370 



THE POINT BAKROW ESKIMO. 



Tilt' iiKiie soutlicri 



Kskiuio of Alaska arc in tlic habit of iisiiij; in 



their .lun<-.'s vorv eh.lx.rat.' and highly omament.a an.l paint.Ml masks, 

 ,„■ which the Xatioual Museum possesses a very large .olleetiou. Ihe 

 ■■neient Aleuts also used masks.' On the other hand, no other Ebki- 

 ino sav.' those of Alaska,ever use masks in their performances, as far 

 ■ 1 .■'■iiilcini withtlie solitary exception of the peojile of Ba£&n Land, 

 u'licr.' i iirisk of the hi<le of the l.earded seal is worn on .'ertain occa- 

 i „ ■ ■-• ' Nordenskiiild saw one wooden mask among the p.'.iple near the 

 V<v,«-. printer nuartcs. l,nt l.-arn-d that this had been brought from 

 Bering Strait, and probacy from Anicn.-a.' ,, ,„ 



The masks api'car to become more numerous and more elaborate the 

 nearer we <^et' to tiie part of Alaska inhabited W the Indians of the 

 Tl'inket stock, wlio, as is well known employ, i if their ceremonies re- 

 markably elalM.rate" wooden masks and headdresses. It may be sug- 

 T.'stcd that this custom of using masks came from the influence of 

 Uie^c Indians, reachinu in the simple form already described as far as 

 Point Barrow', but not' b.-yond.^ With these masks was worn a gorget 

 or breast-plate, consisting of a lialf-moon shaped piece of board about 

 IS inches long, painted with ru(b' tigures of men and animals, and 

 slang about the neck. Wc Inouglit home three of these gorgets, all 

 old and weathered. 



No. 89818 [llSli], Fij^.37Jrtj has been selected as the type of the gor- 

 get (sfddmun). It is iiuule of spruce, is 18-5 inches long, and has two 

 beckets of stout sinew braid, one to go round the neck and the other 

 round the body under the wearer's arms. The figures are aU painted 

 on the front fare. In the middle is a man i)aiDted with red ocher; all 

 the rest of the figures are black and probably painte<l with soot. The 

 man witli his arms (mtstretched standson a large whale, represented as 

 spouting. He holds a small whal.' in ea.di hand. At his right is a small 

 cross. shaped object which perhaps repn'.sents a bird, then a man facing 

 toward the left and darting a harpoon with both hands, and a bear 

 facing to the left. On the left of the red nmn are two umiaks with five 

 nuai in each, a whale nearly effaced, and three of the cross-shaped ob- 

 jects aircixdy mentioned. Below them, also, freshly drawn with a hard, 

 lilunt lead pencil or the i)oint of a bidlet, are a whale, an umiak, and a 

 threecortu'red oliject the nature of which I can not make out. 



Fig. 'M'2h (No. .")f)4'.l3 |L'(;(i] from Utkiavwih) is a similar gorget, which 

 has evidently been long exposed to the weather, perhaps at the ceme- 

 tery, as the figures are all effaced except in the middle, where it was 

 probably covered by a mask as in Fig. 307 (No. 89817 [855] from the 

 same village). There seems to have been a red border on the serrated 

 edge. In the middle is the same red man as before standing on the 



1 Sn> Dall, ,\l:iska, p. 389, iind c.ntributions to N. A. Ethn., vol. 1, p. 90. 



»Si-i' Kumlioi. Ciiiitriliuli(Mi.s, p. «. Kinnli™ says iiieroly "amast of akins." Dr. Bo.-i8 is my au- 

 ttiurity for ttic .stuteniviit tlial tlm skin of tlic Iii'anUil seal is used. 



