YI. Eskimo Place-names from Iforth G-reenland. 



The Eskimo place-names*) are merely common nouns that 

 have been specially employed to designate certain places, and 

 therefore it is generally easy to get at their meaning. Still 

 very often the Greenlander does not get any general idea, or 

 at least he does not think of any such idea when he uses the 

 word in everyday life. Qaq-aq (mountain! designates for him a 

 certain mountain, east or west of his hut; likewise kouk (river) 

 is a certain river, qeqertaq (island), a certain island that has 

 once been so called by one of his ancestors, despite the fact 

 that there are many other mountains, rivers and islands round 

 about in the neighborhood. "The big island" is the name that 

 has been given to Disko Island and no doubt to several other 

 islands too along the same coast. 



So we have every reason to expect great monotony in 

 these names and frequent recurrence of the same ones, and 

 we only need to glance at a map of the Eskimo coasts where 



•) Collections are to be found in: Giesecke's "Mineralogiske Rejse i 

 Grönland", ed. by F. Johnstrup. Copenhagen 1878 (pp.353 366: "De 

 grönlandske .Stednavnes Retskrivning og Etymologi" by H. Rink). — 

 "Meddelelser om Grönland" Vol. III, 1894, pp. 995— 1016 (List of Place- 

 names in Conspectus Florae Groenlandicæ with indications of latitude 

 by N. Hartz). - "Meddelelser om Grönland", Vol. VIII, pp. 30—32. 

 pp. 119 (Г, pp. 268 П", Vol IX, pp. 341 — 350 (place-names in East Green- 

 land). — Petermanns Mitteilungen Vol.48, 1902 (Stei n , place-names 

 north of С York). — Petermanns Mitteilungen Ergänzungsheft SO, 1885, 

 pp. 90-95 (F. Boas: Baffin Land). — C.F.Hall: Narrative of the 

 second Arctic expedition (etc.) 1864—69, ed. by Nourse. Washington 

 1879 (pp. 354 — 398). 



