4ä 



there is one about a certain Uiarteq, who, together with his 

 wife, traveled about the country, namely from Angmagssalik 

 southward, then up the west coast, where they passed the 

 winter, and on to the northern end of the land ; from there, 

 along a steep coast, where there ran a swift tide, to a large 

 fjord, where there were no seals, but many white whales and 

 narwhales; from there, farther on to the hero Ka'sasik, "who 

 lived not far north of Angmagssalik" and "who caught bears 

 in stone traps just as we capture foxes here" ; from there, 

 TJiarteq traveled home to Angmagssalik, thus returning home 

 from the north*). This is only a short resume of the tale, which 

 gives an account of various adventures on the way. I do not 

 overestimate the importance of such oral tradition, exposed as 

 it is to both' interpolations and other changes of various kinds, 

 but I consider it worth noticing in this connection that this tale 

 implies that the East Greenlanders conceive of their land as an 

 island. — With respect to their language, I may call attention 

 to the following information in Cranz**), which doubtless refers 

 to the inhabitants of Angmagssalik. The Eskimo of the east 

 coast, he says, quite frequently made voyages around the 

 southern point of Greenland in order to trade on the west 

 coast. In 1762, there came some from a greater distance than 

 usual, who in contrast to the usual southerners (from the east 

 coast) were called northerners. They are described as a simple, 

 timid, very little moralized people with black hair and without 

 beards; they "speak Greenlandic, but with a different pronunci- 

 ation, which resembles somewhat the pronunciation of the 

 Greenlanders in Disko Bay" ; it is even added in a remark that 

 "our Greenlanders cannot understand their language when they 

 speak together among themselves". 



That the language spoken at Angmagssalik has for a long 

 time differed from South Greenlandic I have no doubt, it would 



*) Meddelelser om Grönland, Vol. X, pp. 2.55 and 333; cf. p. 25'.». 

 ") u. s. Vol. I, p. 343-34S. 



