No. 73183 [524], Figs. 243a, 243b (head enlarged), will serve as a type of this weapon, of which we have two specimens. All that we saw were essentially like this. The head is iron, 4¾ inches long exclusive of the tang, and 1½ inches broad. The edges are narrowly beveled on both faces. The shaft is 6 feet 2 inches long, and tapers from a diameter of 0.8 inch about the middle to about one-half inch at each end. The tip is cleft to receive the tang of the head, and shouldered to keep the whipping from slipping off. The latter was of sinew braid and 2 inches deep. The shaft is painted with red ocher. The other has a shaft 6 feet 4 inches long, but otherwise resembles the preceding. The heads for these lances are not always made of iron. Copper, brass, etc., are sometimes used. No. 56699 [166] is one of a pair of neatly made copper lance heads. It is 5.9 inches long and 1½ wide, and ground down on each face to a sharp edge without a bevel, except just at the point. Before the introduction of iron these lances had stone heads, but were otherwise of the same shape. Fig. 244 represents the head and 6 inches of the shaft of one of these (No. 89900 [1157] from Nuwŭk). The shaft is new and rather carelessly made of a rough, knotty piece of spruce, and is 5 feet 5¾ inches long. The head is of black flint and 2 inches long, exclusive of the tang, and the tip of the shaft is whipped with a narrow strip of light-colored whalebone, the end of which is secured by passing it through a slit in the side of the shaft 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[341] 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.
Fig. 244.—Part of deer lance, with flint head.
Fig. 246.—Flint head for deer lance.