Part 16
The interior of the tent is arranged to suit the occupants. The floor is usually covered with the branches of young spruce, and when carefully laid these form an admirable protection from the cold ground and a soft carpeting.
The women who lay this flooring display great taste, and certain of them are noted for their skill in disposing the branches. The center of the tent is reserved for the fire which is built there among a few stones.
The occupants arrange themselves according to the importance of the place they occupy in the family. The owner or head man is always to be found on the side opposite the fire. This is considered a place of honor, to which all guests who are to be complimented are invited to a seat.
The other members of the group arrange themselves along the sides of the tent, and those who have been adopted into the family occupy positions next the doorway.
Over the fire may be poles reaching across the tent, and on these will be suspended kettles and pots obtained from the traders. The cooking utensils are few in number, one vessel serving various purposes.
The hunting gear and the skins of animals, together with the articles belonging to the females may be seen suspended from various portions of the interior. Around the edges are the blankets of deerskin, and those bought from the traders, lying in disorder. The outer edge of the interior is slightly raised above the center, and affords a convenient slope for those who desire to sleep. The occupants always sleep with their feet toward the fireplace, around which there is no brush, lest it be set on fire during sleep and destroy the tent.
They have regular hours for sleeping, but as these are only for a period of short duration, it is not unusual to find half the inmates asleep at any time a tent is visited.
The preparation of the food appears to go on at all times, and there are no regular hours for partaking of their meals, as each person eats when convenient. The food is taken directly from the pot or kettle, and each one helps himself. Forks are not used, and the food is divided with a knife or torn with the fingers.
SWEAT HOUSES.
The Nenenot are in the habit of taking steam baths, for which purpose they use a sudatory or sweat house, constructed as follows: A number of flexible poles of small size, usually willow or alder, which grow to sufficient size along the banks of the streams, are bent to form a hemispherical or dome-shaped structure, which is covered with tent skins. A sandy locality is selected or one free from snow in winter, and a fierce fire is built. When it is well under way a number of stones are thrown into the fire to heat. When the heat is sufficient the fire is removed and the structure is quickly erected over the hot stones and some one from the outside fastens down the edges of the tenting with stones to prevent the loss of heat. A kettle of water previously placed within the bath house is used to pour over the stones, when heat rises to a suffocating degree and produces the desired perspiration. Water is not used to bathe in, though sometimes a slight quantity is poured upon the head only. The bather remains within the hut until the heat has nearly exhausted him.
These baths are frequently taken, and often when he has just started on a journey the head of the family will be seized with a desire to have a bath. Everything must await this operation before the journey is resumed.
An amusing incident occurred at Fort Chimo in the spring of 1882. That season the reindeer were extremely numerous at that place, as they were crossing to go to the northeast to drop the fawns. Often when the herds or bands were panic stricken they rushed among the Indian tents, the houses of the station, and, in fact, everywhere, with yelping dogs and screaming women and children at their heels. An old man and wife were in the sweat house at a time when a very large drove of the deer, in their frantic endeavors to escape their pursuers, headed directly for the bath. Some one screamed to the occupants to look out for the deer. The man and wife made their exit just as a score or more of the animals reached the spot. The man tore up the tenting of the bath house and whirled it in the air, while the old woman cut the most astonishing antics. The whole population witnessed the occurrence and did not fail to help increase the tumult. Signs of former sudatories are quite common along the paths where the Indians have traveled for many years.
HOUSEHOLD UTENSILS, ETC.
Each household is supplied with sundry wooden vessels of various sizes (Fig. 115) which serve for buckets for holding water and for drinking cups. They are made of strips of thin boards cut from spruce or from larch trees, the wider strips being as much as six inches wide and one-third of an inch thick. They are steamed and bent into ovoid or circular forms and the ends of the strip overlapping. Then they are sewed with split roots from those trees. A groove is cut near the lower edge and into it is placed a dish-shaped piece of wood for a bottom.
[Illustration: FIG. 115.--Wooden bucket, Nenenot.]
These vessels are identical in shape and function with those manufactured by the Yukon river Indians of Alaska.
[Illustration: FIG. 116.--Birchbark basket, Nenenot.]
