94 



instrument with a wooden handle and tin or iron blade. This 

 seems to be a typical Eskimo instrument. An interesting 

 variant is seen in a specimen from Cape Childey (see Figure 29), 

 made from the jaw of a narwhal, where the broader surface 

 presented must have suggested itself to the Eskimo^ as a more 

 effective instrument. 



Type II is found in the leg bone of the deer, where the knob 

 produced by the ball of the joint forms a convenient handle 

 (Plate XXII A b). This type is reproduced in stone in two 

 specimens (Museum Nos. IV C 777 a and b) from Chesterfield 

 inlet. It is seen in the stone-bladed scraper with a knob or 

 projection at one side of the wooden handle,- and in the modern 

 type ((Museum No. 398 a) with a metal blade. This also 

 appears to be a characteristic Eskimo type developed from the 

 bone original. It is perhaps not quite correct to consider the 

 evolution of material in point of time, as we often find all 

 three — bone, stone, and wood and tin scraper — in use at the 

 same time, and the Eskimo have a way of adapting whatever 

 material is at hand to their purpose; but the shape of the bones 

 probably suggested their use and furnished a design which was 

 reproduced in different materials. 



Type III is also made of the legbone of the deer, but without 

 the bony handle formed by the projecting joint. The top part 

 is cut off as in the Indian scraper (Plate XXII A a). The two 

 sides are cut down, and the blade rounded. In some of the old 

 specimens the symmetry attained is almost perfect, as may 

 be noted in the specimen illustrated. The modern specimens 

 are rough and ready affairs, evidently hacked out in camp, with- 

 out much thought except for utility. As a general rule the 

 specimens collected from the old graves and villages were much 

 finer in form and workmanship than the present material. 



KNIVES. 



For scraping the fat, etc., off large skins, as the bear, and for 

 splitting the thick hide of the walrus, the w'lu-, or "woman's 



' Cf. Boas, Eskimo of Baffin land and Hudson bay. Fig. 40 a. Bulletin of the American 

 Museum of Natural History, vol. XV, p. 33. 

 2 Ibid., Figures 41 f and h. 



