IN JULIANESHAAB. 227 



Two kinds of dances are customary in Greenland. The 

 one is a social dance, resembling French quadrilles. 

 Here, too, circles are made and groups formed. The 

 step is peculiar. The foot is dragged and stamped 

 according to the rhythm, and then again quickly brought 

 up in time. The other is danced by two persons, and 

 reminds me of the Hungarian " csardas." It is an ever 

 seizing and escaping, a quick twisting, now together, 

 now separately. Both dances are pretty, and show the 

 goodnatured, as well as the wild expression of the 

 national character perfectly. Moreover, the Green- 

 lander dances the customary European dances quite as 

 well as we do. The national dance-music does not 

 enrich its treasures by teaching ; a sailor learned in the 

 accordion bring^s this instrument with its new tunes over 

 the sea, and the musically gifted Greenlander soon fiddles 

 it after him. The Greenlanders' treasures of melody have 

 now been enriched with some German tunes by our men. 



By degrees, our stay in the colony grew very weari- 

 some. In vain we waited for a fair wind to run us out 

 of the harbour. At last, after long rain, fine weather 

 set in. But in the meantime, as the Constance could 

 not run out, the fine days must be turned to account, 

 and I found an opportunity for an excursion to the Fjord 

 of Igalliko. 



On the boat voyage from Friedrichsthal to Julianes- 

 haab, I had everywhere sought for traces of the ancient 

 Norse buildings, which, according to the chart of the 

 Archaeological Society of Copenhagen, were to be found 

 in many places ; but, except the small remains of Har- 

 julfsnas, the Igikait of the Greenlander of the present 

 day, had not yet seen any. The district of Julianeshaab, 



Q 2 



