ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 209 



ACCESSORIES TO THE nARPOOX. 



Besides the hundred and one parts of the harpoon immediately 

 attai'hed to it there are unlimited accessories which have been called 

 into existence at its demands. The hunter has a peculiar costume 

 which he puts on when he goes harpooning-. Certain kinds of food 

 are demanded; a nniltitude of charms and lore are insepara])le from 

 the implement. In addition, the hunter takes along several devices 

 to g;ain information, to decoy the game, and to add to his own com- 

 fort. All about the American coast where great fish or mammals 

 existed the water craft were improved immensely. The Nutka dug- 

 out canoes and the Eskimo kaiak are unrivaled, and they are the 

 ministers of the harpoon. In like manner the sled, the dog, the har- 

 ness, the shifting tent owe their forms and usefulness to the ingenious 

 mind which devised and perfected the harpoon, which is no doubt the 

 most virile of all savage inventions. 



Sometimes a small implement is used in the hunt to indicate the 

 approach of the seal. It is called qipekutang, and consists of a verv thin 



Fig. 7. 



SKAI. INDICATORS. 



Point Barrow, Alaska. 



Collected by P. H. Ray. Cat. No. 56507. IJ.S.N.M. 



After. lohn Murdoch. 



rod with a knob or a knot at one end.' It is stuck through the snow, 

 the end pa.ssing into the water, the knob resting on the snow. As soon 

 as the seal rises to l)low. it strikes the rod, which, by its movements, 

 warns the hunter. (Tcneraily it is made of whale's bone. Sometimes 

 a string is attsiched to the knob and fastened l)y a pin to the snow, as 

 its movements are more easily detected than those of the knol). The 

 natives are .somewhat averse to using this implement, as it frequently 

 scares the .seals." 



WJKMi watching for a seal at his breathing hole, the Point Barrow 

 native inserts into the hole a rod of ivory. When the seal rises, it 

 pushes up this rod and thus warns the hunter when to shoot or to har- 

 poon-^ (fig. 7). 



The sealing stool is a small ti-iangular plank with three short legs, 

 on which a hunter squats when watching at a seal hole, where fre- 



^ Parry, Second Voyage, II, p. 550, fig. 20. 



^Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 478. 



■'Murdoch, Point P>arrow p^xpedition, ]>. 255, tig. 255. 



