424 Tin: POINT I'.AHKOW ESKIMO. 



iiiii' till' (Ifail. Tlir li'w observations we were able to 

 e Miaiii wiili iliosc uiatb' clsewlicic. For instance, we 

 ral)li- .Trlaiiilv that tlie relatives of the dead, at least, 



a wiirkiiiu iHi u I with an ax or hammer for a certain 



four 111- li\c <la>s. Ac(M)rding' to l^all,' in the region 

 iiid liic men can not cut wood witli an ax for five days 

 s ,M-,-ui|-ed. In (ireenhmd the bonsehold <.f the de- 

 ;,.(! Id abstain for a wliile from certain kinds of foo.l and 



flkiavwin. ulio came over to tlic staticm one day in 

 SSI. (Icciined to sew on elotliing. even at our house, 

 because, as slie lold Lieut. I!ay, there was a dead man in the ^^llage 

 who had uoi yet been carried out to the cemetery and " he ■would see 

 her." .\.fler considling with her husband, however, she concluded she 

 conlil proiecl iierself from him by tracing a circle about her on the floor 

 uii h a snow knile. in this circle she did the sewing required, and was 

 careful lo kee|i all iier work inside of it. 



t)neof llie nalixes informed me that when a man died his labrets -were 

 taken oul and Ihrowii away. 1 remem I ler, however, seeing a young man 

 wearin- a pin- labret of syenite, wliich 1h' said had belonged to an old 

 man who (bed early in the winter of |ssi-"S'_'. It was ])erhaps removed 

 befoi-e ii.' a<-luallydieil. 



Mdiimr <if ilisjioxiitii III' the dead. — The corpse is wrapped up in apiece 

 of sailciolli (dci'isl;iii was formerly used), laid upon a flat sled, and 

 dragged oiil l(,\a small party of people — perhaps the immediate relatives 

 of tlie deceased, Ihouuh we never happened to see one of these funeral 

 processions exce|if from a distance — to the cemetery, the place where 

 '■ they sleep on the ground." This place at Utkiavwin is a ri.sing ground 

 about a mile and a half east of the village, near the head of the south- 

 west branch of tlie Isfitkwa lagoon. AtNuwuk the main cemetery is 

 at •• Nexeurii," betw ecn tlie xillage and Pernyu. The bodies are laid out 

 upon the ground williout any regular arra,ngement ai)|)arently, though 

 it isditHcult to be snreof this, as most of the remains have been broken 

 up and scattered by dogs and foxes. With a freshly wrapped body it is 

 almost impossible to tell which is the head and which the feet. We 

 unfortunately never noticed whether the heads were laid toward any 

 liarlicnlar point of the compass, as has been observed in other localities. 

 Dr. Simi),son says thai I he head is laid to the east at Point Barrow. 



Various implements belonging to the deceased are broken and laid be- 

 side the corpse, and the sled is sometimes broken and laid over it. Some- 

 times, however, the latter is withdrawn a short distance from the cemetery 

 and left on the tundra f(H' one moon, after which it is brought back to 

 the village. :MoNt people do not seem to be troubled at having the 



' Alaslia, p. 146. 



