partially filled with water and covered with a piece of
cloth, well soaped and drawn as tight as possible. The drumstick does
not terminate in a ball, as with us, but is curved into a circle, and the
stroke is not perpendicular to the surface, but is often given from one
side to the other. The American Indian’s theory of disease is the
theory of the Chaldean, the Assyrian, the Hebrew, the Greek, the
Roman—all bodily disorders and ailments are attributed to the malefi-
cence of spirits who must be expelled or placated. Where there is only
one person sick, the exercises consist of singing and drumming exclus-
ively, but dancing is added in all cases when an epidemic is raging in
the tribe. The medicine-men lead off in the singing, to which the
assistants reply with a refrain which at times has appeared to me to
be antiphonal. Then the chorus is swelled by the voices of the women
and larger children and rises and falls with monotonous cadence.
Prayers are recited, several of which have been repeated to me and
transcribed; but very frequently the words are ejaculatory and con-
fined to such expressions as ‘“ugashe” (go away), and again there is to

BOURKE. ] THE MEDICINE-MAN IN WAR. 463

be noted the same mumbling of incoherent phrases which has been the
stock in trade of medicine-men in all ages and places. This use of
gibberish was admitted by the medicine-men, who claimed that the
words employed and known only to themselves (each individual seemed
to have his own vocabulary) were mysteriously effective in dispelling
sickness of any kind. Gibberish was believed to be more potential in
magic than was language which the practitioner or his dupes could
comprehend. In Saxon Leechdoms, compiled by Cockayne, will be
seen a text of gibberish to be recited by those wishing to stanch the
flow of blood. (See p. 464.)

In the following citations it will be observed that Adair and Catlin
were grievously in error in their respective statements. Adair denies
that Indians on the warpath or elsewhere depend upon their “ augurs”
for instruction and guidance.! Gomara is authority for the statement
that the natives of Hispaniola never made war without consulting their
medicine-men—‘ no sin respuesta de los idolos 6 sin la de los sacerdotes,
que adevinan.” ”

The medicine-men of Chicora (our present South Carolina) sprinkled
the warriors with the juice of a certain herb as they were about to en-
gage in battle.?

In Chicora ‘“ Mascaban los Sacerdotes una Ierva, i con el ¢umo de
ella rociaban los Soldados, quando querian dar batalla, que era bende-
cirlos.”4

“Among the Abipones [of Paraguay] the medicine-man teaches them
the place, time, and manner proper for attacking wild beasts or the
enemy.”°

“The North American Indians are nowhere idolaters.”®

Idols were always carried to war by the natives of Hispaniola: ‘“‘Atanse
4 la frente idolos chiquitos cuando quieren pelear.”7

“Among the primitive Germans * * * the maintenance of disci-
pline in the field as in the council was left in great measure to the
priests; they took the auguries and gave the signal for onset.”®

“In New Caledonia * * * the priests go to battle, but sit in the
distance, fasting and praying for victory.”®

Our hunting songs and war songs may be a survival of the incanta-
tions of Celtic or Teutonic medicine-men.

The adoption or retention of obsolete phraseology as a hieratie lan-
guage which has been noted among many nations of the highest com-
parative development is a manifestation of the same mental process.

1 American Indians, p. 26.

2Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, p. 173.

2“ Estos mascan cierta yerba, y con el zumo rocian las soldados estando para dar batall:..’. Gomara,
ibid., p. 179.

4Herrera, dec. 2, lib. 10, p. 260.

5 Father Dobrizhoffer, quoted by Spencer, Eccles. Institutions, cap. 10, see. 630.

6 Catlin, N. A. Indians, London, 1845, vol. 2, p. 232.

7 Gomara, op. cit., p. 173.

* Spencer, Eccles. Institutions, cap. 10, pp. 780, 781, quoting Stubb's Constitutional History of England.

*Tbid., sec. 630, p. 781, quoting Turner (Geo.), Nineteen Years in Polynesia.

464 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

Gibberish was so invariable an accompaniment of the sacred antics
of the medicine-men of Mexico that Fray Diego Duran warns his
readers that if they see any Indian dancing and singing, ‘“ 6 diciendo
algunas palabras que no son inteligibles, pues es de saber que aquellos
representaban Dioses.”’!

Henry Youle Hind says:

The Dakotahs have a common and a sacred language. The conjurer, the war
prophet, and the dreamer employ a language in which words are borrowed from other
Indian tongues and dialects: they make much use of descriptive expressions, and
use words apart from the ordinary signification. The Ojibways abbreviate their
sentences and employ many elliptical forms of expression, so much so that half-
breeds, quite familiar with the colloquial language, fail to comprehend a medicine-
man when in the full flow of excited oratory.?

“Blood may be stanched by the words sicyeuma, cucuma, ucuma,
cuna, uma, ma, a.”? There are numbers of these gibberish formule
given, but one is sufficient.

“The third part of the magic! of the Chaldeans belonged entirely to
that deseription of charlatanism which consists in the use of gestures,
postures, and mysterious speeches, as byplay, and which formed an
accompaniment to the proceedings of the thaumaturgist well calculated
to mislead.” ®

Sahagun® calls attention to the fact that the Aztec hymns were in
language known only to the initiated.

It must be conceded that the monotonous intonation of the medicine-
men is not without good results, especially in such ailments as can be
benefited by the sleep which such singing induces. On the same princi-
ple that petulant babies are lulled to slumber by the crooning of their
nurses, the sick will frequently be composed to a sound and beneficial
slumber, from which they awake refreshed and ameliorated. I can

1Vol, 3, p. 176.

“In every part of the globe fragments of primitive languages are preserved in religious rites.” Hum-
boldt, Researches, London, 1814, vol. 1, p. 97.

“Et méme Jean Pc, Prince de la Mirande, escrit que les mots barbares & non entendus ont plus de
puissance en la Magie que ceux qui sont entendus.”’ Picart, vol. 10, p. 45.

The medicine-men of Cumana (now the United States of Colombia, South America) cured their
patients ‘con palabras muy revesadas y que aun el mismo médico no las entiende.”” Gomara, Hist.
de las Indias, p. 208.

The Tlasealtecs had ‘oradores * who employed gibberish—“hablaban Gerigonca.’’ Herrera, dec. 2,
lib. 6, p. 163.

In Pern, if the fields were afflicted with drought, the priests, among other things, ‘‘chantaient
un cantique dont le sens était inconnu du vulgaire.”’ Balboa, Hist. du Pérou, p. 128, in Ternaux-
Compans, vol. 15.

2 Assiniboine and Saskatchewan Exped., London, 1860, vol. 2, p. 155.

3 Cockayne, Leechdoms. vol. 1, p. xxx.

4The belief in the magic power of sacred words, whether religious formulas or the name of gods, was
also acknowledged [i. e. in Egypt] and was the source of a frightful amount of superstition. ... The
superstitious repetition of names (many of which perhaps never had any meaning at all) is particularly
conspicuous in numerous documents much more recent than the Book of the Dead.’’—Hibbert, Lec-
tures, 1879, pp. 192, 193.

5Salverte, Philosophy of Magic, vol. 1, p. 134.

6 Kingsborough, lib. 2, vol. 7, p. 102.

BOURKE. ] MODES OF TREATING DISEASE. 465

recall, among many other cases, those of Chaundezi (‘* Long Har,” or
* Mule”) and Chemihuevi-Sal, both chiefs of the Apache, who recoy-
ered under the treatment of their own medicine-men after our surgeons
had abandoned the case. This recovery could be attributed only to
the sedative effects of the chanting.

Music of a gentle, monotonous kind has been prescribed in the medi-
cal treatment of Romans, Greeks, and even of comparatively modern
Buropeans. John Mason Goode, in his translation of Lucretius’? De
Natura Rerum, mentions among others Galen, Theophrastus, and Aulus
Gellius. Ananonymous writer in the Press of Philadelphia, Pa., under
date of December 23, 1888, takes the ground that its use should be
resumed.

The noise made by medicine-men around the couch of the sick is no
better, no worse, than the clangor of bells in Europe. Bells, we are
told, were rung on every possible occasion. Brand is full of quaint
information on this head. According to him they were rung in Spain
when women were in labor,' at weddings,? to dispel thunder, drive
away bad spirits, and frustrate the deyiltry of witches;* throughout
Europe on the arrival of emperors, kings, the higher nobility, bishops,
ete.,* to ease pain of the dead, were solemnly baptized, receiving
names,° and became the objects of superstition, various powers being
ascribed to them.’

Adair, who was gifted with an excellent imagination, alludes to the
possession of an “ark” by the medicine-men of the Creeks and other
tribes of the Mississippi country, among whom he lived for so many
years as a trader. The Apache have no such things; but I did see a
sacred bundle or package, which I was allowed to feel, but not to open,
and which I learned contained some of the lightning-riven twigs upon
which they place such dependence. This was carried by a young
medicine-man, scarcely out of his teens, during Gen. Crook’s expe-
dition into the Sierra Madre, Mexico, in 1883, in pursuit of the hostile
Chiricahua Apache. Maj. Frank North also told me that the Pawnee
had a sacred package which contained, among other objects of venera-
tion, the skin of an albino buffalo ealf.

There are allusions by several authorities to the necessity of confes-
sion by the patient before the efforts of the medicine-men can prove
efficacious."

1 Popular Antiquities, vol. 2, p. 70.

2Tbid., p. 160.

3 Tbid., p. 217.

4Thid., p. 218.

5Thid., p. 219.

6 Thid., pp. 214, 215

7Thbid., p. 216.

S“When the Carriers are severely sick, they often think that they shall not recover, unless they
divulge to a priest or magician, every crime which they may have committed, which has hitherto been
kept secret.’’—[Harmon’s Journal, p. 300. The Carriers or Ta-kully are Tinneh.

Q) tottis ——— 50)

466 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

This confession, granting that it really existed, could well be com-
pared to the warpath secret, which imposed upon all the warriors
engaged the duty of making a clean breast of all delinquencies and
secured them immunity from punishment for the same, even if they had
been offenses against some of the other warriors present.

The Sioux and others had a custom of ‘striking the post” in their
dances, especially the sun dance, and there was then an obligation upon
the striker to tell the truth. Iwas told that the medicine-men were wont
to strike with a club the stalagmites in the sacred caves of the Apache,
but what else they did I was not able to ascertain.

Under the title of “hoddentin” will be found the statement made by
one of the Apache as to the means employed to secure the presence
of a medicine-man at the bedside of the sick. I give it for what it is
worth, merely stating that Kohl, in his Kitchi-Gami, if 1 remember cor-
rectly, refers to something of the same kind where the medicine-man is
represented as being obliged to respond to every summons made unless
he can catch the messenger within a given distance and kick him.

There is very little discrepancy of statement as to what would hap-
pen to a medicine-man in case of failure to cure; but many conflicting
stories have been in circulation as to the number of patients he would
be allowed to kill before incurring risk of punishment. My own con-
clusions are that there is no truth whatever in the numbers alleged,
either three or seven, but that a medicine-man would be in danger,
under certain circumstances, if he let only one patient die on his hands.
These circumstances would be the verdict of the spirit doctors that he
was culpably negligent or ignorant. He could evade death at the hands
of the patient’s kinsfolk only by flight or by demonstrating that a witch
had been at the bottom of the mischief.’

Medicine-men, called “wizards” by Falkner, sometimes were killed
by the Patagonians, when unsuccessful in their treatment, and were
also obliged to wear women’s clothing. They were selected in youth
for supposed qualifications, especially if epileptic.

In Hispaniola we are told that when a man died his friends resorted
to necromancy to learn whether he had died through the neglect of the
attending medicine-man to observe the prescribed fasts. If they found
the medicine-man guilty, they killed him and broke all his bones. In
spite of this the medicine-man often returned to life and had to be
killed again, and mutilated by castration and otherwise.*

Herrera repeats the story about a patient who died and whose rela-
tives felt dissatisfied with the medicine-man:

Para saber si la muerte fue por su culpa, tomaban el ¢umo de cierta Ierva, i cor-
taban las vnas del muerto, i los cabellos de encima de la frente, i los hacian polvos,

1 For identical notions among the Arawaks of Guiana, Tupis of Brazil, Creeks, Patagonians, Kaflirs,
Chiquitos, and others, see the works of Schooleraft, Herbert Spencer, Schultze, and others.

2? Extract from the Jesuit Falkner’s account of Patagonia, in Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle,
London, 1839, vol. 2, p. 163.

3 Nul de ces médevins ne peut mourirsi'ls ne lui enlevent les testicules."’ Brasseur de Bourbourg,
Trans. of Fra Roman Pane, Des Antiquités des Indiens, Paris, 1864, p. 451.

BOURKE. ] THE PAY OF THE MEDICINE-MAN. 467

i mezclados con el gumo, se lo daban & beber al muerto por la boca, i las narices, i
Inego le preguntaban muchas veces, si el Medico guardd dieta, hasta que hablando
el demonio, respondia tan claro, como si fuera vivo, i decia, que el Medico no higo
dieta, i nego le bolvian 4 la sepultura.

Then the relatives attacked the medicine-man: “I le daban tantos
palos, que le quebraban los bragos, i las piernas, i 4 otros sacaban los
ojos, i los cortaban sus miembros genitales.” !

Alexander the Great expressed his sorrow at the death of his friend
Hephestion by crucifying the poor physicians who had attended the
deceased.”

The medicine-men of the Natchez were put to death when they failed
to cure.

The Apache attach as much importance to the necessity of “ laying
the manes” of their dead as the Romans did. They have not localized
the site of the future world as the Mohave have, but believe that the
dead remain for a few days or nights in the neighborhood of the place
where they departed from this life, and that they try to communicate
with their living friends through the voice of the owl. If arelative hears
this sound by night, or, as often happens, he imagines that he has
seen the ghost itself, he hurries to the nearest medicine-man, relates his
story, and carries out to the smallest detail the prescription of feast,
singing, dancing, and other means of keeping the spirit in good humor
on the journey which it will now undertake to the ‘ house of spirits,”
the “ chidin-bi-kungua.” Nearly all medicine-men claim the power of
going there at will, and not a few who are not medicine-men claim the
same faculty.

The medicine-men of the Apache are paid by each patient or by his
friends at the time they are consulted. There is no such thing as a
maintenance fund, no system of tithes, nor any other burden for their
support, although I can recall having seen while among the Zuni one
of the medicine-men who was making cane holders for the tobacco to
be smoked at a coming festival, and whose fields were attended and
his herds guarded by the other members of the tribe.

Among the Eskimo “the priest receives fees beforehand.” 4

“Tous ces sorciers ne réfusaient leurs secours 4 personne, pourvu
qwon les payait.’”’®

“Among other customs was that of those who came to be cured, giv-
ing their bow and arrows, shoes, and beads to the Indians who accom-
panied Vaca and his companions.”® (But we must remember that Vaca
and his comrades traveled across the continent as medicine-men.)

“Las sementeras que hacen los Assenais son tambien de comunidad

! Hist. Gen., dec. 1, lib. 3, p. 69.

2 Madden, Shrines and Sepulchres, vol. 1, p. 14.

3 Gayarre, Louisiana; its Colonial History, p. 355.

4 Spencer, Desc. Sociology.

5 Balboa, Hist. du Pérou, Ternaux-Compans, vol. 15.
6 Davis. Conq. of New Mexico, p. 86.

468 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

y comienzan la primera en la casa de su Chemisi que es su sacerdote
principal y el que cuida de laCasa del Fuego.”' The Asinai extended
as far east as the present city of Natchitoches (Nacogdoches).

Spencer quotes Bernan and Hilhouse to the effect that the poor
among the Arawaks of South America (Guiana) have no names because
they can not pay the medicine-men.?

As a general rule, the medicine-men do not attend to their own fam-
ilies, neither do they assist in cases of childbirth unless specially
needed. To both these rules there are exceptions innumerable. While
T was at San Carlos Agency, Surgeon Davis was sent for to help in a
case of uterine inertia, and I myself have been asked in the pueblo of
Nambé, New Mexico, to give advice in a case of puerperal fever.

The medicine-men are accused of administering poisons to their
enemies. Among the Navajo I was told that they would put finely
pounded glass in food.

MEDICINE-WOMEN.

There are medicine-women as well as medicine-men among the
Apache, with two of whom I was personally acquainted. One named
“Oaptain Jack” was well advanced in years and physically quite
feeble, but bright in intellect and said to be well versed in the lore of
her people. She was fond of instructing her grandchil-
dren, whom she supported, in the prayers and invocations
to the gods worshiped by her fathers, and I have several
times listened carefully and unobserved to these recitations
and determined that the prayers were the same as those
which had already been given to myseif as those of the
tribe. The other was named Tze-go-juni, a Chiricahua,
and a woman with a most romantic history. She had
passed five years in captivity among the Mexicans in So-
nora and had learned to speak Spanish with facility. <A
mountain lion had severely mangled her in the shoulder
and knee, and once she had been struck by lightning; so
Fic. 420-ea. oat whether by reason of superior attainments or by an

icine arrow appeal to the superstitious reverence of her comrades, she

mee a wielded considerable influence. These medicine-women
blowomen. Gevote their attention principally to obstetrics, and have
many peculiar stories to relate concerning pre-natal influ-

ences and matters of that sort. Tze-go-juni wore at her neck the stone
amulet, shaped like a spear, which is figured in the illustrations of this
paper. The material was the silex from the top of a mountain, taken
from a ledge at the foot of a tree which had been struck by lightning.
The fact that siliceous rock will emit sparks when struck by another
hard body appeals to the reasoning powers of the savage as a proof that
the fire must have been originally deposited therein by the bolt of light-

' Cronica Serafica y Apostolica, Espinosa, Mexico, 1746, p. 421.
2 Desc. Sociology.

BOURKE.] MEDICINE-WOMEN. 459

ning. A tiny piece of this arrow or lance was broken off and ground into
the finest powder, and then administered in water to women during time
of gestation. I have found the same kind of arrows in use among the
women of Laguna and other pueblos. This matter will receive more
extended treatment in my coming monograph on ‘*Stone Worship.”

Mendieta is authority for the statement that the Mexicans had both
medicine-men and medicine-women. The former attended to the sick
men and the latter to the sick women. “A las mujeres siempre las cura-
ban otras mujeres, y 4 los hombres otros hombres.”' Some of the medi-
cine-women seem to have made an illicit use of the knowledge they had
acquired, in which case both the medicine-woman and the woman con-
cerned were put to death. ‘La mujer prenada que tomaba con que
abortar y echar la criatura, ella y la fisica que le habia dado con que
la lanzase, ambas morian.””

Gomara asserts that they were to be found among the Indians of
Chicora (South Carolina).* He calls them “viejas” (old women).

“Los Medicos eran Mugeres Viejas, ino havia otras.”* In Nicaragua,
“Las Viejas curaban los Enfermos.”°

There were medicine-women in Goazacoalco: ‘‘Tienen Medicos para
curar las enfermedades, i los mas eran Mugeres, grandes Herbolarias,
que hacian todas las curas con Tervas.”°

Bernal Diaz, in 1568, speaks of having, on a certain occasion, at the
summit of a high mountain, found “an Indian woman, very fat, and
having with her a dog of that species, which they breed in order to eat,
and which do not bark. This Indian was a witch; she was in the aet
of sacrificing the dog, which is a signal of hostility.”*

“The office of medicine-man though generally usurped by males does
not appertain to them exclusively, and at the time of our visit the one
most extensively known was a black (or meztizo) woman, who had ac-
quired the most unbounded influence by shrewdness, joined to a hid-
eous personal appearance, and a certain mystery with which she was
invested.”® Creeks have medicine-women as well as medicine-men.
The Eskimo have medicine-men and medicine-women.2 The medicine-
men and women of the Dakota “can cause ghosts to appear on ocea-
sion.” !°

Speaking of the Chippewa, Spencer says: “ Women may practice
soothsaying, but the higher religious functions are performed only by
men.” |!

' Mendieta, Hist. Eclesidstica Indiana, p. 136.

2 Thid., p. 136.

3 Hist. de las Indias, p. 179.

4 Herrera, dec. 2, lib. 10, p. 260.

§ Tbhid., dec. 3, lib. 4, p. 121.

® Thid., dec. 4, lib. 9, cap. 7, p. 188.

? Keating's translation, p. 352, quoted by Samuel Farmar Jarvis, Religion of the Indien Tribes, in
Coll. New York Historical Soc., vol. 3, 1819, p. 262.

* Smith, Araucanians, pp. 238, 239.

® Richardson, Arctic Searching Expedition, vol. 1, p. 366.

10 Schultze, Fetichism, New York, 1885, p. 49.

11 Spencer, Dese. Sociology.

ATO MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

The medicine-men of the Apacne do not assume to live upon food
different from that used by the laity. There are such things as sacred
feasts among the tribes of North America—as, for example, the feast
of stewed puppy at the sun dance of the Sioux—but in these all people
share.

In themortuary ceremonies of the medicine-men there is a difference
of degree, but not of kind. The Mohave, however, believe that the
iedicine-men go to a heaven of their own. They also believe vaguely
in four different lives after this one.

Cabeza de Vaca says that the Floridians buried their ordinary dead,
but burned their medicine-men, whose incinerated bones they preserved
and drank in water.' ‘After they [the medicine-men and women of
the Dakota| have four times run their career in human shape they are
annihilated.”? Schultze says that the medicine-men of the Sioux and
the medicine-women also, after death ‘*may be transformed into wild
beasts.”

Surgeon Smart shows that among other offices entrusted to the med-
icine-men of the Apache was the reception of distinguished strangers.*
Long asserts that the medicine-men of the Otoe, Omaha, and others
along the Missouri pretended to be able to converse with the fetus in
utero and predict the sex.! Nothing of that kind has ever come under
my notice. Adair says that the medicine-men of the Cherokee would
not allow snakes to be killed.° The Apache will not let snakes be killed
within the limits of the camp by one of their own people, but they will
not only allow a stranger to kill them, but request him to do so. They
made this request of me on three occasions.

Several of the most influential medicine-men whom I have known
were blind, among others old Na-ta-do-tash, whose medicine hat fig-
ures in these pages. Whether this blindness was the result of old
age or due to the frenzy of dancing until exhausted in all seasons I am
unable to conjecture. Schultze says of the shamans of Siberia: ‘This
artificial frenzy has such a serious effect upon the body, and more par-
ticularly the eyes, that many of the shamans become blind; a cireum-
stance which enhances the esteem in which they are held.” Some of
the medicine-men of Peru went blind from overexertion in their dances,
although Gomara assigns as areason that it was from fear of the demon
with whom they talked. ‘ Y aun algunos se quiebran los ojos para
semejante hablar [i. e., talk with the devil]; y creo que lo hacian de
miedo, porque todos ellos se atapan los ojos cuando hablan con el.”

Dunbar tells us that the medicine-men of the Pawnee swallowed
arrows and knives, and had also the trick of apparently killing a man

! Ternaux-Compans, vol. 7, p. 110.

2 Schultze, Fetichism, New York, 1885, p. 49.
3 Smithsonian Report for 1867.

4 Long's Expedition, Philadelphia, 1823, p. 258.
5 Hist. of the American Indians, p. 238.

® Schultze, Fetichism, New York, 1885, p. 52.

7 Hist. de las Indias, p. 282.

a,

BOURKE, ] REMEDIES AND MODES OF TREATMENT. 471

and biinging him back to life. The same power was claimed by the
medicine-men of the Zuni, and the story told me by old Pedro Pino of
the young men whom they used to kill and restore to life, will be found
in ‘The Snake Dance of the Moquis.”

REMEDIES AND MODES OF TREATMENT.

The materia medica of the Apache is at best limited and compre- ~
hends scarcely anything more than roots, leaves, and other vegetable
matter. In gathering these remedies they resort to no superstitious
ceremonies that I have been able to detect, although I have not often
seen them collecting. They preter incantation to pharmacy at all
times, although the squaws of the Walapai living near old Camp
Beale Springs in 1875, were extremely fond of castor oil, for which they
would beg each day.

The main reliance for nearly all disorders is the sweat bath, which is
generally conducive of sound repose. AJ] Indians know the benefit to be
derived from relieving an overloaded stomach, and resort to the titil-
lation of the fauces with a feather to induce nausea. IL have seen the
Zuni take great drafts of iukewarm water and then practice the above
as a remedy in dyspepsia.

When a pain has become localized and deep seated, the medicine-
men resort to suction of the part affected, and raise blisters in that
way. I was once asked by the Walapai chief, Sequanya, to look at
his back and sides. He was covered with cicatrices due to such treat-
ment, the medicine-men thinking thus to alleviate the progressive
paralysis from which he had been long a sufferer, and from which he
shortly afterwards died. After a long march, I have seen Indians of
different bands expose the small of the back uncovered to the fierce
heat of a pile of embers to produce a rubefacient effect and stimulate
what is known as a weak back. They drink freely of hot teas or in-
fusions of herbs and grasses for the cure of chills. They are all dex-
trous in the manufacture of splints out of willow twigs, and seem to
meet with much success in their treatment of gunshot wounds, which
they do not dress as often as white practitioners, alleging that the
latter, by so frequently removing the bandages, unduly irritate the
wounds. I have known them to apply moxa, and I remember to have
seen two deep scars upon the left hand of the great Apache chief Co-
chise, due to this cause.

It should not be forgotten that the world owes a large debt to the
medicine-men of America, who first discovered the virtues of coca, sar-
saparilla, jalap, cinchona, and guiacum. They understand the admin-
istration of enemata, and have an apparatus made of the paunch of a
sheep and the hollow leg bone. Y

Scarification is quite common, and is used for a singular purpose.
The Apache scouts when tired were in the habit of sitting down and
lashing their legs with bunches of nettles until the blood flowed. This,
according to their belief, relieved the exhaustion.

472 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

The medicine-men of the Floridians, according to Vaca, sucked and
blew on the patient, and put hot stones on his abdomen to take away
pain; they also scarified, and they seemed to have used moxas. “Is
cautérisent aussi avec le feu.” !

The medicine-men of Hispaniola cured by suction, and when they had
extracted a stone or other alleged cause of sickness it was preserved
as a sacred relic, especially by the women, who looked upon it as
of great aid in parturition.” Venegas speaks of a tube called the
“ chacuaco,” formed out of a very hard black stone, used by the medi-
cine-men of California in sucking such parts of the patient’s body as
were grievously afflicted with pains. In these tubes they sometimes
placed lighted tobacco and blew down upon the part affected after the
manner of a moxa, [ suppose. *

The men of Panuco were so addicted to drunkenness that we are
told: ‘“ Lorsqwils sont fatigués de boire leur vin par la bouche, ils se
couchent, élévent les jambes en Vair, et s’en font introduire dans le
fondement au moyen Wune canule, tant que le corps peut en contenir.”4
The administration of wine in this manner may have been as a medi-
cine, and the Aztees of Panuco may have known that nutriment could
be assimilated in this way. It shows at least that the Aztees were
acquainted with enemata.

‘Quando la enfermedad les parecia que tenia necesidad de evacua-
cion, usaban del aiuda 6 clister [elyster], con cocimientos de Tervas, i
polvos, en Agua, i tomandola en la boca, con vn catuto de hueso de
pierna de Garea, la hechaban, i obraba copiosamente: 1 en esto pudo
esta Gente ser industriada de la Ciguena, que con su largo pico se cura,
como escriven los Naturales.”® Smith says that the medicine-men of
the Araucanians ‘“‘are well acquainted with the proper use of emetics,
satharties, and sudorifics. For the purpose of injection they make
use of a bladder, as is still commonly practiced among the Chilenos.”®
Oviedo says of the medicine-men: ‘ Conogian muchas hiervas de que
usaban y eran apropiadas 4 diversas enfermedades.”? One of the most
curious remedies presented in Bancroft’s first volume is the use of a
poultice of mashed poison-ivy leaves as a remedy for rimgworm by the
Indians of Lower California.

The Indians of Topia (in the Sierra Madre, near Sinaloa), were in the
habit of scarifying their tired legs and aching temples.* The Arawaks,
of Guiana, also scarified, according to Spencer.® The inhabitants of

' Ternaux-Compans, vol. 7, pp. 114, 115.

2 Notes from Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, pp. 172-173.

3 History of California, vol. 1, p. 97

4 Ternaux-Compans, vol. 10, p. 85.

5 Herrera, dec. 4, lib. 9, cap. 8, p. 188.

6Smith, Araucanians, p. 234.

7 Bancroft, Native Races, vol. 1, p. 779.

§ Alegre, Historia de la Compania de Jesus en Nueva-Espaiia, vol. 1, p. 401.
* Desc. Sociology.

BOURKE. } REMEDIES AND MODES OF TREATMENT. 473

Kamchatka use enemata much in the same way as the Navajo and
Apache do.’ They also use moxa made of a fungus.”

It has never been my good fortune to notice an example of trephining
among our savage tribes, although I have seen a good many wounded,
some of them in the head. Trephining has been practiced by the
aborigines of America, and the whole subject as noted among the
primitive peoples of all parts of the globe has been treated in a mono-
graph by Dr. Robert Fletcher, U. S. Army.®

Dr. Fordyce Grinnell, who was for some years attached to the
Wichita Agency as resident physician, has published the results of his
observations in a monograph, entitled ‘The healing art as practiced
by the Indians of the Plains,” in which he says: “Wet cupping is
resorted to quite frequently. The surface is scarified by a sharp stone
or knife, and a buffalo horn is used as the cupping glass. Cauterizing
with red-hot irons is not infrequently employed.” A cautery of * burning
pith” was used by the Araucanians.'*

“Tt may be safely affirmed that a majority of the nation |Choctaw}|
prefer to receive the attentions of a white physician when one can be
obtained. * * * When the doctor is called to his patient he com-
mences operations by excluding all white men and all who disbelieve in
the efficacy of his incantations.”° ‘The | Apache] scouts seem to prefer
their own medicine-men when seriously ill, and believe the weird sing-
ing and praying around the couch 1s more effective than the medicine
dealt out by our camp ‘sawbones.’”° The promptness with which the
American Indian recovers from severe wounds has been commented
upon by many authorities. From my personal observation I could,
were it necessary, adduce many examples. The natives of Australia
seem to be endowed with the same recuperative powers.?

After all other means have failed the medicine-men of the Southwest
devote themselves to making altars in the sand and clay near the couch
of the dying, because, as Antonio Besias explained, this act was all the
saine as extreme unction. They portray the figures of various animals,
and then take a pinch of the dust or ashes from each one and rub upon
the person of the sick man as well as upon themselves. Similar altars
or tracings were made by the medicine-men of Guatemala when they
were casting the horoscope of a child and seeking to determine what
was to be its medicine in life. This matter of sand altars has been fully
treated by Matthews in the report of the Bureau of Ethnology for 1883-
*84, and there are several representations to be found in my Snake Dance
of the Moquis. ‘‘ Writing on sand” is a mode of divination among the

' Kraskenninikoff, History of Kamtchatka and the Kurilski Islands, Grieve’s translation, p. 219.
2 Thid., p. 220.

% Contributions to North American Ethnology, vol. 5.

4Smith, Araucanians, p. 233.

° Dr. Edwin G. Meek, Toner Collection, Library of Congress.

© Lient. Pettit in Jour. U. S. Mil. Serv. Instit., 1886, pp. 336-337

7 Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, vol. 1, p. 155.

474 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

”

Chinese.! Padre Boscana represents the ‘*puplem” or medicine-men
of the Indians of California as making or sketching “a most uncouth
and ridiculous figure of an animal on the ground,” and presumably of
sands, clays, and other such materials.’

HAIR AND WIGS.

The medicine-men of the Apache were, at least while young, extremely
vareful of their hair, and I have often seen those who were very prop-
erly proud of their long and glossy chevelure. Particularly do I recall
to mind the “doctor” at San Carlos in 1885, who would never allow
his flowing black tresses to be touched. But they do not roach their
hair, as I have seen the Pawnee do; they do not add false hair to their
own, as I have seen among the Crow of Montana and the Mohave of the
Rio Colorado; they do not apply plasters of mud as do their neighbors
the Yuma, Cocopa, Mohave and Pima, and in such a manner as to
convince spectators that the intent was ceremonial; and they do not
use wigs in their dances. Wigs made of black wool may still be found
occasionally among the Pueblos, but the Apache do not use them, and
there is no reference to such a thing in their myths.

It is to be understood that these paragraphs are not treating upon
the superstitions concerning the human hair, as such, but simply of the
employment of wigs, which would seem in former days among some of
the tribes of the Southwest to have been made of human hair pre-
sented by patients who had recovered from sickness or by mourners
whose relatives had died.’ Wigs with masks attached were worn by
the Costa Ricans, according to Gabb.*

Some of the Apache- Yuma men wear long rolls of matted hair behind,
which are the thickness of a finger, and two feet or more in length, and
composed of old hair mixed with that growing on the head, or are in the
form of a wig, made of hair that has been cut off when mourning the
dead, to be worn on occasions of ceremony.’

Observations of the same kind have been made by Speke upon the
customs of the people of Africa in his Nile,° concerning the Kidi people
at the head of the Nile; by Cook, in Hawkesworth’s Voyages,’ speaking
of Tahiti, and by Barcia,’® speaking of Greenland. Sir Samuel Baker
deseribes the peculiar wigs worn by the tribes on Lake Albert Nyanza,

'Dennys, Folk Lore of China, p. 57.

2 *Chinigchinich”’ in Robinson's California, pp. 271, 272.

3 The reader interested in this matter may find something bearing upon it in Diego Duran, lib. 1, cap.
36, p. 387; Torquemada, Mon. Indiana, lib. 9, cap. 3; Venegas, History of California, vol. 1, p. 105;
Gomara, Cong. de Mexico, p. 443; Herrera, dec. 4, lib. 8, p. 158; Maximilian of Wied, p. 431, and others;
The ‘‘pelucas”’ mentioned of the Orinoco tribes by Padre Gumilla would seem to be nothing more than
feather head-dresses; p. 66.

4 Tribes and Languages of Costa Rica, Proc. Am. Philos. Soc., Philadelphia, 1875, p. 503.

® Corbusier, in American Antiquarian, Sept., 1886, p. 279.

© Source of the Nile, p. 567

7 Vol. 2, p. 193.

8 Ensayo Cronologico, p. 139.

BOURKE. | HAIR AND WIGS—MUDHEADS. 475

formed of the owner’s hair and contributions from all sources plastered
with clay into a stiff mass.'

Melchior Diaz reported that the people of Cibola “¢élevent dans leurs
maisons des animaux velus, grands comme des chiens d’Espagne. Ils
les tondent, ils en font des perruques de couleurs.” This report was
sent by the Viceroy Mendoza to the Emperor Charles V. Exactly what
these domesticated animals were, it would be hard to say; they may
possibly have been Rocky Mountain sheep,” though Mr. Cushing, who
has studied the question somewhat extensively, is of the opinion that
they may have been a variety of the Hama.

The Assinaboine used to wear false hair, and also had the custom of
dividing their hair into “joints” of an inch or more, marked by a sort
of paste of red earth and glue;* The Mandan did the same. In this
they both resemble the Mohave of the Rio Colorado. ‘The Algonquins
believed also ina malignant Manitou. * * * She wore a robe made
of the hair of her victims, for she was the cause of death.”°

The Apache, until within the last twenty years, plucked out the eye-
lashes and often the eyebrows, but only a few of them still persist in
the practice. Kane says that the Winnebagoes “have the custom of
pulling out their eyebrows.” Herrera says that among the signs by
which the Tlascaltecs recognized their gods when they saw them in
visions, were ‘‘vianle sin cejas, i sin pestantas.”*

MUDHEADS.

Reference has been made to a ceremonial plastering of mud upon the
heads of Indians. When General Crook was returning from his expe-
dition into the Sierra Madre, Mexico, in 1883, in which expedition a few
of the enemy had been killed, the scouts upon reaching the San Ber-
nardino River made a free use of the sweat bath, with much singing
and other formulas, the whole being part of the lustration which all
warriors must undergo as soon as possible after being engaged in battle.
The Apache proper did not apply mud to their heads, but the Apache-
Yuma did.

Capt. Grossman, U.S. Army,® says of the Pima method of purifi-
cation after killing an Apache, that the isolation of the warrior lasts
for sixteen days, during which period no one speaks to him, not even
the old woman who brings him his food. The first day he touches
neither food nor drink, and he eats sparingly for the whole time, touch-

1 For the Shamans of Kodiak, see Lisiansky, Voyage, London, 1814, p. 208; for the Mexicans, Padre
José Acosta, Paris, 1600, cap. 26, p. 256; Society Islands, Malte-Brun, Univ. Geography, vol. 3, lib. 58. p.
634, Boston, 1825. Sir Samuel Baker, The Albert *Nyanza, vol. 1, p. 211.

2 Ternaux-Compans, vol. 9, p. 294.

3 Catlin, North American Indians, London, 1845, vol. 1, p. 55

4Thid., p. 95.

5 Parkman, Jesuits in North America, p iXxxiv.

6 Wanderings of an Artist in North America, p. 40.

7 Dec. 2, lib. 6, p. 161.

§ Smithsonian Report for 1871.

476 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

ing neither meat nor salt; he bathes frequently in the Gila River and
nearly the whole time keeps his head covered with a plaster of mud
and mesquite.

“The boyes [of the Massagueyes]| of seven or eight yeeres weare clay
fastned on the hayre of the head, and still renewed with new clay,
weighing sometimes five or six pounds. Nor may they be free hereof
till in warre or lawfull fight hee hath killed a man.”!

According to Padre Geronimo Boscana, the traditions of the Indians
of California show that they “fed upon a kind of clay.”’ But this clay
was often plastered upon their heads “as a kind of ornament.” These
were the Indians of San Juan Capistrano, who strongly resembled the
Mohave. After all, the “‘mudheads” of the Mohave are no worse than
those people in India who still bedaub their heads with “the holy
mud of the Ganges.” Up to this time the mud has been the “blue
mud” of the Colorado and other rivers, but when we find Herbert
Spencer mentioning that the heads of the Comanche are ‘“ besmeared
with a dull red clay” we may suspect that we have stumbled upon an
analogue of the custom of the Aztec priests, who bedaubed their heads
with the coagulating lifeblood of their human victims. We know that
there has been such a substitution practiced among the Indians of the
Pueblo of Jemez, who apply red ocher to the mouth of the stone
mountain lion, in whose honor human blood was once freely shed. The
practice of so many of the Plains tribes of painting the median line of
the head with vermilion seems to be traceable back to a similar custom.

SCALP SHIRTS.

The shirt depicted on Pl. 11, made of buckskin and trimmed with
human scalps, would seem to belong to the same category with the
mantles made of votive hair, mentioned as being in use among the
California tribe a little more than a century ago. It was presented to
me by Little Big Man, who led me to believe that it had once belonged
to the great chief of the Sioux, Crazy Horse, or had at least been worn
by him. Of its symbolism I am unable to find the explanation. The
colors yellow and blue would seem to represent the earth and water or
sky, the feathers attached would refer to the birds, and the round circle
on the breast is undoubtedly the sun. There is a cocoon affixed to one
shoulder, the significance of which I do not know.

THE RHOMBUS, OR BULL ROARER.

The rhombus was first seen by me at the snake dance of the Tusayan,
in the village of Walpi, Ariz., in the month of August, 1881. Pre-
vious to that date I had heard of it vaguely, but had never been able to
see it in actual use. The medicine-men twirled it rapidly, and with a
uniform motion, about the head and from front to rear, and succeeded

! Purchas, lib. 9, cap. 12, sec. 4, p. 1555, edition of 1622.
2 Chinigchinich, p. 253.

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BOURKE. ] RHOMBUS OR BULL ROARER. ATT

in faithfully imitating the sound of a gust of rain-laden wind. As ex-
plained to me by one of the medicine-men, by making this sound they
compelled the wind and rain to come to the aid of the crops. Ata
later date I found it in use among the Apache, and for the same pur-
pose. The season near the San Carlos Agency during the year 1884
had been unusually dry, and the crops were parched. The medicine-
men arranged a procession, two of the features of which were the rhom-
bus and a long handled cross, upon which various figures were depicted.
Of the latter, I will speak at another time.

Again, while examining certain ruins in the Verde Valley, in central
Arizona, I found that the “Cliff Dwellers,” as it has become customary
to call the prehistoric inhabitants,
had employed the same weapon
of persuasion in their intercourse
with their gods. I found the
rhombus also among the Rio
Grande Pueblo tribes and the
Zuni. Dr. Washington Matthews
has described it as existing among
the Navajo and Maj. J. W. Pow-
ell has observed it in use among
the Utes of Nevada and Utah.
As will be shown, its use in all
parts of the world seems to have
been as general as that of any
sacred implement known to prim-
itive man, not even excepting the
sacred cords or rosaries discussed
in this paper. Three forms of the
rhombus have come under my
own observation, each and all ap-
parently connected in symbolism
with the lightning. The first ter-
minates in a triangular point, and
the general shape is either that
of a long, narrow, parallelogram,
sapped with an equilateral trian-
gle, or else the whole figure is that
ofa slender isosceles triangle. Where the former shape was used, as at
the Tusayan snake dance, the tracing of a snake or lightning in blue or
yellow followed down the length of the rhombus and terminated in the
smnall triangle, which did duty as the snake’s head. The second pattern
was found by Dr. Matthews among the Navajo, and by myself in the old
cliff dwellings. The one which I found was somewhat decayed, and the
extremity of the triangle was broken off. There was no vestige of paint-
ing left. The second form was serrated on both edges to simulate the form

Fic. 430.—Rhombus of the Apache.

478 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

of the snake or lightning. The third form, in use among the Apache,
is an oblong of 7 or 8 inches in length, one and a quarter inches in
width by a quarter in thickness. One extremity, that through which
the cord passes, is rounded to rudely represent a human head, and the
whole bears a close resemblance to the drawings of schoolboys which
are intended for the human figure. The Apache explained that the
lines op the front side of the rhombus were the entrails and those on
the rear side the hair of their wind god. The hair is of several colors,
and represents the lightning. I did not ascertain positively that such

Fic. 431.—Rhombus of the Apache

was the case, but was led to believe that the rhombus of the Apache
was made by the medicine-men from wood, generally pine or fir, which
had been struck by lightning on the mountain tops. Such wood is
held in the highest estimation among them, and is used for the manu-
facture of amulets of especial efficacy. The Apache name for the rhom-
bus is tzi-ditindi, the “sounding wood.” The identification of the
rhombus or ‘‘bull roarer” of the ancient Greeks with that used by the
Tusayan in their snake dance was first made by E. B. Tylor in the
Saturday Review in a criticism upon The Snake Dance of the Moquis
of Arizona.”

BOURKE. ] THE CROSS. 479

The Kaflfirs have the rhombus among their playthings:

The nodiwu is a piece of wood about 6 or 8 incheslong, and an inch and a half
or 2 inches wide, and an eighth or a quarter of an inch thick in the middle.
Towards the edges it is beveled off, so that the surface is convex, or consists of two
inclined planes. Atone end it has a thong attached to it by which it is whirled
rapidly round. * * * There is a kind of superstition connected with the nodiwn,
that playing with it invites a gale of wind. Men will, on this account, often prevent
boys from using it when they desire calm weather for any purpose. This supersti-
tion is identical with that which prevents many sailors from whistling at sea.!

Of the Peruvians we are informed that ‘ their belief was that there
was aman in the sky with a sling and a stick, and that in his power
were the rain, the hail, the thunder, and all else that appertains to the
regions of the air, where clouds are formed.”

The sacred twirler of the snake dance is found in Greece, America,
Africa and New Zealand. It survives as a toy in England and the
United States. The same peculiar instrument has been noticed in the
religious ceremonials of the Australians, especially in the initiatory
rites of the “bora.” It is called the “ tirricoty.”*- The twirling of the
tzi-ditindi in medicine or prayer corresponds to the revolution of the
prayer wheel of the Lamas.

THE CROSS.

The sign of the cross appears in many places in Apache symbolism,
The general subject of the connection of the cross with the religion of
the aborigines of the American continent has been so fully traversed by
previous authors that I do uot care to add muck more to the subject
beyond saying that my own observation has assured me that it is re-
lated to the cardinal points and the four winds, and is painted by warriors
upon their moccasins upon going into a strange district in the hope of
keeping them from getting on a wrong trail.

In October, 1884, I saw a procession of Apache men and women, led
by the medicine-inen bearing two crosses, made as follows: The verti-
eal arm was 4 feet 10 inches long, and the transverse between 10 and
12 inches, and each was made of slats about 14 inches wide, which looked
as if they had been long in use. They were decorated with blue polka
dots upon the unpainted surface. A blue snake meandered down the
longer arm. There was acircle of small willow twigs attop; next below
that, a small zine-cased mirror, a bell, and eagle feathers. Nosey, the
Apache whom I induced to bring it to me after the ceremony, said that
they carried it in honor of Guzanutli to induce her to send rain, at that
time much needed for their crops. It is quite likely that this particu-
lar case represents a composite idea; that the original beliefs of the

1 Theal, Kaftir Folk-lore, pp. 209-210.
2Clements R. Markham, Note on Garcilasso dela Vega, in Hakluyt Soc., vol. 41, p. 183, quoting
Acosta, lib. 5, cap. 4.
3 Andrew Lang, Custom and Myth, New York, 1885, chapter entitled ‘* The bull roarer,” pp. 29-44.
4John Fraser, The Aborigines of Australia; their Ethnic Position and Relations, pp. 161-162.

480 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

Apache have been modified to some extent by the crude ideas of the
Mexican captives among them, who still remember much that was taught
them in the churches of the hamlets in northern Mexico, from which
they were kidnapped years ago; but, on the other hand, it is to be re-
membered that the cross has always formed a part of the Apache sym-
bolism; that the snake does not belong to the Christian faith, and that
ithas never been allowed to appear upon the cross since the time of the
Gnostics in the second and third centuries. Therefore, we must regard
that as a Pagan symbol, and so must we regard the circle of willow
twigs, which is exactly the same as the circle we have seen attached to
the sacred cords for the cure of headache.!

The cross was found in full vogue as a religious emblem among the
aborigines all over America. Father Le Clercq? speaks of its very gen-
eral employment by the Gaspesians: “Is ont parmi eux, tout mfideles
qwils soient, la Croix en singuliere veneration, quwils la portent figurée
sur leurs habits & sur leur chair; qwils la tiennent a la main dans
tous leurs voiages, soit par mer, soit par terre; & qu’enfin ils la posent
au dehors & au dedans de leurs Cabannes, comme la marque @’honneur
qui les distingue des autres Nations du Canada.” He narrates® that the
Gaspé tradition or myth was, that the whole tribe being ravaged by a
plague, the medicine men had recourse to the Sun, who ordered them
to make use of the cross in every extremity.

Herrera relates that the followers of Hernandez de Cordoba found at
Cape Catoche “unos Adoratorios . . . i Cruces pintadas que les
eauso gran admiracion.”* He also says that Juan de Grijalva on the
island of Cozumel found a number of oratories and temples, but one in
particular was made in the form of a square tower, with four openings.
Inside this tower was a cross made of lime, which the natives rever-
enced as the god of the rain; ‘‘una Cruz de Cal, de tres varas en alto-
a Ja qual tenian por el Dios de la luvia.””

NECKLACES OF HUMAN FINGERS.

The necklace of human fingers, an illustration of which accompanies
this text (Pl. 1v), belonged to the foremost of the medicine-men of a
brave tribe—the Cheyenne of Montana and Wyoming. They were the
backbone of the hostility to the whites, and during the long and ardu-
ous campaign conducted against them by the late Maj. Gen. George
Crook, which terminated so successfully in the surrender of 4,500 of the
allied Sioux and Cheyenne, at Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies, in
the early spring of 1877, it was a noted fact that wherever a band of the

1“ When the rain-maker of the Lenni Lennape would exert his power, he retired to some secluded
spot and drew upon the earth the figure of a cross (its arms toward the cardinal points?), placed
upon it a piece of tobacco, a gourd, a bit of some red stuff, and commenced to cry alond to the spirits
of the rains.’'—Brinton, Myths of the New World, New York, 1868, p. 96 (after Loskiel).

2Pére Chrestien Le Clercq, Gaspesie, Paris, 1691, p. 170.

3Tbid., cap. x, pp. 172-199.

4Dec. 2, lib. 2, p. 48.

*Tbid., p. 59.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY NINTH ANNUAL REPORT Plate IV.

|

Sackett & Wilhelms Litho Go NY

NECKLACE OF HUMAN FINGERS.

BOURKE. ] NECKLACES OF HUMAN FINGERS. 481

Cheyenne was to be found there the fighting was most desperate. It
is a matter now well established that the Cheyenne are an offshoot of
the Aigonquian family, speaking a dialect closely resembling that of the
Cree, of British America.

It may interest some readers to listen to a few words descriptive of
the manner in which such a ghastly relic of savagery came into my pos-
session. On the morning of the 25th of November, 1876, the cavalry
and Indian scouts (Sioux, Shoshoni, Arapaho, Pawnee, and a few of the
Cheyenne themselves), of Gen. Crook’s command, under the leadership
of the late Brig. Gen. Ranald S. Mackenzie, then colonel of the Fourth
Cavalry, surprised and destroyed the main village of the Cheyenne, on
the headwaters of the Powder River, in the Big Horn Mountains, Wy-
oming. The onslaught was irresistible, the destruction complete, and
the discomfited savages were forced to flee from their beds, half naked
and with nothing save their arms and ammunition. More than half of
the great herd of ponies belonging to the savages were killed, captured,
or so badly wounded as to be of no use to the owners. The cold became
so intense that on the night after the fight eleven papooses froze to death
in their mothers’ arms, and the succeeding night, three others. This
blow, the most grievous ever inflicted upon the plains tribes, resulted
in the surrender, first of the Cheyenne, and later on of the principal chief
of the Sioux, the renowned Crazy Horse; after which the Sioux troubles
were minimized into the hunt for scattered bands. Undoubtedly, among
the bitterest losses of valuable property suffered by the Cheyenne on
this occasion were the two necklaces of human fingers which came into
my possession, together with the small buckskin bag filled with the right
hands of papooses belonging to the tribe of their deadly enemies, the
Shoshoni. These were found in the village by one of our scouts—Bap-
tiste Pourrier, who, with Mr. Frank Gruard, was holding an important
and responsible position in connection with the care of the great body
of Indian scouts already spoken of. From these two gentlemen I after-
wards obtained all the information that is here to be found regarding
the Cheyenne necklace.

The second necklace, consisting of four fingers, was buried, as Gen.
Crook did not wish to have kept more than one specimen, and that only
for scientific purposes. Accordingly, the necklace here depicted was
sent first to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, and
later to the National Museum in Washington, where it was believed it
could better fulfill its mission of educating students in a knowledge of
the manners and customs of our aborigines.

The buckskin bag, with the papooses’ hands, was claimed by the
Shoshoni scouts, who danced and wailed all night, and then burned the
fearful evidence of the loss sustained by their people.

The necklace is made of a round collar of buckskin, incrusted with
the small blue and white beads purchased from the traders, these being
arranged in alternate spaces of an inch or more in length. There are

9 ETH—31

482 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

also attached numbers of the perforated wampum shell beads of native
manufacture. Pendant from this collar are five medicine arrows, the
exact nature of which, it was, of course, impossible to determine from
the owner himself. Both Frank and Baptiste agreed that an arrow
might become ‘ medicine ” either from having been shot into the person
of the owner himself or into the body of an enemy, or even from having
been picked up under peculiar circumstances. The owner, High Wolf or
Tall Wolf, admitted as much after he had surrendered at the Red Cloud
Agency and had made every effort to obtain the return of his medicine,
which was this necklace.

The four medicine bags to be seen in the picture are worthy of atten-
tion. They were carefully examined under a powerful glass by Dr. H.
©. Yarrow, U.S. Army, in the city of Washington, and pronounced to
be human scrota. The first of these contained a vegetable powder,
somewhat decomposed, having a resemblance to hoddentin; the second
was filled with killikinnick; the third with small garnet-colored seeds
like the chia in use among the Apache, and the fourth with a yellow,
clayey-white vegetable matter not identified. The fifth, also, remained
unidentified.

Besides the above, there are artificial teeth, resembling those of the
fossil animals abundant in the Bad Lands of South Dakota, but eut out
of soft stone.

The fingers—eight aitogether—are the left-hand middle fingers of
Indians of hostile tribes, killed by High Wolf. I obtained the list and
could insert it here were it worth while to do so. The fingers have not
been left in the natural state, but have been subjected to very careful
and elaborate antiseptic treatment in order thoroughly todesiccate them.
They were split longitudinally on the inner side and after the bone had
been extracted the surface of the skin, both inside and out, received a
treatment with a wash or paint of ocherous earth, the same as is used
for the face. Iwas told that the bones were not replaced but that sticks
were inserted to maintain the fingers in proper shape.

