76 DANIEL BRUUN. 
the child suck. Blood came first, then a mixed fluid and finally milk — 
and with that the boy was fed. He and his three men went eagerly out 
fishing so as to procure food for themselves, and they began to build a 
boat of skins and wood-work. 
We now come to the most remarkable part of the saga namely the 
meeting with the gnomes (Eskimoes?) living on Greenland’s east coast 
It is easily understood that Norsemen, in whose conception gnomes, 
giants and such like lived, at the first meeting with polar folk must 
have been tempted to refer them to the preternatural world — and even 
if the saga is comparatively new (from about 1300) there is little doubt 
as to its original contents speaking the truth, when it states Thorgils 
meeting with such people. 
One morning Thorgils was alone on the ice and he found a big sea 
animal driven up into an opening in the ice and two witches stood beside 
it tying big bundles of meat together. Thorgils who evidently was over- 
come by the unexpected sight, ran towards them and with his sword, 
cut the hand off one of them, and she dropped the bundle, and they 
both ran away. 
Thorgils and his men now collected enough food from the animal, 
— and as the ice at last began to loosen from land they boarded their 
fragile vessel and left that terrible place of residence. 
That summer they reached a place called Seal-Point where they 
remained the following or third winter (1003—04). During the summer 
they went further — fighting a terrible hunger — past glaciers and steep 
coasts. In one place, where they had raised their tent, the boat disap- 
peared, which brought Thorgils to such desperation, that he even 
thought of killing his son; but the boat, which had probably been stolen 
by Eskimoes was brought back to them again, and as Thorgils now 
killed a bear and divided its flesh into economical rations, life could 
be supported. 
The journey was continued, past many inlets and fiords, — along 
the south eastern part of Greenland’s east coast, the coast GrAAH and 
later Horm and GARDE passed in our days, and whose descriptions show 
that the saga cannot altogether be fancy with regard to the description 
of the country. 
At last the shipwrecked saw a raised canvas tent, here they found 
Thorarin and with him the escaped thralls. Thorarin tried to excuse his 
deed by pretending that he had been driven to it by the thralls who had 
threatened him with death. He was killed and buried in the same place. 
Slowly the shipwrecked worked their way towards the southern point 
of Greenland. It was near the end of the third year of their stay on the 
eastern coast, and autumn was drawing near. They-now approached 
inhabited parts, and although — as we now know — there were no real 
farms on the east coast; but inconspicuous ruins have however been 
found there testifying that a few men, who either had been declared 
