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of it, apparently in the same tribal district. The very exact
and careful investigations recently made of the dialect spoken
in East Greenland have revealed a custom held in high
consideration and having a remarkable influence on the familiar
language of the natives there. It is the custom of not
mentioning the names of persons recently deceased. If such names
have been taken from current words of the language, the latter
have to be altered. This custom, as we know, has been met
with among many nations, but the consistency with which it
is maintained in East Greenland is surprising. If the dialects
of the extreme west had been submitted to a similar influence,
the glossaries collected by the foreign travellers there, would
have been of by far less value than they are now. But it seems
not unlikely that nevertheless the same custom may have
contributed to the said duplicity of designations.
Judging the weight of all the facts we here have stated
concerning the probable creation of a certain class of words
during a stay in the supposed culture home, we finally still
have to take into consideration not only, as already mentioned,
the question whether the objects thus designated have been
really new to the settlers on the arctic seaboard, but also
whether the words that have been adopted for this purpose are
formed out of new invented radical words, or, in the usual way,
by means of the existing stem words and affixes. As regards
this question, our tables in connection with the Greenland
dictionary have to be more closely consulted. But one
conclusion may with safety be drawn from what we have already
asserted; and this is, that the above series of words can not
have been originated in two or more different places by Eskimo
tribes, without there was sufficient intercourse. Consequently
only one culture home can have existed and, within its frontiers,
an intercourse must have been maintained sufficient for
cooperation in developing the new inventions and customs, as
well as adapting and completing the language for this change
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