Fig. 242.—Flint head for bear lance.
We obtained one newly made lance of a pattern similar to the above, but smaller, which was said to be a model of the weapon used in attacking the polar bear before the introduction of firearms. The name, pû´nnû, is curiously like the name panna given by Dr. Simpson and Capt. Parry to the large double-edged knife. The specimen, No. 89895 [1230], Fig. 241, came from Utkiavwĭñ. It has a head of gray flint 3½ inches long, exclusive of the tang, roughly convex on one face, but flat and merely beveled at the edges on the other. The edges are finely serrate. The shaft is of spruce, 6 feet 8 inches long, rounded and somewhat flattened at the tip, which is 1 inch wide and tapering to a diameter of 0.7 at the butt, and is painted red with ocher. The tip has a slight shoulder to keep the whipping in place. The tang is wedged in with bits of leather and secured by a close whipping of sinew braid 1¼ inches deep. Fig. 242, No. 89611 [1034], from Nuwŭk, was probably the head of such a lance, although it is somewhat narrower and slightly shorter. Its total length is 3.4 inches. The other two large lance-heads, No. 56708a [114a] and No. 56708b [114b], are both new, but were probably meant for the bear lance. They are of gray flint, 3½ inches long, and have the edges regularly serrate.
One form of lance is still in general use. It has a sharp metal head, and a light wooden shaft about 6 feet long. It is used in the kaiak for stabbing deer swimming in the water, after the manner frequently noticed among other Eskimo.[339] A pair of these spears is carried in beckets on the forward deck of the kaiak. On approaching a deer one of them is slipped out of the becket and laid on the deck, with the butt resting on the combing of the cockpit. The hunter then paddles rapidly up alongside of the deer, grasps the lance near the butt, as he would a dagger, and stabs the animal with a quick downward thrust. This spear is called kă´pun, which in the Point Barrow dialect exactly corresponds to the Greenlandic word kapût, which is applied to the long-bladed spear or long knife used for dispatching a harpooned seal.[340] The word kă´pun means simply “an instrument for stabbing.”
Fig. 243.—Deer Lance.
Fig. 245.—Deer lance, flint head.