Ethnographical collections from East Greenland. ß25 



g and h and the two smaller above) is the final result of the development, 

 is correct, we may draw the conclusion, that this development has already 

 taken place outside Greenland possibly in the regions immediately west of 

 Baffin Bay and the Davis Straits and shortly before the immigration to East 

 Greenland. 



Among the other ornamental shapes that attract attention I shall only 

 mention here the serrated edge of a buckle seen in fig. 3406. From Baffin 

 Land Boas mentions some buckles or "eyes for needle-cases" of quite a 

 similar shape, with serrated edges, the majority from Cumberland Sound 

 and a few from Ponds Bay^). 



OBJECTS OF RELIGIOUS IMPORTANCE, AMULETS, DRUMS etc. 



Men's amulet straps (pp.32 and 85; figs. 18, 62, 348). — The 

 men wear these harness-like skin-straps in such a way, that the two 

 uppermost loops hang on the shoulders close to the neck, uniting 

 on the middle of the chest and back, the lowermost sloping out from 

 the same points towards the sides. They are never taken off. For 

 this reason I have entered them among the components of the house- 

 dress (p. 561). Fig. 348 shows three harnesses of this kind, a and Ъ 

 with amulet pockets at the centre ; these consist of tw^o skin-bags, 

 the one hanging on the breast, the other on the back. The amulets 

 placed in them are wooden dolls, one representing a man, the other 

 a woman. In b the bags are very short and below them are two 

 pieces of skin, sewn in between the straps as a continuation of the 

 bags, in such a way that there is a space between bag and continua- 

 tion. To judge from its form the figure furthest to the right in 

 fig. 348 b represents a tornarssuk. In с instead of the skin-bags we 

 only have two short rows of beads (of dorsal vertebrae) between the 

 straps; without doubt amulets are or have been attached there. The 

 main object of these straps is, naturally, to be the bearer of the 

 man's protecting amulets on both sides of the body in its upper part, 

 so that no evil spirit may be able to penetrate to his soul within. 

 Similar straps have been noted among the West Greenlanders by 

 Dalager, who describes them so incompletely however, that we do 

 not know, what they were like^). But the amulet straps of a man 

 from the Bering Straits (Sledge Island) described by Nelson ■') were un- 

 doubtedly of exactly the same type as those of the Ammassalikers 



1) Boas (1888) fig. 514 &; (1901) fig. 14 i,^, k; (1907) fig. 226 e. 



2) Dalager (1752) p. 79. 



^) Cf. G. Holm's reference in this book p. 32. 



XXXIX. 40 



