Chapter VI: Introduction (5)

_Bone crushers._--In preparing food it is often desirable to break the large bones of the meat, both to obtain the marrow and to facilitate the trying out of the fat for making the pemmican already described. Deer bones are crushed into a sort of coarse bone-meal for feeding the dogs when traveling. For this purpose heavy short-handled stone mauls are used. These tools may have been formerly serviceable as hammers for driving treenails, etc., as the first specimen obtained was described as “savik-pidjûk-nunamisinĭ´ktuɐ-kau´teɐ” (literally “iron-not-dead-hammer”), or the hammer used by those now dead, who had no iron. For this purpose, however, they are wholly superseded by iron hammers, and are now only used for bone crushers. The collection contains a large series of these implements, namely, 13 complete mauls and 13 unhafted heads. All are constructed on the same general plan, consisting of an oblong roughly cylindrical mass of stone, with flat ends, mounted on the expanded end of a short haft, which is applied to the middle of one side of the cylinder and is slightly curved, like the handle of an adz. Such a haft is frequently made of the “branch” of a reindeer antler, and the expanded end is made by cutting off a portion of the “beam” where the branch joins it. A haft so made is naturally elliptical and slightly curved at right angles to the longer diameter of the ellipse, and is applied to the head so that the greatest thickness and therefore the greatest strength comes in the line of the blow, as in a civilized ax or hammer. The head and haft are held together by a lashing of thong or three-ply braid of sinew, passing through a large hole in the large end of the haft and round the head. This lashing is put on wet and dries hard and tight.[N188] It follows the same general plan in all the specimens, though no two are exactly alike. The material of the heads, with three exceptions (No. 56631 [222], gray porphyry; No. 89654 [906], black quartzite, and No. 89655 [1241], coarse-grained gray syenite), is massive pectolite (see above, p. 60), generally of a pale greenish or bluish gray color and slightly translucent, sometimes dark and opaque. No. 56635 [243] will serve as the type of these implements.[N189]

[Footnote N188: We saw this done on No. 56634 [83], the head and
haft of which were brought in separate and put together by an
Eskimo at the station.]

[Footnote N189: Figured in Ray’s Point Barrow Report, Ethnology,
Pl. II, Fig. 6.]

The head is of light bluish gray pectolite, and is lashed with a three-ply braid of reindeer sinew to a haft of some soft coniferous wood, probably spruce, rather smoothly whittled out and soiled by handling. The transverse ridge on the under side of the butt is to keep the hand from slipping off the grip. The whole is dirty and shows signs of considerable age.

These mauls vary considerable in size. The largest is 7.1 inches long and 2.5 in diameter, and the smallest 2.1 inches long by 2.4. This is a very small hammer, No. 56634 [83] having a haft only 4.7 inches long. The haft is usually about 5 inches long. The longest (belonging to one of the smaller heads, 4 inches by 2) is 7.2 inches long, and the shortest (belonging to a slightly larger head, 4.7 by 3.1 inches) is 4.5 inches. The largest two heads, each 7.1 by 2.5 inches, have hafts 5 inches long.

The lashing of all is put on in the same general way, namely, by securing one end round the head and through the eye, then taking a variable number of turns round the head and through the hole, and tightening these up by wrapping the end spirally round all the parts, where they stretch from head to haft on each side. Seal thong, narrow or broad, is more generally used than sinew braid (only three specimens out of the thirteen have lashings of sinew). When broad thong is used the loop is made by splicing, as follows: A slit is cut about 1½ inches from the end of the thong, and the end is doubled in a bight and passed through this slit. The end is then slit and the other end of the thong passed through it and drawn taut, making a splice which holds all the tighter for drawing on it. A simple loop is tied in sinew braid.

The following figures will illustrate the most important variations in the form of this implement. Fig. 23, No. 56634 [83] from Utkiavwĭñ, has a head of light gray pectolite, slightly translucent, and evidently ground flat on the faces, and the haft is of reindeer antler, with a slight knob at the butt. A square piece of buckskin is doubled and inserted between the head and haft. The lashing is of fine sealskin twine, and the spiral wrapping is carried wholly round the head. This was the first stone maul collected, and was put together at the station, as mentioned above. It is rather smaller than usual. Fig. 24, No. 56637 [196], from Utkiavwĭñ, has the head of grayish pectolite, rough and unusually large. The haft is of some soft coniferous wood soaked with grease. It is nearly round, instead of elliptical, with an irregular knob at the butt, and not curved, but fastened obliquely to the head. The loop of double thong attached to the haft is probably to go round the wrist.

Fig. 25, No. 56639 [161], from Utkiavwĭñ, is of pectolite, the upper and lower faces almost black and the sides light gray. The haft is of hard wood and unusually long (7.2 inches). It is noticeable for being attached at right angles to the head, by a very stout lashing of thong of the usual kind, and further tightened by a short flat stick wedged in below the head on one side. There appears to have been a similar “key” on the other side. This is an unusual form.

Fig. 26, No. 89654 [906], is from Nuwŭk. The head is an oblong, nearly cylindrical, water-worn pebble of black quartzite, 7.1 inches long; the haft is of reindeer antler, and the lashing of seal thong.

