to the course of the sun, and the Skrellings were all uttering
loud cries. Thereupon Karlsefni and his men took red shields and
displayed them. The Skrellings sprang from their boats, and they met
then, and fought together. There was a fierce shower of missiles, for the
Skrellings had war-slings. Karlsefni and Snorri observed, that the
Skrellings raised up on a pole a great ball-shaped body, almost the size
of a sheep's belly, and nearly black in color, and this they hurled from
the pole up on the land above Karlsefni's followers, and it made a
frightful noise, where it fell. Whereat a great fear seized upon
Karlsefni, and all his men, so that they could think of nought but
flight, and of making their escape up along the river bank, for it seemed
to them, that the troop of the Skrellings was rushing towards them from
every side, and they did not pause, until they came to certain jutting
crags, where they offered a stout resistance. Freydis came out, and
seeing that Karlsefni and his men were fleeing, she cried: "Why do ye
flee from these wretches, such worthy men as ye, when, meseems, ye might
slaughter them like cattle. Had I but a weapon, methinks, I would fight
better than any one of you!" They gave no heed to her words. Freydis
sought to join them, but lagged behind, for she was not hale;[38-1] she
followed them, however, into the forest, while the Skrellings pursued
her; she found a dead man in front of her; this was Thorbrand, Snorri's
son, his skull cleft by a flat stone; his naked sword lay beside him; she
took it up, and prepared to defend herself with it. The Skrellings then
approached her, whereupon she stripped down her shift, and slapped her
breast with the naked sword. At this the Skrellings were terrified and
ran down to their boats, and rowed away. Karlsefni and his companions,
however, joined her and praised her valor. Two of Karlsefni's men had
fallen, and a great number of the Skrellings. Karlsefni's party had been
overpowered by dint of superior numbers. They now returned to their
dwellings, and bound up their wounds, and weighed carefully what throng
of men that could have been, which had seemed to descend upon them from
the land; it now seemed to them, that there could have been but the one
party, that which came from the boats, and that the other troop must have
been an ocular delusion. The Skrellings, moreover, found a dead man, and
an axe lay beside him. One of their number picked up the axe, and