368 



THOMAS THOMSEN 



and at the same time it is evidence of wood having 

 been plentiful, seeing that such a large piece could 

 be spared for this purpose. In the graves af West 

 Greenland such wooden props are often found. The 

 late Dr. K. I. V. STEENSTRUP, to whom the greatest 

 honour is due for his investigation of the graves of 

 these regions, writes about this as follows: ' 



"Where the stones have not been long enough 1'or the 

 roofing a row of crossbeams of wood and antler serves as 

 a support for the stones. Moreover, the Greenlanders say 

 that the body was carried to the grave on these 'beams', a 

 statement which is also borne out by the fact that such 

 pieces of wood and antler are sometimes found stuck in 

 here and there between the stones of the grave." 



But less importance should be attached to the 

 interpretation given by Greenlanders now living of 

 their forefathers' customs than to the older records 

 in which we are told that the body was either carried 

 on the back, or dragged, to the grave. 2 



As regards the antlers stuck in between the stones 

 of the grave, their presence is no doubt due to an- 

 other cause, unknown to us; the specimen in question, 

 which is only about 28 cm long, cannot at any rate 

 have been used as a carrying pole.. 



Fig. 1. '/. 



Cape Peschel. 



I wrote above that graves which contained no 

 objects would not be described here, as that has al- 

 ready been done elsewhere"; but I think that one of 

 them, grave 674, near Cape Peschel, deserves special 

 mention. It is described by the investigator as follows: 



The grave (674) consisted of an empty stone chamber, 

 which for back wall had an erratic stone boulder c. 1 M. 

 high. The Greenlanders Hendrik Olsen and Tobias Gabri- 

 elsen, when they showed me this ruin, told me that it^was 



1 K. 1. V. STEENSTRUP I, p. '2'2. 



CRANZ, vol. I, p. 301. POUL EGEDE records in the year 1735 (p. 50) regarding a 

 dead woman : "Her son. whose duty it was next after his father to carry her 

 away, was not strong enough. According to the custom she was to be buried on 

 a hill or mountain. They therefore begged my brother, who was known for 

 his strength, to do it. This he consented to do; he tied a sealskin strap, as 

 he had seen they used to do, round the shoulders and loins of the corpse, 

 passing the bight of the strap round his forehead, and thus he went with the 

 wninan upon his back in deep snow, to the appointed place, where he and her 

 son erected a stone grave and placed her therein." 



* Cf. p. 3<>1. 



