Ethnographical collections from East Greenland. 663 



Besides being found among the Ammassalikers the bull-roarer is 

 also known from northern Alaska ^). Among the Eskimo it is only 

 known as a toj»^ for children, but in former times it was used by 

 the Indians in North America, among whom it had a wide distribu- 

 tion, as a sacred instrument for producing rhythmic sound, to implore 

 the wind to bring fair weather or to invoke the clouds; among the 

 Kwakiutl Indians it is said to be associated with the inлocation of 

 spirits (ghosts)'^). 



As already mentioned (p. 519) , the spindle-buzz has also been 

 found in the possession of the Eskimo on one of the islands in the 

 Bering Straits; thus it must be considered as an old Eskimo imple- 

 ment, at any rate as a toy. But its occurrence among the Indians 

 in East and South-west America was considered by O. Mason as con- 

 nected with the Spaniard's introduction of European hand-looms for 

 the weaving of sheep's wool and other material, i. e. as of extraneous 

 origin^). 



The ring-and-pin game (ajagaq) is not only common to all 

 Greenland^), but is also mentioned as being known among most of 

 the other Eskimo, in Labrador however probably only in the northern 

 region^). From Baffin Land we have a characteristic form of the 

 »ring« piece of this toy, consisting either of the cranium of a hare 

 or fox or an imitation thereof carved in bone and provided with 

 holes so that it may be caught on the ajagaq-stick^). — This game, 

 which in Greenland consisted in an adroit trick performed during the 

 telling of a tale (pp. 656 — 658), is seen from a new point of view if we 

 consider the fact, that the toy is in Alaska replaced by a holy wand 

 associated with an asking festival of the same name as the Green- 

 land game^); in Alaska this is a cult festival taking place every year 

 in November, at which the people are solemnly invited to the meeting 

 house, and an exchange of presents and intercourse with unmarried 

 women takes place. 



1) Murdoch (1892), fig. 377, p. 379. 



2) Handbook Amer. Indians (1907) pp. 170—171; Culin (1907) p. 750. 



ä) Handbook (1910) p. 928. — A Danish hand-loom of this kind used for twisting 

 yarn into fish-nets has been described by H. F. Feilberg in "Dansk Bondeliv" 

 (1910) pp. 142—143, fig. 50. 



*) Kroeber (1899) p. 296, fig. 50 shows a specimen of this toy of a leg-bone with 

 two bored holes through each socket instead of a tube-shaped hollow-bone, 

 resembling those found on the west coast of Hudson Bay. Boas (1901) fig. 164. 



5) Erdman, Wörterbuch (1864) p. 7. 



6) Boas (1888) figs. 519—521. 



') Nelson (1899) p. 359. The name ai-ya-guk corresponds exactly to the Greenland 

 ajagaq. The wand seen in fig. 139 and used in the asking festival, is in part 

 identical with the roulette from the west coast of Hudson Bay illustrated in 

 Boas (1901) p. 111. Cf. Culin (1907) p. 783, fig. 1076. 



