MURDOCH.} KNIVES. 155 
It is possible that the blade may have been long ago fitted to the 
haft and that the tool may have been used as described. That knives 
of this sort were occasionally used by the Eskimo is shown by a speci- 
men in the Museum from Norton Sound. This is smaller than the one 
described but has a slate blade of nearly the same shape and has a 
haft, for hand use only, put on in the same way. 
With such knives as these the cutis made by drawing the knife toward 
the user instead of pushing it away, as in using the round knife. We 
found no evidence that these Eskimo ever used knives of ivory (except 
for cutting snow) or ivory knives with bits of iron inlaid in the edge, 
such as have been observed among those of the East. 
Fig. 109, No. 89477 [1422], is a very extraordinary implement, which 
was brought down from Point Barrow and which has evidently been 
exposed alongside of some corpse at the cemetery. The blade is a long, 
flat, thin piece of whale- 
bone wedged between 
the two parts of the 
haft, which has been 
sawed lengthwise for 
64 inches to receive it. 
The haft is a slender piece of antler. No other specimens of the kind 
were seen, nor have similar implements, to my knowledge, been observed 
elsewhere. The natives insisted that it was genuine, and was formerly 
used for cutting blubber. 
I have introduced four figures of old iron or steel Knives, of which 
we have six specimens, in order to show the way in which the natives 
in early days, when iron was scarce, utilized old case-knives and bits of 
tools, fitting them with hafts of their own make. All agree in haying 
the edge beveled on the upper face only. All the knives which they ob- 
tain from the whites at the present day are worked over with a file so as 
to bring the bevel on one face only. Fig. 110, No. 89296 [970], from 
Nuwtk, has a blade 
of iron, and the flat 
haft is made of two 
longitudinal sec- 
tions of reindeer 
antler, held together 
with four large rivets nearly equidistant. The two which pass through 
the tang areof brass and the other two of iron. The blade is 5-6 inches 
long, the haft 4:1 long and 0-9 broad. Fig. 110, No, 89294 [901], from 
Utkiaywin, has a short, thick, and sharp-pointed blade, and is hafted 
in the same way with antler, one section of the haft being cut out to 
receive the short, thick tang. The first two rivets are of iron, the other 
three of brass and not quite long enough to go wholly through the haft. 
The blade is barely 2 inches long. Fig. 11la, No. 89297 [1125], from 
Nuwik, has a short blade, 24 inches long, and the two sections of the 
Fic. 109—Knife with whalebone blade. 
Fic. 110—Small iron knife. 
