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
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]
THROWING WEAPONS.
The only throwing weapon which these people use is a small bolas,
designed for catching birds on the wing. This consists of six or seven
small ivory balls, each attached to a string about 30 inches long, the
ends of which are fastened together to a tuft of feathers, which
serves as a handle and perhaps directs the flight of the missile. When
not in use the strings are shortened up, as in Fig. 247, No. 75969
[1793], for convenience in carrying and to keep them from tangling, by
tying them into slip knots, as follows: All the strings being
straightened out and laid parallel to each other, they are doubled in
a bight, with the end under the standing part, the bight of the end
passed through the preceding bight, which is drawn up close, and so
on, usually five or six times, till the strings are sufficiently
shortened. A pull on the two ends slips all these knots and the
strings come out straight and untangled.
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