Eskimo String Figures 181 b 



XI 



This game is played by the Barrow, inland northern Alaskan and Mac- 

 kenzie delta natives. Different chants are employed and all manner of vari- 

 ations are experimented with. In the neighbourhood of Barrow a common 

 chant, the meaning of which was unknown, ran: 



eyqcipaku eyqcipaku eyqdpaku he (repeated two or three times), and, while 

 twisting the string in the contrary direction, caiyiyauUk caiyiyuahk caiyiyauUk 

 he (repeated the same number of times) . 



Place one end of the loop over the foot, and hold the other end on the right 

 index. Begin a chant and at each beat in the music circle the finger once, but 

 always in the same direction. At the end of the chant push down the twisted 

 portion of the strings and hold it down with the left index inserted between 

 the transverse strings above them. Now repeat the chant, or a similar one, 

 circling the finger in the opposite direction. At the end withdraw the left index. 

 If the circling has been correctly carried out the strings should entirely unravel 

 without leaving a twist. 



i 



XII 



One child places an end of the loop over his ear and another does the same 

 with the other end. The two then pull against each other until one, unable to 

 bear the pain, gives in or the loop slips off an ear. The Mackenzie river natives 

 in our party were teaching this game to the Copper Eskimos. 



APPENDIX I 



ESKIMO SUPERSTITIONS CONCERNING STRING FIGURES 



Among nearly all Eskimo tribes there were various superstitions concerning 

 string figures, although for the most part they have disappeared under the 

 influence of Europeans. From Kotzebue sound, in Alaska, to Kent peninsula, 

 at the eastern end of Coronation gulf, there was a taboo against playing the 

 game except in the winter, when the sun no longer rose above the horizon. 

 The Eskimos of Alaska and the Mackenzie delta have long since abandoned 

 this taboo, and the game has become a pastime for every season of the year; 

 but in Coronation gulf it was observed, though not very rigidly, down to the 

 year 1916. Thus a woman showed me some new figures in the summer of 1915, 

 but remarked that we ought to postpone playing the game until the winter. 

 In the same summer a girl who was showing me some figures carefully closed 

 the door of the tent in order that the sun might not shine in on us; for the 

 Eskimos of this region base their taboo on a legend that the sun once beheld a 

 man playing cat's cradles and tickled him. In the autumn of 1915 my half- 

 breed interpreter was making some figures before the sun had disappeared, and 

 an old man accused him of causing all the blizzards that were raging at the 

 time. Dr. R. M. Anderson informs me that while some Coppermine river 

 natives were making string figures in his tent during the spring of 1910 a curious 

 noise was heard outside, and the Eskimos immediately laid aside their strings 

 and filed quietly outside. His Alaskan interpreter then told him they thought 

 an evil spirit had come amongst them because they were violating the taboo. 



This last superstition resembles the Alaskan belief, that there is a definite 

 spirit associated with string figures. The same superstition was evident again 

 in a shamanistic seance that took place in Dolphin and Union strait during the 

 winter of 1915.i It was not at all prominent among the Copper Eskimos, how- 



1 See "The Life of the Copper Eskimos," Vol. XII, Part I of this series, p. 203. 



