X

Work in Stone. — To judge from the stone implements preserved, it would seem that the Koryak, prior to their acquaintance with metals, had not fully acquired the art of making polished stone implements. At the present time, — which is still a period of transition from the use of stone to that of metal, — the stone tools still in use among them are mainly made by chipping.

With the exception of the stone tables and hammers, which are used without any artificial finish, just as they are found in the beds and on the banks of rivers, all the stone implements ¹ mentioned before (see Figs.

35-137) are fashioned by means of chipping. Stone hatchets, spear-heads, harpoon-points, and scrapers for dre - sing skin, which are still in use, are roughly chipped out with small bone hammers (Fig. 134). The stone to be chipped is held in the left hand, the hammer in the right, and with its broad end the blows are delivered from above downwards on the edges of the stone. The thumb of the left hand is protected against accidental blows of the bone hammer by a bone thimble, and the fore- finger by a ring ² (Fig. 134, b, c).

In the numerous irregular scratches on the broad end of the hammer may be discerned the traces from blows on the uneven stone edges. Bone rings are at present also used for protecting the fingers in carving wood with iron knives.

Fig. 134. a, Bone Flaker; b,c Finger- Protectors.

Formerly stone arrow-heads were also made with the bone flaker here described. Fig. 135 shows three flint arrow-points. Such points have now gone out of use. Those in my collection were either obtained from people who preserved them as amulets or as keepsakes, or they were found by me in excavating ancient underground dwellings.

2 It is interesting to compare with the small bone hammer of the Koryak a similar flaker for making arrow-
points, of the Eskimo of Baffin Land, and their method of protecting the left hand against blows when chipping
(see Boas, Baffin-Land Eskimo, Fig. 83, p. 63).

Fig. 136 represents a spear-head (a),¹ a harpoon-point (b), and an unfin-ished harpoon-point (c) of flint. The arrows and harpoon-heads are mostly made of flint, but partly of obsidian, which was formerly imported from Kam-chatka. Spear-heads are made of flint as well as of quartz. Hatchets (see Fig. 103) and stone skin-scrapers are made mostly of quartz pebbles. The

hatchets are chipped very little. The Koryak use for this purpose flat stones with somewhat sharp edges, found in the river-valleys.

Fig. 137 represents ancient slate knives for skin-cutting and other house-hold work. The knives shown in a and 6 were found by me in excavating the ancient dwellings mentioned above; while c was found in the possession of a Koryak woman in the village of Kamenskoye, who treasured it as a keepsake. In the village of Kuel I found a fragment of such a knife used as a scraper. These relics exhibit traces of grinding and polishing. According to the Koryak, the edges of the knives were whetted with a flint or bone tool. The more or less even surfaces of the sides of the knives may be explained as due to the nature of the material, which readily splits into thin plates.

Sandstone ear-ornaments (Fig. 138, a) and pendants of braids (b) have also been finished by grinding. Stone ornaments of this kind are still worn by women in the villages of the Maritime Koryak. Nowadays they are finished with iron knives, and the perforations are bored with iron drills. Stone ear-rings are suspended from the ears by sinew-thread, or brass rings are passed through them, which are then put into the ears.

Now here among the Koryak did I find polished axes for wood-chopping. The chipped hatchets mentioned above could not have served this purpose. I found a polished stone axe among the Yukaghir on the Kolyma tundra. Steller¹ says that the Kamchadal used to polish stone implements by grinding them on stones. Dittmar 2 speaks of Kamchadal stone axes with polished blades. It is hard to believe that the Koryak never had any polished stone

axes. However, for wood-working, they made more use of bone wedges and of the bone adze.

Among the stone objects for household use should also be mentioned the stone lamps spoken of before³ and the head-piece of the fire-drill.⁴ Stone lamps are made, for the most part, of sandstone bowlders, in the upper side of which a cavity for the oil is made by means of an adze or chisel. For

and the Yakut, had been working it for a long time. Thus we may readily conceive that long before the Koryak and other northern natives met with the Russians, iron tools had come into the hands of those tribes through a long series of exchanges. Thus, for instance, on the Kolyma tundra I heard members of a northern Yukaghir clan tell, that, previous to the arrival of the Russians, they had had an iron axe, the property of the whole clan, which was in the keeping of "the Old Man," and was carried over the whole tundra whenever there happened to be need anywhere of knocking down or cutting in two a thick stout tree, which it was very hard to do with stone axes. An acquaintance of this kind, or even of a somewhat higher degree, may have existed also among the Koryak. They may have obtained iron objects, on the one hand from a Japanese source,¹ through the Kurilians and Kamchadal;² on the other hand, from a anchurian-Chinese source, through the Tungus. According to historical data, based on reports of the Cossacks who had reached the mouth of the Okhota River in 1652, the Tungus living there were armed with iron and bone weapons, and clad in iron armor.³ There is still a third source from which, during the pre- Russian period, iron objects may have been derived. I refer to the Yakut who represent the Mongol-Turkish people, who not only knew the metal and the art of forging it, but also the art of smelting iron from iron ores.⁴

Iron armor,⁵ which supplanted the older leather or bone armor, or was still in use alongside of them, has, in my opinion, been known to the Koryak prior to their meeting with the Russians.

Let us now turn to the question of the beginning of blacksmithing among the Koryak. From which tribe did the Koryak learn to forge iron ? To answer this question, too, is not easy. But since only in barter can there be intermediaries between producer and consumer, while in learning a trade

1 The Japanese armor found by Bogoras among the Chukchee in the northern tundra must evidently have
reached there through pre-Russian commercial exchange (see Bogoras, The Chukchee, Vol. VII of this series, pp. 54,
164, and Fig. 85).

2 The Cossacks who were sent from Anadyr in 1696 to conquer Kamchatka found Japanese documents in the
Koryak dwellings of North Kamchatka. A little later they discovered, near Tighil, a Japanese vessel that had been
wrecked (see Slovtzoff, Historical Survey of Siberia, p 136). This points to the possibility of occasional but direct
intercourse in the past between the Koryak and Japanese.

4 For data concerning the role of the Turkish tribes (to which the Yakut belong) in spreading the knowledge
of iron-work in Siberia, see R.   Andree,   Die   Metalle bei den Naturvölkern mit Berücksichtigungen prähistonscher
Verhältnisse (Leipzig,   1884), pp.   126,   [27.     Popoff (Zeitschrift   fur Ethnologie,   1878, p.   461), in referring to the
statement (mentioned by me in the text) concerning the iron weapons and armor of the Okhotsk Tungus at their
first meeting with the Russians, expresses the opinion that the Okhotsk Tungus had become acquainted with iron
objects through the Yakut; but considering the fact that the Yakut are comparatively recent arrivals in the extreme
northeast of Siberia, and that the northern Tungus are supposed to have come north prior to the Yakut, from the
district of the Amur River, it may be fully admitted that their acquaintance with iron, in one way or another, is
more   ancient, and   derived   ultimately   from a Manchurian-Chinese source.      Even   in   the   most   ancient   European
statements concerning the ancient   Manchurians, who are kindred to the Tungus, mention is made of their helmets
and cuirasses made   of scale-like iron plates fastened to one another with nails, or arranged on a skin foundation
(on this question see Schrenck. II, p. 259, and his references to Neuhof and Witsen).

are no beds of ore, depend, in the development of blacksmithing, upon the tribes that know how to smelt iron from ore.¹ Excepting the Yakut, who came to the north in comparatively recent times, the civilized nations nearest to the Koryak that have developed the art of metallurgy — the Japanese and Chinese — were separated from them by tribes which, even if they did adopt from the former the art of blacksmithing, did not learn the art of mining. Thus, leaving out the Kamchadal, — from a technical point of view, evidently a tribe less gifted than the Koryak, — the Koryak were separated from the Japanese by the Ainu and Gilyak, who, as Schrenck has proved,² had acquired the blacksmith's art from the Japanese. From the Chinese and from the Yakut the Koryak were separated by Tungus tribes.

According to historical data, the first Russian conquerors of Siberia not infrequently had blacksmiths in their parties; but when compelled to work ores, they often had recourse to natives expert in this line of work, such as the Tartar and Yakut.³ In the 'seventeenth century the higher authorities of Siberia more than once addressed to the Moscow Government requests to send "experts on ores" to Siberia.

