ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



285 



I 



the head and roniains attached to the line. This feature should be 

 carefully noted. The shaft is of wood, the fore- 

 shaft of ivory, and swollen or bulbous at the outer 

 end. It fits into the wedge-shaped cut on the end of 

 the shaft and is held tight ]\y a lashing- of rawhide. 

 This lashing continues the whole length of the shaft, 

 being caught around it at intervals with half hitches, 

 forming an assembling line. Attached to' the shaft 

 is a hand rest about the center of gravity and a 

 sharpened piece of bone at the other end. The line 

 from the toggle head, after passing through the 

 loop on the loose shaft, is attached to the shaft 

 about the middle, so that the latter forms a drag 

 when the animal is once struck. This implement is 

 not thrown by means of a throwing stick, but from 

 the hand of a hunter. Collected by E. W. Nelson. 



A barbed harpoon (Cat. No. 33910, U.S.N.M.) 

 from the Norton Sound area, to be thrown from the 

 hand and not from a throwing stick, is shown in 

 fig. 82. The shaft tapers from the front to the 

 rear end, and has a hand rest on the side, held down 

 by sinew thread. The foreshaft is a cylinder of 

 bone, and fits into the open socket of the shaft b}- 

 means of a projection or tenon. The harpoon head 

 is a barbed piece of bone. The line passes through 

 the line hole in the head and is wrapped several 

 times around the shaft, fastened off with a series of y 



half hitches, and nearer to the butt end. The as- | 



sembling line, in this example, is different from the 

 one just described. When the animal is struck, the 

 head is withdrawn from the foreshaft, the thong- 

 unwraps from the shaft, which stands straight in 

 the water and acts as a drag to the captured ani- 

 mal. It is from St. Michael. 



A barbed harpoon with hand rest (Cat. No. 33933, 

 U.S.N.M.), from St. Michael, Alaska, is shown in 

 Plate 9. The shaft is of pine wood, elliptical in 

 section, pointed in the rear, widening toward the 

 middle and then narrowing again toward the fore- 

 shaft. The foreshaft is of bone or antler, a ffat 

 C3dinder in section and a truncated cone in outline. 

 It has a hole in the base and is fitted over a projec- 

 tion or tenon in the end of the shaft. This method 

 of joining is worthy of notice. The shoulder of the 

 shaft forms a neat joint with the rear of the foreshaft. In tlie middle 

 NAT MUS 1900 20 



Fig. 81. 



TOGGLE HEAD H.\RPOON. 



Norton Sound. 



C'ollected by E. W. Nelson. 



Cat. No. 33888. C.S.N.M. 



