190 Morten P. Porsild. 



penetrate. A single glance at the harpoons excellently figured on 

 Holm's Table XVI, and described by him, will convince one that 

 these are quite differently constructed. 



Nevertheless, Thalbitzer has made the same mistake. In Figs. 79 

 and 80 he has illustrated two navel-pieces from West Greenland and calls 

 them "toggle harpoons for sealing or salmon spearing on ice," and 

 on p. 355 the author states, in consequence, that the peculiar itsuarneq- 

 harpoons of the Angmagsaliks have also been employed in West 

 Greenland. But Thalbitzer's figures show a couple of quite normal 

 navel-pieces which could not possibly be used as harpoons. On the 

 one the handle is curved and on the other it is so long and thin 

 that it would immediately break when thrust into the prey. 



The same author shows in his Fig. 81 the little hinged toggle 

 which is fixed in the towing-bladder, but as regards this he says : 

 "It can hardly have been used as a harpoon, but must have been 

 employed to hold a sealskin float in the kayak." This explanation 

 is equally strange. A hunter who attached his buoy to his kayak 

 with such an automatically acting toggle would incur certain death. 

 Fig. 36, Л is a qissugtaiissak of wood; i a upassut of bone, remark- 

 able for the little tenon which has to be spliced into the line. Authors 



sometimes call updssut-Tpieces "needles for 

 stringing fish" and they can, ofcourse, 

 also be used for this purpose. A needle 

 which is specially made for this is generally 

 not nearly so strong, and has no need to 

 be so. Fig. 36, / is an undivided toggle 

 for the rear end of an ice-drag. The hole 

 is advanced close towards the one end, 

 in order that the toggle may be more 

 Fig. 38. An orseq, for a man's easily turned on one side when it has to 

 harness for dragging seal across -^q extracted, 

 the ice; side view and half- . " . 



„ h—i. Hunde biland. 



face view. ' 



Fig. 38 shows a harness-ring, {orseq, 

 267) of ivory for a man's harness, from Kronprins Eiland. It 

 is ornamented with some irregularly drilled holes. The hole for the 

 toggle is large and rounded at the edges. The line-hole is specially 

 complicated : care has been taken that there shall be a sufficient 

 thickness of material ; the splice is concealed below high edges, so 

 that the toggle gets a free and smooth surface of bone upon which 

 to turn. I do not hesitate to declare that this would be the strongest 

 and most appropriate form of construction which an orseq for use 

 with sledges could have ; but I am told that no Greenlander would 

 put so much into the making of an entire set of harness-rings for 

 dog harness. 