Of the reason for making use of such a trophy or relic, there is not
much to be said; even the savages know little and say less. From the
best information that I have been able to gather, it would seem to be
based partly upon a vainglorious desire to display the proofs of
personal prowess, and partly upon the vague and ill defined, but deeply
rooted, belief in the talismanie or “ medicinal” potency possessed by all
parts of the human body, especially after death. It was such a belief
which impelled the Mandan, Aztecs, and others of the American tribes
to preserve the skulls of their dead as well as (among the Aztecs) those
of the victims sacrificed in honor of their gods. As has been shown in
another place, the Zuni and others take care to offer food at stated
periods to the scalps of their enemies.

The use of necklaces of human fingers or of human teeth is to be
found in many parts of the world, and besides the fingers themselves,

BOURKE.] WAR TROPHIES. 483

we find the whole arm, or in other cases only the nails. The Cheyenne
did not always restrict themselves to fingers; they generally made use
of the whole hand, or the arm of the slaughtered enemy. In a colored
picture drawn and painted by one of themselves I have a representa-
tion of a scalp dance, in which the squaws may be seen dressed in their
best, carring the arms of enemies elevated on high poles and lances.
There is no doubt in my mind that this custom of the Cheyenne of cut-
ting off the arm or hand gave rise to their name in the sign language of
the “Slashers,” or ‘ Wrist Cutters,” much as the corresponding tribal
peculiarity of the Dakota occasioned their name of the “Coupe Gorge”
or “‘Throat Cutters.”

The necklace of human fingers is found among other tribes. A
necklace of four human fingers was seen by the members of the Lewis
and Clarke expedition among the Shoshoni at the headwaters of the
Columbia, in the early years of the present century. Early in the
spring of 1858 Henry Youle Hind refers to the allies of the Ojibwa on
Red River as having “two fingers severed from the hands of the unfor-
tunate Sioux.”' In Eastman’s “Legends of the Sioux,” we read of
‘““Harpsthinah, one of the Sioux women, who wore as long as she could
endure it, a necklace made of the hands and feet of Chippewah chil-
dren.”? We read that in New Zealand, “Several rows of human teeth,
drawn on a thread, hung on their breasts.” Capt. Cook speaks of
seeing fifteen human jaw bones attached to a semicircular board at
the end of a long house on the island of Tahiti. ‘‘They appeared to be
fresh, and there was not one of them that wanted a single tooth;”4 and
also, “‘ the model of a canoe, about three feet long, to which were tied
eight human jaw bones; we had already learnt that these were tro-
phies of war.”° Capt. Byron, R. N., saw in the Society Islands, in 1765,
a chief who “had a string of human teeth about his waist, which was
probably a trophy of his military prowess.”®

‘““The wild Andamanese, who live only on the fruits of their forests and
on fish, so far revere their progenitors that they adorn their women
and children with necklaces and such like, formed out of the finger and
toe-nails of their ancestors.”?

Bancroft says" that the Californians did not generally scalp, but they
did cut off and keep the arms and legs of a slain enemy or, rather, the
hands and feet and head. They also had the habit of plucking out
and preserving the eyes.

Kohl assures us that he has been informed that the Ojibwa will
frequently cut fingers, arms, and limbs from their enemies and preserve

1 Assinniboine and Saskatchewan Expedition, vol. 2, p. 123.
2.New York, 1849, pp. x, xxix, 47.

3 Forster, Voyage Round the World, vol. 1. pp. 219, 519.
+Hawkesworth, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 161.

®Thbid., p. 257.

®Tbid., vol. 1, p. 113.

7 Forlong, Rivers of Life, vol. 1, pp. 541, 542.

* Nat. Races, vol. 1, p. 380.

484 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

these ghastly relics for use in their dances. Sometimes the warriors
will become so excited that they will break off and swallow a finger.!

Tanner says of the Ojibwa: ‘‘ Sometimes they use sacks of human
skin to contain their medicines, and they fancy that something is thus
added to their efficacy.” ”

Of the savages of Virginia we read: ‘“ Mais @autres portent pour
plus glorieuse parure une main seiche de quelqwun de leurs ennemis.”s

Of the Algonkin we read: “Il y en a qui ont une partie du bras et
lamain de quelque Hiroquois qw ils ont tué; cela est si bien vuidée que
les ongles restent toutes entieres.”

The Mohawk “place their foe against a tree or stake and _ first
tear all the nails from his fingers and run them on a string, which they
wear the same as we do gold chains. It is considered to the honor of
any chief who has vanquished or overcome his enemies if he bite off or
cut off some of their members, as whole fingers.” °

The Cenis (Asinai) of Texas, were seen by La Salle’s expedition in
1687-1690, torturing a captive squaw. ‘They then tore out her hair,
and cut off her fingers.” ®

In volume 2 of Kingsborough’s Mexican Antiquities, in the plates of
the Vatican manuscript, is to be seen a representation of an Aztec priest
or other dignitary holding out in his hands two human arms. In plate
76 of the same is a priest offering up a human sacrifice, the virile member
of the victim cut off.

Teoyamaqui, the wife of Huitzlipochtli, the Aztec god of war, was
depicted with a necklace of human hands.7 Squier also says that
Darga or Kali, the Hindu goddess, who corresponds very closely to her,
was represented with ‘a necklace of skulls” and ‘‘a girdle of dissevered
human hands.”

The Hindu goddess Kali was decorated with a necklace of human
skulls. In the Propaganda collection, given in Kingsborough,’ are to
be seen human arms and legs. ;

“On the death of any of the great officers of state, the finger bones
and hair are also preserved; or if they have died shaven, as sometimes
occurs, a bit of their mbiugt dress will be preserved in place of the hair.”
‘Their families guard their tombs.” |

The principal war fetiches of Uganda “ consist of dead lizards, bits,

' Kohl, Kitchi-gami, pp, 345, 346.

2 Tanner's Narrative, p. 372.

8 John de Laet, lib. 3, cap. 18, p. 90, quoting Capt. John Smith.
4Le Jenne in Jesuit Relations, 1633, vol.1, Quebec, 1858.

6 Third Voyage of David Peter De Vries to New Amsterdam, in Trans. N. Y. Hist. Soc., vol. 3, p. 91.
® Charlevoix, New France, New York, 1866, vol. 4, p. 105.
7Squier, Serpent Symbol, p. 197.

8 Coleman, Mythology of the Hindus, London, 1832, p. 63.
®Vol. 3.

0 Speke, Source of the Nile. London, 1863, p. 500.

4 Tbid.

BOURKE.] TROPHIES AND RELICS. 485

of wood, hide, nails of dead people, claws of animals, and beaks of
birds.” Stanley saw them displayed before King Mtesa.!

“Some of the women in Gippsland wear round the neck human hands,
which, Mr. Hull says, were beautifully prepared. He moreover informs
me that they sometimes wear the parts of which the ‘ Lingam’ and
‘Priapus’ were the emblems.”? ‘* The Gippsland people keep the relics
of the departed. They will cut off the hands to keep as a remembrance,
and these they will attach to the string that is tied round the neck.”?

Smyth also relates that the women of some of the Australian tribes
preserve “the hands of some defunct member of the tribe—that of
some friend of the woman’s, or perhaps one belonging to a former hus-
band. This she keeps as the only remembrance of one she once loved;
and, though years may have passed, even now, w sn she has nothing
else to do, she will sit and moan over this relic of humanity. Some-
times a mother will carry about with her the remains of a beloved child,
whose death she mourns.” * The Australians also use the skulls of their
“nearest and dearest relatives” for drinking vessels; thus, a daughter
would use her mother’s skull, ete.®

“One of the most extraordinary of their laws is. that a widow, for
every husband she marries after the first, is obliged to cut off a joint of
a finger, which she presents to her husband on the wedding day,
beginning at one of the little fingers.”°

In the Army and Navy Journal, New York, June 23, 1888, is men-
tioned a battle between the Crow of Montana and the Piegan, in which
the former obtained some of the hands and feet of dead warriors of the
first-named tribe and used them in their dances.

Catlin shows that the young Sioux warriors, after going through the
ordeal of the sun dance, placed the little finger of the left hand on the
skull of a sacred buffalo and had it chopped off.7

“The sacrifices [of American Indians] at the fasts at puberty some-
times consist of finger joints.”®

In Dodge’s Wild Indians is represented (P1. v1, 15) a Cheyenne neck-
lace of the bones of the first joint of the human fingers, stripped of skin
and flesh. I have never seen or heard of anything of the kind, although
I have served with the Cheyenne a great deal and have spoken about
their customs. My necklace is of human fingers mummified, not of
bones.

Fanny Kelly says of a Sioux chief: “‘“He showed me a puzzle or
game he had made from the finger bones of some of the victims that

1 Stanley, Through the Dark Continent, vol. 1, p. 327.
2 Miles, Demigods and Demonia, in Jour. Ethnol. Soc.. London, vol. 3, p. 28, 1854.
3Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, vol. 1, p. 30.

4Tbid., p. 131.

5 Tbid., p. 348.

© Peter Kolben, speaking of the Hottentots, in Knox, vol. 2, p. 394.

7 O-kee-pa, pp. 28-29.

® Frazer, Totemism, Edinburgh, 1887, pp. 54,55; after Maximilian.

486 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

had fallen beneath his own tomahawk. The bones had been freed from
the flesh by boiling, and, being placed upon a string, were used for play-
ing some kind of Indian game.”!

Strabo recounts in his third book that the Lusitanians sacrificed
prisoners and cut off their right hands to consecrate them to their gods.

Dulaure says that the Germans attached the heads and the right
hands of their human victims to sacred trees.’

Adoni-bezek cut off the thumbs and great toes of seventy kings of
Syria.*

The necklace of human fingers is not a particle more horrible than the
ornaments of human bones to be seen in the cemetery of the Capuchins
in Rome at the present day. I have personally known of two or three
cases where American Indians cut their enemies limb from limb. The
idea upon which the practice is based seems to be the analogue of the
old English custom of sentencing a criminal to be ‘‘hanged, drawn,
and quartered.”

Brand gives a detailed description of the ‘‘hand of glory,” the pos-
session of which was believed by the peasantry of Great Britain and
France to enable a man to enter a house invisible to the occupants. It
was made of the hand of an executed (hanged) murderer, carefully des-
iccated and prepared with a great amount of superstitious mummery.
With this holding a candle of “the fat of a hanged man” burglars felt
perfectly secure while engaged in their predatory work.t The belief was
that a candle placed in a dead man’s hand will not be seen by any but
those by whom it is used. Such a candle introduced into a house kept
those who were asleep from awakening.

The superstition in regard to the “hand of glory” was widely diffused
throughout France, Germany, Spain, and Great Britain. As late as
the year 1831 it was used by Irish burglars in the county Meath.

Dr. Frank Baker delivered before the Anthropological Society of
Washington, D. C., a lecture upon these superstitions as related to the
“hand of glory,” to which the student is respectfully referred.®

An Aztee warrior always tried to procure the middle finger of the left
hand of a woman who had died in childbirth. This he fastened to
his shield as a talisman.® The great weapon of the Aztec witches was
the left arm of a woman who had died in her first childbirth.? Pliny
mentions “ still-born infants cut up limb by limb for the most abomina-
ble practices, not only by widwives, but by harlots even as well!”®

1 Kelly, Narrative of Captivity, Cincinnati, 1871, p. 143.

2 Différens Cultes, vol. 1, p. 57.

3 Judges, I, 7.

4 Brand, Pop. Ant., London, 1882, vol. 3, p. 278.

5 American Anthropologist, Washington, D. C., January, 1888.

6 Kingsborough, vol. 8, p,70. The Aztec believed that the woman who died in childbirth was equal
to the warrior who died in battle and she went to the same heaven. The middle finger of the left
hand is the finger used in the necklace of human fingers.

7 Sahagun, in Kingsborough, vol. 7, p. 147.

4 Pliny, Nat. Hist., lib. 28, cap. 20. Holland’s translation

BOURKE. ] NECKLACES OF HUMAN TEETH. 487

The opinions entertained in Pliny’s time descended to that of the

Reformation—

Finger of birth-strangled babe,

Ditch-deliver’d by a drab.!
“Serofula, imposthumes of the parotid glands, and throat disexses,
they say, may be cured by the contact of the hand of a person who has
been carried off by an early death;” but, he goes on to say, any dead
hand will do, ‘provided it is of the same sex as the patient and that the
part affected is touched with the back of the left hand.’ A footnote
adds that this superstition still prevails in England in regard to the
hand of a man who has been hanged.

The use of dead men’s toes, fingers, spinal vertebrie, etc., in magical
ceremonies, especially the fabrication of magical lamps and candles, is
referred to by Frommann.°

Grimm is authority for the statement that in both France and Ger-
many the belief was prevalent that the fingers of an unborn babe were
“available for magic.”’*

In England witches were believed to “ open graves for the purpose
of taking out the joints of the fingers and toes of dead bodies
in order to prepare a powder for their magical purposes.” °

Saint Athanase dit méme, que ces parties du corps humain [i.e., hands,
feet, toes, fingers, ete.] étoient adorées comme des dieux particuliers.”®

According to the sacred lore of the Brahmans ‘the Tirtha sacred to
the Gods lies at the root of the little finger, that sacred to the Rishis in
the middle of the fingers, that sacred to Men at the tips of the fingers,
that sacred to Agni (fire) in the middle of the hand.”?

In the Island of Ceylon ‘debauchees and desperate people often play
away the ends of their fingers.”*

Hone shows that “every joint of each finger was appropriated to
some saint.”®

NECKLACES OF HUMAN TEETH.

A number of examples are to be found of the employment of neck-
laces of human teeth. In my own experience I have never come across
any specimens, and my belief is that among the Indians south of the
Isthmus such things are to be found almost exclusively. I have found
no reference to such ornamentation or “medicine” among the tribes of
North America, but there are many to show the very general dissemina-
tion of the custom in Africa and in the islands of the South Sea.
Gomara says that the Indians of Santa Marta wore at their necks, like

1 Shakespeare, Macbeth, act 4, scene 1.

? Pliny, Nat. Hist., lib. 28, cap. 11.

3Tractatus de Fascinatione, Nuremberg, 1675, p. 681.

4Teutonic Mythology, vol. 3, p. 1073.

6 Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 3, p. 10.

6 Montfaucon, |’ Antiquité expliqnée, vol. 2, liv. 4, cap. 6, p. 249.

7 Vasishtha, cap. 3, pars. 64-68, p.25 (Sacred Books of the East, Oxford, 1882, Max Miiller’s edition).
*'Travels of Two Mohammedans through India and China, in Pinkerton’s Voyages, vol. 7, p. 218.

9 Every-Day Book, vol. 2, col. 95.

488 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

dentists, the teeth of the enemies they had killed in battle.! Many of
the Carib, we are told by a Spanish writer, ostentatiously wear neck-
laces made of strings of the teeth of the enemies whom they have slain.”
Padre Fray Alonzo Fernandez says of the Carib: ‘“Traen los dientes
con los cabellos de los que mataron por collares, como hazian antigua-
mente los Scitas.”* The people of New Granada “traen al cuello dien-
tes de los que matavan.”! Picart says that the natives of New Granada
and Cumana ‘portent au col les dents des ennemis quwils ont massa-
crez.”° The Spaniards found in the temple of the Itzaes, on the island of
Peten, an idol made of “yesso,” which is plaster, and in the head, which
was Shaped like the sun, were imbedded the teeth of the Castilians whom
they had captured and killed.®

“ They strung together the teeth of such of their enemies as they had
slain in battle and wore them on their legs and arms as trophies of suc-
cessful cruelty.” '

Stanley says, referring to the natives of the Lower Congo country:
“Their necklaces consisted of human, gorilla, and crocodile teeth, in
such quantity, in many cases, that little or nothing could be seen of the
neck.” ®

“The necklaces of human teeth which they | Urangi and Rubunga, of
the Lower Congo] wore.”® Again, “human teeth were popular orna-
ments for the neck.” © Whena king dies they [the Wahtma, of the head of
the Nile] cut out his lower jaw and preserve it covered with beads."

Schweinfurth” speaks of having seen piles of “lower jawbones from
which the teeth had been extracted to serve as ornaments for the neck”
by the Monbuttoo of Africa. ‘A slaughtered foe was devoured from
actual bloodthirstiness and hatred by the Niam-Niams of Central
Africa. . . . They make no secret of their savage craving,
but ostentatiously string the teeth of their victims round their necks,
adorning the stakes erected beside their dwellings ‘or the habitation of
the trophies with the skulls of the men they have devoured. Human
fat is universally sold.”

1 ““Traen los dientes al cuello (como sacamuelas) por bravosidad.’"—Gomara, Historia de las Indias,
p. 201.

2 “Tos Caberres y muchos Caribes, usan por gala muchas sartas de dientes y muelas de gente para
dar 4 entender que son muy valientes por los despojos que alli ostentan ser de sus enemigos que mata-
ron.’’—Gumilla, Orinoco, Madrid, 1741, p. 65.

3 Padre Fray Alonzo Fernandez, Historia Eclesiastica, Toledo, 1611, p. 17.

4 Tbid., p. 161.

6 Cérémonies et Cofittumes, Amsterdam, 1735, vol. 6, p. 114.

6 “ Formada la cara como de Sol, con rayos de Nacar al rededor, y perfilada de lo mismo; y en la boca
embutidos los dientes, que quitaron A los Espanoles, que avian muerto.’'—Villaguitierre, Hist. de la
Conquista de la Provincia de el Itza, Madrid, 1701, p. 500. (Itza seems to have been the country of the
Lacandones.)

7 Edwards, speaking of the Carib, quoted by Spencer, Dese. Sociology. The same custom is
ascribed to the Tupinambi of Brazil. Ibid, quoting from Southey.

8 Through the Dark Continent, vol. 2, p. 286.

° Thid, p. 288.

10 Thid., p. 290.

11 Speke, Source of the Nile, London, 1863, p. 500.

12 Heart of Africa, vol 2, p. 54.

13 Thid., vol. 1, p. 285.

BOURKE.] WAR TROPHIES. 489

The four front teeth were extracted by the men and women of the
Latooka and other tribes of the White Nile, but no explanation is given
of the custom.!

In Dahomey, strings of human teeth are worn.?

Freycinet saw in Timor, Straits of Malacca, ‘a score of human jaw-
bones, which we wished to purchase; but all our offers were met by the
word ‘pamali,’ meaning sacred.”

In one of the ““morais” or temples entered by Kotzebue in 1818, on
the Sandwich Islands, there were two great and ugly idols, one repre-
senting aman, the other a woman. ‘The priests made me notice that
both statues, which had their mouths wide open, were furnished with a
row of hunian teeth.’

The Sandwich Islanders kept the jaw bones of their enemies as
trophies.° King Tamaahmaah had a “spitbox which was set round
with human teeth, and had belonged to several of his predecessors.”®

Among some of the Australian tribes the women wear about their
necks the teeth which have been knocked out of the mouths of the boys
atacertain age.’ This custom of the Australians does not obtain among
the North American tribes, by whom the teeth, as they fall out, are
carefully hidden or buried under some tree or rock. At least, [ have
been so informed by several persons, among others by Chato, one of
the principal men of the Chiricahua Apache.

Molina speaks of the customs of the Araucanians, who, after torturing
their captives to death, made war flutes out of their bones and used the
skulls for drinking vessels." The Abipones of Paraguay make the bones
of their enemies into musical instruments.?

The preceding practice is strictly in line with the “medicinal” and
“magical” values attached in Europe to human teeth, human skin, ete.
The curious reader may find much on this subject in the works of From-
mann, Beckherius, Etmuller, Samuel Augustus Flemming, and others
of the seventeenth century, where it will be shown that the ideas of the
people of Europe of that period were only in name superior to those of
the savages of America, the islands of the South Seas, and of Central
Africa. In my work upon “The Scatalogic Rites of all Nations ” I have
treated this matter more in extenso, but what is here adduced will be
sufficient for the present article.

The skin of Ziska, the Bohemian reformer, was made into a “medicine
drum” by his followers.

‘Sir Samuel Baker, The Albert N’yanza, Philadelphia, 1869, p. 154 et seq.

? Burton, Mission to Gelele, vol. 1, p. 135 et seq.

5 Voyage Round the World, London, 1823, pp. 209, 210.

‘Kotzebue, Voyage, London, 1821, vol. 2, p. 202. See also Villaguitierre, cited above.

’ Capt. Cook’s First Voyage, in Pinkerton’s Voyages, London, 1812, vol. 11, pp. 513, 515.
© Campbell, Voyage Round the World, N. Y., 1819, p. 153.

7 Frazer, Totemism, Edinburgh, 1887, p. 28.

® Historia de Chile, Madrid, 1795, vol. 2, p. 80.

*Spencer, Desc. Sociology.

490 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.
THE SCRATCH STICK.

When Gen. Crook’s expedition against the Chiricahua Apache
reached the heart of the Sierra Madre, Mexico, in 1883, it was my good
fortune to find on the ground in Geronimo’s rancheria two insignificant
looking articles of personal equipment, to which I learned the Apache
attached the greatest importance. One of these was a very small piece
of hard wood, cedar, or pine, about two and a half to three inches long
and half a finger in thickness, and the other a small section of the cane
indigenous to the Southwest and of about the same dimensions. The
first was the scratch stick and the second the drinking reed.

The rule enjoined among the Apache is that for the first four times
one of their young men goes out on the warpath he must refrain from
scratching his head with his fingers or letting water touch his lips.
How to keep this vow and at the same time avoid unnecessary personal
discomfort and suffering is the story told by these petty fragments from
the Apache’s ritual. He does not scratch his head with his fingers; he
makes use of this scratch stick. He will not let water touch his lips,
but sucks itinto his throat through this tiny tube. <A long leather cord
attached both stick and reed to the warrior’s belt and to each other.
This was all theinformation I was able to obtain of a definite character,
Whether these things had to be prepared by the medicine-men or by
the young warrior himself; with what ceremonial, if any, they had to
be manufactured, and under what circumstances of time and place, I
was unable to ascertain to my own satisfaction, and therefore will
not extend my remarks or burden the student’s patience with inco-
herent statements from sources not absolutely reliable. That the use
of the scratch stick and the drinking reed was once very general in
America and elsewhere, and that it was not altogether dissociated from
ritualistic or ceremonial ideas, may be gathered from the citations
appended.

In her chapter entitled ‘‘Preparatory ceremony of the young war-
rior” Mrs. Emerson says: ‘‘He does not touch his ears or head with
his hand,” explaining in a foot note, “‘the head was sometimes made a
sacrificial offering to the sun.”! Tanner relates that the young Ojibwa
warrior for the “three first times” that he accompanies a war party
“must never scratch his head or any other part of his body with his
fingers, but if he is compelled to scratch he must use a small stick.”
Kohl states that the Ojibwa, while on the warpath, ‘will never sit down
in the* shade of a tree or scratch their heads; atleast, not with their
fingers. The warriors, however, are permitted to scratch themselves
with a piece of wood or a comb.’ Mackenzie states regarding the
Indians whom he met on the Columbia, in 52° 38/, N. lat., ‘‘instead of a

' Indian Myths, Boston, 1884, p. 256.
*Tanner’s Narrative, p. 122.
* Kitchi-gami, p. 344.

BOURKE. ] THE SCRATCH STICK. 491

comb they [the men] have a small stick hanging by a string from one
of the locks [of hair], which they employ to alleviate any itching or irri-
tation in the head.”!

The Tlinkit of British North America use these scratchers made
of basalt or other stone.

“The pipe-stem carrier (i. e., the carrier of the sacred or ‘medicine’
pipe) of the Crees, of British North America, dares not scratch his own
head, without compromising his own dignity, without the intervention
of a stick, which he always carries for that purpose.”?

Bancroft® quotes Walker as saying that ‘‘ a Pima never touches his
skin with his nails, but always with a small stick for that purpose,
which he renews every fourth day and wears 1m his hair.”

As part of the ceremony of “initiating youth into manhood” among
the Creeks, the young neophyte “ during the twelve moons - + ° is
also forbidden to pick his ears or scratch his head with his fingers, but
must use a small splinter to perform these operations.”* The Apache-
Yuma men carry in their hair ‘‘a slender stick or bone about 8 inches
long, which serves them as a comb.”

The idea that these scratch sticks replace combs is an erroneous one;
Indians make combs in a peculiar way of separate pieces of wood, and
they are also very fond of brushing their long locks with the coarse
brushes, which they make of sacaton or other grass.

“One other regulation, mentioned by Schomburgk, is certainly quaint;
the interesting father may not scratch himself with his finger nails, but
may use for this purpose a splinter, especially provided, from the mid-
rib of a cokerite palm.” °

When a Greenlander is about to enter into conversation with the
spirits ‘‘no one must stir, not so much as to scratch his head.”*

In the New Hebrides most of the natives ‘‘ wear a thin stick or reed,
about 9 inches long, in their hair, with which they occasionally disturb
the vermin that abound in their heads.”*

Alarcon, describing the tribes met on the Rio Colorado, in 1541, says:
“They weare certaine pieces of Deeres bones fastened to their armes,
wherewith they strike off the sweate.”°

In German folk-lore there are many references to the practice in
which the giants indulged frequently in scratching themselves, some-
times as a signal to each other. Just what significance to attach to
these stories I can not presume to say, as Grimm merely relates the fact
without comment.”

1 Voyages, p. 323.

2Kane, Wanderings of an Artist in North America, p. 399.

3Native Races, vol. 1, p. 553.

4Hawkins, quoted by Gatschet, Migration Legend of the Creeks, Philadelphia, 1834, vol. 1, p. 185.
5 Corbusier, in American Antiquarian, September, 1886, p. 279.

6 Everard F. im Thurn, Indians of Guiana, p. 218.

7Crantz, History of Greenland, London, 1767, vol. 1, pp. 210-211.

8 Forster, Voyage Round the World, vol. 2, pp. 275, 288.

®’Hakluyt, Voyages, vol. 3, p. 508.

10 Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, vol. 2, p. 544.

492 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

Of the Abyssinians, Bruce says: ‘Their hair is short and curled like
that of a negro’s in the west part of Africa, but this is done by art not
by nature, each man having a wooden stick with which he lays hold of
the lock and twists it round like a screw till it curls in the form he de
”1 Tn a foot note, he adds: “I apprehend this is the same instru-
ment used by the ancients, and censured by the prophets, which in our
translation is rendered crisping-pins.”

Possibly the constant use of the scratch stick in countries without
wood suggested that it should be carried in the hair, and hence it
would originate the fashion of wearing the hair crimped round it, and
after a while it would itself be used as a crimping-pin.

Thus far, the suggestion of a religious or ceremonial idea attaching
to the custom of scratching has not been apparent, unless we bear in
mind that the warrior setting out on the warpath never neglects to sur-
round himself with all the safeguards which the most potent incanta-
tions and “medicine” of every kind can supply. But Herbert Spencer
tells us in two places that the Creeks attach the idea of a ceremonial
observance to the custom. He says that “‘the warriors have a ceremony
of scratching each other as a sign of friendship;”? and again, ‘“scratch-
ing is practiced among young warriors as a ceremony or token of friend-
ship. When they have exchanged promises of inviolable attachment,
they proceed to seratch each other before they part.”®

Dr. J. Hampden Porter remarks that this ceremonial scratching may
be a “survival” of the blood covenant, and that in earlier times the
young warriors, instead of merely scratching each other’s arms, may
have cut the flesh and exchanged the blood. The idea seems to be a
very sensible one.

Father Alegre describes a ceremonial scratching which may have
been superseded by the scratch stick, to which the medicine-men of
certain tribes subjected the young men before they set out on the war-
path. Among the Pima and Opata the medicine-men drew from their
quivers the claws of eagles, and with these gashed the young man along
the arms from the shoulders to the wrists.*

This last paragraph suggests so strongly certain of the practices at
the sun dance of the tribes farther to the north that it may be well to
compare it with the other allusions in this paper to that dance.

It will be noticed that the use of the scratch-stick, at least among
the tribes of America, seems to be confined to the male sex; but the
information is supplied by Mr. Henshaw, of the Bureau of Ethnology,
that the Indians of Santa Barbara, Cal., made their maidens at the

sires.

1 Travels to discover the source of the Nile in the years 1768, etc., Dublin, 1791, vol. 3, p. 410.

2 Desc. Sociology.

*Ibid., quoting Schoolcraft.

4Saca de su carcax algunos pies y unas de dagnila secos y endurecidos, con los cuales, comienza 4
sajarle desde los hombros hasta las mufecas.’—Historia de la Compania de Jesus en Nueva Espafa,
Mexico, 1842, vol. 2, pp. 218, 219.

BOURKE. ] THE DRINKING REED. 493

time of attaining womanhood wear pendant from the neck a scratcher
of abalone shell, which they had to use for an indefinite period when
the scalp became irritable.

Prof. Otis T. Mason, of the National Museum, informs me that there
is a superstition in Virginia to the effect that a young woman enciente
for the first time must, under no circumstances, serateh her head with
her fingers, at least while uncovered; she must either put on gloves or
use a small stick.

The Parsi have a festival at which they serve a peculiar cake or bread
salled “draona,” which is marked by scratches from the finger nails of
the woman who has baked it.!

No stress has been laid upon the appearance in all parts of the world
of “back seratchers” or “scratch my backs,” made of ivory, bone, or
wood, and which were used for toilet purposes to remove irritation from
between the shoulder blades or along the spine where the hand itself
could not reach. They are to the present day in use among the Chinese
and Japanese, were once to be found among the Romans and other
nations of Europe, and instances of their occasional employment until
a very recent date might be supplied.

THE DRINKING REED.

Exactly what origin to ascribe to the drinking reed is now an im-
possibility, neither is it probable that the explanations which the
medicine-men might choose to make would have the slightest value in
dispelling the gloom which surrounds the subject. That the earliest
conditions of the Apache tribe found them without many of the com-
forts which have for generations been necessaries, and obliged to
resort to all sorts of expedients in cooking, carrying, or serving their
food is the most plausible presumption, but it is submitted merely as a
presumption and in no sense as a fact. It can readily be shown that
in a not very remote past the Apache and other tribes were compelled
to use bladders and reeds for carrying water, or for conveying water,
broth, and other liquid food to the lips. The conservative nature of
man in all that involves his religion would supply whatever might be
needed to make the use of such reeds obligatory in ceremonial observ-
ances wherein there might be the slightest suggestion of religious im-
pulse. We can readily imagine that among a people not well provided
with forks and spoons, which are known to have been of a much later
introduction than knives, there would be a very decided danger of
burning the lips with broth, or of taking into the mouth much earthy
and vegetable matter or ice from springs and streams at which men
or women might wish to drink, so the use of the drinking reed would
obviate no small amount of danger and discomfort.

1Shayast li-shfyast, cap. 3, par. 32, p. 284 (Max Miiller edition, Oxford, 1880). When the “drén” has
been marked with three rows of finger-nail scratches it is called a ‘‘frasast.”’

494 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

Water was carried in reeds by the Dyaks of Borneo, according to
Bock.!. The manner in which the natives of the New Hebrides and
other islands of the South Pacific Ocean carry water in bamboo joints
recalls the Zuni method of preserving the sacred water of the ocean in
hollow reeds.”

Mr. F. H. Cushing shows that
‘‘so far as language indicates the
character of the earliest water
vessels which to any extent met
the requirements of the Zuni an-
cestry, they were tubes of wood
or sections of canes.”* Long af-
ter these reeds had disappeared
from common use, the priests still
persisted in their use for carry-
ing the water for the sacred cer-
emonies. The mother of the king
of Uganda gave to Speke “a
beautifully-worked pombé suck-
ing-pipe.”* For ordinary purposes these people have “drinking gourds.”

seu

Fic, 482.—The scratch stick and drinking reed.

through a reed;° and, later on in his narrative, we learn that the reed
is generally used for the purposes of drinking. “The Malabars reck-
oned it insolent to touch the vessel with their lips when drinking.”®
They made use of vessels with a spout, which were no more and no
less than the small hollow-handled soup ladles of the Zuni and Tusa-
yan, through which they sipped their hot broth.

In an ancient grave excavated not far from Salem, Massachusetts, in
1873, were found five skeletons, one of which was supposed to be that
of the chief Nanephasemet, who was killed in 1605 or 1606. He was
the king of Namkeak. On the breast of this skeleton were discovered
“several small copper tubes . . . from 4 to 8 inches in length, and
from one-eighth to one-fourth of an inch in diameter, made of copper
rolled up, with the edges lapped.”

Alarcon relates that the tribes seen on the Rio Colorado by him in
1541, wore on one arm “certain small pipes of cane.” But the object
or purpose of wearing these is not indicated.°

The natives of the Friendly Islands carried in their ears little cylin-
ders of reed, although we learn that these were “filled with a red solid

1 Head-Hunters of Borneo, London, 1881, p. 139.

2See, for the New Hebrides, Forster, Voyage Round the World, vol. 2, p. 255.

3Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1882-'83, p. 482.

*Speke, Source of the Nile, London, 1863, pp. 306, 310.

’ Cameron, Across Africa, London, 1877, vol. 1, p. 276.

De Gama’s Discovery of the East Indies, in Knox, Voyages, London, 1767, vol, 2, p. 324.
7 Andrew K. Ober, in the Salem Gazette, Salem, Mass.

sHakluyt, Voyages, vol. 3, p. 508; also, Ternaux-Compans, Voy., vol. 9, pp. 307, 308.

BOURKE.] THE DRINKING REED. 495

substance.”' Among the Narrinyeri of Australia, when young men are
to be initiated into the rank of warriors, during the ceremonies ‘ they
are allowed to drink water, but only by sucking it up through a reed.”?
Admiral you Wrangel says of the Tehuktchi of Siberia: “They suck
their broth through a small tube of reindeer bone,” which ‘ each indi-
vidual carries about with him.”* Padre Sahagun says that the human
victim whom the Aztecs offered up in sacrifice was not allowed to
touch water with his lips, but had to suck it through a reed.” *

“The Mexicans had a forty-days’ fastin memory of one of their sacred
persons who was tempted forty days ona mountain. He drinks through
areed. He is called the Morning Star.”> The Mexicans, according to
Fray Diego Duran, placed before the statues of their dead bowls of
“vino,” with ‘“rosas,” tobacco (this seems to be the proper translation
of the word “humazos,” smokes), and a reed called the “drinker of the
sun,” through which the spirit could imbibe. °

“The suction pipes of steatite,” mentioned by Schoolcraft, as found in
the mounds, may have been the equivalents of our drinking reeds, and
made of steatite to be the more readily preserved in the ritual of which
they formed part.

Copper cylinders 14 inches long and 2 of an inch in diameter were found
in the mounds of the Mississippi Valley by Squier and Davis. The
conjecture that they had been used “for ornaments” does not seem
warranted.’

We should not forget that there was a semideification of the reed
itself by the Aztecin their assignment of it to a place in their calendar
under the name of ‘acatl.” °

Mrs. Ellen Russell Emerson speaks of the custom the warriors of the
northern tribes had which suggests that she had heard of the drinking
reed withoutexactly understanding whatitmeant. Shesays that warriors
carry bowls of birch bark “from one side of which the warrior drinks
in going to battle—from the other, on his return. These bowls are not
carried home, but left on the prairie, or suspended from trees within a
day’s journey of his village.” ®

Amoug the Brahmans practices based upon somewhat similar ideas
are to be found: every morning, upon rising, ‘ils prennent trois fois de
Veau dans la main, & en jettent trois fois dans leur bouche, évitant d’y
toucher avee la main.” !°

' Forster, Voyage Round the World, vol. 1, p. 435.

2Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, vol. 1. p. 66.

3 English edition, New York, 1842, p. 271.

4 Kingsborough, vol. 6, p. 100.

5 Godfrey Higgins, Anacalypsis, vol. 2, book 1, cap. 4, sec. 9, p. 31.

6Y ponia delante un canuto grande y queso [grueso?] para con que bebiese: este canuto llamaban
“*bebedero del Sol.'’—Diego Duran, vol. 1, cap. 38, p. 386.

7 Smithsonian Contributions, vol. 1. p. 151.

®The reed, which is the proper meaning of the word ‘‘acatl,”’ is the hieroglyphic of the element
water. Veytia, quoted by Thomas, in 3rd Ann. Rep., Bu. Eth.. 1881-1882, p. 42 et seq.

*Indian Myths, Boston, 1884, p. 260.

10 Picart, Cérémonies et Cofittumes Réligieuses de tons les Peuples du Monde, Amsterdam, 1736,
vol. 6, part 2, p. 103

496 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

The fundamental reason upon which the use of the drinking reed is
based is that the warrior or devotee shall not let water touch his lips.
It is strange to find among the regulations with regard to taking water
by the warrior caste: ‘*He shall not sip water while walking, standing,
lying down, or bending forward.” !

The Dharma-sttra, traditionally connected with the Rishi-Vasishtha,
of the Seventh Mandala of the Rig-Veda, is a relic of a Vedie school of
the highest antiquity. Its seat was in the present northwestern prov-
inces of India, and, like the Dharmasastra of Gautama, it is the sole
surviving record from this source. ?

There was another service performed by reeds or tubes in the domestic
economy of nations around the north pole. As the Apache are derived
from an Arctic ancestry it does not seem amiss to allude to it. Lord
Lonsdale, in describing the capture of a whale which he witnessed, says
that the Eskimo women “first of all gathered up the harpoons and
then pulled out all the spears. As each spear was withdrawn a blow-
pipe was pushed into the wound and the men blew into it, after which
the opening was tied up. When every wound had been treated in this
manner the whale resembled a great windbag and floated high in the
water.”

In the National Museum at Washington, D. C., there are many pipes
made of the bones of birds, which were used by the Inuit as drinking
tubes when water had to be taken into the mouth from holes cut in the
ice. These drinking tubes seem to be directly related to our subject,
although they may also have been used as Lonsdale describes the pipes
for blowing the dead whale full of air. Another point to be mentioned
is that the eagle pipe kept in the mouth of the young warrior undergo-
ing the torture of the sun dance among the Sioux and other tribes on
the plains is apparently connected with the ‘‘bebedero del Sol” of the
peoples to the south.*

The use of this drinking reed, shown to have been once so intimately
associated with human sacrifice, may have disappeared upon the intro-
duction of labrets, which seem, in certain cases at least, to be associated
with the memory of enemies killed in battle, which would be only
another form of human sacrifice. This suggestion is advanced with
some misgivings, and only as a hypothesis to assist in determining for
what purpose labrets and drinking tubes have been employed. The
Apache have discontinued the use of the labret, which still is to be
found among their congeners along the Lower Yukon, but not among
those living along the lower river.!. According to Dall the custom was
probably adopted from the Inuit; he also shows that whenever labrets
are worn in a tribe they are worn by both sexes, and that the women
asstune them at the first appearance of the catamenia.

1Vasishtha, cap. 3, pars. 26-30, pp, 20-21. Sacred Books of the East, Oxford, 1882, vol. 14, edition of
Max Miller.

2Thid.

3 Diego Duran, loc. cit.

45ee Dall, Masks and Labrets, p. 151.

BOURKE. ] LABRETS. 497

“This is to be noted, that how many men these Savages [Brazilians]
doe kill, so many holes they will havein their visage, beginning first in
their nether lippe, then in their cheekes, thirdly, in both their eye-browes,
and lastly in their eares.” !

Cabeza de Vaca speaks of the Indians near Malhado Island, “They
likewise have the nether lippe bored, and within the same they carrie <
piece of thin Cane about halfe a finger thicke.”*? Herrera relates very
nearly the same of the men of “Florida”: “Traian una tetilla oradada,
metido por el agujero un pedacgo de Cana, i el labio baxero tambien
agujereado, con otra cana en él.”* But Herrera probably obtained his
data from the narrative of Vaca.

In looking into this matter of labrets as connected or suspected as
being in some way connected with the drinking reed, we should not
expect to find the labret adhering very closely to the primitive form,
because the labret, coming to be regarded more and more as an orna-
ment, would allow greater and greater play to the fancy of the wearer
or manufacturer, much the same as the crosses now worn by ladies,
purely as matter of decoration, have become so thoroughly examples of
dexterity in filagree work as to have lost the original form and signifi-
cance as a declaration of faith. But it is a subject of surprise to find
that the earlier writers persistently allude to the labrets in the lips of
the Mexican deities, which probably were most tenacious of primitive
forms, as being shaped like little reeds—* canutillos.”

Herrera says of Tescatlipoca: “Que era el Dios de la Penitencia, i
de los Jubileos . . . Tenia Carcillo de Oro, i Plata en el labio baxo,
con un canutillo cristalino, de un geme de largo.”* The high priest,
he says, was called topilgin, and in sacrificing human victims he wore
“ debaxo del labio, junto al medio dela barba, una piega como canutillo,
de una piedra acul.”*

Father Acosta also speaks of the tube (canon) of erystal worn by
Tezeatlipoca in the lower lip: ‘‘ En la leure d’embas un petit canon de
erystal, de la longueur @un xeme ou demy pied.” °

Speaking of Quetzalcoatl Clavigero says: “From the under lip
hung a crystal tube.”* From Diego Duran’s account of this “ bezote”
or labret if must have been hollow, as he says it contained a feather:
“En el labio bajo tenia un bezote de un veril cristalino y en el estaba
metida una pluma verde y otras veces azul.”®

In the Popul Vuh is to be found a myth whieh gives an account of
the origin of labrets. It relates that two night watchers over the flowers

1Peter Carder, an Englishman captive among the Brazilians. 1578-1586, in Purchas, vol. 4. lib. 6,
cap. 5, p. 1189.

2 Purchas, vol. 4, lib. 8, cap. 1, sec. 2, p. 1508.

3 Dec. 4, lib. 4, p. 69.

4Dec. 3, lib. 2, p. 67.

5Tbid., p. 70.

6 Histoire Naturelle des Indes, Paris, 1600, lib. 5, cap, 9, p. 224.

7 History of Mexico, Philadelphia, 1817, vol. 2, p. 6.

8 Duran, op. cit., vol. 3, cap. 4, p. 211.

9 ETH——32

498 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

in the garden of Xibalba had in some manner proved derelict in duty,
and had their lips split as a punishment. !

In Paraguay a tribe called the Chiriguanes, ‘‘se percent la levre
inférieure & ils y attachent un petit Cilindre d’étain ou (argent, ou de
Resine transparente. Ce prétendu ornement s’appelle Tembeta.”?

'Brasseur de Bourbourg’s translation, cap. 12, p. 175.
2Picart, Cérémonies et Cofiitumes Réligieuses de tous lea Peuples du Monde, Amsterdam, 1743,
vol. 8, p. 287.

CEA REDE Re do:

HODDENTIN, THE POLLEN OF THE TULE, THE SACRIFICIAL
POWDER OF THE APACHE; WITH REMARKS UPON SACRED
POWDERS AND BREAD OFFERINGS IN GENERAL.

“Trifles not infrequently lead to important results. In every walk of
science a trifle disregarded by incurious thousands has repaid the
inquisitiveness of a single observer with unhoped-for knowledge.” !

The taciturnity of the Apache in regard to all that concerns their
religious ideas is a very marked feature of their character; probably no
tribe with which our people have come in contact has succeeded more
thoroughly in preserving from profane inquiry a complete knowledge
of matters relating to their beliefs and ceremonials. How much of this
ignorance is to be attributed to interpreters upon whom reliance has
necessarily been placed, and how much to the indisposition of the
Apache to reveal anything concerning himself, it would be fruitless to
inquire, but, in my own experience, when I first went among them in
New Mexico and Arizona twenty-three years ago, I was foolish enough
to depend greatly upon the Mexican captives who had lived among
the Apache since boyhood, and who might be supposed to know exactly
what explanation to give of every ceremony in which the Apache might
engage. Nearly every one of these captives, or escaped captives, had
married among the Apache, and had raised families of half-breed
children, and several of them had become more Apache than the Apache
themselves. Yet I was time and again assured by several of these in-
terpreters that the Apache had no religion, and even after I had made
some progress in my investigations, at every turn Lwas met by the
most contradictory statements, due to the interpreter’s desire to inject.
his own views and not to give a frank exposition of those submitted by
the Apache. Thus, an Apache god would be transmuted into either a
“santo” or a * diablo,” according to the personal bias of the Mexican
who happened to be assisting me. ‘“ Assanutlije” assumed the disguise
of “‘ Maria Santissima,” while ceremonies especially sacred and benefi-
cent in the eyes of the savages were stigmatized as “ brujeria” and
‘“hechiceria ” (witchcraft) in open defiance of the fact that the Apache
have as much horror and dread of witches as the more enlightened of
their brethren who in past ages suffered from their machinations in

1Deane, Serpent Worship, London, 1833, p. 410.

500 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

Europe and America. The interpreters had no intention to deceive;
they were simply unable to disengage themselves from their own preju-
dices and their ow ignorance; they could not, and they would not,
credit the existence ofany such thing as
religion, save and excepting that taught
them at their mothers’ knees in the petty
hamlets of Sonora and of which they still
preserved hazy and distorted recollec-
tions. Oneofthe first things to be noticed
among the Apache, in this connection,
was the very general appearance of little
bags of buckskin, sometimes ornamented,
sometimes plain, which were ordinarily
attached to the belts of the warriors, and
of which they seemed to be especially
careful.!

What follows in this chapter was not
learned in an hour or a day, but after a
z long course of examination and a com-
parison of statements extracted from dif-
ferent authorities.

The bags spoken of revealed when opened a quantity of yellow colored
flour or powder, resembling cornmeal, to which the Apache gave the
name of ‘* hoddentin,” or “ hadntin,” the meaning of which word is “ the
powder or pollen of the tule,” a variety of the cat-tail rush, growing in
all the little ponds and cienegas of the Southwest.

I made it the touchstone of friendship that every scout or other
Apache who wished for a favor at my hands should relate something
concerning his religious belief. I did not care much what topic he se-
lected; it might be myths, clan laws, war customs, medicine—anything
he pleased, but it had to be something and it had to be accurate.
Hoddentin having first attracted my attention, I very naturally made
many of my first inquiries about it, and, while neglecting no opportunity
for independent observation, drew about me the most responsible men
and women, heard what each had to say, carefully compared and con-
trasted it with the statements of the others, and now give the result.

I noticed that in the dances for the benefit of the sick the medicine-
men in the intervals between chants applied this yellow powder to the
forehead of the patient, then in form of a cross upon his breast, then in
a circle around his couch, then upon the heads of the chanters and of
sympathizing friends, and lastly upon their own heads and into their
own mouths. There is a considerable difference in method, as medi-
cine-men allow themselves great latitude, or a large ‘“‘ personal equa-

Fic. 433.—Bag containing hoddentin.

1The medicine sack or bag of the Apache, containing their ‘‘ hoddentin,” closely resembles the
“bulle"’ of the Romans—in which ‘On y mettait des préservatifs contre les maléfices."’ Musée de
Naples, London, 1836, p. 4. Copy shown me by Mr. Spofford, of the Library of Congress.

BOURKE. ] HODDENTIN. 501

.

tion,” in all their dealings with the supernatural. No Apache would,
if it could be avoided, go on the warpath without a bag of this precious
powder somewhere wpon his person, generally, as I have said, attached
to his ammunition belt. Whenever one was wounded, hurt, or taken
sick while on a scout, the medicine-man of the party would walk in
front of the horse or mule ridden by the patient and scatter at intervals
little pinches of hoddentin, that his path might be made easier. As
was said tome: ‘ When we Apache go on the warpath, hunt, or plant,
we always throw a pinch of hoddentin to the sun, saying ‘ with the
favor of the sun, or permission of the sun, I am going out to fight,
hunt, or plant,’ as the case may be, ‘and I want the sun to help me.’”

I have noticed that the Apache, when worn out with marching, put
a pinch of hoddentin on their tongues as a restorative.

‘““Hoddentin is eaten by sick people as a remedy.”!

“Before starting out on the warpath, they take a pinch of hoddentin,
throw it to the sun, and also put a pinch on their tongues and one on
the crown of the head. . . . When they return, they hold a
dance, and on the morning of that day throw pinches of hoddentin to
the rising sun, and then to the east, south, west, and north, to the four
winds.”?

IT am unable to assert that hoddentin is used in any way at the
birth of a child; but I know that as late as 1886 there was not a babe
upon the San Carlos reservation, no matter how tender its age, that did
not have asmall bag of hoddentin attached to its neck or dangling
from its cradle. Neither can I assert anything about its use at time of
marriage, because, among the Apache, marriage is by purchase, and
attended with little, if any, ceremony. But when an Apache girl at-
tains the age of puberty, among other ceremonies performed upon her,
they throw hoddentin to the sun and strew it about her and drop on
her head flour of the pinon, which flour is called by the Chiricahua
Apache “ nostchi,” and by the Sierra Blanca Apache “ opé.”*

“ Upon attaining the age of puberty, girls fast one whole day, pray,
and throw hoddentin to the sun.”* When an Apache dies, if a medi-
cine-man be near, hoddentin is sprinkled upon the corpse. The Apache
buried in the clefts of rocks, but the Apache-Mohave cremated. “ Be-
fore lighting the fire the medicine-men of the Apache-Mohave put hod-
dentin on the dead person’s breast in the form of a cross, on the fore-
head, shoulders, and scattered a little about.”*

The very first thing an Apache does in the morning is to blow a little
pinch of hoddentin to the dawn. The Apache worship both dawn
and darkness, as well as the sun, moon, and several of the planets.

1 Information of T'ze-go-juni.

2Information of Concepcion.

3See notes, a few pages farther on, from Kohl; also those from Godfrey Higgins. he word “‘opé”
suggests the name the Tusayan have for themselves, Opi, or Opika, ‘‘ bread people.”

‘Information of T'ze-go-juni.

® Information of Mike Burns.

502 " MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

“When the sun rises we cast a pinch of hoddentin toward him, and
we do the same thing to the moon, but not to the stars, saying ‘Gun-
ju-le, chigo-na-ay, si-chi-zi, gun-ju-le, inzayu, ijanale,’ meaning ‘Be good,
O Sun, be good.” ‘Dawn, long time let me live’; or, ‘Don’t let me die
for a long time,’ and at night, ‘Gun-jr-le, chil-jilt, si-chi-zi, gun-ju-le,
inzayu, ijanale, meaning ‘Be good, O Night; Twilight, be good; do not
let me die.” ‘In going on a hunt an Apache throws hoddentin and
says ‘Gun-ju-le, chigo-na-ay, cha-ut-si, ping, kladitza,’ meaning ‘Be
good, O Sun, make me succeed deer to kill.’”!

The name of the full moon in the Apache language is ‘‘ klego-na-ay,”
but the crescent moon is called “tzontzose” and hoddentin is always
offered to it.”

“ Hoddentin is thrown to the sun, moon (at times), the morning star,
and occasionally to the wagon.”* “The Apache offer much hoddentin
to ‘Na-u-kuzze,’ the Great Bear.”* ‘Our custom is to throw a very
small pinch of hoddentin at dawn to the rising sun.

95

“The women of
the Chiricahua throw no hoddentin to the moon, but pray to it, saying:
“Gun-jule, klego-na-ay,” (be good, O Moon).®

When the Apache plant corn the medicine-men bury eagle-plume
sticks in the fields, scatter hoddentin, and sing. When the corn is
partially grown they scatter pinches of hoddentin over it.*

The “eagle-plume sticks” mentioned in the preceding paragraph sug-
gests the “ke-thawn” mentioned by Matthews in “The Mountain
Chant.”®

“When a person is very sick the Apache make a great fire, place the
patient near it, and dance in a circle around him and the fire, at the
same time singing and sprinkling him with hoddentin in the form of a
eross on head, breast, arms, and legs.”°

In November, 1885, while at the San Carlos agency, I had an inter-
view with Nantadotash, an old blind medicine-man of the Akane or
Willow gens, who had with him a very valuable medicine-hat which he
refused to sell, and only with great reluctance permitted me to touch,
Taking advantage of his infirmity, I soon had a picture drawn in my
notebook, and the text added giving the symbolism of all the orna-
mentation attached. Upon discovering this, the old man became much
excited, and insisted upon putting a pinch of hoddentin upon the draw-
ing, and then recited a prayer, which I afterwards succeeded in getting
verbatim. After the prayer was finished, the old man arose and
marked with hoddentin the breast of his wife, of Moses, of Antonio,

| Information of Mickey Free.

2Informat.on of Alchise, Mike, and others.

