298 



THE POINT BAKKOW ESKIMO. 



[1420], Fig. 291a), only 0-4 inch long, to blades like No. 89012 [820], Fig. 



297, from Utkiavwlfi. This is newly made from light gray translucent 

 flint and is 5 inches long. The, name kibugu, applied to this specimen 

 by the native from whom it was purchased, appears to refer either to 

 the material or the unusual si/e. The blade is ordinarily called kuki, 

 &quot;a claw.&quot; With the ivory handles a blade about 1 or 1 inches is com 

 monly used and with the wooden ones a considerably 

 larger one, 2 to 3 inches in length. The handles vary in 

 size to lit the hands of the owners, but are all too small 

 for an average white man s hand. All ^ ^ 

 that we collected are for the right hand. 



This pattern of skin scraper which ap 

 pears from the Museum collections to be 

 the prevailing one from Point Barrow to 

 Norton Sound, is evidently the direct de 

 scendant of the form used still farther 

 south, which consists of a stone or bone 

 FIO. 207. Flint blade blade of the same shape, mounted on a 

 forskiu scraper, wooden handle often a foot or 18 inches 

 long, which has the other end bent down into a handle 

 like the butt of a pistol. Shortening this handle (aproc- 

 ess shown by specimens in the Museum) would bring 

 the worker s hand nearer to the blade, thus enabling him 

 to guide it better. Let this process be continued till the 

 whole handle is short enough to be grasped in the hand 

 and we, have the first subtype described, of which the 

 others are clearly improvements. 

 A still more primitive type of scraper is shown by Fig. 



298, No. 89051 [1295] from Utkiavwlfi, the only specimen 

 of the kind seen. This has a, flint blade,, like those of 

 the modern scrapers, inserted in the larger end of a 

 straight haft of reindeer antler, 5 inches long. We did 

 not learn the history of this tool in the hurry of trade, 

 but from the shape of the blade it is evidently a scraper. 

 Its use as a skin scraper is rendered still more probable 



by the fact that the scrapers used by some of the eastern no. 298.-stmight- 

 Kskimo (there are specimens in the Museum from (Jum- iiafurscraiicr. 

 berland Gulf and Pelly Bay) have straight handles, though shorter 

 than this. 



The Siberian natives use an entirely different form of scraper which 

 has a long handle like that of a spoke-shave with a small blade of stone 

 or iron in the middle and is worked with both hands. 1 Fig. 299 (No. 

 89488 [1578] from Utkiavwin) is a tool which we never saw in use 

 but which we were told was intended for scraping skins. It is prob 

 ably an obsolete tool, as a knife would better serve the, purpose of re- 



&amp;gt;l 



1 Nordeuakiiild, Vega, vol. 2, \i\t. 122, ami Fi. 1, I&amp;gt;. 117. 



