Labrets of this material and pattern do not seem to be common
anywhere. Beechey saw one in Kotzebue Sound 3 inches long and 1½
wide,[N266] and there is a large and handsome one in the Museum
brought by Mr. Nelson from the lower Yukon. A similar one has recently
been received from Kotzebue Sound.

    [Footnote N266: Voyage, p. 249.]

  [Illustration: FIG. 94.--Oblong labret of bone.]

Fig. 94, No. 89712 [1169], from Sidaru is a labret of similar shape,
3 inches long and 1½ broad, but made of compact bone, rather neatly
carved and ground smooth. It shows some signs of having been worn.
There are marks on the stud where it appears to have been rubbed
against the teeth, and it is probably genuine. The purchase of this
specimen apparently started the manufacture of bone labrets at
Utkiavwĭñ, where no bone labrets, old or new, had previously been
seen. For several days after we bought the specimen from Sidaru the
natives continued to bring over bone labrets, but all so newly and
clumsily made that we declined to purchase any more than four
specimens. About the same time they began to make oblong labrets out
of soapstone (a material which we never saw used for genuine labrets),
like Fig. 95, No. 89707 [1215]. The purchase of three specimens of
these started a wholesale manufacture of them, and we stopped
purchasing.

  [Illustration: FIG. 95. Oblong labret of soapstone.]

The oblong labret appears to have been still in fashion as late as
1826, for Elson saw many of the men at Point Barrow wearing oblong
labrets of bone (_cf._ No. 89712 [1169] and stone, 3 inches long and 1
broad.[N267] Unfortunately, he does not specify whether they were worn
in pairs or singly, and if singly, as would be natural from their size
and shape, whether in the middle of the lip or at one side.

    [Footnote N267: Beechey’s Voy., p. 308.]

  [Illustration: FIG. 96.--Ancient labrets.]

Nos. 89304 [1713], 89716 [1042], and 89717 [1031] (Fig. 96) are very
old labrets, which are interesting from their resemblance to the
ancient Aleutian single labrets found by Dall in the cave on Amaknak
Island.[N268] No. 89304 [1713] is an elliptical plug of bituminous
coal, with a projecting flange round the base, which is slightly
concave to fit the curve of the jaw. This labret is very old and was
said to have been found in one of the ruined houses in Utkiavwĭñ. The
other two labrets are of walrus ivory and of similar shape, but have
the flange only at the ends of the base. All of these three are large,
the largest being 2.2 inches wide and 0.7 thick, and the smallest 1.3
by 0.5, so that they required a much larger incision in the lip than
is at present made. In connection with what has been said of the
ancient habit of wearing labrets in the middle of the lip, it is
interesting to note that Nordenskiöld saw men at Port Clarence who
had, besides the ordinary labret holes, “a similar hole forward in the
lip.”[N269] The various portraits of natives previously inserted show
the present manner of wearing the labrets at Point Barrow.

    [Footnote N268: See Contrib., etc., vol. 1, p. 89, and the two
    copper figures on the plate opposite.]

    [Footnote N269: Vega, vol. 2, p. 233.]

NECK ORNAMENTS.

Most of the women and girls wear necklaces made of strings of beads,
large or small, frequently strung together with much taste. The
tobacco pouch is often attached to this necklace.

ORNAMENTS OF THE LIMBS.

_Bracelets._--The women all wear bracelets, which are sometimes
strings of beads, but more commonly circles of iron, brass, or copper
wire, of which several are often worn on the same wrist, after the
fashion of bangles. The men also sometimes wear bracelets. These
consist of circles of narrow thong, upon which are strung one or two
large beads or a couple of Dentalium shells (pû´tû).[N270]

    [Footnote N270: There is in the collection a bunch of five of
    these shells (No. 89530 [1357], which are scarce and highly valued
    as ornaments. Mr. R. E. C. Stearns, of the U. S. National Museum,
    has identified the species as Dentalium Indianorum Cpr. (probably
    = _D. pretiosum_, Sby.), called “alĭkotci´k” by the Indians of
    northwest California, and “hiqua” (J. K. Lord) or “hya-qua”
    (F. Whymper) by the Indians round Queen Charlotte Sound.]

We brought home one pair of men’s bracelets (newly made), one of which
(89388 [1355]) is figured in Point Barrow Rept. Ethnology, Pl. I,
Fig. 4. They are made of strips of seal thong 0.2 inch broad, bent
into rings (9.4 and 8.6 inches in circumference, respectively), with
the ends slightly overlapping and sewed together. On each is strung a
cylindrical bead of soapstone about one-half inch long and of the same
diameter. A single bracelet is generally worn.

_Finger-rings._--Both sexes now frequently wear brass finger-rings,
called katû´kqlĕrûñ, from katû´kqlûñ, the middle finger, upon which
the ring is always worn.

MISCELLANEOUS ORNAMENTS.

  [Illustration: FIG. 97.--Beads of amber.]

_Beads._--In addition to the ornaments already described, the women
use short strings of beads, buttons, etc., to ornament various parts
of the dress, especially the outer side of the inner frock (i´lupa),
and strings of beads are often attached to various objects, such as
pipes, tobacco pouches, etc. One or two women were also observed to
wear large bunches of beads and buttons attached to the inner girdle
in front so as to hang down between the legs inside of the pantaloons.
A similar strange custom was observed by Beechey at Hotham Inlet,
where a young woman wore a good-sized metal bell in the same
uncomfortable manner.[N271] These people appear to have attempted the
manufacture of beads in former times, when they were not so easily
obtained as at present. There is in the collection a string of four
small beads made from amber picked up on the beach (Fig. 97, No. 89700
[1716]). They are of dark honey-colored transparent amber, about
one-third inch long and one-half inch diameter at the base. Such beads
are very rare at the present day. The above specimens were the only
ones seen.

    [Footnote N271: Voyage, p. 295.]

TOILET ARTICLES.

The only object in use among these people that can be considered a
toilet article is the small hair comb (ĭ^{d}lai´utĭn), usually made of
walrus ivory.

The collection contains ten specimens, from which No. 56566_b_ [182]
(Fig. 98_a_) has been selected as the type. It is made of walrus ivory
(from near the root of the tusk). When in use, it is held with the tip
of the forefinger in the ring, the thumb and middle finger resting on
each side of the neck. This is perhaps the commonest form of the comb,
though it is often made with two curved arms at the top instead of a
ring, as in Fig. 98_b_, No. 56569 [194], or sometimes with a plain
top, like No. 56572 [210] (Fig. 98_c_). Nine of the ten combs, all
from Utkiavwĭñ, are of walrus ivory, but No. 89785 [1006], which was
the property of Ilû´bwga, the Nunatañmiun, who spent the winter of
1882-’83 at Utkiavwĭñ, is made of reindeer antler. This was probably
made in the interior, where antler is more plentiful than ivory. All
these combs are made with great care and patience. The teeth are
usually cut with a saw, but on one specimen the maker used the sharp
edge of a piece of tin, as we had refused to loan him a fine saw. This
kind of comb is very like that described by Parry from Iglulik.[N272]

    [Footnote N272: 2nd Voyage, p. 194, Fig. 12, Pl. opp. p. 548.]

  [Illustration: FIG. 98.--Hair combs.]

IMPLEMENTS FOR GENERAL USE.

TOOLS.

_Knives._--All the men are now supplied with excellent knives of
civilized manufacture, mostly butcher knives or sheath knives of
various patterns, which they employ for numerous purposes, such as
skinning and butchering game, cutting up food, and rough whittling.
Fine whittling and carving is usually done with the “crooked knife,”
to be described further on. In whittling the knife is grasped so that
the blade projects on the ulnar side of the hand and is drawn toward
the workman. A pocketknife, of which they have many of various
patterns, is used in the same way. I observed that the Asiatic Eskimo
at Plover Bay held the knife in the same manner. Capt. Lyon, in
describing a man whittling at Winter island, says: “As is customary
with negroes, he cut toward the left hand and never used the thumb of
the right, as we do, for a check to the knife.”[N273] This apparently
refers to a similar manner of holding the knife. Before the
introduction of iron, knives appear to have been always made of slate,
worked by grinding. We obtained twenty-six more or less complete
knives, most of which are genuine old implements, which have been
preserved as heirlooms or amulets. These knives are either single or
double edged, and the double-edged knives may be divided into four
classes, according to their shape. The first class consists of rather
small knives with the edges straight or only slightly curved, tapering
to a sharp or truncated point, with the butt terminating in a short
broad tang slightly narrower than the blade, which is inserted in the
end of a straight wooden haft, at least as long as the blade. The
commonest material is a hard, dark purple slate, though some are of
black or dark gray slate. Of this class we have three complete knives
and five blades without the haft.

    [Footnote N273: Journal, p. 92.]

  [Illustration: FIG. 99.--Slate knives. 1/2]

No. 89584 [1107] (figured in Point Barrow Rept., Ethnology, Pl. III,
Fig. 3), will represent this class. It is a blade of dark purple
slate, ground smooth, 3.5 inches long, tapering from a width of 1.3
inches at the butt, with curved edges to a sharp point, and beveled on
both faces from the middle line to the edges, and the flat tang is
inserted into a cleft in the end of a straight haft of spruce. The
blade is secured by a whipping of about fifteen turns of sinew braid
lodged in a broad shallow groove round the end of the haft. In a hole
in the other end of the haft is looped a short lanyard of seal thong.
Fig. 99_a_, No. 89581 [1011], is a knife of the same class and about
the same size, having a haft 4 inches and a blade 3 inches long. The
blade is secured by two lashings, of which the first is a narrow strip
of whalebone, and the other of sinew braid. The materials of blade and
haft are the same as before. No. 89585 [1710] (Fig. 99_b_), has a
blade of dark gray slate, and the haft, which appears to be of cotton
wood, is in two longitudinal sections. The lashing which holds these
two sections together is of braided sinew. Of the blades, the only
sharp-pointed one, No. 56684 [228] (Fig. 100), is like the blade of
89584 [1107], but rather larger. The others all have rounded or
truncated points and are not over 3½ inches long, including the tang,
but otherwise closely resemble the blades already described. They all
show signs of considerable age and several of them are nicked and
gapped on the edge from use. Knives of this class are not like any in
use at the present day, and it was not possible to learn definitely
whether this shape served any special purpose. We were, however, given
to understand that the sharp-pointed ones were sometimes, at least,
used for stabbing. Perhaps they were used specially for cutting up the
smaller animals.

  [Illustration: FIG. 100.--Slate knife-blade. 1/2]

The second class, of which there are four specimens, is not unlike the
first, but the blade is short and broad, with strongly curved edges,
and always sharp pointed, while the haft is always much longer than
the blade. Instead of being evenly beveled off on both faces from the
middle line to the edges, they are either slightly convex, worked down
gradually to the edge, or flat with narrowly beveled edges. They are
all small knives, the longest being 8.3 inches long, with the blade
projecting 3.1 inches from the haft, and the shortest 4.9 inches, with
the blade projecting only 1.4 inches.

  [Illustration: FIG. 101.--Slate knife. 1/2]

Fig. 101, No. 89583 [1305], is a knife of this class, with the blade a
nearly equilateral triangle (1.4 inches long and 1.3 inches wide at
the base), with a flat wooden haft as wide as the blade and 3½ inches
long, cleft at the tip and lashed with thirteen or fourteen turns of
sinew braid. The holes near the butt of the haft were probably to
receive a lanyard. Fig. 102, No. 89591 [1016], is another form of the
same class. The blade is secured by a single rivet of wood.

  [Illustration: FIG. 102.--Slate knife. 1/4]

  [Illustration: FIG. 103.--Slate hunting-knife. 1/4]

The third class consists of large knives, with long, broad, lanceolate
blades, and short straight hafts. There is only one complete specimen,
No. 89592 [1002], Fig. 103. This has a blade of soft, light greenish
slate, 6 inches long and 2.6 inches broad, with the edges broadly
beveled on both faces. The haft of spruce is in two longitudinal
sections, put together so as to inclose the short tang of the blade,
and is secured by a tight whipping of eighteen turns of fine seal
twine, and painted with red ocher. This knife is new and was made for
sale, but is undoubtedly a correct model of an ancient pattern, as No.
56676 [204] (Fig. 104), which is certainly ancient, appears to be the
blade of just such a knife. We were told that the latter was intended
for cutting blubber. This perhaps means that it was a whaling knife.
Mr. Nelson brought home a magnificent knife of precisely the same
pattern, made of light green jade.

  [Illustration: FIG. 104.--Blade of slate hunting-knife. 1/4]

  [Illustration: FIG. 105.--Large slate knife. 1/4]

The two knives, representing the fourth class, are both new and made
for sale, having blades of soft slate. As we obtained no genuine
knives of this pattern, it is possible that they are merely commercial
fabrications. The two knives are very nearly alike, but the larger,
No. 89590 [984] (Fig. 105), is the more carefully made. The blade is of
light greenish gray slate, 6.2 inches long and 2 inches broad, and is
straight nearly to the tip, where it curves to a sharp point, making a
blade like that of the Roman gladius. The haft is a piece sawed out of
the beam of an antler, and has a cleft sawed in one end to receive the
short broad tang of the blade. The whipping is of sinew braid.

  [Illustration: FIG. 106.--Large single-edged slate knife. 1/4]

The single-edged knives were probably all meant specially for cutting
food, and are all of the same general pattern, varying in size from a
blade only 2½ inches long to one of 7 inches. The blade is generally
more strongly curved along the edge than on the back and is usually
sharp-pointed. It is fitted with a broad tang to a straight haft,
usually shorter than the blade. There are in the collection four
complete knives and five unhafted blades. No. 89597 [1052] (Fig. 106)
is a typical knife of this kind. The blade is of black slate, rather
rough, and is 5.6 inches long (including the tang). The tang, which is
about one-half inch long and the same breadth, is lashed _against_ one
end of the flat haft of bone which is cut away to receive it, with
five turns of stout seal thong. No. 89594 [1053] differs from the
preceding only in having the tang inserted in a cleft in the end of
the haft, and No. 89589_a_ [1054] has the back more curved than the
edge, the haft of antler and the lashing of whalebone. All three are
of very rude workmanship. No. 89587 [1587], is a small knife with a
truncated point and the tang imbedded without lashing in the end of a
roughly made haft of bone.

  [Illustration: FIG. 107.--Blades of knives.]

