No. 73183 [524], Figs. 243a, 243b (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, 4¾ inches long exclusive of the tang, and 1½ 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 each end. The tip is cleft to receive the tang of the head, and shouldered to keep the whipping 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 1½ 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 lances had stone heads, but were otherwise of the same shape. Fig. 244 represents the head and 6 inches of the shaft of one of these (No. 89900 [1157] from Nuwŭk). The shaft is new and rather carelessly made of a rough, knotty piece of spruce, and is 5 feet 5¾ inches long. The head is of black flint and 2 inches long, exclusive of the tang, and the tip of the shaft is whipped with a narrow strip of light-colored whalebone, the end of which is secured by passing it through a slit in the side of the shaft and wedging it into a crack on the opposite side. This is an old head newly mounted for the market, and the head is wedged in with a bit of blue flannel.
No. 89897 [1324], Fig. 245, from Utkiavwĭñ, on the other hand, is an old shaft 5 feet 7½ inches long, fitted with a new head, which is very broad, and shaped like the head of a bear lance. It is of variegated jasper, brown and gray, and has a piece of white sealskin lapped over the cleft of the shaft at each side of the tang so that the edges of the two pieces almost meet in the middle. They are secured by a spaced whipping of sinew braid. This shaft, which is painted red, evidently had a broad head formerly, as it is expanded at the tip. No. 89896 [1324] is the mate to this, evidently 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 appears to be wholly old, except the whipping of sinew braid. The shaft is of spruce, 5 feet 4¾ inches long, and painted red with ocher. We also collected three stone heads for such lances. Fig. 246, No. 38711 [148], from Utkiavwĭñ, 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 saw were fastened in this way. It is more likely that it was perforated for attaching it to the belt as an amulet. We were told that this lance head was brought from the west. A large slate lance head found by Nordenskiöld341 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.
The only throwing weapon which these people use is a small bolas, designed for catching birds on the wing. This consists of six or seven small 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 preceding 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 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, so as to cover considerable space, like a charge of shot, and if they are stopped by striking a duck, the strings immediately wrap around him and hamper his flight so that he comes to the ground. The natives said that the balls flew with sufficient force to stun a duck or break his wing, but we never happened 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 universally employed, especially by those who have no guns, and a good 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 (kelauĭtau´tĭn), 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 inch in diameter (except one which is flattened, 2 inches long and 1.3 wide; they are usually all of the same shape). Through the larger end is drilled a small hole, the ends of which are joined by a shallow groove running over the end, into which the ends of the strings are fastened by three half-hitches each. There is one string of sinew braid to each set of two balls, doubled in the middle so that all six parts are equal and about 28 inches long. They are fastened to the feather handle as follows: Nine wing feathers of the eider duck are laid side by side, butt to point, and doubled in the middle so that the quills and vanes stand up on all sides. The middle of each 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.
Fig. 248.—Bird bolas, ready for use.
These weapons are generally very much like the specimen described, but vary somewhat in the shape and material of the balls, which are sometimes simply ovoid or spherical, and often made of single teeth of the walrus, instead of tusk ivory. 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 Utkiavwĭñ 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 collections 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.342 They were first noticed by Beechey at Kotzebue Sound in 1826.343 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 Nordenskiöld,344 and the Krause Brothers.345
I have already spoken of the floats (apotû´kpûñ) 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 head, of a male rough seal (Phoca fœtida), with the hair out. The carcass was carefully removed without making any incision except round the neck and a few inches down the throat, and skinned to the very toes, leaving the claws on. All natural or accidental apertures are carefully sewed up, except the genital opening, into which is inserted a ring of ivory, which serves as a mouthpiece for inflating the skin and is corked with a plug of wood. The cut in the throat is carefully sewed up, and the neck puckered together, and wrapped with seal thong into a slender shank about 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.
Fig. 249.—Seal skin float.
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.346 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.
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 flippers 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 (kă´gotĭñ) (No. 56580 [227]). They are of white walrus ivory. In the middle of each belly is excavated 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 (Balæna mysticetus), 4½ inches long, and the other evidently intended for a “California 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 a similar pair, which are both “bowheads” nearly 5 inches long. Both have cylindrical plugs of ivory inserted for eyes, and are made of a piece of ivory so old that the surface is a light chocolate color. The name, kăgotĭñ, means literally “a pair of toggles.”
