NELSON] UTENSILS OF WOOD 71 



mouth and the eyes were pierced into the hollow interior. This orifice 

 is closed with a neatly fitted circular piece of wood. 



Figure 8 represents a very well made tray-shape dish 1 from Big lake; 

 it is oval in outline and is cut from a single block. Projecting from 

 each end are carved figures of grotesque human heads which serve as 

 handles; the eyes are represented by white beads, and others are set 

 around the grooved upper edge of the dish. The lower surface is not 

 painted. A groove around the inside, below the edge, is painted black, 

 succeeded by a red border, below which is a narrow black line. The 

 inside bottom is ornamented with a large figure of a quadruped with 

 a short tail and a curious bird-like head marked with a crest. 



Another kind of shallow tray or dish is made from two pieces of 

 wood, the bottom shaped like a truncated cone, the base of which is 

 turned up and chamfered to fit in a groove on the inside of the rim. 



In most specimens the narrow, ledge-like rim is made from a thick 

 strip of wood, softened by steam, and then bent around with the beveled 

 ends overlapping and fastened together with wooden pegs. These are 

 in general use on the American coast and on the islands of Bering sea. 



Specimens from St Lawrence island are made in the same way except 

 that the overlapping ends are sewed together with whalebone. The 

 ledge-like borders are beveled to a central ridge on the inside and are 

 plane along their outer surfaces; in the middle on each side these bor 

 dering strips are thickened slightly, in order that in bending them the 

 curves shall be thrown out regularly. 



A tray of this kind from Kulukhtulogumut, represented in plate 

 xxxn, 3, is painted red around the rim and on the inside to cover the 

 border. Just inside this is a narrow black line, and on the bottom is 

 painted in black a grotesque figure of some mythologic animal having 

 upraised hands with pierced palms; along one side of this figure is a 

 row of five walruses and on the other five seals. 



Plate xxxn, 8, shows a handsomely made tray of similar character, 

 also from Nulukhtulogumut. It is about fourteen inches in length and 

 has inlaid around the beveled inner edge of the rim a series of eight 

 neatly cut, almond-shape pieces of white stone. The rim, both outside 

 and in, is painted red, as is the upper edge on the inside. Just below 

 this, on the inside, are two parallel, narrow black lines, and painted in 

 black on the bottom is a grotesque figure of some mythological animal, 

 showing anatomical details. 



Plate xxxn, 2, from the same locality as the last, is similar to it in 

 form and has two mythological figures with heads like reindeer painted 

 in black on the inside. 



Specimen number 45494, from Ikogmut (Mission), is a large tray 

 measuring about 28 inches in length and 18 inches in width. It is 

 painted red around the border, and h^s two parallel black lines inside. 

 On the bottom appears an alligator-like coiled figure, inside of which 

 a mythologic animal is painted in black. 



