_Playthings._--Though the children amuse themselves with a great many
sports and plays, we saw very few toys or playthings in use. We
brought home six objects which appear to have no use except as
playthings.
Fig. 374_a_ (No. 89806 [1189] from Nuwŭk) is a whirligig in principle
very like that made for civilized children. It is a block of spruce,
fitted with a shaft of narwhal ivory. This fits loosely in the
straight tubular handle, which is a section of the branch of an
antler, with the soft inside tissue cut out. A string of seal thong
passes through a hole in the middle of the handle and is fastened to
the shaft. This string is about 8 feet long, and about half of it is
tied up into the hank to make a handle for pulling it. It works very
much like a civilized child’s whirligig. The string is wound around
the shaft and a smart pull on the handle unwinds it, making the block
spin round rapidly. The reaction, spinning it in the opposite
direction, winds up the string again. A couple of loose hawk’s
feathers are stuck into the tip of the block, which is painted with
red ocher for about an inch. Four equidistant stripes of the same
color run down the sides to a border of the same width round the base.
This was made for sale and appears to be an unusual toy. I do not
recollect ever seeing the children play with such a toy. It is called
kai´psa (Gr. kâvsâk, “a whirligig or similar toy”).
Fig. 374_b_ is a similar whirligig from Utkiavwĭñ (No. 89807 [1356]).
The block, which is 4.2 inches long, is made of the solid tip of a
mountain sheep’s horn, and is elaborately ornamented with a
conventional pattern of lines and “circles and dots,” incised and
colored red with ocher. The shaft is of hard bone, and the line has a
little wooden handle at the end. The block is so heavy that it will
hardly spin.
[Illustration: FIG. 374.--Whirligigs. 3/8]
Fig. 375 (No. 56491 [46] from Utkiavwĭñ) is a teetotum (also called
kaipsa). The shaft is of pine and the disk of spruce and is ornamented
with black lead marks, forming a border about one-quarter inch broad
on each face. The upper face is divided into quadrants by four narrow
lines radiating from the hole, and each quadrant is divided into two
by bands one-quarter inch broad. The order of these lines is reversed
on the under face. This is spun, like a common teetotum, with the
fingers, and does not seem to be common. I do not recollect ever
seeing anyone except the maker of this toy spinning one.
[Illustration: FIG. 375.--Teetotum. 1/8]
The same is true of No. 89722 [1087] (Fig. 376, from Utkiavwĭñ) which
is what American boys would call a “buzz” toy. It is of pine wood, and
through two round holes in the middle are passed the ends of a piece
of stout sinew braid, which are knotted together. When the board is
placed in the middle of the string it can be made to spin round and
whiz by alternately pulling and relaxing the ends of the string. The
board is rather elaborately painted. One end has a border of black
lead on both faces, the other a similar border of red paint, which
appears to be red lead. Broad red bands form a square 1 inch across
around the holes, with lines radiating from each corner to the corners
of the board, on both faces. On the spaces between these lines are
figures rudely drawn with black lead. On one face, in the first space,
is a goose; in the second, a man with a staff; in the third, the
conventional figure of a whale’s tail; and in the fourth, a whale with
line and float attached to him, pursued by a whaling umiak. On the
other side, the first space contains a dog or wolf walking; the
second, two of these animals, sitting on their haunches, facing each
other; the third, another walking; and the fourth, a reindeer in the
same attitude.
[Illustration: FIG. 376.--Buzz toy. 1/2]
Fig. 377 (No. 89800 [1331] from Utkiavwĭñ), on the other hand, is a
toy which the children often play with. It is the well known
“whizzing-stick” found among savages in so many widely distant parts
of the world, and often used in religious ceremonies. The Eskimo name
is ĭmĭglúta. It consists of a thin board of pine wood, fastened by a
string of sinew braid about 1 foot long to the end of a slender rod,
which serves as a handle. When swung rapidly round by the handle it
makes a loud, whizzing sound. It is very neatly made, and painted with
black lead and red ocher. The tips of the board are black for about
one-half inch and the rest is red, and the upper half of the handle
marked with five rings about one-half inch wide and 1 inch apart,
alternately black and red. This appears to be purely a child’s toy and
has no mystical signification. I never saw one in the hands of an
adult. This specimen was made and brought over for sale by a lad about
thirteen or fourteen years old.
