224 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 
and acts as a drag on his movements until he is “played” enough for 
Fig. 214.— Walrus harpoons. 
about one-third inch. 
the hunters to come up and dispatch him. 
This weapon is called u/nakptk, “the great 
wha or spear.” Una (unak, u/nan) appears 
to be a generic term in Eskimo for harpoon, 
but 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 forty-two separate heads. Of 
these, No. 56770 [534], Fig. 214a, has the most 
typical shaft and loose shaft. The shaft is 
of spruce 71 inches long, roughly rounded, 
and tapering from a diameter of 14 inches at 
the tip to 0-8 at the butt. The foreshaft is of 
white walrus ivory, 6-7 inches long, exclusive 
of the wedge-shaped tang which fits into a 
cleft in the tip of the shaft. It is somewhat 
club-shaped, being 1-6 inches in diameter at 
the tip and tapering to 1:3 just above the 
butt, which expands to the diameter of the 
shaft, and is separated from the tang by a 
square transverse shoulder. The shaft and 
foreshaft are fastened together by a whip- 
ping of broad seal thong, put on wet, one end 
passing through a hole in the foreshaft one- 
quarter 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 deep, round socket to receive the loose 
4 } shaft, which is a tapering rod of walrus ivory 
4-4 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 above the shoulder. The end is 
spliced to the standing part 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, 
backward-pointing hook of ivory inserted in 
the shaft 17 inches from the tip and projecting 
Ten and one-fourth inches farther back and 90 
