RG pk 
526 W. THALBITZER. 
East Greenland: fiwaneq (with stress on first syllable) is the singing 
accompanying solo-dance (the singer stands in the center of a circle); 
i’n-erneq is the old-fashioned drum-song, a general term (i”y’ertut ‘the 
drum-singers’ = EGr. iy'ersin); piseg, a drum-contest song (plural 
pitsit); uviuta: ‘his attack in song, a judicial song’; singing a refrain 
without real words was called зодшапед, and those who sang in a chorus 
were called soquldsut from soqulawoq ‘he sings for amusement only.’ 
The term balear used by the Europeans corresponds most closely to 
fiwaneq, the person dancing was called tiwasog. The more enlightened 
Greenlanders near the Danish colony sometimes called the latter pal- 
leartog, thus forming a Romance derivative in their own language. 
Among the balear-dancers of old in the Oommannagq fjord the 
hunter Sujorag from Uwkusissat, and a man Torhluk, and a woman, 
Itérsérsuaq from Saaitut were still (1901) remembered as noteworthy. 
In contrast to the real Eskimo songs, a modern song on European pattern 
and with a European melody was called, niwsa:rut or oqaluniat. 
A. EPIC-LYRICAL POEMS FOR CHILDREN OR GROWN-UPS. 
(Nos. 274—287.) 
No. 274. The Moving of Big Island (Disko). 
Karl Olrik (Rodebay near Jakobshavn). 
(Phon. Study p. 317, no. 13.) 
According to a North Greenland tradition the mighty Disko Island was 
tugged in olden days through the waters from South Greenland to its pre- 
sent location by an angakok and his assistant spirit. The nursery rhyme 
which follows alludes to this myth, which I will quote from Rink’s version 
in a somewhat abbreviated form. 
“On the south lay a very high island, Qegertarssuaq, or Big Island by 
name, which was a great obstacle to the hunting-grounds of the southern 
Eskimo. They therefore said to each other: “If we could only move it out 
of the way so that we could come closer to our hunting-grounds.” Then two 
old men spoke: “Let us try to tug it away.” Kiviaritajak uttered: “Т am 
pleased with the island and if you go off with it, I, from the mainland, will 
hold it back.” One morning when the weather was beautiful the two old 
men said: “Let us try to tug it off anyway!” As they had nothing else they 
plucked a hair from the head of a little child to use as a tow-line. However, 
from the mainland, Kiviaritajak began at once to pull at it, using a line of 
sealskin. Then the old men sang incantations over the great island in order 
to make holes in it, and while they were singing, holes resulted; then they 
sang incantations over the hair of the child and the sealskin line, which 
1 Rink (1871) p. 105. — Cf. earlier mention of the same myth in Hans Egede 
(Perlustration, 1741, p. 33); Paul Egede (Journal ed. 1788, p. 93); Saabye (Dag- 
bog, ed. 1816, p. 138). 
