Harpoons and leisters, like fish hooks, are specialized hunting devices first in evidence in Upper Paleolithic tool inventories and still in use today. Land animals killed in hunting may run for a distance before they die, but they can be pursued and taken when they eventually weary and/or die. Fish and large marine animals such as seals or whales, however, may sink or float out of range before dying. The problem solved by a harpoon or leister is that of holding on to the dying animal and pulling it from the water.
Harpoons
A harpoon is a spear with one or more barbs on the sides of the point and a cord by which the prey can be hauled in. The barbs allow the point to anchor itself into the flesh of a prey animal so that it cannot easily be pulled out.
Usually harpoons have a throwing handle that drops off, and the cord is tied directly to the point, as in the Iroquois example shown above. Harpoons are particularly well suited to hunting large sea animals, which may dive when struck, but can be hauled in by the cord when they weary or die. Unlike land animals, sea animals fleeing after being struck by a harpoon are unlikely to get the cord twisted up in anything that will pull out the barb.
Leisters
A leister (pronounced LEE-ster) is a three- or four-pronged thrusting spear used in fishing. Each external prong is barbed. The hunter's goal is to skewer the fish on at least one prong. The remaining prongs, with inward-pointing barbs, either penetrate the body of the prey on either side or slip around the sides, but either way hold the animal in a kind of pincer action so that it does not fall off as it is pulled from the water, even if it is pulled straight upwards.
The exhibit at left, from the Cherokee Heritage Museum (Cherokee, NC), shows a leister in use. The fisher has stabbed the fish with the middle prong (largely obscured by the animal's body) while the two side prongs hold it firmly because of their upward-pointing barbs. The picture at right comes from a diorama in Boston's Peabody Museum showing a harpoon and a leister, both critical in Eskimo hunting, leaning against the wall of an igloo.