732 W. Thalbitzer 



But immigrants from the north would not of themselves have 

 discovered how to use the ammassät in the interior of Ammattiwik 

 Fjord, for they knew nothing of this fish. Since the present in- 

 habitants are engaged in this fishery from early summer and quite 

 in the same way as the practice is in West Greenland, we may con- 

 clude that they have learnt it from the south. We can perhaps even 

 guess at the possibility, that it was just this small fish that attracted 

 the nearest of the south coast Eskimo up to the interesting place 

 where this fishery is carried on. How could they resist this excel- 

 lent fishery and fishing ground, which they perhaps discovered during 

 summer visits at a time when the district lay open and unoccupied! 



The immigrants from the south have perhaps first learnt to stay 

 the winter here from their kinsmen coming from the north, who 

 were able to teach them how to capture seals on the winter ice by 

 methods developed in more arctic regions. In any case we should 

 find a satisfactory explanation of the mixed culture of the Ammas- 

 salikers in the view, that the off'shoots of two immigrant groups meet- 

 ing here from the north and south have informed each other of the 

 specially good and attractive points in their respective cultures. To 

 judge from the spread southwards of certain archaic features and 

 from linguistic criteria, the contribution from the north to the in- 

 habitants of the Ammassalik district has been powerful and import- 

 ant, perhaps even the dominant- influence in the beginning; on the 

 other hand, the contributions from the south have been more frequent 

 and constant in their influence. The memory of their origin from 

 two sides is now almost lost or the date of this by misunderstanding 

 is transferred to a recent period (cf. p. 346). The intermingling of 

 the original elements must go back to a remote period; possibly the 

 sharp contrasts existing until recently between many families within 

 this district were an inheritance from a time, when two competing 

 groups of settlers or descendants of these have felt a kind of national 

 opposition to one another. Through intermarriage and social com- 

 panionship these groups have fused together to one whole. 



From this fusion has come Greenland's most exclusive, most 

 complex and most artistic Eskimo community. 



