NELSON] 



ANIMAL FETICHES MYTHIC ANIMALS 



441 



i" 



[Jncleauuess of tbis kind may be removed iu some cases by batliiug in 

 urine. Sometimes when a man learns that be has become unclean lie goes 

 to a j>rave and scrapes himself from hea'd to foot with a human rib, thus 

 leaving the bad influence at the grave. This condition may be brought 

 about by witchcraft, but usually it is caused by contact with some per- 

 son or thing alread v unclean. In the Bladder feast the 

 flames of wild parsnip stalks are supposed to purify 

 the bladders and thereby prevent auy influence of this 

 kind. At the same time they are believed to remove 

 from the hunters the influence that may have afi'ected 

 them from their association with so many shades or 

 inuas. 



In a case that came to my notice one autumn, on 

 Norton sound, a Malemut woman was ill for several 

 months with some uterine trouble, and neither her 

 husband nor other male relative would enter her 

 house during the entire period, saying that if they 

 did so they would become unclean and could kill no 

 more game. 



The object illustrated iu figure 153 is a grotesque 

 wooden head about three and a half inches long, 

 with the nose of an ermine skin fastened on its fore- 

 head and extending thence backward and falling 

 down behind, with the tail and hind feet as pendants. 

 A strip of bear skin on the back of the head furnishes 

 long hair to represent that of a human being. The 

 features are grotesquely carved, with projecting brow, 

 squarely cut nose, deeply incised, triangular eyes, and 

 a crescentic, upturned mouth. A pair of incisors of 

 some rodent project from the upper jaw, curving out- 

 ward and down over the mouth. The face is painted 

 dark red, except the area about the mouth, which is blackened with 

 gum, in which are set the teeth. The neck has a round hole in its 

 lower end, apparently for receiving a peg upon which the image was 

 placed. This object was used by a shaman to represent one of his tun- 

 ghiii, by whose aid he claimed to accomplish his mysterious works. 



I 



/^l 



Fig. 153— Shaman's 

 doll fetich (J). 



MYTHIC ANIMALS 



The Unalit and other Eskimo of this region believe in the existence 

 of various fabulous monsters, some of the most important of which are 

 described below. It will be noted that the ma;iority of these beasts 

 are apparently derived from traditional accounts of existing animals 

 or their remains, some of which have already been treated iu the chap- 

 ter relating to masks. 



It is said that there are sometimes born, among other beings, mon- 

 strons children which begin to devour their mother's breasts as soon as 



