411. Nordenskiöld, Vega, vol. 2, pp. 122, and Fig. 1, p. 117.
412. Crantz describes the process of preparing boat covers as follows: “The boat skins are selected out of the stoutest seals’ hides, from which the fat is not quite taken off; they roll them up, and sit on them, or let them lie in the sun covered with grass several weeks, ’till the hair will come off.” History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 167.
413. Gilder describes a similar process of manufacturing these lines at Hudson’s Bay. (Schwatka’s Search, p. 176.)
414. W. J. Sollas, in Jour. Anthrop. Inst. of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 9, pp. 329-336.
415. Nordenskiöld’s figures, Vega, vol. 2, p. 123.
416. Parry’s Second Voy., pl. opposite p. 548, Fig. 5.
417. Vega, vol. 1, p. 493.
418. We had no special opportunities for watching the natives at work netting, as but few nets happened to be made at the village during our stay. It was, however, observed that the mesh stick was taken out every time a knot was tied. Since my return, after a careful study of the different mesh sticks in our collection, I have convinced myself by experiment that the above method of using the tool is the only one which will account for the shape of the different parts.
419. See Parry, Second Voy., p. 537; Lyon, Journal, p. 93; Kumlien, Contributions, p. 25.
420. Formerly they used the bones of fishes or the very fine bones of birds instead of needles. Crantz, vol. 1, p. 136.
“Their own clumsy needles of bone,” Parry, Second Voy., p. 537 and pl. opposite p. 548, Fig. 11. Kumlien also speaks of “steel needles or bone ones made after the same pattern” at Cumberland Gulf (Contributions, p. 25).
421. Parry, Second Voy., pl. opposite p. 550, Fig. 25.
422. Boas, Central Eskimo, p. 524, Fig. 473 and Kumlien, Contributions, p. 25.
423. Parry’s Second Voyage, pl. opposite p. 550, Fig. 25.
424. Ibid., p. 537.
425. Op. cit, p. 245.
426. Dall, American Association, Address, 1885, p. 13.
427. P. 172.
428. Op. cit. p. 264.
429. Lyon, Journal, p. 233. See also Capt. Lyon’s figure in Parry’s 2d Voy., pl. opposite p. 274.
430. It is a curious fact, however, that the narrowest kaiak paddles I have ever seen belonged to some Eskimo that I saw in 1876, at Rigolette, Labrador, who lived in a region sufficiently well wooded to furnish them with lumber for a small schooner, which they had built.
431. For information concerning the last two regions I am indebted to Mr. L. M. Turner; for the others to the standard authorities.
432. Rink, Tales and Traditions, p. 47. See also p. 374 for a story of the meeting of a Greenlander with one of these beings.
433. Journal, p. 233.
434. Second voyage, p. 506, and pls. opposite pp. 274 and 508.
435. There is quite a discrepancy in regard to this between Capt. Lyon’s description referred to above and the two plates drawn by him in Parry’s second voyage. In his journal he speaks of the coaming of the cockpit being about 9 inches higher forward than it is aft, while from his figures the difference does not appear to be more than 3 or 4 inches.
436. Vega, vol. 2, p. 228.
437. I have confined myself in the above comparison simply to the kaiaks used by undoubted Eskimo. I find merely casual references to the kaiaks used on the Siberian coast by the Asiatic Eskimo and their companions the Sedentary Chuckchis, while a discussion of the canoes of the Aleuts would carry me beyond the limits of the present work.
438. Since the above was written Boas has published a detailed description of the central kaiaks, in which he says there are only four streaks besides the keel (Central Eskimo, p. 486).
