254 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 
The use of this implement, as shown by Mr. Nelson’s collection, extends 
or extended from Point Barrow to Norton Sound. He collected speci- 
mens from St. Lawrence Island and Cape Wankarem in Siberia. Nor- 
denskidld speaks of the use of this implement at Pitlekaj and figures 
a specimen.’ The other instrument appears to be less common. I have 
‘called it a seal rattle. 
Seal rattle—We obtained only two specimens, No. 56533 [409], which 
seem to be a pair. Fig. 254 is one of these. itis of cottonwood and 4 
inches long, roughly carved into the shape of a seal’s head and painted 
red, with two small transparent blue glass beads inlaid for the eyes. 
The neat becket of seal thong consists of three or four turns with the 
end wrapped spirally around them. The staple on which the ivory 
pendants hang is of iron. This is believed to 
be a rattle to be shaken on the ice by a string 
tied to the becket for the purpose of attracting 
seals to the ice net. It was brought in for sale 
at a time during our first year when we were 
very busy with zoological work, and as some- 
thing was said about “nétyi” and “kubra” 
(“seal” and “net”) the collector concluded 
that they must be floats for seal nets, and they 
were accordingly catalogued as such and laid 
away. We never happened to see another 
specimen, and as these were sent home in 1882 
we learned no more of their history. The late 
Dr. Emil Bessels, however, on my return called 
my attention to the fact that in the museum at 
Copenhagen there is a single specimen very 
similar to these, which was said to have been 
used in the manner described above. It came 
from somewhere in eastern America. There is 
Fig, 254.—Seal rattle. one, he told me, in the British Museum from 
Bering Strait. The National Museum contains several specimens col- 
lected by Mr. Nelson at Point Hope. It is very probable that this is 
the correct explanation of the use of these objects, as it assigns a func- 
tion to the ivory pendants which would otherwise be useless. They 
have been called “dog bells,” but the Eskimo, at Point Barrow, at least, 
are not in the habit of marking their dogs in any way. 
Seal indicators—When watching for a seal at his breathing hole a 
native inserts in the hole a slender rod of ivory, which is held loosely in 
place by a cross piece or a bunch of feathers on the end. When the 
‘seal rises he pushes up this rod, which is so light that he does not no- 
tice it, and thus warns the hunter when to shoot or strike with his 
spear. Most of the seal hunting was done at such a distance from the 
station that I remember only one occasion when this implement was 
1 Vega, vol. 2, p, 117, Fig. 3. 