Fig. 27, No. 89655 [1241], from Utkiavwĭñ. The head of this maul is a long pebble of rather coarse-grained gray syenite, and is peculiar in having a shallow groove roughly worked out round the middle to keep the lashing from slipping. It is 4.7 inches long and 3.1 in diameter. The haft is of reindeer antler 4.5 inches long, and the lashing of seal thong peculiar only in the large number of turns in the spiral wrappings.

Fig. 28, No. 89657 [877], from Nuwŭk. This is peculiar in having the haft fitted into a deep angular groove on one side of the head, which is of pectolite and otherwise of the common pattern. The haft of reindeer antler and the lashing of broad thong are evidently newer than the head and are clumsily made and put on, the latter making several turns about one side of the haft as well as through it and round the head.

None of the unmounted heads, which are all of pectolite, are grooved in this way to receive the haft, but No. 56658 [205] has two shallow, incomplete grooves round the middle for lashings, and No. 56655 [218], which is nearly square in section, has shallow notches on the edges for the same purpose. One specimen of the series comes from Sidaru, but differs in no way from specimens from the northern villages.

Stone mauls of this type have previously been seldom found among the American Eskimo. The only specimens in the Museum from America are two small unhafted maul heads of pectolite, one from Hotham Inlet and the other from Cape Nome, and a roughly made maul from Norton Sound, all collected by Mr. Nelson. The last is an oblong piece of dark-colored jade rudely lashed to the end of a short thick stick, which has a lateral projection round which the lashing passes instead of through a hole in the haft. Among the “Chukches” at Pithkaj, however, Nordenskiöld found stone mauls of precisely the same model as ours and also used as bone crushers. He observed that the natives themselves ate the crushed bone after boiling it with blood and water.[N190] Lieut. Ray saw only dogs fed with it in the interior. Nordenskiöld does not mention the kind of stone used for these tools, but the two in the National Museum, collected by Mr. Nelson at Cape Wankarem, are both of granite or syenite and have a groove for the lashing. (Compare No. 89655 [1241], fig. 27.)

[Footnote N190: Vega, vol. 2, p. 113; figures on p. 112.]

In addition to the above-described stone mauls, there are in the collection five nearly similar mauls of heavy bone, which have evidently served the same purpose. They were all brought over for sale from Utkiavwĭñ at about the same time, and from their exceedingly oily condition were evidently brought to light in rummaging round in the old “blubber-rooms,” where they have long lain forgotten. Four of these differ in no respect from the stone mauls except in having the heads made of whale’s rib; the fifth is all in one piece.

The following figures will illustrate the general form of these implements: Fig. 29, No. 89847 [1046]: The head is a section of a small rib, 4.8 inches long, and has a deep notch on each side to receive the lashing. The haft is probably of spruce (it is so impregnated with grease that it is impossible to be sure about it), and is rough and somewhat knobby, with a rounded knob on the butt and two shallow finger notches on the under side of the grip. It is attached by a lashing of stout thong of the ordinary pattern. Fig. 30, No. 89849 [1047]: The head is a straight four-sided block of whale’s rib, 6 inches long. The deep notches for the lashing, one on each side, are 1 inch behind the middle. The haft is a roughly whittled knotty piece of spruce, and instead of a knob has a thick flange on the lower side of the butt. The lashing is of fourteen or fifteen turns of seal twine, and keyed upon each side by a roughly split stick thrust in under the head. Fig. 31, No. 89846 [1048]: This is peculiar in having the haft not attached at or near the middle of the head, but at one end, which is shouldered to receive it. The haft is of the common pattern and attached as usual, the lashing being made of very stout sinew braid. The head is a section of a small rib 6 inches long. Fig. 32, No. 89845 [1049]: This is made in one piece, and roughly carved with broad cuts from a piece of whale’s jaw. The grooves and holes in the bone are the natural canals of blood vessels. All these mauls are battered on the striking face, showing that they have been used.

At the first glance it seems as if we had here a series illustrating the development of the stone hammer. Fig. 32 would be the first form, while the next step would be to increase the weight of the head by lashing a large piece of bone to the end of the haft, instead of carving the whole laboriously out of a larger piece of bone. The substitution of the still heavier stone for the bone would obviously suggest itself next. The weak point in this argument, however, is that the advantage of the transition from the first to the next form is not sufficiently obvious. It seems to me more natural to suppose that the hafted stone hammer has been developed here, as is believed to have been the case elsewhere, by simply adding a handle to the pebble which had already been used as a hammer without one. These bone implements are then to be considered as makeshifts or substitutes for the stone hammer, when stones suitable for making the latter could not be procured. Now, such stones are rare at Point Barrow, and must be brought from a distance or purchased from other natives; hence the occasional use of such makeshifts as these. This view will account for the rarity of these bone hammers, as well as the rudeness of their construction. No. 89845 [1049] would thus be merely the result of individual fancy and not a link in the chain of development.

FOR SERVING AND EATING FOOD.

TRAYS.

Cooked food is generally served in large shallow trays more or less neatly carved from driftwood and nearly circular or oblong in shape. The collection contains two specimens of the circular form and three oblong ones. All but one of these have been long in use and are very greasy. No. 73576 [392] (Fig. 33) has been selected as the type of the circular dishes (i´libiɐ). This is very smoothly carved from a single piece of pine wood. The brim is rounded, with a large rounded gap in one side, where a piece has probably been broken out. The brim is slightly cracked and chipped. The vessel is very greasy and shows marks inside where meat has been cut up in it. No. 89867 [1323] is a very similar dish, and made of the same material, but elliptical instead of circular, and larger, being 22.5 inches long, 15.5 broad, and 2.1 deep. It has been split in two, and mended with whalebone stitches in the manner previously described.

