366 W. Thalbitzer 



gebracht. Es ist also im Zelte ziemlich dunkel. Doch helfen die Lampen 

 zur Erleuchtung." 



Ekortok probably means only, that the tent is of the kind used 

 on the reindeer hunting up in the country (from Upernivik Næs 

 there it is still the custom to go northwards into Uwkusissät Fjord 

 to hunt the reindeer). The word may have been derived from the 

 verb ikorpoq "camps in tent at a place for a time to hunt the 

 district after reindeer" and it is probable, that it is related to 

 ikorfarpaa "puts something under another to raise it higher, gives it 

 a supporting base {ikorfaqy, so that the designation has originally 

 referred to a special mode of constructing the tent. The Ammas- 

 salikers have a word derived from this, ikerferserneq "house-wall" 

 (see p. 221). 



The oldest sketch of an Eskimo tent is found in Frobisher ^) 

 and with all its brevity it happens to strike upon an interesting 

 feature, suggesting the probable relationship between the construction 

 of the tent and house (Mackenzie River type) : "Their houses are 

 tents made of Scale skins, pitched up with 4. Firre quarters foure 

 square meeting at the top, and the skins sewed together with sinewes, 

 and laid thereupon; they are so pitched up, that the entrance into 

 them is alwayes South or againest the Sunne". The latter statement 

 does not agree with my experience; the entrance of the tent faces 

 towards the shore and the sea. 



SLEDGES AND BOATS. 



Sledges (cf. pp. 44—45, 185—186, and figs. 36, 71-72, 77). — 

 The most striking feature about the Ammassalik sledge is the great 

 breadth of the uprights (upright posts), which are almost three times 

 as broad below as above (fig. 71 is not quite typical in this regard, 

 the uprights being narrower than usual; the correct condition is seen 

 in fig. 36 and in my "Description of the Amdrup Collection" fig. 89). 

 Above there is a narrow part like a neck and head, which serves 

 as a handle, when the driver jumps off and steers the sledge "in 

 the uprights". In West Greenland (Disko Bugt and further north) 

 the sledges have thin, rounded poles as uprights. With regard also 

 lo the cross-bar, which connects the uprights above and keeps 



') Frobisher (1577) p. 225. 



