Fig. 122.—Ivory carving with records. Alaska.
The carving, Figure 122, made of a piece of walrus tusk, was copied from the original in the museum of the Alaska Commercial Company, San Francisco, California, during the summer of 1882. Interpretations were verified by Naumoff, a Kadiak half-breed, in San Francisco at the time. The special purport of some of the characters and etchings is not apparent.
In No. 1 is a native whose left hand is resting against the house, while the right hangs toward the ground. The character to his right represents a “Shaman stick” surmounted by the emblem of a bird, a “good spirit,” in memory of some departed friend. It was suggested that the grave stick had been erected to the memory of his wife.
No. 2. Represents a reindeer, but the special import in this drawing is unknown.
No. 3. Signifies that one man, the recorder, shot and killed another with an arrow.
No. 4. Denotes that the narrator has made trading expeditions with a dog-sledge.
No. 5. Is a sail-boat, although the elevated paddle signifies that that was the manner in which the voyage was best made.
No. 6. A dog-sled, with the animal hitched up for a journey. The radiating lines in the upper left hand corner, over the head of the man, is a representation of the sun.