Part 10

At the farther end of the stock a portion of the wood is cut out to allow the insertion of the end of the lash which is fastened by means of finer thongs. The butt end of the lash is five-sixteenths of an inch thick and nearly 2 inches wide. It is composed of eight heavy thongs plaited in a peculiar manner, depending on the number of thongs used and the fancy of the maker. The thongs are plaited by inserting the end of each thong through a succession of slits cut at the proper distance and so matted together that it is difficult to determine the "run" of the thong. The size decreases from the handle by dropping out a strand until at 18 inches from the stock only four thongs are left, and these form a square plait for a foot in length. This square form is succeeded by only two thongs which make a flat plait of 2 feet in length. At the end of this a simple piece of heavy thong completes the lash. The length of a whip may be as much as 35 feet, weighing 3 or 4 pounds. Some of the natives acquire a surprising dexterity with this formidable weapon, often being able to snip the ear of a particular dog at a distance of the length of the whip. I have known them to snap the head from a ptarmigan, sitting along the path of the team. Children practice with the whip as soon as they can manage it.

The Eskimo dog fears nothing but the whiplash. They attack each other with savage ferocity, and several dogs may be engaged in terrific battles, yet the swish of a whip or even a stick thrown hurtling through the air is sufficient to cause them to slink off in abject terror, whining piteously in fear of the expected lash.

The weight or load put upon a sled may be as much as 1,200 pounds. The character of the road alone determines the weight, number of dogs, and rate of travel. The latter may average over a smooth surface 5 miles hourly for twelve hours continuously, excluding the few minutes given the dogs to "blow" (rest), etc. I knew an instance where three men with empty sled and seven dogs traveled 94 miles in eighteen hours. I have gone 19 miles in three hours; and again I have known only 3 or 4 miles to be made in ten hours, through rough ice or deep, newly fallen snow.

The disposition and condition of the dogs chiefly determines the number attached to the sled. With these animals there is the same difference as is to be found in horses or other beasts of draft. Some are energetic and well-behaved; others as stubborn or lazy as is possible. Strange dogs in the team are liable to be pitched upon by all the others and with the long traces ensues such an entanglement of lines, dogs, and flying snow as is difficult to conceive. The good qualities of the driver are manifested by his ability in keeping the dogs in order and showing promptness in separating them when quarreling. Fighting among the dogs can always be prevented by the driver keeping the dogs in proper position.

WEAPONS AND OTHER HUNTING IMPLEMENTS.

These people are now provided with firearms, which have entirely superseded the bow and arrow.

The bow formerly used in this region appears to have been similar to the one obtained from a party of East Main Innuit, who made their way to Fort Chimo. This bow has accordingly been figured and described (Figs. 61 and 62--90137).

[Illustration: FIG. 61.--Bow. East Main Eskimo (back).]

[Illustration: FIG. 62.--Bow. East Main Eskimo (side).]

It is made of larch wood and has a backing of eight double strands of twisted sinew. This sinew is in one piece sixteen times the length of the bow. One end is looped and passed over one "nock" of the bow and carried back and forth from nock to nock eight times. This backing has two turns of twist put in from the middle to increase its elasticity, and is lashed to the middle of the bow with a stout thong of reindeer skin. The bowstring is of twisted sinew with a loop at each end.

With this bow were seven arrows. Three of these are for shooting reindeer and wolves. They have an iron point set in a short foreshaft of reindeer antler, and a wooden shaft about 16 inches long (Fig. 63). Three more are pointed with large nails, one of which has been beaten to a chisel-shaped point (Figs. 64 and 65). They are intended for large game at short range, or for small game, such as hares and ptarmigan. These six arrows are feathered with the tail feathers of the raven. The last arrow is a simple shaft, without feathering or head, and is intended for small game, such as a wood hare crouching under a spruce tree, or the little red squirrel on the top of a low tree.

In drawing the bow, the Innuit invariably hold the arrow between the middle two fingers of the right hand, and the string is drawn with all four fingers, and released by straightening them.

The bow and arrows are carried in bow case and quiver fastened together and slung on the back. Fig. 66 represents a model (No. 3257) of such a bow case. The bow case is made of buckskin and is of sufficient length to contain the bow, excepting the extreme end, which is left projecting for convenience in handling. The case is tied around the bow at the projecting end. The quiver is attached to the bow case and contains two models of arrows for shooting large game. The arrows are tipped with leaf-shaped pieces of tin. They are feathered with portions of feathers apparently taken from the tail of a raven. The mouth of the quiver is also drawn up with a string to prevent the loss of arrows. I have not seen the Eskimo of Hudson strait use such a cover for their bows and arrows, but the opportunities to observe them are very limited, as few are used. I am led to conclude that only the poorer individuals of either locality have the bow and arrow at the present day.

