[ART.]
The artistic sense appears to be much more highly developed among the western Eskimo than among those of the east. Among the latter, decoration appears to be applied almost solely to the clothing, while tools and utensils are usually left plain, and if ornamented are only adorned with carving or incised lines.[511] West of the Mackenzie River, and especially south of Bering Strait, Eskimo decorative art reaches its highest development, as shown by the collections in the National Museum. Not only is everything finished with the most extreme care, but all wooden objects are gaily painted with various pigments, and all articles of bone and ivory are covered with ornamental carvings and incised lines forming conventional patterns.
There are in the collections also many objects that appear to have been made simply for the pleasure of exercising the ingenuity in representing natural or fanciful objects, and are thus purely works of art. Want of space forbids any further discussion of these interesting objects. There is in the Museum sufficient material for a large monograph on Eskimo art. As would naturally be expected, art at Point Barrow occupies a somewhat intermediate position between the highly developed art of the southwest and the simple art of the east. I have given sufficient figures in my description of their clothing and various implements to illustrate the condition of purely decorative art. A few words may be added by way of résumé. It will be noticed that whenever the bone or ivory parts of weapons are decorated the ornamentation is usually in the form of incised lines colored with red ocher or soot. These lines rarely represent any natural objects, but generally form rather elegant conventional patterns, most commonly double or single borders, often joined by oblique cross lines or fringed with short, pointed parallel lines.
A common ornament is the incised “circle and dot,” so often referred to in the foregoing descriptions. This is a circle about one-quarter inch in diameter, described as accurately as if done with compasses, with a deeply incised dot exactly in the center. This ornament is much more common south of Bering Strait, where, as Mr. L. M. Turner informs me, it is a conventionalized representation of a flower. Some of the older implements in our collection, ornamented with this figure, may have been obtained by trade from the southern natives, but the Point Barrow people certainly know how to make it, as there are a number of newly made articles in the collection thus ornamented. Unfortunately, we saw none of these objects in the process of manufacture, as they were made by the natives during odd moments of leisure, and at the time I did not realize the importance of finding out the process. No tool by which these figures could be made so accurately was ever offered for sale.
Neither Mr. Turner nor Mr. Dall, both of whom, as is well known, spent long periods among the natives of the Yukon region, ever observed the process of making this ornament. The latter, however, suggests that it is perhaps done with an improvised centerbit, made by sticking two iron points close together in the end of a handle. While weapons are decorated only with conventional patterns, other implements of bone or ivory, especially those pertaining to the chase, like the seal drags, etc., already mentioned, are frequently carved into the shape of animals, as well as being ornamented with conventional patterns. Carvings of animals’ heads usually have the mouth, nostrils, etc., indicated by blackened incisions, and often have small, colored beads, bits of wood, or ivory inlaid for the eyes. When beads are used, the perforation of the bead is generally made to represent the pupil of the eye. Beads were also used for ornamenting dishes and other wooden objects.
The harpoon blade boxes of wood carved into the shape of the animal to be pursued have been already described. Other wooden objects, like the shafts of lances, and arrows, paddles, boxes, dishes, the woodwork of snowshoes, sledges, umiaks, etc., are frequently painted either all over, or in stripes or bands. The pigment generally used is red ocher, sometimes set off with stripes of black lead. The only case in which a different pigment is used is that of some arrows from Sidaru, which, in addition to the usual black or red rings, have a rather dingy green ring round the shaft. This green looks as if it might have been derived from the “green fungus or peziza,” mentioned by Dall as in use among the ancient Aleuts.[512] The red ocher is applied smoothly in a rather thin coat which looks as if it were always put on in the manner observed by Capt. Herendeen, who saw a man painting a new sled at Utkiavwĭñ. He licked the freshly scraped wood with his tongue, so as to moisten it with saliva and then rubbed it with a lump of red ocher. The custom of painting wooden objects with red ocher seemed to be rather more common among the “Nunatañmiun,” from whom perhaps the Point Barrow people borrowed the fashion, which is not mentioned among the eastern Eskimo. Nordenskiöld states that red is the favorite color among the natives of Pitlekaj.[513]
The painting of the arrow shafts in many cases curiously resembles the marks used by modern archers to distinguish the ownership of their shafts, and may have formerly served the same purpose. We made no inquiries about the matter on the spot, and there is no certain evidence in the series of arrows collected that these are or are not marks of ownership. Some arrows, apparently the property of the same man, have different marks, while arrows from different villages are similarly marked. On examining our series of fifty arrows from the three villages (fourteen from Nuwŭk, twenty from Utkiavwĭñ, and sixteen from Sidaru) it will be seen that the commonest style of painting is to have the shaft painted red from the beginning or middle of the feathering to about one-fifth of its length from the head. Twenty arrows are marked in this way—eleven from Nuwŭk, belonging to at least two distinct sets, and nine from Utkiavwĭñ, belonging to three sets. Nine have about 8 inches of the middle of the shaft painted red, with a black ring at the middle of the feathering. Seven of these are from Sidaru, one from Nuwŭk, and one from Utkiavwĭñ. Five from Sidaru have a red ring round the middle, and a green one about the middle of the feathering, and four of the same set have also a red ring in front of the green one. Three from Utkiavwĭñ, belonging to different sets, have the shaft painted red from the middle to the beginning of the feathering, and three red rings 2 inches from the nock. Seven belonging to these sets from the two northern villages are unpainted.
A set of two small arrows which belong with the boy’s bow No. 89904 [786] are peculiar in their marking. About 5½ inches of the middle of the shaft is painted red, there is a black ring round the middle, and a black spiral running the whole length of the feathering.
The only decorative work in metal is to be seen in the pipes and their accompanying picks and fire steel which have already been described.
In addition to these illustrations of decorative art, we brought home a series of seventy-nine objects which may be considered as purely works of art without reference to decoration. Some of the older objects in this series perhaps also served the purpose of amulets or charms,[514] but a number of the new ones were made simply as works of fancy for sale to us. These objects are all carvings of various materials, sometimes very rude and sometimes very neatly finished, but in most cases even when rudely made highly characteristic of the object represented.[515] Walrus ivory, usually from the tusks, but sometimes from the teeth, is the commonest material for these carvings. Thirty-six of the series are made of this material, which is very well suited for the purpose, being worked with tolerable ease, and capable of receiving a high finish. Soapstone, from the ease with which it can be cut, is also rather a favorite material. Seventeen of these carvings are made of soapstone, in many cases evidently pieces of an old lamp or kettle. Other mineral substances appear to be rarely used. Three images, all made for sale and by the same hand, are of soft white gypsum and one tiny image of a bear is rudely flaked out of gray flint. (There are in the collection a number of rude images of whales, made by flaking from flint, jasper, and glass, but as these were ascertained without doubt to be amulets, they will be described under that head.) Eleven are made of wood, nine of bone, one of antler, and one of the tooth of the polar bear. Twenty-three of these carvings represent human beings, sometimes intentionally grotesque and caricatured; twenty-one, bowhead whales; fourteen, polar bears; five, seals; three, walruses; one, a beluga; one, a fish; and seven, fanciful monsters. Four are ornamented objects made for sale; not, strictly speaking, images.