JOSHUA THE IVORY-CARVER 



day when I first landed at Okak. It was Joshua 

 who brought it ; a short, squat figure of a man, with 

 a great mop of coarse black hair and a shaggy black 

 beard Joshua Nujaliak (the bearded one), called after 

 his beard because beards are a rarity among the 

 Eskimos, better known as Joshua the Ivory-carver. 

 That little bird was Joshua's " meeting present " : he 

 gave it the name himself, and, although I have heard 

 of parting presents, this was the first meeting present 

 in the course of my experience. " Meeting present," 

 said Joshua ; " me come say how-de-do " ; and 

 though my knowledge of the language was at that 

 time limited to the single word of greeting 

 "Aksunai," Joshua's smattering of English helped 

 the hour along famously. 



He described his carving work to me, mostly 

 in dumb show, making jags in the air with his arm 

 to represent a saw, and rubbing the imaginary work 

 with a stumpy finger, to the accompaniment of a 

 grating noise in his throat, which, I suppose, meant 

 the file. 



"No plenty aivek (walrus)," he said, holding two 

 fingers to his mouth to represent the tusks, so that I 

 might not misunderstand him ; " all gone bye'm bye 

 no more tusks to carve." 



Poor Joshua did not live to see many more 

 aiveks ; he died in the big influenza epidemic of 1904. 

 My last meeting with him before I saw him on his 

 deathbed was in July, when a schooner, bound for 

 Hebron, ran into Okak Bay to find a pilot. 



After a little cogitation Joshua was chosen ; he 

 knew the way along the coast, and he knew enough 

 English to make his meaning plain ; so off he went 

 to get ready. Half-an-hour later I watched him 



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