Language and Folklore (Supplement). 539 
No. 286. An Old Game (änkeralaartut). 
Tobias Wille, (Niargornarssuk, Egedesminde 1901). 
Quite a number of players are necessary. Each participator has 
his part assigned at the beginning of the game, apparently by drawing 
lots: one is äykela'q or ankeralaq, from which the game has its name; 
another is na‘lagaq ‘the ruler’; a third tir'itoq ‘the thief’; a fourth 
ujarzersog ‘the seeker; detective’; a fifth unata'"seq ‘the beater’. There 
is also an ilasisog, ‘one who obtains shares, prizes’, and an ilana'"soq 
‘one who is reduced, suffers losses’. There is а na‘lanaq who decides 
how many blows the beater shall give the thief. The order goes forth: 
tiL‘itoq ujartiuk (or ujarre'k), ‘find the thief!’ after which the ujar- 
Lersog points out one of the others. If he is not the thief, ‘the ruler’ 
again decides the number of blows the beater is to give the thief 
before the ujarrersog makes another guess, and so on until the thief is 
found and receives his due number of blows. 
The name of the game is difficult to analyse. The termination seems to 
be -rala'rtut, possibly identical with -qat-a-rtut, ‘they who try again and again’, 
but what is the meaning of the root dyke or anke? It suggests very strikingly 
the ankaq ‘a ball’, of the dialect of South West Alaska (Е. Barnum, Gram- 
matical Fundamentals, р. 324) from which is derived ankartoa ‘I play ball’. 
(Cf. Schultze, Grammar, р. 33). Е. W. Nelson also quotes this word (ün’kak 
‘ball’?) in his description of the foot-ball game near St. Michael (Norton 
Sound).' While the foot-ball game played here by the young men has a name 
suggesting the word which the Ammassalik Eskimo use (is:im-ina:tut)2 the 
women play a special form of the game i.e. Al. ün'-käl'-ü-git = |dnkdlagil|(?), 
the name of which contains the word for “ball”. In this game the ball used 
is larger than the one used by the men. There are only four players. They 
stand opposite each other arranged in the form of a cross. The play seems 
to depend on much the same skill as our battledore and shuttlecock. 
Although the two games, the one from Alaska and the one from West 
Greenland have practically no similarity nowadays, yet the similarity in names 
is, after all, perhaps not mere chance. 
No. 287. A Children’s Game. 
Thomas Magnussen, (Jakobshavn). 
(Phon. Study, p. 314, no. 2). 
seqintusa‘ria seqintusa‘rta да’! qup'isarzuta “Come let us play sun! 
Let us take sides!” 
Two of the children, a boy and a girl are chosen, one to 
be sun, the other to be moon. The legs of each are tied so 
that they can only move in little hops. The other children 
rush past them keeping close together in a line. The sun and 
moon try to grab one of the children by his anorak as he 
passes and will stop him with the question: 
sumut pis‘uit “Where are you going?” The answer varies: 
seqinermut "To the sun.” 
gaumamut “То the moon.” 
ТЕ. W. Nelson (1899) р. 335 and following. 
2 Cf. First Part p. 60. 
