690 W. Thalbitzer 



race of both, arisen through intermarriage between European (Icelandic) sett- 

 lers and Eskimo (this explanation would be analogous to the theory that the 

 Icelanders became merged into the natives of South Greenland after the con- 

 nection with Europe had ceased). We can trace the disappearance or distribu- 

 tion of the foreign people in the traditions of distant Eskimo tribes. The Eskimo 

 on Baffin Land and on the western side of Hudson Bay have traditions about 

 the foreign people who are now called Tornit, now Adlet (i. е. аЬЬЫ 'foreigners'). 

 In contrast to the Eskimo now living in these regions (Iglulik etc.) this people 

 dwelt in stone-houses and have even also had dancing-houses. They are said 

 not to understand how to prepare their skins for use and do not wear kamiks, 

 they hunt on the inland lakes but do not know of the creeping-hunting of seals 

 on the ice. They are very strong and quick runners and possess a special means 

 for obtaining this faculty. They "howl like dogs" i. e. speak an unintelHgible 

 dialect or language. These and many other peculiarities have appeared ex- 

 traordinary to the neighbouring Eskimo. I have extracted them here from the 

 various small stories about conflicts between the two peoples, which have been 

 collected from these regions and are found translated in Franz Boas^). In some 

 of the tales we also hear of Tornit's snow-houses which are of the same kind 

 as those constantly used by the Eskimo living in these regions. The external 

 appearance of the stone-houses mentioned is rather varying but it is probable 

 that archæological investigations might throw some hght on this question, which 

 may also prove to be of importance for the understanding of the migrations of 

 the Eskimo and other people. Stone-houses of a special kind unknown to the Es- 

 kimo of to-day are said to be found as far westwards as on the east coast of 

 Victoria Island^). 



We do not at present possess sufficient data to be able to appreciate the 

 importance of the Eskimo traditions about the existence of a foreign popula- 

 tion in northern Labrador and further westwards. The explanation of these 

 traditions points in three different directions : the hostile people may have been 

 either an Indian tribe which has made its way out to the sea, or European 

 (Scandinavian) settlers, whose return journey has been cut off or who Ьал''е settled 

 down over there of their own free will, or finally it may have been another Es- 

 kimo tribe from western regions who had crossed the archipelago and not stop- 

 ped till it reached the Davis Straits bringing with it the customs and habits 

 of a more primitive culture. It is to be hoped that some time in the future new 

 and sufficient data will be found to enable us to settle which of the three pos- 

 sibiHties is the most probable^). 



a foreigner" alia (Egede), adla (Fabricius), avdla 'Kleinschmidt) does not occur 

 now-a-days in Labrador as a pronominal word ("another, the other" is here 

 assia, see Bourquin § 179) but that it is probably the same stem of the word 

 which we find used in Labrador, on Baffin Land and near Smith Sound in 

 restricted meaning as the name of the mythic people Adlet, (see Kroeber and 

 Boas) who lived near the Hudson Straits (the Smith Sound Eskimo sa}- "south- 

 wards"), and which means there "the foreign nation". 



') Boas (1901) pp. 203—213, 315—316, 541—542 and 555. 



■-) According to information received from V. Stefansson. Cf. his report in Harper's 

 Monthly Magazine (1913): "My Quest in the Arctic." 



") A preliminary discussion of tlie tales referrring to this question has been made 

 by me in a recently publislied book on the legendary tales of the Greenlanders 

 (1913) pp. 41 47 and 09-72. 