‘Information of Francesca and other captive Chiricahua squaws.
4Tnformation of Moses Henderson.

5 Information of Chato.

® Information of Tze-go-juni.

7 Information of Moses Henderson and other Apache at San Carlos.
Bureau of Ethnology, Report for 1883-'84.

8Tnformation of Francesca and others.

BOURKE. ] HODDENTIN. 503

of other Apache present, and then of myself, putting a large pinch
over my heart and upon each shoulder, and then placed the rest upon
his own tongue. He explained that I had taken the “life” out of his
medicine hat, and, notwithstanding the powers of his medicine, returned
in less than a month with a demand for $30 as damages. His hat
never was the same after I drew it. My suggestion that the applica-
tion of a little soap might wash away the clots of grease, soot, and
earth adhering to the hat, and restore its pristine efficacy were received
with the scorn due to the sneers of the scoffer.

“Tn time of much lightning, the Apache throw hoddentin and say:
‘Gun-ju-le, ittindi,’ be good, Lightning.”!

Fic. 434. Nan-ta-do-tash's medicine hat.

Tzit-jizinde, ‘the Man who likes Everybody,” who said he belonged
to the Inoschujochin—Manzanita or Bearberry clan—showed me how
to pray with hoddentin in time of lightning or storm or danger of any
kind. Taking a small pinch in his fingers, he held it out at arm’s
length, standing up, and repeated his prayer, and then blew his breath
hard. Iwas once with a party of Apache while a comet was visible. I
called their attention to it, but they did not seem to care. On the
other hand, Antonio told me that the “biggest dance” the Apache
ever had was during the time that “‘the stars all fell out of the sky”
(1833).

“The only act of a religious character which I observed . . . was
shortly after crossing the river they [i. e., the American officers] were

\ Information of Tze-go-juni.

504 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

met by a small party of the Indians, one of whom chalked a cross on
the breast of each, with a yellow earth, which he carried in a satchel at
his belt. Previous to doing so he muttered some words very solemnly
with his hands nplifted and eyes thrown upwards. Again, on arriving
at the camp of the people, the chief and others in greeting them took
a similar vow, touching thereafter the yellow chalked cross. Sonora
may have furnished them with some of their notions of a Deity.”!

“The yellow earth,” seen by Dr. Smart was, undoubtedly, hoddentin,
earried in a medicine bag at the belt of a medicine-man. Some years
ago I went out with Al. Seiber and a small party of Apache to examine
three of their ‘‘sacred caves” in the Sierra Pinal and Sierra Ancha. No
better opportunity could have been presented for noting what they did.
The very last thing at night they intoned a “medicine” song, and at early
dawn they were up to throw a pinch of hoddentin to the east.

Moses and John, two of the Apache mentioned above, requested per-
mission to go off in the mountains after deer and bear, supposed to be
plentiful in the higher altitudes. Before leaving camp, Moses blew a
pinch of hoddentin toward the sun, repeating his prayer for success,
and ending it with a sharp, snappy ‘‘ek,” as if to call attention. In
one of the sacred caves visited on this trip, the Apache medicine-men
assembled for the purpose of holding their snake dance. This I have
never seen among the Apache, but that they celebrate it and that it is
fully the equal of the repulsive rite which I have witnessed and noted
among the Tusayan? I am fully assured. I may make reference to some
of its features in the chapter upon animal worship and ophie rites.

From a multiplicity of statements, the following are taken: Concep-
cion had seen the snake dance over on the Carrizo, near Camp Apache;
the medicine-men threw hoddentin upon the snakes. He said: “After
getting through with the snake, the medicine-man suffered it to glide
off, covered with the hoddentin, thrown by admiring devotees.”

Mike Burns had no remembrance of seeing hoddentin thrown to the
sun. He had seen it thrown to the snake, “in a kind of worship.”

Nott and Antonio stated that “when they find that a snake has
wriggled across the trail, especially the trail to be followed by a war
party, they throw hoddentin upon the trail.” Nott took a pinch of
hoddentin, showed how to throw it upon the snake, and repeated the
prayer, which I recorded.

Corbusier instances a remedy in use among the Tonto Apache. This
consisted in applying a rattlesnake to the head or other part suffering
from pain. He continues : “After a time the medicine-man rested the
snake on the ground again, and, still retaining his hold of it with his
right hand, put a pinch of yellow pollen into its mouth with his left,
and rubbed some along its belly.’

1Smart, in Smithsonian Report for 1867, p. 419.

2Snake Dance of Moquis of Arizona, New York, 1884.

3In the third volume of Kingsborough, on plate 17 (Aztec picture belonging to M. Pejernavy, Pesth,
Hungary), an Aztec, probably a priest, is shown offering food to a snake, which eats it out of his hand.

BOURKE. ] HODDENTIN. 505

He then held his hand out to a man, who took a pinch of the powder
and rubbed it on the crown of a boy’s head. Yellow pollen treated in
this manner is a common remedy for headache, and may frequently be
seen on the crowns of the heads of men and boys.”!

Hoddentin is used in the same manner as a remedy for headache among
the San Carlos Apache, but the medicine-men apply a snake to the
person of a patient only when their “diagnosis” has satisfied them that
he has been guilty of some unkindness toa snake, such as stepping
upon it, in which case they pretend that they can cure the man by
applying to the part affected the portion of the reptile’s body upon
which he trampled.

The Apache state that when their medicine-men go out to catch snakes
for their snake dance, they recite a prayer and lay their left hand, in
which is some hoddentin, at the opening of the snake’s den, through
which the reptile must crawl, and, after a short time the snake will
come out and allow himself to be handled.

Hoddentin is also offered to other animals, especially the bear, of
which the Apache, like their congeners the Navajo, stand in great awe
and reverence. When abear is killed, the dance which is held becomes
frenzied; the skin is donned by all the men, and much hoddentin is
thrown, if if can be obtained. One of these dances which I saw in the
Sierra Madre, Mexico, in 1883, lasted all night, without a moment’s
cessation in the singing and prancing of the participants.

A great deal of hoddentin is offered to the “ka-chu” (great or jack
rabbit).”

The Apache medicine-man, Nakay-do-klunni, called by the whites
“Bobbydoklinny,” exercised great influence over his people at Camp
Apache, in 1881. He boasted of his power to raise the dead, and pre-
dicted that the whites should soon be driven from the land. He also
drilled the savages in a peculiar dance, the like of which had never been
seen among them. The participants, men and women, arranged them-
selves in files, facing a common center, like the spokes of a wheel, and
while thus dancing hoddentin was thrown upon them in profusion.
This prophet or “doctor” was killed in the engagement in the Cibicu
canyon, August 30, 1881.

In a description of the ‘‘altars” made by the medicine-men of the
Apache-Yuma at or near Camp Verde, Arizona, it is shown that this
sacred powder is freely used. Figures were drawn upon the ground
to represent the deities of the tribe, and the medicine-men dropped on
all, except three of them, a pinch of yellow powder (hoddentin) which
was taken froma small buckskin bag. This powder was put upon the
head, chest, or other part of the body of the patient.

Surgeon Corbusier, U.S. Army,* says that the ceremony just described
was ‘‘ a most sacred one and entered into for the purpose of averting the

' Corbusier, in American Antiquarian, November, 1883, pp. 336-37.
° Information of Moses Henderson.
3 American Antiquarian, Sept. and Nov., 1886.

506 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

diseases with which the Apache at Camp Verde had been afflicted the
summer previous.”

Tam not sure that the Apache-Yuma have not borrowed the use of
hoddentin from the Apache. My reason for expressing this opinion is
that I have never seen an Apache without a little bag of hoddentin
when it was possible for him to get it, whereas I have never seen an
Apache-Yuma with it except when he was about to start out on the
warpath. The “altars” referred to by Corbusier are made also by the
Apache, Navajo, Zuni, and Tusayan. Those of the Apache, as might be
inferred from their nomadic state, were the crudest; those of the Navajo,
Zuni, and Tusayan display a wonderful degree of artistic excellence.
The altars of the Navajo have been described and illustrated by Dr.
Washington Matthews,' and those of the Tusayan by myself.’

Moses Henderson, wishing me to have a profitable interview with his
father, who was a great snake doctor among the Apache, told me that
when he brought him to see me I should draw two lines across each
other on his right foot, and at their junction place a bead of the chal-
chihuitl, the cross to be drawn with hoddentin. The old man would
then tell me all he knew.

The Apache, I learned, at times offer hoddentin to fire, an example
of pyrodulia for which I had been on the lookout, knowing that the
Navajo have fire dances, the Zuni the Feast of the Little God of Fire,
and the Apache themselves are not ignorant of the fire dance.

Hoddentin seems to be used to strengthen all solemn compacts and
to bind faith. I had great trouble with a very bright medicine-man
named Na-a-cha, who obstinately refused to let me look at the contents
of aphylaetery which he constantly wore until I let him know that I, too,
was a medicine-man of eminence. The room in which we had our con-
versation was the quarters of the post surgeon, at that time absent on
scout. The chimney piece was loaded with bottles containing all kinds
of drugs and medicines. I remarked carelessly to Na-a-cha that if he
doubted my powers I would gladly burn a hole through his tongue with
a drop of fluid from the vial marked ‘“ Acid, nitric,” but he concluded
that my word was sufficient, and after the door was locked to secure us
from intrusion he consented to let me open and examine the phylactery
and make a sketch of its contents. To guard against all possible
trouble, he put a pinch of hoddentin on each of my shoulders, on the
crown of my head, and on my chest and back. The same performance
was gone through with in his own case. He explained that hoddentin
was good for men to eat, that it was good medicine for the bear, and
that the bear liked to eat it. I thought that herein might be one clew
to the reason why the Apache used it as a medicine. The bear loves
the tule swamp, from which, in days primeval, he sallied out to attack
the squaws and children gathering the tule powder or tule bulb. Poorly

1 Ann. Rep. Bu. Eth., 1883-’84.
2Snake Dance of the Moquis.

BOURKE. ] THE KUNQUE OF THE ZUNI. 507

armed, as they then were, the Apache must have had great trouble in
resisting him; hence they hope to appease him by offering a sacrifice
acceptable to his palate. If acceptable to the chief animal god, as the
bear seems to have been, as he certainly was the most dangerous, then
it would have been also acceptable to the minor deities like the puma,
snake, eagle, etc., and, by an easy transition, to the sun, moon, and
other celestial powers. This opinion did not last long, as will be shown.
From its constant association with all sacrifices and all acts of worship,
hoddentin would naturally become itself sanctified and an object of
worship, just as rattles, drums, standards, holy grails, ete., in differ-
ent parts of the world have become fetichistic. I was not in the least
surprised when I heard Moses Henderson reciting a prayer, part of
which ran thus: ‘‘Hoddentin eshkin, bi hoddentin ashi” (‘*‘ Hoddentin
child, you hoddentin I offer”), and to learn that it was a personification
of hoddentin.

The fact that the myths of the Apache relate that Assanut-li-je
spilled hoddentin over the surface of the sky to make the Milky Way
may be looked upon as an inchoate form of a calendar, just as the
Aztecs transferred to their calendar the reed, rabbit, ete.

So constant is the appearance of hoddentin in ceremonies of a reli-
gious nature among the Apache that the expression ‘ hoddentin
schlawn” (plenty of hoddentin) has come to mean that a particular per-
formance or place is sacred. Yet, strange to say, this sacred pollen of
the tule is gathered without any special ceremony; at least, I noticed
none when I saw it gathered, although I should not fail to record that
at the time of which I speak the Apache and the Apache- Yuma were
returning from an arduous campaign, in which blood had been shed,
and everything they did—the bathing in thesweat lodges and the sing-
ing of the Apache and the plastering of mud upon their heads by the
Apache-Yuma—had a reference to the lustration or purgation necessary
under such circumstances. Not only men but women may gather the
pollen. When the tule is not within reach our eat-tail rush is used.
Thus, the Chiricahua, confined at Fort Pickens, Florida, gathered the
pollen of the cat-tail rush, some of which was given me by one of the
women who gathered it.

Before making an examination into the meaning to be attached to the
use of hoddentin, it is well to determine whether or not such a powder
or anything analogous to it is to be found among the tribes adjacent.

THE ‘‘KUNQUE” OF THE ZUNI AND OTHERS.

The term “kunque” as it appears in this chapter is oneof convenience
only. Each pueblo, or rather each set of pueblos, has its own name in
its own language, as, for example, the people of Laguna and Acoma,
who employ it in all their ceremonies as freely as do the Zuni, call
it in their tongue “ hinawa.” In every pueblo which I visited—and
I visited them all, from Oraibi of Tusayan, on the extreme west, to

508 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

Picuris, on the extreme east; from Taos, in the far north, to Isleta del
Sur, in Texas—I came upon this kunque, and generally in such quan-
tities and so openly exposed and so freely used that I was both aston-
ished and gratified; astonished that after centuries of contact with the
Caucasian the natives should still adhere with such tenacity to the
ideas of a religion supposed to have been extirpated, and gratified to
discover a lever which I could. employ in prying into the meaning of
other usages and ceremonials.

Behind the main door in the houses at Santa Clara, San Ildefonso,
Picuris, Laguna, Acoma, San Felipe, Jemez, and other towns, there is a
niche containing a bowl or saucer filled with this sacred meal, of which the
good housewife is careful to throw a pinch to the sun at early dawn and
to the twilight at eventide. In every ceremony among the Pueblos natu-
rally enough, more particularly among those who have been living farthest
from the Mexicans, the lavish scattering of sacred meal is the marked
feature of the oceasion. At the snake dance of the Tusayan, in 1881,
the altars were surrounded with baskets of pottery and with flat
plaques of reeds, which were heaped high with kunque. When the
procession moved out from under the arcade and began to make the
round of the sacred stone the air was white with meal, and in my imag-
ination I could see that if was a procession of Druids circling about a
‘sacred stone” in Ireland previous to the coming of St. Patrick. When
the priests threw the snakes down upon the ground it was within a
circle traced with kunque, and soon the snakes were covered with the
same meal flung upon them by the squaws. There was only one scalp
left among the Tusayan in 1881, but there were several among the Zuni,
and one or two each at Acoma and Laguna. In every one of these
towns kunque was offered to the scalps.

At the feast of the Little God of Fire among the Zuni, in 1881, my
personal notes relate that “the moment the head of the procession
touched the knoll upon whick the pueblo is built the mass of people
began throwing kunque upon the Little God and those with him as well
as on the ground in front of, beside, and behind them. This kunque
was contained in sacred basket-shaped bowls of earthenware. The
spectators kept the air fairly misty with clouds of the sacred kunque.
This procession passed around the boundaries of the pueblo of Zuni,
stopping at eight holes in the ground for the purpose of enacting a cer-
emonial of consecration suggestive of the ‘terminalia’ of the Romans.
They visited each of the holes, which were 18 inches deep and 12 inches
square, with a sandstone slab to serve as a cover. Hach hole was filled
with kunque and sacrificial plumes. * * * ‘Every morning of the year,
when the sky is clear, at the rising of Lucero [the morning star], at the
crowing of the cock, we throw corn flour |kunque]tothesun. I amnever
without my bag of kunque; here itis [drawing it from his belt]. Every
Zuni has one. We offer it to the sun for good rain and good crops.’”!

‘Interview with Pedro Pino.

BOURKE. ] USES OF KUNQUE. 509

Subsequently Pedro went on to describe in detail a phallic dance and
ceremony, in which there was a sort of divination. The young maiden
who made the lucky guess was richly rewarded, while her less fortunate
companions were presented with a handful of kunque, which they kept
during the ensuing year. Thisdance is called “ Iy’aklu,” and is independ-
ent of the great phallic dance occurring in the month of December.
Pedro also stated that until very recently the Zuni were in the habit of
celebrating a fire dance at Noche Buena (Christmas). There were four
piles of wood gathered for the occasion, and upon each the medicine-
men threw kunque in profusion. This dance, as Pedro described it,
closely resembled one mentioned by Landa in his Cosas de Yucatan.
High up on the vertical face of the precipice of Taaiyalana there is a
phallic shrine of the Zuni to which I climbed with Mr. Frank Cushing.
We found that the place had been visited by young brides who were
desirous of becoming mothers. The offerings in every case included
kunque. :

In the account given in the National Tribune, Washington, District of
Columbia, May 20, 1886, of the mode of life of the Zuni woman Wehwa
while in the national capital, and while engaged in the kirmes, we read:

She also strewed sacred corn meal along on her way to the theater to bring good
luck to her andthe other dancers. * * * She has gone from her comfortable room
to pray in the street at daylight every morning, whatever the weather has been. ~*
* * Ai such times she strews corn meal all around her until the front-door steps
and the sidewalk are much daubed with dough. But this is not the corn meal in
common use in the United States, but is sacred meal ground in Zuni with sacred
stones.'

So long a time has elapsed since any of the Pueblos have been on the
warpath that no man can describe their actual war customs except from
the dramatic ceremonial of their dances or from the stories told him by
the ‘old men.” The following trom an eyewitness will therefore be of
interest: “Before the Pueblos reached the heights they were ordered to
scale they halted on the way to receive from their chiefs some medicine
from the medicine bags which each of them carried about his person.
This they rubbed upon their heart, as they said, to make it big and
brave, and they also rubbed it upon other parts of their bodies and
upon their rifles for the same purpose.” ?

The constant use of kunque by the different Pueblo tribes has been
noticed from the first days of European contact. In the relation of
Don Antonio de Espejo (1583) we are told that upon the approach of
the Spaniards to the town of Zaguato, lying 28 leagues west of Zuni,
“a great multitude of Indians came forth to meete them, and among the
rest their Caciques, with so great demonstration of joy and gladnes,

1 Kunque has added to the cornmeal the meal of two varieties of corn, blue and yellow, a small quantity
of pulverized sea shells, and some sand, and when possible a fragment of the blue stone called “ chalchi-
huitl.” In grinding the meal on the metates the squaws are stimulated by the medicine-men who
Keep up a constant singing and drumming.

2Simpson, Expedition to the Navajo Country, in Senate Doc. 64, 3lst Cong., Ist sess., 1849-'50, p. 95-

510 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

that they cast much meale of Maiz upon the ground for the horses to
tread upon.” !

Tam under the impression that the ruins of this village are those near
the ranch of Mr. Thomas V. Keam, at Keam’s Canyon, Arizona, called
by the Navajo “ Talla-hogandi,” meaning “ singing house,” in reference
to the Spanish mission which formerly existed there. This village is,
as I have hitherto shown, the ruin of the early pueblo of Awaétubi.

In his poem descriptive of the conquest of New Mexico, entitled
“Nueva Mejico,” Alcala de Henares, 1610, Villagra uses the following
language :?

Passando a Mohoge, Zibola, y Zuni,

Por cuias nobles tierras descubrimos,

Una gran tropa de Indios que venia,

Con cantidad harina que esparcian,

Sobre la gente toda muy apriessa,

Y entrando assi en los pueblos las mugeres
Dieron en arrojarnos tanta della,

Que dimos en tomarles los costales,

De donde resulto tener con ellas,

Unas carnestolendas bien renidas.

It is gratifying to observe that the Spanish writer in the remote wilds
of America struck upon an important fact in ethnology: that the throw-
ing of “harina” or flour by the people of Tusayan (Mohoce or Moqui),
Cibola, and Zuni (observe the odd separation of ‘ Zibola” from either
Moqui or Zuni) was identical with the ‘“ carnestolendas” of Spain, in
which, on Shrove Tuesday, the women and girls cover all the men they
meet with flour. The men are not at all backward in returning the
compliment, and the streets are at times filled with the farinaceous dust.

“Harina de maiz azul” is used by Mexicans in their religious cere-
monies, especially those connected with the water deities.* The Pe-
ruvians, when they bathed and sacrificed to cure themselves of sickness,
“untandose primero con Harina de Maiz, i con otras cosas, con muchas,
i diversas ceremonias, i lo mismo hacen en los Banos.”* The kunque of
the Peruvians very closely resembled that of the Zuni. We read that
it was a compound of different-colored maize ground up with sea shells.°
The Peruvians had a Priapie idol called Hua-can-qui, of which we
read: “ On offre a cette idole une corbeille ornée de plumes de diverses
couleurs et remplie Vherbes odoriférantes; on y met aussi de la farine
de mais que Yon renouvelle tous les mois, et les femmes se lavent la

1 Hakluyt, Voyages, vol.3, p.470. ‘‘ Echavan mucha harina de maiz por el suelo para que la pisassen
los caballos.’—Padre Fray Juan Gonzales de Mendoza, De las Cosas de Chino, ete.,Madrid, 1586, p. 172.
See also the Relacion of Padre Fray Alonso Fernandez, Historia Eclesiastica de Nuestros Tiempos,
Toledo, 1611, pp. 15, 16.

2P. 162.

3 Diego Duran, vol. 2, cap. 49, pp. 506, 507.

4 Herrera, dec. 5., lib. 4, cap. 5, p. 92.

5 Padre Christoval de Molina, Fables and Rites of the Yneas, translated by Markham in Hakluyt Soc.
Trans , vol. 48, p. 63, London, 1873.

BOURKE. ] SACRED MEAL. 511

figure avec celle que l’on Ote, en accompagnant cette ablution de plu-
sieurs cérémonies superstitieuses.” !

The tribes seen on the Rio Colorado in 1540 by Alarcon * carry also
certaine little long bagges about an hand broade tyed to their left arme,
which serve them also instead of brasers for their bowes, full of the
powder of a certaine herbe, whereof they make a certaine beverage.?
We are at a loss to know what this powder was, unless hoddentin. The
Indians came down to receive the son of the sun, as Alarcon led them to
believe him to be, in full gala attire, and no doubt neglected nothing
that would add to their safety.

“Tls mirent dans leur bouche du mais et d’autres semences, et les
lancérent vers moi en disant que c’était la maniére dont ils faisaient les
sacrifices au soleil.” *

Kohl speaks of seeing inside the medicine wigwam, during the great
medicine ceremonies of the Ojibwa, ‘‘a snow-white powder.”* In an
address delivered by Dr. W. J. Hoffman betore the Anthropological
Society of Washington, D. C., May 2, 1888, upon the symbolism of the
Midé’, Jes/sakkid, and Wabeno of the Ojibwa of Minnesota, he stated
in reply to a question from me that he had not been able to find any of
the *‘snow-white powder” alluded to by Kohl in Kitchi-gami.°

In Yueatan, when children were baptized, one of the ceremonies
was that the chac, or priest in charge, should give the youngster a
pinch of corn meal, which the boy threw in the fire. These chacs were
priests of the god who presided over baptism and over hunting.®

At the coronation of their kings the Aztecs had a sacred unction,
and a holy water, drawn from a sacred spring, and ‘‘about his neck is
tied a small gourd, containing a certain powder, which is esteemed a
strong preservative against disease, sorcery, and treason.” 7

“At the entrance to one of the narrow defiles of the Cordilleras
. . . a large mass of rock with small cavities upon its surface, into
which the Indians, when about to enter the pass, generally deposit a
few glass beads, a handful of meal, or some other propitiatory offering to
the ‘genius’ supposed to preside over the spot and rule the storm.”

Again, ‘on receiving a plate of broth, an Indian, before eating, spills
a little upon the ground; he scatters broadcast a few pinches of the
meal that is given him, and pours out a libation before raising the
wine cup to his lips, as acts of thanksgiving for the blessings he
receives.”®

When Capt. John Smith was captured by the Pamunkey tribe of Vir-

'Montesinos, pp. 161, 162, in Ternaux-Compans, vol. 17, Mémoires sur l’ancien Pérou.

? Relation of the voyage of Don Fernando Alarcon, in Hakluyt Voyages, vol. 3, p. 508.

3 Alarcon in Ternaux-Compans, Voy., vol. 9, p. 330. See also in Hakluyt Voyages, vol. 3, p. 516.

4 Kitehi-gami. London, 1860, p. 51.

5 See also on the subject Acosta, Hist. Naturelle des Indes, lib. 5, cap. 19. p. 241.

® Landa, Cosas de Yucatan, Paris, 1864, page 148.

7 Bancroft, Native Races, vol. 2, p. 145. See also Clavigero, Hist. of Mexico, Philadelphia, 1817, vol.
2, p. 128.

§8Smith, Araucanians, 1855, pp. 274-275.

512 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

ginia in 1607 he was taken to “a long house,” where, on the morning fol-
lowing “a great grim fellow” came skipping in, ‘ all painted over with
coale, mingled with oyle. With most strange gestures and passions he
began his invocation, and environed the fire with a circle of meale.”
This priest was followed by six others, who “ with their rattles began
a song, which ended, the chiefe priest layd downe five wheat cornes.”
This ceremony was apparently continued during the day and repeated
on the following two days.' Capt. Smith’s reception by the medicine-
men of the Virginians is described by Picart.2 These medicine-men are
called ‘ prétres,” and we are informed that they sang “des chants
magiques.” The grains of wheat (‘‘grains de blé”) were “rangez cing
a cing.”

Gomara tells us that in the religious festivals of Nicaragua there
were used certain ‘‘taleguillas con polvos,” but he does not tell what
these “‘ polvos” were; he only says that when the priests sacrifice them-
selves they cured the wounds, ‘ curan las heridas con polvo de herbas
6 carbon.”

While the Baron de Graffenreid was a prisoner in the hands of the
Tuscarora, on the Neuse River, in 1711, the conjurer or high priest
(“the priests are generally magicians and even conjure up the devil”)
“made two white rounds, whether of flour or white sand, I do not
know, just in front of us.” 4

Lafitau says of one of the medicine women of America : *‘ Elle com-
menga @abord par préparer un espace de terrain qwelle nétoya bien &
quelle couyrit de farine, ou de cendre tres-bien bluttée (je ne me souviens
pas exactement laquelle des deux).”°

In a description of the ceremonial connected with the first appear-
ance of the catamenia in a Navajo squaw, there is no reference to a use
of anything like hoddentin, unless it may be the corn which was ground
into meal for a grand feast, presided over by a medicine-man. °

When a woman is grinding corn or cooking, and frequently when
any of the Navajo, male or female, are eating, a handful of corn meal is
put in the fire as an offering (to the sun). *

The Pueblos of New Mexico are described as offering sacrifices of food
to their idols. ‘Los Indios del Norte tienan multitud de Idolos, en
pequenos Adoratorios, donde los ponen de comer.” ®

Maj. Backus, U. S. Army, describes certain ceremonies which he saw
performed by the Navajo at a sacred spring near Fort Defiance, Ari-
zona, which seems to have once been a geyser:

'Smith, True Travels, Adventures and Observations, Richmond, 1819, vol. 1, p. 161.

2 Cérémonies et Coitumes, Amsterdam, 1735, vol. 6, p. 74.

3 Historia de las Indias, p. 284.

4 Colonial Records of North Carolina, 1886, vol. 1, p. 930.

5 Meeurs des Sauvages, Paris, 1724, vol. 1, p. 386.

6 Personal notes of May 26, 1881; conversation with Chi and Damon at Fort Detiance. Navajo Agency,
Arizona.

7 Tbid.

8 Bareia, Ensayo Cronologico, p. 160.

BOURKE.] SACRED POWDER. 513

I once visited it with three other persons and an Indian doctor, who carried with
him five small bags, each containing some vegetable or mineral substance, all differing
in color. Atthespring each bag was opened and a small quantity of its contents was
put into the right hand of each person present. Each visitor, in succession, was then
required to kneel down by the spring side, to place his closed hand in the water up
to his elbow, and after a brief interval to open his hand and let fall its contents
into the spring. The hand was then slowly withdrawn and each one was then per-
mitted to drink and retire. !

Columbus in his fourth voyage touched the mainland, going down
near Brazil. He says:

In Cariay and the neighboring country there are great enchanters of a very fearful
character. They would have given the world to prevent my remaining there an hour.
When I arrived they sent me immediately two girls very showily dressed; the eld-
est could not be more than eleven years of age and the other seven, and both exhib-
ited so much immodesty that more could not be expected from public women. They
earried concealed about them a magic powder. *

The expedition of La Salle noticed, among the Indians on the Missis-
sippi, the Natchez, and others, *‘todos los dias, que se detuvieren en aquel
Pueblo, ponia la Cacica, encima de la Sepultura de Marle fi. e., a French-
man who had been drowned], una Cestilla Mena de Espigas de Maiz,
tostado.” °

“He showed me, as a special favor, that which give him his power—
a bag with some reddish powder in it. He allowed me to handle it and
smell this mysterious stutf, and pointed out two little dolls or images,
which, he said, gave him authority over the souls of others; it was for
their support that flour and water were placed in small birch-rind
saucers in front.” *

On page 286, narrative of the Jeannette Arctic expedition, Dr. New-
comb says: ‘One day, soon after New Year’s, I was out walking with one
of the Indians. Noticing the new moon, he stopped, faced it, and,
blowing out his breath, he spoke to it, invoking success in hunting. The
moon, he said, was ‘Tyunne,’ or ruler of deers, bears, seals, and walrus.”
The ceremony herein described I have no doubt was analogous in
every respect to hoddentin-throwing. As the Indians mentioned were
undoubtedly Tinneh, my surmise seems all the more reasonable. °

Tanner relates that among the Ojibwa the two best hunters of the
band had “each a little leather sack of medicine, consisting of certain
roots pounded fine and mixed with red paint, to be applied to the little
images or figures of the animals we wish to kill.” °

“In the parish of Walsingham, in Surrey, there is or was a custom
which seems to refer to the rites performed in honor of Pomona. Early
in the spring the boys go round to the several orchards in the parish

! Schooleraft, Ind. Tribes, vol. 4, p. 213.

* Columbus Letters, in Hakluyt Soc. Works. London, 1847, vol 2, p. 192.

* Barcia, Ensayo Cronologico, p. 279.

4 The medicine-men of the Swampy Crees, as described in Bishop of Rupert’s Land's works, quoted
by Henry Youle Hind, Canadian Exploring Expedition, vol. 1, p. 113.

5 Personal notes, November 22, 1885, at Baker’s ranch, summit of the Sierra Ancha, Arizona.

© Tanner's Narrative, p. 174.

9 ETH——33

514 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

and whip the apple trees. . . . The good woman gives them
some meal.” !

Among the rusties of Great Britain down to a very recent period
there were in use certain “love powders,” the composition of which is
not known, a small quantity of which had to be sprinkled upon the
food of the one beloved.”

Attached to the necklace of human fingers before described, cap-
tured from one of the chief medicine-men of the Cheyenne Indians, is a
bag containing a powder very closely resembling hoddentin, if not hod-
dentin itself.

It is said that the Asinai made sacrifice to the scalps of their ene-
mies, as did the Zuni as late as 1881. ‘Ofrecen 4 las calaveras pinole
molido y de otras cosas comestibles.” *

Perrot says the Indians of Canada had large medicine bags, which
he calls “pindikossan,” which, among other things, contained ‘des
racines ou des poudres pour leur servir de médecines.” *

In an article on the myth of Manibozho, by Squier, in American His-
torical Magazine Review, 1848, may be found an account of the adven-
tures of two young heroes, one of whom is transferred to the list of
gods. He commissioned his comrade to bring him offerings of a white
wolf, a polecat, some pounded maize, and eagles’ tails.

Laplanders sprinkle cow and calf with flour. °

Cameron met an old chief on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, of whom
he says: “His forehead and hair were daubed with vermilion, yellow,
and white powder, the pollen of flowers.” °

In the incantations made by the medicine-men of Africa, near the
head of the Congo, to preserve his expedition from fire, Cameron saw
the sacrifice of a goat and a hen, and among other features a use of
powdered bark closely resembling hoddentin: “Scraping the bark off
the roots and sticks, they placed it in the wooden bowl and reduced it
to powder.” The head medicine-man soon after “‘took up a handful of
the powdered bark and blew some toward the sun and the remainder
in the opposite direction.” 7

The magic powder, called “uganga,” used as the great weapon of
divination of the mganga, or medicine-men of some of the African tribes,
as mentioned by Speke, * must be identical with the powder spoken of by
Cameron.

Near the village of Kapéka, Cameron was traveling with a caravan

1 Blount, Tenures of Land and Customs of Manors, London, 1874, p. 355.

2 Brand, Popular Antiquities, London, 1882, vol. 3, pp. 307 et seq.

3 Cronica Serdfica, p. 434.

4 Nicolas Perrot, Mceurs, Coustumes et Relligion des sauvages de |’ Amérique Septentrionale (Ed.
of Rey. P. J. Tailhan, S.J.,) Leipzig, 1864. Perrot was a coureur de bois, interpreter, and donné of the
Jesuit missions among the Ottawa, Sioux, Iowa, etc., from 1665 to 1701.

6 Leems’, Account of Danish Lapland, in Pinkerton’s Voyages, London, 1814, vol. 1, p. 484.

6 Across Africa, London, 1877, vol. 1, p. 277.

7 Thid., vol. 2, pp. 118, 120.

8 Source of the Nile, London, 1863, introd., p. XX1.

BOURKE. ] SACRED POWDER. il

in which the principal man was a half-breed Portuguese named Alvez.
“On Alvez making his entry he was mobbed by women, who shrieked
and yelled in honor of the event and pelted him with flour.” This was
Alvez’s own home and all this was a sign of welcome.’

Speke describes a young chief wearing on his forehead ‘antelope
horns, stuffed with magic powder to keep off the evil eye.”’

After describing an idol, in the form of a man, in a small temple on
the Lower Congo, Stanley says: ‘The people appear to have considera-
ble faith in a whitewash of cassava meal, with which they had sprinkled
the fences, posts, and lintels of doors.” *

“According to Consul Hutchinson (in his interesting work ‘Impres-
sions of Western Africa’), the Botikaimon [a medicine-man], previous to
the ceremony of coronation, retires into a deep cavern, and there, through
the intermediary of a ‘rukaruka’ (snake demon), consults the demon
Maon. He brings back to the king the message he receives, sprinkles
him with a yellow powder called ‘tsheoka,’ and puts upon his head the
hat his father wore.”* In a note, it is stated that: “Tsheoka is a vege-
table product. obtained, according to Hutchinson, by collecting a creamy
coat that is found on the waters at the mouth of some small rivers,
evaporating the water, and forming a chalky mass of the residue.”®
Schultze says® that the Congo negroes ‘‘appease the hurricane” by
“casting meal into the air.”

The youdoo ceremonies of the negroes of New Orleans, which would
seem to have been transplanted from Africa, include a sprinkling of the
congregation with a meal which has been blessed by the head medicine-
man or conjurer.

At the feast of Huli, at the vernal equinox (our April fool’s day), the
Hindu throw a purple powder (abir) upon each other with much sport-
ive pleasantry. A writer in “ Asiatick Researches”* says they have the
idea of representing the return of spring, which the Romans called
“purple.”

During the month of Phalgoonn, there is a festival in honor of Krishna,
when the “ Hindus spend the night in singing and dancing and wander-
ing about the streets besmeared with the dolu (a red) powder, in the
daytime carrying a quantity of the same powder about with them,
which, with much noise and rejoicing, they throw over the different
passengers they may meetin their rambles. Music, dancing, fireworks,
singing, and many obscenities take place on this occasion.” ®

On pages 434-435 of my work, ‘‘Scatalogic Rites of all Nations,” are
to be found extracts from various authorities in regara to the Hindu

1 Cameron, Across Africa, London, 1877, vol. 2, p. 201.
2 Source of the Nile, London, 1863, pp. 130, 259.

3 Dark Continent, vol. 2, p. 260.

4 Schultze, Fetichism, New York, 1885, p. 53.

5 Thid., footnote, page 53.

6 Tbid., p. 67.

7 Asiatick Researches, Calcutta, 1805, vol. 8, p. 78.

® Coleman, Mythology of the Hindus, London, 1832, p. 44.

516 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

feast of Holi or Hulica, in which this statement occurs: ‘Troops of men
and women, wreathed with flowers and drunk with bang, crowd the
streets, carrying sacks full of bright-red vegetable powder. With this
they assail the passers-by, covering them with clouds of dust, which
soon dyes their clothes a startling color.”

“Red powder (gulal) is a sign of a bad design of an adulterous char-
acter. During the Holi holidays, the Maharaj throws gulal on the
breasts of female and male devotees.” !

“In India, the devotees throw red powder on one another at the fes-
tival of the Huli, or vernal equinox. This red powder, the Hindoos
say, is the imitation of the pollen of plants, the principle of fructifica-
tion, the flower of the plant.”?

The women of the East Indies (Brahmins), on the 18th of January,
celebrate a feast in honor of the goddess Parvati: ‘Leur but est d’ob-
tenir nne longue vie pour leurs maris, & qu’elles ne deviennent jamais
veuves. Elles font une Image de Parvati avee de la farine de riz & du
grain rouge quwelles y mélent; elles Vornent @habits & de fleurs & apres
Vavoir ainsi servie pendant neuf jours, elles la portent le dixiéme dans
un Palenquin hors de la Ville. Une foule de femmes mariées la suivent,
on la jette ensuite dans un des étangs sacrez, oti on la laisse, & chacune
sen retourne chez elle.”*

Speaking of the methods in use among the Lamas for curing disease,
Rey. James Gilmour says: “Throwing about small pinches of millet seed
is a usual part of such a service.”4

Dr. W. W. Rockhill described to me a Tibetan festival, which in-
cludes a procession of the God of Mercy, in which procession there are
masked priests, holding blacksnake whips in their hands, and carrying
bags of flour which they throw upon the people.

The use of these sacred powders during so many different religious
festivals and ceremonies would seem to resemble closely that made by
the Apache of hoddentin and the employment of kunque by the Zuni
and others; and from Asia it would seem that practices very similar
in character found their way into Europe. Of the Spanish witches it
is related:

When they entered people’s houses they threw a powder on the faces of the inmates,
who were thrown thereby into so deep a slumber that nothing could wake them, until
the witches were gone. . . . . Sometimes they threw these powders on the
fruits of the field and produced hail which destroyed them. On these occasions the

demon accompanied them in the form of a husbandman, and when they threw the

powders they said:
**Polvos, polvos,

Pierda se tado,
Queden los nuestros,
Y abrasense otros.’’®

' History of the Sect of the Mahdrajahs, quoted by Inman, Ancient Faiths, ete., vol. 1, p. 393.
2 Higgins, Anacalypsis, vol. 1, p. 261.

3 Picart, Cérémonies et Coftitumes, etc., vol. 6, part 2, p. 119.

4 Among the Mongols, London, 1883, p. 179.

5 Wright, Sorcery and Magic, London, 1851, vol. 1, p. 346.

BOURKE. ] USE OF POLLEN. le

Higgins says: **The flour of wheat was the sacrifice offered to the
Xpys or Ceres in the Exyiprazia.” |

What relation these powders have had to the ‘“‘carnestolendas” of
the Spanish and Portuguese, already alluded to, and the throwing of
“confetti” by the Italians, which is a modification, it would be hard to
say. Some relation would appear to be suggested.

USE OF POLLEN BY THE ISRAELITES AND EGYPTIANS.

There are some suggestions of a former use of pollen among the
Israelites and Egyptians.

Manna, which we are assured was at one time a source of food to
the Hebrews, was afterward retained as an offering in the temples.
Forlong, however, denies that it ever could have entered into general
consumption. He says:

Manna, as food, is an absurdity, but we have the well-known produce of the desert
oak or ash—Fraxinus. . . . . An omer of this was precious, and in this
quantity, at the spring season, not difficult to get; it was a specially fit tribute to
be “laid up” before any Phallic Jah, as it was the pollen of the tree of Jove and of
Life, and in this sense the tribe lived spiritually on such ‘‘spiritual manna” as this
god supplied or was supplied with.?

The detestation in which the bean was held by the high-caste people
of Egypt does not demonstrate that the bean was not an article of food
to a large part of the population, any more than the equal detestation
of the occupation of swineherd would prove that none of the poor
made use of swine’s flesh. The priesthood of Egypt were evidently
exerting themselves to stamp out the use of a food once very common
among their people, and to supersede it with wheat or some other
cereal. They held a man accursed who in passing through a field
planted with beans had his clothing soiled with their pollen. Speke
must have encountered a survival of this idea when he observed in
equatorial Africa, near the sources of the Nile, and among people whose
features proclaimed their Abyssinian origin, the very same aversion.
He was unable to buy food, simply because he and some of his followers
had eaten ‘the bean called maharagté.” Such a man, the natives
believed, “if he tasted the products of their cows, would destroy their
cattle.”*

One other point should be dwelt upon in describing the kunque of
the Zuni, Tusayan, and other Pueblos. It is placed upon one of the
sacred flat baskets and packed down in such a manner that it takes
the form of one of the old-fashioned elongated cylindro-conical cheeses.
It should be noted also that by something more than a coincidence this
form was adhered to by the peoples farther to the south when they ar-
ranged their sacred meal upon baskets.

At the festival of the god Teutleco the Aztecs made “de harina de

! Anacalypsis, vol. 2, p. 244.
2Rivers of Life, vol. 1, p. 161.
3Source of the Nile, London, 1864, pp. 205, 208.

518 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

maiz un montecillo muy tupido de la forma de un queso.”! This closely
resembles the corn meal heaps seen at the snake dance of the Tusayan.

The Zuni, in preparing kunque or sacred meal for their religious
festivals, invariably made it.in the form of a pyramid resting upon one
of their flat baskets. It then bore a striking resemblance to the pyra-
mids or phalli which the Egyptians offered to their deities, and which
Forlong thinks must have been “just such Lingham-like sweet-bread
as we still see in Indian Sivaic temples.”” Again, “ the orthodox His-
lop, in his Two Babylons, tells us that ‘bouns,’ buns, or bread offered
to the gods from the most ancient times were similar to our ‘ hotcross’
buns of Good Friday, that . . . the buns known by that identical
name were used in the worship of the Queen of Heaven, the goddess
Easter (Ishtar or Astarti) as early as the days of Kekrops, the founder
of Athens, 1500 years B. C.”°

Forlong? quotes Capt. Wilford in Asiatick Researches, vol. 8, p. 365, as
follows: >

When the people of Syracuse were sacrificing to goddesses, they offered cakes
called mulloi, shaped like the female organ; and Dulare tells us that the male organ
was similarly symbolised in pyramidal cakes at Easter by the pious Christians of
Saintogne, near Rochelle, and handed about from house to house; that even in his
day the festival of Palm Sunday was called La Féte des Pinnes, showing that this féte
was held to be on account of both organs, although, of course, principally because
the day was sacred to the palm, the ancient tree Phallus. . . . We may believe
that the Jewish cakes and show bread were also emblematic.

Mr. Frank H. Cushing informs me that there is an annual feast among
the Zuni in which are to be seen cakes answering essentially to the
preceding description.

HODDENTIN A PREHISTORIC FOOD.

The peculiar manner in which the medicine-men of the Apache use the
hoddentin (thatis, by putting a pinch upon their own tongues); the fact
that men and women make use of it in the same way, as a restorative when
exhausted; its appearance in myth in connection with Assanutlije, the
goddess who supplied the Apache and Navajo with so many material
benetits, all combine to awaken the suspicion that in hoddentin we
have stumbled upon a prehistoric food now reserved for sacrificial pur-
poses only. That the underlying idea of sacrifice is a food offered to
some god is a proposition in which Herbert Spencer and W. Robertson
Smith concur. In my opinion, this definition is incomplete; a perfect
sacrifice is that in which a prehistoric food is offered to a god, and,
although in the family oblations of everyday life we meet with the
food of the present generation, it would not be difficult to show that
where the whole community unites in a function of exceptional impor-

'Sahagun, vol. 2, in Kingsborough, vol. 6, p. 29.
*Forlong, Rivers of Life, vol. 1, p. 184.

3Tbid., pp. 185, 186.

4Tbid., p. 186.

BOURKE. ] HODDENTIN A PREHISTORIC FOOD. 519

tance the propitiation of the deities will be effected by foods whose use
has long since faded away from the memory of the laity.

The sacred feast of stewed puppy and wild turnips forms a promi-
nent part of the sun dance of the Sioux, and had its parallel in a colla-
tion of boiled puppy (catullus), of which the highest civic and ecclesias-
tical dignitaries of pagan Rome partook at stated intervals.

The reversion of the Apache to the food of his ancestors—the hod-
dentin—as a religious offering has its analogue in the unleavened bread
and other obsolete farinaceous products which the ceremonial of more
enlightened races has preserved from oblivion. Careful consideration
of the narrative of Cabeza de Vaca sustains this conclusion. In the
western portion of his wanderings we learn that for from thirty to forty
days he and his comrades passed through tribes which for one-third
of the year had to live on “the powder of straw” (on the powder of
bledos), and that afterwards the Spaniards came among people who
raised corn. At that time, Vaca, whether we believe that he ascended
the Rio Concho or kept on up the Rio Grande, was in a region where
he would certainly have encountered the ancestors of our Apache tribe
and their brothers the Navajo. The following is Herrera’s account of
that part of Vaca’s wanderings: ‘Padeciendo mucha hambre en
treinta i quatro Jornadas, pasando por una Gente que la tercera parte
del Ano comen polvos de paja, i los huvieron de comer, por haver llegado
en tal ocasion.”!

This powder (polvo) of paja or grass might at first sight seem to be
grass seeds; but why not say “flour,” as on other occasions? The phrase
is an obscure one, but not more obscure than the description of the
whole journey. In the earlier writings of the Spaniards there is am-
biguity because the new arrivals endeavored to apply the names of their
own plants and animals to all that they saw in the western continent.
Neither Castaneda nor Cabeza de Vaca makes mention of hod-
dentin, but Vaca does say that when he had almost ended his journey:
“La cote ne possede pas de mais; on n’y mange que de la poudre de
paille de blette.” ‘‘ Blette” is the same as the Spanish ‘+ bledos.”? “Nous
parvinmes chez une peuplade qui, pendant le tiers de année, ne vit que
de poudre de paille.” ‘*We met with a people, who the third part of
the yeere eate no other thing save the powder of straw.” ®

Davis, who seems to have followed Herrera, says: ‘‘ These Indians
lived one-third of the year on the powder of a certain straw
. . . After leaving this people they again arrived in a country of per-
manent habitations, where they found an abundance of maize.

The inhabitants gave them maize both in grain and flour. *
The een Indians were formerly in the habit of adding a trifle of

1Dee. 6, lib. 1, p. 9.

2? Ternaux-Compans, Voyages, vol. 7, pp. 242, 250.

3 Relation of Cabeza de Vaca in Purchas, vol. 4, lib. 8, cap. 1, sec. 4, p. 1524.
4+Conquest of New Mexico, p. 100.

520 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

chopped straw to their bread, but more as our own bakers would use
bran than as a regular article of diet.

Barcia! makes no allusion to anything resembling hoddentin or ‘ polvos
de bledos” in his brief account of Vaca’s journey. But Buckingham
Smith, in his excellent translation of Vaca’s narrative, renders ‘polvos
de paja” thus: “It was probably the seed of grass which they ate. I
am told by a distinguished explorer that the Indians to the west col-
lect it of different kinds and from the powder make bread, some of which
is quite palatable.” And for “ polyos de bledos”: ‘The only explana-
tion I can offer for these words is little satisfactory. It was the prac-
tice of the Indians of both New Spain and New Mexico to beat the ear
of young maize, while in the milk, to a thin paste, hang it in festoons in
the sun, and, being thus dried, was preserved for winter use.”

This explanation is very unsatisfactory. Would not Vaca have
known it was corn and have said so? On the contrary, he remarks in
that very line in Smith’s own translation: ‘There is no maize on the
coast.”

The appearance of all kinds of grass seeds in the food of nearly all
the aborigines of our southwestern territory is a fact well known, but
what is to be demonstrated is the extensive use of the “ powder” of the
tule or cat-tail rush. Down to our day, the Apache have used not only
the seeds of various grasses, but the bulb of the wild hyacinth and the
bulb of the tule. The former can be eaten either raw or cooked, but
the tule bulb is always roasted between hot stones. The taste of the
hyacinth bulb is somewhat like that of raw chestnuts. That of the
roasted tule bulb is sweet and not at all disagreeable. ”

Father Jacob Baegert® enumerates among the foods of the Indians of
southern California ‘the roots of the common reed” (i. e., of the tule).

Father Alegre, speaking of the tribes living near the Laguna San
Pedro,' in latitude 28° north—two hundred leagues north of the City of
Mexico—says that they make their bread of the root, which is very
frequent in their lakes, and which is like the plant called the ‘‘anea”
or rush in Spain. ‘Forman el pan de una raiz muy frecuente en sus
lagunas, semejante 4 las que laman aneas en Espana.”°

The Indians of the Atlantic Slope made bread of the bulb of a plant
which Capt. John Smith® says ‘“ grew like a flag in marshes.” It was
roasted and made into loaves called “ tuckahoe.” 7

Kalm, in his Travels in North America, * says of the tuckahoe:

It grows in several swamps and marshes and is commonly plentiful. The hogs

greedily dig up its roots with their noses in such places, and the Indians of Carolina
likewise gather it in their rambles in the woods, dry it in the sun, grind, and make

‘Ensayo Cronologico, pp. 12 et seq.
2See also on this point Corbusier, in American Antiquarian, November, 1886.
3Ran’s translation in Smithsonian Ann. Rep., 1863, p. 364.

4Probably the Lake of Parras.

5 Historia de la Compania de Jesus en Nueva-Espana, vol. 1, p. 284.

® History of Virginia.

7See also article by J. Howard Gore, Smithsonian Report, 1881.

§Pinkerton, Voyages, London, 1814, vol. 13, p. 468.

BOURKE. ] THE YIAUHTLI OF THE AZTECS. 521

bread of it. Whilst the root is fresh it is harsh and acrid, but, being dried, it loses
the greater part of its acrimony. To judge by these qualities, the tuckahoe may
very likely be the Arum virginianum.

The Shoshoni and Bannock of Idaho and Montana eat the tule bulb.!

Something analogous to hoddentin is mentioned by the chronicler of
Drake’s voyage along the California coast about A. D. 1540. Speak-
ing of the decorations of the chiefs of the Indians seen near where San
Francisco now stands, he says another mark of distinction was “ a cer-
tain downe, which groweth up in the countrey upon an herbe much like
our lectuce, which exceeds any other downe in the world for finenesse
and beeing layed upon their cawles, by no winds can be removed. Of
such estimation is this herbe amongst them that the downe thereof is
not lawfull to be worne, but of such persons as are about the king,

. . . and the seeds are not used but onely in sacrifice to their
gods.”?

Mr. Cushing informs me that hoddentin is mentioned as a food in the
myths of the Zuni under the name of oneya, from oellu, “ food.”

In Kamtchatka the people dig and cook the bulbs of the Kamtchatka
lily, which seems to be some sort of a tuber very similar to that of the
tule.

“ Bread is now made of rye, which the Kamtchadals raise and grind
for themselves; but previous to the settlement of the country by the
Russians the only native substitute for bread was a sort of baked paste,
consisting chiefly of the grated tubers of the purple Kamtchatkan lily.”

HODDENTIN THE YIAUHTLI OF THE AZTECS.

There would seem to be the best of reason for an identification of
hoddentin with the ‘“ yiauhtli” which Sahagun and Torquemada tell
us was thrown by the Aztecs in the faces of victims preparatory to sac-
rificing them to the God of Fire, but the explanation given by those
authors is not at all satisfactory. The Aztecs did not care much whether
the victim suffered or not; he was sprinkled with this sacred powder
because he had assumed a sacred character.

Padre Sahagun ‘ says that the Aztecs, when about to offer human
sacrifice, threw ‘‘a powder named ‘yiauhtli’ on the faces of those whom
they were about tosacrifice, that they might become deprived of sensa-
tion and not suffer much pain in dying.”

In sacrificing slaves to the God of Fire, the Aztec priests “ tomaban
ciertos polvos de una semilla, llamada Yauhtli, y polvoreaban las caras

‘Personal notes, April 5, 1881.

?Drake, World Encompassed, pp. 124-126, quoted by H. H. Bancroft, Native Races, vol. 1, pp. 387-388.
(This chaplain stated so many things ignorantly that nothing is more probable than that he attempted
to describe, withont seeing it, the plant from which the Indians told him that hoddentin (or downe)
was obtained. The principal chief or ‘‘ king’ would, on such an awe-inspiring occasion as meeting
with strange Europeans, naturally want to cover himself and followers with all the hoddentin the
country afforded.)

3 Kennan, Tent Life in Siberia, p. 66.

* Quoted by Kingsborough, vol. 6. p. 100.

522 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

con ellas, para que perdiesen el sentido, y no sintiesen tanto la muerte
eruel, que las daban.”!

