KXI'KIHTION TO POINT KAItKOW, ALASKA. 39 



The hunters re I in n to the winter lints lit-l ween the 1st and 10th of May. and tin- oiiiellki or 

 boat headers make up their crews for tin- whaling season. A boat header (omehkj i-, one who i 

 noteiH'or liis success in taking whales, and of course is a man of experience and considerable 

 influence. The crews are made up of men and women, generally ten to eacli boat : some . 

 are paid by the omellk, who feeds them and pays them in deer skins or other articles of native 

 traflic; others ship on a lay, each .member furnishing his own supplies and they all share alike in 

 the catch, the boat header furnishing the .near. The women who are tabooed and the children 

 cook and carry food out to the crews, who come in to the land as seldom as possible, and ne\ 

 into a house, if it can be avoided. At this season. loo, no work is done that will nece^itate 

 pounding or hewing; or in fact any noise, neither shall there be work of any kind carried on in 0"' 

 tent (tiipok) of any member of a crew. Should their garments be accidentally torn, the woman 

 must take them far back on the iiinilni out of si-lit of the >ea and mend them ; they have little 

 tents, in which just one person can sit, in which this work is done. During the spin. : they 



came to me and asked that 1 stop the work on the shaft, sa.xing that it would offend the whales at 

 tins season. Early in March all hands turn to and build a road through the pack over which the 

 bums can be hauled out to the lead; this often necessitates a gicat deal of labor, especially when 

 the lead opens far offshore, ns it did in 1SSJ. 



The village and camps are in a constant state of bustle and excitement at this season rf tin- 

 year: boat covers are being renewed or repaired: harpoons and lanci _->tten out and 

 every part of the woodwork carefully scraped: seal-skin pokes are lying about, looking like 

 bloated seals, and the skulls of wolves, raven skins, or eagle skins are in great demand, for no 

 no boat would be considered equipped without some such talisman. Daily the old men. especially 

 those who are successful in curing the sick, meet on the sea-shore and (abawa) talk for an ea.-t 

 wind, so the ice will be driven offshore and a lead, favorable for whales, opened ; and their faith 

 remains unshaken through repeated failures, and when questioned as to the reason why their 

 supplications remained unanswered they always attributed it to some offense they had given to 

 the spirit. \Vhcn the lead opens there is great rejoicing, and fora few davs they display the utmost 

 vigilance; but should the whales fail to appear iu a few days, they soon grow careless and cease 

 cruising, haul their boats up on the ice and patiently wait for a whale to come to them, taking 

 turns in standing watch while the Others sleep or shoot seal and duck, which abound in the open 

 leads at this season. 



As the season advances the boat crews are gradually broken up. and by the middleof .June all 

 boats are brought to the land, when parties are made up to go to Xigalek, a place at the mouth of 

 the Golvillo, where the people from Nuwuk and I 'glaamie go to meet a band called Nu-na-taTi-meun 

 (inland people), where they barter oil and blubber for deer, fox. and wolverine skin.-. The\ >ome- 

 times meet here the Knii-imVd'-llfis and It-kii'd'-lins. bauds that live along the coast between the 

 Colville and Mackenzie. This meeting breaks up about the loth of August, when they slowly re- 

 turn along the coast, hunting by the way. and reach their winter villages from the b~>th of Septem- 

 ber to the 1st of October, about the same time the traders go to the eastward. 



A few of the leading families from both villages pitch their tents at JVrigniak. a point on the 

 sand spit, about live miles from Nu \vfik. where the eider ducks lly over, and spend the summer 

 there, living entirely upon ducks and whitefish. The ducks they take with slings and gun 

 the fish with gill-nets made from sinews of the reindeer. Those who are too poor to own a gun or 

 to have oil for trad' scatter through the interior, carrying their kaiaks on their heads to ena the 

 numerous lakes and rivers, and gain a precarious livelihood by catching the \onng reindeer, the 

 youngand moulting ducks which are found in great numbers in the lakes and along Meade lliver, 

 where they also take a few whitetish with gill-nets. The ducks are taken with a light ivory-headed 

 spear, which has a shaft seven feet long, one half inch in diameter, with three long ivory barbs in 

 the middle. It is thrown with a baud-board from a kaiak. the barbs catching the birds by t lie 

 neck when missed by the lariat stroke. 



Their usual mode of travel along the shore in summer is by the umiak, the large skin boat : with 

 a fair wind they hoist a small lug sail, but the boats being tlat bottom will not sail on the wind. >< 

 with a head wind or calm weather the boats are towed by dogs, using the walrus harpoon li: 

 a. towing line; they never resort to the labor of paddling except when in pursuit of game 01 iu 



