Implements and Artefacts of the North-east Greenlanders. 



429 



ample certain table knives. Another feature appears to me to point 

 in the same direction. It has been pointed out above, that in the 

 snow knives of Type I, as regards the shoulders of the blade both to- 

 wards edge and back, the shoulder on the edge side always occupies 

 a somewhat anterior position, a fact which is due to the 

 Eskimo manner of grasping the knife with the whole hand 

 and drawing it towards the user 1 , the knuckles requiring 

 less space than the palm of the hand, which is applied to 

 the edge side. In some of the slate knives, also, there is 

 shoulder not only on the edge side, but also on the back ; 

 but here the back shoulder is anterior to the other (cf. es- 

 pecially PI. VIII, 1 and PI. XXI, 4). In front of the former 

 shoulder the back is thin, and more or less sharp 2 . 

 I am inclined to connect this with the projection 

 likewise known from the back of the European table 

 knife, behind which the first finger may rest if it is 

 required to exercise pressure, therefore in these knives 

 the posterior portion of the back is thick, while 

 anteriorly it becomes thinner to give elasticity. For 

 the Eskimo, who have a different manner of gras- 

 ping the knife this is of no practical importance; 

 it appears to have been slavishly transferred from 

 the prototype. 



Another knife-form, which so far as I know 

 has not previously been found in North-east Green- 

 land, viz. with blade and handle cut from solid 

 bone, and with a groove in the one edge of the 

 blade for the insertion of the cutting edge, is re- 

 presented in the collection by two specimens, both 

 from house 133 on Renskaeret- 



L. 3535 (Fig. 26 b) is 18 cm. long, with a breadth a b 



of about 1 cm.; it is thin, the extreme thickness Kig. 26. 2 ls. 

 being 8 mm.; it is slightly convex on the one face 

 and flat on the other. The side edges and the fore end are rounded, 

 but the butt end is cut off square. On the hindermost portion, for a 

 distance of 12'5 cm., viz. the length of the handle, the edge on the 

 side of the cutting edge is furnished with 17 small knobs to provide 



1 Cf. Fig. in MASON IV, p. 736, Fig. 8. 



2 Knife Mus. No. L. 3309 (PI. XXI, 7) forms an exception in so far as the projection 

 at its back is posterior to that on (he edge, but here the projection evidently 

 serves only to fasten the knife to the handle; moreover, in this specimen the 

 back is thick on its foremost portion and not thin, as in the specimens mentioned. 



