422 



otherwise unknown in Greenland, and has never been met with, 

 for instance, at Ammassalik; there are several specimens of it 

 both in the National Museum at Copenhagen and in the Riks- 

 museum at Stockholm, (the Pfaff collection contains 6 of them) 

 the latter being unusually beautiful and partially ornamented (see 

 Appendix, Figs. 96 and 97). Now to what use can it have been 

 apphed? In the records of the above mentioned museums 

 has been embodied an explanation of native Greenlanders to 

 the effect that this implement was part of an old-fashioned 

 ring-and-pin toy (a curious kind of ajagaq), a game which, in 

 another form, is to this day very common among the Eskimo 

 of all parts ^). This, however, is the sort of explanation which 

 a Greenlander might very easily be induced to give when 

 questioned about matters which are no less a puzzle to him 

 than to his questioner. I venture therefore to cast a doubt 

 on the correctness of the explanation, and shall hazard an- 

 other hypothesis. 



From all Eskimo regions outside of Greenland is found as 

 an accessory to the women's sewing-apparatus a needle-case 

 of bone, formed like a tube, from 6 to 10 cm in length, through 

 which a long rawhide thong is drawn. At the ends of this 

 thong, which project out through both the ends of the tube, 

 the women fasten various small implements or knicknacks, such 

 as needles, bodkins of various forms, small carved bone or 

 wood objects, which perhaps are to be collected for a future 

 girdle, pierced bear's teeth etc. The thin sewing-needles are 

 stuck into the thong and can be drawn along with it into 

 the tube in order to protect them^). The collection of these 

 objects from Alaska exhibit, as usual, the greatest number of 

 variations and the richest ornamentation ^). Whereas the types 

 of tubes from the western regions, to judge by the illustrations 



1) Culln 544. 



'^) Murdoch I, fig. 328 b. 



") Nelson 103, and PI. 44; Murdoch I, 318—322. 



