Alaska -- Antiquities; Eskimos; Eskimos -- Anthropometry; Indians of North America -- Alaska; Indians of North America -- Yukon
On the way am called by a man whose sod house (semisubterranean) we
pass. We sit on the top of his house and soon establish a regular
trading place, with a big flat stone as a counter. One after another
the native women and men bring out a few articles, good, bad, or
indifferent, lay them on the stone, I select what I want, lay so much
money against the articles, and usually get them. Everybody in the best
of humor. The natives surely enjoy the sport, and so do I, if only I
was not hurried. Thus trade for at least an hour until my pockets are
bulging. Then once more to the school and once more to the mission. In
the latter get my things, as nobody is there yet, Doctor Goodman having
doubtless been delayed on the boat. I hear that there are prospects
of both him and Mr. La Voy going north with us on a little vacation.
Send the coat with spare bags to the school by a native I meet, while I
go to look at the rib cemetery and photograph it. Find the bones have
been interred in its middle and a low mound raised over them, so there
is for the moment nothing to do there. Therefore go over the plain a
little farther, picking up a few odds and ends, a damaged skull, and
finally, from a fairly recent burial box, a fine skull with its lower
jaw. Then attempt to pass a pool of water and sink in the mud to above
my rubber boots, so that the icy water runs in, wetting me thoroughly,
and gurgling henceforth with every step in the shoes. Try to get these
off but can not. The feet must be congested. So spill out all I can by
raising the feet, and then do some hard walking which takes away the
cold.
Evening, though no dusk approaching. Sit on gravel to empty more
water from shoes, but can still hardly get one off. And just as I
succeed I see, across another long pool, two men, one with a cap of
an officer of the ship, waving their arms, evidently signifying to
me that the time is up and I am to return. Call to them to wait.
Impossible to make them hear me or for me to hear them. All here is
elusive--enchanted-like--distances, sounds. Finally they stop. I catch
up with them after passing a broad ditch, and learn that the ship
is about to sail and they are waiting for me. My coat, however, and
collections are still at the school, over a mile away, so once more
it is necessary to hurry to the school and then back to the ship. So
things go when promises go wrong and one is alone under a constant
apprehension.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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