Ethnographical collections from East Greenland. 701 



this was the beginning of the hostihties between the two people^). No more 

 is written about it in Egede. 



It is in the text procured by Pingel that the names of the two Icelanders 

 Oongortoq and Olavik are first mentioned and the whole episode, the break- 

 ing out of hostilities, the attack and burning by the Eskimo and Oongortoq's 

 unhappy flight southwards is clearly set forth. Pingel and Rink's versions from 

 the Juhanehaab district where according to the texts (B^-g, Cj, D^), the events 

 took place, contain in themselves so many features characterestic of Eskimo 

 life^) but wanting in the northern texts from the Godthaab district and so great 

 an accuracy in the description of the locality where the attack took place, and 

 of Oongortoq's places of refuge during his flight southwards, that they at once 

 appear the most trustworthy reports. The story of these texts, that some of 

 the last Icelanders were burnt to death in their own houses (or in the church) 

 near Qaqortoq agrees with the fact that the excavations in the Julianehaab 

 (Qaqortoq) district have revealed coal (burnt wood) in and outside several of 

 the Icelandic ruins^). In the case of the northern texts this archæological support 

 is wanting, nor do they state the name of the place where Oongortoq was at- 

 tacked but simply place the scene at the Ameralik (Cg) or Kangersineq fjords 

 in the Godthaab district. The report has been localized here in the north evi- 

 dently because it has been brought up here with the Eskimo coming from the 

 south, who have been accustomed to imagine the event as having taken place 

 in their own regions, in the interior of their own fjords. If they have not done 

 it themselves, their descendants in Ameralik and Godthaabsfjord have localized 

 the reports in the more northern regions, so that they were in agreement with their 

 knowledge about the old Icelandic houses found there. Another proof that 

 the report originates from these south is probably seen in this, that it is written 

 in the South Icelandic dialect. This is seen e. g. in the name of the fjord Kan- 

 gersineq, for the Eskimo of the м -dialect near the Godthaabsfjord and north 

 thereof call it Kangersuneq. But what mostly tells against the genuineness of 

 the northern texts is, that these and only these have mixed up the report with 

 the Navaranaaq tale, which the immigrants have probably not been acquainted 

 with until the meeting with the group of Eskimo who had approached or 

 settled down in Vestribygö from the north. 



The assaihng Eskimo came from the south, so tell us the Eskimo tradi- 

 tions in South Greenland, though however not all of them, but e. g. one of the 

 two northern texts (namely €3) in the introduction of which we hear of the first 

 meeting with the Norsemen in olden times and which begins as follows : "An 

 umiak steered from the south northwards in the direction of Nouk^). But as 

 Greenland in those olden times is said to have been only sparsely populated 

 they met no people near Nouk. From this place they broke up and went on 



^) In Ci recorded 100 years later we find the same introductory episode, though 

 more simplified as the auk-motive is wanting. 



-) I have cited already (p. 636, note 1) one of these features from the text Bi, the 

 oracle dolls of the angakoq which are placed on the sea-gull hills. 



^) Such remnants of charcoal were found, for example, near the church-ruins at 

 Qaqortoq and Igalikko (by Hans Egede and Graah, see the latter 1832, p. 45) as 

 also at various places near the farms at Mussartoq and Singitsoq near Qaqortoq, 

 see Grønl. hist. Mindesmærker, vol. Ill, pp. 810, 813, 817, 821-822; Pingel 

 (1838—39) p. 234; G. Holm (1894) pp. 139—142; D. Bruun (1896) p. 427; M. Clem- 

 mensen (1911) p. 307. 



*) The Eskimo name for the present Godthaab i. e. Vestribygö of the Norsemen. 



