iiriiDorn.J KNIVES. 1&quot;)5 



It is possible that the blade may have been long ago fitted to the 

 haft and that the tool may have been used as described. That knives 

 of this sort were occasionally used by the Eskimo is shown by a speci 

 men in the Museum from Norton Sound. This is smaller than the one 

 described but has a slate blade of nearly the same shape and has a 

 haft, for hand use only, put on in the same way. 



With such knives as these the cut is made by drawing the knife toward 

 the user instead of pushing it away, as in using the round knife. We 

 found no evidence that these Eskimo ever used knives of ivory (except 

 for cutting snow) or ivory knives with bits of iron inlaid in the edge, 

 such as have been observed among those of the East. 



Fig. 100, No. 89477 [1422], is a very extraordinary implement, which 

 was brought down from Point Harrow and which has evidently been 

 exposed alongside of some corpse at the cemetery. The blade is a long, 

 flat, thin piece of whale- 

 bone wedged between 

 the two parts of the 

 haft, which has been 

 sawed lengthwise for 

 64 inches to receive it. 

 The haft is a slender piece of antler. No other specimens of the kind 

 were seen, nor have similar implements, to my knowledge, been observed 

 elsewhere. The natives insisted that it was genuine, and was formerly 

 used for cutting blubber. 



1 have introduced four figures of old iron or steel knives, of which 

 we have six specimens, in order to show the way in which the natives 

 in early days, when iron was scarce, utilized old ease-knives and bits of 

 tools, fitting them with hafts of their own make. All agree in having 

 the edge beveled on the upper face only. All the knives which they ob 

 tain from the whites at the present day are worked over with a file so as 

 to bring the bevel on one face only. Fig. 110, No. 89290 [970], from 



Nmvuk, has a blade 

 of iron, and the flat 

 haft is made of two 

 longitudinal sec 

 tions of reindeer 



Flu. 110 Small inm knifi-. 



an tier, held together 



with four large rivets nearly equidistant. The two which pass through 

 the tang are of brass and the other two of iron. The blade is 3-(! inches 

 long, the haft 4-1 long and 0-9 broad. Fig. 110, No. 89294 [901], from 

 Utkiavwin, has a short, thick, and sharp-pointed blade, and is hafted 

 in the same way with antler, one section of the haft being cut out to 

 receive the short, thick tang. The first two rivets are of iron, the other 

 three of brass and not quite long enough to go wholly through the haft. 

 The blade is barely 2 inches long. Fig. 111. No. 89297 [1125). from 

 Nuwuk, has a short blade, 24 inches long, and the two sections of the 



