THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 



Flo. 835. Small I 



that the image is meant to represent an unborn fetus. The whole 

 of the body is hollowed, the aperture taking up the whole of the but 

 tocks, and closed by a flat, thick plug of soft wood. A round peg of 



wood is driven in to close an accidental 

 hole just above the left shoulder. The 

 box is old and discolored, and worn smooth 

 with much handling. 



Rarely these little workboxes are made 

 of basketwork. We obtained four speci 

 mens of these small baskets, of which 

 No. 565(54 [88] Fig. 335, workbasket (agu- 

 ma, ama, ipiaru), will serve as the type. 

 The neck is of black tanned sealskin, 2| 

 indies long, and has 1 vertical seam, to 

 the middle of which is sewed the mid 

 dle of a piece of fine seal thong, a foot 

 long, which serves to tie up the mouth. 

 The basket appears to be made of tine 

 twigs or roots of the willow, with the bark removed, and is made by 

 winding an osier spirally into the shape of the basket, and wrapping 

 a narrow splint spirally around the two adjacent parts of this, each 

 turn of the splint being separated from the next by a turn of the suc 

 ceeding tier. The other basket from Utkiavwln (No. 56505 [135]) is 

 almost exactly like this, but larger (3-5 inches in diameter and 2-2 

 high), and has holes round the top of the neck for the drawstring. 



Two baskets from Sidaru are of the same material and workman 

 ship, but somewhat larger and 

 of a different shape, as shown 

 in Fig. 336, No. 89S01 [1360], 

 and Fig. 337, No. 89802 [1427]. 

 This was the only species of 

 basketwork seen among these 

 people and is probably not of 

 native manufacture. 



Prof. O.T. Mason, of the Na 

 tional Museum, has called my 

 attention to the fact that the 

 method of weaving employed in making these baskets is the same as 

 that used by the Apaches and Navajos, who have been shown to be 

 linguistically of the same stock as the Athabascan or Tinne group of 

 Indians of the North. The first basket collected, No. 56564 [8S], was 

 said by the owner to have come from the -great river&quot; in the south. 

 Now, the name Kiiwuk or Kowak, applied to the western stream flow 

 ing into Hotham Inlet, means simply &quot;great river,&quot; and this is the 

 region where the Eskimo come into very intimate commercial relations 

 witli Indians of Tinne stock. 1 Therefore, in consideration of the Indian 



Fio. 336. Small basket. 



1 Dall, American Association. ArMress, 188&quot;). ]&amp;gt;. lit. 



