224 



THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 



and acts as a ilraf,' on 



n 



lis movements until he is "played" enough for 

 the hunters to come up and dispatch him. 

 This weapon is called u'uakpuk, "the great 

 u'na or spear." U'na (unak, u'nan) appears 

 to be a generic term in Eskimo for harpoon, 

 hut at Point Barrow is now restricted to the 

 harpoon used for stabbing seals as they come 

 up to their breathing holes. 



We collected six of these walrus harpoons 

 complete and foity-two separate heads. Of 

 these, No. 5(i770 [534], Fig. L'Ua, 1ms the most 

 typical shaft and loose shaft. The shaft is 

 of spruce 71 inches long, roughly rounded, 

 and tapering from a diameter of 1^ inches at 

 the tip to 0-S at the butt. The foreshaft is of 

 white walrus ivory, 0-7 inches long, exclusive 

 of the wedge sliai)ed tang which iits into a 

 cleft in the ti]! of the shaft. It is somewhat 

 club shaped, being l-ti inches in diameter at 

 the tij) and tajjcring to 1'3 just above tlie 

 Imtt, whicli expands to the diameter of the 

 shaft, and is sej)arated li'om the tang by a 

 s(piare transverse shoulder. The shaft and 

 foreshaft. are fastened together by a whip- 

 ])ing of broad seal thong, jnit on wet, one end 

 passing tlirough a. hole in tlie rmvsliaft one- 

 i|u;nter inch from the shaft, and kept from 

 slipping by a low transverse ridge on each 

 side of the tang. In the tip of the foreshaft 

 is a deej), round socket to receive the loose 

 shaft, which is a taiiering rod of walrus ivory 

 1-4 inches long, shouldered off at the butt, 

 which is 0-7 inch in diameter, to a blunt, 

 rounded tang 0-9 inch long. It fits loosely 

 into the foreshaft up to the shoulder, and is 

 secured by a piece of narrow seal thong 

 which passes through a transverse hole one- 

 half inch abo\c the shoulder. The end is 

 spliced to the slainlingjiart with double slits 

 about 6 inches from the loose shaft, and the 

 other end makes a couple of turns outside of 

 the lashing on the shaft mentioned above and 

 is secured with two half-hitches. 



The line catch (ki'lerbwin) is a little, blunt, 

 l)ackward-poiiiting hook of ivory inserted in 

 the shaft 1 7 inches fi'om the tip and projecting 

 1 and one-fourth inches farther back and 90 



