Chapter XX: Introduction (19)

Dances in which the children only take part, entirely for amusement, sometimes take place in the kû´dyĭgĭ, and people occasionally amuse themselves by dancing in the iglu. I have often seen the natives, especially the children and young people, dancing in the open air, and the dancing was always of very much the same character. The feet were but slightly moved, keeping time to the music, while the body swayed gracefully and the arms were waved from side to side. All the dancing which I saw was rather quiet and graceful, but they told us that when they got warmed up at a great dance they went at it with tremendous vigor, throwing off their garments to the waist. The dance which accompanies the song sung by the children to the aurora, however, is more violent. The dancer clenches his fists and, bending his elbows, strikes them against the sides of his body, keeping time to the song and stamping vigorously with the right foot, springing up and down with the left knee (see Fig. 373, from a sketch by the writer).

We never heard of any of the licentious festivals or orgies described by Egede[N496] and Kumlien.[N497]

[Footnote N493: See Dall, Alaska, p. 151.]

[Footnote N494: Ibid, p. 154.]

[Footnote N495: Compare the wand “curiously ornamented and carved”
carried by the messenger who was sent out to invite the guests to
the festival at Norton Sound, Alaska, p. 154.]

[Footnote N496: Greenland, p. 139.]

[Footnote N497: Contributions, p. 43.]

The festivals of the eastern Eskimo appear to be less formal and elaborate than those in the west, consisting simply of singing and dancing.[N498]

[Footnote N498: Descriptions of Eskimo festivals are to be found
in Egede’s Greenland, p. 152, and Crantz, History of Greenland,
vol. 1, p. 175, where he mentions the sun feast held at the winter
solstice. This very likely corresponds to the December festival at
Point Barrow. If the latter be really a rite instituted by the
ancestors of the present Eskimo when they lived in lower latitudes
to celebrate the winter solstice, it is easy to understand why it
should be held at about the same time by the people of Kotzebue
Sound, as stated by Dr. Simpson, op. cit., p. 262, where, as he
says, the reindeer might be successfully pursued throughout the
winter. It is much more likely, considering the custom in
Greenland, that this is the reason for having the festival at this
season than that the time should be selected by the people at
Point Barrow as a season when “hunting or fishing can not well be
attended to,” as Simpson thinks. We should remember that this is
the very time of the year that the seal netting is at its height
at Point Barrow. See also Parry, Second Voyage, p. 538; Kumlien,
Contributions, p. 43; Gilder, Schwatka’s Search, p. 43; Beechey,
Voyage, p. 288 (Kotzebue Sound); Dall, Alaska, p. 149 (very full
and detailed); Petroff, Report, etc., pp. 125, 126, 129, 131
(quoted from Zagoskin), 135, 137 (quoted from Shelikhof), and 144
(quoted from Davidof); Hooper, Tents, etc., pp. 85, 136; and
Nordenskiöld, Vega, vol. 2, pp. 22, 131.]

TOYS AND SPORTS FOR CHILDREN AND OTHERS.

_Playthings._--Though the children amuse themselves with a great many sports and plays, we saw very few toys or playthings in use. We brought home six objects which appear to have no use except as playthings.

Fig. 374_a_ (No. 89806 [1189] from Nuwŭk) is a whirligig in principle very like that made for civilized children. It is a block of spruce, fitted with a shaft of narwhal ivory. This fits loosely in the straight tubular handle, which is a section of the branch of an antler, with the soft inside tissue cut out. A string of seal thong passes through a hole in the middle of the handle and is fastened to the shaft. This string is about 8 feet long, and about half of it is tied up into the hank to make a handle for pulling it. It works very much like a civilized child’s whirligig. The string is wound around the shaft and a smart pull on the handle unwinds it, making the block spin round rapidly. The reaction, spinning it in the opposite direction, winds up the string again. A couple of loose hawk’s feathers are stuck into the tip of the block, which is painted with red ocher for about an inch. Four equidistant stripes of the same color run down the sides to a border of the same width round the base. This was made for sale and appears to be an unusual toy. I do not recollect ever seeing the children play with such a toy. It is called kai´psa (Gr. kâvsâk, “a whirligig or similar toy”).

Fig. 374_b_ is a similar whirligig from Utkiavwĭñ (No. 89807 [1356]). The block, which is 4.2 inches long, is made of the solid tip of a mountain sheep’s horn, and is elaborately ornamented with a conventional pattern of lines and “circles and dots,” incised and colored red with ocher. The shaft is of hard bone, and the line has a little wooden handle at the end. The block is so heavy that it will hardly spin.

Fig. 375 (No. 56491 [46] from Utkiavwĭñ) is a teetotum (also called kaipsa). The shaft is of pine and the disk of spruce and is ornamented with black lead marks, forming a border about one-quarter inch broad on each face. The upper face is divided into quadrants by four narrow lines radiating from the hole, and each quadrant is divided into two by bands one-quarter inch broad. The order of these lines is reversed on the under face. This is spun, like a common teetotum, with the fingers, and does not seem to be common. I do not recollect ever seeing anyone except the maker of this toy spinning one.

