The Material Culture of the Eskimo in West Greenland. 123 



previously been the ideal form in an implement need not be so any 

 longer. Here I refer the reader to my description of harpoons with 

 stone and iron blades (pp. 128 sqq.). 



Now we pass on to the numerous implements or, strictly speaking, 

 the parts of implements composed of stone. As is well-known, 

 archæologists have long ago created a system of names such as "arrow- 

 points," "scrapers," "tranchants," "perforateurs," etc. for the thousands, 

 of stone implements which have been brought to light from remains 

 of extinct forms of culture in Europe and elsewhere. It would be easy 

 to fit the stone implements of the Eskimo and other uncivilized people 

 into this system, as the forms are often identical. But it is doubtful 

 whether anything will be gained by doing so. All these names imply a 

 use which is perhaps right in some cases, but regarding which we know 

 absolutely nothing. And archæologists have even had courage enough 

 to call certain bone implements from the Madeleine culture "bâtons 

 de commandement," a name which implies a use to which no investiga- 

 tion, but only our imagination, can lead us. 



Here it would certainly be better to take the converse course 

 and try to rescue from the aborigines, through their traditions, what 

 is still left to be rescued. Certainly they must have a better under- 

 standing of their own stone implements than we can have! At any rate 

 it has impressed me strongly, when laying before a Greenlander a collec- 

 tion of Eskimo "arrow-points" of stone, to see how, without hesitation, 

 he sorted them out in different knife and lance-forms; and how, after- 

 wards, another Greenlander, independently of the former, identified 

 them in almost the same manner. 



It cannot be emphasized too strongly that the majority of the 

 stone implements are not complete, but only component parts. 

 When the primitive man is so far developed that he can cleave the flint 

 into the form aimed at, he can also master the far easier task of pro- 

 viding the piece chipped off with a suitable and convenient handle. 

 Therefore it appears to me to be a waste of acumen to try to show from 

 the form of the so-called "humpbacked-knives" that primitive man, 

 also, was right or left-handed (see Wilson, Arrowpoints, p. 952). How 

 complicated the implement of which a small piece of flint forms a part 

 may be will be shown subsequently under the description of the Eskimo 

 "Man's Tools" (pp. 191 sqq.). This example shows not only that tradi- 

 tion can throw light upon the use of a stone-age implement, but also 

 that the method of work itself, adapted to the stone age implement, 

 may be preserved after the stone implement has been replaced with iron. 



It appears to me that these examples suffice to show that among 

 savages and their descendants now alive information is to be had which 

 may at some time help us to a better technological understanding of 

 the remains of implements belonging to our own ancient culture. 



