168 OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



fact anything that goes in the line of caricature or illustration, is 

 manifested by the Aleutes. They paste all sorts of scraps from 

 newspapers, magazines, and theatrical posters, which the traders 

 give them, upon the walls of the barrabora. The Russians early 

 took notice of this trait, and the priests of the Greek Church made 

 good use of it by distributing richly-colored and gilded portraits 

 of holy men and women, the Imperial family, and mythological 

 church groups. 



As the Aleut, his wife and children, and a relative or two, per- 

 haps, are living in the barrabora, he enjoys a warm and comfort- 

 able shelter as long as he keeps it in good repair. He does not place 

 what he has of surplus supply in a cellar such fish, fowl, or meat 

 as he may have in excess of immediate consumption is hung up out- 

 side of his door on a wooden frame, or " laabaas." Here it is be- 

 yond the reach of dogs, and is quite secure, inasmuch as he lives in 

 no danger or dread of theft from the hands of his neighbors. 



He is a fish-eater, like a vast majority of the rest of native Alas- 

 kans. He has cod, halibut, salmon, trout, and herrings in over- 

 flowing abundance, and all swim close to his door. He hooks and 

 nets his piscine food-supply all the year round as it rotates with 

 the seasons. He varies this steady diet with all the tea, sugar, and 

 hard bread, or flour, that he can purchase from the trader's store ; 

 some other little articles in the grocery line, such as canned Cali- 

 fornia fruits, are especially agreeable to his palate. These natives 

 call on the trader for biscuits, or sea-crackers, not because they 

 like this hard bread best, but on account of the scarcity of fuel 

 wherewith to properly bake up flour. 



While fish is the staff of Aleutian daily life, yet nature has 

 vouchsafed many simple luxuries to those people : these are sea- 

 urchins, or echinoderms, and the eggs and flesh of the several spe- 

 cies of water-fowl peculiar to and abundant in such latitudes. 

 Then, in August and September, the valleys, hillsides, and margins 

 of the sea are resorted to by the natives for the huckleberries, the 

 " moroshkies," the crowberries, and giant umbelliferous stalks of 

 the Archangelica, found ripe and ripening there. The Aleutian 

 huckleberries are much better than those of the Sitkan district, and 

 are really the only good indigenous fruit, according to the evidence 

 of our palates. 



Another peculiarity of an Aleutian village, which strikes a 

 stranger's eye, is the irregular but frequent coming and going of 