The same is true of No. 89722 [1087] (Fig. 376, from Utkiavwĭñ) which is what American boys would call a “buzz” toy. It is of pine wood, and through two round holes in the middle are passed the ends of a piece of stout sinew braid, which are knotted together. When the board is placed in the middle of the string it can be made to spin round and whiz by alternately pulling and relaxing the ends of the string. The board is rather elaborately painted. One end has a border of black lead on both faces, the other a similar border of red paint, which appears to be red lead. Broad red bands form a square 1 inch across around the holes, with lines radiating from each corner to the corners of the board, on both faces. On the spaces between these lines are figures rudely drawn with black lead. On one face, in the first space, is a goose; in the second, a man with a staff; in the third, the conventional figure of a whale’s tail; and in the fourth, a whale with line and float attached to him, pursued by a whaling umiak. On the other side, the first space contains a dog or wolf walking; the second, two of these animals, sitting on their haunches, facing each other; the third, another walking; and the fourth, a reindeer in the same attitude.

Fig. 377 (No. 89800 [1331] from Utkiavwĭñ), on the other hand, is a toy which the children often play with. It is the well known “whizzing-stick” found among savages in so many widely distant parts of the world, and often used in religious ceremonies. The Eskimo name is ĭmĭglúta. It consists of a thin board of pine wood, fastened by a string of sinew braid about 1 foot long to the end of a slender rod, which serves as a handle. When swung rapidly round by the handle it makes a loud, whizzing sound. It is very neatly made, and painted with black lead and red ocher. The tips of the board are black for about one-half inch and the rest is red, and the upper half of the handle marked with five rings about one-half inch wide and 1 inch apart, alternately black and red. This appears to be purely a child’s toy and has no mystical signification. I never saw one in the hands of an adult. This specimen was made and brought over for sale by a lad about thirteen or fourteen years old.

Fig. 378 (No. 56687 [181] from Utkiavwĭñ) is another plaything rather common with the boys, which takes the place of the American boy’s “bean snapper.” It is known by the name of mĭtĭ´glĭgaun, and is a rod of whalebone, stiff and black, 4.8 inches long and 0.5 wide, narrowed and bent sharply up for about an inch at one end. On the upper side of this end, close to the tip, is a little hollow, large enough to hold a small pebble, and the other is cut into sharp teeth. This is purely an instrument of mischief and is used for shooting tiny pebbles at people when they are looking the other way. Mûñialu showed us, with great glee, in an expressive pantomime, how a boy would hit a person in the eye with a little pebble, and, when the man turned round angrily, would have the snapper slipped up his sleeve and be looking earnestly in another direction. The toothed end, he said, was for mischievously scratching hairs out of a man’s coat when he was looking another way. The “snapper” is used as follows: It is held in the left hand, a little pebble is set in the socket, and the tip of the whalebone bent back with the right hand. When this end is let go the elasticity of the whalebone drives the pebble at the mark with considerable force. As far as I can learn this mischievous toy is peculiar to the Northwest.

_Dolls._--Though several dolls and various suits of miniature clothing were made and brought over for sale, they do not appear to be popular with the little girls. I do not recollect ever seeing a child playing with a doll. Those in the collection, indeed, seem rather less intended for playthings than as, so to speak, works of art to catch the fancy of the strangers. Such an object is No. 89728 [1304] (Fig. 379 from Utkiavwĭñ.) This is a human head carved out of pine wood, and shouldered off at the neck into a stout round peg, which is fitted into the middle of a thick elliptical pedestal of the same wood, flat on the bottom and convex on top. The head is dressed in a neatly made hood of thin deerskin with the flesh side cut off round the shoulders and exposing only the face. The face is very neatly carved, and has bits of green oxidized copper inlaid for the eyes. The cheeks, gums, and inside of the mouth are colored with red ocher, and the hair, eyebrows, and beard with black lead. The top of the pedestal is painted red and divided into eight equal parts by shallow grooves colored with black lead. The height of the whole object is 4½ inches, and the workmanship is remarkably good.

No. 89827 [1138] (from Utkiavwĭñ), on the other hand, is very roughly and carelessly made. It is 18.2 inches long, roughly whittled out of a flat piece of redwood board into the shape of a man with his legs wide apart and holding up his hands on each side of his head. The arms are very short and broad, with five fingers all nearly of the same length, and the legs are simply two straight four-sided pegs rounded on the edges. It is dressed in a hooded frock of seal gut reaching to the knees and leaving only the face and hands uncovered, and has sealskin knee boots on the legs. The face is rudely in relief, with two narrow bits of ivory inlaid for eyes, and a long canine tusk of the same material inserted in each corner of the mouth. Three small round bits of wood are inlaid in the forehead, one in the middle and one over each eye, and one in the right cheek above the corner of the mouth. The gut frock is carelessly made of irregular pieces. It is trimmed round the bottom and the edge of the hood with a strip of dogskin, but is left with a raw edge round the wrists. The boots are rather well made models of the regular waterproof boots, with soles of white sealskin and a band round the top 1 inch wide of the same material. A short peg projects from the top of the forehead. A string of stout sinew braid about 2 feet long is passed through a hole in the middle of the body and a knot tied in the end in front. Though the design is elaborate the workmanship is very rude, and the clothes seem to be made of odds and ends. The maker perhaps had in mind a fabulous man with teeth like a walrus, about whom we heard some fragmentary traditions.

Fig. 380 (No. 89826 [1358] from Utkiavwĭñ) is a clever, though somewhat roughly made, mechanical doll. It represents a man dressed in deerskins sitting with his legs outstretched and holding in his extended left hand a drum and in his right a stick, as if beating the drum. The arms are of whalebone, and by pressing them he can be made to beat the drum. The doll is made of a single piece of wood--a knot with two branches, which make the legs. (I learned this from Capt. Herendeen, who saw this doll at the village before it was finished.) The height of the sitting figure is 11½ inches.