Most of the blades are those of knives similar to the type, more
smoothly finished, but No. 56712 [226] (Fig. 107_a_) is noticeable for
the extreme “belly” of the edge and the smoothness with which the
faces are beveled from back to edge. Such knives approach the woman’s
round knife (ulu, ulu´ra). No. 89601 [776] (Fig. 107_b_) is almost
double-edged, the back being rounded off. Fig. 108, No. 89631 [1081],
is a very remarkable form of slate knife, of which this was the only
specimen seen. In shape it somewhat resembles a hatchet, having a
broad triangular blade with a strongly curved cutting edge, along the
back of which is fitted a stout haft of bone 12½ inches long. The
blade is of soft, dark purple slate, ground smooth, and resembles the
modern knives in having the sharp cutting edge beveled almost wholly
on one face. The haft is the foreshaft of an old whale harpoon, and is
made of whale’s bone. The back of the blade is fitted into a deep
narrow saw cut, and held on by three very neat lashings of narrow
strips of whalebone, each of which passes through a hole drilled
through the blade close to the haft and through a pair of vertical
holes in the haft on each side of the blade. These holes converge
towards the back of the haft and are joined by a deep channel, so that
the lashing is countersunk below the surface of the haft. This
implement was brought down from Nuwŭk and offered for sale as a knife
anciently used for cutting off the blubber of a whale. The purchaser
got the impression that it was formerly attached to a long pole and
used like a whale spade. On more careful examination after our return
it was discovered that the haft was really part of an old harpoon and
that the lashings and holes to receive them were evidently newer than
the haft.

  [Illustration: FIG. 108.--Peculiar slate knife. 1/4]

It is possible that the blade may have been long ago fitted to the
haft and that the tool may have been used as described. That knives of
this sort were occasionally used by the Eskimo is shown by a specimen
in the Museum from Norton Sound. This is smaller than the one
described but has a slate blade of nearly the same shape and has a
haft, for hand use only, put on in the same way.

With such knives as these the cut is made by _drawing_ the knife
toward the user instead of pushing it away, as in using the round
knife. We found no evidence that these Eskimo ever used knives of
ivory (except for cutting snow) or ivory knives with bits of iron
inlaid in the edge, such as have been observed among those of the
East.

  [Illustration: FIG. 109--Knife with whalebone blade. 1/4]

Fig. 109, No. 89477 [1422], is a very extraordinary implement, which
was brought down from Point Barrow and which has evidently been
exposed alongside of some corpse at the cemetery. The blade is a long,
flat, thin piece of whalebone wedged between the two psarts of the
haft, which has been sawed lengthwise for 6½ inches to receive it. The
haft is a slender piece of antler. No other specimens of the kind were
seen, nor have similar implements, to my knowledge, been observed
elsewhere. The natives insisted that it was genuine, and was formerly
used for cutting blubber.

  [Illustration: FIG. 110.--Small iron knife.]

I have introduced four figures of old iron or steel knives, of which
we have six specimens, in order to show the way in which the natives
in early days, when iron was scarce, utilized old case-knives and bits
of tools, fitting them with hafts of their own make. All agree in
having the edge beveled on the upper face only. All the knives which
they obtain from the whites at the present day are worked over with a
file so as to bring the bevel on one face only. Fig. 110, No. 89296
[970], from Nuwŭk, has a blade of iron, and the flat haft is made of
two longitudinal sections of reindeer antler, held together with four
large rivets nearly equidistant. The two which pass through the tang
are of brass and the other two of iron. The blade is 3.6 inches long,
the haft 4.1 long and 0.9 broad. Fig. 110, No. 89294 [901], from
Utkiavwĭñ, has a short, thick, and sharp-pointed blade, and is hafted
in the same way with antler, one section of the haft being cut out to
receive the short, thick tang. The first two rivets are of iron, the
other three of brass and not quite long enough to go wholly through
the haft. The blade is barely 2 inches long. Fig. 111_a_, No. 89297
[1125], from Nuwŭk, has a short blade, 2½ inches long, and the two
sections of the haft are held together, not by rivets, but by a close
spiral lasting of stout seal thong extending the whole length of the
haft. No. 89293 [1330], Fig. 111_b_, from Utkiavwĭñ, has a peculiarly
shaped blade, which is a bit of some steel tool imbedded in the end of
a straight bit of antler 4 inches long. One of these knives, not
figured, is evidently part of the blade of an old-fashioned curved
case knife. It is stamped with the name “Wilson,” and underneath this
are three figures, of which only <> can be made out. This may be a
table knife bought or stolen from the _Plover_ in 1852-’54.

  [Illustration: FIG. 111.--Small iron knives. 1/2]

  [Illustration: FIG. 112.--Iron hunting knife. 1/2]

There is in the collection one large double-edged knife (Fig. 112, No.
89298 [1162]) of precisely the same form as the slate hunting knife
(Fig. 103) and Mr. Nelson’s jade knife previously mentioned. The blade
is of thick sheet iron, which has in it a couple of rivet holes, and
the haft of reindeer antler in two sections, held together by a large
copper rivet at each end and a marline of sinew braid. Each edge has a
narrow bevel on one face only, the two edges being beveled on opposite
faces. There are a small number of such knives still in use,
especially as hunting knives (for cutting up walrus, one man said).
They are considered to be better than modern knives for keeping off
evil spirits at night. As is not unusual, the antiquity of the object
has probably invested it with a certain amount of superstitious
regard. These knives are undoubtedly the same as the “double-edged
knives (pan´-na)” mentioned by Dr. Simpson (op. cit., p. 266) as
brought for sale by the Nunatañmiun, who obtained them from the
Siberian natives, and which he believes to be carried as far as the
strait of Fury and Hecla. It would be interesting to decide whether
the stone hunting knives were an original idea of the Eskimo, or
whether they were copies, in stone, of the first few iron knives
obtained from Siberia; but more material is needed before the matter
can be cleared up.

The natives of Point Barrow, in ordinary conversation, call all knives
savĭk, which also means _iron_, and is identically the same as the
word used in Greenland for the same objects. If, then, there was a
time, as these people say, when their ancestors were totally ignorant
of the use of iron--and the large number of stone implements still
found among them is strongly corroborative of this--the use of this
name indicates that the first iron was obtained from the east, along
with the soapstone lamps, instead of from Siberia. Had it first come
from Siberia, as tobacco did, we should expect to find it, like the
latter, called by a Russian or Siberian name.

Like all the Eskimo of North America from Cape Bathurst westward, the
natives of Point Barrow use for fine whittling and carving on wood,
ivory, bone, etc., “crooked knives,” consisting of a small blade, set
on the under side of the end of a long curved haft, so that the edge,
which is beveled only on the upper face, projects about as much as
that of a spokeshave. The curve of blade and haft is such that when
the under surface of the blade rests against the surface to be cut the
end of the haft points up at an angle of about 45°. This knife differs
essentially from the crooked carving knife so generally used by the
Indians of North America. As a rule the latter has only the blade
(which is often double edged) curved and stuck into the end of a
straight haft. These knives are at the present time made of iron or
steel and are of two sizes, a large knife, mĭ´dlĭñ, with a haft 10 to
20 inches long, intended for working on wood, and a small one,
savigro´n (lit. “an instrument for shaving”), with a haft 6 or 7
inches long and intended specially for cutting bone and ivory. Both
sizes are handled in the same way. The knife is held close to the
blade between the index and second fingers of the right hand with the
thumb over the edge, which is toward the workman. The workman draws
the knife toward him, using his thumb as a check to gauge the depth of
the cut. The natives use these knives with very great skill, taking
off long and very even shavings and producing very neat
workmanship.[N274]

    [Footnote N274: Compare this with what Capt. Parry says of the
    workmanship of the people of Iglulik (2d Voy., p. 336). The almost
    exclusive use of the double-edged pan´na is the reason their work
    is so “remarkably coarse and clumsy.”]

There are in the collection four large knives and thirteen small ones.
No. 89278 [787] (Fig. 113) will serve as the type of the large knives.
The haft is a piece of reindeer antler, flat on one face and rounded
on the other, and the curve is toward the rounded face. The flat face
is hollowed out by cutting away the cancellated tissue from the bend
to the tip, and the lower edge is sloped off so that the end of the
haft is flat and narrow, with a slight twist. The blade is riveted to
the flat face of the haft with three iron rivets, and is a piece of a
saw countersunk flush with the surface of the haft, so that it follows
its curvature. The cutting edge is beveled only on the upper face. The
lower edge of the haft, from the blade to the place where it begins to
narrow, is pierced with eleven equidistant holes, through which is
laced a piece of sealskin thong, the two parts crossing like a
shoe-lacing, to prevent the hand from slipping. The ornamental pattern
on the upper face of the haft is incised and was originally colored
with red ocher, but is now filled with dirt.

  [Illustration: FIG. 113.--Large crooked knife. 1/2]

  [Illustration: FIG. 114.--Large crooked knife, with sheath. 1/3]

Fig. 114, No. 89780 [1004_d_], is a very long hafted knife (the haft
is 12.3 inches long), but otherwise resembles the type, though not so
elaborately ornamented. The blade is also a bit of a saw. It is
provided with a sheath 3¼ inches long, made of black sealskin with the
black side out, doubled over at one side, and sewed “over and over”
down the other side and round one end. To the open end is sewed a bit
of thong with a slit in the end of it, into which one end of a lanyard
of seal twine 15 inches long is fastened with a becket-hitch. When the
sheath is fitted over the blade the lanyard is passed through a hole
in the haft and made fast by two or three turns around it. Such
sheaths are often used by careful workmen. This particular knife was
the property of the “inlander” Ilû´bwgɐ, previously mentioned. No.
89283 [967], from Nuwŭk, is interesting as being the only left-handed
tool we obtained. The fourth knife has a blade with a cutting edge of
3½ inches, while that of each of the others is 3 inches.

The small knife differs little from the mĭ´dlĭñ except in having the
haft very much shorter and not tapered off at the tip. Fig. 115_a_,
No. 56552 [145], from Utkiavwĭñ, shows a common form of this kind of
knife, though the blade usually has a sharp point like those of the
large knives, projecting beyond the end of the haft. This knife has a
blade of iron riveted on with two iron rivets to a haft of reindeer
antler. The edges of the haft close to the blade are roughened with
crosscuts to prevent slipping.

The blades of the small knives are frequently inserted into a cleft in
the edge of the haft, as in Fig. 115_b_, 89632 [827], and 89277
[1172]. The blade, in such cases, is secured by wedging it tightly,
with sometimes the addition of a lashing of thong through a hole in
the haft and round the heel of the blade. The blade is usually of
steel, in most cases a bit of a saw and the haft of reindeer antler,
generally plain, unless the circular hollows, such as are to be seen
on No. 89277 [1172], which are very common, are intended for ornament.
Fig. 116, No. 89275 [1183], from Utkiavwĭñ, is a rather peculiar
knife. The haft, which is the only one seen of walrus ivory, is nearly
straight, and the unusually long point of the blade is strongly bent
up. The rivets are of copper. This knife, the history of which we did
not obtain, was very likely meant both for wood and ivory. It is old
and rusty and has been long in use.

  [Illustration: FIG. 115.--Small crooked knives. 1/2]

  [Illustration: FIG. 116.--Crooked knife. 1/3]

All of the crooked knives in the collection are genuine implements
which have been actually in use, and do not differ in type from the
crooked knives in the Museum from the Mackenzie district, Kotzebue
Sound, and other parts of Alaska. Similar knives appear to be used
among the Siberian Eskimo and the Chukches, who have adopted their
habits. Hooper (Tents, etc., p. 175), mentions “a small knife with a
bent blade and a handle, generally made of the tip of a deer’s horn,”
as one in general use at Plover Bay, and handled in the same skillful
way as at Point Barrow.[N275] Among the Eskimo of the central region
they are almost entirely unknown. The only mention I have seen of such
tools is in Parry’s Second Voyage (p. 504), where he speaks of seeing
at Iglulik “several open knives with crooked wooden handles,” which he
thinks “must have been obtained by communication alongshore with
Hudson Bay.” I can find no specimen, figure, or description of the
sa´nat (“tool”), _the_ tool par excellence of the Greenlanders, except
the following definition in Kleinschmidt’s “Grønlandsk Ordbog”:
“2. Specially a narrow, long-hafted knife, which is sharpened on one
side and slightly curved at the tip (and which is a Greenlander’s
chief tool).” This seems to indicate that this knife, so common in the
West, is equally common in Greenland.[N276]

    [Footnote N275: Lisiansky also mentions “a small crooked knife”
    (Voyage, p. 181), as one of the tools used in Kadiak in 1805.]

    [Footnote N276: A specimen has lately been received at the
    National Museum. It is remarkably like the Indian knife in
    pattern.]

  [Illustration: FIG. 117.--Crooked knives, flint bladed. 4/9 1/3]

Whether these people used crooked knives before the introduction of
iron is by no means certain, though not improbable. Fig. 117_a_, No.
89633 [1196], from Utkiavwĭñ, is a knife made by imbedding a flake of
gray flint in the lower edge of a haft of reindeer antler, of the
proper shape and curvature for a mĭdlĭñ handle. The haft is soiled and
undoubtedly old, while the flaked surfaces of the flint do not seem
fresh, and the edge shows slight nicks, as if it had been used. Had
this knife been followed by others equally genuine looking, I should
have no hesitation in pronouncing it a prehistoric knife, and the
ancestor of the present steel one. The fact, however, that its
purchase gave rise to the manufacture of a host of flint knives all
obviously new and more and more clumsily made, until we refused to buy
any more, leads me to suspect that it was fabricated with very great
care from old material, and skillfully soiled by the maker.

Ten of these knives of flint were purchased within a fortnight before
we detected the deceit. Fig. 117_b_, No. 89636 [1212] is one of the
best of these counterfeits, made by wedging a freshly flaked flint
blade into the haft of an old savigrón, which has been somewhat
trimmed to receive the blade and soiled and charred to make it look
old. Other more carelessly made ones had clumsily carved handles of
whale’s bone, with roughly flaked flints stuck into them and glued in
with oil dregs. All of these came from Utkiavwĭñ. Another suspicious
circumstance is that a few days previously two slate-bladed crooked
knives had been brought down from Nuwŭk and accepted without question
as ancient. On examining the specimens since our return, I find that
while the hafts are certainly old, the blades, which are of soft slate
easily worked, are as certainly new. Fig. 118_a_, 118_b_, represent
these two knives (89580 [1062], 89586 [1061]), which have the blades
lashed on with deer sinew. It is worthy of note in this connection
that there are no stone knives of this pattern in the museum from any
other locality.

