97 



The form of the slate blades appears to be an imitation of the 

 shape of the iron blade, but may antedate it. The beaver- 

 tooth knife may have come from the Yukon country and have 

 been acquired in trade from the Athabaskans. Beaver-tooth 

 knives and an antler handle evidently adapted to a blade of this 

 type were found in the archaeological material from the Iroquian 

 Roebuck site in Ontario. 



In sharpening knives, harpoon points, and arrow heads, 

 whetstones (si'dlit) are used. No particular choice of material 

 is made; any smooth, close-grained stone picked up on the beach 

 answering the purpose (Plate XXIII A f). Some of the small 

 whetstones, however, are carefully shaped (Plate XXIII A a). 

 It is worth noting here that old specimens of Eskimo knives and 

 lance heads often appear with ground edge, indicating that the 

 grinding process of sharpening is ancient with them as well as 

 the use of chipping. 



THE DRILL. 



The Eskimo bow drill (Plate XXIII B a and b) consists of 

 three parts: (1), the bow {niuqtaq) ; (2), the shaft with its pointed 

 drill (qai'vun); and (3), the mouthpiece {qi'ymiax). The bow- 

 string is placed around the shaft, pressure exerted on the mouth- 

 piece, and the drill revolved by moving the bow. This handy 

 little instrument is used for boring holes for the umiak and 

 kayak frames, making holes in ivory and bone toggles and shoe- 

 ing, and for starting a fire. In Labrador fires tones of iron 

 pyrites were more often used (Plate XXI I A c and d) . The modern 

 drill has a wooden shaft and mouthpiece, but the old-style drill 

 had both these parts of bone. For the sharp point of the drill, 

 a prong of deerhorn or a flake of quartz was used. 



The drill, together with the whetstone and flaker, were the 

 tools used in making the old ivory, stone, and bone implements 

 and weapons of the Eskimo. Flint implements were chipped off 

 until thedesired form was obtained,^ but inslate andivory material 

 holes were bored with the drill and the piece fractured along the 

 line thus made. This method gave a rough shape, which was 



' In this operation a bone tool was used and small pieces squeezed off. 



