640 W. Thalbitzer 



the cultic games there bear a great resemblance to the Ammassalikers' 

 masks and to their uaajeertoq-games, in which the persons taking part 

 are disguised and blackened in the face. The furrows on the Am- 

 massalik masks are undoubtedly meant to be tattooings. From West 

 Greenland we know nothing of the use of masks in olden times nor 

 much about these games, which however have probably also once 

 been known there ^}. 



The inland American neighbours of the Eskimo also use masks 

 at their religious festivals. Petitot mentions them as being used by 

 the Tinneh Indians both in the games and at the interment of the 

 dead^). Boas refers to the Thlingit Indians, but there is hardly more 

 reason to believe that the Eskimo have copied their art of masks 

 for cultic purposes from these people rather than the reverse^). 



Drums (pp. 125 —129, fig. 360). — At Ammassalik the only material 

 used for the hoop of the drum is wood, namely a long narrow strip 

 bent into the shape of a circle, sometimes a rather flattened circle; 

 the ends of this strip, folded and nailed together so that they cover 

 each other, are inserted into a transverse slit carved in the thick 

 part of the short handle. Besides the handle is lashed on to the hoop^). 

 Over the hoop is tightly stretched the stomach-skin (peritoneum) of 

 a polar bear which is considered to be the best or of the bearded 

 seal, the crested seal and even the shark. The skin is fastened round 

 it by means of a tightly bound, thin line of raw-hide lying in a 

 groove outside the hoop. The handle is sometimes of wood sometimes 

 of bone, sometimes with a carved face on the end (fig. 362), or 

 ornamented in other ways°). 



The drumstick (fig. 361) consists of a flat wooden stick generally 

 pointed at the thicker end, which is shaped like a roughly carved 

 head of a human being or animal. When the drum is not being 

 used, the stick is generally inserted into the loop of the strap in 

 which the drum hangs and which is made of the end of the line 

 lashing the skin round the drum. — The Eskimo never drum against 



1) Cf. my remarks in the H. F. Feilberg Festskrift (1911) p. 88, and A. Berthelsen 

 in Bibliotek for Læger (1907) p. 30. 



2) Petitot, Vocabulaire (1876) p. XXVI. 



3) Boas (1901) p. 368. 



*) A groove л\'111с11 formed a bed for the lashing round the under side of the handle 

 is seen in fig. 362 a, but not the slit in the upper side for the inserting of the 

 hoop, this part of the handle having been broken off. 



^) Cf. the two probable drum-handles of bone found by Amdrup (inv. Amdrup 55 — 

 56j on the Skærgaard Peninsula, described by me (1909) pp. 412 — 416, figs. 29 a 

 and b. Tiiey iiave grooves for the lingers and ornamental furrows. The}' have 

 possibly been knife-handles not drum-handles. 



