448 • W. Thalbitzer 



From the intervening regions between Alaska and Greenland Рагг}»^ 

 describes three kinds of harpoons, namely, from the regions north of Hudson 

 Baj': — 1, the oonak (probably the same word as Greenland unaaq) used 

 for killing the small seal; — 2, the akleak or akleega (Greenland aLLigaq) 

 used for the large seal; — and 3, kattelik (which would be Greenland qaatilik, 

 but not known there as name for any weapon) evidentlj^ derived from 

 qaateq 'the bone foreshaft of a Greenland harpoon,' also in general 'a fer- 

 rule, bone ring,' thus meaning a weapon which has a bone foreshaft of a 

 certain form. I saw some of these weapons in the Pitt Rivers Museum at 

 Oxford originating from Parry's and Lyon's expedition in 1824 1). The qaatelik 

 is nearly the same as the Greenland kaiak harpoon but for the wooden 

 shaft being heavier and the butt end provided with a tapering bone (a bone 

 pick) instead of the bone knob or bone feathers of the Greenland weapons. 

 The qaateq (foreshaft) of the qaatelik is a short bone cylinder with a flat top 

 extension (the whole approximately mushroom-shaped) in which there is a 

 socket for the insertion of the loose shaft; as to form and length this fore- 

 shaft thus holds an intermediate position between the Alaskan and Green- 

 land foreshaft types. The loose toggle head which according to Parry is of 

 the same type for the oonak and the qatelik, is called a siatko ; it has a 

 blade of iron inserted in a slit, as it seems, placed in the same plane as 

 that of the Ъоау barb, at right angles to the direction of the line-holes-). 

 The qaatelik of the Central Eskimo is used in combination with the large 

 sealskin float (Parry howwuta = Greenland awataq) like the Alaskan large 

 seal and walrus harpoon. 



The Greenianders seem to have combined two kinds of harpoon 

 Aveapons in their kaiak harpoons, in that they use them for taking 

 both small and large seal, walrus, white whale and narwhal, whereas 

 the central and more w^estern Eskimo have kept the various kinds 

 of weapons apart for the different uses. Thus it has come that the 

 Greenlanders have added two devices to their kaiak harpoon {unaaq) 

 from other kinds of throwing weapons: the large sealskin float from 

 the kind of harpoon which originally was only used for hunting 

 the large sea animals, and the throwing stick from the bird spear 

 and the bladder dart (aLLigaq) which elsewhere are the only wea- 

 pons to be cast in this manner. On the other hand the Greenlanders 

 have got two specialized forms of kaiak harpoon: knob and feather 

 harpoons. The combination and specialisation of these forms which 

 are peculiar to Greenland, but on the other hand common to the 

 greater part of the Greenland population, must have been carried 

 out in Greenland itself after the immigration of their forefathers 

 from the more western and central regions. 



The Eskimo kaiak harpoon maj'^, I think, be regarded as having arisen 

 from a form nearly related to the bladder dart, if not simpl}' by a specialisa- 

 tion of this weapon. The bladder dart is the most common Eskimo throw- 



1) Parry (1824) pp. 507— 5П8, and PI. between pp. 550—541, figs. i;{, 18 to 21. 



Lyon (1824) pp. :i25~:r26. 

 -) Cf. here p. 4:^.3 and Murdoch (1892) p. 222. 



