_Harpoons._--For the capture of seals as they come up for air to their
breathing holes or cracks in the ice a harpoon is used which has a
short wooden shaft, armed, as before, with an ice pick and a long,
slender, loose shaft suited for thrusting down through the small
breathing hole. It carries a núalɐ like the other harpoon, but has
only a short line, the end of which is made fast permanently to the
shaft. Such harpoons are used by all Eskimo wherever they are in the
habit of watching for seals at their breathing holes. The slender part
of the shaft, however, is not always loose.[N337] The foreshaft is
simply a stout ferrule for the end of the shaft. These weapons are in
general use at Point Barrow and are very neatly made.
[Footnote N337: Parry, Second Voyage, p. 507, Iglulik.]
[Illustration: FIG. 227.--Seal harpoon for thrusting.]
We obtained two specimens, of which No. 89910 [1694], Fig. 227, will
serve as the type. The total length of this spear when rigged for use
is 5 feet 3 inches. The shaft is of spruce, 20½ inches long and 1.1
inches in the middle, tapering to 0.9 at the ends. At the butt is
inserted, as before, an ivory ice pick (túu) of the form already
described, 13¾ inches long and lashed in with sinew braid. The
foreshaft (kátû) is of walrus ivory, nearly cylindrical, 5¾ inches
long and 0.9 inch in diameter, shouldered at the butt and fitted into
the tip of the shaft with a round tang. The latter is very neatly
whipped with a narrow strip of white whalebone, which makes eleven
turns and has the end of the last turn forced into a slit in the wood
and wedged with a round wooden peg. Under this whipping is the bill of
a tern as a charm for good luck. (As the boy who pointed this out to
me said, “Lots of seals.”)
[Illustration: FIG. 228.--Diagram of lashing on shaft.]
The loose shaft (ígimû) is of bone, whale’s rib or jaw, and has two
transverse holes above the shoulder to receive the end of the
assembling line (sábromia), which not only holds the loose shaft in
place, but also connects the other parts of the shaft so that in case
the wood breaks the pieces will not be dropped. It is a long piece of
seal thong, of which one end makes a turn round the loose shaft
between the holes; the other end is passed through the lower hole,
then through the upper and carried down to the tip of the shaft, where
it is hitched just below the whalebone whipping, as follows: three
turns are made round the shaft, the first over the standing part, the
second under, and the third over it; the end then is passed under 3,
over 2, and under 1 (Fig. 228), and all drawn taut; it then runs down
the shaft almost to the butt-lashing and is secured with the same
hitch, and the end is whipped around the butt of the ice pick with
five turns. The head (naúlɐ) is of the ordinary pattern, 2.8 inches
long, with a copper blade and antler body. The line (túkăktĭn) is a
single piece of seal thong 9 feet long, and is fastened to the head
without a leader, by simply passing the end through the line-hole,
doubling it over and stopping it to the standing part so as to make a
becket 21 inches long. The other end is made fast round the shaft and
assembling line just back of the middle, as follows: An eye is made at
the end of the line, by cutting a slit close to the tip and pushing a
bight of the line through this. The end then makes a turn round the
shaft, and the other end, with the head, is passed through this eye
and drawn taut. When mounted for use, the head is fitted on the tip of
the loose shaft as usual and the line brought down to the tip of the
shaft and made fast by two or three round turns with a bight tucked
under, so that it can be easily slipped. It is also confined to the
loose shaft by the end of the assembling line, which makes one or two
loose turns round it. The slack of the line is doubled into “fakes”
and tucked between the shaft and assembling line.
[Illustration: FIG. 229.--Model of a seal harpoon. 1/3]
The other specimen is of the same pattern, but slightly different
proportions, having a shaft 18½ inches long and a pick 19 inches long.
The loose shaft is of ivory, and there are lashings of white whalebone
at each end of the shaft. The assembling line is hitched round the
foreshaft as well as round the two ends of the shaft, and simply
knotted round the pick. The line is of very stout sinew braid, and has
an eye neatly spliced in the end for looping it round the shaft. Fig.
