Figure 112 is copied from a piece of ivory in the museum of the Alaska Commercial Company, San Francisco, California, and was interpreted by an Alaskan native in San Francisco in 1882.
[Illustration: FIG. 112.--Votive offering. Alaska.]
No. 1. Is a votive offering or “Shaman stick,” erected to the memory of one departed. The “bird” carvings are considered typical of “good spirits,” and the above was erected by the remorse-stricken individual, No. 3, who had killed the person shown in No. 2.
No. 2. The headless body represents the man who was killed. In this respect the Ojibwa manner of drawing a person “killed” is similar.
No. 3. The individual who killed No. 2, and who erected the “grave-post” or “sacred stick.” The arm is thrown earthward, resembling the Blackfeet and Dakota gesture for “kill.”
The following is the text in Aígalúxamut:
Nu-ná-mu-quk´ á-x’l-xik´ aí-ba-li to-qgú-qlu gú nú-hu tcuk nac-quí Place two quarrel(with) one another, (one) killed large knife took head him (the other) (with a)
qlu-gú, i-nó-qtclu-gu; Ka-sá-ha-lik´ na-bŏn´ ca-gú-lŭk a-gú-nŭ-qua-qlu-hŭ’. off, laid him down; Shaman stick bird to set (or place) (buried) (offering) (wooden) on the top of (over).
That portion of the Kauvuya tribe of Indians in Southern California known as the Playsanos, or _lowlanders_, formerly inscribed characters upon the gravestones of their dead, relating to the pursuits or good qualities of the deceased. Dr. W. J. Hoffman obtained several pieces or slabs of finely-grained sandstone near Los Angeles, California, during the summer of 1884, which had been used for this purpose. Upon these were the drawings, in incised lines, of the Fin-back whale, with figures of men pursuing them with harpoons. Around the etchings were close parallel lines with cross lines similar to the drawings made on ivory by the southern Innuit of Alaska.
Figures 113 and 114 were procured from a native Alaskan, by Dr. Hoffman in 1882, and explained to him to be drawings made upon grave-posts.
Drawings similar to these are made on slabs of wood by devoted friends, or relatives, to present and perpetuate the good qualities of a deceased native. The occupation is usually referred to, as well as articles of importance of which the departed one was the possessor.