[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.
Fig. 239.—Flint head of whale lance.
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. 240a, 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. 240b, 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. 240c, 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.