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Show 362 MR. R. BROWN ON THE MAMMALS OF GREENLAND. [May 28, I will not stop to inquire into their grosser myths, which, though relating to animals, are yet only remotely connected with zoological science, and wander away into the domains of mythology, interesting enough, no doubt, but with which we as zoologists have but little to do. For instance, as far back as the days of Fabricius, they used to talk about men living away in the glens off from the coast. ' Ihey tell tales" ( fabulantur), he says, " of other people living away among the mountains, rarely seen by them, never by the Europeans, whom they call Torngit or Tunnersoit, and even say that they have the appearance, stature, and clothing of Europeans. If they speak truly, which I am not in a position to deny, perhaps they are the remnants of the former Icelandic colonists, who have fled in among the mountains"*. About Jakobshavn they still talk of these people, and I collected many such stories. Some of these superstitions describe the Torngit as little men ; and I know a man who says he saw one of these little men "pop out of a hole and in again" most agilely, and he tells a long story about it. Others describe them as tall men ; so that these are undoubtedly only traditions of the old Norsemen. During the Norse possession of the country, tbe population appears to have got much amalgamated (as indeed we know, because when Paul Egede came, there were many traces of the white stock; and to this day there come down from the east coast natives with fair hair and blue eyesf) with the Icelandic adventurers who came with red-haired Erik, and subsequently imbibed much of their superstition. Indeed most of the best Eskimo traditions (as related by Rink in his 'Eskimoiske Saga og Eventyrn) are of Scandinavian parentage. Accordingly we find the old Norse tale of that fearful Kraken% which drew stout ships down to the bottom of the sea, in a Greenlandic version, still terrifying the squat seal-hunters who gather round the blazing Kotlup during the long winter nights; but I need say nothing further about it. It is one of the old trois of Scandinavia, familiar enough to all of us. Still less will I stop to inquire regarding that "sea monster" which good Paul Egede saw, and Pastor Bing sketched " off our colony in 64° north latitude"§. I have said enough to show that, though there is yet much to be done to the legitimate zoology of Greenland proper, there is still more to be done in what may be called the illegitimate zoology- the history of zoological myths and errors. * Fauna Groenl. p. 4. t A Moravian Missionary at Pamiadluk, near Cape Farewell, told Captain Carl W . Neilsen (who told me) that, in 1850, a party of natives came to that settlement from the east coast, and declared that it was two years since they had left their homes. They were described as tall and fair-haired. Almost every year some come down and permanently settle in the Danish colonies. + Kraken, Kraxen, Krabben, and Horven, vide Pontopiddan, Nat. Hist, of Norway, vol. u. p. 211; Ancker-Trold, Olaus, Wormius, Torfreus, &c § Lib. cit. p. 86. |