The Angmagsalik Eskimo. 401 



brought home by Captain Holm in considerable numbers, (Medd. om 

 Grønland vol. 10, Plate XXVI I) as also to the entirely similar ones found 

 on the West Coast during excavation of old Greenlandic graves and 

 sites of houses. True, the natives of Angmagsalik are wont to use, 

 inter alia, male and female figures as amulets, which are sewn into 

 the amulet straps worn by the men, or fixed in the hair-knot or fur 

 worn by the women (Medd. om Grønl. vol. 10, p. 118), such figures 

 being also, albeit in highly conventionalised form, utilised for the de- 

 coration of sewing-needle skins (Medd. om Grønl. vol. 10. PI. XXVIII) 

 and for ornamenting various implements, in which cases, there is 

 doubtless some fundamental idea as to the figures' affording some 

 protection or advantage to the owner. Such figures are, however, 

 of an entirely different character to the wooden dolls first 

 mentioned 1 ), which are generally executed with greater attention 

 to detail and as a rule considerably larger than the amulets, the latter 

 bearing but a suggestion of the human form. The wooden dolls are 

 now used by the natives of Angmagsalik only as toys for children, 

 and both Captain Holm's expedition and we ourselves procured num- 

 bers of them by barter, every child having as a rule a little collection. 

 Another feature which further shows that no higher significance is 

 attached to them is the fact that the natives show not the slightest 

 unwillingness to part with them, whereas they are very loth, and in 

 most cases absolutely refuse, to give up their amulets, even for a con- 

 siderable price. In addition to the dolls carved in human form, the 

 children often had figures of animals carved in wood, representing 

 bears, foxes, dogs and seals. The wooden dolls were always kept 

 together with these figures and the other playthings, and were treated 

 in the same way, the whole stock being sometimes tied together with 

 a strip of sealhide. From this it would seem that the wooden 

 dolls are nothing but playthings" 1 . 



And to avoid any possibility of misunderstanding, Ryder further adds: 



"The fact of dolls having been found in graves on the West 

 coast proves nothing, it being a general custom among the 

 Eskimos to place in the grave some articles, belonging to 

 the deceased" 1 . 



It is difficult to understand how these words can be taken as evidence 

 in support of the theory as to a former religious significance attaching 

 to the dolls : we are therefore obliged to have recourse to the other writer 

 quoted, viz: Geaah. He writes, with regard to some houses and graves 

 on Snedorffs Island, as follows: "In these there lay, together with the 

 usual hunting implements, two human images carved in wood, not un- 

 like those presented to Bering by the savages on the N.W. coast of Ame- 



1 Spaced type by Thomas Thomsen. 

 lui. 26 



