Ethnographical collections from East Greenland. 513 



Needles, bodkins and awls (cf. p. 35). Regarding the ways in 

 which the natives made sewing needles of iron or brass before 

 the arrival of the Europeans, I may refer to p. 34 of this volume. 

 Fig. 233 shows two types of needles; the first type a—b (mertceen, 

 plur. mertceeb'^in) is square in cross section, tapering and rounding 

 towards the point; the other с — d {mertcel"'aatukajik) is flatter and 

 lancet-shaped. Both kinds are provided with an eye for the thread. 



The eye {itia) was made by means of a needle-borer of the tj^e 

 seen in fig. 232 b, the iron point of which is almost completely hid- 

 den in the socket, attaching it into the one end of the wooden haft, 

 a is a larger hand-drill of a different type; the haft is partly of 

 wood partly of bone and the iron point is square in transverse sec- 

 tion. It was sometimes used for boring out needle-eyes 

 but also for making holes in harpoon heads for the lines. 

 In so far we may say that this is a man's implement, 

 which the woman borrowed when she wanted it for bor- 

 ing out the larger needle-eyes. On the other hand, the 

 other needle-borers, figs. 232 b, 235 a — c, are undoubtedly 

 true women's implements, for the \\ютеп made their 

 needles and their sewing rings themselves (fig. 252). a, 

 b and c, which have wooden hafts, were all found by 

 Amdrup at the "dead house." The iron points are very v»^*?' 



worn. 



The iron of which the needles were made may be 

 an ordinary piece of hoop-iron. Amdrup found such a 

 piece in the " dead house," loosely inserted in a groove 

 of a bone which was used as a purchase w^hen the chips, 

 the future needles, were cut from the iron (fig. 238, cf. » 



p. 485). ^'§- -^^• 



*^ ^ ^ , T ,. Bodkin of 



Ammassat- NEEDLES [kaportaat, kaportaahn, pp. 54, jvory (Peter- 



467 — 468, 504) are seen in fig. 234; a is from Ammassalik, sen coll.). Ms. 



Ъ from Nualik. They are made of a whole piece of bone 



and with the long cylindric point shouldered off from the slightly 



broader handle part^). 



Bodkins are used, for example, in making holes along the upper 



border of the umiak-cover for the strong skin-straps, by means of 



which it is tightened round the gunwale of the boat. The word 



nuitarpileen may possibly mean bodkins (or large needles). Fig. 230 



shows a bodkin of ivory beautifully ornamented with dots and of 



^) The needles from Baffin Land (Cumberland Sound) mentioned bj'^ Boas (1901) 

 p. 26 on which the fish are strung after being caught is of a different 1зфе, 

 namelj' lancet-shaped and provided with an eye (I.e. fig. 32); they have nothing 

 to do with the above-mentioned sort of needles. 



XXXIX. 33 



