924 KEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1895. 



circular line which surroiiDds them and is planted upon the ground 

 or base line. The mystic influence has been made to secure a whale, 

 i^o. 4, which has been compelled by the shaman's alleged supernatural 

 power, in the guise of an anthropoid deity, to swim to the locality 

 where the ceremonies are performed, in order that the hunter may be 

 enabled to reach him. The short serrated marking between the whale's 

 head and the figure of the spirit denotes the spray spouted from the 

 whale. 



The line connecting the spirit and the shaman's hand is the indica- 

 tion of the magic influence possessed by the latter over the spirit 

 messenger. 



Other illustrations of shamanistic power are given, especially exam- 

 ples of exorcism of demons possessing the sick and to whom illness is 

 attributed. 



The illustration in tig. 145 is reproduced from a walrus-ivory drill 

 bow in the museum of the Alaska Commercial Company, of San Fran- 

 cisco, California. The interpretation given to the present writer is as 

 follows : 



Two sick men were brought to the shaman for treatment. The 

 shaman's summer habitations are represented in Nos. 1 and 2, the 



}tt:^^^ii 



7 6 5 4 3 



Fig. 145. 

 SHAMAN EXOEt'I.SING DEMON. 



presence of trees denoting that there was a grove close by. No. 3 is the 

 shaman, who is represented in the act of holding one of his "demons" 

 or personal deities, with whose aid he pretends to expel malignant 

 spirits or demons from the body of the sick man. No. 4 is the demon 

 under control of the shaman. No. 5 represents the same shaman in the 

 act of exorcising the demon in the patient. Nos. 6 and 7 are the sick 

 men who are under treatment and from whom the "evil beings" have 

 been expelled. The two "evil beings" or demons are shown in No. 

 8, represented in violent movement in their endeavor to escape the 

 powerful influence of the shaman. 



The engraving presented in plate 73, fig. 3, is without doubt one of 

 the cleverest artistic products thus far received from Alaska and 

 known to be the work of a native. The entire grou])ing of the herd of 

 reindeer, some of the animals walking leisurely along while others stop 

 to browse, and while the foremost manifest curiosity and alarm, indi- 

 cates that the artist was not only a close observer of the habits of the 

 animal, but had an unusually keen acquaintance with the anatomical 

 structure and the attitudes assumed under different circumstances so 

 as to express the emotions. 



