396 W. Thalbitzer 



bone peg, bent upwards, which lay a little further forward on the 

 same side of the kaiak. 



Fig. 97 shows one of the hollow bone buttons or caps (pooa 

 kv>^kkän) which are fixed at the ends of the kaiak fore and aft. It 

 is in the shape of a mushroom, the upper part forming a hemi- 

 spherical head surrounded by a groove. 



The position of the weapons on the kaiak is in East Green- 

 land quite the same as in West Greenland. The bird dart and the 

 bladder dart are placed on the foredeck, the former on the left, the 

 latter on the right side. The point lies on the first cross-strap 

 between the small pegs; the butt on the lateral bone peg on the 

 legs of the kaiak stand. 



The harpoon rests on the mid-deck of the kaiak to the right side 

 of the man and with its head turned towards the stern. The throw- 

 ing stick lies above the wooden shaft of the harpoon with its orna- 

 mented side uppermost. In earlier times the shaft rested on a fixed 

 horizontal bone peg, which extended from the ring of the man-hole 

 out towards the side, projecting a little beyond. Instead of this only 

 a short, upright bone block with a groove in the surface is used 

 now at the same place, copied from the South Greenland kaiak, 

 where it is placed a little further forward, between the man-hole 

 and the kaiak stand. — The harpoon head is set on the 'loose shaft' 

 so as to have its belly with the line holes turning upwards. The 

 harpoon line, which is looped through these holes, is pulled tight 

 along the upper side of the shaft as far as the middle, where it is 

 attached with a bone clasp on a peg on the shaft a little in front 

 of the throwing stick. From there it runs loosely to the kaiak stand 

 where the rest is neatly coiled. 



When the harpoon is to be used, the kaiaker seizes the throw- 

 ing stick along with the harpoon shaft which lies under it, and lift- 

 ing both from the deck, with a turning movement of his arm and 

 hand he swings them round half a circuit so that the head of the 

 harpoon comes to point forward, its butt end backwards (on the 

 kaiak deck its position was the opposite). In this position the har- 

 poon head gets the back uppermost, the belly downwards, and if 

 the head is shaped with a single basal barb, this is above on the 

 shaft. The blade of the harpoon head is placed horizontally. 



According to Fabricius ^) the hunter first places the harpoon head 

 on the 'loose shaft', then attaches the bone clasp of the har- 

 poon line on to the shaft and stretches the line with the harpoon 



') Fabricius (1810) p. 157. 