439. Dr. Kane’s description, though the best that we have of the flat-bottomed Greenland kaiak and accompanied by diagrams, is unfortunately vague in some important respects. It is in brief as follows: “The skeleton consists of three longitudinal strips of wood on each side * * * stretching from end to end. * * * The upper of these, the gunwale * * * is somewhat stouter than the others. The bottom is framed by three similar longitudinal strips. These are crossed by other strips or hoops, which perform the office of knees and ribs. They are placed at a distance of not more than 8 to 10 inches from one another. Wherever the parts of this framework meet or cross they are bound together with reindeer tendon very artistically. * * * The pah or manhole * * * has a rim or lip secured upon the gunwale and rising a couple of inches above the deck.” (First Grinnell Exp., p. 477.) It will be seen that he does not mention any deck beams, which would be very necessary to keep the gunwales spread apart. They are shown, however, on Crantz’s crude section of a kaiak frame. (History of Greenland, vol. 1, pl. vii), and are evidently mortised into the gunwale, as at Point Barrow. Crantz also (op. cit., p. 150) speaks of the use of whalebone for fastening the frame together.
Capt. Lyon’s description of the round-bottomed kaiak used at Fury and Hecla Straits (Journal, p. 233) is much more explicit. He describes the frame as consisting of a gunwale on each side 4 or 5 inches wide in the middle and three-fourths inch thick, tapering at each end, sixty-four hoop-shaped ribs (on a canoe 25 feet long), seven slight rods outside of the ribs, twenty-two deck-beams, and a batten running fore and aft, and a hoop round the cockpit. These large kaiaks weigh 50 or 60 pounds. There is a very good figure of the Point Barrow kaiak, paddled with a single paddle, in Smyth’s view of Nuwŭk (Beechey’s Voyage, pl. opposite p. 307).
440. Wrangell, Narrative of an Expedition, etc., p. 161, footnote.
441. For example: “For they think it unbecoming a man to row such a boat, unless great necessity requires it.” Egede, Greenland, p. 111. “It would be a scandal for a man to meddle, except the greatest necessity compels him to lend a hand.” Crantz, vol. 1, p. 149.
442. Part of the description of the umiak frame is taken from the model (No. 56563 [225]), as the writer not only had few opportunities for careful examination of these canoes, but unfortunately did not realize at the time the importance of detail.
443. History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 148, and pl. vi.
444. Vol. 1, p. 167.
445. See Kotzebue’s Voyage, etc., vol. 1, p. 216.
446. This is also the custom among the Central Eskimo. (See Boas “Central Eskimo,” p. 528, Fig. 481.)
447. Narrative, p. 148.
448. Journal, p. 30. Compare also Chappell, “Hudson Bay,” p. 57.
449. See Egedo, Greenland, p. 111.
450. These passages being, as far as I know, the earliest description of the umiak and kaiak are worth quotation: “Their boats are made all of Seale skins, with a keel of wood within the skinne; the proportion of them is like a Spanish shallop, saue only they be flat in the bottome, and sharp at both endes” (p. 621, 1576). Again: “They haue two sorts of boats made of leather, set out on the inner side with quarters of wood, artificially tyed with thongs of the same; the greater sort are not much unlike our wherries, wherein sixteene or twenty men may sitte; they have for a sayle, drest the guttes of such beasts as they kill, very fine and thinne, which they sewe together; the other boate is but for one man to sitte and rowe in, with one oare” (p. 628, 1577).
451. Compare for instance Kane’s figure 1st Grinnell Exp. p. 422, and Lyon, Journal, p. 30.
452. See Beechey Voyage, p. 252. In describing the umiaks at Hotham Inlet he says: “The model differs from that of the umiak of the Hudson Bay in being sharp at both ends.” Smyth gives a good figure of the Hotham Inlet craft in the plate opposite p. 250.
453. Greenland, p. 111.
454. Vol. 1, p. 148.
455. Contributions, p. 43. Boas, however, says three to five skins. (Central Eskimo, p. 528.)
456. 2d Voy., p. 507.
457. Alaska, p. 15.
458. Twisted sinew is sometimes used. A pair of snowshoes from Point Barrow, owned by the writer, are netted with this material.
459. Op. cit., p. 243.
460. Op. cit., p. 244.
461. 2d Exped., p. 142.
