Fig. 312 (No. 89836 [1203] from Utkiavwĭñ) is a similar hook with a short handle, 34 inches long, for use on land. The crook is made by bending the handle. The prong, of walrus ivory as before, is 7 inches long, and held on by two stout lashings of whalebone, which pass round the end of the handle instead of through it. The prong and tip of the handle are very greasy.
No. 89837 [1353], from the same village, is a similar hook rather rudely made. The crook is bent only at an angle of about 45°, and there is somewhat of a twist to the whole handle. The prong, which is of antler, is 7¾ inches long and shouldered 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.
Fig. 313 (No. 89461 [1279] from Utkiavwĭñ) represents 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.
We had no opportunity of seeing the process of twisting the sinew twine, which is sometimes used in place of the braid so often mentioned but more generally when an extra strong thread is desired, as in sewing on boot soles. Fig. 314 (No. 89431 [1332] from Utkiavwĭñ) is a little shuttle of walrus ivory, 3 inches long and 1⅓ 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 ¼ inch apart, while those of the short ones nearly meet. There is a small round hole in one side of the body. This specimen was made for sale. As well as I could understand the seller, the ends of several strands of fine sinew were fastened into the hole in the shuttle and twisted by twisting it with one hand, while the other end was held perhaps by the other hand. The part twisted was then wound on the 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 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—kíbu´tûk 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 getting the hard-laid sinew cord used on the bows.”
Fig. 315.—Netting needle.
The sinew twine used at Point Barrow is generally braided, almost always in a three-ply braid, usually about the size of stout packthread, such as is found on many Eskimo implements from all localities represented 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 braiding with four strands in distinction from braiding with three (pidrá).
Two implements are used as usual in netting, a needle or long flat shuttle for carrying the twine (Fig. 315, No. 56570 [101]), and a mesh stick for gauging the length of the mesh. The knot is the universal “fisherman’s knot” or becket hitch made in the usual manner. The method of using the mesh stick, however, is rather peculiar, and somewhat clumsy compared with that used by civilized net-makers, as it serves only to measure the mesh and not also to hold the successive meshes as they are made. It is a long flat piece of bone or antler, shaped like a case knife, with a blade square at heel and point. There is often also a little blunt hook (as in Fig. 316, No. 56581 [1021]) at the point, bending upward or toward the back of the blade. The blade is the part of the stick which measures the mesh, and its length from heel to point is always precisely half the length of the mesh to be made. It is used as follows: The workman, holding the mesh stick by the handle in his left hand, with the blade downward, catches the mesh into which the knot is to be made with the hook, and holds it while the twine is carried down the left side of the blade, round the heel and through the mesh as usual, and drawn 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 handle of the stick, relieve the fingers of the right hand, which goes on to make the knot in the usual manner.418
We collected thirteen needles of different patterns and sizes. No. 56570 [101], Fig. 315, has been selected as the type (ĭ´nmuvwĭñ, mû´kutĭn.) 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 4½. This needle (No. 56574 [24], from Utkiavwĭñ) 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 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].
Fig. 317.—Netting needles.
No. 89427 [1283], from Utkiavwĭñ, is a needle of a slightly different pattern, being rather thick and not narrowed at the middle. It is of reindeer antler, 8.7 inches long and 1 wide. No. 89430 [1286], Fig. 317a, from Utkiavwĭñ, 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. 89428 [1381], Fig. 317b, from Utkiavwĭñ, 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 consequently is not flat, but strongly convex, on one face and correspondingly concave on the other. It is 8.2 inches long and 1½ wide.
Fig. 318.—Netting needle for seal net.
For making the seal nets a very large needle is used. The one in the collection, No. 56581 [102], Fig. 318, from Utkiavwĭñ, is 20½ inches long and only 1½ wide. It is made of two nearly equal pieces of antler, which are nearly flat, and lap over each other about 3¾ inches near the middle. They are strongly fastened together by five whalebone stitches, one at each corner of the splice and one in the middle. The corner stitches run round the edge of the two parts, and through a hole through both parts. The prongs are stout and curved, nearly meeting at the tips. They are about 3 inches long. The lateral distortion appears to be due to warping.
