[172] This appears childish, yet there is nothing to indicate that it was not so.
[173] Thiorfinn's experience was similar to that of most early colonists in America.
[174] This, very likely, was a short exploration up Narragansett bay.
[175] The ancient Mexicans mixed human blood with bread offered on the altar of their deities.
[176] The lines inclosed in brackets, convey what the writer understood to be a mere rumor. This report was evidently untrue, yet it shows his honest intentions.
[177] They appear to have sailed around Cape Cod, then steered across to Plymouth, coasted up the shore towards Point Alderton, and entered Scituate harbor, or some other river mouth on that coast.
[178] Einfoetingr, from ein, one, and fótr, foot. This term appears to have been given by some old writers, to one of the African tribes, on account of a peculiarity of dress, which Wormskiold describes as a triangular cloth, hanging down so low, both before and behind, that the feet were concealed. In an old work called Rimbigla, a tribe of this class, dwelling in Blaland, Ethiopia, are thus described.—Beamish's Northmen, p. 101. We do not say how far the Saga writer employs his fancy on the Uniped, yet he is quite excusable, considering the weakness of modern writers. In 1634, Hans Egede wrote as follows about a hideous monster: "July 6th, a most hideous sea monster was seen, which reared itself so high above the water, that its head overtopped our mainsail.... Instead of fins, it had broad flaps like wings; its body seemed to be overgrown like shell work.... It was shaped like a serpent behind, and when it dived, ... raised its tail above the water, a whole ship's length."—Egede's Greenland, p. 85; Crantz's Greenland, vol. iii, p. 116. Hudson even describes a mermaid.
The Rev. Dr. Cotton Mather, who has before been quoted, gives among other notable facts in his Magnalia, the statement, that in June, 1682, Mary Hortado, of Salmon Falls, was going with her husband "over the river in her canoe, when they saw the head of a man, and about three foot off, the tail of a cat, swimming before the canoe, but no body to join them.... A stone thrown by an invisible hand after this, caus'd a swelling and a soreness in her head: and she was bitten on both arms black and blue, and her breast scratch'd. The impression of the teeth, which were like a man's teeth, were seen by many."—Magnalia, vol. i, p. 454.
[179] See p. 41. This may be a wrong version of the death of the son of Eric.
[180] The Blue Hills, which extend to Mount Hope.