21 



resembles the Greenlandic place-name Nepisät*), which signi- 

 fies "the wolf fish" (Nipisiguit = the small wolf fish?). — Also 

 such a place-name as T ado us sak**) west of the Papioaki's 

 territory looks very Eskimoic. They may be Eskimo names 

 adopted by the Indians who came later, and which thus testify 

 to the fact that the territory of the Eskimo in earlier tipties 

 stretched farther south (and west) than it does now. 



Of more curiosity than historical value is the tradition 

 about the four words of the Skræling language which the cap- 

 tive Skræling children taught the old Norse sailors. Such 

 foreign words which are handed down from mouth to mouth 

 through long periods of time cannot possibly avoid becoming 

 strongly corrupted. Storm thought he \vas able to show a resem- 

 blance between them and some few insignificant remains which 

 have been preserved of an Indian language formerly spoken in 

 Newfoundland (the Beothuks belonging to the Micmac Tribe of 

 Indians). But it is daring to build any argument on such unsafe 

 ground. It would be quite a different matter if the words 

 handed down reminded us of a language which is now spoken 

 and well-known, as for instance the Eskimo language. But on 

 the other hand, the reasons for assuming them to be Eskimo 

 are so slight that they can scarcely be taken into consideration. 

 I can only state that all in all there is no reason why the 

 Skræling words in question should not have been Eskimo***). 



*) In Poul Egede's: "Efterretninger om Grönland" (Journal 1721 — 1788): 

 Nippiset, iNepisene (pp. 25, 180, 229). 



**) Lahontan, v. s. Vol. II, Carte generale. 



***) The words occur with the following variants in the old manuscripts : 

 the name of the children's mother VætiUdi (Vætthildi, Vetthildi, Veihildi, 

 Veinhildi), the name of their father: Uvæge (Vægi, Ægi, Ovægi, Ovæe) 

 the names of their "kings": Avaldamon (Avalldumon, Avalldaina, 

 Avalldania) and Valldidida (Avaldidida), cf. "Grönlands historiske 

 Mindesmærker" Vol. I, p. 437. In the Eskimo language, nva means that 

 there! (something pointed at with the finger or indicated with the eye), 

 live, husband, ava, north, the suffix -niiut or -mnm , inhabitants of a 



