Ethnographical collections from East Greenland. 



477 



a continuation of a form of Eskimo origin (the crooked knife), and 

 the other more complex , introduced from Europe (but found at 

 Nualik). They are made of wood and hoop iron. 



In earlier times, as is known, the Greenlanders used to split up 

 large pieces of bone by means of a drill, a number of holes being 

 bored first of all, after which the two parts could 

 easily be separated from one another. There are 

 examples of this in all collections from the northern 

 East Greenland^). The same method is known from 

 West Greenland. — With regard to the splitting of 

 large pieces of wood, it may be presumed, that 

 wedges of bone and celts of stone were used. Graah, 

 for example, during his journey along the east coast 

 observed at Ole Rømers Island (64° 58' N. lat.), that 

 a large block of wood was being split into pieces by 

 means of stone wedges (see p. 338 in this volume). 

 According to Holm (p. 41) wedges were used to split 

 wood whereas the saws were only used for splitting 

 bone or ivory. 



The stone knife with notched edge found by Holm 

 (fig. 204 b), which was fixed into a bone haft, might 

 be taken as the prototype of the smaller type of 

 saws. Saws of stone have been found among the 

 North American Indians^). From Alaska a saw is Shark's tooth knives, 

 described which has the form of a large knife (Holm coll.). Че. 

 with saw teeth cut in the edge of the blade, made from a deer's 

 scapula^). Naturally, however, such saws have only been used for 

 splitting up small objects of comparatively soft material; but the 



main thing is, that these primi- 

 a ^^^■■в^шкяшши^н^вниШ^Ё^ tive forms of saws indicate the 



probable existence of this kind 

 of instrument before the arrival 

 of Europeans. Murdoch also re- 

 fers to the fact, that Egede and 

 Cranz mention hand-saws as a 

 Fig. 188. Hand saws. (Holm coll.). i/s. regular article of trade among 



the Greenlanders, and that Parry in 1821 — 23 found a saw at Iglu- 

 lik made of a notched piece of iron*). Kroeber also mentions the 



ъ 



Fig. 187. 



1) Illustrations of bones split by drilling are seen, for example, in Ryder (1895) 

 fig. 23; Stolpe (1906) PI. Ill, fig. 9; Thalbitzer (1909) figs. 61, 76 and 77. 



2) W. Holmes in Handbook of American Indians (1910) under saws (pp. 481 — 482). 



3) Murdoch (1892) p. 175, fig. 147. 



*) Id. ibid. pp. 174 -175. Parry (1824) p. 536. 



