The Material Culture of the Eskimo in West Greenland. 203 



were used to protect the edge of the adze during Caribou-hunting 

 or other lengthy expeditions, and were made fast with straps of 

 sinew thread. This object is to be found figured in Parry 

 (p. 548), from the Central Eskimo. * From the neighbourhood of 

 Godthaab, also, I have seen similar old specimens in the possession 

 of another collector. Here they are called ikussivia, formed from 

 the verb ikilpa, 81, "he mortises or fits something into something 

 else in such a way that it entirely fills the hole" and the termination 

 — çik "the spot where this takes place," ulimdutip "of the adze" 

 being implied herewith. Sarqaq. 



XI. Woman's Tools and Household Implennents. 

 The Ulo or Woman's Knife. 



The most important implement of the Eskimo women is the Ulo — 

 a knife with a curved blade. She uses it for cutting up and quartering 

 game, and for cutting skins for the purpose of making clothing and 

 foot-wear; in short, she uses it for everything. It serves her in the 

 same way as the various large and small knives and scissors serve 

 the European housewife. Therefore it is natural that such an im- 

 portant implement should have great interest for collectors and ethno- 

 graphers. Specimens from all tribes have been brought home, and 

 on the basis of the rich collections in the Washington Museum, 

 supplemented by copies of some of G. Holm's figures of East Green- 

 land forms, O. T. Mason has published a monograph on this imple- 

 ment with illustrations of about 75 specimens. Mason points out 

 that the Ulo is almost as ancient as human culture — that, for in- 

 stance, old Egyptian reliefs exist upon which a worker in leather is 

 shown cutting skin with an Ulo exactly similar to that used by the 

 Eskimo. He furthermore, and justly, points out that from the same 

 Eskimo districts implements are found which difîer in completeness 

 a circumstance due without doubt to the individual ability or per- 

 sonality of the maker, and he also states that the influence of the 

 white man has crept in to complicate the question. In his resumé 

 the author makes (p. 412) the significant statement "In form alone 

 the specimens from each typical area are unique. So much so that 

 one who has handled a great many of them finds no difficulty in 

 relegating a stray example to its proper companionships." 



But even in Mason's first table, where he reproduces copies of 

 some of Holm's figures from Angmagsalik, forms can be found which 

 are comparable to the type specified by Mason as being characteristic 

 of Mackenzie River. Mason solves this problem by stating that both 

 show the result of contact with European whalers and fur traders. 

 It is Nos. 4 — 6 in my Fig. 45 to which I here refer. But Holm has 