During the early times of the conquest of Siberia, the Russian Govern-ment forbade the selling of arms, powder, and lead to those natives who were as yet unpacified. Krasheninnikoff says of the Kamchadal⁴ that it was forbidden to sell them iron tools and copper dishes, lest they might make side-arms for use against the Russians. Such conditions could not advance the development of the art of metal-working among those natives of Siberia who previous to that period had not been familiar with it.

Of course, the blacksmith's art could develop among the Koryak only after the Russians began to sell tools freely and to import iron as material for manufacturing tools. At present the Russian Government, among other things, keeps bar and block iron and tools in the depot established in the village of Kushka (the residence of the chief of the district), at the mouth of the Gishiga River, to be sold to the natives of the Gishiga district at a price equal to the cost price in Vladivostok plus transport expenses by steamer to Gishiga.

It is difficult to say exactly when blacksmithing developed as a regular home industry among the Koryak. We find the first printed data concerning the Koryak as blacksmiths in Dittmar's⁵ descriptions. These refer to the middle of the nineteenth century.

1 On the location of iron-beds in the Kamchadal and Koryak territories, see Krasheninnikoff, I, p. 304; Pal-
las, Neue nordische Beiträge, 1793, V, p. 271; Dittmar, pp. 281, 363.

the eighteenth century were also double.¹ The Gilyak and Ainu blacksmiths, too, use double bellows² as described above, a fact in which Schrenck finds proof that both tribes had borrowed the blacksmith's art from one source, - the Japanese. As for the Tungus, to judge by statements made by Georgi,³their blacksmiths used simple bellows. Schrenck and Maak give the same information concerning the Gold.⁴ Schrenck, by the way, draws from this circumstance the conclusion that the Gold and the Gilyak had acquired the blacksmith's art from different sources, — the former from the Manchu- Chinese, the latter from Japan.

We see that between the Siberian peoples using double bellows, -i. e., between the Mongol-Turks and Ainu-Gilyak, — there live Tungus tribes that employ or formerly employed simple bellows. It seems uncertain whether the invention of the Asiatic double bellows belongs to any single people, the more so, as double bellows are met with not only in India and Malaysia, but even among the primitive blacksmiths of Africa. The group exhibited in the Paris Ethnographic Museum in the Trocadéro, and repres- enting a negro blacksmith with his assistant sitting between two leather bellows, vividly recalled to me the Yakut blacksmith.⁶ Still it must be said that the small double bellows of the Siberian blacksmith, consisting only oftwo bags, must have been invented by a nomadic tribe. Two small skin bags, with a small anvil and a pair of hammers and tongs, are easy to adjust anywhere, and not difficult to carry from place to place. The Yakut black- smith has remained until our time to a considerable degree an itinerant artisan. Usually the customer does not come to him, but he goes with his smithy to the wealthy Yakut to fill his orders. The principle of the double bellows, designed to force an uninterrupted current of air into the furnace, is doubtless superior to that of the single bellows. On this principle are built the modern factory bellows, which are operated by automatic communi- cators. It must be supposed that among the more primitive blacksmiths, too, the double bellows, if not borrowed from another tribe along with black- smithing, are not of the oldest type.

The inconvenience of the double bellows above described consists in the necessity of having assistance in all work, as it is inconvenient for the smith now to occupy a position between the leather bags and then to jump out to

1 See P. S. Pallas, Sammlungen histovischer Nachrichten über die Mongolischen Völkerschaften, I, Plate V.

4 See Schrenck, II, p. 254; and Maak, Journey to the Amur, St. Petersburg, 1859, pp. 175 and 207. I did not
happen to see modern bellows of the Tungus nearest to the Koryak; but the Tungus of the Yakut Province, i. e.,
neighbors of the Yakut, at present use, as I stated above, the double bellows, evidently adopted from the Yakut.

5 The ancient Egyptians already employed double bellows. Judging by ancient drawings, they consisted of
two vessels covered with skin. A slave stepped in turn with his feet, now on one and then on the other leather
Iid of the vessel, and at the same time opened the aperture in the other vessel. Andree (Die Metalle bei den Natur-
volkern, p. 4 ) supposes that from the Egyptians the double bellows spread all over Africa.

Koryak blacksmiths in summer. They make fires of driftwood, and pour water over the coals after the wood has burned over. Then they carry the coals over to the smithy in skin bags. The Koryak blacksmith has a special suit for his work. In summer he works bare to the waist, dressed only in old skin trousers, and in winter he puts on a worn fur coat. Of course, in severe cold no work at all is done in the smithy above described.

The blacksmiths of Kuel and Paren work both on merchants' orders and for the barter carried on by the artisans themselves. The Russian merchants supply the artisans with iron, and pay for the work with tea, tobacco, and other wares. Besides, the blacksmiths themselves acquire iron, hammer out knives and spears, and travel with these to the local fairs or the camps of nomad reindeer-breeders, and exchange the iron goods for reindeer-skins, meat, and furs. The last-named are afterward exchanged to merchants. Skilful blacksmiths, like those above mentioned, are paid special respect. As among all primitive peoples, the blacksmith's art is not viewed by the Koryak as a trade which every one can learn, but as a divine gift.¹ In Kuel and Paren, however, a considerable part of the Koryak can hammer iron; and in addition to the recognized talent, there are second-rate blacksmiths, who work periodi- cally, before fairs, in order to acquire clothing and food in exchange for the products of their art. In general, the villages of Paren and Kuel may be considered as the centres of Koryak blacksmithing; while Kamenskoye is a commercial settlement in which are concentrated the Koryak intermediaries of exchange between the Russians and the "Reindeer men" (Koryak and Chukchee). In accordance with this, the Parenians and Kuelians, as representatives of labor, are poorer than the inhabitants of Kamenskoye, the representatives of commerce.

The articles hammered out are finished by the blacksmiths with files. The art of polishing iron is unknown to them. The work of Koryak black- smiths is limited to side-arms, tools, and several other household objects.

Fig. 139 represents an axe (a) and an adze (b) made in Paren. The axe (ai'lan) is in the shape of a common Russian axe, and is used for chopping trees and wood. The adze (b) is mounted on a handle, axe-fashion, but its blade is set crosswise and is curved. This tool is called "axe with ears" (welõ-ailän). It is used in hollowing out troughs and dug-out canoes, like a crooked adze (see Fig. 140, b).

Fig. 140, a, b, represents two adzes made in Paren. That marked a is a straight adze (ga'tti). In shape it is an imitation of the ancient Koryak adze made of ivory or horn. Its handle is also curved, like that of a bone adze. The handle of the specimen here figured is made of bone of whale, but wooden handles also occur. The blade is mounted on the handle without

1 Among the Yakut the blacksmiths stand on a level with the shamans.' The Yukaghir blacksmiths have special protecting spirits. The position of the blacksmiths among the Tungus is similar.

a lashing, and in this regard the iron adze differs from the ancient one made of bone. This adze serves for the rough hewing of the outer side of wood

With it are hewn the runners and stanchions of sledges, snow-shoes, the frames of skin boats, etc., which are finished afterwards with knives.

which wooden buckets, troughs, dishes, and other wooden vessels,¹ are hollowed out. The handle of this adze consists of two parts, — one of wood, and one of bone, — which are spliced together.

Fig. 141 shows a man's ordinary belt-knife, with a wooden sheath having tin rims and ears for suspending it on the belt. This knife, like all straight knives, has a thick back. It is called "belt-knife" (iti't-wal or yece'twal") and

is used in eating, and for work- ing small wooden objects and carvings in bone. With this same knife, sharpened to a keen edge, hair is cut or shaved,¹ the hair on reindeer-skins designed for clothing is cut and rein- deer are stabbed when killed for food and not intended as offerings. With this knife, too, fish is gutted for sun-drying. Women usually carry it stuck into the boot-leg. In very rare cases do women carry such knives at the belt.

A knife of the same form, but somewhat longer (including the haft, about 45 cm. in length), is called "hip-knife" (yõ-wal), because it is not carried on the belt, but is tied to the

Fig. 141 Straight Knife and Sheath. Fig.142 Large Knife and Sheath. Length of knife, 36 cm.

right hip, under the coat, so as to be drawn easily with the right hand. With this knife animals are skinned and grass is cut, and with its back the foot-bones of animals are broken to extract the leg-marrow.

