Chapter XVII: Introduction (16)

At the present day they are well supplied with steel needles (miksun) of all sizes and patterns, but formerly they used bone needles made from the fibula (amĭlyĕrûñ) of the reindeer. We collected sixty of these needles, eighteen of which appear to be old and genuine. The rest were more or less carefully made for sale. Nĭkawáalu told us that once when he and a young man were out deer hunting a long distance from camp their boots gave out. Having killed a deer he made thread from the sinew, a needle from the bone, and with pieces of the skin repaired their boots, so that they got home in comfort.

No. 89389 [1191], Fig. 325 will serve as the type of these needles. This is a case 3½ inches long, made of the butt of a large quill, closed with a plug of walrus hide, and contains 6 needles. One is 1.8 inches long, stout, and round-pointed, with a large eye. It is much discolored from age. The second is also round-pointed but more slender, 1.9 inches long, and flattened and expanded at the butt. The third is 2.4 inches long, and has a four-sided point like a glover’s needle. All three of these are very neatly made and appear old. The other three are stout, roughly made, and flat, respectively 2.1, 2.2, and 2.5 inches long. Two of them look suspiciously new. This set was said to have been the property of the wife of Puka, Nĭkawáalu’s father.

Fig. 326_a_ is a peculiarly large and flat needle (No. 89392 [1195] from Utkiavwĭñ) 3.2 inches long, with a round, sharp point and a large eye, with little grooves running to the butt on each side for the thread to lie in. This needle was perhaps specially meant for sewing boat skins. With this needle belongs a peculiar large bone or ivory thimble. The remaining needles are all very much alike, though some are more roughly made than the others. Three of them have the butt square instead of rounded, and half of them, including some which are undoubtedly old, are four-sided at the point like a glover’s needle. The longest is 3 inches long and the shortest 1.4 inches, but the commonest length is about 2 or 2½ inches. Similar bone needles are mentioned by various authors.[N420]

[Footnote N420: 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).]

Nearly all the women now use ordinary metal thimbles, obtained in trade, but they wear them in the old-fashioned way, on the tip of the forefinger. Some of the older women, however, still prefer the ancient leather thimble. There are two patterns of these: one intended for the fore-finger only, and the other of such a shape that it may also be worn on the other fingers as a guard against chafing in pulling stout thread through thick leather. It is often so used at the present day.

We collected three of the first-mentioned pattern, which is represented by Fig. 326_b_ (No. 89396 [1202,1246]). It is made by cutting out a narrow ring of raw sealskin 0.7 inch in diameter, with a circular flap 0.5 inch in diameter on the outside of the ring and a corresponding one on the inside of the same size, cut out of the middle of the ring. The flaps are doubled over so as to make a pad on the inside of the forefinger when the tip of the latter is inserted into the ring. The butt of the needle presses against this pad.

The third thimble, which belongs with the needlecase (No. 89371 [1276]), is of precisely the same form and dimensions.

There appeared to be little if any variation among those which we saw. Capt. Lyon[N421] figures two similar thimbles from Iglulik, which are described on page 537 of the same work as being made of leather. The flaps, however, seem to be only semicircular and not folded over, so that the shield consists of only one thickness of leather.

[Footnote N421: Parry, Second Voy., pl. opposite p. 550, Fig. 25.]

A similar thimble with the flap also not folded is used at Cumberland Gulf.[N422]

[Footnote N422: Boas, Central Eskimo, p. 524, Fig. 473 and
Kumlien, Contributions, p. 25.]

The other pattern, of which we brought home nine specimens, is represented by No. 89389 [1191], which belongs with the set of bone needles of the same number. It is a tube, open at both ends, one of which is larger than the other, made by bending round a strip of split walrus hide and sewing the ends together. It is 0.4 inch long and 2.1 in circumference at the larger end. It is worn smooth with handling, and impregnated with grease and dirt and marked with small pits where it has been pressed against the butt of the needle in use.

Four other old thimbles (No. 89393 [1194], from Utkiavwĭñ, are made in the same way, but are a trifle larger. As they show no needle-marks, they were probably used only as finger guards. The remaining four are similar to the above, but newly made, for sale.

A most peculiar thimble, the only one of the kind seen, is shown in Fig. 326_a_ (No. 89392 [1195] from Utkiavwĭñ, belonging with the large bone needle of the same number already described and figured). This is made of a single piece of walrus ivory, browned with age, and the round shallow socket is for the butt of the needle. The ends of the half ring are slightly expanded and notched on the outside to receive a string to complete the ring so that it can be fitted round the finger, with the flange in the same position as the pad of a leather thimble.