A still more ingenious mechanical toy which, however, like the preceding, was made for sale, is shown in Fig. 381 (No. 89855 [1351] from Utkiavwĭñ). This is a man sitting in a kaiak in the attitude of paddling on the left side with a single-bladed paddle. His arms are of whalebone, and by means of strings he can be made to paddle and turn his head from side to side. The kaiak is 29 inches long, very neatly carved from a single block of wood, and solid except at the cockpit. The bottom is flat, to allow it to stand on the floor, but it is otherwise precisely of the model of the kaiaks in the Museum from the Mackenzie and Anderson region. The nation who made it called it a “Kûñmû´d’lĭñ” kaiak. It is painted all over with red ocher, except on the bottom. The figure has no legs and fits into the cockpit, which is without any coaming. The head is separate and mounted on a long, slender pivot, which is fitted into a hole in the neck just loosely enough to allow it to turn easily. It is dressed in a hood of seal gut. The face is very natural, though rather rudely carved, and is lightly colored all over with red ocher, with the mouth painted deeply red, and the eyebrows, eyes, nostrils, and beard marked with black lead. The arms are narrow strips of whalebone, the ends of which protrude at the wrists, and are tied to the paddle by the ends of the strings which work it. The body is covered with a gut shirt.

The paddle is of the common shape, and has the blade and the lower end of the shaft painted red. The strings for working this contrivance are of fine sinew braid. One string is tied into a little hole in the edge of the hood, where the left ear would be, the other passes round the edge of the hood, and is tied at the right ear. These strings cross back of the head, and pass through two neat little ivory eyebolts inserted in the deck, 1 inch abaft the cockpit, and 1 inch apart. The strings from the hands are not crossed, but pass through two similar eyebolts, one at each edge of the deck, 2.5 inches from the cockpit. The ends of each set of strings are tied together. When the right pair and left pair of strings are pulled alternately, the man makes a stroke and looks to the right, then “recovers” and looks to the left. Both stroke and “recovery” are aided by the elasticity of the arms. This specimen shows a great deal of mechanical ingenuity, and was the only finished object of the kind seen.

Fig. 382 (No. 89856 [783] from Utkiavwĭñ) is a kaiak intended for a similar toy, which, when brought over for sale, had an unfinished armless doll in the cockpit. This was, unfortunately, lost in unpacking. The kaiak, which is 27.6 inches long, is not new, but has been freshly scraped and painted on deck. It is also a foreign kaiak, being precisely like a model brought by Mr. Nelson from Norton Sound. It is not unlikely that this boat itself came from that region through the “Nunatañmiun,” unless, possibly, a southern kaiak had passed through the hands of enough people to reach a point where some Point Barrow native might see it. As far as we know no Point Barrow natives visit the regions where this form is used, and the model seems too accurate to have been made from a description.

_Juvenile implements._--We sometimes saw the children playing with little models of the implements and utensils used by their parents. Perhaps the commonest thing of this sort is the boy’s bow. As soon as a boy is able to walk his father makes him a little bow suited to his strength, with blunt arrows, with which he plays with the other boys, shooting at marks--for instance, the fetal reindeer brought home from the spring hunt--till he is old enough to shoot small birds and lemmings. We also saw children playing with little drums, and one man made his little boy an elaborate kă´moti about 4 feet long. In the collection are a number of miniature implements, spears, etc., some of which have been already described, which were perhaps intended as playthings for the children. As, however, they were all newly made, it is possible that they were merely intended to catch the fancy of the strangers.

No. 89451 [1113], from Nuwŭk, is a little snow shovel 4.5 inches long, with a blade 2.1 inches wide, rather roughly carved from a piece of walrus ivory.

No. 89695 [1280] from Utkiavwĭñ, is a similar model of a deer lance, 7 inches long, all in one piece and made of reindeer antler.

No. 89797 [1186] from Utkiavwĭñ, is a quite well made model of the drum used for accompanying singing and dancing, and is almost large enough to have been used for a plaything. The stick is entirely out of proportion, being merely a roughly whittled bit of lath, 13 inches long.

_Games and sports._--The men have very few sports, though I have sometimes known them to amuse themselves by shooting at a mark with their rifles, and I once heard of a number of them wrestling. As far as I could learn, they wrestle “catch-as-catch-can” without any particular system. We never heard of anything like the athletic sports mentioned by Egede[N499] and Crantz[N500] or the pugilism described by Schwatka among the people of King William’s Land, when two men stand up to each other and exchange buffets till one or the other gives in.[N501] The women are very fond of playing “cat’s cradle” whenever they have leisure, and make a number of complicated figures with the string, many of which represent various animals. One favorite figure is a very clever representation of a reindeer, which is made by moving the fingers to run down hill from one hand to the other.[N502] Another favorite amusement with the women and children is tossing three bullets or small pebbles with the right hand, after the manner of a juggler, keeping one ball constantly in the air. Some of the women are very skillful at this, keeping the balls up for a long time. This play is accompanied by a chant sung to a monotonous tune with very little air, but strongly marked time. I never succeeded in catching the words of this chant, which are uttered with considerable rapidity, and do not appear to be ordinary words. It begins “yúɐ yúɐ yuká, yúɐ yúɐ yuká;” and some of the words are certainly indelicate to judge from the unequivocal gestures by which I once saw them accompanied.

