373 



scale, together with certain traditional rhythms. The latter 

 perhaps owe their peculiarity to the fact that the songs for 

 the most part are sung for the first time to the accompaniment 

 of the drumstick's steady beat. — The melodies themselves, 

 however, do not seem to be very stable ; at least I have not 

 succeeded in finding one and the same melody preserved both 

 in and outside of Greenland, for instance in Boas's collection 

 from Baffins Land or in Stein's from Smith Sound. But the 

 material furnished by these collections is to be sure rather 

 deficient when it comes to making such a comparison. There 

 is no doubt, however, that the style of the songs is everywhere 

 the same. 



I found that the Greenlanders are as a rule musical. They 

 are quick at catching tunes and can repeat what they have 

 heard with exactness. I conclude this from the ease with which 

 they pick up European melodies. It is worth noticing that when 

 these melodies are adopted by the Greenlanders, it is only very 

 gradually that they seem to become modified by the more naive 

 national style, with which they in reahty never wholly assimilate. 

 The new melodies (songs or dances from Europe) are preferred 

 as being prettier than their own, which are therefore in most 

 places in danger of being forgotten. It was not until I came 

 north of the Nu'ssnaq (Nugsuak) Peninsula that I found them 

 in any great numbers. It is always easy to distinguish the gen- 

 uine Eskimo melody from the imported one. — Of the following 

 melodies, no. 2 to 5, also no. 8 and no. 12 were communicated 

 to me by a native ajoqe ("kateket") or school-teacher (Martin M., 

 iXXorsuit). It is obvious that they are originally genuine Eskimo 

 melodies, but have partly become somewhat modernized, both 

 with respect to rhythm and melody, because the man who 

 communicated them to me was more familiar with European 

 music than is the case with ordinary Eskimo hunters (cf. the 

 end of no. 3). No. 100 and the lullaby at the end of the collec- 

 tion have more of a European stamp and are probably of foreign 



