THE UUJ, OR WOMAN'S KNIFE, OF THE ESKIMO. 413 



II.— REGIONAL INFLUENCES. 



It is too well kuown to be argued that there are certain great cul- 

 ture areas ou the earth, where man himself and all that he creates 

 are fitted to natural conditions distinct enough to give form and color 

 to everything. The Eskimo land is one of these culture areas. It may 

 have escaped observation, however, that in these limits there are often 

 subdivisions or sub-areas which impress a still more definite and distinct 

 mark on man and his civilization. 



The woman's knife is found throughout the Eskimo region, from Lab- 

 rador to Kadiak. Some portions of this hyperborean strip have long been 

 under the influence of the missionary, the trader, and the fisherman, 

 aud their part in determining the structure of the ulu will soon be made 

 to appear. But the alternation of slate and chert in the blade is governed 

 by natural conditions, the abundance of the material in the vicinity. A 

 possibility of traffic must always be allowed for ; but in a large number 

 of implements of this kind, if they were classed by the material of the 

 blade, the localities would not be very badly mixed. But, failing in 

 this, the handle or grip comes to the help of the student. If this be 

 made of antler we are somewhere within the limits of the moose or the 

 reindeer. In the Hudson Bay region some of the handles are of musk- 

 ox horn, a thing possible in great numbers only where this creature 

 abounds. Aud, vice versa, the presence of the musk ox may be based 

 upon the occurrence of implements made of the horn. Walrus-ivory 

 handles not only indicate the presence of the walrus at any given point, 

 but in a great collection like that in the National Museum, the abun- 

 dance aud accessibility of the walrus are indicated by the diffusion -of the 

 specimens. A great many handles of wood in the south of Alaska speak 

 with sufficient clearness of the fact that this material is more abundant 

 in some localities than in others. 



III.— DEGREES OF REFINEMENT. 



The Eskimo furnish the best of all the remaining uncivilized areas 

 for the examination of the grade and kind of civilization possessed by 

 any people as indicated by their arts. Some of the ulus in the National 

 Museum are as coarse as savagery could make them ; others are very 

 beautiful. Indeed the same locality furnishes both and intervening 

 kinds, due, without doubt, to individual ability or personality. But 

 some areas furnish only coarse work, while others supply the most 

 beautiful. The problem is a complex one, and must be studied with 

 caution. White influence has crept in to embarrass the question, giving 

 the following classes of results : 



(1) Kuives made out and out by white men aud sold to the Eskimo, 

 haviug blades of steel riveted into handles of antler cut by machinery. 



(2) Specimens made apparently partly by the ship's blacksmith and 

 partly by the native, a kind of joint production. 



