Ethnographical collections from East Greenland. 503 



The whetstones I have seen figured from Alaska are longer and more 

 slender than those from Greenland, and are all provided with a hole for a 

 strap. Thej' are made of jade or jasper'). 



WOMEN'S WORK AND TOOLS. 



The women's duties inside and outside the house (p. 60). 

 — It devolves on the hunter's wife, if she has children and if not, 

 on his mother, sister or other female relative, to divide up the meat 

 of the seals or bears he kills. The distribution is made according 

 to certain rules which need not be dealt with here. In winter the 

 animals are skinned and cut up on the floor of the house. The 

 blood is poured into a trough and often given to the dogs; the 

 head and the heart belong to the hunter and his wife. It is always 

 the women's duty to strip the skin from the small seals brought 

 home by the hunter. The larger animals such as bears, walrus and 

 narwhals are at Ammassalik skinned and cut up by the men and 

 the meat is afterwards given over to the women for cooking and 

 distribution. It is onty after the hunter's wife has borne him a 

 child, that their religion permits her to undertake the duties of 

 cutting up the seals he kills and distributing the meat. 



Except bear skins, the dressing of which in part is performed 

 by the man, all the other skins are prepared by the women. 

 Upon the women rests the complicated and difficult work of carrying 

 the densely haired and fatty skins through all stages of scraping 

 and tanning till they are sufficiently prepared to be used for clothes, 

 boot soles, boat- and tent-covers, dogs' harness, whips, harpoon lines, 

 bags, sheaths and finer needlework. 



The daily life in the house requires considerable work in which 

 the wife of the hunter is assisted by her fellow-wife, her husband's 

 unmarried sister and other female relatives. Besides the work al- 

 ready mentioned the women are kept busy nursing the children, 

 looking after the burning lamps and the cooking, drying wet clothes, 

 rubbing and drying the men's and their own boots. When the man 

 wants a new cover for his kaiak or umiak it is his women who sew 

 it from the prepared seal skins and help him to tighten it round 

 the frame of the boat. The women assist in the housebuilding in 

 autumn and the tent-raising in spring; they row^ the women's boats 

 and take part in the caplin scooping in summer in Qingaaqfjord, 

 Here they raise the tents, while the detailed work of drying and 



1) Murdoch (1892) pp. 183 — 184, figs. 162—163. 



