MCRDOCH.] 



WOLF-KILLERS. 



2f&amp;gt;9 



often have the ears, roots of the whiskers, nostrils, and outline of the 

 month incised and blackened, while small bine beads, bits of ivory, or 

 wood are inlaid for the eyes. Implements of this sort are in common 

 use among Eskimo generally wherever they are so situated as to he 

 able to engage in seal-hunting. Mr. Nelson s collection contains speci 

 mens from as far south as Cape Darby. 



Whalebone irolf-ki-llerit (tsibru). Before the introduction of the steel 

 traps, which they now obtain by trade, these people used a peculiar con 

 trivance for catching the wolf. This consists of a stout rod of whale 

 bone about 1 foot long and one-half inch broad, with a sharp point at 

 each end. One of these was folded lengthwise in the, form of a Z, 1 

 wrapped in blubber (whale s blubber was used, according to our inform 

 ant, NIkawaalu), and frozen solid. It was then thrown out on the snow 

 where the wolf could find and swallow it. The heat of the animal s body 

 would thaw out the blubber, releasing the whalebone, which would 

 straighten out and pierce the walls of the stomach, thus causing the 



FIG. 258. Whalebone wolf-killers. 



animal s death. Nikawaalu says that a wolf would not go far after 

 swallowing one of these blubber balls. 



We collected four sets of these contrivances, one set containing seven 

 rods and the others four each. Fig. 258 gives a good idea of the shape 

 of one of these. It belongs to a set of seven, No. 89538 [1229], Fig. 258ft, 

 from IJtkiavwIfi, which are old and show the marks of having been 

 doubled up. It is 12i inches long, 0.4 broad, and 0.2 thick. The 

 little notches on the opposite edges of each end were probably to 

 hold a lashing of sinew which kept the folded rod in shape while the 

 blubber was freezing, being cut by thrusting a knife through the par 

 tially frozen blubber, as is stated by Schwatka. 2 Two of the sets are 

 new, but made like the others. 



This contrivance is also used by the Eskimo of Hudson Bay 3 and at 

 Norton Sound, where, according to Petroff, 4 the rods are 2 feet long and 

 wrapped in seal blubber. The name Isl bru appears to be the same as 

 the (ireenlandic (isavssok), found only in the diminutive isavssoraK, a 

 provincial name for the somewhat similar sharp-pointed stick baited 

 with blubber and used for catching gulls. The diminutive form of this 



It is twisted into a compact helical mass like a watch-sprinp &quot; in the Hudson Bay region. 

 Schwatka, &quot; Jfimrod in the North.&quot; p. 133. See also Klutschak, &quot;Als Kskimo,&quot; pp. 194. 195. 



&quot; &quot;Ximrod in the North,&quot; p. 133. 



See Gilder. Schwatka s Search, p. 225: see also. Klutschak, &quot;Als Eskimo.&quot; etc., pp. 194-5, where the 

 whalebones are said to have little knives on the ends. 



4 Keport, etc., p. 127. 



