In course of time the Eskimo of North Greenland grew in numbers, partly by natural increase—which may have been constant there, where their catches were assured for the greater part of the year, and they were free from famine and ravaging diseases—and partly perhaps through a fresh gradual immigration from the north. They therefore slowly spread farther to the south, and gradually the whole of the southern west coast received a denser Eskimo population, probably after the Norsemen of the Western and Eastern Settlements had declined in prosperity and numbers, so that they no longer appeared so formidable, and at the same time they undoubtedly behaved in a more peaceful and friendly fashion, in proportion as their communication with Europe fell off, and their imaginary superiority to the Skrælings proved to be more and more illusory.
The Skrælings of Wineland
We have still to speak of the Skrælings whom the Greenlanders, according to the sagas, are said to have met with in Wineland. G. Storm [1887] maintained that they must have been Indians, which of course seems natural if we suppose, with him, that the Greenlanders reached southern Nova Scotia; but in recent years several authors have endeavoured to show that they were nevertheless Eskimo.[69] From what has been made out above as to the romantic character of these sagas it may seem a waste of time to discuss a question like this, since we have nothing certain to go by; especially when, as already mentioned, the name of Skræling may originally have been used of the pixies who were thought to dwell in the Irish fairyland, the land of the “síd,” which was called Wineland. But even if this origin of the name be correct, it does not prevent later encounters with the natives of America (besides those of Greenland) having contributed to make the Skrælings of Wineland more realistic, and given them features belonging to actual experience.
The description of them in these “romance-sagas” may thus be considered of value, in so far as it may represent the common impression of the natives of the western countries, with whom the Greenlanders may have had more intercourse than appears from these tales; but even so we cannot in any case draw any conclusions from it with regard to the distribution of Indians or Eskimo on the east coast of America at that period. If it could really be established, as it cannot, that the Wineland Skrælings of the saga were Eskimo, then this alone would lead to the conclusion that the Greenlanders on their voyages had not been so far south as Nova Scotia, but at the farthest had probably reached the north of Newfoundland. If the authors mentioned have thought themselves justified in concluding that the Greenlanders found Eskimo in Nova Scotia, because the natives of Wineland are called Skrælings and are consequently assumed to be the same people with the some culture as those in Greenland, they cannot have been fully alive to the difficulty involved in its being impossible for the Skrælings of Nova Scotia, with its entirely different natural conditions, to have had the same arctic whaling and sealing culture as the Skrælings of Greenland, even if they belonged to the same race. For we should then have to believe that they had reached Nova Scotia from the north with their culture, which was adapted for arctic conditions. They would have to have dislodged the tribes of Indians who inhabited these southern regions before their arrival, although they possessed a culture which under the local conditions was inferior, and were doubtless also inferior in warlike qualities. In addition, these Eskimo with their Eskimo culture in Nova Scotia must have completely disappeared again before the country was rediscovered 500 years later, when it was solely inhabited by Indian tribes. We are asked to accept these various improbabilities chiefly because the word “Skræling”—which, it most be remembered, was not originally an ethnographical name, but meant dwarf or pixy—is used of the people both in Wineland and Greenland, because the word “keiplabrot” is used by Are Frode (see vol. i. p. 260), and because in two passages of Eric the Red’s Saga, written down about 300 years after the “events,” the word “huðkeipr” is used of the Skrælings’ boats in Wineland, while in four passages they are called “skip” (i.e., vessel), and in another merely “keipana.” It appears to me that this is attributing to the ancient Icelanders an ethnographical interest which Icelandic literature proves to have been just what they lacked (see above, [pp. 80, ff.]). In any case there is no justification for regarding these tardily recorded traditions as ethnographical essays, every word of which has a scientific meaning; and for that they contain far too many obviously mythical features. It is not apparent that any of the authors mentioned has decided of what kind of hide the Skrælings in southern Nova Scotia, or even farther south (“where no snow fell”), should have made their hide-boats.
