28 CAVE KELICS OF THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS. 



sufficiently, as he had been noticed by the town watchman (a native) prowling 

 around, on a stormy night, through the town ! presumably in search of food. 



The Kadiak natives made great use of masks in their dances and festivals, 

 especially those in which the Shamans took part. They are said to be deposited 

 in many places with the dead. The localities were not stated, and our short stay 

 at Kadiak precluded any attempt at a search. 



It is stated by some of the half breeds, who pretend to be acquainted with the 

 native traditions, that it was a not uncommon practice to dry the bodies of the 

 dead in some natural attitude, and to place them in a cave or rock-shelter dressed 

 in gay attire, and arranged as if in some occupation characteristic of the indi 

 vidual s pursuits in life. Thus, women were placed as if sewing, or nursing 

 children ; noted hunters, in bidarkas engaged in transfixing the effigy of a seal 

 or otter ; or old men as occupied in beating the tambourine, their recognized 

 occupation in the dances and festivals of all the Innuit. By them were placed 

 the masks which they wore in life, or sometimes the individual was dressed in 

 his wooden armor, arrayed in his mask, and supplied with wooden models of 

 his implements or the game or fur animals which were his favorite pursuit. For 

 some reason or other, actual weapons or implements were rarely placed with the 

 dead, but were represented only by wooden models. 



While we had no opportunity of examining any Kaniag mut caves of this kind, 

 an opportunity was offered at Unga, one of the Shumagin Islands, to examine a 

 noted locality for these remains. The present inhabitants of the Shumagins are 

 true Aleuts, and have been reported as such since the Russian occupation. 

 Hence I ascribe the agreement of what we discovered in the Unga rock-shelters 

 with the descriptions of the Kaniag mut modes of interment, to the close .prox 

 imity and greater intercourse of the Shumagin Aleuts with the former people. 



The locality mentioned is near Delaroff Harbor, Unga Island ; and the cave, 

 so-called, consists of a series of rock-shelters formed by the breaking down of 

 the perpendicular basaltic bluffs into a huge talus of immense broken rocks. 

 Between these exist an interminable series of crevices, sometimes forming 

 chambers of some magnitude, but more often narrow and intricate. In some 

 places the shelter was sufficiently good to ward off any rain or snow, and in the 

 largest of these, covered by an immense block of basalt, we found the greatest 

 number of remains. Others were scattered singly or in small groups in various 

 other suitable crevices or nooks under the rocks. The remains had been visited 

 by several persons at different intervals before our visit, and had been consider 

 ably disturbed. M. Pinart, especially, had secured the cream of what was 

 contained there, though much that was valuable remained behind. It seemed 

 also, as if the frequent earthquakes common to the region had had their share 

 in disturbing the deposits, especially from the position of some of the crania, 

 which took several hours of hard labor to extract from the crannies in which they 



