Ethnographical collections from East Greenland. 375 



fastening being a toggle and bight. But, naturally, the dog can also 

 be let loose by drawing the toggle of its harness out of the bight in 

 the front end of the trace, both in East and in West Greenland. 



When the sledge is stopped and a rest taken, the dogs lie down 

 in front in the snow. To compel them to keep quiet, one of the 

 fore-paws is bent up and fixed between the harness and the body. 

 The same means is often used to brake the speed of the dogs on going 

 down steep slopes; they can naturally only move slowly and with 

 difficulty on three legs. 



Whip (p. 45 and figs. 74 — 75). The East Greenlanders use the 

 same designation for the whip and the lash of the whip, norqartaait, 

 (which word meant perhaps originally, as in West Greenlandic, the 

 string of a bow). The stock (ipud) of the East Greenland whip is 

 shorter (length ca. 50 cm.) and thicker than the West Greenlanders', 

 At the top it has a bear's tooth as hook {niccia) and it ends below in 

 an ice-pick {ilarneeiätaa), a blade of bone or iron. The upper end 

 of the lash, nearest the stock, is drawn through a number of ivory 

 beads, which serve as counterpoise in swinging the whip (unknown 

 in West Greenland). Large and small beads alternate in this chain. 

 — The driver can use the ice-pick to scrape the snow or ice-clumps 

 from the runners, which is necessary when the snow gathers under 

 the keel (especially if soft and wet) and reduces the speed. But it 

 is used more especially as a brake on going down slopes, w^hich are 

 not so steep that the man has to jump off and run in the uprights. 

 The driver then seizes it with both hands and presses the end 

 down in the snow at the one side of the sledge. The snow spurts 

 up alongside owing to the speed and leaves a deep mark along 

 the track. 



At the end of a journey the lash, which is often about 5 m. 

 long, is carefully coiled up and bound round the stock with the 

 small strap hanging on this at the topmost bead. 



The cutting of the lash (from the hide of a bearded seal) re- 

 quires great care; the breadth has to taper off gradually towards 

 the point. The hide is also worked very carefully to make it flex- 

 ible. At the end of the main lash is an end-lash of white-whale 

 skin, ca. 1 m. long, plaited fast on it through two incisions. A reserve 

 stock of these end-lashes is necessary for a good equipment, as 

 they become slit or fall off in the course of the winter. A white- 

 whale end-lash is to the main lash like the dot to the i; in it lies 

 the efficacy of the stroke. 



The West Greenland whip (at least at the present day) lacks 

 the bear's tooth at the top as well as the ice-pick below. Nor has 



