USA > Alaska > Our Arctic province, Alaska and the Seal islands > Part 40
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All of these people, when they go hunting, use fire-arms of mod- ern patterns and many old flint-lock muskets ; for fish and bird- capture they never waste any precious ammunition ; they employ spears and arrows of most artful construction and effective service. But a large number of those very primitive Eskimo, the Togiaks, just west and north of Nooshagak, use nothing at all in the chase other than the same antique bows and spears of a remote ancestry.
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INNUIT LIFE AND LAND.
The disposition of these people is one of greater bonhomie than that evidenced by the Aleutes or the Koloshians, who are rather taciturn. The Inmuit is very independent in his bearing, without being at all vindictive or ugly. He is light-hearted, enjoys conversa- tion with his fellows, tells jokes with great gusto, sings rude songs with much animation, in excellent time but with uo music, and dances with exceeding exhilaration during the progress of those savage festivals which he calls in to enliven a long dreary winter solstice.
Such a man is naturally quite sociable. Hence we find in every Innuit settlement, big or little, a town hall, or " kashga." This is a building put up after the pattern of all winter houses in the vil- lage, but of very much larger dimensions ; some of the more popu- lous hamlets boast of a kashga which will measure as much as sixty
The Kashga.
feet square, and be from twenty to thirty feet high under its smoky rafters. A raised platform from the earth, of rough-hewn planks, runs all around the walls of the interior, and in the largest council- houses a series of three tiers of such staging is observed. The fire- place in the centre is large, often three or four feet deep and eight feet square ; on ordinary days in the spring, and during the sum- mer and early fall, when no fire is wanted, it is covered with planks. An underground tunnel-entrance to the kashga is made just as it is into some of the family huts, only here it is divided at the end ; one branch leads to a fireplace below the flooring, and the other rises to the main apartment. The natives are obliged to crawl on all fours when they enter that underground passage or leave the kashga through its dark opening.
This is the great and sole rendezvous of the men and older boys of most settlements. The bachelors and widowers sleep here and
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OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE.
prepare their simple meals ; the village guest and visitors of the inale sex are all quartered here; the discussion of all the town af- fairs is conducted here ; the tanning of skins, the plaiting and weaving of wicker-work fish-traps, and the manufacture of sleds and dog-harness, spear- and arrow-heads, and carving of wood and ivory-in fact, everything done by these people under shelter, of that kind, is executed on the platforms of a kashga. It is the theatre for the absurd and vigorous masked dances and mummery of their festivals, and above all, it is the spot chosen for that vile ammoniacal bath of the Eskimo, the most popular of all their rec- reations.
The daily routine of living as practised by an Innuit family is exceedingly simple. The head of the household usually sleeps over
Section showing Subterranean Entrance and Interior of a Kashga.
night in the kashga, as do all of his peers. His wife in the early morning rolls out of her rude deer-skins, retucks her parka about her hips, and starts up the smouldering fire which she banked with ashes before going to sleep. A little meat or fish is soon half- boiled, and a small kantag of oil is decanted, a handful of dried berries thrown into it, and perhaps she has a modicum of rotten fish-roe to add. This she takes out to her husband in the kashga, rousing him, if he is not awake, with a gentle but firm admonition. A large bowl of fresh water is also brought by her, and then every- thing is before the husband for his breakfast. She returns to her hut after he has finished, and feeds her children and herself. If she or her husband has a male visitor, he is served in the same way. When the evening meal is ready, sometimes the men go home and
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INNUIT LIFE AND LAND.
dine with their families ; but the women and children invariably eat at home, and when they wait upon the males in the town hall they always turn their backs to them while the men are dining, it being considered a gross breach of good manners for a woman to look at a man when he is eating.
