[Sidenote: Allusions to Eskimo in European literature]
The brevity of Icelandic literature in all that concerns the Skrælings is again striking when we compare it with the information about the Eskimo that appears in the maps and literature of Europe in the fifteenth century. Claudius Clavus in his description of the North (before the middle of the fifteenth century) speaks of Pygmies ("Pigmei") in the country to the north-east of Greenland; they were one cubit high, and had boats of hide, both short and long (i.e., kayaks and women's boats), some of which were hanging in the cathedral at Trondhjem (see further on this subject under the mention of Claudius Clavus). He further speaks of "the infidel Karelians," who "constantly descend upon Greenland in great armies."[65] The name may be derived, as shown by Björnbo and Petersen, from the Karelians to the north-east of Norway on older maps and have been transferred to the west, and it may then perhaps also have been confused with the name of Skræling.
[Illustration: Eskimo playing ball with a stuffed seal. Woodcut from Greenland illustrating a fairy-tale, drawn and engraved by a native]
Michel Beheim, who travelled in Norway in 1450, gives in his poem about the journey [Vangensten, 1908, p. 18] a mythical description of the Skrælings ("schrelinge"), who are only three "spans" high, but are nevertheless dangerous opponents both on sea and land. They live in caves which they dig out in the mountains, make ships of hides, eat raw meat and raw fish, and drink blood with it. This points to his having found in Norway ideas about the Skrælings as supernatural beings of a similar kind to those already mentioned.
In a letter to Pope Nicholas V. (1447-1455) it is related [cf. G. Storm, 1899]: "And when one travels west [from Norway] towards the mountains of this country [Greenland], there dwell there Pygmies in the shape of little men, only a cubit high. When they see human beings they collect and hide themselves in the caves of the country like a swarm of ants. One cannot conquer them; for they do not wait until they are attacked. They live on raw meat and boiled fish." This resembles what is said about the Pygmies in Clavus, but as additional information is given here, it is probable that both Clavus and the author of this letter, and perhaps also Beheim, have derived their statements from older sources, perhaps of the fourteenth century, which either were Norwegian or had obtained information from Norway. The description of the Pygmies and how they fly on the approach of strangers points to knowledge of the Eskimo and their habits. The idea about caves is, perhaps, more likely to be connected with pixies and fairies, who lived in mounds and caves (cf. pp. 15, 76); but reports of the half-underground Eskimo houses may also have had something to do with it. It is possible that the common source may be the lost work of the English author Nicholas of Lynn, who travelled in Norway in the fourteenth century (cf. chapter xii. on Martin Behaim's globe).