Ethnographical collections from East Greenland. 401 



hole, whether the seal is at the lower (widened) opening. A spot 

 is chosen near to where there is a strong current in the fjord or 

 near an iceberg frozen-in in the fjord ice, where fissures have 

 formed owing to the rising and falling of the water under the ice. 

 The seals are attracted to the spots where the light penetrates through. 



The breathing hole of the seal is not used. Two new holes are 

 cut either with the ice pick of the harpoon shaft if the ice is very 

 thick; or, on the thinner ice, the bone-point of the weapon (fore- 

 shaft, igimaaq) is sufficient. The one hole is so large, that the 

 hunter himself can get into it and cut down further a meter or two. 

 The second hole is much smaller. 



If the ice is 2 to 3 meters thick, the shaft of the weapon must 

 reach 3 to 4 meters down in the small hole. Part of the art in 

 using the weapon consists just in holding it in the exact direction 

 through this hole. This is done by one (artaaia) of the two hunters. 

 The other {pattiwia) lies down peering through the larger hole, 

 with a loose skin over his head and shoulders to enable him to see 

 better down into the water, when the seal is approaching^). To 

 decoy the seal he or the other makes a peculiar sound, which is 

 sent down along the pole; the small, white pieces of bone dangling 

 at the end of this also attract the attention of the seal. The decoy 

 sound (probably varying according to the distance or proximity of 

 the seal) is a long, repeated whisper tjuq, tjuq, tjuq aah ! or a fluctu- 

 ating whistle of two tones followed by a long drawn out whisper 

 pushsh, or beating and scraping on the shaft. The weapon in the 

 hole is also moved a little up and down. When the spying hunter 

 sees, that the seal is right opposite the point of the weapon, which 

 reaches down through the small hole, he utters an emphatic and 

 at the same time cautious keeh, keeh (or keeq, keeq), an interjection 

 which means "strike"! If the watcher has estimated the position of 

 the seal in the water correctly, the animal is now struck by the 

 harpoon; the harpoon head pierces the skin and hangs fast by 

 turning round. Then the hole in the ice is widened from above 

 and the seal hauled up. With this method of hunting, which has 

 now died out (after the introduction of European guns), a couple of 

 capable hunters were able to bring home 6 to 7 seals on a day, if 

 they were lucky. 



Cases occur naturally, where a hunter captures a seal by some 

 method, which cannot be referred absolutely to any of those men- 



^) Cf. Hans Egede (1741) Plate on p. 50, where the decoy is seen lying on a sledge 

 without uprights, with a skin over his head. Mason (1900) p. 239 cites from 

 Egede "a low bench, upon which they lie down upon their bellies". It is a 

 kind of sledge, to judge from the illustration. 



XXXIX. 26 



