As would naturally be expected from what has been said of the peaceful
character of these people, offensive weapons, specially intended for
use against men, are exceedingly rare. In case of quarrels between
individuals or parties the bows, spears, and knives intended for
hunting or general use would be turned against their enemies. Even
their rifles, nowadays, are kept much more for hunting than as weapons
of offense, and the revolvers of various patterns which many of them
have obtained from the ships are chiefly carried when traveling back
and forth between the two villages as a protection against a possible
bear. We, however, obtained a few weapons which were especially
designed for taking human life. One of these was a little club
(tĭ´glun) (No. 89492 [1310], Fig. 172, from Utkiavwĭñ) made of the
butt end of an old pickax head of whale’s bone, with the point cut
down to a blunt end. It is 6.4 inches long and meant to be clenched in
the hand like a dagger, and used for striking blows, probably at the
temple. The transverse grooves for hafting give a good hold for the
fingers. This was the only weapon of the kind seen.
[Illustration: FIG. 172.--Little hand-club. 1/2]
We collected a single specimen of a kind of slung shot, No. 89472
[905] (Fig. 173), made of a roughly ovoid lump of heavy bone, the
symphysis of the lower jaw of a walrus, 3⅓ inches long. At the smaller
end two large holes are bored in obliquely so as to meet under the
surface and form a channel through which is passed a slip of white
seal skin about 15 inches long, the ends of which fasten together with
two slits, so as to make a loop. This may be compared with the stone
balls used by the ancient Aleuts for striking a man on the temple.
[Illustration: FIG. 173.--Slungshot made of walrus jaw. 1/2]
The commonest weapon of offense was a broad dagger made of a bone of
the polar bear. This was said to be especially meant for killing a
“bad man,” possibly for certain specified offenses or perhaps in cases
of insanity. Insane persons were sometimes killed in Greenland, and
the act was considered “neither decidedly admissible nor altogether
unlawful.”[N288] The use of bears’ bones for these weapons points to
some superstitious idea, perhaps having reference to the ferocity of
the animal. We collected five specimens of these daggers, of which No.
89484 [767], Fig. 174, has been selected as the type. It is the distal
end of the ulna of a polar bear, with the neck and condyles forming
the hilt, and the shaft split so as to expose the medullary cavity and
cut into a pointed blade. It is very old, blackened, and crumbling on
the surface, and is a foot long.
[Footnote N288: Rink, Tales and Traditions, p. 35.]
Fig. 175_a_, No. 89475 [988], from Nuwŭk, is made of a straight
splinter from the shaft of one of the long bones, 9¾ inches long. No.
89480 [1141], from Utkiavwĭñ, has a roughly whittled hilt and a
somewhat twisted blade, rather narrow, but widened to a sharp
lanceolate point. It is 12 inches long. No. 89481 [1175], from the
same place, has the roughly shaped hilt whipped with two turns of
sinew. No. 89482 [1709], Fig. 175_b_, also from Utkiavwĭñ, is
dirk-shaped, having but one edge and a straight back. The hilt, as
before, is roughly sawed from the solid head of the bone. No. 89485
[965], Fig. 176, from Nuwŭk, was also said to be a dagger, but could
not have been a very effective weapon. It is of whale’s bone, 5 inches
long. It is rather rudely carved, old, and dirty, but the notches on
the haft are newly cut.
[Illustration: FIG. 174.--Dagger of bear’s bone.]
[Illustration: FIG. 175.--Bone daggers.]
Dirks or daggers of bear’s bone, like those described, are really
rather formidable weapons, as it is easy to give the splinter of bone
a very keen point. The Museum contains a bone dagger curiously like
these Eskimo weapons, but made of the bone of the grizzly bear, and
used by the Indians of the McCloud River, northern California. They
believe that the peculiar shape of the point, having a hollow (the
medullary cavity) on one face, like the Eskimo daggers, causes the
wound to bleed internally.