_Canteens_ (_i´mutĭn_).--None of the canteens, the use of which has
been described above (under “Drinks”), were obtained for the
collection. They were seen only by Lieut. Ray and Capt. Herendeen, who
made winter journeys with the natives. They describe them as made of
sealskins and of small size. I find no published mention of the use of
such canteens among the Eskimo elsewhere, except in Baffin Land.[N170]
[Footnote N170: “When out traveling, they mostly carry their water
supply in a seal’s stomach, prepared for the purpose.” Kumlien,
op. cit., p. 41. Compare also Hall, Arctic Researches, p. 584.]
_Wallets, etc._--Food and such things are carried in roughly made bags
of skin or cloth, or sometimes merely wrapped up in a piece of skin or
entrail, or whatever is convenient. Special bags, however, are used
for bringing in the small fish which are caught through the ice. These
are flat, about 18 inches or 2 feet square, and made of an oblong
piece of sealskin, part of an old kaiak cover, doubled at the bottom
and sewed up each side, with a thong to sling it over the shoulders.
_Buckets and tubs._--Buckets and tubs of various sizes are used for
holding water and other fluids, blubber, flesh, entrails, etc., in the
house, and are made by bending a thin plank of wood (spruce or fir)
round a nearly circular bottom and sewing the ends together. These are
probably all obtained from the Nunatañmiun, as it would be almost
impossible to procure suitable wood at Point Barrow. The collection
contains four specimens--two tubs and two buckets.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.--Wooden bucket. 1/5]
No. 56764 [370] (Fig. 16) will serve as a type of the water bucket
(kûtau´ɐ). A thin strip of spruce 8 inches wide is bent round a
circular bottom of the same wood 10¼ inches in diameter. The edge of
the latter is slightly rounded and fits into a shallow croze
one-fourth inch from the lower edge of the strip. The ends of the
strip overlap 3½ inches and are sewed together with narrow strips of
whalebone in two vertical seams of short stitches, one seam close to
the outer end, which is steeply chamfered off and painted red, and the
other 1.6 inches from this. Both seams are countersunk in shallow
grooves on the outer part. The bucket is ornamented with a shallow
groove running round the top, and a vertical groove between the seams.
These grooves and the seam grooves are painted red. The bail is of
stout iron wire fastened on by two ears of white walrus ivory cut into
a rude outline of a whale, and secured by neat lashings of whalebone
passing through corresponding holes in the ear and the bucket. The
bucket has been some time in use.
No. 56763 [369] is a bucket with a bail, and very nearly of the same
shape and dimensions. It has, however, a bail made of rope yarns
braided together, and the ears are plain flat pieces of ivory. Buckets
of this size, with bails, are especially used for water, particularly
for bringing it from the ponds and streams. The name “kûtauɐ”
corresponds to the Greenlandic kátauaĸ, “a water-pail with which water
is brought to the house.”[N171]
[Footnote N171: Grønl. Ordbog., p. 135.]
No. 89891 [1735] (Fig. 17), which is nearly new, is a very large tub
(ilulĭ´kpûñ, which appears to mean “a capacious thing”) without a
bail, and is 11 inches high and 20 in diameter. The sides are made of
two pieces of plank of equal length, whose ends overlap alternately
and are sewed together as before. The bottom is in two pieces, one
large and one small, neatly fastened together with two dowels, and is
not only held in by having its edge chamfered to fit the croze, but is
pegged in with fourteen small treenails. The seams, edges, and two
ornamental grooves around the top are painted red as before.
[Illustration: FIG. 17.--Large tub. 1/12]
No. 89890 [1753] is smaller, 9.7 inches high and 14.5 in diameter. It
has no bail, and is ornamented with two grooves, of which the lower is
painted with black lead. The bottom is in two equal pieces, fastened
together with three dowels. This is a new tub and has the knotholes
neatly plugged with wood. There are a number of these tubs in every
house. They are known by the generic name of imusiáru (which is
applied also to a barrel, and which means literally “an unusual cup or
dipper,” small cups of the same shape being called i´musyû), but have
special names signifying their use. For instance, the little tub about
6 inches in diameter, used by the males as a urinal, is called kúvwĭñ
(“the place for urine.”) One of these large tubs always stands to
catch the drip from the lump of snow in the house, and those of the
largest size, like No. 89891 [1735], are the kind used as chamber
pots.
