582 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



his cabinet a few pieces of stone which he labels "scrapers." At once 

 in looking at them there springs upon the imagination of the philosophic 

 student visions of clothing, houses, beds, furniturs, boats, lines for all 

 conceivable purposes, the paraphernalia of state, ceremony and religion, 

 the garniture of the dead. 



We may now pay attention to particular examples. Laying aside for 

 the moment flaying, sharpening, cutting, and sewing tools, the reader is 

 invited to look especially at the collection of scrapers in the U. S. Na- 

 tional Museum. (Plates LXVII-XCIII.) 



Under this general table have been grouped together all of those 

 aboriginal implements which belong to the tanner's craft. They are 

 found in all the countries where man has used the depilated skins 

 of animals for any purpose whatever. In the American Continent this 

 region is bounded on the north, only by the line of uninhabited territory. 

 It extends southward through Greenland, Alaska, Canada, and the 

 United States. The warm climate of middle America requires the sub- 

 stitution of vegetable clothing, so that the scraper is no longer a neces- 

 sity. The essential elements of a scraper are its grip or handle and its 

 working portion or blade. In the first scrapers the blade and grip were 

 one. Indeed the Little Lake, Concow, and Eedwood Indians used for- 

 merly the dried rib of a large mammal, and now think there is nothing 

 better than the rib of a steer without any change of form. (Plates 

 LXXXIV, fig. 3.) This implement is caused to vary in structure by the 

 following conditions: (1) The natural supply of material. (2) The skins 

 to be manipulated. (3) The tribal technique. (4) The culture grade of 

 the people. 



Even among the Eskimo one can see how in the change of location 

 slate, chert, and jade replace one another. This is a universal law of 

 industries. 



Again, to prepare a seal-skin for the Bidarka demands a different 

 treatment and tool from those required in producing the soft product of 

 the antelope hide by the Navajo. 



Not so well as in language, nevertheless, in a marvelous degree, the 

 history of a people is written in their implements and industries. Tribes 

 have their own ways of doing things. A museum curator has reason 

 to be thankful for this every day, owing to the careless manner in which 

 many of his acquisitions are labeled. 



Again, the nicety of the tool is a sure guarantee of the status of a 

 people. The cylindrical scrapers are variously made. A segment from 

 the hollow base of a walrus tusk, a strip of antler bent into the form of 

 a hoop and properly lashed, or a strip of the same material strained to 

 the form of a horseshoe, has a cable of raw-hide stretched between the 

 calks of the shoe. In all of these, one edge of the cylinder is sharpened 

 to a chisel edge to increase its efficiency. The cup-shaped scraper made 

 of walrus ivory is often labeled in collections as a vessel, but a slight 

 inspection will show that it is a veritable tool. The shape is that of a 

 low oblong pan, not over 3 inches long, 2 inches wide, and 1 inch high. 



