MURDOCH. ] SKIN SCRAPERS. 295 
this tool, which is grasped firmly in the right hand and pushed from 
the worker. This tool is also used for softening up skins which have 
become stiffened from being wet and then dried. The teeth appear to 
be less often used for such purposes than among the eastern Eskimo. 
We obtained eighteen such scrapers, some without blades, and two 
unmounted blades. Every woman owns one of these tools. While 
they are all of the same general model, they vary a good deal in de- 
tails. Four different forms or subtypes have been recognized in the 
series collected, all modifications of the form seen in Fig. 289, No. 
89313 [955], which may be called the 
type. The blade is of brown jasper, 
rather coarsely flaked, 1-1 inches long. 
It is wedged with pieces of skin, into 
a deep slot in the tip of the handle, 
which is of fossil ivory, slightly yellowed 
from handling. The left side against 
which the thumb rests is slightly flattened, and the right slightly ex- 
cavated to receive the third and fourth fingers, which are bent round 
under the lobe, their tips pressing against the concave under surface 
of the latter. The fore and middle fingers rest upon the upper surface. 
No. 89320 [1171] from Utkiavwin, without a blade, is of the same 
general pattern, but is slightly excavated on the left as well as the 
right side so as to make a sort of shank. It is of fossil ivory, stained 
a dingy orange from age and grease. ‘Fhe two incised circles and dots 
on the upper surface close to the slot make the end of the handle look 
like the head of a Lophius, which it is perhaps meant to represent. 
No. 89321 (858), an old fossilivory handle, has the left side slightly hol- 
lowed to receive the tip of the thumb, and a median keel on the upper 
surface with a barely perceptible hollow on each side of it for the tips 
of the fingers. This is a step toward the second subtype as shown in 
Fig. 290 (No. 89317 [748] from Utkiavwin, which has no blade). This 
is of fossil ivory, 
thicker and more 
strongly arched 
than the type de- 
seribed, deeply ex- 
cavated below so as 
to form a broad lobe 
at the butt, with 
the upper surface 
Fic. 290.—Skin serapers—handles only. deeply grooved to 
receive the tips of 
the fore and middle fingers, and a slight hollow on the left side for the 
thumb. This specimenis very neatly made and polished, and all theedges 
are rounded off. One-half of the handle (lengthwise) and the outer quar- 
ter of the other half are stained with age and grease a beautiful amber 
Fic. 289.—Skin scraper. 