No. 73575 [223] (Fig. 34) is a typical oblong dish. It is neatly hollowed out, having a broad margin painted with red ocher. It measures 24 inches in length, is made of pine, rather roughly carved on the outside, and is new and clean. This is a common form of dish. Fig. 35, No. 89868 [1377], is an old tray of an unusual form. It is rudely hewn out of a straight piece of plank, 34.8 inches long, showing inside and out the marks of a dull adz, called by the seller “kau´dlo tu´mai,” “the footprints of the stone (scil. adz).” The excavation is shallow and leaves a margin of 2 inches at one end, and the outside is roughly beveled off at the sides and ends. The holes near the ends were evidently for handles of thong. The material is spruce, discolored and somewhat greasy. Fig. 36, No. 89866 [1376], was said by the native who brought it over for sale to be especially intended for fish. It is much the shape of No. 73575 [223], but broader, slightly deeper, and more curved. The brim is narrow and rounded and the bottom smoothly rounded off. It measures 23.3 inches in length, and is made of pine. It has been deeply split in two places and stitched together with whalebone in the usual way. Trays and dishes of this sort are in general use among all Eskimo,[N191] and are sometimes made of tanned sealskins.[N192]

[Footnote N191: See for example, Crantz, vol. 1, p. 144,
Greenland; Parry, 2d. Voy., p. 503, Iglulik; and Hooper, Tents,
etc., p. 170, Plover Bay.]

[Footnote N192: Bessels, Naturalist, Sept. 1884, p. 867.]

DRINKING VESSELS.

_Whalebone Cup_ (_I´musyû_).--One of the commonest forms of drinking vessels is a little tub of whalebone of precisely the same shape as the large whalebone dish described above (p. 88). Of these there are five specimens in the collection, all from Utkiavwĭñ. No. 89853 [1302] (Fig. 37) will serve as the type. It is 4.6 inches long and made by binding a strip of black whalebone round a spruce bottom, and sewing together the ends, which overlap each other about 1½ inches, with coarse strips of whalebone.

There are two vertical seams three-fourths inch apart. The bottom is held in by fitting its slightly chamfered edge into a shallow croze cut in the whalebone. All these cups are made almost exactly alike, and nearly of the same size, varying only a fraction of an inch in height, and from 4.2 to 5.5 inches in length. The only variation is in the distance the ends overlap and the number of stitches in the seams. Such cups are to be found in nearly every house, and one is generally kept conveniently near the water bucket. Though the pattern is an ancient one, they are still manufactured. No. 56560 [654] was found among the débris of one of the ruined houses at Utkiavwĭñ, and differs from the modern cups only in having the ends sewed together with one seam instead of two, while No. 89851 [1300], though it has been in actual use, was made after our arrival, as the bottom is made of a piece of one of our cigar boxes.

Dippers of horn are in very general use for drinking water. These are all of essentially the same shape, and are made of the light yellow translucent horn of the mountain sheep. There are three specimens in our collection, of which No. 56534 [28] (Fig. 38) has been selected as the type. This is made of a single piece of pale yellow translucent horn, apparently softened and molded into shape, cut only on the edges and the handle. A stout peg of antler is driven through the handle, 1 inch from the tip, and projects behind, serving as a hook by which to hang the dipper on the edge of a bucket. The other two are similar in shape and size, but No. 89831 [1293] has no peg, and has one side of the handle cut into a series of slight notches to keep the hand from slipping, while No. 89832 [1577] is rather straighter and has a smaller, shallower bowl, and the grip of the handle roughened with transverse grooves. Fig. 39, No. 89739 [774|, is a horn dipper, but one that is very old and of a pattern no longer in use. The bowl, which is much broken and gapped, is oval and deep, with a thick handle at one end, running out in the line of the axis of the bowl. This handle, which is the thick part of the horn, near the tip, is flat above, rounded below, and has its tip slightly rounded, apparently by a stone tool. Just where the bowl and handle meet there is a deep transverse saw-cut, made to facilitate bending the handle into its place. The material is horn, apparently of the mountain sheep, turned brown by age and exposure. The specimen had been long lying neglected round the village of Utkiavwĭñ.

