MUEDOCH.] 



arrow; 



'JO.') 



kept in use from the superstitions eoiiservatism nhcaily inciiiimicii. it 

 is certain that the man wiio raiscil a eoiiiiic cil" wolfnilis ini ihc sal^c df 

 their fur was obliged l)y tradirion to liavc a Hint licailcd arrow to iiilj 

 them with. These arrows, we were iiiformcd, wnc es|)cciall,v desi-ncd 

 for hunting " nii'uu," the pohir l)ear, but of (((uise tliey also served lor 

 use against other dangerous game, hive the wolf and brown Iji'ar and 



'/. 



Fig. 1X7.— rile of deer arrow (nfttkau). 



there is no reason to l)elieve that they wexe not also shot at reindee 

 though the hunter would naturally nse his deer arrows first. 



Deer arrows have a long trihedral pile of antler from 4 to s inclK 

 long, with a sharj) thin-edged point slightly concaved on the faces HI. 

 the point of a bayonet. Two of the edges are rounded, but the third 

 sharp and cut into one or more simple barbs. Behind the barb 

 the pile takes the form of a rounded shank, ending in a shoulder 

 and a sharp rounded tang a little enlarged above the point. 



No. 72768 [162], Fig. ISOefrom Utkiavwin, has a pile 3J inches 

 long with two barbs. The pile of Xo. S!)2:1S [162] from the same 

 village is Ah inches long and has but (.n«' barb, while that of 

 No. .S!»24b( [162] is 7-S inches long and has three barbs. The 

 rudely incised tiguiv on the shank of No. 8t)2oS [I6l'[ re|.rescnts 

 a wolf, i.robably a talisman to make the arrow as fatal to the 

 deer as the wolf is. No. .-.6.>SS [13], Fig. 187, is a pile for one of 

 these arrows slightly iieciiliar in shape, being elliptical in sec- 

 tion, with one edge sharp and two-barbed and a four-sided point. 

 The figure shows well the shai)c of the tang. The peculiarity 

 of these arrows is that the ])ile is not fastened to the shaft, but 

 can easily be detached.' When such an arrow was shot into a 

 deer the shaft would easily be shaken out, leaving the sharp 

 barbe.l pile in the wound. " 



The Ivskimo told us that a deer wounded in this way would 

 "sleejt once and die," meaning, apparently, that death would 

 ensue in about twenty four hours, probably from peritimitis. 

 The bone pile is called iiu'tkriri. wheiiee comes the name of the 

 arrow, niVtko'dliu. ^^■e collected ten arrows and three i>iles()f 

 this pattern. No.8!l4(;(l 1 12(;;!), Kig. ISS. isa iicculiar bone arrow 

 l)ile, perhaps intendc<l foi- a deer arrow. It is 7 inches long and Fni iss- 

 made of one of the long bones of some large i)ird, split length ,iri,,-ar. 

 wise so that it is rounded on one side and deeply concave on ro^^i'ii^' 

 the other, with two thin rounded edges tapered to a sharp point. Each 



vM-onil Voyage (Hakliiyt, 1589, p. 628). After describing the 

 the Eskimo of "Meta Incosnita" (Baffin Land) In 1577 he 

 i: "They are not made very fast, Imt lightly tyed to, or else set in a nocke, that upon small occa- 

 the arrowe loavoth these heads behind them." 



yz 



