GRAPHIC ART OF THE ESKIMOS. 805 



Cape Avinotf nearly to Cape Komauzoff, Mr. Dall ' remarks that they 

 have been reported as remarkable for the beauty of their workman- 

 ship in ivory. "A kantag or wooden dish," he continues, "which was 

 obtained at Xviuivak by Captaiu Smith, was neatly carved and inlaid 

 with lozenges of white stone resembling gypsum. They were labrets 

 of the same material. Their food was i)rincipally fish and seal, and 

 they appeared to be very destitute of iron and other articles intro- 

 duced by traders. Their ivory weapons were of great beauty, and 

 some specimens of hollow carving would tax the resources of the most 

 skillful civilized workman to equal.'' 



In addition to the above named facts there occur other peculiar pat- 

 terns, two of which are of interest; they are respectively the figures of 

 concentric circles, and a Papuan-like zigzag design, to which reference 

 has already been made. The former is frequently a nucleated circle, 

 frequently regularly incised series of circles one beyond the other, and 

 occasional instances in which delicate radiating lines are attached to 

 the outer ring. 



The other pattern is like, and yet unlike, that found in Pai)uan 

 decorations, in which is a rude wavy or meander zigzag, or even more 

 sharply defined interdigital lines, or perhaps even triangular projec- 

 tions so as to form true serrations, resulting in what is sometimes 

 termed a tooth pattern. 



This particular form of Papuan art is usually drawn between or 

 within parallel lines, and extends transversely across the specimen 

 decorated. The Eskimo resemblances, if they may be so termed, are 

 represented on plate 31, figs. 2, 4, and 5. 



Plate 32, fig. -1, re[)resents an Eskimo comb, the curves upon which 

 form an interesting example for comparison with the Papuan designs 

 upon a tablet of wood, referred to and illustrated by Mr. Stolpe, of 

 Stockholm.^ Plate 33. 



Similar parallel lines carrying between them the same style of a 

 rude zigzag, but in relief, because the alternate triangular spaces have 

 been removed by cutting, occur upon various other specimens repre- 

 sented in various plates and illustrations. 



The short transverse bars in this type of pattern represent in 

 some instances, according to an Alaskan informant and pictographer, 

 Vladimir ISTaomofF, conventionalized fish traps, su(;h as are placed in 

 narrow channels of water for catching the migrating salmon. A sym- 

 metrical trap of such construction is shown on the faces of a pipe in 

 plate 60. The transverse lines or bars are complete in this illustra- 

 tion, however, yet the decorative or evolved figure is easily traceable 

 to the original. A simpler form of the same pattern appears in the 

 decoration on fig. 4 in plate 31, where the alternate short lines project 

 inward toward the opposing space between the short lines. 



' "Alaska and its Resources," Boston, 1870, p. 406. 



* Stolpe, Utvekliniisforeteelser i natinfolkens ornamentik, Ymer, Stockholm, 1890, 

 4^, pp. 193-225; 1891, pp. 197-229, ligs. 