229, No. 89551 [1082], is a model of one of these harpoons, made for
sale. It is 16¼ inches long, and correct in all its parts, except that
the whole head is of ivory, even to having the ends of the shaft
whipped with light-colored whalebone. The shaft is of pine and the
rest of walrus ivory, with lines of sinew braid. We also collected
four loose shafts for such harpoons. One of these, No. 89489 [802], is
of whale’s bone and unusually short, only 14 inches long. It perhaps
belonged to a lad’s spear. The other three are long, 20 to 25 inches,
and are made of narwhal ivory, as is shown by the spiral twist in the
grain.
The harpoon used for the whale fishery is a heavy, bulky weapon, which
is never thrown, but thrust with both hands as the whale rises under
the bows of the umiak. When not in use it rests in a large ivory
crotch, shaped like a rowlock, in the bow. The shaft is of wood and 8
or 9 feet long, and there is no loose shaft, the bone or ivory
foreshaft being tapered off to a slender point of such a shape that
the head easily unships. This foreshaft is not weighted, as in the
walrus harpoon, since this is not necessary in a weapon which does not
leave the hand. The harpoon line is fitted with two inflated sealskin
floats.
[Illustration: FIG. 230.--Large model of a whale harpoon. 1/12 1/6]
No complete, genuine whaling harpoons were ever offered for sale, but
a man at Nuwûk made a very excellent reduced model about two-thirds
the usual size (No. 89909 [1023], Fig. 230), which will serve as the
type of this weapon (a´jyûñ). This is 6 feet 11 inches in length when
rigged for use. The shaft is of pine, 5 feet 8½ inches long, with its
greatest diameter (1½ inches) well forward of the middle and tapered
more toward the butt than toward the tip, which is chamfered off on
one side to fit the butt of the foreshaft (igimû), and shouldered to
keep the lashing in place. The foreshaft is of whale’s bone, 11½
inches long, three-sided with one edge rounded off, and tapers from a
diameter of 1 inch to a tapering rounded point 1½ inches long, and
slightly curved away from the flat face of the foreshaft. It will
easily be seen that the shape of this tip facilitates the unshipping
of the head. The butt is chamfered off on the flat face to fit the
chamfer of the shaft, and the whole foreshaft is slightly curved in
the same direction as the tip. It is secured to the shaft by a stout
whipping of seal thong. The head is 7 inches long, and has a body of
walrus ivory, which is ornamented with incised patterns colored red
with ocher, and a blade of dark reddish brown jasper, neatly flaked.
This blade is not unlike a large arrow head, being triangular, with
curved edges, and a short, broad tang imbedded in the tip of the body,
which is seized round with sinew braid. The body is unusually long and
slender and is four sided, with a single long, sharp barb, keeled on
the outer face. The line hole and line grooves are in the usual
position, but the peculiarity of the head is that the blade is
inserted with its breadth in the plane of the body barb. In other
words, this head has not reached the last stage in the development of
the toggle-head. The line is of stout thong (the skin of the bearded
seal) and about 8½ feet long. It is passed through the line hole,
doubled in the middle, the two parts are firmly stopped together with
sinew in four places, and in the ends are cut long slits for looping
on the floats. When the head is fitted on the foreshaft the line is
secured to the flat face of the foreshaft by a little stop made of a
single strand of sinew, easily broken. About 28 inches from the tip of
the shaft the line is doubled forward and the bight stopped to the
shaft with six turns of seal thong, so that the line is held in place
and yet can be easily detached by a straight pull. The ends are then
doubled back over the lashing and stopped to the shaft with a single
thread of sinew.
[Illustration: FIG. 231.--Model of whale harpoon with floats. 3/8]
Fig. 231 is a toy model of the whale harpoon, No. 56562 [233], 18½
inches long, made of pine and ivory, and shows the manner of attaching
the floats, which are little blocks of spruce roughly whittled into
the shape of inflated sealskins. A piece of seal thong 13½ inches long
has its ends looped round the neck of the floats and the harpoon-line
is looped into a slit in the middle of this line.
