Ethnographical collections from East Greenland. 629 



placed for the purpose of driving away all intruding illness. At the 

 foot of the same tent-pole a bee has to be hidden ; if now a hostile 

 angakoq or his spirit approaching under the earth approaches the 

 tent to rob the soul from the sleeping inhabitants, this amulet would 

 go out to meet him and force him to retreat. On the lower prop 

 supporting the platform of the tent under the head of the sleeping 

 persons they put mica which makes them invisible to any pursuing 

 enemies. 



It is a peculiar fact, also mentioned by Fabricius in his Green- 

 land Dictionary^), that the word arnoaq, which means amulet in 

 general, may also have another meaning, i. e. a piece of skin or 

 other material rolled together almost like a ball and sewn fast to 

 (a corner of) the fore-curtain of the tent, to be thrown over the 

 nearest sloping tent-pole, in order that the curtain may fit quite 

 close and not be blown away. This ball is probably the arnoaq par 

 excellence of the tent. 



A drum provided with an amulet, says Kunnaq, is to improve 

 the voice of the man when he is singing; the amulet consists of the 

 "whiskers" of a raven (stiff feathers near the root of the beak) and is 

 inserted under the lashing, by means of which the handle of the 

 drum is fastened to the wooden rim. 



The most comprehensive and detailed description of the amulets 

 of the Ammassalikers is given by Rosing in the Greenland language 

 and contains very interesting information, to which I hope to return 

 some time. In this report I have only dealt with my own material. 

 A description of the amulets of the West Greenlanders is found in 

 Dalager; now and then they are also mentioned in Egede, father 

 and son^). 



Teeth used as amulets do not seem to play any important role 

 at Ammassalik but there is reason to believe that they may have 

 been used here as elsewhere^). The tooth shown in fig. 346 with a 

 perforation close to the point may be explained as an amulet which 

 has hung in a dress or needle skin. Further north Amdrup found 

 single bear-teeth perforated near the point which must be considered 

 as pendant trinkets or possibly amulets'^). According to Kumlien^) 



1) Fabricius (1804) p. 52 



2) Dalager (1752) pp. 76—80. H. Egede (1741) p. 116. 



*) Dalager p. 79 also speaks of fox-teeth used as amulets. 



*) Amdrup coll. nos. 58 (Skærgaard Peninsula), 120 (С. Borlase Warren) and 110 

 (Sabine Island); see Thalbitzer (1909) p. 419, fig. 32 and p. 493, fig. 70 d where 

 also several discoveries from East Greenland of a similar kind are mentioned. 



^) Kumlien (1879) p. 45: "Another charm of great value to the mother who has a 

 young babe is the canine tooth of the polar bear. This is used as a kind of 

 clasp to a seal-string which passes round the body and keeps the breasts up. 

 Her milk supply cannot fail while she wears this." 



