{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_28932/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_28932","id":"gutenberg_28932","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28932","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Eskimos -- Folklore","Folklore -- Greenland"],"text":"Produced by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at\nhttps://www.pgdp.net/ (This file was produced from images\ngenerously made available by The Internet Archive/American\nLibraries.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                           Eskimo Folk-Tales\n\n\n                              Collected by\n\n                             Knud Rasmussen\n\n                  Edited and rendered into English by\n\n                               W. Worster\n\n              With illustrations by native Eskimo artists\n\n\n\n                               Gyldendal\n             11 Burleigh St., Covent Garden, London, W.C. 2\n                    Copenhagen          Christiania\n                                  1921\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\nThese stories were collected in various parts of Greenland, taken\ndown from the lips of the Eskimo story-tellers themselves, by Knud\nRasmussen, the Danish explorer.\n\nNo man is better qualified to tell the story of Greenland, or the\nstories of its people. Knud Rasmussen is himself partly of Eskimo\norigin; his childhood was spent in Greenland, and to Greenland he\nreturned again and again, studying, exploring, crossing the desert\nof the inland ice, making unique collections of material, tangible\nand otherwise, from all parts of that vast and little-known land,\nand his achievements on these various expeditions have gained for\nhim much honour and the appreciation of many learned societies.\n\nBut it is as an interpreter of native life, of the ways and customs\nof the Eskimos, that he has done his greatest work. \"Kununguaq\"--that\nis his native name--is known throughout the country and possesses the\nconfidence of the natives to a superlative degree, forming himself,\nas it were, a link between them and the rest of the world. Such\nwork, as regards its hither side, must naturally consist to a great\nextent of scientific treatises, collections of facts and specimens,\nall requiring previous knowledge of the subject for their proper\ncomprehension. These have their great value as additions to the sum of\nhuman knowledge, but they remain unknown to the majority of men. The\npresent volume is designed to be essentially a popular, as distinct\nfrom a scientific work.\n\nThe original collection of stories and legends made by Knud Rasmussen\nunder the auspices of the Carlsberg Foundation has never yet been\npublished. In making the present selection, I have endeavoured to\nchoose those which are most characteristic and best calculated to\ngive an idea of the life and thought of the people. The clearest\nvariants have been chosen, and vague or doubtful passages omitted,\nso as to render the narratives easily understandable for the ordinary\nreader. In many cases also, the extreme outspokenness of the primitive\npeople concerned has necessitated further editing, in respect of which,\nI can confidently refer any inclined to protest, to the unabridged\nEnglish version, lodged with the Trustees of the Carlsberg Foundation\nin Copenhagen, for my defence. For the rest, I have endeavoured to keep\nas closely as possible to the spirit and tone of the originals, working\nfrom the Eskimo text and Knud Rasmussen's Danish version side by side.\n\nThe illustrations are by native Eskimo artists. They are not drawn to\nillustrate the particular stories, but represent typical scenes and\nincidents such as are there described. In the selection of these,\npreference has been given to those of unusual character, as for\ninstance those dealing with the \"tupilak\" theme, and matters of\nwizardry or superstition generally, which the reader would find more\ndifficult to visualize for himself than ordinary scenes of daily life.\n\nAs regards their contents, the stories bring before us, more clearly,\nperhaps, than any objective study, the daily life of the Eskimos, their\nhabit of thought, their conception of the universe, and the curious\n\"spirit world\" which forms their primitive religion or mythology.\n\nIn point of form they are unique. The aim of the Eskimo story-teller\nis to pass the time during the long hours of darkness; if he can\nsend his hearers to sleep, he achieves a triumph. Not infrequently\na story-teller will introduce his chef-d'oeuvre with the proud\ndeclaration that \"no one has ever heard this story to the end.\" The\ntelling of the story thus becomes a kind of contest between his power\nof sustained invention and detailed embroidery on the one hand and his\nhearers' power of endurance on the other. Nevertheless, the stories\nare not as interminable as might be expected; we find also long and\nshort variants of the same theme. In the present selection, versions\nof reasonable length have been preferred. The themes themselves are,\nof course, capable of almost infinite expansion.\n\nIn the technique of an ordinary novel there is a certain balance, or\njust proportion, between the amount of space devoted to the various\nitems, scenes and episodes. The ordinary reader does not notice it as a\nrule, for the simple reason that it is always there. The Eskimo stories\nare magnificently heedless of such proportion. Any detail, whether\nof fact or fancy, can be expanded at will; a journey of many hundred\nmiles may be summarized in a dozen words: \"Then he went away to the\nNorthward, and came to a place.\" Thus with the little story of the Man\nwho went out to search for his Son; the version here employed covers no\nmore than a few pages, yet it is a record of six distinct adventures,\nthreaded on to the main theme of the search. It is thus a parallel in\nbrief to the \"Wandering\" stories popular in Europe in the Middle Ages,\nwhen any kind of journey served as the string on which to gather all\nsorts of anecdote and adventure. The story of Atungait, who goes on a\njourney and meets with lame people, left-handed people, and the like,\nis an example of another well-known classical and mediaeval type.\n\nThe mythical stories present some interesting features when compared\nwith the beliefs and folk-lore of other peoples. The legend of the Men\nwho travelled round the World is based on a conception of the world\nas round. There is the tradition of a deluge, but here supported by\ngeological evidence which is appreciated by the natives themselves:\ni.e. the finding of mussel shells on the hills far inland. The\nprinciple of the tides is recognized in what is otherwise a fairy\ntale; \"There will be no more ebb-tide or flood if you strangle me,\"\nsays the Moon Man to the Obstinate One.\n\nThe constellation of the Great Bear is explained in one story,\nthe origin of Venus in another. The spirits of the departed are\n\"stellified\" as seen in \"The Coming of Men.\" There seems to be a\nconsiderable intermingling of Christian culture and modern science\nin the general attitude towards life, but these foreign elements\nare coated over, as it were, like the speck of grit in an oyster,\ntill they appear as concentrations of the native poetic spirit that\nforms their environment.\n\nWe find, too, constant evidence of derivation from the earliest,\ncommon sources of all folk-lore and myth; parallels to the fairy\ntales and legends of other lands and other ages. There is a version of\nthe Bluebeard theme in Imarasugssuaq, \"who, it is said, was wont to\neat his wives.\" Instances of friendship and affection between human\nbeings and animals are found, as in the tale of the Foster-mother\nand the Bear. Various resemblances to well-known fairy tales are\ndiscernible in such stories as that of the Eagle and the Whale, where\nthe brothers set out to rescue their sisters from the husbands who\nhold them captive. Here too, we encounter that ancient and classical\nexpedient of fugitives; throwing out objects behind to check pursuit.\n\nThe conception of the under-world, as shown in the story of Kunigseq\nand others, is a striking example of this kinship with ancient and\nwell-known legends. Kunigseq comes to the land of shades, and meets\nthere his mother, who is dead. But she must not kiss him, for \"he is\nonly here on a visit.\" Or again: \"If you eat of those berries, you\nwill never return.\" The under-world is partly an Elysium of existence\nwithout cares; partly Dantesque: \"Bring ice when you come again, for\nwe thirst for cold water down here.\" And the traveller who has been\naway from earth for what seems an hour, finds that years of earthly\ntime have passed when he returns.\n\nSpirits of the departed appearing to their kin upon earth do so with\nan injunction \"not to tell.\" (In England we write to the newspapers\nabout them.) Magic powers or gifts are lost by telling others how they\ncame. Spirit gifts are made subject to some condition of restraint:\n\"Choose only one and no more.\" \"If you kill more than one seal to-day,\nyou will never kill seal again hereafter.\"\n\nThe technique of the fairy tale is frequently apparent. One\ntest fulfilled is followed by the demand for fulfilment of\nanother. Qujavarssuk, having found the skeleton as instructed,\nis then sent off to search for a lamb stone. This, of course, apart\nfrom its aesthetic value as retardation, is particularly useful to the\nstory-teller aiming principally at length. We also find the common\nprogression from one great or splendid thing to other greater or more\nsplendid; a woman appears \"even more finely dressed than on the day\nbefore.\" English children will perhaps remember Hans Andersen's dog\nwith \"eyes as big as saucers ... eyes as big as Rundetaarn.\"\n\nThe use of \"magic power\" is of very frequent occurrence; it\nseems, indeed, to be the generally accepted way of solving any\ndifficulty. As soon as the hero has been brought into a situation\nfrom which no ordinary way of escape appears, it then transpires--as\nan afterthought--that he is possessed of magic powers, when the rest,\nof course, is easy. A delightful instance of the extent to which this\nuseful faculty can be watered down and yet remain effective is seen in\nthe case of the village where no wizard can be found to help in time\nof famine, until it is \"revealed\" that Ikardlituarssuk \"had formerly\nsat on the knee of one of those present when the wizards called up\ntheir helping spirits.\" In virtue of which very distant connection\nhe proceeds to magic away the ice.\n\nThere is a general tendency towards anthropomorphic conception of\nsupernatural beings. The Moon Man has his stock of harpoons like\nany mortal hunter; the Mountain Spirit has a wife and children. The\nlife and domestic arrangements of \"spirits\" are mostly represented\nas very similar to those with which the story-teller and his hearers\nare familiar, much as we find, in early Italian paintings, Scriptural\npersonages represented in the costume and environment of the artist's\nown place and period.\n\nThe style of narrative is peculiar. The stories open, as a rule, with\nsome traditionally accepted gambit. \"There was once a man ...\" or \"A\nfatherless boy lived in the house of the many brothers.\" The ending\nmay occasionally point a sort of moral, as in the case of Ukaleq,\nwho after having escaped from a Magic Bear, \"never went out hunting\nbear again.\" But the usual form is either a sort of equivalent to\n\"lived happily ever after,\" or a frank and direct intimation: \"Here\nends this story,\" or \"That is all I know of so-and-so.\" Some such\nhint is not infrequently necessary, since the \"end\" of a story often\nleaves considerable scope for further development.\n\nIt is a characteristic feature of these stories that one never knows\nwhat is going to happen. Poetic justice is often satisfied, but by no\nmeans always (Kagssagssuk). One or two of them are naively weak and\nlacking in incident; we are constantly expecting something to happen,\nbut nothing happens ... still nothing happens ... and the story ends\n(Puagssuaq). It is sometimes difficult to follow the exact course of a\nconversation or action between two personages, owing to the inadequate\n\"he\" which is used for both.\n\nThe story-teller, while observing the traditional form, does not\nalways do so uncritically. Occasionally he will throw in a little\ninterpolation of his own, as if in apology: \"There was once a wifeless\nman--that is the way a story always begins.\" Or the entertainer starts\noff in a cheerfully familiar style: \"Well, it was the usual thing;\nthere was a Strong Man, and he had a wife. And, of course, he used\nto beat her....\"\n\nHere and there, too, a touch of explanation may be inserted. \"This\nhappened in the old days,\" or \"So men thought in the olden time.\" There\nis a general recognition of the difference between old times and\nnew. And the manner in which this difference is viewed reveals two\ncharacteristic attitudes of mind, the blending of which is apparent\nthroughout the Eskimo culture of to-day. There is the attitude of\ncondescension, the arrogant tolerance of the proselyte and the parvenu:\n\"So our forefathers used to do, for they were ignorant folk.\" At times,\nhowever, it is with precisely opposite view, mourning the present\ndegeneration from earlier days, \"when men were yet skilful rowers in\n'kayaks,' or when this or that might still be done 'by magic power.'\"\n\nAnd it is here, perhaps, that the stories reach their highest poetic\nlevel. This regret for the passing of \"the former age,\" whether as\nan age of greater strength and virtue, greater courage and skill, or\nas the Golden Age of Romance, is a touching and most human trait. It\ngives to these poor Eskimo hunters, far removed from the leisure and\nsecurity that normally precede the growth of art, a place among the\npoets of the world.\n\n\nW. W. Worster.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n                                                               PAGE\n\n    Introduction                                                  5\n    The two Friends who set off to travel round the world        15\n    The coming of Men, a long, long while ago                    16\n    Nukunguasik, who escaped from the Tupilak                    18\n    Qujavarssuk                                                  20\n    Kunigseq                                                     38\n    The woman who had a bear as a foster-son                     40\n    Imarasugssuaq, who ate his wives                             44\n    Qalaganguase, who passed to the land of Ghosts               46\n    Isigaligarssik                                               49\n    The Insects that wooed a wifeless man                        52\n    The very obstinate man                                       56\n    The Dwarfs                                                   60\n    The Boy from the Bottom of the Sea, who frightened the\n    people of the house to death                                 64\n    The Raven and the Goose                                      66\n    When the Ravens could speak                                  67\n    Makite                                                       68\n    Asaloq                                                       71\n    Ukaleq                                                       73\n    Ikardlituarssuk                                              75\n    The Raven who wanted a wife                                  77\n    The man who took a Vixen to wife                             79\n    The great bear                                               81\n    The man who became a star                                    82\n    The woman with the iron tail                                 83\n    How the fog came                                             84\n    The man who avenged the widows                               86\n    The man who went out to search for his son                   88\n    Atungait, who went a-wandering                               90\n    Kumagdlak and the living arrows                              93\n    The Giant Dog                                                95\n    The Inland-dwellers of Etah                                  97\n    The man who stabbed his wife in the leg                      98\n    The soul that lived in the bodies of all beasts             100\n    Papik, who killed his wife's brother                        104\n    Patussorssuaq, who killed his uncle                         107\n    The men who changed wives                                   109\n    Artuk, who did all forbidden things                         110\n    The thunder spirits                                         111\n    Nerrivik                                                    113\n    The wife who lied                                           115\n    Kagssagssuk, the homeless boy who became a strong man       117\n    Qasiagssaq, the great liar                                  123\n    The Eagle and the Whale                                     130\n    The two little Outcasts                                     133\n    Atdlarneq, the great glutton                                136\n    Angangujuk                                                  139\n    Atarssuaq                                                   142\n    Puagssuaq                                                   146\n    Tungujuluk and Saunikoq                                     148\n    Anarteq                                                     150\n    The Guillemot that could talk                               152\n    Kanagssuaq                                                  154\n    The sources of the various legends                          157\n\n\n\n\n\n\nILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\n    Man and wife from Angmagssalik                     Frontispiece\n\n                                                       To face page\n\n    Making a tupilak. Note the bones of various animals\n    used: The monster is on the point of coming to life          18\n    Hunter in kayak. The creature behind is a monster that\n    frightens all the seal away                                  34\n    Hunters encountering Sarqiserasak, a dangerous troll,\n    who rows in a half kayak himself, and upsets all he\n    meets with his paddle                                        34\n    Wizard preparing for a \"spirit fight.\" He is bound head\n    to knees and hands behind; the magic drum resting on his\n    foot is beating itself. Bird's wings are fastened to his\n    back                                                         50\n    \"Inland-dweller\" armed with bow and arrow                    70\n    An \"inland-dweller,\" half dog, half human, pointing out\n    a settlement for destruction                                 96\n    A tupilak frightening a man to death in his kayak            96\n    Evil spirit entering a house                                116\n    Wizard calling up a \"helping spirit\"                        140\n    Flying race between two wizards, one of whom, unable\n    to keep up, has fallen to earth, and is vainly begging\n    the other to stop                                           148\n    Angiut, a \"helping spirit,\" who knows all about\n    everywhere                                                  148\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nESKIMO FOLK-TALES\n\n\nTHE TWO FRIENDS WHO SET OFF TO TRAVEL ROUND THE WORLD\n\n\nOnce there were two men who desired to travel round the world, that\nthey might tell others what was the manner of it.\n\nThis was in the days when men were still many on the earth, and there\nwere people in all the lands. Now we grow fewer and fewer. Evil and\nsickness have come upon men. See how I, who tell this story, drag my\nlife along, unable to stand upon my feet.\n\nThe two men who were setting out had each newly taken a wife, and had\nas yet no children. They made themselves cups of musk-ox horn, each\nmaking a cup for himself from one side of the same beast's head. And\nthey set out, each going away from the other, that they might go by\ndifferent ways and meet again some day. They travelled with sledges,\nand chose land to stay and live upon each summer.\n\nIt took them a long time to get round the world; they had children,\nand they grew old, and then their children also grew old, until\nat last the parents were so old that they could not walk, but the\nchildren led them.\n\nAnd at last one day, they met--and of their drinking horns there was\nbut the handle left, so many times had they drunk water by the way,\nscraping the horn against the ground as they filled them.\n\n\"The world is great indeed,\" they said when they met.\n\nThey had been young at their starting, and now they were old men,\nled by their children.\n\nTruly the world is great.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE COMING OF MEN, A LONG, LONG WHILE AGO\n\n\nOur forefathers have told us much of the coming of earth, and of\nmen, and it was a long, long while ago. Those who lived long before\nour day, they did not know how to store their words in little black\nmarks, as you do; they could only tell stories. And they told of many\nthings, and therefore we are not without knowledge of these things,\nwhich we have heard told many and many a time, since we were little\nchildren. Old women do not waste their words idly, and we believe\nwhat they say. Old age does not lie.\n\nA long, long time ago, when the earth was to be made, it fell down\nfrom the sky. Earth, hills and stones, all fell down from the sky,\nand thus the earth was made.\n\nAnd then, when the earth was made, came men.\n\nIt is said that they came forth out of the earth. Little children\ncame out of the earth. They came forth from among the willow bushes,\nall covered with willow leaves. And there they lay among the little\nbushes: lay and kicked, for they could not even crawl. And they got\ntheir food from the earth.\n\nThen there is something about a man and a woman, but what of them? It\nis not clearly known. When did they find each other, and when had they\ngrown up? I do not know. But the woman sewed, and made children's\nclothes, and wandered forth. And she found little children, and\ndressed them in the clothes, and brought them home.\n\nAnd in this way men grew to be many.\n\nAnd being now so many, they desired to have dogs. So a man went out\nwith a dog leash in his hand, and began to stamp on the ground, crying\n\"Hok--hok--hok!\" Then the dogs came hurrying out from the hummocks,\nand shook themselves violently, for their coats were full of sand. Thus\nmen found dogs.\n\nBut then children began to be born, and men grew to be very many on the\nearth. They knew nothing of death in those days, a long, long time ago,\nand grew to be very old. At last they could not walk, but went blind,\nand could not lie down.\n\nNeither did they know the sun, but lived in the dark. No day ever\ndawned. Only inside their houses was there ever light, and they burned\nwater in their lamps, for in those days water would burn.\n\nBut these men who did not know how to die, they grew to be too many,\nand crowded the earth. And then there came a mighty flood from the\nsea. Many were drowned, and men grew fewer. We can still see marks\nof that great flood, on the high hill-tops, where mussel shells may\noften be found.\n\nAnd now that men had begun to be fewer, two old women began to\nspeak thus:\n\n\"Better to be without day, if thus we may be without death,\" said\nthe one.\n\n\"No; let us have both light and death,\" said the other.\n\nAnd when the old woman had spoken these words, it was as she had\nwished. Light came, and death.\n\nIt is said, that when the first man died, others covered up the body\nwith stones. But the body came back again, not knowing rightly how to\ndie. It stuck out its head from the bench, and tried to get up. But\nan old woman thrust it back, and said:\n\n\"We have much to carry, and our sledges are small.\"\n\nFor they were about to set out on a hunting journey. And so the dead\none was forced to go back to the mound of stones.\n\nAnd now, after men had got light on their earth, they were able\nto go on journeys, and to hunt, and no longer needed to eat of the\nearth. And with death came also the sun, moon and stars.