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<P align="justify"> In his work on t … <P align="justify"> In his work on the Gothic war, Procopius (a contemporary of [[Jordanes]]) describes [[Scandinavia]], which he calls Thule, as a huge island divided into a smaller part inhabited by thirteen tribes and a larger, uninhabited part. "Of the barbarians who inhabit <i>Thule</i> there is only one tribe called the <i>Skrithiphinoi</i>, who live a bestial life. They do not wear clothes of cloth, or shoes, or drink wine or use the products of the earth for their sustenance. They do not practise agriculture, nor do their womenfolk work in the home; instead the men and the women together engage in nothing but hunting. The forests, which are immense, and the mountains that rise up there offer them plenty of predators and other animals as prey. And they live on the meat of the predators that they trap and use their hides to clothe themselves. Because they have no flax nor any implement to sew with, they bind the hides together with the sinews of animals and cover their bodies with them. Nor do they even look after newborn babies in the same way as other people do, for the babies of the Skrithiphinoi are not nourished with their mother's milk, nor do they fasten on to the mother's breast, but they are fed only the marrow of the animals that are trapped. As soon as the wife has given birth, she swaddles her foetus in a hide and, hanging it on some tree and putting some marrow into its mouth, she usually returns to the hunt. For the men and women do everything else together, and this practice, too, is a joint one. Such then is the way of life of these barbarians." At the time of the summer solstice the sun does not set for forty days, and it remains out sight for an equal period at the time of the winter solstice. The description is of the [[Middle Iron Age]] (A.D. 250-800). <BR></P>Age]] (A.D. 250-800). <BR></P> +
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