  [Illustration: FIG. 118.--Slate-bladed crooked knives. 1/2]

The women employ for all purposes for which a knife or scissors could
be used a semicircular knife of the same general type as those
described by every writer from the days of Egede, who has had to deal
with the Eskimo. The knives at the present day are made of steel,
usually, and perhaps always, of a piece of a saw blade, which gives a
sheet of steel of the proper breadth and thickness, and are
manufactured by the natives themselves. Dr. Simpson says[N277] that in
his time they were brought from Kotzebue Sound by the Nunatañmiun, who
obtained them from the Siberian Eskimo. There are in the collection
three of these steel knives, all of the small size generally called
ulúrɐ (“little úlu”). No. 56546 [14] has been picked out for
description (Fig. 119). The blade is wedged into a handle of walrus
ivory. The ornamentation on the handle is of incised lines and dots
blackened. The cutting edge of the blade is beveled on one face only.
This knife represents the general shape of knives of this sort, but is
rather smaller than most of them. I have seen some knives with blades
fully 5 or 6 inches long and deep in proportion. The handle is almost
always of walrus ivory and of the shape figured. I do not remember
ever seeing an úlu blade secured otherwise than by fitting it tightly
into a narrow slit in the handle, except in one case, when the handle
was part of the original handle of the saw of which the knife was
made, left still riveted on.

    [Footnote N277: Op. cit., p. 266.]

  [Illustration: FIG. 119.--Woman’s knife, steel blade. 1/3]

It is not necessary to specify the various purposes for which these
knives are used. Whenever a woman wishes to cut anything, from her
food to a thread in her sewing, she uses an úlu in preference to
anything else. The knife is handled precisely as described among the
eastern Eskimo, making the cut by pushing instead of drawing,[N278]
thus differing from the long-handled round knife mentioned above.
Knives of this pattern are very generally used among the western
Eskimo, but in the east the blade is always separated from the handle
by a short shank, as in our mincing knives.

    [Footnote N278: See for example, Kumlien, op. cit., p. 26.]

  [Illustration: FIG. 120.--Woman’s knife, slate blade. 1/3]

The natives of Point Barrow used round knives long before the
introduction of iron. There are in the collection twenty-three more or
less complete round knives of stone, most of which are genuine
implements that have been used. Of these a few, which are perhaps the
more recent ones, have blades not unlike the modern steel knife. For
instance, No. 89680 [1106] Fig. 120, has a blade of hard gray mica
slate of almost precisely the modern shape, but both faces are
gradually worked down to the cutting edge without a bevel on either.
The handle is very large and stout and made of coarse whale’s bone.
This knife was said to have come from the ruined village at Pernyɐ.
Fig. 121, No. 89679 [971], from Nuwŭk, was made for sale, but is
perhaps a model of a form sometimes used. The shape of the blade is
quite different from those now in use, in having the cutting edge
turned so strongly to the front. The handle is of oak and the blade of
rather hard, dark purple slate. Fig. 122, 89689 [985], also from
Nuwŭk, and made for the market, is introduced to show a method of
hafting which may have been formerly employed. The haft is of reindeer
antler in two longitudinal sections, between which the blade is
wedged. These two sections are held together by lashings of sinew at
each end, passing through holes in each piece and round the ends.
These lashings being put on wet, have shrunk so that the blade is very
tightly clasped between the two parts of the handle. The commoner form
of these stone knives, however, has the back of the blade much longer,
so that the sides are straight instead of oblique and usually round
off gradually at the ends of the cutting edge without being produced
into a point at either end. No. 89682 [958] is a form intermediate
between this and the modern shape, having a blade with a long back,
but produced into a sharp point at one end. The handle is of reindeer
antler and the blade rather soft black slate. This specimen is a very
cleverly counterfeited antique.

  [Illustration: FIG. 121.--Woman’s knife, slate blade. 1/3]

  [Illustration: FIG. 122.--Woman’s knife, slate blade. 1/3]

  [Illustration: FIG. 123.--Woman’s knife, slate blade. 1/3]

No. 89636 [1122], Fig. 123, approaches yet nearer the ancient shape,
but still has one end slightly produced. The handle is also of
reindeer antler, which seems to have been very commonly used with the
slate blades. The lashing round the blade close to the handle is of
seal thong, with the end wound spirally round all the parts on both
sides and neatly tucked in. It seems to serve no purpose beyond
enlarging the handle so as to make it fit the hand better. One
beautiful blade of light olive green, clouded jade, No. 89675 [1170],
belonged to a knife of this pattern. The older pattern is represented
by No. 89676 [1586], a small knife blade from Ukiavwĭñ, which has been
kept as an amulet. No. 56660 [129], is a blade of the same type, but
elongated, being 7½ inches long and 2 broad. This is a very beautiful
implement of pale olive jade, ground smooth. The bevel along the back
of each of these blades indicates that they were to be fitted into a
narrow slit in a long haft, like that of No. 89684 [886], Fig. 124,
from Nuwŭk. Though both blade and handle of this specimen are very
old, and have been put together in their present shape for a long
time, the handle, which is of whale’s bone, evidently belonged to a
longer blade, which fitted in the cleft without the need of any
lashing. Fig. 125, No. 89693 [874], shows a form of handle evidently
of very great antiquity, as the specimen shows signs of great age. It
was purchased from a native of Utkiavwĭñ. It is made of a single piece
of coarse whale’s bone. It was intended for a blade at least 7 inches
long.

  [Illustration: FIG. 124.--Woman’s ancient slate-bladed knife. 1/3]

  [Illustration: FIG. 125.--Ancient bone handle for woman’s knife.
  1/3]

  [Illustration: FIG. 126.--Large knife of slate. 1/3]

Fig. 126, No. 56672 [191], from Utkiavwĭñ, is a very crude, large
knife, intended for use without a handle. It is of rough, hard, dark
purplish slate. The upper three-quarters of both faces are almost
untouched cleavage surfaces, but the lower quarter is pretty smoothly
ground down to a semicircular cutting edge, which is somewhat nicked
from use. The angular grooves on the two faces were evidently begun
with the intention of cutting the knife in two. We were told that this
large knife was specially for cutting blubber. It is a genuine
antique.

While ground slate is a quite common material for round knives, flint
appears to have been rarely used. We obtained only three of this
material. No. 89690 [1311] is a flint knife hafted with a rough,
irregular lump of coarse whale’s bone. The blade is a rather thin
“spall” of light gray flint, flaked round the edges into the shape of
a modern ulúrɐ blade, with a very strongly curved cutting edge. Though
the handle is new, the flaking of the blade does not seem fresh, so
that it is possibly a genuine old blade fitted with a new haft for the
market. A similar flint blade, more neatly flaked, was brought from
Kotzebue Sound by Lieut. Stoney, U.S. Navy, in 1884. The other two
flint knives are interesting from being made for use without handles.

  [Illustration: FIG. 127.--Woman’s knife of flaked flint. 1/3]

No. 89691 [1360], Fig. 127, from Sidaru, is an oblong, wedge-shaped
spall of gray flint, of which the back still preserves the natural
surface of the pebble. It is slightly shaped by coarse flaking along
the back and one end, and the edge is finely flaked into a curved
outline rounding up at the ends. The specimen is old and dirty, and
was probably preserved as a sort of heirloom or amulet. No. 89692
[1178] is a similar spall from a round pebble. Such knives as these
are evidently the first steps in the development of the round knife.
The shape of the spalls, produced by breaking a round or oval pebble
of flint, would naturally suggest using them as knives, and the next
step would be to improve the edge by flaking. The greater adaptability
of slate, from its softness and easy cleavage, for making such knives
would soon be recognized, and we should expect to find, as we do,
knives like No. 56672 [191]. The next step would naturally be to
provide such a knife with a haft at the point where the stone was
grasped by the hand, while reducing this haft so as to leave only just
enough for the grasp and cutting away the superfluous corners of the
blade would give us the modern form of the blade. Round knives of
slate are not peculiar to Point Barrow, but have been collected in
many other places in northwestern America.[N279]

    [Footnote N279: See, especially, Dall, Contrib., vol. 1, pp. 59
    and 79, for figures of such knives from the caves of Unalashka.]

The relationship between these knives and the semilunar slate blades
found in the North Atlantic States has already been ably discussed by
Dr. Charles Rau.[N280] It must, however, be borne in mind that while
these are sufficiently “fish-cutters” to warrant their admission into
a book on fishing, the cutting of fish is but a small part of the work
they do. The name “fish-cutter,” as applied to these knives, would be
no more distinctive than the name “tobacco-cutter” for a Yankee’s
jackknife.[N281]

    [Footnote N280: Prehistoric Fishing, pp. 183-188.]

    [Footnote N281: It is but just to Dr. Rau to say that he
    recognized the fact that these implements are not exclusively
    fish-cutters, and applies this name only to indicate that he has
    treated of them simply in reference to their use as such. The
    idea, however, that these, being slightly different in shape from
    the Greenland _olu_ or ulu, are merely fish knives, has gained a
    certain currency among anthropologists which it is desirable to
    counteract.]

_Adzes (udlimau)._--Even at the present day the Eskimo of Point Barrow
use no tool for shaping large pieces of woodwork, except a
shorthandled adz, hafted in the same manner as the old stone tools
which were employed before the introduction of iron. Though axes and
hatchets are frequently obtained by trading, they are never used as
such, but the head is removed and rehafted so as to make an adz of it.
This habit is not peculiar to the people of Point Barrow. There is a
hatchet head, mounted in the same way, from the Anderson River, in the
Museum collection, and the same thing was noted in Hudson’s Strait by
Capt. Lyon[N282] and at Iglulik by Capt. Parry.[N283] Mr. L. M. Turner
informs me that the Eskimo of Ungava, on the south side of Hudson’s
Strait, who have been long in contact with the whites, have learned to
use axes. The collection contains two such adzes made from small
hatchets. No. 89873 [972], Fig. 128, is the more typical of the two.
The blade is the head of a small hatchet or tomahawk lashed to the
haft of oak with a stout thong of seal hide. The lashing is one piece,
and is put on wet and shrunk tightly on. This tool is a little longer
in the haft than those commonly used, and the shape and material of
the haft is a little unusual, it being generally elliptical in section
and made of soft wood.

    [Footnote N282: Journal, p. 28.]

    [Footnote N283: 2d Voyage, p. 536, and pl. opp. p. 548, fig. 3.]

  [Illustration: FIG. 128.--Hatchet hafted as an adz. 1/3]

Fig. 129, No. 56638 [309], from Utkiavwĭñ, is a similar adz, but the
head has been narrowed by cutting off pieces from the sides (done by
filing part way through and breaking the piece off), and a deep
transverse groove has been cut on the front face near the butt. Part
of the lashing is held in this groove as well as by the eye, the lower
half of which is filled up with a wooden plug. The haft is peculiar in
being a piece of reindeer antler which has been reduced in thickness
by sawing out a slice for 8 inches from the butt and bringing the two
parts together with four stout wooden treenails about 1½ inches apart.
This is preferable to trimming it down to a proper thickness from the
surface, as the latter process would remove the compact tissue of the
outside and expose the soft inside tissue. The whipping of seal thong
just above the flange of the butt helps to give a better grip and, at
the same time, to hold the parts together. As before, there are two
large holes for the lashing. Adzes of this sort are used for all large
pieces of wood work, such as timbers for boats, planks, and beams for
houses, etc. After roughly dressing these out with the adz they are
neatly smoothed off with the crooked knife, or sometimes, of late
years, with the plane. The work of “getting out” the large pieces of
wood is almost always done where the drift log lies on the beach. When
a man wants a new stem or sternpost for his umiak, or a plank to
repair his house, he searches along the beach until he finds a
suitable piece of driftwood, which he claims by putting a mark on it,
and sometimes hauls up out of the way of the waves. Then, when he has
leisure to go at the work, he goes out with his adz and spends the day
getting it into shape and reducing it to a convenient size to carry
home, either slung on his back or, if too large, on a dog-sled. A man
seldom takes the trouble to carry home more of a piece of timber than
he actually needs for the purpose in hand.

  [Illustration: FIG. 129.--Hatchet hafted as an adz. 1/3]

The adz was in general use long before the introduction of iron. There
is in the collection a very interesting series of ancient tools,
showing the gradual development of the implement from a rude oblong
block of stone worked down to a cutting edge on one end, to the steel
adzes of the present day. They have, however, not even yet learned to
make an eye in the head of the tool in which to insert the haft, but
all tools of this class--adzes, hammers, picks, and mattocks--are
lashed, with one face resting against the expanded end of the haft.
Firmness is obtained by putting the lashing on wet and allowing it to
shrink tight. Nearly all these ancient adzes are of jade, a material
well adapted for the purpose by its hardness, which, however, renders
it difficult to work. Probably the oldest of these adzes is No. 56675
[69], Fig. 130, which has been selected as the type of the earliest
form we have represented in the collection. This is of dark olive
green, almost black, jade, 7.2 inches long, 2.8 wide, and 1.3 thick,
and smoothly ground on the broader faces. The cutting edge is much
broken from long use. One broad face is pretty smoothly ground, but
left rough at the butt end. The other is rather flatter, but more than
half of it is irregularly concave, the natural inequalities being
hardly touched by grinding. Like the other dark-colored jade tools,
this specimen is very much lighter on a freshly fractured surface. The
dark color is believed to be due to long contact with greasy
substances.

  [Illustration: FIG. 130.--Adz-head of jade. 1/3]

  [Illustration: FIG. 131.--Adz-head of jade. 1/3]

No. 89662 [900], from Nuwŭk, is an exceedingly rough adz of similar
shape, but so slightly ground that it is probably one that was laid
aside unfinished. From the battered appearance of the ends it seems to
have been used for a hammer. It is of the same dark jade as the
preceding. No. 89689 [792], from Utkiavwĭñ, is of rather light olive,
opaque jade and a trifle better finished than the type, while No.
89661 [1155], Fig. 131, also from Utkiavwĭñ, is a still better piece
of workmanship, the curve of the faces to the cutting edge being very
graceful. The interesting point about this specimen is that a straight
piece has been cut off from one side by sawing down smoothly from each
face almost to the middle and breaking the piece off. We were informed
that this was done to procure rods of jade for making knife
sharpeners. We were informed that these stones were cut in the same
way as marble and freestone are cut with us, namely, by sawing with a
flat blade of iron and sand and water. A thin lamina of hard bone was
probably used before the introduction of iron. Possibly a reindeer
scapula, cut like the one made into a saw (No. 89476 [1206], Fig.
147), but without teeth, was used for this purpose.

