The Angmagsalik Eskimo. 401 
brought home by Captain Holm in considerable numbers, (Medd. om 
Grønland vol. 10, Plate XX VII) as also to the entirely similar ones found 
on the West Coast during excavation of old Greenlandic graves and 
sites of houses. True, the natives of Angmagsalik are wont to use, 
inter alia, male and female figures as amulets, which are sewn into 
the amulet straps worn by the men, or fixed in the hair-knot or fur 
worn by the women (Medd. om Grønl. vol. 10, p. 118), such figures 
being also, albeit in highly conventionalised form, utilised for the de- 
coration of sewing-needle skins (Medd. om Grønl. vol. 10. Pl. XXVIII) 
and for ornamenting various implements, in which cases there is 
doubtless some. fundamental idea as to the figures’ aflording some 
protection or advantage to the owner. Such figures are, however, 
of an entirely different character to the wooden dolls first 
mentioned!), which are generally executed with greater attention 
to detail and as a rule considerably larger than the amulets, the latter 
bearing but a suggestion of the human form. The wooden dolls are 
now used by the natives of Angmagsalik only as toys for children, 
and both Captain Holm’s expedition and we ourselves procured num- 
bers of them by barter, every child having as a rule a little collection. 
Another feature which further shows that no higher significance is 
attached to them is the fact that the natives show not the slightest 
unwillingness to part with them, whereas they are very loth, and in 
most cases absolutely refuse, to give up their amulets, even for a con- 
siderable price. In addition to the dolls carved in human form, the 
children often had figures of animals carved in wood, representing 
bears, foxes, dogs and seals. The wooden dolls were always kept 
together with these figures and the other playthings, and were treated 
in the same way, the whole stock being sometimes tied together with 
a strip of sealhide. From this it would seem that the wooden 
dolls are nothing but playthings” 
And to avoid any possibility of misunderstanding, RYDER further adds: 
“The fact of dolls having been found in graves on the West 
coast proves nothing, it being a general custom among the 
Eskimos to place in the grave some articles belonging to 
the deceased”? 
It is difficult to understand how these words can be taken as evidence 
in support of the theory as to a former religious significance attaching 
to the dolls: we are therefore obliged to have recourse to the other writer 
quoted, viz: GRAAH. He writes, with regard to some houses and graves 
on Snedorffs Island, as follows: “In these there lay, together with the 
usual hunting implements, two human images carved in wood, not un- 
like those presented to Bering by the savages on the N.W. coast of Ame- 
1 Spaced type by Tuomas THOMSEN. 
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