No. 193.] JANUARY, 1833. [VOL. XVII. NATIVES OF OONALASHKA. (With an Engraving.) OONALASHKA is an island in the North Pacific Ocean, separated from the continent of North-America by a channel in the direction of north-west by north. It is the largest of the group called Aleutian or Fox Islands, and contains about one thousand inhabitants. It was visited in 1790, by Commodore Joseph Billings, under the command of Her Imperial Majesty, Catherine the Second, Empress of all the Russias, for scientific purposes; and the particulars of the expedition were recorded by Martin Sauer. The engraving of the natives, and the following particulars respecting their manners and habits, are derived from his narrative. The people are of middle size; of very dark brown and healthy complexion; round face, in general, small nose, black eyes and hair; the latter very strong and wiry. The men have scanty beards, but very thick hair on the upper lip. The under lip is in general perforated, and small ornaments of bone or beads are inserted; as is also the septum of the nose. Women have the chin punctured in fine lines, rayed from the centre of the lip, and covering the whole of the chin. The arms and cheeks of some are also punctured. They are very clean in their persons; and the men very active in their small boats. The women are chubby, rather pretty, and very kind. They formerly wore a dress of sea-otter skins, but not since the Russians have had any intercourse with them. At present they wear what they can get; the women, a park of kotik, or ursine seal, with the hair outward. This is made like a carter's frock, but without a slit on the breast, and with a round upright collar, about three inches high, made very stiff, and ornamented with small beads, in a very pretty manner. Slips of leather are sewed to the seams of this dress, and hang down about twenty inches long, ornamented with the bill of the sea-parrot, and beads. A slip of leather, three or four inches broad, hangs down before, from the top of the collar, covered fancifully with different coloured glass-beads, and tassels at the ends. A similar slip hangs down the back. Bracelets of black seal-skin are worn round their wrists, about half an inch broad; and similar ones round their ankles, for they go barefoot; and this is their whole dress. Their ornaments are rings on the fingers, ear-rings, beads and bones suspended from the septum of the nose, and bones in the perforated holes in the under lip. Their cheeks, chin, and arms, are punctured in a very neat manner. When they go a-walking on the rocky beach, they wear an awkward kind of boot, made of the throat of the sea-lion, soled with thick seal-skin, which they line with dry grass. The men wear a park of bird's skin, sometimes the feathers outward, and sometimes inward. The inside is dyed red, and ornamented with slips of leather hanging down a considerable length; the seams covered with thin slips of skin, very elegantly embroidered with white deer's hair, goat's hair, and the sinews of sea animals, dyed different colours. They also wear tight pantaloons of white leather, and boots as described to be worn by the women at times. The men wear them when they go on foot; but in their boats and their huts they are without either boots or pantaloons. The men have their hair cut short; the women wear theirs cut short before, combed over the forehead, and tied in a club on the top of the back part of the head. In wet weather, or when out at sea, they wear a camley; which is a dress made in the shape of the other, but formed of the intestines off the tongue of the whale. It has a hood to cover the head, and ties close round the neck and wrists; so that no water can penetrate. It is nearly transparent, and looks pretty. The men wear a wooden bonnet, ornamented with the whiskers of the sea-lion, and with beads, which make very pretty nodding plumes; and this serves to fasten the hood of their camley to the head. Both men and women are very fond of amber for ornaments; as also of a thin shelly substance, formed by worms in wood, about two inches long, thin, tapering, and hollow. Their instruments and utensils are all made with amazing beauty, and the exactest symmetry. The needles with which they sew their clothes, and embroider, are made of the wing-bone of the gull, with a very nice cut round the thicker end, instead of an eye, to which they tie the thread so skilfully, that it follows the needle without any obstruction. Thread they make of the sinews of the seal, and of all sizes, from the fineness of a hair to the strength of a moderate cord, both twisted and plaited. The plaited cords of their darts, to which they tie the gut of a seal, blown out to serve as a float, are very beautifully ornamented with red downy feathers, and goat's hair; as are also the different strings with which they fasten the wrists and other parts of their clothing. Their darts are adapted, with the greatest judgment, to the different objects of the chase: for animals, a single barbed point; for birds, they are with three points of light bone, spread and barbed; for seals, &c., they use a false point, inserted in a socket at the end of the dart, which parts on the least effort of the animal to dive, remaining in its body. A string of considerable length is fastened to this barbed point, and twisted round the wooden part of the dart. This serves as a float, to direct them to the seal; which, having the stick to drag after it, soon tires, and becomes an easy prey. It, however, requires skill our angling. The boards to humour it, perhaps equal to used in throwing these darts are equally judicious, to enable the natives to cast them, with great exactness, to a considerable distance. The boats of Oonalashka are greatly superior to those of any of the other islands. If perfect symmetry, smoothness, and proportion constitute beauty, they are beautiful. To me they appeared so beyond any thing that I ever beheld. I have seen some of them as transparent as oiled paper, through which one might trace every formation of the inside, and the manner of the native sitting in it; whose light dress, painted and plumed bonnet, with his perfect ease and activity, added vastly to its elegance. Their first appearance struck me with amazement beyond expression. We were in the offings, eight miles from shore, when they came about us. There was little wind, but a great swell of the sea. Some of them we took on board with their boats; and others continued rowing about the ship. When nearer the land we had a strong rippling current in our favour, the sea breaking violently over the shoals, and on the rocks. The natives, observing our astonishment at their agility and skill, paddled in among the breakers, which reached to their breasts, and carried the boats quite under water; sporting about more like amphibious animals than human beings. It immediately brought to my recollection, in a very forcible manner, Shakspeare's expression : a case. "He trod the water, Whose enmity he flung aside, and breasted Their boats are made of a wooden frame-work, covered with the skin of the sea-lion, drawn and sewed over it like The whole is so extremely light, even when sodden with water, that it may be carried with ease in one hand. They row with ease, in a sea moderately smooth, about ten miles an hour; and keep the sea in a fresh gale of wind. The paddles which they use are double, seven or eight feet long, and made equally neat with the other articles. The women plait very neat straw mats and baskets: the former serve for curtains, beds, &c.; the latter to contain their work, and other implements. Their trinkets and costly ornaments are kept in small wooden boxes, with draw |