﻿NO. 19 NORSE VISITS TO NORTH AMERICA BARCOCK I47 



there is nothing which confines us to the Eskimo, and little which 

 would fit the Eskimo equally well. 



Hawes 1 says of the Saghalien Gilyak : " I was struck with their 

 resemblance to North American Indians, their swarthy features, high 

 cheekbones, raven hair and moccasined legs, the impression being 

 heightened by their paddling a dug-out canoe." Kennan 2 mentions 

 the "swarthy" faces of the Kamchatkan Koryak; adding "their 

 high cheekbones, bold black eyes and straight coal-black hair sug- 

 gested an intimate relationship to our own Indians." Thus we have 

 two independent observers of different nations instructively selecting 

 as Indian the same features as the saga and even using its most 

 doubtful adjective. ..- 



The general impression left by their conduct is surely the same. 

 Love of bright colors ; improvidence in bargaining ; 3 impulsiveness 

 in curiosity, suspicion, alarm, and vindictive retaliation ; readiness to 

 discard a tool which they could not understand ; sudden panic, before 

 what must have seemed to them an outburst of insanity' — all are 

 surely "unsophisticated Indian in psychology, though they might 

 happen to be displayed by Eskimo. The last item is an impressive 

 typical example, for all accounts agree that such visitations are 

 peculiarly daunting to the red-man, being looked upon as divine or 

 diabolical possession, in the ancient way. From Cooper down they 

 have been a stock expedient of Indian romance-writers. His " Deer- 

 slayer " presents vividly the consideration accorded by the Iroquois — 

 most merciless of all fierce peoples — to even a mild form of dementia. 



On their part the Icelanders behaved better than many later 

 colonists ; dealing fairly, after their light, though getting the better 

 side of the bargain with these simple folk, and not using their weapons 

 except in defense, until after they had lost one of their best men by a 

 wanton attack, as it would seem to them, and had been forced to 

 abandon their pleasant homes and their hopeful venture. Karlsefni's 

 quick-tempered bull was the chief culprit, bringing trouble and loss 

 to all human beings concerned. He stands out as one of the few 

 quadrupeds which have meddled with history. 



From this episode, common to all these Wineland sagas, it has 

 been inferred, not quite convincingly, that these natives had never 

 seen a bison. Hence Laing (preface to Heimskringla) believes they 



1 C. II. Hawes : In the Uttermost East, p. 135. 



2 G. Kennan: Tent Life in Siberia, p. 171. 



3 W. H. Dall: Tribes of the Extreme Northwest, p. 238. ("Apiece of coarse 

 cloth for a dressed deerskin".) 



