GRAPHIC ART OF THE ESKIMOS. 785 



short rows of triangular figures appear near the middle, while at the 

 left are three large triangular patterns placed so as to form a zigzag, 

 or V-shaped, design, this being merely an enlarged illustration of the 

 smaller patterns above noted. At the other end of this specimen is a 

 group of isolated transverse lines; from the middle of the end is 

 issuing a continuous horizontal line, 1J inches in length, terminating 

 in a bifurcation exactly resembling the common Eskimo conventional 

 tree pattern. In the middle space of the tool is a pair of parallel hori 

 zontal lines, also terminating in similar bifurcations ; this, however, 

 may be meaningless, though it resembles a doubletree symbol, or it 

 might also be taken as denoting a seine shuttle, examples of which 

 are given in several illustrations. 

 Mr. L. M. Turner writes: 1 



Circles are made with a graver; formerly a sharp corner of flint set in a stick. 

 * * * In later days a three-cornered file, one worn out, was substituted, and the 

 manner in which I saw him an expert ivory worker at St. Michaels use it was 

 simply pushing it from him, turning the ivory round as the circle was graved, a 

 little deeper at each turn. 



The straight decorated lines were made as two deep channels at a suitable width 

 apart; the serrations were made by pushing from the outer edge of the ridge 

 toward the groove. These sculptures are not made in a day, week, or month ; many 

 objects are not completed in years, as many of them are life histories of the indi 

 vidual. The Innuit is never in a hurry, and each thinks he has a lifetime before 

 him. 



The Kauiags or Kaniaks, the inhabitants of the island of Kadiak 

 and surrounding islands, &quot; are possessed of great skill in carving 

 figures and other objects from walrus tusks, the material being 

 obtained from the Alaska Peninsula.&quot; Mr. Ivan Petroff, 2 whose words 

 I am quoting, remarks furthermore : 



They also make very nicely carved snuifboxes of whalebone. Formerly all these 

 objects were worked with stone implements, but the use of iron has long been 

 known to the Kaniags, who used it at the arrival of the Russians. The savages 

 said that iron was occasionally cast upon the beach by the waves [sic!]. 



Eeference has been made to the steel-pointed native-made gravers 

 used in various processes of engraving. In plate 19 are represented 

 five instruments, fig. 1 of which was obtained at Kotzebue Sound by 

 Mr. E. W. Nelson. The handle, a little over 5 inches in length, is 

 made of bone. A slight slot was cut at the large end, into which was 

 inserted a short piece of iron or steel, secured by wrapping with thin 

 cord, apparently of sinew. The point of the instrument is acute, and 

 admirably adapted for etching or scraping. 



The second figure from the top (fig. 2) was secured at Anderson 

 Eiver by Mr. K. McFarlane. The bone handle bears indentations, so as 

 to admit of secure grasping. The point of steel is inserted in the end 



Letter dated March 18, 1896. 



^Report on the population, industries, and resources of Alaska. Tenth Census, 

 1880, VIII, p. 141. 



NAT MUS 95 50 



