Part 12

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]