1038 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



trimmers or rather ordinary torches, may be viewed in this light. 

 Abandoned lamps may be due to the superstition which renders useless 

 the articles in a hut rendered taboo by a death. The low burning lamp 

 is also an adjunct of tlie wizard's incantations. 



In the United States National Museum there is a dance mask of 

 wood in the shape of a human face, surmounted by a rude carving 

 intended to represent tlie spirit of the Sandhill crane {Grus canadensis). 

 In the head of the crane is a small cavity made to receive a stone oil 

 lami), the light from which produces a weird effect during the dance. 

 The spirit is visible only to the shaman or sorcerer. The mask is from 

 Rasboinsky, Alaska (Lower Yukon.) ^ 



The constellation of the Great Bear is called by the East Greenland- 

 ers pisilfllat, lamp foot or stool upon which the lamp is i)laced. 



The typical lamp is that whose form is the result of an attempt to 

 devise a vessel with a long, nearly straight wick edge combined with a 

 reservoir. This necessarily throws the vessel into the clam-shell shape 

 or ellipsoidal shape. Lamps of this character appertain to the high 

 and rigorous north, where the maximum of heat and light are required. 

 No doubt, also, the lamp is modified by the abundance or scarcity of 

 the food supply and the prevalence of driftwood. This form ranges 

 from Labrador to Norton Sound, Alaska. The other general form of 

 lamp, which is circular or ovate, having a narrow wick edge, ranges 

 south from Norton Sound. They are circular and of baked clay on the 

 tundra formed by the alluvial deposits of the Yukon and Kuskokwim 

 river systems. They become oval and of stone in the metamorphic 

 and igneous country to the southeast and southwest through the 

 Alaskan Peninsula and Aleutian Chain. There is a connection of form 

 suggested between the stone lamps spoken of and the stone vessels of 

 the northwest coast of Alaska and British Columbia and the west coast 

 of North America, but there is no connection by use. The Eskimo are 

 unique in the Western Hemisphere in the possession of a lamp. 



The clay-saucer lamp of the Yukon tundra is interesting from the 

 fact that it seems an intrusion. It may be true that the alluvial coun- 

 try furnishes no stone, and hence clay is substituted, which will 

 account for the material. The Eskimo will go a long distance, as has 

 been pointed out, for material which he needs and has been accus- 

 tomed to use. The lamps of St. Lawrence Island, though of pottery 

 and aberrant in form, preserve the long wick line of the Arctic lamp. 

 The shape of the Yukon type, the absence of a definite wick edge or lip, 

 and the method of burning by a wick brought up at the side relate them 

 to the lamps of eastern Asia, or the simple dish lamjis of diverse ages and 

 peoples. Kennan speaks of a dish lamp with the wick floating in the 

 oil in the house of the Koraks. The quotation may prove interesting: 

 "The temperature of a Korak tent in winter seldom ranges above 20^ 

 or 25° E., and as constant exposure to such a degree of cold would be 



iNo. 49020, U.S.N.M., collected by E. W. Nelson. 



