192 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 
ble nor altogether unlawful.”! The use ot bears’ bones for these weapons 
points to some superstitious idea, perhaps having reference to the 
ferocity of the animal. We collected five specimens of these daggers, 
of which No. 89484 [767], Fig. 174, has been selected as the type. It is 
the distal end of the ulna of a polar bear, with the neck and condyles 
forming the hilt, and the shaft split so as to expose the medullary cavity 
and cut into a pointed blade. It is very old, blackened, and crumbling 
on the surface, and is a foot long. 
Fig. 175a, No. 89475 [988], from Nuwittk, is made of a straight splinter 
from the shaft of one of the long bones, 9? inches long. No. 89480 [1141], 
from Utkiavywin, has a roughly whittled Lilt and a somewhat twisted 
blade, rather narrow, but widened to a sharp lanceolate point, 
It is 12 inches long. No. 89481 [1175], from the same place, 
has the roughly shaped hilt 
whipped with two turns of 
sinew. No, 89482 [1709], Fig. 
175d, also from Utkiavwin, is 
dirk-shaped, having but one 
edge and a straight back. 
The hilt, as before, is roughly 
sawed from the solid head of 
the bone. No. 89485 [965], 
Fig. 176, from Nuwtk, was 
also said to be a dagger, but 
could not have been a very 
effective weapon. It is of 
whale’s bone, 5 inches long. 
It is rather rudely carved, 
old, and dirty, but thenotches 
on the haft are newly cut. 
Dirks or daggers of bear’s 
bone, like those described, 
are really rather formidable 
weapons, as it is easy to give 
the splinter of bone a very 
keen point. The Museum con- 
tains a bone dagger curiously 
like these Eskimo weapons, 
but made of the bone of the 
Fic.174.—Daggerof grizzly bear, and used by 
bear's bone. the Indians of the MeCloud 
River, northern California. They believe that the peculiar shape of 
the point, having a hollow (the medullary cavity) on one face, like the 
Eskimo daggers, causes the wound to bleed internally. 
Fia. 175.—Bone daggers. 
! Rink, Tales and Traditions, p. 35. 
