433 



the stool. Through this hole the hand can be stuck in, and 

 the fingers grip the narrow bridge which has been left behind 

 between the edge of the stool and the semi-circular hole, as a 

 handle wherewith to carry the stool on its way to the hunting- 

 ground. 



The two stools resemble one another even in such a detail 

 as the following: across the under side of the stool, from the 

 handle-forming section just described to the opposite point on 

 the convex edge of the stool, has been carved in relief on the 

 wood, a low ridge, narrow at the inner end but expanding like 

 the head of a key towards the other end; the expanding end 

 encloses one of the holes intended for the legs of the stool. 

 Presumably this wooden ridge serves to strengthen the bearing 

 strength of the stool. The form of the relief is so charac- 

 teristic that it can scarcely be a caprice of individual taste, 

 but must be the result of experience which has crystallised 

 into a tradition. The weight of the Eskimo, as he sits or 

 stands on the stool, has its greatest effect on the middle part 

 of its surface. The one of the stools (itiv. Amd. 65) in fact 

 exhibits at this place one or two fractures and a menacing 

 crack, which it has been endeavoured to counteract by pegging 

 across the cracks some narrow oblong patches of bone, four 

 in all, of which, however, only one has been preserved. These 

 patches of bone have, with the ^exception of one, not been 

 laid on top of the wood, but have been sunk about 2 mm in 

 grooves of the same size on its surface, and have been riveted 

 with tree-nails which are still sticking in the holes. The large 

 truncated segment in the convex edge goes across through one 

 of the holes which are intended to receive the legs of the stool. 

 Another, lesser segment, which had been broken off on the 

 other part of the convex edge, has been pegged on directly 

 with the aid of tree-nails which pierce the edge transversely 

 and penetrate into the intact part of the wood. While this 

 last segment has been replaced by a piece of a different kind 



