NELSO.V] 



TOTEM MARKS 



325 



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bone or ivory bearing tlie raven mark, and the same mark was seen 

 tattooed on the forehead of a boy at Plover bay (figure lli5). 



These marks are frequently seen on carvings, weapons, and imple- 

 ments of almost every description. On clothing or 

 wooden utensils it may be marked with paint. On the 

 gut-skin smoke-hole cover of the kashim at Kigiktauik 

 two raven signs were drawn close together, with a red 

 spot in front of them, as shown in figure IIG. 



On in(juiry I was told that the man who presented 

 the kashim with this cover had marked upon it his to- 

 tem sign, and that the red spot in front was intended 

 to represent the bloody mark in the snow where the 

 raven had eaten meat. My informant added that ^'°- "s-Raven totem 



,. . 1 1 ^ ii .1 tattooing on a Plover 



sometimes a ring was drawn before the raven tracks bay boy. 



on the cover to represent a seal hole in the ice. 

 If a man who presented a cover to the kashim belonged to another 



gens, or if his ancestors excelled in hunting a special kind of large game, 



the figure of that animal was drawn 

 on the cover. One man, whose ances- 

 tors were noted for being 8uc(;essful 

 hunters of sea animals, drew three 

 !^;fi<[;?r^r''f r ■^'' r"(^^^ <-8hape marks on the cover which he 



^yi!Ij£I2'TIZS!'?'2lI^^^^^^ presented to the kashim, as follows-. 



CV]!\ v/^-' '(♦-m^^v'^z 7'''^Ta < < <. These marks were said to 



I '■■ '■^" 'I ?■/. ;,v\'v/. ,y, ^f^.'y:^!^ represent the rippling wake of an ani- 



Fio. 116-Raven totems on sraoke-Iiole cover. ™^^ Swimming in the Watcr. 



It is customary for liunters to carry 

 about with them an object representing their totem. A man belong- 

 ing to the raven gens carries in his quiver a pair of raven feet and 

 a quill feather from the same bird. 

 The gerfalcon man carries in his 

 quiver a quill feather of that totepi 

 bird. 



There are other marks which are 

 somewhat diflerent in significance 

 from the totem mark, but which may 

 be adoi)ted for various reasons. At 

 St Micliael a man told me of three 

 hunters who went out one winter 

 during a famine, and after hunting 

 for a long time could find no game. 

 Finally one of them went back to 

 their sledge and took from it the 



ham of a dog which he had brought with him. After eating some of 

 this he started off again, carrying the bone with him. He had gone 

 only a short distance when he encountered a seal and killed it. This, 



Fig. 117 — Wolf totem signs on a storehouse 

 door. 



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