226 



Morten P. Porsild. 



Fig. 59 is a rather rudely made spoon of bone from Hunde Ei- 

 land, peculiar in the fact that the handle is set at a sharp angle with 



the longitudinal axis of the bowl, 

 so that the spoon can only be used 

 with the left hand. There is no 

 hole in the handle ; perhaps it is 

 not quite finished; or it may have 

 been a fish-ladle. 



XII. Toys and Games. 



Toys. Nowadays children in 

 West Greenland often have Eu- 

 ropean toys given to them. They 

 naturally grasp at these odd, gaudily 

 coloured objects with eagerness ; but 

 they do not last long. The more 

 solid home-made toys which har- 

 monize better with the imagination 

 and the understanding of the child, 

 than do the automobiles and the 

 aeroplanes are still to be met with 

 in the Eskimo homes and are often 

 found in the graves of children 

 of heathen parents. 



The three specimens shown in 

 Fig. 60 are all from graves. A 

 is a female-doll — carved from a 

 stick. It is peculiar on account 

 of its form, which is the conventional one, well-known through 

 Holm's figures of toys from the east coast (e. g. Plates 28 and 38) ; 



Юспь 



Fig. 60. Toys : Doll, lamp and kayak. 



the arms are wanting. 

 That it represents a 

 woman is seen from the 

 huge knot of hair and 

 the short legs. True, the 

 latter feature offends the 

 eye of the children of 

 the present time, who 

 now in drawings, indi- 

 cate women by giving them unusually long legs. But ladies' 

 fashions have changed in West Greenland since the beginning of the 

 colonisation. Formerly, frocks worn by women reached to the knees: 

 now, only to the hips. Disco Fjord. 



5 cm. 



Fig. 61. Toy : Two pecking birds. 



