Ethnographical collections from East Greenland. 677 



To pp. Л17—/118. 



Lances. — The appearance and use of lances in the northern West Green- 

 land (Disko Bay) have been described recently by H. P. Steensby^). F. Nansen 

 had already called attention to the fact, that in North Greenland a kind of large 

 "harpoon" (he undoubtedly means the lance) was used in walrus hunting, thrown 

 without throwing stick but provided with two bone pegs (tikagut) for the thumb 

 and first finger 2). It has been discovered, that along the whole of the west coast 

 this weapon is thrown by means of the throwing stick, but besides this there 

 is also another kind without throwing stick. The latter is regarded as a secondary 

 form, for Steensby's tikagutainalik means: 'a weapon that only is cast 

 by means of pegs for the fingers'. This designation itself must however be 

 of fairly recent origin, for to begin with the use of the throwing stick with the 

 lance was unknown; the latter form of lance has certainly only been invented 

 in Greenland after the immigration. 



To p. 470 (I). 



Slings. — The slings used at Ammassalik have exactly the same appea- 

 rance as the specimen figured by Boas (1901) p. 53, fig. 79, from Baffin Land. 

 Murdoch mentions slings of a more dangerous kind; he describes slung-shot 

 made of walrus jaw, about which it is stated: "this may be compared with the 

 stone balls used by the ancient Aleuts for striking a man on the temple"^). 



To p. 4-70 (11). 



The shout ilyout. — From the older books of travels we may still find 

 many places where the first cry of welcome of the Eskimo to European explor- 

 ers has been given as ilyaut, iliout or a similar' sound*^). It is generally stated 

 that the Eskimo lifted their hands into the air and struck their breasts whilst 

 uttering the above cry and pointed to the sun and thus that they were sun- 

 worshippers. In his list of words Olearius gives iliout (ilioun) as "the sun"; 

 his Ö undoubtedly means an isolated о and the word is to be pronounced: ili-o-ut. 

 I am of opinion, however, that the form found e. g. in Davis in his yliaoute in 

 reality comes nearer to the pronunciation which phonetically has been some- 

 thing like iliaowut and that Davis' translation 'I mean no harm'^) almost 

 covers the true meaning. Translated literally the word used in this form means: 

 "we are friends"^). 



To pp. 476—477. 



The shark's tooth knives. — These are made of the tooth-plates of sharks 

 set in the edges of a flat wooden stick and are used as cutting instruments. The 

 Ammassalikers call them pilaatakajit 'poor sort of knives' or kitcataai 'hair- 

 cutting knives'. In the British Museum I have seen knives of a similar kind 

 but much larger from the Hawaiian Islands, Polynesia, designated as "fighting 

 weapons armed with shark's teeth". 



1) Steensby (1912) pp. 168—169. 



2) Nansen (1891) p. 31. 



8) Murdoch (1892) p. 191, fig. 173. Slung-shots used by the Micmaclndians, see Piers (19Г2). 

 ^) Johannes de Laet (1643) p. 188: "Wilhelmus Baffin, qui freto a se lustrato nomen 



dedit, narrât incolas Groenlandiæ Solem venerari; nam Anglis appropinquantes 



pectora tundebant & exclamabant Iliout, neque propius accedere sustinebant 



antequam Angli idem fecissent". 

 b) Davis (1586) in Hakluyt Voyages III, p. 140. 

 ^) According to Boas (1888) p. 609 the Ukusiksalik Eskimo use as their word of 



greeting Ища "my friend"^ whereas the Netchillik Eskimo say taima (cf. saima 



sunai of the Cape Yorkers). 



