336 W. Thalbitzer 



David Cranz obtained information regarding the East Green- 

 landers from the Moravian missionaries and from two Danish mer- 

 chants in southern Greenland and this information we find in his 

 History of Greenland ^). In 1752 a man called Kojake [Qojake"!] 

 came to the west coast. His home lay about 120 English miles up 

 on the east coast. He narrated that in the previous winter, he had 

 been visited by three men and their relatives, who had arrived in 

 2 umiaks from the north after a three years journey (northwards and 

 back to the south): — "They had been so far north, that the sun 

 in summer did not go below the horizon, but lighted up the hills 

 at midnight. On the way they had sometimes loaded the sledge 

 with their tent and boat, and let the dogs pull them over the ice. 

 The men on the east coast they described as taller than those on 

 the west coast. They had black hair, large beards and brown faces. 

 Their speech was almost like their ow^n, but they had a singing 

 accent. They had not seen anything of trees and grass, nor of 

 reindeer and hares, for they had not landed on the mainland, but 

 remained on the islands^). Regarding the natives they said, that 

 they were numerous and friendly to get on with. They believed 

 they had seen a fine fjord, but had not entered it, being afraid of 

 the men-eaters, who were said to live there — — — . Their houses 

 they build, like our Greenlanders here, of stone and lay cross-beams 

 over these. But wood is very scarce there. Their clothing is also 

 said to be like that seen here but roughly put together, iron and 

 especially sewing needles being very scarce. They are greatly 

 delighted, therefore, if they find a nail in the wood which drifts 

 into the coast. Ships they are said never to have seen, nor do they 

 themselves have sailing-boats. Further, their umiaks, kaiaks and 

 darts are said to be like those here. Regarding religion he had 

 nothing to say, except that there were also angakut and sorcerers 

 there." 



The idea that dwellers on the east coast were in part cannibals, 

 appears early ^) and is repeated again and again. It is quite certain, 

 that in bad years, when one or two places have been threatened 

 with extinction from hunger, the inhabitants have turned to eating 

 their dead, possibly even exceptionally to killing 'a deserted child or 

 an old person ^). The East Greenlander met b}^ Cranz explained the 



^) Cranz (1770) pp. 342—349. 



2) This seems to presuppose that reindeer and liares which are not found at the 



present daj' cither at Ammasalik or south of this, луеге at that time known 



to exist somewhere on the east coast mainland. 

 ^) Already in Hans Egedes Relation (1738 1 p. 110, under August 24th 1723. 

 ^J Graah (1832) pp. 34 and 118. Cranz (1770) pp. 343—344. 



