478 



W. Thalbitzer 



use of small saws in the shape of a knife among the Smith Sound 

 Eskimo^). 



At Ammassalik, in addition to the primitive knife-shaped saw 

 with iron blade, the more complex type was also found; it undoubt- 

 edly came from the Europeans, but had gained a footing even before 

 their arrival. It is obvious, that the 'introduction of hoop 

 iron for the blade of the saws meant a great technical 

 advance. With the new type of this instrument, the 

 compound elongated saw (fig. 199), the work of cutting 

 up the large pieces of drift-wood, often whole trunks of 

 trees which drift with the ice from the Siberian woods 

 down to the coast of East Greenland, must have been 

 made very much easier. 



The same form of compound saws occurs among the 

 Alaskan Eskimo, according to Nelson^). 



Fig. 189. 

 Hammer. 

 (Holm coll.) 



Hammers (ilageen, figs. 189 and 200) with fixed iron- 

 heads on the end of a wooden shaft, are also of foreign 

 origin like the compound form of saw, though they have 

 come to this region earlier than the Europeans. The hammer found 

 by Holm, with the iron head firmly secured to the wooden handle, 

 agrees with that found by Amdrup at the "dead house." In the 

 latter the iron head is wedged into a groove in 

 the side of the handle towards the end. The one 

 part of the head is flat, triangular in section and 

 sharpened so that this end forms a blunt edge 

 like that on an adze ; the other end is more nearly 

 circular in section, terminating in a round surface 

 with hammered out margin. According to Am- 

 drup's inventory, it is said to have been used to 

 make holes in iron (cf. Amdrup inv. no. 482). 



At the "dead house" Amdrup also found a 

 heavy iron pick or wedge (fig. 201), composed of 

 two broad, flat pieces of iron riveted together by 

 two iron nails. The edge at the lower end is 

 ground from both sides. On the side of the upper 

 piece there is a circular trade mark with half 

 effaced letters, which I have in vain endeavoured 

 to read. 



Otherwise wedges of older type have not been found in active 

 use in Greenland — except the stone wedges occasionally mentioned 



Fig. 190. 



Ъ 

 Drills 



or whetting irons? 

 (Holm coll.). i|4. 



') Kroeber (1899) p. 285. 

 2) Nelson (1899; PI. XXXVI. 



