swim as well as they can.

You ask whether the land is open, or covered with ice like the sea? Know, then, that a small part only is open, and all the rest is covered with ice. Men have often ascended the highest hills, in various places, to survey if they could find an open habitable country, but have never found any, except that part where they now dwell, which stretches but a little way inward from the strand. The inhabitants are few in number. They are Christian, having churches and clergy and a bishop to themselves, the diocese being one-third the size of an ordinary diocese. You ask how they live, as there is no corn? The grass is good, the houses are wellbuilt and large, and there are many sheep and cattle. Much butter and cheese is made, on which the people live, as well as on the flesh of their cattle, and on what is obtained by hunting, namely, the flesh of reindeer, whales, seals, and bears."

The next glimpse that we get of life in Greenland, after the visit of Thormod the Poet, is called in the Sagas "A Short Story of the Greenlanders," and it describes events which took place in the colony about A.D. 1125, just one century after Thormod. The story comes to us in the Flateyiar-bok, an Icelandic MS., now in Copenhagen, of about A.D. 1380, and thus begins :

"There was a man named Sokki, who dwelt at Brattalid in Greenland, highly esteemed and popular. He had great power in Greenland, and authority over its people. Once upon a time he summoned an Assembly of the yeomen, and declared before it that he wished the land to remain no longer without a bishop. 'It was his desire,' he said, that they should all contribute together the means to found a bishoprick.' The yeomen consented, and Sokki bade his son, Einar, as the fittest man among them for the purpose, to proceed to Norway to carry out

their wish. Einar expressed his willingness to proceed on the journey; and when he was ready, took with him a large store of walrus hides and tusks, to obtain the favour of great men. When he arrived in Norway, over which Sigurd the Crusader then reigned, he went before the king, taking with him presents; and after declaring who he was and why he had come, begged the king to grant his request for the good of his country, Greenland. The king's reply was favourable, and he summoned to his side a man named Arnald, a good clerk, well fitted for the priesthood. He begged that Arnald would accede to his prayer, and undertake the difficult office for God's sake. 'I will send you to Denmark,' said the king, 'to Osur, Archbishop of Lund, with letters signed with my signet.' Arnald replied that he was not willing to undertake the office; partly because he was unfitted for it, partly because he had no wish to leave his friends and kinsmen. 'Moreover,' he said, 'the people are a hard folk to deal with.' But when the king suggested that the greater his trials were among the people, the greater was the glory that he would inherit, Arnald answered that he would no longer refuse the king's request. If it is my lot,' said he, 'to be consecrated bishop, I desire that Einar will make oath to uphold and maintain the rights of the bishoprick, to protect the estates devoted to God, and to chastise those who encroach on them; yea, in all matters to protect the interests of the Church establishment.' The king answered that his desire should be carried out; and Einar promised to take the oath required. So the bishopdesignate, taking with him letters from the king, went to Archbishop Osur, and having delivered his message and the king's letter, was well received. The archbishop examined him, and having found him well suited for the dignity consecrated him bishop, and dismissed him gra

K

ciously. So Bishop Arnald returned to King Sigurd, and was favourably received. Einar now presented to King Sigurd a bear, which he had brought with him from Greenland, receiving in return from the king esteem and honour.

"The bishop and Einar now set out on their voyage to Greenland. Another ship set out at the same time with them, manned by Northmen, under Arnbiorn, a northern merchant. From the moment of setting sail the winds were not very favourable, and Einar's ship came to land under Eyafell, in the south of Iceland. At that time, Sæmund, the historian, dwelt at Oddi, and he went down to meet the bishop, whom he invited to pass the winter with him. The bishop and his company accepted the invitation, and, as they were riding to Oddi, they stopped on their way at a homestead to bait their horses. And there came an old woman out of the house, having a woolcomb in her hand. She went up to one of them, and said, 'My good fellow, will you fasten this tooth in my comb?' The man consented, and, taking a rivetting hammer from his knapsack, made fast the tooth, to the great delight of the old woman. That man was the bishop. He was a skilful man with his hands, and I tell you this story because it shows his humility. He passed the winter pleasantly with Sæmund at Oddi. The following summer, Einar and the bishop left Iceland, and reached Greenland at Eiriksfirth, where they were well received by all, and the bishop's cathedral chair was set up at Garda."

In the meantime, nothing had been heard of Arnbiorn's ship, and people feared that evil had befallen it. Their fears were verified in the autumn, for a band of hunters came upon it at the mouth of a stream, in a desert part of the country. The bodies of the crew were found on shore, and taken to Garda for burial. The ship, with much of

the property found, was given to the bishop for the sake of the souls of the deceased, and the remainder was divided among those who found it, according to the laws of Greenland. When the tidings came to Norway, Osur, a nephew of Arnbiorn, determined to sail to Greenland with kinsmen of other members of the ill-fated crew to claim his inheritance.

During the winter, Osur had a meeting with the bishop, at which he stated his claim to inherit Arnbiorn's property, and begged the bishop's aid. But the bishop answered that the property had been applied to the souls' health of the owners, and given to the church where their bones were laid, and that to lay claim to it was an unmanly action. In the spring, Osur prepared a lawsuit, to be tried at the meeting of the Assembly in Garda. When the Court was set, Einar, with a crowd of followers, presented himself, and thus spoke :-"When we have lawsuits against men in Norway, we are under difficulties, because Norse laws prevail there; here we desire our own laws to hold good." And so the Court broke up, Osur having made no progress with his suit. Displeased at losing his property, and deeming that he had suffered disgrace, he found means to cut two boards out of the ship that had been Arnbiorn's, one on each side of the keel.

The bishop was very angry when he learnt of the injury done to the ship, and sent for Einar Sokkason. "You promised me with an oath," said he, "when we set out from Norway, that you would revenge all dishonour done to the church and its property, and would punish the guilty persons. Now, I say that Osur has forfeited all claim to consideration, because he has damaged my property, and slighted me in every way. I will not deny that I am displeased, and I shall call you an oath-breaker if you sit quiet under the outrage." But Einar answered:

"You act not well, my lord; many think Osur is to be pitied, when they see his failure to obtain any portion of his kinsman's property. I know not what I shall do." And the two separated, but there was an angry look upon the bishop's face.

Osur was soon

The story need not be prolonged. slain. The Norse traders then in Greenland banded themselves together, and Einar's death quickly followed. A state of hostilities succeeded, and more manslayings. At last peace was made, and the traders sailed away. We are told that one of them, Kolbiorn, carried with him from Greenland a polar bear, which he took as a present for King Harold Gilli of Norway. When he came before the king, he enlarged upon the evil treatment which, he said, the Greenlanders deserved, and he greatly slandered them. But the king got to know the other side of the story, and, finding that Kolbiorn had uttered falsehoods, made him no return for the present of the white bear.

There are no more sagas relating to life in Greenland, unless we reckon such sagas as that of Rolf Kraka, a work of pure imagination. But in the Icelandic annals there. are found a few notices touching events in Greenland, such, for instance, as the appointment of a bishop, the arrival of a ship, or the record of a shipwreck. Some of these are worth mention.

About A.D. 1188, an Icelandic priest, named Ingimund, paid a visit to Norway. On his return home from Bergen with other Icelandic notabilities, his vessel was driven by storms past Iceland, and cast upon the coast of Greenland, where all on board perished. Twelve years afterwards, the wreck was discovered, and the remains of seven of its crew found in an adjoining cave. Among these remains were those of Ingimund, whose clothes and body were