GRAPHIC ART OF THE ESKIMOS. 811 



I Plate 39, fig. 4, represents a bag- handle marked with a single median 

 line from which the specimen slopes toward either side of the outer 

 edge, and it is also fashioned along the outer margin like the preceding 

 one, though the curves or scallops are longer. Between each curve is 

 a small V-shaped niche, while at the middle this is replaced by a short 

 scallop or curve. 



The specimen represented in plate 30, fig. 2, is decorated upon the 

 upper side by a median horizontal line, deeply engraved, to which are 

 attached, by pairs, short diagonal lines exactly resembling the herring- 

 bone pattern, each pair of these patterns being about one-half an inch 

 from the succeeding i)air. Upon the lower or concave side is a similar 

 median line, to one side of whicli are placed the figures of thirty-seven 

 geese, or sknas, swimming toward the right. The ligures are as nearly 

 alike as can be made by the average native artist, and are equidistant 

 from one another. 



The regularity of the arrangement of these bird figures suggests that 

 ornamentation was aimed at as well as a historic record. 



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Fig. 34. 



NATIVES ARMKI) WITH GUNS. 



Fig. 34 represents but two of tlie five panels or spaces decorated, 

 both of which bear figures referring to canoes in which the men at the 

 rear are armed with oars, while those at the bow have guns raised as if 

 about to shoot. The partitions consist of transverse ornamental lines, 

 an improvement over the pairs or sets of vertical plain incisions shown 

 on the paneled record in plate 30, fig. -2. 



The serrated inner edges of the dividing lines, facing one another, 

 resemble the conventional figures used to denote fish weirs, and appear 

 in the present instance to have been used as ornaments. As before 

 stated, the same pattern has been suggested, apparently, by the arrange- 

 ment of the teeth of the seal, illustrations of which are of frequent 

 occurrence in the collections of the National Museum. 



In fig. 35 is the rude outline of an ivory harp )on head, on which the 

 teeth of the seal are deeply .icised, while in fig. 36 the pattern 

 approaches more nearly the rude meander, between which and the true 

 zigzag as made by the Eskimo there are constant gradations and 

 blending of form. 



The native in ])late 40, bottom line, is following a herd of walrus. He 

 is paddling with an ordinary one-bladed paddle, in front of which is 

 the harpoon slightly elevated above the deck, and behind him is the 



