212 



THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 



this. It goes around in this way seven times, and then is carried one 

 prong farther, half hitched again, and the end taken down and made 

 fast to the first narrow lashing. The shaft is painted with red ocher 

 to within 13 inches (the length of the throwing board) from the butt. 

 This is an old shaft and head fitted with new prongs, and was made 

 by NTkawa alu, who was anxious to borrow it again when getting ready 

 to start on his summer trip to the east, where he would find young ducks 

 and molting fowl. 



The form of head seen in this dart appears to be the commonest. 

 It is called by the same name, nfi tkan, as the bone head of the deer 

 arrow. There is considerable variation in the number of 

 barbs, which are always bilateral, except in one 

 instance, No. 56590 [122], Fig. 196, from Utkiav 

 win, which has four barbs on one side only. It is 

 7 inches long exclusive of the tang. Out of 

 eight specimens of such heads one has one pair of 

 barbs, one two pairs, two three pairs, one four 

 unilateral barbs, one five pairs, one six pairs, and 

 one seven pairs. The total length of these heads 

 is from 9 inches to 1 foot, of which the tang makes 

 about 2 inches, and they are generally made of 

 walrus ivory, wherein they differ from the nugfit 

 of the Greenlauders, which, since Crantz s time 1 

 has always had a head of iron. Iron is also used 

 at Cumberland Gulf, as shown by the specimens 

 in the National Musuem. Fig. 197 represents 

 a very ancient spearhead from Utkiavwin, No. 

 89372 [760]. It is of compact whale s bone, dark 

 ened with age and impregnated with oil. It is 

 8-7 inches long and the other end is beveled off 

 into a wedge-shaped tang roughened with cross 

 cuts on both faces, with a small hole for the end 

 of a lashing as on the head of No. 89244 [1325]. 

 This was called by the native who sold it the 

 head of a. seal spear, a/kqllgiik, and it does bear 

 some slight resemblance to the head of weapon 

 used in Greenland and called by a similar name 2 

 (agdligak). The roughened tang, however, indi 

 cates that it was intended to be fixed permanently 

 in the shaft, and this, taken in connection with 

 &quot;fdr biniTiari&quot; i ts ^ rm S resemblance to the one-barbed head of 



the Greenland nugflt 3 as well as to the head of the Siberian 

 bird dart figured by Nordenskiold 4 , makes it probable that it is really 

 the form of bird dart head anciently used at Point Barrow. It is pos- 



1 History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 148. 

 &quot;Grant/,, vol. 1, p. 147, and Figs. 8 and 7, PI. V. 



3 Ibid., Fig. 8. 



4 Vega, vol. 2, p. 105, Fig. 5. 







p _ Vn 



dent point 

 for l)ir&amp;lt;1 &amp;lt;lart - 



