702 W. Thalbitzer 



to Kangersineq^) (further into the fjord). On the way they discovered in Kan- 

 giussak east of Kornok a very large house. When they reached it they found 

 that they did not know the inhabitants, as these were not Greenlanders {kalâ- 

 liumjingmata). They had suddenly come across the Norsemen {kavdlunaitsiait) 

 here. The arrival of the umiak caused great amusement among the latter as 

 they here saw Eskimo (Kalâtdlit) for the first time, but the Eskimo feared the 

 Icelanders, though these acted quite friendlily towards them. The Eskimo there- 

 fore hastily put their boat into the water and rowed away, though the Icelanders 

 tried to make them stay. Proceeding into Kangersinek they met with the Ice- 

 landers living near Ilulialik, Ujaragssuak, Ivisartut and Nunatarsuak, but im- 

 mediately hurried away from them. When this boat had returned from its 

 journey in the fjords the members of the expedition spoke about this meeting 

 to their countrymen round about wherever they met them and at that time 

 they lived far away, as this part of the country was originally quite uninhabited ; 

 but when Kalâtdlit heard from this single boat about the many Kavdlunaitsiait 

 in the fjords near Nouk, they set off to meet them accompanied by the reporter. 

 When in this way many boats had come up to Kangersineq they began to have 

 intercourse with the foreigners, as they felt that these were friendlily disposed 

 towards them. Later on still more boats and greater numbers of Eskimo col- 

 lected at the place and as the Icelanders learnt to understand their language 

 friendly relations and comradeship arose between them. The Eskimo now also 

 discovered that there were Norsemen near KapisiHk as well as near Ameralik 

 etc." Then follows the tale about a friendly contest between an Eskimo and 

 an Icelander ending in the death of the latter, a parallel to the auk challenge 

 in Bj^ but greatly altered (or possibly referring to another real event of a similar 

 kind), dealing with two men who agreed to mount a high rock in the neighbour- 

 hood and from there with bow and arrow to aim at a skin stretched out on an 

 island down under the rock. The one Avho did not hit the mark, should be shot. 

 The Icelander missed his aim and threw himself down over the rim of the preci- 

 pice, from this time the rock was called Pisigsarfik ''the archery-rock". This 

 episode did not disturb the friendly relations of the two neighbouring peoples. 

 The southern texts start from this episode as being the indirect cause of the 

 breaking out of the hostiUties, but in the northern text this episode stands quite 

 isolated without any connection with the following, namely, the Navaranaaq 

 tale written in continuation thereof. The enmity is therefore explained in quite 

 a different way from in the southern texts. But otherwise it is in the north as 

 in the south : the foreigners attack the settlement of the Eskimo while the men 

 are out hunting, slaughter women and children and only a single woman escapes. 

 The Eskimo avenged themselves by stratagem. They approached the house of 

 the Icelanders in a large boat covered with white skins, so that it looked like 

 an ice-hummock. On board this boat they drifted \Aàth the wind out from the 

 sea towards the large house of the Norsemen (or one of them) in the Ameralik- 

 fjord. The house was painted black and later on gave the fjord its Eskimo 

 name {ameralik means "that with the painting")^). The cunning attack is de- 

 scribed with much detail and the name of the chief of the house is now also gi- 

 ven, it was Ooncjortoq. The house was then set on fire by the Eskimo, who had 

 not been observed by the inhabitants, the latter considering the white boat to 

 be a floating ice-hummock. But whilst it was burning the Eskimo discovered 

 that a QaLLunaaq approached from the west. They knew him, it was the 'dear little 



') The inner arm of tlic Godthaahsfjord where several ruins from the time of the 



Norsemen iiave been found, 

 -j The log-iiouses of tiie old Icelanders were smeared with tar. N. M. Petersen, 



Ishcndeines Færd (18Ü8 , IV, p. 373. 



