Implements and Artefacts of the North-east Greenlanders. 405 



mon), it is furnished with one or more barbs on blade or shanks. 

 The end of the shank tapers to a point, and is usually carved with 

 a spiral ridge corresponding to the thread of a left-handed screw, 

 or a portion of such. Often only the rudiments of this appear, e. g. 

 two knobs situated at different levels. 



At Smith Sound bows and arrows were not in use when JOHN 

 Ross in 1818 encountered the Polar Greenlanders for the first time. 

 They were introduced into that region together with several other 

 important features of material culture such as kayaks, salmon prongs, 

 etc. 1 , by the immigration of the Cumberland Eskimo in the begin- 

 ning of the sixties of 1800 ; 2 but they were employed a short time 

 only. When the American North Pole Expedition in 1872 73 win- 

 tered near Etah, none of the natives had as yet adopted this wea- 

 pon 3 , and in the nineties of 1800 it had already gone out of use. 4 



These bows and arrows, being introduced so late and used so 

 short a time, are not of interest in this connection: the arrowheads 

 have the end of the shank cut obliquely to form a splice, a fact 

 which proves their relationship to those of the Central Eskimo. 



The Smith Sound Eskimo were, however, acquainted with the 

 bow and arrow in former times; the words are found in their language 

 and occur in their legends 5 . During a visit to North Star Bay in 1909 

 an arrowhead of this older type 6 was brought to me by an Eskimo 

 who stated that he had found it at a grave. It had, like the heads 

 from West Greenland, a conical base with two knobs. 



BOAS gives the pointed tang as characteristic of the arrow- 

 heads of the Mackenzie Eskimo and the West Eskimo in contrast 

 to those of the Central Eskimo. 7 This western form is that found 

 in West Greenland. A few specimens with pointed tang, however, 

 have been found in the Central Eskimo region 8 and it is to be ex- 

 pected that archaeological investigations will add to their number. 

 At Angmagsalik, the use of the bow and arrow as a weapon had 

 been abandoned at the time of the discovery of the tribe, and the 

 form of the arrows is at present unknown. 



1 KNUD RASMUSSEN I, pp. 31 et seq. 



2 BESSELS, pp. 341 et seq. STEENSBY I, pp. 261 et seq. 



3 BESSELS, p. 360. 



4 ASTRUP, (p. 130) writes: At our arrival in 1891 hunting was still mostly carried 

 on with bows and arrows; but at our departure in 1894 these weapons were 

 entirely laid aside, and in the near future they will certainly only be on view 

 in a few glass cases in the ethnographical museums. 



5 KROEBER, p. 275. 



6 Mus. No. L. 4337. 



7 BOAS I, p. 505. 



8 BOAS III, p. 83, Fig, 116 a and p. 397, Fig. 193 b; compare the doubtful specimen 

 in BOAS I, p. 505. 



XLIV. 29 



