As the Point Barrow Eskimos are so largely dependent on fishing, they especially favor amulets or talismans referring to this, and in many cases the peculiar power of the talisman is accentuated by giving it a specially significant form. Thus, from Utkiavwin was brought a piece of dark crimson jasper two inches long, rudely fashioned by chipping into the form of a whale, and also a similar figure made from a water-worn quartz pebble.[630] Another Point Barrow amulet consisted of three small fragments of amber, carefully wrapped up and placed in a cottonwood box 1½ inches in length. This box was cleverly made of two semicircular pieces of the wood, the flat faces having been hollowed out so as to leave space for the amber. They were then bound together by loosely knotted sinew braid.[631] A black jade, adze-shaped, that may have served as a fisherman’s talisman for the Point Barrow Eskimo, was brought from Utkiavwin. It measured 5.1 inches in length, and was slung with a thong and whalebone, so that it could be suspended. Its weight is so considerable as to make it somewhat burdensome for wear on the person, but as one of these Eskimo wore a stone weighing two pounds suspended from a belt, the jade artefact may really have been worn in this way. The form suggests that of a sinker, as was also the case with the two-pound stone, and it may have earned its repute as a talisman from having been used in former times by some exceptionally fortunate or skilful fisherman, in the belief that it would transmit his good luck to anyone wearing it.[632] An artefact of somewhat similar form, 1.4 inches in length, and made of red jasper, came from the same locality; this was slung in a sinew band for suspension.[633] The native Greenlanders of a couple of centuries ago had a great variety of amulets, and Hans Egede, in his Description of Greenland, notes these “Amulets or Pomanders” which the natives wore about the neck or arms, the materials being of the most heterogeneous kind, pieces of old wood, old fragments of stone, bones of various animals, the bill and claws of certain birds, and many other objects whose form or associations had suggested the possession of a magic potency.[634] A similar account of old Greenland amulets is given by David Crantz, another early author, who even asserts that some of the amulets were so grotesque that the natives themselves occasionally laughed at them. In the absence of any more definite talisman, recourse was sometimes had to the expedient of binding a leather strap over the forehead or around the arm.[635] Possibly, however, some talisman was hidden beneath this strap, or else it may have been designed to serve as a point of support for an amulet that had been taken off at the time the traveller saw the strap.