462. Vega, vol. 2, p. 102 a.
463. Op. cit., p. 243.
464. Alaska, p. 190, Fig. A.
465. See, also, Dall, Alaska, p. 190, and Figs. A and C.
466. Contributions, p. 42.
467. 1st Exp., vol. 2, p. 180.
468. For example, Lyon says that at Fury and Hecla Straits the runners are coated with ice by mixing snow and fresh water (Journal, p. 235); (See also Parry, 2d Voyage, p. 515). At Cumberland Gulf “they pour warmed blood on the under surface of the bone shoeing; some use water, but this does not last nearly so long as the blood and is more apt to chip off.” Kumlien, Contributions, p. 42; (See also Hall, Arctic Researches, p. 582). Around Repulse Bay they ice the runners by squirting over them water which has been warmed in the mouth, putting on successive layers till they get a smooth surface. This is renewed the first thing every morning. Gilder, Schwatka’s Search, p. 66. A native of the eastern shore of Labrador, according to Sir John Richardson (Searching Expedition, vol. 2, p. 82), applied to the runners coat after coat of earth or clay tempered with hot water, and then washed the runners with water, polishing the ice with his naked hand. MacFarlane in his MS. notes speaks of covering the sled runners with “earth, water, and ice” in the Mackenzie region. Petitot (Monographie, etc., p. XVII) says the runners in the Mackenzie and Anderson district are shod with “un bourrelet de limon et de glace,” which has to be often renewed. Nordenskiöld says that at Pitlekaj “the runners, before the start, are carefully covered with a layer of ice from two to three millimeters in thickness by repeatedly pouring water over them,” (Vega, vol. 2, p. 94), and according to Wrangell (Narrative, etc., p. 101, footnote) it is the common custom in northern Siberia to pour water over the runners every evening to produce a thin crust of ice.
469. Rep. Point Barrow Exp., p. 27.
470. Schwatka, in “Nimrod in the North,” (p. 159) describes a practice among the “Netschillik,” of King William’s Land, which appears very much like this, though his description is somewhat obscure in details. It is as follows: “We found the runners shod with pure ice. Trenches the length of the sledge are dug in the ice, and into these the runners are lowered some two or three inches, yet not touching the bottom of the trench by fully the same distance. Water is then poured in and allowed to freeze, and when the sledge is lifted out it is shod with shoes of perfectly pure and transparent ice.” Strangely enough, these curious ice shoes are not mentioned by Schwatka’s companions, Gilder and Klutschak, nor by Schwatka himself in his paper on the “Netschillik” in Science, although Klutschak describes and figures a sledge made wholly of ice among the Netsillingmiut. (“Als Eskimo, etc.” p. 76). Also referred to by Boas (“Central Eskimo,” p. 533).
471. The word used was “kau-kau.” Perhaps it referred to a seal for food, as the sledge appears very like one described by Hooper (Corwin Report, p. 105) as used on the “Arctic Coast.” “When sealing on solid ice a small sled is sometimes used, the runners of which are made of walrus tusks. It is perhaps 16 inches long by 14 inches wide and 3 inches high. It is used in dragging the carcass of the seal over the ice.”
We, however, never saw such sleds used for dragging seals. This one may have been imported from farther south. See also, Beechey, Voyage, etc., p. 251, where he speaks of seeing at Kotzebue Sound, a drawing on ivory of “a seal dragged home on a small sledge.”
472. See Dall’s figure, Alaska, p. 165.
473. Vega, vol. 1, p. 498.
474. Compare also the various illustrations in Hooper’s “Tents of the Tuski.”·
475. I failed to get the translation of this word, but it seems to be connected with the Greenlandic mâlavok, he howls (a dog—).
476. Contributions, p. 51.
477. Compare Dall, Alaska, p. 25.
478. See Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 195, and Nordenskiöld, Vega, vol. 2, p. 96, where one of these shoes is figured.