  [Illustration: FIG. 132.--Hafted jade adz. 1/2]

That such stone blades were used with a haft is shown by the only
hafted specimen, No. 56628 [214], Fig. 132, from Nuwŭk. This is a
rather small adz. The head of dark green jade differs from those
already described only in dimensions, being 4 inches long, 2.1 wide,
and 1.7 thick. The haft is of reindeer antler and in shape much like
that of No. 56638 [309], but has only one hole for the lashing. The
lashing is of the usual stout seal thong and put on in the usual
fashion. No. 89673 [1423] is an old black adz from Sidaru of the same
pattern as those described, but very smoothly and neatly made. About
one-half of this specimen has been cut off for whetstones, etc.

The next step is to make the lashing more secure by cutting transverse
grooves on the upper face of the head to hold the thong in place. This
has been done on No. 56667 [215], figured in Point Barrow Rept.,
Ethnology, Pl. II, Fig. 5, an adz of dark olive green jade, from
Utkiavwĭñ, which shows two such grooves, broad and shallow, running
across the upper face. Of these two classes the collection contains
thirteen unhafted specimens and one hafted specimen, all of jade. As
cutting these grooves in the stone is a laborious process, the device
of substituting some more easily worked substance for the back part of
the head would naturally suggest itself.

  [Illustration: FIG. 133.--Adz-head of jade and bone. 1/3]

  [Illustration: FIG. 134.--Adz-head of bone and iron, without eyes.
  1/3]

Fig. 133, No. 89658 [1072], from Utkiavwĭñ, has a long blade of black
stone with the butt slightly tapered off and imbedded in a body of
whale’s bone, which has a channel 1 inch wide, for the lashing, cut
round it and a shallow socket on the face to receive the end of the
haft. Adz heads of this same type continued in use till after the
introduction of iron, which was at first utilized by inserting a flat
blade of iron into just such a body, as is shown in Fig. 134
(No. 89877 [752], from the cemetery at Utkiavwĭñ).

  [Illustration: FIG. 135.--Adz-head of bone and iron, with vertical
  eyes. 1/3]

  [Illustration: FIG. 136.--Adz-head of bone and iron, with vertical
  eyes. 1/3]

From this type to that shown in Fig. 135 (No. 89876 [696] brought by
the natives from the ruins on the Kulugrua) the transition is easy.
Suppose, for the greater protection of the lashings, we _inclose_ the
channels on the sides of the head--in other words, bore holes instead
of cutting grooves--we have exactly this pattern, namely, vertical
eyes on each side of the head joined by transverse channels on the
upper face. The specimen figured has on each side two oblong slots
with a round eye between them. The blade is of iron, Fig. 136, No.
56640 [260] has two eyes on each side, and shows a different method of
attaching the blade, which is countersunk flush with the upper surface
of the body and secured with three stout iron rivets. The next step is
to substitute horizontal eyes for the vertical ones, so as to have
only one set of holes to thread the lashings through. This is seen in
No. 89869 [878], Fig. 137, from Nuwŭk, which in general pattern
closely resembles No. 89876 [696], but has three large horizontal eyes
instead of the vertical ones. The blade is of iron and the haft of
whale’s bone. The lashing is essentially the same as that of the
modern adz, No. 56638 [309].

  [Illustration: FIG. 137.--Hafted bone and iron adz. 1/4]

That this final type of hafting was reached before stone had gone out
of use for such implements is shown by Fig. 138, No. 89839 [769], from
Utkiavwĭñ, which, while very like the last in shape, has a blade of
hard, dark purple slate. The haft is of reindeer antler. The lashing
has the short end _knotted_ to the long part after making the first
round, instead of being slit to receive the latter. Otherwise it is of
the usual pattern. These composite adzes of bone and stone or iron
seemed to have been common at the end of the period when stone was
exclusively used and when iron first came into use in small
quantities, and a good many have been preserved until the present day.
We obtained four hafted and six unhafted specimens, besides seven jade
blades for such composite adzes, which are easily recognizable by
their small size and their shape. They are usually broad and rather
thin, and narrowed to the butt, as is seen in Fig. 139, No. 56685
[71], a beautiful little adz of bright green jade 2.8 inches long and
2.3 wide, from Utkiavwĭñ. No. 56670 [246] also from Utkiavwĭñ, is a
similar blade of greenish jade slightly larger, being 3.4 inches long
and 2 inches wide. No. 89670 [1092] is a tiny blade of hard,
fine-grained black stone, probably oil-soaked jade, only 1.7 inches
long and 1.5 wide. It is very smoothly ground. Such little adzes, we
were told, were especially used for cutting bone. The implement,[N284]
which Nordenskiöld calls a “stone chisel,” found in the ruins of an
old Eskimo house at Cape North, is evidently the head of one of these
little bone adzes, as is plainly seen on comparing this figure with
the larger adzes figured above.

    [Footnote N284: Figured in the Voyage of the _Vega_, vol. 1,
    p. 444, Fig. 1.]

  [Illustration: FIG. 138.--Hafted bone and stone adz. 1/3]

  [Illustration: FIG. 139.--Small adz-blade of green jade. 1/2]

I have figured two more composite adzes, which are quite different
from the rest. No. 89838 [1109], Fig. 140, has a blade of neatly
flaked gray flint, but this as well as the unusually straight haft is
newly made. These are fitted to a very old bone body, which when whole
was not over 3 inches long, and was probably part of a little bone
adz. There is no evidence that these people ever used flint adzes.
Fig. 141, No. 89872 [785], is introduced to show how the native has
utilized an old cooper’s adz, of which the eye was probably broken, by
fitting it with a bone body.

  [Illustration: FIG. 140.--Hafted adz of bone and flint. 1/3]

While the adzes already described appear to have been the
predominating types, another form was sometimes used. Fig. 142,
No. 89874 [964], from Nuwŭk, represents this form. The haft is of
whale’s rib, 1 foot long, and the head of _bone_, apparently whale’s
scapula, 5.6 inches long and 2.8 inches wide on the edge. There is an
adze in the Museum from the Mackenzie River region with a _steel_
blade of precisely the same pattern. That adzes of this pattern
sometimes had stone blades is probable. No. 89840 [1317], is a
clumsily made _commercial_ tool of this type, with a small head of
greenish slate. It has an unusually straight haft, which is
disproportionately long and thick.

  [Illustration: FIG. 141.--Old cooper’s adz, rehafted. 1/3]

All these adzes, ancient and modern, are hafted upon essentially the
same pattern. The short curved haft, the shape of which is
sufficiently well indicated by the figures, seems to have been
generally made of whale’s rib or reindeer antler, both of which have a
natural curve suited to the shape of the haft. A “branch” of a
reindeer’s antler is particularly well suited for the haft of a small
adze. Not only does it have naturally the proper dimensions and a
suitable curve, but it is very easy, by cutting out a small segment of
the “beam” where the “branch” starts from it, to make a flange of a
convenient shape for fitting to the head. Antler is besides easily
obtained, not only when the deer is killed for food, but by picking up
shed antlers on the tundra, and is consequently employed for many
purposes. The haft usually has a knob at the tip to keep the hand from
slipping, and the grip is sometimes roughened with cross cuts or wound
with thong. There are usually as many holes for the lashing as there
are eyes in the head, though there are two holes when the head has
only one large eye. On the bone heads, the surfaces to which the haft
is applied and the channels for the lashings are roughened with cross
cuts to prevent slipping. The lashing always follows the same general
plan, though no two adzes are lashed exactly alike. The plan may be
summarized as follows: One end of the thong makes a turn through one
of the holes in the haft, and around or through the head. This turn is
then secured, usually by passing the long end through a slit in the
short end and hauling this loop taut, sometimes by knotting the short
end to the long part, or by catching the short end down under the next
turn. The long part then makes several turns round or through the head
and through the haft, sometimes also crossing around the latter, and
the whole is then finished off by wrapping the end two or three times
around the turns on one side and tucking it neatly underneath. This is
very like the method of lashing on the heads of the mauls already
described, but the mauls have only one hole in the haft, and there are
rarely any turns around the latter.

  [Illustration: FIG. 142.--Adz with bone blade. 1/3]

Jade adz blades, like those already described, have been brought by
Mr. Nelson from Kotzebue Sound, the Diomedes, St. Michaels, etc., and
one came from as far south as the Kuskoquim River.

_Chisels._--We collected a number of small short handled chisels,
resembling the implements called “trinket makers,” of which there are
so many in the National Museum. We never happened to see them in
actual use, but were informed that they were especially designed for
working on reindeer antler. Of the eight specimens collected No. 89302
[884], Fig. 143, has been selected as a type of the antler chisel
(kĭ´ñnusa). The blade is of steel, and the haft is of reindeer antler,
in two longitudinal sections, put together at right angles to the
plane of the blade, held together by a stout round bone treenail 2½
inches from the butt. The square tip of the blade is beveled on both
faces to a rough cutting edge. Fig. 144 (No. 89301) [1000] has a small
blade with an oblique tip _not_ beveled to an edge, and a haft of
walrus ivory yellowed from age, and ornamented with rows of rings,
each with a dot in the center, all incised and colored with red ocher.
The two parts of the haft are fastened together by a stout wooden
treenail and a _stitch_ of whalebone.

  [Illustration: FIG. 143.--Antler chisel. 1/2]

  [Illustration: FIG. 144.--Antler chisel. 1/2]

  [Illustration: FIG. 145.--Spurious tool, flint blade. 1/2]

The rest of the steel-bladed chisels, four in number, are all of about
the same size and hafted with antler. The blades are somewhat
irregular in shape, but all have square or oblique tips and no sharp
edge. Three of them have the sections of the haft put together as
described, and fastened by a treenail and a whipping of seal twine or
sinew braid at the tip. One has the two sections put together in the
plane of the blade and fastened with a large copper rivet, which also
passes through the butt of the blade, and three stout iron ones. The
hafts of all these tools show signs of much handling. The remaining
two specimens have blades of black flint. No. 89637 [1207], has a haft
of walrus ivory, of the usual pattern, fastened together by a bone
treenail and two stitches, one of sinew braid and one of seal thong.
The lashing of seal twine near the tip serves to mend a crack. The
haft is old and rusty about the slot into which the blade is fitted,
showing that it originally had an iron blade. The flint blade was
probably put in to make it seem ancient, as there was a special demand
for prehistoric articles. No. 89653 [1290], Fig. 145, is nothing but a
fanciful tool made to meet this demand. The haft is of light-brown
mountain sheep horn, and the blade of black flint. Such flint-bladed
tools may have been used formerly, but there is no proof that they
were.

_Whalebone shaves._--There is in use at Point Barrow, and apparently
not elsewhere among the Eskimo, a special tool for shaving whalebone,
a substance which is very much used in the form of long, thin strips
for fastening together boat timbers, whipping spear shafts, etc. The
thin, long shavings which curl up like “curled hair,” are carefully
saved and used for the padding between stocking and boot. Whalebone is
also sometimes shaved for this special purpose. The tool is
essentially a little spokeshave about 4 inches long, which is held by
the index and second finger of the right hand, one on each handle,
with the thumb pressed against one end, and is drawn toward the
workman. The collection contains three specimens of the ordinary form
(sávigɐ), represented by No. 89306 [885] (figured in Point Barrow
Report, Ethnology, Pl. III, Fig. 6). This has a steel blade and a haft
of walrus ivory. The upper face of the haft is convex and the under
flat, and the blade, which is beveled only on the upper face, is set
at a slight inclination to the flat face of the haft. The edge of the
blade projects 0.2 inch from the haft above and 0.3 below. The hole at
one end of the haft is for a lanyard to hang it up by. The other two
are of essentially the same pattern, but have hafts of reindeer
antler.

  [Illustration: FIG. 146.--Whalebone shave, slate blade. 1/2]

The collection also contains six tools of this description, with stone
blades, but they are all new and very carelessly made, with hafts of
coarse-grained bone. The shape of the tools is shown in Fig. 146, No.
89649 [1213], from Utkiavwĭñ, which has a rough blade of soft, light
greenish slate. The other five have blades of black or gray flint,
roughly flaked. All these blades are glued in with oil dregs. No.
89652 [1225] is like the others in shape, but more neatly made, and is
peculiar in having a blade of hard, compact bone. This is inserted by
sawing a deep, narrow slit along one side of the haft from end to end.
The blade is wedged into the middle of the slit, the ends of which are
neatly filled in with slips of the same material as the haft. This was
the only tool of the kind seen. It is very probable that shaves of
stone were formerly used, though we obtained no genuine specimens. The
use of oblong chips of flint for this purpose would naturally suggest
itself to a savage, and the convenience of fitting these flakes into a
little haft would soon occur to him. No. 89616 [1176] is such an
oblong flint, flaked to an edge on one face, which is evidently old,
and which was said to have been used for shaving whalebone. The
material is black flint. Whalebone is often shaved nowadays with a
common knife. The slab of bone is laid upon the thigh and the edge of
the knife pressed firmly against it, with the blade perpendicular to
the surface of the slab, which is drawn rapidly under it.

_Saws._--If the Eskimo had not already invented the saw before they
became acquainted with the whites they readily adopted the tool even
when they had scanty materials for making it. Crantz[N285] speaks of
“a little lock saw” as one of a Greenlander’s regular tools in his
time, and Egede[N286] mentions handsaws as a regular article of trade.
Capt. Parry[N287] found the natives of Iglulik, in 1821-1823, using a
saw made of a notched piece of iron. On our asking Nĭkawa´alu, one
day, what they had for tools before they got iron he said that they
had drills made of seal bones and saws made of the shoulder blade of
the reindeer. Some time afterwards he brought over a model of such a
saw, which he said was exactly like those formerly used. Fig. 147, No.
89476 [1206], represents this specimen. It is made by cutting off the
anterior edge of a reindeer’s scapula in a straight line parallel to
the posterior edge and cutting fine saw teeth on this thin edge. The
spine is also cut off nearly flat. This makes a tool very much like a
carpenter’s backsaw, the narrow part of the scapula forming a
convenient handle.

