214 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 
Fig. 200, No. 89380 [793], is a fragment of a very ancient narwhal ivory 
spearhead, dark brown from age and shiny from much handling, which 
appears to have been worn as an amulet. It was said to have come 
from the east and to belong to a bird dart, though it does not 
resemble any in use at the present dayin this region. Itisa 
slender four-sided rod, having on one side three short oblique 
equidistant simple barbs. The resemblance of this specimen 
to the bone dart heads from Scania figured by Dr. Rau! is 
very striking. 
Seal darts—The Eskimo of nearly all localities use a dart 
or small harpoon to capture the smaller marine animals, with 
a loose, barbed head of bone fitted into a socket in the end of 
the shaft, to which it is attached by a line of greater or less 
length. It is always contrived so that when the head is 
struck into the quarry, the shaft is detached from the head 
pis ee and acts as a drag upon the animal. This is effected by 
cient ivory attaching an inflated bladder to the shaft, or else by attach- 
darthead. ing the line with a martingale so that the shaft is dragged 
sideways through the water. Nearly all Eskimo except those of Point 
Barrow, as shown in the National Museum collections and the figures 
in Crantz? and Rink*, use weapons of this kind of considerable size, 
adapted not only to the capture of the small seals (Phoca vitulina and 
P. fetida), but also to the pursuit of the larger seals, the nar- 
whal and beluga. At Point Barrow, however, at the present 
day, they employ only a small form of this dart, not over 5 feet 
long, with a little head, adapted only for holding the smallest 
seals. That they formerly used the larger weapon is shown 
by our finding a single specimen of the head of such a spear, 
No. 89374 [1281] Fig. 201. Itis of hard, compact bone, impreg- 
nated with oil, 8-1 inches long. The flat shank is evidently 
intended to fit into a socket. The two holes through the widest 
part of the shank are for attaching the line. 
This is very like the head of the weapon called agligak 
(modern Greenlandic agdligak), figured by Crantz, and re- 
ferred to above, except that the barbs are opposite each other. 
Mr. Lucien M. Turner tells me that it is precisely like the head 
of the dart used at Norton Sound for capturing the beluga. The 
native who sold this specimen called it ‘“nuia&/kpai nfi/tkoa,” 
“the point of a bird dart,” to which it does bear some resem- 
blance, though the shape of the butt and the line holes indicate Lars Sa 
plainly that it was adetachable dart head. Probably, as in the pone dart 
case of the ancient bird dart point, No. 89372 [760], referred to — bed. 
above, this weapon has been so long disused that the natives have 
forgotton what it was. The name 4/kqligtk, evidently the same as the 
' Prehistoric fishing, Figs. 94 and 95, p. 73. 
?History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 147, Pl. v, Figs. 6 and 7. 
3 Tales, etc., Pl. opposite p. 12 ( ** bladder arrow"’). 
