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bindings, but otherwise like those of the foregoing; at two places there are small pieces of sealskin under the sinew backing. There are Image missingFig. 25.Bow (Parry's collection, Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburg). other three bows in the collection, all of antler and formed by scarfing three pieces of antler and with a strong sinew backing. The lengths are 82, 84 and 90 cm; they come from Iglulik, Manertoq and Itibdjeriang respectively.

Parry[1] mentions bows of wood in one piece, but says at the same time that they are rare and that the usual bows are of pieces of antler lashed together. Lyon[2] gives the usual length of bows as 3½ feet and says that when in use, the bow is held horizontally. Those I have seen used were held in the left hand in an oblique position, the upper end leaning to the right.

Fig. 25 (Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, No. U. C. 164) is a bow, purchased by Parry at Winter Island 1822. The stave is of one piece of wood. 1.38 m long, 4½ cm wide, 1½–2 cm thick. A strengthening piece of antler, 25 cm long, is riveted to the concave side at the middle. The back has a sinew backing — a powerful bunch of thread, consisting of several plaited cords; just at the ends a single cross binding runs from this, a little way from the ends 6–7 double bindings and, at the middle, 7–8 many-stranded bindings. The string is fairly thick and consists of several twisted, plaited cords.

Arrows (qardjoq). Fig. 26.1 (Chesterfield Inlet) is an arrow with a round wooden shaft, two opposite feathers held by sinew-thread bindings round both ends; a foreshaft of antler, scarfed to the shaft by a bevel end and sinew-thread binding, and an iron blade, fastened on with an iron rivet. Length 58 cm.

Fig. 26.2 (Iglulik) differs from the above in that it has not a separate blade, but a head of antler, symmetrical, without barbs. 52 cm long.

An arrow from Ingnertoq is 59 cm long, of which 13 cm are accounted for by an iron head, hammered out at the end into a blade, a tang at the rear end inserted in a cleft in the shaft; no feathers.

These three forms of arrows are used indiscriminately for caribou hunting, the first one more frequently. A loose foreshaft of one of these, from Ponds inlet, is shown in fig. 27; it is of antler, round, cut obliquely at the rear end and

  1. ↑ 1824 p. 510 and the table on p. 550. 12.
  2. ↑ 1824 p. 328.
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