Needles are kept in a case (ujyami), consisting of a tube of bone or ivory about 5 or 6 inches long, through which is drawn a broad strap of leather furnished with a knot at one end to keep it from slipping wholly through. Into one side of this strap the needles are thrust obliquely, so that when the strap is pulled in they are covered by the tube. To the other end of the strap is usually attached an ivory snap hook for fastening the needle case to the girdle of the pantaloons. These needle cases are made of two slightly different patterns, of which the first is represented by No. 89365 [1277], Fig. 327_a_. It is of white walrus ivory, 4½ inches long, and the strap is of seal thong about 11 inches long and 0.3 inch wide. At one end of this is a pear-shaped knob of walrus ivory, which is shouldered off at the small end and worked into a short flattened shank perforated with a large eye, through which the end of the strap, which is cut narrow, is thrust. It is fastened by doubling it back and sewing it to the standing part. A sky-blue transparent glass bead is inlaid in the large end of the knob. The other end of the strap is fastened in the same way into a tranverse slot in the end of the belt hook (tĭ´tkĭbwĭñ) of ivory, 4.7 inches long.

This pattern appears to be usually made of walrus ivory. Only one of the six brought home is of bone, and this is an unusually small one, only 3.6 inches long, made for sale. The usual length is 4½ to 5 inches. No. 89363 [1105], Fig. 327_b_, from Utkiavwĭñ, is a tube very much like the one described, but is ornamented with an incised pattern colored with red ocher, and has a differently shaped belt hook. When the latter is hooked over the girdle the ring is pushed up the shank over the point of the hook till it fits tight, and thus keeps the hook from slipping off the belt.

Fig. 328_a_ (No. 89364 [1243] from Utkiavwĭñ) is another ivory needle case, 4.7 inches long. The tube was once ornamented with incised patterns, but these are almost wholly worn off by constant handling. The knob is carved into an ornamental shape, having a circle of six round knobs round the middle. It has been suggested that this is meant to represent a cloud-berry (Rubus chamæmorus), a fruit known to the “Nunatañmiun” though not at Point Barrow. The hook is a snap hook very much like those described in connection with the netting weights, but larger (3 inches long) and very broad at the upper end, which is made into a broad ring. The point of a steel needle still sticking in the flesh side of the strap shows how the needles are carried with the points toward the knob.

No. 89370 [1033], also from Utkiavwĭñ, has no knob, but the end of the strap is kept from slipping through by rolling it up transversely and catching it with a stitch of sinew. It has a broad flat snap hook similar to the last, but cut on the edges into ornamental scallops. The tube is ornamented with an incised pattern colored red with ocher, and is 5.2 long. No. 56575 [7] is an old tube of brown walrus ivory, enlarged into a knob at one end. It has no knob or hook, but a new strap of white seal skin, in the lower end of which is tied a large knot. The other pattern has the cylinder made of a hollow “long” bone, in its natural shape. This bone appears to be almost always the humerus of some large bird, probably a swan. The strap has usually no knob, but is kept from slipping through by knotting the end or tying on a large bead or a bear’s toe, or some such object too large to go through the tube. None of these have belt hooks except one new and roughly made specimen.

These bone tubes are apparently older than the neat ivory cylinders, and it is not unlikely that the belt hook was not invented till the former was mostly out of fashion. No. 89361 [1239], Fig. 328_b_ from Utkiavwĭñ, is one of these which has for knob one of the large dark blue glass beads which used to bring such enormous prices in the early days of Arctic trading, and which are still the kind most highly prized. The end of the strap is cut narrow, passed through the bead, and knotted on the end. This case carries a half-dozen of the old-fashioned bone needles, which appear to be genuine. It is 3.7 inches long and, roughly speaking, 0.4 in diameter. No. 89369 [1201], also from Utkiavwĭñ, resembles the above, but has a wolverine’s toe sewed to the end of the strap. No. 89371 [1276], from Utkiavwĭñ, also has the toe of a wolverine for a knob, and has a belt hook with two tongues made of reindeer antler. No. 89366 [1137], from Utkiavwĭñ, is a highly ornamented case of this pattern, which has a short cylindrical knob, also ornamented. No. 89368 [1089], from Utkiavwĭñ, is not made of bird’s bone, but is a piece of a long bone from some mammal, and has a brown bear’s toe for a knob. No. 89367 [1339], from the same village, is roughly made of a branch of antler, 3.9 inches long and 0.8 wide, hollowed out. It has a knob of whale’s bone, but no belt hook, the end of the strap being knotted into a leather thimble of the first pattern. Of the six specimens of this pattern in the collection only the first is a genuine old implement. All the others are merely commercial imitations rather carelessly made.

This kind of needle case is very commonly used throughout Alaska, as is shown by the enormous collections in the National Museum brought home by various explorers, Nelson, Turner, Dall and others. The needle case from Iglulik, figured by Capt. Lyon,[N423] resembles the second or older pattern, being of bone, not tapered at the ends, and having neither knob nor belt hook. To the ends of the strap are hung thimbles “and other small articles liable to be lost.”[N424] Dr. Simpson[N425] speaks of the needle case in use at Point Barrow, but merely describes it as “a narrow strip of skin in which the needles are stuck, with a tube of bone, ivory, or iron to slide down over them, and kept from slipping off the lower end by a knob or large bead.” This appears to refer only to the second or older pattern.

