Page:Researches into the Early History of Mankind and the Development of Civilization.djvu/253

Rh other pulls the thong. This form of the apparatus takes two men to work it, but the Esquimaux have devised a modification of it which a man can work alone. Sir E. Belcher thus describes its use for drilling holes by means of a point of green jade:—"The thong . . . being passed twice round the drill, the upper end is steadied by a mouthpiece of wood, having a piece of the same stone imbedded, with a countersunk cavity. This held firmly between the teeth directs the tool. Any workman would be astonished at the performance of this tool on ivory; but having once tried it myself, I found the jar or vibration on the jaws, head, and brain, quite enough to prevent my repeating it." There is a set of Esquimaux apparatus for making fire in the same manner, in the Edinburgh Industrial Museum, and Fig. 25 is intended to show the way in which it is worked. The thong-drill with the mouthpiece has been found in use in the Aleutian Islands, both for boring holes and for making fire. Lastly, there is a kind of cord-drill used by the New Zealanders in boring holes through hard greenstone, etc., in which the spindle itself is weighted. It is described as "sharp wooden stick ten inches long, to the centre of which two