Among the more northern tribes much of the food is eaten raw, and nothing is thrown away, no matter how rotten or offensive it has become.

Some of their choicest delicacies would be particularly disgusting to us: Having, at one of the bird rookeries in the Arctic, gathered a number of eggs, it was found that many of them contained chickens. When about to throw them overboard, the native interpreter remonstrated, saying: "No! me eat them. Good!"

All classes have a great craving for tobacco and liquor. Even nursing babes are seen with a quid of tobacco in their mouths.

During the summer large quantities of fish are dried, and the oil of the seal, walrus, and whale put up for winter use. The oil is kept in bags made of the skin of the seal, similar to the water-skins of Oriental lands. The oil is kept sweet by the bags being buried in the frozen earth until wanted for use.

DWELLINGS.

The coast Eskimo have underground permanent houses in villages for winter, and tents that are frequently shifted for summer.

-The Eskimo of the interior, being largely nomads, live in tents much of the time. The tents are covered with reindeer skins, walrus hides, or cotton canvas. In making a winter house, a cellar from 20 to 25 feet square is dug, from 3 to 5 feet deep. At the corners and along the sides of the excavation are set posts of driftword or whalebone. On the outside of these, poles of driftwood are laid up one upon another to the top. Other timbers are placed across the top, forming the roof or ceiling. Against the outside and upon the roof, dirt and sod are piled until the whole has the appearance of a large mound. In the center of the dome is an opening about 18 inches across. Across this is stretched the transparent bladder of the seal or walrus. This opening furnishes light to the room below. A narrow platform extends along one or more sides of the room, upon which are stowed the belongings of the family and the reindeer-skin bedding. The platform is also the sleeping-place of the family.

Large, shallow dishes of earthenware, bone, or stone, filled with seal oil, are the combined stove and lamp of the family. Some lighted moss makes a dull line of flame along the edge of the dish. Frequently a piece of blubber is suspended over the flame, the dripping of which keeps the lamp replenished.

Many of the houses were so warm that we found our usual outdoor clothing burdensome.

At one side of some rooms, and in the floor near the center of the room in others, is a small opening about 20 inches square. This is the doorway, and leads to a hall or outside room. If the opening is in the side of the room, a reindeer skin curtain hangs over it. This outer place is sometimes a hall 12 to 15 feet long and 2 feet wide and high, leading to a well or shaft. This shaft is 6 or 7 feet deep, and leads up a rude ladder into the open air. In other cases it is a large room 12 or 15 feet square, containing, on either side of the passageway through the center, a place to store the winter supplies of oil, fish, and flour. The exit from the storeroom is similar to that from the hall, up a ladder and through a small hole. When a storm is raging outside this hole is covered with a board or flat stone or large, flat whalebone.

All villages of importance contain a public room or town hall. This is built in the same manner as the private dwellings, only much larger. Some of these are 60 feet square, 20 feet high, and contain three tiers or platforms. This building is called the kashima or kashga. In them are held the public festivals and dances. They are also the common workshop in which the men make their snowshoes, dog sleds, spears and other implements.

The villages, from the deck of a coasting vessel, have the appearance of so many hillocks or dunes along the beach.

IMPLEMENTS.

The Eskimo of Arctic Alaska are still in the stone age. The manufacture of arrows and spear heads from flint is a living industry. Stone lamps, stone hammers and chisels, and to some extent stone knives, are still in ordinary use among them. Fish lines and nets and bird snares are still made of whalebone, sinew, or rawhide. Arrows, spears, nets, and traps are used in hunting, although improved breach loading arms are being introduced among them, and will soon supersede, for the larger game, their own more primitive weapons.

For transportation on land they have the snowshoe, dog team, and sled; and on the water the kiak and umiak.

The kiak is a long, narrow, light, graceful, skin-covered canoe, with one, two, or three holes, according to the number of people to be carried. It is the universal boat of the Eskimo, and is found from Greenland around the whole northern coast of America, wherever that people are found.

The umiak is a long, skin-covered boat. This is the family boat or carryall. Those in use around Bering Straits are about 24 feet long and 5 feet wide. They will safely carry 15 persons and 500 pounds of freight, coasting in the sea. Those on Kotzebue Sound, in the Arctic Ocean, are 35 feet long, 6 feet wide, with a capacity of 3,000 pounds of freight, and a crew of 6. There are exceptionally large ones that will carry from 50 to 80 people. Both the kiaks and umiaks are made of walrus, sea lion, or white whale hides stretched over light frames of spruce wood.

