586 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



chipper of bone used in forming the edges of arrow-heads, spear-heads, 

 scrapers, etc. The writer has only recently learned the indispensable 

 character of this tool. In the first place every chipped implement after 

 being separated from the parent block is made out and out with one of 

 them. But this is only the beginning. The writer has lately learned 

 that the hunter and the leather- worker are never without one, and they 

 bring it into requisition with a frequency which reminds one of the old 

 plantation slave sharpening his scythe every few minutes, to get a rest. 



Lieutenant Stoney, speaking of his experience at Kotzebue Sound, 

 says that tne leather- worker is incessantly touching up his scraper 

 edge with the chipper, and that in time he wears it out to a mere stub. 

 This constant sharpening also accounts for the fact that few specimens 

 show signs of great wear. It is important to repeat this, that the con- 

 stant use of the edging tool rapidly wears down the scraper blade and 

 keeps the edge sharp. This accounts for the great difference in the 

 length of the blades in our cabinets and for the fact that they show so 

 little sign of use. 



A very old skin-scraper, such as are now found only in the old graves, 

 is made of stone, with a wooden handle, which is fastened to the stone 

 by means of a strip of whalebone. Another and a later pattern is 

 made from the scapula of the reindeer. A better idea of its manufac- 

 ture can be got from the sketch than by a description. Such scrapers 

 are still in use, but serve as a sort of auxiliary to a scraper made 

 from a tin can, resembling a little scoop in shape and having a wooden 

 handle. This is the style of scraper made at the present day and is 

 by far the most effective instrument of the three. (Boas, VI An. Rep. 

 Bur. Ethuol., Figs. 465, 466, 468.) 



The manner of using these scrapers is to take the skin firmly in the 

 left hand and putting the knee or foot upon the lower part of it, hold 

 it securely while the scraper is worked with the right hand, pushing 

 downward with some force. If the skins are very dry they are some- 

 what softened by rubbing with the hands, or even chewing the most 

 stubborn parts. They continue using these tools upon a hide till it 

 gains the desired pliability. 



After removing the fat with a muscle shell, the skins are tendered to 

 the men, and especially to the guests, as a piece of civility to chew or 

 gnaw betwixt meals. This is esteemed a delicacy. Then the skins are 

 macerated or steeped in the urine tub. After that they are dried in the 

 air a little and finally milled to perfection by their teeth. They make 

 their thin light under- garments of the backs of the sea-fowl skins ; their 

 warm winter garments of the bellies, and their fine holiday dress of the 

 necks, and these they commonly turn feathers outward. 