[Illustration: FIG. 377.--Whizzing stick.]
[Illustration: FIG. 378.--Pebble snapper.]
Fig. 378 (No. 56687 [181] from Utkiavwĭñ) is another plaything rather
common with the boys, which takes the place of the American boy’s
“bean snapper.” It is known by the name of mĭtĭ´glĭgaun, and is a rod
of whalebone, stiff and black, 4.8 inches long and 0.5 wide, narrowed
and bent sharply up for about an inch at one end. On the upper side of
this end, close to the tip, is a little hollow, large enough to hold a
small pebble, and the other is cut into sharp teeth. This is purely an
instrument of mischief and is used for shooting tiny pebbles at people
when they are looking the other way. Mûñialu showed us, with great
glee, in an expressive pantomime, how a boy would hit a person in the
eye with a little pebble, and, when the man turned round angrily,
would have the snapper slipped up his sleeve and be looking earnestly
in another direction. The toothed end, he said, was for mischievously
scratching hairs out of a man’s coat when he was looking another way.
The “snapper” is used as follows: It is held in the left hand,
a little pebble is set in the socket, and the tip of the whalebone
bent back with the right hand. When this end is let go the elasticity
of the whalebone drives the pebble at the mark with considerable
force. As far as I can learn this mischievous toy is peculiar to the
Northwest.
_Dolls._--Though several dolls and various suits of miniature clothing
were made and brought over for sale, they do not appear to be popular
with the little girls. I do not recollect ever seeing a child playing
with a doll. Those in the collection, indeed, seem rather less
intended for playthings than as, so to speak, works of art to catch
the fancy of the strangers. Such an object is No. 89728 [1304] (Fig.
379 from Utkiavwĭñ.) This is a human head carved out of pine wood, and
shouldered off at the neck into a stout round peg, which is fitted
into the middle of a thick elliptical pedestal of the same wood, flat
on the bottom and convex on top. The head is dressed in a neatly made
hood of thin deerskin with the flesh side cut off round the shoulders
and exposing only the face. The face is very neatly carved, and has
bits of green oxidized copper inlaid for the eyes. The cheeks, gums,
and inside of the mouth are colored with red ocher, and the hair,
eyebrows, and beard with black lead. The top of the pedestal is
painted red and divided into eight equal parts by shallow grooves
colored with black lead. The height of the whole object is 4½ inches,
and the workmanship is remarkably good.
[Illustration: FIG. 379.--Carving of human head.]
No. 89827 [1138] (from Utkiavwĭñ), on the other hand, is very roughly
and carelessly made. It is 18.2 inches long, roughly whittled out of a
flat piece of redwood board into the shape of a man with his legs wide
apart and holding up his hands on each side of his head. The arms are
very short and broad, with five fingers all nearly of the same length,
and the legs are simply two straight four-sided pegs rounded on the
edges. It is dressed in a hooded frock of seal gut reaching to the
knees and leaving only the face and hands uncovered, and has sealskin
knee boots on the legs. The face is rudely in relief, with two narrow
bits of ivory inlaid for eyes, and a long canine tusk of the same
material inserted in each corner of the mouth. Three small round bits
of wood are inlaid in the forehead, one in the middle and one over
each eye, and one in the right cheek above the corner of the mouth.
The gut frock is carelessly made of irregular pieces. It is trimmed
round the bottom and the edge of the hood with a strip of dogskin, but
is left with a raw edge round the wrists. The boots are rather well
made models of the regular waterproof boots, with soles of white
sealskin and a band round the top 1 inch wide of the same material.
A short peg projects from the top of the forehead. A string of stout
sinew braid about 2 feet long is passed through a hole in the middle
of the body and a knot tied in the end in front. Though the design is
elaborate the workmanship is very rude, and the clothes seem to be
made of odds and ends. The maker perhaps had in mind a fabulous man
with teeth like a walrus, about whom we heard some fragmentary
traditions.
[Illustration: FIG. 380.--Mechanical doll: drum player.]
Fig. 380 (No. 89826 [1358] from Utkiavwĭñ) is a clever, though
somewhat roughly made, mechanical doll. It represents a man dressed in
deerskins sitting with his legs outstretched and holding in his
extended left hand a drum and in his right a stick, as if beating the
drum. The arms are of whalebone, and by pressing them he can be made
to beat the drum. The doll is made of a single piece of wood--a knot
with two branches, which make the legs. (I learned this from Capt.
