272 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [eth.ann. 18 



In addition to the usual tobacco mixed with fungus ashes these 

 people are also fond of using the nicotine that accumulates in their 

 pipestems. At intervals every smoker opens his pipestem and care- 

 fully removes the oily mass of tobacco extract, which he places with 

 his chewing tobacco; a portion of this is combined with the quid and 

 adds greatly to his eujoyment, owing to its strong narcotic influence. 

 I have frequently seen them place this material in their mouths almost 

 undiluted and in quantity that appeared suflBcient to cause the indi- 

 vidual's death, yet apparently without producing the least nausea or 

 other ill eftect. 



Some of the writers on the Eskimo have claimed that they eat this 

 concentrated tobacco, but I think this a mistake, as I frequently saw 

 them placing it in their mouths and holding it there in the same man- 

 ner that they did ordinary quids. 



For smoking the tobacco is cut very fine, then a little tuft of fur is 

 plucked from the clothing and wadded at the bottom of the narrow, 

 cylindrical bowl of the pipe, and the tobacco is placed on top of this 

 until the bowl is full. A small fragment of tinder is then lighted with 

 flint and steel and i)laced on the tobacco. The smoker gives two or 

 three short, sharp draws, which thoroughly ignite the tinder and 

 tobacco, and then draws the smoke into his lungs by a long, deep 

 inhalation, Avhich consumes all the tobacco contained in the pipe. 

 After retaining the smoke as long as po&sible it is exhaled, and the 

 smoker puts away the pipe. 



For making snuff the tobacco is finely shredded, and is then thor- 

 oughly dried, after which it is pounded in a small wooden mortar with 

 a wooden pestle until reduced to powder. These mortars are gener- 

 ally more or less goblet-shape, although I obtained one specimen from 

 the lower Yukon, shown in plate Lxxxvi, 30, which is like a small 

 wooden dii)per, with a hole near the end of the handle for suspending 

 it. Another typical example of these mortars (plate lxxxv, 28) was 

 obtained at Razbinsky. The i)estles usually consist of sticks from an 

 inch to an inch and a half in diameter, rounded at the lower end, and 

 from 10 to 15 inches in length. A good specimen of these implements, 

 from Kigiktauik, is shown in figure 27. 



After the tobacco has been reduced to powder it is sifted, to remove 

 the coarser i^articles, until it is finally of the fineness required. For 

 this purpose there are used small sieves, similar to the specimen from 

 Ilazbinsky (figure 29), which are made by cutting out a cylinder of 

 wood about two inches long, and fastening over one end a cover of 

 parchment made from some thin skin or from the intestine of some 

 animal, which is punctured with numerous small holes, and the edges 

 bound to the cylinder by a sinew cord wrapped around a groove in the 

 border. The sieve frames are sometimes made from bark, and one 

 such specimen collected on the lower Yukon has the sieve made from 

 a piece of coarse sacking. 



