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forefinger and middle finger of the right hand. The shaft of 

 the arrow is of wood with or without two laterally placed 

 steering-feathers, and to the fore-end of this shaft is lashed a 

 tine from the antlers of a deer, with or without an iron point 

 and also with or without barbs. 



During our stay at North Star Bay in 1909 a small number 

 of bows with corresponding arrows were made at request by 

 the old Masaitsiak, who was probably one of the few who had 

 never hunted reindeer with any other weapon. As I observed 

 that the length of these bows, which were made by the same 

 man, was different, becoming gradually shorter, I made an at- 

 tempt to get information [regarding the more or less purposeful, 

 established custom for the size of the bow; it seemed to me 

 namely that there must be some principle or rule. Unfortunately 

 this as well as various other investigations were difficult to 

 carry through, owing to the fact that my interpreter from 

 West Greenland was not specially fit for the task. 



It appeared however, in the first place, that Masaitsiak was 

 quite aware, that these bows and arrows were not made really 

 for reindeer hunting, but only to satisfy the odd whims of the 

 strangers, so that they did not require to be exactly right, and 

 owing to the scarcity of material he was free to reduce their 

 length. It appeared, further, that the regulation length of the 

 bow was taken from the distance between the outstretched 

 finger-tips of the left hand and a little way beyond the middle 

 line of the breast; its length would be 79 — 80 cm in Masait- 

 siak's case. The length of the arrow — excluding the bone 

 fore-part with the iron-point, which did not seem to have any 

 definite regulation length — was indicated by him by bending 

 the left arm at a right angle and stretching the fore-arm and 

 fingers straight out; the length of the arrow shaft would thus 

 be from the inner side of the elbow-joint to the tips of the 

 fingers. One of the arrows he made for me had the right 

 length (42 cm plus 12 cm for the bone fore-part and iron 



