710 W. Thalbitzer 



derived from the Icelandic. But all indications of this are very uncertain so 

 long as we do not know what the things were. Further, we do not know whe- 

 ther the circumstance, that the same words are found in the South Greenland 

 and Labrador Eskimo language, confirms or weakens the probabihty, that they 

 are of Icelandic origin. Words Hke safaijaq 'bead', neesa 'a porpoise', sava 'a 

 sheep', kuiijiijfijêqj'a. swine', kuanneq 'angelica', are well-known both in Greenland 

 and Labrador and have almost the same meaning in both regions^). They may 

 to some extent be derived from Old Icelandic : spöng 'clasp, buckle' (cf. spanga- 

 brynja), hnisa 'porpoise', sauör 'sheep', svin 'swine' {svinin 'swines'), hvannir 

 'angelica' {h becomes к in Norwegian dialects). But apart from several diffi- 

 culties, why have just these words, if really originating from the Icelandic period 

 in Greenland, been preserved and no word, for example, for iron, shield, oxen, 

 ship etc.? These parallels at any rate at the present time can only be con- 

 sidered as very uncertain^). 



CONCLUSION. 



Routes of the immigrating Eskimo. — It must be confessed, 

 that hypotheses regarding prehistoric migrations of peoples are not 

 much in favour. The great learning employed during the past cen- 

 tury in the attempt to throw light upon the origin and spreading of 

 the Indo-European races can hardly be said to have yielded brilliant 

 fruits in the form of clear and certain results. On the other hand, 

 it was a work that had to be done. It would be foolhardy to be- 



^) Kleinschmidt states that kuhjhjijêq was possibly known previously in Green- 

 land ; the word puluke is now used for swine, this being an Eskimo form of 

 the English pork (Egedes Dictionarium polike). In Labrador kuanneq means 'a 

 kind of edible sea-weed' ; cf. at Ammassalik misartaq 'a kind of edible seaweed' 

 but in Labrador 'a kind of hawkbit (Leontodon Taraxacum)' of which the}-^ 

 make salads fsee Erdman. Labrador Dictionary p. 172 (missaktak . 



^) The same applies to a resemblance pointing in another direction, namel}', be- 

 tween the alluring (hunting) word for 'a young seal' pusso as known from the Orkney 

 Islandsand the Eskimo i Greenland-Labrador j /juzsse 'seal' in general, meaning pro- 

 рег1з' 'a diving animal'. Curiously' enough, the Orkne}' word for 'a cat' pussi 

 also resembles the North Greenland word for a cat i. e. puissaaq. The people 

 of the Orkneys may have got the alluring word from the Eskimo name of a 

 seal, but the name of the cat must at anj' rate come from the opposite 

 direction, if there is really any connection and anything more than a mere 

 coincidence. I have the Огкпез^ words from J. Jacobsen, "Nordiske Min- 

 der paa Orknøerne" (in the "Festskrift til H. F. Feilberg" 1911, p. 342). The 

 Greenlanders might have obtained the word for a cat through men from tiie 

 Faeroes, holding appointments in the country during the time of colonization, 

 but it may possibly liave become a household word there still earlier. Catskin 

 is mentioned in the description of the dress of the spaewife völva in Eiriks- 

 saga (Grønl. histor. Mindesm. I, p. 377). To tlie north-east of Ammassalik lies 

 an island called Puisak, which name seems to ])c the same word as the West 

 Greenland one (see the chart and p. 351 Puisaar). 