After breakfast the male Innuits start out, if the weather per- mits, to hunt or fish, as the case may be. If a driving storm pre- vents them, then in-door work is resumed or recourse to sleep again assumed. At some time in the afternoon the fire is usually drawn from the hot stoves on the hearth, the water and a kantag of cham- ber-lye poured over them, which, arising in dense clouds of vapor, gives notice (by its presence and its horrible ammoniacal odor) to the delighted inmates that the bath is on. The kashga is heated to suffocation, it is full of smoke, and the outside men run in from their huts, with wisps of dry grass for towels, and bunches of alder- twigs to flog their naked bodies. They throw off their garments ; they shout and dance and whip themselves into profuse perspira- tion as they caper in the hot vapor. More of their disgusting sub- stitute for soap is rubbed on, and produces a lather which they rinse off with cold water; and, to cap the full enjoyment of this satanic bath, these naked actors rush out and roll in a snow-bank or plunge into the icy flood of some lake or river adjoining, as the season warrants. This is the most enjoyable occasion of an In- nuit's existence, so he solemnly affirms. Nothing else affords him a tithe of the infinite pleasure which this orgie gives him. To us, however, there is nothing so offensive about him as that stench which such a performance arouses.
When a bath is over, the smoke-hole is reopened (it was closed during the process !), and fresh air descends upon those men who sit around upon the platforms stupefied by that smoke and weak from their profuse perspiration. Slowly these terrible odors leave the kashga, and only the minor ones remain, rendering it quite habitable once more. Night comes on : the huge stone lamps are filled with seal-oil and lighted ; the men soon lop down for sleep in their reindeer-skins or parkas, removing their trousers only, which they roll up and use as pillows, tucking the parka snugly over and around their bended knees, which are drawn up tightly to the ab- domen. In the morning whoever happens to awake first relights the lamp, if any of the fluid remains over ; if not, he goes to his own cache and gets a supply. If he is a bachelor, he attends then
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to making a fresh fire in the hearth below and prepares his coarse breakfast.
The women assist their husbands in harnessing and unharness- ing the dogs ; they go out and gather the firewood, and employ themselves in sewing, patching, and making thread from deer-ten- dons. They plait grass mats and weave grass stockings, because nearly all of the coast Innuits wear socks very skilfully made of dried grass. The boys and girls scatter about the vicinity looking after their snares and traps, or engage, in hilarious groups, playing at ball and leap-frog games, tag, and jumping matches. They har- ness up the young dogs and the pups, and sport for hours at a time with them.
" Tatlah ; " an Innuit Dog.
These people are savages, and not at all affected by the earnest and persistent attempts of the Russian priests to Christianize them. They are even less influenced by the teachings of missionaries than the Siwashes of the Sitkan archipelago, and that is saying a great deal for their hardness of heart. They are a brave race, and have displayed the utmost physical courage in fighting their way up the great rivers, Yukon, Kuskokvim, and Nooshagak, whereby they dis- placed and destroyed the Indians who once lived there. The Kolt- chanes, or Ingaleeks of the interior, who disputed that privilege with them, bear cheerful witness to this fact. But all such strife between the two great families is only known to us by legends which they recite of ancient time. No trace of recent war can be found among them.
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INNUIT LIFE AND LAND.
They have no ear for music ; they are not fond of it like the Aleutes, yet they keep perfect time to cultivated tunes and melo- dies of our own order. The song of an Innuit is essentially like that of his Sitkan relative : it is usually a weird dirge, monotonous, and long-drawn out, accompanied by a regular and rhythmic beat- ing of a rude drum, or a dry stick, or resonant bag. Some of the native Innuit chantings, when rendered intelligible to us, have a plaintive pathos running through them which is attractive and are simple in composition ; but such ballads are very, very rare. The majority are tedious and boastful recitations of a singer's achieve- ments on land or water when engaged in hunting or fishing. Their mythology is the rudest and the least ornate of all savage races, un- less it be that perfect vacuum of the Australasians and Terra del Fuegians.
These savages respect the dead, but they fear the sick. When death invades an Innuit family, taking the husband, or the wife, or a child, the survivors eat nothing, after the decease of the relative, but sour or last year's food, and refrain from going out or from work of any sort for a period of twenty days. They seat themselves in one corner of the hut, or "kahsime," with their backs toward the door. Every five days they wash themselves, otherwise death would promptly come to them again. The body of the dead native is composed in a sitting position, with its knees drawn up to the stomach and its arms clasped around them. It is placed in one corner, with its head against the wall. The inhabitants of that vil- lage where the dead man has lived voluntarily bring to the hut dresses of reindeer-skin, in one of which the corpse is shrouded. A coffin, or box, is prepared at some selected spot outside of the village, set up a few feet from the ground, on four stoutly driven posts, and in it the body is deposited. Near by is planted a square board or smoothly hewn plank, upon which rude figures are painted of the animals that the deceased was most fond of hunting, such as a beaver, a deer, a fish, or seal. A few of his most cherished be- longing's are laid in the coffin with him, but the balance of his prop- erty is divided among his family .*
* The Indians, or Koltchanes, of the Alaskan interior burn their dead. If anyone dies in the winter, the relatives carry that corpse everywhere with them, use it at night in the place of a pillow, and only burn it at the com- mencement of warm weather.