A peculiar netting needle is shown in Fig. 319 (No. 89429 [1333], from Utkiavwĭñ), which is new and rather carelessly made from very coarse walrus ivory. The tips of the prongs, after nearly meeting, diverge again in the form of the letter U. This needle, which is 9½ inches long, was said by the maker to be of the pattern used by the “Kûñmû´d’lĭñ.” 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, terminating at each end in similar shallow U-shaped forks.
Fig. 319.—Netting needle.
The mesh stick (kú´brĭn) 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, 7½ 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. 320.—Mesh sticks.
Fig. 320a (No. 89436 [1284], from Utkiavwĭñ) 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 Utkiavwĭñ, 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 Utkiavwĭñ, Fig. 320b) 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 Utkiavwĭñ) has a blade, with a small hook, of white compact bone, and what would be the handle lashed to one side of a haft of soft wood, which is shouldered to receive it. The haft is 4.3 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 Anderson River to Bristol Bay, as is shown by the Museum collections.
We collected 16 little ivory implements, each, when complete, consisting of the image of a fish about 3½ 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 beginning the third row the first weight would be transferred to the first mesh of this, and so on. Fig. 321a is one of a pair of these nĕpĭtaúra (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.
Fig. 321.—Netting weights.
Fig. 321b (No. 89442 [899] from Nuwŭk) 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 Utkiavwĭñ 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 in a dot, perhaps to represent the gill filaments. It is 4.2 inches long, and hastily made for sale. Fig. 321c (No. 56578 [201] from Utkiavwĭñ) seems to be intended for a polar cod, and has the hole drilled through the root of the tail. The lateral line is marked by a scratch, colored 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 sufficiently good to show what sort of a fish is meant, it is generally a salmon or trout. Only 3 out of the 16 are of anything 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. The shortest is 3.4 inches long, and the longest 4.3, but most of them are almost exactly 4 inches long.
Fig. 322.—Shuttle belonging to set of feather tools.
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 feather belts. I had no opportunity of seeing a belt made, but the work evidently does not require all three of these tools. The little netting needle or shuttle of bone (Fig. 322, No. 89434 [1338]) can not be used in feather weaving, because, as already mentioned, the strips of feather are not fastened together into a continuous cord which could be carried on a shuttle. 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 a rude “frame” for keeping apart the strands of the warp, while the woof of feather is passed through with the fingers. It would be held with this edge up, and the beginning of the belt being fastened to the wall, the warp strands would be stretched over this, as over a violin bridge, each resting in one of the notches. The last tool of the set (Fig. 324, No. 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 6½ inches forms a straight blade 6½ 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 described, pushing this horizontally through them alternately 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.
Fig. 323.—Mesh stick.
For sewing furs and leather they always use thread made by stripping off thin fibers from a piece of dried sinew of the reindeer, as is usual with Eskimo. Cotton or linen thread of civilized manufacture is now often used for sewing the cotton frocks, etc., and sometimes for making an ornamental 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, tĭ´kyǝ) and sew toward them. This appears to be the regular Eskimo method of sewing.419
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 (amĭlyĕrûñ) 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. Nĭkawáalu 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 these needles. This is a case 3½ inches long, made of the butt of a large quill, closed with a plug of walrus 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 glover’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, Nĭkawáalu’s father.
Fig. 326a is a peculiarly large and flat needle (No. 89392 [1195] from Utkiavwĭñ) 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 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 glover’s needle. The longest is 3 inches long and the shortest 1.4 inches, but the commonest length is about 2 or 2½ inches. Similar bone needles are mentioned by various authors.420
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. 326b (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. Lyon421 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.422
The other pattern, of which we brought home nine specimens, is represented by No. 89389 [1191], which belongs with the set of bone needles of the same number. It is a tube, open at both ends, one of which is larger than the other, made by bending round a strip of split walrus hide and sewing the ends together. It is 0.4 inch long and 2.1 in circumference at the larger end. It is worn smooth with handling, and impregnated with grease and dirt and marked with small pits where it has been pressed against the butt of the needle in use.
Four other old thimbles (No. 89393 [1194], from Utkiavwĭñ, are made in the same way, but are a trifle larger. As they show no needle-marks, they were probably used only as finger guards. The remaining four are similar to the above, but newly made, for sale.
A most peculiar thimble, the only one of the kind seen, is shown in Fig. 326a (No. 89392 [1195] from Utkiavwĭñ, belonging with the large bone needle of the same number already described and figured). This is made of a single piece of walrus ivory, browned with age, and the round shallow socket is for the butt of the needle. The ends of the half ring are slightly expanded and notched on the outside to receive a string to complete the ring so that it can be fitted round the finger, with the flange in the same position as the pad of a leather thimble.
