Page:A description of Greenland.djvu/243

Rh Concerning the Creation and Origin of all Things, they have little to ay, but they think all has been as it ever will be. Nevertheles they abound in Fables in regard to thee Matters. Their Tale of the Origin of Mankind runs thus: At the beginning one Man, viz. a Greenlander, prung out of the Ground, who got a Wife out of a little Hillock. From thee are decended lineally the Greenlanders; which may pas for a Remnant, though an Adulteration from the true Tradition of the Origin of Man. But as to us Foreigners, whom they tile Kablunæt, (that is, of a trange Extraction) they tell a mot ridiculous Story, importing our Pedigree from a Race of Dogs; they ay, that a Greenland Woman, once being in Labour, brought forth at the ame time both Children and Whelps: Thee lat he put into an old Shoe, and committed them to the Mercy of the Waves, with thee Words: Get ye gone from hence, and grow up to be Kablunæts. This, they ay, is the Reaon, why the Kablunæts always live upon the Sea; and the Ships, they ay, have the very ame Shape Rh