210 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 
tected from being chafed by the bowstring by a small shield or ‘‘bracer” 
of bone or horn, strapped on witha thong. We never saw these in use, 
as the bow is so seldom employed except by 
the children. Two of these, newly made, 
were offered for sale. I will describe one of 
these, No. 89410) [1233], Fig. 193. 
It is of pale yellow mountain sheep horn, 
convex on the outer face and concave on the 
inner and considerably arched lengthwise. 
. In the middle are two straight longitudinal 
Fic. 193.—Bracer. narrow slots, which serve no apparent pur- 
pose except ornament. The short slot near the edge at the middle of 
each side, however, is for the thongs which strap the bracer to the wrist. 
One of these is short and made into a becket by fastening the ends 
together with double slits. One end of the other is passed through 
the slot, slit, and the other end passed through this and drawn taut. 
A knot is tied on the free end. This thong is just long enough to fasten 
on the bracer by passing round the wrist and catching the knot in the 
loop opposite. The other, No. 89410a [1233], is like this, but 1 inch 
Shorter and nearly flat. The arch of the specimen figured is probably 
unintentional and due to the natural shape of the material, as it does 
not fit well to the wrist. It is probable that these —_ 
people used a flat bracer, as Fig. 194, No. 89350 a 
[1382], from Utkiavwin, is apparently such an im- ie 
plement. It is a thin elliptical plate of hard bone, 
23 inches long and 145 wide, with two rows of holes 
crossing at right angles in the middle. The holes 
at the side were probably for the thong and the 
others for ornament, as some of them go only part 
way through. Four small pebbles are lodged in the 
four holes around the center in the form of a cross. 
Mr. Nelson collected several specimens of bracers 
from Kotzebue Sound and St. Lawrence Island. 
These are all slightly larger than our specimens, 
and bent round to fit the wrist. They are of bone 
or copper. When Beechey visited Kotzebue Sound, 
in 1826, he found the bracer in general use.! I find 7" 184—Bracer of Done. 
no other mention of this implement in the writers who have described 
the Eskimo. 
Bird darts.—For capturing large birds like ducks or geese, sitting 
on the water, especially when they have molted their wing feathers so 
as to be unable to escape by flight, they use the universal Eskimo 
weapon, found from Greenland to Siberia, namely, a dart with one or 
more points at the tip, but carrying a second set of three ivory prongs 
SiG 
1“ They buckle ona piece of ivory, called mun-era, about 3 or4 incheslong, hollowed out to the wrist, 
or a guard made of several pieces of ivory or wood fastened together like an iron-holder.” Voyage, 
p. 575, 
