Chapter XV: Introduction (14)

When a light breeze is blowing from the northeast the ducks, no matter how far off shore they are when first seen, always head for the point of land on the other side of this outlet, probably with the intention of following the line of lagoons and going out to sea farther down the coast, as they sometimes do. When, however, they reach this critical point they catch sight of the posts, and the natives who are watching them sharply set up a shrill yell. Frightened by this and by the line of posts, nine times out of ten, if the cry is given at the right moment, the ducks will falter, become confused, and, finally, collecting into a compact body will whirl along the line of posts, past the tents, flying close to the water, and turn out to sea at the first open space, which is just where the gunners are posted. This habit of yelling to frighten the ducks and bring them within gunshot has been observed on the Siberian coast in places where the ducks are in the habit of flying in and out from lagoons over low bars.[N386] Should the wind blow hard from the east, however, or blow from any other quarter, the ducks do not fly in such abundance, nor do they pay much attention to the posts or the yelling, but often keep on their course down the lagoons, or head straight for the beach and cross wherever they strike it. The latter is generally the habit with the old squaws, who come rather late in the migrations, while the black brant (Branta nigricans) are more apt to go down the lagoons. A few pintail ducks (Dafila acuta), are occasionally shot at this season, and are sometimes found in the two little village ponds (Tûseraru). The shooting at Pernyû usually lasts till the middle or end of September, during which month the natives also shoot a good many gulls (Larus barrovianus and Rhodostethia rosea) as they fly along the shore.

[Footnote N386: Von der Lagune aus pflegten jeden Morgen und Abend
grosse Entenschaaren über den Ort hinweg nach dem Meere zu
fliegen. Dann wurden durch Pfeifen und Schreien die Thiere so
geängstigt, dass sie ihren Flug abwärts richteten und nun durch
die mit grosser Sicherheit geworfene Schleuder oder durch
Flintenschüsse erreicht werden konnten. (East Cape), Krause
Brothers, Geographische Blätter, Vol. 5, pt. 1, p. 32.

“The birds were easily called from their course of flight, as we
repeatedly observed. If a flock should be passing a hundred yards
or more to one side, the natives would utter a long, peculiar cry,
and the flock would turn instantly to one side and sweep by in a
circuit, thus affording the coveted opportunity for bringing down
some of their number.” (Cape Wankarem), Nelson, Cruise of the
Corwin, p. 100.]

IMPLEMENTS FOR FISHING.

_Hooks and lines._--The streams and lakes in the immediate neighborhood of Point Barrow contain no fish, and there is comparatively little fishing in the sea. When the water first closes in the autumn narrow tide cracks often form at the very edge of the beach. At these cracks the natives frequently catch considerable numbers of Polar cod (Boreogadus saida) and small sculpins (Cottus quadricornis and C. decastrensis), with the hook and line. The tackle for this fishing consists of a short line of whalebone, provided with a little “squid” or artificial bait of ivory, and fastened to a wooden rod about 18 inches or 2 feet long. The lure, which is apparently meant to represent a small shrimp, is kept moving, and the fish bite at it. We brought home two complete sets of tackle for this kind of fishing, two lines without rods and twelve lures or hooks. No. 89548 [1733] Fig. 264, has been selected for description.

The line is 40 inches long and made of four strips of whalebone 0.1 inch wide, fastened together with what appear to be “waterknots.” Two of these strips are of black whalebone, respectively 4½ and 9 inches long; the other two are of light colored whalebone and 15½ and 11 inches long. The light colored end is made fast to the eye in the small end of the hook as follows: The end is passed through the eye, doubled back and passed through a single knot in the standing part, and knotted round the latter with a similar knot (Fig. 265). This knot is the one generally used in fastening a fishing line to the hook. The other end is doubled in a short bight into which is becket-hitched one end of a bit of sinew thread about 3 inches long, and the other end is knotted into a notch at one end of the rod, as the whalebone would be too stiff to tie securely to the stick. The rod is a roughly whittled splinter of California redwood, 14½ inches long. The body of the lure is a piece of walrus ivory 1½ inches long. Through a hole in the large end of this is driven the barbless brass hook, with a broad thin plate at one end bent up, flush with the convex side. When not in use the line is reeled lengthwise on the rod, secured by a notch at each end of the latter, and the hook stuck into the wood on one side of the rod. The hook is wedged into the body of the lure with a bit of whalebone. The other specimen, No. 89547, [1733] from the same village, is almost exactly like this, but has a slightly shorter line, made of three strips of bone, of which the lower two, as before, are of light colored whalebone. The object of using this material is probably to render the part of the line which is under water less conspicuous, as we use leaders and casting lines of transparent silkworm gut. The body of the lure is made of old brown walrus ivory. These lures are 1 inch to 1½ inches long, and vary little in the shape of the body which is usually made of walrus ivory, in most cases darkened on the surface by age or charring, so that when carved into shape it is parti-colored, black and white. The body is often ornamented with small colored beads inlaid for eyes and along the back (Fig. 266_a_, No. 56609 [153], from Utkiavwĭñ).