MARRIAGE.

There seems to be no special ceremony among them connected with marriage. If the parties are young people, it is largely arranged by the parents.

Among some of the tribes the husband joins his wife's family and is expected to hunt and fish for them. If he refuses to give his father-in-law the furs he takes he is driven out of the house and some one else more active or obedient is installed as husband of the girl. Sometimes a young woman has ten or twelve husbands before she fairly settles down. Under this condition of things it is not strange that the women become indifferent and often untrue to their husbands. Love and mutual affection has so little to do with the relation that upon occasion husbands and wives are interchanged.

For instance, in one of the northern villages dwelt a family of expert fishers and another that was successful at hunting the reindeer. One year the fisherman thought he would like to hunt reindeer. Finding that his neighbor would like to try fishing, they exchanged wives for the summer. The woman who was a good hunter went off with the fisherman and vice versa. Upon reaching home in the fall, they returned to their respective husbands.

Again a certain man wished to make a long journey into the interior. His wife being sick and unable to endure the hardships of the trip, he arranged with a friend, who had a strong, healthy wife, for an exchange until he should return. This was done with the consent of all parties. Wives are frequently beaten by their husbands, and sometimes, to escape abuse, commit suicide. In the winter of 1889 a woman at Point Hope who had been beaten and stabbed by her jealous husband one night during a raging blizzard harnessed the dogs to the sled, then fastening one end of a rope to the sled and the other as a noose around her neck, she started up the team and was choked and dragged to death. Occasionally a wife resists, and, if physically the stronger, thrashes the husband. Polygamy prevails to a limited extent. Frequently the second wife is looked on and treated as a servant in the family. Among some of the tribes the custom prevails of the sons having the same number of wives as the father, without reference to their ability to maintain them. No more, no less, than a species of hereditary polygamy.

Among the Eskimo, the same as among all uncivilized people, woman's is a hard lot. One of the missionary ladies writes: "My heart aches for the girls of our part of Alaska. They are made perfect prostitutes by their parents from the time they are 9 or 10 years old until that parent dies. And yet, notwithstanding all their disadvantages, they have a voice in both family and village affairs. The husband makes no important bargain, or plans a trip, without consulting and deferring to his wife."

The customs pertaining to childbirth are barbarous, and it would not be strange if both mother and child should perish. Large families of children are the exception; few have above four. The drudgery of women is such that they often destroy their unborn and sometimes born offspring, particularly if the child is a girl. A missionary gives the following incident: "Some one tied a helpless little child of about two years down to the water's edge at low tide. Its cries attracted the attention of a passer-by, who found the water already nearly up to his back. The man took it to his home-and cared for it. It was recognized as a child that had been left in the care of an old woman; the child was sickly, and doubtless was too much of a care for her. The only surprise expressed by the people was that any one should want to drown or kill a boy."

If a family is very poor they sometimes give away to childless neighbors all their children but one. Thus, during childhood, a boy may pass from one to another to be adopted by several families in turn. Children are also sold by their parents, the usual market price of a child being a sealskin bag of oil or an

old suit of clothes. During infancy children are carried under the parka, astride of the mother's back, being held in position by a strap under the child's thighs and around the mother's body across the chest. When out from under the parka, they are carried seated on the back of the mother's neck and shoulders, with the child's legs hanging down in front on both sides of the neck. The children are given the names of various animals, birds, fish, sections of country, winds, tides, heavenly bodies, etc. Sometimes they have as many as six names. Children are rarely punished-generally have their own way, and are usually treated with great kindness by their own or foster parents. Prominent events in the life of a boy, such as having his hair cut for the first time, like a hunter-his first trip to sea in a kiak--his first use of snowshoes, etc.-are celebrated by a feast if the family are not too poor.

FESTIVALS.

Different tribes have different festivals. Among others there is usually one for every animal hunted by the people. A whale dance, seal, walrus and reindeer dances, etc. There are festivities for the spirits of wives, land and sea, dead friends, sleds, boats, etc. Some of these are held during the long winter darkness, and others, with dancing, wrestling, and foot-racing, at the great annual gathering in summer.

SUPERSTITIONS.

Like all other ignorant people, they are firm believers in witchcraft and spirits generally. They also believe in the transmigration of souls. That spirits enter into animals and inanimate nature, into rocks, winds, and tides. That they are good or bad according as the business, the community, or the individual is successful or unsuccessful, and that these conditions can be changed by sorcery. By suitable incantations they firmly believe that they can control the wind and the elements, that they can reward friends and punish enemies.

