337 



with a blade of iron and a short handle is used for the "kam- 

 juting" (fig. 27). In scraping the hollow edge of the blade is 

 held forward. 



These two instruments, the kamik cleaner and the soften- 

 ing scraper, must not be confused with the true skin-scraper, 

 which is also quite different from the "ulo" or woman's knive, 

 of which again there is a couple of forms. The blubber on 

 the inner side of the fresh skin is cut away by means of the 

 ulo. Then the skin is treated in warm water and afterwards 

 the hairy layer is scraped off with a skin-scraper with an iron 

 edge (fig. 28). Of the forms of ulo (cf. figs. 53, 58, 61) the one 

 vdth the strong curved edge is used in cutting the skin and as 

 the usual instrument during sewing, in short it plays the part 

 of scissors. The women now and then sharpen this against a 

 stone or by using the sewing-needle as a "steel". 



On the upper part of the body, as mentioned, the men 

 and women wear innermost a pelt which is made of the skins 

 of the Auk or Little Auk, sewed together with the feather side 

 inmost towards the body. This bird-skin shirt is soft and 

 warm, but it has the disadvantage, that it is impossible to keep 

 it free from lice. A linen shirt was therefore the most highly 

 esteemed article of clothing one could offer a Polar Eskimo, 

 for the reason, so they said, that they could see the lice in it 

 It is not to be assumed, however, that they have quite given 

 up the fight against their small plagues in the bird-skin pelt, 

 as they have constructed a practical lice-catcher, consisting of 

 a stick 35—40 cm long, on the end of which a piece of bear- 

 skin is fastened; in this the insects get trapped when the 

 instrument is rubbed in under the feathers. Naturally, the 

 "catch" is eaten by the Polar Eskimos, as by most other na- 

 ture-folk. There is further a special skin-scratcher, consisting 

 of a wooden shaft with a head of bone. 



To make a bird-skin shirt means very considerable work. 

 The skins are pulled olY the birds whole, so that the feathers 



