NELSON] MAGEMUT AND YUKON ESKIMO WARFARE 329 



sake was a famous bowman. On one occasion lie was said to liave 

 pinned an enemy to a wall of a Louse witli an arrow so that lie could 

 not release himself. 



If a fight lasted a long time, so that both parties became tired and 

 hungry or sleepy, a fur coat would be waved on a stick by one side as 

 a sign of truce, during which both parties would rest, eat, or sleep, and 

 then renew the conflict. During the truce both sides stationed guards 

 who watched against surprise. Sometimes, the old man said, a man 

 would be shot so full of arrows that his body would bristle with them, 

 and, falling, be held almost free from the ground by their number. 



At times volleys of arrows were fired in order to render it more diffi 

 cult for the enemy to escape being hit. When one of the warriors had 

 shot away all his arrows and chanced to be surrounded by the enemy, 

 he could sometimes escape death for a long time by dodging and leap 

 ing from side to side, but finally would be killed by some of them strik 

 ing him upon the head with a warclub having a sharp spur of bone or 

 ivory on one side. The defeated party was always pursued and, if 

 possible, exterminated. 



The Magemut are said to have been stronger in battle than the 

 Yukon men, and a larger number of the latter were always killed in a 

 conflict between these two people. Neither side had any recognized 

 chief, but each fought as he pleased, with the exception that some of 

 the older men had general supervision and control of the expedition. 



When a man on either side had relatives in the opposing party, and 

 for this reason did not wish to take part in the battle, he would blacken 

 his face with charcoal and remain a noncombatant, both sides respect 

 ing his neutrality. In this event, a man with his face blackened had 

 the privilege of going without danger among the people of either side 

 during a truce. 



The Magemut always carried off the women after a successful raid, 

 but my Yukon informant told me this was not done by his people, which 

 statement was probably made merely from a desire on his part to give 

 his own people the advantage in my eyes. He admitted, however, the 

 superior fighting qualities of his enemies, the Magemut. 



When possible night raids were made by the villagers on both sides, 

 and the people were usually clubbed or speared to death. The con 

 quered village was always pillaged, and if a warrior saw any personal 

 ornament on a slain enemy which pleased him, he seized it and wore it 

 himself, even placing in his lips the labrets taken from the face of a 

 dead foe. If one of the conquerors chanced to see a woman wearing 

 handsome beads or other ornaments, he would brain her and strip 

 them off. 



The old man told me that in battles between the people of lower 

 Kuskoquim river and those of Bristol bay the victors made a practice 

 of cutting off the heads of their slain enemies and placing them on the 

 top of sharp stakes set in the ground, with arrows thrust crosswise 

 through their noses. 



