124 Morten P. Porsild. 



Classification of the Eskimo Missile Weapons. 



We shall now try on purely technological principles to classify 

 the different forms of Eskimo missiles. I give the following generic 

 definitions: — 



A Harpoon is a pointed and barbed weapon for hunting aquatic 

 game; attached to a line; and thrown by the hand {in modern times shot 

 from a gun) or thrust by means of a shaft; intended to fix the game to 

 a float, a buoy, a boat or to the ice or the hunter himself. 



A Dart is a pointed and barbed weapon thrown by the hand; intended 

 to pierce the game and to fix it to the гюеароп itself. 



A Spear is a pointed and barbed weapon thrust by the hand; intended 

 to pierce the game and to fix it to the weapon itself. 



An Arrow is a blunt or pointed and sometimes also barbed weapon; 

 shot from a bow; intended to kill the game by the blow, or to pierce it 

 or fix it to the weapon itself. 



A Lance is a pointed, but not barbed weapon, thrown or thrust by 

 the hand; intended to pierce and kill the game. 



It is at once seen from the above definition and from the Synop- 

 tic Table on p. 125 that in contradistinction to the majority of authors 

 I use the word harpoon to indicate only that part which the others call 

 "the detachable point of the harpoon." Here I am in agreement with 

 the Eskimo train of thought and language, which has for the part in 

 question a generic designation: tukaq, while the shaft, according to its 

 intended use, occurs in many various specific modifications, each under 

 its own name. Therefore, I am naturally also in agreement with 

 those authors (Fabricius, Kleinschmidt, Ryberg) who base their 

 classification, as I do, on that of the Eskimo. 



Under these generic terminologies I therefore comprise the various 

 specific ones; so far, that is to say, as they concern our subject — the 

 culture of the Eskimo. 



1. Harpoons. 



a) Throwing harpoons for hunting seals, walruses and small 

 whales from kayak. 



b) Thrusting harpoons for the various forms of ice-hunting. 



c) The little-known harpoons for fishing. 



d) Other little-known harpoons for Right Whale hunting. 



