Fig. 424.—Amulet of whaling; stuffed godwit.
No. 89527-8 [1327] from Utkiavwĭñ is the charm which will secure good success in deerhunting if it is hung up outside of the snow house in which the family is encamped. It consists of two roughly stuffed skins of the black bellied plover (Charadrius squatarola), each with a stick run through the body so that one end supports the neck and the other the tail, and the necks wound with sinew. One has no head. A string of sinew braid is tied around the body of each, so as to leave a free end at the back, to which is fastened a little cross piece of bone, by which it may be secured to a becket. Like the rest of the amulets in the collection this has evidently seen service, being very old, worn, and faded.
The other class of amulets, namely objects which have belonged to or been in contact with certain persons or supernatural beings, or I may add apparently certain localities, is represented by a number of specimens. To the custom of using such things as amulets, we undoubtedly owe the preservation of most of the ancient weapons and other implements, especially those made of wood, bone, or other perishable substances, like the ancient harpoon heads already described, one of which, No. 89544 [1419], is still attached to the belt on which it was worn.
Fig. 425.—Amulet consisting of ancient jade adz.
Fig. 425, No. 56668 [308], from Utkiavwĭñ is one of the ancient black jade adzes 5.1 inches, slung with thong and whalebone, making a becket by which it can be hung up. We did not learn the history of this amulet, which at the time of collecting it was supposed to be a net sinker. There would, however, be no reason for using so valuable an object for such a purpose, when a common beach pebble would do just as well, unless it was intended as a charm to insure success in fishing. It may even have been carried as a charm on the person, since we afterwards saw a still more bulky object used for such a purpose.
Such an object seems rather heavy to be carried on the person, but a well known man in Utkiavwĭñ always carried with him when he went sealing a large pear-shaped stone, which must have weighed upwards of two pounds, suspended somewhere about his person. It is not unlikely that this stone acquired its virtue as an amulet from having been a sinker used by some lucky fisherman in former time or in a distant country. Mr. H. W. Henshaw has already referred to the resemblance of this amulet to the plummet-like “medicine stones” of some of our Indians.[632]