THE HARPOON 



held it in place on the tip of the spear be a long one, 

 with a loop to hitch on to a knob on the shaft, and 

 with a bladder or float at the other end, thirty or 

 forty feet away. The seal might dash off or dive as 

 fast as it liked ; the shaft and jointed head would be 

 shaken free and would float on the water, but there 

 wpuld be no shaking free from the keen grip of the 

 barb with its long trailing line and bobbing float. 



This little flight of imagination in which 1 have 

 indulged is, to my mind, the true explanation of one 

 of the most marvellous weapons that I have ever 

 seen the real Eskimo harpoon. 



No skilled mechanic has helped in its making ; 

 it is the pure outcome of native genius, the finished 

 product of generations of hunting. Over it the 

 hunter spends long hours of patient scraping and 

 rubbing and boring and fitting ; the socketed joint 

 is as neat and firm as clever hands can make it ; 

 and the result is that the harpoon in the hands of a 

 modern Eskimo hunter does what he expects it to 

 do, and does it every time. 



The man sits balanced in his dancing kajak, and 

 flings his harpoon at the fat neck of the seal as it 

 pops up for a breath of air. The animal feels the 

 sudden pain, and dives with a lurch. 



The hunter calmly and methodically reaches for 

 the blown-up skin that lies behind him, and drops 

 it on the waves. He knows that the harpoon will 

 bend where the head is jointed, and that the point 

 of the tusk will slip away from the socket in the 

 barb ; he knows that the line will unloop itself from 

 the knob on the shaft, and that the shaft and jointed 

 head will float in a piece upon the water ; he knows 

 that the seal has dived with the barb firmly bedded 



207 



