We found no _oomiak_, or woman's
boat, among them, and understood that they were not in the habit of
using them, which may in part be accounted for by their passing so much
of the summer in the interior; they knew very well, however, what they
were, and made some clumsy models of them for our people.
In the weapons used for killing their game there is considerable
variety, according to the animal of which they are in pursuit. The most
simple of these is the _=o=on~ak_, which they use only for killing
the small seal. It consists of a light staff of wood, four feet in
length, having at one end the point of a narwhal's horn, from ten to
eighteen inches long, firmly secured by rivets and wooldings; at the
other end is a smaller and less effective point of the same kind. To
prevent losing the ivory part in case of the wood breaking, a stout
thong runs along the whole length of the wood, each end passing through
a hole in the ivory, and the bight secured in several places to the
staff. In this weapon, as far as it has yet been described, there is
little art or ingenuity displayed; but a considerable degree of both in
an appendage called _si=atk~o_, consisting of a piece of bone three
inches long, and having a point of iron at one end, and at the other end
a small hole or socket to receive the point of the oonak.
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