Herendeen, who saw this doll at the village before it was finished.)
The height of the sitting figure is 11½ inches.
[Illustration: FIG. 381.--Mechanical toy: kaiak paddler.]
A still more ingenious mechanical toy which, however, like the
preceding, was made for sale, is shown in Fig. 381 (No. 89855 [1351]
from Utkiavwĭñ). This is a man sitting in a kaiak in the attitude of
paddling on the left side with a single-bladed paddle. His arms are of
whalebone, and by means of strings he can be made to paddle and turn
his head from side to side. The kaiak is 29 inches long, very neatly
carved from a single block of wood, and solid except at the cockpit.
The bottom is flat, to allow it to stand on the floor, but it is
otherwise precisely of the model of the kaiaks in the Museum from the
Mackenzie and Anderson region. The nation who made it called it a
“Kûñmû´d’lĭñ” kaiak. It is painted all over with red ocher, except on
the bottom. The figure has no legs and fits into the cockpit, which is
without any coaming. The head is separate and mounted on a long,
slender pivot, which is fitted into a hole in the neck just loosely
enough to allow it to turn easily. It is dressed in a hood of seal
gut. The face is very natural, though rather rudely carved, and is
lightly colored all over with red ocher, with the mouth painted deeply
red, and the eyebrows, eyes, nostrils, and beard marked with black
lead. The arms are narrow strips of whalebone, the ends of which
protrude at the wrists, and are tied to the paddle by the ends of the
strings which work it. The body is covered with a gut shirt.
[Illustration: FIG. 382.--Kaiak carved from a block of wood.]
The paddle is of the common shape, and has the blade and the lower end
of the shaft painted red. The strings for working this contrivance are
of fine sinew braid. One string is tied into a little hole in the edge
of the hood, where the left ear would be, the other passes round the
edge of the hood, and is tied at the right ear. These strings cross
back of the head, and pass through two neat little ivory eyebolts
inserted in the deck, 1 inch abaft the cockpit, and 1 inch apart. The
strings from the hands are not crossed, but pass through two similar
eyebolts, one at each edge of the deck, 2.5 inches from the cockpit.
The ends of each set of strings are tied together. When the right pair
and left pair of strings are pulled alternately, the man makes a
stroke and looks to the right, then “recovers” and looks to the left.
Both stroke and “recovery” are aided by the elasticity of the arms.
This specimen shows a great deal of mechanical ingenuity, and was the
only finished object of the kind seen.
Fig. 382 (No. 89856 [783] from Utkiavwĭñ) is a kaiak intended for a
similar toy, which, when brought over for sale, had an unfinished
armless doll in the cockpit. This was, unfortunately, lost in
unpacking. The kaiak, which is 27.6 inches long, is not new, but has
been freshly scraped and painted on deck. It is also a foreign kaiak,
being precisely like a model brought by Mr. Nelson from Norton Sound.
It is not unlikely that this boat itself came from that region through
the “Nunatañmiun,” unless, possibly, a southern kaiak had passed
through the hands of enough people to reach a point where some Point
Barrow native might see it. As far as we know no Point Barrow natives
visit the regions where this form is used, and the model seems too
accurate to have been made from a description.
_Juvenile implements._--We sometimes saw the children playing with
little models of the implements and utensils used by their parents.
Perhaps the commonest thing of this sort is the boy’s bow. As soon as
a boy is able to walk his father makes him a little bow suited to his
strength, with blunt arrows, with which he plays with the other boys,
shooting at marks--for instance, the fetal reindeer brought home from
the spring hunt--till he is old enough to shoot small birds and
lemmings. We also saw children playing with little drums, and one man
made his little boy an elaborate kă´moti about 4 feet long. In the
collection are a number of miniature implements, spears, etc., some of
which have been already described, which were perhaps intended as
playthings for the children. As, however, they were all newly made, it
is possible that they were merely intended to catch the fancy of the
strangers.
No. 89451 [1113], from Nuwŭk, is a little snow shovel 4.5 inches long,
with a blade 2.1 inches wide, rather roughly carved from a piece of
walrus ivory.
No. 89695 [1280] from Utkiavwĭñ, is a similar model of a deer lance,
7 inches long, all in one piece and made of reindeer antler.
