472 W. Thalbitzer 



Whereas the cross-bow, when used, is held in a horizontal posi- 

 tion, the aboriginal bow was held vertically and was used for hunt- 

 ing reindeer and hares. Fabricius gives an exact description of the 

 aboriginal bow in West Greenland, where it has been displaced 

 long ago by the gun^). As to its former use at Ammassalik, see 

 pp. 56 and 406. 



MEN'S WORK AND TOOLS. 



Men's knives (p. 40). — Figs. 181—183 and 204—206 show the 

 types of knives, found by Holm at Ammassalik, the first w'ith blades 

 of iron or bone, the last with blades of stone (obsolete). Figs. 181a— rf 

 are kaiak knives or hunting knives (tarqarmeen) with double-edged 

 blades of bone or iron ; they are used to kill the wounded seal (thus 

 for the same purpose as the hand-lances described on p. 453), and 

 to make cuts in the body preparatory to the attachment of the 

 towing-lines. Like most of the other apparatus belonging to the 

 kaiak they are finely ornamented. The haft of fig. 181 a is of w^od 

 with inlaid rings of bone, the lowest ring forming a ferrule round 

 the socket in which the blade is mortised, the uppermost is like a 

 cap, to which are attached two decorative skin-straps bearing ivory 

 pearls; b has relief figures of ivory representing seals and human 

 beings nailed on the sides of the wooden haft; d has small, 

 round discs of ivory inlaid in the wood in regular lines. Only 

 the haft of с is of bone in these specimens, ornamented like the 

 bone of a and d with dots produced by small pits filled with a 

 soot-like material; at the top it has two straps with pearls like 

 a, whereas d has here a fixed piece of bone with pearl-like ex- 

 pansions. The latter has a blade of bone, ornamented with black 

 dots. — Figs. 182a—/ are working knives {pilaétåt) with pointed, 

 one-edged iron blades, approximately of the same Eskimo type as 

 that know^n from the west^). a and с show how they economise 

 with the iron by riveting another piece on the blade when worn 

 out too much. In most of them the haft is simply a bone with a 

 socket in the end surface for the iron blade; с has small incisions 

 on the edge of the shaft to give the hand a firmer hold, a has a 

 wooden haft, with a bone cap at the top, /" a mixed bone and wood 

 haft with finger-rests. These knives are chiefly used for working in 



1) Fabricius (1818) pp. 235—239. 

 2j Murdoch (1892) p. 155, fig. 110. 



