592 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



Fig. 193, collected by Mr. Jobn Muidocli, at Utkiawin, Alaska, is a 

 iiui(iue specimen and of the most primitiv^e character. 



It is simply a rough willow stick, slightly whittled into shape, split aud hollowed 

 out like a pipe stem. It is held together by a whipping of siuew thread, aud a 

 lashiug of deerskin fastened by a slipknot at one end, the other being tucked in, as 

 usual. A small funnel-shaped hole'at one end serves for a bowl, and shows by its 

 charred surface that it has actually been used. This pipe was bought from one of 

 the Nuuatanmiun, who were in camji at Pernyu iu 1883, and shows its inland origin 

 ill the use of the deerskin thong. A coast native would have used seal thong. The 

 pipe is carried at the girdle either with the stem thrust inside the breeches or in a 

 bag attached to the belt. It is a long, narrow cylindrlc bag, made of four white 

 ermiue skins, with two hind legs aud two tails forming a fringe round the bottom 

 which is of dressed deerskin, in one piece, flesh side out. Tobacco is carried in a 

 small pouch attached to the girdle, and tucked inside the breeches, or sometimes 

 worn under the jacket, slung round the neck by a string or the necklace. * * » 

 Tobacco as prepared for smoking by the Eskimo consists of common black cavendish 

 or "Navy" tobacco, cut up very fine and mixed with finely chopped wood in the 

 proportion of about two parts of tobacco to one of wood. We were informed that 

 willow twigs were used for this purpose. The method of smoking is as follows: 

 After cleaning out the bowl with the picker a little wad of deer hair, i)lucked from 

 the clothes in some inconspicuous ])lace, generally the front skirt of the inner jacket 

 is rammed down to the bottom of the bowl. This is to jireveut the line tobacco 



Fig. 193. 



ESKIMO PIPE OF WILLOW. 

 After John Murdoch. Ninth Annual Report o£ the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 68, fig. 7. 



getting into the stem and clogging it. The bowl is then filled with tobacco, of 

 which it holds only a small quantity. The mouthpiece is placed between the lips, 

 the tobacco ignited aud all smoked out iu two or three long inhalations. The smoke 

 is very deeply inhaled aud allowed to pass out slowly from the mouth and nostrils, 

 bringing tears to the eyes, often producing giddiness, aud almost always a violent 

 fit of coughing. I have seen a man almost prostrated from a single pipe full. This 

 method of smoking has beeu in vogue from the time of our first acquaintance with 

 these people. Though they smoke little at a time they smoke frequently when 

 tobacco is plentiful. The use of the Kui'nyij, which name appears to be applied to 

 the native pi))e8, seems to be confined to the adults. We knew of no children 

 owning them, though their parents made no objection to their chewing tobacco or 

 owning or u.sing clay or wooden pipes, which they obtained from us. They carry 

 their fondness for tobacco so far that they will even eat the oily refuse from the 

 bottom of the bowl, the smallest portion of which would produce nausea in a white 

 man. This habit has beeu observed at Plover Bay, Siberia. Tobacco ashes are 

 also eaten, probably for the sake of the potash they contain, as one of the men at 

 Utkiawin was fond of carbonate of soda, which he told the doctor was just like what 

 he got from his pipe. Pipes of this type diff'ering in details, but all agree in having 

 very small bowls, fre(juently of metal, and some contrivance for opening the stem, 

 are used by the Eskimos from at least as far south as the Yukon Delta (as shown by 

 the collections in the National Museum) to the Anderson River and Cape Bathurst, 

 and have even been adopted by the Indians of the Yukon, who learned the use of 

 tobacco from the Eskimos. They are undoubtedly of Siberian origin, as will be seen 

 by comparing the figure of a Chukch pipe in Nordenskiolds Vega, and the figure of 



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