[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.
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.
Fig. 380.—Mechanical doll: drum player.