726 W. Thalbitzer 



the east coast, but which have persisted longer at this isolated spot. 

 We still lack criteria by which to judge of the route along which 

 these instruments have reached to this district. 



In the sharks' teeth knives we see an ancient trait in the man- 

 ner of fixing the teeth in the haft in lateral grooves (like the blade 

 in the crooked knives). This kind of knife comes rather from the 

 south than from the north. 



The women's knives, both the two-armed with a special haft head 

 and a separate foot-piece to hold the blade and the one-armed with a 

 crescent-shaped iron blade, come probably in part from instruments 

 of European make, whereas the simpler type (a narrow block of 

 wood or bone as handle with a groove on the under side for the in- 

 sertion of the stone blade) is true Eskimoese. 



The wooden boxes and chests of the Ammassalikers, composed 

 of separate boards nailed together, and their wooden tubs and pails, 

 made of separate staves mortised into one another, are probably 

 influenced like the above women's knives by imitation of European 

 utensils introduced on the west coast. 



The waterproof kaiak frocks of the Ammassalikers made of black 

 unhaired skin and the combined kaiak frocks of white unhaired skin 

 are only known elsewhere from South Greenland, from which these 

 overcoats must have been transferred northwards as far as Ammas- 

 salik and they belong probably to an old mode characteristic of the 

 southern coasts of Greenland. 



The same holds good probably of several other peculiarities of 

 the costume, among these the boots of the men with the hairy side 

 outwards, the best boots of the women with white unhaired skin, 

 their headkerchiefs and their triangular ear-pendants. 



The "Dutch beads" (of coloured glass) have come naturally from 

 South Greenland, and probably also the use of ammassät dorsal 

 vertebrae as beads. 



All the ethnographic features brought together here show us the 

 Ammassalikers as participators in common elements of the Greenland 

 culture, but we may note the fact, that the agreement is only partial 

 and sometimes points to relationship with the people to the north, 

 sometimes with those to the south; which naturally in some of the 

 cases might simply be explained by saying, that the Ammassalikers 

 live on the boundary between a high-arctic and a subarctic culture 

 and have needed elements from both sides. Nevertheless, this ex- 

 planation can only refer to those implements and activities which 

 are dependent on the climate and natural conditions. — In addition 

 to these there are not a few features in the Ammassalik culture, 

 which are identical with peculiar and characteristic forms of Greenland 