Guautli, generally spelled ‘ yuautli,” one of the foods paid to Monte-
zuma as tribute, may have been tule pollen. Gallatin says: “I can not
discover what is meant by the guautli. It isinterpreted as being semilla
de Bledo; but Lam not aware of any other native grain than maize
having been, before the introduction of European cereales, an article
of food of such general use, as the quantity mentioned seems to indi-
cate.”

Among the articles which the king of Atzapotzaleo compelled the
Aztecs to raise for tribute is mentioned “ahuauhtli (que es como
bledos).”°

“BLEDOS” OF ANCIENT WRITERS—ITS MEANING.

Lafitaut gives a description of the Iroquois mode of preparing for
the warpath. He says that the Iroquois and Huron called war
“Wondoutagette” and “gaskenragette.” “Le terme Ondouta signitie
le duvet qu’on tire de ’épy des Roseaux de Marais & signifie aussi la
plante toute entiere, dont ils se servent pour faire les nattes sur quoi ils
couchent, de sorte qwil y a apparence quwils avoient affecté ce terme
pour la Guerre, parce que chaque Guerrier portoit avec soy sa natte
dans ces sortes d’expeditions.”

This does not seem to be the correct explanation. Rather, it was
because they undoubtedly made some sacrificial meal of this “duvet,”
or pollen, and used it as much as the Apache do hoddentin, their
sacred meal made of the pollen of the tule, which is surely a species
of ‘“roseaux de marais.”

The great scarcity of corn among the people passed while en route
to Cibola is commented upon in an account of Coronado’s expedition
to Cibola, in Coleccion de Documentos Inéditos, relativos al descu-
brimiento, conquista y colonizacion de las posesiones Espanolas de
América y Oceania. °

Weare also informed ® that the people of Cibola offered to their idols
“polbos amarillos de flores.”

Castaneda speaks of the people beyond Chichilticale making a bread
of the mesquite which kept good for a whole year. He seems to have
been well informed regarding the vegetable foods of the tribes passed
through by Coronado’s expedition. *

That the “ blettes” or “‘ bledos” did not mean the same as grass is a
certainty after we have examined the old writers, who each and all

' Torquemada, Monarchia Indiana, vol. 2, lib. 10, cap. 22, p. 274.
2Gallatin, in Trans. Am. Ethnol. Soc., vol. 1, pp. 117-118.
3Vetancurt, Teatro Mexicano, vol. 1, p. 271.

4Mceurs des Sauvages, vol. 2, pp. 194, 195.

5 Madrid, 1870, vol. 14, p. 320.

6 Thid.

7 Ternaux-Compans, Voyages, vol. 9, p. 159.

BOURKE. ] TZOALLI. 523

show that the bledos meant a definite kind of plant, although exactly
what this plant was they fail to inform us. It can not be intended for
the sunflower, which is mentioned distinctly by a number of writers as
an article of diet among the Indians of the Southwest.!

TZOALLI.

An examination of the Spanish writers who most carefully transmit-
ted their observations upon the religious ceremonies of the Aztecs and
other nations in Mexico and South America brings out two most inter-
esting features in this connection. The first is that there were
commemorative feasts of prehistoric foods, and the second that one or
more of these foods has played an important part in the religion of
tribes farther north. The first of these foods is the “ tzoalli,” which was
the same as “ bledos,” which latter would seem beyond question to have
been hoddentin or yiauhtli. Brasseur de Bourbourg’s definition sim-
ply states that the tzoalli was a compound of leguminous grains pecul-
iar to Mexico and eaten in different ways: “Le Tzohualli était un
composé de graines légumineuses particuliéres au Mexique, qu’on man-
geait de diverses manieéres.” ?

In the month called Tepeilhuit] the Aztecs made snakes of twigs and
covered them with dough of bledos (a kind of grain or hay seed).
Upon these they placed figures, representing mountains, but shaped
like young children.’ This month was the thirteenth on the Mexican
calendar, which began on our February 1. This would put it Octo-
ber 1, or thereabout.

Squier cites Torquemada’s description of the sacrifices called Eeato-
tontin, offered to the mountains by the Mexicans. In these they made
figures of serpents and children and covered them with “dough,”
named by them tzoalli, composed of the seeds of bledos.‘

A dramatic representation strongly resembling those described in
the two preceding paragraphs was noted among the Tusayan of Ari-
zona by Mr. Taylor, a missionary, in 1881, and has been mentioned at
length in The Snake Dance of the Moquis. Clavigero relates that
the Mexican priests “all eat a certain kind of gruel which they call
Btzalli.”*

Torquemada relates that the Mexicans once each year made an idol
or statue of Huitzlipotchli of many grains and the seeds of bledos and
other vegetables which they kneaded with the blood of boys who were
sacrified for the purpose. “Juntaban mnchos granos y semilla de

d

' Among others consult Cronica Serdfica y Apostolica of Espinosa, Mexico, 1746, p. 419, speaking
of the Asinai of Texas in 1700: “Siembran tambien cantidad de Gyrasoles que se dan muy corpu-
lentos y la flor muy grande que en el centro tienen la semilla como de pifiones y de ella mixturada con
el maiz hacen un bollo que es de mucho sabor y sustancia.”

? Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nations Civilisées, quoted by Bancroft, Native Races, vol. 3, p. 421.

$Sahagun, in book 7, Kingsborough, p. 71.

*Squier, Serpent Symbol, p. 193, quoting Torquemada, lib. 7, cap. 8.

6 History of Mexico, Philadelphia, 1817, vol. 2, p. 79. See the additional note from Clavigero, which
would seem to show that this etzalli was related to the espadaiia or rush.

524 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

Bledos, y otras legumbres, y molianlas con mucha devocion, y recato, y
deellas amasaban, y formaban la dicha Estatua, del tamano y estatura
deun Hombre. E] licor, con que se resolbian y desleian aquellas harinas
era sangre de Ninos, que para este fin se sacrificaban.” !

It isremarkable the word ‘maiz ” does not occur in this paragraph.
Huitzlipotchli being the God of War, it was natural that the ritual
devoted to his service should conserve some, if not all, of the foods,
grains, and seeds used by the Mexicans when on the warpath in the
earliest days of their history; and that this food should be made into a
dough with the blood of children sacrificed as a preliminary to success
is also perfectly in accordance with all that we know of the mode of
reasoning of this and other primitive peoples. Torquemada goes on to
say that this statue was carried in solemn procession to the temple
and idol of Huitzlipotchli and there adorned with precious jewels
(chalchihuitl), embedded in the soft mass. Afterward it was carried to
the temple of the god Paynalton, preceded by a priest carrying a
snake in the manner that the priests in Spain carried the cross in the
processions of the church. “Con una Culebra mui grande, y
gruesa en las manos, tortuosa, y con muchas bueltas, que iba delante,
levantada en alto, 4 manera de Cruz, en nuestras Procesiones.”? This
dough idol, he says, was afterwards broken into “ migajas ” (crumbs)
and distributed among the males only, boys as well as men, and by
them eaten after the manner of communion; ‘ este era su manera de
comunion.”* Herrera, speaking of this same idol of Vitzliputzl, as he
calls him, says it was made by the young women of the temple, of the
flour of bledos and of toasted maize, with honey, and that the eyes
were of green, white, or blue beads, and the teeth of grains of corn.
After the feast was over, the idol was broken up and distributed to the
faithful, ‘4 manera de comunion.” ‘“ Las Doncellas recogidas en el
templo, dos Dias antes de la Fiesta, amasaban harina de Bledos, i de
Maiz tostado, con miel, y de la masa hacian un Idolo grande, con los
ojos de cuentas grandes, verdes, acules, 0 blancas; i por dientes granos
de maiz. *

H. H. Bancroft speaks of the festival in honor of Huitzilopochth,
“the festival of the wafer or cake.” He says: ‘They made a cake of
the meal of bledos, which is called tzoalli,” which was afterward divided
in a sort of communion.’ Diego Duran remarks that at this feast the
chief priest carried an idol of dough called “tzoally,” which is made of
the seeds of bledos and corn made into a mass with honey.® “Un
ydolo de masa, de una masa que Ilaman tzoally, la cual se hace de
semilla de bledos y maiz amasado con miel.” This shows that

' Monarchia Indiana, vol. 2, lib. 6, cap. 38, p. 71.
2Tbid., p. 72.

3Tbid., p. 73.

4 Dec. 3, lib. 2, pp. 71, 72.

5 Native Races, vol. 3, p. 323.

® Diego Duran, vol. 3, p. 187.

BOURKE. ] DOUGH IDOLS. 525

‘‘bledos” and ‘*maiz” were different things.! A few lines farther on
Duran tells us that this cake, or bread, was made by the nuns of the
temple, ‘“‘las mozas del recogimiento de este templo,” and that they
ground up a great quantity of the seed of bledos, which they call
huauhtly, together with toasted maize. ‘Molian mucha cantidad de
semilla de bledos que ellos Haman huauhtly juntamente con maiz
tostado.”* He then shows that the “honey” (miel) spoken of by the
other writers was the thick juice of the maguey. ‘ Despues de molido,
amasabanlo con miel negra de los magueis.”

Acosta describes a Mexican feast, held in our month of May, in which
appeared an idol called Huitzlipotchli, made of ‘‘mays rosty,” ‘‘se-
mence de blettes,” and ‘“‘amassoient avec du miel.”°

In the above citations it will be seen that huauhtly or yuauhtli and
tzoally were one and the same. We also find some of the earliest if not
the very earliest references to the American popped corn.

That the Mexicans should have had such festivals or feasts in honor
of their god of battles is no more extraordinary than that in our own
country all military reunions make it a point to revert to the * hard
tack” issued during the campaigns in Virginia and Tennessee. Many
other references to the constant use as a food, or at least as a sacrificial
food, of the bledos might be supplied if needed. Thus Diego Duran
devotes the twelfth chapter of his third book to an obscure account of
a festival among the Tepanecs, in which appeared animal gods made
of **masa de semilla de bledos,” which were afterwards broken and
eaten.

Torquemada speaks of such idols employed in the worship of snakes
and mountains.* In still another place this authority tells us that sim-
ilar figures were made and eaten by bride and groom at the Aztec
marriage ceremony.?

The ceremonial manner in which these seeds were ground recalls the
fact that the Zuni regard the stones used for grinding kunque as sacred
and will not employ them for any other purpose.

Idols made of dough much after the fashion of the Aztecs are to be
found among the Mongols. Meignan speaks of seeing ‘an idol, quite
open to the sky and to the desert, representing the deity of travelers.
It was made of compressed bread, covered over with some bituminous
substance, and perched on a horse of the same material, and held in its
hand a lancein Don Quixote attitude. Its horrible features were sur-
mounted with a shaggy tuft of natural hair. A great number of offer-
ings of all kinds were scattered on the ground all around. Five or six
images, formed also of bread, were bending in an attitude of prayer
before the deity.”®

1See notes already given from Buckingham Smith’s translation of Vaca.
2 Diego Duran, vol. 3, p. 195.

3 José Acosta, Hist. des Indes, ed. of Paris, 1600, liv. 5, cap. 24, p. 250.
4Monarchia Indiana. lib. 10, cap, 33.

5 Thid., lib. 6, cap. 48.

®From Paris to Pekin, London, 1885, pp. 312, 313.

526 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

Dr. Edwin James, the editor of Tanner’s Narrative,! cites the “ Calica
Puran” to show that medicinal images are employed by the people of
the East Indies when revenge is sought upon an enemy; “ water must
be sprinkled on the meal or earthen victim which represents the sacri-
ficer’s enemy.”

In those parts of India where human sacrifice had been abolished, a
substitutive ceremony was practiced “by forming a human figure of
flour-paste, or clay, which they carry into the temples, and there cut
off its head or mutilate it, in various ways, in presence of the idols.”

Gomara describes the festival in honor of the Mexican God of Fire,
called ‘* Xocothuecl,” when an idol was used made of every kind of
seed and was then enwrapped in sacred blankets to keep it from break-
ing. “ Hacian aquella noche un idolo de toda suerte de semillas, en-
volvianlo en mantas benditas, y liabanlo, porque no se deshiciese.”*

These blessed blankets are also to be seen at the Zuni feast of the
Little God of Fire, which occurs in the month of December. It is a
curious thing that the blessed blankets of the Zuni are decorated with
the butterfly, which appeared upon the royal robes of Montezuma.

What other seeds were used in the fabrication of these idols is not
very essential to our purpose, but it may be pointed out that one of
them was the seed of the ‘‘agenjo,” which was the “ chenopodium” or
“ artemisia,” known to us as the “ sagebrush.”

Of the Mexicans we learn from a trustworthy author: “Tambien
usaban alguna manera de comunion 6 recepcion del sacramento, y es
que hacian unos idolitos chiquitos de semilla de bledos 6 cenizos, 6 de
otras yerbas, y ellos mismos se los recibian, como cuerpo 6 memoria
de sus dioses.” 4

Mendieta wrote his Historia Eclesidstica Indiana in 1596, “al
tiempo que esto escribo (que es por Abril del ano de noventa y seis)”®
and again,® “al tiempo que yo esto escribo.”

The Mexicans, in the month of November, had a festival in honor of
Tezeatlipuca. “ Hacian unos bollos de masa de maiz y semejante de
agenjos, aunque son de otra suerte que los de aca, y echabanlos 4 cocer
en ollas con agua sola. Entre tanto que hervian y se cocian los bollos,
tanian los muchachos un atabal . . . . y después comianselos con
gran devocion.”?

Gomara’s statement, that while these cakes of maize and wormwood
seed were cooking the young men were beating on drums, would find
its parallel in any account that might be written of the behavior of the

'New York, 1830, p. 191.

“Dubois, People of India, London, 1817, p. 490.
8Gomara, Historia de Méjico, p. 445.

4 Mendieta, Hist. Eclesidstica Ind., p. 108.
5Tbid., p. 402.

®Tbid., p. 515.

7Gomara, Historia de Méjico, p. 446.

BOURKE. ] TULE MATS. 527

meal to be used on these occasions to the accompaniment of singing by
the medicine-men and much drumming by a band of assistants selected
from among the young men and boys.

Mr. Francis La Fléeche, a nearly full-blood Omaha Indian, read be-
fore the Anthropological Society of Washington, D.C.,in 1888, a paper
descriptive of the funeral customs of his people, in which he related that
when an Indian was supposed to be threatened with death the medi-
cine-men would go in a lodge sweat-bath with him and sing, and at the
same time “ pronouncing certain incantations and sprinkling the body
of the client with the powder of the artemisia, supposed to be the food
of the ghosts.”!

To say that a certain powder is the food of the ghosts of a tribe is to
say indirectly that the same powder was once the food of the tribe’s
ancestors.

The Peruvians seem to have made use of the same kind of sacrificial
cakes kneaded with the blood of the human victim. We are told that
in the month of January no strangers were allowed to enter the city of
Cuzco, and that there was then a distribution of corn cakes made with
the blood of the victim, which were to be eaten as a mark of alliance
with the Inca. “Les daban unos Bollos de Maiz, con sangre de el
sacrificio, que comian, en senal de confederacion con el Inga.”?

Balboa says that the Peruvians had a festival intended to signalize
the arrival of their young men at manhood, in which occurred a sort of
communion consisting of bread kneaded by the young virgins of the
sun with the blood of victims. This same kind of communion was also
noted at another festival occurring in our month of September-of each
year. (‘‘Un festin composé de pain pétri par les jeunes vierges du
Soleil avecle sang des victimes.”*) There were other ceremonial usages
among the Aztecs, in which the tule rush itself, ‘“espadana,” was
employed, as at childbirth, marriage, the festivals in honor of ‘Tlaloc,
and in the rough games played by boys. It is possible that from being
a prehistoric food the pollen of the tule, or the plant which furnished
it, became associated with the idea of sustenance, fertility, reproduction,
and therefore very properly formed part of the ritual necessary in wed-
dings or connected with the earliest hours of a child’s life, much as rice
has been used so freely in other parts of the world.‘

Among the Aztees the newly born babe was laid upon fresh green tule
rushes, with great ceremony, while its name was given to it.*

Gomara says that the mats used in the marriage ceremonies of the
Aztecs were made of tules. ‘“ Esteras verdes de espadanas.”°

“They both sat down upon a new and curiously wrought mat, which
was spread in the middle of the chamber close to the fire.” The mar-
riage bed was made ‘of mats of rushes, covered with small sheets,

' From the account of lecture appearing in the Evening Star, Washington, D. C., May 19 1888.
2 Herrera, dec. 5, lib. 4, cap. 5, p. 92.

3 Balboa, Histoire du Pérou, in Ternanx-Compans, Voyages, vol. 15, pp. 124 and 127.

4See the explanatory text to the Codex Mendoza, in Kingsborough, vol. 5, p. 90, et seq.

* Historia de Méjico, p. 439.

528 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

with certain feathers, and a gem of chalchihuit] in the middle of
them.” !

The third festival of Tlaloc was celebrated in the sixth month, which
would about correspond to our 6th of June.? But there was another
festival in honor of the Tlaloe, which seems very hard to understand.
A full description is given by Bancroft.* To celebrate this it was incum-
bent upon the priests to cut and carry to the temples bundles of the
tule, which were woven into a sacred mat, after which there was a cere-
monial procession to a tule swamp in which all bathed.

The Aztecs, like the Apache, had myths showing that they sprang
originally from a reed swamp. There was an Aztec god, Napatecutli,
who was the god of the tule and of the mat-makers.* This rush was
also strewn as part of several of their religious ceremonies.

Fosbrooke® has this to say aboutcertain ceremoniesin connection with
the churches in Europe: “At certain seasons the Choir was strewed with
hay,at others with sand. On Easter sabbath with ivy-leaves; at other
times with rushes.” He shows that hay was used at Christmas and
the vigil of All Saints, at Pentecost, Athelwold’s Day, Assumption of
the Blessed Virgin, and Ascension, ete.

The Mexican populace played a game closely resembling our “blind
man’s buff” in their seventeenth month, which was called Tititl] and
corresponded to the winter solstice. In this game, called “nechichiqua-
vilo,” men and boys ran through the streets hitting every one whom
they met with small bags or nets (“‘taleguillas 6 redecillas”) filled with
tule powder or fine paper (‘Ilenas de flor de las espadanas 6 de algunos
papeles rotos”).°

The same thing is narrated by other early Spanish writers upon
Mexico.

In the myths of Guatemala it is related that there were several dis-
tinct generations of men. The first were made of wood, without heart
or brains, with worm-eaten feet and hands. The second generation
was an improvement upon this, and the women are represented as made
of tule. ‘Las mugeres fueron hechas de corazon de espadana.”?

Picart, enumerating the tree gods of the Romans, says that they had
deified ‘les Roseaux pour les Rivieres.”?

GENERAL USE OF THE POWDER AMONG INDIANS.

This very general dissemination among the Indians of the American
continent of the sacred use of the powder of the tule, of images, idols,
or sacrificial cakes made of such prehistoric foods, certainly suggests

'Clavigero, History of Mexico, Philadelphia, 1817, vol. 2, p. 101.
2“ They strewed the temple in a curious way with rushes.”—1bid., p. 78.
*Native Races, vol. 3, pp. 334-343.
4Sahagun, in Kingsborough, vol. 7, p. 16.
5 British Monachism, London, 1817, p. 289.
6 Kingsborough, vol. 7, p. 83, from Sahagun.
7 Ximenez, Guatemala, Translated by Scherzer, p. 13.
Cérémonies et Cotitumes, ete., vol. 1, p. 27.

BOURKE. } GENERAL SACRED USE OF POWDER. 529

that the Apache and the Aztecs, among whom they seem to have been
most freely used on ceremonial occasions, were invaders in the country
they respectively occupied, comparatively recent in their arrival among
the contiguous tribes like the Zuni and Tusayan who on corresponding
occasions offered to their gods a cultivated food like corn. The Tlas-
caltec were known in Mexico as the ‘‘ bread people,” possibly because
they had been acquainted with the cultivation of the cereals long before
the Aztees. Similarly, there was a differentiation of the Apache from
the sedentary Pueblos. The Apache were known to all the villages of
the Pueblos as a *‘corn-buying tribe,” as will presently be shown. It
is true that in isolated cases and in widely separated sections the
Apache have for nearly two centuries been a corn-planting people, be-
‘ause we find accounts in the Spanish chronicles of the discovery and
destruction by their military expeditions of ‘‘ trojes” or magazines of
Apache corn near the San Francisco (or Verde) River, in the present
Territory of Arizona, as early as the middle of the last century. But
the general practice of the tribe was to purchase its bread or meal from
the Pueblos at such times as hostilities were not an obstacle to free
trade. There was this difference to be noted between the Apache and
the Aztecs: The latter had been long enough in the valley of Anahuac
to learn and adopt many new foods, as we learn from Duran, who relates
that at their festivals in honor of Tezcatlipoca, or those made in pur-
suance of some vow, the woman cooked an astonishing variety of bread,
just as, at the festivals of the Zuni, Tusayan, and other Pueblos in our
own time, thirty different kinds of preparations of corn may be found.!
I was personally informed by old Indians in the pueblos along the Rio
Grande that they had been in the habit of trading with the Apache
and Comanche of the Staked Plains of Texas until within very recent
years; in fact, I remember seeing such a party of Pueblos on its return
from Texas in 1869, as it reached Fort Craig, New Mexico, where I was
then stationed. I bought a buffalo robe from them. The principal
article of sale on the side of the Pueblos was cornmeal. The Zuni also
sarried on this mixed trade and hunting, as I was informed by the old
chief Pedro Pino and others. The Tusayan denied that they had ever
traded with the Apache so far to the east as the buffalo country, but
asserted that the Comanche had once sent a large body of their people
over to Walpi to trade with the Tusayan, among whom they remained
for two years. There was one buffalo robe among the Tusayan at their
snake dance in 1881, possibly obtained from the Ute to the north of
them.
The trade carried on by the * buffalo” Indians with the Pueblos was
noticed by Don Juan de Onate as early as 1599. He describes them as
“dressed in skins, which they also carried into the settled provinces to

i“ Tanta diterencia de manjares yde géneros de pan que era cosa estraia.’—Diego Duran, vol.3
cap. 4, p. 219.
2Davis, Conquest of New Mexico, p. 273.

9 ETH 54

530 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

Grege! speaks of the “‘Comancheros” or Mexicans and Pueblos who
ventured out on the plains to trade with the Comanche, the principal
article of traffic being bread. Whipple? refers to this trade as carried
on with all the nomadic tribes of the Llano Estacado, one of which we
know to have been the eastern division of the Apache. The principal
article bartered with the wild tribes was flour, i. e., cornmeal,

In another place he tells us of “ Pueblo Indians from Santo Domingo,
with flour and bread to barter with the Kai-o-was and Comanches for
buffalo robes and horses.”* Again, Mexicans were seen with flour,
bread, and tobacco, “bound for Comanche land to trade. We had no
previous idea of the extent of this Indian trade.”* Only one other
reference to this intertribal commerce will be introduced.

Vetancurt® mentions that the Franciscan friars, between 1630 and
1680, had erected a magnificent “temple” to ‘Our Lady of the Angels
of Poreitneula,” and that the walls were so thick that offices were
established in their concayities. On each side of this temple, which
was erected in the pueblo of Pecos (situated at or near the head of the
Pecos River, about 30 miles southeast of Santa Fé, New Mexico, on
the eastern rim of the Llano Estacado), were three towers. At the foot
of the hill was a plain about one league in circumference, to which the
Apache resorted for trade. These were the Apache living on the
plains of Texas. They brought with them buffalo robes, deer skins
and other things to exchange for corn. They came with their dog-
trains loaded, and there were more than five hundred traders arriving
each year.

Observe that here we have the first and only reference to the use of
dog trains by the Apache who in every other case make their women
earry all plunder in baskets on their backs. In this same extract from
Vetancurt there is a valuable remark about Quivira: “ Este es el paso
para los reinos de la Quivira.”

ANALOGUES OF HODDENTIN.

In the citation from the Spanish poet Villagra, already given, the sug-
gestion occurs that some relationship existed between the powder scat-
tered so freely during the Spanish “carnestolendas” and the *‘kunque”
thrown by the people of Tusayan upon the Spaniards and their horses
when the Spaniards first entered that country. This analogy is a very
striking one, even though the Spaniards have long since lost all idea
of the meaning of the practice which they still follow. It is to be
noted, however, that one of the occasions when this flour is most freely

‘Commerce of the Prairies, vol. 2, p. 54.

2 Pacific R. R. Report, 1856, vol. 3, pt. 1, p. 34.

3Tbid., p. 34.

4Tbid., p. 38.

» Los Apaches traian pieles de cibolas, gamuzas y otras cosas, 4 hacer cambio por maiz.’ ** Venian
con sus reeuas de perros cargados mas de quinientos mercaderes cada ano.'’-—Teatro Mexicano,
vol. 3, p. 323.

SOUBEE.| ANALOGUES OF HODDENTIN. 5381

used is the Eve of All Saints (Hallowe’en), when the ghosts or ances-
tors of the community were to be the recipients of every attention.!

In the East, the use of the reddish or purple powder called the * gu-
lal” is widely prevalent, but it is used at the feast of Huli, which occurs
at the time of the vernal equinox.

There seems to have been used in Japan in very ancient days a pow-
der identical with the hoddentin, and, like it, credited with the power
to cure and rejuvenate.

In the mythical period, from the most ancient times to about B. ©.
200, being the period of the so-called pure Japanese *‘ medicine,” it is
related that Ona-muchi-no-mikoko gave these directions to a hare which
had been flayed by a crocodile: “Go quickly now to the river mouth,
wash thy body with fresh water, then take the pollen of the sedges and
spread it about, and roll about upon it; whereupon thy body will cer-
tainly be restored to its original state.”

There is no indication that in the above case the *‘ pollen of the sedges”
had ever occupied a place in the list of foods. It would appear that its
magical effects were strictly dependent upon the fact that it was recog-
nized as the reproductive agent in the life of the plant.

No allusion has yet been made to the hoddentin of the Navajo, who
are the brothers of the Apache. Surgeon Matthews* has referred to
it under the name of tqa-di-tin’, or ta-di-tin’, “the pollen, especially
the pollen of corn.”

This appears to me to be a very interesting case of a compromise be-
tween the religious ideas of two entirely different systems or sects. The
Navajo, as now known to us, are the offspring of the original Apache
or Tinneh invaders and the refugees from the Rio Grande and Zuni
Pueblos, who tled to the fierce and cruel Apache to seek safety from the
fiercer and more cruel Spanish.

The Apache, we have shown, offer up in sacrifice their traditional
food, the pollen of the tule. The Zuni, as we have also shown, offer up
their traditional food, the meal of corn, to which there have since been
added sea shells and other components with a symbolical significance.
The Navajo, the progeny of both, naturally seek to effect a com-
bination or compromise of the two systems and make use of the
pollen of the corn. Kohl narrates an Ojibwa legend to the effect that
their god Menaboju, returning from the warpath, painted his face with
“pleasant yellow stripes . . . of the yellow foam that covers the
water in spring,” and he adds that this is “probably the yellow pollen
that falls fromt he pine.” He quotes‘ another legend of the magic red

'TIn burlesque survivals the use of flour prevails not only all over Latin Europe, but all such portions
of America as are now or have been under Spanish or Portuguese domination. The breaking of egg-
shells over the heads of gentlemenupon entering a Mexican ball room is one manifestation of it Por-
merly the shell was filled with flour.

*Dr. W. Norton Whitney, Notes from the History of Medical Progress in Japan, Yokohama, 1885,
p. 248.

’The prayer of a Navajo Shaman, in American Anthropologist, vol. 1, No. 2, 1888, p. 169.

4 Kitchi-gami, pp. 416, 423, 424.

532 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

powder for curing diseases once given by the snake spirit of the waters
to an Ojibwa.

Godtrey Higgins! has this to say of the use of pollen by the ancients
which he recognizes as connected with the principle of fertility:

{pwua, the sweet smell, means also a flower, that is Pushpa or Pushto. This was
the language of the followers of the Phasah or the Lamb—it was the language of
the Flower, of the Natzir, of the Flos-floris of Flora, of the Arouma, and of the
flour of Ceres, or the Eucharistia. It was the language of the pollen, the pollen of
plants, the principle of generation, of the Pole or Phallus.

Again he says:

Buddha was a flower, because as flour or pollen he was the principle of frueti-
fication or generation. He was flour because flour was the fine or valuable part of
the plant of Ceres, or wheat, the pollen which, I am told, in this plant, and in this
plant alone, renews itself when destroyed. When the flour, pollen, is killed, it grows
again several times. This is a very beautiful type or symbol of the resurrection.
On this account the flour of wheat was the sacrifice offered to the Xpye or Ceres in
the Eyapictia. In this pollen we have the name of pall or pallium and of Pallas, in
the first language meaning wisdom. . . . When the devotee ate the bread he ate
the pollen, and thus ate the body of the God of generation; hence might come tran-
substantiation.

Lupton,2in 1660, describes a “powder of the flowers [pollen ?| of elder,
gathered on a midsummer day,” which was taken to restore lost youth.
Brand, it may be as well to say, traces back the custom of throwing
flour into the faces of women and others on the streets at Shrovetide,
in Minorea and elsewhere, to the time of the Romans.*

In writing the description of the Snake Dance of the Moquis of Ar-
izona, I ventured to advance the surmise that the corn flour with

“which the sacred snakes were covered, and with which the air was
whitened, would be found upon investigation to be closely related to
the crithomancy or divination by grains of the cereals, as practiced
among the ancient Greeks: Crithomancy, strictly speaking, meant a
divination by grains of corn. The expression which I should have em-
ployed was alphitomancy, a divination “* by meal, flower, or branne.” *
But both methods of divination have been noticed among the aborig-
ines of America.

In Peru the medicine-men were divided into classes, as were those of
ancient Egypt. These medicine-men “made the various means of divi-
nation specialities.” Some of them predicted by ‘‘the shapes of grains
of maize taken at random.” In Guatemala grains of corn or of chile
were used indiscriminately, and in Guazacualco the medicine-women
used grains of frijoles or black beans. In Guatemala they had what
they called “ahquij.” ‘Este modo de adivinar se Hama ahquij, malol-

1 Anacalypsis, London, 1836, vol. 2, pp. 242-244.

2Grand, Pop. Antiq., vol. 3, p. 285.

3Tbid., vol. 1, p. 69.

4Tbid., vol. 3, pp. 329 et seq.

5 Brinton, Myths of the New World, New York, 1868, pp. 278, 279.

BOURKE. } CEREMONIAL USE OF DOWN OF BIRDS. 53

tzite, malol-ixim, esto es: el que adivina por el sol, 6 por granos de
maiz 6 chile.”!

In Guazacualeo the medicine-women “hechaban suertes con granos de
Frisoles, a manera de Dados, i hacian sus invocaciones, porque eran
Hechiceros: i si el Dado decia bien, proseguian en la cura, diciendo
que sanaria: i si mal, no bolvyian al enfermo.”?

Herrera in the preceding paragraph recognizes the close similarity
between this sacred ceremony of casting lots or divining, and the more
orthodox method of gambling, pure and simple, which has in every case
been derived from a sacred origin.

‘Les Hachus [one class of Peruvian priests} consultaient Pavenir au
moyen de grains de mais ou des excréments des animaux.” ®

The Mexicans ‘para saber si los enfermos habian de morir, 6 sanar
de la enfermedad que tenian, echaban un punado de maiz lo mas grueso
que podian haber, y lanzabanlo siete 6 ocho veces, como lanzan los dados
los que los juegan, y si algun grano quedaba enhiesto, decian que era
seal de muerte.” 4

Father Brebeuf relates that at the Huron feast of the dead, which
occurred every 8 or 10 years and which he saw at Ossossane, “ a few
grains of Indian corn were thrown by the women upon the sacred
relies.” >

THE DOWN OF BIRDS IN CEREMONIAL OBSERVANCES.

No exhaustive and accurate examination of the subject of hoddentin
could be made without bringing the investigator face to face with the
curious analogue of “down” throwing and sprinkling which seemingly
obtains with tribes which at some period of their history have been
compelled to rely upon birds as a main component of their diet. LEx-
amples of this are to be met with on both sides of the Pacifie as well
as in remote Australia, and were the matter more fully examined there
is no doubt that some other identifications might be made in very
unexpected quarters. The down used by the Tehuktchi on oceasions
of ceremony had a suggestion of religion about it.° ‘On leaving the
shore, they sung and danced. One who stood at the head of the boat
was employed in plucking out the feathers of a bird’s skin and blowing
them in the air.”

In Langsdorff’s Travels? we learn that some of the dancers of the
Koluschan of Sitka have their heads powdered with the small down
feathers of the white-headed eagle and ornamented with ermine; also,
that the hair and bodies of the Indians at the mission of Saint Joseph,
New California, were powdered with down feathers.®

' Ximenez, Guatemala, p. 177.

* Herrera, dec. 4, lib. 9, cap. 8, p. 188.

* Balboa, Hist. du Pérou, in Ternaux-Compans, Voy., vol. 15, p. 29.

4 Mendieta, Hist. Eclesidastica Ind., p. 110.

*Henry Youle Hind, Assiniboine and Saskatchewan Exped., vol. 2, pp. 165, 166.
* Lisiansky, Voyage Round the World, London, 1814, pp. 153, 221, 223.

7 London, 1814, pt. 2. pl. mu, p. 115. 7

*Ibid., pl. iv. pp. 194. 195.

534 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

The Indians from the North Pacific coast seen visiting the mission
of San Francisco, by Kotzebue in 1816, “had their long disordered
hair covered with down.” !

3anecroft says of the Nootka of the northwest coast of British
America: ‘the hair is powdered plentifully with white feathers, which
are regarded as the crowning ornament for manly dignity in all these
regions.” ?

The bird’s down used by the Haida of British North America in
their dances seems very closely related to hoddentin. They not only
put it upon their own persons, but “delight to communicate it to their
partners in bowing,” and also “ blow it into the air at regular intervals
through a painted tube.” They also scattered down as a sign of wel-
come to the first European navigators. *

Tn all these dances, ceremonial visits, and receptions of strangers the
religious element can be discerned more or less plainly. The Indians
west of the Mississippi with whom Father Hennepin was a prisoner in
1680, and who appear to have been a branch of the Sioux (Issati or
Santee and Nadouessan), had a grand dance to signalize the killing
of a bear. On this occasion, which was participated in by the “ prin-
cipaux chefs et guerriers,” we learn that there was this to be noted in
their dress: “ayant méme leurs cheveux frottez @huile d’ours & parse-
mez de plumes, rouges & blanches & les tétes chargées de duvet
Moiseaux.”

‘“Swan’s and bustard’s down” was used by the Accancess [i. e., the
Arkansas of the Siouan stock] in their religious ceremonies.’

Of the war dress of the members of the Five Nations we learn from
an early writer: ‘Their heads [previously denuded of all hair except
that of the crown| are painted red down to the eye-brows and sprinkled
over with white down.” ®

The Indians of Virginia at their war dances painted themselves to
make them more terrible: ‘‘ Pour se rendre plus terriblee, ils sement
des plumes, du duvet, ou du poil de quelque béte sur la peinture toute
fraiche.”* Down was also used by the medicine-men of the Carib.*
The down of birds was used in much the same way by the tribes of
Cumana, a district of South America not far from the mouth of the
Orinoco, in the present territory of Venezuela; by the Tupinambis, of
Brazil, who covered the bodies of their victims with it;!° by the Chirib-

5

1 Voyage, vol. 1, p. 282.

2Native Races, vol. 1, p. 179.

3Tbid., vol. 1, pp. 170, 171.

4Pére Louis Hennepin, Voyage, ete., Amsterdam, 1714, pp. 339-240. Ibid., translated by B. I.
French, in Historical Collections of Louisiana, pt. 1, 1846.

5 Joutel’s Journal, in Historical Collections of Louisiana, tr. by B. I. French, pp. 181, 1846.

®Maj. Rogers, Account of North America, in Knox's Voyages, vol. 2, London, 1767, p. 167.

7 Picart, Cérémonies et Cottumes Religieuses, ete., Amsterdam, 1735, yol. 6, p. 77.

®Tbid., p. 89.

* John De Laet, lib. 18, cap.4; Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, p. 203; Padre Gumilla, Orinoco, pp. 68, 96.
1° Hans Staden, in Ternaux-Compans, Voyages, vol. 3, pp. 269, 299.

BOURKE.] HAIR POWDER. 535

chi, of South America,! and by the tribes of the Isthmus of Darien.?
This down has also been used by some of the Australians in their
sacred dances.’ ‘The hair, or rather the wool upon their heads, was
very abundantly powdered with white powder. . . . They powder
not only their heads, but their beards too.” +

In China ‘there is a widespread superstition that the feathers of birds,
after undergoing certain incantations, are thrown up into the air, and
being carried away by the wind work blight and destruction wherever
they alight.”

The down of birds seems not to have been unknown in Europe. To
this day it is poured upon the heads of the bride and groom in wed-
dings among the Russian peasantry. °

This leads up to the inquiry whether or not the application of tar
and feathers to the person may not at an early period have been an
act of religious significance, perverted into a ridiculous and infamous
punishment by a conquering and unrelenting hostile sect. The sub-
ject certainly seems to have awakened the curiosity of the learned
Buckle, whose remarks may as well be given.

Richard, during his stay in Normandy (1189), made some singular
laws for regulating the conduct of the pilgrims in their passage by
sea. “A robber, convicted of theft, shall be shaved in the manner
of a champion; and boiling pitch poured upon his head, and the
feathers of a pillow shaken over his head to distinguish him; and be
landed at the first port where the ships shall stop.”°

The circumstances mentioned in the text respecting tarring and
feathering is a fine subject for comment by the searchers into popular
antiquities. *

HAIR POWDER.

Speaking of the duvet” or down, with which many American savage
tribes deck themselves, Picart observes very justly: ‘‘Cet ornement est
bizare, mais dans le fond Vest il beaucoup plus que cette poudre dor
dont les Anciens, se poudroient la téte, ou que cette poudre composée
@amidon avec laquelle nos petits maitres modernes affectent de blan-
chir leurs cheyeux ou leurs perruques?” ®

Picart does not say, and perhaps it would not be wise for us to sur-
mise, that these modes of powdering had a religious origin.

The custom of powdering the hair seems to be a savage “ survival;”
at least, it is still to be found among the Friendly Islanders, among

' Peter Martyr, in Hakluyt’s Voyages, vol. 5, p. 460.

* Bancroft, Nat. Races of the Pacific Slope, vol. 1, p. 750.

$Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, vol. 1, p. 73; vol. 2, p. 302. See also Carteret’s description of the
natives of the Queen Charlotte Islands, visited by him in 1767.

4+Hawkesworth, Voyages, vol. 1, p. 379.

®Perry S. Heath, A Hoosier in Russia, New York, 1888, p- 114.

® Fosbrooke, British Monachism, p. 442.

7 See works cited in Buckle’s Common place Book, vol. 2, of *‘ Works,’> London, 1872, p. 47.

§Picart, Cérémonies et Coaitumes Religieuses, vol. 6, p. 20.

536 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

whom it was observed by Forster.' These islanders used a white lime
powder, also one of blue and another of orange made of turmeric.

The Sandwich Islanders plastered their hair over “with a kind of
lime made from burnt shells,” and Dillon speaks of the Friendly
Islanders using lime, as Forster has already informed us.* The Hot-
tentots made a lavish use of the medicinal powder of the buchu, which
they plastered on their heads, threw to their sacred animals, and used
liberally at their funerals.* Kolben dispels all doubt by saying:
“These powderings are religious formalities.” He also alludes to the
use, in much the same manner, of ashes by the same people. ®

The use of ashes also occurs among the Zuni, the Apache (at times),
and the Abipone of Paraguay. Ashes are also “thrown in the way of
a whirlwind to appease it.’”®

In the Witches’ Sabbath, in Germany, “it was said that the witches
burned a he goat, and divided its ashes among themselves.”7

In all the above cases, as well as in that of the use of ashes in the
Christian churches, it is possible that the origin of the custom might
be traced back either to a desire to share in the burnt offering or else
in that of preserving some of the incinerated dust of the dead friend or
relative for whom the tribe or clan was in mourning. Ashes in the
Christian church were not confined to Lent alone; they “were worn
four times a year, as in the beginning of Lent.”®

Tuphramancy or divination by ashes was one of the methods of fore-
vast in use among the priests of pagan Rome.? .

In Northumberland the custom prevailed of making bonfires on the
hills on St. Peter’s day. -*They made encroachments, on these oc-
‘asions, upon the bonfires of the neighbouring towns, of which they took
away some of the ashes by force: This they called ‘carrying off the
flower (probably the flour) of the wake.’'° Moresin thinks this a ves-
tige of the ancient Cerealia.”

The mourning at [ddah, in Guinea, consists in smearing the forehead
“with wood ashes and clay water, which is allowed to dry on. They
likewise powder their hair with wood ashes.” !

1 Voyage Round the World, London, 1777, pp. 462, 463.

2 Archibald Campbell, Voyage Round the World, N. Y., 1819, p. 136.

3 Voyage of La Pérouse, London, 1829, vol. 2, p. 275.

‘Peter Kolben’s Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, in Knox’s Voyage and Travels, London, 1767,
vol. 2, pp. 391, 395, 406, 407.

®Thid., p. 405.

® Spencer, Desc. Sociology, art. ‘‘ Abipones.”’

?Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, London, 1872, vol. 1, p. 423.
® Fosbrooke, British Monachism, p. 83.

*Gaule, Mag-astromancers Posed and Puzzel’d, p. 165, quoted in Brand, Popular Antiquities,
vol. 3, pp. 329 et seq.

Brand, Popular Antiquities, vol. 1, pp. 337, 338.

"Laird and Oldfield’s Expedition into the Interior of Africa, quoted in Buckle’s Common place
Book, p. 466.

BOURKE] CEREMONIAL DUST. 537
DUST FROM CHURCHES—ITS USE.

The last ceremonial powder to be described is dust from the ground,
as among some of the Australians who smear their heads with pipe-
clay as a sign of mourning.!

The French writers mention among the ceremonies of the Natchez
one in which the Great Sun * gathered dust, which he threw back over
his head, and turned successively to the four quarters of the world in
repeating the same act of throwing dust.””

Mention is made of ‘“‘an old woman who acted as beadle” of a church,
who “once brought tothe bedside of a dying person some of the sweep-
ings from the floor of the altar, to ease and short. a very lingering
death.” *

Altar dust was a very ancient remedy for disease. Frommann says
that, of the four tablets found in a temple of Esculapius, one bore this
inscription: ‘Lucio atfecto lateris dolore; veniret et ex ara tollerit
cinerem et una cum vino comisceret et poneret supra latus; et con-
valuit,” ete. *

It seems then that the medieval use of altar dust traces back to the
Roman use of altar ashes.

So hard is it to eradicate from the minds of savages ideas which have
become ingratted upon their nature that we need not be surprised to
read in the Jesuit relations of affairs in Canada (1696-1702) that, at
the Mission of Saint Francis, where the Indians venerated the memory
of a saintly woman of their own race, Catheraine Tagikoo-ita, ‘‘ pour
guérir les malades que les rémeédes ordinaires ne soulagent point, on
avale dans l’eau ou dans un bouillon un peu de la poussiére de son
tombeau.”

A few persons are to be found who endeavor to collect the dust from
the feet of one hundred thousand Brahmins. One way of collecting this
dust is by spreading a cloth before the door of a house where a great
multitude of Brahmins are assembled at a feast, and, as each Brahmin
comes out, he shakes the dust from his feet as he treads upon this cloth.
Many miraculous cures are declared to have been performed upon per-
sons using this dust.°

A widow among the Armenian devil-worshipers is required ‘to strew
dust on her head and to smear her face with clay.” ©

CLAY-EATING,

The eating of clay would appear to have once prevailed all over the
world. In places the custom has degenerated into ceremonial or is to

‘Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, vol. 2, p. 273.

*Gayarre, Louisiana, 1851, p. 308.

3 Notes and Queries, 4th ser., vol. 8, p. 505.

4 Tractatus de Fascinatione, Nuremberg, 1675, 197.

® Southey, quoting Ward, in Buckle’s Common place Book, London, 1849, 2d ser., p. 521.
*North American, October 27, 1888.

538 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

be found only in myths. The Aztec devotee picked up a pinch of clay
in the temple of Tezcatlipoca and ate it with the greatest reverence.!

Sahagun is quoted by Squier’ assaying that the Mexicans swore by
the sun and “by our sovereign mother, the Earth,” and ate a piece of
earth.

But the use of clay by the Mexicans was not merely a matter of cer-
emony; clay seems to have been an edible in quite common use.

Edibleearth was sold openly in the markets of Mexico; “ yaun tierra,”
says Gomara in the list of foods given by him.*

The eating of clay was forbidden to Mexican women during preg-
nancy.

Diego Duran describes the ceremonial eating of clay in the temples
of Mexico; ‘‘ Lleg6 el dedo al suelo, y cogiendo tierra en é] lo metio en
la boca; 4 la eual ceremonia Ilamaban comer tierra santa.”* And again
he says that in their sacrifices the Mexican nobles ate earth from the
feet of theidols. ‘‘ Comian tierradela que estaba 4 los pies del Ydolo.”°®
But the Mexicans did not limit themselves to a ceremonial clay-eating
alone. Thomas Gage relates that “ they ate a kind of earth, for at one
season in the yeer they had nets of mayle, with the which they raked up
a certaine dust that is bred upon the water of the Lake of Mexico, and
that is kneaded together like unto oas of the sea.” ®

Diego Duran* mentions the ceremonial clay-eating at the feast of
Tezcatlipoca agreeing with the note already taken from Kingsborough.

There is reference to clay-eating in one of the myths given in the
Popol-Vuh. The Quiche deities Hunahpu and Xbalanqué, desiring to
overcome the god Cabrakan, fed him upon roasted birds, but-they took
care to rub one of the birds with “tizate” and to put white powder
around it. The circle of white powder was, no doubt, a circle of hod-
dentin or something analogous thereto, intended to prevent any bale-
ful influence being exercised by Cabrakan. ‘ Mais ils frottérent Pun
des oiseaux avec du tizate et lui mirent de la poussiére blanche a V’en-
tour.” ®

In a footnote the word “tizate” is explained to be a very friable
whitish earth, used in polishing metals, making cement, ete.: ‘Terre
blanchatre fort friable, et dont ils se servent pour polir les métaux,
faire du ciment, ete.”

Cabeza de Vaca says that the Indians of Florida ate clay—‘‘de la
terre.”° He says also” that the natives offered him many inesquite
beans, which they ate mixed with earth—‘ mele avee de la terre.” |!

1 Kingsborough, vol. 5, p. 198.
2 Serpent Symbols, p. 55.
3 Hist.de Méjico p. 348.
4 Lib. 2, cap. 47, p. 490.

5 Lib. 1, cap. 18, p. 208.

® New Survey of the West Indies, London, 1648, p. 51.

7 Op. cit., vol. 3, cap. 4.

8 Popol-Vuh (Brasseur de Bourbourg), p. 65.

*Ternaux-Compans, Voy., vol. 7, p. 143.

'0Tbid., p. 202.

11 Purchas, vol. 4. lib. 8, cap. 1, p. 1519; also, Davis, Conquest of New Mexico, p. 84.

BOURKE] EARTH-EATING. 539

The Jaguaces of Florida ate earth (tierra). !

At the trial of Vasco Poecallo de Figueroa, in Santiago de Cuba, in
1522, * for cruelty to the natives,” he sought to make it appear that the
Indians ate clay as a means of suicide: “el abuso de los Indios en
comer tierra’ . . . seguian matandose de intento comiendo tierra.”

The Muiseas had in their language the word “jipetera,” a “disease
from eating dirt.”* Whether the word “ dirt? as here employed means
filth, or earth and clay, is not plain; it probably means clay and earth.

Venegas asserts that the Indians of California ate earth. The tra-
ditions of the Indians of San Juan Capistrano, California, and vicinity
show that “they had fed upon a kind of clay,” which they “often used
upon their heads by way of ornament.?+

The Tatu Indians of California mix “red earth into their acorn bread
- +. . tomake the bread sweet and make it go further.”’*

Long® relates that when the young warrior of the Oto or Omaha
tribes goes out on his first fast he “rubs his person over with a whitish
clay,” but he does not state that he ate it.

Sir John Franklin’ relates that the banks of the Mackenzie River in
British North America contain layers of a kind of unctuous mud, prob-
ably similar to that found near the Orinoco, which the Tinneh Indians
“use occasionally as food during seasons of famine, and even at other
times chew as an amusement. . . . It has a milky taste and the
flavour is not disagreeable.”

Father de Smet ® says of the Athapascan: ‘“ Many wandering families
of the Carrier tribe . . . have their teeth worn to the gums by the
earth and sand they swallow with their nourishment.” This does not
seem to have been intentionally eaten.

“Some of the Siberian tribes, when they travel, carry a small bag of
their native earth, the taste of which they suppose will preserve them
from all the evils of a foreign sky.” 9

We are informed that the Tunguses of Siberia eat a cla y called “ rock
marrow,” which they mix with marrow, ‘Near the Ural Mountains,
powdered gypsum, commonly called ‘rock meal,’ is sometimes mixed
with bread, but its effects are pernicious.” !"

“The Jukabiri of northeastern Siberia have an earth of sweetish and
rather astringent taste,” to which they “ ascribe a variety of Sanatory
properties.” !!

'Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, p. 182. iv

? Buckingham Smith, Coleecion de Varios Documentos para la Historia de Florida, London, 1857,
a bars Researches in South America, London, 1860, p. 63.
#Boseana, Chinigchinich, pp. 245, 253.
s, Contrib. to N. A. Ethnol.. vol. 3, p. 140.
® Long's Expedition, vol. 1, p. 240.
7 Second Expedition to the Polar Sea, p. 19.
SOregon Missions, p. 192.
*Gmelin, quoted by Southey, in Common place Book, 1st ser., London, 1849, p. 239. .

10Malte-Brun. Univ. Geog., Philadelphia, 1827, vol. 1, lib. 37, p. 483.
"Von Wrangel, Polar Expedition, New York, 1842, p. 188.

540 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

There is nothing in the records relating to Victoria respecting the
use of any earth for the purpose of appeasing hunger, but Grey men-
tions that one kind of earth, pounded and mixed with the root of the
Mene (a species of Hiemadorum), is eaten by the natives of West Aus-
tralia.!

The Apache and Navajo branches of the Athapascan family are not
unacquainted with the use of clay as a comestible, although among the
former it is now scarcely ever used and among the latter used only as
a condiment to relieve the bitterness of the taste of the wild potato; in
the same manner it is known to both the Zuni and Tusayan.

Wallace says that eating dirt was “a very common and destructive
habit among Indians and half-breeds in the houses of the whites. ?

“Los apassionados a comer tierra son los Indios Otomacos.”

“The earth which is eaten by the Ottomacs [of the Rio Orinoco] is
fat and unctuous.” *

Waitz° cites Heusinger as saying that the Ottomacs of the Rio Ori-
noco eat large quantities of a fatty clay.

Clay was eaten by the Brazilians generally.°

The Romans hada dish called “ alica” or ‘‘frumenta,” made of the
grain zea mixed with chalk from the hills at Puteoli, near Naples.?

According to the myths of the Cingalese, their Brahmins once ‘ fed
on it [earth] for the space of 60,000 years.”®

PREHISTORIC FOODS USED IN COVENANTS.

It has been shown that the Apache, on several occasions, as when
going out to meet strangers, entering into solemn agreements, etc.,
made use of the hoddentin. A similar use of food, generally prehistoric,
can be noted in other regions of the world.

It was a kind of superstitious trial used among the Saxons to purge
themselves of any accusation by taking a piece of barley bread and eat-
ing it with solemn oaths and execrations that it might prove poisonous
or their last morsel if what they asserted or denied was not true.’
Those pieces of bread were first execrated by the priest, from which he
infers that at a still earlier day sacramental bread may have been used
for the same purpose.

At Rome, in the time of Cicero and Horace, a master who suspected
that his slaves had robbed him conducted them before a priest. They
were each obliged to eat a cake over which the priest had “ pronounced
some magical words (carmine infectum).”!

‘Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, vol. 1, p. xxxiv.
2Travels on the Amazon, p, 311.

$Gumilla, Orinoco, Madrid, 1741, p. 102; the Guamas, also, ibid., pp. 102 and 108.
4Malte-Brun, Univ. Geog., Phila., 1827, vol. 3, lib. 87, p. 323.

5 Anthropology, vol. 1, p. 116.

® Spencer, Dese. Sociology.

7Pliny, Nat. History, lib, 18, eap. 29.

