Ethnograpliical collections from East Greenland. 325 



primitive culture. The collection thus became of interest, just be- 

 cause it had not to be brought together in haste during the stay of 

 an expedition, but could grow slowly on the basis of the sympa- 

 thetic relations which developed between the population and its 

 first European civiliser. Johan Petersen, who speaks both Danish 

 and Greenlandic as his mother-tongue, has had personal experience 

 from childhood of the use of the Eskimo weapons. In him are 

 united so far the qualifications, which many a museum's man would 

 like himself to have, but which, unfortunately, cannot be trans- 

 ferred to the museum along with the collection. I am grateful 

 to Johan Petersen for the permission he gave me to study his col- 

 lection and take photographs before he sold it. At the end of 1910 

 it came into the possession of our National Museum and since then 

 I have not had the opportunity of seeing it. 



Among the interesting objects of this collection there is quite a 

 number of stone implements, further, weapon heads and working 

 tools, soapstone pots and lamps; all the known types of harpoons, 

 bladder harpoons, bird darts and lances; fishing harpoons; sealing 

 stools; swivels and towing lines (for the captured seals); old-fashioned 

 knives and finger and knee protectors of wood; ulos and combs, 

 bodkins and awls from earlier and more recent times; clothes and 

 skin bags for all kinds of use in the house and tent, with or 

 without embroidery; ornaments and amulets, masks and toys — in 

 short, a complete picture of the culture of this people about the 

 year 1900 and in earlier times (from things found in graves, refuse 

 heaps or ruins), in part displaying varieties of known forms, often 

 witnessing to the developmental history of the implements. 



The collection of "Den Grønlandske Administration" from East 

 Greenland may be mentioned in this connection, as it has been 

 gathered in reality through Johan Petersen. It lies (or lay when I 

 studied it) in a w^arehouse loft at the docks of the Administration 

 in the harbour of Copenhagen. It contained valuable materials, but 

 can scarcely be protected against the ravages of moths, rust and 

 decay. I am much indebted to the administrative director of the 

 Greenland colonies for permission to examine this collection and 

 take photographs of it. 



The National Museum of Copenhagen contains the principal col- 

 lections for Greenland as a whole — for East Greenland especially 

 the collections connected with the following names (most of them 

 already mentioned): Graah, G. Holm, Ryder, G. Amdrup, Rüttel, J. 

 Petersen and Thalbitzer. The Greenland objects are placed in unus- 

 ually deep glass-cases, in which it is almost impossible for the 



