WOMAN AS AN INVENTOR AND MANUFACTURER. 97 



Fig. C Making Coiled Ware in Basket Bowl. 

 (After dishing.) 



be, the whalers helped her with steel tools. The Indian woman 

 had three tools to wit : the stone knife for cutting away the flesh ; 

 the hoe-shaped scraper 

 for splitting the skin ; 

 and the grainer, a hoe or 

 chisel-like tool with ser- 

 rated edge to roughen 

 up the inner side of the 

 robe and give it flexibil- 

 ity. Besides these, both 

 Eskimo and Indian had 

 hands and feet and teeth 

 for pulling and pound- 

 ing and breaking the 

 grain. They had also 

 a wonderful supply of 

 pride in their work, and 



love of applause, which kept them up to the mark of doing the 

 best that could be done with their, resources." The scraper is the 

 oldest instrument of any craft in the world. The Indian women 

 of Montana still receive their trade from their mothers, and they, 

 in turn, were taught by theirs in unbroken succession since the 



birth of the human spe- 

 cies. With the scraper 

 the hair was removed, 

 when that was desired, 

 after having been loos- 

 ened by exposure to chem- 

 ical treatment with quick- 

 lime, or by a process of 

 fermentation. The meth- 

 ods of preparation corre- 

 sponded with the purposes 

 to which the skin was to 

 be applied, and these were 

 various. "The tailoring 

 of savage women, espe- 

 cially that of the North 

 American women, is most 

 interesting. While the 

 weavers in the south were 

 making blankets and se- 

 rapes in the whole piece, 

 never cutting their goods, the tailors north of the Mexican border 

 were excellent cutters. For scissors they used the woman's knife, 

 called ula by the Eskimos, a blade of chert or other rock, crescent- 



Fig. 7. Basket Bowl as Base Mold for Large 

 Vessel, showing also the Smoothing Process 

 after Coiling. (After Cushing.) 