    [Footnote N285: History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 149.]

    [Footnote N286: Greenland, p. 175.]

    [Footnote N287: 2d Voyage, p. 536.]

  [Illustration: FIG. 147.--Saw made of deer’s scapula. 1/4]

Fig. 148, No. 56559 [15], shows how other implements were utilized
before it was easy to obtain saws in plenty. It is a common case knife
stamped on the blade, “Wilson, Hawksworth, ----n & Co., Sheffield,”
which perhaps came from the _Plover_, with saw teeth cut on the edge.
It was picked up at the Utkiavwĭñ cemetery, where it had been exposed
with a corpse. Saws are now a regular article of trade, and most of
the natives are provided with them of various styles and makes. The
name for saw is uluă´ktun.

  [Illustration: FIG. 148.--Saw made of a case-knife. 1/3]

_Drills and borers._--The use of the bow drill appears to be universal
among the Eskimo. Those at present employed at Point Barrow do not
differ from the large series collected at the Mackenzie and Anderson
rivers by MacFarlane. The drill is a slender rod of steel worked to a
drill point and imbedded in a stout wooden shaft, which is tapered to
a rounded tip. This fits into a stone socket imbedded in a wooden
block, which is held between the teeth, so that the point of the drill
can be pressed down against the object to be drilled by the head,
leaving both hands free to work the short bow, which has a loose
string of thong long enough to make one turn round the shaft. The
collection contains ten of these modern steel or iron drills, fifteen
bows, and seven mouthpieces. No. 89502 [853], figured in Point Barrow
Rept., Ethnology, Pl. II, Fig. 1, has been selected as a typical drill
(niă´ktun). The drill is a cylindrical rod of steel beaten out into a
small lanceolate point, which is filed sharp on the edges. The shaft
is made of hard wood. The remaining drills are of essentially the same
pattern, varying in total length from about 11 inches to 16½.

Fig. 149, No. 89499 [968] shows a somewhat unusual shape of shaft. The
lashings round the large end are to keep it from splitting any more
than it has done already. The drill is of iron and the shaft of
spruce, which was once painted with red ocher.

  [Illustration: FIG. 149.--Bow drill. 1/3]

  [Illustration: FIG. 150.--Bow drill and mouthpiece. 1/4]

No. 89497 [819] (Fig. 150) has a ferrule of coarse-grained bone neatly
pegged on with two small pegs of the same material. This is unusual
with steel drills. The shaft is of spruce and of the same shape as in
the preceding specimen. No. 89595 [875] (Fig. 151) is figured to show
the way in which the shaft has been mended. A wedge-shaped piece 3½
inches long and 0.3 to 0.4 inch wide has been split out of the large
end and replaced by a fresh piece of wood neatly fitted in and secured
by two tight whippings of sinew braid, each in a deep groove.

No. 89515 [861], figured in Point Barrow Report, Ethnology, Pl. II,
Fig. 2, is a typical bow (pizĭksuá) for use with these drills. It is
of walrus ivory, 16 inches long and oval in section. Through each end
is drilled a transverse hole. A string of seal thong 21 inches long is
looped into one of these holes by passing one end of the thong through
the hole, cutting a slit in it, and passing the other end through
this. The other end is passed through the other hole and knotted at
the tip.

These bows vary slightly in dimensions, but are not less than a foot
or more than 16 inches long, and are almost always of walrus ivory.
No. 89508 [956] (Fig. 152), is an old and rudely made bow of
whalebone, which is more strongly arched than usual, and has the
string attached to notches at the ends instead of into holes. This was
said to belong with an old bone drill, No. 89498 [956]. Both came from
Nuwŭk. These bows are often highly ornamented both by carving and with
incised patterns colored with red ocher or soot. The following figures
are introduced to show some of the different styles of ornamentation.

Fig. 153_a_, No. 56506 [298] is unusually broad and flat and was
probably made for a handle to a tool bag. Such handles, however,
appear to be also used for drill bows. The tips of this bow represent
seals heads, and have good sized sky-blue glass beads inserted for
eyes. The rest of the ornamentation is incised and blackened. Fig.
153_b_, No. 89421 [1260], from Utkiavwĭñ, is a similar bow, which has
incised on the back figures of men and animals, which, perhaps, tell
of some real event. Mr. L. M. Turner informs me that the natives of
Norton Sound keep a regular record of hunting and other events
engraved in this way upon their drill bows, and that no one ever
ventures to falsify these records. We did not learn definitely that
such was the rule at Point Barrow, but we have one bag-handle marked
with whales, which we were told indicated the number killed by the
owner. Fig. 153_c_, No. 89425 [1732], from Utkiavwĭñ, is a similar
bow, ornamented on the back with simply an incised border colored red.
On the other side are the figures of ten bearded seals, cross-hatched
and blackened. These are perhaps a “score.” Fig. 153_d_, No. 89509
[914], from Nuwŭk, is a bow of the common pattern, but ornamented by
carving the back into a toothed keel.

  [Illustration: FIG. 151.--Bow drill. 1/4]

Fig. 153_e_, No. 89510 [961], from Utkiavwĭñ, is ornamented on one
side only with an incised pattern, which is blackened. Fig. 153_f_,
No. 89511 [961], also from Utkiavwĭñ, has, in addition to the incised
and blackened pattern, a small transparent sky-blue glass bead inlaid
in the middle of the back. Fig. 153_g_, No. 89512 [836], from the same
place, is a flat bow with the edges carved into scallops. The incised
line along the middle of the back is colored with red ocher. The
string is made of sinew braid.

  [Illustration: FIG. 152.--Drill bow. 1/4]

Fig. 154, No. 89777 [1004_b_], which belongs in the “kit” of
Ilû´bw’ga, the Nunatañmiun, previously mentioned, is interesting from
having been lengthened 3¼ inches by riveting on a piece of reindeer
antler at one end. The two pieces are neatly joined in a “lap splice”
about 2 inches long and fastened with three iron rivets. The owner
appears to have concluded that his drill bow was too short when he was
at home, in the interior, where he could obtain no walrus ivory. The
incised pattern on the back is colored with red ocher.

The mouthpiece (kĭ´ñmia) consists of a block of hard stone (rarely
iron), in which is hollowed out a round cup-like socket, large enough
to receive the tip of the drill shaft, imbedded in a block of wood of
a suitable size to hold between the teeth. This block often has curved
flanges on each side, which rest against the cheeks. Such mouthpieces
are common all along the coast from the Anderson River to Norton
Sound, as is shown by the Museum collection. No. 89500 [800], figured
in Point Barrow Report, Ethnology, Pl. II, Fig. 3, is a type of the
flanged mouthpiece. The block is of pine, carved into a thick, broad
arch, with a large block on the inside. Into the top of the arch is
inlaid a piece of gray porphyry with black spots, which is slightly
convex on the surface, so as to project a little above the surface of
the wood. In the middle of the stone is a cup-shaped cavity one-half
inch in diameter and of nearly the same depth. This is a rather large
mouthpiece, being 6 inches across from one end of the arch to the
other.

  [Illustration: FIG. 153.--Drill bows. 3/8]

  [Illustration: FIG. 154.--Spliced drill bow. 1/4]

There are two other specimens of the same pattern, both rather
smaller. No. 89503 [891], Fig. 150, from Nuwŭk, has the stone of black
and white syenite. This specimen is very old and dirty, and worn
through to the stone on one side, where the teeth have come against
it. No. 89787 [1004_c_], Fig. 155, is almost exactly the same shape as
the type, but has for a socket a piece of iron 1.1 inches square,
hollowed out as usual. The outside of the wood has been painted with
red ocher, but this is mostly worn off. This mouthpiece belonged to
Ilû´bw’ga.

  [Illustration: FIG. 155.--Drill mouthpiece, with iron socket. 1/2]

Fig. 156, No. 89505 [892], from Utkiavwĭñ, represents the pattern
which is perhaps rather commoner than the preceding. The wood, which
holds the socket of black and white syenite, is simply an elliptical
block of spruce. The remaining three specimens are of the same pattern
and of the same material as the last, except No. 89507 [908], from
Nuwŭk, in which the wood is oak. As it appears very old, this wood may
have come from the _Plover_.

When not in use, the point of the drill is sometimes protected with a
sheath. One such sheath was obtained, No. 89447 [1112], figured in
Point Barrow Report, Ethnology, Pl. II, Fig. 1. It is of walrus ivory,
3-6 inches long. The end of a piece of thong is passed through the eye
and the other part fastened round the open end with a marline-hitch,
catching down the end. This leaves a lanyard 9¼ inches long, which is
hitched or knotted round the shaft of the drill when the sheath is
fitted over the point.

  [Illustration: FIG. 156.--Drill mouthpiece without wings. 1/2]

  [Illustration: FIG. 157.--Bone-pointed drill. 1/4]

The drills above described are used for perforating all sorts of
material, wood, bone, ivory, metal, etc., and are almost the only
boring implements used, even awls being unusual. Before the
introduction of iron, the point was made of one of the small bones
from a seal’s leg. We obtained four specimens of these bone drills, of
which two, at least, appear to be genuine. No. 89498 [956], Fig. 157,
is one of these, from Nuwŭk. The shaft is of the ordinary pattern and
made of some hard wood, but the point is a roughly cylindrical rod of
bone, expanding at the point, where it is convex on one face and
concave on the other and beveled on both faces into two cutting edges,
which meet in an acute angle. The larger end of the shaft has been
split and mended by whipping it for about three-quarters of an inch
with sinew braid. No. 89518 [1174], is apparently also genuine, and is
like the preceding, but beveled only on the concave face of the point,
which is rather obtuse. No. 89519 [1258] was made for the market. It
has a rude shaft of whale’s bone, but a carefully made bone point of
precisely the pattern of the modern iron ones. No. 89520 [1182] has no
shaft, and appears to be an old unfinished drill fitted into a
carelessly made bone ferrule.

The drill at the present day is always worked with a bow, which allows
one hand to be used for steadying the piece of work. We were informed,
however, that formerly a cord was sometimes used without the bow, but
furnished with a transverse handle at each end.

We collected six little handles of ivory, carved into some ornamental
shape, each with an eye in the middle to which a thong could be
attached. All were old, and we never saw them in use. The first two
were collected at an early period of our acquaintance with these
people, and from our imperfect knowledge of the language we got the
impression that they were handles to be attached to a harpoon line.

We were not long, however in finding out that the harpoon has no such
appendage, and when the other four came in a year later, at a time
when the press of other work prevented careful inquiry into their use,
we supposed that they were meant for handles to the lines used for
dragging dead seals, as they somewhat resemble such an implement. On
our return home, when I had opportunities for making a careful study
of the collection, I found that none of the drag lines, either in our
own collection or in those of the Museum, had handles of this
description. On the other hand, I found many similar implements in Mr.
Nelson’s collection labeled “drill-cord handles,” and finally one pair
(No. 36319, from Kashunuk, near Cape Romanzoff), still attached to the
drill cord. These handles are almost identical in shape with No. 89458
[835], from Utkiavwĭñ. This leaves no doubt in my mind that the
so-called “drag-line handles” in our collection are nothing more than
handles for drill cords, now wholly obsolete and supplanted by the
bows already described. I have figured all six of these handles to
show the different patterns of ornamentation. They are all made of
walrus ivory, and are all “odd” handles, no two being mates. Fig.
158_a_ (No. 56526) [86], is 5.2 inches long, and light blue beads are
inserted for eyes in the seal’s heads. The eye for the drill cord is
made by boring two median holes at the middle of one side so that they
meet under the surface and make a longitudinal channel.

  [Illustration: FIG. 158.--Handles for drill cords. 1/4]

Fig. 158_b_ (No. 56527 [23] from Utkiavwĭñ), is 4.3 inches long, and
is very accurately carved into the image of a man’s right leg and
foot, dressed in a striped deerskin boot. The end opposite to the foot
is the head of some animal, perhaps a wolf, with bits of dark wood
inlaid for eyes. The eye is a simple large transverse hole through the
thigh.

Fig. 158_c_ (No. 89455 [929] from Nuwŭk), is 5.9 inches long. The eye
is drilled lengthwise through a large lump projecting from the middle
of one side. Small blue beads are inlaid for the eyes, and one to
indicate the male genital opening.

Fig. 158_d_ (No. 89456 [930] from Nuwŭk) is like No. 56527 [23], but
represents the left foot and is not so artistically carved. It is 3.7
inches long.

Fig. 158_e_ (No. 89457 [925] from Nuwŭk) is 4.7 inches long, and
resembles No. 89455 [929], but has instead of the seal’s tail and
flippers a large ovoid knob ornamented with incised and blackened
rings. The “eye” is bored transversely.

Fig. 158_f_ (No. 89458 [835] from Utkiavwĭñ) differs from No. 89455
[925] in having a transverse eye, and being less artistically carved.
Bits of lead are inlaid for the eyes. It is 4.4 inches long. The name
of this implement is kû´ñ-i.

We obtained six specimens of an old flint tool, consisting of a rather
long thick blade mounted in a straight haft about 10 inches long, of
which we had some difficulty in ascertaining the use. We were at last
able to be quite sure that they were intended for drilling, or rather
reaming out, the large cavity in the base of the ivory head of a whale
harpoon, which fits upon the conical tip of the fore-shaft. The shape
of the blade is well fitted for this purpose. It is not unlikely that
such tools, worked as these are, by hand, preceded the bone drills for
boring all sorts of objects, and that the habit of using them for
making the whale harpoon was kept up from the same conservatism
founded on superstition which surrounds the whole whale fishery. (See
under “Whale fishing,” where the subject will be more fully
discussed.) No. 89626 [870], figured in Point Barrow Report,
Ethnology, Pl. II, Fig. 4, is a typical implement of this class
(ītaun, i´tûgetsau´). The blade is of black flint, flaked, 2 inches
long, imbedded in the end of a haft of spruce, 10.5 inches long. The
blade is held in place by whipping the cleft end of the haft with
sinew braid.

