Ethnological results of the Point Barrow expedition: Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1887-1888, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1892, pages 3-442Murdoch, John
History
Ethnological results of the Point Barrow expedition: Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1887-1888, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1892, pages 3-442
Murdoch, John
Eskimos -- Alaska -- Barrow, Point, Region
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]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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