216 



Morten P. Porsild. 



a dyed skin from which the hair has been removed has, since the colonisa- 

 tion of the country, been developed to great perfection. Civilization 

 has introduced finer needles and thread, more freedom in the choice 

 of colours, and has, perhaps, also sometimes unconsciously influenced 

 artistic taste; each needle-woman indeed composes her own pat- 

 tern, and chooses her own colours, but besides the embroidery which 

 is made for the trimming of women's trousers and boots, for orna- 

 mentation on mittens or on young men's Sunday-boots, and the 

 like, a great quantity is made for sale — not as a regular trade, 

 but only in the form of fancy articles — for the Europeans in 

 the country; and these latter, for instance, by constantly choosing 

 the tasteful and discarding the ugly, have doubtless been instrumental 



5C7TL. 



Figs. 49 and 50. Two forms of dividers for the accurate marking out of the 

 pattern in skin embroideries. 



in raising this art to a higher standard. In order to make these 

 patterns regularly and accurately, a kind of compasses {avålåutartut^ 

 Supplement, 10) are used at the sewing on of certain bits in the 

 pattern, while the intervening bits are afterwards sewn on according 

 to judgment. Fig. 49 shows the most common form, a pair of 

 curved compass-legs of bone with brass points. Fig. 50 is a later, 

 not quite successful model, the idea is derived from a European 

 spring bow-dividers ; a common wood-screw moves the legs apart, 

 while their elasticity will draw them in, when the screw is turned 

 back. Tusk of walrus. Hunde Eiland. 



The art of embroidery cannot be practised by everybody, but 

 is on the point of becoming a specialized occupation. This art is 

 carried on all over Danish West Greenland, but attains its highest 

 perfection in the districts of Holstenborg and Sukkertoppen. 



