^2 INTRODTCTION OK DOMESTIC KEINDPIER INTO ALASKA. 



Also when a whale or a bal:)y walrus is killed they make a sort of 

 bolos sling, the balls of which are made of rolls of old w^alrus skin 

 about an inch in width, and begin the favorite game of handball. In 

 this a large ball about 5 inches in diameter is made of beautifully 

 pieced red and white sealskin, and stuffed with deer hair. Usually 

 the boys and young men are pitted against the girls and young 

 women, and playing begins in the first patch of ground showing 

 through the snow. As the days lengthen and the nights are so light, 

 one could read all night; playing often continues all night, and during 

 May and part of June sleeping is done in the daytime. 



Tw o whales killed permit the use of toy canoes on the snow of the 

 beach. Toy canoes made of a mitten, with its inner edge for the 

 bottom, are used when a female walrus and her baby are killed. The 

 same sign indicates the use of the sling, but the stones may not be 

 thrown toward the sea unless two walruses and babies are killed. 

 These slings are of the same pattern as that with which David killed 

 Goliath, and are used with great skill by some. 



No rules govern the playing of the white man's games, so checkers 

 and dominoes go on all winter. 



GENERAL DEPORTMENT AND MISCELLANEOUS. 



We have had very little trouble with the people this year; indeed, 

 the longer we stay the more do we seem to be a sort of house of guard- 

 ians for the population. It is true we have to pay for every small 

 thing done, but this is both our own wish and teaching, and would 

 be expected by a people so poor and sick as these. 



One big man last fall attempted to compel me to pay him his own 

 price for helping to land the goods. He was furious for a w^hile, 

 threw off his coat, rolled up his sleeves, and threatened a messenger 

 I sent for Richards, but soon cooled off, and is now quite friendly and 

 apparently grateful for relief from severe pain. He, with many 

 others, would be greatly benefited by a vegetable diet, being sufferers 

 from a form of scurvy due to an excessive meat diet. 



In December Miu kok, an Indian Pointer living here, a most 

 troublesome fellow indeed, became enraged at his wife and hit her 

 over the head with a big block of wood, cutting a frightful gash. 

 Richards sent for him and some of the older men, delivered them all 

 a good lecture, and^put Miu kok in charge of the old men; to be kept 

 until the arrival of the Thetis. It w^as the same man who on several 

 occasions threatened Mr. Doty and Doctor Leri'go, one time nearly 

 breaking in the door with stones. He and his brother also beat me 

 on the beach in the spring of 1902, w^hen the Indian Point boats 

 arrived. The people here would be glad to see these tw^o removed. 



Indian Pointers are a hard lot, tyrannical and overbearing, even 

 to the forcing of tribute from the St. Lawrence islanders. One 



