Ethnographical collections from East Greenland. 491 



Greenland between 69° and 75°. At Cape Lister (70° 31' N. lat.) they also had 

 found an arrow or dart of bone with an inserted point of iron; on refer- 

 ring to this, the author (W. Scoresby)i) adds: "It is difficult to say whether 

 this iron was native, or whether it was carried on shore in the timbers of 

 some wreck.' 



Hitherto, however, no evidence has been forthcoming of the 

 occurrence of natural (Tellurian) iron on this side of Greenland. 

 Until this is proved, we must assume, that the iron found in the 

 weapons came from wreckage driven on land or even from Scoresby's 

 or Clavering's (or earlier whalers') visit in at the coast. There is 

 another possibility, namely, that it has come to this region with the 

 immigrating Eskimo, north round Greenland or from the southern 

 part of the coast via Ammassalik. The first of these alternatives is 

 very improbable. The second has somewhat greater probability, but 

 will be difficult to prove in each case. 



At Ammassalik at any rate iron has been used and highly 

 esteemed since the middle or beginning of the 18th century (cf. 

 p. 343). It has probably been known as a rarity earlier, as it is 

 referred to in some of the tales; copper or brass is also mentioned. 

 Two of the tales (nos. 38 — 39) mention a fabulous animal wnth "iron 

 tail," and the tale about "the Girl who went across the inland ice 

 to the West coast" (no. 23)^) ends in the following: "Over there I 

 had copper needles, but here I Ьал^е an iron pot." 



The Ammassalikers have a peculiar name for iron parpaligaq, 

 which means 'something that makes a noise.' It is probably one of 

 the many words they have changed on religious grounds in the 

 course of time, in order to avoid offending the spirits. On a death 

 occurring, namely, it was forbidden to work in iron for some time, 

 and an angakok must never touch iron (perhaps because the noise 

 frightens the spirits). Elsewhere all Eskimo have a common word 

 for iron, sawik^), which means (1) 'iron as material,' (2) 'a man's 

 knife with blade of iron.' This double meaning meets us in far- 

 removed dialects and thus seems to lie deep in the history of the 

 language. The question is: is 'knife' or 'iron' the original meaning 



1) W. Scoresby (1823) p. 187. 



-) In this volume pp. 274—275 and 292-293. 



•') Although the sawikätta 'harpoon head' of the Ammassalikers seems to be 

 derived from sawik 'a knife' — especially when we consider the verb sawippaa 

 (in the Labrador lexicon savikpa) 'to fix the harpoon head (sawik) on the haft' 

 — I am of opinion, that the resemblance may be accidental. It is more nearly 

 related, namelj^ with the Alaskan dialect's chavuk 'harpoon of a large size,' 

 Barnum (1901) p. 330, but this word is distinguished from the same dialects 

 chawik 'iron in general, also knife.' Only in the case that Barnum is wrong in 

 keeping these two words separate, are we at liberty to see in the East Green- 

 land sawikätta an old sign, that the harpoon head and the man's knife were 

 originall}' one and the same piece. 



