ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



265 



holes hored in horizontally. Into these holes fit two rawhide thongs, 

 by moans of which the loose heads are attached firmly to the end of 

 the shaft. The noticeable feature about this specimen is the thor- 

 oughly aboriginal stjde of boring the holes and of attaching the thongs. 

 The slit is cut near the end of the thong, and 

 through this the outer end passes, being )>ent 

 backward. This forms a button which fits exactly 

 into the horizontal hole on the side of the head. 

 At the other end of the thongs in the drawing are 

 shown methods of splicing practiced by the central 

 Eskimo. There is nothing which exhibits their 

 ingenuity more effectively than the way in which 

 the difliculties are overcome by simple processes. 

 A lance head (Cat. No. 34076, U.S.N.M.) from 

 Cumberland Sound is shown in fig. 60. It can not 

 be called either a toggle head or a barb, since it 

 possesses neither characteristic. It is simply a 

 pivoted lance head. Body. flat. Blade, of iron, 

 irregularly rhomboidal. made to 

 fit into the saw cut by a nail head 

 driv^en under the edge, held in 

 place by an iron rivet. 



There is no line hole in the 

 harpoon acceptation, but on 

 either side of the socket a hole 

 is bored forward in the plane of 

 the blade and met b}" a larger 

 one bored inward half an inch 

 from the butt end. Into each 

 hole a rawhide line is made fast 

 by means of a knot peculiar to 



the Eskimo, effected by cutting a slit a short distance 

 from the end of the line and tucking the end back- 

 ward through the slit. This knot Mill enter the larger 

 hole on the side, l)ut will not pull through the smaller 

 longitudinal one. The socket is conical, wide, and 

 fully an inch deep. Length, -2 inches. Collected in 

 Cumberland Sound by Ludwig Kumlein. Similar 

 to this are 34068 and 34077 (fig. 59), and Boas figures 

 another specimen after Kumlein's drawings. 

 Cat. No. 73529 in the U. S. National Museum is a whale lance 

 (anguvigang), from Cumberland Sound. The shaft (qijuqtenga) is of 

 hard pine wood, possibly from a ship. Cross section elliptical and 

 flattened. It is tapering in the middle in both directions. The fore- 







Fig. 59. 



LOOSE HEAD OK I.ANCE. 



Cumberland Sound. 



Collected by Ludwig Kumlein 



Cat. No. 34077, U.S.N.M. 



Fig. 60. 

 LOOSE HEAD OF LANCE. 



Cumberland Sound. 

 Collected by Ludwig 

 Kumleiu. Cat. No.34u76, 

 U.S.N.M. 



