254 



THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 



The use, of this implement, as shown by Mr. Nelson s collection, extends 

 or extended from Point Barrow to Norton Sound. He collected speci 

 mens from St. Lawrence Island and Cape Wankarem in Siberia. Nor- 

 denskiold speaks of the use of this implement at Pitlekaj and figures 

 a specimen. 1 The other instrument appears to be less common. I have 

 called it a seal rattle. 



Seal rattle. We obtained only two specimens, No. 50533 [409], which 

 seem to be a pair. Fig. 254 is one of these. It is of cottonwood and 4 

 inches long, roughly carved into the shape of a seal s head and painted 

 red, with two small transparent blue glass beads inlaid for the eyes. 

 The neat becket of seal thong consists of tliree or four turns with the 

 end wrapped spirally around them. The staple on which the ivory 



pendants hang is of iron. This is believed to 

 be a rattle to be shaken on the ice by a string 

 tied to the becket for the purpose of attracting 

 seals to the ice net. It was brought in for sale 

 at a time during our first year when we were 

 very busy with zoological work, and as some 

 thing was said about &quot;nBtyi&quot; and &quot;kubra&quot; 

 (&quot;seal&quot; and &quot;net&quot;) the collector concluded 

 that they must be floats for seal nets, and they 

 were accordingly catalogued as such and laid 

 away. We never happened to see another 

 specimen, and as these were sent home in 1882 

 we learned no more of their history. The late 

 Dr. Emil Bessels, however, on my return called 

 my attention to the fact that in the museum at 

 Copenhagen there is a single specimen very 

 similar to these, which was said to have been 

 used in the manner described above. It came 

 from somewhere in eastern America. There is 

 FIG. 254. Seal rattle. one, he told me, in the British Museum from 

 Bering Strait. The National Museum contains several specimens col 

 lected by Mr. Nelson at Point Hope. It is very probable that this is 

 the correct explanation of the use of these objects, as it assigns a func 

 tion to the ivory pendants which would otherwise be useless. They 

 have been called &quot;dog bells,&quot; but the Eskimo, at Point Barrow, at least, 

 are not in the habit of marking their dogs in any way. 



Seal indicators. -When watching for a seal at his breathing hole a 

 native inserts in the hole a slender rod of ivory, which is held loosely in 

 place by a cross piece or a bunch of feathers on the end. When the 

 seal rises he pushes up this rod, which is so light that he does not no 

 tice it, and thus warns the hunter when to shoot or strike with his 

 spear. Most of the seal hunting was done at such a distance from the 

 station that I remember only one occasion when this implement was 



1 Vojja, vol. 2, p, 117, Fig. 3. 



