MURDOCH. ] DRILL MOUTHPIECE. 179 
for a socket a piece of iron 1:1 inches square, hollowed out as usual. 
The outside of the wood has been painted with red ocher, but this is 
mostly worn off. This mouthpiece belonged to Ili‘bw’ga. 
Fig. 156, No. 89505 [892], from 
Utkiavwin, represents the pat- 
tern which is perhaps rather 
commoner than the preceding. 
The wood, which holds the 
socket of black and white sy- 
enite, is simply an elliptical 
block of spruce. The remain- 
ing three specimens are of the same pattern and of the same material as 
the last, except No. 89507 [908], from Nuwittk, in which the wood is oak. 
As it appears very old, this wood may have come from the Plover. 
When not in use, the point of the drill is sometimes protected with a 
sheath. One such sheath was obtained, No. 89447 [1112], fig- 
ured in Point Barrow Report, Ethnology, Pl. 1, Fig. 1. It is 
of walrus ivory, 3-6 inches long. The end of a piece of thong 
is passed through the eye and the other part fastened round 
the open end with a marline-hitch, catching down the end. 
This leaves a lanyard 94 inches long, which is hitched or 
knotted round the shaft of the drill when the sheath is fitted 
over the point. 
The drills above described are used for perforating all sorts 
of material, wood, bone, ivory, metal, etc., and are almost the 
only boring implements used, even 
awls being unusual. Before the in- 
troduction of iron, the point was made 
of one of the small bones from a seal’s 
leg. We obtained four specimens of 
these bone drills, of which two, at 
least, appear to be genuine. No. 
Fig. 156.—Drill mouthpiece with- 89498 [956], Fig. 157, is one of these, 
tee from Nuwittk. The shaft is of the 
ordinary pattern and made of some hard wood, but the point 
is a roughly cylindrical rod of bone, expanding at the point, 
where it is convex on one face and concave on the other and 
beveled on both faces into two cutting edges, which meet in 
an acute angle. The larger end of the shaft has been split 
and mended by whipping it for about three-quarters of an 
inch with sinew braid. No. 89518 [1174], is apparently also 
genuine, and is like the preceding, but beveled only on the 
concave face of the point, which is rather obtuse. No. 89519 jg. 157 
[1258] was made forthe market. It has a rude shaft of whale’s Bone-pointed 
bone, but a carefully made bone point of precisely the pattern ae 
of the modern iron oues. No. $9520 [1182] has no shaft, and appears to 
be an old unfinished drill fitted into a carelessly made bone ferrule. 
Fic. 155.—Drill mouthpiece, with iron socket. 
