Fig. 250 (No. 56598 [407]) is a similar pair, which are both “bowheads” nearly 5 inches long. Both have cylindrical plugs of ivory inserted for eyes, and are made of a piece of ivory so old that the surface is a light chocolate color. The name, kăgotĭñ, means literally “a pair of toggles.”
[Harpoon boxes] (u´dlun or u´blun, literally “a nest.”)—
The slate harpoon blades already described were very apt to be lost or broken, so they always carried in the boat a supply of spare blades. These were kept in a small box carved out of a block of soft wood, in the shape of the animal to be pursued.
Fig. 250.—Flipper toggles.
Fig. 251a represents one of these boxes (No. 56505 [138]) intended for spare blades for the whale harpoon. This is rather neatly carved from a single block of soft wood, apparently spruce, though it is very old and much weathered, in the shape of a “bowhead” whale, 9½ inches long. The ends of the flukes are broken short off, and show traces of having been mended with wooden pegs or dowels. The right eye is indicated by a simple incision, but a tiny bit of crystal is inlaid for the left. Two little bits of crystal are also inlaid in the middle of the back. The belly is flat and excavated into a deep triangular cavity, with its base just forward of the angle of the mouth and the apex at the “small.” It is beveled round the edge, with a shoulder at the base and apex, and is covered with a flat triangular piece of wood beveled on the under face to fit the edge of the cavity. About half of one side of the cover has been split off and mended on with two “stitches” of whalebone fiber. The cover is held on by three strings of seal thong passing through holes in each corner of the cover and secured by a knot in the end of each string. They then pass through three corresponding holes in the bottom of the cavity, leaving outside of the back two ends 7 inches and one 15 long, which are tied together. The cover can be lifted wholly off and then drawn back into its place by pulling the string.