\n\nFor when men die, they go up into the sky and become brightly shining\nthings there.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNUKUNGUASIK, WHO ESCAPED FROM THE TUPILAK [1]\n\n\nNukunguasik, it is said, had land in a place with many brothers. When\nthe brothers made a catch, they gave him meat for the pot; he himself\nhad no wife.\n\nOne day he rowed northward in his kayak, and suddenly he took it into\nhis head to row over to a big island which he had never visited before,\nand now wished to see. He landed, and went up to look at the land,\nand it was very beautiful there.\n\nAnd here he came upon the middle one of many brothers, busy with\nsomething or other down in a hollow, and whispering all the time. So\nhe crawled stealthily towards him, and when he had come closer,\nhe heard him whispering these words:\n\n\"You are to bite Nukunguasik to death; you are to bite Nukunguasik\nto death.\"\n\nAnd then it was clear that he was making a Tupilak, and stood there\nnow telling it what to do. But suddenly Nukunguasik slapped him on\nthe side and said: \"But where is this Nukunguasik?\"\n\nAnd the man was so frightened at this that he fell down dead.\n\nAnd then Nukunguasik saw that the man had been letting the Tupilak\nsniff at his body. And the Tupilak was now alive, and lay there\nsniffing. But Nukunguasik, being afraid of the Tupilak, went away\nwithout trying to harm it.\n\nNow he rowed home, and there the many brothers were waiting in vain\nfor the middle one to return. At last the day dawned, and still he\nhad not come. And daylight came, and then as they were preparing to\ngo out in search of him, the eldest of them said to Nukunguasik:\n\n\"Nukunguasik, come with us; we must search for him.\"\n\nAnd so Nukunguasik went with them, but as they found nothing, he said:\n\n\"Would it not be well to go and make search over on that island,\nwhere no one ever goes?\"\n\nAnd having gone on to the island, Nukunguasik said:\n\n\"Now you can go and look on the southern side.\"\n\nWhen the brothers reached the place, he heard them cry out, and the\neldest said:\n\n\"O wretched one! Why did you ever meddle with such a thing as this!\"\n\nAnd they could be heard weeping all together about the dead man.\n\nAnd now Nukunguasik went up to them, and there lay the Tupilak, still\nalive, and nibbling at the body of the dead man. But the brothers\nburied him there, making a mound of stones above him. And then they\nwent home.\n\nNukunguasik lived there as the oldest in the place, and died at last\nafter many years.\n\nHere I end this story: I know no more.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nQUJAVARSSUK\n\n\nA strong man had land at Ikerssuaq. The only other one there was an\nold man, one who lived on nothing but devil-fish; when the strong man\nhad caught more than he needed, the old man had always plenty of meat,\nwhich was given him in exchange for his fish.\n\nThe strong one, men say, he who never failed to catch seal when\nhe went out hunting, became silent as time went on, and then very\nsilent. And this no doubt was because he could get no children.\n\nThe old one was a wizard, and one day the strong one came to him\nand said:\n\n\"To-morrow, when my wife comes down to the shore close by where you\nare fishing, go to her. For this I will give you something of my\ncatch each day.\"\n\nAnd this no doubt was because he wanted his wife to have a child,\nfor he wished greatly to have a child, and could not bring it about.\n\nThe old man did not forget those words which were said to him.\n\nAnd to his wife also, the strong one said:\n\n\"To-morrow, when the old one is out fishing, go you down finely\ndressed, to the shore close by.\"\n\nAnd she did it as he had said. When they had slept and again awakened,\nshe watched to see when the old one went out. And when he rowed\naway, she put on her finest clothes and followed after him along the\nshore. When she came in sight of him, he lay out there fishing. Then\neagerly she stood up on the shore, and looked out towards him. And\nnow he looked at her, and then again out over the sea, and this went\non for a long time. She stood there a long time in vain, looking out\ntowards him, but he would not come in to where she was, and therefore\nshe went home. As soon as she had come home, her husband rowed up to\nthe old one, and asked:\n\n\"Did you not go to my wife to-day?\"\n\nThe old one said:\n\n\"No.\"\n\nAnd again the strong one said a second time:\n\n\"Then do not fail to go to her to-morrow.\"\n\nBut when the old one came home, he could not forget the strong man's\nwords. In the evening, the strong one said that same thing again to\nhis wife, and a second time told her to go to the old one.\n\nThey slept, and awakened, and the strong man went out hunting as was\nhis wont. Then his wife waited only until the old one had gone out,\nand as soon as he was gone, she put on her finest clothes and followed\nafter. When she came in sight of the water, the old one was sitting\nthere in his boat as on the other days, and fishing. Now the old\none turned his head and saw her, and he could see that she was even\nmore finely dressed than on the day before. And now a great desire\nof her came over him, and he made up his mind to row in to where she\nwas. He came in to the land, and stepped out of his kayak and went\nup to her. And now he went to her this time.\n\nThen he rowed out again, but he caught scarcely any fish that day.\n\nWhen only a little time had gone, the strong man came rowing out to\nhim and said:\n\n\"Now perhaps you have again failed to go to my wife?\"\n\nWhen these words were spoken, the old one turned his head away,\nand said:\n\n\"To-day I have not failed to be with her.\"\n\nWhen the strong one heard this, he took one of the seals he had caught,\nand gave it to the old man, and said:\n\n\"Take this; it is yours.\"\n\nAnd in this way he acted towards him from that time. The old one came\nhome that day dragging a seal behind him. And this he could often\ndo thereafter.\n\nWhen the strong one came home, he said to his wife:\n\n\"When I go out to-morrow in my kayak, it is not to hunt seal; therefore\nwatch carefully for my return when the sun is in the west.\"\n\nNext day he went out in his kayak, and when the sun was in the west,\nhis wife went often and often to look out. And once when she went\nthus, she saw that he had come, and from that moment she was no\nlonger sleepy.\n\nAs the strong one came nearer and nearer to land, he paddled more\nand more strongly.\n\nNow his wife went down to that place where he was about to land,\nand turned and sat down with her back to the sea. The man unfastened\nhis hunting fur from the ring of his kayak, and put his hand into the\nback of the kayak, and took out a sea serpent, and struck his wife\non the back. At this she felt very cold, and her skin smarted. Then\nshe stood up and went home. But her husband said no word to her. Then\nthey slept, and awakened, and then the old one came to them and said:\n\n\"Now you must search for the carrion of a cormorant, with only the\nskeleton remaining, for your wife is with child.\"\n\nAnd the strong one went out eagerly to search for this.\n\nOne day, paddling southward in his kayak, as was his custom, he started\nto search all the little bird cliffs. And coming to the foot of one of\nthem, he saw that which he so greatly wished to see; the carrion of\na big cormorant, which had now become a skeleton. It lay there quite\neasy to see. But there was no way of coming to the place where it\nwas, not from above nor from below, nor from the side. Yet he would\ntry. He tied his hunting line fast to the cross thongs on his kayak,\nand thrust his hand into a small crack a little way up the cliff. And\nnow he tried to climb up there with his hands alone. And at last he\ngot that skeleton, and came down in the same way back to his kayak,\nand got into it, and rowed away northward to his home. And almost\nbefore he had reached land, the old one came to him, and the cormorant\nskeleton was taken out of the kayak. Now the old one trembled all over\nwith surprise. And he took the skeleton, and put it away, and said:\n\n\"Now you must search for a soft stone, which has never felt the sun,\na stone good to make a lamp of.\"\n\nAnd the strong man began to search for such a stone.\n\nOnce when he was on this search, he came to a cliff, which stood in\nsuch a place that it never felt the sun, and here he found a fine lamp\nstone. And he brought it home, and the old one took it and put it away.\n\nA few days passed, and then the strong one's wife began to feel\nthe birth-pangs, and the old one went in there at once with his own\nwife. Then she bore a son, and when he was born, the strong man said\nto the old one:\n\n\"This is your child; name him after some dead one.\" [2]\n\n\"Let him be named after him who died of hunger in the north,\nat Amerdloq.\"\n\nThis the old one said. And then he said:\n\n\"His name shall be Qujavarssuk!\"\n\nAnd in this way the old one gave him that name.\n\nNow Qujavarssuk grew up, and when he was grown big enough, the strong\nman said to the old one:\n\n\"Make a kayak for him.\"\n\nNow the old one made him a kayak, and the kayak was finished. And when\nit was finished, he took it by the nose and thrust him out into the\nwater to try it, but without loosing his hold. And when he did this,\nthere came one little seal up out of the water, and others also. This\nwas a sign that he should be a strong man, a chief, when the seals\ncame to him so. When he drew him out of the water, they all went down\nagain, and not a seal remained.\n\nNow the old one began to make hunting things. When they were finished,\nand there was nothing more to be done in making them, and he thought\nthe boy was of a good age to begin going out to hunt seal, he said\nto the strong one:\n\n\"Now row out with him, for he must go seal hunting.\"\n\nThen he rowed out with him, and when they had come so far out that\nthey could not see the bottom, he said:\n\n\"Take the harpoon point with its line, and fix it on the shaft.\"\n\nThey had just made things ready for their hunting and rowed on farther,\nwhen they came to a flock of black seal.\n\nThe strong one said to him:\n\n\"Now row straight at them.\"\n\nAnd then he rowed straight at them, and he lifted his harpoon and he\nthrew it and he struck. And this he did every day in the same manner,\nand made a catch each time he went out in his kayak.\n\nThen some people who had made a wintering place in the south heard,\nin a time of hunger, of Qujavarssuk, the strong man who never suffered\nwant. And when they heard this, they began to come and visit the\nplace where he had land. In this way there came once a man who was\ncalled Tugto, and his wife. And while they were there--they were both\ngreat wizards--the man and his wife began to quarrel, and so the wife\nran away to live alone in the hills. And now the man could not bring\nback his wife, for he was not so great a wizard as she. And when the\npeople who had come to visit the place went away, he could do nothing\nbut stay there.\n\nOne day when he was out hunting seal at Ikerssuaq, he saw a big black\nseal which came up from the bottom with a red fish in its mouth.\n\nNow he took bearings by the cliffs of the place where the seal went\ndown, and after that time, when he was out in his kayak, he took up\nall the bird wings that he saw, and fastened all the pinion feathers\ntogether.\n\nTugto was a big man, yet he had taken up so much of this that it\nwas a hard matter for him to carry it when he took it on his back,\nand then he thought it must be enough for that depth of water.\n\nAt last the ice lay firm, and when the ice lay firm, he began to make\nthings ready to go out and fish. One morning he woke, and went away\nover land. He came to a lake, and walked over it, and came again\non to the land. And thus he came to the place where lay that water\nhe was going to fish, and he went out on the ice while it was still\nmorning. Then he cut a great hole in the ice, and just as he cast out\nthe weight on his line, the sun came up. It came quite out, and went\nacross the sky, all in the time he was letting out his line. And not\nuntil the sun had gone half through the day did the weight reach the\nbottom. Then he hauled up the line a little way, and almost before it\nwas still, he felt a pull. And he hauled it up, and it was a mighty sea\nperch. This he killed, but did not let down his line a second time,\nfor in that way it would become evening. He cut a hole in the lower\njaw of the fish, and put in a cord to carry it with. And when he took\nit on his head, it was so long that the tail struck against his heel.\n\nThen in this manner he walked away, and came to land. When he came\nto the big lake he had walked over in the morning, he went out on\nit. But when he had come half the way over, the ice began to make a\nnoise, and when he looked round, it seemed to him that the noise in\nthe ice was following him from behind.\n\nNow he went away running, but as he ran he fainted suddenly away, and\nlay a long time so. When he woke again, he was lying down. He thought\na little, and then he remembered. \"Au: I am running away!\" And then\nhe got up and turned round, but could not find a break in the ice\nanywhere. But he could feel in himself that he had now become a much\ngreater wizard than before.\n\nHe went on farther, and chose his way up over a little hilly slope,\nand when he could see clearly ahead, he perceived a mighty beast.\n\nIt was one of those monsters which men saw in the old far-off times,\nquite covered with bird-skins. And it was so big that not a twitch of\nlife could be seen in it. He was afraid now, and turned round, until\nhe could no longer see it. Then he left that way, and came out into\nanother place, where he saw another looking just the same. He now went\nback again in such a manner that it could not find him, but then he\nremembered that a wizard can win power to vanish away, even to vanish\ninto the ground, if he can pull to pieces the skin of such a monster.\n\nWhen his thoughts had begun to work upon this, he threw away his\nburden and went towards it and began to wrestle with it. And it was\nnot a long time before he began to tear its covering in pieces; the\nflesh on it was not bigger than a thumb. Then he went away from it,\nand took up his burden again on his head, and went wandering on. When\nhe was again going along homewards, he felt in himself that he had\nbecome a great wizard, and he could see the door openings of all the\nvillages in that countryside quite close together.\n\nAnd when he came home, he caused these words to be said:\n\n\"Let the people come and hear.\"\n\nAnd now many people came hurrying into the house. And he began calling\nup spirits. And in this calling he raised himself up and flew away\ntowards his wife.\n\nAnd when he came near her in his spirit flight, and hovered above\nher, she was sitting sewing. He went straight down through the roof,\nand when she tried to escape through the floor he did likewise,\nand reached her in the earth. After this, she was very willing when\nhe tried to take her home with him, and he took her home with him,\nand now he had his wife again, and those two people lived together\nuntil they were very old.\n\nOne winter, the frost came, and was very hard and the sea was frozen,\nand only a little opening was left, far out over the ice. And hither\nQujavarssuk was forced to carry his kayak each day, out to the open\nwater, but each day he caught two seals, as was his custom.\n\nAnd then, as often happens in time of dearth, there came many poor\npeople wandering over the ice, from the south, wishing to get some\ngood thing of all that Qujavarssuk caught. Once there came also two\nold men, and they were his mother's kinsmen. They came on a visit. And\nwhen they came, his mother said to them:\n\n\"Now you have come before I have got anything cooked. It is true that\nI have something from the cooking of yesterday; eat that if you will,\nwhile I cook something now.\" Then she set before them the kidney\npart of a black seal, with its own blubber as dripping. Now one of\nthe two old men began eating, and went on eagerly, dipping the meat\nin the dripping. But the other stopped eating very soon.\n\nThen Qujavarssuk came home, as was his custom, with two seals, and\nsaid to his mother:\n\n\"Take the breast part and boil it quickly.\"\n\nFor this was the best part of the seal. And she boiled it, and it\nwas done in a moment. And then she set it on a dish and brought it\nto those two.\n\n\"Here, eat.\"\n\nAnd now at last the one of them began really to eat, but the other\ntook a piece of the shoulder. When Qujavarssuk saw this, he said:\n\n\"You should not begin to eat from the wrong side.\"\n\nAnd when he had said that, he said again:\n\n\"If you eat from that side, then my catching of the seals will\ncease.\" But the old man became very angry in his mind at this order.\n\nNext morning, when they were about to set off again southward,\nQujavarssuk's mother gave them as much meat as they could carry. They\nwent home southward, over the ice, but when they had gone a little way,\nthey were forced to stop, because their burden was so heavy. And when\nthey had rested a little, they went on again. When they had come near\nto their village, one said to the other:\n\n\"Has there not wakened a thought in your mind? I am very angry with\nQujavarssuk. Yesterday, when we came there, they gave us only a kidney\npiece in welcome, and that is meat I do not like at all.\"\n\n\"Hum,\" said the other. \"I thought it was all very good. It was fine\ntender meat for my teeth.\"\n\nAt these words, the other began again to speak:\n\n\"Now that my anger has awakened, I will make a Tupilak for that\nmiserable Qujavarssuk.\"\n\nBut the other said to him:\n\n\"Why will you do such a thing? Look; their gifts are so many that we\nmust carry the load upon our heads.\"\n\nBut that comrade would not change his purpose, not for all the trying\nof the other to turn him from it. And at last the other ceased to\nspeak of it.\n\nNow as the cold grew stronger, that opening in the ice became smaller\nand smaller, at the place where Qujavarssuk was used to go with his\nkayak. One day, when he came down to it, there was but just room for\nhis kayak to go in, and if now a seal should rise, it could not fail\nto strike the kayak. Yet he got into the kayak, and at the time when he\nwas fixing the head on his harpoon, he saw a black seal coming up from\nbelow. But seeing that it must touch both the ice and the kayak, it\nwent down again without coming right to the surface. Then Qujavarssuk\nwent up again and went home, and that was the first time he went home\nwithout having made a catch, in all the time he had been a hunter.\n\nWhen he had come home, he sat himself down behind his mother's lamp,\nsitting on the bedplace, so that only his feet hung down over the\nfloor. He was so troubled that he would not eat. And later in the\nevening, he said to his mother:\n\n\"Take meat to Tugto and his wife, and ask one of them to magic away\nthe ice.\"\n\nHis mother went out and cut the meat of a black seal across at the\nmiddle. Then she brought the tail half, and half the blubber of a seal,\nup to Tugto and his wife. She came to the entrance, but it was covered\nwith snow, so that it looked like a fox hole. At first, she dropped\nthat which she was carrying in through the passage way. And it was this\nwhich Tugto and his wife first saw; the half of a black seal's meat\nand half of its blubber cut across. And when she came in, she said:\n\n\"It is my errand now to ask if one of you can magic away the ice.\"\n\nWhen these words were heard, Tugto said to his wife:\n\n\"In this time of hunger we cannot send away meat that is given. You\nmust magic away the ice.\"\n\nAnd she set about to do his bidding. To Qujavarssuk's mother she said:\n\n\"Tell all the people who can come here to come here and listen!\"\n\nAnd then she began eagerly going in to the dwellings, to say that\nall who could come should come in and listen to the magic. When all\nhad come in, she put out the lamp, and began to call on her helping\nspirits. Then suddenly she said:\n\n\"Two flames have appeared in the west!\"\n\nAnd now she was standing up in the passage way, and let them come to\nher, and when they came forward, they were a bear and a walrus. The\nbear blew her in under the bedplace, but when it drew in its breath\nagain, she came out from under the bedplace and stopped at the passage\nway. In this manner it went on for a long time. But now she made\nready to go out, and said then to the listeners:\n\n\"All through this night none may yawn or wink an eye.\" And then she\nwent out.\n\nAt the same moment when she went out, the bear took her in its teeth\nand flung her out over the ice. Hardly had she fallen on the ice again,\nwhen the walrus thrust its tusks into her and flung her out across the\nice, but the bear ran along after her, keeping beneath her as she flew\nthrough the air. Each time she fell on the ice, the walrus thrust its\ntusks into her again. It seemed as if the outermost islands suddenly\nwent to the bottom of the sea, so quickly did she move outwards. They\nwere now almost out of sight, and not until they could no longer see\nthe land did the walrus and the bear leave her. Then she could begin\nagain to go towards the land.\n\nWhen at last she could see the cliffs, it seemed as if there were\nclouds above them, because of the driving snow. At last the wind came\ndown, and the ice began at once to break up. Now she looked round on\nall sides, and caught sight of an iceberg which was frozen fast. And\ntowards this she let herself drift. Hardly had she come up on to the\niceberg, when the ice all went to pieces, and now there was no way\nfor her to save herself. But at the same moment she heard someone\nbeside her say:\n\n\"Let me take you in my kayak.\" And when she looked round, she saw a\nman in a very narrow kayak. And he said a second time:\n\n\"Come and let me take you in my kayak. If you will not do this,\nthen you will never taste the good things Qujavarssuk has paid you.\"\n\nNow the sea was very rough, and yet she made ready to go. When a wave\nlifted the kayak, she sprang down into it. But as she dropped down,\nthe kayak was nearly upset. Then, as she tried to move over to the\nother side of it, she again moved too far, and then he said:\n\n\"Place yourself properly in the middle of the kayak.\"\n\nAnd when she had done so, he tried to row, for it was his purpose to\ntake her with him in his kayak, although the sea was very rough. Then\nhe rowed out with her. And when he had come a little way out, he\nsighted land, but when they came near, there was no place at all where\nthey could come up on shore, and at the moment when the wave took them,\nhe said:\n\n\"Now try to jump ashore.\"\n\nAnd when he said this, she sprang ashore. When she now stood on land,\nshe turned round and saw that the kayak was lost to sight in a great\nwave. And it was never seen again. She turned and went away. But as she\nwent on, she felt a mighty thirst. She came to a place where water was\noozing through the snow. She went there, and when she reached it, and\nwas about to lay herself down to drink, a voice came suddenly and said:\n\n\"Do not drink it; for if you do, you will never taste the good things\nQujavarssuk has paid you.\"\n\nWhen she heard this she went forward again. On her way she came to a\nhouse. On the top of the house lay a great dog, and it was terrible\nto see. When she began to go past it, it looked as if it would bite\nher. But at last she came past it.\n\nIn the passage way of the house there was a great river flowing,\nand the only place where she could tread was narrow as the back of\na knife. And the passage way itself was so wide that she could not\nhold fast by the walls.