Horn dippers of the same general pattern as these are common throughout Alaska. The Museum collection contains a large series of such utensils, collected by Mr. Nelson and others. The cups and dippers of musk-ox horn found by Parry at Iglulik are somewhat different in shape.[N193] Those made of the enlarged base of horn[N194] have a short handle and a nearly square bowl, while the hollow top of the horn is used for a cup without alteration beyond sometimes bending up the end, which serves as a handle.[N195] Curiously enough, cups of this last pattern appear not to be found anywhere else except at Plover Bay, eastern Siberia, where very similar vessels (as shown by the Museum collections) are made from the horn of the Siberian mountain sheep. An unusual form of dipper is beautifully made of fossil ivory. Such cups are rare and highly prized. We saw only three, one from each village, Nuwŭk, Utkiavwĭñ, and Sidaru, and all were obtained for the collection. They show signs of age and long use. They differ somewhat in shape and size, but each is carved from a single piece of ivory and has a large bowl and a straight handle. No. 56535 [371] (Fig. 40), which will serve as the type of the ivory dipper (i´musyû, kĭlĭgwû´garo), is neatly carved from a single piece of fine-grained fossil ivory, yellowed by age. The handle, polished by long use, terminates in a blunt, recurved, tapering hook, which serves the purpose of the peg in the horn dipper. The rounded gap in the brim opposite the handle is an accidental break. Another, No. 89830 [1259], from Sidaru, is a long trough-like cup, with rounded ends and a short flat handle at one end, made of a short transverse section of a rather small tusk, keeping the natural roundness of the tusk, but cut off flat on top and excavated. A wooden peg, like those in the horn dippers, is inserted in the end of the handle. This cup is especially interesting from its resemblance to the one obtained by Beechey (Voyage, Pl. I, Fig. 4) at Eschscholtz Bay, from which it differs only in being about 2 inches shorter and deeper in proportion. Thomas Simpson speaks of obtaining an ivory cup from some Point Barrow natives at Dease Inlet exactly like the one figured by Beechey, but with the handle broken off.[N196] Fig. 41, No. 89833 [933], from Nuwŭk, has a large bowl, nearly circular, with a broad, straight handle and a broad hook. The part of the bowl to which the handle is attached, a semicircular piece 3 inches long and 1¾ wide, has been split out with the grain of the tusk, and mended with three stitches, in this case of sinew, in the usual manner. There was an old gap in the brim opposite to the handle, and the edges of it have been freshly and roughly whittled down. The ornamentation of the outside and handle, consisting of narrow incised lines and small circles, each with a dot in the center, is well shown in the figure. These engravings were originally colored with red ocher, but are now filled with dirt and are nearly effaced by wear on the handle. This dipper is not of such fine quality of ivory as the other two. It is not unlikely that all these vessels were made by the natives around Kotzebue Sound, where ivory is plenty, and where Beechey, as quoted above, found one so like one of ours. We were informed by the owner that No. 56535 [371] was obtained from the Nunatañmiun.

[Footnote N193: Second Voyage, p. 503.]

[Footnote N194: See Fig. 26, plate opposite p. 550.]

[Footnote N195: See Figs. 8 and 9, opposite p. 548.]

[Footnote N196: Narrative, p. 148.]

_Spoons and ladles._--Each family has several spoons of various sizes, and narrow shallow ladles of horn, bone, etc. The large spoon is for stirring and ladling soup, etc. There is only one specimen in the collection, No. 89739 [1352] (Fig. 42). This is a new one, made by a native of Utkiavwĭñ, whom I asked to make himself a new spoon and bring me his old one. He, however, misunderstood me and brought over the new one, which Lieut. Ray purchased, not knowing that I had especially asked for the old one. These spoons seem to be in such constant use that the natives did not offer them for sale. This specimen is smoothly carved from a single piece of pine, and painted all over, except the inside of the bowl, with red ocher. A cross of red ocher is marked in the middle of the bowl, and there is a shallow groove, colored with blacklead, along the middle of the handle on top. The length is 13.2 inches. A small spoon of light-colored horn, No. 89416 [1379], has a bowl of the common spoon shape with a short, flat handle. Spoons of this sort were not seen in use, and as this is new and evidently made for sale it may be meant for a copy of one of our spoons. The narrow ladles of horn or bone may formerly have been used for eating before it was so easy to get tin pots, but at present are chiefly used for dipping oil, especially for filling the lamp. The collection contains one of horn and four of bone.

No. 89415 [1070], Fig. 43, is made of a single piece of mountain-sheep horn, dark brown from age and use, softened and molded into shape. It is impregnated with oil, showing that it has been long in use. This utensil closely resembles a great number of specimens in the Museum from the more southern parts of Alaska. No. 89411 [1294] (Fig. 44) is a typical bone ladle. The material is rather coarse-grained, compact bone from a whale’s rib or jawbone. No. 89414 [1013] closely resembles this but is a trifle larger. The other two specimens are interesting as showing an attempt at ornamentation. No. 89412 [1102] (Fig. 45, from Nuwŭk) is carved smoothly into a rude, flattened figure of a whale (Balaena mysticetus). The flukes form the handle and the belly is hollowed out into the bowl of the ladle. No. 89413 [934] (Fig. 46, from Utkiavwĭñ) has the handle carved into a rude bear’s head, which has the eyes, nostrils, and outline of the mouth incised and filled in with dark oil dregs. All these ladles have the curved side of the bowl on the left, showing that they were meant to be used with the right hand. The name, kĭliu´tɐ, obtained for these ladles is given in the vocabulary collected by Dr. Oldmixon as “scraper,” which seems to be the etymological meaning of the word. These implements may be used for scraping blubber from skins, or the name may correspond in meaning to the cognate Greenlandic kiliortût, “a scraper; especially a mussel shell (a natural scraper).” The resemblance of these ladles to a mussel shell is sufficiently apparent for the name to be applied to them. Indeed, they may have been made in imitation of mussel shells, which the Eskimo, in all probability, like so many other savages, used for ladles as well as scrapers.

MISCELLANEOUS HOUSEHOLD UTENSILS.

