tokust af veidhirnar," i. e. "hic hiemarunt; cum vero magna
incideret hiems, nullumque provisum esset alimentum, cibus
coepit deficere capturaque cessabat," Id. p. 174.]

[Sidenote: Probable situation of Vinland.]

On the whole, we may say with some confidence that the place described
by our chroniclers as Vinland was situated somewhere between Point
Judith and Cape Breton; possibly we may narrow our limits and say that
it was somewhere between Cape Cod and Cape Ann. But the latter
conclusion is much less secure than the former. In such a case as this,
the more we narrow our limits the greater our liability to error.[216]
While by such narrowing, moreover, the question may acquire more
interest as a bone of contention among local antiquarians, its value for
the general historian is not increased.

[Footnote 216: A favourite method of determining the exact
spots visited by the Northmen has been to compare their
statements regarding the shape and trend of the coasts, their
bays, headlands, etc., with various well-known points on the
New England coast. It is a tempting method, but unfortunately
treacherous, because the same general description will often
apply well enough to several different places. It is like
summer boarders in the country struggling to tell one another
where they have been to drive,--past a school-house, down a
steep hill, through some woods, and by a saw-mill, etc.]

[Sidenote: "Savages" unknown to mediaeval Europeans.]

[Sidenote: The natives of Vinland.]

But we have not yet done with the points of verisimilitude in our story.
We have now to cite two or three details that are far more striking than
any as yet mentioned,--details that could never have been conjured up by
the fancy of any mediaeval European. We must bear in mind that "savages,"
whether true savages or people in the lower status of barbarism, were
practically unknown to Europeans before the fifteenth century. There
were no such people in Europe or in any part of Asia or Africa visited
by Europeans before the great voyages of the Portuguese. Mediaeval
Europeans knew nothing whatever about people who would show surprise at
the sight of an iron tool[217] or frantic terror at the voice of a
bull, or who would eagerly trade off valuable property for worthless
trinkets. Their imagination might be up to inventing hobgoblins and
p