Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/108

I have not seen the only kayak now left in the Iglulik area; but the Eskimos told me that it does not in any way differ from the Ponds Inlet kayak, so much the more as its owner has lived a long time in northern Baffin Land.

As regards the Aiviliks, an old man at Repulse Bay described how their kayaks were built; he could not remember whether there was a difference of design between the sea and the lake kayak. The skeleton only differed from the Ponds Inlet type described above in that the deck-beams were morticed into the gunwales and also lashed, and the ribs were also most frequently morticed into the gunwales. The keel was laid on the outside of the ribs, and these were bound Fig. 56.Stitches in kayak-skin. together by a cross-lashing (Fig. 56 a). The manhole coaming was oftenest oval in shape, but sometimes the same as that on the Ponds Inlet kayak. The covering skin was made of six or seven sealskins sewn together; they were first scraped clean of fat with the ulo, then folded and laid in the sun, after which the hair was removed with the salikut scraper. The stitching was done with a double seam, amerng: the two edges were first laid together and sewn with overcasting; then one skin was turned over the other and overcast again (Fig. 56 b). When the skin was to be drawn over the skeleton it was wetted and laid out, the kayak was placed upon it in the middle and the skin was pulled up and around it, the two edges meeting down the centre-line of the kayak; at first it would not meet, but the stitches then put in were made in the fashion seen in Fig. 56 c and the thread was gradually pulled tighter until the two edges came together; this zig-zag sewing was called sukuteruta; the stitches were only to go halfway through the skin. If sufficient wood was not available for ribs. bone or baleen could also be used.

Boas^[1] figures models of the two kayak types of the Aiviliks. The sea kayak, fig. 106 a, rather resembles the Ponds Inlet kayak but has a round manhole; the lake kayak, fig. 106 b, with its rounded bottom and pointed, slightly bent-up stem, resembles the kayaks illustrated by Parry. In the same work Boas shows paddles for the two types; the sea paddle, fig. 107 b, has a long, pointed blade, the lake paddle a shorter blade, broad and rounded at the ends.

Hall^[2] says that the kayak of the Aiviliks is much lighter and