388 Thomas Thomsen. 



the Danes. It is thus not a matter of slight moment that 60 of the objects 

 thus described were brought home subsequently to the foundation of 

 the Danish trading station there, not a few changes having taken place 

 since Holm's day 1 . A still graver fault, however, is the inclusion of 

 half a score of objects which do not originate from Angmagsalik at all, 

 •but from the west coast, brought thither by natives from the east (all 

 with one exception being from the south-east coast) before the discovery 

 of Angmagsalik, for the most part as far back as 1839 — 65. 



By way of example we may take Fig. 293 (p. 567) "Women's inner 

 breeches". None of these are from Holm's time; a. was received from 

 Johan Petersen in 1908, b. from Ryder in 1892; both are, however, 

 characteristic pieces of Angmagsalik work, whereas e. and d. were brought 

 over by way of the West Coast in 1865 and 1846 respectively, and may 

 easily be distinguished from the first two ; d. especially is ornamented 

 with a pattern entirely foreign to the style of dress in Angmagsalik. 



We need not, however, peer into the future for possible harmful 

 effects of our Author's carelessness; the work itself already exhibits 

 instances of error arising from the incorrect designation of the objects 

 shown in the illustrations. 



Thus in Fig. 392, (p. 667) the subjoined text ascribes to the Holm 

 collection a kind of wooden calendar, brought home in 1848 and then 

 described as originating from Eastern Greenland, not from Angmagsalik, 

 the very name of which was then unknown. 



In the Danish edition of Holm's work 2 we find the following pas- 

 sage with regard to the reckoning of time then current in Angmagsalik: 



"Division by weeks is of course unknown. Hanserak made an 

 almanach of the kind used on the West coast, i. e. made of wood and 

 having seven holes, in which a peg is placed for every day in the week. 

 We gave this almanach to Ilinguaki, in order that during the winter, 

 when he lived far from us, he might be able to know when it was our 

 Sunday. When we came to Ilinguaki next year, we found that he had 

 been using it constantly". 



The note in question is translated in W. Thalbitzer's English 

 edition, reference being made to Fig. 392 3 . Cand. Thalbitzer must 

 therefore have regarded the almanack shown in fig. 392 as the one 

 made by Hanserak for a special purpose. 



Our examination of the material has been restricted to the objects 

 photographed in the Museum, and therefore does not include the illu- 

 strations from Amdrup's and Johan Petersen's collections, which were 

 not deposited in the Museum until a later date. The examination revealed 

 a number of other faults and omissions, such as incorrect indication of 

 the scale of reproduction, query mark after the scale as given, inclusion 



1 cf. the Editor's own words 1. с. p. 387 and p. 579. 



2 Medd. om Grønland, vol. 10, p. 141 footnote. 



3 Thalb. II, p. 105. 