The hook is usually of the shape described but is sometimes simply a slightly recurved spur about ½-inch long as in Fig. 266_b_ (No. 56610 [160], also from Utkiavwĭñ). It is usually of brass or copper, rarely of iron. Two peculiar lures from Utkiavwĭñ, are No. 56705 [150_a_ and 150_b_]. The first, _a_, has a body of brass of the usual shape, and a copper hook, and the other, _b_, has the body made of a strip of thin brass to the back of which is fastened a lump of lead or pewter. The hook appears to be made of a common copper tack. We were informed that these lures were also used for catching small fish, trout, smelts, and perhaps grayling in the rivers in summer. No. 89554 [950], Fig. 267_a_, from Utkiavwĭñ, is perhaps intended exclusively for this purpose, as it is larger than the others, (1.9 inch long) and highly ornamented with beads. Fig. 267_b_, No. 89783 [1007], is one of these beaded lures (2½ inches long), with an iron hook, undoubtedly for river fishing, as it belonged to the “inland” native, Ilû´bw’ga. It differs slightly in shape from the others, having two eyes at the small end into which is fastened a leader of sinew braid 3 inches long. On this are strung four blue glass beads and one red one.

No. ----[N387] [151] Fig. 268, from Utkiavwĭñ, is a rod rigged for fishing in the rivers. The rod is a roughly whittled stick of spruce or pine, 27 inches long. One line is 43 and the other 36 inches long and each is made of two strips of whalebone of which the lower is light colored as usual. The shorter line carries a small plain ivory lure of the common pattern, and the longer one a little flat barbless hook of copper with a broad flat shank. This was probably scraped bright and used without bait. The lines are reeled in the usual manner on the rod, and the hooks caught into notches on the sides of it. The small lures are called nĭ´ksĭñ.

[Footnote N387: Museum number effaced.]

When at the rivers in the autumn and early spring, they fish for burbot with a line carrying a peculiar large hook called iɐkqlûñ, which is baited with a piece of whitefish. There are two forms of this hook, which is from 3 to 5¼ inches long. One form differs in size only from the small nĭ´ksĭn, but is always of white ivory and not beaded (Fig. 269, No. 89550 [780] from Utkiavwĭñ, which is 4½ inches long and has a copper hook). The hook is of copper, brass or iron. The other form, which is perhaps the commoner, has a narrow flat body, slightly bent, and serrated on the edges to give a firm attachment to the bait. This body is usually of antler, and has a copper or iron hook either spur-shaped or of the common form as in Fig. 270, No. 89553 [764] from Utkiavwĭñ, which has a body of walrus ivory 4 inches long and a copper hook. Of late years, small cod hooks obtained from the ships have been adapted to these bodies, as is seen in Fig. 271, No. 89552 [841] from Utkiavwĭñ. The shank of the hook has been half imbedded in a longitudinal groove on the flatter side of the body, with the bend of the hook projecting about ¼ inch beyond the tip of the latter. The ring of the hook has been bent open and the end sunk into the body. The hook is held on by two lashings of sinew, one at each end of the shank.

No. 56594 [32] from Utkiavwĭñ is like the preceding, but has a larger hook, which from the bend to the point is wrapped in a piece of deer skin with the flesh side out, and wound with sinew having a tuft of hair at the point of the hook. This is probably to hide the point when the hook is baited. No. 56594 [167] from Utkiavwĭñ, has the hook fastened to the back of the body instead of the flat side. The manner in which these hooks are baited is shown in Fig. 272, which represents a complete set of burbot tackle (No. 89546 [946]) brought in and sold by some Utkiavwĭñ natives, just as they had been using it in the autumn of 1882 at Kuaru or Kulugrua. A piece of whitefish, flesh and skin, with the scales removed is wrapped round the hook so as to make a club-shaped body 4½ inches long and is sewed up along one side with cotton twine. The copper spur projects through the skin on the other side. This hook would not hold the fish unless it were “gorged,” but the voracious burbot always swallows its prey. In dressing these fish for the table, whitefish of considerable size were frequently found in them. The line is of whalebone like those already described but a little stouter, 78 inches long, and made of seven pieces, all black. The end of the line is fastened into an eye in the small end of a rough club-shaped sinker of walrus ivory, 4¾ inches long. There is another eye at the large end of the sinker, for the attachment of a leader of double sinew braid 5½ inches long connecting the hook with the sinker.

The reel, which serves also as a short rod, is of yellow pine 19½ inches long. When the line is reeled up, the hook is caught into the wood on one side of the reel. No. 89545 [946] is a similar set of baited tackle, bought from the same natives, differing from the preceding only in proportions, having a longer line--9 feet and 6 inches--and a somewhat larger bait. We also procured two sets of burbot tackle unbaited.

One of these (No. 56543 [33] from Utkiavwĭñ) has a whalebone line 14 feet long, and a roughly octahedral sinker of walrus ivory 3 inches long and 1½ in diameter. The hook, which is joined to the sinker as before by a leader of stout sinew braid, is of the second pattern, with serrated edges, and a copper hook. The leader is neatly spliced into this. The other, No. 56544 [187], also from Utkiavwĭñ, has no sinker and a hook with a club-shaped body and iron spur. It was probably put together for sale, as it is new. The sinkers, of which we collected five, besides those already mentioned, are always about the same weight and either club-shaped or roughly octahedral. They are always of walrus ivory and usually carelessly made. Fig. 273 (No. 56577 [260]) represents one of these sinkers (kíbica), on which there is some attempt at ornamentation. On the larger are two eyes and the outline of a mouth like a shark’s, incised and filled in with black refuse oil.

A similar line and reel are used for catching polar cod in the spring and late winter through the ice at some distance from the shore. These lines are 10 or 15 fathoms long, and provided with a heavy sinker of ivory, copper, or rarely lead, to which are attached by whalebone leaders of unequal length, two little jiggers like Fig. 274 (the property of the writer, from Utkiavwĭñ). This is of white walrus ivory, 2⅛ inches long and ⅜ in diameter at the largest part. The two slender hooks are of copper and are secured by wedges of whalebone. This makes a contrivance resembling the squid jigs used by our fishermen. These jiggers are sometimes made wholly of copper, which is scraped bright.