479. See Kumlien, Contributions, p. 42.
480. Vega, vol. 2; p. 95.
481. See Dall, Alaska, pp. 163 and 166.
482. Vega, vol. 2, p. 95, foot note.
483. For descriptions of the sledges and methods of harnessing used by the eastern Eskimo, see Bessel’s Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 9, p. 868, figs. 4 and 5 (Smith Sound); Kane, 2d Grinnell Exp., vol. 1, p. 205 (Smith Sound) and first Grinnell Exp., p. 443 (Greenland); Kumlien, Contributions, p. 42, and Boas, “Central Eskimo,” pp. 529-538 (Cumberland Gulf); Parry, 2d voyage, p. 514, and Lyon, Journal, p. 235 (Iglulik); Gilder, Schwatka’s Search, pp. 50, 52, and 66, and Schwatka’s “Nimrod in the North,” pp. 152, 153 (NW. shore of Hudson Bay and King Williams Land).
484. This game is briefly referred to by Hall, Arctic Researches, p. 570.
485. See Dall, Alaska, p. 389, and contributions to N. A. Ethn., vol. 1, p. 90.
486. See Kumlien, Contributions, p. 43. Kumlien says merely “a mask of skins.” Dr. Boas is my authority for the statement that the skin of the bearded seal is used.
487. Vega, vol. 2, p. 21.
488. See also Dall’s paper in the Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 67-203, where the subject of mask-wearing is very thoroughly discussed in its most important relations.
489. Cf. Crantz, vol. 1, p. 206.
490. This very interesting specimen was unfortunately destroyed by moths at the National Museum after the description was written, but before it could be figured.
491. Report, p. 135.
492. Alaska, p. 156.
493. See Dall, Alaska, p. 151.
494. Ibid, p. 154.
495. Compare the wand “curiously ornamented and carved” carried by the messenger who was sent out to invite the guests to the festival at Norton Sound, Alaska, p. 154.
496. Greenland, p. 139.
497. Contributions, p. 43.
498. Descriptions of Eskimo festivals are to be found in Egede’s Greenland, p. 152, and Crantz, History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 175, where he mentions the sun feast held at the winter solstice. This very likely corresponds to the December festival at Point Barrow. If the latter be really a rite instituted by the ancestors of the present Eskimo when they lived in lower latitudes to celebrate the winter solstice, it is easy to understand why it should be held at about the same time by the people of Kotzebue Sound, as stated by Dr. Simpson, op. cit., p. 262, where, as he says, the reindeer might be successfully pursued throughout the winter. It is much more likely, considering the custom in Greenland, that this is the reason for having the festival at this season than that the time should be selected by the people at Point Barrow as a season when “hunting or fishing can not well be attended to,” as Simpson thinks. We should remember that this is the very time of the year that the seal netting is at its height at Point Barrow. See also Parry, Second Voyage, p. 538; Kumlien, Contributions, p. 43; Gilder, Schwatka’s Search, p. 43; Beechey, Voyage, p. 288 (Kotzebue Sound); Dall, Alaska, p. 149 (very full and detailed); Petroff, Report, etc., pp. 125, 126, 129, 131 (quoted from Zagoskin), 135, 137 (quoted from Shelikhof), and 144 (quoted from Davidof); Hooper, Tents, etc., pp. 85, 136; and Nordenskiöld, Vega, vol. 2, pp. 22, 131.
499. Greenland, p. 162.
500. Vol. 1, p. 177.
501. Science, vol. 4, No. 98, p. 545.
502. Hall (Arctic Researches, p. 129) says the “cat’s cradle” is a favorite amusement in Baffin Land, where they make many figures, including representations of the deer, whale, seal, and walrus.
503. See Egede, p. 161, and Crantz, vol. 1, p. 177.
504. Compare Parry’s Second Voyage, p. 541.
505. Nordenskiöld calls this “the drum, or more correctly, tambourine, so common among most of the Polar peoples, European, Asiatic, and American; among the Lapps, the Samoyeds, the Tunguses, and the Eskimo.” (Vega, vol. 2, p. 128).
