Fig. 203.—Seal dart.
As I have already said, the only harpoon of this kind now used at Point Barrow is a small one intended only for the capture of small seals. It has no bladder, but the rather long line is attached to the shaft by a martingale which makes the shaft drag sideways through the water. Three of these little darts, which are thrown with a handboard like the bird dart, make a set. The resistance of the shafts of these three spears darted into the seal in succession is said to be sufficient to fatigue the seal so that he can be easily approached and dispatched. We never saw these weapons used, though they are very common, as they are intended only for use from the kaiak, which these people seldom use in the neighborhood of the villages. When in the umiak, shooting with the rifle is a more expeditious means of taking seals. We collected three sets of these darts (kúkigû).
No. 89249b [523], Fig. 203, has been selected for description. The shaft is of spruce, 54½ inches long, and 0.8 inch in diameter at the tip, tapering slightly almost to the butt, which is hollowed on the end to fit the catch of the throwing board. The foreshaft is of white walrus ivory 5 inches long, and is fitted into the tip of the shaft with a wedge-shaped tang. This foreshaft, which has a deep oblong slot to receive the head in the middle of its flat tip, serves the double purpose of making a strong solid socket for the head and giving sufficient weight to the end of the dart to make it fly straight. The head is a simple flat barbed arrowhead of hard bone 2.3 inches long and one-half inch broad across the barbs, with a flat tang, broadest in the middle, where there is a hole for attaching the line. This head simply serves to attach the drag of the shaft to the seal as it is too small to inflict a serious wound. It is fastened to the shaft by a martingale made as follows: One end of a stout line of sinew braid 5½ feet long is passed through the hole in the head and secured by tying a knot in the end. The other end of this line divides into two parts not quite so stout, one 3 feet long, the other 2 feet 8 inches. The latter is fastened to the shaft 18½ inches from the butt by a single marling hitch with the end wedged into a slit in the wood and seized down with fine sinew. The longer part serves to fasten the foreshaft to the shaft, and was probably put on separately and worked into the braiding of the rest of the line at the junction. The foreshaft is kept from slipping out by a little transverse ridge on each side of the tang. When the weapon is mounted for use the two parts of the bridle are brought together at the middle of the shaft and wrapped spirally around it till only enough line is left to permit the head to be inserted in the socket, and the bight of the line is secured by tucking it under the last turn. When a seal is struck with this dart his sudden plunge to escape unships the head. The catch of the martingale immediately slips; the latter unrolls and drags the shaft through the water at right angles to the line. The shaft, besides acting as a drag on the seal’s motions, also serves as a float to indicate his position to the hunter, as its buoyancy brings it to the surface before the seal when the latter rises for air.
The shaft is usually painted red except so much of the end as lies in the groove of the throwing-board, in the act of darting. These darts vary but little in size and material, and are all of essentially the same pattern. They are always about 5 feet in length when mounted for use. (The longest is 64⅓ inches, and the shortest 57.) The head, as well as the foreshaft, is sometimes made of walrus ivory, and the latter sometimes of whale’s bone. The chief variation is in the length of the martingale, and the details of the method of attaching it. No two are precisely alike. The foreshaft is generally plain, but is occasionally highly ornamented, as is shown in Fig. 204, No. 56516 [105]. The figures are all incised and colored, some with ocher and some with soot.
Fig. 204.—Foreshaft of seal dart.
Both of the kinds of darts above described are thrown by means of a hand board or throwing-board. This is a flat, narrow board, from 15 to 18 inches long, with a handle at one end and a groove along the upper surface in which the spear lies with the butt resting against a catch at the other end. The dart is propelled by a quick motion of the wrist, as in casting with a fly-rod, which swings up the tip of the board and launches the dart forward. This contrivance, which practically makes of the hand a lever 18 inches long, enables the thrower by a slight motion of the wrist to impart great velocity to the dart. The use of this implement is universal among the Eskimo, though not peculiar to them. The Greenlanders, however, not only use it for the two kinds of darts already mentioned, but have adapted it to the large harpoon.[323] This is undoubtedly to adapt the large harpoon for use from the kaiak, which the Greenlanders use more habitually than most other Eskimo. On the other hand, the people of Baffin Land and the adjoining regions, as well as the inhabitants of northeastern Siberia, use it only with the bird dart.[324] Throughout western North America the throwing-board is used essentially as at Point Barrow. Prof. O. T. Mason has given[325] an interesting account of the different forms of throwing-board used by the Eskimo and Aleuts of North America.