602 



IMPLEMENTS, TOOLS, UTENSILS 



[b. a. k. 



without padding; others were of smooth 

 materials set into liandles or grips that 

 snugly fitted the workwoman's hand. 

 One variety was made for scraping hides, 

 another for scraping wood. 



Nipper!^. — These include all devices for 

 holding tightly an object or holding parts 

 together while being worked. Hinged 

 varieties were not known, but the Eskimo, 

 especially, had several inventions to do 

 the work of clami)S, pincers, tweezers, or 

 the vise with the aid of wedges. 



The simple mechanical ])owers, the 

 wedge, the lever, and the inclined plane, 

 were universally understood. The screw 

 was employed but sparingly, if at all. 

 The N. W. coast tribes used rollers, skids, 

 and parbuckles to move great house beams 

 into place, and the Alaskan Eskimo, ac- 

 cording to Elliott, landed the walrus by 

 means of a sliding tackle looped over 

 pegs driven into cracks in the rocks and 

 run through slits in the hide. The wheel 

 and axle were entirely unknown, save in 

 their most primitive form, the spindle. 

 Power for doing work with the devices 

 just described was derived from the mus- 

 cle of the worker. The wind was utilized 

 here and there, blowing upon a fixed mat 

 erected for a sail, but nothing was known 

 of shifting sails. The Indians made good 

 use of fire in clearing ground for planting, 

 in felling trees, excavating canoes, anil 

 making jtitch and glue. Bellows were not 

 used, V)ut the blowtube existed. Water 

 wheels were unknown, and in the matter 

 of using nature's forces for work northern 

 America was inaprimitivestateof culture. 

 The special implements, tools, and uten- 

 sils employed in the various aboriginal 

 industries are enumerated below. They 

 are also treated more fully in separate 

 articles. 



Agriculture. — Digging sticks, hardened 

 in fire and sharpened, and often weighted ; 

 dibbles, hoes, scarecrows, harvesting de- 

 vices, husking pegs, granaries, and caches 

 were common. Eor harvesting both wild 

 and cultivated produce various tribes had 

 tongs for picking the cactus fruit, stone 

 implements for opening hulls or shells, 

 baskets for gathering, carrying, and stor- 

 ing, poles for reaching fruit, harvesting 

 apparatus for grass seed, wild rice, camas, 

 wokas, coonti, maize, etc. (See Agricul- 

 ture, Food.) 



Bark work. — Peelers, shredders, twist- 

 ers, sewing tools, pitching tools. 



Boat huilditig. — Axes, adzes, saws, 

 borers, hammers, knives, pitch and paint 

 brushes, and fire. 



Carrying. — Packing baskets, hide cases, 

 walking sticks, special costumes, and a 

 provision of compact food, as ))emmican, 

 dried fish, and crisp bread. The making 

 up of burtiens into neat loads for han- 

 dling and tor the back was understood 



and further completed by means of head- 

 bands, breast straps, and shoulder straps. 

 The dog was here and there a i)ack beast 

 and harness was devised. 



Cooking. — Besides open roasting, gril- 

 ling frames of wood, and pits for baking 

 and steaming, there were stone slabs for 

 parching seeds and for baking bread; pot- 

 tery and baskets for boiling (the latter by 

 the help of heated stones), and soapstone 

 utensils for preparing meat and other 

 food. (See Food.) 



Curing food. — Drying frames, smoking 

 devices. 



Fi.^hing. — Besides fishing imj^lements 

 proper, the fisher's outfit included canoes, 

 paddles, weirs, dams, anchor stones, etc. 



Plastic art. — In the technic of this in- 

 dustry belong all tools and implements 

 used in quarrying clays and preparing 

 them for the potter, all devices employed 

 in building up, smoothing, polishing, 

 and decorating ware, and the apparatus 

 for burning. {See Pottery.) 



Quarrying, mining., and stone tvorking. — 

 Digging sticks, mauls, hammers, edge 

 tools for making lamps, and dishes and 

 other receptacles of soapstone, chipping 

 and other shaping tools and implements, 

 carrying apparatus, flakers, chippers, 

 polishers. 



Textile industries. — All implements and 

 tools needed in gathering roots, stems, 

 and leaves as materials, and those used 

 in preparing these for matting, bagging, 

 basketry, blankets, robes, lacework, net- 

 work, thread, string, and rope; finally all 

 inventions employed in manufacturing 

 these products, (.■^ee Basketry, Blanket.^, 

 Weaving. ) 



WJialing. — Suit of water-tight clothing; 

 kaiak and paddle; harpoon, with line; 

 skin floats; lance. 



Woodcraft. — Ax, knife, saw, adz, chisel, 

 borers, rasps, polishers, paint brushes, 

 rollers, moving and setting up devices. 

 (See Woodwork.) 



For serving and consuming food, knives 

 were necessary; spoons were fashioned 

 of natural objects, especially of wood, 

 horn, and gourd, but there were no forks 

 or individual dishes or tables. Much 

 food was consumed on the spot where it 

 was found. The Indians had manifold 

 apparatus for making, preserving, and 

 using fire; for cooking, lighting, and heat- 

 ing. Shovels were used for baking bread. 

 The outfit for harvesting and preparing 

 acorns included gathering basket, for 

 which the woman's hat was often used, 

 carrying hamper, granary, hulling mill, 

 mortar, hopper basket, meal mat, leach- 

 ing pit, cooking basket, mush basket, and 

 eating bowls. Milling implements in 

 general included natural bowlders and 

 pebbles; mortars of wood, stone, bone, 

 or hide; pestles of the same materials; 



