428 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 
formulated certain rules in regard to some kinds of property and the 
division of game, which are remarkably like those noticed among [s- 
kimo elsewhere, and which may be supposed to have grown up among 
the ancestors of the Eskimo, before their separation. 
For instance, in Greenland,' “Anyone picking up pieces of driftwood 
or goods lost at sea or on land was considered the rightful owner of 
them; and to make good his possession he had only to carry them up 
above high-water mark and put stones upon them, no matter where 
his homestead might be.” Now, at Point Barrow we often saw the 
natives dragging driftwood up to the high-water mark, and the owner 
seemed perfectly able to prove his claim. Lieut. Ray informs me that 
he has seen men mark such sticks of timber by cutting them with their 
adzes and that sticks so inarked were respected by the other natives. 
On one oceasion, when he was about to have a large piece of drift- 
timber dragged up to the station, a woman came up and proved that 
the timber belonged to her by pointing out the freshly cut mark. I 
have myself seen a native claim a barrel which had been washed ashore, 
by setting it wp on end. 
As far as we could learn, the smaller animals, as for instance, birds, 
the smaller seals, reindeer, etc., are the property of the hunter, instead of 
being divided as in some other localities, for example at Smith Sound,? 
The larger seals and walruses appeared to be divided among the boat’s 
crew, the owner of the boat apparently keeping the tusks of the walrus 
and perhaps the skin. <A bear, however, both flesh and skin, is equally 
divided among all who in any way had a hand in the killing. We 
learned this with certainty from having to purchase the skin of a bear 
killed at the village, where a number of men had been engaged in the 
hunt. Whena whale is taken, as I have already said, the whalebone 
is equally divided among the crews of allthe boats in sight at the time 
of killmg. All comers, however, have a right to all the flesh, blubber, 
and blackskin that they can cut off.’ 
Dr. Rink, in describing the social order of the ancient Greenlanders, * 
says: ‘“* Looking at what has been said regarding the rights of prop- 
erty and the division of the people into certain communities, in connec- 
tion with the division of property into the classes just given, we are led 
to the conclusion that the right of any individual to hold more than a 
certain amount of property was, if not regulated by law, at least 
jealously watched by the rest of the community, and that virtually 
‘Rink, Tales and Traditions, p. 28. Compare also Crantz, vol. 1. p. 181. 
2 Bessels, Naturalist, vol. 23, pt. p. 873. 
’Compare Rink, Tales, ete., p. 29: ‘* But if an animal of the largest size, more especially a whale, 
was captured, it was considered common property, and as indiseriminately belonging to every one 
who might come and assist in flensing it, whatever place he belonged to and whether he had any 
share in capturing the animal or not.’ (Greenland). Gilder (Sehwatka’s Search, p. 190) says that on 
the northwest shore of Hudson Bay all who arrive while a walrus is being cut up are entitled to a 
share of it, though the man who struck it has the first choice of pieces. At East Cape, Siberia, the Krause 
Brothers learned: ‘‘ Wird. niimlich ein Walfisch gefangen, so hat jeder Ortsbewohner das Recht, so 
viel Fleisch zu nehmen, als er abzuschneiden vermag.’ (Geographische Blitter, vol. 5, pt. 2, p. 120). 
4 Tales, ete., p. 29. 
