Cooked food is generally served in large shallow trays more or less
neatly carved from driftwood and nearly circular or oblong in shape.
The collection contains two specimens of the circular form and three
oblong ones. All but one of these have been long in use and are very
greasy. No. 73576 [392] (Fig. 33) has been selected as the type of the
circular dishes (i´libiɐ). This is very smoothly carved from a single
piece of pine wood. The brim is rounded, with a large rounded gap in
one side, where a piece has probably been broken out. The brim is
slightly cracked and chipped. The vessel is very greasy and shows
marks inside where meat has been cut up in it. No. 89867 [1323] is a
very similar dish, and made of the same material, but elliptical
instead of circular, and larger, being 22.5 inches long, 15.5 broad,
and 2.1 deep. It has been split in two, and mended with whalebone
stitches in the manner previously described.
[Illustration: FIG. 33.--Meat dish. 1/7]
No. 73575 [223] (Fig. 34) is a typical oblong dish. It is neatly
hollowed out, having a broad margin painted with red ocher. It
measures 24 inches in length, is made of pine, rather roughly carved
on the outside, and is new and clean. This is a common form of dish.
Fig. 35, No. 89868 [1377], is an old tray of an unusual form. It is
rudely hewn out of a straight piece of plank, 34.8 inches long,
showing inside and out the marks of a dull adz, called by the seller
“kau´dlo tu´mai,” “the footprints of the stone (scil. adz).” The
excavation is shallow and leaves a margin of 2 inches at one end, and
the outside is roughly beveled off at the sides and ends. The holes
near the ends were evidently for handles of thong. The material is
spruce, discolored and somewhat greasy. Fig. 36, No. 89866 [1376], was
said by the native who brought it over for sale to be especially
intended for fish. It is much the shape of No. 73575 [223], but
broader, slightly deeper, and more curved. The brim is narrow and
rounded and the bottom smoothly rounded off. It measures 23.3 inches
in length, and is made of pine. It has been deeply split in two places
and stitched together with whalebone in the usual way. Trays and
dishes of this sort are in general use among all Eskimo,[N191] and are
sometimes made of tanned sealskins.[N192]
[Footnote N191: See for example, Crantz, vol. 1, p. 144,
Greenland; Parry, 2d. Voy., p. 503, Iglulik; and Hooper, Tents,
etc., p. 170, Plover Bay.]
[Footnote N192: Bessels, Naturalist, Sept. 1884, p. 867.]
[Illustration: FIG. 34.--Oblong meat dish. 1/8]
[Illustration: FIG. 35.--Oblong meat dish; very old. 1/8]
[Illustration: FIG. 36.--Fish dish. 1/10]