The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-03
THE ABoRIGINEs OF ALASKA.
Strange People Who Until Recently
We're CannibaIS.

coast of Southern Alaska. These natives
do most of the freighting across the passes
into the interior, carrying loads on their
backs, but their population during many
centuries has been so shut away from
other tribes by gigantic ranges of snow
clad mountains that they have developed
peculiar culture and customs unknown
anywhere else. Hence the exceptional
value of a monograph about them pre-
pared by DR.. Frank Boaz, a distinguished
ethnologist, which is to be published short
ly by the national museum
These natives may be said to live large
ly in a world of Imagination, inasmuch as
their customs and habits of living are
based to a great extent upon ideas and be-
iefs wholly supernatural. Creation, from
their point of view, is peOpled by strange
monsters and demons which, while nor
maly hostile to man, may be rendered
friendly and even helpful with the aid of
certain ceremonals of quasi-religious
character. For example the most impor
tant of these monsters is a serpent which
has head at each end and a human head
in the middle of it's body. To touch it is
death. all the joints of the victim becom-
ing dislocated, but specially favored indt-
viduals are enabled to perform wonderful
its eyes used as sling stones will kill any
animal-eVen whales. Another of those
fabulous beings is a wild woman who lives
in the woods. She has enormous breasts,
and carries a basket, into which she puts
children, whom she steals for the purpose
of eating them.
One of the most remarkable of the fes-
rivals celebrated by the Indians is a car
nival of ghosts, which is held each winter.
It seems TO be derived from a tradition
that tells of a journey made by an adj
venturous individual 10 a region beneath
the EARTH inhabited by phantoms. The
celebration itself is mmicai representa-
ton of the visit to Hades aforesaid, and
the performer who represents the sub
mundane traveller wears a necklace and
head dress set round with skulls.
This festival requires elaborate prepare
tons Speaking tubes of dried giant kelp
are laid under the floor of the lodge house
so as TO terminate in the fireplace. When
the ceremonial is in progress, the perform
er disappears into a dicth previously dug
behind the fire, and then many voices are
heard coming out of the Numerically the
voices OF persons hidden in adjoining
rooms, who speak through the tubes
Later on, an image representing ghost
is seen to rise out Of the ground carrying
the performer.
The giant kelp, used in this queer way
FOR the purpose OF ueCGlNlIR an duultuCCs
is species of seaweed which grows plen-
tifuly along the northwest coast of Amer
lea. The stem of the plant is hollow-thiS
is the part employed for the speaking
tubes-and attains a length of 800 feet
bearing at its top an air-bulb, from which
a tuft of streamer-like leaves thirty or
forty feet long extends. The greater part
of the stem is no thicker than a common
window cord, very strong and flexible. 1t
is used by the aborigines of the Southern
Alaska coast for fishing lines. They pre-
pare it by stretching and drying. The up
per part of the stem, enlarged and hol-
low, is utilized as a receptacle 20 hold Oil.
The coast Indians of Southern Alaska
are essentially fishermen. They catch
seals, sea lions and whales; but their
food supply is furnished chiefly by sal
mon, halibut and candlefsh. The last
named are caught in enormous quantities
running along shore at seasons in vast
schools. They are small fish of such re-
markable fairness that by running Wlcks
through their bodies they are made to
serve as candles. Oil tried out of the cam
dlefish is kept in the kelp bottles describ-
ed The natives use the intestnes of seals
and sea lions for bow-strings and bags
and the women gather. great quantities
of sea grass, which is chopped, pressed
into square cakes, and dried for winter
proVender There is a remarkable sys-
clan has its own peculiar totem" or crest
derived from mythical origin. For in
stance, the story accounting for one of
the totems is about a man who went hunt
ing on a remote mountain range. He met
a black bear, who took him TO his home
and taught him various useful arts. Two
years later the man returned to his own
village looking just like a bear. Wise wo-
men rubbed him with magic herbs, and
he became a man again. He built a house
and painted the likeness of a bear on the
front of it, Since then his descendants
have had the bear for their crest.
The crest of a clan is carved on the
wooden toem column which stands in
front of the house of any prominent per-
sonage 1t belongs TO a limited number
of families, and passes with the name of
an ancestor to his direct descendants. But
there is only one man in the clan at a
time who personates the ancestor. The
individuals thus personating the tribal an
cestor form the nobility of the tribe. As
noblemen, they enjoy certain rights and
privileges.
Rank is acquired by the "potlatch" or
distribution of property. This kind Of cer-
emory has been often described, but has
been much misunderstood. When a nah
gives a potlatch he invites everybody
,and gives away commonly, not only all
that he possesses, but everything that he
can DOEIOW. 1 ne BlllH Usually tdht ltlE
form of blankets, which are currency in
that part of the world, being worth 80
cents each This implies no generosity
on the part Of the giver, inasmuch as the
recipients, VINO are not permitted to re.
fuse the gifts, are obliged, under penalty
of social disgrace, to return them, with
100 per cent. interest. after short time.
Thus the more a person gives away the
richer he becomes.
All along the northwest coast curiously
shaped plates Of copper are employed as
a currency of high denomination, the
blankets serving for small change. as It
were They are stamped with grotesque
faces and In former times they were man
ufactured by the Hudson Bay Company
for use in buying furs of the Indians.
In those days they were made of native
copper, found in Alaska and British Co
lombia, but now they are of imported met
al The queerest thing about them is
that they represent no constant value. A
"copper"" may be worth only two or three
blankets when new but it increases in
worth every time Il changes hands. until
It may be appraised az 1000 blankets.
Special glory attaches to a person who
gives a big feast. The most costly kind
Of an entertainment ~ grease feast, /"