ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



261 



against breaking the shaft. Indeed, it will ))e found that the Eskimo 

 on the other side of the continent do not hinge the lance head, but 

 nierel}' socket it and leave it in the animal stabbed. Collected bj'- 

 Captain C. F. Hall. 



An old, much weather-beaten toggle head of })one (Cat. No. lO-iO-i, 

 U.S.N.M.), without blade, from Repulse Bay, is shown in tig. 5-i. 

 The body is perfectly flat on the back and uniformly ridged below, so 

 that in section the form is that of a hat with narrow rim. The l)lade 

 .slit in the truncated tip shallow and ^vide and there is no show of rivets. 

 Linehole, large and straight through, with wide grooves before and 

 l)ehind it. There were evidently two barbs, but after some mending 

 one has disappeared. The butt was beveled nearly in a plane surface. 

 Sockets half an inch deep. Length, 3f inches. Col- 

 lected by Captain C. F. Hall. 



Example 19519, in the U. S. National Museum. 

 Plate 6, is a complete toggle harpoon for seals, from 

 Cumberland Sound region, collected by George Y. 

 Nickerson. The shaft (qijuqtenga) is of hard pine 

 wood, quadrangular in section, with rounded corners, 

 thick in the middle, and tapering toward either end. 

 The f oreshaf t (qatirn) or socket piece, about 2 inches 

 long, is of walrus ivory, mortised neatly upon a tenon 

 At the end of the shaft. In longitudinal section it is 

 in the shape of a tanged lance blade, with the point 

 truncated. The upper and outer end of the qatirn 

 has a rounded socket for the reception of the loose 

 shaft, to be described. At the lower end of the shaft 

 is an ivory cap, set on and held in place by two wooden 

 dowels. Upon the narrow margin of the shaft, absent 

 in this specimen, is set a hand rest (tikagung), as a 

 stop for the hand of the hunter when making his 

 thrust. At right angles to the tikagung is a peg or 

 Ifutton of ivory, which tits into the telliqbing or eyelet 

 l)iece of ivory on the line. The loose shaft is a stout piece of ivory, 

 spindle shaped, with a long taper in front and a very short tapering 

 butt end. This tits like a ball at the socket joint into the socket. 



At the end of the qatirn or foreshaft two holes are bored through 

 the loose shaft 3 inches from the socket joint. Corresponding holes 

 are bored through the shaft 1 inches from the front end. An inch 

 farther back from these two holes two other holes are bored near 

 together. 



Looking at this apparatus from one side, a seal-skin thong passes 

 from tne back forward through the upper left-hand hole in the shaft, 

 up through the left-hand hole in the loose shaft, back and through the 

 upper right-hand hole in the shaft, and up and through the right-hand 



M: 



Fig. 54. 

 TOGGLE HEAD. 



Repulse Bay. 



Collected by C. F. Hall. 



Cat. No. 10404, U.S.N. M. 