[Illustration: FIGS. 63, 64, and 65.--Arrows. East Main Eskimo.]

I have already described the large harpoon used for striking white whales and large seals from the kaiak. A short-head spear (Fig 67, No. 90164) is used for dispatching wounded seals or white whales, or for killing white whales when they have been driven into a shallow arm of the sea when the tide ebbs and leaves them partly uncovered. It has a short wooden shaft with a ferrule of ivory, holding a short ivory loose shaft, kept in place by thongs, on which is mounted a toggle head like that used on the big harpoon. The line is either attached to the kaiak or to a small float made of the inflated intestine or skin of a seal. The toggle heads for these spears are made of ivory, and fitted with iron blades (Fig. 68). I have already referred to the large sealskin float in describing the kaiak.

Fig. 69 (No. 3531) is such a large sealskin float or á va tuk. The skin is removed from the body by skinning around the gums and carefully taking out all the flesh and bones through this orifice. As the operation proceeds the skin is turned back and at the completion of the work is inside out. The flesh side, now the exterior, is carefully scraped to free it from all fleshy matter. The hind flippers are cut off at the ankle and the skin either sewed or stoutly wrapped with thong. The fore flippers are usually left attached to the skin after the flesh has been scraped from them. The skin is now inflated with air and hung up to dry. In a few hours it is turned with the hairy side out and again inflated for awhile. The mouth and all other openings in the skin are carefully sewed up. A large button of ivory, shaped much like a pulley, nearly 2 inches in diameter, is put where the mouth of the skin is and a portion of the skin carefully wrapped around it, thongs of sealskin tightening the moist skin in the groove of the mouthpiece. This piece has a hole about one-third of an inch in diameter bored through it. The hind flippers and tail have a stick of 2 or 3 inches in length placed within the skin and are then firmly bound around the stick, which serves to stop up any hole and also to furnish a handle by which to drag or hold the float. The hole in the mouth-piece is plugged with a stopper of wood. When the float is wanted for use the skin is inflated. When inflated the float has a diameter about two-thirds the length. If it is to be attached to a tracking line the float is fastened by the stick, which is secured within the skin of the hind flippers and dragged backwards. The function of the float in this instance is to prevent the tracking line from becoming "fouled" among the rocks and stones of the beach along which the line runs in towing a boat (or umiak). In a similar manner it is affixed to the harpoon line used for large marine mammals, such as the white whale and the larger species of seals. This float not only retards the flight of the speared animal, but it serves to mark the spot where it sinks, for at certain seasons the seals sink as soon as they die. A speared animal always sinks more quickly than one shot dead with a ball, probably because its struggles are more prolonged in the first instance and exhaustion of breath is more complete.

[Illustration: FIG. 66. Bow case. East Main Eskimo.]

The hair of the animal whose skin is intended for a float is sometimes scraped off before the skin is removed from the body, otherwise it may be left until the skin is partly dry and then be shaved off. The manner of loosening the hair is similar to that used by butchers of hogs, only that the boiling water is poured on and a small patch of hair pulled off at a time, instead of submerging the entire animal. The hair from the green skin must be carefully pulled out or else the black scurf adhering will be detached and thus render the skin less nearly waterproof.

The skins or bags used for holding oil and fat are prepared in a similar manner, excepting that the hair is left on the skin and the hairy side left within. The oil and fat are put in the skin at the posterior end and it is then tied up like a float. The largest sealskins are used for oilbags, and may contain as much as 300 pounds of fat or oil.

When a sack of oil is sold the bag is usually returned to the seller, who again fills it with oil or converts the skin into bootlegs or soles. The leather having become thoroughly impregnated with the oil makes the best for wear, often resisting moisture for three or four days of continuous wet.

Before leaving the subject of weapons and their accessories, I may mention No. 3069, a small pouch made of thick sealskin. The shape is somewhat like that of a leg of mutton. This is used for carrying gun caps. The neck is only large enough to permit one cap to fall out at a time.

[Illustration: FIG. 67.--Hand spear for killing seals from kaiak; Koksoak.]