Needles are kept in a case (ujyami), consisting of a tube of bone or ivory about 5 or 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, 4½ inches long, and the strap is of seal thong about 11 inches long and 0.3 inch wide. At one end of this is a pear-shaped knob of walrus ivory, which is shouldered off at the small end and worked into a short flattened shank perforated with a large eye, through which the end of the strap, which is cut narrow, is thrust. It is fastened by doubling it back and sewing 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 (tĭ´tkĭbwĭñ) of ivory, 4.7 inches long.
This pattern appears to be usually made of walrus ivory. Only one of the six brought home is of bone, and this is an unusually small one, only 3.6 inches long, made for sale. The usual length is 4½ to 5 inches. No. 89363 [1105], Fig. 327b, from Utkiavwĭñ, 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.
Fig. 328a (No. 89364 [1243] from Utkiavwĭñ) is another ivory needle case, 4.7 inches long. The tube was once ornamented with incised patterns, but these are almost wholly worn off by constant handling. The knob is carved into an ornamental shape, having a circle of six round knobs round the middle. It has been suggested that this is meant to represent a cloud-berry (Rubus chamæmorus), a fruit known to the “Nunatañmiun” 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 sticking in the flesh side of the strap shows how the needles are carried with the points toward the knob.
No. 89370 [1033], also from Utkiavwĭñ, 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 a large knot. The other pattern has the cylinder made of a hollow “long” bone, in its natural shape. This bone appears to be almost always the humerus of some large bird, probably a swan. The strap has usually no knob, but is kept from slipping through by knotting the end or tying on a large bead or a bear’s toe, or some such object too large to go through the tube. None of these have belt hooks except one new and roughly made specimen.
These bone tubes are apparently older than the neat ivory cylinders, and it is not unlikely that the belt hook was not invented till the former was mostly out of fashion. No. 89361 [1239], Fig. 328b from Utkiavwĭñ, is one of these which has for knob one of the large dark blue glass beads which used to bring such enormous prices in the early days of Arctic trading, and which are still the kind most highly prized. The end of the strap is cut narrow, passed through the bead, and knotted on the end. 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 speaking, 0.4 in diameter. No. 89369 [1201], also from Utkiavwĭñ, resembles the above, but has a wolverine’s toe sewed to the end of the strap. No. 89371 [1276], from Utkiavwĭñ, 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 Utkiavwĭñ, is a highly ornamented case of this pattern, which has a short cylindrical knob, also ornamented. No. 89368 [1089], from Utkiavwĭñ, is not made of bird’s bone, but is a piece of a long bone from some mammal, and has a brown bear’s toe for a knob. No. 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. All the others are merely commercial imitations rather carelessly made.
This kind of needle case is very commonly used throughout Alaska, as is shown by the enormous collections in the National Museum brought home by various explorers, Nelson, Turner, Dall and others. The needle case from Iglulik, figured by Capt. Lyon,423 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.”424 Dr. Simpson425 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 (kigiunɐ), 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 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 from 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 a top 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. 329b (No. 89405 [1335], from Utkiavwĭñ) or figures of men and animals as in Fig. 329c (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.
Fig. 329.—Trinket boxes.
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 surface 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 represented 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 in a kaiak, and over his head two small “circles and dots,” one above the other. 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 a railed 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, 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. 330.—Trinket boxes.
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 unfinished flint arrow-head. No. 56505 [59] from Utkiavwĭñ, 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.
Fig. 330b (No. 89402 [1359] also from Utkiavwĭñ), 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 hollow butt of a good-sized walrus tusk, 3.2 inches long. It has a neatly fitted wooden bottom, held in with 6 treenails, two of ivory and four of wood. The box has been cracked and split and mended with stitches of sinew and whalebone. Peculiar conventional patterns are incised on the box and cover. A peculiar box is shown in Fig. 332 (No. 56583 [37] from Utkiavwĭñ). 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, however, is shown in Fig. 334 (No. 56512 [2] from Utkiavwĭñ), the only specimen of the kind seen. It is 5.5 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-marked. The tips of the hoofs are rounded off, which, taken in connection with the attitude and the well marked navel, lead me to believe 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 buttocks, 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 specimens of these small baskets, of which No. 56564 [88] Fig. 335, workbasket (águma, áma, ipiáru), will serve as the type. The neck is of black tanned sealskin, 2½ inches long, and has 1 vertical seam, to the middle of which is sewed the middle 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 succeeding tier. The other basket from Utkiavwĭñ (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 workmanship, but somewhat larger and of a different shape, as shown in Fig. 336, No. 89801 [1366], and Fig. 337, No. 89802 [1427]. This was the only species of basketwork seen among these people and is probably not of native manufacture.
