414 W. Thalbitzer 



ivory shaped like a seal's body, the basal end of which is carved 

 like the stereotype seal-tail ornament (fig. 115). 



The counterpoise of the feather harpoon is two fairly long] and 

 large bone plates, wiiich are fixed with nails on each side of the 

 hindmost end of the wooden shaft, their free ends being kept in posi- 

 tion by a thin bone pin between them. The shaft end is rhombic in 

 section and so shouldered off, that the outsides of the plates are flush 

 with the shaft and their outer ends are held apart by the pin just 

 mentioned (fig. 108). These bone-feather ends also end as a rule 

 with the seal-tail ornament (figs. 104 and 113). In West Greenland 

 they are known from earlier times in broader, more rounded or 

 lanceolate forms, with or without the seal-tail ornament. According 

 to Glahn^) they were generally made of narwhal teeth, seldom of 

 whalebone. In Scoresby Sound in East Greenland Ryder found a 

 couple of small bone feathers for a miniature harpoon, the most 

 northern discovery of a feather harpoon on this coast ^). Outside 

 Greenland the feather harpoon is not known. — Mason compares 

 this device with the well-known use of bird feathers on the end of 

 the darts or arrows. The eastern Eskimo used two feathers laid flat 

 on "the shaftement of the arrow" ^). 



Between the feathers on the butt end of the shaft of the har- 

 poon there is attached a short "hind-shaft" of bone, rhomboidal in 

 section and bevelled on the outside so as to have a sloping surface 

 looking upwards. This fits in under a broad bone-hook on the 

 throwing stick, formed by means of a projecting block of bone,^ 

 which is fixed at the very end of the throwing stick on the upper 

 side. The harpoon shaft is held fast to the throwing stick, when 

 the bevelled hind-shaft is pushed in under the projection of this 

 hook. Thus, on throwing, the hindmost part of the harpoon shaft 

 rests on the throwing stick, and the impetus of the weapon, produced 

 by a push from behind, loosens the shaft from its bed on the throw- 

 ing stick, and shoots it out while the throwing stick itself remains 

 in the hand. 



The throwing stick is thus attached difi'erently for the knob 

 harpoon and the feather harpoon, in the former almost under the 

 middle of the wooden shaft, in the latter far back, where the 

 feathers are fixed. For attaching the throwing stick the knob harpoon 

 has two bone pegs (or one separate and two close together) on the 

 underside of the shaft, the feather harpoon only a single peg, cor- 

 responding to holes in the throwing stick. See also special section 

 on the throwing sticks. 



J) Glahn (1771) p. 230. 



-') Hyder (1895) p. 314, fig. 14. 



•') Mason fliiOO) p. 25:5. Boas (1907i pp. 365— 36(i. 



