436 



THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT 



[ETH. ANN. 18 



linages and masks are used by the people of Point Barrow to briug 

 success in wbale bunting. In an umiak at tbat place I found two masks 

 of buman faces mounted on tbe middle of sligbtly cresceutic boards, 

 to each of wbicb was tied by a sinew cord a small wooden model of a 

 right wbale. After considerable effort one of the shields and masks 

 were secured, but the owners absolutely refused to sell the otbers or 

 any of tbe little whales, whicb were well carved and about tbree incbes 

 long. The men said they were used in wbale bunting and they did not 

 dare to sell them as, if they did, they would bring them bad luck. 



Small carved images of fabulous animals are sometimes carried for 

 the same purpose. In Kotzebue sound a young Malemut white-whale 

 hunter came off to the Cone in one day and I found hanging from the 

 framework inside biskaiak, just behind the manhole, a curious wooden 

 image about eight inches long and three inches in diameter. It was 



FIG. 150 Fetich from a Malemut kaiak (^). 



shaped as shown in figure 150. The semihuman face, with boles incised 

 for the eyes and nose, and the deeply cut mouth bordered by teeth, had 

 two large, projecting tusks, which with the teeth were made of walrus 

 ivory. Extending lengthwise along tbe abdomen was a long, deep slit 

 like a mouth, with a row of peg-like ivory teeth along its edges. Held 

 by the teeth in this mouth was the rudely carved wooden figure of a 

 white whale. I tried to buy the image, but the owner seemed to be 

 alarmed when he found that I had discovered it, and said he would die 

 if be parted with it; thereupon 1 handed the image back to him and 

 be quickly went ashore and hid it, after whicb he returned to the vessel. 

 The images and fetiches used in hunting are supposed to watch for 

 game and, by some clairvoyant power, to see it at a great distance ; the 

 hunter is then guided by the influence of the fetich to find it. They 

 are also supposed to guide the spears so that they will be cast straight. 



