Language and Folklore (Supplement). 551 
many of the other poems from there, bear marks of the culture of the 
east coast; and as late as my own visit they were jodeled forth with 
all the pagan enthusiasm of ancient days, even though the singers 
called themselves Christian and bore Jewish-Christian names. These 
tones which once upon a time, in a closely related style, resounded 
from all the coasts of Greenland, — before the coming of the white 
race, — had held their own until the phonograph of the ethnologist 
came in the name of science to rescue the last remaining fragments. 
In contrast to Ammassalik, the Cape Farewell corner of Green- 
land was anything rather than untouched by European influence. 
Here it was that, as early as the middle of the 18th century, the 
culture of the east coast met the first breakers from the civilised 
west coast. Here for many generations, — like two ocean currents 
that intersect, the waves of two conflicting streams of culture broke 
against each other. Einally the European whirlpool gained the ascend- 
ancy, and the national music was engulfed, Fluctuat nec mergitur, 
— how long indeed? There is no longer much hope of saving the 
pure classical style of the Inuit race. These tones will soon be 
drowned by others, first by the psalm-singing of the mission, then 
by the gramophone ‘of the commercial traveller. Like songs of dying 
swans the old pagan style is disappearing in the noisy onrush of a 
barbarian culture. Posterity will learn them in museums or from 
books; even the children of the Arctic zone themselves will find their 
hearts estranged from those tones which once upon a time caused 
the blood of their forefathers to course quickly in their veins. 
Several of the melodies published here are no doubt characterised 
by this mixed descent, sounding at the same time foreign (South 
German) and autochton notes (South Greenland), for instance nos. 140, 
141, 144, 145 — though here indeed the Eskimo element seems to 
predominate — while others, nos. 143, 146, 147, and 148 seem more 
directly influenced by the pastoral style of the Moravian (United) 
Brethren. Other songs again, from South Greenland, as is ever the 
case where the white race takes possession, are merely local imita- 
tions of the latest variety songs of the great cities, or of other popular 
melodies, brought by sailor, workman or gramophone. 
Nos. 149—153 are purely Eskimo in style (drum-songs), and if my 
work had not been interrupted by the outbreak of the Great War, 
I would probably have brought a larger material home with me. 
This entire SGr. collection has appeared since Thuren’s death. 
Nor did he ever see a collection from the west coast of Hudson Bay, 
recorded (on a phonograph?) by Captain Comer. Of this I know 
only three melodies from Cape Fullerton, published by E. Hague in 
