[Illustration: Cutting up a whale (from an Icelandic MS. of the fourteenth century of Magnus Lanabóter's Icelandic Land Law)]
From Ottar's statement to King Alfred (cf. vol. i. p. 172)--that "in his own land [i.e., Norway] there is the best whaling. They are forty-eight cubits long, and the largest are fifty cubits long"--we may conclude that the Norwegians, and perhaps the Lapps also, hunted the great whales as early as the ninth century, and doubtless long before that time, while King Alfred does not seem to have known of any such whaling being practised in England.[136] We are not told in what way the whale was caught in those days, but from statements elsewhere it is probable that the Norwegians had several methods of taking whales, as is the case even to the present day in Norway: one way was with the harpoon and harpoon-line in open waters, that is, without cutting off the whale's escape with nets.
The Arab cosmographer, Qazwînî (of the thirteenth century), quoting the Spanish-Arabic writer Omar al-'Udhrî[137] (of the eleventh century), says that the Norsemen in Irlânda (Ireland).
"hunt young whales, and they are very great fish. They hunt their young and eat them.... Of the method of catching them al-'Udhrî relates that the hunters collect in their ships. They have a great iron hook [i.e., harpoon] with sharp teeth, and on the hook a strong ring, and in the ring a stout rope. When they come to a young one, they clap their hands and make a noise. The young one is amused by the clapping of hands and approaches the ship, delighting therein. Thereupon one of the seamen approaches and scratches its forehead, which the young one likes. Then he lays the hook to the middle of its head, takes a heavy iron hammer and gives three blows with all his force upon the hook. It does not heed the first blow, but with the second and third it makes a great commotion, and sometimes it catches some part of the ship with its tail, and knocks it to pieces, and it continues in violent agitation until it is overcome by exhaustion. Then the crew of the ship draw it to shore with their combined force. Sometimes the mother notices the movements of the young one, and pursues them. Then they have a great quantity of crushed onions in readiness, and throw it into the water. When the whale perceives the smell of the onions it finds it detestable, turns round and retreats. Then they cut the flesh of the young one in pieces and salt it.[138] And its flesh is white as snow, and its skin black as ink."[139]