4 Preface. 



importance in the view of the natives I have obtained by personal 

 intercourse on the spot. 



From the diary of the head man of our native crew, Johannes 

 Hansen (Hanserak), I have made a few short extracts, which 

 have been used to supplement my description. I desire in passing 

 to point out that in Hanserak's Diary there are many excellent 

 jottings, which show how admirably he has understood the 

 character of the Angmagsaliks, and it would be a desirable thing 

 if some part of it was one day to be published ^). 



The Greenlandic names here, as in „Meddelelser om Grønland" 

 Vols. IX and X, are spelt substantially in accordance with the usual 

 practice on the West coast of Greenland ; however, I have departed 

 from it to some slight extent, in order to bring them more in line with 

 the pronunciation of the natives. Thus, instead of the letter и I 

 have employed the letter i, instead of о I have used e, and instead 

 of the soft s I have employed j, e. g. : Tasiusarsfk, Ikatek, Nukajik. 

 But, in order to avoid perplexing the reader, who might fail to 

 recognize familiar names from the West coast in their new garb, I 

 have refrained from going to the extremity of writing the names 

 just as they are pronounced. For this would involve nothing less 

 than changing practically all the consonants, as the language of the 

 people of Angmagsalik is softer than that of the West Greenlanders. 

 Thus it would often be necessary to replace p by b, t by d, к by g, 

 f by p or b, s by j or / and к (к) by r. In many words it would 

 be necessary, in order to represent the East Greenland pronunciation, 

 to omit several letters e. g. Amasalik instead of Angmagsalik, but in 

 these cases too I have followed the West Greenland orthography. 



^J A Danish translation of Hanserak's Diary, made by Mrs. Signe Rink, 

 appeared in 1900 („Vestgrønlænder Kateket Hansêraks Dagbog om de hedenske 

 Østgrønlændere." Hagerups Forlag. Copenhagen 1900). 



