Summary. 



In the present work an attempt has been made to carry out a 

 technological investigation of some of the most important 

 Eskimo weapons and implements. By means of this method a basis 

 has been formed for the classification of the missile weapons 

 and for definitions of the different types and forms. At 

 the same time it has been demonstrated that all the types of weapons 

 may be derived from arrows and darts by adaptation and remodelling 

 to the special use sometimes of the point and sometimes of the shaft 

 with its accessories. This remodelling and evolution of the types 

 may very well have taken place and been carried through within 

 the Arctic area itself, so that there is no need to postulate 

 any borrowing from foreign civilizations except of the 

 idea of a bow and arrow — the common property of all 

 mankind. 



During their wanderings, the various tribes lived in regions where 

 some implement or other, or some method or other of hunting, has 

 been inapplicable. When afterwards they came to other regions 

 where the conditions of life were similar to those the tribe had 

 originally left behind them they have, so to speak, been obliged 

 to re-invent and perfect anew implements of which they retained 

 only some vague notion (along with the names) from their former 

 home. Thus the Greenland tribes on their immigration across Elles- 

 mereland and Smith Sound were not able there to use the kayak 

 with its accessories, and did not do so until they arrived at southern 

 regions where it had to be re-constructed and perfected anew. This 

 is still attested by the fact that the different maintypes 

 of theGreenland kayak appear to have a regional distri- 

 bution exactly similar to that of the main forms of the 

 Greenland dialect. 



A technological investigation of the various forms shown by the 

 Ulo or Woman's Knife proves that there exist no regional 

 forms of this implement, as has been suggested by Mason. The 

 various well-known forms are all referable to a few types, which are 

 of importance only from a technological point of view. These types 

 were due to scantiness of material, and when this no longer existed, 

 the form of the implement approached more and more a definite 



