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



length in shallow pits made by removing the rocks, and were covered 

 with stones. Along the edges of the graves lines of small stones were 

 arranged in a rude oval. Over the heads of some of them were piled 

 four or five pairs of reindeer antlers. 



A musket and numerous spears, with other implements, all broken 

 so as to render them useless, were scattered about. Many of the 

 bodies had been laid upon the ground and surrounded by an oval of 

 stones, with a stick of driftwood at the foot, exactly as in graves seen 

 on St Lawrence island. At none of those made in this manner were 

 there any implements or other things deposited, and they may have 

 been the burial places of people from St Lawrence island. 



At Point Hope, just beyond Kotzebue sound, was a large graveyard, 

 in which the bodies were placed in rude boxes built of driftwood, above 

 the ground, and surrounded by implements. Still north of this, at 

 Cape Lisburne, I found a solitary grave on the side of a ravine by the 

 shore. It was an irregularly walled inclosure in rectangular shape, 

 about 3 feet high, 3 feet wide, and 6 feet long, built of fragments of 

 slate rock, and covered with drift logs. This grave was very old, as 

 the skeleton was nearly destroyed by weathering, and no implements 

 whatever were found. 



TOTEMS A?^D FA3I1LY >IARKS 



From Kuskokwim river northward to the shores of Bering strait and 

 Kotzebue sound the Eskimo have a regular system of totem marks 

 and the accompanying subdivision of the people into Rentes. It was 

 extremely difficult to obtain information on this point, but the follow- 

 ing notes are sufficiently definite to settle the fact of the existence 

 among them of gentes and totemic signs: 



Pictures, carvings, or devices of any kind, totemic or otherwise, are 

 called a'-lhin-uh by the Unalit. Peoj^le belonging to the same gens 

 are considered to be relatives, termed u-jo'-lmW by the Unalit. 



Fig. 108 — Arrowpoint sliowing wolf totein sigus (^). 



The gray wolf is called Mg'-u-lun'-uk; the wolf totem or mark, 

 Tiig-ii-lun' -u-go' -uk ; the wolf gens, Mg' -n-lun' -u-go-alh' 4-gH. 



Arrows or other weapons marked with the sign of the wolf or other 

 animal totem mark are believed to become invested with some of tlie 

 qualities of the animal represented and to be endowed with special 

 fatality. 



Among other totem marks that of the wolf is well represented on 

 some arrows with deerhoru points, used for large game by a party 

 of Malemut who were hunting reindeer on Nunivak island. These 

 arrows have two isolated barbs with a line along their base to repre- 

 sent a wolf's back with upstanding ears, which are indicated by the 



