Ethnographic Description of the Eslcimo Settlements 



197 



walls serve as supports for short rafters. Other shelters are walls 

 which the hunter has used to watch the prey (e. g. Muschelberg). 



Near or in the shelters I have a few times {563 — 564—571—572) 

 found many white pieces of quartz (fig. 6) and once (701) a collec- 

 tion of red and white stones. ^ In tent-rings on the beach at Кар 

 Bismarck (115) and other places (186—212—548), as in fox traps on 

 Rypefjeldet (588) and at Snenæs (428), I have likewise found con- 

 spicuous white stones. 



In the beginning I took the presence of these white pieces of 

 quartz to be due to chance or children's playthings, but later I 



Fig. (3. Shelter Г)72. Rypefjeldet. 



Seen h-()m the X. E. The one wall is a large, soHd rock. White pieces ot quart/, were fonnd 



in the shelter; these are seen most distinctly along the nearest wall and in the small jutting- 



ont part of the wall. In the hackground to the right Væderen. (Photo hy the author). 



found them at places where it was quite impossible for children to 

 have played and especially in hunting shelters. A secluded shelter 

 (657, PI. Ill) was entirely built of white stones and pieces of quartz. 

 If we imagine a shelter to have been built by a single hunter, 

 it is impossible to believe that he has used these white stones for 

 the decoration of his layer. It was rather superstition ^ which led 



^ Cf. Koldewey: I, p. 504 and Ryder: pp. 289—90. In some cases it is probahl}^ 



shelters which Captain Ryder has seen; in other cases, children's playthings. 

 '^ Cf. Knud Rasmussen 1: p. 159 and Knud Rasmussen 3: p. 145. 



