"He is showing us that he has no weapons," Biarni said. "He comes in peace."
Then Thorfinn showed his empty hands and asked:
"What do you want?"
The stranger said something, but the Norsemen could not understand. It was some new language. Then the chief pointed to one of the huts and walked toward it. He and his men walked all around it and felt of the timber and went into it and looked at all the things there—spades and cloaks and drinking-horns. As they looked they talked together. They went to all the other huts and looked at everything there. One of them found a red cloak. He spread it out and showed it to the others. They all stood about it and looked at it and felt of it and talked fast.
"They seem to like my cloak," Biarni said.
One of the strangers went down to their canoes and soon came back with an armload of furs—fox-skins, otter-skins, beaver-skins. The chief took some and held them out to Thorfinn and hugged the cloak to him.
"He wants to trade," Thorfinn said. "Will you do it, Biarni?"
"Yes," Biarni answered, and took the furs.
"If they want red stuff, I have a whole roll of red cloth that I will trade," one of the other men said.
He went and got it. When the strangers saw it they quickly held out more furs and seemed eager to trade. So Thorfinn cut the cloth into pieces and sold every scrap. When the strangers got it they tied it about their heads and seemed much pleased.