KNIVES. 



151 



tliug at Winter Island, says: &quot;As is customary with negroes, lie cat to 

 ward tlic left hand and never used the thumb of the right, as we do, for 

 a check to the knife.&quot; This apparently refers to a similar manner of 

 holding- the knife. Before the introduction of iron, knives appear to 

 have been always made of slate, worked by grinding. We obtained 

 twenty-six more or less complete knives, most of which are genuine old 

 implements, which have been preserved as heirlooms or amulets. These 

 knives are either single or double edged, and the, double-edged knives 

 may be divided into four classes, according to their shape. The lirst class 

 consists of rather small knives with 

 the edges straight or only slightly 

 curved, tapering to a sjiarp or trun 

 cated point, with the butt termina 

 ting in a short broad tang slightly 

 narrower than the blade, which is 

 inserted in the end of a straight 

 wooden haft, at least as long as 

 the blade. The commonest mate 

 rial is a hard, dark purple slate, 

 though some are of black or dark 

 gray slate. Of this class we have 

 three complete knives and five 

 blades without the haft. 



No. 89584 [HOT] (figured in Point 

 Barrow Kept., Ethnology, IM. Ml, 

 Fig. 3), will represent this class. 

 It is a blade of dark purple slate, 

 ground smooth, . 5-5 inches long, 

 tapering from a width of 1-3 inches 

 at the butt, with curved edges to 

 a sharp point, and beveled on both 

 faces from the middle line to the 

 edges, and the flat tang is inserted 

 into a cleft in the end of a straight 

 haft of spruce. The blade is se 

 cured by a whipping of about fifteen 

 turns of sinew braid lodged in a 

 broad shallow groove round the end of the haft. In ahole in the other end 

 of the haft is looped a- short lanyard of seal thong. Fig. 99, No. 8! 1581 

 [1011], is a knife of the same class and about the same size, having a haft 4 

 inches and a blade . 5 inches long. The blade is secured by t wo lashings, 

 of which the first is a narrow strip of whalebone, and the other of sinew 

 braid. The materials of blade and haft are the same as before. No. 

 89585 [1710] (Fig. !)9/y), has a blade of dark gray slate, and the haft, 

 which appears to be of cotton wood, is in two longitudinal sections. The 



a. 



V\(i. 9!). Slalc knives 



1 Journal, p. 92. 