HUNTING.

I have already referred briefly to the various methods of taking seals, white whales, and other game, while describing the boats, spears, and other apparatus used in their pursuit.

The most important hunt of the year, however, comes in the autumn, when the reindeer are migrating in large herds and crossing the rivers. The deer are wanted now for their flesh for food and their skins for clothing. Everything necessary for the chase is taken in the umiak, or, perhaps, a whaleboat, to a locality convenient to where the animals cross over. Here the tent is pitched, and a camp is made. The hunters scour the neighboring land for herds of reindeer, which are seen running about under the impulse to seek the opposite sex. As they arrive from different directions, those of one sex must cross the river. Since the females furnish the lighter skins for clothing, and the males the greater amount of meat and a heavier skin for various purposes, deer of both sexes are equally useful.

A band of three or four, or as many as a hundred, may be sighted slowly winding their way through the openings of the timbered areas on the opposite side of the river. The native with telescope, or binocular in focus, observes their movements until they pause a moment on the bank and then plunge quickly into the water, where they keep well together until the opposite shore is reached. Here, if undisturbed, they will stand to allow the water to drip from their bodies, and then will walk slowly along to a convenient place to climb the bank and penetrate the strip of woods or bushes and emerge into the open country beyond. As soon as the native sees the deer everything is put in readiness on the kaiak, and with quick strokes of the double-bladed paddle he is behind and below the now terrified animals. They rear and plunge in frantic confusion, endeavoring to escape their most dreaded foe. The hunter calmly drives the herd through the water as the shepherd does his flock on land. Those disposed to break away are rounded up and driven back. The greatest care must be exercised not to let the animals get below the kaiak, or they will swim faster with the stream than the hunter can paddle. As there are, generally, two or more kaiaks, it is an easy matter for the men to drive the animals wherever they desire. When the camp is above, the deer are driven diagonally across so as to make them come out near the camp. If the site is below, the animals are allowed to drop down to a convenient place. These maneuvers depend on the wind, as the sense of smell of the deer is very acute at this season, and the scent of the camp, if detected, would throw the animals into such terror that the greater number would escape.

[Illustration: FIG. 68.--Togglehead for hand spear.]

[Illustration: FIG. 69.--Sealskin float.]

When near the place the hunter takes his deer spear, which is exactly like the one used by the Indians, and quietly stabs the animal in a vital spot, endeavoring so to wound the beast that it will have only enough strength to enable it to attain the shallow water or shore, and not to wander off. Among the hundreds of times I have had the opportunity to witness this, I never knew a deer wounded with the spear to turn back to swim in the direction from which it came. They appear to dread the water, and strive most frantically to regain the land where, if mortally wounded, they stand; the limbs gradually diverging to sustain their trembling body; the eyes gazing piteously at the foe, who often mocks their dying struggles, or pitches a stone at their quivering legs to make them fall. A convulsive struggle as the blood fills the internal cavity, a sudden pitch, and the life is gone without sigh or groan. As many of the herd as can be speared are quickly dispatched and the entire number secured if possible. It is supposed that the ones which return to the shore whence they came give the alarm and frighten other arrivals away from the starting point. The hunters strive to prevent their return, and will often allow two, near the camp, to escape in order to pursue the retreating animal.

Those which have been killed and are lying in the water are dragged on land and skinned. The pelt is taken off as that of a beef is when skinned by a butcher. The ears and the skin of the head are left on. The body is opened and the viscera are removed. The intestines are freed from the fat; the stomach is cleansed of the greater portion of its contents, and the blood which collected within the cavity is scooped up with the hands and ladled into that receptacle; and both are reserved for food. The heart and liver are taken to the camp, where they help to form a variety in the animal food of these people. Other portions of the flesh are also consumed. The sinew, which lies along the lumbar region just below the superficial muscles, is exposed by a cut, and with the point of a knife or tip of the finger loosened from its adherent flesh. One end, usually the forward end, is detached and a stout thong tied to it, and it is jerked from its attachment by a vigorous pull. It requires a strong person to remove this tendon from the body of a lean animal. A stroke of the knife frees the wide layer of sinew from blood and

## particles of flesh. This is now laid aside for awhile, then washed to

free it from the blood, which would stain it dark in color and also tend to diminish the strength of the fibers by rotting them. It is now spread out and allowed to dry. The body is cut across the small of the back and laid aside. The head is severed from the neck and discarded if there be no portion of the horns which is needed to serve some purpose, such as a handle for a knife or other tool. If the head be that of a young deer it is often taken to the camp and put into a pot and boiled in the condition in which it comes from the field. When cooked for a long time it becomes very soft; the muscles of the jaw being reduced to a semigelatinous condition, which makes an excellent article of food.

