198 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [ETH. ANN. 18 
the numerous illustrated papers we had, and would come day after day 
and borrow them; finally he came and asked me for a pencil and some 
paper, which I supplied him, Some days later I chanced to go to his 
tent, and found him lying prone upon the ground, with an old magazine 
before him, engaged in copying one of the pictures on the piece of 
paper which I had given him. 
When he saw me he seemed to be very much abashed and tried to 
conceal the drawing, but I took it up and was surprised at the ability 
he had shown. He had done so well that I asked him if he could 
draw me some pictures of Eskimo villages and scenes. He agreed to 
try to do so. He was furnished with a supply of pencils and paper, 
and the result was a series of a dozen or more pictures which were 
remarkable, considering that they were made by a savage whose ideas 
were similar to those of his people, except what he had learned by 
looking over the papers I had loaned him a short time before. 
WRITTEN RECORDS 
The Eskimo also have an idea of keeping records or tallies of events, 
as was illustrated in a trading record kept by a Malemut during a 
winter trading trip which he made from St Michael to Kotzebue 
sound. It was kept for his own reference and without any suggestion 
from another. It was drawn on small fragments of brown paper and 
was a good example of picture writing; small, partly conventional out- 
lines were made to represent the various articles of trading goods, 
which were drawn beside a representation of the skins for which he 
had exchanged them. On the same paper he drew a route map of his 
journey, marking the villages at which he had stopped. 
PAINTS AND COLORS 
A picture, image, paint, or color is called @/-thin-ik by the Unalit. 
Fine shades of color are not differentiated by these people, but they 
lave names for most of the primary colors. 
Black is called tii-u/-li; white, kd-tigh-a-W; red, kaw-ig/-w-li; brown 
or russet, kau-ig!-t-likh-lw-guk; green, chun-tkh!-luk or chui-tg'-t-li. 
Various other shades are distinguished as being colored like natural 
objects; gray or clay color is called ki-gu'-yi-gniil’-in-uk (from ki-gu'-yuk, 
clay, and di/-Ihin-ik, color); purple is ki-wa! d/-lhin-tk; blue is ku-logh’-ain 
di'-lhin-vik, 
Coloring matter is obtained from various sources. The dark reddish 
shade which is given to tanned sealskin is obtained by soaking the 
inner bark of the alder in urine for a day and washing the skin with 
the infusion. White is made from a white clayey earth; yellow and 
red from ocherous earths; red is also obtained from oxide of iron; 
black is made from plumbago, charcoal, or gunpowder, the two, latter 
being mixed with blood; green is obtained from oxide of copper. 
