256 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. 



We brought home two specimens of this common object (nlgawau- 

 otln). No. 81)887 [1411], Fig. 250, will serve as the, type. The top 

 is of spruce, 8^ inches long and 10^ wide. The upper surface is flat 

 and smooth, the lower broadly beveled off on the edges and deeply 

 excavated in the middle, so that there are three straight ridges join 

 ing the three legs, each of which stands in the middle of a slight 

 prominence. The object of cutting away the wood in this way is to 

 make the stool lighter, leaving it thick only at the points where the 

 pressure comes. The large round hole in the middle, near the front, is 

 for convenience in picking it up and hanging it on the cache frame, 

 where, it is generally kept. The three legs are set into holes at each 

 corner, spreading out so as to stand on a base, larger than the top of 

 the stool. Where they fit into the holes they are 0-7 inch in diameter, 

 tapered slightly to fit the hole, and then tapering down to a diameter 

 of one-third inch at the tip. On the under side of the top they are 

 braced with a lashing of stout seal thong. A split on the right-hand 

 edge of the top has been mended, as usual, with a stitch of whalebone. 

 This stool is quite old and has been actually used. 



No. 89888(1412), from the same village, is new and a little larger, 

 but differs from the type only in having a triangular instead of a round 

 hole in the top and no lashing. Those of our party who lauded at 

 Sidaru September 7, 1881, saw one of these stools hanging up in the 

 then vacant village, and there is a precisely similar stool in the Mu 

 seum from the Anderson region. 



MacFarlane, in his manuscript notes, describes the use of these stools 

 as follows: &quot;Both tribes kill seals under ice; that is, they watch for 

 them at their holes (breathing) or wherever open water appears. At 

 the former they generally build a small snow house somewhat like a 

 sentinel s box, on the bottom of which they fix a portable three-cornered 

 stool, made of wood. They stand on this and thereby escape getting 

 cold feet, as would be the case &quot;were they to remain for any time on ice 

 or snow in the same immovable position.&quot; Beyond this I find no men 

 tion of the use of any such a utensil, east or west, except in Greenland, 

 where, however, they used a sort of one-legged chair to sit on, as well 

 as a footstool, which Egede pictures (PI. 9) as oval, with very short legs. 1 



Seal dra/i* (ukgiu tifi.) Every seal hunter carries with him a line for 

 dragging home his game, consisting of a stout thong doubled in a bight 

 about 18 inches long, with an ivory handle or knob at the other end. 

 The bight is looped into an incision in the seal s lower jaw, while the 

 knob serves for attaching a longer line or the end of a dog s harness. 

 The seal is dragged on his back and runs as smoothly as a sled. We 



&quot;They first look nut for Holes, which the Seals themselves make with their Claws about the Big 

 ness of a Halfpenny ; after they have found any Hole, they seat themselves near it upon a Chair, made 

 for the Purpose; and as soon as they perceive the Seal coming up to the Hole and put his snout into it 

 for some Air, they immediately strike him with a small Harpoon.&quot; Egede, Greenland, p. 104. 



&quot; The seals themselves make sometimes holes in the Ice, where they come and draw breath i near 

 such a hole a Greenlander seats himself on a stool, putting his feet on a lower one to keep them from 

 the cold. Now when the seal comes and puts its nose to the hole, he pierces it instantly with his har 

 poon.&quot; Crantz* History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 156. 



