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 mechanical 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 performance 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 (kă´brû, käluka´) (No. 89820 [863] Fig. 365), made of deerskin with the hair inward and 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 between 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 mittens 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 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). This is a rather good representation of a male human face, 8.8 inches long and 5.8 wide. It is quite smoothly carved out of cottonwood, and the back is neatly hollowed out, being more deeply excavated round the eyes and mouth and inside of the nose. The mouth is represented as wide open, showing the tip of the tongue attached 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 eyebrows 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 and made fast with two half hitches. A row of small holes round the edge of the mask shows where a hood has been tacked on. This mask is rather old and somewhat soiled.
Fig. 367.—Wooden mask and dancing gorget.
A very old weathered mask (No. 56497 [235] from Utkiavwĭñ), 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 represented 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 ¼ inch from the edge, and pierced with small holes for fastening on a hood.
Figure 367 (No. 89817 [856] also from Utkiavwĭñ) is a mask much like the preceding, 7.5 inches long, and made of spruce. It is peculiar in having the outer corners of the eyes rather depressed, and in addition 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 whalebone, 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 whalebone on the lower side. This mask has been for a long time fastened to an ornamented wooden gorget, and appeared to have been exposed to the weather, perhaps at the cemetery. The string is made of unusually stout sinew braid.
The remaining four ancient human masks are all masculine, and only one has any indication of labrets. On this mask, No. 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 Utkiavwĭñ), 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 Utkiavwĭñ. 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 especially 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 Utkiavwĭñ) is a very old mask of cottonwood, blackened with age and so rudely carved that the work was probably 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 Utkiavwĭñ) 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. It is 8.7 inches long and has strings of whalebone.
Another (No. 56498 [73] from Utkiavwĭñ) 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 a foot long, and like the one figured 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 Utkiavwĭñ (No. 89811 [1037]).
Another “commercial” mask (No. 89813 [1074] from Utkiavwĭñ) is very elaborate, but roughly and carelessly made. It is almost flat, with the features hardly raised in relief. In each corner of the mouth is inserted 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 American ostrich, and came from the feather duster in use at our station.
Fig. 370 (No. 56496 [258] from Utkiavwĭñ) 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 unbraided sinew pieced together.
Fig. 371 (No. 89815 [1050] from Utkiavwĭñ) 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, made of blackened cottonwood, and is the rudest representation of the human face which we saw. It is simply an oval disk, concavo-convex, with holes cut for the eyes, nostrils, and mouth. The rough cutting about the chin appears 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 forehead to hang it up by is much newer than the mask, being braided from cotton twine and fastened to a common galvanized boat nail.
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.485 On the other hand, no other Eskimo, save those of Alaska, ever use masks in their performances, as far as I can learn, with the solitary exception of the people of Baffin Land, where a mask of the hide of the bearded seal is worn on certain occasions.486 Nordenskiöld saw one wooden mask among the people near the Vega’s winter quarters, but learned that this had been brought from Bering Strait, and probably from America.487
The masks appear to become more numerous and more elaborate the nearer we get to the part of Alaska inhabited by the Indians of the T’linket stock, who, as is well known employ, in their ceremonies remarkably elaborate wooden masks and headdresses. It may be suggested 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.488 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 gorget (sûkĭmûñ). It is made of spruce, is 18.5 inches long, and has two beckets of stout sinew braid, one to go round the neck and the other round the body under the wearer’s arms. The figures are all painted on the front face. In the middle is a man painted with red ocher; all the rest of the figures are black and probably painted with soot. The man with his arms outstretched stands on a large whale, represented as spouting. He holds a small whale in each hand. At his right is a small cross-shaped object which perhaps represents a bird, then a man facing toward the left and darting a harpoon with both hands, and a bear facing to the left. On the left of the red man are two umiaks with five men in each, a whale nearly effaced, and three of the cross-shaped objects 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 Utkiavwĭñ) is a similar gorget, which has evidently been long exposed to the weather, perhaps at the cemetery, 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 black whale and holding a whale in each hand. At his right is a 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) has a mask tied over the middle by means of the beckets, so that the figures in the middle are much fresher than those on the ends. The edges are painted red. In the middle is the same red man or giant holding the whale. The other figures are painted with soot.
Fig. 372.—Dancing gorgets of wood.
