Ethnographical collections from East Greenland. 



515 



Hi : 



functions ^). In fact their shapes may sometimes resemble each other 

 so much that it is difficult to classify them. I do not think, how- 

 ever, that they are ever used in place of each other. The bodkin 

 type is undoubtedly the most varying; some of the specimens found 

 consist of nothing but a flat bone pointed at the lower end, while 

 others show a highly developed art of carving, being ornamented 

 Avith ring grooves on the upper cylindrical part and not seldom 

 provided with a short link of rings or of inter- 

 linked beads at the top, all cut out of the same 

 piece of ivory as the bodkin itself. The most 

 primitive as well as the most beautifully orna- 

 mented are known from Greenland and Alaska^). 

 The bodkins are generally cylindrical in cross sec- 

 tion, but lancet-shaped near the working end; the 

 bone needles are flat with rounded edges except at 

 the point; the wound-plugs are lancet-shaped and 

 provided with a head-like extension at the upper 

 end; the boot-sole creasers have a basal edge which 

 is crescent-shaped or almost square. 



Boot-sole greasers {teeseet or oottersit, p. 35). — 

 Fig. 231 a shows a typical skin creaser of bone. The 

 upper end is nearly cj^lindric, flattening downwards 

 to a narrow blade with a straight and fairly blunt 

 basal edge; the whole form somewhat crooked. By 

 means of the edge were made the folds on the old- 

 fashioned boots especially on the part of the sole 

 which is turned up over the toes, b represents an 

 implement of this kind, though more flattened^). 

 Eskimo type of this implement, resembling a boot or leg with the 



Fig. 237. Bodkin of 

 ivorз^ Nualik. 

 (Amdrup coll.). 



- The common 



1) Marlinspikes (used for example for the chipping along the back of bows) and 

 marrow extractors are known from more western regions e. g. Baffin Land (Boas, 

 1901—07, p. 101, fig. 148) and Alaska (Nelson, 1899, p. 103). They have till now 

 not been discovered in southern Greenland but Ryder found a marlinspike in 

 Scoresby Sound (1. с 1895, p. 311, fig. lib) and also a specimen of the S-shaped 

 type of twister for working the sinew backing of bows well-known from other 

 parts of Greenland, though not found as jet at Ammassalik. From the western 

 regions of America these implements are of essentially the same type (Mason, 

 1893, PL LXXIV— LXXV. Murdoch 1892, p. 203, fig. 286. Stolpe 1906, PL IV, 

 fig. 13. Ryder 1. c, fig. 11 a). 



~) In Pfaff's collection from West Greenland in Stockholm Riksmuseum I have 

 seen all these types, cf. from East Greenland Ryder (1895) p. 334, fig. 32, from 

 Alaska, Nelson (18991 PL XLVI. In Amdrup's collection from northern East 

 Greenland there are several very beautifully cut specimens, cf. my description 

 (1909) pp. 390-401 (figs. 18—20); 420 (figs. 31 a, b), 461 (fig. 52). 



^) A boot-sole creaser of the same shape from Alaska has been figured Ъу Nelson 

 (1899) PL XLIV, fig. 47. 



33" 



