MFRnOCH.] 



THROWING BOARDS. 



217 



well as the foreshaft, is sometimes made of walrus ivory, and the latter 

 sometimes of whale s bone. The chief variation is in the length of the 

 martingale, and the details of the method of attaching it. 

 No two are precisely alike. The foreshaft is generally 

 plain, but is occasionally highly ornamented, as is shown 

 in Fig. 204, No. 56516 [105]. The figures are all incised 

 and colored, some with ocher and some with soot. 



Both of the kinds of darts above described are thrown 

 by means of a hand board or throwing-board. This is a 

 flat, narrow board, from 15 to 18 inches long, with a handle 

 at one end and a groove along 

 the upper surface in which 

 the spear lies with the butt 

 resting against a catch at the 

 other end. The dart is pro 

 pelled by a quick motion of 

 the wrist, as in casting with a 

 fly-rod, which swings up the 

 tip of the board and launches 

 the dart forward. This con 

 trivance, which practically 

 makes of the hand a lever 

 18 inches long, enables the 

 thrower by a slight motion of 

 the Avrist to impart great ve 

 locity to the dart. The use \, 

 of this implement is universal ^ 

 FIO. 204.-Fore. ainongthc Eskimo, though not 

 shaft of seal dart, peculiar to them. The Green- 

 landers, however, not only use it for the two 

 kinds of darts already mentioned, but have 

 adapted it to the large harpoon. 1 This is 

 undoubtedly to adapt the large harpoon for 

 use from the kaiak, which the Greenlanders 

 use more habitually than most other Eskimo. 

 On the other hand, the peopleof Baffin Land 

 and the adjoining regions, as well as the 

 inhabitants of northeastern Siberia, use it 

 only with the bird dart. 2 Throughout west 

 ern North America the throwing-board is 

 used essentially as at Point Barrow. Prof. 



_ ,-. Flo. 205. Throwing board for darts. 



O. T. Mason has given 3 an interesting ac 

 count of the different forms of throwiug-board used by the Eskimo and 

 Aleuts of North America. 



1 Crantz, vol. 1, p. 146, PI. v. Figs. 1 and 2, and Kink as quoted above, also Kane, First Exp., p. 478. 

 1 Parry, Second Voyage, p. 508 (Iglulik) ; and Nordenskiold, Vega, vol. 2, p. 105, Fig. 5. 

 Smithsonian Report for 1884, part n , pp. 279-289. 



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