Ethnographical collections from East Greenland. 419 



carries with him on the sledge for this purpose. This is held coiled 

 in the left hand, but is thrown loose at the moment the weapon is 

 cast, only the bone piece at its end remaining held in the hand. The 

 other end of the line is attached to the shaft almost in its middle. 

 Here the East Greenland lance has a feature, which distinguishes 

 it from the West Greenland lance. The double strap, which con- 

 nects the loose shaft (through the two holes) to the wooden shaft, 

 is continued by a single line along the flat side of the shaft back- 

 wards or downwards to the middle of the shaft, where it is pushed 

 through a hole (fig. 106c); it is at the end of this, that the harpoon 

 line is firmly attached to the shaft. As soon as the point of the 

 weapon has pierced the skin of the animal, the hunter immediately 

 pulls the weapon back by means of the long line, and the maneuvre 

 is repeated. The bear is wounded several times. The dogs take care, 

 that it does not escape. — The hunter often prefers, however, to go 

 right up to the bear and wound it with his lance or knife time 

 after time until it falls. 



Harpoons for sealing on the ice (cf. pp. 50 — 51). — There are 

 two kinds of harpoons at Ammassalik corresponding to the three 

 modes of ice-hunting (pp. 398 — 400). In the nipparteq hunting they 

 use a kind of true harpoon (ajeepiaq sawekättararter) with a detach- 

 able harpoon head (sämmia) of about the same type as for the kaiak 

 hunting, but much smaller and attached to a shorter shaft of wood, 

 which is provided with a bone pick (tooa) at the butt end. It is the 

 only sealing weapon, which has not a loose bone shaft at the front 

 end; the harpoon head is fitted directly on to the pointed end of 

 the wooden shaft. Another peculiarity is, that the hunter carries a 

 reserve harpoon head, fastened in a loop at the other end of the 

 line (figs. 116 b and c). The line is fixed on the middle of the shaft 

 so that this may be used as a cross-piece or toggle over the hole in 

 the ice. 



Fig. 116 shows three harpoons used in the nipparteq hunting, belonging 

 to the Holm collection, a, however, is only the wooden shaft of this weapon 

 (length 173 cm.). It is composed of two pieces, the bevelled ends being 

 fitted together and lashed with thongs. The pick of bone is firmly lashed on 

 to the shaft below. — b has a somewhat thinner and shorter shaft (length 

 156 cm.) and it is also composed of two pieces (lashed together). Here the 

 bone head is seen attached, with the line hanging and the reserve head at 

 its other end. In the middle of the sliaft four rings have been cut as finger 

 rests. Common to a and è is a strap of raw hide, which lies along the 

 shaft a little above the middle with the ends fixed through perforations in 

 tlie shaft. This strap is intended for the attachment of the harpoon line to 

 the shaft (cf under c). The small harpoon head is kept in position by means 

 of the harpoon line from which a seizing line is jammed in under tliis strap. 

 There is a difference between a and b, the first having a basal pick of bone, 



27* 



