ORIGIN OF STEFANSSON'S BLOND ESKIMO 



1237 



currant), the strand wheat, and the ca- 

 noe birch. 



In any event direct and prolonged con- 

 tact of the Norsemen with the Eskimo 

 could have existed only at the permanent 

 Norse settlements, of which two only 

 are known — in the Greenland districts of 

 Godthaab and of Julianehaab — whose 

 fortunes will be discussed. 



ARK THE BLOND ESKIMO DESCENDED EROM 

 THE LOST SCANDINAVIAN COLONY? 



In a letter of Stefansson from Lang- 

 ton Bay he wrote : "A point of some in- 

 terest is our discovery of people in 

 southwestern Victoria Land who are 

 strikingly non-Eskimo in type; in fact 

 look more like north Europeans than 

 Eskimo. Their speech and culture is 

 Eskimo, though I found one or two 

 words that might reasonably be thought 

 to be from old Norse. ... It seems 

 to me that if admixture of white blood 

 is the explanation of the origin of the 

 fair type in western and southwestern 

 Victoria Land, then the only historical 

 event that can explain it is the disap- 

 pearance from Greenland of the Scan- 

 dinavian colony of 3,000." He adds that 

 these natives had never seen white men. 



It may here be said that the opinions 

 expressed by the majority of previous 

 explorers, based on their own observa- 

 tions, as shown in the foregoing extracts, 

 incline to the belief that the admixture is 

 of Indian blood. But it should be added 

 that they were unfamiliar with the eth- 

 nological history of Greenland, and that 

 they fail to indicate hozv an Indian ad- 

 mixtitre should produce fair complexions 

 instead of bronse. 



The Norse colonists of the West Bygd 

 (Godthaab) and of the East Bygd (Jul- 

 ianehaab) must have numbered several 

 thousands, as several hundred ruins of 

 houses, churches, etc., have been located 

 around the fertile, ice-free fiords of 

 southern Greenland. Their fate is un- 

 known since near the end of the 15th 

 century, possibly 1476. 



Dr. Nansen, in Northern Mists, writes 

 of them : "Owing to the long severance 

 from Europe, they were obliged to adopt 

 more of the Eskimo way of life. By 

 degrees they adopted the Eskimo's more 



migratory life along the outer coast. 

 Then, again, the Eskimo women were 

 probably no less attractive to the North- 

 erners of that time than they are to those 

 of the present day, and thus much mix- 

 ture of blood gradually resulted. The 

 children came to speak the Eskimo lan- 

 guage, and took at once to a wholly 

 Eskimo way of life, just as at present 

 the children of the Danes and Eskimo 

 do in Greenland. The Norsemen must 

 have by degrees become Eskimo, both 

 physically and mentally ; and when the 

 country was rediscovered in the 15th and 

 i6th centuries, there were only EskimO' 

 there, while all traces of Norwegian- 

 Greenland culture seemed to have disap- 

 peared." 



Nansen continues : "It would doubtless 

 seem reasonable to expect that the de- 

 scendants of the ancient Norsemen of 

 Greenland and of the Eskimo, with 

 whom they became absorbed, should have 

 shown signs in their external appearance 

 of this descent when discovered in the 

 i6th and 17th centuries." 



Dr. Rink, in Danish Greenland, says : 

 "An ancient and not untrustworthy ac- 

 count makes mention of certain Chris- 

 tian Greenlanders, who, in the year 1342, 

 fell off from their own religion, con- 

 sorted with the Skrellings (Eskimo), and 

 adopted their mode of life." He adds: 

 "When, subsequently to the rediscovery 

 of Greenland, the southern districts were 

 again visited by European travelers, 

 many individuals were found amongst 

 the natives exhibiting a complexion, and 

 also a frame of body, which seemed to 

 indicate an admixture with European 

 blood — a fact which has also been ob- 

 served with regard to the natives east of 

 Cape Farewell." 



Of the hybrids of the west coast of 

 Greenland, McRitchie, commenting on 

 Tunes's voyage of 1656, adds : "The 

 small, olive complexioned. short-legged 

 people are at once recognizable as Es- 

 kimo ; but their taller and fairer com- 

 rades give rise to speculation. The 

 readiest suggestion is that they were de- 

 scended from the early Norse settlers. 

 It is believed by many that the Norsemen 

 were not exterminated by the Eskimo, 

 but were gradually absorbed by them. 



