650 W. Thalbitzer 



resemblance either to a dog or a fox; this people would take no 

 interest in carving a dog, it is more likelj^ meant to represent some 

 mythical animal^). The two bears in figs, b and с cannot be mistaken, 

 in d we have a seal with a dotted stripe along the back made of 

 inlaid small discs of ivory; to judge from the shape of the head it 

 is meant to be a bearded seal (cf. figs. 43 and 385). 



In this connection I may also recall the angakoq bear made of 

 wood seen in fig. 45 and which is probably a mere toy for children. 

 A wooden bear, having in common with it the peculiarity that 

 artificial bones are inserted in the shoulder and thigh parts, was 

 found by Amdrup north of the Ammassalik district ^). Carved wooden 

 animals, birds, bears, seals, musk-oxen etc., generally larger forms 

 than those known from Ammassalik, were found in the north by 

 Nathorst (Hammer) in the Franz Joseph Fjord •'^), by Amdrup and 

 Ryder in Scoresby Sound ^). The characteristic dotted line along the 

 back of the seal (cf fig. 372 c?) is seen again in the collection of the 

 latter author on a fish (salmon?), which on the one side has a row 

 of 13 smalb bored depressions. Ryder justly recalls the occurrence 

 of the same feature in the West Eskimo figures of seals and fishes. 



Fig. 373 is a toy (pukutariän) representing two carved birds with 

 the heads turned towards each other, the beaks intended to go up 

 and down alternately when the two sticks on which they are fastened, 

 one over the other, are either drawn away or pushed towards each 

 other. The feet of the birds namely are loosely fastened to the 

 lower stick through a longitudinal hole in the upper one. In a the 

 birds are made of ivory, in b of wood. In both ends of a there is 

 a small upright ivory-haft shaped like the upper part of a human 

 body. This toy has also been known further south on the east 

 coast ^). 



The seals and whales in fig. 374 are carved of ivory; the whales 

 (narwhal) are harpooned and the sealing-bladders of wood are fastened 



1) The resemblance to the carvings of m34hical animals (snakes etc.) known from 

 the Alaskan Eskimo is fairly remote, see Hoffman (1897) pp. 913 — 914, and the 

 Ammassalik animal would rather represent a wolf (id. 1. c. p. 795, fig. 23) or a 

 fox in spite of the absence of ears; see the figures from the game "fox and 

 geese" in Culin (1907) p. 103 fig. 112 and the carved fox-heads from Baffin Land 

 in Boas fl901) fig. 81 i, I. 



2) Amdrup coll. no. 121 described by me (1909) p. 534, fig. 106. 

 3j Nathorst (1900; vol. II, p. 348; Stolpe (1906), PI. V, fig. 18. 



■*) Thalbitzer (1909) pp. 477—478, fig. 57; Ryder (1895) p. 337. fig. 38. 



^) Hanserak's diary (see Rink's translation p. 51) contains the following statement 

 from the winter 1884: "To this place (Ammassalik 26th Octbr.) came kaiak-men 

 from Umeewik and offered for sale trifiing things лу1ис11 they had made them- 

 selves: birds nodding the heads and picking up their food, buzzes whirling round 

 with the wind and several other Greenland toys." 



