Page:Archæology of the Central Eskimos.djvu/502

(ajagaq stick?); others are thicker and are thought by the Netsilik Eskimos to have been used for killing caught salmon by stabbing them in the neck; two are quite short (5 cm).

Sucking tubes. A swan humerus, 19 cm long, cut off at both ends, has probably served as a sucking tube.

Bull roarer. Pl. 84.9 (P 12. 171) is a miniature specimen (toy) of the bull roarer so widely used among natives and many present-day Eskimo tribes; this small, carefully made specimen is of antler and quite flat.

Amulet box. Pl. 84.13 (P 12. 213, house ruin 10) is a small wooden box with lid, of a type that is well known from the other Central Eskimo finds (such as Naujan Pl. 34.15). The box is hollowed out of a small piece of wood and has a lid, fastened on by lashings round the ends of the box; one lashing, of sinew thread, is still preserved. In this box, which was found closed, were: three very small, dried fish; two horny pieces which seem to have been of insects; a small flake of limestone and a small, very rusty piece of iron. The find from house 10 seems, as already stated, to be a little later than the rest of the find; the piece of iron also points in that direction. The specimen is, however, interesting in that it exhibits a type that is only known from the Western Eskimos, the small wooden boxes containing amulets which Murdoch^[1] mentions from Point Barrow; this is apparently the use of the small wooden boxes which have been mentioned previously from Naujan and Qilalukan.

Of stone objects there remain to be mentioned a ball, rather flat, of quartzite, with no marks of blows,^[2] and a piece of green quartz with marks of grinding on both sides.

Of bone objects there is a small piece, probably for a game, of whalebone, which is like Naujan Pl. 33.7 but narrower, thicker, and Pl. 83.7 (P 12. 157) as to the use of which nothing can be said; it is slightly curved, rounded on one side, flat on the other. A large piece of antler shows the technique generally in use, which corresponds with that of the Naujan find: Longitudinal grooves were cut with knives through the hard crust, after which the piece could be broken off; when it was to be broken over, cross grooves were cut from both sides until the piece could be snapped; the saw was not known and the drill has not been used to any great extent.

Of objects of wood there is, finally, a small fragment which seems to have come of a large meat tray or the like, 1.6 cm thick. Furthermore, a broken piece which looks like a part of a toy knife, etc. A