* Asiatick Researches, Caleutta, 1801, vol. 7, p. 440.

* Blount, Tenures of Land and Customs of Manors, London, 1874, p, 2233.
0Salverte, Philosophy of Magic, vol. 2, p. 140.

pan fe

BOURKE, ] SACRED BREADS AND CAKES. 5AT

The people living on the coast of Coramandel have an ordeal con-
sisting in the chewing of unboiled rice. No harm will attach to him
who tells the truth, but the perjurer is threatened with condign pun-
ishment in this world and in that to come.! Bread is bitten when the
Ostaaks of Siberia take a solemn oath, such as one of fealty to the Czar

SACRED BREADS AND CAKES.

Since the employment of hoddentin, or tule pollen, as a sacred com-
memorative food would seem to have been fairly demonstrated, before
closing this section I wish to add a few paragraphs upon the very gen-
eral existence of ritualistic farinaceous foods in all parts of the world.
They can be detected most frequently in the ceremonial reversion to a
grain or seed which has passed or is~passing out of everyday use in
some particular form given to the cake or bread or some circumstance
of time, place, and mode of manufacture and consumption which stamps
itasa “survival.” Sodeeply impressed was Grimm? with the wide hori-
zon spreading around the consideration of this topic that he observed:
“Our knowledge of heathen antiquities will gain both by the study of
these drinking usages which have lasted into later times and also of
the shapes given to baked meats, which either retained the aetual forms
of ancient idols or were accompanied by sacrificial observances. A
history of German cakes and bread rolls might contain some unexpected
disclosures. . . . Even the shape of cakes is a reminiscence of the
sacrifices of heathenism.”

The first bread or cake to be mentioned in this part of the subject is
the pancake, still so frequently used on the evening of Shrove Tuesday.
Tn antiquity it can be traced back before the Reformation, before the
Crusades were dreamed of, before the Barbarians had subverted Rome,
before Rome itself had fairly taken shape.

There seems to have been a very decided religious significance in the
preparation of pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. In Leicestershire, “On
Shrove Tuesday a bell rings at noon, which is meant as a signal for the
people to begin frying their pancakes.” +

* The Norman Crispelle (Du Cange) are evidently taken from the
Fornacalia, on the 18th of February, in inemory of the method of mak-
ing bread, before the Goddess Forna.c invented ovens.”

Under *“ Crispelle,” Du Cange says: ‘¢ Rustici apud Normannos vocant
Crespes, ova pauca mixta cum farina, et in sartagine frixa,” and says
that they are “ex herba, farina et oleo.”® These same Crispellie are to
be seen on the Rio Grande during Christmas week.

In the Greek Church and throughout Russia there is to the present
time a “ pancake feast” at Shrovetide.?

' Voyage of Capt. Amasa Delano, Boston, 1847, p. 230. Compare with the ordeal of Scoteh conspir
ators, who ate a fragment of barley bread together.

*Gauthier de la Peyronie, Voyages de Pallas, Paris, 1793. vol. 4, pp. 75.

’Teutonic Mythology, vol. 1, p. 63.

4Macaulay quoted in Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 1, p. 85.

* Fosbrooke, British Monachism, p. 83.

° Du Cange. Glossarium, articles ‘ Crispellee ” and ‘* Crespelle.”

7 Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 1, p. 88.

542 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

At one time a custom prevailed of going about from one friend’s
house to another, masked, and committing every conceivable prank.
“Then the people feasted on blinnies—a pancake similar to the English
erumpet.”!

In the pancake we have most probably the earliest form of farina-
ceous food known to the nations which derived their civilization from
the basin of the Mediterranean. Among these nations wheat has been
in use from a time far beyond the remotest historical period, and to ac-
count for its introduction myth has been invoked; but this wheat was
cooked without leaven, or was fried in a pan, after the style of the tor-
tilla still used in Spanish-speaking countries, or of the pancake common
among ourselves. Pliny? says that there were no bakers known in
Rome until nearly six hundred years after the foundation of the city,
in the days of the war with Persia; but he perhaps meant the public
bakers authorized by law. The use of wheat and the art of baking
bread, as we understand it to-day, were practically unknown to the na-
tions of northern Europe until within the recent historical period.*

1 Heath, A Hoosier in Russia, p. 109.

2 Nat. Hist., lib. 18, cap. 28.

3 Wheat, whieh is now the bread corn of twelve European nations and is fast supplanting maize in
America and several inferior grains in India, was no doubt widely grown in the prehistoric world:
The Chinese cultivated it 2700 B. C.as a gift direct from Heaven; the Egyptians attributed its origin
to Isis and the Greeks to Ceres. <A classic account of the distribution of wheat over the primeval
world shows that Ceres, having taught her favorite Triptolemus agriculture and the art of bread-
making, gave him her chariot, a celestial vehicle which he used in useful travels for the purpose of

distributing corn to all nations. ‘

Ancient monuments show that the cultivation of wheat had been established in Egypt before the
invasion of the shepherds, and there is evidence that more productive varieties of wheat have taken
the place of one, at least, of the ancient sorts. Innumerable varieties exist of common wheat. Colonel
Le Couteur, of Jersey, cultivated 150 varieties; Mr. Darwin mentions a French gentleman who had col-
lected 322 varieties, and the great firm of French seed merchants, Vilmorin-Andrieux et C', cultivate
about twice as many in their trial ground near Paris. In their recent work on Les meilleurs blés
M. Henry L. de Vilmorin has described sixty-eight varieties of best wheat, which he has classed into
seven groups, though these groups can hardly be called distinct species, since M. Henry L. de Vilmorin
has crossbred three of them, Triticum vulgare, Tritiewm turgidum and Tritiewm durum, and has found
the offspring fertile.

Three small-grained varieties of common wheat were cultivated by the first lake dwellers of Switzer-
land (time of Trojan war), as well as by the less ancient lake dwellers of western Switzerland and
of Italy, by the people of Hungary in the stone age, and by the Egyptians, on evidence of a brick of a
pyramid in which a grain was embedded and to which the date of 3359 B. C. has been assigned.

The existence of names for wheatin the most ancient languages confirms this evidence of the antiqu-
ity of its culture in all the more temperate parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, but it seems improbable
that wheat has ever been found growing persistently in a wild state, although the fact has often been
asserted by poets, travelers, and historians. In the Odyssey, for example, we are told that wheat grew
in Sicily without the aid of man, but a blind poet could not have seen this himself, and a botanical
fact can hardly be accepted from a writer whose own existence has been contested. Diodorus repeats
the tradition that Osiris found wheat and barley growing promiscuously in Palestine, but neither this
nor other discoveries of persistent wild wheat seem to us to be credible, seeing that wheat does not

appear to be endowed with a power of persistency except under culture.—Edinburgh Review.

The origin of baking precedes the period of history and is involved in the obscurity of the early
ages of the human race. Excavations made in Switzerland gave evidence that the art of making bread
was practiced by our prehistoric ancestors as early as the stone period. From the shape of loaves it is
thought that no ovens were used at that time, but the dough was rolled into small round cakes and
laid on hot stones, being covered with glowing ashes. Bread is mentioned in the book of Genesis,
where Abraham, wishing to entertain three angels, offered to ‘‘ fetch a morsel of bread.’ Baking is
again referred to where Sarah has instructions to ‘make ready quickly three measures of fine meal,
knead it and make cakes upon the hearth.” Lot entertained two angels by giving them unleayened

|

BOURKE. ] UNLEAVENED BREAD. 543

Nothing would be more in consonance with the mode of reasoning of
a primitive people than that, at certain designated festivals, there should
be a recurrence to the earlier forms of food, a reversion to an earlier
mode of life, as a sort of propitiation of the gods or goddesses who
had cared for the nation in its infancy and to secure the continuance of
their beneficent offices. Primitive man was never so certain of the
power of the gods of the era of his own greatest development that he
could rely upon it implicitly and exclusively and ignore the deities who
had helped him to stand upon his feet. Hence, the recurrence to pan-
cakes, to unleavened breads of all kinds, among various peoples. This
view of the subject was made plain to me while among the Zuni In-
dians. Mr. Frank H. Cushing showed me that the women, when bak-
ing the “loaves” of bread, were always careful to place in the adobe
ovens a tortilla with each batch of the newer kind, and no doubt for
the reason just given.

UNLEAVENED BREAD.

The unleavened bread of the earliest period of Jewish history has
come down to our own times in the Feast of Unleavened Bread, still
observed by the Hebrews in all parts of the world, in the bread used in
the eucharistic sacrifice by so large a portion of the Christian world,
and apparently in some of the usages connected with the half-under-
stood fast known as the ‘* Ember Days.” Brand quotes from an old
work in regard to the Ember Days: ‘They were so called ‘because
that our elder fathers wolde on these days ete no brede but eakes made
under ashes.’”!

The sacred cake or “ draona” of the Parsi ‘is a small round pancake
or wafer of unleavened bread, about the size of the palm of the hand.
It is made of wheaten flour and water, with alittle clarified butter, and
is flexible.”* A variety of the “draona,” called a ‘“ frasast,” is marked
with the finger nail and set aside for the guardian spirits of the de-
parted.*

Cakes and salt were used in religious rites by the ancients. The
Jews probably adopted their appropriation from the Egyptians! ‘‘ Dur-

bread. The mere mention of unleayened bread shows that there were two kinds of bread made even at
that time.

The art of baking was carried on to a high perfection among the Egyptians, who are said to have
baked cakes in many fantastic shapes, using several kinds of flour. The Romans took up the art of
baking, and public bakeries were numerous on the streets of Rome. In England the business of the
baker was considered to be one so closely affecting the interests of the public that in 1266 an act of
Parliament was passed regulating the price to be charged for bread. This regulation continued in
operation until 1822 in London and until 1836 in the rest of the country. The art of making bread has
not yet reached some countries in Europe and Asia. In the rural parts of Sweden no bread is made,
but rye cakes are baked twice a year and are as hard as flint. It is less than a century ago tha! bread
was used in Scotland, the Scotch people of every class living on barley bannocks and oaten cakes.—
Chicago News.

! Pop. Antiq., vol. 1, p. 96.

? Shayast l4-Shayast, par. 32, note 6, pp. 283,284 (Max Miiller's ed., Oxford, 1880).

SIbid., p. 315, note 3.

‘And if thou bring an oblation of a meat offering baken in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of
fine flour" (Levit., II, 4); “With all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt ” (Ibid., 13)—Brand, Pop. Ant.,
vol. 2, p. 82.

544 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

ing all the Passover week—l4th to 21st Nisan, i. e., during this week’s
moon—Shemites fast, only eating unleavened bread, and most dili-
gently—not without reason—cleansing their houses.” ‘“ And especially
had all leavened matter to be removed, for the new leavener had now
arisen, and prayers with curses were offered up against any portions
which might have escaped observation. The law of their fierce Jahveh
was that, whoever during all this festival tasted leavened bread, ‘that
soul should be eut off” which Godwyn mollifies by urging that this only
meant the offender should die without children; which was still a
pretty considerable punishment for eating a piece of bread !”!

“The great day of Pentecost is the 6th of Sivan, or, say, the 22d
of May, 1874. From the first barley tivo loaves were then made, ‘the
ottering of which was the distinguishing rite of the day of Pentecost.’”?

On St. Bridget’s Eve every farmer’s wife in Ireland makes a cake,
called bairinbreac; the neighbors are invited, the madder of ale and
the pipe go round, and the evening concludes with mirth and festivity. ®
Vallencey identifies this as the same kind of offering that was made to
Ceres, and to “the queen of heaven, to whom the Jewish women burnt
incense, poured out drink offerings, and made cakes for her with their
own hands.” 4

THE HOT CROSS BUNS OF GOOD FRIDAY.

The belief prevailed that these would not mold like ordinary bread.’

“Tn several counties {in England] a small loaf of bread is annually
baked on the morning of Good Friday and then put by till the same
anniversary in the ensuing year. This bread is not intended to be
eaten, but to be used as a medicine, and the mode of administering it is
by grating a small portion of it into water and forming a sort of panada.
It is believed to be good for many disorders, but particularly for a diar-
rhea, for which it is considered a sovereign remedy. Some years ago
a cottager lamented that her poor neighbour must certainly die of this
complaint, because she had already given her two doses of Good Friday
bread without any benefit. No information could be obtained from the
doctress respecting her nostrum, but that she had heard old folks say
that it was a good thing and that she always made it.”°

Brand quotes a writer in the Gentleman’s Magazine who shows that
they were “formerly, at least, unleavened,” p. 156. They “are con-
stantly marked with the form of the cross.” “Itis an old belief that
the observance of the custom of eating buns on Good Friday protects
the house from fire, and several “other virtues are attributed to these
buns,” p. 156. “ Hutchinson, in his History of Northumberland, follow-

1 Forlong, Rivers of Life, vol. 1, p. 441

2 Tbid., p. 447.

3 Brand, Pop. Antiq., vol. 1, pp. 345, 346, quoting Gen. Vallencey’s Essay on the Antiquity of the
Irish Language.

1 Tbid., p. 345.

* Thid., p. 154.
© [hid., pp. 155, 156.

BOURKE. ] CEREMONIAL CAKE AND BREAD. 545

ing Bryant’s Analysis, derives the Good Friday bun from the sacred
cakes which were offered at the Arkite Temples, styled Boun, and pre-
sented every seventh day,” p. 155. A very interesting dissertation
upon these sacred cakes as used by the Greeks, Egyptians, and Jews
in the time of their idolatry, is to be found in Brand’s work, pp. 155-
156.)

Practices analogous to those referred to are to be noted among the
Pueblo Indians. They offer not only the kunque, but bread also in their
sacrifices.

In the sacred rabbit hunt of the Zuni, which occurs four times a year
and is carried on for the purpose of procuring meat for the sacred eagles
confined in cages, a great fire was made on the crest of a hill, into
which were thrown piles of bread crusts and in the smoke of which the
boomerangs or rabbit sticks were held while the hunter recited in an
audible tone and with downeast head the prayers prescribed for the
occasion. One of the early Spanish writers informs us that the women
of the pueblo of Santo Domingo, on the Rio Grande, offered bread on
bended knees to their idols and then preserved it for the remainder of
the year, and the house which did not have a supply of such blessed
bread was regarded as unfortunate and exposed to danger. ”

A prehistoric farinaceous food of the Romans survives in our bride-
cake or wedding cake. It is well understood that among the Romans
there were three kinds of marriage: that called ‘‘coemptio,” that called
“coneubitu” or “usu,” and the highest form of all, known as ‘confar-
ratio,” from the fact that bride and groom ate together of a kind of
cake or bread made of the prehistoric flour, the ‘‘ far.” We have pre-
served the custom of having bridecake, which is still served with many
superstitious ceremonies: ‘it must be cut by the bride herself; it must
be broken in pieces (formerly these pieces were cast over the heads of
the bridesmaids), and, after being passed through a wedding ring a cer-
tain number of times, it must be placed under the pillow of the anxious
maiden to serve as a basis for her dreams.” *

Exactly what this prehistoric food was it is now an impossibility to
determine with exactness. Torquemada shows that long after the Ro-
mans had obtained the use of wheat they persisted in the sacrificial use
of the “‘nola isla,” “farro,” and “escanda,” forms of wild grain once
roasted and ground and made into bread by their forefathers. A simi-
lar usage prevailed among the Greeks. Pliny speaks of “ the bearded
red wheat, named in Latin ‘far,’” and tells us that rye was called
“secale” or “farrago.”® The radical “far” is still to be found all over

'See also ‘* Buns” in Inman's Ancient Faiths.

2 Ofrecian el pan al idolo, hincados de rodillas. Bendezianlo los sacerdotes, y repartian como pan
bendito, con lo qual se acabaua la fiesta. Guardauan aquel pan todo el ano, teniendo por desdichada, y
sugeta a muchos peligros la casa que sin el estaua.’’—Padre Fray Alonso Fernandez (Dominican).
Historia Eclesiastica de Nuestros Tiempos, Toledo, 1611, p. 16.

3’ Brand, Popular Antiquities, vol. 2, pp. 100 et seq., quoting Blount, Moffet, and Moresin.

4Toryuemada, Monarchia Indiana, vol. 2, lib. 7, cap. 9, p. 100.

®Nat. Hist., lib. xviii, caps 10 et seq. and 39.

9 ETH——35

546 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

Europe in the word for flour, “farina,” ‘farine,” or “ harina,” while it is
also possible that it may be detected in the ever-to-be:honored name of
Farragut. !

In the eight marriage rites described by Baudhayana, the initiatory
oblation in the fourth (that in which the father gives his daughter
away) consists of ‘ parched grain.” This rite is one of the four which
are lawful fora Brahman. The parched-grain to be used would seem
to be either sesamum or barley, although this is not clear. Vasishtha
says, chapter 27, concerning secret penances: ‘‘He who .. . uses
barley (for his food) becomes pure.”?

The pages of Brand® are filled with references to various forms of
cake which seem properly to be included under this chapter. In Eng-
land there formerly prevailed the custom of preparing ‘‘ soul cakes” for
distribution among visitors to the family on that day and to bands
of waits or singers, who expected them as a dole for praying and sing-
ing in the interests of the souls of the dead friends and relatives of the
family. On the island of St. Kilda the soul cake was “a large cake in
the form of a triangle, furrowed round, and which was to be all eaten
that night.”* In Lancashire and Hertfordshire the cake was made of
oatmeal, but in many other parts it was a “seed cake”? and in War-
wickshire, ‘‘ at the end of barley and bean seed time, there is a custom
there to give the plowmen froise, a species of thick pancake.”® ‘+ All-
soul cakes” were distributed at time of All Souls’ Day.

In England and Scotland the old custom was to have a funeral feast,
which all friends and relations were expected to attend. Wine, cur-
rant cake, meat, and other refreshments, varying according to the for-
tune of the family, were served liberally. The bread given out was
ealled “arvil-bread.” There is no special reason for believing that
this could be called a hoddentin custom, except that the writer himself
calls attention to the fact that in the earlier times the bread was in the
form of ‘‘ waters.”’®

The Romans had a college of priests called the “‘ Fratres Arvales,”
nine, or, as some say, twelve in number, to whose care were committed
the sacrifices in honor of Ceres at the old Jinits of the city, to propitiate
that goddess and induce her to bestow fertility upon the fields. These

1<Var (from the Hebrew word var, frumentum) Grain. It not only means a particular kind of grain,
between wheat and barley, less nourishing than the former, but more so than the latter, according to
Vossius; but it means bread corn, grain of any kind. Zitius gives this application to any kind of
frumentaceous grain, decorticated, cleansed from the husks, and afterwards bruised and dried.”
London Medical Dictionary, Bartholomew Parr, M. D., Philadelphia, 1820, article ‘t Far’.

“Ador or Athor was the most sacred wheat, without beard, offered at adoration of gods. In Latin
Adorea was a present of such after a victory, and Ad-oro is ‘I adore,’ from oro, ‘I pray to.’ '—Forlong,
Rivers of Life, vol. 1, p. 473, footnote, speaking of both Greeks and Romans.

*Sacred Looks of the East, edition of Max Miiller, vol. 14, pp. 131, 205.

Brand, Popular Antiquities, vol. 1, pp. 391 et seq., article ‘‘ Allhallow even.”

4Tbid., p. 391.

5 Thid., p. 392.

® Tbid., p. 393.

7 Tbid., vol. 2, pp. 237 et seq.

STbid., p. 244.

BOURKE. ] CEREMONIAL CAKES. D47

ceremonies, which are believed by the editor of Bohn’s Strabo to sur-
vive in the Rogation Day processions of the Roman Catholic Church,
recall the notes already taken upon the subject of the Arval bread of
the Scotch.! The sacrifices themselves were designated ‘* Ambarva”
and ‘* Ambarvalia.”

In Scotland and England it was customary for bands of singers to go
from door to door on New Year’s Eve, singing and receiving reward.
In the latter country ‘“‘ cheese and oaten cakes, which are called farls,
are distributed on this occasion among the eryers.” In the former
country “there was a custom of distributing sweet cakes and a particu-
lar kind of sugared bread.”? :

A fine kind of wheat bread called * wassail-bread” formed an impor-
tant feature of the entertainment on New Year’s Day in old England.’

Among love divinations may be reckoned the dumb cake, so called
because it was to be made without speaking, and afterwards the parties
were to go backward up the stairs to bed and put the cake under
their pillows, when they were to dream of their lovers. *

References to the beal-tine ceremonies of Ireland and Scotland, in
which oatmeal gruel figured as a dish, or cakes made of oatmeal and
carraway seeds, may be found in Brand, Pop. Antiq., vol. 1, p. 226; in
Blount, Tenures of Land and Customs of Manors, London, 1874, p. 131;
and in Pennant’s Tour in Scotland, in Pinkerton’s Voyages, vol. 3,
p-49. In “A Charm for Bewitched Land” we find the mode of making
a cake or loaf with holy water.

The mince pie and plum pudding of Christmas are evidently ancient
preparations, and it is not unlikely that the shape of the former, which,
prior to the Reformation, was that of a child’s cradle, had a reminiscence
of the sacrifice of babies at the time of the winter solstice. Grimm has
taught that where human sacrifice had been abolished the figure of a
coffin or a cradle was still used as a symbol.

There is a wide field of information to be gleaned in the investigation
of the subject of bean foods at certain periods or festivals of the year,
and upon this point I have some notes and memoranda, but, as my
present remarks are limited to prehistoric farinaceous foods, I do not
wish to add to the bulk of the present chapter.°

“ Kostia—boiled rice and plums—is the only thing partaken of on
Christmas Eve.” °
; 1 Strabo, Geography, Bohn's edition, London, 1854, vol. 1, pp. 341, 342, footnote.

2 Brand, Popular Antiquities, vol. 1, p. 460.

3 Tbid., p. 7.

‘Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, pp. 3, 180. On the same page: ‘‘Dumb cake, a species of dreaming
bread prepared by unmarried females with ingredients traditionally suggested in witching doggerel.
When baked, it is cut into three divisions; a part of each to be eaten and the remainder put under
the pillow. When the clock strikes twelve, each votary must go to bed backwards and keep a pro-
found silence, whatever may appear.”

5 A writer in the Gentleman’s Magazine for July, 1783, inquires: ‘‘ May not the minced pye, a com-
pound of the choicest productions of the East, have in view the offerings made by the wise men who
came from afar to worship, bringing spices, ete.’ Quoted in Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 1, p. 526. The mince
pie was before the Reformation made in the form of a crib, to represent the manger in which the holy

child lay in the stable. Ibid., p. 178.
® Heath, A Hoosier in Russia, p. 109.

548 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.
GALENA.

At times one may find in the ‘‘ medicine” of the more prominent and
influential of the chiefs and medicine-men of the Apache little sacks
which, when opened, are found to contain pounded galena; this they
tell me is a “‘ great medicine,” fully equal to hoddentin, but more diffi-
cult to obtain. It is used precisely as hoddentin is used; that is, both
as a face paint and as a powder to be thrown to the sun or other ele-
ments to be propitiated. The Apache are reluctant to part with it,
and from living Apache I have never obtained more than one small
sack of it.

No one seems to understand the reason for its employment. Mr.
William M. Beebe has suggested that perhaps the fact that galena
always crystallizes in cubes, and that it would thus seem to have a
mysterious connection with the cardinal points to which all nomadic
peoples pay great attention as being invested with the power of keep-
ing wanderers from going astray, would not be without influence upon
the minds of the medicine-men, who are quick to detect and to profit by
all false analogies. The conjecture appears to me to be a most plausi-
ble one, but I can submit it only as a conjecture, for no explanation of the
kind was received from any of the Indians. All that I can say is that
whenever procurable it was always used by the Apache on occasions
of unusual importance and solemnity and presented as around disk
painted in the center of the forehead.

The significance of all these markings of the face among savage and
half-civilized nations is a subject deserving of the most careful research ;
like the sectarial marks of the Hindus, all, or nearly all, the marks
made upon the faces of American Indians have a meaning beyond the
ornamental or the grotesque.

Galena was observed in use among the tribes seen by Cabeza de Vaca.
“‘T]s nous donnérent beaucoup de bourses, contenant des sachets de mar-
cassites et @antimoine en poudre.” (‘‘Taleguillas de margaxita y de
alcohol molido.”)' This word ‘‘margaxita” means iron pyrites. The
Encyclopedia Britannica says that the Peruvians used it for “amulets ;”
so also did the Apache. What Vaca took for antimony was pounded
galena no doubt. He was by this time in or near the Rocky Mountains.”

On the northwest coast of America we read of the natives: “ One,
however, as he came near, took out from his bosom some iron or lead-
colored micaceous earth and drew marks with it across his cheeks in
the shape of two pears, stuffed his nostrils with grass, and thrust thin
pieces of bone through the cartilage of his nose.” *

It is more than probable that some of the face-painting with ‘‘ black
earth,” “ground charcoal,” etc., to which reference is made by the early
writers, may have been galena, which substance makes a deep-black

' Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca, in Ternaux-Compans, Voy., vol. 7, p. 220.
? See also Davis, Conquest of New Mexico, p. 90.
5 William Coxe, Russian Discoveries between Asiaand America, London, 1803, p. 57, quoting Steller.

BOURKE. ] GALENA. 549

mark. The natives would be likely to make use of their most sacred
powder upon first meeting with mysterious strangers like Vaca and his
companions. So, when the expedition of La Salle reached the mouta of
the Ohio, in 1680, the Indians are described as fasting and making
superstitious sacrifices; among other things, they marked themselves
with “black earth” and with *‘ground charcoal.” ‘‘Se daban con
Tierra Negra 0 Carbon molido.”!

From an expression in Burton, I am led to suspect that the applica-
tion of kohl or antimony to the eyes of Arabian beauty is not alto-
gether for ornament. ‘‘ There aremany kinds of kohl used in medicine
and magic.”

Corbusier says of the Apache-Yuma: ‘*Galena and burnt mescal are
used on their faces, the former to denote anger or as war paint, being
spread all over the face, except the chin and nose, which are painted
red.” 3

In Coleman’s Mythology of the Hindus, London, 1832, page 165, may
be found a brief chapter upon the subject of the sectarial marks of the
Hindus. With these we may fairly compare the marks which the
Apache, on ceremonial occasions, make upon cheeks and forehead.
The adherents of the Brahminical sects, before entering a temple, must
mark themselves upon the forehead with the tiluk. Among the Vish-
nuites, this is a longitudinal vermilion line. The Seevites use several
parallel lines in saffron. Maurice adds that the Hindus place the tiluk
upon their idols in twelve places... ‘Among the Kaffir the warriors
are rendered invulnerable by means of a black cross on their foreheads
and black stripes on the cheeks, both painted by the Inyanga, or
fetich priest.” °

A piece of galena weighing 74 pounds was found in a mound near
Naples, Ulinois.7. Occasionally with the bones of the dead are noticed
small eubes of galena; and in our collection is a ball of this ore, weigh-
ing a pound and two ounces, which was taken from a mound, and which
probably did service, enveloped in raw hide, as some form of weapon.®
Galena was much prized by the former inhabitants of North America.
“The frequent occurrence of galena on the altars of the sacrificial
mounds proves, at any rate, that the ancient inhabitants attributed a
peculiar value to it, deeming it worthy to be offered as a sacrificial gift.”9
See also Squier and Davis."

1 Barcia, Ensayo Cronologico, Madrid, 1723.
2 Arabian Nights, Burton's edition, vol. 8, p. 10, footnote.

3 American Antiquarian, September, 1886, p. 281.

4 Maurice, Indian Antiquities, London. 1801, vol. 5, pp. 82 and 83.

6Tbid., vol. 5, p. 85.

® Schultze, Fetichism, N. Y., 1885, p. 32.

7Paper by Dr. Jonn G. Henderson on ‘‘ Aboriginal remains near Naples, Ill.,"’ Smith. Rept., 1882.
8 J. F. Snyder, “ Indian remaiis in Cass County, Illinois,’ Smith. Rept.. 1881, p. 575.

* Ran, in Sm. Rept., 1872, p. 356.

10* Ancient monuments of the Mississippi Valley,’ in Smithsonian Contributions, vol. 1, p. 160.

CHAP H Reatit:

THE IZZE-KLOTH OR MEDICINE CORD OF THE APACHE.

There is probably no more mysterious or interesting portion of the
religious or “‘ medicinal ” equipment of the Apache Indian, whether he
be medicine-man or simply a member of the laity, than the ‘ izze-
kloth” or medicine cord, illustrations of which accompany this text.
Less, perhaps, is known concerning it than any other article upon
which he relies in his distress.

I regret very much to say that I am unable to afford the slightest
clew to the meaning of any of the parts or appendages of the cords
which I have seen or which I have procured. Some excuse for this is to
be found in the fact that the Apache look upon these cords as so sacred
that strangers are not allowed to see them, much less handle them or
talk about them. I made particular effort to cultivate the most
friendly and, when possible, intimate relations with such of the Apache
and other medicine-men as seemed to offer the best chance for obtain-
ing information in regard to this and other matters, but Iam compelled
to say with no success at all.

Fic. 435.—Single-strand medicine cord (Zuni).

I did advance so far in my schemes that Na-a-cha, a prominent medi-
cine-man of the Tonto Apache, promised to let me have his cord, but as
an eruption of hostility on the part of the tribe called me away from the
San Carlos Agency, the opportunity was lost. Ramon, one of the prin-

5D0

BOURKE, ] MEDICINE CORDS. Hol!

cipal medicine-men of the Chiricahua Apache, made me the same
promise concerning the cord which he wore and which figures in these
plates. It was, unfortunately, sent me by mail, and, although the best
in the series and really one of the best I have ever been fortunate
enough to see on either living or dead, if was not accompanied by a
description of the symbolism of the different articles attached. Ramon
also gave me the head-dress which he wore in the spirit or ghost
dance, and explained everything thereon, and I am satisfied that he
would also, while in the same frame of mind, have given me all the in-
formation in his power in regard to the sacred or medicine cord as well,
had I been near him.

There are some things belonging to these cords which I understand
from having had them explained at other times, but there are others
about which I amin extreme doubt and ignorance. There are four
specimens of medicine cords represented and it is worth while to
observe that they were used as one, two, three, and four strand cords,
but whether this fact means that they belonged to medicine-men or to
warriors of different degrees I did
not learn nor do I venture to con-
jecture.

The single-strand medicine
cord with the thirteen olivella
shells belonged to a Zuni chief,
one of the priests of the sacred
order of the bow, upon whose
wrist it was worn as a sign of his
exalted rank in the tribe. I ob-
tained it as a proof of his sincer-
est friendship and with injunc-
tions to say nothing about it to
his own people, but no explana-
tion was made at the moment of
the signification of the wristlet or
cord itself or of the reason for
using the olivella shells of that
particular number or for placing
them as they were placed.

One of the four-strand cords
was obtained from Ramon and is
the most beautiful and the most
valuable of the lot. Ramon
called my attention to the im-
portant fact that it was com-
posed of four strands and that originally each had been stained a dif-
ferent color. These colors were probably yellow, blue, white, and black,
although the only ones still discernible at this time are the yellow and
the blue.

SSS wy

—

a

Fig. 436.—Four-strand medicine cord (Apache).

552 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

The three-strand cord was sent to me at Washington by my old
friend, Al. Seiber, a scout who has been living among the Apache for
twenty-five years. No explanation accompanied it and it was probably
procured from the body of some dead warrior during one of the innu-
merable scouts and skirmishes which Seiber has had with this warlike
race during his long term of service against them. The two strand
cord was obtained by myself so long ago that the circumstances con-
nected with it have escaped my memory. These cords, in their perfee-
tion, are decorated with beads and shells strung along at intervals,
with pieces of the sacred green chalchihuitl, which has had such a
mysterious ascendancy over the
minds of the American Indians—
Aztec, Peruvian, Quiche, as well
as the more savage tribes, like the
Apache and Navajo; with petrified
wood, rock crystal, eagle down,
claws of the hawk or eaglet, claws
of the bear, rattle of the rattle-
snake, buckskin bags of hodden-
tin, circles of buckskin in which
are inclosed pieces of twigs and
branches of trees which have been
struck by lightning, small frag-
ments of the abalone shell from
the Pacific coast, and much other
sacred paraphernalia of a similar
kind.

That the use of these cords was
reserved for the most sacred and
important oceasions, I soon
learned; they were not to be seen
on occasions of no moment, but
the dances for war, medicine, and
summoning the spirits at once
brought them out, and every medi-
cine-man of any consequence would
appear with one hanging from his
right shoulder over his left hip.

Only the chief medicine-men can make them, and after being made
and before being assumed by the new owner they must be sprinkled,
Ramon told me, with “heap hoddentin,” a term meaning that there is
a great deal of attendant ceremony of a religious character.

These cords will protect a man while on the warpath, and many of
the Apache believe firmly that a bullet will have no effect upon the
warrior wearing one of them. This is not their only virtue by any
means; the wearer can tell who has stolen ponies or other property

Fia. 437.—Three-strand medicine cord (Apache).

BOURKE. ] MEDICINE CORDS. 553

from him or from his friends, can help the crops, and cure the sick. If
the circle attached to one of these cords (see Fig. 436) is placed
upon the head it will at once relieve any ache, while the cross attached
to another (see Fig. 439) prevents the wearer from going astray, no
matter where he may be; in other words, it has some connection with
cross-trails and the four cardinal points to which the Apache pay the
strictest attention. The Apache assured me that these cords were not
mnemonic and that the beads, feathers, knots, etc., attached to them
were not for the purpose of recalling to mind some duty to be performed
or prayer to be recited.

Fig. 438.—Two-strand medicine cord (Apache).

I was at first inclined to associate these cords with the quipus of the
Peruvians, and also with the wampum of the aborigines of the Atlantic
coast, and investigation only confirms this first suspicion. It is true
that both the wampum and the quipu seem to have advanced from
their primitive position as ‘‘medicine” and attained, ethnologically
speaking, the higher plane of a medium for facilitating exchange or dis-
seminating information, and for that reason their incorporation in this
chapter might be objected to by the hypereritical; buta careful perusal

554 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

of all the notes upon the subject can not fail to convince the reader that
the use of just such medicine cords prevailed all over the world, under
one form or another, and has survived to our own times.

First, let me say a word about rosaries, the invention of which has
been attributed to St. Dominick, in Spain, and to St. Bridget, in Ireland.
Neither of these saints had anything to do with the invention or intro-
duction of the rosary, although each in his or her own province may
have adapted to new and better uses a cord already in general service
among all the peoples of Europe. The rosary, as such, was in general
use in parts of the world long before the time of Christ. Again, the

Fic. 439.—Four-strand medicine cord (Apache).

cords of the various religious orders were looked upon as medicine
cords and employed in that manner by the ignorant peasantry.

In this chapter I will insert notes showing the use of such cords by
other tribes, and follow with descriptions of the uses to which the cords
of St. Francis and others were put, and with references to the rosaries
of different races or different creeds; finally, I will remark upon the
superstitions connected with cords, belts, and strings, knotted or un-
knotted, made of serpent skin, human skin, or huinanhair. The strangest
thing about it all is that observers have, with scarcely an exception,
contented themselves with noting the existence of such cords without
making the shghtest effort to determine why they were used.

BOURKE. ] MEDICINE CORDS. 555

There are certain cords with medicine bags attached to be seen in the
figures of medicine-men in the drawings of the sacred altars given by
Matthews in his account of the Navajo medicine-men.

Cushing also has noted the existence of such cords in Zuni, and there
is no doubt that some at least of the so-called ‘fishing lines” found in
the Rio Verde cliff dwellings in Arizona were used for the same pur-
poses.

Describing the tribes met on the Rio Colorado, in 1540-1541, Alarcon
says: “Likewise on the brawne of their armes they weare a streit string,
which they wind so often about that it becommeth as broad as one’s
hand.”! It must be remembered that the Indians thought that Alarcon
was a god, that they offered sacrifice to him, and that they wore all
the ‘‘medicine” they possessed.

In 1680, the Pueblos, under the leadership of Popé, of the pueblo of San
Juan, were successful in their attempt to throw off the Spanish yoke.
He made them believe that he was in league with the spirits, and ‘that
they directed him to make a rope of the palm leaf and tie in it a number
of knots to represent the number of days before the rebellion was to
take place; that he must send this rope to all the Pueblos in the king-
dom, when each should signify its approval of, and union with, the con-
spiracy by untying one of the knots.”°

I suspect that this may have been an izze-kloth. We know nothing
about this rebellion excepting what has been derived through Spanish
sources; the conquerors despised the natives, and, with a very few
notable exceptions among the Franciscans, made no effort to study
their peculiarities. The discontent of the natives was aggravated by
this fact; they saw their idols pulled down, their ceremonial chambers
closed, their dances prohibited, and numbers of their people tried and
executed for witchcraft. Fray Geronimo de Zarate Salmeron was a
striking example of the good to be effected by missionaries who are not
above studying their people; he acquired a complete mastery of the
language of the pueblo of Jemez, “and preached to the inhabitants in
their native tongue.” He is represented as exercising great influence
over the people of Jemez, Sia, Santa Ana, and Acoma. In this rebel-
lion of 1680 the Pueblos expected to be joined by the Apache.‘ ‘

The izze-kloth of the Apache seems to have had its prototype in the
sacred string of beans with which Tecumseh’s brother, the Shawnee
prophet, traveled among the Indian tribes, inciting them to war. Every
young warrior who agreed to go upon the warpath touched this “sacred
string of beans” in token of his solemn pledge.°

Tanner says in thenarrativeof hiscaptivity among the Ojibwa: ‘He
[the medicine-man| then gave me a small hoop of wood to wear on my

! Relation of the Voyage of Don Fernando Alarcon, in Hakluyt’s Voyages, vol. 3, p. 508.
? Davis, Conquest of New Mexico, p. 288.

3 Davis, ibid., pp. 280, 284, 285.

4Tbid., pp. 277, 292.

5 Catlin, North American Indians, London, 1845, vol. 2, p. 117.

556 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

head like a cap. On one-half of this hoop was marked the figure of a
snake, whose office, as the chief told me, was to take care of the water.” ?
The “small hoop of wood” of which Tanner speaks, to be worn on the
head, seems to be analogous to the small hoop attached to the izze-kloth,
to be worn or applied in cases of headache (Fig. 436). Reference to
something very much like the izze-kloth is made by Harmon as in use
among the Carriers of British North America. He says: ‘“* The lads, as
soon as they come to the age of puberty, tie cords, wound with swan’s-
down, around each leg a little below the knee, which they wear during
one year, and then they are considered as men.”? Catlin speaks of
‘“mystery-beads” in use among the Mandan.* “The negro suspends
all about his person cords with most complicated knots.” 4

The female inhabitants of Alaska, Unalaska, and the Fox Islands
were represented by the Russian explorers of 1768 (Captain Krenitzin)
to ‘wear chequered strings around the arms and legs.”° These cords
bear a striking resemblance to the “ wresting cords” of the peasantry
of Europe. Some of the Australians preserve the hair of a dead man.
“It is spun into a cord and fastened around the head of a warrior.”®
“A cord of opossum hair around the neck, the ends drooping down on
the back and fastened to the belt,” is one of the parts of the costume
assumed by those attaining manhood in the initiation ceremonies of the
Australians.?. Again, on pages 72 and 74, he calls it ‘“‘the beltof man-
hood.” “The use of amulets was common among the Greeks and
Romans, whose amulets were principally formed of gems, crowns of
pearls, necklaces of coral, shells, etc.” *

When I first saw the medicine cords of the Apache, it occurred to
me that perhaps in some way they might be an inheritance from the
Franciscans, who, two centuries ago, had endeavored to plant mis-
sions among the Apache, and did succeed in doing something for the
Navajo part of the tribe. I therefore examined the most convenient
authorities and learned that the cord of S. Frangois, like the cord of St.
Augustine and the cord of St. Monica, was itself a medicine cord, rep-
resenting a descent from a condition of thought perfectly parallel to
that which has given birth to the izze-kloth. Thus Picart tells us:
“On appelle Cordon de 8, Francois la grosse corde qui sert de ceinture
aux Religieux qui vivent sous la Reglede ce Saint. . . . Cette corde
ceint le corps du Moine, & pend a peu prés jusqu’aux pieds. Elle lui sert
de discipline, & pour cet effet, elle est armée de distance en distance de
fort gros neuds. . . . La Corde de 8. Francois a souvent gueri les
malades, facilité les accouchemens, fortifié la santé, procuré lignée & fait

' Tanner's Narrative, p. 188.
2 Journal, p. 289.

3 North American Indians, London, 1845, vol. 1, p. 135.

* Schultze, Fetichism, New York, 1885, p. 32, quoting Bastian.

® Coxe, Russian Discoveries between America and Asia, London, 1803, p- 254.
® Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, vol. 1, pp. xxix, 112.

7 Tbid., vol. 1, p. 68.

§ Pettigrew, Medical Superstitions, Philadelphia, 1844, pp. 67.72, 74.

BOURKE.] GIRDLES AND CORDS. end

une infinité @autres miracles édifians.”! This author says of the gir-
dle of St. Augustine ‘“‘ Elle est de cuir,” and adds that the Augustin-
ians have a book which treats of the origin of their order, in which
occurthese words: ‘ [lest probable que nos premiers Peres, qui vivoient
sous la Loi de nature, étant habillés de peau devoient porter une
Ceinture de méme étoffe.”* This last assumption is perfectly plausible.
For my part it has always seemed to me that monasticism is of very
ancient origin, antedating Christianity and representing the most con-
servative element in the religious part of human nature. It clings
obstinately to primitive ideas with which would naturally be associated
primitive costume. The girdle of St. Monica had five knots. ‘The
monks [of the Levant] use a girdle with twelve knots, to shew that they
are followers of the twelve apostles.”* Among the ‘“‘sovereign remedies
for the headache” is mentioned “the belt of St. Guthlac.”* Buckle
refers to the fact that English women in labor wore *‘ blessed girdles.”
He thinks that they may have been Thomas Aquinas’s girdles.*®
And good Saynt Frances gyrdle,

With the hamlet of a hyrdle,
Are wholsom for the pyppe.®

Some older charms are to be found in Bale’s Interlude concerning the
Laws of Nature, Moses, and Christ, 4to, 1562. Idolatry says:

For lampes and for bottes
Take me Sayné Wilfride’s knottes.’

The “ girdle of St. Bridget,” mentioned by Mooney® and by other
writers, through which the sick were passed by their friends, was
simply a “survival” of the * Cunni Diaboli” still to be found in the
East Indies. This * girdle of St. Bridget” was made of straw and in
the form of a collar.

The custom prevailing in Catholic countries of being buried in the
habits of the monastic orders, of which we know that the cord was a
prominent feature, especially in those of St. Francis or St. Dominick,
is alluded to by Brand.’ This custom seems to have been founded
upon a prior superstitious use of magical cords which were, till a com-
paratively recent period, buried with the dead. The Roman Catholic
church anathematized those “qui s’imaginent faire plaisir aux morts ou
leur mettant entre les mains, ou en jettant sur leurs fosses, ou dans
leurs Pes de petites cordes nouées de SST HES & Vautres

'Cérémonies et Coittumes Religieuses, Amsterdam, 1739, vol. 2, pp. 28, 29.

2Thid., p. 29.

% Higgins, Anacalypsis, vol. 2, book 2, p. 77.

‘Pettigrew, Medical Superstitions, Philadelphia, 1844, p. 61. See also Black, Folk-Medicine, p. 93.
*Citations, Common place Rook, p. 395, London, 1872

* Brand, Popular Antiquities, vol. 3, pp. 310, 311.

7 Brand, Popular Antiquities, vol. 3, p. 310.

8 Holiday Customs of Ireland, pp. 381 et seq.

* Popular Antiquities, vol. 3, p. 325.

558 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

semblables, ce qui est expressement condamné par le Synode de Ferrare
en 1612.”! Evidently the desire was to be buried with cords or amulets
which in life they dared not wear.

We may infer that cords and other articles of monastic raiment can
be traced back to a most remote ancestry by reading the views of God-
frey Higgins, in Anacalypsis, to the effect that there was a tradition
maintained among the Carmelites that their order had been established
by the prophet Elisha and that Jesus Christ himself had been one of
its members. Massingberd, speaking of the first arrival of the Car-
melites in England (about A. D. 1215), says: ‘‘ They professed to be
newly arrived in Italy, driven out by the Saracens from the Holy Land,
where they had remained on Mount Carmel from the time of Elisha
the prophet. They assert that ‘the sons of the prophets’ had con-
tinued on Mount Carmel as a poor brotherhood till the time of Christ,
soon after which they were miraculously converted, and that the Virgin
Mary joined their order and gave them a precious vestment called a
scapular.” ”

ANALOGUES TO BE FOUND AMONG THE AZTECS, PERUVIANS, AND
OTHERS.

According to the different authorities cited below, it will be seen that
the Aztec priests were in the habit of consulting Fate by casting upon
the ground a handful of cords tied together; if the cords remained
bunched together, the sign was that the patient was to die, but if they
stretched out, then it was apparent that the patient was soon to stretch
out his legs and recover. Mendieta says: ‘ Tenian unos cordeles, hecho
de ellos un manojo como Iavero donde las mujeres traen colgadas las
Haves, lanzabanlos en el suelo, y si quedaban revueltos, decian que era
senal de muerte. Y si alguno 6 algunos salian extendidos, tenianlo por
senal de vida, diciendo: que ya comenzaba el enfermo 4 extender los piés
y las manos.”* Diego Duran speaks of the Mexican priests casting lots
with knotted cords, “con nudillos de hilo echaban suertes.”* When
the army of Cortes advanced into the interior of Mexico, his soldiers
found a forest of pine in which the trees were interlaced with certain
eords and papers which the wizards had placed there, telling the Tlas-
caltees that they would restrain the advance of the strangers and
deprive them of all strength:

Hallaron un Pinar mui espeso, leno de hilos i papeles, que enredaban los Arboles,
i atravesaban el camino, de que mucho se rieron los Castellanos; i dixeron graciosos

donaires, quando luego supieron que los Hechiceros havian dado a entender a los
Tlascaltecas que con aquellos hilos, i papeles havian de tener & los Castellanos, i qui-

tarles sus fuergas.®

1 Picart, Cérémonies et Cotttumes, ete., vol. 10, p. 56.

2 Massingberd, The English Reformation, London, 1857, p. 105.
3 Mendieta, p. 110.

4 Vol. 3, cap. 5, p. 284.

5 Herrera, dec. 2, lib. 6, p. 141.

sy

74

BOURKE. ] CEREMONIAL CORDS. HDI

Padre Sahagun speaks of the Aztec priests who cast lots with little
cords knotted together: “Que hechan suertes con unas cordezuelas que
atan unas con otros que llaman Mecatlapouhque.”'! Some such method
of divining by casting cords must have existed among the Lettons, as
we are informed by Grimm.? ‘* Among the Lettons, the bride on her
way to church, must throw a bunch of colored threads and a coin into
every ditch and pond she sees.” *

In the religious ceremonies of the Peruvians vague mention is made of
‘a very long eable,” woven in four colours, black, white, red, and yel-
low.”* The Inca wore a ‘“Mautu.” “This was ared fringe in the fashion
of a border, which he wore across his forehead from one temple to the
other. The prince, who was heir apparent, wore a yellow fringe, which
was smaller than that of his father.”° In another place, Garcilaso says:
“Tt was of many colours, about a finger in width and a little less in
thickness. They twisted this fringe three or four times around the
head and let it hang after the manner of agarland.”® ‘*The Ynea made
them believe that they were granted by order of the Sun, according to the
merits of each tribe, and for this reason they valued them exceedingly.”?
The investiture was attended with imposing ceremonies. ‘* When the
Grounds of the Sun were to be tilled [by the Peruvians], the principal
men went about the task wearing white cords stretched across the
shoulders after the manner of ministers of the altar” is the vague
description to be gathered from Herrera.

Knotted cords were in use among the Carib; ‘ce qui revient aux
Quippos des Péruviens.”? The accompanying citation from Montfaucon
would seem to show that among the Romans were to be found sacred
baldries in use by the war priests; such baldries are to be seen also
among the American aborigines, and correspond very closely to the
medicine cords. Montfaucon describes the Saliens, who among the
Romans were the priests of Mars, the god of war; these priests in
the month of March had a festival which was probably nothing but a
war dance, as that month would be most favorable in that climate for
getting ready to attack their neighbors and enemies. He says that these
Saliens ‘‘sont vétus de robes de diverses couleurs, ceints de baudriers
W@airain.” These would seem to have been a sort of medicine cord with
plates of brass affixed which would rattle when shaken by the dancer.’

' Kingsborough, vol. 7, chap. 4.

2 Tentonic Mythology, vol. 3, p. 1283.

*Thid.

4 Fables and Rites of the Incas, Padre Christoval de Molina (Cuzco, 1570-1584), transl. by Clements
R. Markham, Hakluyt Society trans., vol. 48, London, 1873, p. 48.

5 The common people wore a black ‘‘llanutu.’ See Gareilaso, Comentarios, Markham’s transl., Hak.

Soc., vol. 41, pp. 88, 89.

§Ibid., p. 85.

7Tbid., p. 89.

8“ Quando van & sembrar las Tierras del Sol, van solos los Principales a trabajar, i van con insignias
blaneas, i en las espaldas unos Cordones tendidos blancos, 4 modo de Ministros del Altar.’’—Herrera,
dec. 5, lib. 4, cap. 6, pp. 94-95.

* Picart, Cerémonies et Cohtumes, etc., Amsterdam, 1735, vol. 6, p. 92.

10 Montfaucon, L’antiquité expliquée, tome 2, pt. 1, p. 33.

560 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

Captain Cook found that the men of the tribes seen in Australia
wore “bracelets of small cord, wound two or three times about the
upper part of their arm.!

‘“‘ Whilst their [the Congo natives’| children are young, these people
bind them about with certain superstitious cords made by the wizards,
who, likewise, teach them to utter a kind of spell while they are bind-
ing them.”? Father Merolla adds that sometimes as many as four of
these cords are worn. .

Bosman remarks upon the negroes of the Gold Coast as follows: ‘‘The
child is no sooner born than the priest (here called Feticheer or Consoe)
is sent for, who binds a parcel of ropes and coral and other trash about
the head, body, arms, and legs of the infant; after which he exorcises,
according to their accustomed manner, by which they believe it is
armed against all sickness and ill accidents.” *

In the picture of a native of Uzinza, Speke shows us a man wearing
a cord from the right shoulder to the left hip.*

In the picture of Lunga Mandi’s son, in Cameron’s Across Africa,°
that young chief is represented as wearing a cord across his body from
his right shoulder to the left side.

On the Lower Congo, at Stanley Pool, Stanley met a young chief:
“From his shoulders depended a long cloth of check pattern, while over
one shoulder was a belt, to which was attached a queer medley of small
gourds containing snuff and various charms, which he called his Inkisi.”°
This no doubt was a medicine cord. “ According to the custom, which
seems to belong to all Africa, as a sign of grief the Dinka wear a cord
round the neck.”* “The Mateb, or baptismal cord, is de rigueur, and
worn when nothing else is. It formed the only clothing of the young at
Seramba, but was frequently added to with amulets, sure safeguards
against soreery.”’ The Abyssinian Christians wear a blue cord as a sign
of having been baptized, and ‘baptism and the blue cord are, in the
Abyssinian mind, inseparable.”® ‘The cord," or mateb, without which
nobody ean be really said in Abyssinia to be respectable.”!! It further
resembles the Apache medicine cord, inasmuch as it is ‘a blue cord
around the neck.” Thebaptismal cords are made of ‘blue floss silk.” °

THE MAGIC WIND KNOTTED CORDS OF THE LAPPS AND OTHERS.

“The navigators of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have
related many wonderful stories about the magic of the Finns or Finno

1 Hawkesworth, Voyages, vol. 3, p. 229.
? Voyage to Congo, in Pinkerton'’s Voyages, vol. 16, p. 287.
Pinkerton, Voyages, vol. 16, p. 388.

4Speke, Source of the Nile, London, 1863, p. 125.

5 London, 1877. vol. 2, p. 181.

°Stanley, Through the Dark Continent, vol. 2, p. 330.
7Schweinfurth, Heart of Africa, London, 1873, vol. 1, p. 154.
’ Winstanley, Abyssinia, vol. 2, p. 68.

*’ This cord is worn about the meck. Tbid., p. 257.

Thid., vol. 1, p. £
"Tbid., vol. 2, p.1
'2Tbid, p. 165.
138Thid, p. 292.