This fishery begins with the return of the sun, about the 1st of February, and continues when the ice is favorable until the season is so far advanced that the ice has begun to melt and become rotten. The fish are especially to be found in places where there is a good-sized field of the season’s ice, 3 or 4 feet thick, inclosed by hummocks, and they sometimes occur in very great numbers. In 1882 there was a large field of this kind about 2 miles from the village and the fishing was carried on with great success, but in 1883 the ice was so much broken that the fish were very scarce. Some lads caught a few early in the season, but the fishery was soon abandoned.

A hole about a foot in diameter is made through the ice with an ice pick, and the fragments dipped out either with the long-handled whalebone scoop, or the little dipper made of two pieces of antler mounted on a handle about 2 feet long, which everybody carries in the winter. The line is unreeled and let down through the hole till the jigs hang about a foot from the bottom. The fisherman holds in his left hand the dipper above mentioned, with which he keeps the hole clear of the ice crystals, which form very quickly, and in his right the reel which he jerks continually up and down. The fish, attracted by the white “jiggers,” begin nosing around them, when the upward jerk of the line hooks one of them in the under jaw or the belly. As soon as the fisherman feels the fish, he catches a bight of the line with the scoop in his left hand and draws it over to the left; then catches the line below this with the reel and draws it over to the right, and so on, thus reeling the line up in long hanks on these two sticks, without touching the wet line with his fingers.

When the fish is brought to the surface of the ice, he is detached from the barbless hook with a dextrous jerk, and almost instantly freezes solid. The elastic whalebone line is thrown off the stick without kinking and let down again through the hole. When fish are plentiful, they are caught as fast as they can be hauled up, sometimes one on each “jigger.” If the fisherman finds no fish at the first hole he moves to another part of the field and tries again until he succeeds in “striking a school.” The fish vary in abundance on different days, being sometimes so plentiful that I have known two or three children to catch a bushel in a few hours, while some days very few are to be taken. In addition to the polar cod, a few sculpins are also caught, and occasionally the two species of Lycodes (L. turnerii and coccineus) which voracious fish sometimes seize the little polar cod struggling on the “jigger” and are thus caught themselves. This fishery is chiefly carried on by the women, children, and old men, who go out in parties of five or six, though the hunters sometimes go fishing when they have nothing else to do. There were generally thirty or forty people out at the fishing-ground every day in 1882.

Jiggers of this pattern appear to be used at Pitlekaj, from Nordendskiöld’s description[N388], but I have seen no account either there or elsewhere of the peculiar method of reeling up the line such as we saw at Point Barrow. Lines of whalebone are very common among the Eskimo generally,[N389] and perhaps this material is preferable to any other for fishing in this cold region, for not only does the elastic whalebone prevent kinking, but the ice which forms instantly on the wet line in winter does not adhere to it, but can easily be shaken off. No. 56545 [410] is a line 51 feet and 10 inches long and 0.05 inch in diameter, made of human hair, neatly braided in a round braid with four strands. This was called a fishing line, but was the only one of the kind seen. Fishhooks of the kind described, with a body of bone or ivory, which serves for a lure, armed with a spur or bent hook of metal, without a barb, seem to be the prevailing type amongst the Eskimo. In the region about Norton Sound (as shown by the extensive collections of Mr. Nelson and others) this is often converted into an elaborate lure by attaching pendants of beads, bits of the red beak of the puffin, etc. Crantz mentions a similar custom in Greenland of baiting a hook with beads.[N390]

[Footnote N388: Vega, vol. 2, p. 110.]

[Footnote N389: “Their Lines are made of Whalebones, cut very
small and thin, and at the End tacked together.” Egede, Greenland,
p. 107. See also, Crantz, vol. 1, p. 95; Dall, Alaska, p. 148; and
the Museum Collections which contain many whalebone lines from the
Mackenzie and Anderson rivers, collected by MacFarlane, and from
the whole western region, collected by Nelson.]

[Footnote N390: “Instead of a bait, they put on the hook a white
bone, a glass bead, or a bit of red cloth” (when fishing for
sculpins). History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 95.]

_Nets (Kubra)._--The most important fishery at the rivers is carried on by means of gill-nets, set under the ice, and visited every few days. In these are taken large numbers of all three species of whitefish (Coregonus kenicotti, C. nelsoni, and C. laurettæ.) The collection contains three specimens of these nets, two of whalebone and one of sinew. No. 56754 [147], Fig. 275, is a typical whalebone net. It is long and shallow, 79 meshes long and 21 deep, made of fine strips of whalebone fastened together as in the whalebone fishing lines. Most of the whalebone is black, but a few light colored strips are intermixed at random. The length of the mesh is 3¼ inches, and the knot used in making them is the ordinary netting-knot. When not in use the net is rolled up into a compact ball and tied up with a bit of string. When set, this net is 21 feet 7 inches long and 3 feet 4 inches deep. The other whalebone net (No. 56753 [172], also from Utkiavwĭñ), is similar to this, but slightly larger, being 87 meshes (25 feet) long and 22 (3 feet 9 inches) deep. The length of mesh is 3½ inches. Fig. 276 (unit of web) is a net (No. 56752 [171] from the same village) of the same mesh and depth, but 284 meshes (60 feet) long and made of twisted sinew twine.

