Ethnographical collections from East Greenland. 527 



house the skin-bags belong to the women and their worli and they 

 might, therefore, in so far have been described under the lieading 

 of the preceding chapter, but their contents serve for the general 

 good of all the inmates. The lamp -moss contained in the bags 

 (iparaaluin or iperaasoon) is used mainly as lamp-wicks, these modest 

 producers of the comfort, which during the long winter nights has 

 to make up for the light and warmth of the summer-sun. 



Moss of various kinds and for different purposes is gathered by 

 women and children. The moss used for lamp-wicks is probably a 

 kind of Sphagnum of greyish-white colour, called, as also the wicks, 

 iparqat. For lighting up, a dark, long-stalked species of moss (maneq) ^) 

 is used; after being plucked and dried it is used for catching the 

 sparks from the drill, because it flares up very quickly; as it catches 

 fire it is called ciput^). Moss is also gathered to be used as toilet- 

 paper. I have been shown samples of two kinds of toilet moss 

 [eqeelüssaq), a darker kind (qatsiar or qatsilin) which grows in lakes 

 and another lighter sort, which "covers the earth as a carpet" 

 {naname ulisimaler). When they go out onto the ice to the sealing 

 grounds, the men have often a lump of moss with them hanging 

 loosely on the stomach in a skin-strap round the hips. 



Some skin-bags are probably also used for holding the sinew 

 threads, whether twisted or not, until they are required. This is 

 what the small bags were used for, w^hich Parry mentions he saw 

 among the Eskimo on Winter Island and at Iglulik and which were 

 "sometimes made of the skin of birds' feet, disposed with the claws 

 downwards in a very neat and tasteful manner;" quite a similar bag 

 from Iglulik has also been figured by Boas^). At Ammassalik bags 

 are also made of birds' feet of the same shape as seen in fig. 253 e 

 and h. Other bags are used for the gathering of berries and herbs. 

 They are called poorattät or poorartilartiwän. 



Most of the bags have a cylindrical shape and are made of two 

 pieces of skin, the largest forming the side, the smallest the bottom. 

 They are besides generally provided with a strap {ipid) at the top 

 for carrying purposes. The two seen in fig. 254 c and d are made 

 of bladders, those in fig. 253 i and 255 are made of fish-heads (am- 

 massät) sewn together with a broad skin-border along the upper edge. 



The ornamentation is made with slips or pieces of skin (kit- 

 toifaai) of a different colour from the ground-colour, namely, black 

 on white or white on black. Similar ornamentation is found on the 

 needle-skins (p. 522) and on womens' boots. On fig. 253 a the pat- 



1) A kind of hair-moss (Polytrichum). 



2) Undoubtedly the same word as Parr3''s hu-poo-tik [huputik] (plural) 'flower of 

 willoAV used as tinder' (Parry, 1824, p. 569). 



3) Parry (1824) p. 537 and fig. 23 on PI. II (p. 550); Boas (1907) PI. VII. 