\n\nSo she walked along, poising carefully, using her little fingers as\nwings. But when she came to the inner door, the step was so high,\nthat she could not come over it quickly. Inside the house, she saw an\nold woman lying face downwards on the bedplace. And as soon as she had\ncome in, the old woman began to abuse her. And she was about to answer\nthose bad words, when the old woman sprang out on to the floor to fight\nwith her. And now they two fought furiously together. They fought\nfor a long time, and little by little the old woman grew tired. And\nwhen she was so tired that she could not get up, the other saw that\nher hair hung loose and was full of dirt. And now Tugto's wife began\ncleaning her as well as she could. When this was done, she put up\nher hair in its knot. The old woman had not spoken, but now she said:\n\n\"You are a dear little thing, you that have come in here. It is long\nsince I was so nicely cleaned. Not since little Atakana from Sardloq\ncleaned me have I ever been cleaned at all. I have nothing to give\nyou in return. Move my lamp away.\"\n\nAnd when she did so, there was a noise like the moving of wings. When\nshe turned to look, she saw a host of birds flying in through the\npassage way. For a long time birds flew in, without stopping. But\nthen the woman said:\n\n\"Now it is enough.\" And she put the lamp straight. And when that was\ndone, the other said again:\n\n\"Will you not put it a little to the other side?\"\n\nAnd she moved it so. And then she saw some men with long hair flying\ntowards the passage way. When she looked closer, she saw that it was\na host of black seal. And when very many of them had come in this\nmanner, she said:\n\n\"Now it is enough.\" And she put the lamp in its place. Then the old\nwoman looked over towards her, and said:\n\n\"When you come home, tell them that they must never more face towards\nthe sea when they empty their dirty vessels, for when they do so,\nit all goes over me.\"\n\nWhen at last the woman came out again, the big dog wagged his tail\nkindly at her.\n\nIt was still night when Tugto's wife came home, and when she came in,\nnone of them had yet yawned or winked an eye. When she lit the lamp,\nher face was fearfully scratched, and she told them this:\n\n\"You must not think that the ice will break up at once; it will not\nbreak up until these sores are healed.\"\n\nAfter a long time they began to heal slowly, and sometimes it might\nhappen that one or another cried in mockingly through the window:\n\n\"Now surely it is time the ice broke up and went out to sea, for that\nwhich was to be done is surely done.\"\n\nBut at last her sores were healed. And one day a black cloud came up\nin the south. Later in the evening, there was a mighty noise of the\nwind, and the storm did not abate until it was growing light in the\nmorning. When it was quite light, and the people came out, the sea was\nopen and blue. A great number of birds were flying above the water, and\nthere were hosts of black seal everywhere. The kayaks were made ready\nat once, and when they began to make them ready, Tugto's wife said:\n\n\"No one must hunt them yet; until five days are gone no one may\nhunt them.\"\n\nBut before those days were gone, one of the young men went out\nnevertheless to hunt. He tried with great efforts, but caught nothing\nafter all. Not until those days were gone did the witch-wife say:\n\n\"Now you may hunt them.\"\n\nAnd now the men went out to sea to hunt the birds. And not until\nthey could bear no more on their kayaks did they row home again. But\nthen all those men had to give up their whole catch to Tugto's\nhouse. Not until the second hunting were they permitted to keep any\nfor themselves.\n\nNext day they went out to hunt for seal. They harpooned many, but\nthese also were given to Tugto and his wife. Of these also they kept\nnothing for themselves until the second hunting.\n\n\n\nNow when the ice was gone, then that old man we have told about before,\nhe put life into the Tupilak, and said to it then:\n\n\"Go out now, and eat up Qujavarssuk.\"\n\nThe Tupilak paddled out after him, but Qujavarssuk had already reached\nthe shore, and was about to carry up his kayak on to the land, with\na catch of two seals. Now the Tupilak had no fear but that next\nday, when he went out, it would be easy to catch and eat him. And\ntherefore, when it was no later than dawn, it was waiting outside his\nhouse. When Qujavarssuk awoke, he got up and went down to his kayak,\nand began to make ready for hunting. He put on his long fur coat,\nand went down and put the kayak in the water. He lifted one leg and\nstepped into the kayak, and this the Tupilak saw, but when he lifted\nthe other leg to step in with that, he disappeared entirely from its\nsight. And all through the day it looked for him in vain. At last it\nswam in towards land, but by that time he had already reached home,\nand drawn the kayak on shore to carry it up. He had a catch of two\nseal, and there lay the Tupilak staring after him.\n\nWhen it was evening, Qujavarssuk went to rest. He slept, and awoke,\nand got up and made things ready to go out. And at this time the\nTupilak was waiting with a great desire for the moment when he should\nput off from land. But when he put on his hunting coat ready to row\nout, the Tupilak thought:\n\n\"Now we shall see if he disappears again.\"\n\nAnd just as he was getting into his kayak, he disappeared from\nsight. And at the end of that day also, Qujavarssuk came home again,\nas was his custom, with a catch of two seal.\n\nNow by this time the Tupilak was fearfully hungry. But a Tupilak can\nonly eat men, and therefore it now thought thus:\n\n\"Next time, I will go up on land and eat him there.\"\n\nThen it swam over towards land, and as the shore was level, it moved\nswiftly, so as to come well up. But it struck its head on the ground,\nso that the pain pierced to its backbone, and when it tried to see\nwhat was there, the shore had changed to a steep cliff, and on the\ntop of the cliff stood Qujavarssuk, all easy to see. Again it tried\nto swim up on to the land, but only hurt itself the more. And now\nit was surprised, and looked in vain for Qujavarssuk's house, for\nit could not see the house at all. And it was still lying there and\nstaring up, when it saw that a great stone was about to fall on it,\nand hardly had it dived under water when the stone struck it, and\nbroke a rib. Then it swam out and looked again towards land, and saw\nQujavarssuk again quite clearly, and also his house.\n\nNow the Tupilak thought:\n\n\"I must try another way. Perhaps it will be better to go through\nthe earth.\"\n\nAnd when it tried to go through the earth, so much was easy; it only\nremained then to come up through the floor of the house. But the\nfloor of the house was hard, and not to be got through. Therefore\nit tried behind the house, and there it was quite soft. It came up\nthere, and went to the passage way, and there was a big black bird,\nsitting there eating something. The Tupilak thought:\n\n\"That is a fortunate being, which can sit and eat.\"\n\nThen it tried to get up over the walls at the back part of the house,\nby taking hold of the grass in the turf blocks. But when it got there,\nthe bird's food was the only thing it saw. Again it tried to get\na little farther, seeing that the bird appeared not to heed it at\nall, but then suddenly the bird turned and bit a hole just above its\nflipper. And this was very painful, so that the Tupilak floundered\nabout with pain, and floundered about till it came right out into\nthe water.\n\nAnd because of all these happenings, it had now become so angered that\nit swam back at once to the man who had made it, in order to eat him\nup. And when it came there, he was sitting in his kayak with his face\nturned towards the sun, and telling no other thing than of the Tupilak\nwhich he had made. For a long time the Tupilak lay there beneath him,\nand looked at him, until there came this thought:\n\n\"Why did he make me a Tupilak, when afterwards all the trouble was\nto come upon me?\"\n\nThen it swam up and attacked the kayak, and the water was coloured\nred with blood as it ate him. And having thus found food, the Tupilak\nfelt well and strong and very cheerful, until at last it began to\nthink thus:\n\n\"All the other Tupilaks will certainly call this a shameful thing,\nthat I should have killed the one who made me.\"\n\nAnd it was now so troubled with shame at this that it swam far out\ninto the open sea and was never seen again. And men say that it was\nbecause of shame it did so.\n\nOne day the old one said to Qujavarssuk:\n\n\"You are named after a man who died of hunger at Amerdloq.\"\n\nIt is told of the people of Amerdloq that they catch nothing but\nturbot.\n\nAnd Qujavarssuk went to Amerdloq and lived there with an old man,\nand while he lived there, he made always the same catch as was his\ncustom. At last the people of Amerdloq began to say to one another:\n\n\"This must be the first time there have been so many black seal here\nin our country; every time he goes hunting he catches two seal.\"\n\nAt last one of the big hunters went out hunting with him. They fixed\nthe heads to their harpoons, and when they had come a little way out\nfrom land, Qujavarssuk stopped. Then when the other had gone a little\ndistance from him, he turned, and saw that Qujavarssuk had already\nstruck one seal. Then he rowed towards him, but when he came up, it was\nalready killed. So he left him again for a little while, and when he\nturned, Qujavarssuk had again struck. Then Qujavarssuk rowed home. And\nthe other stayed out the whole day, but did not see a single seal.\n\nWhen Qujavarssuk had thus continued as a great hunter, his mother\nsaid to him at last that he should marry. He gave her no answer,\nand therefore she began to look about herself for a girl for him to\nmarry, but it was her wish that the girl might be a great glutton, so\nthat there might not be too much lost of all that meat. And she began\nto ask all the unmarried women to come and visit her. And because of\nthis there came one day a young woman who was not very beautiful. And\nthis one she liked very much, for that she was a clever eater, and\nhaving regard to this, she chose her out as the one her son should\nmarry. One day she said to her son:\n\n\"That woman is the one you must have.\"\n\nAnd her son obeyed her, as was his custom.\n\nEvery day after their marriage, the strongest man in Amerdloq called\nin at the window:\n\n\"Qujavarssuk! Let us see which of us can first get a bladder float\nfor hunting the whale.\"\n\nQujavarssuk made no answer, as was his custom, but the old man said\nto him:\n\n\"We use only speckled skin for whales. And they are now at this time\nin the mouth of the river.\"\n\nAfter this, they went to rest.\n\nQujavarssuk slept, and awoke, and got up, and went away to the\nnorth. And when he had gone a little way to the north, he came to the\nmouth of a small fjord. He looked round and saw a speckled seal that\nhad come up to breathe. When it went down again, he rowed up on the\nlandward side of it, and fixed the head and line to his harpoon. When\nit came up again to breathe, he rowed to where it was, and harpooned\nit, and after this, he at once rowed home with it.\n\nThe old man made the skin ready, and hung it up behind the house. But\nwhile it was hanging there, there came very often a noise as from the\nbladder float, and this although there was no one there. This thing\nthe old man did not like at all.\n\nWhen the winter was coming near, the old man said one day to\nQujavarssuk:\n\n\"Now that time will soon be here when the whales come in to the coast.\"\n\nOne night Qujavarssuk had gone out of the house, when he heard a sound\nof deep breathing from the west, and this came nearer. And because\nthis was the first time he had heard so mighty a breathing, he went in\nand told the matter in a little voice to his wife. And he had hardly\ntold her this, when the old man, whom he had thought asleep, said:\n\n\"What is that you are saying?\"\n\n\"Mighty breathings which I have heard, and did not know them, and they\ndo not move from that side where the sun is.\" This said Qujavarssuk.\n\nThe old one put on his boots, and went out, and came in again,\nand said:\n\n\"It is the breathing of a whale.\"\n\nIn the morning, before it was yet light, there came a sound of running,\nand then one came and called through the window:\n\n\"Qujavarssuk! I was the first who heard the whales breathing.\"\n\nIt was the strong man, who wished to surpass him in this. Qujavarssuk\nsaid nothing, as was his custom, but the old man said:\n\n\"Qujavarssuk heard that while it was yet night.\" And they heard him\nlaugh and go away.\n\nThe strong man had already got out the umiak [3] into the water to\nrow out to the whale. And then Qujavarssuk came out, and they had\nalready rowed away when Qujavarssuk got his boat into the water. He\ngot it full of water, and drew it up again on to the shore, and turned\nthe stem in towards land and poured the water out, and for the second\ntime he drew it down into the water. And not until now did he begin to\nlook about for rowers. They went out, and when they could see ahead,\nthe strong man of Amerdloq was already far away. Before he had come up\nto where he was, Qujavarssuk told his rowers to stop and be still. But\nthey wished to go yet farther, believing that the whale would never\ncome up to breathe in that place. Therefore he said to them:\n\n\"You shall see it when it comes up.\"\n\nHardly had the umiak stopped still, when Qujavarssuk began to tremble\nall over. When he turned round, there was already a whale quite near,\nand now his rowers begged him eagerly to steer to where it was. But\nQujavarssuk now saw such a beast for the first time in his life. And\nhe said:\n\n\"Let us look at it.\"\n\nAnd his rowers had to stay still. When the strong man of Amerdloq heard\nthe breathing of the whale, he looked round after it, and there lay\nthe beast like a great rock close beside Qujavarssuk. And he called\nout to him from the place where he was:\n\n\"Harpoon it!\"\n\nQujavarssuk made no answer, but his rowers were now even more eager\nthan before. When the whale had breathed long enough, it went down\nagain. Now his rowers wished very much to go farther out, because\nit was not likely that it would come up again in that way the next\ntime. But Qujavarssuk would not move at all.\n\nThe whale stayed a long time under the water, and when it came up again\nit was still nearer. Now Qujavarssuk looked at it again for a long\ntime, and now his rowers became very angry with him at last. Not until\nit seemed that the whale must soon go down again did Qujavarssuk say:\n\n\"Now row towards it.\"\n\nAnd they rowed towards it, and he harpooned it. And when it now\nfloundered about in pain and went down, he threw out his bladder float,\nand it was not strange that this went under water at once.\n\nAnd those farther out called to him now and said:\n\n\"When a whale is struck it will always swim out to sea. Row now to\nthe place where it would seem that it must come up.\"\n\nBut Qujavarssuk did not answer, and did not move from the place where\nhe was. Not until they called to him for the third time did he answer:\n\n\"The beasts I have struck move always farther in, towards my house.\"\n\nAnd now they had just begun laughing at him out there, when they heard\na washing of water closer in to shore, and there it lay, quite like a\ntiny fish, turning about in its death struggle. They rowed up to it\nat once and made a tow line fast. The strong man rowed up to them,\nand when he came to where they were, no one of them was eating. Then\nhe said:\n\n\"Not one of you eating, and here a newly-killed whale?\"\n\nWhen he said this, Qujavarssuk answered:\n\n\"None may eat of it until my mother has first eaten.\"\n\nBut the strong man tried then to take a mouthful, although this had\nbeen said. And when he did so, froth came out of his mouth at once. And\nhe spat out that mouthful, because it was destroying his mouth.\n\nAnd they brought that catch home, and Qujavarssuk's mother ate of\nit, and then at last all ate of it likewise, and then none had any\nbadness in the mouth from eating of it. But the strong man sat for a\nlong time the only one of them all who did not eat, and that because\nhe must wait till his mouth was well again.\n\nAnd the strong man of Amerdloq did not catch a whale at all until\nafter Qujavarssuk had caught another one.\n\nFor a whole year Qujavarssuk stayed at Amerdloq, and when it was\nspring, he went back southward to his home. He came to his own land,\nand there at a later time he died.\n\nAnd that is all.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nKUNIGSEQ\n\n\nThere was once a wizard whose name was Kunigseq.\n\nOne day, when he was about to call on his helping spirits and make a\nflight down into the underworld, he gave orders that the floor should\nbe swilled with salt water, to take off the evil smell which might\notherwise frighten his helping spirits away.\n\nThen he began to call upon his helping spirits, and without moving\nhis body, began to pass downward through the floor.\n\nAnd down he went. On his way he came to a reef, which was covered with\nweed, and therefore so slippery that none could pass that way. And\nas he could not pass, his helping spirit lay down beside him, and by\nplacing his foot upon the spirit, he was able to pass.\n\nAnd on he went, and came to a great slope covered with heather. Far\ndown in the underworld, men say, the land is level, and the hills are\nsmall; there is sun down there, and the sky is also like that which\nwe see from the earth.\n\nSuddenly he heard one crying: \"Here comes Kunigseq.\"\n\nBy the side of a little river he saw some children looking for\ngreyfish.\n\nAnd before he had reached the houses of men, he met his mother, who\nhad gone out to gather berries. When he came up to her, she tried\nagain and again to kiss him, but his helping spirit thrust her aside.\n\n\"He is only here on a visit,\" said the spirit.\n\nThen she offered him some berries, and these he was about to put in\nhis mouth, when the spirit said:\n\n\"If you eat of them, you will never return.\"\n\nA little after, he caught sight of his dead brother, and then his\nmother said:\n\n\"Why do you wish to return to earth again? Your kin are here. And\nlook down on the sea-shore; see the great stores of dried meat. Many\nseal are caught here, and it is a good place to be; there is no snow,\nand a beautiful open sea.\"\n\nThe sea lay smooth, without the slightest wind. Two kayaks were\nrowing towards land. Now and again they threw their bird darts,\nand they could be heard to laugh.\n\n\"I will come again when I die,\" said Kunigseq.\n\nSome kayaks lay drying on a little island; they were those of men\nwho had just lost their lives when out in their kayaks.\n\nAnd it is told that the people of the underworld said to Kunigseq:\n\n\"When you return to earth, send us some ice, for we thirst for cold\nwater down here.\"\n\nAfter that, Kunigseq went back to earth, but it is said that his son\nfell sick soon afterwards, and died. And then Kunigseq did not care to\nlive any longer, having seen what it was like in the underworld. So he\nrowed out in his kayak, and caught a guillemot, and a little after,\nhe caught a raven, and having eaten these one after the other, he\ndied. And then they threw him out into the sea.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE WOMAN WHO HAD A BEAR AS A FOSTER-SON\n\n\nThere was once an old woman living in a place where others lived. She\nlived nearest the shore, and when those who lived in houses up above\nhad been out hunting, they gave her both meat and blubber.\n\nAnd once they were out hunting as usual, and now and again they got\na bear, so that they frequently ate bear's meat. And they came home\nwith a whole bear. The old woman received a piece from the ribs as\nher share, and took it home to her house. After she had come home to\nher house, the wife of the man who had killed the bear came to the\nwindow and said:\n\n\"Dear little old woman in there, would you like to have a bear's cub?\"\n\nAnd the old woman went and fetched it, and brought it into her house,\nshifted her lamp, and placed the cub, because it was frozen, up on\nto the drying frame to thaw. Suddenly she noticed that it moved a\nlittle, and took it down to warm it. Then she roasted some blubber,\nfor she had heard that bears lived on blubber, and in this way she\nfed it from that time onwards, giving it greaves to eat and melted\nblubber to drink, and it lay beside her at night.\n\nAnd after it had begun to lie beside her at night it grew very fast,\nand she began to talk to it in human speech, and thus it gained the\nmind of a human being, and when it wished to ask its foster-mother\nfor food, it would sniff.\n\nThe old woman now no longer suffered want, and those living near\nbrought her food for the cub. The children came sometimes to play\nwith it, but then the old woman would say:\n\n\"Little bear, remember to sheathe your claws when you play with them.\"\n\nIn the morning, the children would come to the window and call in:\n\n\"Little bear, come out and play with us, for now we are going to play.\"\n\nAnd when they went out to play together, it would break the children's\ntoy harpoons to pieces, but whenever it wanted to give any one of\nthe children a push, it would always sheathe its claws. But at last\nit grew so strong, that it nearly always made the children cry. And\nwhen it had grown so strong the grown-up people began to play with it,\nand they helped the old woman in this way, in making the bear grow\nstronger. But after a time not even grown men dared play with it,\nso great was its strength, and then they said to one another:\n\n\"Let us take it with us when we go out hunting. It may help us to\nfind seal.\"\n\nAnd so one day in the dawn, they came to the old woman's window\nand cried:\n\n\"Little bear, come and earn a share of our catch; come out hunting\nwith us, bear.\"\n\nBut before the bear went out, it sniffed at the old woman. And then\nit went out with the men.\n\nOn the way, one of the men said:\n\n\"Little bear, you must keep down wind, for if you do not so, the game\nwill scent you, and take fright.\"\n\nOne day when they had been out hunting and were returning home,\nthey called in to the old woman:\n\n\"It was very nearly killed by the hunters from the northward; we\nhardly managed to save it alive. Give therefore some mark by which\nit may be known; a broad collar of plaited sinews about its neck.\"\n\nAnd so the old foster-mother made a mark for it to wear; a collar of\nplaited sinews, as broad as a harpoon line.\n\nAnd after that it never failed to catch seal, and was stronger even\nthan the strongest of hunters, and never stayed at home even in\nthe worst of all weather. Also it was not bigger than an ordinary\nbear. All the people in the other villages knew it now, and although\nthey sometimes came near to catching it, they would always let it go\nas soon as they saw its collar.\n\nBut now the people from beyond Angmagssalik heard that there was a\nbear which could not be caught, and then one of them said:\n\n\"If ever I see it, I will kill it.\"\n\nBut the others said:\n\n\"You must not do that; the bear's foster-mother could ill manage\nwithout its help. If you see it, do not harm it, but leave it alone,\nas soon as you see its mark.\"\n\nOne day when the bear came home as usual from hunting, the old\nfoster-mother said:\n\n\"Whenever you meet with men, treat them as if you were of one kin\nwith them; never seek to harm them unless they first attack.\"\n\nAnd it heard the foster-mother's words and did as she had said.\n\nAnd thus the old foster-mother kept the bear with her. In the summer\nit went out hunting in the sea, and in winter on the ice, and the other\nhunters now learned to know its ways, and received shares of its catch.\n\nOnce during a storm the bear was away hunting as usual, and did\nnot come home until evening. Then it sniffed at its foster-mother\nand sprang up on to the bench, where its place was on the southern\nside. Then the old foster-mother went out of the house, and found\noutside the body of a dead man, which the bear had hauled home. Then\nwithout going in again, the old woman went hurrying to the nearest\nhouse, and cried at the window:\n\n\"Are you all at home?\"\n\n\"Why?\"\n\n\"The little bear has come home with a dead man, one whom I do not\nknow.\"\n\nWhen it grew light, they went out and saw that it was the man from\nthe north, and they could see he had been running fast, for he had\ndrawn off his furs, and was in his underbreeches. Afterwards they\nheard that it was his comrades who had urged the bear to resistance,\nbecause he would not leave it alone.