Fig. 142 represents a large knife with case, called "large knife" (ma'iñi-wal), "breast-collar or strap knife" (wa'gü-wal), or "knife carried on one's self" (a'mta-wal). It is carried like a sabre, across the shoulder, in a leather sheath(b) attached to a breast-collar. This knife was used even recently as a battle- weapon, like a short sabre, having supplanted the bone battle-knives made of the ribs of elks and wild reindeer. The sheath is of thong-seal skin sewed very roughly with sinew-thread. The short haft of the "large knife" is made

Fig. 143. Point of Spear. Length of point, 30 cm.; total length, 175 cm. Fig. 144. Iron Knives. a Woman's Knife (length, 28 cm.); b Carving-Knife (length, 20 cm.); c Straight Knife (length, 16 cm.); d Crooked Knife (length, 23 cm.).

of bone of whale. The style of ornamentation on this kind of iron-work will be discussed later on.¹ The major of "large knives" are made with- out ornament. They are made chiefly for the Reindeer Koryak. At present wood is split, and frozen meat and bones are chopped, with this kind of knife. Fig. 143 represents a spear made by a Kuel smith. It is double-edged,

long, narrow, ornamented, and well finished. The spears for every-day use are not ornamented. They are of simple and rough workmanship. Some spears are made with a ridge in the middle, which is also often met with on spears from the Amur region (see, Fig. 195).

Knives for special kinds of work are represented in Fig. 144. The woman's knife, a (ñau-wal) is of a sickle-shape, its form being an imitation of the ancient flat knife made of slate.¹

The woman's knife has no sheath. It is kept in the work-bag, together with shavings of skin. With this knife, women cut skins and furs for clothing.²The cutting is done on a cutting-board. Koryak women rarely use scissors. Imported broadcloth for the upper coat, and calico for shirts, are also cut with the knife. Koryak blacksmiths do not manufacture scissors. The large shears shown by Bogoras ³ are the work of Yakut or Amur River blacksmiths. Yakut women cut skin for clothing with such scissors. Nevertheless Koryak women exhibited great joy when we presented them with ordinary narrow iron scissors in return for services rendered, or for submitting to being measured, and immediately pressed them into service.

Fig. 144, b, represents a knife with a long handle, specially used for carving in bone or wood. However, this knife is also called a belt-knife, and is worn at the belt in a sheath. Its wooden handle is covered with sheet-brass which is adorned with scratches made with the point of a knife, and evidently representing a technical ornament. Fig. 144, c, represents a straight knife (tami'ñu-wal, "working-knife"), and d a curved knife (keñi-wal, "curved knife"), used in carving bone and wood, and in hollowing out spoons, ladles, dippers, plates, and dishes.

Fig. 145 represents an iron chisel and an iron bow-drill for work in wood. The chisel (a) has a curved edge for making holes. The handle of the drill (b) and the bow are made of bone of whale. A similar bow-drill, only with a smaller point made of steel, is used also in riveting old kettles, and generally for boring in iron.

I did not happen to see a pump-drill in use. It is curious that the bow-drill is called in the Koryak language mi'lgitine ("fire-procuring"). This points to the fact that the use of the bow-drill for procuring fire had preceded

1 Murdoch (The Point Barrow Eskimo, Fig. 106, p. 153) mentions an ancient large single-edged slate knife
of this shape, belonging to the Eskimo, and supposes that it was used specially for cutting food.    I am inclined to
think that   it   was a   woman's knife for cutting skin.     Its shape   is quite   similar to the woman's iron knife of the
Koryak, whose blacksmiths doubtless originally imitated ancient stone models.    In Mason's article on the woman's
knife of the Eskimo (Report of the U. S. National Museum, 1890, p. 411) are collected types of woman's knives of
the Eskimo and certain Indian tribes from various localities.    These illustrations show that nearly all — both the
stone knives, and those of iron made in imitation of the stone ones — have a crescent-shaped blade, just as in the
case   of the woman's   iron knife of the Koryak.   Nearly all knives of which illustrations are given by Mason have
handles like those of chopping-knives.    Only in three of them <see Plates LIX, LXIV, and lxviii, Figs. I, 4, 21 do we
see a handle on the side, just as on our woman's knife.

its use for drilling holes; but it is certain that the Koryak, prior to the introduction of iron, were already using either a stone or a bone bow-drill to bore holes with. It may be supposed that the holes in stone ear-rings

must have been made by means of the drill.

Fig. 146 represents a saw made by the Reindeer Koryak for cutting reindeer-antlers. It is made of sheet- iron by means of a file, after the pattern of imported steel saws. The teeth of the saw are very uneven.

Nearly the whole of the Koryak black- smith's work is con- fined to the iron tools above de- scribed. I should mention, in addition, the manufacture of, kettles from impor- ted sheet-iron by Koryak artisans. They beat these kettles out with hammers, and the bottoms are fastened on with mortise- locks, in imitation of the imported kettles, so that they arew ell suited for cooking-purposes. They do not make tin teapots, as they cannot solder on the spouts. The blacksmiths also make pick-axes for picking ice-holes, marline-spikes, awls for sewing dog's harness, scrapers for dressing skins,¹ paring-chisels, bracelets, and needle-holders.²

Fig. 145. a Chisel (length, 25 cm.); b Drill (length of drill, 30 cm.). Fig. 146 Saw. Length, 47 cm.

2 See also iron fish-hook (Fig. 79, p. 534), harpoon and arrow heads (pp. 546, 559), bird-dart (Fig.595,
p. 558), armor (p. 562), picks (p. 578), and ice-creepers (Fig. 30, p. 605).

Two iron bracelets are represented in Fig. 147, a and 6. Small iron bars, finished and ornamented by means of files, are hammered cold into bracelets. There are also twisted iron bracelets, which are made of iron rods heated red-hot and twisted with tongs. In Fig. 147, c, is represented an iron needle-case with iron pendants. For dog-harnesses the blacksmiths forge toggles, swivels, rings, and small chains as substitutes for those formerly made of bone. Files for smoothing iron are bought by the smiths from traders or

in the Government depot. Sometimes they themselves make files of iron bars by means of imported files. The Koryak blacksmiths do not make iron nails, but they do manufac- ture iron rivets for patching kettles and other broken utensils.

Fig. 147. a,b Iron Bracelets; c, Needle-Case (length, 13 cm.).

Fig. 148. aa b,c Brass Ear-Ornaments

Work in Copper, Brass, and Silver. — The Koryak work copper and brass in the cold state only. The production of objects wrought in this way is limited. As material for the work, imported sheet-brass, copper wire, and broken copper dishes, teapots, and kettles, are used. Of copper or brass wire are manufactured large ring-shaped ear-ornaments decorated with iron or brass pendants, or with many colored beads which are strung on sinew-thread.Fig. 148 shows three such ear-ornaments. The one marked a represents an open ear-ring prior to passing it into the ear; and b and c, closed ear-rings as they hang in the ears. Identical forms of ear-ornaments are found among the Tungus and the Amur Gilyak. The shape of these ear-rings, and their manner of manufacture, have undoubtedly been learned by the Koryak from the Amur tribes through the Tungus of the Okhotsk district, or they are manu- factured in imitation of ear-rings brought to Gishiga from Vladivostok. The

same may be said of the metal bracelets. I have already described iron bracelets. Two made of brass are represented in Fig. 149, a and b.

The jew's-harp shown in Fig. 149, c, is made of brass. Usually this instrument is made of bone. The needle-case (Fig. 149, d) is made of two gun-cartridges, and has brass and iron pendants.

The copper of worn-out teapots is used by the Koryak for patching and riveting damaged copper vessels. Spears and large knives are inlaid with copper and partly with brass. First the designs, representing chevron ornaments and various kinds of curves, are incised with a steel chisel. Then copper shavings are driven in with a hammer, and the weapons are smoothed off with a file.¹

Silver-work, smelting, or cold- hammering are unknown to the Koryak ; though the blacksmiths of the Tungus and Yakut, the tribes nearest to them, work also in silver. The Tungus work is done cold only, while the Yakut have attained a high degree of profi- ciency as silver- smiths. With a hammer they beat out vari-
	Fig. 149. a/b, Brass Bracelets; c Jew's-Harp made of Brass; d Needle-Case made of a Cartridge

ous ornaments and other objects from pieces of silver; smelt silver in crucibles of their own manufacture, made of fire-proof clay, and then pour the smelted metal into moulds; make alloys of silver with other metals; engrave the most complicated designs on silver ornaments; and enamel silver after the style of the Circassians. The material for this work is supplied mainly by old silver objects and silver coins.'²

Tungus smiths hammer silver coins into small ornaments, such as ear-rings, rings, buttons, buckles, or little thin disks for breast-ornaments, and polish these with a file and soft leather made of reindeer-skin. The Tungus buy larger and more ornamental silver objects, such as belts, pendants for coats, and ornaments for hair-dressing, from the Yakut.

