DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49270#0328
Ancient Egyptian Fishing
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type then employed was a bilaterally barbed weapon, the butt end of the shaft of which
terminated in a U-shaped crotch like that seen in fig. 79.148
In modern Egypt the harpoon is not used, though it survives, like the ambaj craft,
in the Sudan. A single barbed type set in a wooden foreshaft is employed in Karkoj
(fig. 86), and — by the Shilluk— on the White Nile (fig. 85). The Karkoj type has a
straight shaft, to the butt of which the line bent to the head is made fast. This allows
the fisherman, after his fish has been struck, to reverse the shaft and play his quarry. If
the latter is very powerful, the shaft is let go, and acts both as a float and a drag. The
Shilluk harpoon is similarly rigged, but is rendered very individual in character by having
a bow-shaped shaft. Other Sudanese harpoons, used for hippopotamus hunting, are
hafted in the manner which I have described as having most probably served for the
bone, horn, and ivory heads of predynastic Egypt — the heads are set directly into a
socket in the end of the shaft, without any intermediary foreshaft. Harpoons of this
class are found in the Blue Nile basin,149 and on the Albert Nyanza.150 This simple connec-
tion between the detachable head and the pole is also seen in Dyur crocodile harpoons,
of which a two-barbed example is shown in fig. 84.
The use of floats attached to harpoon lines I have already alluded to: though rarely
depicted in the scenes, it is probable that they were in common use. In modern Africa
floats are widely employed, especially in the pursuit of the hippopotamus. Thus, the
Hamran on the Taka frontier use floats made of ambaj “as large as a child’s head”;151
on Lake Albert, the single barbed hippopotamus harpoon is connected with an ambaj
float “about fifteen inches in diameter”;152 floats are used among the Bari,153 the Basoga,154 155
and the Washashi,150 as well as elsewhere by other tribes. The float is of course primarily
useful in that it enables the hunter or fisherman to follow the course of the quarry beneath
the surface of the water: it also harasses and frightens the stricken animal, which almost
always 'puts on speed’ to escape from this relentless pursuer. On occasions, moreover,
the float is caught in the bight of a rope, and the quarry thus secured after its first strength
148 Cf. the examples given by M. A. Murray, Ptolemaic clay-sealings (Zeit. f. Agypt. Sprache, vol. 44, pt. 1)
pl. 4, figs. 43-47. The harpoon shown in Ibid., pl. 4, fig. 53 is probably meant for a weapon mounted like that here
shown in fig. 78.
149 Baker, Nile tributaries, p. 333.
150 Idem, Albert N’yanza, vol. 2, p. 97.
151 Idem, Nile tributaries, loc. cit.
152 Idem, Albert N’yanza, loc. cit.
153 A. J. Mounteney-Jephson, Emin Pasha and the rebellion at the Equator, New York, 1891, p. 130.
164 J. Roscoe, Northern Bantu, p. 239.
155 P. Kollmann, op. cit., p. 201 and fig. 341.
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type then employed was a bilaterally barbed weapon, the butt end of the shaft of which
terminated in a U-shaped crotch like that seen in fig. 79.148
In modern Egypt the harpoon is not used, though it survives, like the ambaj craft,
in the Sudan. A single barbed type set in a wooden foreshaft is employed in Karkoj
(fig. 86), and — by the Shilluk— on the White Nile (fig. 85). The Karkoj type has a
straight shaft, to the butt of which the line bent to the head is made fast. This allows
the fisherman, after his fish has been struck, to reverse the shaft and play his quarry. If
the latter is very powerful, the shaft is let go, and acts both as a float and a drag. The
Shilluk harpoon is similarly rigged, but is rendered very individual in character by having
a bow-shaped shaft. Other Sudanese harpoons, used for hippopotamus hunting, are
hafted in the manner which I have described as having most probably served for the
bone, horn, and ivory heads of predynastic Egypt — the heads are set directly into a
socket in the end of the shaft, without any intermediary foreshaft. Harpoons of this
class are found in the Blue Nile basin,149 and on the Albert Nyanza.150 This simple connec-
tion between the detachable head and the pole is also seen in Dyur crocodile harpoons,
of which a two-barbed example is shown in fig. 84.
The use of floats attached to harpoon lines I have already alluded to: though rarely
depicted in the scenes, it is probable that they were in common use. In modern Africa
floats are widely employed, especially in the pursuit of the hippopotamus. Thus, the
Hamran on the Taka frontier use floats made of ambaj “as large as a child’s head”;151
on Lake Albert, the single barbed hippopotamus harpoon is connected with an ambaj
float “about fifteen inches in diameter”;152 floats are used among the Bari,153 the Basoga,154 155
and the Washashi,150 as well as elsewhere by other tribes. The float is of course primarily
useful in that it enables the hunter or fisherman to follow the course of the quarry beneath
the surface of the water: it also harasses and frightens the stricken animal, which almost
always 'puts on speed’ to escape from this relentless pursuer. On occasions, moreover,
the float is caught in the bight of a rope, and the quarry thus secured after its first strength
148 Cf. the examples given by M. A. Murray, Ptolemaic clay-sealings (Zeit. f. Agypt. Sprache, vol. 44, pt. 1)
pl. 4, figs. 43-47. The harpoon shown in Ibid., pl. 4, fig. 53 is probably meant for a weapon mounted like that here
shown in fig. 78.
149 Baker, Nile tributaries, p. 333.
150 Idem, Albert N’yanza, vol. 2, p. 97.
151 Idem, Nile tributaries, loc. cit.
152 Idem, Albert N’yanza, loc. cit.
153 A. J. Mounteney-Jephson, Emin Pasha and the rebellion at the Equator, New York, 1891, p. 130.
164 J. Roscoe, Northern Bantu, p. 239.
155 P. Kollmann, op. cit., p. 201 and fig. 341.