\n\nA long time after this had happened, the old foster-mother said to\nthe bear:\n\n\"You had better not stay with me here always; you will be killed if\nyou do, and that would be a pity. You had better leave me.\"\n\nAnd she wept as she said this. But the bear thrust its muzzle right\ndown to the floor and wept, so greatly did it grieve to go away\nfrom her.\n\nAfter this, the foster-mother went out every morning as soon as dawn\nappeared, to look at the weather, and if there were but a cloud as\nbig as one's hand in the sky, she said nothing.\n\nBut one morning when she went out, there was not even a cloud as big\nas a hand, and so she came in and said:\n\n\"Little bear, now you had better go; you have your own kin far away\nout there.\"\n\nBut when the bear was ready to set out, the old foster-mother, weeping\nvery much, dipped her hands in oil and smeared them with soot, and\nstroked the bear's side as it took leave of her, but in such manner\nthat it could not see what she was doing. The bear sniffed at her\nand went away. But the old foster-mother wept all through that day,\nand her fellows in the place mourned also for the loss of their bear.\n\nBut men say that far to the north, when many bears are abroad, there\nwill sometimes come a bear as big as an iceberg, with a black spot\non its side.\n\nHere ends this story.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIMARASUGSSUAQ, WHO ATE HIS WIVES\n\n\nIt is said that the great Imarasugssuaq was wont to eat his wives. He\nfattened them up, giving them nothing but salmon to eat, and nothing at\nall to drink. Once when he had just lost his wife in the usual way, he\ntook to wife the sister of many brothers, and her name was Misana. And\nafter having taken her to wife, he began fattening her up as usual.\n\nOne day her husband was out in his kayak. And she had grown so fat\nthat she could hardly move, but now she managed with difficulty to\ntumble down from the bench to the floor, crawled to the entrance,\ndropped down into the passage way, and began licking the snow which\nhad drifted in. She licked and licked at it, and at last she began to\nfeel herself lighter, and better able to move. And in this way she\nafterwards went out and licked up snow whenever her husband was out\nin his kayak, and at last she was once more quite able to move about.\n\nOne day when her husband was out in his kayak as usual, she took her\nbreeches and tunic, and stuffed them out until the thing looked like\na real human being, and then she said to them:\n\n\"When my husband comes and tells you to come out, answer him with\nthese words: I cannot move because I am grown so fat. And when he\nthen comes in and harpoons you, remember then to shriek as if in pain.\"\n\nAnd after she had said these words, she began digging a hole at the\nback of the house, and when it was big enough, she crept in.\n\n\"Bring up the birds I have caught!\"\n\nBut the dummy answered:\n\n\"I can no longer move, for I am grown so fat.\"\n\nNow the dummy was sitting behind the lamp. And the husband coming\nin, harpooned that dummy wife with his great bird-spear. And the\nthing shrieked as if with pain and fell down. But when he looked\ncloser, there was no blood to be seen, nothing but some stuffed-out\nclothes. And where was his wife?\n\nAnd now he began to search for her, and as soon as he had gone out,\nshe crept forth from her hiding-place, and took to flight. And while\nshe was thus making her escape, her husband came after her, and seeing\nthat he came nearer and nearer, at last she said:\n\n\"Now I remember, my amulet is a piece of wood.\"\n\nAnd hardly had she said these words, when she was changed into a\npiece of wood, and her husband could not find her. He looked about\nas hard as ever he could, but could see nothing beyond a piece of\nwood anywhere. And he stabbed at that once or twice with his knife,\nbut she felt no more than a little stinging pain. Then he went back\nhome to fetch his axe, and then, as soon as he was out of sight,\nshe changed back into a woman again and fled away to her brothers.\n\nWhen she came to their house, she hid herself behind the skin\nhangings, and after she had placed herself there, her husband was\nheard approaching, weeping because he had lost his wife. He stayed\nthere with them, and in the evening, the brothers began singing songs\nin mockery of him, and turning towards him also, they said:\n\n\"Men say that Imarasugssuaq eats his wives.\"\n\n\"Who has said that?\"\n\n\"Misana has said that.\"\n\n\"I said it, and I ran away because you tried to kill me,\" said she\nfrom behind the hangings.\n\nAnd then the many brothers fell upon Imarasugssuaq and held him fast\nthat his wife might kill him; she took her knife, but each time she\ntried to strike, the knife only grazed his skin, for her fingers lost\ntheir power.\n\nAnd she was still standing there trying in vain to stab him, when\nthey saw that he was already dead.\n\nHere ends this story.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nQALAGANGUASE, WHO PASSED TO THE LAND OF GHOSTS\n\n\nThere was once a boy whose name was Qalaganguase; his parents lived at\na place where the tides were strong. And one day they ate seaweed, and\ndied of it. Then there was only one sister to look after Qalaganguase,\nbut it was not long before she also died, and then there were only\nstrangers to look after him.\n\nQalaganguase was without strength, the lower part of his body was\ndead, and one day when the others had gone out hunting, he was left\nalone in the house. He was sitting there quite alone, when suddenly\nhe heard a sound. Now he was afraid, and with great pains he managed\nto drag himself out of the house into the one beside it, and here he\nfound a hiding-place behind the skin hangings. And while he was in\nhiding there, he heard a noise again, and in walked a ghost.\n\n\"Ai! There are people here!\"\n\nThe ghost went over to the water tub and drank, emptying the dipper\ntwice.\n\n\"Thanks for the drink which I thirsty one received,\" said the\nghost. \"Thus I was wont to drink when I lived on earth.\" And then it\nwent out.\n\nNow the boy heard his fellow-villagers coming up and gathering outside\nthe house, and then they began to crawl in through the passage way.\n\n\"Qalaganguase is not here,\" they said, when they came inside.\n\n\"Yes, he is,\" said the boy. \"I hid in here because a ghost came in. It\ndrank from the water tub there.\"\n\nAnd when they went to look at the water tub, they saw that something\nhad been drinking from it.\n\nThen some time after, it happened again that the people were all out\nhunting, and Qalaganguase alone in the place. And there he sat in\nthe house all alone, when suddenly the walls and frame of the house\nbegan to shake, and next moment a crowd of ghosts came tumbling into\nthe house, one after the other, and the last was one whom he knew,\nfor it was his sister, who had died but a little time before.\n\nAnd now the ghosts sat about on the floor and began playing; they\nwrestled, and told stories, and laughed all the time.\n\nAt first Qalaganguase was afraid of them, but at last he found it a\npleasant thing to make the night pass. And not until the villagers\ncould be heard returning did they hasten away.\n\n\"Now mind you do not tell tales,\" said the ghost, \"for if you do as we\nsay, then you will gain strength again, and there will be nothing you\ncannot do.\" And one by one they tumbled out of the passage way. Only\nQalaganguase's sister could hardly get out, and that was because\nher brother had been minding her little child, and his touch stayed\nher. And the hunters were coming back, and quite close, when she\nslipped out. One could just see the shadow of a pair of feet.\n\n\"What was that,\" said one. \"It looked like a pair of feet vanishing\naway.\"\n\n\"Listen, and I will tell you,\" said Qalaganguase, who already felt\nhis strength returning. \"The house has been full of people, and they\nmade the night pass pleasantly for me, and now, they say, I am to\ngrow strong again.\"\n\nBut hardly had the boy said these words, when the strength slowly\nbegan to leave him.\n\n\"Qalaganguase is to be challenged to a singing contest,\" he heard\nthem say, as he lay there. And then they tied the boy to the frame\npost and let him swing backwards and forwards, as he tried to beat the\ndrum. After that, they all made ready, and set out for their singing\ncontest, and left the lame boy behind in the house all alone. And\nthere he lay all alone, when his mother, who had died long since,\ncame in with his father.\n\n\"Why are you here alone?\" they asked.\n\n\"I am lame,\" said the boy, \"and when the others went off to a singing\ncontest, they left me behind.\"\n\n\"Come away with us,\" said his father and mother.\n\n\"It is better so, perhaps,\" said the boy.\n\nAnd so they led him out, and bore him away to the land of ghosts,\nand so Qalaganguase became a ghost.\n\nAnd it is said that Qalaganguase became a woman when they changed\nhim to a ghost. But his fellow-villagers never saw him again.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nISIGALIGARSSIK\n\n\nIsigaligarssik was a wifeless man, and he was very strong. One of\nthe other men in his village was a wizard.\n\nIsigaligarssik was taken to live in a house with many brothers,\nand they were very fond of him.\n\nWhen the wizard was about to call upon his spirits, it was his custom\nto call in through the window: \"Only the married men may come and\nhear.\" And when they who were to hear the spirit calling went out,\na little widow and her daughter and Isigaligarssik always stayed\nbehind together in the house. Once, when all had gone out to hear\nthe wizard, as was their custom, these three were thus left alone\ntogether. Isigaligarssik sat by the little lamp on the side bench,\nat work.\n\nSuddenly he heard the widow's daughter saying something in her mother's\near, and then her mother turned towards him and said:\n\n\"This little girl would like to have you.\"\n\nIsigaligarssik would also like to have her, and before the others of\nthe house had come back, they were man and wife. Thus when the others\nof the house had finished and came back, Isigaligarssik had found a\nwife, and his house-fellows were very glad of this.\n\nNext day, as soon as it was dark, one called, as was the custom: \"Let\nonly those who have wives come and hear.\" And Isigaligarssik, who had\nbefore had no wife, felt now a great desire to go and hear this. But as\nsoon as he had come in, the great wizard said to Isigaligarssik's wife:\n\n\"Come here; here.\"\n\nWhen she had sat down, he told her to take off her shoes, and then\nhe put them up on the drying frame. Then they made a spirit calling,\nand when that was ended, the wizard said to Isigaligarssik:\n\n\"Go away now; you will never have this dear little wife of yours\nagain.\"\n\nAnd then Isigaligarssik had to go home without a wife. And\nIsigaligarssik had to live without a wife. And every time there was\na spirit calling, and he went in, the wizard would say:\n\n\"Ho, what are you doing here, you who have no wife?\"\n\nBut now anger grew up slowly in him at this, and once when he came\nhome, he said:\n\n\"That wizard in there has mocked me well, but next time he asks me,\nI shall know what to answer.\"\n\nBut the others of the village warned him, and said:\n\n\"No, no; you must not answer him. For if you answer him, then he will\nkill you.\"\n\nBut one evening when the bad wizard mocked him as usual Isigaligarssik\nsaid:\n\n\"Ho, and what of you who took my wife away?\"\n\nNow the wizard stood up at once, and when Isigaligarssik bent down\ntowards the entrance to creep out, the wizard took a knife, and\nstabbed him with a great wound.\n\nIsigaligarssik ran quickly home to his house, and said to his wife's\nmother:\n\n\"Go quickly now and take the dress I wore when I was little. [4]\nIt is in the chest there.\"\n\nAnd when she took it out, it was so small that it did not look like a\ndress at all, but it was very pretty. And he ordered her then to dip\nit in the water bucket. When it was wet, he was able to put it on, and\nwhen the lacing thong at the bottom touched the wound, it was healed.\n\nNow when his house-fellows came out after the spirit-calling they\nthought to find him lying dead outside the entrance. They followed\nthe blood spoor, and at last he had gone into the house. When they\ncame in, he had not a single wound, and all were very glad for that\nhe was healed again. And now he said:\n\n\"To-morrow I will go bow-shooting with him.\"\n\nThen they slept, and awakened, and Isigaligarssik opened his little\nchest and searched it, and took out a bow that was so small it\ncould hardly be seen in his hands. He strung that bow, and went out,\nand said:\n\n\"Come out now and see.\" Then they went out, and he went down to the\nwizard's house, and called through the window:\n\n\"Big man in there; come out now and let us shoot with the bow!\" And\nwhen he had said this, he went and stood by a little river. When he\nturned to look round, the wizard was already by the passage of his\nhouse, aiming with his bow.\n\nHe said: \"Come here.\" And then Isigaligarssik drew up spittle in his\nmouth and spat straight down beside his feet.\n\n\"Come here,\" he said then, to the great wizard. Then he went over\nto him, and came nearer and nearer, and stopped just before him. Now\nthe wizard aimed with his bow towards him, and when he did this, the\nhouse-fellows cried to Isigaligarssik: \"Make yourself small!\" And he\nmade himself so small that only his head could be seen moving backwards\nand forwards. The wizard shot and missed. And a second time he shot\nand missed.\n\nThen Isigaligarssik stood up, and took the arrow, and broke it across\nand said:\n\n\"Go home; you cannot hit.\" And then the wizard went off, turning many\ntimes to look round. At last, when he bent down to get into his house\nthrough the passage way, Isigaligarssik aimed and shot at him. And\nthey heard only the sound of his fall. The arrow was very little,\nand yet for all that it sent him all doubled up through the entrance,\nso that he fell down in the passage.\n\nIn this way Isigaligarssik won his wife again, and he lived with her\nafterwards until death.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE INSECTS THAT WOOED A WIFELESS MAN\n\n\nThere was once a wifeless man.\n\nYes, that is the way a story always begins.\n\nAnd it was his custom to run down to the girls whenever he saw\nthem out playing. And the young girls always ran away from him into\ntheir houses.\n\nAnd when the time of great hunting set in, and the kayak men lived\nin plenty, it always happened that he shamefully overslept himself\nevery time he had made up his mind to go out hunting. He did not wake\nuntil the sun had gone down, and the hunters began to come in with\ntheir catch in tow.\n\nOne day when he awoke as usual about sunset, he got into his kayak\nall the same, and rowed off. Hardly had he passed out of sight of\nthe houses, when he heard a man crying:\n\n\"My kayak has upset, help me.\"\n\nAnd he rowed over and righted him again, and then he saw that it was\none of the Noseless Ones, the people from beneath the earth.\n\n\"Now I will give you all my hide thongs with ornaments of walrus tusk,\"\nsaid the man who had upset.\n\n\"No,\" said the wifeless man; \"such things I am not fit to receive;\nthe only thing I cannot overcome is my miserable sleepiness.\"\n\n\"First come in with me to land,\" said the Fire Man. And they went\nin together.\n\nWhen they reached the place, the Noseless One said:\n\n\"This is the man who saved my life when I was near to death.\"\n\n\"I happened to save you because my course lay athwart your own,\"\nsaid the wifeless man. \"It is the first time for many days that I\nhave been out at all in my kayak.\"\n\n\"One beast and one only you may choose when you are on your homeward\nway. And be careful never to tell what you have seen, or it will go\nill with your hunting hereafter.\"\n\nThose were the Fire Man's words. And then the wifeless man rowed home.\n\nBut when the time for his expected return had come, he was nowhere to\nbe seen, and the young girls began to rejoice at the misfortune which\nmust have befallen him. For they could not bear the sight of that man.\n\nBut then suddenly he came in sight round the point, and at once\nall cried:\n\n\"Here comes one who looks like the wifeless man.\"\n\nAnd then all the young unmarried girls ran into their houses.\n\n\"And the wifeless man has made a catch,\" one cried.\n\nAnd hardly had the evening begun to fall when the wifeless man went\nto rest, and hardly had the light appeared when the wifeless man went\nout hunting, long before his fellows. Hardly had the sun appeared in\nthe sky, when the wifeless man came home with three seals. And his\nfellow-hunters were then but just preparing to set out.\n\nThus the days passed for that wifeless man. Early in the morning he\nwould go out, and when the sun had only just begun to climb the sky,\nhe would come home with his catch.\n\nThen the unmarried girls began talking together.\n\n\"What has come to our wifeless man,\" they said, and began to vie with\none another in seeking his favour.\n\n\"Let me, let me,\" they cried all together.\n\nAnd the wifeless man turned towards them, and laughingly chose out\nthe best in the flock.\n\nAnd now they lived together, the wifeless man and the girl, and every\nday there was freshly caught seal meat to be cut up. At last she grew\nweary, and cried:\n\n\"Why ever do you catch such a terrible lot?\"\n\n\"H'm,\" said he. \"The seals come of themselves, and I catch them--that\nis all.\"\n\nBut she kept on asking him, and so he said at last:\n\n\"It was in this way. Once....\" But having said thus much, he ceased,\nand went to rest. But it was long before he could sleep. And the sun\nwas just over the houses of the village before he awoke and set out\nnext day.\n\nThat day he caught but one seal.\n\nIn the evening, his wife began again asking and asking, and seeing\nthat she would not desist, at last he said:\n\n\"It was in this way. Once ... well, I woke up in the evening, and rowed\nout, and heard a man crying for help, because his kayak had upset. And\nI rowed up to him and righted him again, and when I looked at him,\nit was one of the Noseless Ones.\"\n\n\"'It was a good thing you were not idling about by the houses,'\nsaid the Noseless One to me.\n\n\"'I had but just got into my kayak,'\" said I.\n\nAnd thus he told all that had happened to him that day, and from that\ntime forward he lost his power of hunting, for now his old sleepiness\ncame over him once more, and he lost all.\n\nAt last he had not even skins enough to give his wife for her\nclothes, and so she ran away and left him. He set off in chase, but\nshe escaped through a crevice in the rocks, a narrow place whereby\nhe could just pass.\n\nNow he lay in wait there, and soon he heard a whispering inside:\n\n\"You go out to him.\"\n\nAnd out crawled a blowfly, and said:\n\n\"Take me.\"\n\n\"I will not take you,\" said the wifeless man, \"for you pick your food\nfrom the muck-heaps.\"\n\nThe blowfly laughed and crawled back again, and he could hear it say:\n\n\"He will not take me, because I pick my food from the muck-heaps.\"\n\nThen there was more whispering inside.\n\n\"Now you go out.\"\n\nAnd out came a fly.\n\n\"You may have me,\" it said.\n\n\"Thanks,\" said the wifeless man, \"but I do not care for you at all. You\nlay your eggs about anyhow, and your eyes are quite abominably big.\"\n\nAt this the fly laughed, and went inside with the same message\nas before.\n\nAgain there was a whispering inside.\n\n\"Take me,\" said the cranefly.\n\n\"No, your legs are too long,\" said the wifeless man. And the cranefly\nwent in again, laughing.\n\nThen out came a centipede.\n\n\"Take me.\"\n\n\"I will not take you,\" said the wifeless man, \"for you have far too\nmany legs. Your body clings to the ground with all those legs, and\nyour eyes are simply nasty.\"\n\nAnd the centipede laughed a cackling laugh and went in again.\n\nThey whispered together again in there, and out came a gnat.\n\n\"Take me,\" said the gnat.\n\n\"No thanks, you bite,\" said the wifeless man. And the gnat went in\nagain, laughing.\n\nAnd then at last his wife bade him come in to her, since he would\nhave none of the others, and at last he just managed to squeeze his\nbody in through the crack, and then he took her to wife again.\n\n\"Comb my hair,\" said the wifeless man, now very happy once more.\n\nAnd his wife began, and said words above him thus:\n\n\"Do not wake until the fulmar begins to cry: sleep until we hear a\nsound of young birds.\"\n\nAnd he fell asleep.\n\nAnd when at last he awoke, he was all alone. The earth was blue with\nsummer, and the fulmar cried noisily on the bird cliff. And it had\nbeen winter when he crawled in through the crack.\n\nWhen he came down to his kayak, the skin was rotted through with age.\n\nAnd then I suppose he reached home as usual, and now sits scratching\nhimself at ease.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE VERY OBSTINATE MAN\n\n\nThere was once an Obstinate Man--no one in the world could be as\nobstinate as he.  And no one dared come near him, so obstinate was he,\nand he would always have his own way in everything.\n\nOnce it came about that his wife was in mourning. Her little child\nhad died, and therefore she was obliged to remain idle at home;\nthis is the custom of the ignorant, and this we also had to do when\nwe were as ignorant as they.\n\nAnd while she sat thus idle and in mourning, her husband, that\nObstinate One, came in one day and said:\n\n\"You must sew the skin of my kayak.\"\n\n\"You know that I am not permitted to touch any kind of work,\" said\nhis wife.\n\n\"You must sew the skin of my kayak,\" he said again. \"Bring it down\nto the shore and sew it there.\"\n\nAnd so the woman, for all her mourning, was forced to go down to the\nshore and sew the skin of her husband's kayak. But when she had been\nsewing a little, suddenly her thread began to make a little sound,\nand the little sound grew to a muttering, and louder and louder. And\nat last a monster came up out of the sea; a monster in the shape of\na dog, and said:\n\n\"Why are you sewing, you who are still in mourning?\"\n\n\"My husband will not listen to me, for he is so obstinate,\" she said.\n\nAnd then the mighty dog sprang ashore and fell upon that husband.\n\nBut that Obstinate One was not abashed; as usual, he thought he would\nget his own way, and his way now was to kill the dog. And they fought\ntogether, and the dog was killed.\n\nBut now the owner of the dog appeared, and he turned out to be the\nMoon Man.\n\nAnd he fell upon that Obstinate One, but the Obstinate One would as\nusual not give way, but fell upon him in turn. He caught the Moon Man\nby the throat, and had nearly strangled him. He clenched and clenched,\nand the Moon Man was nearly strangled to death.\n\n\"There will be no more ebb-tide or flood if you strangle me,\" said\nthe Moon Man.\n\nBut the Obstinate One cared little for that; he only clutched the\ntighter.\n\n\"The seal will never breed again if you strangle me,\" cried the\nMoon Man.\n\nBut the Obstinate One did not care at all, though the Moon Man\nthreatened more and more.\n\n\"There will never be dawn or daylight again if you kill me,\" said\nthe Moon Man at last.\n\nAnd at this the Obstinate One began to hesitate; he did not like the\nthought of living in the dark for ever. And he let the Moon Man go.\n\nThen the Moon Man called his dog to life again, and made ready to\nleave that place. And he took his team and cast the dogs up into the\nair one by one, and they never came down again, and at last there\nwas the whole team of sledge dogs hovering in the air.\n\n\"May I come and visit you in the Moon?\" asked the Obstinate One. For\nhe suddenly felt a great desire to do so.\n\n\"Yes, come if you please,\" said the Moon Man. \"But when you see a\ngreat rock in your way, take great care to drive round behind it. Do\nnot pass it on the sunny side, for if you do, your heart will be torn\nout of you.\"\n\nAnd then the Moon Man cracked his whip, and drove off through the\nnaked air.