BOURKE. ] ROSARIES AND OTHER CORDS. 561

Lappes, who sold wind contained in a cord with three knots. If the
first were untied, the wind became favourable, if the second, still more
so, but, if the third were loosed, a tempest was the inevitable conse-
quence.”! The selling of wind knots was ascribed not only to the
Laps and Finns, but to the inhabitants of Greenland also” ‘The
northern shipmasters are such dupes to the delusions of these impos-
tors that they often purchase of them a magic cord which contains a
number of knots, by opening of which, according to the magician’s di-
rections, they expect to gain any wind they want.”* “They [Lapland
witches| further confessed, that while they fastened three knots on a
linen towel in the name of the devil, and had spit on them, &e., they
called the name of him they doomed to destruction.” They also
claimed that, “by some fatal contrivance they could bring on men dis-
orders,” . . . as “by spitting three times on a knife and anoint-
ing the victims with that spittle.” *

Scheffer describes the Laplanders as haying a cord tied with knots
for the raising of the wind; Brand says the same of the Finlanders, of
Norway, of the priestesses of the island of Sena, on the coast of Gaul,
in the time of the Emperor Claudius, the “‘ witches” of the Isle of Man,
etc.’

Maebeth, speaking to the witches, says:

Though you untie the winds, and let them fight
Against the churches; though the yesty waves
Confound and swallow navigation up.®

ROSARIES AND OTHER MNEMONIC CORDS.

The rosary being confessedly an aid to memory, it will be proper to
include it in a chapter descriptive of the different forms of mnemonic
cords which have been noticed in various parts of the world. The use
of the rosary is not confined to Roman Catholics; it is in service among
Mahometans, Tibetans, and Persians.7’ Picart mentions ‘chaplets”
among the Chinese and Japanese which very strongly suggest the izze-
kloth.®

Father Grébillon, in his account of Tartary, alludes several times to
the importance attached by the Chinese and Tartars to the privilege of
being allowed to touch the “string of beads” worn by certain Lamas
met on the journey, which corresponds very closely to the rosaries

2Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, vol. 2. p. 640.

3 Nightingale, quoted in Madden, Shrines and Sepulchres, vol. 1, pp. 557, 558.

4Leems, Account of Danish Lapland, in Pinkerton, Voyages, London, 1808, vol. 1, p. 471.
*Brand, Popular Antiquities, vol. 3, p.5. See also John Scheffer, Lapland, Oxford, 1674, p. 58.
6 Act IV, scene 1.

7 Benjamin, Persia, London, 1877, p. 99.

8 Cérémonies et Coittumes, vol. 7, p. 320.

2 Du Halde, History of China, London, 1736, vol. 4, pp. 244, 245, and elsewhere.

9 ETH 36

562 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

“Mr. Astle informs us that the first Chinese letters were knots on
cords.” !

Speaking of the ancient Japanese, the Chinese chronicles relate:
“They have no writing, but merely cut certain marks upon wood and
make knots in cord.”? In the very earliest myths of the Chinese we
read of “knotted cords, which they used instead of characters, and to
instruct their children.”* Malte-Brun calls attention to the fact that
“the hieroglyphies and little cords in use amongst the ancient Chinese
recal in a striking manner the figured writing of the Mexicans and
the Quipos of Peru.”* “ Kach combination [of the quipu] had, how-
ever, a fixed ideographic value in a certain branch of knowledge, and
thus the quipu differed essentially from the Catholic rosary, the Jewish
phylactery, or the knotted strings of the natives of North America and
Siberia, to all of which it has at times been compared.”°

EK. B. Tylor differs in opinion from Brinton. According to Tylor,
“the quipu is a near relation of the rosary and the wampum-string.”®

The use of knotted cords by natives of the Caroline Islands, as a
means of preserving a record of time, is noted by Kotzebue in several
places. For instance: “ Kadu kept his journal by moons, for which he
made a knot in a string.”7

During the years of my service with the late Maj. Gen. Crook in the
Southwest, I was surprised to discover that the Apache scouts kept
records of the time of their absence on campaign. There were several
methods in vogue, the best being that of colored beads, which were
strung on a string, six white ones to represent the days of the week
and one black or other color to stand for Sundays. This method gave
rise to some confusion, because the Indians had been told that there
were four weeks, or Sundays (‘‘ Domingos”), in each ‘“ Luna,” or moon,
and yet they soon found that their own method of determining time by
the appearance of the crescent moon was much the more satisfactory.
Among the Zuni I have seen little tally sticks with the marks for the
days and months incised on the narrow edges, and among the Apache
another method of indicating the flight of time by marking on a piece
of paper along a horizontal line a number of circles or of straight lines
across the horizontal datum line to represent the full days which had
passed, a heavy straight line for each Sunday, and a small crescent for
the beginning of each month.

Farther to the south, in the Mexican state of Sonora, I was shown,
some twenty years ago, a piece of buckskin, upon which certain Opata
or Yaqui Indians—I forget exactly which tribe, but it matters very

! Higgins, Anacalypsis, vol. 2, p. 218.

?Vining, An Inglorious Columbus, p. 635.

’Du Halde, History of China, London, 1736, vol. 1, p. 270.
4Univ. Geog., vol. 3, book 75, p. 144, Phila., 1832.
’Brinton, Myths of the New World, N. Y., 1868, p. 15.
®Early History of Mankind, London, 1870, p. 156.

7 Voyages, vol. 3. p. 102.

‘

BOURKE. } SACRED CORDS. 563

little, as they are both industrious and honest—had kept account of
the days of their labor. There was a horizontal datum line, as before,
with complete circles to indicate full days and half circles to indicate
half days, a long heavy black line for Sundays and holidays, and a
crescent moon for each new month. These accounts had to be drawn
up by the overseer or superintendent of the rancho at which the Indi-
ans were employed before the latter left for home each night.

THE SACRED CORDS OF THE PARSIS AND BRAHMANS.

I have already apologized for my own ignorance in regard to the
origin and symbolical signification of the izze-kloth of the Apache,
and I have now to do the same thing for the writers who have referred
to the use by the religious of India of the sacred cords with which, un-
der various names, the young man of the Parsis or Brahmans is invested
upon attaining the requisite age. No two accounts seem to agree and,
as [ have never been in India and cannot presume to decide where so
many differ, it is best that I should lay before my readers the exact
language of the authorities which seem to be entitled to greatest con-
sideration.

“A sacred thread girdle (kistik), should it be made of silk, is not
proper; the hair of a hairy goat and a hairy camel is proper, and from
other hairy creatures itis proper among the lowly.” !

Every Parsi wears “a triple coil” of a “ white cotton girdle,” which
serves to remind him of the ‘three precepts of his morality— good
thoughts,’ ‘good words,’ ‘good deeds.’”?

Williams describes the sacred girdle of the Parsis as made “ of seventy-
two interwoven woollen threads, to denote the seventy-two chapters of
the Yasna, but has the appearance of a long flat cord of pure white wool,
which is wound round the body in three-coils.”. The Parsi must take
off this kusti five times daily and replace it with appropriate prayers.
It must be wound round the body three times and tied in two peculiar
knots, the secret of which is known only to the Parsis.?

According to Picart, the “sudra,” or sacred cord of the Parsis, has
four knots, each of which represents a precept.‘

Marco Polo, in speaking of the Brahmans of India, says: “They are
known by a cotton thread, which they wear over the shoulders, tied
under the arm, crossing the breast.” ®

Picart described the sacred cord of the Brahmans, which he calls the
Dsandhem, as made in three colors, each color of nine threads of cotton,
which only the Brahmans have the right tomake. Itis to be worn after
the manner of a scarf from the left shoulder to the right side. It must
be worn through life, and, as it will wear out, new ones are provided at

' Shayast 14-Shayast, cap. 4, pp. 285, 286. In Sacred Books of the East, Max Miiller’s edition, vol.5.
2 Monier Williams, Modern India, p. 56.

3 Ibid., pp. 179, 180.

4 Cérémonies et Cofitumes, vol. 7, p. 28.

5 Marco Polo, Travels, in Pinkerton’s Voyages, vol. 7, p. 163.

564 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

a feast during the month of August.' The Brahman ‘about the age of
seven ornine . . . is invested with ‘the triple cord, and a badge
which hangs from his left shoulder.” 2

The Upayita or sacred cord, wound round the shoulders of the Brah-
mans, ismentioned in the Hibbert Lectures on the Origin and Growth
of Religion. ‘‘ Primarily, the sacred cord was the distinguishing mark of
caste among the Aryan inhabitants. It consisted for the Brahmans of
three cotton threads; for the Kshatriyas or warriors of three hempen
threads; and for the Vaisyas or artisans and tradesmen of woollen
threads.” $

“All coiling roots and fantastic shrubs represent the serpent and are
recognized as such all over India. In Bengal we find at the present
day the fantastically growing Euphorbia antiquorum regularly wor
shipped, as the representative of the serpent god. The sacred thread,
worn alike by Hindoo and Zoroastrian, is the symbol of that old faith;
the Brahman twines it round his body and occasionally around the neck
of the sacred bull, the Lingam, and its altar. . . . . With the
orthodox, the serpent thread should reach down to its closely allied
faith, although this Ophite thread idea is now no more known to Hin-
doos than the origin of arks, altars, candles, spires, and our church
fleur-de-lis to Jews and Christians.” 4

General Forlong alludes to the thigh as the symbol of phallic worship. ‘‘ The ser-
pent on head denoted Holiness, Wisdom, and Power, as it does when placed on gods
and great ones of the East still; but the Hindoo and Zoroastrian very early adopted
asymbolic thread instead of the ophite deity, and the throwing of this over the
head is also a very sacred rite, which consecrates the man-child to his God; this I
should perhaps have earlier described, and will do so now. The adoption of the
Poita or sacred thread, called also the Zenar, and from the most ancient pre-historic
times by these two great Bactro-Aryan families, points to a period when both had
the same faith, and that faith the Serpent. The Investiture is the Confirmation
or second birth of the Hindoo boy; until which he can not, of course, be married.
After the worship of the heavenly stone—the Saligrama, the youth or child takes a
branch of the Vilwa tree in his right hand, and a mystic cloth-bag in the left, when
a Poita is formed of three fibres of the Sooroo tree (for the first cord must always
be made of the genuine living fibres of an orthodox tree), and this ishung to the boy’s
left shoulder; he then raises the Vilwa branch over his right shoulder, and so stands
for some time, a complete figure ot the old faiths in Tree and Serpent, until the priest
otters up various prayers and incantations to Soorya, Savitri or Sot, the Eternal God.
The Sooroo-Poita is then removed as not durable eneugh, and the permanent thread
is put over the neck. It also is formed of three threads, each 96 cubits or 48 yards
long, folded and twisted together until only so long that, when thrown over the
left shoulder, it extends half-way down the right thigh, or a little less; for the ob-
ject appears to be to unite the Caput, Sol, or Seat of intellect with that of passion,
and so form a perfect man.°

All Parsis wear the sacred thread of serpent and phallic extraction, and the in-
vestiture of this is a solemn and essential rite with both sects [i.e., the Hindus and

! Picart, Cérémonies et Cofitumes, etc., vol. 6, pt. 2, p. 99.

* Malte Brun, Univ. Geog., vol. 2, lib. 50, p. 285, Philadelphia, 1832.

3 Dr. J. L. August Von Eye, The history of culture, in Ieonographie Encye., Philadelphia, 1886, vol. 2,
p. 169

4Torlong, Rivers of Life, vol. 1, p. 120.

STbid., pp. 240-241.

BOURKE. ] CORDS OF THE BRAHMANS. 565

Parsis], showing their joint Aryan origin in high Asia, for the thread is of the very
highest antiquity. The Parsi does not, however, wear his thread across the shoulder,
and knows nothing of the all-but-forgotten origin of its required length. He wears
it next to his skin, tied carefully round the waist, and used to tie it round his right
arm, as is still the custom with some classes of Brahmins who have lost purity of
caste by intermarriage with lower classe-.'

At the baptism or investiture of the thread, which takes the place of the Christian
confirmation ceremony, but between the ages of 7 and 9, Fire and Water are the
great sanctifying elements, and are the essentials. The fire is kindled from the
droppings of the sacred cow, then sprinkled over with holy water and blessed; and
when so consecrated by the priest it is called ‘‘ Holy Fire.”?

“The Brahmans, the Rajas, and the Merchants, distinguish themselves
from the various casts of Sudras by a narrow belt of thread, which they
always wear suspended from the left shoulder to the opposite haunch
like a sash.”* But,as Dubois speaks of the division of all the tribes
into “Right-hand and Left-hand,” a distinction which Coleman‘ ex-
plains as consisting in doing exactly contrariwise of each other, it is
not a very violent assumption to imagine that both the present and a
former method of wearing the izze-kloth, akin to that now followed by
the Apache, may once have obtained in India. The sectaries of the
two Hands are bitterly antagonistic and often indulge in fierce quarrels,
ending in bloodshed.°

“ All the Brahmans wear a Cord over the shoulder, consisting of three
black twistsof cotton, each of them formed of several smaller threads.
. . . The three threads are not twisted together, but separate from
one another, and hang from the left shoulder to the right haunch.
When a Brahman marries, he mounts nine threads instead of three.”
Children were invested with these sacred cords at the age of from 7
to 9. The cords had to be made and put on with much ceremony, and
only Brahmans could make them. According to Dubois, the material
was cotton; he does not allude to buekskin.®

Coleman? gives a detailed description of the manner in which the
sacred thread of the Brahmans is made:

The sacred thread must be made by a Brahman. It consists of three strings, each
ninety-six hands (forty-eight yards), which are twisted together: it is then folded
into three and again twisted; these are a second time folded into the same number
and tied at each end in knots. It is worn over the left shoulder (next the skin, ex-
tending half way down the right thigh), by the Brahmans, Ketries and Vaisya castes.
The first are usually invested with it at eight years of age, the second at eleven, and
the Vaisyaattwelve. . . . The Hindus of the Sutra caste do not receive the
poita.

The ceremony of investiture comprehends prayer, sacrifice, fasting,
etc., and the wearing of a preliminary poita “ of three threads, made of
the fibers of the swru, to which a piece of deer’s skin is fastened.” ®
This piece of buckskin was added no doubt in order to let the neophyte

1 Forlong, Rivers of Life, vol. 1, p. 328. 5 Mythology of the Hindus, pp. 9, 10, 11.
2 Thid., p. 323. 6 Thid., p. 92.
3 Dubois, People of India, p. 9. 7 Thid., p. 155.

4 Mythology of the Hindus. * Tbid., pp. 135, 154, 155.

566 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

know that once buckskin formed an important part of the garment.
The Brahmans use three cords, while the Apache employ four; on this
subject we shall have more to learn when we take up the subject of
numbers.

Maurice says that the “sacred cord of India,” which he calls the
zennar, is ‘a cord of three threads in memory and honor of the three
great deities of Hindostan.”! It ‘‘can be woven by no profane hand; the
Brahmin alone can twine the hallowed threads that compose it and it
is done by him with the utmost solemnity, and with the addition of
many mystic rites.”” It corresponds closely to the izze-kloth; the Apache
do not want people to touch these cords. The zennar “being put
upon the left shoulder passes to the right side and hangs down as low
as the fingers can reach.”* The izze-kloth of the Apache, when pos-
sible, is made of twisted antelope skin; they have no cord of hemp;
but when the zennar is ‘put on for the first time, if is accompanied
with a piece of the skin of an antelope, three fingers in breadth, but
shorter than the zennar.” 4

On p. 128 of Vining’s An Inglorious Columbus, there is a figure of
worshipers offering gifts to Buddha; from Buddha’s left shoulder to
his right hip there passes what appears to be a cord, much like the
izze-kloth of the Apache.

Examples of the use of such cords are to be found elsewhere.

In the conjuration of one of the shamans, ‘“‘ They took a small line

made of deers’ skins of four fathoms long, and with a small knot the
priest made it fast about his neck and under his left arm, and gave it
unto two men standing on both sides of him, which held the ends to-
gether.”° It is difficult to say whether this was a cord used on the
present occasion only or worn constantly by the shaman. In either
se the cord was ‘“ medicine.”
Hagennaar relates that he “saw men wearing ropes with knots in
them, flung over their shoulders, whose eyes turned round in their
heads, and who were called Jammaboos, signifying as much as conju-
rors or exorcists.” °

The Mahometans believe that at the day of judgment Jesus Christ
and Mahomet are to meet outside of Jerusalem holding a tightly-
stretched cord between them upon which all souls must walk. This
may or may not preserve a trace of a former use of such a cord in their
“medicine,” but it is well to refer to it.?

1 Maurice, Indian Antiquities, London, 1801, vol. 5, p. 205.

2 Ipid., vol. 4, p. 375, where a description of the mode of weaving and twining is given.

3Tbid., p. 376.

4Tbid., vol. 5, p. 206.

5 Notes of Richard Johnson, Voyages of Sir Hugh Willoughby and others to the northern part of
Russia and Siberia, Pinkerton’s Voyages, vol. 1, p. 63.

® Caron’s account of Japan in Pinkerton’s Voyages, vol. 7, p. 631.

7 Rey. Father Dandini’s Voyage to Mount Libanus, in Pinkerton’s Voyages, vol. 10, p. 286.

BOURKE. ] SACRED CORDS. 567

The sacred thread and garment which were worn by all the perfect
among the Cathari, and the use of which by both Zends and Brahmans
shows that its origin is to be traced back to a pre-historic period.}

“No religious rite can be performed by a (child) before he has been
girt with the sacred girdle, since he is on a level with a Stdra before
his (new) birth from the Veda.” ”

In explaining the rules of external purification—that is, purification
in which water is the medium—Baudhayana says: °

The sacrificial thread (shall be made) of Kusa grass, or cotton, (and consist) of
thrice three strings.

(It shall hang down) to the navel.

(In putting it on) he shall raise the right arm, lower the left, and lower the head.

The contrary (is done at sacrifices) to the manes.

(If the thread is) suspended around the neck (it is called) nivita.

(If it is) suspended below (the navel, it is called) adhopavita.

A former use of sacred cords would seem to be suggested in the con-
stant appearance of the belief in the mystical properties and the power
for good or evil of the knots which constitute the characteristic append-
age of these cords. This belief has been confined to no race or people;
it springs up in the literature of the whole world and survives with a
pertinacity which is remarkable among the peasantry of Europe and
among many in both America and Europe who would not hesitate to
express resentment were they to be included among the illiterate.

The powers of these knots were recognized especially in strengthening
or defeating love, as aiding women in labor, and in other ways which
prove them to be cousins-german to the magic knots with which the
medicine-men of the Lapps and other nations along the shores of the
Baltic were supposed to be able to raise or allay the tempest. ‘ One of
the torments with which witchcraft worried men was the Knot by which
aman was withheld so that he could uot work his will with a woman,
It was called in the Latin of the times Nodus and Obligamentum, and
appears in the glossaries, translated by the Saxons into lyb, drug.”
“To make a ‘ligatura’ is pronounced ‘detestable’ by Theodorus, Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, in 668. The knot is still known in France, and
Nouer Vaiguillette is a resort of ill-will.” Then is given the adventure
of Hrut, prince of Iceland, and his bride Gunnhilld, princess of Nor-
way, by whom a “knot” was duly tied to preserve his fidelity during
his absence. * ‘Traces of this philosophy are to be found elsewhere,”
(references are given from Pliny and Galens in regard to ‘‘nod”).°
“A knot among the ancient northern nations seems to have been the
symbol of love, faith, and friendship, pointing out the indissoluble tie
of affection and duty. Thus the ancient Runic inscriptions, as we
gather from Hickes’s Thesaurus, are in the form of a knot. Hence,

1 Henry Charles Lea, History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages, vol. 1, p. 92, New York, 1888.
2 Miiller, Sacred Books of the East, vol. 14, Vasishtha, cap. 2, par 6.

3 Tbid., Baudhayana, prasna 1, adhyaya 5, kandika 8, pars. 5-10, p. 165.

4 Saxon Leechdoms, vol. 1, pp. xli-xliii.

6 Tbid., p. xliii.

568 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

among the northern English and Scots, who still retain, in a great
measure, the language and manners of the ancient Danes, that curious
kind of a knot, a mutual present between the lover and his mistress,
which, being considered as the emblem of plighted fidelity, is therefore
called a true-love knot: a name which is not derived, as one would
naturally suppose it to be, from the words ‘true’ and ‘love, but formed
from the Danish verb Trulofa, jidem do, I plight my troth, or faith.
. . . Hence, evidently, the bride favors or the top-knots at marriages,
which have been considered as emblems of the ties of duty and affec-
tion between the bride and her spouse, have been derived.” !

Sir Thomas Browne, in his Vulgar Errors,’ says ‘the true-lover’s knot
is much magnified, and still retained in presents of love among us;
which, though in all points it doth not make out, had, perhaps, its
original from Nodus Herculanus, or that which was called Hercules, his
knotresembling the snaky complications in the caduceus or rod of Hermes
and in which form the zone or woolen girdle of the bride was fastened,
as Turnebus observes in his Adversaria.” Brand shows* that the
true-lover’s knot had tobe tied three times. Another species of knot divi-
nation is given in the Connoisseur, No. 56: ‘*‘ Whenever I go to lye in
a strange bed, [ always tye my garter nine times round the bed-post,
aud knit nine knots in it, and say to myself: ‘this knot I knit, this.
knot I tye, to see my love as he goes by,’ etc. There was also a sugges-
tion of color symbolism in the true-lover’s knot, blue being generally
accepted as the most appropriate tint. I find among the illiterate Mex-
ican population of the lower Rio Grande a firm belief in the power pos-
sessed by a lock of hair tied into knots to retain a maiden’s affections.

“| find it stated that headache may be alleviated by tying a woman’s.
fillet round the head.* To arrest incontinence of urine, the extremities
of the generative organs should be tied with a thread of linen or
papyrus, and a binding passed round the middle of the thigh.’ It is
quite surprising how much more speedily wounds will heal if they are
bound up and tied with a Hercules’ knot; indeed, it is said that if the
girdle which we wear every day is tied with a knot of this description,
it will be productive of certain beneficial effects, Hercules having been
the first to discover the fact.”°> “ Healing girdles were already known
to Marcellus.” 7

“In our times ’tis a common thing, saith Erastus in his book de
Lamiis, for witches to take upon them the making of these plilters, to
force men and women to love and hate whom they will; to cause tem-
pests, diseases, &c., by charms, spels, characters, knots.” °

) Brand, Popular Antiquities, vol. 2, pp. 108, 109.

2 Browne, Religio Medici, p. 392.

3 Brand, op. cit., p. 110.

4Pliny, Nat. Hist., lib. 28, cap. 22.

6 Ibid., lib. 28, cap. 17.

© Tbid.

7 Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, vol. 3, p. 1169.

8 Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, London, 1827, vol. 1, p. 91; vol. 2, pp. 288, 290,

BOURKE. } MAGICAL CORDS AND KNOTS. 569

Burton ! alludes to the “inchanted girdle of Venus, in which, saith
Natales Comes, . . . all witchcraft to enforce love was contained.”

The first general council of Milan, in 1565, prohibited the use of what
were called phylacteries, ligatures, and reliquaries (of heathen origin)
which people all over Europe were in the habit of wearing at neck or
on arms or knees. *

“ King James* enumerates thus: ‘Such kinde of charmes as
staying married folkes to have naturally adoe with each other, by Janie
ting so many knots upon a point at the time of their marriage.’”

“Tying the point was another fascination, illustrations of which may
be found in Reginald Scott’s Discourse Concerning Devils and Spirits,
p. 71; in the Fifteen Comforts of Marriage, p. 225; and in the British
Apollo, vol. 2, No. 35, 1709. In the old play of The Witch of Edmonton,
1658 Young Banks says, ‘ Ungirt, unbless’d, says the proverb.’”

Frommann speaks of the frequent appearance of knots in witchcraft,
but, beyond alluding to the ‘“‘ Nodus Cassioticus” of a certain people
near Pelusia, who seem, like the Laplanders, to have made a business
of fabricating and selling magic knots, he adds nothing to our stock of
information on the subject. He seems to regard the knot of Hercules
and the Gordian knot as magical knots. °

Bogle mentions the adoration of the Grand Lama (Teshu Lama).
The Lama’s servants “put a bit of silk with a knot upon it, tied, or
supposed to be tied, with the Lama’s own hands, about the necks of the
votaries.”7

A girdle of Venus, ‘ possessing qualities not to be described,” was
enumerated among the articles exhibited at a rustic wedding in England.®

In 1519, Torralva, the Spanish magician, was given by his guardian
spirit, Zequiel, a “stick full of knots,” with the injunction, “shut your
eyes and fear nothing; take this in your hand, and no harm will happen
to you.”® Here the idea evidently was that the power resided in the
knots.

“Immediately before the celebration of the marriage ceremony [in
Perthshire, Scotland] every knot about the bride and bridegroom (gar-
ters, Shoe-strings, strings of petticoats, &c.), is carefully loosened.”

“The precaution of loosening every knot about the new-joined pair is
strictly observed [in Scotland], for fear of the penalty denounced in the
former volumes. It must be remarked that the custom is observed even
in France, nouer Vaiguillette being a common phrase for disappoint-
ments of this nature.” !!

1 Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, London, 1827, vol. 1, p. 91; vol. 2, p. 290.
2 Picart, Cérémonies et Cofitumes, etc., vol. 10, pp. 69-73.

3 Demonology, p. 100.

4Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 3, p. 299.

5 Tbid., p. 170.

6Frommann, Tractatus de Fascinatione, Nuremberg, 1675, p. 731.
7 Markham, Bogle’s mission to Tibet, London, 1876, p. 85.

8 Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 2, p. 149.

°Thomas Wright, Sorcery and Magic, London, 1851, vol. 2, p. 10.
10 Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 2, p. 143.

1) Pennant, in Pinkerton, Voyages, vol. 3, p. 382.

570 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

Insome parts of Germany “a bride will tie a string of flax around her
left leg, in the belief that she will thereby enjoy the full blessing of the
married state.” !

“There was formerly a custom in the north of England, which will be
thought to have bordered very closely upon indecency . . . for the
young men present at a wedding to strive, immediately after the cere-
mony, who could first pluck off the bride’s garters from her legs. This was
done before thevery altar . . . Lhave sometimes thought this a frag-
ment of the ancient ceremony of loosening the virgin zone, or girdle, a
custom that needs no explanation.” ‘It is the custom in Normandy for
the bride to bestow her garter on some young man as a favour, or some-
times it is taken from her . . . Lamof opinion that the origin of
the Order of the Garter is to be traced to this nuptial custom, anciently
common to both court and country.” ”

Grimm quotes from Hincmar of Rheims to show the antiquity of the
use for both good and bad purposes of “ligatures,” ‘‘ cum filulis colorum
multiplicium.” *

To undo the effects of a *‘ ligature,” the following was in high repute:
+“Si quem voles per noctem cum foemina coire non posse, pistillum cor-
onatum sub lecto illius pone.”* But a pestle crowned with flowers could
be nothing more or less than a phallus, and, therefore, an offering to
the god Priapus.

“Owing to a supposed connection which the witches knew between
the relations of husband and wife and the mysterious knots, the bride-
groom, formerly in Scotland and to the present day in Ireland, presents
himself occasionally, and in rural districts, before the clergyman, with
all knots and fastenings on his dress loosened, and the bride, imme-
diately after the ceremony is performed, retires to be undressed, and so
rid of her knots.”?

USE OF CORDS AND KNOTS AND GIRDLES IN PARTURITION.

Folk medicine in all regions is still relying upon the potency of mys-
tical cords and girdles to facilitate labor. The following are a few of
the many examples which might be presented:

Delivery was facilitated if the man by whom the woman has con-
ceived unties his girdle, and, after tying it round her, unties it, saying:
“JT have tied it and I will untie it,” and then takes his departure.®

“Henry, in his History of Britain, vol. 1, p. 459, tells us that‘ amongst
the ancient Britons, whena birth was attended with any difficulty, they
put certain girdles made for that purpose about the women in labour
which they imagined gave immediate and effectual relief. Such girdles
were kept with care till very lately in many families in the Highlands

' Hoffman, quoting Friend, in Jour. Am. Folk Lore, 1888, p. 134.

2Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 2, pp. 127 et seq.

3Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, vol. 3, p.1174. He also speaks of the ‘‘nouer]'aiguillette, ibid., p. 1175.
4Saxon Leechdoms, vol. 1, p. xliv.

*Black, Folk-Medicine, London, 1883, pp. 185, 186.

*Pliny, Nat. Hist., lib. 28, cap. 9.

BOURKE. ] CORDS USED IN PARTURITION. yal

of Scotland. They were impressed with several mystical figures; and
the ceremony of binding them about the woman’s waist was accom-
panied with words and gestures, which showed the custom to have
been of great antiquity, and to have come originally from the Druids.’”?!

“But my girdle shall serve as a riding knit, and a fig for all the
witches in Christendom.”? The use of girdles in labor must be ancient.

“Ut mulier concipiat, homo vir si solvat semicinctum suum et eam
precingat.”* ““Certumest quod partum mirabiliter facilirent, siveinstar
cinguli cireumdentur corpori.” These girdles were believed to aid labor
and cure dropsy and urinary troubles.*

“The following customs of childbirth are noticed in the Traité des
Superstitions of M. Thiers, vol. 1, p.320: ‘Lors qwune femme est preste
@accoucher, prendre sa ceinture, aller & ’Eglise, lier la cloche avec cette
ceinture et la faire sonner trois coups afin que cette femme accouche
heureusement. Martin de Arles, Archidiacre de Pampelonne (Tract.
de Superstition) asseure que cette superstition est fort en usage dans
tout son pays.’”°

In the next two examples there is to be found corroboration of the
views advanced by Forlong that these cords (granting that the princi-
ple upon which they all rest is the same) had originally some relation
to ophic rites. Brand adds from Levinus Lemnius: “Let the woman
that travels with her child (isin her labour) be girded with the skin
that a serpent or a snake casts off, and then she will quickly be delivered.”6
A serpent’s skin was tied as a belt about a woman in childbirth.” Inde
puerpere circa collum aut corporem apposito, victoriam in puerperii
conflictu habuerunt, citissimeque liberate fuerunt.” 7

The following examples, illustrative of the foregoing, are taken from
Flemming: The skins of human corpses were drawn off, preferably by
cobblers, tanned, and made into girdles, called “‘Cingula” or Chiroth-
ece, which were bound on the left thigh of a woman in labor to expe-
dite delivery. The efficacy of these was highly extolled, although
some writers recommended a recourse to tiger’s skin for the purposes
indicated, This “caro humano” was euphemistically styled “ mummy”
or “mumia” by Von Helmont and others of the early pharmacists, when
treating of it as an internal medicament.

There was a “ Cingulum ex corio humano” bound round patients during
epileptic attacks, convulsions, childbirth, ete., and another kind of belt de-
scribed as ‘ex cute humana conficiunt,” and used in contraction of the
nerves and rheumatism of the joints,’ also bound round the body incramp.?

! Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 2, p. 67.

2 Thid., p. 170.

’Sextus Placitus, De Medicamentis ex Animalibus, Lyons, 1537, pages not numbered, article “de
Puello et Puella Virgine.”

‘ Etmuller, Opera Omnia, Lyons, 1690, vol. 2, p. 279, Schroderii Dilucidati Zoologia.

® Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 2, p. 68, footnote.

®Thbid., p. 67.

? Paracelsus, Chirurgia Minora, in Opera Omnia, Geneva, 1662, vol. 2, p. 70.

8 Ibid., p. 174.

® Beckherius, Medicus Microcosmus, London, 1660, p. 174.

572 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

“The girdle was an essential article of dress, and early ages ascribe
toit othermagicinfluences: e. g., Thor’s divine strength lay in his girdle.”?
In speaking of the belief in lycantrophy he says: “The common belief
among us is that the transformation is effected by tying a strap round
the body; this girth is only three fingers broad, and is cut out of
human skin.”2 Scrofulous tumors were cured by tying them with a
linen thread which had choked a viper to death. “Filum rubrum se-
raceum [silk] cum quo strangulata fuit vipera si cireumdatur collo an-
gina laborantes, eundem curare dicitur propter idem strangulationis et
suftocationis.” *

“ Quidam commendant tanquam specificum, ad Anginam filum pur-
pureum cum quo strangulata fuit vipera, si collo circamdetur.”°

“‘ MEDIDAS,” ‘MEASURING CORDS,” ‘“WRESTING THREADS,” ETC.

Black says:® “On the banks of the Ale and the Teviot the women
have still a custom of wearing round their necks blue woollen threads or
cords till they wean their children, doing this for the purpose of avert-
ing ephemeral fevers. These cords are handed down from mother to
daughter, and esteemed in proportion to their antiquity. Probably
these cords had originally received some blessing.”

Black’s surmise is well founded. These cords were, no doubt, the same
as the ‘medidas ” or measurements of the holy images of Spain and other
parts of Continental Europe. “The ribands or serpent symbols [of
Our Lady of Montserrat] are of silk, and exactly the span of the Vir-
gin’s head, and on them is printed ‘medida de la cabeza de Nuestra
Senora Maria Santisima de Montserrat, i. e., exact head measurement
of Our Lady of Montserrat.”7

These same “ medidas” may be found in full vogue in the outlying
districts of Mexico to-day. Twenty years ago I saw them at the
“funcion” of San Francisco, in the little town of Magdalena, in So-
nora. I watched carefully to see exactly what the women did and ob-
served that the statue of St. Francis (which, for greater convenience,
was exposed outside of the church, where the devout could reach it
without disturbing the congregation within) was measured from head
to foot with pieces of ribbon, which were then wrapped up and packed
away. In reply to my queries, I learned that the “medida” of the
head was a specific for headache, that of the waist for all troubles in
the abdominal region, those of the legs, arms, and other parts for the
ailments peculiar to each of them respectively. This was in a commu-
nity almost, if not absolutely, Roman Catholic; but in the thoroughly
Protestant neighborhood of Carlisle, Pa., the same superstition exists

1 Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, vol. 3, p. 1094, footnote.

2 Tbid., p. 1096.

3 Pliny, Nat. Hist., lib. 30, cap. 12.

4 Etmiiller, Opera Omnia, Lyons, 1690, vol. 2, pp. 282, 283, Schroderii Dilucidati Zoologia.
6 Thid., p. 278a.

6 Black, Folk-Medicine, London, 1883, p. 113.

7 Forlong, Rivers of Life, London, 1883, vol. 2, p. 313.

BOURKE. ] MEDICAL USE OF CORDS. 573

in full vigor, as I know personally. Three years ago my second
child was suffering from the troubles mcident to retarded dentition and
had to be taken to the mountains at Holly Springs, within sight of
Carlisle. I was begged and implored by the women living in the place
to have the child taken to“ a wise woman” to be “measured,” and was
assured that some of the most intelligent people in that part of the
country were firm believers in the superstition. When I declined to
lend countenance to such nonsense I was looked upon as a brutal and
unnatural parent, caring little for the welfare of his offspring.

‘In John Bale’s Comedye concernynge thre Lawes, 1538 . . .
Hypocrysy is introduced, mentioning the following charms against bar-
reuness:

And as for Lyons, there is the length of our Lorde
In a great pyller. She that will with a coorde

Be fast bound to it, and take soche chaunce as fall
Shall sure have chylde, for within it is hollowe all.” |

When a person in Shetland has received a sprain ‘it is customary to
apply to an individual practiced in casting the ‘wrested thread,
This is a thread spun from black wool, on which are cast nine knots,
and tied round a sprained leg or arm.” It is applied by the medicine-
man with the usual amount of gibberish and ineantation.2 These
“wresting or wrested threads” are also to be found among Germans,
Norwegians, Swedes, and Flemings.*

Grimm quotes from Chambers’s Fireside Stories, Edinburgh, 1842,
p. 37: “* During the time the operator is putting the thread round the
afflicted limb he says, but in such a tone of voice as not to be heard by
the bystanders, nor even by the person operated upon: “The Lord rade,
and the foal slade; he lighted, and he righted, set joint to joint, bone to
bone, and sinew to sinew. Heal in the Holy Ghost’s name!”4

“ Kily McGarvey, a Donegal wise woman, employs a green thread in
her work. She measures her patient three times round the waist with
a ribbon, to the outer edge of which is fastened a green thread. ;
She next hands the patient nine leaves of ‘heart fever grass. or dande-
lion, gathered by herself, directing him to eat three leaves on successive
mornings.”°

Miss Edna Dean Proctor, the poet, told me, June 9, 1887, that some
years ago, while visiting relations in Illinois, she met a woman who,
having been ill for a long time, had despaired of recovery, and in hope
of amelioration had consulted a man pretending to occult powers, who
prescribed that she wear next the skin a certain knotted red cord which
he gave her.

Ou a previous page the views of Forlong have been presented, show-
ing that there were reasons for believing that the sacred cords of the

' Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 2, p. 69.

? Notes and Queries, Ist series, vol. 4, p. 500.

3 See also Black, Folk-Medicine, London, 1883, p. 79.
*Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, vol. 3, p. 1233.

5 Black, Folk-Medicine, London. 1883, p. 114.

574. MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

East Indies could be traced back to an ophic origin, and it has also
been shown that, until the present day, among the peasantry of Europe,
there has obtained the practice of making girdles of snake skin which
have been employed for the cure of disease and as an assistance in
childbirth. The snake itself, while still alive, as has been shown, is
applied to the person of the patient by the medicine-men of the Amer-
ican Indians.

In connection with the remarks taken from Forlong’s Rivers of Life
on this subject, I should like to call attention to the fact that the long
knotted blacksnake whip of the wagoners of Europe and America,
which, when not in use, is worn across the body from shoulder to hip,
has been identified as related to snake worship.

There is another view to take of the origin of these sacred cords
which it is fair to submit before passing final judgment. The izze-kloth
may have been in early times a cord for tying captives who were taken
in war, and as these captives were offered up in sacrifice to the gods of
war and others they were looked upon as sacred, and all used in con-
nection with them would gradually take on a sacred character. The
same kind of cords seem to have been used in the chase. This would
explain a great deal of the superstition connected with the whole sub-
ject of “hangman’s rope” bringing luck, curing disease, and averting
trouble of all sorts, a superstition more widely disseminated and going
back to more ancient times than most people would imagine. One of
the tribes of New Granada, “quando iban a Ja Guerra llevaban Cor-
deles para atar a los Presos.”! This recalls that the Apache them-
selves used to throw lariats from ambush upon travelers, and that the
Thugs who served the goddess Bhowani, in India, strangled with cords,
afterwards with handkerchiefs. The Spaniards in Peru, under Jorge
Robledo, going toward the Rio Magdalena, in 1542, found a large body
of savages ‘que Ilevaban Cordeles, para atar 4 los Castellanos, i sus
Pedernales, para despedagarlos, i Ollas para cocerlos.”? The Austral-
ians carried to war a cord, called “Nerum,” about 2 feet 6 inches
long, made of kangaroo hair, used for strangling an enemy.?

The easiest method of taking the hyena “is for the hunter to tie his
girdle with seven knots, and to make as many knots in the whip with
which he guides his horse.”* Maj. W. Cornwallis Harris® describes a
search made for a lost camel. A man was detailed to search for the
animal and provided with the following charm to aid him in his
search: “The rope with which the legs of the lost animal had been fet-
tered was rolled betwixt his (the Ras el Kafilah’s) hands, and sundry |
cabalistic words having been muttered whilst the Devil was dislodged

' Herrera, dec. 6, lib. 8, cap. 1, p. 171.

2Tbid., dec. 7, lib. 4, eap. 5, p. 70.

3Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, vol. 1, p.351. See also previous references to the use of such cords
by the Australians.

4Pliny, Nat. Hist., lib. 28, cap..27.

5 Highlands of thiopia, vol. 1, p. 247.

BOURKE. ] MAGICAL CORDS. DUD

by the process of spitting upon the cord at the termination of each
spell, it was finally delivered over to the Dankali about to be sent on
the quest.” Stanley describes the “lords of the cord” at the court of
Mtesa, king of Uganda, but they seem to be provost officers and exe-
cutioners merely.' “In cases of quartan fever they take a fragment of
a nail from a cross, or else a piece of a halter that has been used for
crucifixion, and after wrapping it in wool, attach it to the patient’s
neck, taking care, the moment he has recovered, to conceal it in some
hole to which the light of the sun can not penetrate.”” There is a wide-
spread and deeply rooted belief that a rope which has hanged a man,
either as a felon or suicide, possesses talismanic powers.’ Jean Bap-
tiste Thiers* says: “Il y a des gens assez fous pour s’imaginer quwils
seront heureuxaujeu . . . pourvuquwils ayent sur eux un morceau
de corde de pendu.” Brand says: “I remember once to have seen, at
Newcastle upon Tyne, after a person executed had been eut down, men
climb upon the gallows and contend for that part of the rope which
remained, and which they wished to preserve for some lucky purpose or
other. I have lately made the important discovery that it is reekoned
a cure for the headache.”° “A halter with which one had been hanged
was regarded within recent times in England as a cure for headache if
tied round the head.”®

In the long list of articles employed by the ancients for the purpose
of developing affection or hatred between persons of opposite sex,
Burton mentions “funis strangulati hominis.”*7 “A remarkable super-
Stition still prevails among the lowest of our vulgar, that a man may
lawfully sell his wife to another, provided he deliver her over with a
halter about her neck. It is painful to observe that instances of this
frequently occur in our newspapers.”* While discussing this branch
of the subject, it might be well to peruse what has already been
inserted under the head of the uses to which were put the threads
which had strangled vipers and other serpents.

UNCLASSIFIED SUPERSTITIONS UPON THIS SUBJECT,

In conclusion, I wish to present some of the instances occurring in my
studies which apparently have a claim to be included in a treatise upon
the subject of sacred cords and knots. These examples are presented
without comment, as they are, to all intents and purposes, “survivals,”
which have long ago lost their true significance. Attention is in-
vited to the fact that the very same use seems to be made by the

1 Through the Dark Continent, vol. 1, p. 398.

2 Pliny, Nat. Hist..lib. 28, cap. 11.

3 Notes and Queries, 4th series, vol. 5, pp. 295, 390.

4 Traité des Superstitions, tome 1, chap. 3, paragraph 3.
5 Pop. Ant., vol. 3, p. 276.

® Black, Folk-Medicine, p. 10°.

7 Anat my of Melancholy, vvl. 2, pp. 288, 290.

8 Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 2 p. 107.

576 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

Irish of hair cords as we have already seen has been made by the
Australians.

The Jewish garment with knots at the corners would appear to have
been a prehistoric garment preserved in religious ceremonial; it would
seem to be very much like the short blanket cloak, with tufts or knots
at the four corners, still made by and in use among the Zuni, Navajo,
Tusayan, and Rio Grande Pueblos. But magic knots were by no means
unknown to Jews, Assyrians, or other, nations of Syria and Mesopo-
tamia.

“In Memorable Things noted in the Description of the World, we
read: About children’s necks the wild Irish hung the beginning of St.
John’s Gospel, a crooked nail of a horseshoe, or a piece of a wolve’s
skin, and both the sucking child and nurse were girt with girdles finely
plaited with woman’s hair.”!

Gainsford, in his Glory of England, speaking of the Irish, p. 150,
says: “They use incantations and spells, wearing girdles of womans
haire, and locks of their lover's.”

Camden, in his Ancient and Modern Manners of the Irish, says that
“they are observed to present their lovers with bracelets of women’s
hair, whether in reference to Venus’ cestus or not, I know not.”?
This idea of a resemblance between the girdle of Venus and the use of
the maiden’s hair may be worth consideration; on the same page Brand
quotes from Beaumont and Fletcher:

Bracelets of our lovers’ hair,
Which they on our arms shall twist,
and garters of the women were generally worn by lovers.®

“Chaque habit quwils [the Jews] portent doit avoir quatre pands, & a
ehacun un cordon pendant en forme de houppe, qwils nomment Zizit.
Ce cordon est ordinairement de huit fils de laine filée exprés pour cela,
avee cing neuds chacun, qui occupent la moitié de la longueur, Ce qui
mest pas noué étant éfilé acheve de faire une espece de houppe, qu’ils
se fassent, dit la Loi, des cordons aux pands de leurs habits.”4

The following is from Black :°

When Marduk [Assyrian god] wishes to comfort a dying man his father Hea
says: ‘‘Go—

Take a woman’s linen kerchief !

Bind it round thy left hand: loose it from the left hand!
Knot it with seven knots: do so twice:

Sprinkle it with bright wine:

Bind it round the head of the sick man:

Bind it round bis hands and feet, like manacles and fettevs.
Sit round on his bed:

Sprinkle holy water over him.

He shall hear the voice of Hea.

Davkina shall protect him!

And Marduk, Eldest Son of heaven, shall find him a happy habitation.”

1 Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 2, p. 78. 1 Picart, Cerémonies et Cofitumes, ete., vol. 1, p. 41.
2 Tbid., p. 91. 5 Folk-Medicine, London, 1883, pp. 185, 186.
2 Ibid., p. 93.

BOURKE. ] MAGICAL CORDS AND KNOTS. BYCCT

A variant of the same formula is to be found in Frangois Lenormant’s
Chaldean Magic.'! Lenormant speaks of the Chaldean use of “magic
knots, the efficacy of which was so firmly believed in even up to the
middle ages.”

Again, he says that magic cords, with knots, were ‘ still very common
among the Nabathean sorcerers of the Lower Euphrates,” in the four-
teenth century, and in his opinion the use of these was derived from
the ancient Chaldeans. In still another place he speaks of the “magic
knots” used by Finnish conjurors in curing diseases.

“The Jewish phylactery was tied in a knot, but more generally knots
are found in use to bring about some enchantment or disenchantment.
Thus in an ancient Babylonian charm we have—

‘Merodach, the son of Hea, the prince, with his holy hands cuts the knots.
That is to say, he takes off the evil influence of the knots. So,
too, witches sought in Scotland to compass evil by tying knots.
Witches, it was thought, could supply themselves with the milk of
any neighbor’s cows if they had a small quantity of hair from the tail
of each of the animals. The hair they would twist into a rope and then
a knot would be tied on the rope for every cow which had contributed
hair. Under the clothes of a witch who was burned at St. Andrews, in
1572, was discovered ‘a white claith, like a collore craig, with stringis,
wheron was mony knottis vpon the stringis of the said collore eraig.
When this was taken from her, with a prescience then wrongly inter-
preted, she said: ‘Now I have no hope of myself’ ‘Belyke scho
thought,’ runs the cotemporary account, ‘scho suld not have died,
that being vpon her,’ but probably she meant that to be discovered
with such an article in her possession was equivalent to the sentence of
death. So lately as the beginning of the last century, two persons
were sentenced to capital punishment for stealing a charm of knots,
made by a woman as a device against the welfare of Spalding of
Ashintilly.”?

“Charmed belts are commonly worn in Lancashire for the cure of
rheumatism. Elsewhere, a cord round the loins is worn to ward off
toothache. Is it possible that there is any connection between this
belt and the cord which in Burmah is hung round the neck of a
possessed person while he is being thrashed to drive out the spirit
which troubles him? Theoretically the thrashing is given to the
spirit, and not to the man, but to prevent the spirit escaping too soon
a charmed cord is hung round the possessed person’s neck. When the
spirit has been sufficiently humbled and has declared its name it may
be allowed to escape, if the doctor does not prefer to trample on the
patient’s stomach till he fancies he has killed the demon.’*

“The numerous notices in the folklore of all countries of magic stones,
holy girdles, and other nurses’ specials, attest the common sympathy of
the human race.”*

1P. 41. 3 Ibid., (after Tylor) pp. 176, 177.
? Black, Folk-Medicine, p. 186. 4 Tbid,, p. 178-
9 ETH 37

578 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

This is from Brand:! “ Devonshire cure for warts. Take a piece of
twine, tie in it as many knots as you have warts, touch each wart with
a knot, and then throw the twine behind your back into some place
where it may soon decay—a pond or a hole in the earth; but tell no one
what you have done. When the twine is decayed your warts will dis-
appear without any pain or trouble, being in fact charmed away.”

“Tn our time, the anodyne necklace, which consists of beads turned
out of the root of the white Bryony, and which is hung round the necks
of infants, in order to assist their teething, and to ward off the con-
vulsions sometimes incident to that process, is an amulet.” ”

“Rowan, ash, and red thread,” a Scotch rhyme goes, “ keep the devils
frae their speed.” *

For the cure of secrofula, grass was selected. From one, two, or three
stems, aS many as nine joints must be removed, which must then be
wrapped in black wool, with the grease init. The person who gathers
them must do so fasting, and must then go, in the same state, to the
patient’s house while he is from home. When the patient comes in,
the other must say to him three times, “I come fasting to bring a
remedy to a fasting man,” and must then attach the amulet to his
person, repeating the same ceremony three consecutive days. *

Forlong says: ‘*On the 2d {of May], fearing evil spirits and witches,
Scotch farmers used to tie red thread upon their wives as well as their
cows, Saying these prevented miscarriages and preserved the milk.” °

In Scotland ‘they hope to preserve the milk of their cows, and their
wives from miscarriage, by tying threads about them.” ®

Brand gives a remedy for epilepsy: ‘If, in the month of October,
a little before the full moon, you pluck a twig of the elder, and cut the
cane that is betwixt two of its knees, or knots, in nine pieces, and these
pieces, being bound in a piece of linnen, be in a thread so hung about
the neck that they touch the spoon of the heart, or the sword-formed
sartilage.”7

Black says:’ ‘*To cure warts a common remedy is to tie as many
knots on a hair as there are warts and throw the hair away. Six knots
of elderwood are used in a Yorkshire incantation to ascertain if beasts
are dying from witcheraft. Marcellus commended for sore eyes that a
man should tie aS many knots in unwrought flax as there are letters in
his name, pronouncing each letter as he worked; this he was to tie
round his neck. In the Orkneys, the blue thread was used for an evil
purpose because such a colour savored of Popery and priests; in the
northern counties it was used because a remembrance of its once pre-

1 Pop. Ant., vol. 3, p. 276.

2 Salverte, Philosophy of Magic, vol. 1, p. 195.

3 Black, Folk-Medicine, London, 1883, p. 197.

‘Pliny, Nat. Hist., lib. 24, cap. 118.

5 Forlong, Rivers of Life, vol. 1, p. 451.

® Pennant, quoted by Brand, Popular Antiquities, vol. 3, p. 54.
7Tbid., p. 285.

8 Folk-Medicine, London, 1883, pp. 185, 186.

BOURKE. ] MEDICAL USE OF MAGICAL CORDS. ayy)

eminent value still survived in the minds of those who wore it, uncon-
sciously, though still actively, influencing their thoughts. In perhaps
the same way we respect the virtue of red threads, because, as Con-
way puts it, ‘red is sacred in one direction as symbolising the blood
of Christ.’ ”!

“To cure ague [Hampshire, England] string nine or eleven snails on
a thread, the patient saying, as each is threaded, ‘Here I leave my
ague.’ When all are threaded they should be frizzled over a fire, and
as the snails disappear so will the ague.”?

Dr. Joseph Lanzoni scoffed at the idea that a red-silk thread could
avail in erysipelas; ‘‘ Neque filum sericum chermisinum parti affectie
circumligatum erysipelata fugat.” The word “chermesinum” is not
given in Ainsworth’s Latin-English Dictionary, but it so closely re-
sembles the Spanish ‘“ carmesi” that I have made bold to render it as
“red” or “ scarlet.” 3

“Red thread is symbolical of lightning,” and is consequently laid on
churns in Ireland ‘to prevent the milk from being bewitched and yield-
ing no butter.” ‘In Aberdeenshire it is a common practice with the
housewife to tie a piece of red worsted thread round the cows’ tails
before turning them out for the first time in the season to grass. It
secured the cattle from the evil-eye, elf-shots, and other dangers.”4 “It
[blue] is the sky color and the Druid’s sacred colour.’ “In 1635, a man
in the Orkney Islands was, we are led to believe, utterly ruined by nine
knots cast on a blue thread and given to his sister.”

“In a curious old book, 12mo., 1554, entitled A Short Description of
Antichrist, is this passage: ‘I note all their Popishe traditions of con-
firmacion of yonge children with oynting of oyle and creame, and with
a ragge knitte about the necke of the younge babe. ”®

A New England charm for an obstinate ague. “The patient in
this case is to take a string made of woolen yarn, of three colors, and
to go by himself to an apple-tree; there he is to tie his left hand loosely
with the right to the tree by the tri-colored string, then to slip his hand
out of the knot and run into the house without looking behind him.” 7

The dust “in which a hawk has bathed itself, tied up in a linen
cloth with a red string, and attached to the body,”® was one of the reme-
dies for fevers. Another cure for fever: “Some inclose a caterpillar in
a piece of linen, with a thread passed three times round it, and tie as
many knots, repeating at each knot why it is that the patient performs
that operation.”®

“To prevent nose-bleeding people are told to this day to wear a skein
of scarlet silk thread round the neck, tied with nine knots down the
front; if the patient is a man, the silk being put on and the knots tied

' Folk-Medicine, London, 1883, p. 113. 5 Black, Folk-Medicine, p. 112.

