130 Dr King on the Industrial Arts of the Esquimaux. 



The arrows are short, light, and formed without regard to 

 length or thickness ; *' they are three pieces, nocked with 

 bone and ended with hone, with those two ends and the wood 

 in the midst ; they pass not in length half a yard, or little 

 more. They are feathered with two feathers, the pen end 

 being cut away, and the feathers laid upon the arrow with 

 the broad side to the wood, insomuch that they seem, when 

 they are tied on, to have four feathers. They have also three 

 sorts of heads to their arrows ; one sort of stone or iron pro- 

 portioned like a heart ; the second sort of bone, much like 

 unto a stopped head, with a hook on the same ; the third sort 

 of bone, likewise made sharp on both sides, and sharp pointed. 

 They are not made very fast, but lightly tied, or else tied in 

 a nocke, that upon small occasions the arrows leave these 

 heads behind them, and they are of small force except they 

 be very near when they shoot."* The bow, when of the or- 

 dinary make, and a few arrows, are carried in a neatly 

 formed seal-skin case ; and attached to the side, in a little 

 bag, is a stone for sharpening, and some spare arrow-heads 

 carefully wrapped up. 



Their spears are of various kinds, the difference chiefly 

 consisting in material, rather than form. The kd-te-leek, 

 with which the whale and walrus are attacked, is a large and 

 strong handled spear, especially towards the middle, where 

 there is a small shoulder of ivory securely lashed to it for the 

 thumb to rest against, and thus to give additional force in 

 throwing or thrusting it. The ivory point of this weapon is 

 made to fit into a socket at the end of the staff, where it is 

 secured by double thongs, in such a manner as steadily to re- 

 tain its position when a strain is put upon it in the direction 

 of its length, but immediately disengaging itself with a sort 

 of spring, when any lateral strain endangers its breaking. 

 This weapon, so far, displays little art or ingenuity ; but an 

 appendage called sidtkoy consisting of a piece of bone three 

 inches long, and having a point of iron at one end, and at 

 the other a small hole or socket, to receive the point of the 

 kd-te-leeky is a masterpiece of art. Through the middle of 



* Frobi6her. 