_Lamps (kódlö)._--Mention has already been made of the stone lamps or oil-burners used for lighting and warming the houses, which, in Dr. Simpson’s time, were obtained by trading from the “Kûñmû´dlĭñ,” who in turn procured them from other Eskimo far to the east. These are flat, shallow dishes, usually like a gibbous moon in outline, and are of two sizes: the larger house lamp, 18 inches to 3 feet in length, and the small traveling lamp, 6 or 8 inches long. The latter is used in the temporary snow huts when a halt is made at night. In each house are usually two lamps, one standing at each side, with the curved side against the wall, and raised by blocks a few inches from the floor. In one large house, that of old Yûksĭ´ña, the so-called “chief,” at Nuwŭk, there were three lamps, the third standing in the right-hand front corner of the house. The dish is filled with oil, which is burned by means of a wick of moss fibers arranged along the outer edge. Large lamps are usually divided into three compartments, of which the middle is the largest, by wooden partitions called sä´potĭn (corresponding to the Greenlandic saputit, “(1) a dam across a stream for catching fish, (2) a dam or dike in general”), along which wicks can also be arranged. The women tend the lamps with great care, trimming and arranging the wick with little sticks. The lamp burns with scarcely any smoke and a bright flame, the size of which is regulated by kindling more or less of the wick, and is usually kept filled by the drip from a lump of blubber stuck on a sharp stick (ajû´ksûxbwĭñ) projecting from the wall about a foot above the middle of the lamp.[N197]

[Footnote N197: Compare the custom noticed by Parry, at Iglulik,
of hanging a long thin strip of blubber near the flame of the lamp
to feed it (2d Voyage, p. 502). According to Petitot (Monographie,
etc., p. xviii), the lamps in the Mackenzie district are fed by a
lump of blubber stuck on a stick, as at Point Barrow.]

In most houses there is a long slender stick (kukun, “a lighter”), which the man of the house uses to light his pipe with when sitting on the banquette, without the trouble of getting down, by dipping the end in the oil of the lamp and lighting this at the flame. The sticks used for trimming the wick also serve as pipe-lighters and for carrying fire across the room in the same way.[N198] No food, except an occasional luncheon of porridge or something of the sort, is now cooked over these lamps. Two such lamps burning at the ordinary rate give light enough to enable one to read and write with ease when sitting on the banquette, and easily keep the temperature between 50° and 60° F. in the coldest weather. In the collection are three house lamps, two complete and one merely a fragment, and three traveling lamps.

[Footnote N198: Compare Nordenskiöld, Vega, vol. 2, p. 119: “The
wooden pins she uses to trim the wick . . . are used when required
as a light or torch . . . to light pipes, etc. In the same way
other pins dipped in train-oil are used” (Pitlekaj), and foot-note
on same page: “I have seen such pins, also oblong stones, sooty at
one end, which, after having been dipped in train-oil, have been
used as torches . . . in old Eskimo graves in northwestern
Greenland.”]

Fig. 47 (No. 89879) [872] is a typical house lamp, though rather a small specimen. It is carved out of soft gray soapstone and is 17 inches long. The back is nearly vertical, while the front flares strongly outward. The back wall is cut down vertically inside with a narrow rounded brim and the front curves gradually in from the very edge to the bottom of the cavity, which is 1½ inches deep in the middle. The posterior third of the cavity is occupied by a flat, straight shelf with a sloping edge about 0.7 inch high. About a third of one end of the lamp has been broken off obliquely and mended, as usual, with stitches. There are two of these neatly countersunk in channels. The specimen has been long in use and is thoroughly incrusted with oil and soot. No. 89880 [1731] (Fig. 48) is peculiar, from the material of which it is made. This is a coarse, gritty stone, rather soft, but much more difficult to work than the soapstone. It is rudely worked into something the same shape as the type, but has the cavity but slightly hollowed out, without a shelf, and only a little steeper behind than in front. The idea at once suggests itself that this lamp, which is very old and sooty, was made at Point Barrow and was an attempt to imitate the imported lamps with stone obtained from the beds reported by Lieut. Ray in Kulugrua. There is, of course, no means of proving this supposition. There is no mention of any material except soapstone being made into lamps by the Greenlanders or other eastern Eskimo, but the lamps from Kadiak and Bristol Bay in the National Museum are made of some hard gray stone.

Fig. 49, No. 56673 [133], is a traveling lamp, and is a miniature of the large lamp, No. 89879 [872], 8.7 inches long, 4.2 wide, and 1 inch high, also of soapstone and without a shelf. The front also is straighter, and the whole more roughly made. No. 89882 [1298] is another traveling lamp, also of soapstone, and made of about half of a large lamp. It has been used little if at all since it was made over, as the inside is almost new while the outside is coated with soot and grease. It is 6.3 inches long. No. 89881 [1209] is a miniature of No. 89880, 8.1 inches long, and is made of the same gritty stone.