\n\nNow the Obstinate One began making ready for his journey to the\nmoon. It had been his custom to keep his dogs inside the house, and\ntherefore they had a thick layer of ingrown dirt in their coats. Now he\ntook them and cast them out into the sea, that they might become clean\nagain. The dogs, little used to going out at all, were nearly frozen\nto death by that cold water; they ran about, shivering with the cold.\n\nThen the Obstinate One took a dog, and cast it up in the air, but\nit fell down heavily to earth again. He took another and did so, and\nthen a third, but they all fell down again. They were still too dirty.\n\nBut the Obstinate One would not give in, and now he cast them out\ninto the sea once more.\n\nAnd when he then a second time tried casting them up in the air,\nthey stayed there. And now he made himself a sledge, threw his team\nup in the air, and drove off.\n\nBut when he came to the rock he was to drive round, this Obstinate\nOne said to himself:\n\n\"Why should I drive round a rock at all? I will go by the sunny side.\"\n\nWhen he came up alongside, he heard a woman singing drum songs, and\nwhetting her knife; she kept on singing, and he could hear how the\nsteel hummed as she worked.\n\nNow he tried to overpower that old woman, but lost his senses. And\nwhen he came to himself, his heart was gone.\n\n\"I had better go round after all,\" he thought to himself. And he went\nround by the shady side.\n\nThus he came up to the moon, and told there how he had lost his heart\nmerely for trying to drive round a rock by the sunny side.\n\nThen the Moon Man bade him lie down at full length on his back,\nwith a black sealskin under, which he spread on the floor. This the\nObstinate One did, and then the Moon Man fetched his heart from the\nwoman and stuffed it in again.\n\nAnd while he was there, the Moon Man took up one of the stones from\nthe floor, and let him look down on to the earth. And there he saw\nhis wife sitting on the bench, plaiting sinews for thread, and this\nalthough she was in mourning. A thick smoke rose from her body; the\nsmoke of her evil thoughts. And her thoughts were evil because she\nwas working before her mourning time was passed.\n\nAnd her husband grew angry at this, forgetting that he had himself\nbut newly bidden her work despite her mourning.\n\nAnd after he had been there some time, the Moon Man opened a stone\nin the entrance to the passage way, and let him look down. The place\nwas full of walrus, there were so many that they had to lie one on\ntop of another.\n\n\"It is a joy to catch such beasts,\" said the Moon Man, and the\nObstinate One felt a great desire to harpoon one of them.\n\n\"But you must not, you cannot,\" said the Moon Man, and promised him\na share of the catch he had just made himself. But the Obstinate One\nwould not be content with this; he took harpoons from the Moon Man's\nstore, and harpooned a walrus. Then he held it on the line--he was a\nman of very great strength, that Obstinate One--and managed to kill\nit. And in the same way he also dealt with another.\n\nAfter his return from the Moon Man's place, he left off being\nobstinate, and never again forced his wife to work while she was\nin mourning.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE DWARFS\n\n\nA man who was out in his kayak saw another kayak far off, and rowed\nup to it. When he came up with it, he saw that the man in it was a\nvery little man, a dwarf.\n\n\"What do you want,\" asked the dwarf, who was very much afraid of\nthe man.\n\n\"I saw you from afar and rowed up,\" said the man.\n\nBut the dwarf was plainly troubled and afraid.\n\n\"I was hunting a little fjord seal which I cannot hit,\" he said.\n\n\"Let me try,\" said the other. And so they waited until it came up to\nbreathe. Hardly had it come up, when the harpoons went flying towards\nit, and entered in between its shoulder-blades.\n\n\"Ai, ai--what a throw!\" cried the dwarf in astonishment. And the man\ntook the seal and made a tow-line fast.\n\nThen the two kayaks set off together in towards land.\n\n\"Hum--hum. Wouldn't care to ... come and visit us?\" [5] said the\ndwarf suddenly.\n\nBut this the man would gladly do.\n\n\"Hum--hum. I've a wife ... and a daughter ... very beautiful daughter\n... hum--hum. Many men wanted her ... wouldn't have them ... can't\ntake her by force ... very strong. Thought of taking her to wife\nmyself ... hum--hum. But she is too strong for me ... own daughter.\"\n\nThey rowed on a while, and then the little one spoke again.\n\n\"Hum--hum. Might perhaps do for you ... you could manage her ... what?\"\n\n\"Let us first see her,\" said the man. And now they rowed into a great\ndeep fjord.\n\nWhen they came to the place, they landed and went up at once to the\nhouse of the little old man. And those in the house did all they\ncould that the stranger might be well pleased. When they had been\nsitting there a while, the old man said:\n\n\"Hum--hum ... our guest has made a catch ... he comes to us bringing\ngame.\"\n\nNow it was easy to see that they would gladly have tasted the flesh\nof that little seal. And so the guest said:\n\n\"If you care to cook that meat, then set to work and cut it up as\nsoon as you please. Cut it up and give to those who wish to eat of it.\"\n\nThe little old man was delighted at this, and sent out his two\nwomen-folk to cut up that seal. But they stayed away a long while,\nand no one came in with any meat. So the little old man went out to\nlook for them.\n\nAnd there stood the two women, hauling at the little fjord seal,\nwhich they could not manage to drag up from the shore. They could not\neven manage it with the old man's help. They hauled away, all three\nof them, bending their bodies to the ground in their efforts, but the\nseal would not move. Then at last the stranger came out, and he took\nthat seal by the flipper with one hand, and carried it up that way.\n\n\"What strength, what strength! The man is a giant indeed,\" cried the\nlittle folk. And they fell to work cutting up the seal, but to them\nit seemed as if they were cutting up a huge walrus, so hard did they\nfind it to cut up that little seal.\n\nAnd people came hurrying down from the houses up above, and all wished\nto share. The women of the house then shared out that seal. Each of\nthe guests was given a little breastbone and no more, but this to\nthem was a very great piece of meat. When they held such a piece in\ntheir hands, it reached to the ground, and their hands and clothes\nwere covered with fat.\n\nInside on the bench sat an old hag who now began trying to make\nherself agreeable to the guest. She squeezed up close to him and kept\non talking to him, and looking at him kindly. She was old and ugly,\nand the man would have nothing to do with her. Suddenly he gave a\nloud whistle.\n\n\"Ugh--ugh!\" cried the old hag in a fright, and fell down from the\nbench. Then she stumbled down into the passage way, and disappeared.\n\nAnd now after they had feasted on the seal meat, those from the houses\nup above cried out:\n\n\"Let the guest now come up here; we have foxes' liver to eat!\"\n\nAnd as he did not come at once, they cried again. And then he went\nup. The house was full of people, all busy eating foxes' liver.\n\n\"It is very hard to cut,\" said the dwarfs. \"It is dried.\"\n\nAnd the dwarfs worked away as hard as they could, but could not cut\nit through. But the guest took and munched and crunched as if it had\nbeen fresh meat.\n\n\"Ai, ai--see how he can eat,\" cried some.\n\nBut all those in the house were very kind to him, and would gladly\nhave seen him married into their family. And the young women had\ndressed their hair daintily with mussel shells, that the guest might\nthink them the finer. But he cared for none of them, for the little\nold man's daughter was the most beautiful.\n\nAnd therefore he went down to that house again when it was time to\ngo to rest. And he said he would have her to wife.\n\nAnd so they lived happily together, and soon they had a child.\n\nAnd now the man began to long for his own place and kin. He thought\nmore and more of his old mother, who was still alive when he started\noff.\n\nAnd so one day he said he was going to visit his home.\n\n\"We will all go with you,\" said the little old man; \"we will visit\nyour kinsfolk.\"\n\nAnd so they made ready for the journey, and set out.\n\nNow when they came to the place of real people, all these were greatly\nastonished to find their old comrade still alive. For they had thought\nhim dead long since.\n\nAnd the dwarf people lived happily enough among the real men, and\nafter a little time they forgot to be troubled and afraid.\n\nBut one day when the little dwarf grandmother was sitting at the\nopening of the passage way with the little child, she dropped the\nchild in the passage.\n\n\"Hlurp--hlurp--hlurp,\" was all she heard. A great dog, his face black\non one side and white on the other, lay there in the passage, and it\nate up the child on the spot.\n\n\"Ai--ai,\" she cried. \"Nothing is left but a little smear on the\nground.\"\n\nAnd now the dwarf folk were filled with horror, and the little old\nman was for setting off at once. So they gathered their belongings\ntogether and set out.\n\nAnd whenever they came to a village, they went up on shore, and the\nold man always went up with his tent-skins on his back.\n\n\"Are there any dogs here? Is there a great beast with a black-and-white\nface?\" was always the first thing he asked.\n\n\"Yes, indeed.\" And before they could turn round, the old man was back\nin his boat again, so great was his fear of dogs.\n\nAnd at last the skin was worn quite away from his forehead with\ncarrying of tent-skins up on to the shore in vain. [6]\n\nOne day they were lying-to, when a wind began to blow from the north.\n\n\"Are there dogs here?\" asked the old man, and groaned, for his forehead\nwas flayed and smarting, so often had he borne those tent-skins up\nand down. But before any could answer, he heard the barking of the\ndogs themselves. And in a moment he was back in his boat again.\n\nThe wind had grown stronger. The seas were frothing white, and the\nfoam was scattered about.\n\nThen the old dwarf stood up in his boat and cried:\n\n\"The sky is clearing to the east with crested clouds.\"\n\nNow this was a magic song, and as soon as he had sung it, the sea\nwas calm and bright once more.\n\nThen the old man went on again. So great was the power of his magic\nwords that he could calm the sea. But for all that he had no peace,\nby reason of the dogs.\n\nAnd he went on his way again, but whither he came at last I do\nnot know.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE BOY FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, WHO FRIGHTENED THE PEOPLE OF THE\nHOUSE TO DEATH\n\n\nWell, you see, it was the usual thing: \"The Obstinate One\" had taken\na wife, and of course he beat her, and when he wanted to make it an\nextra special beating, he took a box, and banged her about with that.\n\nOne day, when he had been beating her as usual, she ran away. And\nshe was just about to have a child at that time. She walked straight\nout into the sea, and was nearly drowned, but suddenly she came to\nherself again, and found that she was at the bottom of the sea. And\nthere she built herself a house.\n\nWhile she was down there, the child was born. And when she went to\nlook at it, she nearly died of fright, it was so ugly. Its eyes were\njellyfish, its hair of seaweed, and the mouth was like a mussel.\n\nAnd now these two lived down there together. The child grew up, and\nwhen it was a little grown up, it could hear the children playing on\nthe earth up above, and it said:\n\n\"I should like to go up and see.\"\n\n\"When you have grown stronger, then you may go,\" said his mother. And\nthen the boy began practising feats of strength, with stones. And at\nlast he was able to pick up stones as big as a chest, and carry them\ninto the house.\n\nOne evening, when it was dark, they heard again a calling from\nabove. The children, not content with simply shouting at their play,\nbegan crying out: \"Iyoi-iyoi-iyoi,\" with all their might.\n\n\"Now I will go with you,\" said the mother. \"But you must not go into\nthe houses nearest the shore, for there I often fled in when your\nfather would have beaten me; I have suffered much evil up there. And\nwhen you thrust in your head, be sure to look as angry as you can.\"\n\nThere were two houses on the shore, one a little way above the\nother. As they went up, the mother suddenly saw that her son was\ngoing into the one nearest the shore. And she cried:\n\n\"Ha-a; Ha-a! When your father beat me, I always ran in there. Go to\nthe one up above.\"\n\nAnd now the boy made his face fierce, and thrust in his head at the\ndoorway, and all those inside fell down dead with fright. He would\nhave beaten his father, but his father had died long since. Then he\nwent down again to the bottom of the sea.\n\nWhen the day dawned, the people from the house nearest the shore came\nout and said:\n\n\"Ai! What footsteps are these, all full of seaweed?\"\n\nAnd seeing that the tracks led up to the house a little way above,\nthey followed there, and found that all inside had died of fright.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE RAVEN AND THE GOOSE\n\n\nDo you know why the raven is so black, so dull and black in colour? It\nis all because of its own obstinacy. Now listen.\n\nIt happened in the days when all the birds were getting their colours\nand the pattern in their coats. And the raven and the goose happened\nto meet, and they agreed to paint each other.\n\nThe raven began, and painted the other black, with a nice white\npattern showing between.\n\nThe goose thought that very fine indeed, and began to do the same by\nthe raven, painting it a coat exactly like its own.\n\nBut then the raven fell into a rage, and declared the pattern was\nfrightfully ugly, and the goose, offended at all the fuss, simply\nsplashed it black all over.\n\nAnd now you know why the raven is black.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWHEN THE RAVENS COULD SPEAK\n\n\nOnce, long ago, there was a time when the ravens could talk.\n\nBut the strange thing about the ravens' speech was that their words\nhad the opposite meaning. When they wanted to thank any one, they used\nwords of abuse, and thus always said the reverse of what they meant.\n\nBut as they were thus so full of lies, there came one day an old man,\nand by magic means took away their power of speech. And since that\ntime the ravens can do no more than shriek.\n\nBut the ravens' nature has not changed, and to this day they are an\nill-tempered, lying, thieving lot.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMAKITE\n\n\nMakite, men say, took to wife the sister of many brothers, but he\nhimself could never manage to catch a seal when he was out in his\nkayak. But his wife's brothers caught seal in great numbers. And\nso it was that one day he heard his wife say she would leave him,\nbecause he never caught anything. And in his grief at hearing this,\nhe said to himself:\n\n\"This evening, when they are all asleep, I will go up into the hills\nand live there all alone.\"\n\nWhen darkness had fallen, he set off up into the hills, but as he\nwent, his wife's father, who was standing outside, saw him going,\nand cried in to the others in the house:\n\n\"Makite has gone up into the hills to live there all alone. Go\nafter him.\"\n\nThe many brothers went out after him, but when they had nearly come up\nwith him, he made his steps longer, and thus got farther and farther\naway from them, and at last they ceased to pursue him any more.\n\nOn his way he came to a house, and this was just as it was beginning\nto get light. He looked in, and saw that the hangings on the walls were\nof nothing but reindeer and foxes' skins. And now he said to himself:\n\n\"Hum--I may as well go in.\"\n\nBut as he went in, the hinge of the door creaked, and then a strange,\ndeep sound was heard inside the house, and it began to shake.\n\nAt the same moment, the master of the house came in and said:\n\n\"Have you had nothing to eat yet?\"\n\nMakite said: \"I will eat nothing until I know what are those things\nwhich look like candles, there in front of the window.\"\n\nThen the lone-dweller said:\n\n\"That is no concern of one who is not himself a lone-dweller. Therefore\nhe cannot tell you.\"\n\nBut then Makite said: \"If you do not tell me, I will kill you.\"\n\nAnd then at last he told.\n\n\"It may be you have seen to-day the great hills away in the blue to\nthe south; if you go up to the top of the nearer hill, you will find\nnothing there, but he who climbs that one which lies farther away,\nand reaches the top, he will find such things there. But this cannot\nbe done by one who is not a lone-dweller.\"\n\nAnd not until he had said all this did Makite eat.\n\nThen they both went to rest. And just as he was near falling asleep,\nthe lone-dweller began to quiver slightly, but he pretended to\nsleep. And before Makite could see what he was about, the lone-dweller\nhad strung his bow, and Makite, therefore, seeing he was preparing to\nkill him, pretended to wake up, and then the other laid aside his bow\nso quickly that it seemed as if he had not held anything at all. At\nlast, when it was nearly dawn, the lone-dweller fell asleep, and then\nMakite tried very cautiously to get out, but as he was about to pass\nthrough the doorway, he again happened to draw the door to after him,\nand again it creaked as before with a strange sound. When he looked\nin through the window, the lone-dweller was about to get up.\n\nNow Makite had laid his great spear a little way above the house,\nand he ran to the place. When he looked round, he saw that the man\nfrom the house was already in chase. Then he came to a big rock,\nand as there was no help for it, he commenced to run round. When he\nhad run round it for the third time, he grasped his harpoon firmly,\nand without turning round, thrust it out behind him, and struck\nsomething soft. He had struck the other in the side.\n\nHaving now killed this one, and as there was no help for it, he\nwandered on at hazard, and came to a great plain. And in the middle of\nthe plain was something which looked like a house. And he went up to\nit and found it was the house of a dwarf, and no end of people coming\nout of it. One went in and another came out, and so they kept on. He\ntried to get into the passage, but could not even get his foot in.\n\nThen he heard someone inside saying:\n\n\"Heave up the passage way a little with your back, and then come in.\"\n\nWhen he came in, it was a big place, and the old creature spoke to him,\nand said:\n\n\"When you go out, look towards the west; the inland-dwellers are\ncoming.\"\n\nAnd when Makite went out, he looked towards the west, and there he\nsaw a great black thing approaching, and when he then came in again,\nthe old man went to the window and called out:\n\n\"Here they are; they are close up now.\"\n\nAnd then the dwarfs went out to fight, and took up their posts on\nthe plain, one party opposite the other, and none said a word.\n\nBut suddenly the dog that was with the inland folk gave a great bark,\nand there came a mighty wave of water, rolling right up to the dwarfs.\n\nBut when it had come quite close to them, it suddenly grew quite\nsmall. And then the dwarfs' dog gave a bark. And at the same time\nthe dwarfs' wave arose, and washed right up over the inland folk,\nand drowned them, and only few of them escaped alive.\n\nWhen they came home again, Makite built himself a house, and from\nthe high hill fetched some of those things which looked like candles,\nand hung them up in his house. And he lived there in his house until\nhe died.\n\nAnd here ends this story.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nASALOQ\n\n\nAsaloq, men say, had a foster-brother. Once when he had come home after\nhaving been out in his kayak, his foster-brother had disappeared. He\nsought for him everywhere, but being unable to find him, he built a big\numiak, and when it was built, he covered it with three layers of skins.\n\nThen he rowed off southwards with his wife. And while they were rowing,\nthey saw a black ripple on the sea ahead. When they came to the place,\nthey saw that it was the sea-lice. And the outermost layer of skins\non the boat was eaten away before they got through them.\n\nNow they rowed onwards again, and saw once more a black ripple\nahead. When they came to the place, they saw that it was the\nsea-serpents. And once again they slipped through with the loss of\none layer of skins.\n\nHaving now but one layer of skins left, they went in great fear of\nwhat they might chance to meet next. But without seeing anything\nstrange, they rounded a point, and came in sight of a place with many\nhouses. Hardly had they come into land when the strangers caught hold\nof their boat, and hauled it up, so that Asaloq had no need to help.\n\nAnd now it was learned that these were folk who had a strong man in\ntheir midst. Asaloq had been but a short time in one of the houses,\nwhen they heard the sound of one coming from outside and in through\nthe passage way; it was the strong man's talebearer boy, and to make\nmatters worse, a boy with a squint.\n\nAnd now the people of the house said:\n\n\"Now that wretched boy will most certainly tell him you are here.\" And\nindeed, the boy was just about to run out again, when they caught\nhold of him and set him up behind the lamp. But hardly had they\nturned their backs on him for a moment, when he slipped out before\nany could move, and they heard the sound of his running footsteps\nin the snow without. And after a while, the window grew red with a\nconstant filling of faces looking in to say:\n\n\"We are sent to bid the stranger come.\"\n\nAnd since there was no help for it, Asaloq went up there with\nthem. When he came into the house, it was full of people, and he\nlooked round and saw the strong man far in on the big bench. And at the\nmoment Asaloq caught sight of him, the strong man said in a deep voice:\n\n\"Let us have a wrestling match.\"\n\nAnd as he spoke, the others drew out a skin from under the bench,\nand spread it on the floor. And after the skin had been spread out,\nfood was brought in. And Asaloq ate till there was no more left. But\nas he rose, all that he had eaten fell out of his stomach. And then\nthey began pulling arms.\n\nAnd now Asaloq began mightily pulling the arms of all the men there,\nuntil the skin was worn from his arm, leaving the flesh almost bare.\n\nAnd when he had straightened out all their arms, he went out of that\nhouse the strongest of all, and went out to his umiak and rowed away\nsouthwards with his wife. And when they had rowed a little way,\nthey came to a little island, and pitched their tent on the sunny\nside. And when Asaloq then went up on the hillside to look out, he\nsaw many umiaks coming from the northward, and they camped on the\nshady side. Then he heard them say:\n\n\"Now search carefully about.\" And others said:\n\n\"He can hardly be on such a little island.\"\n\nAnd now Asaloq sang magic songs over them from the top of the hill,\nand at last he heard them say:\n\n\"We may as well go home again.\"\n\nNow Asaloq stood and watched them row away, and not until they were\nout of sight did he set off again to the southward. At last they\nreached Aluk, and there their bones still rest.\n\nHere ends this story.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nUKALEQ\n\n\nUkaleq, men say, was a strong man. Whenever he heard news of game,\neven if it were a great bear, he had only to go out after it, and he\nnever failed to kill it.\n\nOnce the winter came, and the ice grew firm, and then men began to go\nout hunting bears on the ice. One day there was a big bear. Ukaleq\nset off in chase, but he soon found that it was not to be easily\nbrought down.\n\nThe bear sighted Ukaleq, and turned to pursue him. Ukaleq fled, but\ngrew tired at length. Now and again he managed to wound the beast,\nbut was killed himself at last, and at the same time the bear fell\ndown dead.\n\nNow when his comrades came to look at the bear, its teeth began to\nwhisper, and then they knew that Ukaleq had been killed by a Magic\nBear. [7] And as there was no help for it, they took the dead man\nhome with them. And then his mother said:\n\n\"Lay him in the middle of the floor with a skin beneath him.