The Collaborative International Dictionary
Tumpline \Tump"line`\, n.
A strap placed across a man's forehead to assist him in
carrying a pack on his back. [Local, U. S.]
--Bartlett.
Wiktionary
n. A strap used to carry objects tied to its ends by placing the broadened or cushioned middle of the strap over the head just above the forehead.
Wikipedia
A tumpline (/tump-lyne/) is a strap attached at both ends to a sack, backpack, or other luggage and used to carry the object by placing the strap over the top of the head. This utilizes the spine rather than the shoulders as standard backpack straps do. Tumplines are not intended to be worn over the forehead, but rather the top of the head just back from the hairline, pulling straight down in alignment with the spine. The bearer then leans forward, allowing the back to help support the load.
Tumplines are often used to transport heavy loads across uneven terrain such as footpaths and portages. The voyageurs of the North American fur trade used tumplines exclusively to carry their cargo of pelts and rations across portages.
Backpacks for the military and recreational campers were redesigned to carry larger loads during the middle and late twentieth century, and tumplines have become less common in the developed world.
The indigenous natives in Mexico (and other Latin American countries) traditionally have used the tumpline for carrying heavy loads, such as firewood, baskets (including baskets loaded with construction materials and dirt for building), bird cages, and furniture. In the 1920s there was a man in Mexico City who delivered pianos on his back using a tumpline. In Mexico a common name for tumpline is "mecapal". Modern highland Mayans of southern Mexico use tumplines for various pedestrian transport. During World War Two, the Canadian Army developed special supply packs for moving supplies over rough terrain where the soldier use the tump line.
Usage examples of "tumpline".
Iain reached behind his head, drew it from his tumpline pack and adjusted its familiar weight in his hands.
He lowered her to the ground and lifted the weight of his tumpline pack from her shoulders.
He lifted the tumpline pack from her shoulders, then took her by the hand, bent low and led her uphill.
He slipped into his tumpline pack, adjusted the pistols in his waistband.
When Mamut turned from the entrance, Nezzie hoisted a carrying basket to her back and adjusted the tumpline across her forehead, picked up Rydag and settled him on her ample hip to carry him up the slope, then, herding Rugie, Tusie, and Brinan ahead of her, started up to the steppes.
Ayla had added tumplines, which could be worn across the forehead for added support, if they chose, though she usually dispensed with the tumpline in favor of wearing her sling wrapped around her head.
Towline and pole, paddle and tumpline, rapids and portages--such tortures served to give the one a deep disgust for great hazards, and printed for the other a fiery text on the true romance of adventure.
In the meantime, the child had dragged out from the ferns a conical woven basket, almost as tall as he, with a tumpline around the open end.
With a great deal of grunting and spitting she had loaded her basket onto her back, the conical end of it caught in the cleft where her spine met her buttocks, the tumpline round her brow.
As the captain called instructions to his crew, Shima watched his fellow tribesmen tread the narrow path to the cliffs above, heads bent against the tumplines of their packs.