Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/85

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68 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., i, 1899

the Giliak float. They also have a deep-sea harpoon with long shaft, operated by two hunters.

The parts of a toggle harpoon head are the toggle head, the body of the head, the spur, barbs, blade, shaft hole, line hole, grooves, and leader or short line (this works on a loose shaft of varying form hinged to the shaft), foreshaft (which differs in material and shape, joining with the shaft), socket for the fore- shaft, and accessories. Shafts differ in material, in length and size, in the number and position of the pegs, in the hand stop or rest, in the laying on of the assembling line and ice pick. Add to this the floats, float rack, and other appurtenances on the canoe or kaiak, and it will be seen how excellent an object for studying distribution and development for technique this weapon becomes (plate IV).

In a more extended work on zootechny the discussion and distribution of the barbed and toggle harpoons throughout the western hemisphere will be fully set forth.

Closely associated with the harpoon is the so-called throwing- stick, or dart sling, or harpoon sling, or Mexican atlatl. It is a piece of wood or reed, the working end of which is a hook of

  • some sort to engage the but-end of a dart or harpoon. Its

manual end may be merely rounded for a hand grip, or it may be carefully wrought out to fit the right hand of the hunter. The device practically adds another joint to the hunter's arm. With specific variations it is found from Greenland to Siberia among the Eskimo ; it occurs also in southeastern Alaska, down the Pacific coast to Columbia river, among the cliff dwellers of the In- terior basin, in the keys of southern Florida, and thence south- ward through Central America to Colombia, on the upper Ama- zon, in the Mato Grosso, and in eastern Brazil. In the Report of the United States National Museum for 1883-84 the writer published a paper on Eskimo throwing-sticks, since which time many contributions have appeared relative to this curious inven- tion (plate II, /). Among the writers should be named Krtstian

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