_Whalebone Cup_ (_I´musyû_).--One of the commonest forms of drinking
vessels is a little tub of whalebone of precisely the same shape as
the large whalebone dish described above (p. 88). Of these there are
five specimens in the collection, all from Utkiavwĭñ. No. 89853 [1302]
(Fig. 37) will serve as the type. It is 4.6 inches long and made by
binding a strip of black whalebone round a spruce bottom, and sewing
together the ends, which overlap each other about 1½ inches, with
coarse strips of whalebone.
[Illustration: FIG. 37.--Whalebone cup. 1/2]
There are two vertical seams three-fourths inch apart. The bottom is
held in by fitting its slightly chamfered edge into a shallow croze
cut in the whalebone. All these cups are made almost exactly alike,
and nearly of the same size, varying only a fraction of an inch in
height, and from 4.2 to 5.5 inches in length. The only variation is in
the distance the ends overlap and the number of stitches in the seams.
Such cups are to be found in nearly every house, and one is generally
kept conveniently near the water bucket. Though the pattern is an
ancient one, they are still manufactured. No. 56560 [654] was found
among the débris of one of the ruined houses at Utkiavwĭñ, and differs
from the modern cups only in having the ends sewed together with one
seam instead of two, while No. 89851 [1300], though it has been in
actual use, was made after our arrival, as the bottom is made of a
piece of one of our cigar boxes.
[Illustration: FIG. 38.--Horn dipper. 1/4]
Dippers of horn are in very general use for drinking water. These are
all of essentially the same shape, and are made of the light yellow
translucent horn of the mountain sheep. There are three specimens in
our collection, of which No. 56534 [28] (Fig. 38) has been selected as
the type. This is made of a single piece of pale yellow translucent
horn, apparently softened and molded into shape, cut only on the edges
and the handle. A stout peg of antler is driven through the handle,
1 inch from the tip, and projects behind, serving as a hook by which
to hang the dipper on the edge of a bucket. The other two are similar
in shape and size, but No. 89831 [1293] has no peg, and has one side
of the handle cut into a series of slight notches to keep the hand
from slipping, while No. 89832 [1577] is rather straighter and has a
smaller, shallower bowl, and the grip of the handle roughened with
transverse grooves. Fig. 39, No. 89739 [774|, is a horn dipper, but
one that is very old and of a pattern no longer in use. The bowl,
which is much broken and gapped, is oval and deep, with a thick handle
at one end, running out in the line of the axis of the bowl. This
handle, which is the thick part of the horn, near the tip, is flat
above, rounded below, and has its tip slightly rounded, apparently by
a stone tool. Just where the bowl and handle meet there is a deep
transverse saw-cut, made to facilitate bending the handle into its
place. The material is horn, apparently of the mountain sheep, turned
brown by age and exposure. The specimen had been long lying neglected
round the village of Utkiavwĭñ.
[Illustration: FIG. 39.--Horn dipper. 1/4]
Horn dippers of the same general pattern as these are common
throughout Alaska. The Museum collection contains a large series of
such utensils, collected by Mr. Nelson and others. The cups and
dippers of musk-ox horn found by Parry at Iglulik are somewhat
different in shape.[N193] Those made of the enlarged base of
horn[N194] have a short handle and a nearly square bowl, while the
hollow top of the horn is used for a cup without alteration beyond
sometimes bending up the end, which serves as a handle.[N195]
Curiously enough, cups of this last pattern appear not to be found
anywhere else except at Plover Bay, eastern Siberia, where very
similar vessels (as shown by the Museum collections) are made from the
horn of the Siberian mountain sheep. An unusual form of dipper is
beautifully made of fossil ivory. Such cups are rare and highly
prized. We saw only three, one from each village, Nuwŭk, Utkiavwĭñ,
and Sidaru, and all were obtained for the collection. They show signs
of age and long use. They differ somewhat in shape and size, but each
is carved from a single piece of ivory and has a large bowl and a
straight handle. No. 56535 [371] (Fig. 40), which will serve as the
type of the ivory dipper (i´musyû, kĭlĭgwû´garo), is neatly carved
from a single piece of fine-grained fossil ivory, yellowed by age. The
handle, polished by long use, terminates in a blunt, recurved,
tapering hook, which serves the purpose of the peg in the horn dipper.
