Po 
MURDOCH.) PICKAXES. 803 
axes (sikla) of their own manufacture, which are still in use. These are 
always single-pointed and have a bone or ivory head, mounted like an 
adz head on a rather short haft. The haft, like those of the mauls and 
adzes already described, is never fitted into the head, but always applied 
to the under surface of the latter and held on by a lashing of thong. 
The only complete 
implement of the 
kind which we ob- 
tained is No. 73574 
[297], Fig. 303. The 
head is of whale’s 
rib, 173 inches long. 
The butt is shoul- 
dered on -the under 
surface to receive 
the haft and rough- 
ened with crosscuts 
to prevent slipping, 
with two shallow 
rough transverse notches on the upper surface for the lashings. The 
haft is of pine, 245 inches long. The lashing is of stout thong of bearded 
seal hide, in two pieces, one of four turns passing through the hole, round 
the front edge of the haft, over the lower notch in the head, and back 
across the haft to the hole again. The ends are knotted together on top 
F1G. 303.—Mattock of whale’s rib. 
Fic. 304.—Pickax heads of bone, ivory, and whale’s ribs. 
of the head by becket-hitching one end into an eye in the other, made by 
slitting it close to the tip and passing a bight of the standing part through 
this slit. The other part is of seven turns, put on in the same way, but 
crossing back of the haft, and started by loopmg one end round the 
head and through the eye by means of an eye at the end made as before. 