I had no opportunity of seeing the method of setting these nets under the ice, but it is probably the same as that used in setting the seal nets. When in camp at Pernyû in the summer, the natives set these nets in the shoal water of Elson Bay, at right angles to the beach, with a stake at each end of the net. They are set by a man in a kayak, and in them are gilled considerable numbers of whitefish, two species of salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha and O. nerka) and an occasional trout (Salvelinus malma). They take these nets east with them on their summer expeditions, but we did not learn the method of using them at this season. Perhaps they are sometimes used for seining on the beach, as Thomas Simpson says that the Eskimo at Herschel Island (probably Kûñmûd´lĭñ) sold his party “some fine salmon trout, taken in a seine of whalebone, which they dragged ashore by means of several slender poles spliced together to a great length.”[N391]

[Footnote N391: Narrative, p. 115.]

An Utkiavwĭñ native told us that he found trout (Salvelinus malma) so plentiful at or near the mouth of the Colville, in 1882, that he fed his dogs with them.

Fig. 277 is a peculiar net or fish-trap (No. 56755 [190]) from Utkiavwĭñ, the only specimen of the kind seen. It is a conical, wide-mouthed bag, 8 feet 4 inches long and 5½ feet wide at the mouth, netted all in one piece of twisted sinew, with a 2¼-inch mesh. This was brought over for sale at an early date, before we were well acquainted with the natives, and we only learned that it was set permanently for catching fish. Unfortunately, we never saw another specimen, and through the press of other duties never happened to make further inquiries about it. From its shape it would appear as if it were meant to be set in a stream with the mouth towards the current. This contrivance is called sápotĭn, which corresponds to the Greenlandic saputit, a dam for catching fish.

From all accounts, the natives east of the Anderson River region were ignorant of the use of the net before they made the acquaintance of the whites,[N392] though they now use it in several places, as in Greenland and Labrador. The earliest explorers on the northwest coast, however, found both fish and seal nets in use, though, as I have already mentioned, the seal net was spoken of at Point Barrow as a comparatively recent invention. At the present day, nets are used all along the coast from the Mackenzie and Anderson rivers (see MacFarlane’s Collection) as far south at least as the Yukon delta.[N393] I have not been able to learn whether gill nets are used in the delta of the Kuskoquim. Petroff[N394] mentions fish traps and dip nets merely. That the natives of Kadiak formerly had no nets I infer from Petroff’s statement[N395] that “of late they have begun to use seines of whale sinew.” Nets are generally used on the Siberian coast. We observed them ourselves at Plover Bay, and Nordenskiöld[N396] describes the nets used at Pitlekaj, which are made of sinew thread. It is almost certain that the American Eskimo learned the use of the net from the Siberians, as they did the habit of smoking, since the use of the gill net appears to have been limited to precisely the same region as the Siberian form of tobacco pipe.[N397]

[Footnote N392: The Greenlanders used a sort of sieve or scoop
net, not seen at Point Barrow, for catching caplin (Mallotus
villosus). Egede, Greenland, p. 108; and Crantz, vol. 1, p. 95.
John Davis, however, says of the Greenlanders in 1586, “They make
nets to take their fish of the finne of a whale.” Hakluyt’s
Voyages, etc. (1589), p. 782.]

[Footnote N393: Dall, Alaska, p. 147; and Petroff, Report, etc.,
p. 127.]

[Footnote N394: Op cit., p. 73.]

[Footnote N395: Op cit., p. 142.]

[Footnote N396: Vega, vol. 2, p. 109.]

[Footnote N397: See the writer’s paper in the American
Anthropologist, vol. 1, pp. 325-336.]

_Spears._--The only evidence which we have of the use of spears for catching fish in this region is a single specimen, No. 89901 [1227], Fig. 278, from Utkiavwĭñ, which was newly and rather carelessly made for sale, but intended, as we were told, for spearing fish. This has a roughly whittled shaft, of spruce, 21½ inches long, armed at one end with three prongs. The middle prong is of whalebone, 4⅓ inches long, inserted into the tip of the shaft, which is cut into a short neck and whipped with sinew. The side prongs are also of bone, 9 inches long. Through the tip of each is driven a sharp, slender slightly recurved spur of bone, about 1½ inches long. Each prong is fastened to the shaft with two small wooden treenails, and they are braced with a figure-of-eight lashing of sinew through holes in the side prongs and around the middle one. The side prongs are somewhat elastic, so that when the spear is struck down on the back of a fish they spring apart and allow the middle prong to pierce him, and then spring back so that the spurs either catch in his sides or meet below his belly, precisely on the principle of the “patent eel spear.” This implement is almost identical with one in the National Museum from Hudson Bay, which appears to be in general use among the eastern Eskimo.[N398] The name, kăki´bua, is very nearly the same as that used by the eastern natives (kākkĭe-wĕi, Parry, and kakívak, Kumlien). This spear is admirably adapted for catching large fish in shallow rocky streams where a net can not be used, or where they are caught by dams in tidal streams in the manner described by Egede and Crantz. There is so little tide, however, on the northwest coast, that this method of fishing can not be practiced, and, as far as I know, there is no locality in the range of the Point Barrow natives, a region of open shoal beaches, and rivers free of rocks, where this spear could be used in which a net would not serve the purpose much better. Taking into consideration the scarcity of these spears and the general use of nets, I am inclined to believe that this spear is an ancient weapon, formerly in general use, but driven out of fashion by the introduction of nets.