\" She\nhad kept the dress he had worn as a little child, and now that he\nwas dead, she put it in her carrying bag, and went out with it to\nthe cooking place in the passage. And when she got there, she said:\n\n\"For five days I will neither eat nor drink.\"\n\nThen she began hushing the dress in the bag as if it were a child,\nand kept on hushing it until at last it began to move in the bag,\nand just as it had commenced to move, there came some out from the\nhouse and said:\n\n\"Ukaleq is beginning to quiver.\"\n\nBut she kept on hushing and hushing, and at last that which she had\nin the bag began trying to crawl out. But then there came one from\nthe house and said:\n\n\"Ukaleq has begun to breathe; he is sitting up.\"\n\nHardly was this said when that which was in the bag sprang out,\nmaking the whole house shake. Then they made up a bed for Ukaleq on\nthe side bench, and placed skins under him and made him sit up. And\nafter five days had passed, and that without eating or drinking,\nhe came to himself again, and commenced to go out hunting once more.\n\nThen the winter came, and the winter was there, and the ice was\nover the sea, and when the ice had formed, they began to make spirit\ncallings. The villages were close together, and all went visiting in\nother villages.\n\nAnd at last Ukaleq set out with his family to a village near by,\nwhere there was to be a big spirit calling. The house where it was\nto be held was so big that there were three windows in it, and yet\nit was crowded with folk.\n\nIn the middle of the spirit calling, there was an old woman who was\nsitting cross-legged up on the bench, and she turned round towards\nthe others and said:\n\n\"We heard last autumn that Ukaleq had been killed by a Magic\nBear.\" Hardly had she said those words when an old wifeless man turned\ntowards her and said:\n\n\"Was it by any chance your Magic Bear that killed him?\"\n\nThen the old woman turned towards the others and said:\n\n\"Mine? Now where could I have kept such a thing?\"\n\nBut after saying that she did not move. She even forgot to breathe,\nfor shame at having been discovered by the wifeless man, and so she\ndied on the spot.\n\nAfter that Ukaleq went home, and never went out hunting bears again.\n\nHere ends this story.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIKARDLITUARSSUK\n\n\nIkardlituarssuk, men say, had a little brother; they lived at a place\nwhere there were many other houses. One autumn the sea was frozen\nright out from the coast, without a speck of open water for a long\nway out. After this, there was great dearth and famine; at last their\nfellow-villagers began to offer a new kayak paddle as a reward for\nthe one who should magic it away, but there was no wizard among the\npeople of that village.\n\nThen it came about that Ikardlituarssuk's little brother began to\nspeak to him thus:\n\n\"Ikardlituarssuk, how very nice it would be to win that new paddle!\"\n\nAnd then it was revealed that Ikardlituarssuk had formerly sat on\nthe knee of one of those present when the wizards called up their\nhelping spirits.\n\nThen it came about that Ikardlituarssuk one evening began to call upon\nhis helping spirits. He called them up, and having called them up,\nwent out, and having gone out, went down to the water's edge, crept\nin through a crack between the land and the ice, and started off,\nwalking along the bottom of the sea.\n\nHe walked along, and when he came to seaweed, it seemed as if there\nlay dogs in among the weed. But these were sharks. Then on his way\nhe saw a little house, and went towards it. When he came up to the\nentrance, it was narrow as the edge of a woman's knife. But he got\nin all the same, following that way which was narrow as the edge\nof a woman's knife. And when he came in, there sat the mother of\nTornarssuk, the spirit who lived down there; she was sitting by her\nlamp and weeping. And picking behind her ears, she threw down many\nstrange things. Inside her lamp were many birds that dived down,\nand inside the house were many seals that bobbed up.\n\nAnd now he began tickling the weeping woman as hard as he could,\nto encourage her; and at last she was encouraged, and after this,\nshe freed a number of the birds, and then made a sign to many of the\nseals to swim out of the house. And when they swam out, there was one\nof the fjord seals which she liked so much that she plucked a few of\nthe hairs from its back, that she might have it to make breeches of\nwhen it was caught.\n\nAnd when all this had been done, she went home, and went to rest\nwithout saying a word.\n\nWhen they awoke next morning, the sea was quite dark ahead, and all\nthe ice had gone. But when the villagers came out, she said to them:\n\n\"Do not kill more than one; if any of you should kill two, he will\nnever kill again.\"\n\nAnd furthermore she said:\n\n\"If any of you should catch a young fjord seal with a bare patch on\nits back, you must give it to me to make breeches.\"\n\nWhen they came back, each of the hunters had made a catch; only one\nof them had caught two. And the man who had caught two seals that\nday never after caught any seal at all when he rowed out, but all the\nothers always made a catch when they rowed out, and some of them even\ncaught several at a time.\n\nThus it came about that Ikardlituarssuk with the little brother won\nthe new paddle as a reward.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE RAVEN WHO WANTED A WIFE\n\n\nA little sparrow was mourning for her husband who was lost. She was\nvery fond of him, for he caught worms for her.\n\nAs she sat there weeping, a raven came up to her and asked:\n\n\"Why are you weeping?\"\n\n\"I am weeping for my husband, who is lost; I was fond of him, because\nhe caught worms for me,\" said the sparrow.\n\n\"It is not fitting for one to weep who can hop over high blades of\ngrass,\" said the raven. \"Take me for a husband; I have a fine high\nforehead, broad temples, a long beard and a big beak; you shall sleep\nunder my wings, and I will give you lovely offal to eat.\"\n\n\"I will not take you for a husband, for you have a high forehead, broad\ntemples, a long beard and a big beak, and will give me offal to eat.\"\n\nSo the raven flew away--flew off to seek a wife among the wild\ngeese. And he was so lovesick that he could not sleep.\n\nWhen he came to the wild geese, they were about to fly away to\nother lands.\n\nSaid the raven to two of the geese:\n\n\"Seeing that a miserable sparrow has refused me, I will have you.\"\n\n\"We are just getting ready to fly away,\" said the geese.\n\n\"I will go too,\" said the raven.\n\n\"But consider this: that none can go with us who cannot swim or rest\nupon the surface of the water. For there are no icebergs along the\nway we go.\"\n\n\"It is nothing; I will sail through the air,\" said the raven.\n\nAnd the wild geese flew away, and the raven with them. But very soon\nhe felt himself sinking from weariness and lack of sleep.\n\n\"Something to rest on!\" cried the raven, gasping. \"Sit you down\nside by side.\" And his two wives sat down together on the water,\nwhile their comrades flew on.\n\nThe raven sat down on them and fell asleep. But when his wives saw\nthe other geese flying farther and farther away, they dropped that\nraven into the sea and flew off after them.\n\n\"Something to rest on!\" gasped the raven, as it fell into the\nwater. And at last it went to the bottom and was drowned.\n\nAnd after a while, it broke up into little pieces, and its soul was\nturned into little \"sea ravens.\" [8]\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE MAN WHO TOOK A VIXEN TO WIFE\n\n\nThere was once a man who wished to have a wife unlike all other wives,\nand so he caught a little fox, a vixen, and took it home to his tent.\n\nOne day when he had been out hunting, he was surprised to find on his\nreturn that his little fox-wife had become a real woman. She had a\nlovely top-knot, made of that which had been her tail. And she had\ntaken off the furry skin. And when he saw her thus, he thought her\nvery beautiful indeed.\n\nNow she began to talk about journeyings, and how greatly she desired\nto see other people. And so they went off, and came to a place and\nsettled down there.\n\nOne of the men there had taken a little hare to wife. And now these\ntwo men thought it would be a pleasant thing to change wives. And so\nthey did.\n\nBut the man who had borrowed the little vixen wife began to feel\nscorn of her after he had lived with her a little while. She had a\nfoxy smell, and did not taste nice.\n\nBut when the little vixen noticed this she was very angry, for it was\nher great desire to be well thought of by the men. So she knocked\nout the lamp with her tail, dashed out of the house, and fled away\nfar up into the hills.\n\nUp in the hills she met a worm, and stayed with him.\n\nBut her husband, who was very fond of her, went out in search of\nher. And at last, after a long time, he found her living with the worm,\nwho had taken human form.\n\nBut now it was revealed that this worm was the man's old enemy. For\nhe had once, long before, burned a worm, and it was the soul of that\nworm which had now taken human form. He could even see the marks of\nburning in its face.\n\nNow the worm challenged the man to pull arms, and they wrestled. But\nthe man found the worm very easy to master, and soon he won. After that\nhe went out, no longer caring for his wife at all. And he wandered far,\nand came to the shore-dwellers. They had their houses on the shore,\njust by high-water mark.\n\nTheir houses were quite small, and the people themselves were dwarfs,\nwho called the eider duck walrus. But they looked just like men,\nand were not in the least dangerous. We never see such folk nowadays,\nbut our forefathers have told us about them, for they knew them.\n\nAnd now when the man saw their house, which was roofed with stones,\nhe went inside. But first he had to make himself quite small, though\nthis of course was an easy matter for him, great wizard as he was.\n\nAs soon as he came in, they brought out meat to set before him. There\nwas the whole fore-flipper of a mighty walrus. That is to say, it was\nreally nothing more than the wing of an eider duck. And they fell to\nupon this and ate. But they did not eat it all up.\n\nAfter he had stayed with these people some time he went back to his\nhouse. And I have no more to tell of him.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE GREAT BEAR\n\n\nA woman ran away from her home because her child had died. On her\nway she came to a house. In the passage way there lay skins of bears.\nAnd she went in.\n\nAnd now it was revealed that the people who lived in there were bears\nin human form.\n\nYet for all that she stayed with them. One big bear used to go out\nhunting to find food for them. It would put on its skin, and go out,\nand stay away for a long time, and always return with some catch or\nother. But one day the woman who had run away began to feel homesick,\nand greatly desired to see her kin. And then the bear spoke to\nher thus:\n\n\"Do not speak of us when you return to men,\" it said. For it was\nafraid lest its two cubs should be killed by the men.\n\nThen the woman went home, and there she felt a great desire to tell\nwhat she had seen. And one day, as she sat with her husband in the\nhouse, she said to him:\n\n\"I have seen bears.\"\n\nAnd now many sledges drove out, and when the bear saw them coming\ntowards its house, it felt so sorry for its cubs that it bit them to\ndeath, that they might not fall into the hands of men.\n\nBut then it dashed out to find the woman who had betrayed it, and\nbroke into her house and bit her to death. But when it came out, the\ndogs closed round it and fell upon it. The bear struck out at them,\nbut suddenly all of them became wonderfully bright, and rose up to the\nsky in the form of stars. And it is these which we call Qilugtussat,\nthe stars which look like barking dogs about a bear.\n\nSince then, men have learned to beware of bears, for they hear what\nmen say.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE MAN WHO BECAME A STAR\n\n\nThere was once an old man who stood out on the ice waiting for the\nseal to come up to their breathing holes to breathe. But on the shore,\njust opposite where he was, a crowd of children were playing in a\nravine, and time after time they frightened away a seal just as he\nwas about to harpoon it.\n\nAt last the old man grew angry with them for thus spoiling his catch,\nand cried out:\n\n\"Close up, Ravine, over those who are spoiling my hunting.\"\n\nAnd at once the hillside closed over those children at play. One of\nthem, who was carrying a little brother, had her fur coat torn.\n\nThen they all fell to screaming inside the hill, for they could not\ncome out. And none could bring them food, only water that they were\nable to pour down a crack, and this they licked up from the sides.\n\nAt last they all died of hunger.\n\nAnd now the neighbours fell upon that old man who had shut up the\nchildren by magic in the hill. He took to flight, and the others ran\nafter him.\n\nBut all at once he became bright, and rose up to heaven as a great\nstar. We can see it now, in the west, when the lights begin to return\nafter the great darkness. But it is low down, and never climbs high\nin the sky. And we call it Nalaussartoq: he who stands and listens. [9]\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE WOMAN WITH THE IRON TAIL\n\n\nThere was once a woman who had an iron tail. And more than this,\nshe was also an eater of men. When a stranger came to visit her,\nshe would wait until her guest had fallen asleep, and then she would\njump up in the air, and fall down upon the sleeping one, who was thus\npierced through by her tail.\n\nOnce there came a man to her house. And he lay down to sleep. And when\nshe thought he had fallen asleep, she jumped up, and coming over the\nplace where he lay, dropped down upon him. But the man was not asleep\nat all, and he moved aside so that she fell down on a stone and broke\nher tail.\n\nThe man fled out to his kayak. And she ran after.\n\nWhen she reached him, she cried:\n\n\"Oh, if I could only thrust my knife into him.\"\n\nAnd as she cried, the man nearly upset--for even her words had power.\n\n\"Oh, if only I could send my harpoon through her,\" cried the man in\nreturn. And so great was the power of his words that she fell down\non the spot.\n\nAnd then the man rowed away, and the woman never killed anyone after\nthat, for her tail was broken.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHOW THE FOG CAME\n\n\nThere was a Mountain Spirit, which stole corpses from their graves\nand ate them when it came home. And a man, wishing to see who did\nthis thing, let himself be buried alive. The Spirit came, and saw\nthe new grave, and dug up the body, and carried it off.\n\nThe man had stuck a flat stone in under his coat, in case the Spirit\nshould try to stab him.\n\nOn the way, he caught hold of all the willow twigs whenever they\npassed any bushes, and made himself as heavy as he could, so that\nthe Spirit was forced to put forth all its strength.\n\nAt last the Spirit reached its house, and flung down the body on the\nfloor. And then, being weary, it lay down to sleep, while its wife\nwent out to gather wood for the cooking.\n\n\"Father, father, he is opening his eyes,\" cried the children, when\nthe dead man suddenly looked up.\n\n\"Nonsense, children, it is a dead body, which I have dropped many\ntimes among the twigs on the way,\" said the father.\n\nBut the man rose up, and killed the Mountain Spirit and its children,\nand fled away as fast as he could. The Mountain Spirit's wife saw him,\nand mistook him for her husband.\n\n\"Where are you going?\" she cried.\n\nThe man did not answer, but fled on. And the woman, thinking something\nmust be wrong, ran after him.\n\nAnd as he was running over level ground, he cried:\n\n\"Rise up, hills!\"\n\nAnd at once many hills rose up.\n\nThen the Mountain Spirit's wife lagged behind, having to climb up so\nmany hills.\n\nThe man saw a little stream, and sprang across.\n\n\"Flow over your banks!\" he cried to the stream. And now it was\nimpossible for her to get across.\n\n\"How did you get across?\" cried the woman.\n\n\"I drank up the water. Do you likewise.\"\n\nAnd the woman began gulping it down.\n\nThen the man turned round towards her, and said:\n\n\"Look at the tail of your tunic; it is hanging down between your legs.\"\n\nAnd when she bent down to look, her belly burst.\n\nAnd as she burst, a steam rose up out of her, and turned to fog,\nwhich still floats about to this day among the hills.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE MAN WHO AVENGED THE WIDOWS\n\n\nThis was in the old days, in those times when men were yet skilful\nrowers in kayaks. You know that there once came a great sickness\nwhich carried off all the older men, and the young men who were left\nalive did not know how to build kayaks, and thus it came about that\nthe manner of hunting in kayaks was long forgotten.\n\nBut our forefathers were so skilful, that they would cross seas which\nwe no longer dare to venture over. The weather also was in those times\nless violent than now; the winds came less suddenly, and it is said\nthat the sea was never so rough.\n\nIn those times, there lived a man at Kangarssuk whose name was\nAngusinanguaq, and he had a very beautiful wife, wherefore all men\nenvied him. And one day, when they were setting out to hunt eider\nduck on the islands, the other men took counsel, and agreed to leave\nAngusinanguaq behind on a little lonely island there.\n\nAnd so they sailed out to those islands, which lie far out at sea,\nand there they caught eider duck in snares, and gathered eggs, and were\nsoon ready to turn homeward again. Then they pushed out from the land,\nwithout waiting for Angusinanguaq, who was up looking to his snares,\nand they took his kayak in tow, that he might never more be able to\nleave that island.\n\nAnd now they hastened over towards the mainland. And the way was long.\n\nBut when they came in sight of the tents, they saw a man going from\none tent to another, visiting the women whom they left behind at that\nplace. They rowed faster, and came nearer. All the men of that place\nhad gone out together for that hunting, and they could not guess who\nit might be that was now visiting among the tents.\n\nThen an old man who was steering the boat shaded his eyes with his\nhand and looked over towards land.\n\n\"The man is Angusinanguaq,\" he said.\n\nAnd now it was revealed that Angusinanguaq was a great wizard. When\nthe umiaks had left, and he could not find his kayak, he had wound\nhis body about with strips of hide, bending it into a curve, and\nthen, as is the way of wizards, gathered magic power wherewith to\nmove through the air. And thus he had come back to that place, long\nbefore those who had sought his death.\n\nAnd from that day onwards, none ever planned again to take his\nwife. And it was well for them that they left him in peace.\n\nFor at that time, people were many, and there were people in all\nthe lands round about. Out on the islands also there were people,\nand these were a fierce folk whom none might come near. Moreover when\na kayak from the mainland came near their village, they would call\ndown a fog upon him, so that he could not see, and in this manner\ncause him to perish.\n\nBut now one day Angusinanguaq planned to avenge his\nfellow-villagers. He rowed out to those unapproachable ones, and took\nthem by surprise, being a great wizard, and killed many of the men,\nand cut off their heads and piled them up on the side bench. And\nhaving completed his revenge, he rowed away.\n\nThere was great joy among the widows of all those dead hunters when\nthey learned that Angusinanguaq had avenged their husbands. And they\nwent into his hut one by one and thanked him.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE MAN WHO WENT OUT TO SEARCH FOR HIS SON\n\n\nOnce in the days of our forefathers, a man went out along the coasts,\nmaking search for his son. For that son had gone out in his kayak\nand had not returned.\n\nOne day he saw a giant beside a great glacier, and rowed up to him\nthen. When he had entered the house, the giant drew forth a drum,\na beautiful drum with a skin that had been taken from the belly of a\nman. Now the giant was about to give him this drum, but at the same\ntime he felt such a violent desire to eat him up, that he trembled\nall over.\n\nJust then some great salmon began dropping down through a hole in the\nroof, and the man was so frightened at this that he could scarcely\neat. And he could not get out of the place.\n\nBut he was himself a great wizard, and now he began calling upon his\nhelping spirits. And they were great.\n\n\"Killer whales, killer whales--come forth, my helping spirits and\nshow yourselves, for here is one who desires to eat me up.\"\n\nAnd they came forth, and the house was crushed and the giant was\nkilled, and the man set out again in search of his own.\n\nThen he met another big man, and this man did nothing but eat men,\nand their kayaks he threw down into a great ravine. The man rowed up\nto this giant. And when he reached him, the man-eater said: \"Come here\nand look,\" and led him to the deep ravine. And when the man looked\ndown, the giant tried to thrust him backwards down into the depth.\n\nBut the man caught hold of the giant's legs and cast him down\ninstead. And then he went on again.\n\nAnd as he was rowing on, he heard the bone of a seal calling to him:\n\"Take away the moss which has stopped up the hole that goes through\nme.\" And he did so, and went on again.\n\nAnother time he heard a mussel at the bottom of the sea crying:\n\n\"Here is a mussel that wishes to see you; come down to the bottom;\nrow your kayak straight down through the water--this way!\"\n\nThat mussel wanted to eat him. But he did not heed it.\n\nThen at last one day he saw an old woman, and rowed towards her,\nand came up to her. And she said:\n\n\"Let me dry your boots.\" And she took them and hung them up so high\nthat he could not reach them. The man would have slept, but he could\nnot sleep for fear.\n\n\"Give me my boots,\" he said. For it was now revealed that she was a\nman-eater. And so he got hold of his boots and fled down to his kayak,\nand the woman ran after him.\n\n\"If only I could catch him, and cut him up,\" she said. And as she\nspoke, the kayak nearly upset.\n\n\"If only I could send a bird dart through her,\" said the man. And as\nhe spoke, the woman fell down on her back and broke her knife.\n\nAnd then he rowed on his way. And on his way he met a man, and rowed\nup to him.\n\n\"See what a skin I have stretched out here,\" said the stranger. And\nhe knew at once it was his son's kayak. The stranger had eaten his\nson, and there was his skin stretched out. The man therefore went up\non land and trampled that man-eater to death, so that all his bones\nwere crushed.\n\nAnd then he went home again.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nATUNGAIT, WHO WENT A-WANDERING\n\n\nAtungait, that great man, had once, it is said, a fancy to go out on\na sledge trip with a strong woman.\n\nHe took a ribbon seal and had it flayed, and forbade his wife to\nscrape the meat side clean, so that the skin might be as thick as\npossible. And so he had it dried.\n\nWhen the winter had come, he went out to visit a tribe well known\nfor their eagerness in playing football. He stayed among them for\nsome time, and watched the games, carefully marking who was strongest\namong the players. And he saw that there was one among them a woman\nsmall of stature, who yet always contrived to snatch the ball from\nthe others. Therefore he gave her the great thick skin he had brought\nwith him, and told her to knead it soft. And this she did, though no\nother woman could have done it. Then he took her on his sledge and\ndrove off on a wandering through the lands around.\n\nOn their way they came to a high and steep rock, rising up from the\nopen water. Atungait sprang up on to that rock, and began running up\nit. So strong was he that at every step he bored his feet far down\ninto the rock.\n\nWhen he reached the top, he called to his dogs, and one by one they\nfollowed by the way of his footsteps, and reached the top, all of\nthem save one, and that one died. And after that he hoisted up his\nsledge first, and then his wife after, and so they drove on their way.