The Material Culture of the Eskimo in West Greenland. 233 



and a convenient handle is at once produced. At the suggestion 

 of an old hunter from Disco Fjord I think that these bone staves 

 have been used as foreshafts for an itsuartut (cf. p. 133). 



XIV. On incorrect Models and faked Antiquities 

 from West Greenland, 



Along the entire west coast of Greenland a great number of 

 models are made yearly, especially of kayaks with hunting imple- 

 ments, also of umiaqs, dog-sledges, and summer tents, and more 

 rarely of winter dwellings. From the district of Godhavn at least 

 50 models of kayaks and about 25 models of sledges are manufactured 

 yearly, and probably about the same number from other districts. 

 They are sold partly to the resident Europeans, who send them to 

 their friends as knick-knacks, souvenirs of Greenland, etc., partly to 

 ship's crews or to travellers. Some are beautifully made and may' 

 be called models in so far as they exhibit such peculiarities as are 

 known to everybody: the loosening of the harpoon from the shaft, 

 and the place and shape of the outer visible objects in rude form. 

 But in the majority of points they do not merit the name of models. 

 Firstly, the proportions are always quite wrong: the harpoon and 

 line, for instance, are far too large in relation to the rest; also, they 

 are intentionally deceptive as regards a number of features in con- 

 nection with construction: the throwing stick is as a rule rivetted 

 to the shaft, the frame of the kayak is not constructed as it is in 

 reality, but there are too few ribs, and the sledge-runners and cross- 

 bars are made of finely polished lamellæ of bone (tusks of walrus), 

 which of course they never are in reality. The making of models 

 has become a domestic industry, an art, which must be learnt as 

 any other art. A man who can make an excellent kayak for use 

 could not make a saleable kayak-model unless he had learnt to do so. 



The reason for this is, that if these models were made correctly 

 they could not fetch a price which would in any way repay the 

 work spent on them; on the other hand, with a little practice, money 

 may be earned by making a conventional "model" which is saleable 

 if it looks nice, even if it is entirely wrong as regards proportions 

 and details. One of the cleverest makers of models and kayaks once 

 agreed to make a correct model, but asked the same price for it as 

 if it were a real kayak; when he delivered it, he declared that he 

 would never make one again for that price. 



Finally, these "models" find their way to museums, just where 

 they ought not to be, as generally, with a few exceptions, they are 

 devoid of all scientific value. 



