Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/128

appear on contact with Europeans. The thread used is, first and foremost, the back sinews of the caribou, more rarely the back sinews of the narwhal or the white whale. The process of making sinew thread is this: when the caribou is being flensed, the back sinews are pulled out and cleaned of fat and flesh with the teeth, or with the little bone knife previously referred to (kiliutaq); they are then dried; sometimes they are laid in water and scraped again before drying. Often a small lump of fat is left hanging to the dried bundle of sinews, so that the seamsstress may now and then take a mouthful of this delicacy; the whole piece is often preserved in a small skin bag and pieces are torn off and split up as required, often with the needle, for the thin threads. Whale sinew-thread is said to be particularly good for boots. Parry^[1] says that thread is made of caribou jugulars, as well as of back sinews.

Formerly, the needles were kept in needle cases (kâkbik) which were tubular in form and oftenest of ivory, sometimes cylindrical, closed or open at the bottom, sometimes more prismatic;^[2] the needles were stuck into a strip of skin which was inserted in the needle case and hung on the belt. At the end of the skinstrip hung the thimble-holder (tikivik). in the form of a cross-pin with a hole in the middle, and on this hung the thimble (tikeq), a small piece of bearded-seal skin, with a little strap which passed round the finger. These, however, have gone right out of use.

Fig. 70 is a new needle case with appendant thimble and thimbleholder, carved by Aua at Itibdjeriang on the old model, which he has seen used. It is of ivory, 8,4 cm long, trapeziform in cross section, and ornamented with the usual dot-and-circle ornamentation. The flat back has only two such ornaments, however, at the top just under the holes for the suspension straps, which are of sealskin. In the upper end of the needle case is a cylindrical hole, 5½ cm deep, for the needles, and this hole can be closed by means of a plug which has a large, flat head. On a cord of plaited sinew thread below hangs a toggle-shaped thimble holder, round, consisting of alternate discs of ivory and baleen; a copper pin running along them holds them together. The thimble is of bearded-seal skin. The specimen is undoubtedly a modern copy of the old needle-case type, adapted to steel needles.

Fig. 71 is a sewing-weight of soapstone, also carved by Aua who, besides being a skilful craftsman, was a man with many ideas; this was the only specimen of its kind that I saw. It is 25 cm long, flat