450 W. Thalbitzer 



bladder, and trom this to the large harpoon with a loose, barbed 

 head and a loose sealskin float; the last was several times larger 

 than the fixed bladder of the bladder dart and could therefore not 

 be thrown with the weapon, but obtained a special place on the 

 kaiak, from which it was thrown out on to the surface of the water 

 with the unwinding coil. These features we find side by side on the 

 Alaskan coast. From the central regions (Baffin Land) we get the 

 significant information, that the bladder dart (agdliaq) is used for 

 hunting small seals in the way that "the loose head (naulang) is 

 tied to the shaft, which acts as a drag" ^). In Greenland the use of 

 the light seal spear, with the shaft used as a drag, is not known. 

 But the bladder dart which was in the central regions provided 

 with a loose harpoon head and had two line holes in the loose 

 shaft (i. e. double-running connecting line, a more elastic connec- 

 tion) is found in Greenland in what seems to be a reduced type 

 without toggle head or connecting line. Thus, the original resem- 

 blance of this weapon with the large harpoon is lost here, and the 

 dissimilarity has increased by the introduction of new devices. 



Both in Greenland and Baffin Land the counterpoise has been 

 moved from the foreshaft (which was large and heavy in the Alaskan 

 harpoons) to the butt end of the shaft; the Greenland knob har- 

 poon and feather harpoon can therefore be cast with the throwing 

 stick. — 



The Greenland kaiak lance agrees exactly with the Central 

 Eskimo's described by Boas^). The Alaskan Eskimo have two kinds 

 of lances. The primitive lance in Alaska (whale lance) •^) is a thrust- 

 ing weapon, which consists of a long wooden shaft with a broad 

 flint head inserted in a slit at the end, but without any loose shaft. 

 This type has occurred everywhere. Alongside it there has devel- 

 oped among the East Eskimo a specialized type, in which essential 

 features were copied from the harpoon weapon and adapted to the 

 kaiak hunting. The head of bone, stone or iron has among them 

 become fixed in a loose shaft of bone, which quite resembles the 

 loose shaft of the harpoon, with two line holes a little above the 

 base. The wooden shaft of the Greenland lance is heavier than the 

 harpoon's and has no bone weight at the butt end, but a specia- 

 lized form of it can be cast like the harpoon with the throwing stick 

 and bears lateral bone pegs for this purpose. Also the foreshaft, a flat 

 cap of bone on the upper shaft end, is an analogy with the harpoon. 



1) Boas a 888) pp. 49.'J 4<)4. 



-j Id. ibid. p. 4i)(J, fig. 4:52. 



•') Murdocii Il8i)2i p. 240, fig. 238. Nelson (1889) pp. 145 146, PI. LVa, ;i— 4. 



