294 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 
treated of the Eskimo, except the following in Capt. Beechey’s vocab- 
ulary, collected at Kotzebue Sound: “ Marline spike, small of ivory, for 
lacing bows—ke-poot-tak.” The specimens from the Mackenzie and 
Anderson rivers are almost without exception made of hard bone, while 
walrus ivory is the common material elsewhere. The name (kapute) 
means simply a “twister.” 
The feather-setter (v'gugwau) (No. 89465 [962}) is a flat, slender, rounded 
rod of walrus ivory, 7 inches long, with the tip abruptly concayved to a 
thin rounded edge. The faces are ornamented with a pattern of straight 
incised lines, colored with red ocher. This tool is used for squeezing 
the small ends of the feathering into the wood of the arrow shaft close 
“43 
Vic. 287.—‘‘ Feather-setter .” 
to thenock. Fig. 287 is asimilar tool (No. 89486 [1285] from Utkiaywin) 
also of walrus ivory, 6 inches long, with the upper end roughly whittled 
to a sharp point. It is probably made of a broken seal indicator or 
meat-cache marker. Several other ivory tools previously mentioned 
have been concayved to an edge at the tip so that they can be used as 
feather-setters. I do not find this tool mentioned by previous observers, 
nor have I seen any specimens in the National Museum. 
Fig. 288 (No. 89459 [1282] from Utkiavwin) represents an unusual 
FG. 288.—Tool of antler. 
tool, the use of which was not ascertained in the hurry of trade. It 
has a point like that of a graver, and is made of reindeer antler, orna- 
mented with a pattern of incised lines and bands, colored with red 
ocher, and was perhaps a marline spike for working with sinew cord. 
SKIN-WORKING, 
Scrapers (ikun).—For removing bits of flesh, fat, ete., from a “green” 
skin, and for “breaking the grain” and removing the subcutaneous tis- 
sue from a dried skin, the women, who appear to do most if not all 
of this work, use a tool consisting of a blunt stone blade, mounted in 
a short, thick haft of wood or ivory, fitting exactly to the inside of the 
hand and having holes or hollows to receive the tips of the fingers and 
thumb. The skin is laid upon the thigh and thoroughly scraped with 