The foundation of their whole religious system is this belief in spirits and the appeasing of evil spirits. This demon or evil spirit worship colors their whole life and all its pursuits. Every particular animal hunted, every phenomenon of nature, every event of life, requires a religious observance of its own. It is a heavy and burdensome work that darkens their life-it leads to many deeds of unnatural cruelty. At the mouth of the Kuskokwine River an old woman was accused of having caused the death of several children—of being a witch. This was so firmly believed that her own husband pounded her to death, cut up her body into small pieces, severing joint from joint, and then consuming it with oil in a fire.

SHAMANS.

The head and front of this great evil is the Shaman, or sorcerer. He is believed to be the only one that can control the evil spirits and protect the people from them. Mr. John W. Kelly, who has written recently an interesting monogram on the Eskimo, represents the Shamans as divided into seven degrees, being graded according to their knowledge of spiritualism, ventriloquism, feats of legerdemain and general cunning. It is claimed that those of the seventh degree are immortal, and can neither be killed nor wounded; that those of the sixth degree can be wounded, but not killed. The ordinary Shaman belongs to the lower degrees and only claims to go into trances, in which state his spirit leaves the body and roams abroad procuring the information his patrons are in search of.

As a rule the Shamans are unscrupulous frauds, thieves, and murderers, and should be put down by the strong hand of the General Government.

SICKNESS.

The prevailing diseases among the Eskimo are scrofula, diphtheria, pneumonia, and consumption, and the death rate is large. They have a superstitious fear with reference to a death in the house, so that when the sick are thought to be nearing death they are carried out of the home and placed in an outhouse. If they do not die as soon as they expect, they ask to be killed, which is usually done by the Shaman stabbing them in the temple or breast. The aged and help

less are also sometimes killed at their own request. A prominent man in a tribe not long since tried to hire men to kill his aunt, who was insane and dependent on him. Failing to have her killed, he deliberately froze her to death. The cruelty of heathenism is almost beyond belief. The dead are wrapped up in reindeer or seal skins and drawn on a sled back of the village, where they are placed upon elevated scaffolds, out of the reach of animals, or upon the ground and covered over with driftwood, or, as among some of the tribes, left upon the ground, to be soon torn in pieces and devoured by the dogs of the village.

GOVERNMENT.

The Eskimos have no tribal organization and are without chiefs. The most successful trader among them becomes the wealthiest man and is called Umailik. By virtue of the influence that riches exert he is considered the leader in business transactions. In special exigencies, affecting a whole village, the old men assemble and determine upon a plan of action. The Shamans also have great influence among the people. It often happens that the Umailik and Shaman are the same person.

FOOD SUPPLY.

From time immemorial they have lived upon the whale, the walrus, and the seal of their coasts, the fish and aquatic birds of their rivers, and the caribou or wild reindeer of their vast inland plains.

The supply of these in years past was abundant and furnished ample food for all the people. But fifty years ago American whalers, having largely exhausted the whale in other waters, found their way into the North Pacific Ocean. Then commenced for that section the slaughter and destruction of whales that went steadily forward at the rate of hundreds and thousands annually, until they were destroyed and driven out of the Pacific Ocean. They were then followed into Bering Sea, and the slaughter went on. The whales took refuge among the ice fields of the Arctic Ocean, and thither the whalers followed. In this relentless hunt the remnant have been driven still farther into the inaccessible regions around the north pole, and are no longer within reach of the natives.

As the great herds of buffalo that once roamed the western prairies have been exterminated for their pelts, so the whales have been sacrificed for the fat that encased their bodies and the bone that hung in their mouths. With the destruction of the whale one large source of food supply for the natives has been cut off.

Another large supply was derived from the walrus, which once swarmed in great numbers in those northern seas. But commerce wanted more ivory, and the whalers turned their attention to the walrus, destroying thousands annually for the sake of their tusks. Where a few years ago they were so numerous that their bellowings were heard above the roar of the waves and grinding and crashing of the ice fields, this year I cruised for weeks without seeing or hearing one. The walrus as a source of food supply is already practically extinct.

The seal and sea lion, once so common in Bering Sea, are now becoming so scarce that it is with difficulty that the natives procure a sufficient number of skins to cover their boats, and their flesh, on account of its rarity, has become a luxury.

In the past the natives, with tireless industry, caught and cured for use in their long winters great quantities of fish, but American canneries have already come to one of their streams (Nushagak) and will soon be found on all of them, both carrying the food out of the country and by their wasteful methods destroying the future supply. Five million cans of salmon annually shipped away from Alaska-and the business still in its infancy-means starvation to the native races in the near future.

