404 W. Thalbitzer 



bear and they surround it barking the while, so as to 'hold' it; the 

 hunter has then as a rule little difficulty in killing it with his lance. 

 Panarpara he says, "I killed it with my knife", perhaps expressed in 

 this way as a relict of a time when the point of the lance (ipuli- 

 gaq) has been knife-shaped (?). It is in complete agreement with the 

 often mentioned custom of fixing a knife (pana) on to the end of a 

 pole for use as a lance; the custom is spoken about both in the 

 Avhale fishing and bear hunting (cf. also the tale of Masatak, in this 

 volume p. 291). 



Bears are said to be sensitive along the back, which explains 

 why such a small, feeble animal like the dog can bring it to bay. 

 For the dog's teeth could not possibly pierce the thick hide and 

 skin of the bear, to do any damage. But the bear seems to have an 

 instinctive terror of the dog; the mere touch of this produces a 

 shuddering in its sensitive nape. 



Sometimes the bear is caught in its winter-lair in the snow^ 

 (naneq apitseq), where it has buried itself for a month or two. The 

 hunter first blocks up the entrance effectively with snow, then makes 

 an opening in the snow above the bear and stabs it from above. 



Each year some 70 to 80 bears are killed at Ammassalik at the 

 present time; the skins are sold to the magazine of the administra- 

 tion at Ammassalik and sent to Copenhagen in the autumn. But 

 many more bears are seen each year than are caught. Even the 

 great bear-hunters seldom kill more than 2 or 3 bears in the year. 

 When I visited Imaakwa, the angakok at Sawanaraarteq in Sermilik 

 fjord, who might have been about 50 years old, he stated, that he 

 had caught 48 bears in his life (numbering them on his fingers: 

 "two persons together and 8 on the third"). I imagine that this is 

 about the normal number. 



The tradition tells of bear traps, both in West Greenland and 

 at Ammassalik. On both coasts the Eskimo hero Kaasasuk's bear 

 trap is shown at certain localities, in West Greenland in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Upernawik (72° N. lat.)^) and more to the south on the out- 

 most end of the Noussuaq peninsula (70° 30' N. lat.)^); in East Green- 

 land south of Ammassalik at two or three places and north of it at 

 Tugtilik'^). — Kruuse makes mention of a bear trap he saw at 

 Nualik (if it is not merely a shelter)^); Amdrup of one at Skærgaards- 



') According to oral communication of a tale written down by me at Upernawik 



in 1901. 

 -) Giesecke (1811) p. 257 (2nd ed. p. 347); Rink (186Ü) p. 355; Steenstrup (1878 80, 



ed. 1893) p. 6; Holm (1888) pp. 80—81, in this volume p. 53. 

 •') Holm in this volume pp. 52—53. 

 ') Kruuse (1912) p. 187. 



