With regard to the white and red shields used as answering signals by the Norsemen, of course there is no need to suppose that the Skrælings understood them, as Dr. Nansen does, observing that these features ‘have an altogether European effect’. Yet by a curious coincidence such signs would in fact have probably been intelligible to American Indians, for it is stated in Wood’s _Natural History of Man_ that, ‘As among us, white and red are the signs of peace and war, and each leader carries with him two small flags, one of white bison’s hide and the other of reddened leather.’ But we may be content to observe that the Norsemen would be likely to make their customary attempts at signalling regardless of the fact that their efforts might be unintelligible.[87] _Trading and Fighting._ The fur-trading of the savages will recall to any student of the history of exploration numerous parallels in the writing of Jacques Cartier and others. In particular one may claim as a genuine Indian characteristic the eager acquisition of red cloth to bind round the head. Numerous parallels to this may be found in the records of later explorers; in particular one may cite, from Juet’s description of Hudson’s third voyage (ed. Hakluyt Society, p. 60), what reads almost like a free translation of the saga: ‘They brought many beaver skinnes and other fine furres, which they would have changed for redde gownes.’ It does not appear likely that the seal-clad Eskimo of Greenland, who seem to have kept out of the way of the Norsemen as much as possible, could have contributed such a feature to the story. Even more certainly authentic is the account of the fights with the natives. Eskimo, as Dr. Nansen points out, were unused to war in Greenland, where indeed they had no other nation to fight, while of course warfare has always been a normal part of the Indian’s existence. (It must be conceded, however, that Frobisher found the American Eskimo distinctly warlike and pugnacious.) It is clear that the Skrælings were formidable antagonists, since it was the fear of them which ultimately drove Karlsefni to withdraw from the country. Of their weapons only one seems to call for comment, the large ball, resembling a sheep’s paunch and dark in colour, which was slung from a pole towards Karlsefni’s force, making a terrible noise where it came down. Dr. Nansen has sought to parallel this incident from a number of disconnected sources, ranging from the use of catapults and even gunpowder in European warfare to the fiery mass thrown with tongs at St. Brendan’s ship by the inhabitants of the Smith’s Island, and a similar incident in Mælduin’s voyage, and through these last to the Cyclops in the _Odyssey_.[88] In all these suggested sources, however, the differences seem quite as striking as the resemblances. The pole is absent, the resemblance to a sheep’s paunch seems remote, the missile in the case under consideration