Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/107

after end the deck is flat, at the fore end the nose turns up about 10 cm. The length is 6.01 m.

The Eskimos have names for all the various parts of the skeleton: the manhole: pâq; deck-beams: ajân; keel: niutsaq; gunwale: apúmaq; streaks: siánit; ribs: tikpît; heavy deck-beam in front of manhole: masik; deck-beam behind manhole: iksivautaq; stem: usuijaq; stern: aquaq; kayakstand: asaluk; harpoon-rest: akserkikut; deck-strap: tarqaq; paddle: pautik; paddle-blade: mulingit; drip-ring: naktibik.

I observed that a Ponds Inlet kayak was built in the following manner: the gunwales and stem and stern were made first; then the two deck-beams on each side of the manhole were set in, and, after these, the other deck-beams; then came the ribs, the keel and the other streaks; finally the coaming of the manhole and the skin. covering, which was made of six unhaired sealskins.

This kayak is, as will be seen, very crude and clumsy and will not easily capsize; as the Iglulik Eskimos have no special kayak-jacket which can be fastened round the manhole coaming, it cannot, however, stand much of a sea.

Regarding the kayak at Iglulik we have in Fig. 52 b a sea-kayak made for us by the Iglulingmio Aua at Qajûvfik. It is 5.60 m long, 59 cm broad; stem and stern are pointed and very little upturned. The hole is oval, 50 × 43 cm. the greatest breadth being closest to the after end. Before the hole we have a curved deck-beam of antler, like the other deck-beams mortised into the gunwales and secured by lashing; the ribs are mortised into the lower edge of the gunwales, and lashed to the keel and one streak at each side of the keel. The kayak is during the transportation flattened. Besides we have the descriptions and illustrations of Parry^[1] and Lyon.^[2] The length seems to have been about 25 feet, but of this five feet were taken up by the long, upturned stem and stern, which resemble those still used by the Caribou Eskimos. The breadth was 19 inches, the depth 10 inches; the manhole was round. The weight was 50 to 60 lbs. It does not clearly appear whether the kayaks which Parry and Lyon describe were for caribou or aquatic mammal hunting. On the plate Parry p. 508 one sees caribou hunting from kayaks with pointed stems of this kind; but a similarly pointed stem is shown on the kayak on p. 274 and which seems to be for aquatic mammal hunting, as the man is carrying it down to the beach. It would thus seem that the Iglulingmiut in former times have used a type of kayak which differed considerably from the Ponds Inlet kayak, unless Parry has not been aware of the difference and in both cases has drawn a caribou-hunting kayak.