[Footnote N423: Parry’s Second Voyage, pl. opposite p. 550, Fig.
25.]

[Footnote N424: Ibid., p. 537.]

[Footnote N425: Op. cit, p. 245.]

The old-fashioned ring thimbles were usually carried on the belt hook of the needlecase, but modern thimbles require a box. These boxes (kigiunɐ), which are usually small and cylindrical, also serve for holding thread, beads, and all sorts of little trinkets or knickknacks, and many of them are so old that they were evidently used for this purpose long before the introduction of metal thimbles. Little tin canisters, spice boxes, etc., are also used for the same purpose nowadays. We brought home thirteen of these boxes, of which No. 89407 [1158] Fig. 329_a_ has been chosen as the type. It is a piece of the beam of a stout antler, 4.3 inches long, cut off square on the ends and hollowed out. Into the large end is fitted a flat bottom of thin pine, fastened in by four little treenails of wood. The cover is of the same material. It is held on by a string of sinew braid about 11 inches long, which passes out through the lower of the two little holes on one side of the box, being held by a knot at the end, in through the upper, then out and in through two similar holes in the middle of the cover, and out through a hole on the other side of the box. Pulling the end of this string draws the cover down snugly into its place.

Some of the remaining boxes are made of antler, and vary in length from 4.7 to 8 inches. The last is, however, unusually large, most of the others being about 5 inches long. The covers are generally held on by strings much in the manner described, and the ends are both usually of wood, though two old boxes have both ends made of antler, and one has a top of hard bone. The last is a specimen newly made for sale. These boxes are sometimes ornamented on the outside with incised lines, colored red or blackened, either conventional patterns as in Fig. 329_b_ (No. 89405 [1335], from Utkiavwĭñ) or figures of men and animals as in Fig. 329_c_ (No. 56615 [41] from the same village). The former is a new box, 4.7 inches long, and has the wooden ends both shouldered to fit tightly. The cover is worked with a string.

No. 56615 [41] on the other hand is very old, and has lost its cover. The wooden bottom is shouldered and held in with treenails. The surface is elaborately ornamented with incised and blackened figures. It is divided by longitudinal lines into four nearly equal panels, on which the figures are disposed as follows (the animals all being represented as standing on the longitudinal lines, and facing toward the right, that is, toward the open end of the box): On the first panel are 4 reindeer, alternately a buck and a doe, followed by a man in a kaiak, and over his head two small “circles and dots,” one above the other. All the deer on this box are represented strictly in profile, so as to show only two legs and one antler each. On the second panel are 4 deer, all does, followed by a man with a bow slung across his back. On the third, a man in the middle appears to be calling 2 dogs, who, at the left of the panel, are drawing a railed sled. Reversed, and on the upper border of the panel, is a man pushing behind a similar sled drawn by 3 dogs. The head dog has stopped and is sitting down on his haunches. The dogs, like the reindeer, are all strictly in profile and rather conventionalized. In the fourth panel are 3 reindeer followed by a man in his kaiak, and upside down, above, a deer without legs, supposed to be swimming in the water, and a very rude figure of a man in his kaiak. These figures probably represent actual occurrences, forming a sort of record.

Fig. 330_a_ (No. 89408 [1371] from Sidaru) is a piece of stout antler, 4.7 inches long, which has the bottom of pine fitted tightly in without fastenings. The cover is of wood, covered, to make it fit tight, with parchment, apparently shrunk on and puckered on the upper surface. A thick hank of untwisted sinew is fastened as a handle through the middle of the cover. This box is old and dirty, and contains an unfinished flint arrow-head. No. 56505 [59] from Utkiavwĭñ, is a new box, closed at the ends with thick shouldered plugs of pine wood. The tube is 8 inches long and ornamented with a conventional pattern of incised lines colored with red ocher.

Fig. 330_b_ (No. 89402 [1359] also from Utkiavwĭñ), is peculiar from the material of which it is made. It is of about the same pattern as the common antler boxes, but is made of the butt end of the _os penis_ of a large walrus, cut off square and hollowed out, and has ends of hard whale’s bone. Its length is 4.2 inches. No. 89403 [1425] Fig. 331 from Sidaru, is made of the hollow butt of a good-sized walrus tusk, 3.2 inches long. It has a neatly fitted wooden bottom, held in with 6 treenails, two of ivory and four of wood. The box has been cracked and split and mended with stitches of sinew and whalebone. Peculiar conventional patterns are incised on the box and cover. A peculiar box is shown in Fig. 332 (No. 56583 [37] from Utkiavwĭñ). This is of compact white bone, with a flat wooden bottom. I do not recollect seeing any other boxes of the same sort.

Fig. 333 (No. 89409 [1372]) is the tip of a walrus tusk cut off and hollowed out into a sort of flask, 3.8 inches long, closed at the large end by a flat wooden bottom, fastened in with treenails and at the small end by a stopper of soft wood.