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.
Fig. 250.—Flipper toggles.
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, 9½ inches long. The ends of the flukes are broken short off, and show traces of having been mended with wooden pegs or dowels. The right eye is indicated by a simple incision, but a tiny bit of crystal is inlaid for the left. Two little bits of crystal are also inlaid in the middle of the back. The belly is flat and excavated into a deep triangular cavity, with its base just forward of the angle of the mouth and the apex at the “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 knot in the end of each string. They then pass through three corresponding 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.
Fig. 251.—Boxes for harpoon heads.
We collected seven such whale-harpoon boxes, usually about 9 to 9¾ inches long. Nearly all have bits of crystal, amber, or pyrite, inlaid for the eyes and in the middle of the back, and the cover is generally rigged in the way described. No. 56502 [198], from Utkiavwĭñ, is a 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 Nuwŭk) represents a small box 4⅓ inches long, probably older than the others, and the only one not carved into the shape of a whale. It is 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. 251c, from Nuwŭk, 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 Utkiavwĭñ, 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 middle of the cover and out at a hole on the left side, about one-fourth inch from the cavity. The box is filled with raveled rope-yarns. Fig. 251e (No. 89730 [981], from Utkiavwĭñ) 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 Nuwŭk), 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.
The smaller seals are captured in large-meshed nets of rawhide. We brought home one of these, No. 56756 [109], Figs 252a-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.
Fig. 252.—Seal net.
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 large enough to permit a seal to be drawn up through it. A line with a plummet on the end is let down through one of the small holes, and is hooked through the middle hole, with a long slender pole of willow, often made of several pieces spliced together, with a small wooden hook on the 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´nɐ) alone. The net was used in seal catching in Dr. Simpson’s time, though he makes but a casual reference to it,347 and Beechey found seal nets at Kotzebue Sound in 1826.348 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 Nordenskiöld speaks of seal nets “set in summer among the ground ices along the shore,”349 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,”350 as none of his party ever witnessed the seal fishery.351 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.352 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:
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. 253a, is the type. It is 11½ 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 Utkiavwĭñ is 9½ inches long and has four prongs. The haft is of spruce, and instead of an ivory hook there is a round-headed stud of the same material, which is driven wholly through the wood, having the point cut off flush with the upper surface. 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 [1312] from Utkiavwĭñ, has the haft notched on each side, and has an irregular stud of bone for securing the lashing.
Fig. 253.—Scratchers for decoying seals.
No. 89468 [1354], Fig. 253c, from Utkiavwĭñ, 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. The use of this implement, as shown by Mr. Nelson’s collection, extends or extended from Point Barrow to Norton Sound. He collected specimens from St. Lawrence Island and Cape Wankarem in Siberia. Nordenskiöld speaks of the use of this implement at Pitlekaj and figures a specimen.353 The other instrument appears to be less common. I have called it a seal rattle.
We obtained only two specimens, No. 56533 [409], which seem to be a pair. Fig. 254 is one of these. It is 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 something was said about “nĕtyĭ” 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 one, he told me, in the British Museum from Bering Strait. The National Museum contains several specimens collected 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 function 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.
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 notice 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 seen in use. We collected two specimens, of which No. 56507 [104], Fig. 255a, will serve as the type. It is of walrus ivory, 14½ inches long and 0.3 in diameter, with a small lanyard of sinew. The curved cross piece of ivory, 1⅓ 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 Nuwŭk) is a similar indicator, 13½ 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 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” (ĭgugwau) in feathering arrows. Such implements are mentioned in most popular accounts of the Eskimo of the east, and Capt. Parry describes it from personal observation at Iglulik.354 I have been unable to find any mention of its use in western America, and have seen no specimens in the National Museum.
Fig. 255.—Seal indicators.
When a native is watching a seal-hole he frequently has to stand for hours motionless on the ice. His feet would become exceedingly cold, in spite of the excellence 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 accommodate 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. 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.
Fig. 256.—Sealing stool.
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.
