The Material Culture of the Eskimo in West Greenland. 219 



shop. At the bottom of this small slices of blubber are placed 

 at suitable distances. It burns a linen wick which is fixed at the 

 one edge with pincers. But soapstone pots, on the other hand, have 

 a real advantage over those made of cast iron; not only do they 

 retain the heat a longer time, but the opinion is, that meat cooked 

 in them tasts better. 



Formerly, the blubber-oil lamp was the private property of the 

 housewife, and there were at least as many lamps in a dwelling as 

 there were housewives. Lamps are therefore found in women's 

 graves together with their other personal belongings. They have no 

 special religious significance, for instance, as "votive-lamps." 



The Eskimo lamp for burning blubber oil has, on the basis of 

 the rich collection found in the Washington Museum, been mono- 

 graphically treated in an excellent work by H. Hough. There, about 

 a hundred different lamps, from all possible Eskimo regions have 

 been described and illustrated. First-hand information from travellers 

 and collectors is carefully recorded. As regards the general results, 

 more attention has been paid to technological conditions than is 

 usually the case, but they are not placed in the foreground, as has 

 been done here. The author has so far tried to explain the adapta- 

 tion of the forms to climatic conditions, as he maintains that big 

 lamps are used in High Arctic regions, and small ones in more 

 southern regions; but he seems, at the same time, to think it possible, 

 that certain forms might have regional significance even if it is not pos- 

 sible to explain their regional occurrence from definite local conditions. 

 It is probably because of this underlying thought that on the last 

 plate, he illustrates 14 different typical outlines arranged geographically 

 according to the Eskimo tribes. There is, however, in these 

 typical forms, .not a single one, with the exception of 

 the form from St, Lawrence, which might not just as well 

 be from West Greenland. On St. Lawrence Island and in Yukon 

 Valley, soapstone and other suitable stone materials are absent, as 

 Hough himself records, and the lamps are there made of clay. In 

 this case therefore the form can be made according to desire and 

 big forms occur which differ entirely from all others, with two or 

 more edges for wicks, and therefore rectangular in outline. The forms 

 from Kadiak and the Aleutian Islands, which are evenly rounded 

 without a straight line for the wick, do not in reality differ from 

 many small Greenland lamps. These lamps are principally intended 

 for illuminating purposes, and not for giving heat under an oblong pot, 

 therefore it is not necessary, that the wick should stand in a straight line. 



It is a very interesting fact, pointed out by Hough, that in 

 America the Eskimo are the only primitive people who are acquainted 

 with lamps, whereas lamps are well known all over Asia and Europe. 

 He says (p. 1039) "that the Eskimo before he migrated from his 



