(1) A spear barbed unilaterally or bilaterally. (2) A similar Spear which has its head so socketed as to come free from the shaft when the object has been struck, the quarry being thereafter retrieved by means of _a line made fast to the head itself_. One of the simplest specimens is, perhaps, that figured by Reisner,[764] while two by Petrie[765] are, though probably pre-dynastic, of more elaborate workmanship. [Illustration: AN EGYPTIAN REEL. From F. Ll. Griffith, _Beni Hasan_, Pt. 4, Pl. 13, 3.] [Illustration: SPEARING FISH. From F. Ll. Griffith, _Beni Hasan_, Pt. 4, Pl. 13, 3. See n. 1, p. 311.] To the latter the earliest Harpoons in Egypt appear to be the three-toothed bone Harpoons of the first prehistoric age. The representation of launching the Harpoon at fish is one of the commonest in tombs from the Vth to the XVIIIth Dynasties. The truth seems to be that the Harpoon as a means of livelihood ceased in the second prehistoric age, but as an instrument of sport lasted much later, though in the latest paintings it may be only a religious archaism.[766] Seventy years have failed to displace substantially Wilkinson’s statements: fish-spearing from bank or papyrus punt was the sportsman’s method: the spear or bident,[767] about nine to twelve feet long, was thrust at passing fish: to it a long line (held in the left hand) was usually fastened for the purpose of recovering the weapon and the fish, if struck. Sometimes the weapon was feathered like an arrow (the author was possibly misled by or is alluding to the hieroglyph [hieroglyph]), or was just like a common spear. If the statement be correct that “the _bilaterally_ barbed Harpoon is almost unknown before the Middle Kingdom times,”[768] we are faced by the remarkable fact of a weapon found again and again in the Magdalenian epoch of Palæolithic Man—each reader can supply his own conjecture how many millenniums before—being absent in a culture familiar with Copper Age hooks and harpoons. But hold what view we may as to the original priority of implement, _examples_ of Spear-Harpoons are found in Egypt, at any rate, much earlier than those of either the Net or the Hook. An illustration or two will serve to confirm the sporting use of the Harpoon, as advanced by Wilkinson and Petrie. The first, a fine representation, depicts, in fig. 3, probably Khenemhetep standing in a papyrus boat in the act of spearing two large fish; beside him stands an attendant holding a bident Harpoon and a Reel unfixed. [Illustration: SENBI SPEARING FISH. From A. M. Blackman, _Rock Tombs of Meir_, Vol. I. Pl. 11.] In fig. 4 (an enlargement in colour of the preceding plate) the _barbed_ heads transfix the heads of two big fish: an attendant holds a spare harpoon and a reel of cord evidently meant to revolve in its handle.[769]