684 W. Thalbitzer 



during the time of de Poincy's observations. He gives some very interesting 

 information about the women's belts. He states that they wear a belt consis- 

 ting of a leathern strop in which instead of keys several bone-needles pointed 

 at the end like bodkins and as long as hair-pins are suspended. This descrip- 

 tion corresponds exactly to a woman's anorak I saw in Ammundsen's collection 

 in Christiania from the Central Eskimo, with the leathern belt sewn fast thereon 

 and in which were suspended a large number of old ivory bodkins, hanging 

 side by side so that they formed a broad fringe round the waist. 



Further, he mentions the men's costume and (what seems to refer to their 

 angakut) the costumes of their "chiefs", who are said to have a special orna- 

 mentation sewn on the front of the anorak. I think that de Poincy has actu- 

 ally observed something corresponding to this description, though it is not in 

 agreement with our ordinary ideas of the Eskimo community, where he speaks 

 of the "chiefs" of this people, the honour bestowed upon them by the younger 

 men and their special costumes. In the Central Eskimo regions it is a well- 

 known fact that the dress of the angakoq was adorned with peculiar figures, 

 hands, rosettes etc. and in a similar dress in the Comer collection (in Mus. Na- 

 tural Hist, in New York) three rosettes together with other patterns are distinctly 

 seen in the embroidery on the front side of the angakoq dress^). In the foot- 

 note I cite de Poincy's passage about these things^). In many other old reports 

 we hear of the "chiefs" or "kings" of this people, though we are aware that they 

 have only existed in a certain sense in the communistic tribes of the Eskimo, 

 namely, as leading men, head of a family, angakoq etc. 



Weapons. — Further, de Poincy relates that when going out the men 

 always carry a quiver with arrows on (behind) the shoulder and a bow in the 

 hand. He quite rightly makes a distinction between the smaller bow-arrows 

 mostly used for hares, foxes and birds and the larger darts used against reindeer 

 and other larger animals. He states that the first named are 2 — 3 feet long 

 provided with a long bone-head with 3 or 4 barbs; the latter thrown by means 

 of a throwing-stick are 4 — 5 feet long, also provided with a bone-head the barbs 

 of which sit like the teeth of a saw. These Eskimo weapons of de Poincy have 

 long disappeared, superseded by the gun, but the darts he describes are natu- 

 rally closely related to the bird darts and bladder darts still in use. Fin- 

 ally, he mentions the lance, 7 — 8 feet long and provided with a stone-head. 

 But he now seemingly mixes two weapon forms together, for he goes on 

 to say that "these lances are provided with two wings (feathers) in the hind- 

 most end", whereas this peculiarity belongs only to the feather harpoon. It 

 is however of interest, that the existence of the feather harpoon is already proved 

 at this early period and the author even adds the instructive information that 

 the material of the feather may be either wood or whalebone. 



') Illustrations of this angakoq-costume are found in Journ. Amer. Mus. vol. III (1903) 

 PI I; Boas (1907) PI. IX; Thalbitzer (1913) fig 15. 



2) De Poincy (1658) pp. 201— 202: "Encore que ces pauvres Barbares n'ayent pas 

 beaucoup de police, ils ont neantmoins entre-eux des Roytelets & des Capitaines 

 qui les gouvernent, & qui president en toutes leurs assemblés. Ils élèvent à 

 ces dignitez cens qui sont les mieus faits de corps, les meilleurs chasseurs, & les 

 plus vaillans. Ils sont couverts de plus belles peaus, & de plus précieuses four- 

 rures que leurs sujets, & pour marque de leur grandeur, ils portent une enseigne 

 en forme de roze de broderie, laquelle est cousue au devant de leur casaque, 

 & lors (juils marchent ils sont toujoui's escortez de plusieurs jeunes hommes, 

 qui sont armez d'arcs & de flèches, & qui exécutent fidèlement tous leurs com- 

 mandemens." 