The most peculiar box of all, however, is shown in Fig. 334 (No. 56512 [2] from Utkiavwĭñ), the only specimen of the kind seen. It is 5.5 inches long, made of reindeer antler, and very neatly carved into a most excellent image of a reindeer lying on its left side, with the head, which has no antlers, turned down and to the left. The legs are folded up against the belly, the forelegs with the hoofs pointing backward, the hind hoofs pointing forward. The eyes are represented by small sky-blue glass beads, and the mouth, nostrils, and navel neatly incised, the last being particularly well-marked. The tips of the hoofs are rounded off, which, taken in connection with the attitude and the well marked navel, lead me to believe that the image is meant to represent an unborn fetus. The whole of the body is hollowed, the aperture taking up the whole of the buttocks, and closed by a flat, thick plug of soft wood. A round peg of wood is driven in to close an accidental hole just above the left shoulder. The box is old and discolored, and worn smooth with much handling.

Rarely these little workboxes are made of basketwork. We obtained four specimens of these small baskets, of which No. 56564 [88] Fig. 335, workbasket (águma, áma, ipiáru), will serve as the type. The neck is of black tanned sealskin, 2½ inches long, and has 1 vertical seam, to the middle of which is sewed the middle of a piece of fine seal thong, a foot long, which serves to tie up the mouth. The basket appears to be made of fine twigs or roots of the willow, with the bark removed, and is made by winding an osier spirally into the shape of the basket, and wrapping a narrow splint spirally around the two adjacent parts of this, each turn of the splint being separated from the next by a turn of the succeeding tier. The other basket from Utkiavwĭñ (No. 56565 [135]) is almost exactly like this, but larger (3.5 inches in diameter and 2.2 high), and has holes round the top of the neck for the drawstring.

Two baskets from Sidaru are of the same material and workmanship, but somewhat larger and of a different shape, as shown in Fig. 336, No. 89801 [1366], and Fig. 337, No. 89802 [1427]. This was the only species of basketwork seen among these people and is probably not of native manufacture.

Prof. O. T. Mason, of the National Museum, has called my attention to the fact that the method of weaving employed in making these baskets is the same as that used by the Apaches and Navajos, who have been shown to be linguistically of the same stock as the Athabascan or Tinné group of Indians of the North. The first basket collected, No. 56564 [88], was said by the owner to have come from the “great river” in the south. Now, the name Kuwûk or Kowak, applied to the western stream flowing into Hotham Inlet, means simply “great river,” and this is the region where the Eskimo come into very intimate commercial relations with Indians of Tinné stock.[N426] Therefore, in consideration of the Indian workmanship of these baskets, and the statement that one of them came from the “great river, south,” I am well convinced that they were made by the Indians of the region between the Koyukuk and Silawĭk Rivers, and sold by them to the Kuwûñmiun, whence they could easily find their way to Point Barrow through the hands of the “Nunatañmiun” traders.

[Footnote N426: Dall, American Association, Address, 1885, p. 13.]

The Eskimo of Alaska south of Bering Strait make and use baskets of many patterns, but east of Point Barrow baskets are exceedingly rare. The only mention of anything of the kind will be found in Lyon’s Journal.[N427] He mentions seeing at Iglulik a “small round basket composed of grass in precisely the same manner as those constructed by the Tibboo, in the southern part of Fezzan, and agreeing with them also in its shape.” Now, these Africans make baskets of precisely the same “coiled” work (as Prof. Mason calls it) as the Tinné, so that in all probability what Lyon saw was one of these same baskets, carried east in trade, like other western objects already referred to. The name áma applied to these baskets at Point Barrow (the other two names appear to be simply “bag” or receptacle) corresponds to the Greenlandic amåt, the long thin runners from the root of a tree, “at present used in the plural also for a basket of European basketwork,” (because they had no idea that twigs could be so small)--Grønlandske Ordbog.

[Footnote N427: P. 172.]

No. 89799 [1329] from Utkiavwĭñ, is a peculiar bag, the only one of the kind seen, used for the same purpose as the boxes and baskets just described. It is the stomach of a polar bear, with the muscular and glandular layers removed, dried and carefully worked down with a skin scraper into something like goldbeater’s skin. This makes a large, nearly spherical bag 7½ inches in diameter, of a pale brownish color, soft and wrinkled, with a mouth 6 inches wide. A small hole has been mended by drawing the skin together and winding it round tightly on the inside with sinew.

MEANS OF LOCOMOTION AND TRANSPORTATION.

TRAVELING BY WATER.

