Ethnological Sketch of the Angmagsalik Eskimo. 51 



whereby the whole head is loosened from the shaft. The shafts 

 may be as much as 40 feet in length and are often very elaborately 

 made, consisting of three or four parts with bone pieces between 

 them. A harpoon of this kind is called ituariit. For this kind of 

 hunting there must be two men, one of whom lies on the ice and 

 peeps down through the large hole, a piece of cloth covering his 

 head enabling him to see better down in the water. He points the 

 harpoon, which is kept far down in the water by another man, 

 who stands upright. The latter, who has the shaft in his right 

 hand, has the line which is in connection with the toggle-head, 

 coiled in his left. In order to entice the seals, there are fixed close 

 to the head two pieces of bone, carved in the form of seals, which 

 vibrate on cut feather-bags. As soon as the seal comes under the 

 harpoon, and the right moment has come, the man on the look- 

 out shouts "kae", and the other man makes a rapid thrust. This 

 mode of hunting is called ituartorpok, and was also practised on 

 the north part of the West coast in former days, but seems to have 

 fallen entirely into disuse there. 



When in spring the seals creep up onto the ice through the 

 holes they have made themselves, in order to sun themselves, the 

 people creep up to them stealthily, moving and making noises like 

 seals. They push in front of them on a very little sled a harpoon, 

 fixed to a long shaft (fig. 117 c). This harpoon has a hinged toggle- 

 head of the same kind as that mentioned above. 



Often, too, they capture small seals with their hands without 

 any kind of weapon whatever, but the assailant may easily get 

 some ugly scratches. This mode of hunting is called ârpok. 



In hunting on the ice they often use sleds, to which the lance 

 is fastened by sticking the shaft in loops at the side of the runners, 

 while the hinged head is stuck in between the uprights. The seals 

 are carried home on the sleds. 



Knives. — When a man is out hunting, he carries his hun- 

 ting-knife in a beautifully embroidered skin sheath, which hangs 

 down over the naked chest right up to the neck from a strap 

 around the latter (figs. 181 to 186). With a deft movement he seizes 

 the knife and fetches it up through the collar of his frock ^). 



Nets. — In one of the tales which the natives related to us, 

 there is an allusion to seals being caught in nets. When questioned, 

 they explained that in olden times people used to catch seals in 

 nets made of whalebone, and fastened to a long seal thong, and 



The Atnatanas in Alaska, according to H. Allen, also wear a knife sheath 

 round the neck. (Smithsonian Report 1886, part I, p. 262). 



4* 