[Footnote N398: Kumlien’s description (Contributions, p. 37,
Cumberland Gulf) would apply almost word for word to this spear,
and Captain Parry, (Second Voyage, p. 509) describes a very
similar one in use at Iglulik. The “Perch, headed with two
sharp-hooked Bones,” for spearing salmon--called in the Grenlandsk
Ordbog, kakiak, “en Lyster (med to eller tre Pigge)”--mentioned by
Egede (Greenland, p. 108) is probably the same thing, and a
similar spear is spoken of by Rae (Narrative, p. 172) as in use at
Repulse Bay. A similar weapon, described by Dr. Rink as “Mit einem
in brittischen Columbien vorkommenden identisch,” was found in
east Greenland (Deutsche Geographische Blätter, vol. 9, p. 234).
See the description of the spear found by Schwatka at Back’s Great
Fish River (Nimrod in the North, p. 139), also described by
Klutschak (Als Eskimo, etc., p. 120).]

FLINT WORKING.

These people still retain the art of making flint arrow and spearheads, and other implements such as the blades for the skin scrapers to be hereafter described. Many of the flint arrowheads and spear points already described were made at Nuwŭk or Utkiavwĭñ especially for sale to us and are as finely formed and neatly finished as any of the ancient ones. The flints, in many cases water-worn pebbles, appear to have been splintered by percussion into fragments of suitable sizes, and these sharp-edged spalls are flaked into shape by means of a little instrument consisting of a short, straight rod of some hard material mounted in a short curved haft. We collected nine of these tools (kĭ´gli) of which two have no blades. No. 89262 [1223] figured in Point Barrow Report, Ethnology, Pl. III, Fig. 7, has been selected as the type. The handle is of walrus ivory, 7.8 inches long, straight and nearly cylindrical for about 4½ inches, then bending down like a saw handle and spread out into a spatulate butt. Fitted into a deep groove on the top of the handle so that its tip projects 1.8 inches beyond the tip of the latter is a slender four-sided rod of whale’s bone, 4.7 inches long. This is held in place by two simple lashings, one of cotton twine and the other of seal thong. The flint to be flaked is held in the left hand and pressed against the fleshy part of the palm which serves as a cushion and is protected by wearing a thick deer-skin mitten. The tool is firmly grasped well forward in the right hand with the thumb on top of the blade and by pressing the point steadily on the edge of the flint, flakes of the desired size are made to fly off from the under surface.

These tools vary little in pattern, but are made of different materials. Hard bone appears to have been the commonest material for the blade, as three out of the seven blades are of this substance. One specimen (No. 89263 [796] from Utkiavwĭñ) has a blade of iron of the same shape but only 2 inches long. No. 89264 [1001] also from Utkiavwĭñ, Fig. 279_a_, has a short blade of black flint flaked into a four-sided rod 1½ inches long. This is held in place by a whipping of stout seal thong tightened by thrusting a splinter of wood in at the back of the groove.

Two specimens (Nos. 89260 [794] Fig. 279_b_ and 89261 [1216] both from Utkiavwĭñ) have blades of the peculiar Nuɐsuknan concretions previously described. Each is an oblong pebble wedged into the groove and secured by a lashing as usual. No. 89260 [794] has a haft of antler. This is rather the commonest material for the haft. Two specimens have hafts of walrus ivory and three of fossil ivory. The length of the haft is from 6 to 8 inches, of the blade 1.5 to 4.7 inches. Fig. 280 (No. 89265 [979] from Nuwŭk) is the haft of one of these tools, made of fossil ivory, yellow from age and stained brown in blotches, which shows the way in which the groove for the blade was excavated, namely, by boring a series of large round holes and cutting away the material between them. The remains of the holes are still to be seen in the bottom of the groove. The tip of this haft has been roughly carved into a bear’s head with the eyes and nostrils incised and filled with black dirt, and the eyes, nostrils, and mouth of a human face have been rudely incised on the under side of the butt and also blackened. All this carving is new and was done with the view of increasing the market value of the object. The original ornamentation consists of an incised pattern on the upper surface of the butt, colored with red ocher which has turned black from age and dirt.

Fig. 281 (No. 89782 [1004_e_]) is one of these tools, very neatly made, with a haft of reindeer antler and a bone blade, secured by a whipping of seal thong which belongs with the “kit” of tools owned by the “inland” native, Ilû´bw’ga. Mr. Nelson collected a number of specimens of this tool at various points on the northwest coast from Point Hope as far south as Norton Bay, but I can find no evidence of its use elsewhere.

FIRE MAKING.

_Drills._--In former times fire was obtained in the method common to so many savages, from the heat developed by the friction of the end of a stick worked like a drill against a piece of soft wood. This instrument was still in use at least as late as 1837,[N399] but appears to have been wholly abandoned at Point Barrow at the time of the _Plover’s_ visit, though still in use at Kotzebue Sound.[N400]

[Footnote N399: “Their own clumsy method of producing fire is by
friction with two pieces of dry wood in the manner of a
drill.”--(T. Simpson, Narrative, p. 162.)]

[Footnote N400: Dr. Simpson, op. cit., p. 242.]

A native of Nuwŭk one day brought down for sale what he said was an exact model of the ancient fire drill, nióotĭñ. This is No. 89822 [1080], Fig. 282. The drill is a stick of pine 12 inches long, shaped like the shaft of a common perforating drill, brought to a blunt but rounded point. This is worked by a string, without bow or handles, consisting of a strip of the skin of the bearded seal, 40 inches long, and has for a mouthpiece the astragalus bone of a reindeer, the natural hollow on one side serving as a socket for the butt of the drill.[N401] The point of the drill is made to work against the split surface of a stick of spruce 18 inches long, along the middle of which is cut a gash, to give the drill a start. Three equidistant circular pits, charred and blackened, were bored out by the tip of the drill, which developed heat enough to set fire to the sawdust produced. Tinder was probably used to catch and hold the fire.

