Implements and Artefacts of the North-east Grcenlanders. 365 



representing the funeral outfit of one woman; but this cannot be 

 decided with any certainty. On inquiry, Captain AMDRUP kindly 

 informed me that he could state at any rate with pretty fair cer- 

 tainty that all the bodkins had been found together, which, more- 

 over, is probable by reason of their homogeneous appearance. The 

 find from the Sksergaards Halve contains in addition various other 

 objects belonging to women, as for instance thimble holders, and to 

 men, as for instance two knife handles with notches for the fingers. ' 

 In this find the bone implements are of special interest: - 

 The needlecase (PI. VII, 9) is of the form peculiar to Greenland. 

 It closely resembles the specimen from the Skaergaards Halve, which, 

 save for the remarkable specimen from Dunholm, is the only 

 example known from East Greenland. From West Greenland the 

 National Museum contains 16 specimens of this type, chiefly from 

 the northernmost part of the west coast; one specimen only is known 

 to have come from the region south af the Arctic circle, but that is 

 from Julianehaab, the most southerly settlement in Greenland; this 

 specimen- is however far more effaced in form than are those 

 trom North Greenland ; in south Greenland the old type is replaced 

 by a simple cylindrical case. In the district of Angmagsalik, the 

 only part of East Greenland now inhabited, a triangular piece of 

 skin is used instead of a needlecase. 



On the needlecase from Rypefjeldet are two forms of ornamenta- 

 tion, one of them, which consists of a raised border running round 

 the constricted part at the middle of the needlecase, occurs also on 

 two West Greenland specimens. The other, consisting of two pairs 

 of small knobs placed opposite each other near the tapering end of 

 the needlecase 3 , as if they were rudiments of nails driven through, 

 is, on the contrary, not found in any other Greenland specimens, 

 but such knobs are an almost constantly recurring feature on need- 

 lecases from Alaska, most frequently one pair, and placed higher up 4 . 

 FRANZ BOAS, in his interesting paper, regards this as an inte- 

 gral part of the article. It is consequently strange to find these 

 apparently useless knobs occurring on a specimen from the most 

 easterly Eskimo region, where the form of the needlecase has other- 

 wise, on the whole, undergone a great change. It would be inter- 

 esting if future finds should confirm that these knobs are a feature 

 derived from the common Eskimo prototype, a feature which for 

 some reason or other is regarded as essential to the object and 

 therefore occurs sporadically throughout the region in question; any 



1 THALBITZER I, p. 413 Fig. 29. 2 Cf. BIRKF.T-SMITH, p. 33, Fig. 25. s This 

 forms the lower end of the needlecase when suspended for use; the specimen is 

 inverted in the figure. 4 BOAS II, plates XXII XXVI. 



