MURDOCH.] 



DRILL MOUTHPIECE. 



179 



for a socket a piece of iron 1-1 inches square, hollowed out as usual. 

 The outside of the wood has been painted with red ocher, but this is 

 mostly worn off. This mouthpiece belonged to Iln bw ga. 



Fig. 156, No. 89505 [892 ],from 

 Utkiavwin, represents the pat 

 tern which is perhaps rather 

 commoner than the preceding. 

 The wood, which holds the 

 socket of black and white sy 

 enite, is simply an elliptical 

 block of spruce. The remain- ~ I)ri &quot; m u P *. &quot; ith iro &quot; 90ckct - 



ing three specimens are of the same pattern and of the same material as 

 the last, except No. 89507 [908], from Nuwuk, in which the wood is oak. 

 As it appears very old, this wood may have come from the Plover. 



When not in use, the point of the drill is sometimes protected with a 

 sheath. One such sheath was obtained, No. 89447 [1112], fig 

 ured in Point Barrow Iteport, Ethnology, PL n, Fig. 1. It is 

 of walrus ivory, 3-6 inches long. The end of a piece of thong 

 is passed through the eye and the other part fastened round 

 the open end with a marline-hitch, catching down the end. 

 This leaves a lanyard 9J inches long, which is hitched or 

 knotted round the shaft of the drill when the sheath is fitted 

 over the point. 



The drills above described are used for perforating all sorts 

 of material, wood, bone, ivory, metal, etc., and are almost the 

 only boring implements used, even 

 awls being unusual. Before the in 

 troduction of iron, the point was made 

 of one of the small bones from a seal s 

 leg. We obtained four specimens of 

 these bone drills, of which two, at 

 least, appear to be genuine. No. 



FIG. i56.-Drm mouthpiece with- 89498 [95G], Fig. 157, is one of these, 

 from Nuwuk. The shaft is of the 



ordinary pattern and made of some hard wood, but the point 

 is a roughly cylindrical rod of bone, expanding at the point, 

 where it is convex on one face and concave on the other and 

 beveled on both faces into two cutting edges, which meet in 

 an acute angle. The larger end of the shaft has been split 

 and mended by whipping it for about three-quarters of an 

 inch with sinew braid. No. 89518 [1174], is apparently also 

 genuine, and is like the preceding, but beveled only on the 

 concave face of the point, which is rather obtuse. No. 89519 

 [1258] was made for the market. It has a rude shaft of whale s Bone pointed 

 bone, but a carefully made bone point of precisely the pattern &amp;lt;lri111 

 of the modern iron ones. No. 89520 [1 182] has no shaft, and appears to 

 be an old unfinished drill fitted into a carelessly made bone ferrule. 



Fid. 157 