Suitable material is not at hand for the proper comparison of the lamps used by the different branches of the Eskimo race. All travelers who have written about the Eskimo speak of the use of such lamps, which agree in being shallow, oblong dishes of stone. Dr. Bessels[N199] figures a lamp of soapstone from Ita, Smith Sound, closely resembling No. 89880, and a little lamp in the Museum from Greenland is of essentially the same shape, but deeper. The same form appears at Hudson Strait in the lamps collected by Mr. L. M. Turner, while those used at Iglulik are nearly semicircular.[N200] South of Kotzebue Sound lamps of the shape so common in the east are used, but these, Mr. Turner informs me, are never made of soapstone, but always of sandstone, shale, etc. The people of Kadiak and the Aleuts anciently used lamps of hard stone, generally oval in shape, and sometimes made by slightly hollowing out one side of a large round pebble.[N201] Such a rough lamp was brought by Lieut. Stoney, U.S. Navy, from Kotzebue Sound. No such highly finished and elaborate lamps as the large house lamps at Point Barrow are mentioned except by Nordenskiöld, who figures one from Siberia.[N202] This lamp is interesting as the only one described with a ledge comparable to the shelf of No. 89879. Lamps from the region between Point Barrow and Boothia Felix are especially needed to elucidate the distribution and development of this utensil. The rudely hollowed pebble of the ancient Aleut and the elaborate lamp of the Point Barrow Eskimo are evidently the two extremes of the series of forms, but the intermediate patterns are still to be described.

[Footnote N199: Naturalist, September, 1884, p. 867, Fig. 2.]

[Footnote N200: Parry, Second Voyage, Pl. opposite p. 548, Fig.
2.]

[Footnote N201: See Dall, Alaska, p. 387; and Petroff Report,
etc., p. 141. See also the collections of Turner and Fischer from
Attu and Kadiak.]

[Footnote N202: Vega, vol. 2, p. 23, Fig. _b_ on p. 22, and
diagrams, p. 23.]

Fig. 50, No. 56492 [108], is a peculiar article of which only one specimen was collected. We were given to understand at the time of purchasing it that it was a sort of socket or escutcheon to be fastened to the wall above a lamp to hold the blubber stick described above. No such escutcheons, however, were seen in use in the houses visited. The article is evidently old. It is a flat piece of thick plank of some soft wood, 11.4 inches long, 4.2 broad, and about 1½ thick, very rudely carved into a human head and body without arms, with a large round hole about 1¼ inches in diameter through the middle of the breast. The eyes and mouth are incised, and the nose was in relief, but was long ago split off. There is a deep furrow all around the head, perhaps for fastening on a hood.

CLOTHING.

MATERIAL.

The clothing of these people is as a rule made entirely of skins, though of late years drilling and calico are used for some parts of the dress which will be afterwards described. Petroff[N203] makes the rather surprising statement that “a large amount of ready-made clothing finds its way into the hands of these people, who wear it in summer, but the excessive cold of winter compels them to resume the fur garments formerly in general use among them.” Fur garments are in as general use at Point Barrow as they ever were, and the cast-off clothing obtained from the ships is mostly packed away in some corner of the iglu. We landed at Cape Smyth not long after the wreck of the _Daniel Webster_, whose crew had abandoned and given away a great deal of their clothing. During that autumn a good many men and boys wore white men’s coats or shirts in place of the outer frock, especially when working or lounging about the station, but by the next spring these were all packed away and were not resumed again except in rare instances in the summer.

[Footnote N203: Report, etc., p. 125.]

The chief material is the skin of the reindeer, which is used in various stages of pelage. Fine, short-haired summer skins, especially those of does and fawns, are used for making dress garments and underclothes. The heavier skins are used for everyday working clothes, while the heaviest winter skins furnish extra warm jackets for cold weather, warm winter stockings and mittens. The white or spotted skins of the tame Siberian reindeer, obtained from the “Nunatañmiun,” are especially valued for full-dress jackets. We heard no mention of the use of the skin of the unborn reindeer fawn, but there is a kind of dark deerskin used only for edgings, which appears to be that of an exceedingly young deer. This skin is extremely thin, and the hair so short that it is almost invisible. Siberian deerskins can always be recognized by having the flesh side colored red,[N204] while American-dressed skins are worked soft and rubbed with chalk or gypsum, giving a beautiful white surface like pipe-clayed leather.

The skins of the white mountain sheep, white and blue fox, wolf, dog, ermine, and lynx are sometimes used for clothing, and under jackets made of eider duck skins are rarely used. Sealskin dressed with the hair on is used only for breeches and boots, and for those rarely. Black dressed sealskin--that is, with the epidermis left on and the hair shaved off--is used for waterproof boots, while the white sealskin, tanned in urine, with the epidermis removed, is used for the soles of winter boots. Waterproof boot soles are made of oil-dressed skins of the white whale, bearded seal, walrus, or polar bear. The last material is not usually mentioned as serving for sole leather among the Eskimo. Nordenskiöld,[N205] however, found it in use among the Chukches for this purpose. It is considered an excellent material for soles at Point Barrow, and is sometimes used to make boat covers, which are beautifully white. Heavy mittens for the winter are made of the fur of the polar bear or of dogskin. Waterproof outer frocks are of seal entrails, split and dried and sewed together. For trimmings are used deerskin of different colors, mountain-sheep skin, and black and white sealskin, wolf, wolverine, and marten fur, and whole ermine skins, as well as red worsted, and occasionally beads.

[Footnote N204: Compare Nordenskiöld, Vega, vol 2. p. 213.]

[Footnote N205: Vega, vol. 2, p. 98.]

STYLE OF DRESS.