[Footnote N499: Greenland, p. 162.]

[Footnote N500: Vol. 1, p. 177.]

[Footnote N501: Science, vol. 4, No. 98, p. 545.]

[Footnote N502: Hall (Arctic Researches, p. 129) says the “cat’s
cradle” is a favorite amusement in Baffin Land, where they make
many figures, including representations of the deer, whale, seal,
and walrus.]

In the winter the young women and girls are often to be seen tossing a snowball with their feet. A girl wets some snow and makes a ball about as big as her two fists, which of course immediately becomes a lump of ice. This she balances on the toe of one foot and with a kick and a jump tosses it over to the other foot which catches it and tosses it back. Some women will keep this up for a number of strokes.

The young people of both sexes also sometimes play football, kicking about an old mitten or boot stuffed with rags or bits of waste skin. I never saw them set up goals and play a regular game as they did in Greenland.[N503]

[Footnote N503: See Egede, p. 161, and Crantz, vol. 1, p. 177.]

The little girls also play with the skipping rope. I once watched three little girls jumping. Two swung the rope and the other stood in the middle and jumped. First they swung the rope under her feet to the right, then back under her feet to the left, and then once or twice wholly round under her feet and over her head, and then began again.[N504] They also play at housekeeping, laying sticks round to represent the sides of the house, or outlining the house by pressing up ridges of snow between their feet. Sometimes they mark out a complicated labyrinth on the snow in this way, and the game appears to be that one shall guard this and try to catch the others if they come in, as in many of the games of civilized children.

[Footnote N504: Compare Parry’s Second Voyage, p. 541.]

I have already spoken of the formal children’s dances. They often also dance by themselves, beating on old tin cans for drums. One night I saw a party of children having quite an elaborate performance near our station. The snow at the time was drifted up close under the eaves of the house. On the edge of the roof sat three little boys, each beating vigorously on an empty tomato can and singing at the top of his lungs, while another boy and a little girl were dancing on the snow waving their arms and singing as usual, and at the same time trying to avoid another girl about thirteen years old, who represented a demon. She was stooping forward, and moving slowly round in time with the music, turning from side to side and rolling her eyes fiercely, while she licked the blade of an open clasp knife, drawing it slowly across her lips. They seemed intensely in earnest, and were enjoying themselves hugely. After dancing a while at the station they went over to the village, and as they told me the next day spent the whole night singing in a vacant snow-house.

They also amuse themselves in the winter by sliding on their knees down the steepest snowdrifts under the cliffs. A good deal of the time, however, they are following their parents or other grown people, catching little fish or fetching twigs for firewood or helping drive the dogs, though as a rule they are not made to do any regular work until they are pretty well grown.

MUSIC.

_Musical instruments._--The only musical instrument in use among these people is the universal drum[N505] or tambourine (kĕlyau), consisting of a membrane stretched over a hoop with a handle on one side, and used from Greenland to Siberia. It is always accompanied by the voice singing or chanting. The player holds the handle in his left hand with the membrane away from him, and strikes alternately on each side of the rim with a short heavy piece of ivory, or a long slender wand, rotating the drum slightly at the same time to meet the stroke. This produces a loud, resonant, and somewhat musical note. There appears, however, to be no system of tuning these drums, the pitch of the note depending entirely on accident.

[Footnote N505: Nordenskiöld calls this “the drum, or more
correctly, tambourine, so common among most of the Polar peoples,
European, Asiatic, and American; among the Lapps, the Samoyeds,
the Tunguses, and the Eskimo.” (Vega, vol. 2, p. 128).]

We collected four of these drums, of which every household possesses at least one. They are all of essentially the same construction, but vary in size. No. 56741 [79], Fig. 383, has been selected as the type. The frame is a flat strip of willow 67 inches long, 1 inch wide, and 0.3 inch thick, bent till the two ends meet, thus making a hoop 22.2 inches long and 19 inches wide. The ends are fastened together by a strap of walrus ivory on the inside of the hoop, secured to the wood by neat stitches of black whalebone. The handle is of walrus ivory 5.2 inches long. The larger end is rather rudely carved into a human face. Back of this head and 1 inch from the large end of the handle is a square transverse notch, deep and sufficiently wide to fit over both rim and strap at the joint. It is held on by a lashing of sinew braid passing through holes in rim and strap, one on each side of the handle, and a large transverse hole in the latter, below and a little in front of the notch. The membrane, which appears to be a sheet of the peritoneum of a seal, is stretched over the other side of the hoop, which is beveled on the outside edge, and its edge is brought down to a deep groove 0.2 inch from the edge of the hoop and 0.3 inch wide, running round the hoop, where it is secured by three or four turns of sinew braid. The end of this string is crossed back and forth four or five times round the handle, where it is fitted to the hoop and then wrapped around it and finished off with a knot.

No. 56742 [514], from Utkiavwĭñ, is a similar drum, but somewhat larger, the hoop being 24.6 inches long and 22 inches wide. It is of the same materials, except that the strap at the joint is of reindeer antler. Opposite the joint the hoop appears to have shown signs of weakness, as it has been strengthened with two straps of walrus ivory, one on the inside and one on the outside of the hoop, fastened together by stitches of sinew which pass through the wood and through both straps. The inside strap is 4.7 inches long, the outer 3.5 inches long, and only half the width of the rim, and is let into the latter. This strap appears to have been put on first, as at each end there is a stitch which only runs through the wood. The handle is fastened on as before, but has two transverse holes instead of one, and has four deep rounded notches for the fingers. (See Fig. 384.) The joint is tightened by driving a thin sliver of wood in at the bottom of the notch.

