736 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



^ 



The cutting is alwiiys done toward the body. In the case of these 

 knives it will be seen that the function of splitting, planing, and smooth- 

 ing is i^erformed rather than that of excavating and 

 finishing ott" large blocks of soft wood. 



The material employed by the Menominis in their 

 basketry is tough, and therefore only soft saplings are 

 used in their work.' 



Holm figures a large number of men's carving knives.'* 

 Seven of his figures give bone or antler handles, four 

 have plain wooden handles, and in two of them bone 

 and wood are mixed. Seven of these have blades of 

 stone and seven have iron blades. The preciousness of 

 iron is shown in blades made up of two or three pieces 

 or strips of iron riveted together. The blades are all 

 inserted into the ends of the handles, most of them by 

 driving. Two show evidences of saw-cuts at the ends 

 and three have wrappings or bands of twine. The only 

 ornamentation on these handles are rings and geomet- 

 ric figures made of dots. Four of the bone handles 

 are shaxoed somewhat into 

 characteristic forms. 



Parry says that " the 

 principal tool of the Es- 

 kimo of Iglulik was the 

 knife (panna); that they 

 possessed a great number 

 of excellent ones jire- 

 viously to his coming, and 

 that the work was remark- 

 ably coarse and clumsy. 

 The manner of holding the 

 the knife also was most 

 awkward; that is, with 

 the edge backward." ' 



Example Cat. No. 1100, 

 in the U. S. National Mu- 

 seum, is a curved knife 

 from Anderson River, in 

 the Mackenzie River dis- 

 trict (tig. 8), collected by 

 Mr. R. M. Macfarlane. 

 Theblade is much curved, 

 let into a stub groove on 

 the top of the handle, and 



\1 



Fig. 7. 



CURVED KNIFE FROM 



NASCOPI INDIANS. 

 Cat. No. 153046, U.S.N.M. 



Fig. 8. 

 ESKIMO KNIFE. 



Mackenzie Kiver. 



Cat. No. llOU, U.S.N.M. 



'Fourteenth Anuual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 260; also Harper's 

 Magazine, March, 1896, p. 505. 



^Hohn, Ethnologisk Slcizzc, Copenhagen, 1887, plate 18. 

 ^'Parry's Second Voyage, Loudon, 1824, p. 536. 



