392 W. Thalbitzkr 



of one piece of bone) which is used at Ammassalik as a snow- and 

 ice-scraper for the kaiak skin etc., is found again at Smith Sound 

 (Kroeber) and in the Southampton Island region of Hudson Bay 

 (Boas) 1). 



Cross-straps and bone eyelets of the kaiak. Hanserak states 

 in his diary, that "the Ammassalikers and their neighbours have 

 kaiaks with up-turned stern like the northern West Greenlanders, 

 but the cross-straps (tarqai) over the deck are quite different from 

 those of the west coast, as those fastened on the breast of the deck 

 only extend over the middle part of this"^). The expression 'cross- 

 straps quite different' contains an exaggeration. All I have found is, 

 that this feature only applies to the first pair of the cross-straps, 

 which are led together in pairs through bone eyelets and pass under 

 the kaiak stand (the receptacle for the harpoon line). In South-west 

 Greenland this pair of cross-straps are just as long as the others 

 and the ends are fixed on each side of the kaiak immediately under 

 the gunwale. In the Ammassalik kaiak they are quite short and 

 are fixed (or sewn) in the deck skin not far from the median line. 



The arrangement of the cross-straps and the corresponding bone 

 eyelets over the deck of the Greenland kaiak has not been investig- 

 ated and the contribution I can give is not complete. There are 10 

 thin cross-straps, 6 of which lie in pairs, held closely together by 

 double-eyed, oblong eyelets, the others singly. At the "dead house" 

 Amdrup found a number of these eyelets and other things belonging 

 to the kaiak (28 pieces in all, figs. 95—97), always beautifully and 

 carefully worked from bone or ivory. The following are the cross- 

 straps {ta^^rqän) and the appertaining eyelets on the Ammassalik kaiak. 



1. — Furthest forward on the deck near the bow there is quite 

 a short cross-strap (asalee^^^taa, asalee^^lud), which at Ammassalik (as 

 in West Greenland) is fixed (sewn) in the skin of the deck between 

 the gunwales (not, like several of the other straps, on each side of 

 the kaiak under the gunwales) and it is drawn through four or 

 five eyelets, namely, at each end through a high eyelet sloping in- 

 wards and between these two or three smaller. This apparatus is 

 called asalee^"ta 'that which resembles (has a similar function as) a 

 kaiak stand [asaleq)'; it serves to keep the bird-dart and bladder dart 

 in position, the front part of the weapon being shoved in under 



') Boas (19071 p. 407 fig. 204 c, cf. p. 408, fig. 206. 



-) My citation of Hanserak's dairy is translated from tiie Eskimo manuscript (fasc. 

 No. 8), which has been kindly lent me by Commander G. Holm. This passage 

 corresponds to S. Rink's Danish translation (1900) p. 38, but both here and at 

 several other places this Danisii translation contains inaccuracies, even errors; 

 it must in any case be regarded as being very free. 



