590 W. Thalbitzer 



avert death from the child. This helmet-shaped hood is tied with 

 double strings passing under the shoulders of the child; enclosing 

 thus the shoulders, back and breast so that only the face is free, it 

 forms such a magic remedy, averting attempts against the spirit of 

 the child 1). 



Among the Smith Sound Eskimo we hear of loose hoods for 

 children. Kroeber has an illustration of a hood that differs from 

 the East Greenland one by the hair of the skin not being removed 

 but turned outwards and by being quite open in front, so that it 

 must be tied with strings under the chin or round the neck^). It 

 is made of the skin of a fawn's head and it has a long tip reach- 

 ing down behind. Quite the same kind of hood for children was 

 found by Lyon near Iglulik north of Hudson Bay. He says that 

 "a cap forms an indispensable part of the equipment of children 

 and is generally of some fantastical shape: the skin of a fawn's 

 head is a favourite material in the composition and is sometimes 

 seen with the ears perfect; the nose and holes for the eyes lying 

 along the crown of the wearer's head, which, in consequence, looks 

 like that of an animal."^) 



A kind of skull-cap is also of religious importance, namely, as 

 mourning hood for the woman or women who have helped in lay- 

 ing out the corpse on account of their close relationship to the de- 

 ceased. The figure in the left corner of fig. 51 (p. 123) probably re- 

 presents such a hood. It has almost the same shape as a mourn- 

 ing hood from East Greenland which I have seen in Stockholm Riks- 

 museum belonging to the Nordenskiöld collection from 1873. It was 

 found in South Greenland and brought to this place from East Green- 

 land by some casual boat party. It is simpler and less richly orna- 

 mented than the specimen in Holm's collection from Ammassalik, 

 being only sewn together by alternating white and black skin-strips. 

 According to the inventory it has been worn by a mother who had 

 lost her child. It is at any rate a fact, that in Greenland it was 

 the custom for a mourning woman during the mourning-time to 

 keep her head constantly covered by her hood (or some other loose 

 mourning cap)^). 



') Similar customs mentioned by G. Holm here pp. 32, 49, 86 and Cranz (1770) 

 p. 209. 



2) Kroeber (1899) fig. 47. Steensby (1910) p. 340 relates that "the women who are 

 carrying a child in the amaut have a loose, helmet-shaped skin hat, which is 

 fastened under the chin by a band." 



3) Lyon (1824) p. 317. 



■•) These skull-caps of religious character may be related to the comical caps men- 

 tioned by Murdoch (1892) p, 112 as worn in the dances and pastimes of the 

 Alaskan Eskimo. 