2 Thid., p. 57. © Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 2, p. 86.

3 Ephemeridum Physico-medicarum, Leipzig, 7 Black, Folk-Medicine, p. 38.
1694, vol.1, p. 49. 5 Pliny, Nat. Hist., lib. 30, cap. 2°,

4 Black, Folk-Medicine, p. 112. 9 Thid,

580 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

by a woman; and if the patient is a woman, then these good services
being rendered by a man.” !

A cord with nine knots in it, tied round the neck of a child suffering
from whooping cough, was esteemed a sovereign remedy in Worcester,
England, half a century ago.

Again, references will be found to the superstitious use of “liga
tures” down to a comparatively recent period, and ‘‘ I remember it was
a custom in the north of England for boys that swam to wear an eel’s
skin about their naked leg to prevent the cramp.” ”

THE MEDICINE HAT.

The medicine hat of the old and blind Apache medicine-man, Nan-
ta-do-tash, was an antique affair of buckskin, much begrimed with soot
and soiled by long use. N evertheless, it gave life and strength to him
who wore it, enabled the owner to peer into the future, to tell who had
stolen ponies from other people, to foresee the approach of an enemy,
and to aid in the cure of the sick. This was its owner’s own statement
in conversation with me, but it would seem that the power residing in
the helmet or hat was not very permanent, because when the old man
discovered from his wife that I had made a rude drawing of it he
became extremely excited and said that such a delineation would
destroy all the life of the hat. His fears were allayed by presents of
money and tobacco, as well as by some cakes and other food. As a
measure of precaution, he insisted upon sprinkling pinches of hoddentin
over myself, the hat, and the drawing of it, at the same time muttering
various half-articulate prayers. He returned a month afterwards and
demanded the sum of ‘$30 for damage done to the hat by the drawing,
since which time it has ceased to ““ work” when needed.

This same old man gave me an explanation of all the symbolism
depicted upon the hat and a great deal of valuable information in
regard to the profession of medicine-men, their specialization, the
prayers they recited, ete. The material of the hat, as already stated,
was buckskin. How that was obtained I can not assert positively, but
from an incident occurring under my personal observation in the Sierra
Madre in Mexico in 1883, where our Indian scouts and the medicine-
men with them surrounded a nearly grown fawn and tried to capture
it alive, as well as from other circumstances too long to be here inserted,
I am of the opinion that the buckskin to be used for sacred purposes
among the Apache must, whenever possible, be that of a strangled
animal, as is the case, according to Dr. Matthews, among the Navajo.

The body of Nan-ta-do-tash’s cap (Fig. 454, p. 503) was unpainted, but
the figures upon it were in two colors, a brownish yellow and an earthy
blue, resembling a dirty Prussian blue. The ornamentation was of the
downy feathers and black-tipped plumes of the eagle, pieces of abalone
shell, and chalchihuitl, and a snake’s rattle on the apex.

! Black, Folk-Medicine, p. 111.
2 Brand, Pop. Ant., vol. 3, pp. 288, 324.

BOURKE. ] THE MEDICINE HAT. 581

Nan-ta-do-tash explained that the characters on the medicine hat
meant: A, clouds; B, rainbow; ©, hail; E, morning star; F', the God of
Wind, with his lungs; G, the black “kan”; H, great stars or suns.

“Kan” is the name given to their principal gods. The appearance
of the kan himself and of the tail of the hat suggest the centipede, an
important animal god of the Apache. The old man said that the figures
represented the powers to which he appealed for aid in his ‘‘medicine”
and the kan upon whom he called for help. There were other doctors
with other medicines, but he used none but those of which he was going
to speak to me.

Fia. 440.—Apache war bonnet.

When an Apache or other medicine-man is in full regalia he ceases
to be a man, but becomes, or tries to make his followers believe that he
has become, the power he represents. I once heard this asserted in a
very striking way while I was with a party of Apache young men who
had led me to one of the sacred caves of their people, in which we came
across a great quantity of ritualistic paraphernalia of all sorts.

“We used to stand down here,” they said, ‘‘and look up to the tup
of the mountain and see the kan come down.” This is precisely what
the people living farther to the south told the early Spanish missiona-
ries.

582 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

The Mexicans were wont to cry out “Here come our gods!” upon
seeing their priests masked and disguised, and especially when they
had donned the skins of the women offered up in sacrifice.!

The headdresses worn by the gods of the American Indians and the
priests or medicine-men who served them were persistently called ‘ mi-
ters” by the early Spanish writers. Thus Quetzalcoatl wore “en la
sabega una Mitra de papel puntiaguda.”* When Father Felician Lopez
went to preach to the Indians of Florida, in 1697, among other matters
of record is one to the effect that ‘the chief medicine man called him-
self bishop.”* Possibly this title was assumed because the medicine-
men wore ‘‘miters.”

Duran goes further than his fellows. In the headdress used at the
spirit dances he recognizes the tiara. He says that the Mexican priests
at the feast of Tezcatlipoca wore ‘‘en las cabezas tiaras hechas de ba-
rillas.”* The ghost dance headdress illustrated in this paper (Fig. 441) is
known to the Chiricahua Apache as the “ich-te,” a contraction from
“chas-a-i-wit-te,” according to Ramon, the old medicine-man from whom

p > \
SD

Fic. 441.—Ghost-dance headdress.

I obtained it. Heexplained all the symbolism connected with it. The
round piece of tin in the center is the sun; the irregular arch under-
neath it is the rainbow. Stars and lightning are depicted on the side
slats and under them ; the parallelograms with serrated edges are
clouds; the pendant green sticks are rain drops; there are snakes and
snake heads on both horizontal and vertical slats, the heads in the
former case being representative of hail.

There are feathers of the eagle to conciliate that powerful bird, tur-
key feathers to appeal to the mountain spirits, and white gull feathers
for the spirits of the water. There are also small pieces of nacreous
shells and one or two fragments of the “ duklij,” or chalchihuitl, with-
out which no medicine-man would feel competent to discharge his func-
tions.

The spirit dance itself is called ‘“cha-ja-la.” I have seen this dance a
number of times, but will confine my description to one seen at Fort

1 This fact is stated by Torquemada, Monarchia Indiana, lib. 10, cap. 33, and by Gomara, Hist. of the
Conq. of Mexico, p. 446; see also Diego Duran, lib. 1, eap. 20, p. 226.

2 Herrera, dec. 3, lib. 2, p. 67.
3 John Gilmary Shea, The Catholic Church in Colonial Days, p. 472.
4 Diego Duran, vol. 3, cap. 4, p. 217.

BOURKE. ] THE APACHE SPIRIT DANCE. 583

Marion (St. Augustine, Fla.), in 1887, when the Chiricahua Apache were
confined there as prisoners; although the accompanying figure repre-
sents a ghost dance headdress seen among the Apache in the winter of
1885. A great many of the band had been suffering from sickness of
one kind or another and twenty-three of the children had died; as a
consequence, the medicine-men were having the Cha-ja-la, which is en-
tered into only upon the most solemn occasions, such as the setting out
of a war party, the appearance of an epidemic, or something else of like
portent. On the terreplein of the northwest bastion, Ramon, the old
medicine-man, was violently beating upon a drum, which, as usual, had
been improvised of a soaped rag drawn tightly over the mouth of an iron
kettle holding a little water.

Although acting as master of ceremonies, Ramon was not painted or
decorated in any way. Three other medicine-men were having the fin-
ishing touches put to their bodily decoration. They had an under-coat-
ing of greenish brown, and on each arm a yellow snake, the head to-
ward the shoulder blade. The snake on the arm of one of the party
was double-headed, or rather had a head at each extremity.

Each had insignia in yellow on back and breast, but no two were exactly
alike. One had on his breast a yellow bear, 4 inches long by 3 inches
high, and on his back a kan of the same color and dimensions. A sec-
ond had the same pattern of bear on his breast, but a zigzag for light-
ning on his back. The third had the zigzag on both back and breast.
All wore kilts and moccasins.

While the painting was going on Ramon thumped and sang with vigor
to insure the medicinal potency of the pigments and the designs to
which they were applied. Each held, one in each hand, two wands or
swords of lathlike proportions, ornamented with snake-lightning in blue.

The medicine-men emitted a peculiar whistling noise and bent slowly
to the right, then to the left, then frontward, then backward, until the
head in each case was level with the waist. Quickly they spun round
in full circle on the left foot; back again in areverse circle to the right;
then they charged around the little group of tents in that bastion, mak-
ing cuts and thrusts with their wands to drive the maleficent spirits
away.

It recalled to my mind the old myths of the angel with the flaming
sword guarding the entrance to Eden, or of St. Michael chasing the dis-
comfited Lucifer down into the depths of Hell.

These preliminaries occupied a few moments only; at the end of that
time the medicine-men advanced to where a squaw was holding up to
them a little baby sick in its cradle. The mother remained kneeling
while the medicine-men frantically struck at, upon, around, and over the
cradle with their wooden weapons.

The baby was held so as successively to occupy each of the cardinal
points and face each point directly opposite; first on the east side, fac-
ing the west; then the north side, facing the south; then the west side,

584. MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

facing the east; then the south side, facing the north, and back to the
original position. While at each position, each of the medicine-men in
succession, after making all the passes and gestures described, seized
the cradle in his hands, pressed it to his breast, and afterwards lifted it
up to the sky, next to the earth, and lastly to the four cardinal points,
all the time prancing, whistling, and snorting, the mother and her squaw
friends adding to the dismal din by piercing shrieks and ululations.

That ended the ceremonies for that night so far as the baby person-
ally was concerned, but the medicine-men retired down to the parade
and resumed their saltation, swinging, bending, and spinning with such
violence that they resembled, in a faint way perhaps, the Dervishes of
the East. The understanding was that the dance had to be kept up as
long as there was any fuel unconsumed of the large pile provided; any
other course would entail bad luck. It was continued for four nights,
the colors and the symbols upon the bodies varying from night to night.
Among the modes of exorcism enumerated by Burton, we find “ cutting
the air with swords.”! Picart speaks of the ‘fléches ou les baguettes
dont les Arabes Idolitres se servoient pour deviner par le sort.” He
says that the diviner “ tenoit 4 la main” these arrows, which certainly
suggest the swords or wands of the Apache medicine-men in the spirit
dance.’

There were four medicine-men, three of whom were dancing and in
conference with the spirits, and the fourth of whom was general superin-
tendent of the whole dance, and the authority to whom the first three
reported the result of their interviews with the ghostly powers.

The mask and headdress of the first of the dancers, who seemed to
be the leading one, was so elaborate that in the hurry and meager light
supplied by the flickering fires it could not be portrayed. It was very
much like that of number three, but so fully covered with the plumage
of the eagle, hawk, and, apparently, the owl, that it was difficult to as-
sert this positively. Each of these medicine-men had pieces of red flan-
nel tied to his elbows and a stick about four feet long in each hand.
Number one’s mask was spotted black and white and shaped in front
like the snout of a mountain lion. His back was painted with large
arrowheads in brown and white, which recalled the protecting arrows
tightly bound to the backs of Zuni fetiches. Number two had on his
back a figure in white ending between the shoulders in a cross. Num-
ber three’s back was simply whitened with clay.

All these headdresses were made of slats of the Spanish bayonet, un-
painted, excepting that on number two was a figure in black, which
could not be made out, and that the horizontal crosspieces on number
three were painted blue.

The dominos or masks were of blackened buckskin, for the two
fastened around the neck by garters or sashes; the neckpiece of num-
ber three was painted red;. the eyes seemed to be glass knobs or brass

' Anatomy of Melancholy, London, 1827, vol. 1, p. 337.
?Picart, Cérémonies et Cofitumes, ete., Amsterdam, 1729, vol. 5, p. 50.

BOURKE. ] THE GHOST DANCE HEADDRESS. 585

buttons. These three dancers were naked to the waist, and wore beau-
tiful kilts of frmged buckskin bound on with sashes, and moccasins
reaching tothe knees. In this guise they jumped into the center of the
great circle of spectators and singers and began running about the fire
shrieking and muttering, encouraged by the shouts and the singing, and
by the drumming and incantation of the chorus which now swelled forth
at full lung power.

THE SPIRIT OR GHOST DANCE HEADDRESS.

As the volume of music swelled and the cries of the on-lookers became
fiercer, the dancers were encouraged to the enthusiasm of frenzy. They
darted about the circle, going through the motions of looking for an
enemy, all the while muttering, mumbling, and singing, jumping, sway-
ing, and whirling like the dancing Dervishes of Arabia.

Their actions, at times, bore a very considerable resemblance to the
movements of the Zuni Shalako at the Feast of Fire. Klashidn told
me that the orchestra was singing to the four willow branches planted
nearthem. This would indicate a vestige of tree worship, such as is to
be noticed also at the sun dance of the Sioux.

At intervals, the three dancers would dart out of the ring and disap-
pear in the darkness, to consult with the spirits or with other medicine-
men seated a considerable distance from the throng. Three several times
they appeared and disappeared, always dancing, running, and whirling
about with increased energy. Having attained the degree of mental or
spiritual exaltation necessary for communion with the spirits, they took
their departure and kept away for at least half an hour, the orchestra
during their absence rendering a mournful refrain, monotonous asafuneral
dirge. My patience became exhausted and I turned to go to my quar-
ters. <A thrill of excited expectancy ran through the throng of Indians,
and I saw that they were looking anxiously at the returning medicine-
men. All the orchestra now stood up, their leader (the principal medi-
cine-man) slightly in advance, holding a branch of cedar in his left
hand. The first advanced and bending low his head murmured some
words of unknown import with which the chief seemed to be greatly
pleased. Then the chief, taking his stand in front of the orchestra on
the east side of the grove or cluster of trees, awaited the final cere-
mony, which was as follows: The three dancers in file and in proper
order advanced and receded three times; then they embraced the chief
in such a manner that the sticks or wands held in their hands came
behind his neck, after which they mumbled and muttered a jumble of
sounds which I can not reproduce, but which sounded for all the world
like the chant of the “‘hooter” at the Zuni Feast of Fire. They then
pranced or danced through the grove three times. This was repeated
for each point of the compass, the chief medicine-man, with the orches-
tra, taking a position successively on the east, south, west, and north
and the three dancers advancing, receding, and embracing as at first.

586 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

This terminated the “‘medicine” ceremonies of the evening, the glad
shouts of the Apache testifying that the incantations of their spiritual
leaders or their necromancy, whichever it was, promised a successful

Fig. 442.—Apache kan or gods. (Drawn by Apache.)

campaign. These dancers were, I believe, dressed up to represent their
gods or kan, but not content with representing them aspired to be mis-
taken for them.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY NINTH ANNUAL REPORT Plate Ve

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APACHE MEDICINE HAT USED IN GHOST DANCE.

BOURKE. | AMULETS. 587

AMULETS AND TALISMANS.
THE ‘‘TZI-DALTAI.”

The Apache, both menand women, wear amulets, called tzi-daltai, made
of lightning-riven wood, generally pine or cedar or fir from the mountain
tops, which are highly valued and are not to be sold. These are shaved
very thin and rudely cut in the
semblance of the human form.

They are in fact the duplicates, on

a small seale, of the rhombus, al-

ready described. Like the rhom-

bus, they are decorated with in-

cised lines representing the light-

ning. Very often these are to be Se Ce. \\
found attached to the necks of

children or to their cradles. Gen- See ce TEI ECG)
erally these amulets are of small size. Below will be found figures of
those which I was permitted to examine and depict in their actual size.
They are all unpainted. The amulet represented was obtained from a
Chiricahua Apache captive. Deguele, an Apache of the Klukaydakaydn
clan, consented to exhibit a kan, or god, which he carried about his
person. He said I could have it for three ponies. It was made of a
flat piece of lath, unpainted, of the size here given, having drawn upon
it this figure in yellow, with a narrow black band, excepting the three
snake heads, a, b, and c, which were black with white eyes; a was a
yellow line and ¢ a black line; flat pearl buttons were fastened at m and
k respectively and small eagle-down feathers at k on each side of the
idol. The rear of the tablet, amulet, or idol, as one may be pleased to
eall it, was almost an exact reproduction of the front.

The owner of this inestimable treasure assured me that he prayed to
it at alltimes when in trouble, that he could learn from it where his ponies
were when stolen and which was the right direction to travel when lost,
and that when drought had parched his crops this would never fail to
bring rain in abundance to revive and strengthen them. The symbol-
ism is the rain cloud and the serpent lightning, the rainbow, rain drops,
and the cross of the four winds.

These small amulets are also to be found inclosed in the phylacteries
(Fig. 447) which the medicine-men wear suspended from their necks or
waists. °

Sir Walter Scott, who was a very good witness in all that related to
prehistoric customs and *‘survivals” among the Celtic Scots, may be
introduced at this point:

A heap of wither’d boughs was piled
Of juniper and rowan wild,

Mingled with shivers from the oak,
Rent by the lightning’s recent stroke.!

1 Lady of the Lake, canto 3, stanza 4, Sir Rhoderick Dhu, summoning Clan Alpine against the king.

588 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.
CHALCHIHUITL,

The articles of dress depicted in this paper are believed to repre-
sent all those which exclusively belong to the office of the Apache
“diyi” or “izze-nantan.” Of late years it can not be said that every
medicine-man has all these articles, but most of them will be found in
the possession of the man in full practice.

No matter what the medicine-man may lack, he will, if it be possible,
provide himself with some of the impure malachite known to the whites
of the Southwest as turquoise. In the malachite veins the latter stone

Front view. Rear view.
Fie. 444.—Tzi-daltai amulet (Apache).

is sometimes found and is often of good quality, but the difference be-
tween the two is apparent upon the slightest examimation. The color of
the malachite is a pea green, that of the turquoise a pale sky blue. The
chemical composition of the former is a carbonate of copper, mixed with
earthy impurities; that of the latter, a phosphate of alumina, colored
with the oxide of copper. The use of this malachite was widespread.
Under the name of chalchihuitl or chalchihuite, it appears with fre-

NINTH ANNUAL REPORT Plate VI.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY

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BOURKE. ] CHALCHIHUITL. 589

quency in the old Spanish writings, as we shall presently see, and
was in all places and by all tribes possessing it revered in much
the same manner as by the
Apache. The Apache call it |
duklij, “blue (or green) stone,”
these two colors not being differ-
entiated in their language. A |
small bead of this mineral affixed }
toa gun or bow made the weapon ?
shoot accurately. It had also |
some relation to the bringing ef
rain, and could be found by the
man who would go to the end of a
rainbow, after a storm, and hunt
diligently in the damp earth. It |
was the Apache medicine-man’s
badge of office, his medical di-
ploma, so to speak, and without
it he could not in olden times ex- Uf
ercise his medical functions. Front view. Rear view.

In the curious commerce of the Fic. 445.—Tzi-daltai amulet (Apache).
Indian tribes, some possessed articles of greater worth than those belong-
ing to their neighbors. In the southwest the red paint sold by the
tribes living in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado was held in higher
repute than any other, and the green
stone to be purchased from the Rio Grande
Pueblos always was in great demand, as it
is to this day. Vetancurt! speaks of the
& Apache, between the years 1630 and 1680,
* coming to the pueblo of Pecos to trade
for “chalchihuites.” John de Laet speaks
of ‘‘petites pierres verdes” worn in the
lower lip by the Brazilians.”

Among the Mexicans the chalchihuitl
seems to have been the distinguishing
mark or badge of the priesthood. Duran,
in speaking of the consecration of a sacri-
ficial stone in Mexico by Montezuma the
elder, and his assistant or coadjutor, Tla-
caclel, says: ‘‘Echdéronse 4 las espaldas
unas olletas [I do not know what this
word means] hechas de piedras verdes
muy ricas, donde significaban que no solamente eran Reyes, pero jun-
tamente Sacerdotes.” °

Among the tribes in Central America, a chalchihuitl was placed in

Fic. 446.—Tzi-daltai amulet (Apache).

a Teatro Mexicano, vol. 3, p. 323. ?Lib. 14, cap. 4.and lib. 16,cap.16. * Lib. 1. cap. 23, pp. 251-252.

590 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

the mouths of the dying to receive their souls: ‘‘que era para que
recibiese su Anima.”!

One of the Mexican myths of the birth of Quetzalcoatl narrates that
his mother, Chimalma, while sweeping, found a chalchihuitl, swallowed
it, and became pregnant: ‘“‘Andando barriendo la dicha Chimalma
hallé un chalehihuitl, (que es una pedrezuela verde) y que la tragé y
de esto se empreno, y que asi parid al dicho Quetzalcoatl.”? The same
author tells us that the chalchihuitl (which he calls “ pedrezuela
verde”) are mentioned in the earliest myths of the Mexicans.’

In South America the emerald seems to have taken the place of the
chalehihuitl Bollaert* makes frequent mention of the use of the emerald
by the natives of Ecuador and Peru, ‘‘a drilled emerald, such as the
Incas wore;” ‘large emeralds, emblematic of their {the Incas’| soy-
ereignty.”

From Torquemada we learn that the Mexicans adorned their idols
with the chalchihuitl, and also that they buried a chalchihuitl with their
dead, saying that it was the dead man’s heart.’

“Whenever rain comes the Indians |Pima and Maricopa] resort to
these old houses [ruins] to look for trinkets of shells, and a peculiar
green stone.”® The idols which the people of Yucatan gave to Juan de
Grijalva in 1518 were covered with these stones, ‘‘cubierta de pedre-
cicas.”7 Among the first presents made to Cortes in Tabasco were
“unas turquesas de poco valor.”* The fact that the Mexicans buried a
“oem” with the bodies of their dead is mentioned by Squier, but he
says it was when the body was cremated.?

The people of Cibola are said to have offered in sacrifice to their
fountains ‘algunas turquesas que las tienen, aunque ruines.”!”

‘“Turquesas” were given to the Spaniards under Coronado by the
people of the pueblo of Acoma.!! .

‘The Mexicans were accustomed to say that at one time all men have
been stones, and that at last they would all return to stones; and, act-
ing literally on this conviction, they interred with the bones of the dead
a small green stone, which was called the principle of life.” ”

The great value set upon the chalchihuitl by the Aztecs is alluded
to by Bernal Diaz, who was with the expedition of Grijalva to Yucatan

1 Ximenez, Hist. Orig. Indios, p. 211.

2 Mendieta, p. 83.

3 Tbid., p. 78.

4 Researches in South America, p. 83.

5 Monarchia Indiana, vol. 2, lib. 13, cap. 45, and elsewhere.

6 Emory, Reconnoissance, p. 88.

7Gomara, Historia de la Conquista de Méjico, Veytia’s edition, p, 299.

8Tbid., p. 310.

2Smithsonian Contributions, *‘Ancient monuments of New York,” vol. 2.
10 Buckingham Smith, Relacion de la Jornada de Coronado 4 Cibola, Coleccion de Documentos para la
Historia de Florida, London, 1857, vol. 1, p. 148.

Thid., vol. 1, p. 150.

4 Brinton, Myths of the New World, p. 253.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY NINTH ANNUAL REPORT Plate VII.

Sackett & Wilbeimms LtnoCoNY

APACHE MEDICINE SHIRT.

,

BOURKE. ] PHYLACTERIES. 591

before he joined that of Cortes to Mexico.! Diaz says that Montezuma
sent to Charles V, as a present ‘“‘a few chalchihuis of such enormous
value that I would not consent to give them to any one save to such a
powerful emperor as yours.”? These stones were put ‘in the mouth of
the distinguished chiefs who died.” *

Torquemada‘ repeats the Aztec myth already given from Mendieta.
He says that in 1537 Fray Antonio de Ciudad-Rodrigo, provincial of
the Franciscans, sent friars of his order to various parts of the Indian
country; in 1538 he sent them to the north, to a country where they
heard of a tribe of people wearing clothes and having many turquoises.°
The Aztec priesthood adopted green as the sacred color. The cere-
mony of their consecration ended thus: “puis on Vhabillait tout en
vert.”®

Maximilian, Prince of Wied, saw some of the Piegans of northwest-
ern Montana “hang round their necks a green stone, often of various
shapes.” He describes it as ‘‘ a compact tale or steatite which is found
in the Rocky Mountains.”?

PHYLACTERIES.

The term phylactery, as herein employed, means any piece of buck-
skin or other material upon which are inscribed certain characters or
symbols of a religious or “medicine” nature, which slip or phylactery
is to be worn attached to the person seeking to be benefited by it, and
this phylactery differs from the amulet or talisman in being concealed
from the scrutiny of the profane and kept as secret as possible, This
phylactery, itself ‘* medicine,” may be employed to enwrap other ‘‘ med-
icine” and thus augment its own potentiality. Indians in general
object to having their ‘‘ medicine” scrutinized and touched; in this
there is a wide margin of individual opinion; but in regard to phylac-
teries there is none that I have been able to discover, and the rule may
be given as antagonistic to the display of these sacred “relics,” as my
Mexican captive interpreter persisted in calling them.

The first phylactery which it was my good fortune to be allowed to
examine was one worn by Ta-ul-tzu-je, of the Kaytzentin gens. It was
tightly rolled in at least half a mile of orange-colored saddlers’ silk,
obtained from some of the cavalry posts. After being duly uncovered,
it was found to be a small piece of buckskin two inches square, upon
which were drawn red and yellow crooked Jines which the Apache said
represented the red and yellow snake. Inside were a piece of green
chalchihuitl and a small cross of lightning-riven twig (pine) and two
very small perforated shells. The cross was called ‘ intchi-dijin,” the
black wind.

A second phylactery which I was also allowed to untie and examine

1 London, 1844, vol. 1, pp. 26, 29, 36, 93. 5 Thid., lib. 19, cap. 22. pp. 357-358.
2Thid., p. 278. 6 Ternaux-Compans, vol. 10, p. 240.
3Tbid., vol. 2, p. 389. 7 London, 1843, p. 248,

4 Monarchia Indiana, lib. 6, cap. 45, p. 80.

592 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE.

belonged to Na-a-cha and consisted of a piece of buckskin of the same
size as the other, but either on account of age or for some other reason
no characters could be discerned upon it. It, however, enwrapped a
tiny bag of hoddentin, which, in its turn, held a small but very clear
crystal of quartz and four feathers of eagle down. Na-a-cha took care
to explain very earnestly that this phylactery contained not merely the
“medicine” or power of the erystal, the hoddentin, and the itza-chu,

N x

Fel f/\/\ YT ee

Le, A\/\—Fea.

Yéllou-:
yellow.

Fic. 447.—Phylacteries.

white bear, the shoz-litzogue, or yellow bear, and the klij-litzogue or
yellow snake, though just in what manner he could not explain.

It would take up too much time and space to describe the manner
in which it was necessary for me to proceed in order to obtain merely
a glimpse of these and other phylacteries, all of the same general
type; how I had to make it evident that I was myself possessed of great
“medicine” power and able to give presents of great “medicine” value,

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. NINTH ANNUAL REPORT Plate VIII.
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APACHE MEDICINE SHIRT.

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BOURKE. ] MEDICINE SHIRTS AND SASHES. 593

as was the case. I had obtained from cliff dwellings, sacred caves, and
other places beads of tale, of chalchihuitl, and of shell, pieces of erys-
tal and other things, sacred in the eyes of the Apache, and these I was
compelled to barter for the information here given.

The medicine shirts of the Apaches, several of which are here repre-
sented, do not require an extended description. The symbolism is
different for each one, but may be generalized as typical of the sun,
moon, stars, rainbow, lightning, snake, clouds, rain, hail, tarantula,
centipede, snake, and some one or more of the “kan” or gods.

The medicine sashes follow closely in pattern the medicine shirts,
being smaller in size only, but with the same symbolic decoration.
Similar ornamentation will be found upon the amulets (ditzi), made of
lightning-struck pine or other wood. All of these are warranted, among
other virtues, to screen the wearer from the arrows. lances, or bullets
of the enemy. In this they strongly resemble the salves and other
means by which people in Europe sought to obtain ‘magical impene-
trability.”. The last writer to give receipts for making such salves,
ete., that I can recall, was Etmiiller, who wrote in the early years of
the seventeenth century.

Fic. 448.—Apache medicine sash.

Such as the reader can imagine the medicine-man to be from this
description of his paraphernalia, such he has been since the white man
first landed in America. Never desirous of winning proselytes to his
own ideas, he has held on to those ideas with a tenacity never sus-
pected until purposely investigated. The first of the Spanish writers
seem to have employed the native terms for the medicine-men, and we
come across them as cemis or zemis, bohiti, pachuaci, and others; but
soon they were recognized as the emissaries of Satan and the preachers
of witchcraft, and henceforth they appear in the documents as ‘“ hechi-
cheros” and * brujos” almost exclusively. ‘‘Tienan los Apaches pro-
fetas 6 adivinos que gozan de la mas alta estimacion. Esos adivinos
pratican la medicina lamas rudimental, laaplicacion de algunas yerbas y
esto acompanado de ceremonias y cantos supersticiosos.”! Pimentel
seems to have derived his information from Cordero, a Spanish officer
who had served against the Apache at various times between 1770 and
1795, and seemed to understand them well.

“There was no class of persons who so widely and deeply influenced
the culture and shaped the destiny of the Indian tribes as their priests.
In attempting to gain a true conception of the race’s capacities and

! Pimentel, Lenguas Indigenas de México, vol. 3, pp. 498, 499.

9 ETH 38

594 MEDICINE MEN OF THE APACHE.

history there is no one element of their social life which demands closer
attention than the power of these teachers. . . . However much
we may deplore the use they made of their skill, weanust estimate it
fairly and grant it its due weight im measuring the influence of the re-
ligious sentiment on the history of man.”!

“Like Old Men of the Sea, they have clung to the neck of their
nations, throttling all attempts at progress, binding them to the
thraldom of superstition and profligacy, dragging them down to
wretchedness and death. Christianity and civilization meet in them
their most determined, most implacable foes.”

In spite of all the zeal and vigilance of the Spanish friars, supported
by military power, the Indians of Bogota clung to their idolatry.
Padre Simon cites several instances and says tersely: ““De manera
que no lo hay del Indio que parece mas Cristiano y ladino, de que no
tenga idolos 4 quien adore, como nos lo dice cada dia la experiencia.”
(So that there is no Indian, no matter how well educated he may appear
in our language and the Christian doctrine, who has not idols which
he adores, as experience teaches us every day.)’

“The Indian doctor relied far more on magic than on natural reme-
dies. Dreams, beating of the drum, songs, magic feasts and dances,
and howling to frighten the female demon from the patient, were his
ordinary methods of cure.”* :

In a very rare work by Padre José de Arriaga, published in Lima,
1621, it is shown that the Indians among whom this priest was sent on
a special tour of investigation were still practicing their old idolatrous
ritesin secret. This work may be found quoted in Montesinos, Mémoires
sur Ancien Pérou, in Ternaux-Compans, Voyages, vol. 17; the title of
Arriaga’s work is Extirpacion de la Idolatria de los Indios del Peru.
Arriaga also states that the functions of the priesthood were exercised
by both sexes.

It will only be after we have thoroughly routed the medicine-men
from their intrenchments and made them an object of ridicule that we
can hope to bend and train the mind of our Indian wards in the direc-
tion of civilization. In my own opinion, the reduction of the medicine-
men will effect more for the savages than the giving of land in severalty
or instruction in the schools at Carlisle and Hampton; rather, the
latter should be conducted with this great object mainly in view: to
let pupils insensibly absorb such knowledge as may soonest and most
completely convince them of the impotency of the charlatans who hold
the tribes in bondage.

Teach the scholars at Carlisle and Hampton some of the wonders
of electricity, magnetism, chemistry, the spectroscope, magic lantern,

1 Brinton, Myths of the New World, pp. 285, 286.
2Tbid., p. 264.

3 Kingsborough, vol. 8, sup.. p. 249.

* Parkman, Jesuits, introduction, p. lxxxiv.

$$ $$ —-

BOURKE. ] HOW TO DISCREDIT THE MEDICINE MAN. 595

ventriloquism, music, and then, when they return to their own people,
each will despise the fraud of the medicine-men and be a focus of grow-
ing antagonism to their pretensions. Teach them to love their own
people and not to despise them; but impress upon each one that he is
to return as a missionary of civilization. Let them see that the world
is free to the civilized, that law is liberty.

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Society’s Works, London: 1869.)

Venegas, Miguel.

A natural and civil history of California.

Vols, L-II. London: 1759.
Vetancurt, Agustin de.

Teatro Mexicano. Descripeion breve de los
sucesos ejemplares, historicos, politicos.
militares y religiosos del nuevo mundo
occidental de las Indias. Vols. I-III.
Mexico: 1870-71.

Villagra, Gaspar de.
Historia de la Nveva Mexico.
Villagutierre, Juan de.
Historia de la conquista de la provincia de el
Itza. (Madrid: 1701.]
Vining, Edward P.
An inglorious Columbus. New York: 1885.
Waitz. Theodor.

Introduction to anthropology. Edited by J.

Frederick Collingwood. London: 1863.

Vols. I-

Aleala: 1619.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

_ Wallace, Alfred R.

_ A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio
Negro, with an account of the native
tribes. London: 1853.

_ Whipple, A. W.

Reports of explorations and surveys to ascer-
tain the most practicable and economical
route for arailroad from the Mississippi
river to the Pacific ocean. Vol. ILI.
Washington: 1856.

Whitney, W. Norton.

Notes from the history of medical progress in

Japan. Yokohama: 1885.

Williams, Monier. f;

Modern India and the Indians. London: 1878.

Winstanley, W.
A visit to Abyssinia: an account of travel in
modern Ethiopia. Vols. I-II. London:
- 1881.
Wrangell, Ferdinand P. yon.
Narrative of an expedition to the Polar Sea.
= New York: 1841.
Wright, Thomas.

Narratives of sorcery and magic, from the
most authentic sources. Vols. I-I1.
London: 1851.

Ximenez, Francisco.

Las historias del origen de los Indios de esta
provincia de Guatemala. Translated by
C. Scherzer. Vienna: 1857.

LNeDE Xx:

A.
Page.
Accompanying papers noticed ____-_-- xlii-xlvi
Acosta, José, cited on sacrifices of In-
dian! corn) =. <=. 22522... -:-= as 525
Adornment by Eskimo -____-_-------- 138, 140-149
Adzes of the Eskimo, general descrip-
LC ee ee ee ee wee ee a Oh,
of steel or iron -____- _.--_.----165-166, 168, 171
oft ademeercse teen, ee ae. + 2 1166-168,170
of bone-------. =.
Alarcon, quoted on Taian customs ee 491,
494, 511
quoted on Indian sacred cords----- 555
Albinos, not medicine-men among the
IND RCHOS ti: eee sane enone 460
Alegre, Francisco J.. cited on Indian
Temediguses.) .45 fa: eos er Se 472
cited on ceremonial scratching
among indians ...:---+--+-_...- 492
Amulets of the Eskimo, how carried - 434
whales of glass, wood, and stone __ 435-436
reindeer antler: <=- .=------.2:--.-=--- 436
parts of various animals _______ 437-438, 441
ancient weapons and implements --488, 439
MUNOS =~ 22-S2ece2 = 26 ope eee tee) 8 437
of seal skin for catching fowls ____- 439
of dried bees .22- < <2: 42-2235 2s-- onan 440
Amulets of the Apache -__--_-__---___.. 587-50
Animals of the Point Barrow region,
IGS WEEE Sane ee oe no ee

Apache, paper on medicine-men on
Aptiya. (See Snow-houses of Eskimo.)

Arm clothing of Eskimo -_______-__.--_ 123-125
Arriaga, José de, cited on Indian medi-
wineiMen--<-o ose" Lets 594
Arrows of the Eskimo ___-____-----.-_-_ 201-207
Art of the Eskimo, incised patterns___ 389-391
Mainting:: =.= -2 2-25.42 =2--5-2-.- BOOEBOZ
carving in various materials _____. 392
carvings of human figures -.______- 373-398
carvings of quadrupeds - ____398-401, 406-407
carvings of walrus and seal ________- 401-402
carvings of whales -__-_.-.-.....-... 402-406
carvings of various objects. ___.____ 406-409
penell drawings --=------------.-...- 410
Ashes, use of, inreligious formalities __ 536 |
Asylum, right of, among Apache and
other Indians-_______-___..._---- 453-454
Automatons of the Eskimo_ -- 372-373
PANVIBION ENG ESKIMO _- oo sooo = ee 181,182 |
B.
Backus, E., quoted on magic powder of
IMGIANS'- 22222 2S paca tone eee 513
Pa ORerOMLODaACCOs 2 -=2._- = 2a <2 2s 68-69
BOTMOOIN seer = ok Boo a ee ee 187-190

Page

Bailer for Eskimo umiak ___-____-_____- 340, 341

Baird, Spencer F., acknowledgments to 19,20

Baker, Frank, cited on ‘‘ hand of glory” 486

Baker, Samuel, cited on African cus-

TOMS § <a WEE te ee = a ee aoe 489
Baking, onigimnot..- se 2 sas. ee ee 542
Balboa, Vasco Nunez, cited on Indian

mMedicine-meHh =n ask ene ese 467

cited on Peruvian festival ----_._--- 527

Bancroft, H. H., cited on Indian medi-

V cineimeny 228 3 a ee 457, 511
cited on mutilation by Indians____. 483
cited on scratching, by Indians 491
cited on Indian cakes-_-_-_-_-..--__- 524
cited on Indian use of feathers-____ 534,535

Barcia, Gabriel de Cardenas, cited on

sacred meal of Indians _________ 512

quoted on magic powder of Indians 549

Baskets of the Eskimo -_____-_________- 326-327

Beads of the Eskimo.__.-=_--.--..--___. Ce EG)

Bean, aversion to,.by Egyptians and

Abyssinians _______- ated 517

Beans, string of, used as signal by Te-

CIEIMN SON = Nene ee aa ee 5d)

Bear, Eskimo lance for hunting_______- 240

Bear arrows of the Eskimo ____________ 202

Beechey, Frederick W.,work consulted_ 21
description of Eskimo bracer___-__- 210
description of Eskimo seal dart ____ 218
cited on Eskimoseal nets_____-____ 252
description of Eskimo umiak 343
cited on Eskimo superstitions______ 434

Beggary among Point Barrow Eskimo-_ 42

Belt fasteners of Eskimo--_--_.----.----- 138

Belts of Eskimo _- ------ 135-138

Benzoni, Girolami, cited on Indian med-

ieime-men\ sess ese sae = 461

Bessels, Emil, acknowledgments to. 20
description of Eskimo lamp_______- 108
cited on Eskimo bows---...--.------- 199
cited on fire-making by Eskimo__ 290
cited on Eskimo dog sledges _______ 360
cited on Eskimo abduction_________ 411
cited on infantcide among Eskimo 417
cited on Eskimo children -________- 419
cited on Eskimo mourning --_-- 425

Bird-darts of the Eskimo_____- 2 210-214

Birds of the Point Barrow .1 region,

PNG Fey es oe eee eee == 16-58

Eskimo bolas for catching _ ---- 244-246

Black, William G., cited on magic ‘mots

aNG COrds =< 2 ~ 2 ean ae Soe nn oe LOND hes

573, 575, aT 6, 577, 579, 580

Blankets. blessed, used at Zuni feasts_ 526

Bledos. meaning of the term ________.__ 522

Blindness among Indian medicine-men 470

605

606 INDEX.
Page. Page.
Blount, Thomas, cited on symbolic use Burials, Eskimo, implements of the
of meal... _.- 513,514 deceased buried with him_-____ 424, 426
Blubber-holder for Eskimo lamp _ 108-109 protection of corpse from animals. 425
Blubber hooks for the Eskimo-_---- 310-311 disposal of the corpse---------..---- 425-426
Blubber rooms of Point Barrow Es- mourning for the dead__________ ---- 425
iimoweeee se ne AE eee 76 cremation of the dead ..__-__--_---- 426
Boas, Franz, acimowledsments Os me 20 dog's head placed near child’sgrave . 426
work consulted ==<- ==) ------2=--s--6 21 | Burton, Robert, cited on magic cords
cited on Eskimo harpoons --------- 221 | and girdles.__.....------.----568, 569, 575
cited on Eskimo kaiaks------------ 334 cited on exorcism - : 584
cited on Eskimo umiaks--_-------- 338 | Bushotter, George, SRDRITENSOTS) by __-. xxxvii
cited on Eskimo jackstones-___--. -- 365 |
cited on Eskimo customs concern-
ing childbinthi222= 22 == --- = 415 Cc,
Bock, Carl, cited on Borneo water ves- |
SelSat ot fe ee cee nate eee 494 Cache frames, for storage of property
Bolas of the iskim ow ose eee == 244-246 by Point Barrow Eskimo___--_-- 15-76
Bollaert, William, cited on emeralds of | Bleds sed for!e2225- 2-02 =n sees, 82
Peruvians -___- 590 | Cakes, sacred______-
Bone-crushers of the Eskimo - Sees 93-99 | Calls, for decoying seal__....-_.__..__.. 253-254

129-135
175-182

Boots of Eskimo --------
Borers of the Eskimo-------------------
Bourke, John G., paper on medicine-
men of the Apache by, noticed_x iii-xlvi

paper -on medicine-men of the

EAA DO een eee ee 433-603,
291-294
207-209

Bow and arrow making by the Eskimo_
Bow cases of the Eskimo-___-___.------
Bowls, for meat, of the Eskimo---_-___-
Bows of the Eskimo_
Boxes of the Eskimo, for tools---___-

for harpoon heads --

for trinkets _- _.- 323-326
Bracelets of the Eskimo_--_-_-_---------- 148-149

Bracers for Eskimo bows ---- .--.------ 209-210
Braiding and twisting, Eskimo Saale
TOUTS NOM ee tee a ere 311-3812
Brand, John, cited on bell-ringing- ____ 465
‘‘hand of glory ”’ ---- ee eee 486
cited on powders-- -514, 532, 536

cited on sacred cake: 541, Es, 545, 546, 547
cited on cords and girdles --557, 561, 568, 569,
570, 571, 573, 575, a 578, 579, 580

Brasseur de Bourbourg, cited on Indian

miedicine-men a= 22a rep saa seeee ee 466

cited on origin of labrets -_-__---_-- 498
cited on tzoalli 2-220 -- =5 = -<=5 ees 523
Bread, sacred =... 5+ -..224-2=s-s-s5 t= 22 Dal -OAe
unleavened ._- 543, 544
Breeches of Eskimo---_.-.-------------- 125-129

Brinton, Daniel G., cited on Indian
medicine men ___-__ .----457, 480, 5382

cited on Peruvian quipu--__-_-______ 562
cited on chalchihuitl among Mexi-
Cans).cte eee b ee Suse ees cee 590 |
quoted on influence of Indian medi-
CIME=MeEN ee eS eee ga one ee nae OG O OO
Bruce, James, quoted on Abyssinian
haimoressing).- 222.5 se 492
Bruyier, John, translations by --._-.-. xxxvii
Buckets of the Eskimo -____-.---.._-... 86-88
Builders’ tools of the Eskimo ----- ___ 302-304
Bull-roarer, use of among Indians . 476-479
Buns, hot cross, of Good Friday ________ 544-545
Burials, Eskimo, manner of preparing
Une CONDSG cee acess eta nes o 424

Cameron, V. Lovett, cited on African

CUSTOMS 35223255 ee ee ae DOr!
Canteens of the Eskimo-__-_--__------_- 86
| Carvings of the Eskimo --_-___--_-___-- 392-409

Castaneda, cited on Indian bread__-_-_- 522
Castration of Indian priests and medi-

cine-men 3-4-2262. 9=2 > ee 454
Catlin, George, cited on Indian medi-

cine-Men 22282-22422 - ses oe 463

cited on Indian wigs-----.---------- 475

Chalchihuitl, an Indian amulet__-_____- 588-591

“Chiefs” of the Eskimo-______._________ 429-430

Childbirth, Eskimo customs of -____- 86, 414-415

Children, number of, among the Point
Barrow Eskimo 38-39
Eskimo, number of births of __38-39, 414, 419

isolation of mother during birth of_ 86, 415
tOY'S Of! =o yeaa ae eee 376-383
Gollslot 208. Seep see oe OU oo
sports of _-_-.--. - 383-385
term of nursing Re 415

method of carrying during raneg: 415-416

infanticide 22- Sones see OA,
affection of parents for ______-_____- 417-419
rearing and education of_____--___- 4174418
amusements! of22- 2252" =2— 2S 417
adoption ofei =. essere 419
given away by parents _____________ 419
burial ofscere 22a o5s be Rae 4
Chisels of the Eskimo ..:___-__--______ 172-173
Christmasitood ses -esesee ease ee= eee eee 547
Clavigero, Francisco S., cited on Indian
labret - : 497
cited on Indian mats of reeds ._____ 527-528
cited on Indian food - 523
Clay-éating=. 22252 225 2e cee See ee pa
Climate of Point Barrow, Alaska___._- 30-32
Clothing of Eskimo at Point Barrow,
material of”. 2-222. -8 2 S22 = 109-110
style.of -.2- Ss aeesoee ee see ee eee MORI SS,
head clothing 2-2-2228 ee sae o nea 112
frocks, description of .--.----------- 113-121
frocks, trimming of---.-------------- 114,119
MaNtles: 7/2. jose eae ee 121-122
rain frocks ):=22- 22-425 - seu eeee ee 122
mittens ___- ee TE eee SN Ca ete)

INDEX. 607
Page. Page.
Clothing of Eskimo at Point Barrow, Crantz. David, cited on mode of carry-
arm clothing _._ -_.-_-..-.-2.---..-- 123-125 ing Eskimo infants _ sonar 416
PIOWVE See eae nae ne nae ee 124 cited on Eskimo burials__________.. 426,427
leg and foot clothing ________._. ____ 128-135 | quoted on Eskimo amulets _____.._ 437-440
(DEE She hee an, a a 125-129 | cited on scratching among Eskimo - 491
pantaloons _____._-._._________..__-. 126-129 | Cremation of the dead by Eskimo______ 426
SIME PYG Sy 5 Us a pe ie ie ee APO |) Gries ees oe Se ae ee 1d 541
boots__._.__....-_....._-__........... 129-135 | Cross, place of the, in Indian symbol-
shoes .__- mee epee ee SY 129-135 123 11 MeSe Re = ee Re oe nee 479-480
HOG-CT CANOES © cee ie sacs ceca see seee 135 | Crotches for harpoon in Eskimo umiak. 341-343
(EU Re ee ee ae ee eee eee eS 135-138) | Cupsiof Eskimo ----5-._2.=---38 --L----- 101
SLL fasteners: 2-2 552 e 2. we 138 | Cups, scraper, for dressing skins ____.. 299-300
OYMAMEN Gs eee l= aceon 8 eee 138 | Curtin, Jeremiah, work of .. XXXVii
Club, used as Eskimo weapon -_-__-_____- 191 | Cushing, F. H., cited on-Zuni water-
Clubhouse, or ki'dyigi of Eskimo--___- 79-80 vessels _ 494
Coal of the Point Barrow region, cited on Zui Indian: = S 452
Alaska __- ae 61 | cited on Zuni drinking tubes rece 494
Coleman, Charles, cited on Hindu pow-
(2 sta: ee ee 515 | Dz
cited on sacred cords_ , 565
Columbus, Christopher, quoted on | Daggers of boneof the Eskimo ___...__ 191-192
magic powder of Indians------- 513 | Dall, William H.. acknowledgments
Combs, Eskimo ____--._-- (Qhoetecc ns seater aseessceee Sscn== 20
for dressing deerskins _ works consulted... 21
Commerce between “ Buffalo” fatten description of Eskimo houses by | S ihc
and Pueblos ________--_----_----- 529,530 cited on Eskimo clothing~___-_-- 125
Communal house of east Greenlanders vi cited on Eskimo labrets_143, 144. 145, 146. 148
Confessions of patient to Indian medi- cited on Eskimo seal nets ______--_- 252
einem en nse ne eet oe ee = 4G, 406 cited on customs of Eskimo whale
Cook, James, works consulted -_____.- 21 fishing 3 es 4 eee ee 274
description of Eskimo houses by -_- 78 cited on Eskimo fishing ___. 286
Cooking among the Point Barrow Es- cited on fire-making by Eskimo - 290
[hating oe eo ae ee 63 cited on Eskimo umiak__ 344
Corbusier, Wm. F.. quoted on galena cited on Eskimo snowshoes 352
among the Indians-----.-.-_-_- 49 | cited on Eskimo sledges----- 357
cited on use of pollen by Indians___ 505 cited on Eskimo masks---__---___-- 370
cited on Indian medicine-men___--- 460 cited on Eskimo dance -___.-______- 376
cited on Indian wigs---.---.--.---.-- 474 eited on Eskimo musie -______-____- 389
Cord of St. Francis, the__._-.._.......-. 556-557 cited on personal habits of Eskimo_ 421
Cords, used in casting lots._---_ --_.-.. 538-559 | cited on mortuary customs of Es-
magic wind, of the Lapps__-..._____ 560-561 | Icing) et ee eee Pe 424, 425, 427
mnemonic 561-56 cited on Eskimo labrets-_----_-_--- 496
sacred, of the Parsis and Brahmins 563-567 | Davis, John, works consulted___--..-.. 21,22
Mahometan belief concerning-_-_-_-- 566 description of Eskimo house by___- 7
MiOASUEING 4 - .- es = 572-573 description of fire-making by Es-
sacred, ophic origin of-_- 574 V6 bi 0( fae ee eed eae ai ie SEER 290
formerly used in binding prisoners 574-575 quoted on Eskimo burials_-_-__--__- 426
unclassified superstitions concern- quoted on Eskimo amulets ________- 434
ee eee ae anne ae OO -ONO TT cited on Indian medicine-men______ 167
superstitions concerning ___--___-__ 553-580 cited on Pueblo rebellion__________. 555
Countercharms to Indian ‘ emedicine? a 459-460 | Deer, Eskimo lance for hunting-___--__- 240-244
Coxe, William, quoted on Indian magic | Demarcation Point (Alaska), called
powder “ 548 Herschel Island. _-2--------e--5 26
Crantz, David, work consulted ________- 21 Eskimo villages at 43
cited on Eskimo saws.--_------------ 174 | Demons, Eskimo belief concerning.._. 431-434
cited on Eskimo bows -__-_-__------- 199 | Diaz, Bernal, cited on Indian medicine-
cited on Eskimo harpoons.-.--__-__- 222, 243 WOM 7 hee een 469
cited on seal catching by Green- cited on chalchihuitl among the
a er S eerie ee se ee 256 | Mexicans 3) 5-5 eae ae ne 591, 592
cited on whale catching by Green- Diaz, Melchior, cited on Indian wig-
dani GPs eae ee ee tO ee making {22fhe gee. ~ sees tecaes 475
cited on Eskimo fishing _- 228 284 | Dippers of Eskimo, of horn____--___--__ 101, 102
cited on fire-making by Eskimo___- 290 Of AVOLY s2- 2565 betss sano eashen ts. See iu3
cited on Eskimo umiak_-__-__._____- 387,338 | Disease, method of treating by Indian
cited on condition of Greenland | Medici e-merne = ns ene 462-468
RWROG WS em eee oe soo aun 414 | Diseases of the Point BarrowEskimo.. 39-40

608 INDEX.
Page. Page.
Divination with grains and seeds__-454-532,533 | Egede, Hans, cited on Eskimo mortu-
Divorce among the Eskimo_-__-..__.... 411-412 BLY CUS TONIC e see eee 424
Dobrizhoffer, Father, quoted on Abi- quoted on burial of Eskimo children 426
pones medicine-men__.. _.-..... 459-463 cited on Eskimo burials__..---.-__- , 427
Doctors, Eskimo.--.--...--.---- --=---- 422-428 | Ellis, H., work consulted ____._...._...- 22
ops of the Eskimo--__.-__--....--.----- 357-360 cited on Eskimo fire making-_____- 290
Dolls of Eskimo children --- 380-381 | Elson, —, visited Refuge Inlet, Alaska_ 52
Domestic life of the Eskimo___--. ---.. 410-421 visited Point Barrow.-....-.-----.- © 65
Dorman, Rushton M.,cited on Peru- cited on Eskimo salutations _______- 422
Vian: priests! sean = ose eee 456 | Elson Bay, Alaska, location of --__.-_--- 27
Dorsey, J. Owen, work of.--.-.-------- xxxvii | Emerson, Mrs. Ellen Russell, cited on
cited on Siouan medicine 452 Indian customs -_..-.----...---- 490,495
Down of birds in ceremonial ansery: | Epileptic and insane, how regarded by
ATICOS ye bee Sao Se eee pee 5 a3 “630 Apache 22... = See 00101
Drags for hauling seal -____- _... 256-259 | Eskimo of Point Barrow, paper by
Drill bows of the Eskimo-_-_-_-__-. 176-182 John Murdoch on 1-441
Drills of the Eskimo--_-_-_...._---- i= 182, 189 isolation of - 26
Drinking reed and tubes, use of among TANGO Of Soke see ee se aoe cee ae) Me
Indians ___________________.____.. 493-498 | Etmiiller, Michael, quoted on girdles
Drinking vessels of Eskimo_..--.._-... 101-105 ANG 'COrdS- 22s Sees ee one
Drinks and drugs used by Indian medi- Excavating tools of the Eskimo. _..... 802-804
cine-men._-__....----------.----454, 455-456 F.
penal of the Point Barrow Eskimo_._ 6465 | ,, War,” radical of “farina,” etc...____- 545-546
Drums as Co DB ohae. eS dec a ee Feces and entrails of animals eaten by
Drumsticks of the Miskimovs =: -)--\==225 388 Point Barrow Kekimo: 62
IDM ELSES I yfEACT GID (CONGIS NvK DE 1h _. | Feather-setter for making Eskimo ar-
7 TUAMAS 22-2 52-222 5S naa aae Soo 561 | TOWS . ==. 2555S + ose See 294
aes Sings Re ge ga eal _. | Feathers, use of, in ceremonial obsery-
Or ewigale Ro, ae ae hee ee Maca. 2 me ANCOS: 22-22. Cas aee see ee ees OSE POD,
Duran, Diego, cited on Mexican priests é Seer
= use of,in medicine hat___...__.__-_- 582
454, 456, 464 a
cited on Indian drinking tubes. ___- 495,496 | Fernandez, Alonso, quoted on sacrifi-
cited on sacred meal of Indians-___- 510 cial bread of Pueblos -.-_-.-_--- 549

cited on Indian idol of dough ____524, 525, 529
quoted on clay eating by Mexicans 538

cited on cords among Mexicans __-_- 558
cited on Mexican headdress _-_____- 582

Dust from churches, superstitions con-
ceorming ye) eee 537

E.