We brought home two specimens of this common object (nĭgawaúotĭn). No. 89887 [1411], Fig. 250, will serve as the type. The top is of spruce, 8¾ inches long and 10¾ 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 joining the three legs, each of which stands in the middle of a slight prominence. The object of cutting away the wood in this way is to make the stool lighter, leaving it thick only at the points where the pressure comes. The large round hole in the middle, near the front, is for convenience in picking it up and hanging it on the cache frame, where it is generally kept. The three legs are set into holes at each corner, spreading out so as to stand on a base larger than the top of the stool. Where they fit into the holes they are 0.7 inch in diameter, tapered slightly to fit the hole, and then tapering down to a diameter of one-third inch at the tip. On the under side of the top they are braced with a lashing of stout seal thong. A split on the right-hand edge of the top has been mended, as usual, with a stitch of whalebone. This stool is quite old and has been actually used.
No. 89888 [1412], from the same village, is new and a little larger, but differs from the type only in having a triangular instead of a round hole in the top and no lashing. Those of our party who 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 Museum 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 mention 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 (Pl. 9) as oval, with very short legs.355
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 collected eight of these drag lines, from which I have selected No. 56624 [44], Fig. 257a, as the type.
Fig. 257.—Seal drags and handles.
This consists of a stout thong of rawhide (the skin of the bearded seal) 0.3 inch wide and 37 inches long, and doubled in a bight so that one end is about 2½ inches the longer. These ends are fastened into a handle of walrus ivory, consisting of three pieces, namely: a pair of 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 1¼ 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 Utkiavwĭñ, 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. 257b is the upper part of a line (No. 56622 [36], from Utkiavwĭñ), with a similar tube 1¾ inches long, and a handle carved from a single piece into a pair of mittens like the others.
No. 56625 [81], also from Utkiavwĭñ, is almost exactly similar to the one first described, but has the seal belly up. Fig. 257c (No. 89470 [1337], from the same village) has a seal 2.3 inches long for the handle, and No. 56626 [212], from Utkiavwĭñ, is like it. No. 89469a, [755a] Fig. 257d, from Utkiavwĭñ, 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 perforated 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 1½ inches to 2 inches long. They are generally carved with considerable skill, and 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 specimens from as far south as Cape Darby.
Before the introduction of the steel traps, which they now obtain by trade, these people used a peculiar contrivance for catching the wolf. This consists of a stout rod of whalebone 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,356 wrapped in blubber (whale’s blubber was used, according to our informant, Nĭkawáalu), 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 animal’s death. Nikawáalu says that a wolf would not go far after swallowing one of these blubber balls.
Fig. 258.—Whalebone wolf-killers.
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. 258b, from Utkiavwĭñ, which are old and show the marks of having been doubled up. It is 12½ 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 partially frozen blubber, as is stated by Schwatka.357 Two of the sets are new, but made like the others.
This contrivance is also used by the Eskimo of Hudson Bay358 and at Norton Sound, where, according to Petroff,359 the rods are 2 feet long and wrapped in seal blubber. The name ĭsĭ´bru appears to be the same as the Greenlandic (isavssok), found only in the diminutive isavssoraĸ, a provincial name for the somewhat similar sharp-pointed stick baited with blubber and used for catching gulls. The diminutive form of this word in Greenlandic may indicate that their ancestors once used the large wolf-killer, when they lived where wolves were found. The definition of uju´kuaĸ, the ordinary word for the gull-catcher (see below)—in the Grønlandske Ordbog—is the only evidence we have of the use of this contrivance in Greenland. This is one of the several cases in which we only learn of the occurrence of customs, etc., noted at Point Barrow, in Greenland, by finding the name of the thing in question defined in the dictionary.
Foxes are caught in the winter by deadfalls or steel traps (nänori´a), set generally along the beach, where the foxes are wandering 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.360 In regard to the use of this contrivance in Greenland, see above under “wolf-killers.”
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 whaleboats among the ice. They are simply a wooden cover for the 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 everywhere361 except in Siberia, where they use a simple shade for the eyes.362
We brought home four pairs of these goggles (í´dyĭgûñ), 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.
Fig. 259.—Wooden snow goggles.
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 Isû´tkwa, where our station stood, buried at a depth of 27 feet in undisturbed frozen ground, and were uncovered in digging the shaft sunk by Lieut. Ray for obtaining earth temperatures.363 The layer in which they were found was evidently an old sea beach, consisting of sand and gravel mixed 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 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 hollowed out.