506. See, for example, Bessell’s Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 9, p. 881. (The people of Smith Sound use the femur of a walrus or seal. Cf. Capt. Lyon’s picture, Parry’s 2d Voyage, pl. opposite p. 530, and Gilder, Schwatka’s Search, p. 43, where the people of the west shore of Hudson Bay are described as using a “wooden drumstick shaped like a potato-masher.”)
507. See Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 51, and Nordenskiöld, Vega, vol. 2, pp. 23 and 128; figure on p. 24.
508. Compare Crantz, vol. 1, p. 176.
509. 2d Voyage, p. 541.
510. See also the passage from Crantz, quoted above; Dall, Alaska, p. 16; and Nordenskiöld, Vega, vol. 2, pp. 23 and 130.
511. See the various accounts of the eastern Eskimo already referred to.
512. Contributions to N. A. Ethn., vol. 1, p. 86.
513. Vega, vol. 2, p. 135.
514. Compare Nordenskiöld, Vega, vol. 2, p. 126 and Rink, Tales, etc., p. 52.
515. Compare Bessels, Naturalist, vol. 18, No. 9, p. 880, where he speaks of finding among the people of Smith Sound ivory carvings representing animals and human figures “exceedingly characteristic.” (See also Fig. 21 of the same paper.)
516. Vega, vol. 2, p. 127.
517. Vega, vol. 2, p. 142.
518. Rink, Tales, etc., p. 48. See also same work, passim, among the stories.
519. Compare these with Nordenskiöld’s figures of “Chukch” drawings, Vega, vol. 2, pp. 132, 133. The latter are completely Eskimo in character.
520. Compare Crantz, vol. 1, p. 159 (Greenland); Kumlien, Contributions, p. 164 (Cumberland Gulf); Hall, Arctic Researches, p. 567 (Baffin Land); Parry, 2nd Voyage, p. 528 (Fury and Hecla Straits); Schwatka, Science, vol. 4, No. 98, p. 544 (King William’s Land); Gilder, Schwatka’s Search, p. 250 (Hudson’s Bay); Franklin, First Exp., vol. 2, p. 41 (Chesterfield Inlet); Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 209 (Plover Bay); Nordenskiöld, Vega, vol. 2, p. 26 (Pitlekaj).
521. Op. cit., p. 252.
522. Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 9, p. 877.
523. Contributions, p. 16.
524. Compare Holm’s observations in East Greenland—“idet et ganske ungt Menneske kan være gift med en Kone, som kunde være hans Moder.” Geografisk Tidskrift, vol. 8, p. 91.
525. Op. cit., p. 253.
526. Vol. 1, p. 160.
527. “They often repudiate and put away their wives, if either they do not suit their humors, or else if they are barren, * * * and marry others.” Egede, Greenland, p. 143. Compare also Crantz, vol. 1, p. 160; Parry, Second Voyage, p. 528 (Fury and Hecla Straits); Kumlien, Contributions, p. 17 (Cumberland Gulf); and Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 100—“repudiation is perfectly recognized, and in instances of misconduct and sometimes of dislike, put in force without scruple or censure. * * * The rejected wife * * * does not generally wait long for another husband;” (Plover Bay.) Compare also Holm, Geografisk Tidskrift, vol. 8, pp. 91-92, where he gives an account of marriage and divorce in east Greenland, remarkably like what we observed at Point Barrow.
528. Parry, 2nd Voyage, p. 528.
529. Kumlien, Contributions, p. 16.
530. Schwatka’s Search, p. 197.
531. Greenland, p. 139.
532. Geogr., Tids., vol. 8, p. 92.
533. Compare Parry, 2d Voyage, pp. 526-528, Nordenskiöld (Vega, vol. 1, p. 449): The women are “treated as the equals of the men, and the wife was always consulted by the husband when a more important bargain than usual was to be made.” (Pitlekaj.) This statement is applicable, word for word, to the women of Point Barrow.
534. Op. cit., p 252.
535. See Egede, p. 144, “for according to them it signifies nothing that a man beats his wife.”
536. Op. cit., p. 253.
537. Vol. 1, p. 165.
538. Second Voyage, p. 522.
539. Contributions, p. 28, and “Central Eskimo,” p. 610.
540. Egede, p. 192; Crantz, vol. 1, p. 215, and Rink, Tales, etc., p. 54.
541. Voyage, p. 200.
542. “Als Eskimo, etc.,” p. 199.