[Footnote N401: Compare Nordenskiöld’s figure of the fire drill in
use at Pitlekaj (Vega, vol. 2, p. 121), which has a similar bone
for a socket, held not in the mouth but in the left hand.]

Most authors who have treated of the Eskimo have described an instrument of this sort in use either in former times or at the present day.[N402]

[Footnote N402: Bessels, Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 9, p. 867,
speaks of a fire drill used at Smith Sound with a bow and a
mouthpiece of ivory.

A Greenlander; seen by John Davis, in 1586, “beganne to kindle a
fire, in his manner: he took a piece of a boord, wherein was a
hole halfe thorow: into that he puts the end of a roũd sticke like
unto a bedstaffe, wetting the end thereof in traine, and in
fashion of a turner, with a piece of lether, by his violent motion
doth very speedily produce fire.”--Hakluyt’s Voyages, etc. (1589),
p. 782.

“They take a short Block of dry Fir Tree, upon which they rub
another Piece of hard Wood, till by the continued Motion the Fir
catches Fire.”--Egede, Greenland, p. 137.

“If their fire goes out, they can kindle it again by turning round
a stick very quick with a string through a hole in a piece of
wood.”--Crantz, History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 145.

Lyon (Journal, p. 210) says that at Iglulik they were able to
procure “fire by the friction of a pin of wood in the hole of
another piece and pressed down like a drill from above.” This was
worked with a bow and willow catkins were used for tinder. A man
informed them that “he had learned it from his father rather for
amusement than for utility; the two lumps of iron pyrites
certainly answering the purpose a great deal better.”

“They have a very dextrous Method of kindling Fire; in order to
which, they prepare two small Pieces of dry Wood, which having
made flat, they next make a small Hole in each, and having fitted
into these Holes a little cylindrical Piece of Wood, to which a
Thong is fastened, they whirl it about thereby with such a
Velocity, that by rubbing the Pieces of Wood one against the
other, this Motion soon sets them on fire.”--Ellis, Voyage to
Hudsons Bay, p. 234.

A picture of the process is given opposite page 132, in which a
man holds the socket, while a woman works the thong (western shore
of Hudson Bay, near Chesterfield Inlet).

Rae also mentions a similar drill used in the same region in 1847
(Narrative, p. 187); and there is a specimen in the National
Museum, collected by MacFarlane, and said to be the kind “in use
until lately” in the Mackenzie and Anderson region.

Dall figures a fire drill with bow and mouthpiece formerly in use
at Norton Sound (Alaska, p. 142); and Hooper (Tents, etc., p. 187)
describes a similar drill at Plover Bay.

From Nordenskiöld’s account (Vega, vol. 2, p. 121) the fire drill
seems to be still generally used by the natives at the Vega’s
winter quarters. He says that the women appeared more accustomed
to the use of the drill than the men, and that a little oil was
put on the end of the drill.]

Among most Eskimo, however, a bow is used to work the drill. The only exceptions to this rule appears to have been the ancient Greenlanders and the people of Hudson Bay (see the passages from Hakluyt, Crantz, and Ellis, just quoted.) Chamisso, however,[N403] speaks of seeing the Aleutians at Unalaska produce fire by means of a stick worked by a string making two turns about the stick and held and drawn with both hands, with the upper end of the stick turning in a piece of wood held in the mouth. When a piece of fir was turned against another piece of the same wood fire was often produced in a few seconds. This passage appears to have escaped the usually keen observation of Mr. W. H. Dall, who, speaking of the ancient Aleutians, says: “The ‘fiddle-bow drill’ was an instrument largely used in their carving and working bone and ivory; but for obtaining fire but two pieces of quarz were struck together,” etc.[N404]

[Footnote N403: Kotzebue’s Voyage, vol. 3, p. 260.]

[Footnote N404: Contribution to N. A. Ethnology, vol. 1, p. 82.]

I had no opportunity of seeing this drill manipulated, but I have convinced myself by experiment that the stick or “light-stock,” to use Nordenskiöld’s expression, must be held down by one foot, the workman kneeling on the other knee.

_Flint and steel._--Fire is usually obtained nowadays by striking a spark in the ordinary method from a bit of flint with a steel, usually a bit of some white man’s tool. Both are carried, as in Dr. Simpson’s time, in a little bag slung around the neck, along with some tinder made of the down of willow catkins mixed with charcoal or perhaps gunpowder. The flints usually carried for lighting the pipe, the only ones I have seen, are very small, and only a tiny fragment of tinder is lighted which is placed on the tobacco. Lucifer matches (kĭlĭăksagan) were eagerly begged, but they did not appear to care enough for them to purchase them. Our friend Nĭkawáalu, from whom we obtained much information about the ancient customs of these people, told us that long ago, “when there was no iron and no flint”--“savik píñmût, ánma píñmût”[N405]--they used to get “great fire” by striking together two pieces of iron pyrites. Dr. Simpson speaks[N406] of two lumps of iron pyrites being used for striking fire, but he does not make it clear whether he saw this at Point Barrow or only at Kotzebue Sound. Iron pyrites appears to have been used quite generally among the Eskimo. Bessels saw it used with quartz at Smith Sound, with willow catkins for tinder[N407] and Lyon mentions the use of two pieces of the same material, with the same kind of tinder, at Iglulik.[N408] Willow catkins are also used for tinder at the Coppermine River.[N409]

[Footnote N405: Compare this with Dr. Simpson’s statement, quoted
above, that stones for arrowheads were brought by the Nunatañmiun
from the Ku´wûk River.]

