Notwithstanding the fact that these people have had their lot cast upon
the frozen shores of the sea, they appear happy and contented and loath
to leave the land of their birth. Although it is a constant struggle
amidst the terrible storms of a region where for eight months in the
year the soil is frozen and the few warm days of summer bring forth a
scanty vegetation, yet so strong is their love for these inhospitable
shores that the absent pine for a return and soon lose their hold on
life if they are not able to do so.
During the intervals between the hunts and when food is still plentiful,
the Eskimo, divert themselves with games of various kinds of their own.
They are also quick to adopt other games which require outdoor exercise.
Football calls out everybody, from the aged and bent mother of a
numerous family to the toddling youngster scarcely able to do more than
waddle under the burden of his heavy deerskin clothes. Wrestling among
the men is indulged in for hours at a time. The opponents remove all
their superfluous garments, seize each other around the waist and lock
hands behind each other's backs. The feet are spread widely apart and
each endeavors to draw, by the strength of the arms alone, the back of
his opponent into a curve and thus bring him off his feet. Then with a
lift he is quickly thrown flat on his back. The fall must be such that
the head touches the ground. Where the contestants are nearly matched
the struggle may continue so long that one of them gives up from
exhaustion. The feet are never used for tripping. Such a procedure would
soon cause the witnesses to stop the struggle.
The Eskimo and Indians often engage in comparative tests of their
strength in wrestling. The Eskimo prove the better men in these
engagements. Throwing stones at a mark is a sport for the younger men,
some of whom acquire surprising dexterity.
If a pack of playing-cards can be obtained they engage in games which
they have learned from the white people and teach each other. Small
stakes are laid on the result of the game. The women appear to exhibit a
greater passion for gambling than the men do. They will wager the last
article of clothing on their persons till the loser appears in a nude
condition before spectators. Then the winner will usually return at
least a part of the clothing, with an injunction to play more and lose
less.
The young girls often play the game of taking an object and secreting it
within the closed hand. Another is called upon to guess the contents.
She makes inquiries as to the size, color, etc., of the object. From the
answers she gradually guesses what the thing is.
A favorite game, something like cup and ball, is played with the
following implements: A piece of ivory is shaped into the form of an
elongate cone and has two deep notches or steps cut from one side
(Fig. 75). In the one next the base are bored a number of small holes
and one or two holes in the upper step. The apex has a single hole. On
the opposite side of the base two holes are made obliquely, that they
will meet, and through them is threaded a short piece of thong. To the
other end of the thong is attached a peg of ivory, about 4 inches long.
The game is that the person holding the plaything shall, by a dextrous
swing of the ball, catch it upon the ivory peg held in the hand. The
person engages to catch it a certain number of times in succession, and
on failure to do so allows the opponent to try her skill. The skull of a
hare is often substituted for the ivory "ball," and a few perforations
are made in the walls of the skull to receive the peg. It requires a
great amount of practice to catch the ball, as the string is so short
that one must be quick to thrust the peg in before it describes the part
of a small circle.
[Illustration: FIG. 75.--Cup and ball. Koksoagmyut.]
The children sometimes use a stick or other sharp-pointed instrument to
make a series of straight lines in the newly fallen snow and at the same
time repeat certain gibberish. This was at first very confusing to me,
but a woman repeated the words and I guessed from her description where
the idea sprang from.
These people had heard of the teachings of the Labrador missionaries
(Moravians), all of whom are Germans, and as the Eskimo of that coast
use the German numerals in preference to their own, the natives of that
region have at some time repeated the names of those numerals to certain
of the Hudson strait people and they have taught each other.
The names of the German numerals as sounded by the Koksoagmyut are as
follows. The numbers are one to fifteen, consecutively:
Ái i; chu vái i; ta lái i; pi û´ la; pi li pi; tsék si; tsé pa; ák ta;
nái na; tsé na; ái lu pûk; chu vái lu puk; ta lak si na; pi ûk´ si na,
and pi lip´ si na.
I have already referred to the game of football as played by these
people.
[Illustration: FIG. 76.--Football and driver. Koksoagmyut.]
Fig. 76 represents the football (No. 3070) and the whip for driving it.
