Footnote 221: Much curious information respecting the use of elephants in war may be found in the learned work of the Chevalier Armandi, Histoire militaire des éléphants, Paris, 1843. As regards Thorfinn's bull, Mr. Laing makes the kind of blunder that our British cousins are sometimes known to make when they get the Rocky Mountains within sight of Bunker Hill monument. "A continental people in that part of America," says Mr. Laing, "could not be strangers to the much more formidable bison." Heimskringla, p. 169. Bisons on the Atlantic coast, Mr. Laing?! And then his comparison quite misses the point; a bison, if the natives had been familiar with him, would not have been at all formidable as compared to the bull which they had never before seen. A horse is much less formidable than a cougar, but Aztec warriors who did not mind a cougar were paralyzed with terror at the sight of men on horseback. It is the unknown that frightens in such cases. Thorfinn's natives were probably familiar with such large animals as moose and deer, but a deer isn't a bull.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 222: The Phœnicians, however (who in this connection may be classed with Europeans), must have met with some such people in the course of their voyages upon the coasts of Africa. I shall treat of this more fully below, p. [327].[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 223: As for Indians, says Cieza de Leon, they are all noisy (alharaquientos). Segunda Parte de la Crónica del Peru, cap. xxiii.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 224: For example, Dr. De Costa refers to Dr. Abbott's discoveries as indicating "that the Indian was preceded by a people like the Eskimos, whose stone implements are found in the Trenton gravel." Pre-Columbian Discovery, p. 132. Quite so; but that was in the Glacial Period (!!), and when the edge of the ice-sheet slowly retreated northward, the Eskimo, who is emphatically an Arctic creature, doubtless retreated with it, just as he retreated from Europe. See above, p. [18]. There is not the slightest reason for supposing that there were any Eskimos south of Labrador so lately as nine hundred years ago.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 225: "Their voru svartir menn ok illiligir, ok havdhu íllt hár á höfdhi. Their voru mjök eygdhir ok breidhir í kinnum," i. e. "Hi homines erant nigri, truculenti specie, fœdam in capite comam habentes, oculis magnis et genis latis." Rafn, p. 149. The Icelandic svartr is more precisely rendered by the identical English swarthy than by the Latin niger.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 226: "Mais quãt à noz Sauvages, pour ce qui regarde les ïeux ilz ne les ont ni bleuz, ni verds, mais noirs pour la pluspart, ainsi que les cheveux; & neantmoins ne sont petits, cõme ceux des anciens Scythes, mais d'une grandeur bien agréable." Lescarbot, Histoire de la Nouvelle France, Paris, 1612, tom. ii. p. 714.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 227: "Hún fann fyrir sèr mann daudhan, thar var Thorbrandr Snorrason, ok stódh hellusteinn í höfdhi honum; sverdhit lá bert í hjá honum," i. e. "Illa incidit in mortuum hominem, Thorbrandum Snorrii filium, cujus capiti lapis planus impactus stetit; nudus juxta eum gladius jacuit." Rafn, p. 154.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 228: These Eskimo skin-boats are described in Rink's Danish Greenland, pp. 113, 179.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 229: Cf. Storm, op. cit. pp. 366, 367.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 230: "That sá their Karlsefni at Skrælíngar færdhu upp á stöng knött stundar mykinn thví nær til at jafna sem saudharvömb, ok helzt blán at lit, ok fleygdhu af stönginni upp á landit yfir lidh theirra Karlsefnis, ok lèt illilega vidhr, thar sem nidhr kom. Vidh thetta sló ótta myklum á Karlsefni ok allt lidh hans, svâ at thá fýsti engis annars enn flýja, ok halda undan upp medh ánni, thvíat theim thótti lidh Skrælínga drífa at sèr allum megin, ok lètta eigi, fyrr enn their koma til hamra nokkurra, ok veittu thar vidhrtöku hardha," i. e. "Viderunt Karlsefniani quod Skrælingi longurio sustulerunt globum ingentem, ventri ovillo haud absimilem, colore fere cæruleo; hune ex longurio in terram super manum Karlsefnianorum contorserunt, qui ut decidit, dirum sonuit. Hac re terrore perculsus est Karlsefnius suique omnes, ut nihil aliud cuperent quam fugere et gradum referre sursum secundum fluvium: credebant enim se ab Skrælingis undique circumveniri. Hinc non gradum stitere, priusquam ad rupes quasdam pervenissent, ubi acriter resistebant." Rafn, p. 153.[Back to Main Text]