240 THE POINT BARROW KSKIMO. 



x\ ceremonies long after they have gone out of use in every-&amp;lt;lay 

 life. Now, the whale fishing at Port Harrow, in many respects 

 the most important undertaking in the life of the natives, is so 

 surrounded by superstitious observances, ceremonies to be per 

 formed, and other things of the same nature as really to assume 

 a distinctly religious character. Hence, we should naturally 

 expect to find the implements used in it more or less archaic in 

 form. That this is the case in regard to the toggle-head I think 

 I have already shown. It seems to me equally evident that this 

 foreshaft, which contains the loose shaft and foreshaft, undiffer- 

 entiated, is also the older form. 



Why the development of the harpoon was arrested at this par 

 ticular stage is not so easily determined. A natural supposition 

 would be that this was the form of harpoon used by their an 

 cestors when they first began to be successful whalemen. 



That they connect the idea of good luck with these ancient 

 stone harpoons is shown by what occurred at Point Barrow in 

 1883. Of late years they have obtained from the ships many 

 ordinary &quot; whale-irons,&quot; and some people at least had got into 

 the habit of using them. 



Now, the bad luck of the season of 1882, when the boats of 

 3 both villages together caught only one small whale, was attrib- 

 | uted to the use of these &quot; irons, &quot; and it was decided by the elders 

 ^ that the first harpoon struck into the whale must be a stone- 

 si bladed one such as their forefathers used when they killed many 

 a whales. 



In this connection, it is interesting to note a parallel custom 

 observed at Point Hope. Hooper 1 says that at this place the 

 beluga must always be struck with a flint spear, even if it has 

 been killed by a rifle shot. 



Lancea. As I have said on a preceding page, some of the na 

 tives now use bomb-gnus for dispatching the harpooned whale, 

 and all the whaleboats are provided with steel whale lances 

 obtained from the ships. In former times they used a large and 

 powerful lance with a broad flint head. They seem to have con 

 tinued the use of this weapon, probably for the same reasons 

 that led them to retain the ancient harpoon for whaling until 

 they obtained their present supply of steel lances, as we found 

 no signs of iron whale lances of native manufacture, such as 

 are found in Greenland and elsewhere. We obtained nine 

 heads for stone lances (kaluwii;) and one complete lance, a very 

 tine specimen (No. 5(5705 [537], Fig. -38), which was brought 

 down as a present from Nuwuk. The broad, sharp head is of 

 light gray flint, mounted on a shaft of spruce 12 feet 6 inches 

 long. It has a broad, stout tang inserted in the cleft end of the 



1 Corwiu Report, p. 41. 



