362 MR. R. BROWN ON THE MAMMALS OF GREENLAND. [May 28, 



I will not stop to inquire into their grosser myths, which, though 

 relating to animals, are yet only remotely connected with zoological 

 science, and wander away into the domains of mythology, interesting 

 enough, no douht, hut with which we as zoologists have but little to 

 do. For instance, as far back as the days of Fabricius, they used to 

 talk about men living away in the glens off from the coast. " They 

 tell tales" (fabulantur), he says, " of other people living away among 

 the mountains, rarely seen by them, never by the Europeans, whom 

 they call Torngit or Tiinnersoit, and even say that they have the 

 appearance, stature, and clothing.of Europeans. If they speak truly, 

 which I am not in a position to deny, perhaps they are the remnants 

 of the former Icelandic colonists, who have lied in among the moun- 

 tains"*. About Jakobshavn they still talk of these people, and I 

 collected many such stories. Some of these superstitions describe 

 the Torngit as little men ; and I know a man who says he saw one 

 of these httle men "pop out of a hole and in again" most agilely, 

 and he tells a long story about it. Others describe them as tall 

 men ; so that these are undoubtedly only traditions of the old Norse- 

 men. During the Norse possession of the country, the population 

 appears to have got much amalgamated (as indeed we know, because 

 when Paul Egede came, there were many traces of the white stock ; 

 and to this day there come down from the east coast natives with 

 fair hair and blue eyesf) with the Icelandic adventurers who came 

 with red-haired Erik, and subsequently imbibed much of their su- 

 perstition. Indeed most of the best Eskimo traditions (as related 

 by Rink in his 'Eskimoiske Saga og Eventyrn) are of Scandinavian 

 parentage. Accordingly we find the old Norse tale of that fearful 

 KrakenX which drew stout ships down to the bottom of the sea, in 

 a Greenlandic version, still terrifying the squat seal-hunters who 

 gather round the blazing Kotlup during the long winter nights ; but 

 I need say nothing further about it. It is one of the old trols of 

 Scandinavia, familiar enough to all of us. 



Still less will I stop to inquire regarding that "sea monster" 

 which good Paul Egede saw, and Pastor Bing sketched " off our 

 colony in 64° north latitude"§. 



I have said enough to show that, though there is yet much to be 

 done to the legitimate zoology of Greenland proper, there is siill 

 more to be done in what may be called the illegitimate zoology — 

 the history of zoological myths and errors. 



* Fauna Groenl. p. 4. 



+ A Moravian Missionary at Pamiadluk, near Cape Farewell, told Captain 

 Carl W. Neilsen (who told me) that, in 1850, a party of natives came to that 

 settlement from the east coast, and declared that it was two years since they had 

 left their homes. They were described as tall and fair-haired. Almost every 

 year some come down and permanently settle in the Danish colonies. 



\ Kraken, Kraa-en, Krahhen, and Horvcn, vide Pontopiddan, Nat. Hist, of 

 Norway, vol. ii. p. 211 ; Ancker-Trold, Olaus, Wormius, Torfanis, c&c. 



§ Lib. cit. p. 86. 



