228 



Morten P. Porsild. 



games in earnest. I have not been able to ascertain the exact rules 

 for these, either because they are really forgotten or because the 

 Eskimo do not like to explain them to me, certain indecencies being 

 also represented in the form of some of the specimens. 



The holes have different values; those which are most difficult 

 to hit count the highest. Small stakes may be played for, e. g. matches, 

 percussion caps, shot, etc. But when the passion for gambling seizes 

 them, larger articles are staked, such as nets, lines, dogs, guns, 



kayaks, umiaqs, and even house and wife 

 are said to be sometimes gambled away: 

 indeed, at times, the passion for gambling 

 takes such a grip of them, when they have 

 anything to stake, that once the authorities 

 were obliged to prohibit gambling with cards. 

 Fig. 62, A (also represented in E in 

 another position and on a larger scale) is a 

 very old and much worn ajagaq. The stick 

 and the cord are new, made by the seller 

 for demonstration. The ajagaq is of whale's 

 bone and very carefully made. On the back 

 are bored two obliquely-placed holes to attach 

 the cord. On the front are five rows of 

 obliquely-placed holes, which all turn up- 

 wards; the uppermost one penetrates entirely 

 so that there the stick can pass through to a 

 large hole in the oblique terminal face. In 

 the lower end there is a large hole sur- 

 rounded by a circle of small ones, and slightly 

 above there is an oblong hole from which a 

 groove leads obliquely upwards, and another 



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Fig. 62. A—D, Various specimens of ajagaq; E a larger representation ol A. 



