Well, it seems that formidable Freydis was not above a little strip tease when necessary.

To wit: finding herself surrounded by Skraelings on the occasion Lucius refers to, if I'm correct, her expedient was to bare a breast, slap it with a sword (ouch!) and, presumably, bare her belly as well to show that she was a woman, and pregnant. And this behaviour was enough to make the natives retreat - scratching their heads...

Hmmm, in view of the fact that her gender was not otherwise obvious, are we to imagine her sporting glued-on whiskers? LOL!