670 W. Thalbitzer 



a grave find; it probably originates from Ammassalik or Sermilik, as it is adorned 

 witb relief ornaments like tliose found on throwing sticks and other wooden ob- 

 jects from this region only^). By means of two or three wooden nails each of 

 the relief -figures, 18 altogether, is fastened to the lower (hindmost) part of the 

 back of this throwing stick; along its middle a whale and four seals are seen follow- 

 ing each other in a long row, further some birds and mythical animals. Along 

 the one edge it has an ivory mounting, but no notch or hole for the forefinger, 

 whereas on the other edge there is a shght indentation for the thumb. 



Further, Nordenskiöld's collections from 1873 and 1883 contain two very 

 beautiful eye-shades with relief-ornamentation, obtained in South Greenland 

 but originating from Ammassalik. The first^) has a very close resemblance to 

 fig. 316a (Holm) and fig. 319 (Amdrup) illustrated here. The favourite decora- 

 tive design for the reliefs on eye-shades has evidently been a zigzag line between 

 two straight edges arranged in parallel divisions, which again are arranged in 

 two main groups, where the directions of the line are divergent from each other. 



The same Museum also posseses a valuable collection made by G. v. Düben 

 during the Nordenskiöld Expedition of 1870 — -71 in the same regions as Pfafi's 

 and comprising 220 objects, mostly found in graves; further, the Museum owns 

 a collection of about 200 objects from South Greenland, Sukkertoppen, Godt- 

 haab, Frederikshaab etc. collected by N. 0. Holst (1880). 



To p. 333 (cf. p. 339). 



Eaeliest traditions about a European ship seen from the coast. — 

 In 1830 Graah met a man near Umeewik (64°19' N. lat.) who said that he had 

 been told that many years previously people had seen a ship ofi the coast north 

 of Umeewik. This place Hes about 5 days' journey (with boat) south of the 

 Sermilik Fjord, which in 1786 had been discovered by Egede and Rothe's Ex- 

 pedition, when they approached the coast at a distance of ca. 10 Engl, miles 

 ta ca. 65° of latitude; Graah was of opinion that the ship observed has been Ege- 

 de and Rothe's'^) and that the recollection of it had remained during the 44 

 years passed since then. • — Ships seen at a far distance from the coast have 

 probably not made any great impression on the inhabitants of the country, 

 whereas the appearance of a ship closer to land would naturally be remembered 

 as a great event through several generations. If the memory of ships observed 

 from the coast far out at sea had been of any importance to the people of the 

 country, we might have expected to have heard about the whaling boats of the 

 17th century sighted from the coast further towards the north. But nothing 

 has been reported about these. 



To p. 335. 



First visit op Europeans in East Greenland. Norse ruins. — Wallöe 

 is generally mentioned as the first white man who set foot on the east coast. 

 (1752). All the first Danish expeditions were formed with a view to »the redis- 

 covery of the Østerbygd", but Wallöe already returned with the negative result 

 that the present inhabitants of the east coast had nowhere seen people resemb- 

 Hng Europeans nor knew of any other kinds of buildings than the Eskimo's 

 own usual houses^). Wallöe was the first Europeans who visited the island Aluk 

 (ca. 60°09') and saw the Greenlanders' large market to which they gathered from 



1) Nordenskiöld's throwing stielt is illustrated in his "Studier och Forskningar" 

 (1883) p. 347. Cf. the ornamented throwing stick in Holm's coll., here fig. 144. 



2j On this eye-shade collected in 1872 is written in ink the inventoriai mark of 

 the original collector, namely R. M. 1207. 



3) Graah (1832j p. 140. 



*) Grønlands historiske Mindesmærker, vol. III p. 744. 



