396 



Inv. Amd. 28, 29 and 30 (illustrations of which are found 

 in figs. 47, a, b, c) are three small bones of similar nature 

 (knuckle-bones or tarsi of a mammiferous animal?) which are 

 used as drill caps (head-pieces) in boring. In the centre of 

 each is seen a fairly deep cavity due to the wearing action of 

 the upper end of the revolving drill-stock. The head-piece is 

 placed lengthwise in the mouth, in such a manner that the 

 teeth tightly grip the elongated crest of the bone, while the 

 knob-shaped thick part of the bone sticks out from between 

 the teeth and forms a support for the upper end of the drill. 



At one end of each of them there is a transverse hole, 

 intended for a strap for hanging up. 



Ryder ^) found in Scoresby Sund a similar 'mouthpiece' 

 of a drill made of the tarsus of a reindeer. Quite similar 

 mouthpieces {kimmiän), made of the knuckle of a seal's paw, are 

 used at Ammassalik. 



Inv. Amd. 31 (Fig. 19) is a slender bodkin, 9 cm in length, 

 in the middle oval in cross section, but flattened towards both 

 ends, gradually tapering towards the point, where both side 

 edges are sharp, just as the point is quite sharp, in contra- 

 distinction to the other bodkins in the collection. Through 

 the flat knob of the thick end an eye (to receive a strap for 

 hanging up) has been bored: the part under the knob has a 

 concave indentation. 



Several bodkins of a similar nature were found by the 

 Nathorst Expedition in North East Greenland^). Some of them 

 (like the bone needles found by Ryder*) may be compared with 

 the marline-spikes described by Murdoch''), the use of which 



>) Ryder 323. 



2) Nelson 81, and PI. 37; Hough 1, 562 — : "The small wooden and 

 bone mouth-pieces of the Eskimo east of Point Barrow to Cumberland 

 Gulf (Alaska) seem to be copies of the deer knuckle-bone". 



Я) Stolpe, PI. IV, fig. 13. 



*) Ryder 319—320 (cf. Boas I, 523, fig. 4721. 



^) Murdoch I, 292: "This implement is used in putting on the backing of 



