Ethnographical collections from East Greenland. 



433 



siatko among the Central Eskimo ^). This type has probably in North- 

 east Greenland assumed the extremely flat form which we know from 

 the heads found by Amdrup at Cape Tobin and which I mentioned on 

 p. 425 in connection with the Ammassalik type. If the latter has not 

 been derived directly from this North-east Greenland form, both forms 

 at any rate are nearly related to each other. The Ammassalik designa- 

 tion of a common harpoon head is sawikättaq (with inserted blade) 

 or uhirnaq (bone all in one piece), the former perhaps derived from 

 sawik 'man's knife' the latter from ulo 'woman's knife'; tookaaq which 

 means 'a small tookaq' is a hinged toggle head used on the salmon 

 spear, and sakke (or cakke, the same word as ssako) means: 1, 'the 

 harpoon head plus the loose shaft of bone,' 

 and 2, 'an ulo, a woman's knife.' 



In discussing the ittuarteq harpoon head 

 in my description of the North-east Greenland 

 portion of the Amdrup collection I have re- 

 ferred to some hinged toggles found in Pfaff's 

 collection from West Greenland in the Stock- 

 holm Riksmuseum ; according to the inventory 

 list of PfafT they were intended for sealing or 

 salmon spearing on the ice^). The whole form 

 of the weapons, however, makes this explana- 

 tion improbable. It is curious to find a bone 

 implement of precisely the same construction, 

 a towing or drag toggle, which is also stated 

 to be in the Stockholm Riksmuseum, namely 

 in A. E. Nordenskiöld's collection from Alaska, 

 (the Vega Expedition) ^). In the transverse hole, 

 which is found close to the basal end of the shank (just as in the 

 similar toggle heads from North-west Greenland), there is a loop of 

 sealskin thong, the other end of which is tied in a knot round a 

 small wooden block (handle). Precise information of the use is want- 

 ing, but it seems to me there can be no doubt, that this implement 

 must belong to the same type as the drag lines illustrated by Nelson*) 



Fig. 1 36. Old-time harpoon- 

 head type cai'ved in wood 

 (Thalbitzer pi'iv. coll.). Ч2. 



1) Kroeber (1899) pp. 280—281, fig. 14. Parry (1824) p. 507; Boas (1888) pp. 473—474, 

 490. ssako is an assimilated form derived from siatko. In the big fjords of northern 

 West Greenland sakko means 'a small harpoon for hunting seals on the ice.' Besides 

 this, the same word has got a more general meaning along the whole west 

 coast as: ^) (in plural) the sealing weapons on the kaiak (harpoon, float etc.), 

 2) hunting weapon, killing or warlike weapon, ^) tool (Kleinschmidt, Ordbog p. 310). 



2) Thalbitzer (1909) pp. 355 and 500—501, figs. 79—81. 



3) Inv. Nordenskiöld (1878—1881). 

 *) Nelson (1899) p. 172, PI. LXVI. 



XXXIX. 28 