They also use berry-dishes or baskets like Fig. 116 made from the bark of the spruce peeled in the spring of the year. At this time the bark is quite flexible and may be bent into the desired shape. The corners are sewed with coarse roots from the same tree and the rim is strengthened by a strip of root sewed over and around it by means of a finer strand. These baskets serve a good purpose when the women are picking berries, of which they are inordinately fond; and during that season it is a rarity to see a woman or man without a mouth stained the peculiar blue color which these berries impart.
Baskets of this shape frequently have a top of buckskin sewed to them, closed with a drawstring, as shown in Fig. 117 (No. 3485). Such things serve to hold trinkets and other small articles.
[Illustration: FIG. 117.--Birchbark basket, Nenenot.]
Large objects are carried in bags, either long or basket-shaped, made of the skins of deer legs. The leg skins are scraped and worked to a moderate degree of pliability and their edges sewed together until a sufficient number have been joined to make the bag of the required size. This bag is used to hold the clothing, furs, and other valuables. When on a trip they are invariably carried. If the journey be performed on foot the two ends are tied with a thong and the bag thrown over the shoulder.
In preparing food stone pestles of various sizes were formerly used of the shape shown in Fig. 118. These pestles are now mostly out of date and superseded by cast-iron ones with steel faces, procured from the traders. The metal pounders, however, are so heavy that they are objectionable to people who have to make their burdens on the portages as light as possible.
[Illustration: FIG. 118.--Stone pestle, Nenenot.]
Spoons to lift pieces of floating meat from the hot liquor in which it is cooked, are made of reindeer antler and of wood. The pattern of these spoons is shown in the figures (Fig. 119). One shape (No. 3351, Figs. 120, 121, 122), was perhaps copied from a civilized ladle. Pots are suspended over the fire with pothooks of reindeer antler hung up by a loop of thong. These pothooks are also made of wood.
[Illustration: FIG. 119.--Wooden spoon or ladle, Nenenot.]
[Illustration: FIG. 120.--Wooden spoon or ladle, Nenenot.]
[Illustration: BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY ELEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XXXVIII
STONE TOBACCO PIPES.]
TOBACCO AND PIPES.
Like all other Indians, these people are inordinately fond of tobacco for smoking, chewing, and snuff; the latter, however, is used only by aged individuals, especially the females, whose countenances show the effect in a manner quite disgusting. The men consider a supply of tobacco of as much importance as the supply of ammunition for the prosecution of the chase. The first request upon meeting an Indian is that you furnish him with a chew or a pipe full. Little satisfactory intercourse can be had with him until he is mollified by a gift of tobacco. The first thing that an Indian receives when arriving at the trading post is a clay pipe and a plug of tobacco. The pint of molasses and the three or four hard biscuit (which have received the local name of 'Canadian padlock,' doubtless because they are so difficult to open), are of secondary consideration. When the spring arrivals are camped at the station it is not unusual for several to contribute a number of plugs of tobacco and a gallon of molasses. These are boiled together and then water is added to the mixture. This villainous compound is drunk until a state of stupefaction ensues. The muddled creature under the influence of that liquor seems like an idiot. The effect is terrible and does not wear away for several days. The pipes used for smoking are made of stone obtained from river pebbles, usually a fine-grained compact sandstone. The color of this stone varies from a dark reddish brown nearly the color of clotted blood to a lighter shade of that color. The red stones often have spots of every size and shape of a yellowish drab which form a strange contrast with the darker colors. The darker the stone the less spotting it will have. The best of all the pipes and those most valued are of greenish sandstone having strata of darker colors which appear as beautiful graining when the pipe is cut into form and polished.
[Illustration: FIG. 121.--Wooden spoon or ladle, Nenenot.]
Other pipes are of hard slate and very dark without markings. All the material is hard and the effect of the fire within renders them harder and liable to crack if used in very cold weather. These pipes vary but little in shape (I have figured three--Pl. XXXVIII and Fig. 123--to show the pattern), but there is considerable difference in size. The largest ones are made of the green stone, while the smaller ones are made of other stones. The stem is of spruce wood and is prepared by boring a small hole through the stick lengthwise and whittling it down to the required size. It is from 4 to 8 inches long and is often ornamented with a band of many colored beads.
