IN NORTHERN MISTS 



themselves, " karalek " or " kalalek," which may come 

 from the word Skrasling (which in Eskimo would become 

 " sakalalek "). This, as the Eskimo told Egede, was the 

 name the ancient Norsemen had called them by; otherwise 

 the Eskimo call themselves " inuit " (= human beings) ; 

 and curiously enough " kalalek " is not used by the Eskimo of 

 northern Greenland; on the other hand, it is known to the 

 Labrador Eskimo, but may have been brought by the mis- 

 sionaries, although the latter asserted that it was known when 

 they came. It is perhaps of more importance that, accord- 

 ing to H. Rink, a similar word (" kallaluik," " katlalik," 

 or " kallaaluch," for chief, or shaman) occurs in the 

 dialects of Alaska. 



Through all the notices of Greenland and its condition, 

 especially those from religious sources, there runs after the 

 fourteenth century a cry of apostasy, which is ominous of 

 this mixture of the Norsemen with the Skraelings: we see it 

 in the doubtful statement from 1342 about their conversion 

 to " the people of America " ; a little later, according to 

 Ivar Bardsson's account (see p. 108) the heathen Skraslings 

 were predominant in the Western Settlement; furthermore, 

 the trading ship was fitted out in 1355 to prevent the 

 "falling away" of Christianity [Gronl. hist. Mind., iii. 

 p. 122]; Bjom Einarsson's account (see below, p. 112) 

 concludes with the statement that when he was there (1386) 

 " the bishop of Gardar was lately dead, and an old priest 

 . . . performed all the episcopal ordinations " [Gronl. hist. 

 Mind., iii. p. 438] ; after that time no bishop came to Green- 

 land; and finally the papal letter of 1492-93 describes the 

 Greenlanders as a people abandoned by bishop and priest, 

 for which reason most of them had fallen from the Christian 

 faith, although they still preserved a memory of the Christian 

 church service (see later ).^ This may all point in the same 



lAs stated on p. 86, Jacob Ziegler (circa 1532) also says that the people 

 of Greenland " have almost lapsed to heathendom," etc. Although mythical, 

 this shows a similar tradition. 

 106 



