MUKDOcn.] WHAUXG. 275 



sled and brought back untl harnessed to the flat sled on which the 

 umiak was lashed. The party, which consisted of five men and two 

 women, one of whom remained with the sled load of gear, then started 

 ahead, the. women running in front of the dogs and the men pushing at 

 the sides of the boat. The boat travels very easily and rapidly on 

 smooth ice,, but among the hummocks the men have hard work pushing 

 and scrambling, and occasional stops have to be made to widen narrow 

 places IB the path and to chisel off projecting points of ice which might 

 pierce the skin cover of the boat. When they came up to the first 

 sled the women were again sent on with this while the men rested. 

 The inflated sealskin floats, five or six in number, the whale harpoon, 

 and whale spades, and ice picks were carried iu the boats. 



A whaling umiak always carries a number of amulets to insure suc 

 cess. These consisted in this case, of two wolf skulls, a dried raven, 

 tire axis vertebra of a seal, and numerous feathers. The skin of a 

 golden eagle is considered an excellent charm for whaling, and Xika- 

 waalu was particularly desirous to secure the tip of a red fox s tail, 

 which he said was a powerful amulet. The captain and harpooner 

 wore fillets of mountain sheepskin, witli a little crystal or stone image 

 of a whale dangling at each side of the face, and the, captain s fillet was 

 also fringed with the incisor teeth of the mountain sheep. Both wore 

 little stone whales attached to the breast of the jacket, and one woman 

 and one or two of the men had streaks of black lead on their faces. 1 



When they are on the watch for whales the great harpoon is kept 

 always rigged and resting in a crotch of ivory in the bow of the boat. 

 When a whale is sighted they paddle up as close as possible 1 and the 

 harpooner thrusts the harpoon into him. The whale dives, with the 

 floats attached to him, and the shaft, which is retained, is rigged for 

 striking him when he rises again. The other boats, if any are near, 

 join in the chase until the whale is so wearied that he can be lanced 

 or a favorable opportunity occurs for shooting him. All boats in sight 

 at the time the whale is struck, as I understood, are entitled to an 

 equal share of the whalebone. 



As soon as the whale is killed he is towed up to the edge of the land 

 tioe and everybody standing on the edge of the ice and iu the boats 

 begins hacking away, at random, at the flesh and blubber, some of 

 them going to work more carefully to cut out the whalebone. The 

 &quot;cutting in&quot; is managed without order or control, everybody who can 

 be on the spot being apparently entitled to all the meat, blubber, and 

 blackskin he or she can cut off. The same custom was practiced in 

 Greenland, and is to this day in eastern Siberia. 



1 Compare Egede, Greenland, p. 102. &quot; When they go a Whale-catching they put on their best Gear 

 or Apparel, as if they, were going to a Wedding Feast, fancying that if they did not &amp;lt; omo cleanly and 

 neatly dressed I lie Whale, who can t bear sloven and dirty Habits, would shun them and ny from them.&quot; 



&quot; 