[Illustration: FIG. 232.--Flint blade for whale harpoon.]
We collected thirteen heads for such harpoons, which have been in
actual use, of which two have flint blades like the one described, two
have brass blades, and the rest either blades of slate or else no
blades. The flint blades are either triangular like the one described
or lanceolate and are about 3 inches long exclusive of the tang. The
three separate flint blades which we obtained (Fig. 232, No. 56708
[114], from Utkiavwĭñ, is one of these, made of black flint) are about
1 inch shorter and were perhaps intended for walrus harpoons, though
we saw none of these with flint blades. They are all newly made for
the market.
[Illustration: FIG. 233.--Slate blade for whale harpoon.]
The slate blades of which we collected eleven, some old and some new,
besides those in the heads, are all triangular, with curved edges, as
in Fig. 233 (No. 56709 [139] from Utkiavwĭñ, made of soft purple
slate), except one new one, No. 56697_a_ [188_a_], which has the
corners cut off so as to give it a rhomboidal shape. The corners are
sometimes rounded off so that they are nearly heart-shaped. These
blades are usually about 2¾ inches long and 2 broad; two unusually
large ones are 3 inches long and nearly 2¼ broad, and one small one
2.1 by 1.6 inches, and are simply wedged into the blade slit without a
rivet. The brass blades are of the same shape.
The common material for the body seems to have been rather coarse
whale’s bone, from the rib or jaw. Only two out of the thirteen have
ivory bodies, and these are both of the newer brass-bladed pattern.
The body is very long and slender, being usually about 8 or 8½ inches
long (one is 9¼ inches long) and not over 1½ inches broad at the
widest part. It is always cut off very obliquely at the base, and the
part in front of the line hole is contracted to a sort of shank, as in
Fig. 234 (No. 89747 [1044]), a head with slate blade (broken) and bone
body. This represents a very common form in which the shank is
four-sided, while back of the middle the outer face of the barb rises
into a ridge, making this part of the body five-sided. The edges of
the shank are sometimes rounded off so as to make this part elliptical
in section, and all the edges of the body except the keel, on the
outer face of the barb, are frequently rounded off as in Fig. 235_a_,
No. 89745 [1044], which has a slate blade wedged into the bone body
with a bit of old cloth and a wooden wedge. Fig. 235_b_, No. 56602
[157], from Utkiavwĭñ, is a head of the same shape, but has a brass
blade and a body of ivory. This blade is wedged in with deer hair, but
the other brass-bladed harpoon, No. 56601 [137], has a single rivet of
whalebone.
[Illustration: FIG. 234.--Body of whale harpoon head. 1/3]
The blade slit, and consequently the blade, is always in the plane of
the barb, which position, as I have said before, corresponds to the
last step but one in the development of the harpoon-head. When the
blade is of flint and inserted with a tang, the tip of the body is
always whipped with sinew braid, as in Fig. 212, No. 89748 [928], from
Nuwŭk. This specimen is remarkable as being the only one in the series
with a double point to the barb. These bodies are sometimes ornamented
with incised lines, in conventional patterns, as shown in the
different figures. A short incised mark somewhat resembling an arrow
(see above, Fig. 234, No. 89747 [1044]) may have some significance as
it is repeated on several of the heads. Harpoon-heads of this peculiar
pattern are to be found in the Museum collection from other
localities. As we should naturally expect, they have been found at the
Diomede Islands, St. Lawrence Island, and Plover Bay. It is very
interesting, however, to find a specimen of precisely the same type
from Greenland, where the modern harpoons are so different from those
used in the west.
[Illustration: FIG. 235.--Whale harpoon heads. 1/3]
That the line connecting the head with the float line is not always so
long in proportion as represented on the two models is shown by Fig.
236, No. 89744 [969], the only specimen obtained with any part of the
line attached. A piece of stout walrus-hide thong 2 feet long is
passed through the line-hole and doubled in two equal parts, which are
firmly stopped together with sinew about 2 inches from the head.
