61 



2. The Intellectual Culture of tlie Greenlanders. 



The Eskimo language is only spoken by about 33000 indi- 

 viduals*), so thus it is not because it is wide-spread that it is 

 worth studying, but because like a rare plant, it testifies to a 

 peculiar process of development and affords new material for 

 scientific comparison. Not only does the language itself, by 

 virtue of its content and its construction, contain evidence of 

 a peculiar intellectual life, but it is also the bearer of a primitive 

 civilization. 



The Greenlanders' traditions, which consist both of tales 

 and of songs, had been only orally handed down until the 

 middle of the last century, for the art of writing was completely 

 unknown to this race before the coming of the Europeans. In 

 1859, Dr. Rink sent appeals for the old Greenlandic tales to 

 be collected. He found to his surprise that at all the settle- 

 ments in the land there were large numbers of them preserved. 



They were now written down by the native school-teachers 

 and sent to him, and in the course of a few years, he received 

 over 400, many of which fill several printed pages. How intact 

 these traditions have been handed down was in many cases 

 strikingly proved by the fact that the same tale was told in 

 exactly the same way, almost word for word, in different districts 

 which time out of mind can have had no connection with each 

 other. Many of the traditions have later proved to be common 

 to both the Eskimo in Greenland and in America. 



Most of the travelers' accounts from all the Eskimo districts 

 make mention of the strange drum-dances with accompa- 

 nying songs. It is very difficult to gel these songs written down 



•) According to Rink: Tlie Eskimo Tribes (1887) pp. 32— 34, the number of 

 Eskimo outside of Greenland may be estimated at 21400. Accordini; to 

 "Meddelelser fra Directoratet for den Kgl. gronlandske Handel", the 

 Greeniandcrs numbered 11118 at the end of the \ear Г.ЮО. At Smith 

 Sound there are about 250 (Stein). The population in Greenland is 

 slowly increasing. 



