18 Kas BIRKET-SMITH. 
more valuable from an artistic pomt of view, dates from 1654, the 
other from 17241. — 
The Greenland bow of this type always has a wooden stave, 
whereas outside Greenland it may often be of reindeer antler. PorsiLp 
writes that the stave is generally built up of three or five pieces, 
spliced together, and is only exceptionally found in one piece?. This 
can, however, at the utmost only apply to the extreme northerly parts 
of the West and East Coasts, where driftwood is only found in small 
quantities. As will be seen from the list given above, it does not 
apply to the regions where wood is found in any considerable quantity 
at all; Fagricius also only makes mention of the whole bow stave. 
It is remarkable that wood should have been employed even in the 
northernmost tracts of the East Coast, where it would certainly have 
been far easier to fashion bows of bone; it is not impossible that this 
fact should really be regarded as one of the many instances of influence 
from the more southerly portions of the coast®. Possibly a certain 
amount of trading in driftwood was done. 
The workmanship expended on the fashioning of the stave varies; 
thus the stave may be of approximately the same breadth and thick- 
ness throughout its whole length, but can also be narrowest and 
heaviest at the grip, and have broader and thinner wings. The graceful 
lines of the bows from South Alaska (cf. Fig. 4, 6), however, are never 
found here. The back, upon which the backing rests, is flat, whereas 
the inner side is more or less convex. A little distance from the point 
there is always a slightly projecting shoulder for the upper part of 
the backing (vide infra), and the stave ends in a nock, about which 
string and lower backing are passed, and which may be quite roughly 
cut (Fig. 2, b, and c), or more carefully formed, somewhat like the shape 
of a head (cf. the specimens of whalebone Fig. 3, b, and c,). According 
to FABRICIUS, the stave is tipped at either end with flat pieces of bone 
in which the nock is cut? (this is perhaps what Ровзи is referring 
to when he mentions a 4th and 5th piece). In none of the specimens 
in the National Museum is there anything corresponding to this, or 
even any trace thereof. It should be remembered, however, that 
these are almost without exception from North Greenland, whereas 
Fasricius’ knowledge of the bow was derived from the regions about 
Frederikshaab. In the painting from 1724 this tip is possibly shown; 
unfortunately, however, it is not sufficiently distinct at this point to 
1 In the Museum für Vélkerkunde in Berlin there is a West Greenland bow 
(IV A 58), evidently a quite modern specimen, made to order, which could 
never have been used, and which presents none of the peculiarities proper 
to the type. 
2 PORSILD, p. 160. 
3 cf. BIRKET-SMITH, p. 33 f. and works there quoted. 
4 Fapricius, Landd.-, Fugle- og Fiskef. р. 236. 
