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 