With the advent of improved breech-loading firearms the wild reindeer are both being killed off and frightened away to the remote and more inaccessible regions of the interior and another source of food supply is diminishing. Thus the support of the people is largely gone and the process of slow starvation and extermination has commenced along the whole Arctic coast of Alaska. Villages that once numbered thousands have been reduced to hundreds; of some tribes but two or three families remain. At Point Barrow, in 1828, Capt. Beechey's expedition found Nuwuk a village of 1,000 people; in 1863 there were

309; now there are not over 100. In 1826 Capt. Beechey speaks of finding a large population at Cape Franklin; to-day it is without an inhabitant. He also mentions a large village of 1,000 to 2,000 people on Schismareff Inlet; it has now but three houses.

According to Mr. John W. Kelly, who has written a monograph upon the Arctic Eskimo of Alaska, Point Hope, at the commencement of the century, had a population of 2,000; now it has about 350. Mr. Kelly further says: The Kavea county is almost depopulated owing to the scarcity of game, which has been killed or driven away. ** * * The coast tribes between Point Hope and Point Barrow have been cut down in population so as to be almost obliterated. The Kookpovoros of Point Lay have only three huts left; the Ootookas of Icy Cape one hut; the Koogmute has three settlements of from one to four families; Sezaro has about 80 people."

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Mr. Henry D. Woolfe, who has spent many years in the Arctic region, writes: "Along the seacoast from Wainright Inlet to Point Lay numerous remains of houses testify to the former number of the people. From Cape Seppings to Cape Krusenstern and inland to Nounatok River there still remain about 40 people, the remnant of a tribe called Key-wah-ling-nach-ah-mutes. They will in a few years entirely disappear as a distinctive tribe."

I myself saw a number of abandoned villages and crumbling houses during the summer, and wherever I visited the people I heard the same tale of destitution. On the island of Attou, once famous for the number of its sea-otter skins, the catch for the past nine years has averaged but 3 sea-otter and 25 fox skins, an annual income of about $2 for each person. The Alaska Commercial Company this past summer sent $1,300 worth of provisions to keep them from starving. At Akutan the whole catch for the past summer was 19 sea otters. This represents the entire support of 100 people for twelve months. At Unalaska both the agent of the Alaska Commercial Company and the teacher of the Government school testified that there would be great destitution among the people this winter because of the disappearance of the sea otter. At St. George Island the United States Treasury agent testified that there was not sufficient provisions on the island to fast through the season, and asked that a Government vessel might be sent with a full supply. At Cape Prince of Wales, Point Hope, and Point Barrow was the same account of short supply of food. At the latter place intimations were given that the natives in their distress would break into the Government warehouse and help themselves to the supply that is in store for shipwrecked whalers. At Point Barrow, largely owing to the insufficient food supply, the death rate is reported to the birth rate as 15 to 1. It does not take long to figure out the end. They will die off more and more rapidly as the already insufficient food supply becomes less and less.

INTRODUCTION OF REINDEER.

In this crisis it is important that steps should be taken at once to afford relief. Relief can, of course, be afforded by Congress voting an appropriation to feed them, as it has done for so many of the North American Indians. But I think that every one familiar with the feeding process among the Indians will devoutly wish that it may not be necessary to extend that system to the Eskimo of Alaska. It would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, and, worse than that, degrade, pauperize, and finally exterminate the people. There is a better, cheaper, more practical, and more humane way, and that is to introduce into northern Alaska the domesticated reindeer of Siberia, and train the Eskimo young men in their management, care, and propagation.

This would in a few years create as permanent and secure a food supply for the Eskimo as cattle or sheep raising in Texas or New Mexico does for the people of those sections.

It may be necessary to afford temporary relief for two or three years to the Eskimo, until the herds of domestic reindeer can be started, but after that the people will be self-supporting.

As you well know, in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Lapland and Siberia the domesticated reindeer is food, clothing, house,furniture,implements, and transportation to the people. Its milk and flesh furnish food: its marrow and tongue are considered choice delicacies; its blood, mixed with the contents of ifs stomach, is made into a favorite dish called in Siberia "manyalla;" its intestines are cleaned, filled with tallow, and eaten as a sausage; its skin is made into clothes, bedding, tent covers, reindeer harness, ropes, cords, and fish lines; the hard skin of the forelegs makes an excellent covering for snowshoes.