34 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 8l 



nation may be, it now seems very probable that the origin of the 

 needle case when fully traced, will be found to be in Alaska ; and that 

 whatever form it may have had originally it was not a human or animal 

 form, the occurrence of which among the Eskimo, as Boas has shown, 

 can so often be attributed to the strong tendency of the artist to enliven 

 and vary his handiwork by the occasional replacement of existing 

 simple or geometric elements by life forms. 



RELATION BETWEEN THE ANCIENT AND MODERN ART OF 

 THE BERING SEA REGION 



The objects illustrated on plate i8 are from Nelson's collection of 

 modern Alaskan Eskimo material and are included to show certain 

 designs of the Punuk period that have continued in use to the present 

 time. 



Plate i8, / and g, are the two needle cases previously referred to 

 from the Kuskokwim and the lower Yukon, respectively. They are 

 shown for comparison with the old needle cases from St. Lawrence and 

 Punuk Islands illustrated on plate 17. 



An animal carving from Bristol Bay is shown in a. Opposite rows 

 of six oblique lines suggest the ribs while the seven small squares with 

 enclosed dots are no doubt supposed to represent the vertebral column. 

 Squares of this kind were also seen on plate 12, f, from Punuk, but 

 they were not employed in a manner to suggest a realistic meaning. 



In h is shown the under side of a woman's hair ornament from 

 Agiukchugumut, to the south of Nelson Island. Like the preceding 

 specimen it has a row of small squares but no dots. This is a fairly 

 common design among the Alaskan Eskimo ; it is to be compared with 

 similar designs from Punuk shown on plates 10, a-h, and 15, i. 



Plate 18, c, is a bodkin from Sledge Island. Two of the edges are 

 carved with a series of notches or serrations in the tops of seven 

 small elevations. This is the principal decorative motive on the lower 

 end of bird dart points from Punuk, plate 15, e, f, g. Other mod- 

 ern examples are given by Hofifman,' plates 37, 5 ; 38. 4 ; 39, 3-4 ; and 

 by Nelson," plate xliii, 23 ; and figure 20. 



In d is shown a woman's workbag fastener and bodkin from the 

 lower Yukon. It is introduced here to show the continuation among 

 the modern Eskimo of the familiar decoration of lines with spurs 

 attached. It should be compared with many objects of both the Punuk 

 and the curvilinear stages shown on previous plates. 



^ Hoffman, W. J., The Graphic Art of the Eskimo. Rep. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1897. 

 ^ Nelson, E. W., The Eskimo about Bering Strait. i8th Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. 

 Ethnol., 1899. 



