Ml-RDOTH.] 



KNIVES. 



lf&amp;gt;3 



I IQ. 104. llladu iil slutu hunting-knife. 



ish slate, inches long and 2-0 inches broad, with the edges broadly bev 

 eled on both faces. The haft of spruce is in two longitudinal sections, 

 put together so as to inclose the short tang of the blade, and is secured 

 by a tight whipping of eighteen turns of fine seal twine, and painted 

 with red ocher. This knife is 

 new and was made for sale, 4 ^&^ 

 but is undoubtedly a correct 

 model of an ancient pattern, 

 as No. 50076 [204] (Fig. 104), 

 which is certainly ancient, ap 

 pears to be the blade of just 

 such a knife. We were told that the latter was intended for cutting 

 blubber. This perhaps means that it was a whaling knife. Mr. Nelson 

 brought home a magnificent knife of precisely the same pattern, made 

 of light green jade. 



The two knives, representing the fourth class, are both new and 

 made for sale, having blades of soft slate. As we obtained no genuine 

 knives of this pattern, it is possible that they are merely commercial 

 fabrications. The two knives are very nearly alike, but the larger, No. 



89590 [984] (Fig. 105), is 

 the more carefully made. 

 The blade is of light green 

 ish gray slate, 0-2 inches 

 long and 2 inches broad, 

 and is straight nearly to 

 the tip, where it curves to a sharp point, making a blade like that of 

 the Roman gladins. The haft is a piece sawed out of the beam of an 

 antler, and has a cleft sawed in one end to receive the short broad 

 tang of the blade. Tlje -whipping is of sinew braid. 



The single-edged knives were probably all meant specially for cut 

 ting food, and are all of the same general pattern, varying in size from 

 a blade only 2i inches long to one of 7 inches. The blade is generally 

 more strongly curved along the edge than on the back and is usually 

 sharp-pointed. It is fitted with a broad tang to a straight haft, usually 

 shorter than the blade. There _ 



are in the collection four complete 

 knives and five unhai ted blades. 

 No. 89597 [1052] (Fig. 100) isa typ 

 ical knife of thiskind. Thebladc 

 is of black slate, rather rough, and 

 is 5-6 inches long (including the tang). The tang, which is about one-half 

 inch long and the same breadth, is lashed against one end of the flat 

 haft of bone which is cut away to receive it, with five turns of stout 

 seal thong. No. 89594 [1053] differs from the preceding only in hav 

 ing the tang inserted in a cleft in the end of the haft, and No. 89589. 



Flu. 10!&amp;gt;. Large slate knife. 



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Fir,. lOfi.Lar^L- si 



ilgi^l slate kuife. 



