Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/232

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ing; the Eskimos eat and sleep, tell stories and talk, and play games; in summer, too, during the light nights when there is no inclination to sleep, games and pastimes continue merrily, often till the sun is again high in the heavens. Mention has already been made of the games and playthings of the children, and now those of the grown ups will be described.

Ajagaq is a game, which consists in catching on a stick a piece of bone with holes in, fastened to the stick by a cord (cup-and-ball); not all the holes have the same value. Fig. 170.1 is a rather imaginative bear figure carved in ivory, with numerous holes on the underside and front; in the back is an eye to which the cord, of sinewthread, is fastened. The stick, of ivory, consists of a fairly wide, flat shaft and a round point; at the junction of these two the cord is tied. Image missingFig. 169.Bird figure. Length 7.7 cm, that of the stick 9.7, of the cord 15 cm. Three other similar ajagait have lengths. from 6.6 to 10.1 cm; one of them has a dot-andcircle ornament on the back. The same form is referred to in Hall.[1]

Fig. 170.2 (Aivilingmiut) is another common form of ajagaq; it consists of a bearded-seal humerus, from which most of the growths have been cut away in one end and an elongated hole has been scraped in the soft face of the cut; a natural eye in the bone forms the second hole. The cord is fastened to an eye on the middle of the bone; there is another eye beside it. Length 14.7 cm. The stick is of ivory, 7.7 cm long and consists of a flat, four-sided handle and a flat point; between the two a cord, 18 cm long, is fastened by means of a groove. Five other ajagait are of the same bone; three of them have only the natural eye; one has other three holes in one end, one in the other, and one has five drilled holes in a row on the underside.

Fig. 170.3 shows a third ajagaq, of ivory, with a hole in the fore end and five on the underside; an eye in the back; 8.4 cm long. The stick has a flat handle, round point and the cord is fastened in a hole; the stick is 9.8 cm, the cord 21 cm long. Seal scapulae, or carvings in the form of fish, etc. are occasionally used too.[2]

Nuglutang. This game is also known but is not played much now; it is mentioned by Klutschak.[3] It consists of a piece of bone with. holes, hanging down from the roof, the cord being stretched tight by means of a weight. On a sign being given all the players strike at the holes of the bone with a pointed stick, and the one who succeeds in getting his stick into a hole wins.[4]

  1. ↑ 1879 p. 95.
  2. ↑ Cf. Boas 1901 fig. 163–64 and 1907 fig. 221 a–c.
  3. ↑ p. 232.
  4. ↑ Cf. Boas 1888 fig. 523.
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