48 THE VINLAND VOYAGES 



unlike each other than are some of the Indian tribes. 

 The name applied to them by the Icelanders and 

 Greenlanders is much older and is not less fitting than 

 the name Indian, which arose out of the misconception 

 that America was India. 



Thorfinn and his men came upon other aborigines 

 on their voyage than those in Hop, and it is not cer- 

 tain that the name Skrselings was first applied to the 

 people there. This matter will be dealt with later. 



At the time of Thorfinn there were doubtless many 

 tribes of Indians, no less than now. It is not easy to 

 determine just what tribe was in Hop in the summer 

 of 1004. Storm thinks that the Micmac Indians were 

 there then. They are described in Nova Scotia six 

 centuries later in a somewhat similar manner. Bab- 

 cock believed that the Algonquins were on the New 

 England coast in the year lOOO. 



The Skrselings in Hop came from the sea in skin 

 boats, many together. "They were evil-looking," 

 dark-skinned, with ugly hair, bulging eyes, and broad 

 cheek bones."^® This description does not seem alto- 



^'^ "Small" in Manuscript 557, 4to, is probably wrong. 



^^ In the Tale of the Greenlanders the mention of this people is 

 somewhat different, as is the case with many other details. The Tale 

 relates that a woman, who was apparently a kind of guardian spirit 

 of one of the Skraslings, had bulging eyes. Thus that trait given in the 

 Tale and the Saga is doubtless a tradition found in the original 

 story. This woman appeared only for a moment to Thorfinn's wife, 

 Gudrid, just before the Skraeling was slain. "She walked towards 