_Kaiaks and paddles._--Like all the rest of the Eskimo race, the natives of Point Barrow use the kaiak, or narrow, light, skin-covered canoe, completely decked over except at the middle, where there is a hole or cockpit in which the man sits. Although nearly every male above the age of boyhood owns and can manage one of these canoes, they are much less generally employed than by any other Eskimo whose habits have been described, except the “Arctic highlanders,” who have no boats, and perhaps those of Siberia and their Chuckche companions. The kaiak is used only during the season of open water, and then but little in the sea in the neighborhood of the villages. Those who remain near the villages in the summer use the kaiak chiefly for making the short excursions to the lakes and streams inland, already described, after reindeer, and for making short trips from camp to camp along the coast. At Pernyû they are used in setting the stake-nets and also for retrieving fowl which have fallen in the water when shot.

According to Dr. Simpson[N428] the men of the parties which go east in the summer travel in their kaiaks after reaching the open water “to make room in the large boat for the oil-skins.” We obtained no information regarding this. It is at this time, probably, that the kaiak comes specially in play for spearing molting fowl and “flappers”, and for catching seals with the kúkiga. They manage the kaiak with great skill and confidence, but we never knew them to go out in rough weather, nor did we ever see the practice, so frequently described elsewhere, of tying the skirts of the waterproof jacket round the coaming of the cockpit so as to exclude the water.

[Footnote N428: Op. cit. p. 264.]

It should, however, be borne in mind that from the reasons above stated our opportunities for observing the use of the kaiak were very limited. At all events it is certain that the people depend mainly on the umiak, not only for traveling, but for hunting and fishing as well, which places them in strong contrast with the Greenlanders, who are essentially a race of kaiakers and have consequently developed the boat and its appendages to a high state of perfection.

We brought home one complete full-sized kaiak, with its paddle, No. 57773 [539], Fig. 338_a_ and _b_, which is a very fair representative of the canoes used at Point Barrow. This is 19 feet long and 18 inches wide amidships. The gunwales are straight, except for a very slight sheer at the bow, and the cockpit is 21 inches long and 18½ inches wide. It has a frame of wood, which appears to be all of spruce, held together by treenails and whalebone lashings, and is covered with white-tanned sealskins with the grain side out. The stoutest part of the frame is the two gunwales, each 3¼ inches broad and ½-inch thick, flat, and rounded off on the upper edge inside, running the whole length of the boat and meeting at the stem and stern, gradually tapered up on the lower edge at each end. The ribs, of which there are at least forty-three, are bent into nearly a half-circle, thus making a U-shaped midship section, and are ¾-inch wide by ⅓-inch thick, flat on the outer side and round on the inner. Their ends are mortised into the lower edge of the gunwale and fastened with wooden treenails. They are set in about 3 inches apart and decrease gradually in size fore and aft. Outside of these are seven equidistant streaks running fore and aft, ¾ inch to 1 inch wide and ¼ inch thick, of which the upper on each side reaches neither stem nor stern. These are lashed to the ribs with a strip of whalebone, which makes a round turn about one rib, above the streak, going under the rib first, and a similar turn round the next rib below the streak (Fig. 339).

There is a stout keelson, hemi-elliptical in section, under the cockpit only. This is 4½ feet long, about 2 inches deep, and 1½ inches wide, and is fastened in the middle and about 1 foot from each end by a strip of whalebone, which passes through a transverse hole in the keelson, round the rib on one side, back through the keelson, and round the rib on the other side twice. The end is wrapped spirally round the turns on one side and tucked into the hole in the keelson. The deck beams are not quite so stout as the ribs and are mortised into the upper edge of the gunwales a little below the level of the deck. The ends are secured by lashings or stitches of some material which are concealed by the skin cover. They are about as far apart as the ribs, but neither exactly correspond nor break joints with the latter.

At the after end of the cockpit is an extra stout beam or thwart to support the back, 1¾ inches wide and three-quarters inch thick, with rounded edges, the ends of which are apparently lashed with thong. The first beam forward of the cockpit is rounded, and appears to be a natural crook forming a #U#-shaped arch, and is followed by seven #V#-shaped knees, thickest in the middle and enlarged a little at the ends, successively decreasing in height to the seventh, which is almost straight. This makes the rise in the deck forward of the cockpit.

Every alternate deck beam is braced to the gunwale at each end by an oblique lashing of whalebone, running from a transverse hole in the beam about 1 inch from the gunwale to a corresponding hole in the gunwale, three-quarters inch from the lower edge. The lashing makes three or four turns through these holes and around the lower edge of the gunwale, and the end is wrapped spirally round these turns for their whole length. Above these beams a narrow batten runs fore and aft amidships from cockpit to stem and stern, mortised into the two beams at the cockpit, and lashed to the others with whalebone. The coaming of the cockpit is made of a single flat piece of wood, 1¾ inches broad and one-quarter inch thick, bent into a hoop with the ends lapping about 6 inches and “sewed” together with stitches of whalebone. Round the upper edge of this, on the outside, is fitted a “half-round” hoop, which appears to be made of willow, three-quarters by one-third inch, with its ends lapped about 4 inches, this lap coming over the joint of the larger hoop. It is fastened on by short stitches of whalebone about 5 or 6 inches apart, leaving room enough between the two hoops to allow a lacing of fine whalebone to pass through. The coaming is put on over the edge of the skin cover, which is drawn up tight inside of the coaming and over its upper edge and fastened by a lacing of whalebone, which runs spirally round the outer hoop and through holes about one-half inch apart in the edge of the cover.