2 In the Yakut Province, stories are in circulation that certain Yakut silversmiths reduce silver from ore, but
carefully conceal the location of the mines. I could not verify the truth of these tales.

The love for silver ornaments is equally strong among the Tungus and the Yakut; among the latter, however, this passion has weakened of late, under the influence of civilization. They even preferred silver to gold, though the Yakut well know that gold is the more expensive metal, and though Yakut silversmiths know how to smelt gold, too. Even the poorest Tungus women have some silver ornaments on their dresses.

The Koryak, on the contrary, have no particular partiality for silver. Even the women of wealthy reindeer-breeders do not always possess silver ornaments. The color of copper or brass is more suited to their taste than the white color of silver. I remember that in Kamenskoye, when I offered a Koryak woman the choice between a wide brass ring with a shining shield and a narrow silver ring, she chose the former. A contrary result was obtained from the same experiment at another time with a Tungus woman.

The Koryak call silver ñaña-polou'ntin ("easily selling iron"). This name, therefore, expresses the superiority of silver over iron. The derivation of the word for "iron" is unknown. At any rate, it was not borrowed from the Russians.

Work in Wood and Bone. — Wood and bone objects, from tiny carv- ings up to sledges, are nowadays wrought only by means of the above-described iron tools. For fastening the parts of sledges and of the frames of skin boats, pegs of wood or iron are not used. Everything is tied with leather straps; but the Koryak are fond of joining their small chests for holding tea-dishes, or other objects, with steel nails obtained from the Russians. Household objects of wood have been described before,¹ and carvings will be discussed later. The netting-needle, and the vice used instead of iron pincers for finishing iron objects with a file, are made of wood.

In addition to the knife for cutting herring, ² many other tools are made of bone, antler, or ivory. A thimble and ring of ivory, which protect the thumb and index-finger in chipping stone tools and working wood with the knife, have been described.³ Fig. 150, a, shows a bone needle used in weaving baskets of grass. Fig. 150, b, represents a bone tool found by me in excavating an old underground dwelling at the mouth of the Nayakhan River. In shape it looks like an imitation of an iron hammer, but with this differ- ence, that holes have been made in it for tying it to the handle by means of small leather straps. What its practical application may have been, is unknown. It is too small to have served for clubbing seals.⁴ It was found with potsherds; and if its shape has been copied from an iron hammer, then the potsherds must be of very recent origin. Fig. 150, c, represents a pair of ear-rings carved out of walrus-tusk with a knife. In shape these ear-rings are an imitation of the stone ear-rings referred to before (see p. 610), but differ from them in having linear ornaments.⁵

5 See also bone lamp (p. 567), stool made of antler (p. 568), spoons (p.571), fish-rake (p. 573), Picks and
pestle (pp. 577-579).

Of bone tools, the following, besides those already mentioned, are still in use: an axe of bone of whale, with which bark is peeled from trees to get gum, and with which sods are cut for covering the walls and roofs of underground houses;¹ a marline-spike (Fig. 151), which is indispensable on account of the extended use of lashings; bone combs ² for combiner sacrificial grass; and plant-stems for technical purposes. In the absence of iron, toggles and swivels for the dog-harness are made even now of bone or antler. For

making bone swivels, a ring made of the bone of a mountain-sheep is placed in boiling water, in which it expands and softens. Through this is passed the small head of a bolt, usually cut out of a walrus-tusk. After drying, the ring contracts around the body of the bolt, and the head cannot come out. Finally may be mentioned the Koryak bone-scraper described by Bogoras.³

Woman's Tailor-Work. — All the clothing is made by women. The sewing for each family is done by the adult women, but girls from the age of twelve or thirteen on assist their grown-up relatives. Among the tailor's tools, the woman's knife has already been described.⁴ Next, the needle and cutting-board should be mentioned. At present only imported steel needles are used. For sewing heavy skin clothing, only long thick needles are used. Special preference is given by the women to sailor's needles, with which they can pierce more easily than with round needles the thick skins used in winter for the inner sleeping-tents and the large outer tents. The cutting-boards are made in different sizes. For the most part, they are plain alder, poplar,

1 It is curious to note that the bone axes that I have seen were mounted on a wooden handle, with the
edge of the blade parallel to the handle, like iron axes, and not like adzes, as was formerly done. Thus, in the
epoch of the transition from stone to metal is found not only the tendency to give metal tools the shape of tools of
stone or bone, but also the contrary tendency to adopt for bone or stone tools the forms of imported iron tools.

3 See Bogoras, The Chukchee, Vol. VII of this series, Fig. 147, p. 219. 4 See p. 621.

or larch boards, about half a metre long and 15-20 cm. in width, planed off with an adze. On the reverse side, figures representing human beings and animals, and other ornaments, are carved out with a knife.¹ The small pieces of white and black fur for making up patterns on clothing and rugs are cut on small ornamented boards with a wide notch in the middle, on which are wound the embroidered fur strips for trimming coats.²

	connecting hollow bar around which embroidered fur strips are wound. The two small boxes serve for holding needle-cases, thimbles, slittingtool, patterns, and other trifles. The wooden lids are fastened to the outer sides of the boxes with leather strips instead of hinges. They are closed by a sinew-thread
Fig. 152. Carved Trinket-Box. Length 30.3 cm.

which passes from one lid to the other through the hollow bridge connecting the two boxes.

Thread is still made of reindeer-sinew. For sewing-purposes the thin threads of the dorsal sinews are used, while the thick sinews taken from the legs serve to make ropes for netting and for basket-weaving. The sinew is pounded with a stone hammer on a stone table, and combed like flax with a bone comb; then threads or ropes of the desired thickness are twisted out of the thin fibre thus obtained.

Plate XXXVII shows women of the Maritime Koryak sitting sewing and cutting by the dim light of an oil lamp. On the right side a boy is sitting on the log which separates the sleeping-space from the middle of the house; a girl with her sewing, and a woman with a child, are sitting behind the log, on skins, under the raised cover of the sleeping-tent. On the left are seated a girl, and a woman with a cutting-board. Above are hanging clothes, foot-wear, and a fur rug. The sewing of reindeer-skin rugs will be described later on.³

Dyes. — The Koryak use a variety of dyes for dyeing skins, animal hair or fur for ornaments, and thread for weaving bags and baskets. For black or dark dyes they employ sea-mud, a decoction of swamp-moss and pounded coal mixed with fish-glue, or a decoction of berries of Empetrum nigrum with burned grass of Elymus mollis. With the first two is dyed the bark of the willow-herb (Epilobium angustifolium), of which bags are woven. Previous to being twisted into thread, this bark is soaked in sea-mud gathered on the coast after high tide, or in a hot decoction of swamp-moss.

Pounded coal mixed with fish-glue is used for coloring sledge-stanchions, engravings on bone carvings, sinew and nettle thread, and sometimes wood- carvings.¹ A decoction of cranberry with ashes of Elymus mollis is used in dyeing black the strips and pieces of ringed-seal skins and of the thin skin from dogs' necks, which are used for ornamenting clothing.

Red dyes of various hues are made of ochre, alder-bark, and of berries of Empetrum nigrum. Ochre is used also as a paint, — either dry (for instance, in painting the cheeks of wooden masks²), or dissolved in water. Alder-bark serves mainly for dyeing dressed reindeer-hides, from which clothing is made to be worn with the fur side in. Dressed skins are rubbed with it, or it is boiled in water and the skin is soaked in the hot decoction. In the former case an uneven reddish dye results; in the latter, a bright even cinnamon color is obtained. Special skill is required for this process. Expert workers are found among the Maritime Koryak women, who know how to lay a very showy bright cinnamon hue on skin. After being treated with hot alder- dye, the skin hardens, and must be rubbed afresh to render it soft.

Dressing of Skins and Cutting of Thongs. — In the Koryak household, dressing of skins and cutting of thongs are important occupations, as all of the clothing is made of skins, which must first be dressed; while thongs are needed not only for lines, breast-collars, lassoes, harness, etc., but also for tying together sleds, for nets, and for many other necessities.

