ESKIMOS 151 
and holds the head securely in place on the end of the rod. 
When a seal is struck the loop slips from the peg and the spear- 
head is detached from the handle. In striking a seal, the handle 
is held in the right hand and the line in a coil in the left. Im- 
mediately the animal is struck the hunter lays down the handle 
and devotes himself to the line. If the seal is a large one and 
struggles much, a turn of the line is taken around the waist, 
and the hunter braces himself for an encounter, in which the 
seal is sometimes the victor. Great care is necessary in paying 
out the line, for many a finger has been lost by becoming 
entangled in a loop. The violently struggling seal must soon 
breathe, and to do so is compelled to rise in the hole; then the 
hunter endeavours to drive the pointed rod into its brain, and 
usually does so very quickly. The hole is then enlarged with the 
ice-chisel on the end of the spear handle. The chisel is commonly 
made of half-inch square iron or steel firmly sunk into the 
wooden shaft and fined down to a long chisel-edge. When the 
seal has been hauled on the ice a number of ceremonies are gone 
through in order to propitiate its spirit and to please the goddess 
of the marine animals. One of the customs consists in bursting 
the eyes so that the seal's spirit may not see that it is being* 
taken to the snow-house. Of course these customs -are falling 
into disuse among the Christianized Eskimos of Labrador and 
cumberland gulf, but there remains, even among the most 
enlightened, a strong leaven of their ancient superstitions and 
customs. 
At every stopping place traps are set for foxes. The trap is 
usually a single-spring steel one, of which each native usually 
has two or three. The traps are set on the snow and covered 
with a thin sheet of hard snow, the bait being hidden alongside. 
Where steel traps are not available, long narrow boxes of stone 
or ice are constructed, with the bait in the back part, and 
attached to a dead fall, so that When it is disturbed, the door 
falls upon the fox. The Arctic fox is generally plentiful in the 
