Ethnographical collections from East Greenland. 



453 



Roald Amundsen brought home four single-pronged salmon forks or 

 fish spears from the Central Eskimo on King Williams Land, each with a 

 loose bone head provided with as many as five unilateral barbs (length of 

 spear 214 m.). Thej»^ are stated to have been used for spearing salmon from 

 the kaiak^). The bone head is movable, attached to the wooden shaft by 

 means of a thong through a single hole in the lowermost part of the bone 

 shaft (at right angles to the plane of the barbs), thus quite like the loose 

 shaft of a kaiak harpoon. Further, the following characteristic: at the base 

 the loose shaft has a socket, into which a bone tenon on the end of the 

 wooden shaft fits (the reverse condition to what we find in the Greenland 

 harpoon, where the loose shaft ends in a tenon fitting down into a socket 

 on the top surface of the foreshaft). — Along with these fish spears Amund- 

 sen also fovmd quantities of the three-forked salmon spear [kakivak). 



In connection with this reference to the weapons of the Central Eskimo 

 on King Williams Land I may also mention some seal harpoons brought 

 home b}' Amundsen from the same regions-). Whilst we find 

 here the harpoon head, the loose shaft, the bone foreshaft and 

 the basal pick in full agreement with the common kaiak har- 

 poon, we miss the leather strap which elsewhere connects the 

 loose shaft with the foreshaft. In other words, the loose shaft • 

 is simply inserted (sufficientlj^ firmly to hold) into the conical 

 socket on the end of the cylindrical, wedge-shaped foreshaft. 



Stilettos (hand lances, cf. pp.47 — 48) are of two types. 



The longer (aijiwileet) is said to be especially for killing 



the narwhal, when it has been overtaken and wounded. 



The one shown in fig. 151a is of wood, 93 cm. long, 



provided at one end with a bone point, at the other with 



a bear's tooth. The shorter [pana) is used against the ] 



wounded seal, when it still shows signs of life after being i 



hauled to the side of the kaiak. The death-blow in the ; 



heart is then given with this weapon. The one shown in 



ï\g. 150, which was found by Amdrup at the "dead house," 



Fig 150 



is entirely of bone all in one piece. The other (fig. 151b) stiiettomade 

 consists of a wooden shaft with a long row of carved of bone, 

 rings to give a firm grip, a bone shank inserted at the Nualik. (Am- 

 end and an iron blade fixed in a groove. The Ammas- ^^^^ coll.). 

 salikers call this last weapon a pana (which otherwise in the Eskimo 

 language means the broad man's knife). 



The wound-trimmer (maijitteen, figs. 152 — 153, cf. p. 48) is a 

 specialized bone instrument, which I only know from the Ammas- 

 salik district. In addition to the specimens brought home by Holm, 

 Amdrup found such an instrument at the "dead house" (fig. 153). 

 It is used for cutting into the wound of the dead seal, if the har- 



^) Christiania Ethnographical Museum, hiventory R. A. 192. 

 -) Christiania Ethnographical Museum, Inv. Nos. 16021— 16031 Ь). 