[Illustration: FIG. 122.--Wooden spoon or ladle, Nenenot.]
The rough stone for a pipe is selected and chipped into crude form. The successive operations of wearing it down to the desired size are accomplished by means of a coarse file or a harder stone. The amount of labor bestowed upon a pipe consumes several days' time before the final polish is given.
The value set upon these pipes is according to the color of the stone, as much as the amount of labor expended in making them. They are always filthy, partly on account of the bad quality of tobacco used. The ashes and other accumulations within are removed by means of a bodkin-shaped instrument of bone or horn. The back of a broken horn comb is a favorite material for making a decorated pipe-cleaner (Fig. 124). The ornamentations consist of cruciform and quadrate figures on the handle. The tobacco used for smoking is the commonest black plug of very inferior quality, soaked with molasses and licorice. This moist tobacco is cut into pieces and a coal of fire placed upon it. They prefer this quality, and purchase the lighter and drier kinds only to serve as kindling for the darker sort.
They do not know how to brew or ferment liquors of any kind, and as the importation of intoxicants is wisely prohibited, the native has no opportunity to indulge in his craving for liquors, the supply of which was plentiful in former years. A spruce beer is made by the servants of the company for the holidays, and a taste is sometimes given to a favorite Indian, who is so easily affected that a pint of this mild beer will send him reeling and happy to his tent, where it soon becomes known that beer is to be had. The importunities for drink are now so frequent, that the barrel must be emptied of its contents in order to avoid the constant beggings for it.
[Illustration: FIG. 123.--Stone tobacco pipe.]
[Illustration: FIG. 124.--Pipecleaner, Nenenot.]
[Illustration: BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY ELEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XXXIX
BIRCH-BARK CANOE, NENENOT, KOKSOAK RIVER PATTERN.]
MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION.
BY WATER.
All the Indians of this region use birch-bark canoes, of the pattern shown in the figure (Pl. XXXIX, from a photograph; the collection also contains six wooden models of these canoes). The style of canoe used by the Little Whale river Indians of the eastern side of Hudson bay has very much more sheer at the bow and stern than those used in the valley of the Koksoak. The canoe of each individual differs from others according to the personal taste or need of the maker. The requirements are that the canoe shall be able to transport himself and family, together with the household property, whenever it is desired to change camps. Some of the canoes are small, others large, often possessed by two or more individuals in common.
These canoes are constructed in the following manner: Trees are selected which when split will afford a number of straight-grained slats free from knots. These slats are shaved to the required thickness and laid aside to season. They are 3 or 4 inches wide and less than one-third of an inch in thickness. The exterior or longitudinal strips are placed so that their edges will touch each other. The inside strips or ribs are placed about their own width apart, and of course are placed at right angles to the longitudinal slats. They are thinner than the side strips and become almost like shavings at the bow and stern. The two layers of slats form a kind of shell upon which the skin of bark fits tightly. The first process with the bark is to free it from the outside scaling layers; the next is to soak it for several days in fresh water to soften it; otherwise, when dry it would crack like an eggshell. When it has macerated a sufficient time it is taken out and laid over a form of clay or other earth, which has previously been roughly molded to the shape of the interior of the canoe. The bark is now sewed along the edges of the strips with roots of the spruce tree. These are long and tough, and resemble splits of rattan when properly prepared for the purpose by splitting and shaving with a knife. Various sizes of these roots are used for the different portions. The threads are also soaked in water until they become so flexible that they may be tied into a knot without breaking.
When the bark skin rudely conforms to the shape of the mold of earth, the rails or round strips of wood along the inner edge of the canoe are placed in position and the ends of the bark strips laid over it and sewed. A second rail is now laid upon the first and drawn down to it by means of the root thongs. A piece of wood is shaped for the bow and one for the stern and inserted in position, and the end seams of the canoe are sewed over these pieces.