The coaming fits over the crown of the arch of the forward deck beam and rests on the middle of the thwart aft, and is secured by lashings of whalebone, which pass through holes in the coaming and over its upper edge. The forward lashing makes three turns, which pass round the beam with the end wrapped spirally round the parts between beam and coaming; the after lashing, four similar turns, which pass through a hole in the thwart and around its forward edge. On each side is a stout vertical brace of wood 3¼ inches long, 1 inch wide, and one-half inch thick, with rounded edges and corners. The ends are cut out parallel to the breadth, so that one end fits on to the upper edge of the gunwale, while the other receives the lower edge of the coaming, protruding on the outside through a hole in the cover.

The cover is of six sealskins, put together heads to tails, so that there is only one longitudinal seam, which runs irregularly along the deck. The transverse seams, which run obliquely across the bottom are double and sewed with a blind stitch, like the seams already described on the waterproof boots, from the inside. These seams are nearly 2 inches wide. The longitudinal seam is sewed in the same way from the outside, but not so broadly lapped, with the edge turned over into a roll. There are two pieces of stout thong stretched across the deck, one forward of the cockpit and the other aft, which serve to fasten articles to the deck. The thong passes out through a hole in the gunwale, one-half inch from the upper edge and 6 inches from the cockpit, on the starboard side forward and on the port side aft, and is secured by a knot in the end inboard. The other end passes in through a corresponding hole in the other gunwale and is loosely knotted to the deck beams, so that the line can be slackened off or tautened up at pleasure. Three feet from the bow is a becket for holding spears, etc., fastened into two little holes bored diagonally outward through the edge of the gunwales. It is of two parts of seal thong, one part twisted round the other, but is broken in the middle, so that only one-half of it is left. The weight of this kaiak in its present dry condition is 32 pounds.

This is about the ordinary pattern of kaiak used at Point Barrow, and is a medium-sized one. These boats are made to fit the size of the owner, a youth or small man using a much smaller and lighter kaiak than a heavy adult. They are never made to carry more than one person, and I have never heard of their being used by the women. In carrying the kaiak across the land from lake to lake, it is held horizontally against the side with the bow pointing forward, by thrusting the forearm into the cockpit. We never saw them carried on the head, in the manner practised at Fury and Hecla Straits.[N429]

[Footnote N429: Lyon, Journal, p. 233. See also Capt. Lyon’s
figure in Parry’s 2d Voy., pl. opposite p. 274.]

In entering the canoe the man takes great care to wipe his feet clean of sand and gravel, which would work down under the timbers and chafe the skin. The canoe is launched in shoal water, preferably alongside of a little bank, and the man steadies it by sticking down his paddle on the outer side and holding it with his left hand, while he balances himself on his right foot, and with his free hand carefully wipes his left foot. He then steps with his left foot into the kaiak, and still balancing himself with the help of the paddle, lifts and wipes his right foot before he steps in with that. He then pushes his feet and legs forward under the raised deck, settles himself in a proper position for trimming the boat, and shoves off. As elsewhere, the kaiak is always propelled with a paddle.

No. 89246 [539], Fig. 340, is the paddle which belongs to the kaiak just described. It is 7 feet long. The shaft joining the blades is elliptical in section, with its greatest width at right angles to the plane of the blades so to present the greatest resistance to the strain of paddling. The shape of the blade, with rounded tip and thin rounded edges is admirably adapted to give the blade a clean entry into the water. The whole is very neatly and smoothly made, and the blades are painted with red ocher. This is a much more effective paddle than those used by the Greenlanders and other eastern Eskimo, the blades of which, probably from the scarcity of wood[N430] are very narrow, not exceeding 4 inches in width. In Greenland and Labrador, also, the blades are square at the ends like those of ordinary oars, and are usually edged with bone to prevent them from splitting. The absence of this bone edging on the paddles from Point Barrow perhaps indicates that they are meant for summer use only and not for working among the ice. In accordance with the general custom in northwestern America, the double-bladed paddle (páutĭñ) is used only when great speed is desired, as in chasing game. It is handled in the usual way, being grasped with both hands near the middle, and dipped alternately on opposite sides. For ordinary traveling they use a single-bladed paddle (áñun), of the same shape as those used in the umiak but usually somewhat smaller, of which we neglected to procure a specimen. With this they make a few strokes on one side, till the boat begins to sheer, then shift it over and make a few strokes, on the other side. They do this with very great skill, getting considerable speed, and making a remarkably straight wake. The use of this single paddle appears to be universal along the coast of Alaska, from Point Barrow southward, and it is also used at the Mackenzie and Anderson rivers, as shown by the models collected by MacFarlane in that region. It is, however, unknown among the eastern Eskimo about whom we have any definite information on the subject, namely, the Greenlanders, the people of Baffin Land, Hudson Strait, and Labrador.[N431]

[Footnote N430: 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.]

