File:Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution (1879) (18434882245).jpg

Title: Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution
Identifier: annualreportofbo1879smit (find matches)
Year: 1846 (1840s)
Authors: Smithsonian Institution. Board of Regents; United States National Museum. Report of the U. S. National Museum; Smithsonian Institution. Report of the Secretary
Subjects: Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science
Publisher: Washington : Smithsonian Institution
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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The bird spear of the Greenland Eskimo has, besides its main point, several supplementary points at some distance from the end of the spear. It has an inflated bladder to prevent its sinking in the water. A number of dif- ferent Polynesian weapons are made with shark's teeth lashed to wooden clubs or lances. Fiff. 107 is a Spear- Fig. 105.—Lance-head and sealbuoy, British Columbia. head exhibited in the Philippine Islands section of the Spanish department. The Kingsmilland Marquesas Islanders also arm theedges of their spears with sharks' teeth, binding them to the shaft with sinnet, the plaited fiber (coir) of the cocoa-nut. One from the Kingsmill Islands has over 200 teeth in a row, the shaft being of light wood and 15 feet long. A spear from the Philippines had 12 teeth in a row. A saw is made on the same principle by the Australians; flakes of obsidian or quartz, about the size of a quarter-dollar, are inserted in a grooved stick of gum-tree wood and fastened by gum from the grass-tree, commonly known as "black-
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Fig. 10G.—Seal and fish spear, Eodiak Eskimo, Alaska. boy" gum.170 Javelins of bone or wood with longitudinal grooves, in which are inserted flint Hakes, are shown by Nilson.in The spear of the Tonga Islands is barbed with the tail bone of the sting-ray ; the same bone is used on the prongs of the Tahitian trident. The barbs are not fastened, but are slipped into sockets just tight enough to hold them until they are thrust into the body, when they become de- tached and, from their barbed character, work deeper and deeper into the wound. We have considered wooden spears, and those with stone and bone beads, and incidentally some other materials. We now come to metal, the material of all the best, and which, once adopted, is not again laid aside. Spear-heads of copper were shown among the Indian implements from Wisconsin. Copper preceded iron, being found native and mal- leable. Copper and bronze implements are among the articles recov- ered from the Egyptian tombs, the tumuli of Assyria, and the excava- 170 Wood, vol. ii, p. 35. i" " Stone Age," pi. vi, Figs. 124, 5, G.

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