[Footnote N406: Op. cit., p. 243.]

[Footnote N407: Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 9, p. 867.]

[Footnote N408: Journal, pp. 210 and 231.]

[Footnote N409: Franklin, First Exped., vol. 2, p. 188.]

No. 89825 [1133 and 1722] are some of the catkins used for making the tinder, which were gathered in considerable quantities at the rivers. They are called kĭmmiuru, which perhaps means “little dogs,” as we say “catkins” or “pussy willows.”

_Kindlings._--From the same place they also brought home willow twigs, 9 inches long, and tied with sinews into bunches or fagots of about a dozen or a dozen and a half each, which they said were used for kindling fires. (No. 89824 [1725].)

BOW-AND-ARROW MAKING.

A complete set of bow-and-arrow tools consists of 4 pieces, viz: a marline spike, two twisters, and a feather setter, as shown in Fig. 283, No. 89465 [962], from Utkiavwĭñ. The pieces of this set are perforated and strung on a piece of sinew braid, 4 inches long, with a knot at each end.

_The Marline spike._--This is a flat, four-sided rod of walrus ivory, 5-6 inches long, tapering to a sharp rounded point at one end, and tapered slightly to the other, which terminates in a small rounded knob. It is very neatly made from, rather old yellow ivory, and ornamented on all four faces with conventional incised patterns colored with red ochre.

This implement is used in putting on the backing of a bow to raise parts of the cord when an end is to be passed under and in tucking in the ends in finishing off a whipping. It was probably also used in putting whippings or seizings on any other implements. We collected 10 of these tools, all quite similar, and made of walrus ivory, yellow from age and handling. They vary in length from 4½ to 6 inches, and are always contracted at the upper end into a sort of neck or handle, surmounted by a knob or crossbar. No. 89463 [836] Fig. 284, from Utkiavwĭñ has the crossbar carved very neatly into the figure of an Amphipod crustacean without the legs. The eyes, mouth, and vent are indicated by small round holes filled with some black substance, and there is a row of eight similar holes down the middle of the back. The tip of this tool, which is 5.9 inches long, has been concaved to an edge so as to make a feather-setter of it. Through the knob at the butt there is sometimes a large round eye, as in Fig. 285 (No. 89464 [842] from Utkiavwĭñ, 4.7 inches long). These tools are sometimes plain, like the specimens last figured, and sometimes ornamented with conventional patterns of incised lines, colored with red ocher, like the others.

_The twisters_ (No. 89465 [962]) are flat four-sided rods of walrus ivory, respectively 4.4 and 4.7 inches long. At each end one broad face is raised into a low transverse ridge about 0.1 inch high and the other rounded off, with the ridge on opposite faces at the two ends. They are ornamented on all four faces with longitudinal incised lines, colored with red ocher.

The use of these tools, which was discovered by actual experiment after our return to this country[N410] is for twisting the strands of the sinew backing after it has been put on the bow into the cables already described. The manner in which this tool is used is as follows: The end is inserted between the strands at the middle of the bow, so that the ridge or hook catches the lower strands, and the end is carried over through an arc of 180°, which gives the cable a half turn of twist. This brings the twister against the bow, so that the twisting can be carried no further in this direction, and if the tool were to be removed for a fresh start the strands would have to be held or fastened in some way, making the process a slow one. Instead, the tool is slid back between the strands till the other end comes where the first was, so that the hook at this end catches the strand, and the workman can give to the cable another half turn of twist. This is continued until the cable is sufficiently twisted, the tool sliding back and forth like the handle of a vise. The tools are used in pairs, one being inserted in each cable and manipulated with each hand, so as to give the same amount of twist to each cable. At the present day, these tools are seldom used for bow making, since the sinew-backed bow is so nearly obsolete, but are employed in playing a game of the nature of pitch-penny. (See below, under games and pastimes.)

[Footnote N410: See the writer’s paper on Eskimo bows, Smithsonian
Report for 1884, pt. 2, p. 315.]

These tools, of which we collected twenty-six specimens, are all of walrus ivory, and of almost exactly the same shape, varying a little in size and ornamentation. They vary in length from 3 to 5.7 inches, but are usually about 4½ inches long. The commonest width is 0.4 inches, the narrowest being 0.3 and the widest 0.7 broad, while the thickness is almost always 0.3, varying hardly 0.1 inch. Most of them are plain, but a few are ornamented with incised lines, and two are marked with “circles and dots” as in Fig. 286, one of a rather large pair (No. 56521 [249] from Utkiavwĭñ). These are 5.4 inches long, neatly made and quite clean. All the others show signs of age and use.

There are large numbers of these tools in the National Museum from various points in the region where bows of the Arctic type are used, namely, from the Anderson River to Norton Sound, and one from St. Lawrence Island, whence we have received no twisted bows. Their use was, however, not definitely understood, as they are described simply as “bow tools,” “bow string twisters” or even “arrow polishers.” Mr. Nelson informs me that the tool is now not used in Norton Sound, except for playing a game, as at Point Barrow, but that the natives told him that they were formerly used for tightening the backing on a bow and also for twisting the hard-laid sinew cord, which is quite as much, if not more, used at Norton Sound as the braid so common at Point Barrow. I find no mention of the use of this tool in any of the authors who have treated of the Eskimo, except the following in Capt. Beechey’s vocabulary, collected at Kotzebue Sound: “Marline spike, small of ivory, for lacing bows--ke-poot-tak.” The specimens from the Mackenzie and Anderson rivers are almost without exception made of hard bone, while walrus ivory is the common material elsewhere. The name (kaputɐ) means simply a “twister.”

