190 . THE GERMAN ARCTIC EXPEDtTTON. 



write liis own name, and it is really astonishing what fine 

 regular handwriting is to be met with. Even a poor little 

 boy, too' weak to paddle a canoe, who worked in the 

 mission as a day-labourer for his meals, could write his 

 ijame well and distinctly. I can also call the Green- 

 landers, a musical community, in spite of compassionate 

 smiles. The horn-music in their church they provide 

 themselves ; the organ, too, is superintended by a sleek 

 Grreenlander ; and more than that, he writes hymns and 

 composes music himself. Observe also the artistic way 

 in which the Greenland women ornament leather. With 

 w^hat trouble and patience they make the finest mosaic of 

 different coloured leathers no bigger than the head of a 

 pin, sewing them together to adorn shoes and such like 

 things ; and how, under good guidance, they acquire a 

 taste for clean and well-ordered households. 



Good guidance is, however, very necessary. The 

 Greenland men and women whom we saw later, were as 

 different from those of the mission of Friedrichsthal as 

 night is from day, and the real specific Greenland house- 

 hold, we could only learn to know by degrees. 

 . At table to-day our host told us that he had been in- 

 formed by the natives that, a few days before, they had 

 heard from the neighbours that some people were coming 

 from the east, and that they had been much frightened 

 about it, but were composed now, as we were the expected 

 arrival. From the first it may be that the news of our 

 coming had spread among the natives, owing to our 

 having been seen in the distance among the islands. 

 But the Greenlanders have the evil propensity of speak- 

 ing contrary to the truth to please one. 

 , Thus, later on, we heard that our floe had been met 