No. 56743 [31], from Utkiavwĭñ, closely resembles the type, but has a notch for the thumb as well as for the forefinger on the handle. The hoop is 23.5 inches long and 21 wide. No. 56740 [80] from the same village is rather smaller than the ordinary drums, having a hoop 16.2 inches long and 14.7 wide. The handle is of antler, but has the usual face on the large end.

We also brought home eight handles for these drums, which exhibit but slight variations. The commonest material for the handle is walrus ivory. Only two out of the twelve are of antler. They are usually about 5 inches long (the longest is 5.4 inches and the shortest 4.6). Handles with grooves for the fingers and sometimes for the thumb seem to be quite as common as the plain handles. Fig. 385_a_ represents an ivory handle from Nuwŭk (No. 89267 [898]), which has a groove for each finger and a shallow one on the right side for the thumb. It is 5 inches long.

With one exception all these handles have the large end more or less neatly carved into a human face, with the mouth open as if singing, probably from an idea similar to that which makes the decorative artists of civilized countries ornament the pipes of a great organ with singing faces. This face is usually in the position shown in the specimens figured, but No. 89266 [784] (Fig. 385_b_), a handle of antler from Utkiavwĭñ, has the axis of the face parallel to that of the handle. Nos. 89269 [975] and 56515 [76], both from Utkiavwĭñ, are peculiar in their ornamentation. They are both of walrus ivory. The former has a well-carved face at the large end with small blue beads inlaid for eyes. In addition to this the small end has been rather freshly carved into a rather rude seal’s head, and an ornamental pattern has been incised round the middle. This specimen exhibits the grooves for the fingers very well. The latter is a plain handle, but has a little sharp tusk inserted at each corner of the mouth. The only handle without a human face on the large end (No. 56514 [65] Fig. 385_c_, from Utkiavwĭñ) is peculiar in many respects. It is the butt end of a small walrus tusk, with a large pulp cavity, the edges of which are much notched and irregularly broken. The notch for fitting it to the handle is at the smaller end, which is neatly carved into a very good figure of a walrus head, with the tusks bent back to the under side of the handle. The head has oval bits of wood inlaid for eyes. None of the drums or handles in the collection are newly made.

The stick employed for beating these drums is commonly a slender elastic wand about 2½ feet long, but they also sometimes use a short thick stick of ivory resembling that used by the eastern Eskimo.[N506] We brought home two of these sticks, both of which belong with the drum No. 56743 [31]. Fig. 386_a_ (No. 56540 [31]) is a roughly cylindrical rod of ivory with a hole for a lanyard. The larger end is ornamented by rudely incised and darkened lines which represent the eyes and outline of the mouth of a “bow-head” whale. Fig. 386_b_ (No. 56540 [31_a_]) is a plain round stick of ivory 9.4 inches long. It is rather roughly made and somewhat warped. The use of the long stick is perhaps derived from Siberia, where the short thick stick does not appear to be used.[N507]

[Footnote N506: See, for example, Bessell’s Naturalist, vol. 18,
pt. 9, p. 881. (The people of Smith Sound use the femur of a
walrus or seal. Cf. Capt. Lyon’s picture, Parry’s 2d Voyage, pl.
opposite p. 530, and Gilder, Schwatka’s Search, p. 43, where the
people of the west shore of Hudson Bay are described as using a
“wooden drumstick shaped like a potato-masher.”)]

[Footnote N507: See Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 51, and Nordenskiöld,
Vega, vol. 2, pp. 23 and 128; figure on p. 24.]

Holes in the membrane of the drum are sometimes mended with pieces of the crop of the ptarmigan. At any rate, this is what I was told by a native, who begged from me the crops of two of these birds that I was skinning, saying that he wanted them to mend his drum. These drums are always beaten as an accompaniment to invocations of spirits or incantations. This practice is so common that some authors are in the habit of always speaking of them as “shaman drums”. As I have already stated, their most common use is purely as a musical instrument, and they are used not only by the so-called “shamans” but by everybody.

_Character and frequency of music._--Their music consists of monotonous chants, usually with very little perceptible air, and pitched generally in a minor key. I could not perceive that they had any idea of “tune,” in the musical sense, but when several sang together each pitched the tune to suit himself. They, however, keep excellent time. The ordinary songs are in “common” or 4/4 time.[N508] The words are often extemporaneous, and at tolerably regular intervals comes the refrain, “A yáña yáña, a yáña ya,” which takes the place of the “ámna aja” of the eastern Eskimo. Sometimes, when they are humming or singing to themselves, the words are nothing but this refrain. Their voices, as a general thing, are musical.

[Footnote N508: Compare Crantz, vol. 1, p. 176.]

Like all Eskimo, they are very fond of music, and are constantly singing and humming to themselves, sometimes, according to Capt. Herendeen, waking up in the night to sing. Besides their regular festivals they often amuse themselves in their houses by singing to the drum. They are fond of civilized music, and, having usually very quick and rather acute ears, readily catch the tunes, which they sing with curiously mutilated words. We found “Shoo Fly” and “Little Brown Jug” great favorites at the time of our arrival, and one old woman from Nuwŭk, told us with great glee, how Magwa (Maguire) used to sing “Tolderolderol.” Our two violins, the doctor’s and the cook’s, were a constant source of delight to them.

