NELSON] HUMOR TRADING TREATMENT OF DISEASE 309 



amusement. During my hunting excursions, whenever I had several 

 young men along they were continually telling stories, joking, singing, 

 etc. When in camp and during all-night festivals in winter I fre 

 quently heard them laugh at one another for being sleepy. At one 

 of the bladder feasts a young fellow who could scarcely keep his eyes 

 open replied to the sallies made at his expense by saying that he saw 

 three of everything lie looked at and accused his comrade sitting next 

 to him of being unable to find his mouth with the food before him. 



Among the furs offered us at Point Hope was the skin of an Arctic 

 hare with the tail of a fox sewed upon it as a practical joke. After 

 they had sold all of their valuable articles, they were persistent in 

 offering worthless things, and would langh heartily when these were 

 rejected. The same men would return again and again, repeatedly 

 offering something which had been refused, and seemed to be greatly 

 amused each time. 



They are quick to express their ideas by signs when dealing with 

 people who do not understand their language. At Point Hope the 

 men kept holding up their hands together in a cup-shape position, 

 locking the palms and wagging their heads from side to side in a droll 

 way to indicate that they wished to get some whisky with which to 

 become drunk. 



On the lower Yukon and southward there is a trading custom known 

 as pa-tuJch -ttlk. When a person wishes to start one of these he takes 

 some article into the kashiin and gives it to the man with whom he 

 wishes to trade, saying at the same time, &quot;It is a p& tukh 1 ~tuk.&quot; The 

 other is bound to receive it, and give in return some article of about 

 equal value; the first man then brings something else, and so they 

 alternate until, sometimes, two men will exchange nearly everything 

 they originally possessed; the man who received the first present being 

 bound to continue until the originator wishes to stop. 



The fur traders sometimes take advantage of this custom to force an 

 Eskimo to trade his furs when they can get them in no other way. A 

 fur trader told me of securing in this way from one man the skins of 

 30 mink, 8 land otters, 4 seals, and 2 cups and saucers; finally the 

 Eskimo wished to give his rifle, but at that the trader stopped the 

 transaction. 



TREATMENT OF DISEASE 



In treating diseases the most common method is for the shamans to 

 perform certain incantations. There are cases, however, in which more 

 direct methods are pursued; blood letting is commonly practiced to 

 relieve inflamed or aching portions of the body. For this purpose 

 small lancets of stone or iron are used. In one instance I saw a man 

 lancing the scalp of his little girl s head, the long, thin, iron point of 

 the instrument being thrust twelve or fifteen times between the scalp 

 and the skull. 



