NSLSON] ANIMAL FETICHES—MYTHIC ANIMALS 441 
Uncleanness of this kind may be removed in some cases by bathing in 
urine. Sometimes when aman learns that he has become unclean he goes 
to a grave and scrapes himself from head to foot with a human rib, thus 
leaving the bad influence at the grave. This condition may be brought 
about by witcheraft, but usually it is caused by contact with some per- 
son or thing already unclean. In the Bladder feast the 
flames of wild parsnip stalks are supposed to purify 
the bladders and thereby prevent any influence of this 
kind. At the same time they are believed to remove 
from the hunters the influence that may have affected 
them from their association with so many shades or 
muas. 
In a case that came to my notice one autumn, on 
Norton sound, a Malemut woman was ill for several 
months with some uterine trouble, and neither her 
husband nor other male relative would euter her 
house during the entire period, saying that if they 
did so they would become unclean and could kill no 
more game. 
The object illustrated in figure 153 is a grotesque 
wooden head about three and a half inches long, 
with the nose of an ermine skin fastened on its fore- 
head and extending thence backward and _ falling 
down behind, with the tail and hind feet as pendants. 
A strip of bear skin on the back of the head furnishes 
long hair to represent that of a human being. The 
features are grotesquely carved, with projecting brow, 
squarely cut nose, deeply incised, triangular eyes, and 
a crescentic, upturned mouth. A pair of incisors of . 
some rodent project from the upper jaw, curving out- rae rane 
ward and down over the mouth. The face is painted ia 
dark red, except the area about the mouth, which is blackened with 
gum, in which are set the teeth. The neck has a round hole in its 
lower end, apparently for receiving a peg upon which the image was 
placed. This object was used by a shaman to represent one of his tun- 
ghit, by whose aid he claimed to accomplish his mysterious works. 
MYTHIC ANIMALS 
The Unalit and other Eskimo of this region believe in the existence 
of various fabulous monsters, some of the most important of which are 
described below. It will be noted that the majority of these beasts 
are apparently derived from traditional accounts of existing animals 
or their remains, some of which have already been treated in the chap- 
ter relating to masks, 
It is said that there are sometimes born, among other beings, mon- 
strous children which begin to devour their mother’s breasts as soon as 
