326 W. Thalbitzer 



visitor to see what is placed at the back and in which most of the 

 objects can only be got at with great difficulty. 



My own collection is of smaller importance. My work in Green- 

 land was not to undertake any ethnographic collecting, but mainly 

 to study the language and folklore of the natives. Some few objects 

 w^ere obtained by myself or my wife occasionally, as gifts from the 

 natives we lived with or who visited us. A few things, especially 

 models of boats and weapons, I ordered, regarding them as of 

 assistance in my linguistic investigations. 



In museums of other countries I have seen several small collec- 

 tions from Ammassalik, in addition to the larger collection in 

 Christiania already mentioned. — Stockholm Riksmuseum contains 

 the earliest known objects from this latest discovered population 

 of Greenland. These are some of the things obtained by A. E. 

 NoRDENSKiÖLD in southem West Greenland, which had obviously 

 come over to the other coast through the trading connections of the 

 East Greenlanders. The first are even dated 1873^); the later in his 

 collections are from the years 1883 and 1896. 



In Berlin (Museum für Völkerkunde) there is a small collection 

 from Ammassalik, obtained from Chr. Kruuse, and some objects 

 added later by C. Leden. — In Vienna (Hofmuseum) I have seen 

 various objects from Ammassalik in the Greenland collection of R. 

 Trebitsch, among these some masks and some stone objects found 

 in graves. 



Preliminary studies. Through my linguistic studies in Green- 

 land in the years 1900—1901 and again 1905 — 1906 I was already 

 well acquainted with the existing Inuit forms of culture in West 

 Greenland between 66° and 72° N. lat. and in East Greenland at 

 65^/2° N. lat. , when I took up ethnographic investigations. In the 

 first-mentioned district the mind and body of the Inuk (Eskimo) are 

 so strongly Europeanised, that a considerable power of criticism is 

 required to distinguish the true remnants of the original culture in 

 the modern implements and mental products. A valuable corrective 

 to the results of my first journey was my stay in East Greenland, 

 where the original culture was still easily detected in 1905 — 1906 

 alongside of the intruding modern culture. But another and necess- 

 ary corrective to my impressions of the existing forms of culture I 

 found in the literature on the Greenlanders of earlier limes, in the 



') An ej'e-shade and a comb of walrus tooth bear old inventoriai numbers after 

 the letters R. M. They have probably belonged to one or other colonial governor's 

 private collection and been bought by Nordenskiöld during his first visit to 

 West Greenland. 