Dr. Simpson[N206] gave an excellent general description of the dress of these people, which is the same at the present day. While the same in general pattern as that worn by all other Eskimo, it differs in many details from that worn by the eastern Eskimo,[N207] and most closely resembles the style in vogue at and near Norton Sound.[N208] The man’s dress (Fig. 51, from a photograph of Apaidyao) consists of the usual loose hooded frock, without opening except at the neck and wrists. This reaches just over the hips, rarely about to mid-thigh, where it is cut off square, and is usually confined by a girdle at the waist. Under this garment is worn a similar one, usually of lighter skin and sometimes without a hood. The thighs are clad in one or two pairs of tight-fitting knee breeches, confined round the hips by a girdle and usually secured by a drawstring below the knee which ties over the tops of the boots. On the legs and feet are worn, first, a pair of long, deerskin stockings with the hair inside; then slippers of tanned sealskin, in the bottom of which is spread a layer of whalebone shavings, and outside a pair of close-fitting boots, held in place by a string round the ankle, usually reaching above the knee and ending with a rough edge, which is covered by the breeches. Dress boots often end with an ornamental border and a drawstring just below the knee. The boots are of reindeer skin, with white sealskin soles for winter and dry weather, but in summer waterproof boots of black sealskin with soles of white whale skin, etc., are worn. Overshoes of the same material, reaching just above the ankles, with a drawstring at the top and ankle strings, are sometimes worn over the winter boots. When traveling on snowshoes or in soft dry snow the boots are replaced by stockings of the same shape as the under ones, but made of very thick winter deerskins with the flesh side out.

[Footnote N206: Op. cit., pp. 241-245.]

[Footnote N207: See for example, Egede, p. 219; Crantz, vol. 1,
p. 136; Bessels, Op. cit., pp. 805 and 868 (Smith Sound); Kane,
1st Grinnell Exp., pp. 45 (Greenland) and 132 (Cape York);
Brodbeck, “Nach Osten,” pp. 23, 24, and Holm, Geografisk
Tidskrift, vol. 8, p. 90 (East Greenland); Parry, 2d Voy., pp.
494-6 (Iglulik); Boas. “Central Eskimo,” pp. 554-6; Kumlien, loc.
cit., pp. 22-25 (Cumberland Gulf); also, Frobisher, in Hakluyt’s
Voyages, 1589, etc., p. 628.]

[Footnote N208: Dall, Alaska, pp. 21 and 141.]

Instead of breeches and boots a man occasionally wears a pair of pantaloons or tight-fitting trousers terminating in shoes such as are worn by the women. Over the usual dress is worn in very cold weather a circular mantle of deerskin, fastened by a thong at the neck--such mantles are nowadays occasionally made of blankets--and in rainy weather both sexes wear the hooded rain frock of seal gut. Of late years both sexes have adopted the habit of wearing over their clothes a loose hoodless frock of cotton cloth, usually bright-colored calico, especially in blustering weather, when it is useful in keeping the drifting snow out of their furs.

Both men and women wear gloves or mittens. These are of deerskin for ordinary use, but in extreme weather mittens of polar bear skin are worn. When hunting in winter it is the custom to wear gloves of thin deerskin under the bearskin mitten, so that the rifle can be handled without touching the bare hand to the cold iron. The women have a common trick of wearing only one mitten, but keeping the other arm withdrawn from the sleeve and inside of the jacket.

The dress of the women consists of two frocks, which differ from those of the men in being continued from the waist in two rather full rounded skirts at the front and back, reaching to or below the knee. A woman’s frock is always distinguished by a sort of rounded bulge or pocket at the nape of the neck (see Fig. 52, from a sketch by the writer), which is intended to receive the head of the infant when carried in the jacket. The little peak at the top of the hood is also characteristic of the woman’s frock. On her legs a woman wears a pair of tight-fitting deerskin pantaloons with the hair next the skin, and outside of these a similar pair made of the skins of deer legs, with the hair out, and having soles of sealskin, but no anklestrings. The outer pantaloons are usually laid aside in spring, and waterproof boots like the men’s, but fastened below the knee with drawstrings, are worn over the under pantaloons. In the summer pantaloons wholly of waterproof sealskin are often put on. The women’s pantaloons, like the men’s breeches, are fastened with a girdle just above the hips. It appears that they do not stay up very well, as the women are continually “hitching” them up and tightening their girdles.

Until they reach manhood the boys wear pantaloons like the women, but their jackets are cut just like those of the men. The dress of the girls is a complete miniature of that of the women, even to the pocket for the child’s head. Those who are well-to-do generally own several complete suits of clothes, and present a neat appearance when not engaged in dirty work. The poorer ones wear one suit on all occasions till it becomes shabby. New clothes are seldom put on till winter.

The outer frock is not often worn in the iglu, being usually taken off before entering the room, and the under one is generally dispensed with. Men habitually leave off their boots in the house, and rarely their stockings and breeches, retaining only a pair of thin deerskin drawers. This custom of stripping in the house has been noticed among all Eskimos whose habits have been described, from Greenland to Siberia. The natives are slow to adopt any modifications in the style of dress, the excellence and convenience of which has been so frequently commented upon that it is unnecessary to refer to it. One or two youths learned from association with us the convenience of pockets, and accordingly had “patch pockets” of cloth sewed on the outside of the skirt of the inner frock, and one young man in 1883 wore a pair of sealskin hip boots, evidently copies from our india-rubber wading boots. I now proceed to the description of the clothing in detail.

