The Greenland Bow. 7 
there of the bow!; it should be noted, however, that with a single 
unimportant exception, all such references are made in connection 
with stories and subjects which are also widely known outside Ang- 
magssalik. 
Cape York District. 
In the Cape York District the bow was likewise unknown on 
the coming of the Europeans; but here the question is somewhat 
more complicated than in that of the East Coast, and is indeed, not 
altogether clear. The bow having been found on the West Coast of 
Greenland, and the Cape York District being the only channel of 
communication between that and the remaining Eskimo regions, the 
weapon in question must presumably have been known there at some 
time, probably a good many years ago, before the ancestors of the 
West Greenlanders had left those parts. And as a matter of fact, 
undoubted traces of its former occurrence have also been found, on 
a large nunatak some way inland from Wolstenholme Sound and 
Inglefield Bay, in the form of old stone butts for reindeer hunting, 
and there is also in the National Museum an arrowhead of distinct 
“West Greenland’ type (L 4337), found in a graves. 
As to how far the Polar Eskimo, the present inhabitants of the 
district, were or were not acquainted with the bow at the time of 
their immigration into Greenland, nothing can as yet be stated with 
certainty. STEENSBY has shown that they were led thither in pursuit 
of the musk ox, and as this game is hunted mainly in the summer, 
it may well have led to the discontinuance of their other occupations 
proper to that season, including the reindeer hunting, the abandon- 
ment of which in turn might reasonably have caused them to discard 
the bow*. The disappearance of the weapon is, however, hardly due, 
as STEENSBY supposes, to the fact of its being useless for the pursuit 
of musk ox; it is actually employed for this purpose both by the 
Copper and the Central Eskimo®. A more plausible explanation would 
seem to be, that reindeer antlers were absolutely indispensable in these 
regions, where wood is scarcer than anywhere else. Where the lapse 
took place, however, has not yet been definitely ascertained, albeit it 
would perhaps seem most likely that it occurred before the immigra- 
1 Leg. and Tales p. 250, 255, 260, 266, 293. 
2 FREUCHEN, p. 144. — The nunatak in question is there called Adam Biering’s 
Land. Mr. Knup Rasmussen kindly informs me that this name was 
temporarily given, before he and Евеоснем had carried out their big trip, 
the First Thule Expedition, across the Inland Ice, and discovered the tracts 
to which the name of Adam Biering’s Land was ultimately given. 
3 A somewhat similar one is shown by KANE, p. 223. 
4 STEENSBY, Polar Esk. p. 392 f. 
5 STEFANSSON, р. 96. — Ross, Sec. Voy. р. 349. — RAE, р. 102. — cf. Boas, 
Centr. Esk. p. 509. ee 
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