Implements and Artefacts of the North-east Greenlanders. 447 



task for a scientist residing in the country, and able to confirm the 

 correctness of his observations to a far greater degree than one making 

 but a short stay. On the other hand, it must be borne in mind that 

 there are certain features to be considered besides the technical side ; 

 most implements acquire more or less the peculiar stamp of loca- 

 lity as preserved among the tribe, and exhibit, apart from individual 

 peculiarities, a certain style of their own. And when the author in 

 places appears altogether to deny the existence of particular forms, 

 this is doubtless beyond the mark. Even in the case of an item so 

 greatly varying in form as the lamp, it seems to me too strong an 

 expression when he says, referring to the 14 types shown by Wal- 

 ter Hough in PI, 24 of the previously mentioned work: "There is, 

 however, in these typical forms, not a single one, with the exception 

 of the form from St. -Lawrence, which might not just as well be from 

 West Greenland". ^ 



In West Greenland, and on the southern East Coast the lamp is set 

 on the tripod, with a heavy plate hollowed to receive the blubber 

 which oozes out. ^ Among the Polar Greenlanders at Smith Sound, 

 on the other hand, no tripod is used, the lamp being placed instead 

 on three smaller stones, between which a piece of skin is laid out 

 to take the droppings. In North-east Greenland, as far as my knowl- 

 edge goes, only one such drip-bowl for a lamp has been found, viz; 

 that brought by Ryder from Scoresby Sound; it is a flat, hollowed 

 block as those from Angmagsalik, but roughly worked, and not in- 

 tended for placing on a tripod. ^ 



1 Loc. cit., p. 219. The forms as those shown under Nos. 1, 12 and 13 in the PI. 

 mentioned could hardly, in my opinion, occur in Greenland. It is not unnatural 

 for one studying the implements of a single locality in particular to acquire a 

 marked keenness of perception for such differences as there occur, whereas one 

 having to deal with an extensive material from different regions will be more 

 inclined to note the common features which link up separate items to a type. 

 Here the museum investigator has an advantage over one constrained to make 

 his comparisons through the medium of literature. On glancing for instance 

 at the five Ulos (2—6) shown by Porsild after Holm, it must be admitted that 

 the student would, if without further guidance, be somewhat at a loss; Holm's text, 

 however, indicates 4 — 6 as the typical specimens, 2 and 3 being separate items. 

 With regard to the former of these two, it is expressly stated that this has been 

 imported from the West, and it is doubtless owing to the fact that only the 

 Danish text of the work had then been published, that the specimen in question 

 came to be included in Mason's collection of types under East Greenland. 



2 Cf. e. g. Thalbitzer II, p. 534, Fig. 260. 



' Ryder's statement (Ryder I, p. 327) that the lamp bowl stood on legs is founded 

 on the finding of 6—7 items supposed to be legs of a lamp stand. This may 

 possibly be the case, but the items in question might equally well have been 

 legs of hunting stools; the dropping bowl itself has no sockets bored for the 

 insertion of legs. 