Opportunities of supporting themselves by sealing cannot have existed on these Southern coasts. The species of seal which form the Eskimo’s indispensable condition of life farther north are no longer found. The only species of seal which occurs frequently on the coast of Nova Scotia is, as Professor Robert Collett informs me, the grey seal (Halichœrus grypus), which is also found on the coast of Norway and is caught, amongst other places, on the Fro Islands. But this seal cannot have been present in sufficiently large numbers in southern Nova Scotia or farther south to fulfil the requirements of the ordinary Eskimo sealing culture. They must therefore have adopted hunting on land as their chief means of subsistence, like the Indians; but what then becomes of the similarity in culture between the Skrælings of Greenland and Wineland, which is just what should distinguish them from the Indians? The very foundation of the theory thus disappears. Professor Y. Nielsen [1905, pp. 32, f.] maintains that the Skrælings of Nova Scotia need only have had “transport boats” or “women’s boats” of hides, and that “what is there related of them does not even contain a hint that they might have used kayaks.” This makes the theory even more improbable. If these Skrælings were without kayaks, which are and must be the very first condition of Eskimo sealing culture on an open sea-coast, then they cannot have had seal-skins for women’s boats or clothes or tents either. They must then have covered these boats with the hides of land animals; but what? True, it is known that certain Indian tribes used to cover their canoes with double buffalo hides, a fact which the authors mentioned cannot have remarked, since they regard hide-boats as decisive evidence of Eskimo culture; moreover, the Irish still cover their coracles with ox-hides; but neither buffaloes nor oxen were to be found in Nova Scotia; are we, then, to suppose that the natives used deer-skin? The whole line of argument than leads us from one improbability to another, as we might expect, seeing it is built up on so flimsy a foundation.
The Greenlanders may well have called the Indians’ birch-bark canoes “keipr” or “keipull” (a little boat); but it is still more probable that as the details of the tradition became gradually obliterated in course of time, the designation of the Skræling boat came to be that which was used for the only boats known in later times to be peculiar to the Skrælings, namely, the hide-boats of Greenland. In addition to this, hide-boats were also known from Ireland, while the making of boats of birch-bark was altogether strange to the Icelanders. Besides, if we are to attach so much importance to a single word, “huðkeipr,” which plays no part in the narrative, what are we to do with the Skrælings’ catapults (“valslǫngur”) and their black balls which made such a hideous noise that they put to flight Karlsevne and his men?—these are really important features of the description, to say nothing of the glamour. If these, like many other incidents of the saga, are taken from altogether different quarters of the world, it is scarcely unreasonable to suppose that a word like “huðkeipr” is borrowed from Greenland and from Irish legend.
The names which according to the saga were communicated by the two Skræling children captured in Markland, and which are supposed to have lived in oral tradition for over 250 years, have no greater claim to serious consideration. Everything else that these children are said to have related is demonstrably incorrect; the tale of Hvítramanna-land is a myth from Ireland (cf. [pp. 42, ff.]); the statement attributed to them that in their country people lived in caves is improbable and obviously derived from elsewhere (cf. [p. 19]);[70] is it, then, likely that the names attributed to them should be any more genuine? W. Thalbitzer [1905, pp. 190, ff.] explains these names as misunderstood Eskimo sentences, and supposes them to mean: Vætilldi, “but do wait a moment”; Vægi, “wait a moment”; Avalldamon, “towards the uttermost”; Avaldidida, “the uttermost, do you mean?” As we are told that the two Skræling boys learned Icelandic, Thalbitzer must suppose the men to have misinterpreted these sentences as names during the homeward voyage from Markland to Greenland, and then he must make the Skrælings die shortly afterwards, before the misunderstanding could be explained. After that these meaningless names must have lived in practically unaltered form in oral tradition for several hundred years, until they were put into writing at the close of the thirteenth century. It appears to me that such explanations of the words as are attempted on [p. 20] have a greater show of probability. In addition, as pointed out in the same place, the “bearded” Skræling and their “sinking into the earth” are mythical features which are associated with these Skrælings.
While the points that have been mentioned are incapable of proving anything about Eskimo, there are other features in the saga’s description of the Skrælings of Wineland which would rather lead us to think of the Indians: that they should attack so suddenly in large numbers without any cause being mentioned seems altogether unlike the Eskimo, but would apply better to warlike Indians. We are told that the Skrælings attacked with loud cries; this is usual in Indian warfare, but seems less like the Eskimo. During the fight with the Skrælings Thorbrand Snorrason was found dead with a “hellustein” in his head. Whether this means a flat stone or a stone axe (as Storm has translated it [1887, 1899]), it is in any case not a typical Eskimo weapon; while a stone axe used as a missile might be Indian. But, as stated above, there is too much romance and myth about the whole tale of the Wineland voyages to allow of any certain value being attached to such details. I have already ([p. 23]) maintained that the description of hostilities with the natives, in which the Greenlanders were worsted, cannot be derived from Greenland, but may be due to something actually experienced. In that case this, too, points rather to the Indians.[71]
William Thalbitzer [1904, pp. 20, f.] has adduced, as a possible evidence of the more southerly extension of the Eskimo in former times, the fact that the name “Nipisiguit,” of a little river in New Brunswick (46° 40′ N. lat.), bears a strong resemblance to the Eskimo place-name “Nepisät” in Greenland, and he also mentions another place-name, “Tadoussak,” which has a very Eskimo look. But in order to form any opinion we should have to know the language of the extinct Indian tribes of these parts, as well as the original forms of the names given. They are now only known from certain old maps; but we cannot tell how they got on to those maps.
Ultimate fate of the Eskimo