The dressing of skins is the task of women, while thongs are cut by men. The methods employed in both these industries are identical among the Koryak and Chukchee, and for the description of details the reader is referred to Bogoras's work on the Chukchee.³ I will only remark that in certain places these occupations develop into home industries. This is particu- larly true of the making of thongs. Strong thongs are obtained only from sea-animals. Accordingly the Maritime Koryak manufacture them, and ex- change thongs of ringed-seal and walrus-hide with the Reindeer Koryak.

Basket-Work. — The bags and sacks made of seal-hides and reindeer-skin have been spoken of before (see p. 607). Here I shall confine myself to a description of the manufacture of woven bags and baskets. Like the manufacture of clothing, weaving is the occupation of women, and it is developed chiefly among the Maritime Koryak. The material for weaving is quite varied. The roots of different species of willow, the wild rye (Elymus mollis; Koryak, tu'wai), willow-herb grass {Epilobium angustifolium; Koryak, me'nmet or me'nmetan), nettle (Urtica disica L.), thread from reindeer-sinew, and imported twine, are used.

Willow-roots, previous to weaving, are soaked in warm water, by which process flexible white rods are obtained. The stems of the Elymus mollis

2 See Part I, p. 84. 3 See Bogoras, The Chukchee, Vol. VII of this series, pp. 217, 228.

are gathered in autumn. This plant grows on sloping sandy river-banks, and often reaches the height of a man. The women cut it down with knives, and carry it in sheaves to the villages. The grass is twisted into braids (Fig. 153, a), and bunches of these are hung on sticks in the storehouse.

used for technical purposes. The pith is taken out and used as food. Thread is twisted
from the bark in the same way as from nettle. The winter supplies of willow-herb are gathered also in the fall, and are preserved in bunches (Fig. 153, b).

The Koryak must have used nettle for weaving before meeting with the Russians. From certain passages in Dittmar's² book on Kamchatka, the conclusion might be drawn that the Russians had taught the Kamchadal how to treat nettle for text ilepurposes; but Krasheninnikoff and Steller, who wrote of Kamchatka nearly a century before Dittmar, speak of the use of nettle for nets and bas- kets as a long-known industry of the Kam- chadal ³

The Koryak women gather nettles also in autumn, after the end of the fishing-season, tie it into bunches, and hang it under the storehouses to dry. In winter they work their yarn. With their teeth they pull off the soft fibres from the hard woody nettle-sterns, pound them with a stick until the fibres come apart, and then twist these in the same way as they do sinew-thread.

I have already spoken of the use of sinew-thread in sewing. For basket and bag weaving

Fig. 153. Material for Basker-Work. a Braid of Wild Rye (length, 72 cm.); b Bundle of Willow-Herb (length, 84 cm.).

or netting, strands are made of from four to six fibres, which are twisted together. The spinning of the thread for weaving from these plant and sinew

2 Dittmar, Travel in Kamtschatka, pp. 160, 164, 363. It is quite possible that what Dittmar says does not
refer to the preparation of nettle by the Kamchadal in general, but to the endeavors of Zavoyko, Governor of
Kamchatka, to accustom them to an improved method of treatment by means of spinning-wheel and weaver's loom.
But from the passages referred to in Dittmar it is not quite clear that he wanted to speak only of improvements
in the Kamchadal method of manufacture. I do not know whether the better method introduced by the Russians
has been preserved among the Kamchadal, but the Koryak employ even now the most primitive method of prepara-
tion of nettle.

fibres has not advanced beyond the method of a cobbler preparing his waxen end. The twisting is done with the palms of the hands,¹ and a long thread is obtained by twisting together separate parts. Fig. 154 represents a wooden reel on which is wound the sinew-thread for weaving. Similar skeins are made of the threads of plant-fibres.

When a Koryak woman comes into possession of imported flax, hemp, or cotton thread or cord, she uses it by mingling it in her work with home-made material, so that stripes of one and the other material alternate. Sometimes it happens that a Koryak woman purchases linen cloth, unravels it, and twists the ravellings into cord for weaving.
	Fig. 154. Wooden Reel. Length, 29 cm.

Among the Koryak, as among the Alaskan Eskimo, we find coiled and twined basketry; but in the majority of cases the work of the Koryak is better, and their methods are more varied, than those of the Eskimo. Fig. 155 represents one of the varieties of coiled baskets. They are

children's baskets, made of Elymus mollis; but larger-sized baskets of the same shape are used by women for berry-picking. Fig. 156 represents one square inch of Fig. 155, a, enlarged. As may be seen, the work is done

1 It is interesting to note that an improved method of twisting thread is employed by the Yakut women,
who twist with the palm of the right hand on the bare thigh. The origin of this method is explained by the
Yakut woman's dress, the lower part of which consists of three pieces, — short trousers, knee-piece, and boots. In
working thread, the Yakut woman takes off the knee-piece of the right leg, and, raising her coat, twists on her bare thigh.

quite roughly, and differs in no way, in material and device, from the same kind of basket-work of the Alaskan Eskimo, which has been described by Mason.¹ Bunches of straw are used for the body of the coil. In whipping each coil with a straw thread, the upper part of the lower coil is caught i

thus fastening the coils together. The straw whipping-thread is passed through the bunches of straw that serve as the foundation by means of a bone or iron awl. As may be seen from the illustration, the women do not observe any regu- larity in passing the binding through the lower coil. In whipping they pass the thread either through the lower coil or into the interval between two coils, just as the Alaskan Eskimo² do.

The ornamentation of this kind of baskets is made with straw dyed black or red, which is

Fig. 156. Technique of Coiled Basket-Work.

used for whipping the coils, and alternates rhythmically with undyed straw thread (see Fig. 155, b).

These baskets are circular in section, and the diameters of the circles grow smaller in size going upward. The rim usually consists, not of straw,

but of a willow rod coiled with sinew thread instead of straw thread. The lid is separate, and is fastened to the basket with a small strap. On the opposite side, straps for closing the basket are fastened.

2 For a sample of cleaner work and regularity of stitches, see the Zuñi coiled basket-jar in Mason's Aboriginal
Basket-Work, Plate xlix, Fig. 81) and the fabrics from a cave in Kentucky (Holmes, Prehistoric Textile Fabrics of
the United States derived from Impressions on Pottery in the Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology
I881-82, Fig. 67, p. 403).

Fig. 157 represents a type of coiled basketry made of Elymus mollis; but the coils of straw are whipped with twisted sinew thread, and not with straw thread. In b a part of the bottom of the basket is shown on a larger scale.

The straw coil forms a spiral. The coils are whipped and held together by a sinew thread, also without any regu- larity, like the straw thread in the preceding figure. The whipping is done with a bone needle like the one shown in Fig. 150, a.

Fig. 158 represents a bas-ket made of willow-roots on the river Opuka. The mate- rial for whipping consists of splints of willow-roots.

Fig. 158. Coiled Basket made of Willow-Roots. Width, 22 cm.

This basket, too, belongs to the coiled type, but differs from the two preceding- figures in the style of coiling. Rods made of willow roots or branches form the warp. Beginning from below, the splint of the root whips two rods of

the warp at once. In this process a space equal to the width of the splint is left between each whipping. Then a third rod is added above, and is fastened to the second rod in the same manner, but so that the stitches pass under the second rod between the stitches joining the first pair of rods.

Attention may be called to the neatness and regularity of this work. The seam nowhere passes over the preceding whipping, as it does in grass basket- weaving. The shape of these baskets, which are oval in cross-section, and

the form of the lid, suggest that they may be an imitation of some imported model. In material and technique, this basket is exactly identical with that of the Tinné, who, as Mason supposes, taught the Alaskan Eskimo to weave.¹

Baskets or bags made in twined weaving are open and close. The lat- ter are waterproof.

Fig. 159 repre-sents an unfinished woven sack made of nettle-thread, and a piece of the sack, on a larger scale, showing the method of weaving. An empty sack is so soft that it may be rolled up. After the warp-threads on the bottom of the sack are fastened by the woof-threads, the sack is hung up on two poles or on a stretcher. At the end of the warp-thread, knots are made, lest the twisting should be undone during the work. Certain rows of the warp-threads are black, and alternate in regular order with rows of undyed threads, thus

Fig. 160. Woven Bags. b, Width, 38 cm.

determining the ornamental style of the bag. The weaving is done by twining two woof-threads over the warp. The end of the woof is gathered in a skein and undone according to need. The weaving continues round the sack from right to left.

