MURDOCH. ] CARVINGS. 397 
be freshly made. This figure is even ruder in design than those from 
Siberia figured by Nordenskiéld. 
The best of our human figures from Point Barrow show much greater 
art, both in workmanship and design, than those just mentioned, but 
can not compare with the elegant 
figures in the museum from the 
more southern parts of Alaska. 
The four remaining ivory carvings 
represent the human face alone. 
No. 89342 [989], Fig. 396, from 
Nuwik, is a thick piece of walrus 
ivory 33 inches Jong and 1-6 
wide, carved into three human 
faces, a man in the middle and a woman on each side, joined to- 
gether at the side of the head. Though the workmanship is rough, 
the faces are characteristic. The man has labrets and a curved line of 
tattooing at each corner of the mouth, indicating the suecessful whale- 
marr, and the women, the usual tattooing on the chin. The eyes, nos- 
trils, mouths, labrets, and tattooing are incised and blackened as usual. 
This specimen, though apparently modern, does not seem fresh enough 
to have been made for sale. The seller called it “a man and his two 
wives” without giving them any names. It may be intended as a por- 
trait of some celebrated whaleman. 
Fig. 397 is one of a pair of very rude faces (No. 56523 [52| from Ut- 
kiavwin), 14 inches long, which were made for sale. It is simply a wal- 
rus-tooth cut off square on the ends and on one side rudely carved into 
a face, with the eyes and mouth incised and filled in 
with dark colored dirt. Fig. 398 (No. 89343 [1124] from 
Nuwitk) is a flat piece of ivory (a bit of an old snow 
shovel edge), 4 inches long and 1-2 inches wide, roughly 
carved and covered with incised figures. The upper 
edge is carved into five heads: First, a rude bear’s 
head, with the eyes and nostrils incised and blackened 
as usual; then four human heads, with a face on each 
side. The front faces have the noses and brows in low 
relief and the eyes, nostrils, and mouths incised and 
SNe yor Pa) blackened ; the back ones are flat, with the last three 
head carved from features indicated as before. At the end is a rude fig- 
awalrus tooth. wre of a bear, heading toward the right, with the ears 
in relief, the eyes and mouth roughly incised and blackened, and 
the legs indicated b¥ roughly incised and blackened lines on the ob- 
verse face. Both faces are covered with rudely incised and blackened 
lines. 
On the obverse there is a single vertical line between each pair ot 
heads. Below the bear’s head is a bear heading toward the right; 
Fic. 396.—Ivory carving, three human heads. 
1 Vega, vol. 2, p. 127. 
