436 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [ETH. ANN. 18 
Images and masks are used by the people of Point Barrow to bring 
success in whale hunting. Inanumiak at that place I found two masks 
of human faces mounted on the middle of slightly crescentic boards, 
to each of which was tied by a sinew cord a small wooden model of a 
right whale. After considerable effort one of the shields and masks 
were secured, but the owners absolutely refused to sell the others or 
any of the little whales, which were well carved and about three inches 
long. The men said they were used in whale hunting and they did not 
dare to sell them as, if they did, they would bring them bad iuck. 
Small carved images of fabulous animals are sometimes carried for 
the same purpose. In Kotzebue sound a young Malemut white-whale 
hunter came off to the Corwin one day and I found hanging from the 
framework inside his kaiak, just behind the manhole, a curious wooden 
image about eight inches lodg aud three inches in diameter. It was 
Fic. 150—Fetich from a Malemut kaiak (4). 
shaped as shown in figure 150, The semihuman face, with holes incised 
for the eyes and nose, and the deeply cut mouth bordered by teeth, had 
two large, projecting tusks, which with the teeth were made of walrus 
ivory. Extending lengthwise along the abdomen was a long, deep slit 
like a mouth, with a row of peg-like ivory teeth along its edges. Held 
by the teeth in this mouth was the rudely carved wooden figure of a 
white whale. I tried to buy the image, but the owner seemed to be 
alarmed when he found that I had discovered it, and said he would die 
if he parted with it; thereupon I handed the image back to him and 
he quickly went ashore and hid it, after which he returned to the vessel. 
The images and fetiches used in hunting are supposed to watch for 
game and, by some clairvoyant power, to see it at a great distance; the 
huuter is then guided by the influence of the fetich to find 1t. They 
are also supposed to guide the spears so that they will be cast straight. 
