EXPEDITION TO 1'OINT BAKUOW, ALASKA. 47 



liuring (lie long winter night, when food is plenf \ , they delight to inert at the council hons,-. 

 or iit different iglus, and over their work recount, recall, different events of their lives, and repeal 

 the legends of their race, which have; been handed down from father to son, to which the young 

 people listen with rapt attention. These legends go back to the origin of man, and they tell with 

 care full detail of a tune when there were, no men in all the land, but that a spirit called -a sc la" 

 dwelt here alone, and that he made the image of a man in clay, set it up by the shore of the 

 to dry, and alter it was dry he breathed upon it awl gave it life and sent it out into the world. 

 A;:d he called the dog from a long way oft' to go with man, that he might have help in traveling. 

 Alter a time the .spirit made the Tuk-tu (reindeer) and sent him out into the land, and the teeth 

 of the deer were like the teeth of the dog. After many days man came to the spirit and .said. 

 "The deer is bad, he devours man." Whereupon the spirit called in all the deer and removed all 

 the front teeth from their upper jaws, since which time men have lived on deer, and the deei- h 

 lived on moss and grass. Then the man asked the spirit that there, might be lish in the rivers 

 and sea. And the spirit took a piece of pine and a piece of balsam and sat by the river where it 

 emptied into the sea, and he whittled long shavings from the pieces of wood, and the shavings 

 fell into the water, and the shavings from the yellow wood became salmon, and those from the 

 white wood became white-fish and swam away. 



Their faith in these legends is very strong, and they are extremely opposed to any expression.; 

 of doubt or ridicule, and it is only by gaining their confidence and abstaining from any expressions 

 of doubt in their presence that they can be induced to talk about their people or repeat their legends. 

 We heard but one legend that referred in any way to the regions to the northward. It was 

 said that many generations ago a man from Nuwfik was caught in the moving pack that was 

 setting to the northward so rapidly that lie was unable to return to the land. After a great many 

 days, more than he could count, he came to a land where dwelt a strange people; they spoke a 

 strange, language, and dressed in deer skins like the inyu. Ho remained with them a long time, 

 but, wishing to return to his people, he left them one winter and started south over the ice. liviug 

 upon the seal he caught by the way. and renewing his boots with their skins. The journey was so 

 long that he wore out fifteen pairs of boots in returning to Nuwfik. Dr. Simpson reports a similar 

 legend told him during his stay. 



They all have a natural craving for rum and tobacco ; it is always the first thing the.v ask for 

 when they come to trade, and they are never satisfied unless they can get sullicient rum to make, 

 them dead drunk. The old men deprecate its use, and will tell how bad it is. and how certain men 

 were, killed in drunken fights, and will be very strong in I heir denunciation. 1 - of its use so long as they 

 cannot get it, but generally fail to resist the temptation when it is offered to them, or an oppor- 

 tunity occurs for them to get it. Fortunate'y there is but little to tempt the trader to this region, 

 and the little they get from the whale ships is consumed on the spot, so there is no drunkenness 

 after the sea is closed. Their tobacco they hoard carefully, and it is used by old and \oung in quan- 

 tities only limited by the supply ; they prefer a black leaf Itnssian tobacco, but this is hard to get, 

 as only small quantities of it reach this coast by the way of IJehi ing Straits and the Dioir.ede Islands. 

 Next to this they prefer the black navy-ping of the eoinn:o:iest kind. Men and women both smoke, 

 and chew, and the children are given tobacco in their earliest infancy. It is no uncommon sight 

 to see a child not old enough to walk lying asleep with its cheek distended with a huge chew, ot- 

 to see a woman with an old quid behind each ear which ha* been thoroughly ma and 

 put up to dry. for the future use of her lord and master. Chewing does not Mem to have tho 

 slightest deleterious effect upon the children, while smoking a Heels the ttX i.v seriously. 

 Their pipes are made of either stone. <\< r\. and consist of a Hanged bowl, from one and 

 one-half to two inches in length, with a bore one-fourth of an inch in dia. 

 curved wooden stem made from two ] ri grooved and lashed together with seal thong; 

 the bottom of the bowl they (ill with deer hair and place on top of ; of tobacco about the 

 size of a pea. It is all consumed at one whin", and they hold the smoke in their lungs until the.v 

 become nearly.-:: ': a violent fit of coughin. noke. and with the old men it 

 frequently so p- -.hem that they ; -me' little time after . 

 ind Id men told us, and I- 'mnd in the niins 

 of ancient iglus. it would seem that they .smoked before jobacco was known among them, and they 



