BULL. 30] 



HARASGNA HARPOONS 



533 



of San Juan Bautista. Probabl)^ of Coa- 

 huiltecau stock. 



Jarames. — Morfi (1777) quoted by Bancroft, Nat. 

 Races, I, 612, 1886. Xarames. — Revillagigedo 

 (1793) qnofed by Bancroft, ibid., 611. 



Harasgna. A former CTal)rieleno ran- 

 cheria in Los Angeles co., Cal.^ — Ried 

 (1852) quoted by Taylor in Cal. Farmer, 

 June 8, 1860. 

 Hard-mush. See Big-muslt. 

 H a r k a ( Ndyuharu'kcn, ' forked 

 reed. — Hewitt). A Tuscarora villajje in 

 North Carolina in 1701. — Lawson (1709), 

 Carolina, 383, 1860. 



Harpaha. A former Timucua village 

 near the mouth of St Johns r., Fla. — Lau- 

 donniere (1565) in French, Hist. Coll. 

 La., n. s., 349, 1869. 



Harpoons. Piercing and retrieving 

 weapons with a movable head — probaljly 

 the most ingenious and complicated de- 

 vice invented by the North 

 American aborigines. Before 

 the natives came into contact 

 with the whites, they made 

 harpoons of wood, bone, wal- 

 rus ivory, shell, stone, sinew, 

 and hide. The several struc- 

 tural parts consisted of the 

 shaft, foreshaft, loose shaft, ice 

 pick, head, hinge, connecting 

 line, assembling line, mainline, 

 hand rest, eyelet, float, and de- 

 tachers. Besides these there 

 were a mukitude of accesso- 

 ries, sucli as stools, decoys, ice 

 scoops, and canoes. The tech- 

 nic of every part represented the 

 Indian's best skill in a number 

 of handicrafts — wood working, 

 bone and ivory carving, chip- 

 ping and grinding stone; shred- 

 ding, twisting, and braiding sin- 

 ew; and dressing hidesor floats, 

 canoes, and the toughest possible 

 thongs or lines, and other parts. 

 There are two quite different 

 Barbed HEAD Varieties of harpoons, based 

 harpoon; on the shape of the head — the 

 ESKIMO "^ " " ^^''' "^*^ harpoon and the toggle 

 harpoon. The head of the 

 barbed harpoon is attached to the shaft 

 by means of a connecting line tied to the 

 butt or tang of the head. The toggle head 

 is attached to the line or sling by means 

 of a hole bored through the body; the 

 head is driven entirely into the animal, 

 and, toggling under the skin, gives firm 

 hold. These two types merge into each 

 other, and some harpoons possess the 

 characteristics of both. 

 The parts of a barbed harpoon are: 

 Head. — Of various materials, the spe- 

 cific characters being the same as those 

 of barbed arrows; they differ in that the 

 tang fits loosely into a socket and is 

 roughened, notched, or pierced for the 

 hingeing or connecting line. 



[^ 



Foreshaft. — That of the harpoon, as 

 comi)ared with the arrow, is heavier, 

 and has a socket in front for the wedge- 

 shaped, conical, or spindle- 

 shaped tang of the head. 



Shaft. — Length, from a few 

 inches to many feet; thickness, 

 from one-fourth of an inch to an 

 inchormore; outerend spliced or 

 socketed to the foreshaft; center 

 of gravity furnished with hand 

 rest; inner end pointed, pitted 

 for hook of throwing stick, 

 notched for a bowstring, with or 

 without feathers, or furnished 

 with ice pick. 



Connecting line. — Of string or 

 thong rudely tied to head and 

 shaft or, in the finest specimens, 

 attached at one end tlirough a 

 hole in the tang, the other end 

 being l)ifurcated and fastened 

 like a martingale to the ends of 

 the shaft. When the animal is 

 struck by the hurled harpoon 

 the head is withdrawn, the fore- 

 shaft sinks by 

 its gravity, and 

 the shaft acts 

 as a drag to im- 

 pede the prog- 

 ress of the game 

 (see Nat. Mus. 

 Rep. 1900, pi. 

 11). 



The parts of 

 a toggle har- 

 poon are: 



TogtjJehead. — 

 Consisting of 

 body; blade of 

 slate, chipped 

 stone, ivory, or 

 metal, usually ii\'J 

 fitted into a slit 

 in front; line 

 hole or opening 

 through the 

 Ijody for the 

 sling or leader 

 of hide on 

 which the tog- 

 gle head hinges; 

 line grooves 

 harpoon; channeled 

 ^^^'"° backward frotn 

 the line hole to protect 

 theleader; barbsproject- 

 ing backward at the butt 

 of the toggle head to catch 

 into the flesh and make 

 the head revolve 90 de- 

 grees, forming a T with °""^ °' "^°f ^e""° 



^, , .' , <r HARPOON; Eskimo 



the line; shaft socket, a 

 conoid pit in the butt of the toggle head 

 to receive front end of loose shaft; and 

 leader or sling, not always separate, but 



toggle -HEAD 



