THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [ETH.ANN. 18 



batli. The men and boys brought in their urine tubs, and wore loou- 

 skin caps on their heads. Each one had a respirator made of fine wood 

 shavings woven into a pad to hold in the teeth to cover the lips and 

 nostrils, without which it would not have been possible for them to 

 breathe in the stifling heat. When the wood had burned down to a 

 bed of coals the cover was replaced over the smoke hole in .the roof, 

 and when the men had perspired enough they bathed and then went 

 out to take a cold-water douche. 



Ill the winter of 1880 I traveled around the northern coast of Norton 

 sound and found many of the villages on the verge of famine. This 

 was due mainly to the fact that they had eaten most of their supplies 

 early in the season, trusting to the weather being such that they could 

 take sufficient fish for their needs later on. As the winter turned out 

 to be excessively severe, nearly all of the dogs along this coast were 

 starved and the people were on very short allowance for a long time. 

 Just north of Uualaklit I camped in a small hut 10 by 12 feet in area 

 and 5 feet higli in the middle. Three families were living in this 

 house, and including my party numbered sixteen adults who occupied 

 the room that night. The air was so foul that when a candle was 

 lighted it went out, and a match would flare up and immediately become 

 extinguished as though dipped in water. After making a hole in one 

 corner of the cover of the smoke hole the air became sufficiently pure 

 for us to pass the night without ill effect. 



At the village of Uiiaktolik, just beyond the last place mentioned, I 

 found a room 15 by 20 feet in area and 6 feet high, where we numbered 

 twenty-five people during the night of our stay. 



Wherever we found the people with a small food supply they were 

 usually quiet and depressed ; but at a village on the northern shore of 

 Norton sound, where food was plentiful, everyone appeared to be in 

 the greatest good humor. 



During the summer food is more abundant than in winter, and the 

 people are more cheerful at that season and inclined to give a heartier 

 welcome to a stranger. The winter season being one of possible famine, 

 there is generally a slight feeling of uncertainty regarding the future. 



When we landed from the Concin at a summer trading village on 

 the shore of Ilotham inlet, in Kotzebue sound, we were surrounded at 

 once by two or three hundred people, all shouting and smiling good 

 naturedly. They crowded about us with the greatest curiosity, and 

 several at once volunteered to carry my camera and box of trading 

 goods to one of the lodges. We walked along in the midst of a rabble 

 of fur clad figures and a great variety of strong odors which they 

 exhaled. The dirty brown faces, ornamented with the huge stone 

 labrets of the men and the tattooed chin lines of the women, were alive 

 with animation ; their mouths were wide open and their eyes glistened 

 with curiosity and excitement. Before us moved a crowd of fat chil 

 dren, who tried to run ahead and look back at the same time, so that 



