718 



KNOTS 



[b. a. e. 



sidian or flint. According to Culin the 

 stone knife is used among the Pneblos as 

 a symbol of divinity, especially of the 

 war gods, and is widely used in a healing 

 ceremony called the "knife ceremony." 

 Differentiation of 

 use combine d 

 w i t h differences 

 in material to give 

 variety to the 

 lilade and its haft- 

 ing; the so-called 

 uhi, or woman's 

 knife of the Eski- 

 mo, employed in 

 various culinary 

 arts, differs from 



WOMAN'S Slate Knife (1-4); Eskimo. 

 ( Murdoch) 



the man's knife, which is used in carving 

 wood and for various other purposes 

 (Mason); and the bone snow knife of the 

 Arctic regions is a species by itself ( Nel- 

 son). The copper knife is distinct from 

 the stone 

 knife, and 

 the latter 

 takesanuil- 

 t i t u d e of 

 forms, pass- 

 i n g fro m 

 the normal 

 types in one 



direction into the club or mace, in 

 another into the scraper, and in another 

 into the dagger; and it blends with the 

 arrowhead and the spearhead so fully 

 tliat no definite line can be drawn be- 

 tween them save when the complete 



FE OF NEPHRITE (l-6 



Eskimo, (nelson) 



haft is in evidence. The flaked knife 

 blade of flint is straight like a spearhead 

 or is curved like a hook or sickle, and it 

 is frequently beveled on one or both 

 edges. The ceremonial knife is often 

 of large size and great beauty. Certain 



Tennessee flint blades, believed to be of 

 this class, though very slender, measure 

 upward of 2 ft in length, while the 

 beautiful red and black obsidian blades 

 of California are hardly less noteworthy. 

 Speaking of the latter. Powers says: ''I 

 have seen several which were 15 in. 



CEREMONIAL KNIFE, LENGTH 24 1-2 IN. ; KWAKIUTL. (bOAs) 



or more in length and about 2^ in. wide 

 in the widest part. Pieces as large as 

 these are carried lifted in the hands in 

 the dance, wrapped with skin or cloth to 

 prevent the rough edges from lacerating 

 the hands, but the smaller ones are 

 mounted in wooden handles and glued 

 fast. The large ones can not l)e pur- 

 chased at any price." See Implevwuts. 



Two or three trilies of In- 

 dians, various clans, and some 



towns received 



their names from 



the knife, as 



Conshac ('reed 



knife'), a name 



for the Ci'eeks; 



the town of Kusa 



among the Choc- 



t a w, and the 



Ntlakyapamuk of 



T h o m p s o n r. , 



Brit. Col.' 

 Consult Boas 



(1) in 6th Rep. 



B. A. E., 1888, 

 (2) in Nat. Mus. Rep. 1895, 1897; Fowke 

 in 13th Rep. B. A. E., 1896; Goddard in 

 Pub. Univ. of Cal., Anthrop. ser., i, 1903; 

 Holmes in Nat. Mus. Rep. 1901, 1903; 

 Mason (1) in Rep. Nat. Mus. 1890, 1891; 

 (2) ibid., 1897, 1901; (3) ibid., 1886, 

 1889; Moorehead, Prehist. Impls., 1900; 

 Murdoch in 9th Rep. B. A. E., 1892; 

 Nelson in 18th 

 Rep. B. A.E., 

 1899; Niblack 

 in Rep. Nat. 

 Mus. 1888, 

 1890; Powers 

 in Cont. N. A. 

 Ethnol., Ill, 

 1877; Rau in 

 S m i t h s o n . 

 Cont., XXII, 

 1876; Rust and Kroeber in Am. Anthrop. , 

 VII, 688, 1905; Thruston, Antiq. of Tenn., 

 1897; Wilson in Rep. Nat. Mus. 1897, 

 1899. (w. H. H.) 



Knots. The Indians, and especially 

 the Eskimo, whose difficulties with un- 

 fastening lines in a frozen area made them 

 ingenious, tied for various purposes many 



SLATE KNIFE WITH 

 WOODEN HAN- 

 DLE (i-s); Es- 

 kimo. (Mur- 

 doch ) 



Iron Carving Knives; Eskimo 



