Ethnological results of the Point Barrow expedition: Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1887-1888, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1892, pages 3-442Murdoch, John
History
Ethnological results of the Point Barrow expedition: Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1887-1888, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1892, pages 3-442
Murdoch, John
Eskimos -- Alaska -- Barrow, Point, Region
The single-edged knives were probably all meant specially for cutting
food, and are all of the same general pattern, varying in size from a
blade only 2½ inches long to one of 7 inches. The blade is generally
more strongly curved along the edge than on the back and is usually
sharp-pointed. It is fitted with a broad tang to a straight haft,
usually shorter than the blade. There are in the collection four
complete knives and five unhafted blades. No. 89597 [1052] (Fig. 106)
is a typical knife of this kind. The blade is of black slate, rather
rough, and is 5.6 inches long (including the tang). The tang, which is
about one-half inch long and the same breadth, is lashed _against_ one
end of the flat haft of bone which is cut away to receive it, with
five turns of stout seal thong. No. 89594 [1053] differs from the
preceding only in having the tang inserted in a cleft in the end of
the haft, and No. 89589_a_ [1054] has the back more curved than the
edge, the haft of antler and the lashing of whalebone. All three are
of very rude workmanship. No. 89587 [1587], is a small knife with a
truncated point and the tang imbedded without lashing in the end of a
roughly made haft of bone.
[Illustration: FIG. 107.--Blades of knives.]
Most of the blades are those of knives similar to the type, more
smoothly finished, but No. 56712 [226] (Fig. 107_a_) is noticeable for
the extreme “belly” of the edge and the smoothness with which the
faces are beveled from back to edge. Such knives approach the woman’s
round knife (ulu, ulu´ra). No. 89601 [776] (Fig. 107_b_) is almost
double-edged, the back being rounded off. Fig. 108, No. 89631 [1081],
is a very remarkable form of slate knife, of which this was the only
specimen seen. In shape it somewhat resembles a hatchet, having a
broad triangular blade with a strongly curved cutting edge, along the
back of which is fitted a stout haft of bone 12½ inches long. The
blade is of soft, dark purple slate, ground smooth, and resembles the
modern knives in having the sharp cutting edge beveled almost wholly
on one face. The haft is the foreshaft of an old whale harpoon, and is
made of whale’s bone. The back of the blade is fitted into a deep
narrow saw cut, and held on by three very neat lashings of narrow
strips of whalebone, each of which passes through a hole drilled
through the blade close to the haft and through a pair of vertical
holes in the haft on each side of the blade. These holes converge
towards the back of the haft and are joined by a deep channel, so that
the lashing is countersunk below the surface of the haft. This
implement was brought down from Nuwŭk and offered for sale as a knife
anciently used for cutting off the blubber of a whale. The purchaser
got the impression that it was formerly attached to a long pole and
used like a whale spade. On more careful examination after our return
it was discovered that the haft was really part of an old harpoon and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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