Thus we are told in the Floamanna Saga how a hero,
abandoned on the icy coast of Greenland, met with two giant witches
(Troldkoner), and cut the band from one of them. An old Icelandic work,
called the Konungs Skuggsjo (Danish, Kongespeilet), has much to say of
the marvels of Greenland and its monsters of the sea. On the other
hand, Morillot declares that the belief in ghosts was brought to
Greenland by the Icelanders and Scandinavians. The sagas have not been
as yet much studied with a view to establishing how much social
intercourse there was between the natives and the colonists, but common
experience would teach that during three centuries it must have been
something.
There has always been intercourse between Greenland and Labrador, and
in this latter country we find the first Algonquin Indians. Even at the
present day there are men among the Micmacs and Passamaquoddies who
have gone on their hunting excursions even to the Eskimo. I myself know
one of the latter who has done so, and the Rev. S. T. Rand, in answer
to a question on the subject, writes to me as follows:--
"Nancy Jeddore, a Micmac woman, assures me that her father, now dead,
used to go as far as the wild (heathen) Eskimo, and remained once for
three years among the more civilized. She has so correctly described
their habits that I am satisfied that her statements are correct.
Pages:
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33