220 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



California i.s reached. The ])arbod harpoon head with cup-shaped base 

 there take.s on .si)ur.s and becomes a toggle head without barbs. 



Of harpoons on the Mosquito coast of Nicaragua and Honduras 

 Squier ssljh: 



The women were left on tlie l)each and three men apportioned to each boat — a i>ad- 

 dler, a torch bearer, and a striker. Torches made of pine splinters; spears of two 

 kinds — one {sinnock) fixed l)y a shank at the end of along, light pole and kept in the 

 hand; the other {ivaisko-dui<a) shortei-, staff hollow, iron-barbed head, fastened to 

 a line passing through rings by the side of the shaft, wound to a light wood float. 

 When thrown the head remains in the fish, the line unwinds, the float rises to the 

 surface to ])v seized by the fisherman, who hauls in his fish at leisure.' 



The same author says that the Mosqiuto Indians capture thousands 

 of turtles with harpoons. 



The Ulva Indians, of Bluefields Lagoon, pursue the manatee. One 

 man sits in the stei'n of a fiat-ljottomed dugout (pitpan) to steer, one 

 croucihes in the liow with a harpoon, the rest kneel on the bottom, 

 lances in hand. The boat is covered with boughs to resemble floating 

 trees. The man at the l)OW launches his harpoon, the animal makes 

 a plunge, the boughs are thrown overboard, and the lance men make 

 ready. The bowsman gradually hauls in his line and the animal, after 

 some maneuvering, comes to the surface, where it is stabbed with a 

 lance. After a series of struggles it is secured.^ These processes of 

 paddling, harpooning, throwing the boughs overboard, hauling in the 

 line, and stabbing with the lance may l)e carefully noted, in prospect 

 of coming descriptions relating to harpoon work by the Eskimo. 



Clavigero describes the Mexican tlacochtli or dart, a small lance of 

 otalli or some other strong wood, the point of which was hardened by 

 lire or shod with copper, or itzli, or bone, and manv of them had three 

 points. The Mexicans fixed a string to their darts in order to pull 

 them back again. This weapon was especially dreaded Ijy the Span- 

 iards.^ The line affixed to the darts is a harpoon characteristic. The 

 three-pronged barbed harpoon head is also £o be seen on Lake Patz- 

 cuaro at present. 



A turtle harpoon * of the Seri Indians of Tiburon Island, in the Gulf 

 of California and the uiainland adjoining, is shown in fig. 15. It com- 

 prises a point 8 or •! inches long, made from a nail or bit of stout wire, 

 rudely sharpened by hammering the tip (cold) l)etween cobbles, and 

 dislodging the loosened scales and splinters by thrusts and twirlings 

 in the ground; this is set firmly and cemented with mesquite gum into 

 a foreshaft of hard wood, usually 4 or 5 inches long, notched to receive 

 a cord and rounded at the inner end. This rounded end fits into a 

 socket of the main shaft, which may be either a cane stalk or a section 



X ' E. (i. Squier, Mos(iuit() Shore, Ixmdon, 1856, p. 74. 

 Mdem., p. 104. 



■Mlistory of Mexico, II, rhiladeli>hia, 1817, p. 16(i. 

 *W J McGee, Seventeenth Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (1898), p. 187. 



