Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/105

Only at Ponds Inlet does it seem to be holding its own; in the summer of 1923 there were six kayaks there, and of these one was newly built whilst a seventh was in course of construction. The cause of Image missingFig. 52.Kayaks. the relatively small use of the kayak in this area is partly to be found in the comparatively short period during which the sea is not covered with ice and partly in the introduction of the whaleboat and, finally, in the fact that caribou hunting from the kayak has been entirely displaced by hunting with the gun.

But if the kayak has disappeared from the southern part of the area, it has been there so recently that most middle-aged men have seen it and most of the older men have used it.

In former days the Iglulik Eskimos seem to have had two different kayaks, each for its own purpose: one for caribou hunting on lakes and rivers and one for hunting aquatie mammals; they varied somewhat in form and there were strict taboo rules against using them for anything else than what they were intended for. Of these, the kayak for caribou hunting seems to have disappeared entirely; there are, however, old men still alive who have used it. The present kayak is only used on the sea.

Fig. 52 a is a kayak from Ponds Inlet with its paddle and kayak-stand. The length is 5.85 metres, the breadth 62 cm, height from bottom to upper edge of the coaming 36 cm; the manhole is straight at the back, rounded at the front, 47 cm wide, 52 cm long, the frame 7 cm high. There are three deck-straps: in front and behind the manhole and far to the fore end; the latter is held by two bone eyes whilst the other two are sewn on. Just to the right of the coaming is a rest for the harpoon, saddle-shaped, 8 cm long, of antler with a wooden peg in the end. The kayak-stand is made of a bent wooden band and two cross-stays, the long one 57 cm long and 6 cm wide; the band is 38 and 34½ cm in diameter, 3½ cm wide; in the right end of the