Capt. Parry[N509] gives an excellent account of the music of the people of Fury and Hecla Straits.[N510]

[Footnote N509: 2d Voyage, p. 541.]

[Footnote N510: See also the passage from Crantz, quoted above;
Dall, Alaska, p. 16; and Nordenskiöld, Vega, vol. 2, pp. 23 and
130.]

I regret extremely that I was not enough of a musician to write down on the spot the different tunes sung by these people. The ordinary monotonous chant is so devoid of air that I can not possibly recollect it, and the same is true of the chant which accompanies the game of pebble-tossing. I was able, however, to catch by ear the song sung by the children when they dance to the aurora. I never had the whole of this song, which we were told had a large number of stanzas. The first three are as follows:

1. Kióya ke, kióya ke,
A, yáñɐ, yañɐ, ya,
Hwi, hwi, hwi, hwi!

2. Túdlĭmaná, túdlĭmaná,
A yáñɐ, yañɐ, ya,
Hwi, hwi, hwi, hwi!

3. Kálutaná, kalutaná,
A yáñɐ, yáñɐ, ya,
Hwi, hwi, hwi, hwi!

We did not succeed in learning the meaning of these words, except, of course, that the first word, kióya, is aurora. When there is a bright aurora, the children often keep on dancing and singing this song till late into the night. A tune was introduced in the spring of 1883 by a party of men from Kĭlauwĭtáwĭñ, who came up to take part in the whale-fishing at Utkiavwĭñ. It became at once exceedingly popular, and everybody was singing or humming it. It is peculiar in being in waltz or 3/4 time, and has considerably more air than the ordinary tunes. I heard no words sung to it except: “O hai hai yáña, O hai yáña, O haíja he, haíja he.” Mr. Dall informs me that he recognizes this tune as one sung by the Indians on the Yukon.

ART.

The artistic sense appears to be much more highly developed among the western Eskimo than among those of the east. Among the latter, decoration appears to be applied almost solely to the clothing, while tools and utensils are usually left plain, and if ornamented are only adorned with carving or incised lines.[N511] West of the Mackenzie River, and especially south of Bering Strait, Eskimo decorative art reaches its highest development, as shown by the collections in the National Museum. Not only is everything finished with the most extreme care, but all wooden objects are gaily painted with various pigments, and all articles of bone and ivory are covered with ornamental carvings and incised lines forming conventional patterns.

[Footnote N511: See the various accounts of the eastern Eskimo
already referred to.]

There are in the collections also many objects that appear to have been made simply for the pleasure of exercising the ingenuity in representing natural or fanciful objects, and are thus purely works of art. Want of space forbids any further discussion of these interesting objects. There is in the Museum sufficient material for a large monograph on Eskimo art. As would naturally be expected, art at Point Barrow occupies a somewhat intermediate position between the highly developed art of the southwest and the simple art of the east. I have given sufficient figures in my description of their clothing and various implements to illustrate the condition of purely decorative art. A few words may be added by way of résumé. It will be noticed that whenever the bone or ivory parts of weapons are decorated the ornamentation is usually in the form of incised lines colored with red ocher or soot. These lines rarely represent any natural objects, but generally form rather elegant conventional patterns, most commonly double or single borders, often joined by oblique cross lines or fringed with short, pointed parallel lines.

A common ornament is the incised “circle and dot,” so often referred to in the foregoing descriptions. This is a circle about one-quarter inch in diameter, described as accurately as if done with compasses, with a deeply incised dot exactly in the center. This ornament is much more common south of Bering Strait, where, as Mr. L. M. Turner informs me, it is a conventionalized representation of a flower. Some of the older implements in our collection, ornamented with this figure, may have been obtained by trade from the southern natives, but the Point Barrow people certainly know how to make it, as there are a number of newly made articles in the collection thus ornamented. Unfortunately, we saw none of these objects in the process of manufacture, as they were made by the natives during odd moments of leisure, and at the time I did not realize the importance of finding out the process. No tool by which these figures could be made so accurately was ever offered for sale.

Neither Mr. Turner nor Mr. Dall, both of whom, as is well known, spent long periods among the natives of the Yukon region, ever observed the process of making this ornament. The latter, however, suggests that it is perhaps done with an improvised centerbit, made by sticking two iron points close together in the end of a handle. While weapons are decorated only with conventional patterns, other implements of bone or ivory, especially those pertaining to the chase, like the seal drags, etc., already mentioned, are frequently carved into the shape of animals, as well as being ornamented with conventional patterns. Carvings of animals’ heads usually have the mouth, nostrils, etc., indicated by blackened incisions, and often have small, colored beads, bits of wood, or ivory inlaid for the eyes. When beads are used, the perforation of the bead is generally made to represent the pupil of the eye. Beads were also used for ornamenting dishes and other wooden objects.

