The Material Culture of the Eskimo in West Greenland. 187 



frequently made from the stomach of a seal or porpoise. At one 

 end it has a bone-piece, through which the bladder is inflated, puerfik 

 (described above p. 153) and in which there is a toggle by which the 

 bladder can be fixed either on the animal direct or between the two 

 straps which connect the chin-piece with the nagtoraq. Here this toggle 

 has almost always the form of a kingugdlersiut, only it is smaller. At 

 the other end of the bladder there is a piece of line to wrap round 

 it while it lies in the kayak. 



When the seal is big an implement resembling that shown 

 in Fig. 35, b is frequently used, only it is smaller, and has in 

 particular a shorter line. Then it is called talerorsiutingiiaq (from 

 taleroq, 354, the fore paw of a seal), while the implement shown 

 here is in reality the drag most generally used on the northern part 

 of the west coast to drag the seal over the ice. In this form it is 

 called orsiut, 267. It consists of a line about one metre long, which 

 bears at its one end a lance-shaped, well pointed and sharpened 

 needle of bone, which is here called upâssutâ (probably from the 

 same root as upagpoq, 399 ^) and in South Greenland — with the 

 smaller implement — nuissauta, 256. The large front paws of the 

 seal are pierced with this needle and the line drawn through them 

 so that both paws lie between the two pieces of bone at the 

 other end, after which everything else is made fast, and in such a 

 manner that the paws do not offer resistance. When the ice- 

 drag is used the needle, on the other hand, is thrust through the 

 seal's nostrils and out through its eye and the line is drawn after 

 until the toggle at the other end is set cross-wise. This toggle is 

 often simply a piece of bone with a hole in its centre; the one shown 

 here has a particularly ingenious form in as much as it is a combi- 

 nation of two curved pieces, which are joined together at their blunt 

 ends (see Fig. 35, c). The pull on the line places it cross-wise, 

 and when it has to be extracted the line is relaxed so that the two 

 pieces can be inclined towards each other, and withdrawn the 

 same way, this saves the whole line having to be hauled back, which 

 would be rendered difficult by the form of the central piece of bone. 



The orsiut with its bone needle is sometimes also used for 

 stringing fish. 



The hunter often carries with him several sets of such towing 

 and dragging tackle. 



When the seal is being dragged over the ice a special man's har- 

 ness is used for the purpose : a large strap of hide which is placed 



^ The root of upagpoq is surmised by Kleinschmidt to be the interjection 

 upâ\ which is used in play with small children who are just beginning to take 

 notice: "See here I am" (formerly I was hidden) or in English "peep-bo!" Con- 

 sequently upâssutâ, should signify something like "the one who gets it (the line) 

 to come in sight after it was hidden." 