Fig. 160 represents flat bags like those on the preceding figure, but finished. In b a strip of seal-skin is stitched around the opening of the bag. It is sewed with sinew-thread to the last woof-threads, to which are also fastened the loose ends of the warp. This bag has never been in use, and in the skin strip at the opening are no holes through which to pass the thong which is to close the bag when full (Fig. 160, a). The workmanship of these bags exhibits great taste and skill. The ornamentation of the bag is made as follows: at certain intervals among the nettle-threads of the warp there run three threads of sinew, dyed black, which thus form narrow black longi- tudinal stripes between wider stripes of the light-gray nettle. These alter- nating stripes of various colors make a pleasing impression. The width of the light stripes varies; and this somewhat disturbs the impression which the ornamentation would produce on the eye if it were executed with greater regularity. The bag is further ornamented with bunches of colored crewel, which are caught in the twining, forming tassels similar to those shown in Fig. 199, a. This ornament forms three cross-stripes. Of these, the lower two consist of three rows; the upper one, of four rows.

On the bag marked a, instead of the bunches which form the cross-stripes, there is an embroidery of crosses in colored wool, the regular arrange- ment of which produces a very pleasing effect. The black cross-stripes consist of threads made of the outer bark of Epilobium angustifolium dyed in sea-mud.¹ To this bag is attached a woman's carrying-strap or head-band.

The twined bags here described serve for carrying goods on foot-journeys. Women carry them by means of a head-band; men, by means of a chest-yoke.² In them women also carry children (see Plate XXXVI). In the Koryak tongue every bag or basket is called apke'lin; bas- kets with ornamentation, kele'-a'pkel ("ornamented baskets"); while the coiled baskets described before are called tene'-apke'lin ("sewed basket").

Fig. 161. Techniqne of Twined Basketry.

Fig. 161 shows the method of weaving close- twined baskets. Elymus mollis is pre-eminently the material used for this purpose; but the work on them is more perfect than the work on coiled baskets of the same straw. The warp is formed by threads of twisted straw of Elymus mollis. The weaving is done by twining

1 See p. 628. This method of dyeing textile material black is found also among the Haida (see Mason,
Aboriginal Basket-Work, p. 297).
2 See p. 606.

with two straw threads. This method of weaving produces a texture dense, waterproof, and yet flexible and not coarse. Fig. 162 shows three baskets woven by this method. The ornamentation of these sacks is obtained by weaving in threads of Epilobium angustifolium dyed black. In a the threads from this grass have been dyed in a decoction of swamp-moss. To this dye is added a little fish-oil, which gives it a glossy hue. Bags woven in the way here described vary in size. They are used chiefly as women's work- bags. In the majority of cases the upper part (a third or a half) of the

bag consists of reindeer or seal skin stitched to the woven part, as shown in a and b. Around Penshina Bay the Koryak women, among whom I collected all the above-described specimens of basket-work, do not weave (at least at present) any grass mats; but the Koryak of northern Kamchatka, like the Kamchadal, make grass mats. Fig. 163 represents a grass basket for berries, of the Koryak of northern Kamchatka, which is of cylindrical shape, and is made in twined weaving. In neatness, workmanship, and ornamentation, the basket recalls the best specimens of Indian basketry of the North Pacific coast.

Mr. Bogoras has collected in northern Kamchatka a few grass bags which show a different technique. They are made throughout of braids of grass. The bottom is formed by a long narrow strip of skin, to one end of which

the first braid is sewed. The braid then continues spirally around this strip of skin, the spirals being sewed together. These bags are ornamented by inserting at a certain place a dark or ornamented braid, which occupies one turn of the spiral, to be followed by a plain turn, which again may be fol- lowed by a decorated turn. Thus it happens that at one place in the basket the ornamented and unornamented strips are sewed together, and the irregular

appearance is presented because the orna-mented turn of the spiral always ends one row above the point where it begins. This technique is shown in Fig. 164, b. In this case the lower part of the basket is made of coarse braid, while the upper two-thirds are made of a much more closely woven braid. In Fig. 164, c, the insertion of the decorative band is made in a different way, a single black spiral being inserted, which tapers at both ends. The technique of this style of basketry is shown in Fig. 164, a.

The Maritime Koryak are about the only part of the tribe engaged in basket- weaving from plant and other fibre. The Reindeer Koryak women have no time, and their large cold tents are un- suited in winter for carrying on the work of preparing the material and weaving the baskets. The Reindeer Koryak wo- men content themselves with sewing-bags made of skins and with the woven baskets obtained by exchange from the women of the Maritime tribe.

Ancient Pottery. — I have referred several times to the excavations of ancient Koryak underground dwellings, which I made at the mouth of the river Nayakhan and on the seacoast between the mouths of the rivers Naya- khan and Gishiga. Before undertaking to describe the potsherds found in these excavations, I will make a few general remarks on the remains of these underground dwellings and how the excavations were conducted.

The Koryak themselves consider these remains as the dwellings of their ancestors, who had lived there previous to the advent of the Russians, and they call them by the same name as they call their present underground dwellings (see pp. 448, 453). These dwellings are therefore the dwellings of the Koryak, and not those of another tribe, and they are not very ancient. Seen from the outside, these remains form circular or nearly circular

shallow pits with small embankments, and resemble the remains of under-round dwellings on Yezo, as described by Dr. Grimm.¹ Grimm calls atten- tion to the charred posts found in his excavations. In some pits I also found that the posts which evidently supported the roof were completely charred. The Koryak explained this by stating that the Russian conquerors or other

foes had set fire to these dwellings, — a practice quite frequent in antiquity when those besieged in the underground house would not surrender.

Much to my regret, I was unable to carry on systematic excavations. The method of my travels precluded a long stay in those regions. Besides, it was in the month of July, when the soil was still frozen to the depth of one foot; so that digging was impossible, and the ground had to be broken with an axe. Therefore no amount of precaution could prevent the breaking of the articles found. Being unable to make regular and extensive excavations, I confined myself to digging up the centres of the holes in the hope of

1 Grimm, Beitrag zur Kenntniss der Koropokguru auf Yezo u. Bemerkungen über die Shilkotan-Aino (Mittei-
lungen der deutschen Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens in Tokio, 1892, Band V, pp. 369-373).

discovering the location of the fireside. I really did find charred logs, coals, stones forming the hearth, potsherds, and remains of tools. Let us now consider the potsherds.

All the potsherds found by me are made of coarse clay, containing fine gravel and pieces of quartz. They are quite thin (4 -12 mm.), so that their manufacture has little in common with that of the thick and clumsy clay lamps and unbaked quadrangular kettles of the modern Chukchee and Asiatic Eskimo described by Bogoras.¹ The potsherds found in the excavations are black with soot and fat, and were evidently well baked, as they remained strong and hard, although they had been lying in the wet soil.

The Koryak themselves well know that the potsherds now found are remnants of the clay vessels in which their near ancestors used to cook their food. The Koryak call a clay pot sEku'keña, i. e., "clay kettle" (from sa, "earth and clay;" and kukeña, "kettle or pot"). Iron kettles are called by them polounto-kukeña.

In a myth² it is related how Yiñea-ñeut, when a child, was deserted by her father Big-Raven in an underground house. There she grew up alone, caught birds, and cooked them in the clay pot she found behind the fireplace. The mentioning of pottery in mythology shows that the Koryak themselves assign to pottery an ancient origin.

A fairly accurate idea of the size and form of the whole pots may be gained from the fragments. The restoration of a pot is shown in Fig. 165, a. Its mouth has a diameter of about 21 cm., and its height must have been approximately 24 cm., while the walls are 4—8 mm. thick. The pot is moulded with the hand, and the outside bears all over it the impressions of close-woven twined basketry, such as is shown in Fig. 161. Evidently this impression was made by taking a piece of twined fabric in one hand, and pressing it against the moist pot, the twined woof being placed so that the lines run at right angles to the rim. In some fragments of pots the impress of this woven fabric is very distinct. Another fragment in the collection indicates that the pot of which it once formed a part must have had a still larger diameter. The piece is too small to reconstruct the exact form of the pot, but it would seem that the pot was not less than 30 cm. wide at the mouth. All the pots are covered with a heavy layer of soot. A thick pot- sherd showing a decorated rim is shown in Fig. 165, b.

The unquestionable existence of pottery among the Koryak in the recent past presents great interest, in view of the fact that the former existence of pottery among other so-called palae-Asiatic peoples has been disputed by many writers.

