606 



W. Thalbitzer 



mented comb found by Amdrup on Dunholm (cf. my description) ^); 

 in shape it resembles the bipartite type from North-west Greenland 

 but not the Ammassalik type. At the "dead house" (Nualik) Am- 

 drup found 13 bone-combs of the type seen in fig. 333; so many at 

 least have belonged to the ca. 30 persons living up there. 



Fig. 332 shows a peculiar comb from Ammassalik belonging to 

 the Petersen collection. It is made of quills inserted through a slit 

 into a wooden handle so as to form the teeth of a comb. Similar 

 combs have now and then been found on digging out old houses 

 but they are now out of use. 



Lice-scrapers or back-scratchers (fig. 334) consisting of a 



wooden stick with a square piece of 

 bone fastened crosswise at the one 

 end are very common among the East 

 Greenlanders. Among the Smith Sound 

 Eskimo a somewhat different type is 

 used, having a tuft of long-haired bear- 

 skin fastened to the end of the stick 

 (they call them kumakssiut)^). While 

 the latter seem to be used mainly as 

 a kind of hunting implement to catch 

 the lice by inserting the stick between 

 the anorak and the naked body, the 

 first-named are specially suited to 

 scratch the spot attacked by the an- 

 imals, especially the back between the 

 shoulder-blades. Amdrup found two 

 specimens at the "dead house" (length 

 36 cm. and 41 cm. respectively). Back- 

 scratchers are mentioned both from Baffin Land and from Alaska^). 

 Toilet (p. 34). — In addition to the dressing of the hair the 

 tattooing of the body might also be mentioned here but I prefer to 

 defer this to the section on ornamentation. The women's washing 

 of the head even their whole body in urine has been mentioned 

 previously (pp. 34, 60 and 178)*). Water baths are not used nor 

 sweating baths as in Alaska. 



They do their daily necessities outside the house, generally at 

 the back wall. The signs soon disappear thanks to the loose dogs 



Fig. 332. Comb made of feathers 



stuck in a wooden handle. 



(Petersen coll.). ^la. 



1) Thalbitzer (1901) pp. 466—475 and figs. 55—56. 



2) Kroeber (1899) pp. 289—290, fig. 36; Steensby (1910) p. 337. 



3) Boas (1901) p. 48, fig. 66; Nelson (1899) p. 310, fig. 98. Cf. inv. Jacobsen (IVa 

 2787188; from Alaska in Museum für Völkerkunde, Berlin. 



") Graah (1832) p. 119. 



