The Material Culture of the Eskimo in West Greenland. 121 



individually are equally good. By way of example, I choose the two 

 forms which the shaft of the kayak harpoon has all over 

 Greenland : — 



ernangnaq (71), short and light, with "feathers" of bone plates, the 



throwing stick acts on the rear end. 

 unaq (395), longer and heavier, without "feathers," but often with 



a bone knob, the throwing stick is applied somewhat behind 



the centre. 



In some settlements the unaq' s are in the majority, in others 

 the ernangnaq''^, but nobody uses more than the one kind. It is easy 

 enough to get the significance of the details of the individual harpoons 

 explained; and rational, well-founded opinions as to the superiority of 

 the one over the other may also be had; but nobody can give any ra- 

 tional reason for the fact that both forms are to be found, reasons which 

 might signify local adaptations to the custom of the district or the sup- 

 ply of material. If the one were in several respects better than the 

 other, then the less perfect one would naturally be abandoned. As 

 there is a rather essential shade of difference in the throw, it can 

 be understood that the hunter who, from his childhood, has been accus- 

 tomed to practise the one kind (namely his father's) continues to do 

 so; his living being dependent on the result of his throw. For in- 

 stance, if we have accustomed ourselves to write with a broad-pointed 

 pen we should find it awkward suddenly to have to write with a fine- 

 pointed one. Consequently, we here appear to have two ideal forms 

 before us, which have perhaps come into existence and been developed 

 at different times, and afterwards, by intercourse, have been scattered 

 all over the country. 



Another example is the form of the kayak, which has been 

 lightly touched upon .above. It has often been mentioned that there 

 is a characteristic difference in the West Greenlander's kayaks in the 

 southern and northern districts; for example, in the northern kayaks 

 the stern is bent upwards, so here the deck forms an angle. Now 

 ScHULTZ-LoRENTZEN (p. 311) has recently demonstrated that, in the 

 southern type, two subtypes may be distinguished, one of which from 

 southernmost Greenland differs from the type which is found near Godt- 

 haab and approaches the East Greenland type. To this I can add that, 

 in the northern form also, at least two subtypes occur, viz., one around 

 Disco Bay (and at Umanaq?) and another at the two northernmost settle- 

 ments, Proven and Upernavik. On a trip last year the latter type struck 

 me as extraordinary from the fact that the stern almost formed a right 

 angle with the deck, but my companion, a hunter and kayak builder 

 from Disco, told me that there were many other and far more decisive 

 differences in the construction of the frame-work than the one men- 

 tioned above. 