[Footnote N431: For information concerning the last two regions I
am indebted to Mr. L. M. Turner; for the others to the standard
authorities.]

Curiously enough the Greenlanders had a superstition of a sort of malevolent spirits called kajariak, who were “kayakmen of an extraordinary size, who always seem to be met with at a distance from land beyond the usual hunting grounds. They were skilled in the arts of sorcery, particularly in the way of raising storms and bringing bad weather. Like the umiarissat [other fabulous beings], _they use one-bladed paddles_, like those of the Indians.”[N432] This tradition either refers back to a time when the ancestors of the Greenlanders used the single paddle or to occasional and perhaps hostile meetings between eastern and western Eskimo.

[Footnote N432: Rink, Tales and Traditions, p. 47. See also p. 374
for a story of the meeting of a Greenlander with one of these
beings.]

Though the kaiak is essentially the same wherever used, it differs considerably in size and external appearance in different localties. The kaiak of the Greenlanders is perhaps the best-known model, as it has been figured and described by many authors. It is quite as light and sharp as the Point Barrow model, but has a flat floor, the bilge being angular instead of rounded, and it has considerably more sheer to the deck, the stem and stern being prolonged into long curved points, which project above the water, and are often shod with bone or ivory. The coaming of the cockpit also is level, or only slightly raised forward. The kaiaks used in Baffin Land, Hudson Straits, and Labrador are of a very similar model, but larger and heavier, having the projecting points at the bow and stern rather shorter and less sharp, and the coaming of the cockpit somewhat more raised forward. Both of these forms are represented by specimens and numerous models in the museum collections. I have seen one flat-floored kaiak at Point Barrow. It belonged to a youth and was very narrow and light.

The kaiak in use at Fury and Hecla Straits, as described by Capt. Lyon[N433] and Capt. Parry[N434] is of a somewhat different model, approaching that used at the Anderson River. It is a large kaiak 25 feet long, with the bow and stern sharp and considerably more bent up than in the Greenland kaiaks, but round-bottomed, like the western kaiaks. The deck is flat, with the cockpit coaming somewhat raised forward.[N435]

[Footnote N433: Journal, p. 233.]

[Footnote N434: Second voyage, p. 506, and pls. opposite pp. 274
and 508.]

[Footnote N435: 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.]

In the kaiaks used at the Anderson and Mackenzie rivers, as shown by the models in the National Museum, the bending up of the stem and stern posts is carried to an extreme, so that they make an angle of about 130° with the level of the deck. The bottom is round and the cockpit nearly level, but sufficient room for the knees and feet is obtained by arching not only the deck beams just forward of the cockpit, but all of them from stem to stern, so that the deck slopes away to each side like the roof of a house. At Point Barrow, as already described, the deck beams are arched only just forward of the cockpit, and the stem and stern are not prolonged. This appears to be the prevailing form of canoe at least as far south as Kotzebue Sound and is sometimes used by the Malemiut of Norton Sound. At Port Clarence the heavy, large kaiak, so common from Norton Sound southward, appears to be in use from Nordenskiöld’s description, as he speaks of the kaiaks holding two persons, sitting back to back in the cockpit.[N436] The kaiaks of the southwestern Eskimo are, as far as I have been able to learn, large and heavy, with level coamings, with the deck quite steeply arched fore and aft, and with bow and stern usually of some peculiar shape, as shown by models in the Museum. See also Dall’s figure (Alaska, p. 15.)[N437]

[Footnote N436: Vega, vol. 2, p. 228.]

[Footnote N437: 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.]

While the kaiak, however, differs so much in external appearance in different localities, it is probable that in structure it is everywhere essentially the same. Only two writers have given a detailed description of the frame of a kaiak, and these are from widely distant localities, Iglulik and western Greenland, both still more widely distant from Point Barrow, and yet both give essentially the same component parts as are to be found at Point Barrow, namely, two comparatively stout gunwales running from stem to stern, braced with transverse deckbeams,[N438] seven streaks running fore and aft along the bottom, knees, or ribs in the form of hoops, and a hoop for the coaming, bound together with whalebone or sinew.[N439]

[Footnote N438: 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).]

[Footnote N439: 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).]

The double-bladed paddle is almost exclusively an Eskimo contrivance. The only other hyperborean race, besides the Aleuts, who use it, are the Yukagirs, who employ it in their narrow dugout canoes on the River Kolyma in Siberia.[N440] Double-bladed paddles have also been observed in the Malay Archipelago.

[Footnote N440: Wrangell, Narrative of an Expedition, etc.,
p. 161, footnote.]