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OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE.
A festival in honor of the spirits of land and sea, and in memory of deceased kinsmen, is celebrated annually in the month of Octo- ber or November. Lieutenant Zagoskin,* who spent five years among these people exploring the Yukon and Kuskokvim Rivers, has given us full details of that strange mummery and capers which characterize Innuit festivals and dances. What he saw be- tween 1842 and 1845, and so graphically narrated, is to be seen sub- stantially the same now everywhere among these people, who are almost wholly unchanged from their primeval habits as they live to-day.
Of the tribal organization of these people but little is known : yet, there seems to be no recognized chieftainship-each isolated settlement generally contains one man who makes himself promi- nent by superintending all intercourse and traffic with visitors. The profits accruing to him from this position give him some slight influence among his people ; but the oomailik (oomuialik of Zago- skin), as these middlemen or spokesmen are called, possess no au- thority over the people of their village, who pay far more attention to the advice or threats of sorcerers, shamans, or "medicine men." In the festivals, consisting of feasting, singing, and dancing, with which these hyperboreans while away the long winter nights, the shamans also play a prominent part, directing the order of the per- formances and the manufacture of masks, costumes, etc., while the oomailik or spokesman sinks back into insignificance for the time being.
All these games, both private and public, take place in the kashga. At the public performances the dancers and singers, men and women, stand around the fire-hole ; and the men, to the time of the drum and the singing, go through various contortions of the body, shifting from one foot to the other without moving from the spot, the skill of the dancer being displayed only in the endurance and flexibility of his muscles. The women, on the other hand, with their eyes cast down, motionless, with the exception of a spasmodic twitching of the hands, stand around in a circle, forming, we may
" The Russian Imperial Government in 1841 ordered Governor Etholin, of Sitka, to select a skilled engineer to make this exploration, and accord- ingly, on July 10, 1842, Zagoskin was started for St. Michael's. His expedi- tion was the most extended of any white man ever made in Alaska prior to American search.
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INNUIT LIFE AND LAND.
say, a living frame to the animated picture within. The less mo- tion a dancer displays the greater his skill. There is nothing inde- cent in the dances of our sea-board natives. The dancing dress of the men consists of short tight drawers made of white reindeer- skin and the summer boots of soft moose-hide, while the women on those occasions only add ornaments, such as rings and bracelets and bead-pendants, to their common dress, frequently weighting themselves down with ten or fifteen pounds of these baubles.
An entertainment of the women was described by Zagoskin as follows :
" We entered the kashga by the common passage and found the guests already assembled, but of the landladies nothing was to be seen. On three sides of the apartment stone lamps were lighted ; the fire-hole was covered with boards, one of them having a circular opening, through which the women were to make their appear- ance. Two other burning lamps were placed in front of the fire- hole. The guests then formed a chorus and began to sing to the sound of the drum, two men keeping them in order by beating time with sticks adorned with wolfs' tails and gulls' wings. Thus a good half-hour passed by. Of the song my interpreter told me that it consisted of pleasantry directed against the women ; that it was evi- dent they had nothing to give, as they had not shown themselves for so long a time. Another song praised the housewifely accom- plishments of some woman whose appearance was impatiently ex- pected with a promised trencher of the mixed mess of reindeer-fat and berries. No sooner was this song finished than that woman ap- peared and was received with the greatest enthusiasm. The dish was set before the men, and she retreated amid vociferous com- pliments on her culinary skill. She was followed by another wom- an. The beating of drums increased in violence and the word- ing of the song was changed. Standing up in the centre of the circle this woman began to relate, in mimicry and gesture, how she obtained the fat, how she stored it in various receptacles, how she cleansed and melted it, and then, placing a kantag upon her head, she invited the spectators with gestures to approach. The song went on, while eagerness to partake of the promised luxury lighted up the faces of the crowd. At last the wooden spoons were dis- tributed, one to each man, and nothing was heard for a time but the guzzling of the luscious fluid. Another woman advanced, followed still by another, and luxuries of all kinds were produced in quick
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OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE.