543. Egede, p. 192; Crantz, vol. 1, p. 215, “no one else must drink out of their cup;” and Rink, Tales and Traditions, p. 54.
544. Crantz, vol. 1, p. 138. See also Egede, p. 131, and the picture in Rink’s Tales, etc., opposite p. 8.
545. Geografisk Tidskrift, vol. 8, p. 91.
546. Monographie, etc., p. xv.
547. Second Voyage, p. 495.
548. Kumlien, Contributions, p. 24.
549. See Ellis, Voyage, etc., p. 136, and plate opposite p. 132.
550. Second Ex., p. 226.
551. Nordenskiöld, Vega, vol. 2, p. 101.
552. Op. cit., p. 250.
553. Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 9, p. 874.
554. Science, vol. 4, p. 544.
555. Greenland, p. 146.
556. Geografisk Tidskrift, vol 8, p. 91.
557. Second Voyage, p. 529.
558. Vega, vol. 2, p. 140.
559. Vega, vol. 1, p. 449.
560. Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 9, p. 874.
561. History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 162.
562. Science, vol. 4, No. 98, p. 544.
563. Schwatka’s Search, p. 287.
564. Op. cit., p. 250.
565. Tents, etc., pp. 24, 201.
566. Accounts of this custom of adoption are to be found in Crantz, vol. 1, p. 165; Parry, Second Voyage, p. 531; Kumlien, Contributions, p. 17; Gilder, Schwatka’s Search, p. 247, and the passage concerning children quoted above, from Dr. Simpson.
567. Op. cit., p. 252.
568. Second Voyage, p. 529.
569. Compare Nordenskiöld’s account of the comparative cleanliness of the Chukch dwellings at Pitlekaj: “On the other hand it may be stated that in order not to make a stay in the confined tent chamber too uncomfortable certain rules are strictly observed. Thus, for instance, it is not permitted in the interior of the tent to spit on the floor, but this must be done into a vessel which, in case of necessity, is used as a night utensil. In every outer tent there lies a specially curved reindeer horn, with which snow is removed from the clothes; the outer pesk is usually put off before one goes into the inner tent, and the shoes are carefully freed from snow. The carpet of walrus skins which covers the floor of the inner tent is accordingly dry and clean. Even the outer tent is swept clean and free from loose snow, and the snow is daily shoveled away from the tent doors with a spade of whalebone. Every article, both in the outer and inner tent, is laid in its proper place, and so on.” (Vega, vol. 2, p. 104.)
570. Compare Dall, Alaska, p. 20.
571. See Nordenskiöld, Vega, vol. 2, p. 104.
572. Greenland, p. 127.
573. Narrative, p. 155.
574. Beechy’s Voyage p. 312.
575. N. W. Passage, p. 385.
576. Dr. Simpson says (op. cit., p. 275): “Diseases are also considered to be turn´gaks.”
577. Tents, etc., p. 185.
578. Vol. 1, p. 235.
579. Alaska, p. 146.
580. Egede, Greenland, p. 150.
581. Compare Lyon, Journal, p. 269.
582. Tents, etc., p. 88.
583. Alaska, p. 382.
584. Compare Samoyed grave described and figured by Nordenskiöld (Vega, vol. 1, p. 98), where a broken sledge was laid upside down by the grave.
585. Compare Holm, Geografisk Tidskrift, vol. 8, p. 98: “kun Kostbarheder, saasom Knive eller lignende Jærnsager beholde den afdødes efterladte.”—East Greenland.
586. Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 9, p. 877.