Vessels of this sort are in use throughout Alaska, and have been
observed among the eastern Eskimo where they have wood enough to make
them. For instance, the Eskimo of the Coppermine River “form very neat
dishes of fir, the sides being made of thin deal, bent into an oval
form, secured at the ends by sewing, and fitted so nicely to the
bottom as to be perfectly water-tight.”[N172] There are specimens in
the Museum from the Mackenzie and Anderson Rivers, described in the
MacFarlane MS. as “pots for drinking with, pails for carrying and
keeping water, and also as chamber pots. Oil is also sometimes carried
in them in winter.”
[Footnote N172: Franklin, 1st Exp., vol. 2, p. 181.]
In some places where wood is scarce vessels of a similar pattern are
made of whalebone. Vessels “made of whalebone, in a circular form, one
piece being bent into the proper shape for the sides,” are mentioned
by Capt. Parry on the west shore of Baffins Bay,[N173] and “circular
and oval vessels of whalebone” were in use at Iglulik.[N174] This is
the same as the Greenlandic vessel called pertaĸ (a name which appears
to have been transferred in the form pĭ´túño to the wooden meat bowl
at Point Barrow), “a dish made of a piece of whalebone bent into a
hoop, which makes the sides, with a wooden bottom inserted.”[N175]
Nordenskiöld speaks of vessels of whalebone at Pitlekaj, but does not
specify the pattern.[N176] Whalebone dishes were used at Point Barrow,
but at the present day only small ones for drinking-cups are in
general service. One large dish was collected. (Fig. 18. No. 89850
[1199]).
[Illustration: FIG. 18.--Whalebone dish. 1/4]
A strip of whalebone 4¼ inches wide is bent round a nearly circular
bottom of cottonwood so as to form a small tub. The edges of the
bottom are chamfered to fit a shallow croze in the whalebone. The
overlapping ends of the whalebone are sewed together with a strip of
whalebone in long stitches. This dish is quite old and impregnated
with grease. Vessels of this kind are uncommon, and it is probable
that none have been made since whalebone acquired its present
commercial value. They were very likely in much more general use
formerly, as when there was no such market for whalebone as at present
it would be cheaper to make tubs of this material than to buy wooden
ones. In corroboration of this view it may be noted that Dr. Simpson
does not mention woodenware among the articles brought for sale by the
Nunatañmiun.[N177] The small whalebone vessels will be described under
drinking cups, which see.
[Footnote N173: First Voy., p. 286.]
[Footnote N174: Second Voy., p. 503.]
[Footnote N175: Grønl. Ordbog., p. 293.]
[Footnote N176: Vega, vol. 2, p. 124.]
[Footnote N177: Op. cit., p. 266.]
_Meat bowls._--(Pĭ´tûño, see remarks on p. 88.) Large wooden bowls are
used to hold meat, fat, etc., both raw and cooked, which are generally
served on trays. These are of local manufacture and carved from blocks
of soft driftwood. The four specimens collected are all made of
cottonwood, and, excepting No. 73570 [408], have been long in use and
are thoroughly impregnated with grease and blood.
No. 89864 [1322] (Fig. 19) will serve as the type. This is deep and
nearly circular, with flat bottom and rounded sides. The brim is
ornamented with seven large sky-blue glass beads imbedded in it at
equal intervals, except on one side, where there is a broken notch in
the place of a bead.
[Illustration: FIG. 19.--Meat bowl. 1/4]
Another, No. 89863 [1320], is larger and not flattened on the bottom,
and the brim is thinner. It is also provided with a bail of seal
thong, very neatly made, as follows: One end of the thong is knotted
with a single knot into one of the holes so as to leave one long part
and one short part (about 3 inches). The long part is then carried
across and through the other hole from the outside, back again through
the first hole and again across, so that there are three parts of
thong stretched across the bowl. The end is then tightly wrapped in a
close spiral round all the other parts, including the short end, and
the wrapping is finished off by tucking the end under the last turn.
The specimen shows the method of mending wooden dishes, boxes, etc.,
which have split. A hole is bored on each side of the crack, and
through the two is worked a neat lashing of narrow strips of
whalebone, which draws the parts together.
In No. 89865 [1321], which has been split wholly across, there are six
such stitches, nearly equidistant, holding the two parts together.
This bowl is strengthened by neatly riveting a thin flat “strap” of
walrus ivory along the edge across the end of the crack. These three
bowls are of nearly the same shape, which is the common one. The new
bowl (No. 73570 [408]) is of a less common shape, being not so nearly
hemispherical as the others, but shaped more like a common milk pan.
It is ornamented with straight lines drawn in black lead, dividing the
surface into quadrants. These were probably put on to catch the white
man’s eye, as the bowl was made for the market. Dishes of this
description are common throughout Alaska (see the National Museum
collections) and have been noted at Plover Bay.[N178]
[Footnote N178: Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 147.]