МАЭ № 568-4

Model of a two-hatched kayak

Kodiak Eskimos

prior to 1845

harbor seal skin, phoca bowels, reindeer hair, seal sinew, paint

length 87.5 cm, width 11.8 cm, height with figures 14.7 cm, height of the hull 6.7 cm, height of the nose 12 cm

“Their skin kayaks are a bit wider and shorter than those of the Aleuts (of the Aleutian Islands—S.K.); they are not quite as fast; their paddles are shorter, with a single blade and a short crossed handle at the top. In a kayak they sit on their knees. Some kayaks have a vertical device which looks like a narrow stick split lengthwise, which they use to tie the lower ends of the two halves tightly together with thread while the upper ends are sealed with a specially designed wooden cross-piece. They also carry in their kayaks a collection of spears with short feathers, throwing boards, harpoons (tochsyt), floating bladders, laces with which to tie them (aktschuk) made from river otter sinew (Punchpak), and lastly, bladders with fresh water, along with a device for getting water out of the bladder made from the stem of seaweed or from a number of other types of umbel plants” (Merk 1978: 74).

Ethnography of America