Thus (they will tell you) the deceased play at foot ball in Heaven, with the head of a morse, when it lightens, or the North-light (aurora borealis) appears, which they fancy to be the souls of the deceased.
When their acquaintance from abroad come to see them, they spend whole days and nights in singing and dancing; and as they love to pass for men of courage and valour, they will try forces together, in wrestling, struggling, and playing hook and crook, which is to grapple with the arms and fingers made crooked, and intangled like hooks. Whoever can pull the other from his place, thinks himself a man of worth and valour. The women’s or rather the maiden’s plays, consist in dancing around, holding one another by the hand, forming a circle, and singing of songs.
Though the Greenland language has not affinity with other European tongues, yet it seems to have borrowed some words from the Norwegians, who formerly inhabited part of the land; for such words agree both in name and signification; as, for example, _Kona_, a Woman; _Nerriok_, to eat, from the Norway word _Noerrie_. The herb _Angelica_, which they in Norway call _Quaun_, the Greenlanders call _Qvaunnek_. A Porpoise, in Norway called _Nise_, they call _Nise_. Ashes, in Norway, _Aske_, in Greenland, _Arkset_. A Lamp, in the Norwegian, _Kolle_, in the Greenlandian, _Kollek_. Some of their words resemble Latin words of the same signification; as, _Gutta_, a drop; in the Greenland tongue, _Gutte_, or _Kutte_. _Ignis_, Fire, they call _Ingnek_. And some they have got from Hebrew roots, as, _Appa_, a word the children use to name their father, and some others.
The accent and pronunciation of it is hard and difficult, because they speak very thick, and in the throat. The same language is spoke throughout the whole country, though the accent and pronunciation differs here and there as different dialects; chiefly towards the Southern parts, where they have received and adopted many foreign words, not used in the Northern parts. But the angekuts, or divines, make use of a particular speech, whenever they conjure; for then they use metaphorical locutions and words in a contrary sense. The women-kind also have a particular pronunciation peculiar to themselves, and different from that of the men, making use of the softest letters at the end of words, instead of hard ones; for example, _Am_ for _Ap_, that is, _Yes_. _Saving_, for _Savik_, a _Knife_. Their language, in common, wants the letters, _c_, _d_, _f_, _q_, _x_. They have besides many double and unknown consonants, which is the cause, that many of their words cannot be spelt according to their manner of pronouncing them. For the rest, their expressions are very natural and easy, and their constructions so neat and regular, that one would hardly expect so much from a nation so unpolite and illiterate. The language is very rich of words and sense, and of such energy, that one is often at a loss and puzzled to render it in Danish; but then again it wants words to express such things as are foreign, and not in use among them. They have monosyllables and polysyllables, but most of the last. Their words, as well nouns as verbs, are inflected at the end, by varying the terminations, without the help of the articles or particles, like the Greek and Latin. The adjectives always follow their substantives; but the possessive pronouns are joined to the nouns, as the Hebrew suffixa[35]: nor have the nouns alone their suffixa, but the verbs also. To satisfy the reader’s curiosity, I have hereto joined a list of some of the words and a sketch, showing the construction and inflections of this language.