The harpoon blade boxes of wood carved into the shape of the animal to be pursued have been already described. Other wooden objects, like the shafts of lances, and arrows, paddles, boxes, dishes, the woodwork of snowshoes, sledges, umiaks, etc., are frequently painted either all over, or in stripes or bands. The pigment generally used is red ocher, sometimes set off with stripes of black lead. The only case in which a different pigment is used is that of some arrows from Sidaru, which, in addition to the usual black or red rings, have a rather dingy green ring round the shaft. This green looks as if it might have been derived from the “green fungus or _peziza_,” mentioned by Dall as in use among the ancient Aleuts.[N512] The red ocher is applied smoothly in a rather thin coat which looks as if it were always put on in the manner observed by Capt. Herendeen, who saw a man painting a new sled at Utkiavwĭñ. He licked the freshly scraped wood with his tongue, so as to moisten it with saliva and then rubbed it with a lump of red ocher. The custom of painting wooden objects with red ocher seemed to be rather more common among the “Nunatañmiun,” from whom perhaps the Point Barrow people borrowed the fashion, which is not mentioned among the eastern Eskimo. Nordenskiöld states that red is the favorite color among the natives of Pitlekaj.[N513]

[Footnote N512: Contributions to N. A. Ethn., vol. 1, p. 86.]

[Footnote N513: Vega, vol. 2, p. 135.]

The painting of the arrow shafts in many cases curiously resembles the marks used by modern archers to distinguish the ownership of their shafts, and may have formerly served the same purpose. We made no inquiries about the matter on the spot, and there is no certain evidence in the series of arrows collected that these are or are not marks of ownership. Some arrows, apparently the property of the same man, have different marks, while arrows from different villages are similarly marked. On examining our series of fifty arrows from the three villages (fourteen from Nuwŭk, twenty from Utkiavwĭñ, and sixteen from Sidaru) it will be seen that the commonest style of painting is to have the shaft painted red from the beginning or middle of the feathering to about one-fifth of its length from the head. Twenty arrows are marked in this way--eleven from Nuwŭk, belonging to at least two distinct sets, and nine from Utkiavwĭñ, belonging to three sets. Nine have about 8 inches of the middle of the shaft painted red, with a black ring at the middle of the feathering. Seven of these are from Sidaru, one from Nuwŭk, and one from Utkiavwĭñ. Five from Sidaru have a red ring round the middle, and a green one about the middle of the feathering, and four of the same set have also a red ring in front of the green one. Three from Utkiavwĭñ, belonging to different sets, have the shaft painted red from the middle to the beginning of the feathering, and three red rings 2 inches from the nock. Seven belonging to these sets from the two northern villages are unpainted.

A set of two small arrows which belong with the boy’s bow No. 89904 [786] are peculiar in their marking. About 5½ inches of the middle of the shaft is painted red, there is a black ring round the middle, and a black spiral running the whole length of the feathering.

The only decorative work in metal is to be seen in the pipes and their accompanying picks and fire steel which have already been described.

In addition to these illustrations of decorative art, we brought home a series of seventy-nine objects which may be considered as purely works of art without reference to decoration. Some of the older objects in this series perhaps also served the purpose of amulets or charms,[N514] but a number of the new ones were made simply as works of fancy for sale to us. These objects are all carvings of various materials, sometimes very rude and sometimes very neatly finished, but in most cases even when rudely made highly characteristic of the object represented.[N515] Walrus ivory, usually from the tusks, but sometimes from the teeth, is the commonest material for these carvings. Thirty-six of the series are made of this material, which is very well suited for the purpose, being worked with tolerable ease, and capable of receiving a high finish. Soapstone, from the ease with which it can be cut, is also rather a favorite material. Seventeen of these carvings are made of soapstone, in many cases evidently pieces of an old lamp or kettle. Other mineral substances appear to be rarely used. Three images, all made for sale and by the same hand, are of soft white gypsum and one tiny image of a bear is rudely flaked out of gray flint. (There are in the collection a number of rude images of whales, made by flaking from flint, jasper, and glass, but as these were ascertained without doubt to be amulets, they will be described under that head.) Eleven are made of wood, nine of bone, one of antler, and one of the tooth of the polar bear. Twenty-three of these carvings represent human beings, sometimes intentionally grotesque and caricatured; twenty-one, bowhead whales; fourteen, polar bears; five, seals; three, walruses; one, a beluga; one, a fish; and seven, fanciful monsters. Four are ornamented objects made for sale; not, strictly speaking, images.

[Footnote N514: Compare Nordenskiöld, Vega, vol. 2, p. 126 and
Rink, Tales, etc., p. 52.]

[Footnote N515: Compare Bessels, Naturalist, vol. 18, No. 9,
p. 880, where he speaks of finding among the people of Smith Sound
ivory carvings representing animals and human figures “exceedingly
characteristic.” (See also Fig. 21 of the same paper.)]

Six of the representations of the human face or figure are of wood, and with one exception were all freshly made for sale. Fig. 387 represents the only antique specimen of this kind (No. 56496 [655]). This was found among the débris in one of the old ruined houses in Utkiavwĭñ by Lieut. Ray, and is very old, blackened, and dirty. The carving was evidently done with a blunt instrument, probably a stone tool. This specimen, which was perhaps the head of a doll, is 7.1 inches in total length, with a head 3.4 inches long. We saw no similar object of modern construction.

Figs. 388_a_ and 388_b_ (Nos. 89726 [1192] and 89727 [1193], from Utkiavwĭñ) are a pair of rather roughly whittled human figures, a man and woman, respectively, both without clothes (except that the woman has a black-lead mark round the calf of each leg to indicate the tops of the boots). They were made for sale, and are perhaps unfinished dolls. The man (No. 89726 [1192]) is 11 inches long and tolerably well proportioned, except about the feet, which are very clumsily made. The eyes and mouth are incised and the hair colored with black-lead. The woman (No. 89727 [1193]) is a very similar figure, but only 9.2 inches long. She has prominent breasts, and her legs are shorter in proportion than the man’s.

