Part 15
A single animal may have hundreds of these grubs encysted beneath the skin, which, on their exit, leave a deep suppurating cavity, which heals slowly. The skin forming the cicatrices does not have the same texture as the untouched portions.
When the skin is dressed it reveals these scars, and of course, the value of the skin is diminished according to their number. The Indian often endeavors to conceal them by rubbing flour or chalk over them.
The season when the skins are in the best condition is from September to the middle of December. The freshly deposited eggs have not yet produced larvæ of sufficient size to injure the skin, and the wounds produced by those dropping out in the month of May have healed and left the skin in condition.
Certain skins intended for special purposes must be smoked. The process of smoking tends to render it less liable to injury from moisture. The pyroligneous vapors act as antiseptics and thus at least retard decomposition of those articles most exposed to wet. The tents and foot wear are always tanned with the smoke and this process is always subsequent to that of bringing the skins into the pliable condition.
The process adopted by these Indians in smoking the deerskins is as follows: The woods are searched for rotten wood of a special character. It must be affected with a kind of dry rot which renders the fibers of a spongy nature. This is procured and thoroughly dried. The skins to be smoked are selected and two of nearly the same size and condition are chosen, and sewed into the form of a bag with the hairy side within. The after portions of the skin are suspended from a convenient pole and the head and neck portions left free or open. To the edges of these is sewed a cloth, usually a piece of baling cloth, and this is also left open. The rotten wood is placed in a pan or vessel and as it smolders, never burning into a blaze, the pale, blue, pungent smoke is allowed to ascend within the cavity of the deerskin bag. The cloth is merely to form a conduit for the smoke as the skin should not be too near the fire.
As the process continues the skins are inspected between the stitches of the sewing and when the operation has progressed sufficiently they are taken down. It will now be found that the surface has assumed a pale, clear brown color, the shade of which depends on the length of the exposure to the smoke.
The cloth is removed and the skins are immediately folded, with the smoked side within, and laid away for several days to season. If, however, the skin be left to the influence of the air the coloring matter immediately disappears leaving it of a color only slightly different from what it was before it was smoked.
The scars, made by the larvæ of the insects, do not "take" the smoke as well as the healthy portions and so present a pitted or scaly appearance. From the skins having an abundance of the scars are made the tents and inferior grades of moccasins and the tops of the better class of footwear.
The paints used for decorating the buckskin garments are applied by means of bits of bone or horn of a peculiar shape best understood from the figures (Figs. 106-110).
Those with two, three or four tines are used for making the complicated patterns of parallel lines, and are always made of antler, while the simple form is sometimes of wood.
A block of wood with one or more bowl-shaped cavities cut in it (Fig. 111) serves to hold the mixed paints, especially when several colors are to be used in succession.
Small wooden bowls are also employed. (Figs. 112-113.)
The pigments used are procured from different sources. From the traders are obtained indigo in the crude condition or in the form of washing blue, vermilion in small buckskin bags, and a few other colors. An abundance of red earth occurs in several localities. The pigments are reduced to the finest possible condition and kneaded with the fingers until ready for the addition of water often mixed with a slight quantity of oil or tallow. A favorite vehicle for the paint is the prepared roe of a sucker (_Catastomus_) abounding in the waters of the district. The female fish are stripped of the mass of ova which is broken up in a vessel and the liquid strained through a coarse cloth. The color is a faint yellow which becomes deeper with age. The fluid is allowed to dry and when required for use is dissolved in water. It has then a semiviscid consistence and in this condition is mixed with the various pigments. When a yellowish color is desired the fish-egg preparation is applied alone. The albumen gives sufficient adhesive quality to the paint and produce a rich glaze, giving a good effect to the otherwise dull colors.
The process of preparing the crude mineral colors is quite tedious as the attrition is produced by rubbing the substance between two smooth stones, a little water occasionally being added to hold the particles together. The prepared paints are put in the vessels already described, and when ready for use a quantity is taken with the finger and placed in the palm of the hand while the other fingers hold the instrument by which it is to be applied. The paint stick is carefully drawn through the thin layer of paint spread on the other palm and a quantity, depending on the thickness of the layer, adheres to the edges of the appliance and by a carefully guided motion of the hand the lines desired are produced. The eye alone guides the drawing, however intricate it may be. The artist frequently attempts to imitate some of the delicate designs on a gaudy bandana handkerchief or some similar fabric. The principal source of the hematite is a lake near the headwaters of George's river where it occurs as a mass of disintegrated rock along the margin. The water has by freezing split great quantities from the mass and when there is a strong wind from the opposite direction the water is often lashed into a blood-red foam.
DWELLINGS.
The Nenenot live, both in summer and in winter, in deerskin tent, (see Fig. 114), which are constructed in the following manner: A sufficient number of small poles cut from the woods are deprived of their branches and brought to the camp site. A location is selected and the poles are erected in a circle, with tops leaning toward the center so as to form a cone 10 to 14 feet in height, having a diameter at its base of from 10 to 18 feet. The skins forming the cover are those of the reindeer, and those selected for this purpose are usually of an inferior grade. A sufficient number are sewed together to form a strip long enough to reach around the poles when set up. As the tents differ in size according to the number of people who occupy them, the skins sewed together may be from eight to twelve. The first strip is made for the lower part of the poles and is attached to them by means of strings fastened within. A second strip is made to go around the upper part of the poles, and is, of course, correspondingly shorter. It is placed last so as to overlap the lower breadth and thus prevent rain and snow from blowing in. The door is usually made of one large skin or two smaller ones. It is tied to the poles at the upper corners and at the lower has a small log of wood as a weight to prevent it from flapping. The poles at the apex are not covered and through them the smoke from the fire built in the center within ascends and finds exit.
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.
These vessels are identical in shape and function with those manufactured by the Yukon river Indians of Alaska.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.