Of perhaps greater importance is the resemblance to fairy-tale which Dr. Nansen seeks to establish from the frequent occurrence of the number three.[78] This feature is not conspicuous in the Flatey Book version, which gives us no fewer than six voyages—Bjarni, Leif, Thorvald, Thorstein, Karlsefni, and Freydis—while the distances between the lands are not given as equal in all cases. In the companion version it is true that the figure three plays or can be made to play a considerable part, yet it is doubtful if so much use can fairly be made of the point as Dr. Nansen argues. There are three voyages—Leif’s, Thorstein’s, Karlsefni’s; but the fact that the second alone is unsuccessful robs the number of the significance which we should expect in fairy-tale. Karlsefni’s expedition consists of three ships, but this is explained by the circumstance that two of these belonged to the visitors to Greenland, while one was manned by the local contingent. Each ship had two leaders—not one or three—and the crews totalled 160 men, so that the figure three is here only to be found by selection from other quite arbitrary numbers. That three countries are visited is only true if we take the nomenclature of the Flatey Book; in the companion account we may rather say that five places are mentioned—Helluland, Markland, Furdustrands, Straumsfjord, and Hóp. With regard to the number of days’ voyage between the different places visited, no emphasis is laid on the number three; the figure recorded is two, and in some cases a long while. If it is said that two days’ voyage involves an arrival on the third day, then no use can fairly be made of the three days’ search for Thorhall on the island, who was found on the fourth day. Dr. Nansen draws attention to the fact that three meetings with skrælings are recorded, but this is only true of the skrælings at Hóp; it omits the five skrælings found sleeping by the sea, and those whose boys were captured in Markland. If the episode at Hóp is to be treated by itself, it is not a fair argument to say that there were three casualties, for only two men were killed at this time, with four of the savages. If Thorvald’s death at the hands of the uniped is to be included, it would be reasonable to take the total loss to the expedition from all causes, which would comprise Thorhall the Hunter and his eight or nine companions, and Bjarni Grimolfson with about half his crew. Altogether the uniformity of fairy-tale seems conspicuously absent, and the mystic figure, appearing as it does with other numbers which Dr. Nansen ignores, is explicable on quite rational hypotheses. _The Wild Grapes._