MURDOCH.] MEAT BOWLS. 89 



Meat botcls. (PI tiino, see remarks on p. 88.) Large wooden bowls 

 are used to hold meat, fat, etc., both raw and cooked, which are gen 

 erally served on trays. These are of local manufacture and carved 

 from blocks of soft driftwood. The four specimens collected are all 

 made of cotton wood, and, excepting No. 73570 [408], have been long in 

 use and are thoroughly impregnated with grease and blood. 



No. 89804 [1322] (Fig. 19) will serve as the type. This is deep and 

 nearly circular, with flat bottom and rounded sides. The brim is orna 

 mented with seven large sky-blue glass beads imbedded in it at equal 

 intervals, except on one side, where there is a broken notch in the place 

 of a bead. 



Another, No. 89803 [1320], is larger and not flattened on the bottom, 

 and the brim is thinner. 



It is also provided with \j 



a bail of seal thong, very 

 neatly made, as follows: 

 One end of the thong 

 is knotted with a single 

 knot into one of the holes 

 so as to leave one long 

 part and one short part 

 (about 3 inches). The 

 long part is then carried Flu 19 ._ Meat bowl . 



across and through the 



other hole from the outside, back again through the first hole and again 

 across, so that there are three parts of thong stretched across the bowl. 

 The end is then tightly wrapped in a close spiral round all the other 

 parts, including the short end, and the wrapping is finished off by 

 tucking the. end under the last turn. The specimen shows the method 

 of mending wooden dishes, boxes, etc., which have split. A hole is 

 bored on each side of the crack, and through the two is worked a neat 

 lashing of narrow strips of whalebone, which draws the parts together. 



In No. 898C5 [1321], which has been split wholly across, there are six 

 such stitches, nearly equidistant, holding the two parts together. This 

 bowl is strengthened by neatly riveting a thin flat &quot; strap&quot; of walrus 

 ivory along the edge across the end of the crack. These three bowls 

 are of nearly the same shape, which is the common one. The new bowl 

 (No. 73570 [408] ) is of a less common shape, being not so nearly hemis 

 pherical as the others, but shaped more like a common milk pan. It is 

 ornamented with straight lines drawn in black lead, dividing the sur 

 face into quadrants. These were probably put on to catch the white 

 man s eye, as the bowl was made for the market. I Mshes of this descrip 

 tion are common throughout Alaska (see the National Museum collec 

 tions) and have been noted at Plover Bay. 



1 Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 147. 