No. 89797 [1186] from Utkiavwĭñ, is a quite well made model of the
drum used for accompanying singing and dancing, and is almost large
enough to have been used for a plaything. The stick is entirely out of
proportion, being merely a roughly whittled bit of lath, 13 inches
long.
_Games and sports._--The men have very few sports, though I have
sometimes known them to amuse themselves by shooting at a mark with
their rifles, and I once heard of a number of them wrestling. As far
as I could learn, they wrestle “catch-as-catch-can” without any
particular system. We never heard of anything like the athletic sports
mentioned by Egede[N499] and Crantz[N500] or the pugilism described by
Schwatka among the people of King William’s Land, when two men stand
up to each other and exchange buffets till one or the other gives
in.[N501] The women are very fond of playing “cat’s cradle” whenever
they have leisure, and make a number of complicated figures with the
string, many of which represent various animals. One favorite figure
is a very clever representation of a reindeer, which is made by moving
the fingers to run down hill from one hand to the other.[N502] Another
favorite amusement with the women and children is tossing three
bullets or small pebbles with the right hand, after the manner of a
juggler, keeping one ball constantly in the air. Some of the women are
very skillful at this, keeping the balls up for a long time. This play
is accompanied by a chant sung to a monotonous tune with very little
air, but strongly marked time. I never succeeded in catching the words
of this chant, which are uttered with considerable rapidity, and do
not appear to be ordinary words. It begins “yúɐ yúɐ yuká, yúɐ yúɐ
yuká;” and some of the words are certainly indelicate to judge from
the unequivocal gestures by which I once saw them accompanied.
[Footnote N499: Greenland, p. 162.]
[Footnote N500: Vol. 1, p. 177.]
[Footnote N501: Science, vol. 4, No. 98, p. 545.]
[Footnote N502: Hall (Arctic Researches, p. 129) says the “cat’s
cradle” is a favorite amusement in Baffin Land, where they make
many figures, including representations of the deer, whale, seal,
and walrus.]
In the winter the young women and girls are often to be seen tossing a
snowball with their feet. A girl wets some snow and makes a ball about
as big as her two fists, which of course immediately becomes a lump of
ice. This she balances on the toe of one foot and with a kick and a
jump tosses it over to the other foot which catches it and tosses it
back. Some women will keep this up for a number of strokes.
The young people of both sexes also sometimes play football, kicking
about an old mitten or boot stuffed with rags or bits of waste skin.
I never saw them set up goals and play a regular game as they did in
Greenland.[N503]
[Footnote N503: See Egede, p. 161, and Crantz, vol. 1, p. 177.]
The little girls also play with the skipping rope. I once watched
three little girls jumping. Two swung the rope and the other stood in
the middle and jumped. First they swung the rope under her feet to the
right, then back under her feet to the left, and then once or twice
wholly round under her feet and over her head, and then began
again.[N504] They also play at housekeeping, laying sticks round to
represent the sides of the house, or outlining the house by pressing
up ridges of snow between their feet. Sometimes they mark out a
complicated labyrinth on the snow in this way, and the game appears to
be that one shall guard this and try to catch the others if they come
in, as in many of the games of civilized children.
[Footnote N504: Compare Parry’s Second Voyage, p. 541.]
I have already spoken of the formal children’s dances. They often also
dance by themselves, beating on old tin cans for drums. One night I
saw a party of children having quite an elaborate performance near our
station. The snow at the time was drifted up close under the eaves of
the house. On the edge of the roof sat three little boys, each beating
vigorously on an empty tomato can and singing at the top of his lungs,
while another boy and a little girl were dancing on the snow waving
their arms and singing as usual, and at the same time trying to avoid
another girl about thirteen years old, who represented a demon. She
was stooping forward, and moving slowly round in time with the music,
turning from side to side and rolling her eyes fiercely, while she
licked the blade of an open clasp knife, drawing it slowly across her
lips. They seemed intensely in earnest, and were enjoying themselves
hugely. After dancing a while at the station they went over to the
village, and as they told me the next day spent the whole night
singing in a vacant snow-house.
They also amuse themselves in the winter by sliding on their knees
down the steepest snowdrifts under the cliffs. A good deal of the
time, however, they are following their parents or other grown people,
catching little fish or fetching twigs for firewood or helping drive
the dogs, though as a rule they are not made to do any regular work
until they are pretty well grown.