The tongue is invariably taken out entire, and is considered the greatest delicacy, either frozen, raw or cooked, or dried and smoked. In fact a tongue from the reindeer is good at any time or condition.

The hindquarters are seldom separated, but are placed within the thoracic cavity, and either cached near the scene of slaughter or placed on the kaiak and taken to a spot where others are deposited from which supplies may be taken when the food for the winter is required.

Here and there along the bank will be placed the body of a single deer, sometimes two or three, which have been killed too far from the present camp for the hunter to bring them home. These spots are marked or remembered by some visible surrounding, lest the deep snows of winter obscure the locality, and often the place can not be found when wanted. The cache in which the flesh is deposited is simply a few stones or bowlders laid on the ground and the meat put upon them. A rude sort of wall is made by piling stones upon the meat until it is hidden from the ravages of ravens, gulls, foxes, wolves and the detested wolverine.

As soon as the hunter considers that the deer of that particular locality have ceased to cross, he will repair to another station and go through the same process. The deer which are first slain, when the hunting season arrives, and the weather is still so warm that the flies and decomposition ruin the meat, are reserved for supplies of dog food.

MISCELLANEOUS IMPLEMENTS.

I have already, in the earlier pages of this paper, referred to various tools and implements.

In addition to these, the Koksoagmyut have comparatively few tools.

In former ages stone and ivory were fashioned into crude implements for the purposes which are now better and more quickly served by instruments of iron or steel.

These people have now been so long in more or less direct contact with traders who have supplied them with these necessaries that it is rare to find one of the knives used in former times. Certain operations, however, are even to this day better performed with a knife made of ivory. The ice from the kaiak bottom or the sides of the boat may best be removed by means of an ivory knife, resembling a snow knife but shorter. The steel knife is always kept sharp and if so used would, on the unyielding, frozen skin-covering of those vessels, quickly cut a hole. The Eskimo living remote from the trading stations use a snow knife made from the tusk of a walrus or the main stem of the reindeer antler.

That steel or iron is deemed an improvement on the former materials from which cutting instruments were made is shown by the crude means now employed. If the person has not a knife an unused spearhead, having an iron point, is often employed instead for skinning animals and dressing the skins.

Stone heads for weapons of all kinds have been discarded. Ivory spears are at times used but these only when the hunter is close to the prey.

Some of the men have acquired considerable skill in fashioning iron into the required shape. They eagerly stand around anyone who may be at work, and evince the greatest curiosity in anything new.

The collection contains two of the snow knives referred to above. No. 3067 is a large snow knife, made from the lower portion of the main stem of the horn of the male reindeer. It is simply half of the split horn with the middle scooped out. The length is 12 inches. This form of instrument is used more especially to smooth down the inequalities of the blocks of snow after being placed in position. No. 3140 (Fig. 70) is a large snow knife made of walrus ivory. It is 13 inches long and nearly 2 inches wide for the greater part of the blade, which terminates in a rounded point. The instrument has two edges, and in general appearances resembles a double-edged Roman sword. The handle is cut to fit to the hand.

[Illustration: FIG. 70.--Ivory snow knife, Koksoagmyut.]

Among other peculiar implements collected is one represented in Fig. 71 (No. 3555), which is a "back-scratcher." This instrument consists of a shaft made from a limb of a larch tree. It is 17 inches long and about three-fourths of an inch through, flattened to less than half an inch and tapering toward the end to be held in the hand. On the lower end is a dish-shaped piece of reindeer horn, two and one-eighth inches long and seven-eighths of an inch wide. Through the center of the piece of horn an oblong hole has been cut for the insertion of the shaft or handle. The edges of the horn piece are sharp as can be made. This piece is one-third of an inch thick, and having the sharp edge up is convenient for thrusting down the back to scratch one's self in places where the hand could not reach on account of thick deerskin clothing. The Eskimo name of the instrument is ku-mé-u-tîk, or that which removes lice.

[Illustration: FIG. 71.--Back-scratcher, Koksoagmyut.]

The steel needles obtained from the traders are kept in a little ivory receptacle of various shapes, two of which are shown in Figs. 72 and 73.