Eskimo String Figures 61 b 



Chant twice: 



m^uaiya kaviaya Young man 



and draw out the lower transverse string again behind the first loop on the 

 right ("the man's legs"). You have his "rope" hanging on the left hand corner 

 of the upper transverse string. 



Chant twice: 



aKKunauja kaviaya His small rope 



Fig. 67 



The Cape Prince of Wales chant ran: 



nanuwa ndnuwa Polar bear cub, polar bear cub. 



qapiya qapiya Wolverine cub, wolverine cub. 



kiyayya kiyayya Shoulder-blade, shoulder-blade. 



kuvyuycure kuvyuycure Fish-net, fish-net (?) 



akXunauya akXunauya Small rope, small rope. 



aylowa aylowa Killer whale, killer whale. 



L. The Duck 



This figure was first obtained from an Eskimo woman of Cape Prince of 

 Wales. Unfortunately I omitted to record the Eskimo. name for the duck, so 

 as to identify the species. An Inland Eskimo from the Colville river made a 

 very similar figure, but called it qopdnyoq, which he said was a small bird. 

 Probably it is the same as the qopan-oaq of Coronation gulf, the Lapland Long- 

 spur, which the northern Alaskan natives variously name kupaxXuk, kupax- 

 \oaluk and putukiuxKuk. This Inland native knew the continuation of the 

 figure into "two youths" which resembled the figure that the Cape Prince of 

 Wales woman called "two men," but while the woman went on to develop other 

 figures from it, the Inland native ceased at this point. In the Mackenzie there 

 is a figure almost identical, the difference arising in one of the later movements. 

 There it is called hymiaqpak, "the eagle," which amongst the Copper Eskimos 

 bears the name of qopdn-oaqpayyuk, "the big longspur." This might almost 

 suggest that qopdn-oaqpayyuk or qopdn-oaqpak (both suffixes mean "big") was 

 originally one name for the eagle in the Mackenzie also, that these natives 

 learnt a figure qopdn-oaq from the Inland Eskimos, forgot it, but arrived at an 

 approximation to it which they called the big qopdn'oaq, "the eagle." I have 

 never seen the figure in Coronation gulf. 



