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
All these boxes are very old and were painted inside with red ocher,
which has turned dark brown from age. Tools are nowadays kept in a
large oblong, flat satchel, ĭkqûxbwĭñ, which has an arched handle of
ivory or bone stretched lengthwise across the open mouth. These bags
are always made of skin with the hair out, and the skins of
wolverines’ heads are the most desired for this purpose. The
collection contains four such bags. No. 89794 [1018], Fig. 166, is the
type of these bags. The bottom of the bag is a piece of short-haired
brown deerskin, with the hair out, pieced across the middle. The sides
and ends are made of the skins of four wolverine heads, without the
lower jaw, cut off at the nape and spread out and sewed together side
by side with the hair outward and noses up. One head comes on each end
of the bag and one on each side, and the spaces between the noses are
filled out with gussets of deerskin and wolverine skin. A narrow strip
of the latter is sewed round the mouth of the bag. The handle is of
walrus ivory, 14½ inches long and about one-half inch square. There is
a vertical hole through it one-half inch from each end, and at one end
also a transverse hole between this and the tip. One end of the thong
which fastens the handle to the bag is drawn through this hole and cut
off close to the surface. The other end is brought over the handle and
down through the vertical hole and made fast with two half-hitches
into a hole through the septum of the nose of the head at one end of
the bag. The other end of the handle is fastened to the opposite nose
in the same way, but the thong is secured in the hole by a simple knot
in the end above. On one side of the handle is an unfinished incised
pattern.
[Illustration: FIG. 167.--Tool bag of wolverine skin. 1/4]
Fig. 167, No. 89776 [1004], is a similar bag, made of four wolverine
heads with the lower jaws attached. The bottom is of stout leather
without hair. The mouth is tied up by a bit of thong passed through
the nostrils of the two side heads so that it can spread open only
about 1¾ inches. The handle is broad and flat, made of walrus ivory,
and ornamented with an incised border on top. One end is broken and
pieced out with reindeer antler secured by a clumsy “fishing” of seal
twine, which is passed through holes in the two parts. The pieces seem
to have been riveted together as in the drill bow, No. 89777 [1004_b_]
(Fig. 154), which belongs to this bag. There is a rivet still sticking
in the antler. It is possible that the ivory may have broken in the
process of riveting the two together. The handle has two vertical
holes at each end for the thong, by which it is fastened to the end
noses, both in the median line and joined by a short channel on top of
the handle. This bag was the property of the Nunatañmiun Ilûbw’ga, so
frequently mentioned, and was purchased with all its contents.
[Illustration: _a_ _b_ FIG. 168.--Drills belonging to the tool bag.
1/3]
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