196 THE GERMAN Al^CTIC EXPEDITION. 



dirty appearance showed to great disadvantage compared 

 with the people of the mission. For the last time we sat in 

 the hospitable circle of the Friedrichsthalers at breakfast : 

 we then took our departure. The few days we had spent 

 here had served to attach us so sincerely to the inhabitants 

 of the Mission, that parting was painful ; with much emo- 

 tion we spoke our thanks to our dear kind hosts. We 

 took leave of the women on the shore who had remained 

 behind, and also of the natives who had come to see us. 

 The good Friedrichsthalers had provided us plentifully with 

 food — fresh baked bread, butter, sugar and coffee. With 

 three cheers we set to at the oars, and soon the " Look-out" 

 mountain hid the friendly Friedrichsthal from our eyes. 



We were accompanied in state. Mr. Gericke and his 

 little daughter conducted us in the Umiak, which was 

 also filled with the whole household, as far as the next 

 station ; and twelve natives in canoes formed our escort. 

 On the other side of the Narksamiut, under the before- 

 mentioned high towering cape, lies Igikait, the Her- 

 julfsnas of the old Norsemen. There is but little of the 

 walls left as evidence of former European dwellings; 

 but some years ago it is said that the waters of the 

 Narksamiut washed up a coffin with the body of an 

 ordained priest. At this day there lives in the long- 

 abandoned settlement an old European, who has learnt to 

 renounce the world, and as a free man with little means 

 leads a life of liberty. This inhabitant of Igikait is 

 named Hagen, a tough, hospitable Dane, in his fiftieth 

 year, who came into the country as a subordinate official, 

 and married a half-caste woman, a " Blanding," ^ and 



* "Blanding" signifies a half-breed, and is the term commonly used 

 by the Danes all over Greenland. 