succession and as quickly despatched, while the singers pointedly alluded to the praiseworthy Russian custom of distributing tobacco. When the desired article had been produced, a woman then repre- sented with great skill all the various stages of stupefaction resulting from smoking and snuffing. The women dressed in men's parkas."
A man's entertainment witnessed by Zagoskin took place in the same village. The preparatory arrangements were similar ; one of the women, a sorceress, lead the chorus. Her first song on that occasion praised a propensity of the Russian for making presents of tobacco, rings, and other trifles to women, who, in their turn, were always ready to oblige them. This, however, was only introductory, the real entertainment beginning with a chorus of men concealed in the fire-hole. The gist of their chant was that trapping, hunting, and trade were bad, that nothing could be made, and that they could only sing and dance to please their wives. To this the women answered that they had long been aware of the laziness of their husbands, who could do nothing but bathe and smoke, and that they did not expect to see any food produced, such as the women had placed before them, consequently it would be better to go to bed at once. The men answered that they would go and hunt for something, and shortly one of them appeared through the opening. This mimic, who was attired in female ap- parel, with bead-pendants in his nose, deep fringes of wolverine tails, bracelets, and rings, imitated in a most admirable and humor- ous manner the motions and gestures of the women in presenting their luxuries, and then gave imitations of the various female pur- suits and labor, the guests chuckling with satisfaction. Suddenly the parka was thrown off, and the man began to represent how he hunted the mahklok, seated in his kayak, which performance ended with the production of a whole boiled mahklok, of which Zagoskin received the throat as his portion. Others represented a reindeer- hunt, the spearing of birds, the rendering of beluga-blubber, the preparation of seal-intestines for water-proof garments, the splitting of deer-tendons into thread, and so forth. One young orphan who, possessing nothing wherewith to treat the guests, brought on a kantag filled with water, which was drunk by the women amid much merriment. It sometimes happens on these occasions that lovers of fun sprinkle the women with oil, or with that fluid which they use in place of soap, squirted from small bladders concealed about their persons ; and such jokes are never resented.
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INNUIT LIFE AND LAND.
Another festival, in honor of the spirits of the sea (ugiak), is celebrated by the coast tribes during a whole month. The prep- arations for this gathering begin early in the autumn. Every hunter preserves during an entire year the bladders from all such animals as he kills with arrows; the mothers also save with the greatest care the bladders of all rats, mice, ground-squirrels, or other small animals killed by their children. At the beginning of December all these bladders are inflated, painted in various colors, and suspended in the kashga ; and among them the men hang up a number of fantastically carved figures of birds and fish. Some of the figures of birds are quite ingeniously contrived, with mov- able eyes, heads, and legs, and are able to flap their wings. Before the fireplace there is a huge block wrapped up in dry grass. From morning until night these carved figures are kept in motion by means of strings, and during the whole time a chanting of songs continues, while dry grass and weeds are burned to smoke the sus- pended bladders. This fumigating process ends the day's per- formances, which are begun anew in the morning. In the evening of that culminating day of this festival those strings of bladders are taken down and carried by men upon painted sticks prepared for the occasion ; the women, with torches in their hands, accompany them to the sea-shore. Arrived there, the bladders are tied to sticks and weighted with stones, and finally thrown into the water, where they are watched with the greatest interest to see how long they float upon the surface. From the time of sinking and the number of rings upon the water where a bladder has disappeared the shamans prophesy success or misfortune in hunting during the coming year.
