Eskimo String Figures 189 b 



A much clearer case is furnished by CXXVII and CXXVIII. The movements 

 in these two figures are very unusual among the Eskimos. CXXVII appears 

 at Indian point in Siberia as a complete series of four figures that illustrate a 

 consecutive story. On the Kobuk river in Alaska the four have dwindled down 

 to three, but the story is still partly retained. The same three figures, with 

 the meaning largely lost, are known to the inland Eskimos of the Endicott 

 mountains in northern Alaska. They are known also at Barrow, but with an 

 entire loss of meaning; for all three are grouped together under one name, the 

 very interpretation of which is uncertain. In the Mackenzie delta but one of 

 the series was found, strangely enough the first, slightly modified and with an 

 altogether new interpretation. Finally, in Coronation gulf, none of the figures 

 are known, but the same peculiar movements recur in the figure of "the loon" 

 (CXXVIII). It seems fairly certain that the original figure must have come 

 from somewhere around Bering strait, whence it travelled by way of the Kobuk 

 and Noatak rivers to the north coast, spreading westward to Barrow and east- 

 ward to Coronation gulf. 



Doubtless there are cases where the drift was westward rather than east- 

 ward, although I can discover no certain example of this in my collection. Many 

 other figures besides those mentioned above testify by their manner of con- 

 struction, by their names, and by the chants that accompany them, to the close 

 connection between the Eskimos of the Mackenzie delta and the Alaskan 

 natives. In this respect the string figures merely corroborate what we already 

 know from historical sources, and from the distribution of labrets, fish-nets 

 and other articles. 



Rather more importance attaches to the figures when we pass on to Coron- 

 ation gulf. We know that during the 19th century, probably also at a still 

 earlier period, the natives around Dolphin and Union strait, at the western end 

 of the gulf, maintained a more or less sporadic intercourse with their kinsmen 

 farther west; while the natives at the eastern end of the gulf, and some of the 

 inhabitants of Victoria island, have been in close contact for many years with 

 the Netchilik Eskimos to the eastward, and, to a lesser extent, with tribes to 

 the south who dwell inland from Hudson bay. The Copper Eskimos of Corona- 

 tion gulf, therefore, have been exposed to infiuences from both the east and 

 the west, and the question at once arises as to which group of Eskimos they are 

 more closely aflSliated. Their string figures may be worth examining in some 

 detail from this point of view. 



The table shows eighty-three figures from the Copper Eskimos. They may 

 be tabulated thus: 



24 are common to nearly all Eskimo tribes. ' 



25 have not been found outside of Coronation gulf .^ 



29 appear also in the Mackenzie delta or Alaska, but have not been re- 

 ported from the eastern Eskimos.' 

 4 appear both among the eastern Eskimos and in the Mackenzie delta, 



but have not been discovered in Alaska.^ 

 1 appears also among the eastern Eskimos, but is not known from any 

 other region.^ 



> Nos. I, IV, IX, XXI, XXIV, XXVI, XXVII, XXVIII, XXIX, XXXI, XXXII, XXXIII, XXXVI XLI 

 XLIII, LXXVIII, LXXXVIII, CI, CXII, CXVII, CXVIII, CXXXVII, CXXXIX, CXLVIII. 



2 Nos. XI, XII, XLIV, LIII, LXVI, LXVII, LXVIII, LXIX, LXXI, LXXII, LXXXII, XC, XCIII XCVIII 

 xcix, c, cm, CVI, CXX, CXXI, CXXII, CXXIII, CXXXII, cxl, clii. 



' Nos. XIII, XV, XVII, XVIII, XXIII, XXX, XXXV, XXXVII, XXXVIII, XLV, XLVI, LV, LVII LVIIL 

 LXX, LXXIII, LXXVI, LXXXIII, XCV, XCVII, CIV, CXV, CXXVII, CXXIX, CXXX, CXLII, CXLIV, CXLVII- 



* Nos. LII, LIV, LVI, CLI. 



« No. XCIV. 



