339 



elsewhere. These things are characteristic of the material cul- 

 ture of the jNorth East. Let alone such purely individual features 

 as the peculiar form of the large, elegant, ivory comb {inv. 

 Amd. 86], the ornamented bone handle of a woman's knife 

 {inv. Avid. 45), and several of the carved bone animals. By 

 such manifestations of originality these objects testify that this 

 north-easterly Eskimo group, after having been isolated from 

 the rest of mankind, passed through a vigorous development 

 of its own. 



Finally, in the implements from this corner of Greenland 

 we meet with certain features which point to a special con- 

 tinuity between the northern and southern culture of the coast, 

 an ancient connection long since broken off between the Nor- 

 theners and the inhabitants of the south i. e. the population of 

 the Sermilik and Ammassalik fjords at 60^/2° lat. N., or the 

 Ammassalimmhit. The highly developed culture of this in- 

 tensely isolated group, which was discovered for the first time 

 26 years ago, and soon afterwards was made known to the 

 world by its discoverer's, G. Holm's, account of "Konebaads- 

 expeditionen" and "Skitse af Angmagsalikerne", occupies a 

 position apart in the Eskimo world. A number of the types 

 of implements, ornaments, and traditions which in their main 

 features they have in common with all other Eskimo, have been 

 individualised and transformed by them in accordance with their 

 own personal taste and requirements, so that their culture has 

 thereby received a stamp of its own which distinguishes it from 

 all others. As it cannot possibly have been influenced from 

 without, it is with all its peculiarity genuinely Eskimo. However, 

 we know that from past times (the Egedes actually mention the 

 Easterners) up to the present day there have been restless 

 spirits among them, individuals of roving temperament, by whose 

 journeys this heart of the East coast has been brought into a 

 remote connection with the most southerly Eskimo of the coast, 

 nav even with the West Greenlanders in South Greenland. Thus 



