212 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 
this. It goes around in this way seven times, and then is carried one 
prong farther, half hitched again, and the end taken down and made 
fast to the first narrow lashing. The shaft is painted with red ocher 
to within 134 inches (the length of the throwing board) from the butt. 
This is an old shaft and head fitted with new prongs, and was made 
by Nikawa/alu, who was anxious to borrow it again when getting ready 
to start on his summer trip to the east, where he would find young ducks 
and molting fowl. 
The form of head seen in this dart appears to be the commonest. 
It is called by the same name, nf’tkan, as the bone head of the deer 
arrow. There is considerable variation in the number of 
barbs, which are always bilateral, except in one 
instance, No. 56590 [122], Fig. 196, from Utkiay- 
win, which has four barbs on one side only. It is 
74 inches long exelusive of the tang. Out of 
eight specimens of such heads one has one pair of 
barbs, one two pairs, two three pairs, one four 
unilateral barbs, one five pairs, one six pairs, and 
one seven pairs. The total length of these heads 
is from 9 inches to 1 foot, of which the tang makes 
about 2 inches, and they are generally made of 
walrus ivory, wherein they differ from the nugfit 
of the Greenlanders, which, since Crantz’s time! 
has always had a head of iron. Iron is also used 
at Cumberland Gulf, as shown by the specimens 
in the National Musuem. Fig. 197 represents 
a very ancient spearhead from Utkiavwin, No, 
89372 [760]. It is of compact whale’s bone, dark- 
ened with age and impregnated with oil. It is 
8-7 inches long and the other end is beveled off 
into a wedge-shaped tang roughened with cross- 
cuts on both faces, with a small hole for the end 
of a lashing as on the head of No. 89244 [1325]. 
This was called by the native who sold it the 
head of a seal spear, a/kqligik, and it does bear 
some slight resemblance to the head of weapon 
used in Greenland and called by a similar name? 
(agdligak). The roughened tang, however, indi- 
cates that it was intended to be fixed permanently |. 197 an. 
in the shaft, and this, taken in connection with © cient point 
jts strong resemblance to the one-barbed head of 1" "det 
the Greenland nugfit? as well as to the head of the Siberian 
bird dart figured by Nordenskiéld*, makes it probable that it is really 
the form of bird dart head anciently used at Point Barrow. It is pos- 
Fia. 196.—Point 
for bird dart. 
' History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 148. 
2Crantz, vol. 1, p. 147, and Figs. 6 and 7, Pl. v, 
3Thid., Fig. 8. 
4Vega, vol. 2, p. 105, Fig. 5, 
