404 Thomas Thomsen. 



in the Amdrup collection. I do not know whether he bases this comparison 

 on personal acquaintance with Jochelson's dolls; if so, then they are 

 not made with movable joints, for the bear in question has no movable 

 joints, its legs being merely pegged into their sockets (vide Thalb. I, 

 p. 534, Fig. 105). 



SHARK'S TOOTH KNIVES AND UMIAK CLEANERS. 



With regard to the strange knives edged with shark's teeth, Mr. 

 Thalbitzer observes 1 : "Shark's tooth knives (Fig. 187) for cutting hair 

 have been mentioned 2 on p. 32. Such knives seem also to have been 

 known in West Greenland in earlier times, for Olearius mentions, that 

 his Greenlanders had some knives, which they called ekalugsaa, that is 

 they explained with this word, that the knives were made from sharks 

 (presumably the teeth of sharks) 6). The teeth are inserted into grooves 

 along both edges, like the small iron blades in the primitive knives we 

 know from northern West Greenland and Southampton Island (see 

 p. 489)". Note 6 runs as follows: "Olearius (1656), p. 174. Illustration 

 from southern East Greenland by Graah (1832) PI. VII". 



Glancing first at Fig. 187, we here find two knives shown, and stated 

 by the Author as belonging to the Holm collection. This is true, however, 

 only as regards 187 a, that marked b. being as a matter of fact the very 

 one brought home by Graah and mentioned by Mr. Thalbitzer in 

 Note 6 as from southern East Greenland (to be precise, from Malingisek, 

 Lat. 62°20'N.); it should be noted, however, that the knife will be found 

 shown in Graah's book, not in PI. VII, but in PI. VIII. 



The reference to Olearius is, like Mr. Thalbitzer's earlier quotation 

 of the same author 3 , not altogether correct. Olearius says, in the 

 passage in question, "Ihre Messer seind von Backen Zähnen eines Meer- 

 fisches, welchen sie Ekulugsua, Piso aber in historia naturali Brasilia? 

 p. 180 und Jonstonius de piscib. p. 201 Piratia Pua auf Brasilianisch 

 nennen". 



The form "welchen" must necessarily refer to "Meerfisch" and not, 

 as Mr. Thalbitzer's seems to have read, to "Ihre Messer". Properly 

 construed, the words of Olearius tell us, clearly and distinctly enough, 

 that it is the fish, not the knife, which the Greenlanders called Ekulugsua. 

 He writes the work ekulugsua, not, as Mr. Thalbitzer spells it, ekalugsaa, 

 and intends thereby to give the native name for the Greenland Shark 

 (ekalugssuak). Nor is it easy to understand why the Editor, if he had 

 read the passage in Olearius, should find it necessary to advance the 



1 Thalb. II, p. 476. 



2 i. e. by Holm. 



3 vide supra p. 389 Й. 