\n\nAfter they had driven for some time, they came to a place of\npeople. And the strange thing about these people was that they were all\nleft-handed. And then they drove on again and came to some man-eaters;\nthese ate one another, having no other food. But they did not succeed\nin doing him any harm.\n\nAnd they drove on again and came to other people; these had all one\nleg shorter than the other, and had been so from birth. They lay on\nthe ground all day playing ajangat. [10] And they had a fine ajangat\nmade of copper.\n\nAtungait stayed there some time, and when the time came for him to\nset out once more, he stole their plaything and took it away with him,\nhaving first destroyed all their sledges.\n\nBut the lame ones, being unable to pursue, dealt magically with some\nrocky ridges, which then rushed over the ice towards the travellers.\n\nAtungait heard something like the rushing of a river, and turning\nround, perceived those rocks rolling towards him.\n\n\"Have you a piece of sole-leather?\" he asked his wife. And she had\nsuch a piece.\n\nShe tied it to a string and let it drag behind the sledge. When\nthe stones reached it, they stopped suddenly, and sank down through\nthe ice. And the two drove on, hearing the cries of the lame ones\nbehind them:\n\n\"Bring back our plaything, and give us our copper thing again.\"\n\nBut now Atungait began to long for his home, and not knowing in\nwhat part of the land they were, he told the woman with him to wait,\nwhile he himself flew off through the air. For he was a great wizard.\n\nHe soon found his house, and looked in through the window. And there\nsat his wife, rubbing noses with a strange man.\n\n\"Huh! You are not afraid of wearing away your nose, it seems.\" So\nhe cried.\n\nOn hearing this, the wife rushed out of the house, and there she met\nher husband.\n\n\"You have grown clever at kissing,\" he said.\n\n\"No, I have not kissed any one,\" she cried.\n\nThen Atungait grasped her roughly and killed her, because she had lied.\n\nThe strange man also came out now, and Atungait went towards him\nat once.\n\n\"You were kissing inside there, I see,\" he said.\n\n\"Yes,\" said the stranger. And Atungait let him live, because he spoke\nthe truth.\n\nAnd after that he flew back to the strong woman and made her his wife.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nKUMAGDLAK AND THE LIVING ARROWS\n\n\nKumagdlak, men say, lived apart from his fellows. He had a wife,\nand she was the only living being in the place beside himself.\n\nOne day his wife was out looking for stones to build a fireplace,\nand looking out over the sea, she saw many enemies approaching.\n\n\"An umiak and kayaks,\" she cried to her husband. And he was ill at\nease on hearing this, for he lay in the house with a bad leg.\n\n\"My arrows--bring my arrows!\" he cried. And his wife saw that all\nhis arrows lay there trembling. And that was because their points\nwere made of the shinbones of men. And they trembled because their\nmaster was ill at ease.\n\nKumagdlak had made himself arrows, and feathered them with birds'\nfeathers. He was a great wizard, and by breathing with his own\nbreath upon those arrows he could give them life, and cause them to\nfly towards his enemies and kill them. And when he himself stood\nunprotected before the weapons of his enemies, he would grasp the\nthong of the pouch in which his mother had carried him as a child,\nand strike out with it, and then all arrows aimed at him would fly\nwide of their mark.\n\nNow all the enemies hauled up on shore, and the eldest among them\ncried out:\n\n\"Kumagdlak! It is time for you to go out and taste the water in the\nland of the dead under the earth--or perhaps you will go up into\nthe sky?\"\n\n\"That fate is more likely to be yours,\" answered Kumagdlak.\n\nAnd standing at the entrance to his tent, he aimed at them with his\nbow. If but the first arrow could be sent whirling over the boats,\nthen he knew that none of them would be able to harm him. He shot his\narrow, and it flew over the boats. Then he aimed at the old man who\nhad spoken, and that arrow cut through the string of the old man's\nbow, and pierced the old man himself. Then he began shooting down the\nothers, his wife handing him the arrows as he shot. The men from the\nboats shot at him, but all their arrows flew wide. And his enemies\ngrew fewer and fewer, and at last they fled.\n\nAnd now Kumagdlak took all the bodies down by the shore and plundered\nthem, taking their knives, and when the boats had got well out to sea,\nhe called up a great storm, so that all the others perished.\n\nBut the waves washed the bodies this way and that along the coast,\nuntil the clothes were worn off them.\n\nHere ends this story.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE GIANT DOG\n\n\nThere was once a man who had a giant dog. It could swim in the sea, and\nwas so big that it could haul whale and narwhal to shore. The narwhal\nit would hook on to its side teeth, and swim with them hanging there.\n\nThe man who owned it had cut holes in its jaws, and let in thongs\nthrough those holes, so that he could make it turn to either side by\npulling at the thongs.\n\nAnd when he and his wife desired to go journeying to any place,\nthey had only to mount on its back.\n\nThe man had long wished to have a son, but as none was born to him,\nhe gave his great dog the amulet which his son should have had. This\namulet was a knot of hard wood, and the dog was thus made hard to\nresist the coming of death.\n\nOnce the dog ate a man, and then the owner of the dog was forced to\nleave that place and take land elsewhere. And while he was living\nin this new place, there came one day a kayak rowing in towards the\nland, and the man hastened to take up his dog, lest it should eat the\nstranger. He led it away far up into the hills, and gave it a great\nbone, that it might have something to gnaw at, and thus be kept busy.\n\nBut one day the dog smelt out the stranger, and came down from the\nhills, and then the man was forced to hide away the stranger and\nhis kayak in a far place, lest the dog should tear them in pieces,\nfor it was very fierce.\n\nNow because the dog was so big and fierce, the man had many\nenemies. And once a stranger came driving in a sledge with three dogs\nas big as bears, to kill the giant dog. The man went out to meet that\nsledge, and the dog followed behind him. The dog pretended to be afraid\nat first, but then, when the stranger's dog set upon it in attack, it\nturned against them, and crushed the skulls of all three in its teeth.\n\nAfter a time, the man noticed that his giant dog would go off,\nnow and again, for long journeys in the hills, and would sometimes\nreturn with the leg of an inland-dweller. And now he understood that\nthe dog had made it a custom to attack the inland-dwellers and bring\nback their legs to its master. He could see that the legs were legs\nof inland-dwellers, for they wore hairy boots.\n\nAnd it is from this giant dog that the inland-dwellers got their\ngreat fear of all dogs. It would always appear suddenly at the window,\nand drag them out. But it was a good thing that something happened to\nfrighten the inland-dwellers, for they had themselves an evil custom\nof carrying off lonely folk, especially women, when they had lost\ntheir way in the fog.\n\nAnd that is all I know about the Giant Dog.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE INLAND-DWELLERS OF ETAH\n\n\nThere came a sledge driving round to the east of Etah, up into the\nland, near the great lake. Suddenly the dogs scented something, and\ndashed off inland over a great plain. Then they checked, and sniffed\nat the ground. And now it was revealed that they were at the entrance\nto an inland-dweller's house.\n\nThe inland-dwellers screamed aloud with fear when they saw the dogs,\nand thrust out an old woman, but hurried in themselves to hide. The\nold woman died of fright when she saw the dogs.\n\nNow the man went in, very ill at ease because he had caused the death\nof the old woman.\n\n\"It is a sad thing,\" he said, \"that I should have caused you to lose\nthat old one.\"\n\n\"It is nothing,\" answered the inland-dwellers; \"her skin was already\nwrinkled; it does not matter at all.\"\n\nThen the sledges drove home again, but the inland-dwellers were so\nterrified that they fled far up into the country.\n\nSince then they have never been seen. The remains of their houses\nwere all that could be found, and when men dug to see if anything\nelse might be there, they found nothing but a single narwhal tusk.\n\nThe inland-dwellers are not really dangerous, they are only shy,\nand very greatly afraid of dogs. There was a woman of the coast-folk,\nSuagaq, who took a husband from among the inland folk, and when that\nhusband came to visit her brothers, the blood sprang from his eyes\nat sight of their dogs.\n\nAnd they train themselves to become swift runners, that they may\ncatch foxes. When an inland-dweller is to become a swift runner,\nthey stuff him into the skin of a ribbon seal, which is filled with\nworms, leaving only his head free. Then the worms suck all his blood,\nand this, they say, makes him very light on his feet.\n\nThere are still some inland-dwellers left, but they are now gone very\nfar up inland.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE MAN WHO STABBED HIS WIFE IN THE LEG\n\n\nThere was once a man whose name was Neruvkaq, and his wife was named\nNavarana, and she was of the tunerssuit, the inland-dwellers. She had\nmany brothers, and was herself their only sister. And they lived at\nNatsivilik, the place where there is a great stone on which men lay\nout meat.\n\nBut Neruvkaq was cruel to his wife; he would stab her in the leg with\nan awl, and when the point reached her shinbone, she would snivel\nwith pain.\n\n\"Do not touch me; I have many brothers,\" she said to her husband.\n\nAnd as he did not cease from ill-treating her, she ran away to those\nbrothers at last. And they were of the tunerssuit, the inland-dwellers.\n\nNow all these many brothers moved down to Natsivilik, and when they\nreached the place, they sprang upon the roof of Neruvkaq's house and\nbegan to trample on it. One of them thrust his foot through the roof,\nand Neruvkaq's brother cut it off at the joint.\n\n\"He has cut off my leg,\" they heard him say. And then he hopped about\non one leg until all the blood was gone from him and he died.\n\nBut Neruvkaq hastened to put on his tunic, and this was a tunic he\nhad worn as a little child, and it had been made larger from time\nto time. Also it was covered with pieces of walrus tusk, sewn all\nabout. None could kill him as long as he wore that.\n\nAnd now he wanted to get out of the house. He put the sealskin coat\non his dog, and thrust it out. Those outside thought it was Neruvkaq\nhimself, and stabbed the dog to death.\n\nNeruvkaq came close on the heels of the dog, and jumped up to the great\nstone that is used to set out meat on. So strongly did he jump that his\nfootmarks are seen on the stone to this day. Then he took his arrows\nall barbed with walrus tusk, and began shooting his enemies down.\n\nHis mother gave him strength by magic means.\n\nSoon there were but few of his enemies left, and these fled away. They\nfled away to the southward, and fled and fled without stopping until\nthey had gone a great way.\n\nBut Navarana, who was now afraid of her husband, crept in under the\nbench and hid herself there. And as she would not come out again,\nher husband thrust in a great piece of walrus meat, and she chewed\nand gnawed at it to her heart's content.\n\n\"Come out, come out, for I will never hurt you any more,\" he said. But\nshe had grown so afraid of him that she never came out any more,\nand so she died where she was at last--the old sneak!\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE SOUL THAT LIVED IN THE BODIES OF ALL BEASTS\n\n\nThere was a man whose name was Avovang. And of him it is said that\nnothing could wound him. And he lived at Kangerdlugssuaq.\n\nAt that time of the year when it is good to be out, and the days do not\nclose with dark night, and all is nearing the great summer, Avovang's\nbrother stood one day on the ice near the breathing hole of a seal.\n\nAnd as he stood there, a sledge came dashing up, and as it reached him,\nthe man who was in it said:\n\n\"There will come many sledges to kill your brother.\"\n\nThe brother now ran into the house to tell what he had heard. And\nthen he ran up a steep rocky slope and hid away.\n\nThe sledges drove up before the house, and Avovang went out to meet\nthem, but he took with him the skin of a dog's neck, which had been\nused to wrap him in when he was a child. And when then the men fell\nupon him, he simply placed that piece of skin on the ground and stood\non it, and all his enemies could not wound him with their weapons,\nthough they stabbed again and again.\n\nAt last he spoke, and said mockingly:\n\n\"All my body is now like a piece of knotty wood, with the scars of\nthe wounds you gave me, and yet you could not bring about my death.\"\n\nAnd as they could not wound him with their stabbing, they dragged him\nup to the top of a high cliff, thinking to cast him down. But each\ntime they caught hold of him to cast him down, he changed himself into\nanother man who was not their enemy. And at last they were forced to\ndrive away, without having done what they wished.\n\nIt is also told of Avovang, that he once desired to travel to the\nsouth, and to the people who lived in the south, to buy wood. This\nmen were wont to do in the old days, but now it is no longer so.\n\nAnd so they set off, many sledges together, going southward to buy\nwood. And having done what they wished, they set out for home. On the\nway, they had made a halt to look for the breathing holes of seal, and\nwhile the men had been thus employed, the women had gone on. Avovang\nhad taken a wife on that journey, from among the people of the south.\n\nAnd while the men stood there looking for seal holes, all of them felt\na great desire to possess Avovang's wife, and therefore they tried to\nkill him. Qautaq stabbed him in the eyes, and the others caught hold\nof him and sent him sliding down through a breathing hole into the sea.\n\nWhen his wife saw this, she was angry, and taking the wood which they\nhad brought from the south, she broke it all into small pieces. So\nangry was she at thus being made a widow.\n\nThen she went home, after having spoiled the men's wood. But the\nsledges drove on.\n\nSuddenly a great seal came up ahead of them, right in their way,\nwhere the ice was thin and slippery. And the sledges drove straight\nat it, but many fell through and were drowned at that hunting. And\na little after, they again saw something in their way. It was a fox,\nand they set off in chase, but driving at furious speed up a mountain\nof screw-ice, they were dashed down and killed. Only two men escaped,\nand they made their way onward and told what had come to the rest.\n\nAnd it was the soul of Avovang, whom nothing could wound, that had\nchanged, first into a seal and then into a fox, and thus brought about\nthe death of his enemies. And afterwards he made up his mind to let\nhimself be born in the shape of every beast on earth, that he might\none day tell his fellow-men the manner of their life.\n\nAt one time he was a dog, and lived on meat which he stole from the\nhouses. When he was pressed for food, he would carefully watch the\nmen about the houses, and eat anything they threw away.\n\nBut Avovang soon tired of being a dog, on account of the many beatings\nwhich fell to his lot in that life. And so he made up his mind to\nbecome a reindeer.\n\nAt first he found it far from easy, for he could not keep pace with\nthe other reindeer when they ran.\n\n\"How do you stretch your hind legs at a gallop?\" he asked one day.\n\n\"Kick out towards the farthest edge of the sky,\" they answered. And\nhe did so, and then he was able to keep pace with them.\n\nBut at first he did not know what he should eat, and therefore he\nasked the others.\n\n\"Eat moss and lichen,\" they said.\n\nAnd he soon grew fat, with thick suet on his back.\n\nBut one day the herd was attacked by a wolf, and all the reindeer\ndashed out into the sea, and there they met some kayaks in their\nflight, and one of the men killed Avovang.\n\nHe cut him up, and laid the meat in a cairn of stones. And there he\nlay, and when the winter came, he longed for the men to come and bring\nhim home. And glad was he one day to hear the stones rattling down,\nand when they commenced to eat him, and cracked the bones with pieces\nof rock to get at the marrow, Avovang escaped and changed himself\ninto a wolf.\n\nAnd now he lived as a wolf, but here as before he found that he could\nnot keep up with his comrades at a run. And they ate all the food,\nso that he got none.\n\n\"Kick up towards the sky,\" they told him. And then at once he was\nable to overtake all the reindeer, and thus get food.\n\nAnd later he became a walrus, but found himself unable to dive down\nto the bottom; all he could do was to swim straight ahead through\nthe water.\n\n\"Take off as if from the middle of the sky; that is what we do when we\ndive to the bottom,\" said the others. And so he swung his hindquarters\nup to the sky, and down he went to the bottom. And his comrades taught\nhim what to eat; mussels and little white stones.\n\nOnce also he was a raven. \"The ravens never lack food,\" he said,\n\"but they often feel cold about the feet.\"\n\nThus he lived the life of every beast on earth. And at last he became\na seal again. And there he would lie under the ice, watching the men\nwho came to catch him. And being a great wizard, he was able to hide\nhimself away under the nail of a man's big toe.\n\nBut one day there came a man out hunting who had cut off the nail of\nhis big toe. And that man harpooned him. Then they hauled him up on\nthe ice and took him home.\n\nInside the house, they began cutting him up, and when the man cast\nthe mittens to his wife, Avovang went with them, and crept into the\nbody of the woman. And after a time he was born again, and became\nonce more a man.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPAPIK, WHO KILLED HIS WIFE'S BROTHER\n\n\nThere was once a man whose name was Papik, and it was his custom to\ngo out hunting with his wife's brother, whose name was Ailaq. But\nwhenever those two went out hunting together, it was always Ailaq who\ncame home with seal in tow, while Papik returned empty-handed. And\nday by day his envy grew.\n\nThen one day it happened that Ailaq did not return at all. And Papik\nwas silent at his home-coming.\n\nAt last, late in the evening, that old woman who was Ailaq's mother\nbegan to speak.\n\n\"You have killed Ailaq.\"\n\n\"No, I did not kill him,\" answered Papik.\n\nThen the old woman rose up and cried:\n\n\"You killed him, and said no word. The day shall yet come when I will\neat you alive, for you killed Ailaq, you and no other.\"\n\nAnd now the old woman made ready to die, for it was as a ghost she\nthought to avenge her son. She took her bearskin coverlet over her,\nand went and sat down on the shore, close to the water, and let the\ntide come up and cover her.\n\nFor a long time after this, Papik did not go out hunting at all, so\ngreatly did he fear the old woman's threat. But at last he ceased to\nthink of the matter, and began to go out hunting as before.\n\nOne day two men stood out on the ice by the breathing holes. Papik had\nchosen his place a little farther off, and stood there alone. And then\nit came. They heard the snow creaking, with the sound of a cry, and\nthe sound moved towards Papik, and a fog came down over the ice. And\nsoon they heard shouts as of one in a fury, and the screaming of one\nin fear; the monster had fallen upon Papik, to devour him.\n\nAnd now they fled in towards land, swerving wide to keep away from\nwhat was happening there. On their way, they met sledges with hunters\nsetting out; they threw down their gear, and urged the others to return\nto their own place at once, lest they also should be slain by fear.\n\nWhen they reached their village, all gathered together in one\nhouse. But soon they heard the monster coming nearer over the ice,\nand then all hurried to the entrance, and crowding together, grew yet\nmore greatly stricken with fear. And pressing thus against each other,\nthey struggled so hard that one fatherless boy was thrust aside and\nfell into a tub full of blood. When he got up, the blood poured from\nhis clothes, and wherever they went, the snow was marked with blood.\n\n\"Now we are already made food for that monster,\" they cried, \"since\nthat wretched boy marks out the way with a trail of blood.\"\n\n\"Let us kill him, then,\" said one. But the others took pity on him,\nand let him live.\n\nAnd now the evil spirit came in sight out on the ice; they could see\nthe tips of its ears over the hummocks as it crept along. When it came\nup to the houses, not a dog barked, and none dared try to surround it,\nfor it was not a real bear. But at last an old woman began crying to\nthe dogs:\n\n\"See, there is your cousin--bark at him!\" And now the dogs were\nloosed from the magic that bound them, and when the men saw this,\nthey too dashed forward, and harpooned that thing.\n\nBut when they came to cut up the bear, they knew its skin for the\nold woman's coverlet, and its bones were human bones.\n\nAnd now the sledges drove out to find the gear they had left behind,\nand they saw that everything was torn to pieces. And when they found\nPapik, he was cut about in every part. Eyes, nose and mouth and ears\nwere hacked away, and the scalp torn from his head.\n\nThus that old woman took vengeance for the killing of her son Ailaq.\n\nAnd so it was our fathers used to tell: when any man killed his fellow\nwithout good cause, a monster would come and strike him dead with fear,\nand leave no part whole in all his body.\n\nThe people of old times thought it an ill thing for men to kill\neach other.\n\nThis story I heard from the men who came to us from the far side of\nthe great sea.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPATUSSORSSUAQ, WHO KILLED HIS UNCLE\n\n\nThere lived a woman at Kugkat, and she was very beautiful, and Alataq\nwas he who had her to wife.  And at the same place lived Patussorssuaq,\nand Alataq was his uncle.  He also had a wife, but was yet fonder of\nhis uncle's wife than of his own.\n\nBut one day in the spring, Alataq was going out on a long hunting\njourney, and made up his mind to take his wife with him. They were\nstanding at the edge of the ice, ready to start, when Patussorssuaq\ncame down to them.\n\n\"Are you going away?\" he asked.\n\n\"Yes, both of us,\" answered Alataq.\n\nBut when Patussorssuaq heard thus, he fell upon his uncle and killed\nhim at once, for he could not bear to see the woman go away.\n\nWhen Patussorssuaq's wife saw this, she snatched up her needle and\nsewing ring, and fled away, following the shadow of the tent, over\nthe hills to the place where her parents lived. She had not even\ntime to put on her skin stockings, and therefore her feet grew sore\nwith treading the hills. On her way up inland she saw people running\nabout with their hoods loose on their heads, as is the manner of the\ninland folk, but she had no dealings with them, for they fled away.\n\nThen, coming near at last to her own place, she saw an old man,\nand running up, she found it was her father, who was out in search\nof birds. And the two went gladly back to his tent.\n\nNow when Patussorssuaq had killed his uncle, he at once went up to\nhis own tent, thinking to kill his own wife, for he was already weary\nof her. But she had fled away.\n\nInside the tent sat a boy, and Patussorssuaq fell upon him, crying:\n\n\"Where is she? Where is she gone?\"\n\n\"I have seen nothing, for I was asleep,\" cried the boy, speaking\nfalsely because of his great fear. And so Patussorssuaq was forced\nto desist from seeking out his wife.\n\nAnd now he went down and took Alataq's wife and lived with her. But\nafter a little time, she died. And thus he had but little joy of the\nwoman he had won by misdeed. And he himself was soon to suffer in\nanother way.