474 



influence. Three small crosses are seen on one of the combs 

 from Baffin Land illustrated in Boas^). Finally two crosses 

 are found incised in inv. Amd. 87 from the same place as the 

 comb, but all these crosses are of the simplest possible form, 

 viz. two short lines crossing each other at right angles. The 

 cross in the comb, on the other hand, is of a form which is 

 most striking in an Eskimo district. The type is known as 

 genuine within the Indian districts in North America, as 'the 

 cross formed by the ornamental arrangement of three tijpi 

 figures' ^) ; but the discovery of a cross of this type in the 

 ornamentation of the Eskimo is quite isolated and unexplained. 



There is no reason to doubt that inv. Amd. 86 is a 

 product of Eskimo industry. The details of the border orna- 

 mentation are of unmistakable Eskimo origin; the whole form 

 of the comb can easily be explained as an independent variety 

 of an Eskimo comb, with the stamp of individuality; but the 

 cross ornament in its four fields tells another tale, or rather 

 speaks a language which it is more difficult to conceive as pure 

 Eskimo. 



But this old Eskimo implement is not the less interesting 

 and valuable for having the riddle of the cross written on 



its face. 



I find in G. Mallery ("Picture Writing of the American 

 Indians" ^) the following mention of the cross having been adopted 

 as a symbol by some of the Eskimo in the south-western corner 

 of Alaska. "Among the Kiatéxamut [= Kiatagmiut?], an Innuit- 

 tribe, a cross placed on the head, as in Fig. 1231, signifies a 

 shaman's evil spirit or demon. This is an imaginary being nnder 

 control of the shaman to execute the wishes of the latter." The 

 figure shows on a small scale a crudely drawn man, above whose 

 head the Greek cross (an upright cross with Hmbs of equal length) 

 is placed. Wilson ("The Swastika")'*^) cites this passage, but makes 



^) Boas I, figs. 513 a. 



'^] Handbook of American Indians p. 366 (W. Holmes). 



8) Mallery 728, fig. 1231. 



•') Wilson III, 939, fig. 328. 



