728 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



IMPROVEMENT THROUGH THE CURVED KNIFE. 



There ought to be no doubt tliat iu every case where the savage was 

 fortunate enough to obtain the knife his carving and whittling were 

 better done. There is a marvelous difference between carving on the 

 one hand, man's work chielly, and basketry or pottery on the other, con- 

 servative woman's work. In no tribes were the two last-named arts 

 bettered by contact with the higher race. The work Avas done with the 

 hands almost wholly. The tools were of the simplest character. The 

 harsh iron awl was not so good as the smooth pointed bone awl, of 

 which hundreds have been found, and the pride in personal endeavor 

 departed with the quenching of the tribal spirit. The potter's wheel, 

 such as it was three centuries ago, was only a barrier to the unmechan- 

 ical sex. Therefore those who constantly assert that prejudice made it 

 impossible for the savage to better himself iu the adoption of the white 

 man's devices catch only half a truth. 



CLASSIFICATION. 



In the class of cutting tools called knives, there nre iu the IT. S. 

 National Museum, collected among the North American Indians, two 

 series. One has been called the "woman's knife;" the other, therefore, 

 may uow be denominated the "man's knife." ' 



Both of these series exist aboriginally in two subdivisions, the one 

 containing no iron or evidences of the use of that metal, the other made 

 partly of iron or with iron. In fact, there are four subdivisions of the 

 term "industrial knife," namely, woman's knife, ancient; woman's knife, 

 modern; man's knife, ancient; man's knife, modern. 



The man's knife of the modern type exists in three varieties, to wit, 

 the "curved knife," with bent blade, em^jloyed usually in whittling; a 

 second variety, named " straight blade," with a short straight cutting 

 part used in carving stone, antler, ivory, and other hard substances; 

 and a third variety, usually with an old knife blade or piece of file well 

 worn down for its working part, employed in the function of a burin for 

 scratching or etching on hard surfaces. The three varieties ueeessarily 

 merge into one another, so that there are no broad dividing lines. 

 The curved knife may now be carefully examined as a contribution to 

 studying the man's knife of ancient type. 



PARTS OF THE CURVED KNIFE. 



Each variety of man's curved knife, as of other i)rimitive and mod- 

 ern mechanics' tools, consists of three elements or i^arts, differing 

 among the several tribes and from place to place in materials and 

 forms, though the blades furnished by Europeans are of the same gen- 

 eral motive. 



First, the whittling blade is usually of iron or steel, beveled on the 



» The Ulu, or Woman's Knife, Kept. U. S. Nat. Mns., 1890, pp. 411-416, plates 52-72. 