1 See Bogoras, The Chukchee, Vol. VII of this series, Figs. 102—104, pp. 185, 186.

2 See Part I, p. 306, No. 114. 1 See Sleller, p. 322; Krasheninnikoff, II, p. 45.

the Koryak. True, Steller and Krasheninnikoff ³ visited them after they had been considerably influenced by Russian culture; but, in speaking of the ancient Kamchadal method of cooking food, they mention only boiling in wooden troughs by means of red-hot stones, and there is nowhere in the writings of these authors a reference to clay vessels. Schrenck considers the absence of pottery among the Kamchadal as proved.¹

I have found accounts which stated that the Koryak also used red-hot stones for boiling. However, in these statements I do not see any contra- diction to the fact that there are traces of the existence of pottery among them. The latter, to my mind, seems a later invention than boiling by means

of red-hot stones; but, even after the invention of pottery, cooking by means of red-hot stones might have continued. But as iron kettles were acquired, the manufacture of clay pots probably disappeared earlier than the custom of boiling with stones in troughs, as may have been the case with the Kamchadal. Witsen² states, based on information given by Cossacks, that theKamchadal used to make clay vessels. In an old underground Kamchadal dwelling, Dittmar found "small clay vessels" of most primitive workmanship. "The clay crumbled under the hands, it had evidently been badly (if at all) baked," says Dittmar. As the pots were saturated with blubber, Dittmar thinks it possible that they had been lamps, and not cooking-pots ; ³ but this opinion may be offset by the shape and size, especially the depth, of the pots found.⁴ Besides, in another passage, Dittmar quotes the tale of an old Kamchadal who brought to him the stone implements that he had dug out

4 Dittmar gives the following measurements of the pots: upper diameter, 12 cm.; lower, 10 cm.; maximum
width, 14 cm.; depth, 10 cm. This vessel, therefore, had an aperture smaller in diameter than the middle part, and
its bottom was still smaller than the aperture. Clay lamps are of different shape (see Bogoras, The Chukchee,
Vol. VII of this series, Figs. 102, 103, pp. 185, 186; Nelson, Plate III). Nelson gives 2| inches (i.e., less than
7 cm.) as the depth of two lamps (Nelson, p. 64). The Koryak stone lamps (see p. 566) are 4 -6 cm. deep.

of ancient underground houses, and who said that potsherds of coarse clay vessels are often found among other objects in excavating ancient underground dwellings on the eastern coast of Kamchatka.¹

Lastly, the Gishiga Cossacks, who often visit Kamchatka on duty, told me personally that they came across the same kind of sherds of clay pots as I found in the ruins of ancient Koryak houses.

At present neither the Gilyak and Ainu, nor the Kamchadal and Koryak, make clay pots. Schrenck expresses the opinion that even in antiquity this art was unknown to the Gilyak and Ainu.² Concerning the statement of the Japanese traveller, Mamia Rinso, that the Gilyak on Saghalin manufactured clay ware resembling that of the Chinese and Japanese, Schrenck supposes that this art was introduced by the Chinese and Japanese at a quite recent date, and has been lost again. On the other hand, Schrenck finds that the potsherds collected by Pfeiffer, Lopatin, and Polyakoff in various parts of the Amur region and in Saghalin, samples of which were in his hands, were so old as to have no ethnological connection whatever with the tribes inhabit- ing the region at the present time.³

Leo Sternberg, the latest student of the Gilyak tribe, in his brief pre-liminary sketch of the Gilyak, published in the "Ethnographical Review," ⁴ ex- presses an opinion concerning the ancient Gilyak pottery identical with that of Schrenck. In his opinion, the Gilyak were not familiar with pottery. Further on, I shall briefly touch upon his arguments. The Gilyak themselves call the remains of the ancient underground dwellings on Saghalin Island, where the potsherds were found, kugi-tulkc, which means "Ainu little pits;" i. e., the Gilyak attribute them to the Ainu. Following the course of his arguments, Sternberg further supposes that these little pits did not belong to the ancestors of the present Ainu either, for the Saghalin Ainu themselves attribute them to another people by the name of Tonchi.5

Here I reach a question interesting in the highest degree, — the uestion, Who were the ancient inhabitants of Japan and of the underground dwellings in Yezo and other places, — the Ainu, or another pre-Ainu people? This question divides Japanese and other investigators into two camps. Of the Japanese scholars, Professor Koganei especially, espouses the former view; Professor Tsuboi, the latter. Concerning Saghalin, my friend Dr. Sternberg apparently seems to side with Tsuboi; while Dr. Laufer, a member of our

2 See Schrenck, II, p. 139. Schrenck, by the way, expresses the opinion that pottery was unknown to any
of the so-called palae-Asiatic peoples, with the exception of the Eskimo. He supposes that the Eskimo came to
America from Asia, and classes them among the a-Asiatics; but this opinion, as we see, is utterly refuted by
the facts.

4 See Sternberg, The Gilyak (Ethnographical Review, published by the Ethnographical Section of the Imperial
Society of Friends of Natural History, Anthropology and Ethnography, Moscow, 1904, Parts I, 2, 3).

expedition, expresses views in harmony with Professor Koganei's.¹ Of the recent works devoted to this question, one of especial interest is Professor Koganei's excellent article, "Ueber die Urbewohner Japans." ²

I can touch upon this question only so far as it bears upon pottery. On the one hand, remnants of primitive pottery have been discovered on the Chukchee Peninsula, in Baron Korff's Bay,³ in Kamchatka, on the coasts of the Okhotsk Sea and its bays, on the Kurilian Islands, at the mouth of the Amur, on the islands Saghalin and Yezo; on the other hand, the Eskimo of northwestern America even now make clay pots, and have left traces of this art which existed among them in the past.⁴

Whether pottery was known to the Aleut, we do not know as yet. Veniaminoff says that the clay vessels he saw among the Aleut had been obtained by them from the Russians.⁵ In the description of the articles found by Dall ⁶ in the grave caves of the Aleut, we find no remains of clay vessels; but until archaeological investigations have been undertaken in the Aleutian Islands, it cannot be asserted that pottery was unknown to the Aleut. Judging by the results of our expedition, the Indians of the North Pacific coast never had pottery.⁷

Territorially speaking, we have thus found, so far, that pottery in its primitive stage was widespread on the northern coasts of the Pacific Ocean from the islands of Japan around almost to the coast strip of southern Alaska.

1 See Berthold Laufer, Die Angeblichen Urvölker von Vezo und Sakhalin (Centralblatt fur Anthropologie,
Ethnologie und Urgeschichte, Jena, 1900, Band V, Heft 6).

2 Mittheilungen der deutschen Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens, Tokio, 1903, IX, pp. 297--330.

3 Bogoras (The Chukchee, Vol. VII of this series, p. 186) says that certain potsherds found by him in the
ancient "jaw-bone houses" are thinner than the above-mentioned clay lamps and kettles, and point to another type
of clay pots in the past.

4 Thus we have Baron Wrangell's statements of the beginnings of the nineteenth century, that the Eskimo in
Alaska made pots (Wrangell, Statist, und ethnog. Nachrichten über die Russischen Besitzungen an der Nordwestküste
von Amerika, St. Petersburg, 1839, p. 147); Dall's information concerning the seventies of the last century (Dall, Alaska
and its Resources, London,   1870, p. 218) and   the present-day information of Nelson (Nelson, The Eskimo about
Bering Strait, pp. 201, 202).    Concerning the inhabitants of the island Kadyak, we possess the following information,
dating from the beginning of the last century:   "From   clay they make fire-pots, in which   they melt whale fat.
Formerly they could also bake pots, but now this art   is lost, possibly for the reason that they found our kettles
more convenient." (see Voyages to America of the   Naval Officers, Khvostoff and Davydoff, St. Petersburg, 1812,
Vol. II, p. 104).    Krasheninnikoff (II, p. 305) states that the Konyag of Kadyak cooked meat in clay pots.     At
the end of the last century Murdoch found on Point Barrow fragments of pottery which, according to him, existed
earlier than   iron kettles (Murdoch, pp. 91, 92).    G. B. Gordon, in his Notes on the Western Eskimo (Transactions
of the Department of Archaeology, University of Pennsylvania, 1906, Vol. II, Part I, p. 83), based on data collected
by   the expedition   sent to   Alaska   in the summer of 1905 by the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, states
that at present the art of pottery has died out among the western Eskimo, but the older people still remember the
time when   lamps and   cooking-vessels were made of clay.    Plates  and XXIV of the same paper show different
types of clay vessels of the western Eskimo.

6 Dall, On the Remains of Prehistoric Man obtained from Caves in the Catherine Archipelago, Alaska Terri-
tory and especially from the Caves of the Aleutian Islands (Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, 1878, Vol. XXII).

