796 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1895. 



embracing the area chiefly occupied by tribes of the Shoshonian lin 

 guistic family. 



Two figures shown in close embrace, as in fig. 20, may also denote 

 combat, as well as the ceremonial of the shaman, in which the demon 

 causing the illness is shown near the body of the sick person from 

 which it is expelled. 



The group of figures of the human form (fig. 27) are selected from a 

 number of engravings on ivory bows, chiefly from southern Alaska. 



No. 1 is a form frequently occurring in Kiate xamut Eskimo picto- 

 graphs on wood, as when drawn upon slabs of shingle or other smooth 



12345 6 7 8 



Fig. 27. 



VARIENTS OF THE HUMAN FORM. 



surface to place over the door of the habitation when the owner Leaves 

 for any purpose. It is abbreviated, and the result of carelessness or 

 perhaps incompetency of the recorder. No. 2 is another form of man 

 in which only the lower extremities are indicated, while in No. 3 the 

 arms are thrown out horizontally from the body to denote the gesture 

 for negation, nothing. No. 4 is a headless body and does not always 

 denote death, as is the practice among other pictographers, notably so 

 the Ojibwa. No special information was received respecting the char 

 acter, and it is probable that the head was obliterated by erosion, 

 having originally been drawn. The specimen was copied from an ivory 

 utensil in the collection of the Alaska Commercial Company in San 

 Francisco, California, and was obtained from the Aiqalu xamut Eskimo. 



H4^ 



Fig. 28. 

 VARIOUS FORMS OF VESSELS. 



The character in No. 5 denotes a canoe, or kaiak, with two persons 

 within it, while the two paddles project beneath. The right-hand 

 upward stroke of the boat represents the bow of the vessel. Nos. 6 

 and 7, from Cape Nome, Alaska, are variants of the human form with 

 arms loosely extended, and form in No. 8, having fringe suspended 

 from the sleeves, probably a shaman, and very similar to the Ojibwa 

 designation of the Thunder bird, one of the divinities of the western 

 Algonkian tribes. The figure (No. 8) was copied from an ivory drill 

 bow obtained at Port Clarence, Alaska, by Doctor T. H. Bean, formerly 

 of the United States National Museum. 



