On the Eskimo Music. 4] 
irregularity of the Eskimo rhythm. No. 132 11$ more strongly Europe- 
anised; it was sung perfectly in time and is distinctly a major 
melody. 
IV. Songs of South-West Greenland. 
In discussing the North-West Greenlanders, their remarkable 
power of adopting European music was commented upon. We have 
a much better opportunity of observing this same power among the 
natives of South-West Greenland, where the population have certainly 
been in touch with Europeans for nearly 200 years and are no 
longer unmixed. 
Almost all Greenland travellers express wonder at the psalm- 
singing of the Greenlanders and are surprised at their fine part-singing. 
Instruments also — violin, organ, concertina — are readily learnt 
by the modern Greenlander. At an early date already David Cranz 
expressed surprise at the musical aptitude of the Greenlanders.’ 
In South-West Greenland, where European culture is so dominant, 
we can naturally not expect to find very many remnants of original 
Eskimo music. On the other hand, various Eskimo melodies, which 
have been somewhat influenced by European songs, are sung, but 
on the whole it is the European music which interests the Green- 
lander and not rarely we hear Danish street melodies, to which the 
Greenlanders themselves put the words. The melodies are some- 
what altered, however, when the Greenlanders adopt them. 
As mentioned before, Frithjof Nansen in his “Eskimoliv” (1891) 
gives a melody, which he states comes from the east coast. The 
melody, which was given him by Mrs. Signe Rink, was noted down 
by the wife of Pastor Janssen. Mrs. Janssen, however, had already 
sent the melody to A. P. Berggreen in 1857 and the latter published 
it in his "Folkesange og Melodier” Vol. X (1870).” Berggreen writes, 
that the song came from heathen Greenlanders, but says nothing 
about these having belonged to the east coast. 
In the text the Eskimo, who have been surrounded by the sea 
ice, complain of hunger. 
1 Variant of the melody in “Meddelelser om Grenland” XXXI, p. 385, No. 100 
from Rodebay, Disko Bay. 
? David Cranz, Historie von Grönland, рр. 727, 995, 1065. 
3 The melody is cited in Riemann, Uber eigentiimliche Tonreihen, p. 73. 
