468 



section are both placed on a sharply marked, continued basal 

 line. 



The work as a whole has been carefully and artistically 

 executed; a critical eye will, of course, easily perceive several 

 inaccuracies and crookednesses in the outer lines of the comb 

 as well as in the ornamentation. But, as I shall presently show, 

 the Eskimo craftsman certainly set himself a most unusual task 

 in this little work of art. 



For while the construction of the comb, the broad flat 

 handle, and the thick bodkin-like teeth are found in combs from 

 North West Greenland, the size and special form of the handle 

 of this comb are quite unique, as far as I know, not merely 

 among the combs which are found in the collections from 

 Greenland, but among Eskimo combs as a whole. It is so 

 much the more surprising, as no comb has previously been 

 found in the north-east of Greenland. 



1 know from the collections a number of West Greenland 

 combs, found in graves. The ordinary type is a flat, square 

 handle of bone, expanding a little downwards, where the teeth 

 are cut out of the same piece without much art, being as a 

 rule comparatively short. In Pfaff's collection in the Riks- 

 museum at Stockholm there are a few varying types, which 

 have a faint resemblance to inv. Amd. 86. Two of these combs 

 have a handle with a curving edge, at the top of which projects 

 a circular blade, like a human head. Another has the simple 

 square handle, but longer, cylindrical teeth — curiously enough 

 originally 8 teeth, the two outermost of which on each side 

 have been broken off, just exactly as in this specimen from 

 North East Greenland. (With regard to one or two other combs 

 from West Greenland, it is stated that they were presumably 

 used in plaiting sinew cord, just like those Nelson describes 

 from West Alaska M. 



1) Nelson no, PI. 48 a, figs. 1 to 6. 



