Bow-and-arrow making
A complete set of bow-and-arrow tools consists of 4 pieces, viz: a marline spike, two twisters, and a feather setter, as shown in Fig. 283, No. 89465 [962], from Utkiavwĭñ. The pieces of this set are perforated and strung on a piece of sinew braid, 4 inches long, with a knot at each end.
The Marline Spike
This is a flat, four-sided rod of walrus ivory, 5-6 inches long, tapering to a sharp rounded point at one end, and tapered slightly to the other, which terminates in a small rounded knob. It is very neatly made from, rather old yellow ivory, and ornamented on all four faces with conventional incised patterns colored with red ochre.
This implement is used in putting on the backing of a bow to raise parts of the cord when an end is to be passed under and in tucking in the ends in finishing off a whipping. It was probably also used in putting whippings or seizings on any other implements. We collected 10 of these tools, all quite similar, and made of walrus ivory, yellow from age and handling. They vary in length from 4½ to 6 inches, and are always contracted at the upper end into a sort of neck or handle, surmounted by a knob or crossbar. No. 89463 [836] Fig. 284, from Utkiavwĭñ has the crossbar carved very neatly into the figure of an Amphipod crustacean without the legs. The eyes, mouth, and vent are indicated by small round holes filled with some black substance, and there is a row of eight similar holes down the middle of the back. The tip of this tool, which is 5.9 inches long, has been concaved to an edge so as to make a feather-setter of it. Through the knob at the butt there is sometimes a large round eye, as in Fig. 285 (No. 89464 [842] from Utkiavwĭñ, 4.7 inches long). These tools are sometimes plain, like the specimens last figured, and sometimes ornamented with conventional patterns of incised lines, colored with red ocher, like the others.
The Twisters
(No. 89465 [962]) are flat four-sided rods of walrus ivory, respectively 4.4 and 4.7 inches long. At each end one broad face is raised into a low transverse ridge about 0.1 inch high and the other rounded off, with the ridge on opposite faces at the two ends. They are ornamented on all four faces with longitudinal incised lines, colored with red ocher.
The use of these tools, which was discovered by actual experiment after our return to this country410 is for twisting the strands of the sinew backing after it has been put on the bow into the cables already described. The manner in which this tool is used is as follows: The end is inserted between the strands at the middle of the bow, so that the ridge or hook catches the lower strands, and the end is carried over through an arc of 180°, which gives the cable a half turn of twist. This brings the twister against the bow, so that the twisting can be carried no further in this direction, and if the tool were to be removed for a fresh start the strands would have to be held or fastened in some way, making the process a slow one. Instead, the tool is slid back between the strands till the other end comes where the first was, so that the hook at this end catches the strand, and the workman can give to the cable another half turn of twist. This is continued until the cable is sufficiently twisted, the tool sliding back and forth like the handle of a vise. The tools are used in pairs, one being inserted in each cable and manipulated with each hand, so as to give the same amount of twist to each cable. At the present day, these tools are seldom used for bow making, since the sinew-backed bow is so nearly obsolete, but are employed in playing a game of the nature of pitch-penny. (See below, under games and pastimes.)
These tools, of which we collected twenty-six specimens, are all of walrus ivory, and of almost exactly the same shape, varying a little in size and ornamentation. They vary in length from 3 to 5.7 inches, but are usually about 4½ inches long. The commonest width is 0.4 inches, the narrowest being 0.3 and the widest 0.7 broad, while the thickness is almost always 0.3, varying hardly 0.1 inch. Most of them are plain, but a few are ornamented with incised lines, and two are marked with “circles and dots” as in Fig. 286, one of a rather large pair (No. 56521 [249] from Utkiavwĭñ). These are 5.4 inches long, neatly made and quite clean. All the others show signs of age and use.
There are large numbers of these tools in the National Museum from various points in the region where bows of the Arctic type are used, namely, from the Anderson River to Norton Sound, and one from St. Lawrence Island, whence we have received no twisted bows. Their use was, however, not definitely understood, as they are described simply as “bow tools,” “bow string twisters” or even “arrow polishers.” Mr. Nelson informs me that the tool is now not used in Norton Sound, except for playing a game, as at Point Barrow, but that the natives told him that they were formerly used for tightening the backing on a bow and also for twisting the hard-laid sinew cord, which is quite as much, if not more, used at Norton Sound as the braid so common at Point Barrow. I find no mention of the use of this tool in any of the authors who have treated of the Eskimo, except the following in Capt. Beechey’s vocabulary, collected at Kotzebue Sound: “Marline spike, small of ivory, for lacing bows—ke-poot-tak.” The specimens from the Mackenzie and Anderson rivers are almost without exception made of hard bone, while walrus ivory is the common material elsewhere. The name (kaputɐ) means simply a “twister.”
The Feather-Setter
(ĭ´gugwau) (No. 89465 [962]) is a flat, slender, rounded rod of walrus ivory, 7 inches long, with the tip abruptly concaved to a thin, rounded edge. The faces are ornamented with a pattern of straight incised lines, colored with red ocher. This tool is used for squeezing the small ends of the feathering into the wood of the arrow shaft close to the nock. Fig. 287 is a similar tool (No. 89486 [1285] from Utkiavwĭñ) also of walrus ivory, 6 inches long, with the upper end roughly whittled to a sharp point. It is probably made of a broken seal indicator or meat-cache marker. Several other ivory tools previously mentioned have been concaved to an edge at the tip so that they can be used as feather-setters. I do not find this tool mentioned by previous observers, nor have I seen any specimens in the National Museum.
Fig. 288 (No. 89459 [1282] from Utkiavwĭñ) represents an unusual tool, the use of which was not ascertained in the hurry of trade. It has a point like that of a graver, and is made of reindeer antler, ornamented with a pattern of incised lines and bands, colored with red ocher, and was perhaps a marline spike for working with sinew cord.