James Mooney - Native Americans - 22 Books on History, Mythology, Culture & Linguistic Studies

Partly on this account and partly from attachment to their masters, dogs sold out of one team frequently return to their old homes, and I know of instances in which they even ran from thirty to sixty miles to reach it. Sometimes they do so when a sledge is traveling for a few days from one settlement to another, the dogs not having left home for a long time before. In such cases when the Eskimo go to harness their team in the morning they find that some of them have run away, particularly those which were lent from another team for the journey. In order to prevent this the left fore leg is sometimes tied up by a loop which passes over the neck. When one is on a journey it is well to do so every night, as some of the dogs are rather unwilling to be harnessed in the morning, thus causing a great loss of time before they are caught. In fact such animals are customarily tied up at night, while the others are allowed to run loose.

Sometimes the harnesses are not taken off at night. As some dogs are in the habit of stripping off their harness, it is fastened by tying the trace around the body. Though all these peculiarities of the dogs give a great deal of trouble to the driver, he must take care not to punish them too severely, as they will then become frightened and for fear of the whip will not work at all.

Before putting the dogs to the sledge it must be prepared and loaded. In winter the shoes of the runners are covered with a thick coat of ice, which diminishes the friction on the snow. If the shoes are of good bone, ivory, or whalebone, the icing is done with water only, the driver taking a mouthful and carefully letting it run over the shoe until a smooth cover of about one third of an inch in thickness is produced. The icicles made by the water which runs down the side of the runner are carefully removed with the snow knife, and the bottom is smoothed with the same implement and afterward somewhat polished with the mitten. Skin runners and others which have poor shoes are first covered with a mixture of moss and water or clay and water. This being frozen, the whole is iced, as has been described. Instead of pure water, a mixture of blood and water or of urine and water is frequently used, as this sticks better to the bone shoe than the former.

This done, the sledge is turned right side up and loaded. In winter, when the snow is hard, small sledges with narrow shoes are the best. In loading, the bulk of the weight is placed behind. When the snow is soft or there are wide cracks in the floe, long sledges with broad shoes are by far the best. In such cases the heaviest part of the load is placed on the middle of the sledge or even nearer the head. Particularly in crossing cracks the weight must be as near the head as possible, for if the jump should be unsuccessful a heavy weight at the hind part would draw the sledge and the dogs into the water.

The load is fastened to the sledge by a long lashing (naqetarun). This is tied to the first cross bar and after passing over the load is drawn over the notch of the next bar, and so on from one notch, over the load, to a notch on the opposite side. After having been fastened in this way it is tightened. Two men are required for the work, one pulling the lashing over the notch, the other pressing down the load and lifting and lowering the thong in order to diminish the friction, thus making the pulling of the other man more effective. The end is fastened to the brow antler. Implements which are used in traveling are hung upon the antlers at the back of the sledge. In spring, when the snow is melting and water is found under it, the travelers frequently carry in their pouch a tube for drinking (Fig. 489).

Fig. 489. Tube for drinking. (National Museum, Washington. 10383.) ¼

When the sledge has been loaded the dogs are hitched to it and the driver takes up the whip and is ready for starting. The handle of the whip is about a foot or a foot and a half in length. It is made of wood, bone, or whalebone and has a lash of from twenty to twenty-five feet in length. The lash is made of walrus or ground seal hide, the lower end being broad and stiff, thus giving it greater weight and a slight springiness near the handle, which facilitates its use. A broad piece of skin clasps the handle, to which it is tied with seal thongs. Another way of making the lower part heavy is by plaiting ground seal lines for a length of a foot or a foot and a half.

When starting the driver utters a whistling guttural sound which sounds like h!h!, but cannot exactly be expressed by letters, as there is no vowel in it, and yet on account of the whistling noise in the throat it is audible at a considerable distance. The dogs, if well rested and strong, jump to their feet and start at once. If they are lazy it requires a great deal of stimulating and lashing before they make a start. If the load is heavy it is difficult to start it and the Eskimo must use some strategy to get them all to pull at once. The sledge is moved backward and forward for about a foot, so as to make a short track in which it moves easily. Then the driver sings out to the dogs, at the same time drawing the traces tight with his hands and pulling at the sledge. The dogs, feeling a weight at the traces, begin to draw, and when the driver suddenly lets go the traces the sledge receives a sudden pull and begins to move. If assistance is at hand the sledge may be pushed forward until it gets under way.

It is extremely hard work to travel with a heavy load, particularly in rough ice or on soft snow. The dogs require constant stimulating; for this purpose a great number of exclamations are in use and almost every Eskimo has his own favorite words for driving. The general exclamation, used for stimulating is the above mentioned h! h! or aq! aq! which is pressed out from the depths of the breast and the palate, the vowel being very indistinct. Others are: djua! the a being drawn very long and almost sung in a high key, or ah! pronounced in the same way; iatit! or jauksa koksa! and smacking with the tongue. If a seal is seen basking on the ice or if the sledge happens to pass a deserted snow hut, the driver says, Ha! Do you see the seal? Ai! A seal! a seal! (Ha! Takuviuk? Ai! Uto! uto!) and Ai! There is a house; a small house! (Ai! Iglu; igluaqdjung!) or, Now we go home! (Sarpoq! Sarpoq!) The latter, however, are only used when the dogs are going at a good rate.

For directing the sledge the following words are used: Aua, aua! Aua! ja aua! for turning to the right; χoiaχoi! ja χoia! for turning to the left. In addition the whip lash is thrown to the opposite side of the dogs. The leader is the first to obey the order, but a turn is made very slowly and by a long curve. If the driver wants to make a sharper turn he must jump up and run to the opposite side of the sledge, throwing the whip lash at the same time toward the team. For stopping the dogs the word Ohoha! pronounced in a deep key, is used.

If the traveling is difficult the driver must walk along at the right side of the sledge and wherever hummocks obstruct the passage he must direct it around them either by pushing its head aside or by pulling at the deer’s skull at the back. But notwithstanding all this stimulating and all the pulling the sledge is frequently stopped by striking a piece of ice or by sinking into soft snow. As soon as it sinks down to the cross bars it must be lifted out, and when the load is heavy the only means of getting on is by unloading and afterwards reloading. In the same way it must be lifted across hummocks through which a road is cut with the end of the spear, which, for this purpose, is always lashed in a place where it is handy for use, generally on the right side of the bottom of the sledge. The difficulties of traveling across heavy ice which has been subjected to heavy pressures have frequently been described. When the sledge stops the dogs immediately lie down, and if they cannot start again, though pulling with all their strength, the leader frequently looks around pitifully, as if to say, We cannot do more!