No. 89725 [1185], from Utkiavwĭñ, is a clumsy image of a man, rudely whittled out of a flat, hardwood stick, 7¼ inches long. The body and legs are long, the latter somewhat straddling, with clumsy feet. The outstretched arms are very short and stumpy. It has been painted all over with a thin coat of red ocher, and the legs and feet have a coat of black lead over this. The hair also is marked out with black lead, and a small opaque white bead is fastened with a peg to the middle of the breast. This image was made for the market.

No. 56495_a_ [203], from Utkiavwĭñ, is of a pair of very rude images, also made solely for the market. Each is 8 inches long, and is merely an oblong piece of board, flat and rough on the back, roughly beveled from the middle to each side in front. One end is surmounted by a rather rudely carved human head, with the features in relief and the eyes and mouth incised. The eyebrows are marked out with black lead, and there is a longitudinal line of black lead down the middle of the front.

Fig. 389 (No. 89724 [1123] from Nuwŭk) is the face of a male Eskimo, 3.2 inches long, carved out of a flat piece of some coniferous wood weathered to a dark, reddish brown. The labrets are represented by two small, red glass beads with white centers, fastened on in the proper position with wooden pegs. There is a deep groove around the edge of the face into which is fastened a strip of yellowish wolfskin with long fur to represent the trimming around the hood of the jacket. This specimen was made for sale, and the carving is well executed. It is a characteristic Eskimo face, and would pass for a portrait of Apaidyáo, a well known young Eskimo, who was employed by Lieut. Ray as a guide and hunter.

We collected only two soap-stone carvings representing men, both of which were newly made. One of these, Fig. 390 (No. 89569 [1095] from Nuwŭk), is a grotesque image 2.9 inches long, roughly carved from a flat piece of an old lamp or pot. This is almost exactly the form in which the Eskimo, especially the children, usually draw a man. The writer’s _portrait_ has been drawn in very much the same shape. The features are very rudely indicated, and a long projecting tusk of bone is inserted at each corner of the mouth and glued in with refuse oil. This figure is probably meant to represent the “man with tusks,” before referred to, who figures in several of the legendary fragments which we obtained.

No. 89568 [1108], from Utkiavwĭñ, probably represents the same being. It is a mask of soapstone, a piece of an old lamp, 2.8 inches long, with very characteristic features in low relief, and a pair of sharp, projecting, decurved tusks, about 1 inch long, which appear to be made of the vibrissæ of the walrus. The back of the mask is roughly hollowed out. No. 89575 [1014], from Nuwŭk, is a clumsy and carelessly made image of a man, 3.4 inches long, whittled out of a flat, rough piece of soft, white gypsum. The arms are short and clumsy and the legs straddling, and there is a large elliptical hole through the middle of the body. The features are indicated only by digging little cavities for the eyes, nostrils, and mouth. This and two other images of the same material, a bear equally rude, and a very well carved and characteristic beluga, were made by the ingenious young native, Yöksa, previously mentioned.

The best bone figure of a man is shown in Fig. 391 (No. 89353 [1025], from Nuwŭk), also newly made. This is an image, 5 inches long, of the giant “Kikámigo,” previously mentioned, and is a very excellent piece of workmanship. The material is rather vascular compact bone. On the head is a conical dancing cap, 1.4 inches high, made of deerskin, with the flesh side out, and colored with red ocher, with a tuft of wolf hairs, 3 inches long, protruding from the apex. Around the middle of the cap is a narrow strip of the same material fringed on the lower edge with fifteen flat, narrow pendants of ivory, made to represent mountain-sheep teeth. To the back of this strip is fastened a half-downy feather nearly 4 inches long. A slender wooden stick is stuck into the strip behind, so that the tip reaches just above the apex of the cap. To a notch in the end of this is tied a bit of dressed deerskin, 1¼ inches long, cut into three strips.

Fig. 392 (No. 89348 [1127], from Utkiavwĭñ) is an image neatly carved from whale’s bone, which may have been meant for an amulet, or possibly the handle of a drill cord, as it is not new, and has two oblique holes in the middle of the back, which meet so as to form a longitudinal channel for a string. The eyes, mouth, and labret holes are incised and filled with black dirt. The total length is 3.3 inches.

Fig. 393 (No. 89344 [1272], from Utkiavwĭñ) is a very grotesque image of a naked man, rudely carved from compact, rather porous bone, impregnated with oil, but scraped smooth. It is 5 inches long. The mouth and eyes are incised and blackened, and the nostrils simply bored out.

The ivory carvings representing human figures are all of rather rude workmanship. No. 89352 [1100], Fig. 394, from Nuwŭk, is a tolerably good figure, 3.3 inches long, of a sitting man holding up his hands before his face. This specimen is old and is made of walrus ivory yellow from age and oil. No. 89351 [1085] from Nuwŭk, is a similar image, 3.8 inches long, newly made, with the arms at the sides, roughly carved from coarse walrus ivory. The eyes and mouth are incised and filled with dark colored dirt. Fig. 395 (No. 89349 [980], from Nuwŭk) is an old image made of yellow walrus ivory and closely resembling the bone image (No. 89348 [1127]) already figured, but with the hands by the sides. It is 2.7 inches long and has a string 4 inches long tied into the channel in the back.