Earrings of the Eskimo ________--.._.__ 142-143
Earth eating -.--..---..2-=:---2.--22.-= ‘587-540

Eating, time and frequency of, among
Point Barrow Eskimo______-___ 63-64
Egede, Hans, work consulted _______--- 22
cited on Eskimo diet._---.-.....---- 64
cited on Eskimo drinks-----__------ 65
description of Eskimo tents___. __- 85
cited on Eskimo saws. -------------- 174
cited on Eskimo bows.._-..._-.---- 199
cited on seal catching. __.__.----__.. 256, 269
description of Eskimo deer hunt-_- 265
cited on Eskimo whale hunting ___ 272,275
cited on Eskimo fishing ____________ 284, 286
cited on Eskimo fire making ______- 290

cited on Eskimo umiak rowing ___- 335

cited on Eskimo umiak oars_______ 339, 343
quoted on Eskimo divorce__________ 412
cited on exchange of wives by Es-

kimo- Seront anes 413
quoted on “treatment of” Eskimo

WRODION sc ee a ee ens 414
cited on, Eskimo customs in aunt

births ooo 5 tee ce a= esas sew ease 415
quoted on personal habits of Green-

land e@rsissaeer cee ree 421

Festivals of the Eskimo-____--____--- 365, 373-376
Fetus of reindeer eaten by Point Bar-

TO We ES it Oe ee na eee 61
Wiéld studies |2- 22. = 222-2 ao see a RAL
Wield “WON =< sto noe
| Files of the Eskimo-._-_._--_--_--__---- 182
Financial statement xlvi
Finger rings of the Eskimo__ 149
Firearms, introduction of and use by
the Point Barrow Eskimo--_--- 53
Firearms of the Eskimo----__-___.- 143-195
Fire making by the Eskimo, withdrill_ 289-291
with flint and steel___-_-_--. _-----_- 291
keindlings: 2222-42222 = ee eee 291
Fishery season among the Eskimo _.__ 282-283
Fishes of the Point Barrow region,
‘Alaska 2222 he. co sees te urns 58
Fishhooks of the Eskimo. ......_..._... 279-284
Fishing, manner of, by the Eskimo____ 283
Fishing implements of the Eskimo ___. 278-287
Fish lines of the Eskimo--_-__-_-...._-... 278-284
Fish nets of the Eskimo _____._ -_._.__. 284-286
Fish scaler of the Eskimo -_-___----_---- 311
Flint flakers of the Eskimo -_____---_-. 287-289
Flint working by the Eskimo _________. 287-289
Flipper toggles for Eskimo harpoons. RAT
Floats for Eskimo seal darts-______----- 215

for Eskimo whale harpoons _---- 236, 246-247

Food of the Point Barrow Eskimo ...._ 61-63
Food, preparation of, by Point Bar-
TOWAMSKIMO 4 spe See eee eae 63
Forlong, J. G. R., quoted on manna -_-_- 517
quoted on sacred cakes ------.------ 518, 544
cited on sacred cords ______-- ----564, 565, 578

INDEX.

Page.
Fosbrooke, Thomas D., quoted on use

of rushes at Easter-.___._._____- 528
cited on symbolic use of ashes _____ 536
Fowke, Gerard, work of ____________ --XXXViii
Fox, Eskimo method of hunting _____- 264
Franklin, Sir John, works consulte1 __ 22
cited on Eskimo deer-hunting______ 265,
tited on Eskimo mode of carrying
IEEE TGS eee ane eee ee 416
cited on Eskimo snowshoes______-- 352
cited on earth-eating by Eskimo’__ 539
Frazer, J. G., cited on Indian customs. 485
Frobisher, works consulted___________- 2
cited on Eskimo bows _____________- 200
eited on Eskimo arrows__-__- 205
description of Eskimo umiak - 339
Wrocksiof Mskimo-.......-.-...-=.- - 113-121
Frommann, J. C., on magic knots. ___- 569
G.
Galena, powdered, ceremonial use of,
Dydindians 55 ooo eka a 548-549
pieces of. used in sacrifices_________ 549
Gambling among the Eskimo-_-_-_--_____- 364-365
Games of the Eskimo-.__-_...-.....__-.-. 364
Gatschet, Albert S., work of_--.-.------ xxxvi
Ghosts, Eskimo belief concerning ____- 431-434
Gibberish always used by Indian med-
LemMp-Menes =. 2-2 5es2e Ase 2 464
Gilder, W. H., work consulted __ : 22
eited on Eskimo wolf-killer -_-_.___ 259
quoted on exchange of wives by Es-
RAIN Gee oe oan ee soencess paeeceo~s 413
cited on Eskimo children ________-. 419
Girdles, superstitions concerning ____- 557-558,
570-572, 577
use of, in parturition_______________ 570-571
of human skin_ 571
Gloves of Eskimo -__ -_-_-_- 3s 124
Goggles, snow, of the Eskimo__________ 260-262

Gomara cited on Indian medicine-men_459, 463,
464, 470, 472, 512

cited on Indian medicine-women___ 469
cited on Indian necklaces___-_..____ 488
cited on Indian cakes_______-- 526
cited on Indian mats_-_- 527
cited on eclay-eating by Indians_____ 538,539
cited on chalchihuitl among Mexi-
CANS S20 nc. 590
Gonzales de Mendoza quoted on In-
dians throwing meal__-_________. 510
Gorgets of the Eskimo----_-._-_-..--_-.. 370
Government among the Eskimo, in the
PamBI co oS a 427
in the village Q7
influence of elders....-...----..-:-.- 427
PEBUCO PMO NE aon s = ese ee 427-428
“ chiefs’? are simply wealthy men_ 429-430

influence of property in- --
umialiks 2 2
Graah,W.A., works consulted __________

quoted on Eskimo ghosts or demons 431
Graffenreid, Baron de, cited on magic
powder of Indians-_--_-..---_-.-- 512

9 ETH——39

609

Page.
Grimm, Jacob, cited on ancient German
superstitious ____487, 491, 541, 559, 561, 568,

570,573

Grossman, Capt., cited on Apache puri-
Reation {2 secss See ee 45

Jee

| Hardisty,Wm. Lucas, letter of, regard-
ing Rat Indians onan (DURE
Harness for Eskimo dogs. _- _.----- 358-360
Harpoon boxes of the Eskimo__________ 247-251
Harpoons of the Eskimo, for throwing. 218-233
TetWevinp yao. = 22 ee 930-201
forithrusting* 22 2-2 fee 233-240

Harris, W. Cornwallis, quoted on
Maple. COLds/-~6 os en 574-575

Hawkins,—, cited on scratching among

Veale b ES lc}, ae oe ee ae ee 491
Hazen, Wm. B.. acknowledgments to_ 20
Habitations of Point Barrow Eskimo. 72-86
Habits, personal, of the Point Barrow

Skim O'-2- see nca so en 420-421
Hair, Eskimo, method of wearing_____ 140-142
Hair and wigs, use of, by Indian medi-

cine-mene = -2. 2222 26cs-se-2e oe ATA.
Hall, Charles Francis, works consulted _ 22

cited on Eskimo whale fishery -_____ 274

cited on Eskimo sledge shoes- ------ 353
Hammers of the Eskimo _______________ 182
“Hand of glory,” superstitions con-

Cerming 22 5 sone ae eee eee 486

Handles for Eskimo drill cords _______ 180
for Eskimo tool bags _________.____- 190
for Eskimo seal drags -_-_--._..._._ 257-259
for Eskimo drums) -22- ==.) 5-5 =.= 386-387

Hangman’s rope, superstitions con-

cerning Chee i= Seen oe 574, 575
Head bands, use of, by the Eskimo- 142
Head clothing of Eskimo______ 112
Headdresses of Indian gods___ 582

of Apache medicine-men ___________ 584
Healing among the Eskimo____________ 422-423
Heath, Perry S., cited on use of downat

Russian weddings ______________ 535

cited on Russian cakes _____________ 542

cited on Russian kostia -_-___ ______ AT
Henshaw, W.H., work of__________.xxxv-xxxvi
cited on amulets of Eskimo ________ 439

Hereditary priesthood among Indians. 455-456
Herendeen, E. P., interpreter of Point

Barrow expedition ._._.._....._ 19

cited on Eskimo reindeer-hunting - 266
cited on float for whaling___________ 247
cited on Eskimo whale-hunting____ 272
cited on Eskimo gambling _________ 364
description of Eskimo dance__ . 374-375
Herodotus cited on Egyptian priests __ 454

Herrera, Antonio, quoted on Indian
medicine-men -____459, 461, 463, 472, 475, 553

quoted on Indian medicine-women. 469
quoted on cross among Indians ____ 480
quoted on Indian labrets __________ 497
quoted on sacred meal of Indians __ 510
quoted on ** powder of grass**_____- 519
cited cn Indian cakes ---___-_-__.-_- 527

610

Herrera, Antonio, quoted on cords
among Indians--
cited on Indian headdress - _--

Hewitt, John N. B., work of

Higgins, Godfrey, cited on hierophants

of Athens
cited on Hindu powders -_-
cited on use of flour in sacrifice ---
cited on use of pollen by the an-
Clents pense one
cited on girdles
Hind, Henry Youle, cited on Indian
medicine men
cited on finger necklace-------------
cited on Indian powder --

Hoddentin, employment of,

i the

offered to sun, moon, ete --------
employment in cornculture _-___---
employment in sickness -_--._-- ----
employment as an amulet
a prehistoric food
the yiauhtli of the Aztecs ____-----
ANAlOLUCS Ole ees ee
Hoffman, W. J., work of --
cited on Ojibwa medicine
Holm, G., work consulted_____---- -
description of Eskimo house by --_-
description of Eskimo tattooing -_-
quoted on Eskimo marriages __-
quoted on Eskimo children _-
quoted on Eskimo burials
quoted on Eskimo government ____
quoted on Eskimo amulets —__-
Holmes, W. H., work of
Hooper, C. L., work consulted ________-
description of Eskimo ki'idyigi -
description of Eskimo tattooing ___
cited on Eskimo knives
cited on firearms among the Es-
jGheo (0). 5
cited on Eskimo spears ______----_-
Hospitality, prevalence of,
Point Barrow Eskimo
prevents saving of food by Point
IBaLrow, ESKIMO hese ee ees
House, winter, of the Eskimo
DlaMSiOl sneer sso anne ee
entrance passage to
ATILOTION O Leena nee hee ee ae eee
window of - ez
sleeping place‘of-<- =~ == -=--- ==
heating of_-----
rig lies aL Ney Bid 1X0} Weep ee
number of occupants of -
when occupied -
built of bones_
Household utensils of the Eskimo.
Utensils, household.)
Hunting, methods of the Eskimo, the
polar bear --_-
the wolf __--- ee
the OKs. 2-5-8 se seo ee ==
the reindeer 2-5 ye = on es

among

( (See

558,

411,

_XXxii, xxxili, Xxxxv

XXiX-XXxX, xXxxvili

268-272

INDEX.
Page. Paga
Hunting, methods of the Eskimo, the
559, 574 Wali ens see eee eee 272
5x2 the whale = 325-< 35 ese 272-276
xli LOW Sioa ce se ee es 276-278
Hunting scores of the Hiskimore sss 361-364
454 | Hutchinson, consul, cited on African
516 mapic powd erse-- =~ eee 515
517
I.
532
557 | Ice, formation and movements of, at
Point Barrow, Alaska 31-32
464,513 | Ice creepers of Eskimo - -_-------- P 135
483 | Iglu. (See House, winter, of Eskimo. )
513 | Ikpikp&im River, Alaska, location of ___- 29
Imérnya, Alaska, location of --_-------- 27
499-507 | Implements of the Eskimo. (See Tools
500 of the Eskimo.)
_ 501-502 | Implements, Eskimo, for procuring and
502 preparing food __..-....--_-.---- 310-316
502-505 | Impotence, self-induced in Indian med-
503-506 icine-men - 22222 22222---22=2---== 454
518 | Indians of Northern Alaska, inter-
. 521-522 course of the Point Barrow Es-"
530-532 Iedim owilthn=22 ene ee ee 49
Indian corn, sacrifice of _...-_-.-------- 525
| Indicators used in catching seal____.___ 254-255
292 | Insan ity, how Tegarded in Apache
Tica | Sen CLL C111 © ee ear 460
139 | Insects of the Point Barrow region,
412, 413 Alaska. 2522-25255 acca 2 ene 59
416,418 | International Polar expedition, organ-
425, 426 ization and w ork of__----------- 19
497 | Isolation of the Point Barrow Eskimo_ 26
44, | Wku'dlin, habitat and description of... 49-51
Izze-kloth of the Apache-__-__--___-_---- 550-558
23 | 1zze-kloth, analogues of other people __ 558
80
138 gs
159 4 . 5 e
James, Edwin, cited on Indian sacri-
198 | fiGOS Soc ee she eae 526
240 Jigger of Es kimo, fishing tackle Ronen 282, 283
Jus prime noctis claimed by Indian
42 medicine-moen ==: 2-2 22 ee n-ne 461
K.
64
72-78 | Kaiaks of the Eskimo ___--__-__.....--. 328-335
73,77 | Kalm, quoted on use of roots of rushes
73 by Tnd@ilans= 2282222 S55 - eee 520, 521
73,74 | Kan or Apache gods -..----_---.------- 581-582,
74 | Kane, Elisha Kent, works consulted _-_ 23
74, 75 cited on Eskimo frocks --- 118
74 cited on Eskimo harpoons__________ 222, 243
75 description of Eskimo kaiak by-_- 334
75 description of Eskimo dog harness 359
76 | Kane, Paul, cited on scratching by In-
G7 Glans <: std fee eee ees 491
Kelly, Fanny, cited on Sioux medi-
cine-men» = 222 = 28 eee seen aos 453
«juoted on Sioux games with bones_ 486
263 | Kennan, Geo., quoted on use of roots by
_ 263-264 Siberlans <22--2. 223 2223-42252" 521
= 264 | Kilauwitawin, Alaska, Eskimo village, HW
_ 264-268 | Kingsborough, Edward, quoted on In-

dian medical practice ae

INDEX. 611
Page. Page.
Klutsehak, Heinrich W., work con- Kumlien, Ludwig, cited on Eskimo's
Pas eee teen ee 24 | method of carrying infants ______ 416
cited on Eskimo wolf killers ______- 259 | quoted on Eskimo amulets _______ 437
cited on Eskimo deer hunting _____ 268 | Kunmiuidlin, habitat of ______________43, 45, 46, 47
cited on Eskimo customs of child- Kunque, use of by the Apache and Pu-
Ja) Relea eae ee a ee 415 | ODIlO)n toe e noe aoe nnn a eee se 7 DORI
Knives of the Eskimo, general descrip- analogy of to flour in Spanish car-
tion i vale ewe eS re 509-510
method of using-_-__.-.__.-_-----... 150-151 | Kuptiimiun, habitat of. ___.___________45, 48,49
of slate, for men..-._.-_.........-.-. 151-155 }
pinwhalepone =.2-5.- | .-<ces-ss20-ase 155 L.
i d hoe ee OO 160,
ae andintee es Labrets, tubes used for, by Indians____ 497-498
Tor ates a4 - 161-164 Labrets of the Eskimo, description of_ 143-148
Agh-cukters ae a 164-165 lancets for making incision for ____ 144
for cutting snow and ice- e 304-305 plug for enlarging hole for -_______ eee
Knots, magic wind, of the Lapps-_ 560-561 |“. BESE BECRDIES BEER Pcecce > nD
SRS 562-563. | Ladles of Eskimo, of horn___- 104
: Ns Sg Shae ey Sah eae " of bone____._. ------- 104-105
aa ate SOS NEUEN ee 569.570 | Lafitau, Joseph Francois, cited on sa-
ie ee ee are 568-576 | cred powder of Indians_________ 512
es Set: toes “aaa? | La Fleche, Francis, cited on Indian
igi ON aie BHostvtood! so. eee 527
Peas a ae Rae ed aie Lamplighters of Eskimo ees 106
pee a kk sa tea ee GSES Ee SEs serch | Lamps of Eskimo.....-._________ ___ 105-109
eA eS Rane et SF he a | Lances of the Eskimo, for whale - 240-242
ee me LOT NGA is ee se ee eee if 240
iM Garments) - sean esos tees ccese 576 tc
F OPAC Ie) ee ee ne Se os oe 240-244
eae warts, Scrofula; epilepsy, 578-579 | La Salle, Robert C., quoted on use of
oF OF <
S ena ae eed ee ae ego | corn by Indians in burials______ 513
Kohl, Shae Nt on mutilation by In- ren | Lea, Henry Charles, cited on sacred
PASS COG Wee yh ee oes cords__ 567
K Hees SC LC eae ea en DEIR Le Clerq, Chrestien, quoted on cross as
2 i, 3 485, 586 an Indian symbol -___--_-_______ 480
he a PRS eee Liquors, introduction among the Point
OF ee - 4 50. Bi Barrow Hskimo----------------- 54
Winn Ry ne ee aa nT See ee z taste for, of th i J -
Kraskenninikoff,cited on Eskimo reme- eae $ ©) Rested Ev etOe Wie 65
i ae ee ee eee eee one Vee 6s} Be ik fats abe inne SL nt oe
_ haiieeatene Se a ealisd - — List of works consulted in preparation
, work consulted -____- % A 3
cited on Eskimo archery -__________- 207 ee OnE EOlIuiBArOw hs 20-25
ee we eed SOE a soe noha fs eae baa Lucky days and seasons----____ coe ae 461
eited on Eskimo fowl hunting _____ 278 ae i"
quoted on burial of Eskimo 426 | Lycanthropy, power of, claimed by
sekesaae 2 i ee .
quoted on Eskimo property customs 428, 429 HEHE ee GSE 2 a sot ESS!
ae is ae , | Lyon, G. F., work consulted___________ 23
Kuaru River, Alaska, position of ___---- 29 i! nasorintionGnniceinnin as
Kadyigi, use of term by Eskimo _______ 79-80 cee = Tae = ee ACE Sten
Kuliiagrua, or Meade River. Alaska, 5 5 P Beaton a ha 3 =
Resenipuanior 29 cited on Eskimo fire-makinz_______ 290
Bpiimo ishing Tae ee i 58 cited on Eskimo snow shoyels_____ 306
irevenil GalLaGeats aia HIT a 9 cited on Eskimo needlecases -______ 322
aS oh Eskimo nenicee ee 161 cited on Eskimo basket weaving -__ 327
Susni@alita shes El... Coal ret 201 cited on Eskimo kajiaks___.__--..___ 333, 334
cited on Eskimo archery -________- 207 Che oe BSUS) EES i ao
cited on Eskimo harpoons__....__ 991 cited on Eskimo sle@ge-shoes----_. 353
cited on Eskimo lance ----.-------.- 242 M.
cited on seal burrows --------- 271
cited on Eskimo fishin= 287 | Maguire, commander of ship Plover,
cited on Eskimo umiak ________-___- 343 report of, consulted _____________ 23
cited on Eskimo snowshoes ~______- 352 visit of, to Point Barrow, Alaska_- 52
cited on Eskimo masks ----______ __ 370 cited on Eskimo reindeer hunting. 268
cited on marriage ceremonies of Es- cited on Eskimo salutations -------- 422
NST TRY C9 eee ee ee eae 411 | Mallery, Col. Garrick, work of -_xxxii. xxxiii-
cited on exchange of wives by Es- XXXV
kimo Laine 413 | Malte-Brun, cited on earth-eating by
cited on childbirth customs of SIDGTIQNIS Se es ence ee eee 539
MALMO 'S2 see at conse fe eset 415 cited on cords and girdles______- 561, 562, 564

612 INDEX.

Page.
Mammals of the Point Barrow re-
gion, Alaska_.._.--_____ sawadeaed 55-56
Mantles of Eskimo... ..--__-.-.-.----.- 121-122
Marker for meat cache of the Eskimo. 262-263
Marline spike of the Eskimo --____------ 291-292
Marriage customs of the Eskimo_-__--- 410-413
Masks of the Eskimo_..-.__-.._=__----- 365-370
Mason, Otis T., acknowledgments) to _- 20
cited on Eskimo basket weaving --- 326
cited on superstition connected
With) scratchingss s-2-)- = soe 493
Massingberd, Francis C., quoted on the
Carmelites 2s 5223.52 3 ose 5 = 282 358
Mathews, Washington. work of--_-__---- xli
Mattocks of the Eskimo-___-_-___-____--. 302-304
Mauls of the Eskimo, of stone --_______- 93-97
(0) i] 00) 0 ee Ea eee bea, Lec
evolutioniofis 2. 22a eee eons 98-99
Maurice, Thomas, cited on sacred cords 566
McClure, cited on Eskimo whale fish-
CB pee ee eos <= ae eee eee 276
Meal, sacred, use of, by Apache and
JEU) 0 loys eee ne aoe a eee 508-511
use of, by other people-.-___--_.------ 510-515
Measuring cords) .-<---2---2---=23--=2 <5 (SV2-078
Meat, sacred, of the Zunis ._--___.--__-- 545
Medicine shiskdim 0 s= ssa eae eee 422-423
Medicine cord of the Apache__- ~ 550-558
Medicine hat of the Apache_____- 502-503, 580-581
Sympolism) of) Ss fee ae eoere aes 582
Medicine-men of the Eskimo______ ____ 422-423
Medicine-men of the Apache, paper on,
by John G. Bourkels 2222-5 - 433-603
Medicine-men of the Indians, who may
D6 ioe = sae ane a ee 451-457
no organization of -_-....---..-_-..- 452
manner of becoming one _________._ 453-454
powers claimed by ___--_- 454-459, 462, 470-471
penalty for failure of, to cure dis-
CAS Coen = 5 aan en a ee OO AB Y
food of __- : 470
= 470
_- 468-469
Se ee a ee 572
Mendieta, Geronimo, cited on Indian
_ medicine-women ________________ 469
quoted on Indian idols of flour or
seeds 526
cormn==_=-- = 533
Mesh sticks of the Eskimo -___________. 312-315

Metamorphosis, power of, claimed by
Indian medicine-men -----._____ 458-459

Michigan, work in Saxyil

Mindeleff, Cosmos, work of__.xxx-xxxi, x]-xli

Mindeleff, Victor, work of __._____xxx-xxxi, xl
Minerals of the Point Barrow region,

ANAS - (oo oans sone e sone eee GOTO
Mittens)of Eskimo —2=-5—- 22-25. .5e2-- 2s) 123) 195
Montesinos, Fernando, cited on Peru-

vian sacred flour -_..-_--..._-.-_ 511
Montfaucon, Bernard de, cited on gir-

dles of Saliens_________ & 559
Mooney, James, work of-____ xii, Xxxviii
Morality of the Point Barrow Eskimo_ 41

Mortuary customs of the Eskimo__.__. 423-427

Page,
Mound explorations--_____._..-...._..XXV-xxvi
Mourning, Eskimo customs of-______-- 425
Mouthpiece for Eskimo drills__________ 179
Mud, plastering the head with, by In-
(hth oleae se
Miiller, Max, cited onscratching among
the Parsi_-_ 493
cited on parched grain among the
Fn GUS) 22 o2e2 nde eens nee 546
cited on Hindu drinking custom. 496

cited on sacred cords of Hindus__ 563,567
Murdoch, John, paper on the Point

Barrow Eskimo by, noticed __xlii, xliii

paper on Point Barrow Eskimoby_ 1-441

Music of the /Mskimoiee. -sese- ene 385-389

Music, use of, by Indian medicine-men 465

Musical instruments of the Eskimo___ 385-388

N.

Name of an American Indian not to be
divulged by himself-___
when given.--_._.__
battle or agnomen -.___.._-
Names among Point Barrow Eskimo. 42-43
Narcotics, use of, by the Point Barrow
Skim) -5226 ee eee ee

of huManfingers=—2--2225 2.
of various parts of the human body. 483-489

ODUM am EC hha ae 487-489
Needles, sewing, of the Eskimo________ 318-319

netting, of the Eskimo-_____._ _____ 312-313
Needle cases of the Eskimo-_________ 318, 320-322
Nelsons Wj WOrllo Ofeeee cane sone see ee xli
Netting needles of the Eskimo_________ 312-313
Netting tools of the Eskimo -- 312-315
Netting weights of the Eskimo_______- 315-316
Nets of the Eskimo, for catching seal_ 251

for catching fish---- 284-286

Nomenclature of the Eskimo of North-

ernnAlas kal sacs ee eee 42-43, 46-48
Nordenskiold, Adolf Eric, work con-

Sul ted 22 —S2 2s osce eee 2
describes bone-crushers of Eskimo. 96
mention of Eskimo lamplighters__ 106
cited on clothing of Eskimo________ 110,122
cited on Eskimo labrets__-_---____- 148
cited on Eskimo harpoons.-___. ____ 220
cited on Eskimo bolas----_-- 246
cited on Eskimo seal rattle___ 24
cited on seal catching .______. = 270
cited on Eskimo fishing - -283, 285, 286
cited on fire-making by Eskimo___- 289
cited on Eskimo skin-scrapers______ 298
cited on Eskimo ice picks __________ 304
describes Eskimo ice scoop-_-________ 309
cited on Eskimo kaiaks --_.__-_____ 333
cited on Eskimo sledge shoes_.___- 353
cited on Eskimo dog harness ------ 359, 360
cited on Eskimo masks---.-.------- 370
cited on Eskimo drums.---...------ 385
cited on Eskimo drawings - 410
quoted on character of Eskimo

Childrens esses see ees 418
quoted on indoor habits of Hskimo~. 420, 421
cited on Eskimo burials ---...--.-.. 426

INDEX. 613

Page.

Nordenskiold, Adolf Eric, cited on
Eskimo government-___.________- 430
cited on Eskimo superstition: 434

cited on Eskimo amulets -____-_____ 441
Nunatanmiun, intercourse of with the

Point Barrow Eskimo - ------44+45, 48
Nuwik, Alaska, location of ___._.______ 26
PONT AL OM Oheccnd. === ook a= oe es 43
GesCriptiomote---<--cs-sse— sesscee= 9

O.

Oars for Eskimo umiak -
lOfticeiwork cn -s rene - = saence~ anoceanasas
ONTO RW ODO see eee ss oe one seco
Oldmixon, Geo. Scott, surgeon of Point

Barrow expedition. --_.-__._.-=-=.--. 19

Ooglaamie, Alaska, name used by mis-
1 Se er ee See See Se Beene eee 26
Ornaments of the Eskimo, tattooing -- 138-140
PMU ee soo ee 140
BALTING Soe aes cane ean eee een ee anes, 142-143
VaDPALSE Aen a esse ener an aceca he wcsa 84 14D
neckInces:: -=_- 422-3... eee 148
praceletisia- ea- sk a—n<5205 eee ee he Sons 148-149
NAPen rin ese ia. ee ee ne 149
J enet: 6 | Ee ee ee ee 149
Orthography of Eskimo words 20

Owen, L. C., cited on Eskimo whale
BSH ORY Ee seen ene ae en 276

ee

Paddles for Eskimo kaiaks_--__---.___- 331-335
Painting in Apache ceremonies__-_-_--- 583
Painting of face by Eskimo_-_-___.._---- 140
Painting of the Eskimo_.__-___- -.-- 390-392

Pancakes, superstitions concerning -541, 542, 543

Pantaloons of Eskimo-__-_...-.....------ 126-129
Parkman, Francis, cited on Indian
medicine-men ---------------- 455, 459, 475
Parturition, use of cords and knots in_ 570-572
Parry, Wm. Edward, works consulted- 24
cited on Eskimo diet___*_._..._._-.. 61
description of Eskimo lamp----__-- 106
cited on Eskimo frocks_-___--..----- 115
cited on Eskimo knives --_..------- 157, 160
cited on Eskimo saws --__---------- 174
cited on Eskimo kaiaks -__-_------- 333
account of Eskimo music by------- 389
quoted on treatment of Eskimo
ROUGE oe 38 52 See Seca e Se 413, 414
cited on character of Eskimo
Tico ae) Res ee Re eran 420
quoted on Eskimo burials____------ 426
cited on Eskimo amulets_-__-..---.- 436, 440
Pastimes of the Eskimo--_-_-_- x 364
Payment of Indian medicine-men__-___- _ 467-468
Pennant, Thomas, quoted on magic-
GTO! Sees Sere te Sse eae S 569, 578
Perrot, Nicolas, quoted on magic
powder of Indians ---------_---- 5i4
Petitot, E. F. J., works of, on the
PRLSISUEN) O epee pee es eae 24
nomenclatureof the Eskimo people_46-48, 51
description of Eskimo house by ---- V7
description of Eskimo lamps by --- 106

Page.
Petitot, E. F. J., description of Eskimo
elotinin gipy sess = oe ae 120, 123, 129, 138
cited on Eskimo mode of wearing
BG nT ee nec rea ce nea = see Oa
cited on Eskimo labrets __ 143
cited on Eskimo sledge shoes ______ 353
description of method of carrying
Eskimoinfants by -..__-...-...- 416
quoted on Eskimo amulets_________ 440
Pettit, Lieut., cited on Indian medi-
CING-M Ones see =e ee eee 73
Petroff, Ivan, work consulted __________ 24

cited on Eskimo wolf-killer

cited on Eskimo burials ____ 427
cited on Eskimo ‘‘chiefs”’ 429
Photographing ‘‘delegatio
iam she == en see ee eee: xli-xlii
Phylacteries of the Apache _ - 591-592
Physical characteristics of Point Bar-
ROWAN OT eterno pees 33-39
Piecart, Bernard, cited on Indian medi-

Clne-mien ess era aoe ce 457,512
cited on Indian necklaces __________ 488
cited on Indian drinking tubes____. 495
cited on Indian labrets -___.________ 498
cited on sacred powders of Hindus. 516
cited on. reeds among the Ro-

EEO eee 528
quoted on hair powder _____________ 535
quoted on cords_____.__- 556-

597, 558, 559, 561, 563, 564, 576

cited on Arab divination ----__.___- 584
Pickers for pipes, used by Point Bar-

TOW HS8kimo’ .-22=- 22s eee 67

Picks and pickaxes of the Eskimo_____ 302-

. ° 304, 307-308

Pictography of the Ojibwa ____._______- xxxii

Pilling, James C., work of ____- XXXVii-xxxviii
Pimentel, Francisco, quoted on Indian

medicine-men 222-22" 2-2-5 Ben = 593

Pipe, extemporized, by an Eskimo___. 68
Pipes, description of, used by Point

Barrow Eskimo_--_._________.66-68, 70-71
Eskimo terms for 70

Alaska .. 2222202 soe sts esse sae cckee 59-60
Pliny, Caius, cited on Roman supersti-

tions _486, 487, 568, 570, 572, 574, 575, 578, 579
Point Barrow, Alaska, topography of

TORIOMOLW. coparanpcaceen coe ee ene 27-29
Plover, the visit of the, to Point Bar-
row, Alaska ---- 52
Pollen, use of by Israelites and Egyp-
THAN ce 5> oss ES ea ee 517-518
use of among Hindus and Romans- 532
Polo, Marco, cited on cords worn by
Brahmans iene eee eee 563
Polygamy among the Eskimo-________- 411
Population of Point Barrow Eskimo -- 43
Porter, J. Hampden, cited on ceremo-
nial scratching among Indians- 492
Pots of the Eskimo, description of _____ 90-93
Pouches, tobacco, description of, used
by Point Barrow Eskimo-_-._-.. 68-69
Powder, sacred, use of, by various peo-
DLGSses Sencs enero ate ee een soe nen DLOsole,

614 INDEX.
Page. Page.
Powder of grass and straw used as Richardson, Sir John, citea on Indian
£000 2 eee eee ee oe 519-520 medicine-women =< ==." -s22 22 == 469
sacred, general use of, among In- Rink, Henrik Johan, acknowledgments
dian! a. 5 Fee = eee . 528-529 tOLS2 525255 see 53 ee 20
hair, use by Indians- _... 535-536 works consulted 2 2A, 25
Powell, J. W., work of -.---.-------X xvii, XXxv | description of Eskimo ktidyigi -___- 80
Prehistoric foods used in covenant ---_ 540-541 description of Eskimo snow houses
sacrificed by Romans_-_------------- 545 DY -ac Seco eee ae eae ee ee ees 81
Property rights among the Eskimo _-_ 428-430 cited on Eskimo whale-fishing -___- 274
Prostitution among the Eskimo -..-... 419-420 cited on Eskimo fishing ------------ 287
Psychical characteristics of the Point | cited on Eskimo kaiaks------------ 332
Barrow Eskimo....-.----------- 40-42 | quoted on property customs of the
Puplicatlons}=-- ses a--s_ceene -XXiv-XXV | MISkimo!-te225 5 eae eee 428, 429
Purchas, Samuel, quoted! on ‘Indian | cited on Eskimo demonology ------ 431, 432
‘Smrad-heads))? 22 oe aaa n= =a 476 | cited on Eskimo food superstitions 434
, | quoted on Eskimo amulets_-_---- 435, 436, 437
Q. | Rockhill, W. W., cited on flour-throw-
Quipuof the Peruvians---_------ 553 | ing) by Lihetanss--2-6. sseees eee 516
Quiver rods of the Eskimo - - 2008) SROSAny ORI Pn) Ofaeers= eee eee 5d4
Quivers of the Eskimo____-_------------ 207-209 used as a mnemonic cord_._____-_-- 561
Ross, John, works consulted -_-_____-.- 25
Be cited on Eskimo diet_-........-.---- 62
Rae, John, work consulted_--_---------- 24 Ruins of Eskimo houses near Point
cited on Eskimo fire-making ------ 290 Barrow, =... 2 -ss22ss5- eee 79
Rainfall at Point Barrow, Alaska_-_--- 31 s.
Rain-frocks of Eskimo--------.----- 122 | ;
Rain-making one of the powers as- Sage, seeds and roots of, used in tzoalli_ 526-527
eribed to Indian medicine-men_ 455-456 | Sahagun cited on Aztec customs -____- 464, 486,
Rat Indians of Alaska_------------.----- 49-50 | 495, 518, 528, 528, 538, 559, 521
Rattles for decoying seal__-_------ - 254 | Sail of Eskimo umiak 338
Rau, Charles, cited on Eskimo ienives _ 164,165 | Salutation among the Eskimo -_______- 422
cited on Eskimo bird darts --___---- 214 | Salverte, Eusebe, cited on Indian med-
Ray, P. H.,commander of Fort Barrow | icine wens ae ee 458, 464
OX peditlone=sss=====————e= == eaae 19 cited on Roman covenant bread---- 540
works consulted _-----.-.------------ 24 | citediomamulletg sees ee nee 578
description of pits for trapping rein- Sashes, medicine, of the Apache -__--.- 593
Gepre ee nee 268 | Saws of the Eskimo-.._.-..-.--- ------- 174-175
description of Eskimo house, ki’- Scaffolds, for storage of property, by
YAR ae ee nee eee ee 80 Point Barrow Eskimo ---------- 75-76
cited on Eskimo diet __--..-...------ 64 | Scalp shirts in Indian ‘‘medicine”’ ____ 476
cited on Eskimo property marks _- 428 | Schoolcraft, Henry R., on Ojibwa pic-
quoted on Eskimo ghosts_- 432 TORT aD hype ee eee xxxii
cited on Eskimo tabu -_--- 434 | Schultze, Fritz, cited on Indian medi-
description of Eskimo dance _ 27. cine-men and women __________- 470, 471
Reamers, flint bladed, of Eskimo 181-182 | Schwatka, Frederick, works consulted 25
Rebellion of the Pueblos--_--------.---- 555 cited on Eskimo wolf-killer ______-- 259
Reeds or rushes, superstitious uses of. 527-528 cited on Eskimo sledge-shoes 354
Reindeer, Eskimo method of hunting.- 264-268 | Schweinfurth, Georg A., cited on Afri-
Religion of the Eskimo. difficulty of can customs ---------.----------+ 488,560
gaining information concern- | Scoops, ice, of the Eskimo-__-___-______- 308-309
1 Bee an ane eee es pe 430 | Scores, hunting, of the Eskimo-_-. .___- 361-364
role of the wizards or shamans in-- 430-431 | Scoresby, Capt. William, work con-
tuana, or demons, of-_.-_-----.------ 421-434 sulted) 2s.-2522¢ so 22 52-5 See eee 25
manner of driving away evil spirits 432-433 | cited on Eskimo arrows -_--__------ 207
seal and walrus heads, supersti- cited on Eskimo burials -----.._---- 426
tions concerning ---------------o 434 | Scott, Walter, cited on lycanthrophy -- 459
sacrifices to supernatural beings -- 433 quoted on lightning-riven wood ___- 587
Remedies of the Indian medicine-men_ 471-474 | Scrapers for dressing skins ---_--._.._. 294-800
Resources, natural, of the Point Bar- Scratchers for decoying seal __--___---- 253-254
row region, Alaska__-.-.-.--.--- 55-61 | Scratch stick, employment of, among
Retrieving harpoon of the Eskimo- ___- 230-231 uncivilized peoples ---_..---..--- 490-493
Reynolds, Henry L., work of -_--------- XXXViii not wsed Loricom pS !eesse2=-=- seen 491
Rhombus, or bull-roarer, use of, among origin of 22.222 -- sesh eee 492
Tn ad aS ee eee ee eine 476-479 | Seal darts of the Eskimo-_____--___---.., 214-218
Richardson, Sir John, works consulted_ 24 | Seals, nets for catching ---- eS 2d1
cited on Eskimo burials -..........- 426 Calls for/idecoying 2e=- 2-5. -=- none 253-254

INDEX. 615

Page. | Page.

Seals, rattles for decoying -_____.____.. 254 | Sinker for Eskimo fish line ____________ 282
indicators used in catching _____._. 254-255 | Skinornamentation by Eskimo, tattoo-

stool used in catching ____----.____- 255 I armen eee aes Jon een nee 138-140

drags for hauling --____.. ........2- 256-259 paimuin ge <=, Se one ye 140

methods of hunting _ 268-272 | Skin-working, Eskimo implements for 294-301

Eskimo superstition concer ning
Rio heer en ee soe 434
Sewing, Eskimo implements for_______ 317-323
Shamans, Eskimo. ___...__._..__. ....422, 423, 431
Shirts ofscalps in Indian “‘medicine” 476
Shirts, medicine, of the Apache ________ 593
Shoes'of Eskimo ._----.-..2...../.....-. 129-135
Shovels, snow, of the Eskimo 305
Sidaru, Eskimo village of, Alaska_____- 44
Simon, Padre, quoted on Indian idola-
is Vereen oe eam EE mee miaeminocaau so 594
Simpson, John, work consulted _____- 25
visit to Point Barrow. __.____.._-..- 52,53
descriptions of Eskimo houses by~ 7
descriptions of Eskimo villages ___- 79

cited on ownership of Eskimo dwell-

ie tS ak eee ee eee ee eo pe 78
description of Eskimo tents__-
description of Eskimoof Point Bar-

row 33, 36, 38, 39

‘*burglar-alarm ”

Seribedspysee-- 3 ss) 52a e= 41
cited on Eskimo commerce -______- 48
cited on Eskimo language______.__- 53
cited on use of tobacco among Es-

RANI O he saan setcuee saan soecccS=t~ 65
description of Eskimo tents -------- 84

description of Eskimo clothing -___110, 125,
128, 1380, 138

cited on Eskimo earrings 142
cited on Eskimolabrets -----.----__ 143, 146
cited on Eskimo knives ______.____. 157, 161
cited on Eskimo arrows -- --------- 201
cited on Eskimo seal nets_________- 252
cited on Eskimo whale fishery ____- 274
cited on fire-making by Eskimo___- 289
cited on Eskimo needle cases ______ 322
cited on Eskimo kaiaks-_--__________ 328

cited on Eskimo snowshoes -------- 351,352

cited on Eskimo festivals -_--_____- 376
description of Eskimo marriage
customs----------------__.___--_. 410, 413
cited on Eskimo divorce ___ 412,413 |
description of condition of Eskimo |
LOTUS Fe ee ie a a ae 414 |
cited on infanticide among Eskimo 417
cited on Eskimo children-___________ 419
quoted on conduct of Eskimo
WOT ONS ne ners ne oso ee 420
cited on Eskimo ‘‘chiefs **__________ 429
cited on Eskimo demonology _____- 431, 433
cited on use of magic powder by
MS GUES COS ne a eee 509
Simpson, ‘Thomas, work consulted ____ 2
visit of, to Point Barrow -____._-__- 52

cited on use of tobacco by Eskimo-_ 7

cited on Eskimo fishing -__-_______- 285
description of fire-making by Eski-

vito) Fos & 289
cited on Eskimo umiak oars-__- 339
quoted on Eskimo salutation _____- 422

Skulls of seals and walrus, Eskimo su-

perstitions concerning. _________ 434
Sledges of the Eskimo________._..______ 353-357
Slungshot used as Eskimo weapon ___. 191
Smith, E. E., cited on Eskimo whale

ASHI see es ee eee eee 276
Smith, John, cited on sacred meal of

In dian s)escec ee ene eee be b12
Smoking, methods and habits of,

among Point Barrow Eskimo.. 69-72

Smyth, Brough, cited on Australian
aboriginal customs __485, 535, 537, 540, 574
Snake-killing, prohibition of, by Indian

medicine-men _______ —— 470
Snowfall at Point Barrow, ‘Alaska zs 31
Snow house of Eskimo, description

OL Ss tei Ai ay oe er 81-83

fireplace of __ 81
plan of____- 82
windows of 82
used as storehouses 83
used as workshops -___________.2__- 83
tools used in making------ eee 83
Snowshoes of the Eskimo______________ 344-352

Social surroundings of the Point Bar-
TOW. MSM Oo ee seen ae 43-55

Song of the Eskimo---.-_--._____________- 389
Soulicals6s Seeeeeecsee ee ene eee 546
Spears of the Eskimo, for fishing._____ 286-287

Speke, John H., cited on African cus-
toms -____.______.__.-_488, 494, 514, 515, 560
Spencer, Charles, cited on Indian medi-
CING-MON Eee eee eee
Spencer, Herbert, cited on Indian med-
~ cine-men _-455, 457, 458, 459, 461, 467, 468, 472

458

cited on ancient German priests___ 463
cited on Indian customs____________ 492
Spirit dance of the Apache______ 582-584, 585-586
Spoons'of Hskimoe 2-2. _ 2-22 ee 104"
Sports of Eskimo children 383-385
Staff, use of by the Tir EEN ees 353
Stanley, Henry M., quoted on African
amulets: 226-22) 2505 5355-528) 5.8 48D, 560)
cited on African customs___________ 515, 575
Stephen; A. M., work of -_-_-_--.-: Xxxii
Stevenson, James, work of_________xxvii-xxix
Stockings of Eskimo 129
Stolen property, power to recover
claimed by Indian medicine-

TNO Danone eee ee ee 461
Stool used by Eskimo in catching seal_ 255
Strutt, Joseph, quoted on magic cakes_ 5AT
Stuart, King James, quoted on magic

[KMLO LS Joeea etree dea rape ae 569
Subsistence, means of, of the Point Bar-

TOWNS RM 0) seca eee OL bo
Surgery, Eskimo eer 423
Sutherland, P. C., work consulted_____ 25

cited on Eskimo pathology-______-- 40
Sweat bath, anecessary part of Indian
Medicine =— oo .8 oe eee esa ee eee 455

616

Tv

Tabu among the Eskimo, concerning awoman

in childbirth __-
on the occasion of a death _ aoe
of certain foods to certain persons -
Talismans of the Apache --.-------------
Tanner, John, cited on Indian sacks of
MM an SKIN: ose sone e an eee
cited on scratching by Indians-__--
cited on Indian powders. -----------
cited on Indian headdress -----
Tapéopment, habitat of
Tasyukpun, Great Lake, Alaska, de-
seription of _-
Tattooing by Eskimo
Tempering metals, Eskimo knowledge

Tents of the Eskimo, direction of front
used as summer dwellings ----------
construction of
used for women during confinement
used for sewing rooms--_-----------

Theal, Geo. M., quoted on rhombus

among Kaffirs - eee see

Thimble-boxes of the Eskimo. eo

322-323,

Thimbles of the Eskimo______- _ 318-319
Thomas, Cyrus, work of ----Xxv-xxvVii, Xxxvili

Thongs, manufacture of by the Eskimo
Thread, Eskimo-
Throwing-boards for Eskimo seal-darts
Tobacco, use of, by the Point Barrow

301-302
317-818
217-218

Eskimo 65-72
Eskimo terms for___-------- 71
introduction of among the Eskimo. 71-72

Toilet articles of the Eskimo-__ _. 149-150

Tool-bags of the Eskimo_____- _. 187-190

Tool-boxes of the Eskimo--_-_----------- 185-187

Tools of the Eskimo, knives_--.--..---- 150-165
AO ZOS sane ee eet 165-172
Chisels 2 Soe 28 ae eee ae Lea:
whalebone shaves _----- ------- 173-174
SAWS ee ee ene ee 174-175
drills 175-182, 189

> (oven ohn U TE eae eee ace 176-182
TOAMCLS == ee eae -- 181-182
WLS sea . 181-182
hammers --_--------. 182
fies == ase 182
whetstones -.---.__-- = 185
for excavating 302-304
picks and pickaxes---.-------802-304, 307-308
TT A htO CS Soe a= se eee eee 302-304
fOr DULG Pee ne ne 302-304
for snow and ice working ---------- 304-809
(See also Utensils.)

Torquemada, Juan de, quotedon Aztec

customs -.....--...--.-.--522, 523, 524, 525
cited on Indian headdresses -__-_--- 582

Toys of Eskimo children, whirligigs -_ 376-377
teetotums:----- ~~~ 378
buzzes -_ 378
whizzing-sticks - 379
pebble-snappers -.-..----. --...--.-- 379
COU S ee setae eee nen itgaene 380-381
kaiak paddler _..._--..------- --- 381-383
imitation implements -----~-_------- 383

INDEX.
|
Page Transportation, means of, by the Es-
| 1M saad cas Sates es see eee
415 | raps of the Eskimo____--------
423-424 | Traveling, Eskimo means of -_-
433-434 | Trays used by Eskimo.----.-_----------
587-590 | tuana, or demons of the Eskimo -___-.
Tubs of the Eskimo. --------------------
484 | Tule or flag, roots used as food_ is
490 | Tunes of the Eskimo_____-----
513 | Tupék. (See Tents of the Eskimo.)
555,556 | Turner, Lucien M., acknowledgments —
4647 £0. bee ee AS ee eee
description of Eskimo lamps-_------
29-30 cited on Eskimo records ------------
138-140 cited on Eskimo seal darts -_-_-----
cited on Eskimo seal nets -.-------
182-183 cited on Eskimo kaiaks_----. ------
79 cited on Eskimo umiaks -_--------
83 cited on Eskimo ornament _- =
84 | pwisters for making Eskimo bows -__-
86 | Tylor, E. B., cited on Indian medicine-
86 | MON =: 2. sete eae
te | cited on bull-roarer.
79

Tzi-daltai of the Apaches_-
Tzoalli, cakes of, used in Indian sacri-
fi COS Hae ae ee es

idols formed of

Umiaks of the Eskimo
Umialiks, Eskimo
Unleavened bread-_-.--..--------
Utensils, household, of the Eskimo,
canteens

W allOtS asso ee eee en eae
DUCKCtS | ae nee ee eae
HDS }a2=2 =e s== eee
mneat bowls
Obs see se eee eee
bone crushers -_-------_--=-

drinking vessels ------
Utkiavwin, Alaska, location of
signification of name
population of-.-------------- --------
description of

Vaca, Cabeza de, cited on MeXican cus-
NGOS ne ee eae eer

cited on Floridian medicine-men __
cited on clay-eating by Indians ----
quoted on galenaamong the Indians
Vetancurt, Augustin de, quoted on Az-
tee customs

cited on Apache commerce
Villages, arrangement of Eskimo
Villagra, quoted on throwing meal by
Indians
Vining, Edward P., cited on mnemonic
knots of Japanese _--- -----------

w

Wallets of the Eskimo
Walrus, Eskimo method of hunting---
Weapons of the Eskimo, hand-club----

Page.

328-360

99-101
431-434

86-88
520-521

_ 388-389

20

108

177

214

252

332

343

390
292-294

458
478
587

523-828
525-526

335-344
429-430
543-544

86

85
86-88
86-88
89
90-93
93-99
93-99
99-101
101-105
26

26

43

79

455
470, 472
538
548

522
530
79
510
562
86

272
191

INDEX. 617
ne DES Page. Page.
Weapons of the Eskimo, slung-shot -_- AGi||\ Widows, JESIIMO. 4. cn sencauceacsee= 414
TROVE) GEA ETE ge ae Wife-beating among the Eskimo.._._--. 414
firearms Wigs, use of by Indian medicine-men__ 474-475
Winstanley, W., cited on cords worn
by Aibyssinians-—.-<2-. --=2-2=.-> 560
Wisconsin: workin 2 {223420 2- = 7 es xxvi
bear arrows --_- Wizards, Eskimo ----------- -- 430-431
bow cases and quivers Wolf, Eskimo methods of killing______ 259.
Eskimo method of hunting --_____- 263-264
Women, Eskimo, condition and treat-
SYP GTK Ys OSes et eee er 413-414
prostitution among----.------------ 419
Words, foreign, introduced among the
Point Barrow Eskimo---------- 55
Wounds by wild beasts a qualification
for Indian priesthood ---------- 457-458
Whale, Eskimo lance for hunting------
Whalebone shaves of the Eskimo______ 173-174 x
Whaling guns of the Eskimo-_-_-_-- us 195
Wheat, origin of --._--.------- 542 | Ximenez, Francisco, cited on myths of .
-Whetstones of the Eskimo -. --.--_----- ~ 183-185 Guatemala 252-62 2. 4 Sos 528
Whipple, A. W., cited on Indian com- quoted on divination by Guate-
tah ee es See 530 migian indians|=-=---------—----- 533
Whitney, W. Norton, cited on Japanese quoted on chalchihuitl among the
COTES eh Ce hi eo ee ae 531 Mexicans ------ Sa eee 590

‘ , aw D
ea J
ios 7.

TY
01453 1917

iA

3 908

8