Scandinavian-Britain

MOTHER-LAND AND PEOPLES 19Our King Alfred's friend, Oht-here, a Haloga-lander,1tellsof the fur-trade^ which depended mainlyon theyearly tribute from the Finns, each chief of that peoplehaving to furnish 15 martin skins, i rein-deer pelt,i bear-skin, i bear or otter-skin coat, 40 ambers offeathers, 2 ship ropes of 60 ells (i of horse-whale skin,i of seal-skin). He also spoke of the whale fishing,especially the chase of the horse-whale or walrus.He says that as many as sixty were killed by six menin a day.2Their ivory and skins were chieflyvaluable. He notices the port of Sciringshall in theWick, which would have been the chief emporium forNorthern Danes and Goths, and of Heaths (the laterHeath-by), which was no doubt the main tradecentrefor Saxons, Danes, and Goths. He gives anaccount of his own voyage to Beorma-land, anexpedition of fifteen days' sail, being three days tothe furthest whale-fisheries' station used, and threemore days thence to North Cape; four days thenceto where the land lay east, and again five days upthe White Sea, running south, where he reached1This Oht-here bears a name found chiefly in connexion withthe famous family from Haurda-land, the patriarch of which isHaurda-Care. He is evidently one of the last settlers inHaloga-land, for he dwells northernmost, as he told Alfred.For an Oht-here, known as Oht-here the foolish, the curiousgenealogical poem " Hyndla's Lay" was composed. Thefamily of Haurda-Care is later connected with the Orkneys,wherein descendants, if anywhere, should exist.2 I take it, the clause about the big whales is simply transposedhere. Oht-here is talking of walruses, but the scribehas put into the middle of his talk another bit of informationabout big whales. It may have been taken, we might guess,from Alfred's rough notes in the Hand-book.