The Angmagsalik Eskimo. 391 



There remains then no other source but the principal MS, A. M. 

 364 Fol. 1 True, the entire text of the work in question consists of but 

 192 written pages, of which, again, only 169 are numbered, so that p. 263 

 does not exist; the quotation in question will, however, be found on 

 p. 166. It is unnecessary, by the way, to guess at the age of this MS, 

 as it is fully dated 2 . We may, on the other hand, hazard a guess 

 that it is the date of compilation of the MS. 1689 which has betrayed 

 Mr. Thalbitzer into quoting the year 1789. Matthias Schacht, by 

 the way, gives, at the commencement of his work, a long list of 

 writers, which Mr. Thalbitzer would have done well to make use 

 of, when attempting to give a synopsis of early works on the subject 

 of Greenland. 



On pp. 635 — 36, the Editor quotes Olearius and Schacht in evi- 

 dence of the use of wooden dolls as idols in western Greenland in the 

 17th century. Mr. Thalbitzer here states as follows: "Some idols of 

 this kind were brought to Copenhagen probably by the Dannell expe- 

 dition in 1654". 



The passage in Olearius from which this is taken runs as 

 follows : 



"Was der Grünländer Religion anlanget, hat man nicht erfahren 

 können, wie es darumb beschaffen. Sie seynd ausser Zweyfel Heyden, 

 und Götzendiener, wie dann einen solchen Götzen, welcher in der 

 Strasse Davis vom Lande genommen, wir aus Paludanus Kunst Cammer 

 bekommen. Ist aus Holtz grob geschnitzet, einer halben Ellen lang, 

 mit Federn- und Haarfell bekleidet und mit kleinen lenglichten Thier 

 Zahnen behenget" etc. 3 . 



This statement has been entirely misunderstood by Cand. Thalbitzer 

 and needs explanation. Olearius' "wir" refers to the "Kunstkammer" at 

 Gottorp, where he filled the office of librarian and antiquary. Paludanus 

 is the Dutch physician Bernhardus Paludanus, whose "Kunstkammer" 

 at Enckhuisen was celebrated in its time 4 . He died in 1633, aged 83, 

 and the collection was subsequently sold by this heirs to Duke Frederik III 

 of Gottorp, forming the nucleus of the ducal Kunstkammer. It was 

 fetched by Olearius in person in 1651 5 . 



Olearius, then, speaks not of several objects, but of one. This 

 one was brought to Gottorp, not to Copenhagen, and brought, moreover, 

 not from Western Greenland by Dannell in 1654, but from some place 



1 As AM. 364 Fol. the MS. is cited also in P. Lauridsen: Bibliographia 

 Groenlandica (Medd. om Grønl. vol. 13). 



2 Dabam Cartemindæ Septimo Calend. Maji Anni post reparatam salutem 

 MDCLXXXIX. 



3 Olearius p. 176 (cit. Thalb. II, p. 683, Note 2). 



4 Geerart Brandt: Beschriewing en Lof der Stad Enkhuisen. Blad 25—29, 

 and A. I. van der Aa: Biographisch Wordenbook der Nederlanden. 



6 Olearius: Gottorfische Kunstkammer, introduction. 



