36 



(gen. sauöa), hnisa and hvonn (plur. hvannir) New Norwegian 

 kvanne. Tlie presence of these same words in the language 

 of Labrador may be explained by the fact that the first mission- 

 aries, who came from Greenland, introduced them there. The 

 meaning of kuan-eq in Labrador, however, is not angelica, but 

 a kind of edible seaweed, and sava has there the form sa-qaq 

 (vocab. saugak). 



kala-leq, a South Greenlander, just about corresponds to 

 Old Norse skræling*), which, when pronounced by a Green- 

 lander, would become *sakala'leq. The first thing that might 

 make the connection between these two words seem doubtful 

 is the absence of the first syllable isa-) in the Eskimo word, 

 but the Greenlanders themselves explained to Egede that they 

 were called by that name by the old Norsemen (cf. Egede's 

 vocab. under kardlek, Groenlandus indigena. Ita vocatus se 

 dictilant a priscis Christianis, terrae hujus qvondam incolis). 

 In Iceland, the word at present signifies: a churl, a coarse 

 brutal person. In Denmark, it is rather used of a cowed or 

 effeminate person and is perhaps connected with the adjective 

 skral. The etymology is uncertain, and the Danish and Ice- 

 landic words are possibly to be traced to different origins. In 

 Icelandic, it seems most plausible to connect it with skrækr, 

 scream, and skrækja, to scream (Fritzner's dictionary); in 

 modern Norwegian, there is a word skrææla = Swedish and 

 Danish skråle, to squall (denominative of skrål); the last 

 word is not known from the Old Icelandic language, but still 

 it may have existed there once and have given rise to the 

 Greenlandic name. The first discoverers of modern times often 

 tell about the noise and screams which the Eskimo raised at 

 the sight of them, for instance John Davis on his first voyage 

 (1585): "The people of the countrey hauing espied us, mad a 

 lamentable noise, as we thought, with great outcries and 



') Fritzner's Dictionary has also the form skrelingr once (Chron. Nor- 

 vegiæ). 



