A VOYAGE AROUND THE ROOM 



Among the Eskimos you will find a still more 

 curious knife used in a still more curious way. The 

 Eskimo has very little metal, and with him an old 

 saw blade is a treasure. He also whittles toward 

 himself, but the handle of his knife is so long that 

 it rests in the hollow of his elbow when he works, 

 thus getting a very rigid purchase. The blade is 

 only two or three inches long, pointed and bent up, 

 and sharpened on one side. With no better tool the 

 Eskimo can fashion all sorts of things. 



The Eskimo makes other knives out of chance 

 bits of metal. These curious little blades, looking 

 like hash knives, are really his hide scrapers, for he 

 will always use steel rather than stone when he can 

 get it. This semi-circular blade resembles a har- 

 ness-maker's knife. The handle is of bone. It is 

 not riveted, but you could hardly get it off if you 

 tried. In some way he slits the bone, inserts the 

 blade, and shrinks it on firmly. 



With the rudest of tools some Eskimo has made 

 this curious pipe out of bits of steel and pieces of 

 copper cartridges. The bowl is very small, like the 

 old stone pipe bowls. How the metal is inlaid so 

 firmly and beautifully, in alternate bands of steel 

 and copper, only the savage workman himself could 

 explain. But perhaps still more difficult was the 

 fashioning of this blue-stone pipe bowl, which the 



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