Two of the other specimens, No. 89627 [937] and No. 89628 [912], are
of essentially the same pattern and material, but have rounded hafts.
No. 89629 [960] and No. 89630 [1068], Figs. 159_a_, 159_b_, have
blades of the same pattern, but have hafts fitted for use with the
mouthpiece and bow, showing that sometimes, at least in later times,
these tools were so used. No. 89625 [1217] (Fig. 160) has no haft, but
the blade, which is rather narrow in proportion to its length (2.3
inches by 0.5), is fitted into a short ferrule of antler, with a
little dovetail on the edge for attaching it to the haft.

Of awls we saw only one specimen, which, perhaps, ought rather to be
considered a little hand drill. This is No. 89308 [1292], Fig. 161,
from Utkiavwĭñ. The point is the tip of a common three-cornered file,
sharpened down. It is imbedded in a handle of fossil ivory which has
turned a light yellowish brown from age. Its total length is 2.8
inches.

  [Illustration: FIG. 159.--Flint-bladed reamers. 1/3]

_Hammers._--At the present day nearly every man has been able to
procure an iron hammer of some kind, which he uses with great
handiness. Before the introduction of iron, in addition to the bone
and stone mauls above described as bone crushers, unhafted pebbles of
convenient shape were also employed. No. 56661 [274] is such a stone.
It is an ovoid water-worn pebble of greenish gray quartzite, 3½ inches
long. The ends are battered, showing how it had been used. It was
brought from one of the rivers in the interior by one of the natives
of Utkiavwĭñ.

_Files._--Files of all kinds are eagerly sought after by the natives,
who use them with very great skill and patience, doing nearly all
their metal work with these tools. For instance, one particularly
ingenious native converted his Winchester rifle from a rim fire to a
central fire with nothing but a file. To do this he had to make a new
firing pin, as the firing pin of the rim-fire gun is too short to
reach the head of the cartridge. He accomplished this by accurately
cutting off, to the proper length, an old worn-out three-cornered
file. He then filed off enough of each edge so that the rod fitted
evenly in the cylindrical hole where the firing pin works. The work
was done so carefully that the new firing pin worked perfectly, and he
had only to complete the job by cutting off his central fire cartridge
shells to a proper length to fit the chamber of the gun.

  [Illustration: FIG. 160.--Flint-bladed reamer. 3/4]

  [Illustration: FIG. 161.--Awl. 3/4]

They have almost no knowledge of working metal with the aid of heat,
as is natural from the scarcity of fuel. I have, however, seen them
roughly temper small articles, such as fire steels, etc., by heating
them in the fire and quenching them in cold water. One native very
neatly mended a musket barrel which had been cracked by firing too
heavy a charge. He cut a section from another old barrel of somewhat
larger caliber, which he heated until it had expanded enough to slip
down over the crack, and then allowed it to shrink on.

  [Illustration: FIG. 162.--Jade whetstones. 1/2]

_Whetstones_ (ipiksaun).--Knives are generally sharpened with a file,
cutting a bevel, as before mentioned, on one face of the blade only.
To “set” or “turn” the edge they use pieces of steel of various
shapes, generally with a hole drilled in them so that they can be hung
to the breeches belt by a lanyard. One man, for instance, used about
half of a razor blade for this purpose, and another a small horseshoe
magnet. In former times they employed a very elegant implement,
consisting of a slender rod of jade from 3 to 7 inches long, with a
lanyard attached to an eye in the larger end. These were sometimes
made by cutting a piece from one of the old jade adzes in the manner
already described. There are a few of these whetstones still in use at
the present day, and they are very highly prized. We succeeded in
obtaining nine specimens, of which No. 89618 [801], Fig. 162_a_, has
been selected as the type. It is of hard black stone, probably jade,
6.3 inches long. Through the wider end is drilled a large eye, into
which is neatly spliced one end of a stout flat braid of sinew 4¾
inches long.

The remaining whetstones are of very much the same pattern. I have
figured five of them, to show the slight variations. Fig. 162_b_
(No. 56662 [393], from Utkiavwĭñ) is of light grayish green jade,
smoothly polished and 4.1 inches long. It is chamfered only on the
small end at right angles to the breadth, and has the eye prolonged
into ornamental grooves on the two opposite faces. The long lanyard is
of common sinew braid. No. 56663 [229] (from the same village) is of
olive green, slightly translucent jade, 6.8 inches long, and
elliptical in section, also chamfered only at the small end. The
lanyard, which is a strip of seal thong 9 inches long, is secured in
the eye, as described before, with two slits, one in the standing part
through which the end is passed and the other in the end with the
standing part passed through it. No. 89617 [1262] (from Sidaru) is of
olive green, translucent jade, 6.1 inches long, and shaped like the
type, but chamfered only at the small end. The lanyard of seal thong
is secured in the eye by a large round knot in one end. No. 89619
[837] (from Utkiavwĭñ) is of bright green, translucent jade, 5.1
inches long, and unusually thick, its greatest diameter being 0.6
inch. The tip is gradually worked off to an oblique edge, and it has
ornamental grooves running through the eye like No. 56662 [393].

  [Illustration: FIG. 163.--Jade whetstones. 3/4]

No. 89620 [865] (from Nuwŭk) is shaped very much like the type, but
has the tip tapered off almost to a point. It is of olive green,
slightly translucent jade and is 7 inches long. The lanyard is a piece
of sinew braid with the ends knotted together and the bight looped
into the eye. A large sky-blue glass bead is slipped on over both
parts of the lanyard and pushed up close to the loop. Fig. 163_a_
(No. 89621 [757], from Utkiavwĭñ) is very short and broad (3.6 inches
by 0.6), is chamfered at both ends, and has the ornamental grooves at
the eye. The material is a hard, opaque, bluish gray stone, veined
with black.

A whetstone of similar material was brought by Lieut. Stoney from
Kotzebue Sound. The long lanyard is of sinew braid. Fig. 163_b_
(No. 89622 [951], also from Utkiavwĭñ) is a very small, slender
whetstone, 3.3 inches long, of dark olive green semitranslucent jade,
polished. The tip is not chamfered, but tapers to a blunt point. It
has the ornamental grooves at the eye. These are undoubtedly the
“stones for making . . . whetstones, or these ready-made” referred to
by Dr. Simpson (Op. cit., p. 266) as brought by the Nunatañmiun from
the people of the “Ko-wak River.” A few such whetstones have been
collected on other parts of the northwest coast as far south as the
northern shore of Norton Sound. The broken whetstone mentioned above
is of a beautiful bluish green translucent jade. Bits of stone are
also used for whetstones, such as No. 89786 [1004_f_], which belong in
Ilû´bw’ga’s tool bag. They are two rough, oblong bits of hard dark
gray slate, apparently split off a flat, weathered surface.

  [Illustration: FIG. 164.--Wooden tool boxes. 1/6]

_Tool boxes and bags._--We collected six specimens of a peculiarly
shaped long, narrow box, carved from a single block of wood, which we
were informed were formerly used for holding tools. They have gone out
of fashion at the present day, and there are but few of them left. No.
89860 [1152], Fig. 164_a_, represents the typical shape of this box.
It is carved from a single block of pine. The cover is slightly
hollowed on the under side and is held on by two double rings of twine
(one of seal twine and the other of sinew braid), large enough to slip
over the end. Each ring is made by doubling a long piece of twine so
that the two parts are equal, passing one end through the bight and
knotting it to the other. The box and cover seem to have been painted
inside and out with red ocher. On the outside this is mostly faded and
worn off and covered with dirt, but inside it has turned a dark brown.
Fig. 164_b_ (No. 89858 [1319], from Utkiavwĭñ), is a similar box, 21.1
inches long. The cover is held on by a string passing over little
hooked ivory studs close to the edge of the box. There were originally
five of these studs, two at each end and one in the middle of one
side. The string started from one of these studs at the pointed end.
This stud is broken and the string fastened into a hole close to it.
To fasten on the cover the string was carried over and hooked under
the opposite stud, then crossed over the cover to the middle stud,
then across to the end stud on the other side, and the loop on the end
hooked onto the last stud.

  [Illustration: FIG. 165.--Large wooden tool boxes. 1/8]

No. 89859 [1318] is a smaller box (19 inches long) of the same
pattern, with only four studs. The cover has three large blue glass
beads, like those used for labrets, inlaid in a line along the middle.
No. 89858 [1144], from Utkiavwĭñ, is the shape of the type, but has a
thicker cover and six stud holes in the margin. No. 89861 [1151], Fig.
165_a_, from the same place, is shaped something like a violin case,
22.2 inches long. The cover has been split and “stitched” together
with whalebone, and a crack in the broader end of the box has been
neatly mended by pegging on, with nine little wooden treenails,
a strap of reindeer antler of the same width as the edge and following
the curve of its outline. There are four studs, two at each end. The
string is made fast to one at the smaller end, carried over to the
opposite one, then crossed to the opposite stud at the other end and
back under the last one, a bight of the end being tucked under the
string between the two last-mentioned studs. The string is made of
sinew braid, rope-yarns, and a long piece of seal thong. It was
probably at first all of sinew braid, and, gradually growing too short
by being broken and knotted together again, was lengthened out with
whatever came to hand.

No. 89862 [1593], Fig. 165_b_, is a large box, of a very peculiar
shape, best understood from the figure. The outside is much weathered,
but appears to have been roughly carved, and the excavation of the box
and cover is very rudely done, perhaps with a stone tool. A hole in
the larger end is mended by a patch of wood chamfered off to fit the
hole and sewed on round the edges with “over-and-over” stitches of
whalebone. The string is arranged in permanent loops, under which the
cover can be slipped off and on.

  [Illustration: FIG. 166.--Tool bag of wolverine skin. 1/4]

The arrangement, which is rather complicated, is as follows: On one
side of the box, one-half inch from the edge and about 7 inches from
each end, are two pairs of holes, one-half inch apart. Into each pair
is fastened, by means of knots on the inside, a loop of very stout
sinew braid, 3 inches long, and similar loops of seal thong, 5 inches
long, are fastened into corresponding pairs of holes on the other
side. A piece of seal thong is fastened with a becket-hitch into the
loop of seal thong at the small end of the box, passes through both
braid loops on the other side, and is carried over through the loop of
seal thong at the large end. The end of the thong is knotted into one
of the pairs of holes left by the breaking away of a stitch at the
edge of the wooden patch above mentioned.

All these boxes are very old and were painted inside with red ocher,
which has turned dark brown from age. Tools are nowadays kept in a
large oblong, flat satchel, ĭkqûxbwĭñ, which has an arched handle of
ivory or bone stretched lengthwise across the open mouth. These bags
are always made of skin with the hair out, and the skins of
wolverines’ heads are the most desired for this purpose. The
collection contains four such bags. No. 89794 [1018], Fig. 166, is the
type of these bags. The bottom of the bag is a piece of short-haired
brown deerskin, with the hair out, pieced across the middle. The sides
and ends are made of the skins of four wolverine heads, without the
lower jaw, cut off at the nape and spread out and sewed together side
by side with the hair outward and noses up. One head comes on each end
of the bag and one on each side, and the spaces between the noses are
filled out with gussets of deerskin and wolverine skin. A narrow strip
of the latter is sewed round the mouth of the bag. The handle is of
walrus ivory, 14½ inches long and about one-half inch square. There is
a vertical hole through it one-half inch from each end, and at one end
also a transverse hole between this and the tip. One end of the thong
which fastens the handle to the bag is drawn through this hole and cut
off close to the surface. The other end is brought over the handle and
down through the vertical hole and made fast with two half-hitches
into a hole through the septum of the nose of the head at one end of
the bag. The other end of the handle is fastened to the opposite nose
in the same way, but the thong is secured in the hole by a simple knot
in the end above. On one side of the handle is an unfinished incised
pattern.

  [Illustration: FIG. 167.--Tool bag of wolverine skin. 1/4]

Fig. 167, No. 89776 [1004], is a similar bag, made of four wolverine
heads with the lower jaws attached. The bottom is of stout leather
without hair. The mouth is tied up by a bit of thong passed through
the nostrils of the two side heads so that it can spread open only
about 1¾ inches. The handle is broad and flat, made of walrus ivory,
and ornamented with an incised border on top. One end is broken and
pieced out with reindeer antler secured by a clumsy “fishing” of seal
twine, which is passed through holes in the two parts. The pieces seem
to have been riveted together as in the drill bow, No. 89777 [1004_b_]
(Fig. 154), which belongs to this bag. There is a rivet still sticking
in the antler. It is possible that the ivory may have broken in the
process of riveting the two together. The handle has two vertical
holes at each end for the thong, by which it is fastened to the end
noses, both in the median line and joined by a short channel on top of
the handle. This bag was the property of the Nunatañmiun Ilûbw’ga, so
frequently mentioned, and was purchased with all its contents.

  [Illustration: _a_ _b_ FIG. 168.--Drills belonging to the tool bag.
  1/3]

These are two bow drills, one large and one small (Figs. 168_a_ and
168_b_, Nos. 89778 and 89779 [1004_a_]); a drill bow (Fig. 154, No.
89777 [1004_b_]); a mouthpiece (Fig. 155, No. 89787 [1004_c_]); a
large crooked knife with a sheath (Fig. 114, No. 89780 [1004_d_]); a
flint flaker (No. 89752 [1004_e_]); a comb for deerskins (Fig. 169,
No. 89781 [1005]); a haircomb made of antler (No. 89785 [1006]);
a fishhook (No. 89783 [1007]); and a small seal harpoon head
(No. 89784 [1008]).

  [Illustration: FIG. 169.--Comb for deerskins in the tool bag. 1/2]

No. 89796 [1118], from Nuwŭk, is of rather unusual materials. The
bottom is of brown reindeer skin and the sides and ends are the heads
of two wolves and a red fox. The wolf heads meet on one side, and the
fox head is put in between them on the other. The fox head has no
lower jaw, and one wolf head has only the left half of the lower jaw.
The vacant spaces around the mouth are filled by triangular gussets of
wolf and reindeer skin. The eyeholes are patched on the inside with
deerskin. It has no handle. No. 89795 [1309], the remaining bag, is of
the usual pattern, but carelessly made of small pieces of deerskin,
with a handle of coarse-grained whale’s bone. It was probably made for
sale.