587. See the passage quoted from Bessels, for Smith Sound; Egede, Greenland, p. 148; Crantz’s History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 237; East Greenland, Holm, Geografisk Tidskrift, vol. 8, p. 98, and Scoresby, Voyage to Northern Whalefishery, p. 213 (where he speaks of finding on the east coast of Greenland graves dug and covered with slabs of stone. Digging graves is very unusual among the Eskimo, as the nature of the ground on which they live usually forbids it. Parry mentions something similar at Iglulik: “The body was laid in a regular, but shallow grave, * * * covered with flat pieces of limestone” (Second Voyage, p. 551); Lyon, Journal, p. 268 (Iglulik); Kumlien, Contribution, p. 44 (Cumberland Gulf); Hall, Arctic Researches, p. 124 (Baffin Land); Rae Narrative, pp. 22 and 187 (northwest shore of Hudson Bay), and Ellis, Voyage to Hudson’s Bay, p. 148 (Marble Island). I myself have noticed the same custom at the old Eskimo cemetery near the Hudson Bay post of Rigolette, Hamilton Inlet, on the Labrador coast. Chappel, however, saw a body “closely wrapt in skins and laid in a sort of a gully,” Hudson’s Bay, p. 113 (north shore Hudson Strait), and Davis’s account of what he saw in Greenland is as follows: “We found on shore three dead people, and two of them had their staues lying by them and their olde skins wrapped about them.” Hakluyt, Voyages, 1589, p. 788.
588. Franklin, Second Expedition, p. 192.
589. Voyage, pl. opposite p. 332.
590. Vega, vol. 2, p. 238, and figure of grave on p. 239.
591. See Nordenskiöld, Vega, vol. 2, p. 88, and Dall, Alaska, p. 382.
592. See Nordenskiöld, Vega, vol. 2, pp. 88-9 (Pitlekaj), and 225 (St. Lawrence Bay); Krause Bros., Geographische Blätter, vol. 5, p. 18 (St. Lawrence Bay, East Cape, Indian Point, and Plover Bay) and Dall, Alaska, p. 382.
593. Greenland, p. 151. See also Crantz, vol. 1, p. 237.
594. Egede, Greenland, p. 149, and Crantz, vol. 1, p. 287.
595. Dall, Alaska, pp. 19, 145, and 227.
596. Petroff, Report, p. 127.
597. Alaska, p. 403, and Voyage, p. 200.
598. Compare, among other instances, Capt. Holm’s observations in East Greenland: “Som Overhoved i Huset [which is the village] fungerer den ældeste Mand, naar han er en god Fanger, etc.” (Geogr. Tids., vol. 8, p. 90.)
599. Rink, Tales and Traditions, p. 28. Compare also Crantz, vol. 1, p. 181.
600. Bessels, Naturalist, vol. 23, pt. p. 873.
601. Compare Rink, Tales, etc., p. 29: “But if an animal of the largest size, more especially a whale, was captured, it was considered common property, and as indiscriminately belonging to every one who might come and assist in flensing it, whatever place he belonged to and whether he had any share in capturing the animal or not.” (Greenland). Gilder (Schwatka’s Search, p. 190) says that on the northwest shore of Hudson Bay all who arrive while a walrus is being cut up are entitled to a share of it, though the man who struck it has the first choice of pieces. At East Cape, Siberia, the Krause Brothers learned: “Wird nämlich ein Walfisch gefangen, so hat jeder Ortsbewohner das Recht, so viel Fleisch zu nehmen, als er abzuschneiden vermag.” (Geographische Blätter, vol. 5, pt. 2, p. 120).
602. Tales, etc., p. 29.
603. Op. cit., p. 272.
604. Tales, etc., p. 25.
605. Op. cit.
606. Compare what the Krause Brothers say of the “chiefs” on the Siberian coast (Geographische Blätter, vol. 5, pt. 1, p. 29): “Die Autorität, welche die obenerwähnten Männer augenscheinlich ausüben, ist wohl auf Rechnung ihres grösseren Besitzes zu setzen. Der “Chief” is jedes Mal der reichste Mann, ein ‘big man.’”
