4G ::XI'KI)m.ON TO POINT IJAKKOW, ALASKA. 



son. When tliis occurs, famine with all its honors is upon them, and they have no place to lice to 

 lor help. During tin' first winter at the station, food became very scarce, and scarcely a day passed 

 but some poor native, with starvation written in every line of his f'aee, bung around our doors 

 beg;;;, g for a mouthful of food. We gave them all we could spare with safety to ourselves, and 

 undoubtedly saved many lives. Walrus hide and pieces of old boat covers were considered delica- 

 cies, but \ve never knew them to resort to violence to obtain food, and cannibalism is looked upon 

 by them with horror, and 1 could not find that a ease had ever occurred. They will not even cat 

 their dogs. Some seasons a few white whales (Beluga) are taken. The skins of tills animal ai 

 great demand for soles to water-proof boots, and often bring a high price. 



Dr. Simpson reports that quite a number of narwhal were taken on the coast during the stay 

 of the Plover, but I could find but one Indian that had ever seen one. an 1 they are not common 

 in this ocean at the present time. 



Physically, both sexes are very strong, and they possess great powers of endurance; arc 

 capable of making long journeys on foot, with a very small allowance of food ; in fact, when food 

 is at all scarce, or while traveling, they never eat but once each day, and it was a surprise to us to 

 see them when on a journey get out before daybreak, and, without taking a mouthful of food, 

 make a journey of thirty or forty miles before breaking their fast ; and they treated their dogs in 

 the same manner, saying that they traveled better when fed only at the end of the day's journey, 

 sometimes they would give them a mouthful apiece toward the middle of the day, but the pnn 

 was looked upon as bad. 



The flint and steel is the most common method of procuring lire, using for tinder the down 

 from the seeds of plants, impregnated with mealed powder or charcoal. Sometimes two pieces of 

 iron pyrites are used, and we found the ancient fire drill still in use among some of the old. 

 conservative men ; the drill was a shaft of spruce eighteen inches long and three-fourths inch 

 in diameter, the lower end terminating in the frustum of a cone, the upper end made to fit the 

 socket of a stone rest that is held between the teeth ; a block of hard wood with a small cavity in 

 the center is used as a friction block; a small quantity of tinder is placed in the bottom of the 

 cavity and the drill pressed down by the mouth-rest and turned rapidly with a small bow like a 

 jeweler's bow. They are anxious to obtain matches, but they are not considered a necessity, and 

 will not buy them as a rule. Flints are au article of traffic, and are brought from Cape Lisburne 

 and the liomanzoff Mountains, there being none indigenous to this part of the coast. They 

 believe that the pyrites come down from heaven iu the form of meteors, and they call it lire-stone 

 for that reason. 



The children receive the tenderest care, and we never saw one punished by its parents. It is 

 no unusual sight to see a child nourished at the breast until it is four or live years of age ; this is 

 especially the ease with boys, who, as a rule, receive more care than girls. His food is carefully 

 selected by his mother, and he is enjoined from eating certain articles that have been tabooed by 

 some old woman, usually a relative; and this prohibition extends through life. With each 

 individual there- is always one or more article of food from which they carefully abstain, though 

 the pangs of hunger may be upon them, and, as an old man expressed it, when declining a piece 

 of bear meat, " It may be good for all men but me," shows the individuality of the custom. 



To us the treatment the women receive during confinement seems harsh in the extreme, 

 and it i.s a matter of surprise that either mother or child ever survives the ordeal. Several days 

 before her confinement the mother is placed in a small snow lint, if in the winter, and in a small 

 tent, if iu the summer; no one is allowed to go irear her, except her husband, who brings her 

 food and passes it in to her without entering the hut. Here she remains entirely alone until the 

 child is one moon old. Should the child die, then she can return to her husband and iglu after 

 eight or ten days. No person will knowingly drink from the same cup or eat from the same dish 

 that a woman has used during her confinement until it has been purified by certain incantations. 

 And any woman who has suffered from premature childbirth, or given birlii to a child during tho 

 winter, is allowed to go into a canoe or out into the pack during the spring. I'rema i-re childbirth 

 is of frequent occurrence among them, and we frequently noticed the greatest holici'.ude on tho 

 pail of; he. husband to guard the wife from any accident during pregnancy. 



