The Angmagsalik Eskimo. 393 



It is presumably this last fact which Mr. Thalbitzer must have 

 had in mind; he has merely, reversed the facts. This erroneous idea 

 is doubtless likewise responsible for his explanation as to the Copen- 

 hagen dolls. 



These four sources, — and it is doubtful whether De Poincy refers 

 to Greenland at all, while the Museum Regium is only one of the many 

 contemporary Museum Catalogues in which objects from Greenland are 

 included 1 — are, with the exception of the two well-known works of 

 Martin Frobisher and John Davis, all that the Editor gives us regarding 

 the land east of Davis Straits. It is thus but a very scanty and casual 

 selection; he cannot be said to have mastered his subject to the full 2 . 



Small as it is, however, this selection, and the manner in which 

 it has been treated will yet suffice to convince the reader that the short- 

 comings of the work as a whole can at any rate not be laid to the charge 

 of the National Museum, since the same faults are apparent in the sec- 

 tions compiled by Mr. Thalbitzer from library and home studies. 



What we have seen in the foregoing with regard to the Author's 

 manner of dealing with his subject matter warrants a certain doubt as 

 to the results which may be arrived at by such methods. This element 

 of doubt is further increased by a closer study of the work. 



To examine thoroughly, point by point, the whole of this loosely 

 written and not particularly readable book would prove wearying alike 

 to the critic and his readers, the more so, since the Author's own con- 

 clusions regarding one and the same object vary at different parts of 

 the work. We must restrict ourselves to such brief consideration of 

 certain portions as may serve in some degree to guide those wishing to 

 make use of the book as a whole. 



CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF ANGMAGSALIK. 



The earliest printed report in which the name Angmagsalik is men- 

 tioned dates from the visit of certain East Greenlanders to the nearest 

 Danish trading outpost Pamiagdluk, in I860 3 . The earliest mention of 

 the place by name is, however, somewhat prior to this, viz. 1849, when 

 the first objects were brought home from there. 



These objects, a water vessel and dipper 4 were sent to the then 

 Ethnographical Museum by Kolonibestyrer O. V. Kielsen, with the fol- 

 lowing information: "These two objects, the like of which no Greenlander 



1 E. g. Museum Wormianum, Gottorfische Kunstkammer etc. etc. 



2 Any reader seeking a fuller selection may find the same in the Bibliographia 

 Groenlandica" above quoted. (Medd. om Grønl. vol. 13.) 



3 H. Rink: Danish Greenland. London 1877, p. 322; cf. Thalb. II, p. 340—41. 

 1 Ethnographical collection of the National Museum. Nos L. с 267 — 68. 