I have figured four handles of such bags to show the style of
ornamentation. Fig. 170_a_(No. 89420 [1111], from Nuwŭk) has incised
figures of men and reindeer on the back, once colored with ocher, of
which traces can still be seen. This is perhaps a hunting score. (See
remarks on this subject under “Bow drills.”) Fig. 170_b_ (No. 89423
[996], from Utkiavwĭñ) is a very elaborate handle, with scalloped
edges and fluted back, which is also ornamented with an incised
pattern colored with red ocher. The other side is covered with series
of the incised circles, each with a dot in the center, so frequently
mentioned. Fig. 170_c_ (No. 89424 [890], from Nuwŭk) has on the under
side two rows of figures representing the flukes and “smalls” of
whales. This is the specimen already mentioned, which the natives
called an actual score. The series of twenty-six tails were said to be
the record of old Yûksĭ´ña (“Erksinra” of Dr. Simpson), the so-called
“chief” at Nuwŭk. All the above handles are of walrus ivory, and have
been in actual use. Fig. 170_c_ (No. 56513 [43], from Utkiavwĭñ) is a
handle of different material (reindeer antler) and of somewhat
different pattern. One end is neatly carved into an exceedingly
accurate image of the head of a reindeer which has shed its antlers,
with small blue beads inlaid for the eyes. The back of the handle is
ornamented with an incised pattern colored with red ocher. We were
told that such handles were sometimes fitted to the wooden buckets,
but I never saw one so used.

  [Illustration: FIG. 170.--Bag handles.]

  [Illustration: FIG. 171.--Bag of leather.]

No. 89798 [1075], Fig. 171, is a bag of rather unusual pattern, the
only one of the kind we saw. The bottom is a single round piece,
9 inches in diameter, of what seems to be split skin of the bearded
seal, flesh side out, and the rest of the bag is of white-tanned seal
leather. The sides are of five broad pieces (6, 4½, 4, 5½, and 5
inches broad at the bottom, respectively, narrowing to 2½, 1½, 1¼, 2,
and 2⅓, respectively, at the top), alternating with five straight
strips, respectively 1½, 1, 1⅓, 1¼, and 1½ inches broad. The edges of
these strips overlap the edges of the broad pieces, and are neatly
stitched with two threads, as on the soles of the waterproof boots.
The outer thread, which is caught in the loop of each stitch of the
other, is a slender filament of black whale-bone. This produces a sort
of embroidery. The neck is stitched to the bag with the same seam, but
the hem at the mouth is merely “run” round with sinew. This bag was
probably for holding small tools and similar articles.

WEAPONS.

As would naturally be expected from what has been said of the peaceful
character of these people, offensive weapons, specially intended for
use against men, are exceedingly rare. In case of quarrels between
individuals or parties the bows, spears, and knives intended for
hunting or general use would be turned against their enemies. Even
their rifles, nowadays, are kept much more for hunting than as weapons
of offense, and the revolvers of various patterns which many of them
have obtained from the ships are chiefly carried when traveling back
and forth between the two villages as a protection against a possible
bear. We, however, obtained a few weapons which were especially
designed for taking human life. One of these was a little club
(tĭ´glun) (No. 89492 [1310], Fig. 172, from Utkiavwĭñ) made of the
butt end of an old pickax head of whale’s bone, with the point cut
down to a blunt end. It is 6.4 inches long and meant to be clenched in
the hand like a dagger, and used for striking blows, probably at the
temple. The transverse grooves for hafting give a good hold for the
fingers. This was the only weapon of the kind seen.

  [Illustration: FIG. 172.--Little hand-club. 1/2]

We collected a single specimen of a kind of slung shot, No. 89472
[905] (Fig. 173), made of a roughly ovoid lump of heavy bone, the
symphysis of the lower jaw of a walrus, 3⅓ inches long. At the smaller
end two large holes are bored in obliquely so as to meet under the
surface and form a channel through which is passed a slip of white
seal skin about 15 inches long, the ends of which fasten together with
two slits, so as to make a loop. This may be compared with the stone
balls used by the ancient Aleuts for striking a man on the temple.

  [Illustration: FIG. 173.--Slungshot made of walrus jaw. 1/2]

The commonest weapon of offense was a broad dagger made of a bone of
the polar bear. This was said to be especially meant for killing a
“bad man,” possibly for certain specified offenses or perhaps in cases
of insanity. Insane persons were sometimes killed in Greenland, and
the act was considered “neither decidedly admissible nor altogether
unlawful.”[N288] The use of bears’ bones for these weapons points to
some superstitious idea, perhaps having reference to the ferocity of
the animal. We collected five specimens of these daggers, of which No.
89484 [767], Fig. 174, has been selected as the type. It is the distal
end of the ulna of a polar bear, with the neck and condyles forming
the hilt, and the shaft split so as to expose the medullary cavity and
cut into a pointed blade. It is very old, blackened, and crumbling on
the surface, and is a foot long.

    [Footnote N288: Rink, Tales and Traditions, p. 35.]

Fig. 175_a_, No. 89475 [988], from Nuwŭk, is made of a straight
splinter from the shaft of one of the long bones, 9¾ inches long. No.
89480 [1141], from Utkiavwĭñ, has a roughly whittled hilt and a
somewhat twisted blade, rather narrow, but widened to a sharp
lanceolate point. It is 12 inches long. No. 89481 [1175], from the
same place, has the roughly shaped hilt whipped with two turns of
sinew. No. 89482 [1709], Fig. 175_b_, also from Utkiavwĭñ, is
dirk-shaped, having but one edge and a straight back. The hilt, as
before, is roughly sawed from the solid head of the bone. No. 89485
[965], Fig. 176, from Nuwŭk, was also said to be a dagger, but could
not have been a very effective weapon. It is of whale’s bone, 5 inches
long. It is rather rudely carved, old, and dirty, but the notches on
the haft are newly cut.

  [Illustration: FIG. 174.--Dagger of bear’s bone.]

  [Illustration: FIG. 175.--Bone daggers.]

Dirks or daggers of bear’s bone, like those described, are really
rather formidable weapons, as it is easy to give the splinter of bone
a very keen point. The Museum contains a bone dagger curiously like
these Eskimo weapons, but made of the bone of the grizzly bear, and
used by the Indians of the McCloud River, northern California. They
believe that the peculiar shape of the point, having a hollow (the
medullary cavity) on one face, like the Eskimo daggers, causes the
wound to bleed internally.

PROJECTILE WEAPONS.

_Firearms._--When Dease and Simpson first met these people, in 1837,
they had no firearms, but the next party of whites who came in contact
with them (Pullen and Hooper, in 1849) found the “chief” in possession
of an old shaky musket of English make, with the name “Barnett” on the
lock.[N289] Hooper believed this to be the gun lost by Sir John
Franklin’s party in 1826.[N290] This gun was, however, often seen by
the people of the _Plover_ (in fact, Capt. Maguire kept it on board of
the _Plover_ for some time[N291]), and was found to have on the lock,
besides the name “Barnett,” also the date, “1843,” so that of course
it was not lost in 1826. Armstrong[N292] also mentions seeing this
gun, which, the natives told him, they had procured “from the other
tribes to the southward.” In the summer of 1853 they began to purchase
guns and ammunition from the eastern natives. Yûksĭña and two other
men each bought a gun this year.[N293]

    [Footnote N289: Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 239.]

    [Footnote N290: Franklin, 2d Exp., p. 148. In the hurry of leaving
    Barter Island “one of the crew of the _Reliance_ left his gun and
    ammunition.”]

    [Footnote N291: See McClure’s N. W. Passage, p. 390.]

    [Footnote N292: Narrative, p. 109.]

    [Footnote N293: Maguire, Further Papers, p. 907.]

  [Illustration: FIG. 176.--So-called dagger of bone. 1/2]

As the whalers began to go to Point Barrow in 1854, the opportunity
for obtaining firearms has been afforded the natives every year since
then, so that they are now well supplied with guns, chiefly of
American manufacture. That all their firearms have not been obtained
from this source is probable from the fact they have still in their
possession a number of smoothbore percussion guns, double and single
barreled, of Russian manufacture. They are all stamped in Russian with
the name of Tula, a town on the Oopa, 105 miles south of Moscow, which
has received the name of the “Sheffield and Birmingham of Russia,”
from its vast manufactory of arms, established by Peter the Great.
These guns must have come from the “Nunatañmiun,” who obtained them
either from the Siberian traders or from the Russians at Norton Sound
through the Malemiut. Both smoothbore and rifled guns are in general
use. The smoothbores are of all sorts and descriptions, from an old
flintlock musket to more or less valuable single and double percussion
fowling-pieces. Three of the natives now (1883) have cheap double
breechloaders and one a single breechloader (made by John P. Lovell,
of Boston). Guns in general are called “cupûñ,” an onomatopœic word in
general use in western America, but many of the different kinds have
special names. For instance, a double gun is called madro´lĭñ (from
_madro_, _two_). The rifles are also of many different patterns. The
kind preferred by the natives is the ordinary Winchester brass-mounted
15-shot repeater, which the whalers and traders purchase cheaply at
wholesale. This is called akĭmiɐlĭñ (“that which has fifteen,” sc.,
shots). The whalers are also in the habit of buying up all sorts of
cheap or second-hand guns for the Arctic trade, so that many other
kinds of guns are also common. Of breechloaders, we saw the Sharpe’s
rifle, savĭgro´lĭñ (from a fancied resemblance between the crooked
lever of this gun and the crooked knife, savigro´n); other patterns of
Winchester; the Spencer repeater, kai´psualĭñ (from kaipsĭ,
cartridge); the peculiar Sharps-Hankins, once used in the U.S. Navy,
and which was the favorite weapon of the rebel Boers in South Africa;
the Peabody-Martini, made in America for the Turkish Government,
marked on the rear sight with Turkish figures, and, exposed with a
corpse at the cemetery, one English Snider. The regulation Springfield
rifles belonging to the post, which were often loaned to the natives
for the purpose of hunting, were called mûkpara´lĭñ (from _mûkpara´_,
book, referring to the breech action, which opens like a book).

They formerly had very few muzzle-loading rifles, but of late years,
since the law against trading arms to the natives has been construed
to refer solely to breech-loading rifles, the whalers have sold them
yäger rifles, of the old U.S. Army pattern, Enfield rifles, ship’s
muskets with the Tower mark on them, and a sort of bogus rifle made
especially for trade, in imitation of the old-fashioned Kentucky
rifle, but with grooves extending only a short distance from the
muzzle. They of course depend on the ships for their supplies of
ammunition, though the Nunatañmiun sometimes bring a few cartridges
smuggled across from Siberia. They naturally are most desirous to
procure cartridges for the rim-fire Winchester guns, as these are not
intended to be used more than once. They have, however, invented a
method of priming these rim-fire shells so that they can be reloaded.
A common “G. D.” percussion cap is neatly fitted into the rim of the
shell by cutting the sides into strips which are folded into slits in
the shell, a little hole being drilled under the center of the cap to
allow the flash to reach the powder. This is a very laborious process,
but enables the natives to use a rifle which would otherwise be
useless. Such cartridges reloaded with powder and home-made
bullets--they have many bullet molds and know how to use them--are
tolerably effective. Great care must be taken to insert the cartridge
right side up, so that the cap shall be struck by the firing pin,
which interferes with using the gun as a repeater.

They are very careless with their rifles, allowing them to get rusty,
and otherwise misusing them, especially by firing small shot from them
in the duck-shooting season. As a rule they are very fair shots with
the rifle, but extremely lavish of ammunition when they have a supply.
The only economy is shown in reloading cartridges and in loading their
shotguns, into which they seldom put a sufficient charge. In spite of
this some of them shoot very well with the shotgun, though many of
them show great stupidity in judging distance, firing light charges of
shot at short rifle range (100 to 200 yards). Though they mold their
own bullets, I have never known any of them to attempt making shot or
slugs. This, which they call kăkrúra (little bullets, from kă´kru,
originally meaning _arrow_ and now used for _bullet_ as well) is
always obtained from the whites. The gun is habitually carried in a
case or holster long enough to cover the whole gun, made of sealskin,
either black-tanned or with the hair on the outside. This, like the
bow case, from which it is evidently copied, is slung across the back
by a thong passing round the shoulders and across the chest. This is
the method universally practiced for carrying burdens of all sorts.
The butt of the gun is on the right side, so that it can be easily
slipped out of the holster under the right arm without unslinging it.
Revolvers are also carried slung in holsters on the back in the same
way. Ammunition is carried in a pouch slung over the shoulder. They
are careless in handling firearms and ammunition. We knew two men who
shot off the tip of the forefinger while filing cartridges which had
failed to explode in the gun.

_Whaling guns._--In addition to the kinds of firearms for land hunting
above described a number of the natives have procured from the
whalemen, either by purchase or from wrecks, whaling guns, such as are
used by the American whalers, in place of the steel lance for
dispatching the whale after it is harpooned. These are of various
patterns, both muzzle and breech loading, and they are able to procure
nearly every year a small supply of the explosive lances to be shot
from them. They use them as the white men do for killing harpooned
whales, and also, when the leads of open water are narrow, for
shooting them as they pass close to the edge of the ice.

_Bows_ (_pízĭ´ksĕ_).--In former times the bow was the only projectile
weapon which these people possessed that could be used at a longer
range than the “dart” of a harpoon. It was accordingly used for
hunting the bear, the wolf, and the reindeer, for shooting birds, and
in case of necessity, for warfare. It is worthy of note, in this
connection, as showing that the use of the bow for fighting was only a
secondary consideration, that none of their arrows are regular “war
arrows” like those made by the Sioux or other Indians; that is, arrows
to be shot with the breadth of the head horizontal, so as to pass
between the horizontal ribs of a man. Firearms have now almost
completely superseded the bow for actual work, though a few men, too
poor to obtain guns, still use them.

