THE MANS KNIFE. 



739 



on many objects brought from the ce(hir areas of southeast Alaska. 

 In this its perfected form the knife is both chisel and adz, working 

 always by pressure (fig. 9). 



Example Cat. No. 16S;)42, in the TT. S. National Museum, is a curved 

 knife from the Tliugit Indians of Alaska (fig. 10), collected by Lieut. 

 (t. T. Emmons, U. S. N. It consists of a blade of a 

 common pocketknife driven into the end of a handle of 

 antler and held in place by an iron ferrule and by a 

 seizing of rawhide thong. The handle has rings 

 scratched around it an inch apart. The example has 

 this peculiarity, that the bevel of the blade is under- 

 neath, for the workman to cut toward him, and must 

 have been designed, therefore, to be used after the 

 modern fashion of a trimming chisel. Length, 7^ 

 in(;hes. With this knife belongs example Cat. No. 

 1G8345, U.S.N.M., a guard of sealskin to be worn on 

 the back of the hand (fig. 11), so that when the work- 

 man is whittling in a box or canoe he may protect him- 

 self. The entire outfit is quite 

 modern, but it is remarkable that 

 this guard is the only example of 

 its kind in the collection. 



Example Cat. No. 20752, in the 

 TJ. S. National Museum, is a 

 curved knife from Sitka, Alaska 

 (fig. 12), collected by Mr. James 

 G. Swan. It is evidently made 

 up for trade, and shows no sign 

 of use, but it has the long han- 

 dle of the Yakutat two-handed 

 type. The blade, with two edges, 

 is lashed by its tang to the side 

 of a pine handle by means of a 

 buckskin thong, which last is the 

 only aboriginal part of the ap- 

 paratus, and is laid on in a slov- 

 enly manner, and any savage would be ashamed 

 to use it on his own account. 



Since ethuograi)hic nuiterial has entered into 

 commerce the Museum curator is vexed continu- 

 ally by receiving specimens that never had any 

 serious aboriginal use. Furthermore, trade centers, such as Una- 

 laska, Sitka, Victoria, and Honolulu, where in tlie old days whalers 

 met and exchanged or i)awned their collections from different places, 

 specimens were carried far from their original source, and now can be 

 identified only by comparing them with well-authenticated objects. 



Fig. 12. 



ARVKK'S KNIFE, FOR 

 TWO HANDS. 



Sitka, Alaslia. 



Cat. No. 20752, U.S.N. M. 



Mgs. 13, 14. 



CAKVEUS KNIVES. 



Britisli Columbia. 



Cat. Nos. I2997fi, 129978, U.S.N.M. 