_The feather-setter_ (_ĭ´gugwau_) (No. 89465 [962]) is a flat, slender, rounded rod of walrus ivory, 7 inches long, with the tip abruptly concaved to a thin, rounded edge. The faces are ornamented with a pattern of straight incised lines, colored with red ocher. This tool is used for squeezing the small ends of the feathering into the wood of the arrow shaft close to the nock. Fig. 287 is a similar tool (No. 89486 [1285] from Utkiavwĭñ) also of walrus ivory, 6 inches long, with the upper end roughly whittled to a sharp point. It is probably made of a broken seal indicator or meat-cache marker. Several other ivory tools previously mentioned have been concaved to an edge at the tip so that they can be used as feather-setters. I do not find this tool mentioned by previous observers, nor have I seen any specimens in the National Museum.

Fig. 288 (No. 89459 [1282] from Utkiavwĭñ) represents an unusual tool, the use of which was not ascertained in the hurry of trade. It has a point like that of a graver, and is made of reindeer antler, ornamented with a pattern of incised lines and bands, colored with red ocher, and was perhaps a marline spike for working with sinew cord.

SKIN-WORKING.

_Scrapers (ikun)._--For removing bits of flesh, fat, etc., from a “green” skin, and for “breaking the grain” and removing the subcutaneous tissue from a dried skin, the women, who appear to do most if not all of this work, use a tool consisting of a blunt stone blade, mounted in a short, thick haft of wood or ivory, fitting exactly to the inside of the hand and having holes or hollows to receive the tips of the fingers and thumb. The skin is laid upon the thigh and thoroughly scraped with this tool, which is grasped firmly in the right hand and pushed from the worker. This tool is also used for softening up skins which have become stiffened from being wet and then dried. The teeth appear to be less often used for such purposes than among the eastern Eskimo.

We obtained eighteen such scrapers, some without blades, and two unmounted blades. Every woman owns one of these tools. While they are all of the same general model, they vary a good deal in details. Four different forms or subtypes have been recognized in the series collected, all modifications of the form seen in Fig. 289, No. 89313 [955], which may be called the type. The blade is of brown jasper, rather coarsely flaked, 1.1 inches long. It is wedged with pieces of skin, into a deep slot in the tip of the handle, which is of fossil ivory, slightly yellowed from handling. The left side against which the thumb rests is slightly flattened, and the right slightly excavated to receive the third and fourth fingers, which are bent round under the lobe, their tips pressing against the concave under surface of the latter. The fore and middle fingers rest upon the upper surface.

No. 89320 [1171] from Utkiavwĭñ, without a blade, is of the same general pattern, but is slightly excavated on the left as well as the right side so as to make a sort of shank. It is of fossil ivory, stained a dingy orange from age and grease. The two incised circles and dots on the upper surface close to the slot make the end of the handle look like the head of a Lophius, which it is perhaps meant to represent. No. 89321 (858), an old fossil ivory handle, has the left side slightly hollowed to receive the tip of the thumb, and a median keel on the upper surface with a barely perceptible hollow on each side of it for the tips of the fingers. This is a step toward the second subtype as shown in Fig. 290 (No. 89317 [748] from Utkiavwĭñ, which has no blade). This is of fossil ivory, thicker and more strongly arched than the type described, deeply excavated below so as to form a broad lobe at the butt, with the upper surface deeply grooved to receive the tips of the fore and middle fingers, and a slight hollow on the left side for the thumb. This specimen is very neatly made and polished, and all the edges are rounded off. One-half of the handle (lengthwise) and the outer quarter of the other half are stained with age and grease a beautiful amber brown. This specimen was said to be as old as the time when men wore but one labret.

The only essential difference between this subtype and the preceding is that the former has deep grooves or hollows for the thumb and two fingers. We collected five specimens of this pattern, all but one with handles of fossil ivory. The single exception, which came from Sidaru, has a handle of walrus ivory, yellowed with age and grease. This specimen (Fig. 291_a_, No. 89322 [1426]) has an unusually short blade (only 0.4 inch long), and is much cut out on the right side so as to make a sort of nick. Fig. 291_b_ (No. 89314 [1780]) is a nearly new handle of this pattern, which was bought of the “Nunatañmiun,” who came to Pernyû in 1883. It is very highly ornamented, both with incised patterns, colored black, and by carving the space between the unusually deep thumb hollow and those for the fingers into what seems to be meant for an ear, in high relief, colored red inside.

The third subtype has the lobe separated from the body on the right side only, leaving the left side unexcavated, except by the thumb-hollow, as is shown in Fig. 292 (No. 89316 [1177] from Utkiavwĭñ) which has a handle of yellowed fossil ivory and a black flint blade. No. 89310 [1071] Fig. 293, from Utkiavwĭñ, is a rather unusual modification of this pattern, with a wooden handle, in which the bottom is not cut out. The thumb groove is deepened into a large hole which opens into the excavation on the right side, while a large oblong slot on top, opening into these cavities, takes the place of the two finger hollows. The blade was of gray flint and rather longer than usual.