Ethnographical collections from East Greenland. 



455 



in fig. 156a. — In West Greenland two pieces of reindeer 

 antler might be used for these plugs, but as a rule they 

 are of wood '). To get this device to work accurately and 

 rapidly, their pointed ends should lie close together under 

 the first pair of cross-straps behind the man-hole. 



Fig. 161 shows the double bladder float {Mtigeen) 

 which is special for East Greenland'^), consisting of two 

 blown-up sealskins. The two bladders are connected with 

 each other in the middle and by straps at each head-end, 

 both of which are tied to a common, wooden fork with 

 a crooked handle (qili^"ttaa, fig. 156b). This serves the 

 same use as the wooden plugs in the caSe of the single 

 bladders, its forked end being shoved in under a cross- 

 strap on the kaiak deck just behind the man-hole; the 

 fork has prongs of unequal length. The double bladder 

 is thus fixed only by a single wooden plug, which is 

 very long and heavy. 



The use of the double bladder is almost a matter of 

 taste. It has the following advantages over the single 

 bladder: 1, if a hole is made in the one, the other is 

 still useful; 2, it can be rested on in the water without 

 sUpping to the side; 3, its bearing power in the water wound trim- 

 is twdce as great as the single bladder's (it can keep two mer. Nualik. 

 seals up, the other only one). *^?!^''7 



coll ) /'^ 



The bladder is a whole skin of a fjord seal, with the 

 hair removed. The skin is flayed 

 off (like the skin of the fox) by 

 using the mouth as the natural 



Fig. 153. 



Fig. 154. Single sealing bladder and kaiak stand. (Holm coll.). 4i4(?). 



opening, starting from which the whole skin is turned inside out (in 

 West Greenland the sealskin is turned inside out in the same way, 



1) Mason (1900) p. 242. 



2) Rink (1887) p. 9. 



