PA (4 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [ETH. ANN. 18 
In addition to the usual tobacco mixed with fungus ashes these 
people are also fond of using the nicotine that accumulates in their 
pipestems. At intervals every smoker opens his pipestem and eare- 
fully removes the oily mass of tobacco extract, which he places with 
his chewing tobacco; a portion of this is combined with the quid and 
adds greatly to his enjoyment, owing to its strong narcotic influence, 
Ihave frequently seen them place this material in their mouths almost 
undiluted and in quantity that appeared sufficient to cause the indi- 
vidual’s death, yet apparently without producing the least nausea or 
other ill eftect. 
Some of the writers on the Eskimo have claimed that they eat this 
concentrated tobacco, but I think this a mistake, as I frequently saw 
them placing it in their mouths and holding it there in the same man- 
ner that they did ordinary quids. 
For smoking the tobacco is cut very fine, then a little tuft of fur is 
plucked from the clothing and wadded at the bottom of the narrow, 
cylindrical bowl of the pipe, and the tobacco is placed on top of this 
until the bowl is full. A small fragment of tinder is then lighted with 
flint and steel and placed on the tobacco. The smoker gives two or 
three short, sharp draws, which thoroughly ignite the tinder and 
tobacco, and then draws the smoke into his lungs by a long, deep 
inhalation, which consumes all the tobacco contained in the pipe. 
After retaining the smoke as long as possible it is exhaled, and the 
smoker puts away the pipe. : 
For making snuft the tobacco is finely shredded, and is then thor- 
oughly dried, after which it is pounded in a small wooden mortar with 
a wooden pestle until reduced to powder. These mortars are gener- 
ally more or less goblet-shape, although I obtained one specimen from 
the lower Yukon, shown in plate LXXXVI, 30, which is like a small 
wooden dipper, with a hole near the end of the handle for suspending 
it. Another typical example of these mortars (plate LXXXxv, 28) was 
obtained at Razbinsky. The pestles usually consist of sticks from an 
inch to an inch and a half in diameter, rounded at the lower end, and 
from 10 to 15 inches in length. A good specimen of these implements, 
from Kigiktauik, is shown in figure 27. 
After the tobacco has been reduced to powder it is sifted, to remove 
the coarser particles, until it is finally of the fineness required. For 
this purpose there are used small sieves, similar to the specimen from 
Razbinsky (figure 29), which are made by cutting out a eylinder of 
wood about two inches long, and fastening over one end a cover of 
parchment made from some thin skin or from the intestine of some 
animal, which is punctured with numerous small holes, and the edges 
bound to the cylinder by a sinew cord wrapped around a groove in the 
border. The sieve frames are sometimes made from bark, and one 
such specimen collected on the lower Yukon has the sieve made from 
a piece of coarse sacking. 