Another piece of similar thong 4 feet 2 inches long is also doubled
into two equal parts and the ends firmly spliced to those of the short
piece thus: The two ends of the long piece are slit and one end of the
short piece passed through each slit. One of these ends is then slit
and through it are passed the other end of the short piece and the
bight of the long piece, and all is drawn taut and securely seized
with sinew. The becket thus formed was probably looped directly into
the bight of the float line.
[Illustration: FIG. 236.--Whale harpoon head with a “leader.” 1/4]
The foreshaft is much larger than that of the model, though of the
same shape. No. 56537 [97], Fig. 237, from Utkiavwĭñ, is of
walrus-ivory and 15.8 inches long with a diameter of 1½ inches at the
butt. The oblong slot at the beginning of the chamfer is to receive
the end of the lashing which secured this to the shaft. This form of
foreshaft is very well adapted to insure the unshipping of the
toggle-head, but lacks the special advantage of the loose-shaft,
namely, that under a violent lateral strain it unships without
breaking. The question at once suggests itself, why was not the
improvement that is used on all the other harpoons applied to this
one? In my opinion, the reason for this is the same as for retaining
the form of toggle-head, which, as I have shown, is of an ancient
pattern.
[Illustration: FIG. 237.--Foreshaft of whale harpoon. 1/4]
That is to say, the modern whale harpoon is the same pattern that was
once used for all harpoons, preserved for superstitious reasons. It is
a well known fact, that among many peoples implements, ideas, and
language have been preserved in connection with religious ceremonies
long after they have gone out of use in every-day life. Now, the whale
fishing at Port Barrow, in many respects the most important
undertaking in the life of the natives, is so surrounded by
superstitious observances, ceremonies to be performed, and other
things of the same nature as really to assume a distinctly religious
character. Hence, we should naturally expect to find the implements
used in it more or less archaic in form. That this is the case in
regard to the toggle-head I think I have already shown. It seems to me
equally evident that this foreshaft, which contains the loose shaft
and foreshaft, undifferentiated, is also the older form.
Why the development of the harpoon was arrested at this particular
stage is not so easily determined. A natural supposition would be that
this was the form of harpoon used by their ancestors when they first
began to be successful whalemen.
That they connect the idea of good luck with these ancient stone
harpoons is shown by what occurred at Point Barrow in 1883. Of late
years they have obtained from the ships many ordinary “whale-irons,”
and some people at least had got into the habit of using them.
Now, the bad luck of the season of 1882, when the boats of both
villages together caught only one small whale, was attributed to the
use of these “irons,” and it was decided by the elders that the
_first_ harpoon struck into the whale must be a stone-bladed one such
as their forefathers used when they killed many whales.
In this connection, it is interesting to note a parallel custom
observed at Point Hope. Hooper[N338] says that at this place the
beluga must always be struck with a _flint_ spear, even if it has been
killed by a rifle shot.
[Footnote N338: Corwin Report, p. 41.]
[Illustration: FIG. 238.--Whale lance.]
_Lances._--As I have said on a preceding page, some of the natives now
use bomb-guns for dispatching the harpooned whale, and all the
whaleboats are provided with steel whale lances obtained from the
ships. In former times they used a large and powerful lance with a
broad flint head. They seem to have continued the use of this weapon,
probably for the same reasons that led them to retain the ancient
harpoon for whaling until they obtained their present supply of steel
lances, as we found no signs of iron whale lances of native
manufacture, such as are found in Greenland and elsewhere. We obtained
nine heads for stone lances (kaluwiɐ) and one complete lance, a very
fine specimen (No. 56765 [537], Fig. 238), which was brought down as a
present from Nuwŭk. The broad, sharp head is of light gray flint,
mounted on a shaft of spruce 12 feet 6 inches long. It has a broad,
stout tang inserted in the cleft end of the shaft. The shaft is
rhomboidal in section with rounded edges, and tapers from a breadth of
2 inches and a thickness of 1 at the tip to a butt of 0.7 inch broad
and 1 thick. The tip of the shaft has a whipping of sinew-braid 1¾
inches deep, “kackled” down on both edges, one end of the twine on
each edge, so that the hitch made by one end crosses the round turn of
the other, making in all twenty-six turns. The shaft has been painted
red for 1½ inches below the whipping.
