Fig. 412.—Soapstone image of imaginary animal.
Fig. 412 (No. 89567 [904] from Nuwŭk) represents an imaginary quadruped 2.5 inches long, with a short, thick body and legs, no neck, and a human head, with the eyes and mouth incised. It is roughly carved from light gray soapstone, and ground pretty smooth. This figure is not new, and has probably connected with it some story which we did not succeed in learning. The seller called it an “old man.” No. 89332 [994] from Nuwŭk, is a fanciful monster, 4.2 inches long, carved in ivory. It has a human head with the tusks of a walrus, the body, tail, and flippers of a seal, with human arms. The hands, each of which has four fingers, clasp some round object against the belly. It is not old, but apparently was not made for the market. It was called a “walrus man;” but we did not learn whether it was simply a fancy figure or whether there was any story connected with it.
Fig. 413.—Ivory carving, seal with fish’s head.
Fig. 413 (No. 89329 [1101] from Nuwŭk) is another monster, 3.9 inches long, carved in ivory. It has a fish’s head with large canine teeth, and a seal’s body, tail, and hind flippers. The eyes, nostrils, gill slits, the outlines of the tail, and the toes, of which there are six on each flipper, are incised and blackened. A row of nineteen small round pits, filled with dark colored dirt runs nearly straight from the nape to the tail.
Fig. 414.—Ivory carving, ten-legged bear.
Fig. 414 (No. 89339 [1099] from Nuwŭk) is a newly made ivory figure, which is interesting from its resemblance to one of the fabulous animals which figure in the Greenland legends. It is 4 inches long and represents a long-necked bear with ten legs, an animal which the maker gave us to understand had once been seen at Point Barrow. The resemblance of this animal to the “kiliopak” or “kilifvak” of the Greenland stories, which is described as “an animal with six or even ten feet”[518] is quite striking.