The interior is then ready for the longitudinal strips, which are placed at the bottom first and gradually built up on each side until the rails are reached. The ribs or transverse strips are next placed in position. Five or more crosspieces, or thwarts, are fastened to the side rails to give stiffness to the sides and to prevent collapsing, and they may be set either below or above the rail. The greatest care must be exercised to give to both sides of the canoe the same shape and to have the keel evenly balanced. This is rudely regulated by the eye during the process of construction. After all the strips are put in, the boat is allowed to season and dry. This causes the bark to shrink, and while drying the whole is frequently inspected to discover any splits or cracks in the bark. The Indian often wets the canoe, lest it dry too rapidly and split under the tension. When the form and make are satisfactory the seams are smeared with a mixture of spruce gum (or resin bought from the traders), mixed with seal oil to render it less easily broken. This mixture is while hot laid upon the dry surface with a small paddle.
[Illustration: FIG. 125.--Spoon for applying grease to canoe.]
After the gum has seasoned for a day or so the canoe is put upon the water and tested for its speed and seaworthiness. All leaks and needed repairs are immediately attended to, and it is at length ready for use.
Many persons have not the skill needed to construct a canoe, and they employ those who have had experience and are known to build an excellent boat.
There are two kinds of canoes in use among those Indians, differing only in the shape of the stern and prow. The original form was nearly flat along the rails and had the bow and stern but little turned up. Of later years intercourse with some of their neighbors has induced them to modify the nearly straight edge canoe into an intermediate shape between their own and that of the East Main Indians, whose canoes are very much turned up, and are acknowledged to be far superior vessels to those of the Ungava Indians.
As the forests in the vicinity of Fort Chimo do not contain birch trees, and none are found until the headwaters of the Koksoak are reached, where they are too small to afford bark of sufficient size and thickness, the Indians are compelled to procure the bark from the traders, who import it from the St. Lawrence river and gulf stations to Fort Chimo. It comes in bundles large enough to cover a single canoe of moderate size. If a canoe is to be very large two bundles are required. The value of a black fox skin purchases a bundle of bark.
During the spring months, while the weather is somewhat warm, the men are engaged in preparing the strips and bark for the canoe which is to convey them up the river when the ice breaks and the river is open for navigation.
The paddle has a single blade with a handle scarcely more than half the length of the paddle. It is used with both hands, the strokes being given on alternate sides as it glides through the water.
When it is necessary that a portage be made the voyager takes the canoe upon his shoulders by letting one of the center thwarts rest on the back of the neck. The hands are thrown backward to hold up the end of the canoe from the ground. A headband, such as I have already described, of birch bark or cloth, often fancifully ornamented with beads, fits over the forehead and is attached to the sides of the canoe by means of thongs, which prevent the canoe from slipping off the shoulders as the porter quickly traverses the narrow pathway through the trees and bushes. The ground is often so uneven and rough that long detours have to be made by the porter, while the rest of the party may go a shorter path to the place where the canoe will again be placed in the water. A part of the necessary equipments for a trip in a canoe are pieces of bark, root threads, and gum to repair any damage resulting from an accidental contact with a stone or snag.
Without the birch-bark canoe the Indian would have difficulty in obtaining his living, as it is even more necessary than the sled, and nearly as useful as the snowshoe.
[Illustration: FIG. 126.--Toboggan, Nenenot, side view.]
[Illustration: FIG. 127.--Toboggan, Nenenot, from above.]
The paddles used with these canoes are about 5 feet long, having a blade about 30 inches long and 4½ wide. The handle terminates in a sort of knob. The paddle referred to, for applying the gum and grease to the seams of the canoe, has the shape of a flattened spoon with rounded bowl (Fig. 125). The gum is heated, and while hot is poured along the seams and pressed into the interstices of the stitches with the paddle. When a patch is to be applied over a fracture or broken place in the bark, it may be made to adhere by the sticky properties of the gum alone, if the distance to be traveled is not great. A fire is then made and the wax heated; the piece of bark is edged with the gum and pressed firmly over the rent. A second coat is applied over the edges of the bark, after the first has become cold. A few minutes suffice to repair an apparently alarming hole.
BY LAND.
For carrying loads over the snow all the Indians of this region use large sleds (Figs. 126, 127) called tá-bas-kán, which is a word equivalent to the well known name "toboggan." These sleds, as used among the Indians under consideration, differ very greatly in size according to the use for which they are designed.
[Illustration: FIG. 128.--Nenenot snowshoe, single bar.]