Fig. 341, (No. 56561 [224] from Utkiavwiñ) is a very neatly made model of a kaiak, 13.3 inches long. It is quite accurate in all its details, but has only five streaks on the bottom, and its width and depth are about twice what they should be in proportion to the length. The frame is lashed together with fine sinew and covered with seal entrail. The paddle is also out of proportion. Many similar neatly finished models were made for sale. The natives are so skillful in making them that it is possible that they are in the habit of making them for the children to play with. I do not, however, recollect ever seeing a child with one.

_Umiaks and fittings._--The large skin-covered open boat, essentially the same in model as that employed by almost all Eskimo, as well as the Aleuts and some Siberian races, is the chief means of conveyance by water, for traveling, hunting, and fishing. Though the women do a great share of the work of navigating the boat when a single family or a small party is making a journey, it is by no means considered as a woman’s boat, as appears to be the case among the Greenlanders and eastern Eskimo generally.[N441] On the contrary, women are not admitted into the regularly organized whaling crews, unless the umialik can not procure men enough, and in the “scratch” crews assembled for walrus hunting or sealing there are usually at least as many men as women, and the men work as hard as the women. I do not, however, recollect that I ever saw a man pull an oar in the umiak. They appear always to use paddles alone. This is interesting in connection with the Greenland custom mentioned by Egede in the continuation of the passage just quoted: “And when they first set out for the whale fishing, the men sit in a very negligent posture, with their faces turned towards the prow, pulling with their little ordinary paddle; but the women sit in the ordinary way, with their faces towards the stern, rowing with long oars.”

[Footnote N441: 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.]

We were unable to bring home any specimen of these boats on account of their size, but Fig. 342, from a photograph by Lieut. Ray, will give a good idea of the framework. These boats vary considerably in size, but are usually very nearly the dimensions of an ordinary whaleboat--that is, about 30 feet in length, with a beam of 5 or 6 feet and a depth of about 2½ feet. The boat resembles very much in model the American fisherman’s dory, having a narrow flat bottom, sharp at both ends, with flaring sides, and considerable rake at stem and stern. Both floor and rail have a strong sheer, fore and aft, and the gunwales extend beyond the stem so as to meet at the bow. Both stem and stern are sharp nearly to the rail, where they flare out and are cut off square. These boats are exceedingly light and buoyant, and capable of considerable speed when fully manned. They are very “quick” in their motion and quite crank till they get down to their bearings, but beyond that appear to be very stiff.

I never heard of one being capsized, though the natives move about aboard of them with perfect freedom. The frame is neatly made of pieces of driftwood, which it usually takes a considerable time to accumulate.[N442]

[Footnote N442: 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.]

A stout square timber, of perhaps 3 inches scantling, runs along the middle of the bottom forming a keel or keelson. This of necessity is usually made of several pieces of wood scarfed together and fastened with treenails and whalebone lashings. At each end it is fastened in the same way to the stem and sternpost, which are both of the same shape, broad and flat above or inside, but beveled off to a keel outside, and curving up in a knee, at the same time tapering off to the point where the bow (or stern) begins to flare. Here it is mortised into the under side of a trapezoidal block of wood, widest and thickest on the inboard end, and concaved off on the under face, to a thin edge outboard. It is held on by a transverse lashing passing through holes in the end of the post and the thickest part of the block. Along each side of the bottom, at what would be the bilge of a round bottom boat, runs a stout streak, thinner and wider than the keelson and set up edgewise. These are spread apart amidships, but bent together fore and aft so as to be scarfed into the stem and sternpost (see diagram, Fig. 343_a_).

On the model they are fastened here with treenails, and this is probably also the case on the large canoes. They are spread apart by cross pieces or floor timbers, flat rather broad boards laid across the keelson with their ends mortised into the bilge streaks. These are longest amidships and decrease regularly in length fore and aft. There were fifteen of them on Nikawáalu’s umiak. On the model they are pegged to the keelson and bilge streaks. The ribs are straight, slender, square timbers, eighteen on each side (on Nikawáalu’s umiak; the canoe photographed has fifteen). These are all of the same length, but fitted obliquely to the outer edge of the bilge-streaks in such a way (see diagram, Fig. 343_b_) that those amidships slant considerably outward while the others become gradually more and more erect fore and aft, thus producing the sheer in the lines. To these ribs, inside, a little below the middle of each, is fastened a streak on each side, of about the dimensions of the bilge streak, running from stem to stern, and the gunwales are fitted into the notched ends of the ribs, where they are secured by lashings of whalebone. These on Nikawáalu’s umiak were each a single round pole about 2 inches in diameter. Such long pieces of wood as this were probably obtained by trade from the Nunatañmeun. These extend about 2½ or 3 feet beyond the stem, to which they are fastened on each side by whalebone lashings, and meet at a sharp angle, being lashed together with whalebone. On the model, this lashing passes through holes in both gunwales and round underneath. The gunwales are fastened to the sternpost in the same way as to the stem, in both cases resting on the upper surface of the block so as to form a low rail, but project only 5 or 6 inches.