[Illustration: FIG. 239.--Flint head of whale lance. 1/2]
[Illustration: FIG. 240.--Flint heads for whale lances.]
No. 89596 [1032] is the head and 5 inches of the shaft of a similar
lance. The head is of black flint, and the sinew-braid forms a simple
whipping. The remaining heads are all unmounted. I have figured
several of them to show the variations of this now obsolete weapon.
Fig. 239, No. 56677 [49], from Utkiavwĭñ, is of gray flint chipped in
large flakes. The total length is 6.9 inches. The small lugs on the
edges of the tang are to keep it from slipping out of the whipping.
No. 56679 [239], also from Utkiavwĭñ, is of black flint and broader
than the preceding. Its length is 6.3 inches. No. 56680 [394], from
the same village, is of light bluish gray flint and very broad. It is
5.4 inches long. No. 56681 [5], from Utkiavwĭñ, is another broad head
of black flint, 6 inches long. Fig. 240_a_, No. 89597 [1034], from
Nuwŭk, is of black flint, and unusually long in proportion, running
into the tang with less shoulder than usual. Much of the original
surface is left untouched on one face. This is probably very old. No.
89598 [1361] is a head of similar shape of dark gray flint from
Sidaru. It is 6 inches long. Fig. 240_b_, No. 89599 [1373], from the
same place and of similar material, is shaped very like the head of a
steel lance. It is 5 inches long. Fig. 240_c_, No. 89600 [1069], from
Utkiavwĭñ, is still broader in proportion and almost heart-shaped. It
is of bluish gray flint and 4.8 inches long. These heads probably
represent most of the different forms in use. Only two types are to be
recognized among them, the long-pointed oval with a short tang, and
the broad leaf-shaped head with a rather long tang, which appears to
be the commoner form.
We obtained one newly made lance of a pattern similar to the above,
but smaller, which was said to be a model of the weapon used in
attacking the polar bear before the introduction of firearms. The
name, pû´nnû, is curiously like the name panna given by Dr. Simpson
and Capt. Parry to the large double-edged knife. The specimen, No.
89895 [1230], Fig. 241, came from Utkiavwĭñ. It has a head of gray
flint 3½ inches long, exclusive of the tang, roughly convex on one
face, but flat and merely beveled at the edges on the other. The edges
are finely serrate. The shaft is of spruce, 6 feet 8 inches long,
rounded and somewhat flattened at the tip, which is 1 inch wide and
tapering to a diameter of 0.7 at the butt, and is painted red with
ocher. The tip has a slight shoulder to keep the whipping in place.
The tang is wedged in with bits of leather and secured by a close
whipping of sinew braid 1¼ inches deep. Fig. 242, No. 89611 [1034],
from Nuwŭk, was probably the head of such a lance, although it is
somewhat narrower and slightly shorter. Its total length is 3.4
inches. The other two large lance-heads, No. 56708_a_ [114_a_] and No.
56708_b_ [114_b_], are both new, but were probably meant for the bear
lance. They are of gray flint, 3½ inches long, and have the edges
regularly serrate.
[Illustration: FIG. 241.--Bear lance. 1/12]
[Illustration: FIG. 242.--Flint head for bear lance. 1/2]
One form of lance is still in general use. It has a sharp metal head,
and a light wooden shaft about 6 feet long. It is used in the kaiak
for stabbing deer swimming in the water, after the manner frequently
noticed among other Eskimo.[N339] A pair of these spears is carried in
beckets on the forward deck of the kaiak. On approaching a deer one of
them is slipped out of the becket and laid on the deck, with the butt
resting on the combing of the cockpit. The hunter then paddles rapidly
up alongside of the deer, grasps the lance near the butt, as he would
a dagger, and stabs the animal with a quick downward thrust. This
spear is called kă´pun, which in the Point Barrow dialect exactly
corresponds to the Greenlandic word kapût, which is applied to the
long-bladed spear or long knife used for dispatching a harpooned
seal.[N340] The word kă´pun means simply “an instrument for stabbing.”