This man or giant, able to hold out a whale, appears to be a legendary character, as we have his image carved in ivory. We unfortunately did not succeed in learning anything more about him, except that his name (apparently) was “kikámigo.” Hanging by the head to each elbow of this figure is a seal, and opposite its thighs two of the usual conventional whale’s tails, one on each side, with the flukes turned from him. The one on his left is attached to his waist by a straight line from its upper corner. At its right hand are a number of objects irregularly grouped. At the top an umiak with five men towing at a three-cornered object, which probably represents a dead whale; then a smaller umiak containing 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´mĭgo may be the “divinity” who controls the whales and other sea animals.489
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 a raven. These were mounted on whalebone springs and moved by strings, so that the fox sprang at the raven and the raven pecked at the fox, while the singing and dancing went on. These animals were never offered for sale, but they brought over a stuffed fox very cleverly mounted so as to spring at a lemming, which by means of strings was made to run in and out of two holes in the board on which the fox was mounted. (No. 89893 [1378] from Utkiavwĭñ.) We unfortunately did not learn the story or myth connected with this representation.490 It was the skin of an Arctic fox in the summer pelage, with the paws and all the bones removed, and clumsily 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 ⅛ inch thick, which protruded about 4¼ 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 2¾ 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. 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 9½ 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 1¼ inches in diameter, one in each edge of the board and at such a distance from the end that when the string, which was 7 feet 4 inches long, was drawn through them, it crossed the board just where the fox’s nose struck, when it was pulled down. The ends of the string were reeled round bits of stick. The lemming was a narrow strip of wolf’s fur, about 3 inches long, doubled in the middle, 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 foxskin 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;491 and Dall492 describes a festival at Norton Sound, where a dead seal was brought in and moved about with strings.
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 1881-’82, since this was the only one of the two seasons that the great winter festival was held at Utkiavwĭñ. In the winter of 1882-’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 Nuwŭk or at Pernyû, when the “Nunatañmiun” visitors were entertained.
The best accounts we have of any performance is given by Lieut. Ray. He and Capt. Herendeen went over to Utkiavwĭñ by special invitation on December 3, 1881, and witnessed one scene of the “wood,” or “tree dance.” Many visitors were present from Nuwŭk 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 kû´dyĭgĭ. 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 intended to represent a tree. This was made of two oblong boxes about 6 inches in diameter, open at both ends, the lower about 2½ feet long and the upper about 1½, 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 music, uttering a low growl at each swing and shaking their rattle mittens. This they kept up for fifteen or twenty minutes, while the chant still went on, and the chief performer, with excited gestures, embraced the tree and rubbed his nose against it from time to time. At last all “sprang to their feet with a howl, and ended the dance with wild gestures.” 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 evening, 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 religious or dramatic about it. The music was furnished by the usual orchestra of old men, who beat drums and sang a monotonous song. Each person who intended to take part in the dance came provided with some small article to be given away as a “favor,” and rising in his turn, danced a few minutes, and then called out the name of the partner 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 described at Norton Sound and the Yukon region, where a man “saves up his property for years” to distribute it among his guests.493 A festival, however, was held at Nuwŭk in June, 1883, which apparently resembled the second kind described by Dall.494 Two men came down from Nuwŭk 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 carried “notched sticks.”495
Dances in which the children only take part, entirely for amusement, sometimes take place in the kû´dyĭgĭ, 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 character. The feet were but slightly moved, keeping 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 accompanies 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 to the song and stamping vigorously with the 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 Egede496 and Kumlien.497
The festivals of the eastern Eskimo appear to be less formal and elaborate than those in the west, consisting simply of singing and dancing.498
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 playthings.
Fig. 374a (No. 89806 [1189] from Nuwŭk) is a whirligig in principle very like that made for civilized children. It is a block of spruce, fitted with a shaft of narwhal ivory. This fits loosely in the straight tubular handle, which is a section of the branch of an antler, with the soft inside tissue cut out. A string of seal thong passes through a hole in the middle of the handle and is fastened to the shaft. This string is about 8 feet long, and about half of it is tied up into the hank to make a handle for pulling it. It works very much like a civilized child’s whirligig. 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. kâvsâk, “a whirligig or similar toy”).
Fig. 374b is a similar whirligig from Utkiavwĭñ (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 pattern 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. 374.—Whirligigs.
Fig. 375 (No. 56491 [46] from Utkiavwĭñ) 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 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 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 anyone except the maker of this toy spinning one.
The same is true of No. 89722 [1087] (Fig. 376, from Utkiavwĭñ) 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 alternately pulling and relaxing the ends of the string. The board is rather elaborately painted. One end has a border of black lead on both faces, the other a similar border of red paint, which appears to be red lead. Broad red bands form a square 1 inch across around the holes, with lines radiating from each corner to the corners of the board, on both faces. On the spaces between these lines are figures rudely drawn with black lead. On one face, in the first space, is a goose; in the second, a man with a staff; in the third, the conventional figure of a whale’s tail; and in the fourth, a whale with line and float attached to him, pursued by a whaling 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 reindeer in the same attitude.
Fig. 376.—Buzz toy.
Fig. 377 (No. 89800 [1331] from Utkiavwĭñ), on the other hand, is a toy which the children often play with. It is the well known “whizzing-stick” found among savages in so many widely distant parts of the world, and often used in religious ceremonies. The Eskimo name is ĭmĭglúta. It consists of a thin board of pine wood, fastened by a string 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 specimen was made and brought over for sale by a lad about thirteen or fourteen years old.
Fig. 377.—Whizzing stick.
