Society of New South Wales last year,[1] although the names of the sections composing the groups are entirely different.
For the particulars from which I have prepared the tables given in this article, I am indebted chiefly to Mr R. H. Shadforth.
Sinew-working at Point Barrow—Sinew is used by Eskimo men and women of Point Barrow, Alaska, for making all sorts of thread, string, and heavy lines. It is taken from the neck, back, and shoulder-blades, as well as from the legs of the deer, then cleaned and soaked in water. When in straits, the Eskimo will use any sinew he can get. In summer time the back sinew is dried on a board until it falls off; in winter it is soaked and put on a block of ice to dry. That dried on the board is the better. The leg sinew is not spread on a board, but is merely hung up and dried for future occasion.
The back sinew is used for sewing, needle-work, etc. The women shred it as needed, stripping off a filament, drawing the end through the mouth, rolling it on the cheek or on the thigh, after the manner of a shoemaker with his waxed end, threading the needle with it.
The leg sinew is used for a great many purposes; it is first pounded and then shredded into the finest fiber and tied in bunches or hanks. It is plaited in the form of sennit for sewing together the skins that form the boat, and for sewing soles on boots. It is used also for cording watertight seams. They plait it into round sennit like a whip-lash, sometimes as much as eight- or sixteen-ply. A short piece plaited and rove through the hole in the harpoon head forms a four-ply line; then they form a loop, braiding all the eight strands together and making a line often many fathoms long by adding more filaments. For sewing water-proof clothing they use two-ply sinew thread, in making which the woman uses no other implement than her fingers. After twisting and laying up a few feet, she forms a ball which operates as a fly-wheel to twist the rest until she has a ball as large as her head. This twine is used for making fish-nets. Their nets originally came from the Hudson Bay Company. Charles Brower.
A Sokotra Expedition—In the Bulletin of the Liverpool Museums there has recently appeared a report of a biological and geographical expedition to the Island of Sokotra (in 12° north latitude and 54° east longitude), 600 miles southeastward from Aden, under the joint auspices of the British Museum and the Liverpool Museums. It was found that the true Sokoterians are only poorly civilized Mohammedans, living in caves or rude cyclopean huts, and possessing but few
- ↑ Journal of the Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. xxxii, p. 73.
