Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/62

the walrus often comes again to the same hole. Even though the hunters may be too far away to be able to harpoon a walrus appearing in this fashion, they often run at it to scare it; this gradually exhausts it and finally it remains up rather a long time and can then be harpooned.

When the walrus is killed it must be drawn up and, with its ton weight, this is often the most difficult work, especially on thin ice which continually breaks away. A tackle is made: the line is fastened in a hole cut through the nose of the walrus, then passes round the ice-hunting harpoon shaft which has been stuck into the ice, back again and through a loop formed of a piece of the breast hide and again back in the line on which all the hunters haul. Sometimes the line is fastened to the walrus by passing it through the nose and casting the end-loop over one of the tusks. If it is on new ice, thongs are fastened to the fore flippers and these are drawn out to the sides, thus making the bearing surface wider, whereby the ice can stand the weight better.

Boat hunting for walrus is as follows: Walruses lie asleep on a drifting ice-floe. The boat is paddled towards it as noiselessly as possible and, when at quite close range, the hunters fire their guns. The walruses immediately throw themselves into the water, and one of the men must now always be ready with a loaded gun in case any of the walruses should attack the boat. If one of the walruses is wounded or dead the task is to harpoon it before it sinks. Unwounded walruses are not harpooned as a rule, for fear they should attack the boat. Attacking walruses from a kayak is also considered to be very dangerous.

Walruses which have crawled on shore are also caught sometimes; this is said to happen particularly at Uglerlârssuk, where the beach consists of sand which readily slips away under them.

The harpoon used in summer-hunting for walrus is the same as that used for narwhal hunting, only with another head.

Fig. 10. 3 and 1 (from Manertoq and Chesterfield Inlet) are typical walrus harpoon heads, powerful, with the blade at right angles to the line hole; sometimes a sheath of sealskin is used for these harpoon heads.

The hunter who first harpoons a walrus receives the fore-part; the others receive parts in accordance with certain rules. At Iglulik a walrus was divided between the following four hunters who had helped to catch it: 1 (the one who had first harpooned it), the forepart, head, entrails and left fore-flipper. 2) Right fore flipper. 3) Back flippers and rump. 4) Breast, cut out from the tip of the chin to the navel. All ribs went with the first two portions.