Fig. 378 (No. 56687 [181] from Utkiavwĭñ) is another plaything rather common with the boys, which takes the place of the American boy’s “bean snapper.” It is known by the name of mĭtĭ´glĭgaun, and is a rod of whalebone, stiff and black, 4.8 inches long and 0.5 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 instrument of mischief and is used for shooting tiny pebbles at people when they are looking the other way. Mûñialu 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 looking earnestly in another direction. The toothed end, he said, was for mischievously scratching hairs out of a man’s coat when he was looking another way. The “snapper” is used as follows: It is held in the left hand, a little pebble is set in the socket, and the tip of the whalebone bent back with the right hand. When this end is let go the elasticity of the whalebone drives the pebble at the mark with considerable force. As far as I can learn this mischievous toy is peculiar to the Northwest.
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 Utkiavwĭñ.) 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 convex on top. The head is dressed in a neatly made hood of thin deerskin with the flesh side cut off round the shoulders and exposing 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 divided into eight equal parts by shallow grooves colored with black lead. The height of the whole object is 4½ inches, and the workmanship is remarkably good.
Fig. 379.—Carving of human head.
No. 89827 [1138] (from Utkiavwĭñ), on the other hand, is very roughly and carelessly made. It is 18.2 inches long, roughly whittled 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 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 material. 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 of odds and ends. The maker perhaps had in mind a fabulous man with teeth like a walrus, about whom we heard some fragmentary traditions.
Fig. 380.—Mechanical doll: drum player.
Fig. 380 (No. 89826 [1358] from Utkiavwĭñ) 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. Herendeen, who saw this doll at the village before it was finished.) The height of the sitting figure is 11½ inches.
Fig. 381.—Mechanical toy: kaiak paddler.
A still more ingenious mechanical toy which, however, like the preceding, was made for sale, is shown in Fig. 381 (No. 89855 [1351] from Utkiavwĭñ). This is a man sitting in a kaiak in the attitude of paddling on the left side with a single-bladed paddle. His arms are of whalebone, 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 bottom 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 “Kûñmû´d’lĭñ” 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 coaming. 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, nostrils, 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 covered with a gut shirt.
Fig. 382.—Kaiak carved from a block of wood.
The paddle is of the common shape, and has the blade and the lower end of the shaft painted red. The strings for working this contrivance are of fine sinew braid. One string is tied into a little hole in the edge of the hood, where the left ear would be, the other passes round the edge of the hood, and is tied at the right ear. These strings cross back of the head, and pass through two neat little ivory eyebolts inserted in the deck, 1 inch abaft the cockpit, and 1 inch apart. The strings from the hands are not crossed, but pass through two similar eyebolts, one at each edge of the deck, 2.5 inches from the cockpit. The ends of each set of strings are tied together. When the right pair and left pair of strings are pulled alternately, the man makes a stroke and looks to the right, then “recovers” and looks to the left. Both stroke and “recovery” are aided by the elasticity of the arms. This specimen shows a great deal of mechanical ingenuity, and was the only finished object of the kind seen.
Fig. 382 (No. 89856 [783] from Utkiavwĭñ) is a kaiak intended for a similar toy, which, when brought over for sale, had an unfinished armless doll in the cockpit. This was, unfortunately, lost in unpacking. The kaiak, which is 27.6 inches long, is not new, but has been freshly scraped and painted on deck. It is also a foreign kaiak, being precisely like a model brought by Mr. Nelson from Norton Sound. It is not unlikely that this boat itself came from that region through the “Nunatañmiun,” 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.
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 kă´moti about 4 feet long. In the collection are a number of miniature implements, spears, etc., some of which have been already described, which were perhaps intended as playthings for the children. As, however, they were all newly made, it is possible that they were merely intended to catch the fancy of the strangers.
No. 89451 [1113], from Nuwŭk, is a little snow shovel 4.5 inches long, with a blade 2.1 inches wide, rather roughly carved from a piece of walrus ivory.
No. 89695 [1280] from Utkiavwĭñ, is a similar model of a deer lance, 7 inches long, all in one piece and made of reindeer antler.
No. 89797 [1186] from Utkiavwĭñ, is a quite well made model of the drum used for accompanying singing and dancing, and is almost large enough to have been used for a plaything. The stick is entirely out of proportion, being merely a roughly whittled bit of lath, 13 inches long.
The men have very few sports, though I have sometimes known them to amuse themselves by shooting at a mark with their rifles, and I once heard of a number of them wrestling. As far as I could learn, they wrestle “catch-as-catch-can” without any particular system. We never heard of anything like the athletic sports mentioned by Egede499 and Crantz500 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.501 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.502 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, 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 “yúɐ yúɐ yuká, yúɐ yúɐ yuká;” and some of the words are certainly indelicate to judge from the unequivocal 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.503
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.504 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 labyrinth 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.
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.
The only musical instrument in use among these people is the universal drum505 or tambourine (kĕlyau), consisting of a membrane stretched over a hoop with a handle on one side, and used from Greenland to Siberia. It is always accompanied by the voice singing or chanting. The player holds the handle in his left hand with the membrane away from him, and strikes alternately on each side of the rim with a short heavy piece of ivory, or a long slender wand, rotating 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.