_Head clothing._--The only head covering usually worn is the hood of the frock, which reaches to about the middle of the head, the front being covered by the hair. Women who are carrying children in the jacket sometimes wrap the head in a cloth. (I have an indistinct recollection of once seeing a woman with a deerskin hood, but was too busy at the time to make a note or sketch of it.) One man at Utkiavwĭñ (Nägawau´ra, now deceased), who was quite bald on the forehead, used to protect the front of his head with a sort of false front of deerskin, tied round like a fillet. No specimens of any of these articles were obtained. Fancy conical caps are worn in the dances and theatrical performances, but these belong more properly under the head of Games and Pastimes (where they will be described) than under that of Clothing.

_Frocks (atigĕ)._--Two frocks are always worn by both sexes except in the house, or in warm weather, the inner (ílupa) with the hair next the skin, and the outer (kalûru´rɐ) with the hair out. The outer frock is also sometimes worn with the hair in, especially when it is new and the flesh side clean and white. This side is often ornamented with little tufts of marten fur and stripes of red ocher. The difference in shape between the frocks of the two sexes has been already mentioned. The man’s frock is a loose shirt, not fitted to the body, widening at the bottom, and reaching, when unbelted, just below the hips. The skirts are cut off square or slightly rounded, and are a little longer behind than in front. The hood is rounded, loose around the neck, and fitted in more on the sides than on the nape. The front edge of the hood, when drawn up, comes a little forward of the top of the head and runs round under the chin, covering the ears.

There are in the collection three specimens, all rather elaborate dress frocks, to be worn outside. All have been worn. No. 56751 [184] (Fig. 53), brown deerskin, will serve as the type. The pattern can best be explained by reference to the accompanying diagrams (Fig. 54). The body consists of two pieces, front and back, each made of the greater part of the skin of a reindeer fawn, with the back in the middle and the sides and belly coming at the edges. The head of the animal is made into the hood, which is continuous with the back. Each sleeve is in two pieces, front and back, of the same shape, which are sewed together along the upper edge, but separated below by the arm flap of the front, which is bent down and inserted like a gusset from the armpit nearly to the wrist. A band of deerskin an inch broad is sewed round the edge of the hood, flesh side out. The trimming consists, first, of a narrow strip of long-haired wolfskin (taken from the middle of the back) sewed to the outer side of the binding of the hood, its ends separated by the chin piece, so that the long hairs form a fringe around the face. Similar strips are sewed round each wrist with the fur inward. The binding round the skirt (Fig. 55_a_) is 2¼ inches broad. The light-colored strips are clipped mountain sheep skin, the narrow pipings are of the dark brown skin of a very young fawn, the little tags on the second strip are of red worsted and the fringe is of wolverine fur, sewed on with the flesh side, which is colored red, probably with ocher, outward. A band of similar materials, arranged a little differently (Fig. 55_b_) and 1¼ inches broad, is inserted into the body at each shoulder seam, so that the fringe makes a sort of epaulet. This jacket is 24.5 inches long from the chin to the bottom of the skirt, 21 inches wide across the shoulders, and 24.5 inches wide at the bottom.

Apart from the trimming this is a very simple pattern. There are no seams except those absolutely necessary for producing the shape, and the best part of each skin is brought where it will show most, while the poorer portions are out of sight under the arms.

The chief variation in deerskin frocks is in the trimming. All have the hood fitted to the head and throat, with cheek and throat pieces, and these are invariably white or light colored, even when the frock is made of white Siberian deer skin. When possible the head of the deer is always used for the back of the hood, as Capt. Parry observed to be the custom at Iglulik.[N209] A plain frock is sometimes used for rough work, hunting, etc. This has no fringe or trimming round the hood, skirt, or wrists, the first being smoothly hemmed or bound with deerskin and the last two left raw-edged. Fig. 56 shows such a jacket, which is often made of very heavy winter deerskin. Most frocks, however, have the border to the hood either of wolf or wolverine skin, in the latter case especially having the end of the strips hanging down like tassels under the chin. The long hairs give a certain amount of protection to the face when walking in the wind.[N210] Instead of a fringe the hood sometimes has three tufts of fur, one on each side and one above.

[Footnote N209: Second Voy., p. 537.]

[Footnote N210: Compare Dall, Alaska, p. 22.]

Trimmings of edging like that above described, or of plain wolverine fur round the skirts and wrists, are common, and the shoulder straps rather less so. Frocks are sometimes also fringed on the skirts and seams with little strips of deerskin, after what the Point Barrow people called the “Kûñmûdlĭñ” fashion.[N211] Nearly all the natives wear outer frocks of deerskin, but on great occasions elaborately made garments of other materials are sometimes seen. Nos. 56758 [87] (Fig. 57, _a_ and _b_) and 56757 [11] (Fig. 58, _a_ and _b_) are two such frocks. No. 56758 [87] is of mountain sheep skin, nearly white. As shown in the diagrams (Fig. 59, _a_, _b_, _c_), the general pattern is not unlike the type described, but there are more pieces in the hood and several small gussets are inserted to improve the set of the garment. The trimmings are shoulder straps, and a border round the skirt of edging like that described above, and the seams of the throat pieces are piped with the dark almost hairless deerskin, which sets them off from the rest of the coat. The wrists have narrow borders of wolf fur, and there was a wolfskin fringe to the hood, which was removed before the garment was offered for sale.

[Footnote N211: There are several frocks so trimmed in the
National Museum, from the Mackenzie and Anderson region.]