62 



and therefore there have until of recent years existed but scat- 

 tered specimens of them. It was not before I had crossed the 

 Nugsuaq Peninsula that I came to places where this autoch- 

 thonic poetry still led a miserable existence, half in conceal- 

 ment, because it is disliked by the missionaries. Round about 

 the curves of the Oommannaq Fjord I met with men and 

 women in all the settlements who still very distinctly remem- 

 bered both the words, the refrains and the tunes of the old 

 songs. Indeed in some places they still knew how to beat the 

 drum (a piece of gut stretched over a wooden ring) according 

 to all the rules of the art; in Ootmnannätsiaq , I saw a ring of 

 singers hand in hand circling round the drummer who stood 

 in the middle, making wry faces and distorting his body. Of 

 course I did not rest before I had written down an ample 

 supply of these songs, and now they are printed and thus pre- 

 served for literature. They are just as primitive as the tales, 

 and what art there is expended on them is applied more to 

 their delivery than to their language ; only the minority of them 

 contain any approach to rhyme or rhythmical regularity. Their 

 antiquity is testified to not only by their whole character but also 

 by various archaic forms. The Eskimo knew of no other poetry 

 half a century ago; it is original poetry, dating from the race's 

 stone-age, which in this way has been rescued from oblivion. 



H. Rink: Eskimoiske Eventyr og Sagn. Kbh. 186G (Songs 

 pp. 349—350). — Supplement. 1871 (Songs pp. 138—149). — 

 Tales and traditions of the Eskimo, with a sketch of their habits, 

 religion, language etc. Edinburgh and London 1875. — G. Holm: 

 Ethnologisk Skizze af Angmagsalikerne. Medd. om Gr. Vol. 10. Kbh. 

 1888 (Songs pp. 329-334). — H.Rink: Bemærkninger til G. Holms 

 Samling (ibid, pp.335 — 445). — C. Kruuse: Angmagsalikerne 

 (Geografisk Tidsskrift, Kbh. 1902). — W. Thalbitzer: Eskimoisk 

 Digtekunst (Tilskueren 1903). 



Specimens of Eskimo folklore outside of Greenland are found 

 in the works (mentioned in the linguistic bibliographical survey) of 

 Boas, Stein, Turner, Petitot, Nelson, Barnum etc. 



