IN NORTHERN MISTS 



thus have to attribute to him two serious falsehoods, instead of 

 a more innocent rhetorical phrase about having seen this, that, 

 and the other. 



Clavus's statement about the Pygmies' small hide-boat, and 

 the long hide-boat, that hung in Trondhjem cathedral, is, how- 

 ever, of great interest from the fact that this is the first mention 

 in literature of the two forms of Eskimo boat: the kayak and 

 the women's boat (umiak). Perhaps he got this from the same 

 unknown source (in the Vatican?) in which he found the state- 

 ment of the latitude of Trondhjem (?). In the fact that the 

 Wild Lapps are mentioned first, and after them the Pygmies, 

 Clavus's text again bears a great resemblance to the anonymous 

 letter to Pope Nicholas V. (of about 1450). In the northern- 

 most regions (to the north-west of Norway) this letter mentions 

 [cf. Storm, 1899, p. 9] 



" the forests of Gronolonde, where there are monsters of human aspect who 

 have hairy limbs, and who are called wild men. . . . And as one goes west 

 towards the mountains of these countries, there dwell Pygmies," etc. (cf 

 above, p. 86). 



Michael Beheim also mentions "Wild lapen,'* who live 

 in the forests to the north of Norway, and who carry on a dumb 

 barter of furs with the merchants, like that described by the 

 Arab authors as taking place in the country north of Wisu (cf. 

 above, p. 144), and he goes on to speak of the Skraelings, three 

 spans high, etc. (cf. above, p. 85). Beheim's statement 

 differs from Clavus's text, and this again from the letter to 

 Nicholas V., so that one cannot be derived from the other. It 

 is therefore most probable, as suggested already (p. 86), that 

 they have all drawn from some older source, and it may be 

 supposed that this was Nicholas of Lynn. We have seen that 

 there are other points in Clavus that lead one's thoughts in the 

 same direction. 



Clavus proceeds: 



" The peninsula of the island of Greenland stretches down from land on the 

 north which is inaccessible or unknown on account of ice. Nevertheless, as I 

 have seen, the infidel Karelians daily come to Greenland in great armies 

 [bands of warriors, "cum copioso exercitu"], and that, without doubt, from 

 270 