Every boy has a bow for a plaything, with which he shoots small birds
and practices at marks. Very few boys, however, show any great skill
with it. We never had an opportunity of seeing an adult shoot with the
bow and arrow; but they have not yet lost the art of bow-making. The
newest boys’ bows are as skillfully and ingeniously constructed as the
old bows, but are of course smaller and weaker. The bow in use among
these people was the universal sinew-backed bow of the Eskimo carried
to its highest degree of efficiency.[N294] It was of what I have
called the “Arctic type,” namely, a rather short bow of spruce, from
43 to 52 inches in length, nearly elliptical in section, but flatter
on the back than on the belly, and slightly narrowed and thickened at
the handle. The greatest breadth was usually about 1¼ inches and the
thickness at the handle about three-fourths of an inch. The ends were
often bent up as in the Tatar bow, and were sometimes separate pieces
mortised on. Strength and elasticity was given to the brittle spruce
by applying a number of strands of sinew to the back of the bow in
such a way that drawing the bowstring stretched all these elastic
cords, thus adding their elasticity to that of the wood. This backing
was always a continuous piece of a three-ply braid of sinew, about the
size of stout pack thread, and on a large bow often 40 or 50 yards
long. It began, as on all Eskimo bows which I have been able to
examine (except those from St. Lawrence Island and the mainland of
Siberia--my “western type”), with an eye at one end of the cord looped
over one nock of the bow, usually the upper. The cord was then laid on
the back of the bow in long strands running up and down and round the
nocks, as usual on the other types of bow, but after putting on a
number of these, began running backward and forward between the bends
(if the bow was of the Tatar shape), or between corresponding points
on a straight bow, where they were fastened with complicated hitches
around the bow in such a way that the shortest strands came to the top
of the backing, which was thus made to grow thicker gradually toward
the middle of the bow, where the greatest strength and elasticity were
needed. When enough strands had been laid on they were divided into
two equal parcels and twisted from the middle into two tight cables,
thus greatly increasing the tension to be overcome in drawing the bow.
These cables being secured to the handle of the bow, the end of the
cord was used to seize the whole securely to the bow.

    [Footnote N294: See the writer’s paper on the subject of Eskimo
    bows in the Smithsonian Report for 1884, Part II, pp. 307-316.]

  [Illustration: FIG. 177.--Boy’s bow from Utkiavwĭñ. 1/8]

This seizing and the hitches already mentioned served to incorporate
the backing very thoroughly with the bow, thus equalizing the strain
and preventing the bow from cracking. This made a very stiff and
powerful bow, capable of sending an arrow with great force. We were
told by a reliable native that a stone-headed arrow was often driven
by one of these bows wholly through a polar bear, “if there was no
bone.” Three bows only were obtained: One from Nuwŭk, one from
Utkiavwĭñ (a lad’s bow), and one from Sidaru.

  [Illustration: FIG. 179.--Large bow from Nuwŭk. 1/8]

The bow from Utkiavwĭñ, No. 89904 [786] (Fig. 177), though small, is
in some respects nearer the type than the other two, and has been
selected for description. The body of the bow is a single piece of the
heart of a log of spruce driftwood 36¼ inches long, elliptical in
section, flattened more on the back than on the belly. It is tapered
to the nocks, which are small club-shaped knobs, and narrowed and
thickened at the handle. The backing is of round three-ply braid of
sinew in one continuous piece. The string is a round four-ply braid
with a loop at each end, made by tying a single knot in the standing
part, passing the end through this and taking a half hitch with it
round the standing part (Fig. 178). The upper loop is a little the
larger.

  [Illustration: FIG. 178.--Loop at end of bowstring. 1/2]

No. 89245 [25] (Fig. 179), from Nuwŭk, is a full-sized man’s bow,
which is old and has been long in use. It is of the same material, and
is 47.3 inches long. Its greatest breadth is 1⅓ inches, and it is 0.8
inch thick at the handle. It is slightly narrowed and thinned off from
the broadest part to about 6 inches from each tip, and is then
gradually thickened to the nocks and bent up so that the ends make an
angle of about 45° with the bow when unstrung. The ends are separate
pieces fitted on at the bends. The ends of the body are chamfered off
laterally to a wedge which fits into a corresponding notch in the end
piece, making a scarf 3¼ inches long, which is strengthened by a
curved strap of antler, convex above and thickest in the middle,
fitting into the bend on the back. The joint is held together wholly
by the backing.

We never saw bows of this pattern made and consequently did not learn
how the bending was accomplished. The method is probably the same as
that seen by Capt. Beechey in 1826, at Kotzebue Sound (Voyage,
p. 575). The bow was wrapped in wet shavings and held over the fire,
and then pegged down on the ground (probably on one side), into shape.
A strip of rawhide (the split skin of the bearded seal, with the grain
side out), 1 inch wide, runs along the back from bend to bend under
the backing. The chief peculiarity of this bow is the third cable,
above the other two, and the great and apparently unnecessary
complication of the hitches.

No. 72771 [234], from Sidaru (Fig. 180_a_ and _b_), is a bow with bent
ends like the last, but all in one piece and smaller. Its length is
43½ inches and its greatest breadth 1⅓. The backing has only two
cables, and its chief peculiarity is in having the loose end of the
last strand twisted into one of the cables, while the seizing, of the
same pattern as in the last bow, is made of a separate piece. The
workmanship of this bow is particularly neat, and it is further
strengthened with strips of rawhide (the skin of the bearded seal,
split), under the backing. The method of making the string is very
ingenious. It appears to have been made on the bow, as follows: Having
the bow sprung back one end of a long piece of sinew twine was made
fast temporarily to the upper nock, leaving an end long enough to
finish off the bowstring. The other end was carried round the lower
nock and the returning strand half-hitched round the first snugly up
to the nock, and then carried round the upper nock and back again.
This was repeated, each strand being half-hitched round all the
preceding at the lower nock until there were eight parallel strands,
and an eye fitted snugly to the lower nock. The bight was then slipped
off the upper nock, the end untied and the whole twisted tight. This
twisted string is now about 2 inches too long, so the upper eye is
made by doubling over 2 inches of the end and stopping it down with
the free end mentioned above, thus making a long eye of seven strands.
With the end, six similar strands are added to the eye, each being
stopped to the twist with a half hitch. The end is neatly tucked in
and the strands of the eye twisted tightly together.

  [Illustration: FIG. 180.--Large bow from Sidaru. 1/8]

In my paper on Eskimo bows, already mentioned, I came to the
conclusion that the bows formerly used by the Eskimo of western North
America and the opposite coast of Asia were constructed upon three
well defined types of definite geographical distribution, and each
easily recognized as a development of a simple original type still to
be found in Baffin Land in a slightly modified form. These three types
are:

I. The Southern type, which was the only form used from the island of
Kadiak to Cape Romanzoff, and continued in frequent use as far as
Norton Sound, though separated by no hard and fast line from

II. The Arctic type, to which the bows just described belong, in use
from the Kaviak peninsula to the Mackenzie and Anderson rivers; and

III. The Western type, confined to St. Lawrence Island and the
mainland of Siberia.

I have shown how these three types differ from each other and from the
original type, and have expressed the opinion that these differences
result from the different resources at the command of the people of
different regions. I have also endeavored to account for the fact that
we find sporadic examples of the Arctic type, for instance as far
south as the Yukon, by the well known habits of the Eskimo in regard
to trading expeditions.

Outside of the region treated in my paper above referred to, there is
very little material for a comparative study of Eskimo bows, either in
the Museum or in the writings of travelers. Most writers have
contented themselves with a casual reference to some of the more
salient peculiarities of the weapon without giving any detailed
information. Beginning at the extreme north of Greenland, we find that
the so-called “Arctic Highlanders” have hardly any knowledge of the
bow. Dr. Kane saw none during his intercourse with them, but Dr.
Bessels[N295] mentions seeing one bow, made of pieces of antler
spliced together, in the possession of a man at Ita. In Danish
Greenland, the use of the bow has been abandoned for many years. When
Crantz[N296] wrote it had already gone out of use, though in
Egede’s[N297] time it was still employed. It appears to have been
longer than the other Eskimo bows. Nordenskiöld[N298] reproduces a
picture of a group of Greenlanders from an old painting of the date of
1654 in the Ethnographical Museum of Copenhagen. The man holds in his
left hand a straight bow, which appears to have the backing reaching
only part way to the ends like a western bow without the end cables,
and yet twisted into two cables. If this representation be a correct
one, this arrangement of the backing, taken in connection with what
Crantz and Egede say of the great length of the bow, would be an
argument in favor of my theory that the St. Lawrence Island bow was
developed from the primitive form by lengthening the ends of the bow
without lengthening the backing. The addition of the end cables would
then be an after invention, peculiar to the western bow. In Baffin
Land the bow is very rudely made, and approaches very closely to my
supposed primitive form. Owing to the scarcity of wood in this region
the bow was frequently made of reindeer antler, a substance still more
unsuitable for the purpose than the soft coniferous woods used
elsewhere. There are in the Museum three specimens of such antler
bows, brought from Cumberland Gulf by Mr. Kumlien.

    [Footnote N295: Naturalist, vol 8, No. 9, p. 869.]

    [Footnote N296: “In former times they made use of bows for land
    game; they were made of soft fir, a fathom in length, and to make
    it the stiffer it was bound round with whalebone or sinews.”
    History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 146.]

    [Footnote N297: “Their Bow is of an ordinary Make, commonly made
    of Fir Tree, . . . and on the Back strengthened with Strings made
    of Sinews of Animals, twisted like Thread.” “The Bow is a good
    fathom long.” Greenland, p. 101.]

    [Footnote N298: Voyage of the Vega, vol. 1, p. 41.]

The first mention of the Eskimo bow with sinew backing will be found
in Frobisher’s account of his visit to Meta Incognita in 1577:[N299]
“Their bowes are of wood of a yard long, sinewed on the back with
strong sinewes, not glued too, but fast girded and tyed on. Their bowe
strings are likewise sinewes.”

    [Footnote N299: Hakluyt’s Voyages, 1589, p. 628.]

Of the bow used at the straits of Fury and Hecla we have a most
excellent figure in Parry’s Second Voyage (Pl. opposite p. 550,
Fig. 22), and the most accurate description to be found in any author.
It is, in fact, as exact a description as could be made from an
external examination of the bow. From the figure the bow appears to
have been almost of the arctic type, having an unusual number of
strands (sometimes sixty, p. 511) which are not, however, twisted, but
secured with a spiral wrapping, as on southern bows. The backing is
stopped to the handle, but not otherwise seized. It appears to have
been rather a large bow, as Parry gives the length of one of their
best bows, made of a single piece of fir, as “4 feet 8 inches”
(p. 510). “A bow of one piece is, however, very rare; they generally
consist of from two to five pieces of bone of unequal lengths,
fastened together by rivets and treenails” (p. 511). Parry also speaks
of the use of wedges for tightening the backing. Schwatka[N300] speaks
of the Netyĭlĭk of King Williams Land as using bows of spliced pieces
of musk-ox horn or driftwood, but gives no further description of
them. Ellis[N301] describes the bow in use at Hudson’s Strait in 1746
as follows:

  Their greatest Ingenuity is shown in the Structure of their Bows,
  made commonly of three Pieces of Wood, each making a part of the
  same Arch, very nicely and exactly joined together. They are
  commonly of Fir or Larch, which the English there call Juniper, and
  as this wants Strength and Elasticity, they supply both by bracing
  the Back of the Bow with a kind of Thread or Line made of the Sinew
  of their Deer, and the Bowstring of the same material. To make them
  draw more stiffly, they dip them into Water, which causes both the
  Back of the Bow and the String to contract, and consequently gives
  it the greater force.[N302]

    [Footnote N300: Science, vol. 4, 98, p. 543.]

    [Footnote N301: Voyage to Hudson’s Bay, p. 138.]

    [Footnote N302: Compare what I have already said about the backing
    being put on wet.]

Ellis’s figure (plate opposite p. 132) shows a bow of the Tatar shape,
but gives no details of the backing, except that the latter appears to
be twisted.

We have no published descriptions of the bows used in other regions.

As far as I have been able to ascertain, the practice of backing the
bow with cords of sinew is peculiar to the Eskimo, though some
American Indians stiffen the bow by gluing flat pieces of sinew upon
the back.

One tribe of Indians, the “Loucheux” of the Mackenzie district,
however, used bows like those of the Eskimos, but Sir Alexander
Mackenzie[N303] expressly states that these were obtained from the
Eskimo.

    [Footnote N303: Voyages from Montreal . . . to the Frozen and
    Pacific Oceans, p. 48.]

_Arrows._--With these bows were used arrows of various patterns
adapted for different kinds of game. There are in the collection
fifty-one arrows, which are all about the same length, 25 to 30
inches. In describing these arrows I shall employ the terms used in
modern archery[N304] for the parts of the arrow. The greatest
variation is in the shape and size of the pile. The stele is almost
always a straight cylindrical rod, almost invariably 0.4 inch in
diameter, and ranging in length from 20 to 28 inches. Twenty-five
inches is the commonest length, and the short steles, when not
intended for a boy’s bow, are generally fitted with an unusually long
pile. From the beginning of the feathering the stele is gradually
flattened above and below to the nock, which is a simple notch almost
always 0.2 inch wide and of the same depth. The stele is sometimes
slightly widened just in front of the nock to give a better hold for
the fingers. The feathering is 6 or 7 inches long, consisting of two,
or less often, three feathers. (The set of sixteen arrows from Sidaru,
two from Nuwŭk, and one from Utkiavwĭñ, have three feathers. The rest
of the fifty-one have two.) The shaft of the feather is split and the
web is cut narrow, and tapered off to a point at each end (Fig. 181).
The ends of the feathers are fastened to the stele with whippings of
fine sinew, the small end of the feather which, of course, comes at
the nock, being often wedged into a slit in the wood (with a special
tool to be described below), or else doubled back over a few turns of
the whipping and lashed down with the rest. The small end of the
feather is almost always twisted about one turn, evidently to make the
arrow revolve in flight, like a rifle ball. Generally, if not
universally, the feathering was made of the feathers of some bird of
prey, falcon, eagle, or raven, probably with some notion of giving to
the arrow the death-dealing quality of the bird. Out of the fifty-one
arrows in the collection, only nine are feathered with gull’s
feathers, and of these all but two are new, or newly feathered for
sale to us.[N305] Dr. Simpson[N306] says that in his time “feathers
for arrows and head-dresses,” probably the eagles’ feathers previously
mentioned, were obtained in trade from the “Nunatañmiun.”

  [Illustration: FIG. 181.--Feathering of the Eskimo arrow.]

Four kinds of arrows were used: the bear arrow, of which there were
three varieties, the deer arrow, the arrow for geese, gulls, and other
large fowl, and the blunt headed arrow for killing small birds without
mangling them.

    [Footnote N304: Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th edition, article
    Archery.]

    [Footnote N305: On this subject of using the feathers of birds of
    prey for arrows, compare Crantz, History of Greenland, i, p. 146,
    “the arrow . . . winged behind with a couple of raven’s feathers.”