HORNS AND TUSKS 319 



brown colouring, both indications of age, are the most highly 

 valued, and the Indians, who are chiefly depended upon to 

 supply the market with these teeth, have succeeded in imitat- 

 ing the old ones by burning circles into teeth from young 

 elks with a hot iron or stone. Attempts are said to have 

 already been made to corner the market in this commodity, 

 one dealer having collected an enormous number of elk 

 teeth which he is holding in the hope of realizing a great 

 profit on them at the high prices likely to prevail later on, 

 when the difference between the supply and the demand shall 

 have become even more accentuated than at present. 



Elks' teeth having become highly prized charms, as in 

 most other similar cases, the demand for the genuine arti- 

 cle has developed a trade in spurious teeth. Quite recently 

 a man was prosecuted by the Federal authorities for hav- 

 ing offered to sell elks' teeth in large quantities for $2 

 each, filling the orders he received with imitations of walrus 

 ivory. The work was cleverly done and the deception 

 might not have been soon discovered had not the low price 

 caused suspicion and examination, as others offered the teeth 

 for $1 .50 and even for $1 each. A genuine tooth is worth from 

 $5 to $25, according to quality, as the supply is decreasing 

 while the demand increases. The writer has seen a twinned 

 pair of elk teeth valued at $150. 



The Eskimo women of Alaska regard the canine-tooth 

 of the polar bear as a most precious amulet. To secure the 

 full effect of its virtues it must be strung on a seal-skin string 

 which is then bound about the body beneath the breasts. 

 Worn in this way such an amulet assures an abundant supply 

 of milk, and hence may be considered as protecting and 

 favouring the Eskimo babe to an even greater degree than 

 it does the mother.* 



*Murdock, "The Port Borrow Eskimo," Ninth Rep. Bur. Am. Ethn., 1887, 88; Wash- 

 ington, 1892, p. 437. 



