294 THK POINT HARROW ESKIMO. 



treated of the, Eskimo, except the following in ( apt. Beechey s vocab 

 ulary, collected at Kotzebue Sound: &quot;Marline spike, small of ivory, for 

 lacing bows ke-poot-tak.&quot; The specimens from the Mackenzie, and 

 Anderson rivers are almost without exception made of hard bone, while 

 walrus ivory is the common material elsewhere. The name (kaputi;) 

 means simply a &quot;twister.&quot; 



The feather-setter (V gugirau) (No. 8!t4(!5 [!K52]) is a flat, slender, rounded 

 rod of walrus ivory, 7 inches long, with the tip abruptly concaved to a 

 thin rounded edge. The faces are ornamented with a pattern of straight 

 incised lines, colored with red ocher. This tool is used for squeezing 

 the small ends of the feathering into the wood of the. arrow shaft close 



. 



PIQ. 287. &quot;Feather-getter.&quot; 



to the nock. Fig. 287 is a similar tool (No. 89480 [1285] from (Ttkiavwlu) 

 also of walrus ivory, (! inches long, with the upper end roughly whittled 

 to a sharp point. It is probably made of a broken seal indicator or 

 meat-cache marker. Several other ivory tools previously mentioned 

 have been concaved to an edge at the. tip so that they can be used as 

 feather-setters. I do not find this tool mentioned by previous observers, 

 nor have I seen any specimens in the National Museum. 



Fig. 288 (No. 8045!) [1282] from Utkiavwin) represents an unusual 



- - * : - 



Via. JOS. Tool of antler. 



tool, the use of which was not ascertained in the hurry of trade. It 

 has a point like that of a graver, and is made of reindeer antler, orna 

 mented with a pattern of incised lines and bands, colored with red 

 ocher, and was perhaps a marline spike for working with sinew cord. 



SKIN-WORKING. 



Ftcrapertt (ikun). For removing bits of flesh, fat, etc., from a &quot;green&quot; 

 skin, and for &quot;breaking the grain&quot; and removing the subcutaneous tis 

 sue from a dried skin, the women, who appear to do most if not all 

 of this work, use a tool consisting of a blunt stone blade, mounted in 

 a short, thick haft of wood or ivory, h tting exactly to the inside of the 

 hand and having holes or hollows to receive the tips of the fingers and 

 thumb. The skin is laid upon the thigh and thoroughly scraped with 



