Harpoon
Object Number: | 37-22-190A |
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Current Location: | Collections Storage |
Culture: | Sherbro |
Provenience: | Sierra Leone Sherbro Island Yoni |
Section: | African |
Materials: | Fiber Wood |
Length: | 220 cm |
Width: | 3 cm |
Credit Line: | Expedition to Sierra Leone, West Africa; Henry Usher Hall, 1937 |
Other Number: | 16 - Collector Number |
Description
Wooden shaft (A) [tthawk ibas] with socketed iron head [ibas] having a single barb. The bottle-shaped float (B) [hoe] is attached to the shaft by a long line which is held in loops in the left hand until the harpoon is thrown. The float supports the shaft inthe water when the ibas [detached from its normal position on the shaft, but held to it by the short multiple sling] has buried itself in the flesh of the quarry: tarpon [kwa], porpise [bim], manatee [piom], etc. On land the harpoon, without the float, is used in hunting antelope [tshal], bush cat [sipik], bush pig [ pio tohe], python [pe], crocodile [ki], etc.
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