22 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



though inappropriately thick, are supposed to have served for 

 dress fasteners ; but it is extremely unlikely that a people, who 

 were evidently adepts in the art of sewing, would show so great 

 a disregard for valuable skin garments as to drive such rude pegs 

 as these "pins " through them. We shall find a more probable 

 explanation by reference to the Eskimo, who possess similar 

 pins, which they call " taa-poo-ta," and use for skewering to- 

 gether the sides of the wounds inflicted in killing seals or other 

 large animals, with the object of securing the blood, not a drop 

 of which is willingly lost. 1 The Algonkian Indians, who live 

 inland, next to the Eskimo, have the same custom. Occasionally 

 the Eskimo make use of a bone plug instead of the " taa-poo-ta " ; 

 it is inserted in the wound as a kind of stopper. 2 An ivory peg 

 figured by Piette from Brassempouey, with the remark "use 

 unknown," may perhaps have served the same purpose. 3 



Whistles made from the phalange of a reindeer, such as in 

 use by North American Indian tribes, have been found in 

 Magdalenian deposits of several caves. 



A variety of evidence leads to the conclusion that the clothes 

 of the Magdalenian people were made from the skins of animals 

 killed in the chase ; the reindeer probably furnished some of 

 the warmest and most resistant to the weather. That these, 

 after dressing and trimming, were sewn together is suggested 

 by the abundant bone needles which are found strewn through 

 Magdalenian deposits. The needles are remarkably well made, 

 straight and slender, with sharp points and round or elongated 

 eyes. Their variety in size — the length ranging from 37 to 

 72 mm. — seems to show that the seamstress was particular 

 as to the fineness of her work. In making a needle the 

 first step was to obtain splinters of bone from a reindeer's 

 shoulder-blade, or to cut strips out of the cannon-bone of a 

 horse or deer ; these were then scraped into shape with a flint 

 flake, rubbed smooth and pointed by a grooved piece of sand- 

 stone, and finally drilled by means of a delicately chipped flint 

 awl. The awl was no doubt mounted in some manner, probably 

 by binding it with sinew on to a rod of wood or bone. In 

 drilling holes for arrow-straighteners a large flint borer was 



1 W. J. Sollas, " On some Eskimo Bone Implements from the East Coast of 

 Greenland," Journ. A?ithr. Inst. vol. ix. pi. vii. 1880. 



2 F. Boas, loc. cit. 



3 Piette, DAnthrop. vol. vi. p. 135, fig. 6. 



