467 



It consists of a flat handle of considerable length (over 

 half of the comb) which by the edge curving well in from both 

 sides is divided into two sections which together form some- 

 thing like an 8 upside down. The larger section is crowned by 

 a flat blade-like projection, at the top of which there is a 

 broken eye, in which a looped thong for hanging the comb 

 may have been fastened. The long teeth of the comb have 

 been cut out from the lower part of the second section; at 

 the root these teeth are flat like the handle itself, but they 

 soon become cylindrical like bodkins, tapering towards the 

 point. There seem originally to have been eight teeth, but the 

 extreme tooth on both sides has been broken off. The teeth 

 are not equally sharp, nor equally long ; the shorter ones have 

 been much blunted by wear-, a very thin slit in the blunt point 

 of them leads one to imagine that the wear was due to the 

 friction of the hair. Also higher up, on the upper part of the 

 teeth of the comb, where hairs generally collect, is seen a 

 horizontal groove, running from tooth to tooth, and probably 

 due to wear. The spaces between some of the teeth at the 

 root are still filled with dirt from the hair. 



What strikes one at once about this comb is the ornamen- 

 tation, identical on both sides of the comb, which is more 

 luxurious than we should expect to see in Greenland. We 

 see the interlacing ornamentation at the edge, consisting of 

 two parallel lines which follow the border of the handle in all 

 its sinualions, the intervening spaces of which are filled up 

 with small triangular dots placed alternately along the two lines; 

 and the two crosses which are incised each in its section and 

 filled with ornamental straight lines which cross one another 

 and form small squares. The ornaments of the two faces of 

 the comb actually correspond with each other in such minute 

 details as that the two upper crosses are inscribed in rect- 

 linear, very weakly designed figures (perhaps lines to guide the 

 drawing of the cross?) and that the two smaller ones in the lower 