[Footnote N339: Parry, 2d Voy., p. 512 (Iglulik); Kumlien,
Contributions, p. 54 (Cumberland Gulf); Schwatka, Science, vol. 4,
No. 98, p. 544 (King Williams Land).]
[Footnote N340: Crantz, vol. 1, p. 147, Pl. V, Fig. 5; and Kane,
1st Grinnell Exp., p. 479 (fig. at bottom).]
[Illustration: FIG. 243.--Deer Lance. 1/12 1/3]
[Illustration: FIG. 244.--Part of deer lance, with flint head. 1/2]
No. 73183 [524], Figs. 243_a_, 243_b_ (head enlarged), will serve as a
type of this weapon, of which we have two specimens. All that we saw
were essentially like this. The head is iron, 4¾ inches long exclusive
of the tang, and 1½ inches broad. The edges are narrowly beveled on
both faces. The shaft is 6 feet 2 inches long, and tapers from a
diameter of 0.8 inch about the middle to about one-half inch at each
end. The tip is cleft to receive the tang of the head, and shouldered
to keep the whipping from slipping off. The latter was of sinew braid
and 2 inches deep. The shaft is painted with red ocher. The other has
a shaft 6 feet 4 inches long, but otherwise resembles the preceding.
The heads for these lances are not always made of iron. Copper, brass,
etc., are sometimes used. No. 56699 [166] is one of a pair of neatly
made copper lance heads. It is 5.9 inches long and 1½ wide, and ground
down on each face to a sharp edge without a bevel, except just at the
point. Before the introduction of iron these lances had stone heads,
but were otherwise of the same shape. Fig. 244 represents the head and
6 inches of the shaft of one of these (No. 89900 [1157] from Nuwŭk).
The shaft is new and rather carelessly made of a rough, knotty piece
of spruce, and is 5 feet 5¾ inches long. The head is of black flint
and 2 inches long, exclusive of the tang, and the tip of the shaft is
whipped with a narrow strip of light-colored whalebone, the end of
which is secured by passing it through a slit in the side of the shaft
and wedging it into a crack on the opposite side. This is an old head
newly mounted for the market, and the head is wedged in with a bit of
blue flannel.
No. 89897 [1324], Fig. 245, from Utkiavwĭñ, on the other hand, is an
old shaft 5 feet 7½ inches long, fitted with a new head, which is very
broad, and shaped like the head of a bear lance. It is of variegated
jasper, brown and gray, and has a piece of white sealskin lapped over
the cleft of the shaft at each side of the tang so that the edges of
the two pieces almost meet in the middle. They are secured by a spaced
whipping of sinew braid. This shaft, which is painted red, evidently
had a broad head formerly, as it is expanded at the tip. No. 89896
[1324] is the mate to this, evidently made to match it. We also
obtained one other flint-headed lance. The mate to No. 89900 [1157],
No. 89898 [1157], has a head of dark gray slate 2.3 inches long. This
spear appears to be wholly old, except the whipping of sinew braid.
The shaft is of spruce, 5 feet 4¾ inches long, and painted red with
ocher. We also collected three stone heads for such lances. Fig. 246,
No. 38711 [148], from Utkiavwĭñ, shows the shape of the tang. It is of
gray flint, and 3.7 inches long. No. 89610 [1154] is a beautiful lance
head of polished olive green jade, 4.3 inches long. The hole in the
tang is probably not intended for a rivet, as none of the lance heads
which we saw were fastened in this way. It is more likely that it was
perforated for attaching it to the belt as an amulet. We were told
that this lance head was brought from the west. A large slate lance
head found by Nordenskiöld[N341] in the old “Onkilon” house at North
Cape is of precisely the same shape as these deer-lance heads, but
from its size was probably intended for a whale lance.
[Footnote N341: Vega, vol. 1, p. 444, Fig. 7.]
[Illustration: FIG. 245.--Deer lance, flint head. 1/12]
[Illustration: FIG. 246.--Flint head for deer lance. 1/2]