CARVINGS. 



407 



The carving is well executed and really seems to be old, although it 

 has evidently been retouched in a good many places. It is made from 

 an irregularly flattened bit of reindeer antler, . i-ti inches long, blackened 

 by the weather on the flat surfaces, and represents an animal with four 

 legs, which appear to be 

 dog s legs, and at each end 

 what appears to be a dog s 

 head. One of these is 

 smaller than the other and 

 both have the ears in re 

 lief, and the eyes, nostrils, 

 and outlines of the mouth 

 incised. 



Fig. 417 (No. 5G520 [85] 

 from Nuwfik) is a fanci 

 ful object made solely for 



the market. It consists of the rudely carved head of some carnivo 

 rous animal, made of ivory, and 2-0 inches long, fitted to the broad 

 end of a flat-pointed wooden handle, painted red. The head was called 

 a &quot; dog&quot;, but it looks more like a bear. Small bits of wood are inlaid 

 for the eyes, and the outline of the mouth is deeply incised and colored 

 with red ocher, having bits of white ivory inlaid to represent the canine 

 teeth. The ears, nostrils, vibrissa-, and hairs on the muzzle are in 

 dicated by blackened incisions. There is an ornamented collar round 



Flu. 411). I&amp;gt;onlili--hf:iilf&amp;lt;l auiliiul. carved from antler. 



Flo. 417. Ivory carving, dog. 



the neck, to which is joined a conventional pattern of triangular form on 

 the throat, and a somewhat similar pattern on the top of the head 

 between the ears. 



One of the natives at I tkiavwin, in May, 1882, conceived the fancy of 

 smoothing oft the tip of a walrus tusk into the shape of a pyramid, 

 surmounted by a little conical cap and ornamenting it with incised 

 figures, which he colored with red ocher. It appears to have been 

 purely an individual fancy, as it has no utility, nor are such objects 

 made by the Eskimo elsewhere, as far as I know. Having succeeded 

 in finding a sale for this object, either he or one of his friends, I do not 



