542 



W. Thalbitzer 



reindeer. Regarding the first dish Dalager remarks, that dried cap- 

 lins are always the first dish in the meals of the Greenlanders. The 

 black crowberries and the vegetables correspond to our dessert. He 

 admitted, however, that on this occasion he could not do justice to 

 the very end, but having reached as far as the dessert he took quite 

 privately a glass of old Jamaica instead. 



Digression on the name Eskimo. The word Eskimo is said to 

 mean "raw-meat-eaters," a translation that is constantly found in 

 old as well as recent authors ^). The name is first heard of from the 



French Jesuit missionaries in Canada, 

 but in a somewhat altered form than the 

 current name used novv-a-days, i. e. Esqui- 

 maux, Avhich makes its original signific- 

 ance doubtful; I feel inclined to believe 

 that the true derivation of this name is 

 difl"erent from the traditional. According 

 to the tradition the name has been picked 

 up by the French emigrants in the 17th 

 century from certain tribes of Algonkin 

 Indians. Some of these tribes lived so 

 far north that they were neighbours of 

 the Eskimo people on the southern coasts 

 of Labrador and Hudson Bay. But it is 

 hardly from these tribes that the name 

 originates, partly because the form of the 

 name (Esquimaux, Eskimo) is in closer 

 correspondence with the language of the 

 southern tribes, for example, the Abnaki 

 (Wabeenaki), Natick and Narraganset 

 Indians living formerly towards the south- 

 east in Maine, Massachussets and on 

 Rhode Island. According to Charlevoix 

 and Ellis after him, the Abnakis called 

 them Esquimantsic. According to Trumbull's Natick Dictionary, 

 founded on Eliot's translation of the bible from ca. 1660, aske (askin, 

 askeen) means 'raw, not cooked or prepared for food' and moho 'to 

 eat (alive),' mowhaü (moowaijoo) 'he eates him,' whereas шее /su (etc.) 

 means ' he eats, he takes food.' According to this the word Eskimo 

 must rather mean 'living-meat eater' or 'man-eater,' if it originates 

 from this language. Taking this explanation to be correct we have 



Fig. 261. Meat and blubber forks 

 (Amdrup coll.). 4'2. 



'J Lahontan 1703; Charlevoix 1744, vol. III. p. 178; Ellis 1750. p. 145; Crauz 177U, 

 vol. 1, p. ;536 note; Petitot, Vocabulaire 1876, p. !); Thalbitzer 1905, p. 186; cf. 

 also Handbook Amer. Ind. j). 434. 



