390 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. 



decoration appears to be applied almost solely to the clothing, while 

 tools and utensils are usually left plain, and if ornamented are only 

 adorned with carving or incised lines. 1 West of the Mackenzie Kiver, 

 and especially south of Bering Strait, Eskimo decorative art reaches 

 its highest development, as shown by the collections in the National 

 Museum. Not only is everything finished with the most extreme care, 

 but all wooden objects are gaily painted with various pigments, and all 

 articles of bone and ivory are covered with ornamental carvings arid 

 incised lines forming conventional patterns. 



There are in the collections also many objects that appear to have 

 been made simply for the pleasure of exercising the ingenuity in repre 

 senting natural or fanciful objects, and are thus purely works of art. 

 Want of space forbids any further discussion of these interesting 

 objects. There is in the Museum sufficient material for a large mono 

 graph on Eskimo art. As would naturally be expected, art at Point 

 Barrow occupies a somewhat intermediate position between the highly 

 developed art of the southwest and the simple art of the east. I have 

 given sufficient figures in my description of their clothing and various 

 implements to illustrate the condition of purely decorative art. A few 

 words may be added by way of resume. It will be noticed that when 

 ever the bone or ivory parts of weapons are decorated the ornamenta 

 tion is usually in the form of incised lines colored with red ocher or 

 soot. These lines rarely represent any natural objects, but generally 

 form rather elegant conventional patterns, most commonly double or 

 single borders, often joined by oblique cross lines or fringed with short, 

 pointed parallel lines. 



A common ornament is the incised &quot;circle and dot,&quot; so often referred 

 to in the foregoing descriptions. This is a circle about one-quarter inch 

 in diameter, described as accurately as if done with compasses, with a 

 deeply incised dot exactly in the center. This ornament is much more 

 common south of Bering Strait, where, as Mr. L. M. Turner informs 

 me, it is a conventionalized representation of a flower. Some of the 

 older implements in our collection, ornamented with this figure, may 

 have been obtained by trade from the southern natives, but the Point 

 Barrow people certainly know how to make it, as there are a number of 

 newly made articles in the collection thus ornamented. Unfortunately, 

 we saw none of these objects in the process of manufacture, as they 

 were made by the natives during odd moments of leisure, and at the 

 time I did not realize the importance of finding out the process. No 

 tool by which these figures could be made so accurately was ever offered 

 for sale. 



Neither Mr. Turner nor Mr. I )all, both of whom, as is well known, spent 

 long periods among the natives of the Yukon region, ever observed 

 the, process of making this ornament. The latter, however, suggests 

 that it is perhaps done with an improvised ceuterbit, made by sticking 



1 See the various accounts ol 1 tin- eastern Eskimo already referredto. 