7 This   conclusion   is   based   on the results of the excavations made by Mr. Smith at the mouth of the Fraser
River, in   the southern part of Vancouver Island, and on the coast of Washington; but it would be very important
to extend   the archaeologic   investigations also   to other parts of the coast-line between the Alaskan   Eskimo and
Columbia River and the interior Athapascans, in order to draw a final conclusion.

As to the question what tribes have left remains of this art, there is still disagreement in the majority of cases. That the clay pots, of which potsherds have been found by me in Koryak territory, were made by the recent an- cestors of the Koryak, there can be no doubt. The same may be said in regard to the Alaskan Eskimo, but here is involved the question of their original gradual distribution. So far as mythology is concerned, I have ac- cepted Professor Boas's theory that the Eskimo came to the coasts of the Pacific Ocean from the east.¹ In questions of somatology we have some data pointing to the change of the physical type of the Eskimo from the east westward, as we approach nearer and nearer to the Pacific Ocean.²

The central and eastern Eskimo had lamps of soapstone, but we find no indication that they now can or formerly could make clay pots. If we consider as correct the theory that the Alaskan Eskimo came from the east, and that their physical nature and their traditions have changed in the new locality under the influence of the Indians, then they may have adopted the art of making pottery, too, after their arrival on the coasts of the Pacific Ocean, from the former aborigines, as their eastern fellow-tribesmen evidently did not know this art.³ I should remark that I bring forward these consider- ations only as an attempt at solving the question concerning the primitive culture of the Asiatic-American tribes.

Regarding the Ainu, it is impossible, it seems to me, not to agree with the considerations of Koganei, that the pits on Yezo, Saghalin, and the Kurilian Islands, which contain the potsherds now holding our interest, are remnants of the dwellings of the ancestors of the modern Ainu. For the Gilyak, we must for the present accept the opinion of Sternberg, — the best authority on this tribe, — who argues that the Gilyak are new-comers on Saghalin Island and at the mouth of the Amur, and suggests that they may have been neighbors of the Aleut.⁴ Still one cannot help remarking that Sternberg's chief arguments offered as proof that the clay potsherds from the "little pits" on Saghalin belong to neither the ancestors of the Gilyak nor to the ancient Ainu,⁵ are identical with the arguments of Tsuboi concerning the last-mentioned tribe alone.⁶ These arguments consist in the following. In the myths there are no allusions whatever to the former use of pottery by the Gilyak or Ainu; on the contrary, the traditions of both tribes attribute this art to other tribes, the Gilyak attributing it to the Ainu. The Ainu of

2 See Dina Jochelson-Brodsky, Zur Topographie des weiblichen Körpers nordostsibirischer Völker (Doctor's
Dissertation of the University of Zurich), Braunschweig, 1906.

3 Unfortunately, no archaïological researches have been made in the territory of the northern Athapascan and
Tlingit.

4 If this supposition should prove correct, the finding of remains of pottery on the Aleutian territory would
be of importance.

Yezo on their part, attribute this art to the mythical tribe Koropokguru, while the Ainu of Saghalin claim that the mythical tribe Tonchi made the pots which have been found in the ruins of underground dwellings.¹ He also thinks that if the Gilyak and Ainu had known this art before, it would not have been lost.

I shall not expatiate upon the linguistic interpretation of the words "Tonchi" and "Koropokguru," which may be found in the works referred to.²I wish only to remark that oral tradition cannot take the place of history if it does not agree with the data of archaeology, physical anthropology, lin- guistics, and comparative culture. In the last-named respects much remains to be done, but what has already been done with reference to the Ainu com- pletely proves that the Koropokguru are the ancestors of the present Ainu. It is enough to read the description of the contemporary underground dwellings of the Ainu on Shikotan to come to the conclusion that after their destruc- tion they would form the same kind of pits as we still find on Yezo.³ It is quite possible that the names handed down by tradition of what purports to be vanished tribes are but the ancient names of territorial groups or clans of one or another of the now existing tribes, just as I have been able to prove concerning the so-called vanished tribes of the Khodintsi, Omoki, Kongienisi, etc., of the Kolyma region,⁴ that they are not vanished tribes, but ancient local names of the divisions of the Yukaghir tribe.

The present-day absence of pottery among the Ainu and Gilyak cannot be proof that they never had it formerly, either. We possess many proofs, and among others my own data collected among the Koryak, that pottery may disappear with the advent of metal utensils.⁵ Likewise nothing is proved by the absence of any mention of pottery in the myths. The memory of peoples that possess no knowledge of writing is, on the whole, very short with reference to facts relating to their past life. To give an instance, I was surprised when the Arctic Yakut who came to the extreme north very recently did not know, when questioned by me on this point, that their ancestors had

1 It should be remarked that so far no traditions ascribing them to mythical tribes have sprung up with
reference to the potsherds found in 1865 in the excavations of underground dwellings at the mouth of the Amur
(see Schrenck, II p. 141), and to the remnants of such dwellings between Khabarovsk and the mouth of the Amur
(see Laufer, Die angeblichen Urvölker von Yezo und Sakhalin, in Centralblatt für Anthrop., Ethnol. und Urgeschichte,
5. Jahrgang, Heft 6, p. 329).

2 See Laufer, Die angeblichen Urvölker von Yezo und Sakhalin, etc., p. 325; Koganei, Ueber die Urbewohner
Japans, pp. 314, 315.

3 See Grimm, Beitrag zur Kenntniss der Koropokguru auf Yezo u. Bemerkungen über die Shikotan-Aino
(1892); Hitchcock, The Ancient Pit-Dwellers of Yezo, Japan (Washington, 1892).

4 See Jochelson, On the Question of the Vanished Tribes of the Kolyma District (Bulletin of the East Siberian
Section of the Russian Imperial Geographical Society, Irkutsk, 1897, Vol. XXVIII, Part I).

5 On   the disappearance   of pottery among   the   eastern   Indians   of North   America,   upon   the arrival of the
whites, see Charles Rau, The Archaeological Collection of the United States National Museum (Smithsonian Con-
tributions to Knowledge,   Washington,   1876,   Vol.   XXII,   p.   73).    Concerning the inhabitants of the island Kadyak
and the   western   Eskimo, see p. 642, Footnote 4.   There are indications that in southern Siberia, primitive pottery
was forgotten and lost   by   the local inhabitants   about   the   time of the   arrival   of the Russians (see D. Klements,
The Antiquities of the Minusinsk Museum, Tomsk, 1886, p. 65).

manufactured clay pots, and not even that their more southerly fellow-tribesmen are still making pottery. That the present pottery of the Yakut, still made with the hands, without the potter's wheel and without knowledge of the art of glazing, is of ancient origin, has been completely proved by Sieroszevski in his work on the Yakut.¹

After this chapter had been written, I had the pleasure of meeting in Berlin Dr. E. Baelz, formerly professor at the University of Tokio. He had the kindness to place at my disposal the manuscript of his most interesting paper, "Zur Vor- und Urgeschichte Japans,"2 in which he discusses the Ainu question. Professor Baelz is in full accord with Professor Koganei, and thinks that the remains of underground dwellings and the primitive pottery of the stone age in Japan belong to the ancestors of the present Ainu. He states, that according to Batchelor, the best authority on the Ainu language, the word "Koropokguru" means simply "inhabitants of underground dwellings." The Ainu themselves have traditions relating to the former use of pottery; and among the Kurilian Ainu clay pots like those of the stone age are in use even now. Clay figures representing men, which were found by Professor Baelz together with potsherds and other remains of the stone age, are repre- sented with full beards like those of the Ainu. Professor Baelz's theory on the origin of the Ainu offers, however, great difficulties. He maintains their relationship to the Caucasian race. If this theory is accepted, we must assume that the Ainu, after reaching their present seat, adopted the material culture of the palae-Asiatic tribes and of the American tribes of the northern shore of the Pacific Ocean.

1 See Sieroszevski, The Yakut, p. 377.
2 Published in Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie,1907, pp.281-310.

		Work in Stone	608
		Work in Iron...	611
		Work in Copper, Brass, and Silver.	624
		Woman's Tailor-Work	627
		Dyes	628
		Dressing of Skins and Cutting of Thongs	629
		Basket-Work	629
		Ancient Pottery	637


Fig. 165. a (70/5330), Pottery Vessel; b (70/7960), Rim of Pottery Vessel.