566 W. Thalbitzer 



and he declared somewhat excitedly, that "only the wives of the 

 baptized behaved in that way, our women must not undress in the 

 open air but only in the tent or the hut." Kilime's wife, an old 

 hag, confirmed this statement. Her scruples were overcome however 

 by a small reward — I wanted to photograph the tattoo markings 

 on her body (see fig. 302) — and she took off her anorak but she 

 tied the flap round her neck so that it hung down her back, prob- 

 ably as some sort of apology to the provoked spirits. 



Finer dress than the ordinary home-costume is not known, but 

 on certain grand occasions new clothes are sewn and the young 

 (sometimes also the old) women hang ornaments of beads round 

 their neck and hair. — In some of the uaajertooq-games the men 

 disguise themselves in women's clothes or by turning their own 

 anoraks inside out or in other ways; in these games they have to 

 represent women or to play certain parts whilst dancing and drum- 

 ming. 



The West Greenland home-dress was previously like the East 



Greenland, but long ago the influence of the Christian mission has 



led to the naked habit being abandoned. In reality the removal of 



the clothes in the heated interior of the house was of advantage in 



promoting health and cleanliness among the natives. The heavy 



skin-clothes must naturally still be taken off", but the body is covered 



by shirts from the European store or by cloth-anoraks which they 



make themselves from striped or checked cotton-cloth, often with 



strong colours. These serve as covers over the skin-anorak. The 



same custom is now being adopted at Ammassalik and here the 



women even put on a long white linen-shirt, hanging loose round 



the upper part of their body and their legs like a petticoat 4n order 



to resemble the European ladies.' 



The home-dress of earlier times in West Greenland has been described 

 by Glahn^) as follows: "The women always wear natit, even sleeping with 

 them on. They are generally made of very short-haired reindeer-skins, richly 

 ornamented with the belly-skin of the animals {pukit). They only hide pud- 

 enda and a third part of the loins. As soon as they enter the house or tent 

 they immediately sit down on the platform, draw off first the boots, then 

 the skin-coat and at last the outer trousers, so that the}' are quite naked 

 except for the short breeches. These being the only things they keep on in 

 the house, it is quite natural that they take great pains to make them as 

 beautiful as possible. For the same reason they do not wear necklets fitting 

 closely round the neck but make them wide so that they fall over their 

 breasts. Their earrings are beads drawn on a string, often so long that they 

 reach down over the shoulder. To a foreigner it is not pleasant to be sur- 

 rounded by so many naked people, but one gradually gets so accustomed to 

 the sight that it appears quite natural." 



') Glahn (1771J p. 190 — 191. 



