168 Morten P. Porsild. 



where designates them correctly "loose lance heads." Mason writes 

 about them: "A loose head of a lance is given in Fig. 53. A careful 

 inspection of this specimen, and others like it, will show that it lacks 

 the essential qualities of a harpoon, namely of being hinged to the end 

 of the shaft and of retrieving. There is neither barb nor toggle on this 

 specimen or others of the same class. The hinged lance, either in the 

 form of a weapon to be thrust or of one to be thrown from hand or bow 

 or throwing stick, is exceedingly rare. Only in the areas where immense 

 sea mammals are hunted, is it thought necessary to guard in this way 

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

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

 socket it and leave it in the animal stabbed." 



From the above it is seen that Mason, strangely enough, has the 

 idea that the weapon should be left in the animal, but a careful 

 inspection of his figures shows that two pieces of line invariably issue 

 from the specimens figured and this fact plainly shows that no such idea 

 as that suggested by him could ever occur to an Eskimo. 



SwENANDER, also, has been misled by Mason's erroneous inter- 

 pretation. He describes one of Kumlien's figures in his comments 

 about the distribution of harpoon forms, and says (p. 40) "The 

 conical points with line holes opening into the rear end, figured by Boas 

 and Mason, seem to be distinctly characteristic of the tribes at Cumber- 

 land Sound. I have at least not been able to find these features des- 

 cribed elsewhere." 



As this is said in a discussion about the distribution of harpoons, 

 while the author elsewhere in his work mentions lances, it is evident 

 that he has entirely overlooked the fact that both the authors he 

 quotes distinctly call them "lances." 



The fact is that in Boas's book 'The Eskimo of Baffin Land and 

 Hudson Bay," we find in Fig. 7 a whole lance like that illustrated, and 

 on p. 14 he writes regarding it "The lance with detachable point is much 

 used in hunting Caribou in ponds." From the wording of this state- 

 ment I take it for granted that it is also mentioned in Boas's chief work 

 "The Central Eskimo," which is inaccessible to me, but which Swenander 

 knows and quotes. It is interesting that it is here mentioned 

 that the lance is used for hunting Caribou, because the ordinary large 

 kayak lance also occurs in the same district, and has the same name, 

 anguvigaq, as in Greenland. 



Further west, among the tribe which is often called "Kinipetu," we 

 also meet with the weapon, and employed for the same kind of hunting. 

 Boas has a figure 113 which I permit myself to reproduce here. (Fig. 25, C). 

 It is true he calls it "a Caribou-harpoon with detachable point," but if 

 there is no mistake in the drawing it must be a lance. There is no trace 

 of barbs to be seen, and, as mentioned above, there is no advantage 

 whatever in harpooning a Caribou in the water; it can neither swim nor 



