232 



Morten P. Porsild. 





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I have here given an illustration of a pe- 

 culiar bone implement (see Fig. 66) which none 

 of the Greenlanders hereabout exactly know. 

 It is a shghtly curved staff 65 cm. long, and 

 almost circular in transverse section; at the 

 bottom it is above 2 cm. thick and gradually 

 diminishes in thickness upwards, but is not 

 sharply pointed. The lower end is cut aslant, 

 and in the centre of the oblique surface there 

 is a hollow into which a short rounded tang 

 of another piece could fit. Above the oblique 

 surface, on the one side, are two holes ob- 

 liquely bored so that they meet a little 

 below the surface without weakening the piece 

 of bone to any serious extent; the upper one 

 is intended for the reception of a knot of 

 rawhide-line, which should pass out of the 

 lower hole and fasten the piece to something 

 else. Of whale's bone. Hunde Eiland. 



A similar but somewhat more slender im- 

 plement has been illustrated by Thalbitzer in 

 his Fig. 53. Its lower end differs slightly, but 

 the hole is constructed in the same manner. 

 That both pieces are curved need not have any 

 significance, because such a bone staff cannot 

 lie upon the surface of the ground for a long 

 time without becoming curved. On the concave 

 side of Thalbitzer's specimen are some small 

 transverse grooves. If these have been made 

 intentionally and are not produced by disinte- 

 gration, then this implement undoubtedly differs 

 rather widely from the one figured here which 

 is quite round everywhere, 



Thalbitzer has — tentatively — identi- 

 fied his specimen as a "blubber-fork." But 

 the Eskimo pots cannot contain large pieces 

 of meat — for blubber in pots is out of 

 the question — therefore such large forks are 

 unnecessary. And then what is the good of 

 the line? And cold blubber or meat is taken 

 up with the bare hands, or with mittened 

 hands, if it is too cold, or with a hook. If 

 the piece is too large and too greasy to hold 

 in the hand, only a rift need be cut in it 



