Social life and customs
Personal Habits, Cleanliness, etc
Though the idea of cleanliness among these people differs considerably from our ideas, they are as a rule far from being as filthy as they appear at first sight. Considering the difficulty of obtaining water, even for purposes of drinking, in the winter season, the iglu, unless dirty work, like the dressing of skins, etc., is going on, is kept remarkably clean. The floor and walls are scrupulously scraped and all dirt is immediately wiped up. They are particularly careful not to bring in any snow or dirt on their feet, and the snow and hoar frost is carefully brushed off from the outer garment, which is often removed before entering the room and left in the passage. They are also careful not to spit on the floor or in the passage, but use for this purpose the large urine tub. This is practically the only offensive object in the house, as it is freely used by both sexes in the presence of the rest. This is done, however, with less exposure and immodesty than one would suppose.569
The contents of this vessel, being mixed with feces, is not fit for tanning skins, etc., and is consequently thrown out doors. The men use a small tub (kuovwĭñ) as a urinal, and the contents of this is carefully saved. Though the interior of the house is thus kept clean, as much can not be said for its surroundings. All manner of rubbish and filth is simply thrown out upon the ground, without regard to decency or comfort, and this becomes exceedingly offensive when the snow melts in summer. The only scavengers are the dogs, who greedily devour old pieces of skin, refuse meat, and even feces. In regard to personal cleanliness, there is considerable difference between individuals. Some people, especially the poorer women and children, are not only careless about their clothes, going about dressed in ragged, greasy, filthy garments, but seldom wash even their faces and hands, much less their whole persons. One of these women, indeed, was described by her grown-up daughter as “That woman with the black on her nose.”
On the other hand most of the wealthier people appear to take pride in being neatly clad, and, except when actually engaged in some dirty work, always have their faces and hands, at least, scrupulously clean and their hair neatly combed. Even the whole person is sometimes washed in spite of the scarcity of water. Many are glad to get soap (íɐkăkun) and use it freely. Lieut. Ray says that his two guides, Mû´ñialu and Apaidyào, at the end of a day’s march would never sit down to supper without washing their faces and hands with soap and water, and combing their hair, and I recollect that once, when I went over to the village to get a young man to start with Lieut. Ray on a boat journey, he would not start until he had hunted up a piece of soap and washed his face and hands. These people, of course, practice the usual Eskimo habit of washing themselves with freshly passed urine. This custom arises not only from the scarcity of water and the difficulty of heating it, but from the fact that the ammonia of the urine is an excellent substitute for soap in removing the grease with which the skin necessarily becomes soiled.570 This fact is well known to our whalemen, who are in the habit of saving their urine to wash the oily clothes with. The same habit is practiced by the “Chukches” of eastern Siberia.571 All, however, get more or less shabby and dirty in the summer, when they are living in tents and boats. All are more or less infested with lice, and they are in the habit of searching each others’ heads for these, which they eat, after the fashion of so many other savages. They have also another filthy habit—that of eating the mucus from the nostrils. A similar practice was noticed in Greenland by Egede,572 who goes on quaintly to say: “Thus they make good the old proverb, ‘What drips from the nose falls into the mouth, that nothing may be lost.’”
Salutation
We had no opportunity of witnessing any meeting between these people and strange Eskimo, so that it is impossible to tell whether they practice any particular form of salutation on such occasions. We saw nothing of the kind among themselves. White men are saluted with shouts of “Nakurúk!” (good), and some Eskimo have learned to shake hands. They no longer practice the common Eskimo salutation of rubbing noses, but say that they once did. Sergt. Middleton Smith, of our party, informs me that he once saw a couple of natives in Capt. Herendeen’s trading store give an exhibition of the way this salutation was formerly practiced.
This custom was perhaps falling into disuse as early as 1837, since Thomas Simpson,573 in describing his reception at Point Barrow, says: “We were not, however, either upon this or any other occasion, favored with the kooniks or nose-rubbing salutations that have so annoyed other travelers.” Mr. Elson, however, expressly states that the people, probably Utkiavwĭñmiun, whom he met at Refuge Inlet eleven years before, rubbed noses and cheeks with him574 and Maguire575 narrates how the head of the party of visitors from Point Hope saluted him. He says: “He fixed his forehead against mine and used it as a fulcrum to rub noses several times.”
Healing
As is the case with Eskimo generally, these people rely for curing disease chiefly upon the efforts of certain persons who have the power of exorcising the supernatural beings by whom the disease is caused. A large number of men and, I believe, some women were supposed to have this power and exercise it in cases of sickness, in some instances, at least, upon the payment of a fee. These people correspond closely to the angekut of the Greenlanders and Eastern Eskimo, and the so-called “shamans” of southern Alaska, but, as far as we could see, do not possess the power and influence usually elsewhere ascribed to this class.
It was exceedingly difficult to obtain any definite information concerning these people, and we only discovered casually that such and such a person was a “doctor” by hearing that he had been employed in a certain case of sickness, or to perform some ceremony of incantation. We did not even succeed in learning the name of this class of people, who, in talking with us, would call themselves “tûktĕ,” as they did our surgeon. On one occasion some of the party happened to visit the house of a sick man where one of these “doctors” was at work. He sat facing the entrance of the house, beating his drum at intervals, and making a babbling noise with his lips, followed by long speeches addressed to something down the trapdoor, bidding it “go!” We were given to understand that these speeches were addressed to a tuɐña or supernatural being.576 Their only idea of direct treatment of disease is apparently to apply a counterirritant by scarification of the surface of the part affected.
We know of one case where a sufferer from some liver complaint had inflicted on himself, or had had inflicted upon him, quite a considerable cut on the right side with a view of relieving the pain. We also know of several cases where the patients had themselves cut on the scalp or back to relieve headache or rheumatism, and one case where the latter disorder, I believe, had been treated by a severe cut on the side of the knee. A similar practice has been observed at Plover Bay, Siberia, by Hooper,577 who also mentions the use of a kind of seton for the relief of headache.
They also practice a sort of rough-and-ready surgery, as in the case of the man already mentioned, whose feet had both been amputated. One of the men who lost the tip of his forefinger by the explosion of a cartridge was left with a stump of bone protruding at the end of the finger. Our surgeon attempted to treat this, but after two unsuccessful trials to etherize the patient he was obliged to give it up. When, however, the young man’s father-in-law, who was a noted “doctor,” came home he said at once that the stump must come off, and the patient had to submit to the operation without ether. The “doctor” tried to borrow Dr. Oldmixon’s bone forceps, and when these were refused him cut the bone off, I believe, with a chisel. They appear to have no cure for blindness. We heard nothing of the curious process of “couching” described by Egede in Greenland, p. 121. We had no opportunity of observing their methods of treating wounds or other external injuries. Sufferers were very glad to be treated by our surgeon, and eagerly accepted his medicines, though he had considerable difficulty in making them obey his directions about taking care of themselves.
After they had been in the habit of receiving the surgeon’s medicine for some time, one of the Utkiavwĭñ natives gave Capt. Herendeen what he said was their own medicine. It is a tiny bit of turf which they called nuna kĭñmölq, and which, therefore, probably came from the highland of the upper Meade River, which region bears the name of Kĭñmölq. We were able to get very little information about this substance, but my impression is that it was said to be administered internally, and I believe was specially recommended for bleeding at the lungs. Possibly this is the same as “the black moss that grows on the mountain,” which, according to Crantz578 was eaten by the Greenlanders to stop blood-spitting.