Note 273 — ETHNOLOGICAL RESULTS OF THE POINT BARROW EXPEDITION.

Journal, p. 92.

274. Compare this with what Capt. Parry says of the workmanship of the people of Iglulik (2d Voy., p. 336). The almost exclusive use of the double-edged pan´na is the reason their work is so “remarkably coarse and clumsy.”

275. Lisiansky also mentions “a small crooked knife” (Voyage, p. 181), as one of the tools used in Kadiak in 1805.

276. A specimen has lately been received at the National Museum. It is remarkably like the Indian knife in pattern.

277. Op. cit., p. 266.

278. See for example, Kumlien, op. cit., p. 26.

279. See, especially, Dall, Contrib., vol. 1, pp. 59 and 79, for figures of such knives from the caves of Unalashka.

280. Prehistoric Fishing, pp. 183-188.

281. It is but just to Dr. Rau to say that he recognized the fact that these implements are not exclusively fish-cutters, and applies this name only to indicate that he has treated of them simply in reference to their use as such. The idea, however, that these, being slightly different in shape from the Greenland olu or ulu, are merely fish knives, has gained a certain currency among anthropologists which it is desirable to counteract.

282. Journal, p. 28.

283. 2d Voyage, p. 536, and pl. opp. p. 548, fig. 3.

284. Figured in the Voyage of the Vega, vol. 1, p. 444, Fig. 1.

285. History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 149.

286. Greenland, p. 175.

287. 2d Voyage, p. 536.

288. Rink, Tales and Traditions, p. 35.

289. Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 239.

290. Franklin, 2d Exp., p. 148. In the hurry of leaving Barter Island “one of the crew of the Reliance left his gun and ammunition.”

291. See McClure’s N. W. Passage, p. 390.

292. Narrative, p. 109.

293. Maguire, Further Papers, p. 907.

294. See the writer’s paper on the subject of Eskimo bows in the Smithsonian Report for 1884, Part II, pp. 307-316.

295. Naturalist, vol 8, No. 9, p. 869.

296. “In former times they made use of bows for land game; they were made of soft fir, a fathom in length, and to make it the stiffer it was bound round with whalebone or sinews.” History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 146.

297. “Their Bow is of an ordinary Make, commonly made of Fir Tree, . . . and on the Back strengthened with Strings made of Sinews of Animals, twisted like Thread.” “The Bow is a good fathom long.” Greenland, p. 101.

298. Voyage of the Vega, vol. 1, p. 41.

299. Hakluyt’s Voyages, 1589, p. 628.

300. Science, vol. 4, 98, p. 543.

301. Voyage to Hudson’s Bay, p. 138.

302. Compare what I have already said about the backing being put on wet.

303. Voyages from Montreal . . . to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans, p. 48.

304. Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th edition, article Archery.

305. On this subject of using the feathers of birds of prey for arrows, compare Crantz, History of Greenland, i, p. 146, “the arrow . . . winged behind with a couple of raven’s feathers.” Bessels, Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 9, p. 869 (the three arrows at Ita had raven’s feathers). Parry, 2d Voyage, p. 511, “Toward the opposite end of the arrow are two feathers, generally of the spotted owl, not very neatly lashed on;” and Kumlien, Contributions, p. 37, “The feather-vanes were nearly always made from the primaries of Strix scandiaca or Graculus carbo.” The last is the only mention I find of using any feathers except those of birds of prey.

306. Op. cit., p. 266.

307. Compare the passage in Frobisher’s Second Voyage (Hakluyt, 1589, p. 628). After describing the different forms of arrowheads used by the Eskimo of “Meta Incognita” (Baffin Land) in 1577 he says: “They are not made very fast, but lightly tyed to, or else set in a nocke, that upon small occasion the arrowe leaveth these heads behind them.”

308. “In shooting this weapon the string is placed on the first joint of the first and second fingers of the right hand.” (Kumlien, Contributions, p. 37.)

“Beim Spannen wird der Pfeil nicht zwischen Daumen und Zeigefinger, sondern zwischen Zeige- und Mittelfinger gehalten,” Krause Brothers, Geographische Blätter, vol. 5, p. 33.

309. Voyage to the Northern Whale Fishery, p. 187.

310. 2d Voyage, p. 511, and figured with the bow (22) on Pl. opposite p. 550.

311. Parry’s 2d Voyage, Pl. opposite p. 550, Fig. 24.

312. Vega, vol. 2, p. 106.

313. “They buckle on a piece of ivory, called mun-era, about 3 or 4 inches long, hollowed out to the wrist, or a guard made of several pieces of ivory or wood fastened together like an iron-holder.” Voyage, p. 575.