The Eskimo are very fond of this game. All the people of every age, from
the toddling infant to the aged female with bended back, love to urge
the aí uk toúk, as the ball is termed. The size of the ball varies from
3 to 7 inches in diameter. They have not yet arrived at perfection in
making a spherical form for the ball, but it is often an apple shape. It
is made by taking a piece of buckskin, or sealskin, and cutting it into
a circular form, then gathering the edges and stuffing the cavity with
dry moss or feathers. A circular piece of skin is then inserted to fill
the space which is left by the incomplete gatherings. This ball is very
light and is driven either by a blow from the foot or else by a whip of
peculiar construction. This whip consists of a handle of wood 8 to 12
inches in length. To prevent it from slipping out of the hand when the
blow is struck, a stout thong of sealskin is made into the form of a
long loop which is passed over the hand and tightens around the wrist.
To the farther end of the whip handle are attached a number of stout
thongs of heavy sealskin. These thongs have their ends tied around the
handle and thus form a number of loops of 12 to 20 inches in length.
These are then tied together at the bottom in order to give them greater
weight when the ball is struck by them. A lusty Eskimo will often send
the ball over a hundred yards through the air with such force as to
knock a person down.
[Illustration: FIG. 77.--Dominoes. Hudson Strait Eskimo.]
At Fort Chimo the game is played during the late winter afternoons when
the temperature is 30° or 40° below zero. It is exciting and vigorous
play where a large crowd joins in the game.
Sometimes the ball is in the form of two irregular hemispheres joined
together, making a sphere which can be rolled only in a certain
direction. It is very awkward and produces much confusion by its erratic
course. Nos. 3461, 3287, and 3460 are footballs of the pattern first
described.
The Innuit who come from the western end of Hudson strait, the so-called
"Northerners," have a game which they play with sets of pieces of ivory
cut into irregular shapes, and marked on one face with spots arranged in
different patterns (Fig. 77). The number of pieces in a set varies from
60 to 148. The name of the set is Á ma zu´ a lát, and somewhat resembles
our game of dominoes.
The game is played in the following manner: Two or more persons,
according to the number of pieces in the set, sit down and pile the
pieces before them. One of the players mixes the pieces together in
plain view of the others. When this is done he calls them to take the
pieces. Each person endeavors to obtain a half or third of the number if
there be two or three players. The one who mixed up the pieces lays down
a piece and calls his opponent to match it with a piece having a similar
design. If this can not be done by any of the players the first has to
match it and the game continues until one of the persons has exhausted
all of the pieces taken by him. The pieces are designed in pairs, having
names such as Ka miú tik (sled), Kaiak (canoe), Kalé sak (navel), Á ma
zut (many), a taú sïk (1), Má kok (2), Pïng a sut (3), Si tá mût (4),
and Tá li mat (5). Each of the names above must be matched with a piece
of similar kind, although the other end of the piece may be of a
different design. A Kamutik may be matched with an Amazut if the latter
has not a line or bar cut across it; if it has the bar it must be
matched with an Amazut.
[Illustration: FIG. 78.--Eskimo doll, man.]
This game is known to the people of the Ungava district, but those only
who have learned it from the Northerners are able to play it. The
northern Eskimo stake the last article they possess on the issue of the
game. Their wives are disposed of temporarily, and often are totally
relinquished to the victor. I have heard that the wives so disposed of
often sit down and win themselves back to their former owners.
[Illustration: FIG. 79.--Eskimo doll, woman.]
The little girls play with dolls like civilized children, and build
little snow huts, where they have all their playthings and play at
keeping house. The collection contains eleven dolls, most of them
elaborately and accurately dressed, as shown by the illustrations (Figs.
78, 79, 80, 81) and large quantities of doll clothing.
The only musical instrument which I observed among these people was a
violin of their own manufacture, made, of course, in imitation of those
they had seen used by the whites. Its form is sufficiently well shown by
the figure (Fig. 82), and is made of birch, or spruce, and the two
strings are of coarse, loosely twisted sinew. The bow has a strip of
whalebone in place of horsehair, and is resined with spruce gum. This
fiddle is held across the lap when played.
[Illustration: FIG. 80.--Eskimo doll, woman.]
The old woman of whom I procured the instrument was able to play several
airs--such as they sing among themselves. I was surprised at the
facility with which she made the various notes on such a crude imitation
of a violin.