144 THE KING'S MIRROR 



Men have often tried to go up into the country and 

 climb the highest mountains in various places to look 

 about and learn whether any land could be found that 

 was free from ice and habitable. But nowhere have they 

 found such a place, except what is now occupied, which 

 is a little strip along the water's edge. 



There is much marble in those parts that are inhab- 

 ited; it is variously colored, both red and blue and 

 r streaked with green. [There are also many large hawks in 

 the land, which in other countries would be counted very 

 C precious/) white falcons, and they are more numerous 

 there than in any other country; but the natives do not 

 know how to make any use of them.* 



XVIII 



THE PRODUCTS OF GREENLAND 



Son. You stated earlier in your talk that no grain 

 grows in that country; therefore I now want to ask 

 you what the people who inhabit the land live on, how 

 large the population is, what sort of food they have, and 

 whether they have accepted Christianity. 



Father. The people in that country are few, for only 

 a small part is sufficiently free from ice to be habitable; 

 but the people are all Christians and have churches and 

 priests. If the land lay near to some other country it 

 might be reckoned a third of a bishopric; but the Green- 



* In the thirteenth century, the century of the King's Mirror, falconry was a 

 favorite sport of the European nobility and there seems to have been some 

 demand for Norwegian hawks. In the Close Rolls of the reign of Henry III 

 there are allusions to gifts of hawks sent by the king of Norway to the Eng- 

 lish king. See above p. 29. 