314. This word appears to be a diminutive of the Greenlandic nuek—nuik, now used only in the plural, nugfit, for the spear. These changes of name may represent corresponding changes in the weapon in former times, since, unless we may suppose that the bird dart was made small and called the “little nuik,” and enlarged again after the meaning of the name was forgotten, it is hard to see any sense in the present name, “big little nuik.”

315. History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 148.

316. Crantz, vol. 1, p. 147, and Figs. 6 and 7, Pl. V.

317. Ibid., Fig. 8.

318. Vega, vol. 2, p. 105. Fig. 5.

319. See Crantz’s figure referred to above; also one in Parry’s second voyage, Pl. opposite p. 550, Fig. 19, and Rink, Tales., etc., Pl. opposite p. 12.

320. Prehistoric fishing, Figs. 94 and 95, p. 73.

321. History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 147, Pl. V, Figs. 6 and 7.

322. Tales, etc., Pl. opposite p. 12 (“bladder arrow”).

323. Crantz, vol. 1, p. 146, Pl. V, Figs. 1 and 2, and Rink as quoted above, also Kane, First Exp., p. 478.

324. Parry, Second Voyage, p. 508 (Iglulik); and Nordenskiöld, Vega, vol. 2, p. 105, Fig. 5.

325. Smithsonian Report for 1884, part II, pp. 279-289.

326. Voyage, p. 324.

327. Second Grinnell Exp., vol. 1, Figs. on pp. 412 and 413.

328. Vega, vol. 1, p. 444, Fig. 5.

329. Compare, also, the walrus harpoon figured by Capt. Lyon, Parry’s Second Voyage, Pl. opposite p. 550, Fig. 13.

330. See Kumlien, Contributions, p. 35, and Boas, “Central Eskimo,” p. 473, Fig. 393.

331. Kane, 2d Grinnell Exp., vol. 1, pp. 412 and 413 (Fig. 1), and Bessells, Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 9, p. 869, Figs. 6-12.

332. Crantz, vol. 1, p. 146, and Pl. V, Figs. 1 and 2, and Rink Tales, etc., Pl. opposite p. 10.

333. 2d Voyage, Pl. opposite p. 550, Fig. 13.

334. Museum collections and Nordenskiöld, Vega, vol. 2, p. 105, Fig. 1. This figure shows the blade in the plane of the barb, but none of the specimens from Plover Bay are of this form.

335. Vega, vol. 2, p. 229, Fig. 3.

336. See the writer’s note on this weapon, American Naturalist, vol. 19, p. 423.

337. Parry, Second Voyage, p. 507, Iglulik.

338. Corwin Report, p. 41.

339. Parry, 2d Voy., p. 512 (Iglulik); Kumlien, Contributions, p. 54 (Cumberland Gulf); Schwatka, Science, vol. 4, No. 98, p. 544 (King Williams Land).

340. Crantz, vol. 1, p. 147, Pl. V, Fig. 5; and Kane, 1st Grinnell Exp., p. 479 (fig. at bottom).

341. Vega, vol. 1, p. 444, Fig. 7.

342. T. Simpson’s Narrative, p. 156.

343. Voyage, p. 574.

344. Vega, vol. 2, p. 109, and Fig. 3, p. 105.

345. Geographische Blätter, vol. 5, pt. 1, p. 32. See also Rosse, Arctic Cruise of the Corwin, p. 34.

346. I learn from our old interpreter, Capt. E.P. Herendeen, who has spent three years in whaling at Point Barrow since the return of the expedition, that a third float is also used. It is attached by a longer line than the others, and serves as a sort of “telltale,” coming to the surface some time ahead of the whale.

347. Op. cit., p. 262.

348. Voyage, pp. 295, 574.

349. Vega, vol. 2, p. 108.

350. Ibid., p. 98.

351. See also the reference to Hooper’s Corwin Report, quoted below under Hunting.

352. See, however, the writer’s paper in the American Anthropologist, vol. 1, p. 333.

353. Vega, vol. 2, p. 117, Fig. 3.

354. Second Voyage, p. 510; also pl. opposite p. 550, Fig. 17.

355. “They first look out for Holes, which the Seals themselves make with their Claws about the Bigness of a Halfpenny; after they have found any Hole, they seat themselves near it upon a Chair, made for the Purpose; and as soon as they perceive the Seal coming up to the Hole and put his snout into it for some Air, they immediately strike him with a small Harpoon.” Egede, Greenland, p. 104.

“The seals themselves make sometimes holes in the Ice, where they come and draw breath; near such a hole a Greenlander seats himself on a stool, putting his feet on a lower one to keep them from the cold. Now when the seal comes and puts its nose to the hole, he pierces it instantly with his harpoon.” Crantz, History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 156.

