38

?

bow” made of mountain maple, with a wrapping of sinew and a coating
of dyed porcupine quills. This was probably a reconstructed weapon
specially ornamented, for the Sekani had ceased to use the bow for war,
or for large game, fully half a century before his time, although boys
retained it for shooting grouse. He illustrates also three types of arrows,
a ‘““cut” arrow, a triple-headed arrow, and a blunt arrow, all with triple
feathering.1

Mackenzie mentions two kinds of spears that differed only in size; both
had iron blades. McLeod Lake natives say that bear hunters used a stone-
headed lance, whereas beaver hunters used a toggled spear with a triple-
barbed head of bone, antler, or simply hard wood. A sketch of the latter
weapon, drawn from their description, is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Sketch of a Sekani beaver spear.

Fishermen had three-pronged leisters with bone points for spearing fish
at night from their canoes by the light of jackpine torches. In winter they
dug holes through the ice with chisels of moose or caribou antler mounted
on long wooden handles, cleared away the snow from the holes to leave
only transparent ice, and, lying under brush shelters, used these same
leisters to stab the fish that approached their lures; or else they hooked the
fish with long gaffs. During the months of February and March the Gitk-

1 Morice: Op. cit., pp. 56-59.