The rounded gap in the brim opposite the handle is an accidental
break. Another, No. 89830 [1259], from Sidaru, is a long trough-like
cup, with rounded ends and a short flat handle at one end, made of a
short transverse section of a rather small tusk, keeping the natural
roundness of the tusk, but cut off flat on top and excavated. A wooden
peg, like those in the horn dippers, is inserted in the end of the
handle. This cup is especially interesting from its resemblance to the
one obtained by Beechey (Voyage, Pl. I, Fig. 4) at Eschscholtz Bay,
from which it differs only in being about 2 inches shorter and deeper
in proportion. Thomas Simpson speaks of obtaining an ivory cup from
some Point Barrow natives at Dease Inlet exactly like the one figured
by Beechey, but with the handle broken off.[N196] Fig. 41, No. 89833
[933], from Nuwŭk, has a large bowl, nearly circular, with a broad,
straight handle and a broad hook. The part of the bowl to which the
handle is attached, a semicircular piece 3 inches long and 1¾ wide,
has been split out with the grain of the tusk, and mended with three
stitches, in this case of sinew, in the usual manner. There was an old
gap in the brim opposite to the handle, and the edges of it have been
freshly and roughly whittled down. The ornamentation of the outside
and handle, consisting of narrow incised lines and small circles, each
with a dot in the center, is well shown in the figure. These
engravings were originally colored with red ocher, but are now filled
with dirt and are nearly effaced by wear on the handle. This dipper is
not of such fine quality of ivory as the other two. It is not unlikely
that all these vessels were made by the natives around Kotzebue Sound,
where ivory is plenty, and where Beechey, as quoted above, found one
so like one of ours. We were informed by the owner that No. 56535
[371] was obtained from the Nunatañmiun.
[Footnote N193: Second Voyage, p. 503.]
[Footnote N194: See Fig. 26, plate opposite p. 550.]
[Footnote N195: See Figs. 8 and 9, opposite p. 548.]
[Illustration: FIG. 40.--Dipper of fossil ivory. 3/10]
[Illustration: FIG. 41.--Dipper of fossil ivory. 1/3]
[Footnote N196: Narrative, p. 148.]
_Spoons and ladles._--Each family has several spoons of various sizes,
and narrow shallow ladles of horn, bone, etc. The large spoon is for
stirring and ladling soup, etc. There is only one specimen in the
collection, No. 89739 [1352] (Fig. 42). This is a new one, made by a
native of Utkiavwĭñ, whom I asked to make himself a new spoon and
bring me his old one. He, however, misunderstood me and brought over
the new one, which Lieut. Ray purchased, not knowing that I had
especially asked for the old one. These spoons seem to be in such
constant use that the natives did not offer them for sale. This
specimen is smoothly carved from a single piece of pine, and painted
all over, except the inside of the bowl, with red ocher. A cross of
red ocher is marked in the middle of the bowl, and there is a shallow
groove, colored with blacklead, along the middle of the handle on top.
The length is 13.2 inches. A small spoon of light-colored horn, No.
89416 [1379], has a bowl of the common spoon shape with a short, flat
handle. Spoons of this sort were not seen in use, and as this is new
and evidently made for sale it may be meant for a copy of one of our
spoons. The narrow ladles of horn or bone may formerly have been used
for eating before it was so easy to get tin pots, but at present are
chiefly used for dipping oil, especially for filling the lamp. The
collection contains one of horn and four of bone.
[Illustration: FIG. 42.--Wooden spoon. 1/4]
[Illustration: FIG. 43.--Horn ladle. 1/2]
[Illustration: FIG. 44.--Bone ladle. 1/2]
No. 89415 [1070], Fig. 43, is made of a single piece of mountain-sheep
horn, dark brown from age and use, softened and molded into shape. It
is impregnated with oil, showing that it has been long in use. This
utensil closely resembles a great number of specimens in the Museum
from the more southern parts of Alaska. No. 89411 [1294] (Fig. 44) is
a typical bone ladle. The material is rather coarse-grained, compact
bone from a whale’s rib or jawbone. No. 89414 [1013] closely resembles
this but is a trifle larger. The other two specimens are interesting
as showing an attempt at ornamentation. No. 89412 [1102] (Fig. 45,
from Nuwŭk) is carved smoothly into a rude, flattened figure of a
whale (Balaena mysticetus). The flukes form the handle and the belly
is hollowed out into the bowl of the ladle. No. 89413 [934] (Fig. 46,
from Utkiavwĭñ) has the handle carved into a rude bear’s head, which
has the eyes, nostrils, and outline of the mouth incised and filled in
with dark oil dregs. All these ladles have the curved side of the bowl
on the left, showing that they were meant to be used with the right
hand. The name, kĭliu´tɐ, obtained for these ladles is given in the
vocabulary collected by Dr. Oldmixon as “scraper,” which seems to be
the etymological meaning of the word. These implements may be used for
scraping blubber from skins, or the name may correspond in meaning to
the cognate Greenlandic kiliortût, “a scraper; especially a mussel
shell (a natural scraper).” The resemblance of these ladles to a
mussel shell is sufficiently apparent for the name to be applied to
them. Indeed, they may have been made in imitation of mussel shells,
which the Eskimo, in all probability, like so many other savages, used
for ladles as well as scrapers.
[Illustration: FIG. 45.--Bone ladle in the form of a whale. 1/4]
[Illustration: FIG. 46.--Bone ladle. 3/8]