607. See, also, Dr. Simpson, op. cit., p. 273.
608. Report, etc., p. 125.
609. Compare the case of the alleged “chiefs” of the Chukches, in Nordenskiöld’s Vega, vol. 1, pp. 449 and 495.
610. Op. cit., p. 273 et seq.
611. Compare Graah’s account of the ceremony of summoning a torngak in East Greenland (Narrative, p. 123). “Come he did, however, at last, and his approach was announced by a strange rushing sound, very like the sound of a large bird flying beneath the roof.” (The italics are my own.) The angekut evidently have some juggling contrivance, carefully concealed from laymen, perhaps of the nature of a “whizzing-stick.”
612. Compare Rink’s description of the ceremony of summoning a tornak to ask his advice, in Greenland (Tales, etc., p. 60). This was performed before a company in a darkened house. The angekok lay on the floor, beside a suspended skin and drum, with his hands tied behind his back and his head between his legs. A song was sung by the audience, and the angekok invoked his tornak, beating on the skin and the drum. The spirit announced his arrival by a peculiar sound and the appearance of a light or fire.
613. Tales, etc., p. 14.
614. Compare Rink (Tales, etc. p. 56): “Several fetid and stinking matters, such as old urine, are excellent means for keeping away all kinds of evil-intentioned spirits and ghosts.”
615. Rink, Tales, etc., p. 56.
616. “When an Innuit passes the place where a relative has died, he pauses and deposits a piece of meat near by.” Baffin Land, Hall, Artic Researches, p. 574.
617. Report Point Barrow Expedition, p. 46.
618. Compare Rink, Tales, etc., p. 64; Crantz, vol. 1, p. 215, and Parry, 2d voyage, p. 548: “Seal’s flesh is forbidden, for instance, in one disease, that of the walrus in the other; the heart is denied to some, and the liver to others.”
619. Vol. 1, p. 216.
620. Beechey saw the skulls of seals and other animals kept in piles round the houses at Hotham Inlet (Voyage, p. 259).
621. Second Voyage, p. 510.
622. Vega, vol. 1, p. 435.
623. Vega, vol. 2, p. 137.
624. John Davis describes the Greenlanders in 1586 as follows: “They are idolaters, and have images great store, which they wore about them, and in their boats, which we suppose they worship.” (Hakluyt, Voyages, etc., 1589, p. 782.)
625. Rink, Tales, etc., p. 52.
626. Parry mentions bones of the wolverine worn as amulets at Fury and Hecla’s Strait (second voyage, p. 497).
627. Compare the Greenland story told by Rink (Tales, etc., p. 195), when the man who has a gull for his amulet is able to fly home from sea because the gull seeks his prey far out at sea, while the one whose amulet is a raven can not, because this bird seeks his prey landward. Such an amulet as the latter would probably be chosen with a view to making a man a successful deer hunter.
628. Compare the Greenland story, where a salmon amulet makes a man too slippery to be caught by his pursuers. (Rink Tales, etc., p. 182.)
629. Compare Kumlien, Contributions, p. 45. “Another charm of great value to the mother who has a young babe is the canine tooth of the polar bear. This is used as a kind of clasp to a seal-skin string, which passes round the body and keeps the breasts up. Her milk supply cannot fail while she wears this.” (Cumberland Gulf.)
630. Compare the story in Rink’s Tales and Traditions (p. 445), where the kaiak, which had a piece of sheldrake fastened into the bow for an amulet, went faster than the sheldrake flies.
631. Compare Crantz, vol. 1, p. 216. “The boat [for whaling] must have a fox’s head in front, and the harpoon be furnished with an eagle’s beak.” The latter statement is interesting in connection with the tern’s bill on the seal harpoon, from Point Barrow, already referred to.
632. American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 1.
633. Greenland, p. 194.
634. History of Greenland, vol. I, p. 216.
635. Second voyage, p. 497.
636. Contributions, p. 45.
637. Voyage, p. 333.
638. Monographie, etc., p. xv.
639. Nordenskiöld, Vega, vol. 2, p. 126.
640. Vega, vol. 1, p. 503.
641. Geografisk Tidskrift, vol. 8, p. 94.