490 W. Thalbitzer 



smaller knives of the same type ^). — The Cape York Eskimo, ac- 

 cording to Kroeber, have only used small fragments of the meteoric 

 iron for the form of knife described and for the inserted points of 

 harpoon heads. The same holds good doubtless for the West Green- 

 landers dwelling a little more to the south, who hammered out 

 small lumps of natural iron into the form of flat blades; these small 

 pieces of iron could only be utilised for quite small parts of im- 

 plement. Larger metal blades for the pana and ulo could not be 

 made in Greenland, until the Europeans brought iron to the country^). 



The method of fixing the cutting edge of a blade laterally at 

 the one end of the haft is only a copy of the well-known type of 

 the "crooked knife" from the West Eskimo. In addition to this 

 specialized form of blade, composed of several small pieces, various 

 typical specimens have also been found in Greenland with the blade 

 all of one piece, in which stone or European hoop iron has been 

 used. On the other hand, no knife blade of the pana type made of 

 iron or other metal is known from the older period of Greenland. 

 Stone blades were used for this type in ancient times. 



In East Greenland also it is probable, that the introduced metal 

 (iron) has entered into the forms of the stone age without at once 

 entirely changing the old forms or replacing the stone material (for 

 this the iron was too scarce). The iron implements found north 

 of Ammassalik, which are not numerous on the whole, are evidence 

 of this. 



Knives witli iron blade were found in Scoresbj^ Sound by Ryder and 

 Amdrup, in Franz Josephs Fjord by Nathorst, on Little Pendulum Island by 

 Koldewej^ one specimen by each; a borer with iron point and a harpoon 

 head with inserted iron blade at Cape Tobin Ъу Amdrup^). Previous to 

 these Clavering (and Sabine) had landed on this coast in 1823 and had met 

 with the natives on Clavering Island at 74° N. lat., about 550 miles north of 

 Ammassalik. Clavering's brief description of their weapons shows, that the^^ 

 already used iron for their weapon points at that time. "Their harpoons 

 and darts lay at the side (of the kaiak); the hafts were of bone (and of wood?), 

 the front ends were furnished with points of bone and some of them with 

 points of iron, which looked as if it were of meteoric origin."*) The last 

 statement regarding the origin of the iron was probably onlj' suggested by 

 Pioss' discovery in 1818 that the Smith Sound Eskimo (the Arctic High- 

 landers) made use of meteoric iron. In the previous year (1822) the two 

 Scotch whalers, Scoresby father and son, had charted the northern East 



1) Boas (1901—1907) pp. 384—385, fig. 178, cf. fig. 90. 



-| It is worthy of note, that the discoverers of the Iglulik and Winter Island Eskimo 



found European iron in use among them, cliiefly riveted as points to theii 



spears and arrow heads. Parry (1824), pp. 504, 536. Lyon (18'24) pp. 110, 



123 etc. 

 '') These finds, with reference to my sources, are mentioned by me (1909) pp.458 — 



459 (cf. pp. 347 and 453). 

 ^) Clavering's diarj' in Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal. 1830. 



