Ethnographical collections from East Greenland. 327 



works of John Davis, Egede father and son, Cranz, Glahn, Otto Fabri- 

 cius and others; as also in the comparative study of the cultural forms 

 among the North Canadian Eskimo, described by authors such as 

 Kumlien, Boas, Turner, Nelson, Murdoch, Mason and various others. 

 Under such conditions and prepared in such a manner, I began to 

 take more pleasure in the collections of museums than before; the 

 dead objects assumed life and personality. From the silent cases I 

 began to hear the language and thoughts of the people; they talked 

 about the small details in the daily life of the natives, about the 

 struggle on the desolate coast to wring a bare living from the ice-filled 

 sea, and about their labour to make existence as pleasant as possible 

 in the house and tent, in the home and on the journeys; they spoke 

 about the harmony and mutual help between the families in times of 

 dearth and struggle, on the power of the traditions and on the 

 artistic feeling in the human heart, constantly striving to break up 

 some of the traditional forms and feel the pride and pleasure of 

 new. Great and sudden changes do not occur, but in each genera- 

 tion one or two or perhaps three new forms win acceptance among 

 a few individuals, whether of one kind of implement or of another, 

 sometimes in their ornaments or in their playthings. And at last 

 the beat of the waves from the history of the great world also 

 reaches up to the forgotten coasts. 



In the best museum collections there are specimens of the prim- 

 itive people's ancient or obsolete implements. The antiquities of 

 Greenland are to be found in various museums in Europe, but to 

 any considerable extent probably only in the museums of Copen- 

 hagen and Stockholm. 



It is a good thing to have a photograph of an ethnographic 

 object, but still better to study it in the hand, view it from all 

 sides and possibly make a sketch of it. On comparing related 

 forms of culture — e. g. of East and West Greenland — it would 

 be an advantage to have the objects compared in one's possession 

 at the same time. As a rule museums are very willing to give 

 students the facilities, which make such a comparison possible. But 

 the Eskimo and Greenland collections are so widely scattered in 

 the museums of Europe and America, that the desire to make a 

 simultaneous comparison of the objects must in many cases be 

 given up. Fortunately, more than one museum has sufficiently rich 

 collections of Greenland (not to mention Eskimo) objects from 

 different districts and ages, so that it is possible to make comparative 

 studies in this field within its walls. 



My thanks are due to all the museums I have visited for the 

 facilities offered me. It is with pleasure that I remember my visits 