Prof. O. T. Mason, of the National 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 Kuwûk or Kowak, applied to the western stream flowing 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.426 Therefore, in consideration of the Indian 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 Silawĭk Rivers, and sold by them to the Kuwûñmiun, whence they could easily find their way to Point Barrow through the hands of the “Nunatañmiun” traders.
The Eskimo of Alaska south of Bering Strait make and use baskets of many patterns, but east of Point Barrow baskets are exceedingly rare. The only mention of anything of the kind will be found in Lyon’s Journal.427 He mentions seeing at Iglulik a “small round basket composed of grass in precisely the same manner as those constructed by the Tibboo, in the southern part of Fezzan, and agreeing with them also in its shape.” Now, these Africans make baskets of precisely the same “coiled” work (as Prof. Mason calls it) as the 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 áma applied to these baskets at Point Barrow (the other two names appear to be simply “bag” or receptacle) corresponds to the Greenlandic amåt, 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)—Grønlandske Ordbog.
No. 89799 [1329] from Utkiavwĭñ, 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 7½ inches in diameter, of a pale brownish color, soft and wrinkled, with a mouth 6 inches wide. A small hole has been mended by drawing the skin together and winding it round tightly on the inside with sinew.
Like all the rest of the Eskimo race, the natives of Point Barrow use the kaiak, or narrow, light, skin-covered canoe, completely decked over except at the middle, where there is a hole or cockpit in which the man sits. Although nearly every male above the age of boyhood owns and can 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 Pernyû they are used in setting the stake-nets and also for retrieving fowl which have fallen in the water when shot.
According to Dr. Simpson428 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 information regarding this. It is at this time, probably, that the kaiak comes specially in play for spearing molting fowl and “flappers”, and for catching seals with the kúkiga. They manage the kaiak with great skill and confidence, but we never knew them to go out in rough weather, nor did we ever see the practice, so frequently described elsewhere, of tying the skirts of the waterproof jacket round the coaming of the cockpit so as to exclude the water.
It should, however, be borne in mind that from the reasons above stated our opportunities for observing the use of the kaiak were very limited. At all events it is certain that the people depend mainly on the umiak, not only for traveling, but for hunting and fishing as well, which places them in strong contrast with the Greenlanders, who are essentially a race of kaiakers and have consequently developed the boat and its appendages to a high state of perfection.
We brought home one complete full-sized kaiak, with its paddle, No. 57773 [539], Fig. 338a and b, which is a very fair representative of the canoes used at Point Barrow. This is 19 feet long and 18 inches wide amidships. The gunwales are straight, except for a very slight sheer at the bow, and the cockpit is 21 inches long and 18½ 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 sealskins with the grain side out. The stoutest part of the frame is the two gunwales, each 3¼ inches broad and ½-inch thick, flat, and rounded off on the upper edge inside, running the whole length of the boat and meeting at the stem and stern, gradually tapered up on the lower edge at each end. The ribs, of which there are at least forty-three, are bent into nearly a half-circle, thus making a U-shaped midship section, and are ¾-inch wide by ⅓-inch thick, flat on the outer side and round on the inner. Their ends are mortised into the lower edge of the gunwale and fastened 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 aft, ¾ inch to 1 inch wide and ¼ inch 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).
Fig. 338.—Kaiak.
There is a stout keelson, hemi-elliptical in section, under the cockpit only. This is 4½ feet long, about 2 inches deep, and 1½ 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 keelson, round the rib on one side, back through the keelson, and round the rib on the other side twice. The end is wrapped spirally round the turns on one side and tucked into the hole in the keelson. The deck beams are not quite so stout as the ribs and are mortised into the upper edge of the gunwales a little below the level of the deck. The ends are secured by lashings or stitches of some material which are concealed by the skin cover. They are about as far apart as the ribs, but neither exactly correspond nor break joints with the latter.