326 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [ETH. ANN. 18 
it was said, was due to the dog’s ham-bone which he had with him, and 
thereafter he carried this bone and adopted a mark to represent it in 
place of his totem 
sign, as did his son 
after him, 
At Sabotnisky, on 
the lower Yukon, I 
saw an oval door of 
hewn boards in a 
storehouse, on which 
was marked,with red 
ocher, the outline of 
an extended wolfskin 
with the rude figure 
of a wolf outlined on 
the skin and sur- 
rounded by a circle 
(figure 117). Inreply 
to a question, one of 
the villagers told me 
that it was the fam- 
ily mark of one of the 
villagers. ‘“Allofour 
people,” he added, 
“have marks which 
have been handed 
down by our fathers 
from very long ago, 
and we put them on 
all of our things.” 
Another man at 
Fie. 118—Tobacco board with bear and loach signs. this village said that 
hisancient namesake 
had been a famous bowman, and once while hunting, having nothing 
but blunt-head arrows, such as are used for killing rabbits and other 
small game, came across a large red bear, which he immediately began 
to shoot; finally he broke all of the 
beav’s bones and killed it. After this 
he adopted the red bear as his sign and 
his descendants still use this mark. 
Figure 118 represents a thin board, 
on which tobacco is cut, which was 
obtained at Sabotnisky. There is a 
broad, shallow groove alon g each side, 
succeeded by a small groove along its inner edge. The broad groove has 
two incised curved marks representing bear claws. On each side and 
RUA OESS) 
4 
Fic. 119—Figures on a graye box. 
