There are many references to the North American SkrÆlings in Rafn's great work entitled "Antiquitates AmericanÆ: sive Scriptores Septentrionales Rerum Ante-Columbianarum in America," published under the auspices of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries (Copenhagen, 1837). This is a collection of the accounts in the old Northern chronicles, relating to the Northmen's (gamle Nordboers) voyages of discovery to America, between the tenth and fourteenth centuries. And from these accounts it is seen that the tribes then inhabiting the territories on either side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and as far south as Massachusetts, were the SkrÆlings; with whom the Northmen occasionally fought, and at other times traded, giving them pieces of red cloth in exchange for furs.

That the term by which they are chiefly known to modern writers was not the only one given to them by the Northmen is seen from a remark made by one of the chroniclers of Thorfinn Karlsefne, who states that "these people are called Lapps in some books (thÆr thjÓdhir kalla sumir bÆkr Lappa)."[340] On the other hand, the map of Olaus Magnus, referred to in the foregoing pages, shows that the northern corner of Norway was then inhabited by a race of Scric-Finni, "commonly called 'Screlings,'" who at least were the neighbours of Lapps.

In connection with the North American "Lapps" or "SkrÆlings," the editor of Antiquitates AmericanÆ supplies the following note (p. 45):—"SkrÆlingos appellatos autumat BussÆus ob humilem staturam; quam ob rem et interdum ab Islandis SmÆlÍngjar (homunculi) audiunt. HÆc vero communis appellationis ratio vix esse potest. Arnas MagnÆus in collectaneis ad novam editionem Schedarum Arii polyhistoris, vocem SkrÆlÍngjar interpretatur errones, incertum qua ratione, cum ipse nullam attulerit. Suhmius (KjÖbenhavnske Selskabs Skrifter, VIII., pag. 81) eos ita propter vilem armaturam appellatos putat. Nonne potius nomen istud ob ora macilenta adepti sunt, ab at skrÆla, arefacere? Nota, Petrum Clausenium Undalinum, in descriptione NorvegiÆ, ed. Hafn. 1632, pag. 375-6, hoc nomen scribere Skregklinge et Skreglinge, qs. a skrÆkja, clamare, ejulare, cfr. Partic. de Karlsefnio, cap. 10 infra."

Whatever may be the etymology of this word (which in some of its forms approaches the "Scric-Finni" of Norway), it is quite clear from the Antiquitates AmericanÆ that those tenth-century natives of what is now New England and New Brunswick strongly resembled the modern Eskimos. "HÆc descriptio SkrÆlingorum accurate quadrat in hodiernos GrÆnlandos sive Eskimoos," is the observation made by the editor (p. 149, n.) on a description of some of those people encountered by the Northmen. And, similarly, the note relative to their skin-canoes, or kayaks, is as follows:[341]—"hÚdhkeipr, species navigii, acatium coriaceum vel corio contextum, quo usi sunt indigenÆ, ut etiamnunc GrÆnlandi ex genere Eskimoorum; itaque per carabum redditum, qui secundum Isidorum Hispal. in Orig. Libr. 19, cap. 1. est 'parva scapha ex vimine facta, qui contexta crudo corio genus navigii prÆbet.'—Vocem illustrat vir doctissimus Gunnar Pauli, f. in annotationibus, insertis indici vocum Orkneyinga sagÆ: 'HÚdhkeipr, navis sutilis, vel, si mavis, corio obducta vel circumdata. Nam phocarum ad hunc usum pelles adhibere GrÆnlandos notum est, quorum naves hÚdhkeipar nostratibus olim sunt appellatÆ.'"

In these references there is much that is suggestive. One would like to know the occasions on which the Latin term "acatium" was used; and also the circumstances which induced an editor of the Orkneyinga Saga to enlarge upon the appearance of the hÚdhkeipr. Taken in connection with the existence of kayak-using Finnmen, in the Orkney Isles, less than two centuries ago, this latter allusion is very striking. Similarly, an explanation of the term "Skregklinge" or "Skreglinge," occurring in a description of Norway, of the year 1632 (above referred to), arouses equal interest in that work.

That the SkrÆlings, wherever situated, were "pigmies," is evident from the testimony of Olaus Magnus,—and the accounts of the eleventh-century Northmen fully corroborate this. One of their references is as follows: "They were small, ugly men, with horrible heads of hair, great eyes, and broad cheek-bones: (Their voru smÁir menn ok illiligir, ok Íllt hÖfdhu their hÁr Á hÖfdhi, eygdhir voru their mjÖk ok breidhir Í kinnunum)."[342] Another description occurs in the Saga of Thorfinn Karlsefne which relates how, in the year 1011 A.D. (three years after his first encounter with the American SkrÆlings), he and his people arrived at Markland,—a country identified with the modern New Brunswick and other lands lying round the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Here they encountered five SkrÆlings, one man, two women and two boys: ("... ok funnu thar SkrÆlingja 5, ok var einn skeggiadhr; konur voru 2, ok bÖrn tvÖ;" in which passage it may be noted that the man was distinguished by the term "bearded,"—skeggjadhr). They captured the two boys, "but the others escaped, and sank beneath the ground:" ("Verosimile est, SkrÆlingos in cavernas subterraneas se abdidisse," is the explanation given by the commentator in Antiquitates AmericanÆ).[343] Karlsefne's people took the boys away with them, had them baptized, and taught them Icelandic. These stated that their father and mother (no doubt, the "bearded one" and one of the two women, then lamenting them in their underground dwelling) were respectively named UvÆge and Vethillde;[344] and that their people had no houses, but lived in dens and caves: ("Í hellum edha holum"). The country of the SkrÆlings, they said, was governed by two kings or chiefs, one named Avalldamon (or Avalldumon) and the other Valldidida."

It will be seen from these references that although those SkrÆlings of nine centuries ago are rightly regarded as probable progenitors of modern Eskimos, there were some differences between the two. The term "shaggy" or "bearded," used to distinguish the man from his two female companions, certainly does not indicate that the latter were themselves hirsute. But the previous reference to the "ugly" or "horrible" heads of hair, and the description of their eyes as very large, are two points that seem to denote a race not wholly identical with modern Eskimos. Moreover, the rapid disappearance of the adults underground, on the occasion when the two boys were captured, is more suggestive of the dwarfs of tradition (such as those who similarly escaped from Suafurlami when he attempted to smite them with his magic sword) than of the Greenlanders of to-day.

Although the accounts of the two boy prisoners might be held to denote that the manners they described were new to the Northmen, yet an incident of earlier date shows clearly that the latter quite understood the subterranean ideas of those North American "Lapps." The incident referred to is this: In the year 1004, Thorwald Ericson and his followers had surprised a small party of nine SkrÆlings at the entrance to Plymouth Harbour, on the coast of Massachusetts,[345] and of these they killed eight. The ninth sped away in his skin-canoe to the inner end of the bay, out of which there presently emerged an infuriated swarm of kayakkers. But before they appeared, the Northmen had had time to note a group of "hillocks" on the beach (apparently on the interior curve of the promontory terminating in the modern "Gurnet Point,") and these "hillocks" they assumed to be the abodes of the SkrÆlings.[346] This was seven years before the capture of the boys by Karlsefne's party, and the inference clearly is that they were accustomed to regard kayak-using dwarfs as mound-dwellers. Indeed, the very fact that they styled the natives "Lapps" and "goblins,"[347] as well as SkrÆlings, shows that they regarded them as belonging to the same race as similar people well known to them in Europe.