446 W. Thalbitzer 



Both of these harpoons partially correspond with the unang of 

 Baffin Land and the oonak (i. e. unaaq) of Iglulik and Winter Island 

 (Melville Peninsula) but these weapons are only used in sealing on 

 the winter ice (nipparteq) not on the kaiak. The knob of bone (or 

 ivory) at the butt is mentioned by Boas on the unang of the Baffin- 

 landers^). The double-running thong which connects the loose shaft 

 with the main shaft, is common to all kinds of harpoons and lances 

 among the eastern Eskimo (including the central Eskimo on Melville 

 Peninsula) whereas the same weapons in Alaska are only provided 

 with single-running connecting thongs. If we base our comparison 

 of the forms in question not on the names, but on their function 

 in the life of the hunting Eskimo, we shall find that the kaiak har- 

 poons of the Greenlanders are more in agreement with the larger 

 harpoon weapons used from the kaiak by the central and western 

 Eskimo. Such are the tikagung from Baffin Land, for hunting seals 

 and walrus from the kaiak, used in connection with a loose toggle 

 head of the tokang type; the qatelik of the Eskimo of Iglulik and 

 Melville Peninsula, used with the siatko head; and the unarpak 'the 

 great unaaq' of the northernmost Alaska Eskimo at Point Barrow 

 used with a toggle head named tuka (i.e. tookaq)-^). These weapons 

 which are essentially alike are no doubt the western equivalents of 

 the Greenland kaiak harpoons. They are the only ones used in 

 connection with the large sealskin floats and they are everywhere 

 put to the use of taking the large seals, walrus and white whale 

 in hunting from the kaiak. 



The Greenland kaiak harpoons not only resemble the unarpak, or 

 walrus harpoon, of the Point Barrow Eskimo in Alaska, but also the same 

 Eskimo's "retrieving seal harpoon" almost of the same type, which is con- 

 fined, according to Murdoch, to the coast from Point Barrow to Bering Strait. 

 The seals are caught here in open holes or leads of water from the edge of 

 the solid ice. The seal is first shot and then is secured by means of the 

 retrieving harpoon, which is slung with the hand (without throwing stick); 

 the end of the harpoon line is held in the left hand''). The différences 

 between the Alaska and Greenland weapon are: — 1, the former is cast with 

 the hand, the latter with a throwing stick of a peculiar type; — 2, the loose 

 shaft in the former is very short and has only a single line-hole; — 3, the 

 foreshaft at Point Barrow is shaped like a heavy cylinder which is lashed 

 to the wooden shaft whereas in Greenland it is only a bone cap which is 

 fixed bj^ mortising and nailing on the top surface of the main shaft; — 

 4, instead of the bone knob or feathers of the Greenland harpoon shaft the 

 Alaskan shaft is jirovided with a long, pointed bone pick secured to the butt 

 end with lashings. 



1) Boas (1888) p. 471. I^arry (1824) p. 507. Lyon does not mention at all the 

 oonak in his enumeration of tlie weapons of those regions: (1824) pp. 325- ;J27. 



••') Boas (1888) pp. 489-192; Parry (1824) p. 508; Murdoch '1892) pp. 219 and 224. 



•') Murdoch (1892) pp. 223 231, figs. 214, 224 and 225. Cf. Nelson (1899) Plates LIV 

 and LV. 