A final memorial feast in honor of a distinguished ancestor is conducted as follows :
Eight old men clad in parkas enter the kashga, or council-house, each carrying a stone lamp, which they deposit around the fire- hole. They next produce three small mats and spread them upon the floor in three corners of the building, and from the spectators three men are selected who are willing to go to the grave. The three nearest relatives of the deceased then seat themselves on the mats and divest themselves of all their clothing, wash their bodies, and don new clothes, girding themselves with belts manufactured several generations back and preserved as heirlooms in the family. To each of these men a staff is given, and they advance together to
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OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE.
the centre of the kashga, when the oldest among the invited guests sends them forth to call the dead. These messengers leave the building, followed by the givers of this feast. After an absence of ten minutes the former return, and through the underground pas- sage the whole population of the village crowds in, from the old and feeble down to children at the breast, and with them come the masters of ceremonies, wearing long seal-skin gloves, and strings of sea-parrot bills hanging about the breast and arms, with elab- orate belts nearly a foot in width, consisting of white bellies of unborn fawns trimmed with wolverine tails. All such ornaments are carefully preserved and handed down from generation to gene- ration, some of them being made of white sable-an exceedingly rare skin-for which high prices are paid, as much as twenty or thirty beavers or otters for one small skin. The women hold in their hands one or two eagle-feathers, and tie around the head a narrow strip of white sable. Each family, grouping itself behind its own stone lamp, chants in turn in mournful measure a song com- posed for the occasion. These songs are almost indefinitely pro- longed by inserting the names of all the relatives of the deceased, living and dead. The singers stand motionless in their places, and many of those present are weeping. When a "song of the dead " is concluded the people seat themselves, and their usual feasting and gorging ensues. The next morning, after a bath (indulged in by all the males), the multitude again assembles in this kashga. The chanting around the fire-hole is renewed in the same mournful tone, until one old man seizes a bladder drum and takes the lead, accompanied by a few singers, and followed in procession by all participants in the feast. They walk slowly to every sepulchre in succession, halting before each to chant a mourning song ; all vis- itors not belonging to the bereaved families in the meantime crowd upon the sodded roofs of the houses and watch these proceedings. In the evening all that remains of food in the village is set before the people, and when every kantag is scraped of the last remnant of its contents the feast is ended ; then those visitors at once depart for their homes.
Occasionally the giver of such a feast, desiring to do special honor to the object of it, passes three days sitting naked upon a mat in a corner of his kashga, without food or drink, chanting a song in praise of a dead relative. At the end of such a fast any or all visitors present gifts to him ; the story of his achievement
Elliot
16 Lisavence
JEST OF AN INNUIT MOTHER " Yes-me sell !- plenty tabak "
THE SON OF AHGAAN An Innuit boy, 6 or 7 years old
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INNUIT LIFE AND LAND.
is carried abroad, and he is made famous for life among his fellows.
It has already been mentioned that many individuals give away all their property on such occasions. If it happens that during such a memorial feast a visitor arrives from a distant village who bears the same name with the subject of a celebration, he is at once overwhelmed with gifts, clothed anew from head to foot with the most expensive garments, and returns to his home a wealthy man.
The country in which the Innuit lives is one that taxes the ut- most hardihood of man when it is traversed by land or by sea. It is not likely that it will ever be much frequented by white men-it will remain to us as it has been to the Russians, an immense area of desolate sameness, almost unknown to us, or to its savage occu- pants, for that matter. The general contour of the great Alaskan mainland interior is that of a vast undulating plain with high rounded granitic hills and ridges scattered in all lines of projection ; on the flanks of which, and by its countless lakes and water-courses, a growth, more or less abundant, of spruce, birch, willows, poplars, and a large number of hardy shrubs, will be encountered. Its summers are short, warm, and pleasant ; its winters are long, and bitterly cold and inclement.
The tundra, however, which fronts the whole of that extensive coast-line of Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean, is indeed cheerless and repellant at any season. In the summer it is a great flat swale, full of bog-holes, shiny and decaying peat, innumerable sloughs, shallow and stagnant, and from which swarms of malignant mos- quitoes rise to fairly torture and destroy a traveller unless he be clad in a coat of mail. In the winter and early spring fierce gales of wind at zero-temperature sweep over these steppes of Alaska in constant succession, making travel exceedingly dangerous, and as painful even as it is in the warmer months. During this period of the year all approach to the coast is barred in Bering Sea by a system of shoals and banks which extend so far seaward that a vessel drawing only ten feet of water will be hard aground, beyond the sight of land, sixty miles off the Yukon mouth.
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