Ethnographical collections from East Greenland. 425 



Ammassalik type of toggle head, which seems to have supplanted 

 almost all the other varieties^). The body of this toggle is short and 

 thick having a greater breadth than height. It has no marginal 

 barbs. Its base has an oval cleft, at the bottom of which is the 

 socket for the shaft; the hollowed-out base thus forms two barbs 

 flanking the shaft-socket (figs. 131 a, b, c). More rarely the base is 

 bevelled, so that the barbs lie in the plane of the under side^) 

 (fig. 131y). It is a characteristic feature, lastly, that the hole for the 

 line is curved, so that both its openings lie on the belly of the 

 head (figs. 131 a, b,c,g). But another type, almost just as common, 

 has two straight transverse holes for the line beside each other; 

 bored through from the upper to the under side (figs. 131 c/, e, /, h). 

 Heads without other barbs than the basal are in the majority; 

 but marginal barbs towards the point are by no means seldom at 

 Ammassalik (figs. 131 e, f, g, i). 



A comparison with the interesting discoveries from more north- 

 ern parts of East Greenland shows, that the marked, diminutive type 

 of whaling harpoon head, which I proved to occur there (Amdrup 

 coll. no. 5)'^), is not found at Ammassalik. On the other hand, there 

 is a certain resemblance between the typical harpoon head from 

 Ammassalik, described above, and the flat harpoon heads from Cape 

 Tobin (Amdrup coll. 1 and 2)'^). Compared with the flattened north- 

 ern type the Ammassalik heads are more stumpy, often just flat 

 cones with convex sides; the hole for the line is bent round so that 

 its openings come somewhat closer together, and the basal barbs 

 are separated by a rounded (semicircular) cleft in the base instead 

 of a rectangular and placed facing each other (figs. 131 c, 133 b — e). 

 Various features of other types are also mixed with it, especially 

 the bilateral barbs towards the point. 



1) Otis Mason, "The Aboriginal American Harpoons" 1900 (the Greenland harpoon 

 heads are especially mentioned on pp. 238 — 256) and G. Swenander's work on 

 harpoon and lance heads in West Greenland (1906). 



2) Which of the flat sides of the harpoon head Ave should call the upper or under 

 side, must depend upon how the Eskimo places the head on the harpoon shaft, 

 when he lays it on the kaiak or lifts it preparatory^ to casting. I imagine that 

 in throwing the position of the line-hole is horizontal and the belly of the har- 

 poon toggle looks upwards — thus, the basal barbs, produced by the bevelling 

 of the base, lie in the plane of the under side. To avoid misunderstanding, it 

 would perhaps be best to speak of the two sides as the belly and the back of 

 the body of the head. 



3) Thalbitzer (1909) fig. 4, pp. 349—351 and 357—359, cf. inv. Amdrup nos. 6 and 7. 

 Related types are known from AVest Greenland, from Repulse Bay and Hudson 

 Bay, Mason (1900) figs. 25, 54 and 55 and Boas (1907) p. 454, fig. 249c and p. 462, 

 fig. 264, and from Alaska. 



*j Id. ibid. pp. 344—345, fig. 1 and PI. XV, 1—2 