356. It is twisted into “a compact helical mass like a watch-spring” in the Hudson Bay region. Schwatka, “Nimrod in the North,” p. 133. See also Klutschak, “Als Eskimo,” pp. 194, 195.

357. “Nimrod in the North,” p. 133.

358. See Gilder, Schwatka’s Search, p. 225; see also, Klutschak, “Als Eskimo,” etc., pp. 194-5, where the whalebones are said to have little knives on the ends.

359. Report, etc., p. 127.

360. See Dr. Rau’s Prehistoric Fishing, p. 12. Fig. 2, p. 13, represents one of these from Norton Sound, and Figs. 3-8, a series of similar implements from the bone caves of France.

361. See Parry, 2d Voyage, p. 547, Iglulik and Hudson Strait, pl. opposite p. 548, Fig. 4, and pl. opposite p. 14; Crantz, History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 234; Dall, Alaska, p. 195, figure (Norton Sound); also MacFarlane, MS., No. 2929 (Anderson River).

362. Nordenskiöld, Vega, Vol. 2, p. 99.

363. Report U.S. International Polar Expedition to Point Barrow, p. 37.

364. Greenland, p. 62.

365. Franklin, 1st Exped., vol. 2, p. 181.

366. 2d Exped., p. 137.

367. Narrative, p. 114.

368. Ibid., p. 138.

369. Science, vol. 4, 9, pp. 543-544.

370. Dr. Richardson believes that the hunting grounds of families are kept sacred among the Eskimo. Searching Expedition, vol. 1, pp. 244, 351. See also, the same author’s paper, New Philosophical Journal, vol. 52, p. 323.

371. Northwest Passage, Appendix, p. 387.

372. Rae, Narratives, etc., p. 135.

373. Klutschak, “Als Eskimo,” etc., p. 131.

374. Dall, Alaska, p. 147.

375. Vega, vol. 2, p. 130. Compare the custom observed in Baffin Land, of sprinkling a few drops of water on the head of the seal before it is cut up, mentioned by Hall, Arctic Researches, p. 573.

376. Contributions, p. 57.

377. Hall, Arctic Researches, pp. 507 and 578, with diagrams.

378. Hooper, Corwin Report, p. 25.

379. Compare Egede, Greenland, p. 102. The whale “can’t bear sloven and dirty habits.”

380. Hall speaks of seeing the angeko “very busy ankooting on the hills”—“To try and get the pack ice out of the bay.”—Arctic Res., p. 573.

381. Compare Rink, Tales, etc., p. 55: “To the customs just enumerated may be added various regulations regarding the chase, especially that of the whale, this animal being easily scared away by various kinds of impurity or disorder.”

382. Alaska, p. 147.

383. Loc. cit., p. 261.

384. Compare Egede, Greenland, p. 102. “When they go a Whale-catching they put on their best Gear or Apparel, as if they were going to a Wedding Feast, fancying that if they did not come cleanly and neatly dressed the Whale, who can’t bear sloven and dirty Habits, would shun them and fly from them.”

See also Crantz, History of Greenland, Vol. I, p. 121. “They dress themselves in the best manner for it, because, according to the portentous sayings of their sorcerers, if any one was to wear dirty cloaths, especially such in which he had touched a dead corpse, the whale would escape, or, even if it was already dead, would at least sink.”

385. See Egede, Greenland, p. 102; Crantz, History of Greenland, Vol. I, p. 121; Parry, 2d. Voy., p. 509 (Iglulik); McClure, Northwest Passage, p. 92 (Cape Bathurst).

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

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

387. Museum number effaced.

388. Vega, vol. 2, p. 110.

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

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

391. Narrative, p. 115.

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

393. Dall, Alaska, p. 147; and Petroff, Report, etc., p. 127.

394. Op cit., p. 73.

395. Op cit., p. 142.

396. Vega, vol. 2, p. 109.

397. See the writer’s paper in the American Anthropologist, vol. 1, pp. 325-336.

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

399. “Their own clumsy method of producing fire is by friction with two pieces of dry wood in the manner of a drill.”—(T. Simpson, Narrative, p. 162.)

400. Dr. Simpson, op. cit., p. 242.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

403. Kotzebue’s Voyage, vol. 3, p. 260.

404. Contribution to N. A. Ethnology, vol. 1, p. 82.

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

406. Op. cit., p. 243.

407. Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 9, p. 867.

408. Journal, pp. 210 and 231.

409. Franklin, First Exped., vol. 2, p. 188.

410. See the writer’s paper on Eskimo bows, Smithsonian Report for 1884, pt. 2, p. 315.