\n\nAt the beginning of the summer, many people were gathered at\nNatsivilik, and among them was Patussorssuaq. One day a strange\nthing happened to him, while he was out hunting: a fox snapped at\nthe fringe of his coat, and he, thinking it to be but a common fox,\nstruck out at it, but did not hit. And afterwards it was revealed\nthat this was the soul of dead Alataq, playing with him a little\nbefore killing him outright. For Alataq's amulet was a fox.\n\nAnd a little time after, he was bitten to death by the ghost of Alataq,\ncoming upon him in the shape of a bear. His daughter, who was outside\nat that time, heard the cries, and went in to tell of what she had\nheard, but just as she came into the house, behold, she had quite\nforgotten all that she wished to say. And this was because that\nvengeful spirit had by magic means called down forgetfulness upon her.\n\nAfterwards she remembered it, but then it was too late. They found\nPatussorssuaq torn to pieces, torn limb from limb; he had tried to\ndefend himself with great pieces of ice, as they could see, but all\nin vain.\n\nThus punishment falls upon the man who kills.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE MEN WHO CHANGED WIVES\n\n\nThere were once two men, Talilarssuaq and Navssarssuaq, and they\nchanged wives. Talilarssuaq was a mischievous fellow, who was given\nto frightening people.\n\nOne evening, sitting in the house with the other's wife, whom he\nhad borrowed, he thrust his knife suddenly through the skins of the\nbench. Then the woman ran away to her husband and said:\n\n\"Go in and kill Talilarssuaq; he is playing very dangerous tricks.\"\n\nThen Navssarssuaq rose up without a word, and put on his best clothes,\nand took his knife, and went out. He went straight up to Talilarssuaq,\nwho was now lying on the bench talking to himself, and pulled him\nout on the floor and stabbed him.\n\n\"You might at least have waited till I had dressed,\" said\nTalilarssuaq. But Navssarssuaq hauled him out through the passage way,\ncast him on the rubbish heap and went his way, saying nothing.\n\nOn the way he met his wife.\n\n\"Are you not going to murder me, too?\" she asked.\n\n\"No,\" he answered in a deep voice. \"For Pualuna is not yet grown big\nenough to be without you.\" Pualuna was their youngest son.\n\nBut some time after that deed he began to perceive that he was haunted\nby a spirit.\n\n\"There is some invisible thing which now and again catches hold\nof me,\" he said to his comrades. And that was the avenging spirit,\nwatching him.\n\nBut about this time, many in the place fell sick. And among them was\nNavssarssuaq. The sickness killed him, and thus the avenging spirit\nwas not able to tear him in pieces.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nARTUK, WHO DID ALL FORBIDDEN THINGS\n\n\nA man whose name was Artuk had buried his wife, but refused to remain\naloof from doings which those who have been busied with the dead are\nforbidden to share. He said he did not hold by such old customs.\n\nSome of his fellow-villagers were at work cutting up frozen meat for\nfood. After watching them for a while as they worked at the meat with\ntheir knives, he took a stone axe and hacked at the meat, saying:\n\n\"That is the way to cut up meat.\"\n\nAnd this he did although it was forbidden.\n\nAnd on the same day he went out on to the ice and took off his inner\ncoat to shake it, and this he did although it was forbidden.\n\nAlso he went up on to an iceberg and drank water which the sun had\nmelted there, knowing well that this was likewise forbidden.\n\nAnd all these things he did in scorn of that which his fellows\nbelieved.  For he said it was all lies.\n\nBut one day when he was starting out with his sledge, fear came upon\nhim, and he dared not go alone. And as his son would not go with him\nwillingly, he took him, and bound him to the uprights of the sledge,\nand carried him so.\n\nHe never returned alive.\n\nLate in the evening, his daughter heard in the air the mocking laughter\nof two spirits. And she knew at once that they were laughing so that\nshe might know how her father had been punished for his ill-doing.\n\nOn the following day, many sledges went out to search for Artuk. And\nthey found him, far out on the ice, torn to pieces, as is the way\nwith those whom the spirits have punished for refusing to observe\nthe customs of their forefathers. And the son, who was bound to the\nsledge, had not been touched, but he had died of fright.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE THUNDER SPIRITS\n\n\nTwo sisters, men say, were playing together, and their father could\nnot bear to hear the noise they made, for he had but few children,\nand was thus not wont to hear any kind of noise. At last he began to\nscold them, and told them to go farther away with their playing.\n\nWhen the girls grew up, and began to understand things, they desired\nto run away on account of their father's scolding. And at last they\nset out, taking with them only a little dogskin, and a piece of boot\nskin, and a fire stone. They went up into a high mountain to build\nthemselves a house there.\n\nTheir father and mother made search for them in vain, for the girls\nkept hiding themselves; they had grown to be true mountain dwellers,\nkeeping far from the places of men. Only the reindeer hunters saw them\nnow and again, but the girls always refused to go back to their kin.\n\nAnd when at last the time came when they must die of hunger, they\nturned into evil spirits, and became thunder.\n\nWhen they shake their dried boot skin, then the gales come up, the\nsouth-westerly gales. And great fire is seen in the heavens whenever\nthey strike their fire stone, and the rain pours down whenever they\nshed tears.\n\nTheir father held many spirit callings, hoping to make them return. But\nthis he ceased to do when he found that they were dead.\n\nBut men say that after those girls had become spirits, they returned\nto the places of men, frightening many to death. They came first\nof all to their father and mother, because of the trouble they had\nmade. The only one they did not kill was a woman bearing a child on\nher back. And they let her live, that she might tell how terrible\nthey were. And tales are now told of how terrible they were.\n\nWhen the thunder spirits come, even the earth itself is stricken with\nterror. And stones, even those which lie on level ground, and not on\nany slope at all, roll in fear towards men.\n\nThus the thunder comes with the south-westerly gales; there is a noise\nand crackling in the air, as of dry skins shaken, and the sky glows\nfrom time to time with the fire from their firestone. Great rocks,\nand everything which stands up high in the air, begin to glow.\n\nWhen this happens, men use to take out a red dog, and cut its ear until\nthe blood comes, and then lead the beast round about the house, letting\nthe blood drip everywhere, for then the house will not take fire.\n\nA red dog was the only thing they feared, those girls who were turned\nto thunder.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNERRIVIK\n\n\nA bird once wished to marry a woman.  He got himself a fine sealskin\ncoat, and having weak eyes, made spectacles out of a walrus tusk,\nfor he was greatly set upon looking as nice as possible.  Then he\nset off, in the shape of a man, and coming to a village, took a wife,\nand brought her home.\n\nNow he began to go out catching fish, which he called seal, and\nbrought home to his wife.\n\nOnce it happened that he lost his spectacles, and his wife, seeing\nhis bad eyes, burst out weeping, because he was so ugly.\n\nBut her husband only laughed. \"Oho, so you saw my eyes? Hahaha!\"\nAnd he put on his spectacles again.\n\nThen her brothers, who longed for their sister, came out one day\nto visit her. And her husband being out hunting, they took her away\nwith them. The husband was greatly distressed when he came home and\nfound her gone, and thinking someone must have carried her off, he\nset out in pursuit. He swung his wings with mighty force, and raised\na violent storm, for he was a great wizard.\n\nWhen the storm came up, the boat began to take in water, and the wind\ngrew fiercer, as he doubled the beating of his wings. The waves rose\nwhite with foam, and the boat was near turning over. And when those in\nthe boat began to suspect that the woman was the cause of the storm,\nthey took her up and cast her into the sea. She tried to grasp the side\nof the boat, but then her grandfather sprang up and cut off her hand.\n\nAnd so she was drowned. But at the bottom of the sea, she became\nNerrivik, the ruler over all the creatures in the sea. And when men\ncatch no seal, then the wizards go down to Nerrivik.  Having but one\nhand, she cannot comb her hair, and this they do for her, and she,\nby way of thanks, sends seal and other creatures forth to men.\n\nThat is the story of the ruler of the sea.  And men call her Nerrivik\n[11] because she gives them food.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE WIFE WHO LIED\n\n\nNavaranapaluk, men say, came of a tribe of man-eaters, but when she\ngrew up, she was taken to wife by one of a tribe that did not eat men.\n\nOnce when she was going off on a visit to her own people, she put\nmittens on her feet instead of boots. And this she did in order to\nmake it appear that her husband's people had dealt ill by her.\n\nIt was midwinter, and her kinsfolk pitied her greatly when they saw\nher come to them thus. And they agreed to make war against the tribe\nto which her husband belonged.\n\nSo they set out, and came to that village at a time when all the\nmen were away, and only the women at home; these they took and slew,\nand only three escaped. One of them had covered herself with the skin\nwhich she was dressing when they came, the second had hidden herself in\na box used for dog's meat, and the third had crept into a store shed.\n\nWhen the men came home, they found all their womenfolk killed, and\nat once they thought of Navaranapaluk, who had fled away. And they\nwere the more angered, that the slayers had hoisted the bodies of\nthe women on long poles, with the points stuck through them.\n\nThey fell to at once making ready for war against those enemies, and\nprepared arrows in great numbers. The three women who were left alive\nplaited sinew thread to fix the points of the arrows; and so eagerly\ndid they work that at last no more flesh was left on their fingers,\nand the naked bone showed through.\n\nWhen all things were ready, they set out, and coming up behind the\nhouses of their enemies, they hid themselves among great rocks.\n\nThe slayers had kept watch since their return, believing that the\navengers would not fail to come, and the women took turns at the\nwatching.\n\nAnd now it is said that one old woman among them had a strange\ndream. She dreamed that two creatures were fighting above her head. And\nwhen she told the others of this, they all agreed that the avengers\nmust be near. They gathered together in one house to ask counsel of\nthe spirits, and when the spirit calling had commenced, then suddenly\na dog upon the roof of the house began to bark.\n\nThe men dashed out, but their enemies had already surrounded the\nhouse, and now set about to take their full revenge, shooting down\nevery man with arrows. At last, when there were no more left, they\nchose themselves wives from among the widows, and bore them off to\ntheir own place.\n\nBut two of them took Navaranapaluk and hurried off with her.\n\nAnd she, thinking that both wished to have her to wife, cried out:\n\n\"Which is it to be? Which is it to be?\"\n\nThe men laughed, and made no answer, but ran on with her.\n\nThen suddenly they cut through both her arms with their knives. And\nsoon she fell, and the blood went from her, and she died.\n\nThis fate they meted out to her because she lied.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nKAGSSAGSSUK, THE HOMELESS BOY WHO BECAME A STRONG MAN\n\n\nOne day, it is said, when the men and women in the place had gone to\na spirit calling, the children were left behind, all in one big house,\nwhere they played, making a great noise.\n\nA homeless boy named Kagssagssuk was walking about alone outside,\nand it is said that he called to those who were playing inside the\nhouse, and said:\n\n\"You must not make so much noise, or the Great Fire will come.\"\n\nThe children, who would not believe him, went on with their noisy\nplay, and at last the Great Fire appeared. Little Kagssagssuk fled\ninto the house, and cried:\n\n\"Lift me up. I must have my gloves, and they are up there!\"\n\nSo they lifted him up to the drying frame under the roof.\n\nAnd then they heard the Great Fire come hurrying into the house from\nwithout. He had a great live ribbon seal for a whip, and that whip\nhad long claws. And then he began dragging the children out through\nthe passage with his great whip, and each time he drew one out, that\none was frizzled up. And at last there were no more. But before going\naway, the Great Fire reached up and touched with his finger a skin\nwhich was hanging on the drying frame.\n\nAs soon as the Great Fire had gone away, little Kagssagssuk crawled\ndown from the drying frame and went over to the people who were\ngathered in the wizard's house, and told them what had happened. But\nnone believed what he said.\n\n\"You have killed them yourself,\" they declared.\n\n\"Very well, then,\" he said, \"if you think so, try to make a noise\nyourselves, like the children did.\"\n\nAnd now they began cooking blubber above the entrance to the house, and\nwhen the oil was boiling and bubbling as hard as it could, they began\nmaking a mighty noise. And true enough, up came the Great Fire outside.\n\nBut little Kagssagssuk was not allowed to come into the house,\nand therefore he hid himself in the store shed. The Great Fire\ncame into the house, and brought with it the live ribbon seal for\na whip. They heard it coming in through the passage, and then they\npoured boiling oil over it, and his whip being thus destroyed, the\nGreat Fire went away.\n\nBut from that time onward, all the people of the village were unkind\nto little Kagssagssuk, and that although he had told the truth. Up to\nthat time he had lived in the house of Umerdlugtoq, who was a great\nman, but now he was forced to stay outside always, and they would\nnot let him come in. If he ventured to step in, though it were for no\nmore than to dry his boots, Umerdlugtoq, that great man, would lift\nhim up by the nostrils, and cast him over the high threshold again.\n\nAnd little Kagssagssuk had two grandmothers; the one of these beat him\nas often as she could, even if he only lay out in the passage. But\nhis other grandmother took pity on him, because he was the son of\nher daughter, who had been a woman like herself, and therefore she\ndried his clothes for him.\n\nWhen, once in a while, that unfortunate boy did come in, Umerdlugtoq's\nfolk would give him some tough walrus hide to eat, wishing only\nto give him something which they knew was too tough for him. And\nwhen they did so, he would take a little piece of stone and put it\nbetween his teeth, to help him, and when he had finished, put it\nback in his breeches, where he always kept it. When he was hungry,\nhe would sometimes eat of the dogs' leavings on the ground outside,\nfinding there walrus hide which even the dogs refused to eat.\n\nHe slept among the dogs, and warmed himself up on the roof, in the\nwarm air from the smoke hole. But whenever Umerdlugtoq saw him warming\nhimself there, he would haul him down by the nostrils.\n\nThus a long time passed, and it had been dark in the winter, and was\nbeginning to grow light near the coming of spring. And now little\nKagssagssuk began to go wandering about the country. Once when he\nwas out, he met a big man, a giant, who was cutting up his catch,\nand on seeing him, Kagssagssuk cried out in a loud voice:\n\n\"Ho, you man there, give me a piece of that meat!\"\n\nBut although he shouted as loudly as he could, that giant could not\nhear him. At last a little sound reached the big man's ears, and then\nhe said:\n\n\"Bring me luck, bring me luck!\"\n\nAnd he threw down a little piece of meat on the ground, believing it\nwas one of the dead who thus asked.\n\nBut little Kagssagssuk, who, young as he was, had already some helping\nspirits, made that little piece of meat to be a big piece, just as\nthe dead can do, and ate as much as he could, and when he could eat\nno more, there was still so much left that he could hardly drag it\naway to hide it.\n\nSome time after this, little Kagssagssuk said to his mother's mother:\n\n\"I have by chance become possessed of much meat, and my thoughts will\nnot leave it. I will therefore go out and look to it.\"\n\nSo he went off to the place where he had hidden it, and lo! it was\nnot there. And he fell to weeping, and while he stood there weeping,\nthe giant came up.\n\n\"What are you weeping for?\"\n\n\"I cannot find the meat which I had hidden in a store-place here.\"\n\n\"Ho,\" said the giant, \"I took that meat. I thought it had belonged\nto another one.\"\n\nAnd then he said again: \"Now let us play together.\" For he felt kindly\ntowards that boy, and had pity on him.\n\nAnd they two went off together. When they came to a big stone, the\ngiant said: \"Now let us push this stone.\" And they began pushing\nat the big stone until they twirled it round. At first, when little\nKagssagssuk tried, he simply fell backwards.\n\n\"Now once more. Make haste, make haste, once more. And there again,\nthere is a bigger one.\"\n\nAnd at last little Kagssagssuk ceased to fall over backwards, and was\nable instead to move the stones and twirl them round. And each time\nhe tried with a larger stone than before, and when he had succeeded\nwith that, a larger one still. And so he kept on. And at last he could\nmake even the biggest stones twirl round in the air, and the stone said\n\"leu-leu-leu-leu\" in the air.\n\nThen said the giant at last, seeing that they were equal in strength:\n\n\"Now you have become a strong man. But since it was by my fault that\nyou lost that piece of meat, I will by magic means cause bears to\ncome down to your village. Three bears there will be, and they will\ncome right down to the village.\"\n\nThen little Kagssagssuk went home, and having returned home, went up to\nwarm himself as usual at the smoke hole. Then came the master of that\nhouse, as usual, and hauled him down by the nostrils. And afterwards,\nwhen he went to lie down among the dogs, his wicked grandmother beat\nhim and them together, as was her custom. Altogether as if there were\nno strong man in the village at all.\n\nBut in the night, when all were asleep, he went down to one of the\numiaks, which was frozen fast, and hauled it free.\n\nNext morning when the men awoke, there was a great to-do.\n\n\"Hau! That umiak has been hauled out of the ice!\"\n\n\"Hau! There must be a strong man among us!\"\n\n\"Who can it be that is so strong?\"\n\n\"Here is the mighty one, without a doubt,\" said Umerdlugtoq, pointing\nto little Kagssagssuk. But this he said only in mockery.\n\nAnd a little time after this, the people about the village began to\ncall out that three bears were in sight--exactly as the giant had\nsaid. Kagssagssuk was inside, drying his boots. And while all the\nothers were shouting eagerly about the place, he said humbly:\n\n\"If only I could borrow a pair of indoor boots from some one.\"\n\nAnd at last, as he could get no others, he was obliged to take his\ngrandmother's boots and put them on.\n\nThen he went out, and ran off over the hard-trodden snow outside the\nhouses, treading with such force that it seemed as if the footmarks\nwere made in soft snow. And thus he went off to meet the bears.\n\n\"Hau! Look at Kagssagssuk.  Did you ever see....\"\n\n\"What is come to Kagssagssuk; what can it be?\"\n\nUmerdlugtoq was greatly excited, and so astonished that his eyes would\nnot leave the boy. But little Kagssagssuk grasped the biggest of the\nbears--a mother with two half-grown cubs--grasped that bear with his\nnaked fists, and wrung its neck, so that it fell down dead. Then he\ntook those cubs by the back of the neck and hammered their skulls\ntogether until they too were dead.\n\nThen little Kagssagssuk went back homeward with the biggest bear over\nhis shoulders, and one cub under each arm, as if they had been no\nmore than hares. Thus he brought them up to the house, and skinned\nthem; then he set about building a fireplace large enough to put a\nman in. For he was now going to cook bears' meat for his grandmother,\non a big flat stone.\n\nUmerdlugtoq, that great man, now made haste to get away, taking his\nwives with him.\n\nAnd Kagssagssuk took that old grandmother who was wont to beat him,\nand cast her on the fire, and she burned all up till only her stomach\nwas left. His other grandmother was about to run away, but he held\nher back, and said:\n\n\"I shall now be kind to you, for you always used to dry my boots.\"\n\nNow when Kagssagssuk had made a meal of the bears' meat, he set off\nin chase of those who had fled away. Umerdlugtoq had halted upon the\ntop of a high hill, just on the edge of a precipice, and had pitched\ntheir tent close to the edge.\n\nUp came Kagssagssuk behind him, caught him by the nostrils and held\nhim out over the edge, and shook him so violently that his nostrils\nburst. And there stood Umerdlugtoq holding his nose. But Kagssagssuk\nsaid to him:\n\n\"Do not fear; I am not going to kill you. For you never used to\nkill me.\"\n\nAnd then little Kagssagssuk went into the tent, and called out to him:\n\n\"Hi, come and look! I am in here with your wives!\"\n\nFor in the old days, Umerdlugtoq had dared him even to look at them.\n\nAnd having thus taken due vengeance, Kagssagssuk went back to\nhis village, and took vengeance there on all those who had ever\nill-treated him. And some time after, he went away to the southward,\nand lived with the people there.\n\nIt is also told that he got himself a kayak there, and went out hunting\nwith the other men. But being so strong, he soon became filled with\nthe desire to be feared, and began catching hold of children and\ncrushing them. And therefore his fellow-villagers harpooned him one\nday when he was out in his kayak.\n\nAll this we have heard tell of Kagssagssuk.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nQASIAGSSAQ, THE GREAT LIAR\n\n\nQasiagssaq, men say, was a great liar. His wife was called\nQigdlugsuk. He could never sleep well at night, and being sleepless,\nhe always woke his fellow-villagers when they were to go out hunting\nin the morning. But he never brought home anything himself.\n\nOne day when he had been out as usual in his kayak, without even\nsight of a seal, he said:\n\n\"It is no use my trying to be a hunter, for I never catch anything. I\nmay as well make up some lie or other.\"\n\nAnd at the same moment he noticed that one of his fellow-villagers\nwas towing a big black seal over to an island, to land it there before\ngoing out for more. When that seal had been brought to land, Qasiagssaq\nrowed round behind the man, and stole it, and towed it back home.\n\nHis wife was looking out for him, going outside every now and then to\nlook if he were in sight. And thus it was that coming out, she caught\nsight of a kayak coming in with something in tow. She shaded her eyes\nwith both hands, one above the other, and looked through between them,\ngazing eagerly to try if she could make out who it was. The kayak\nwith its seal in tow came rowing in, and she kept going out to look,\nand at last, when she came out as usual, she could see that it was\nreally and truly Qasiagssaq, coming home with his catch in tow.\n\n\"Here is Qasiagssaq has made a catch,\" cried his fellow-villagers. And\nwhen he came in, they saw that he had a great black seal in tow,\nwith deep black markings all over the body. And the tow-line was\nthick with trappings of the finest narwhal tusk.\n\n\"Where did you get that tow-line?\" they asked.\n\n\"I have had it a long time,\" he answered, \"but have never used it\nbefore to-day.\"\n\nAfter they had hauled the seal to land, his wife cut out the belly\npart, and when that was done, she shared out so much blubber and meat\nto the others that there was hardly anything left for themselves. And\nthen she set about cooking a meal, with a shoulder-blade for a lamp,\nand another for a pot. And every time a kayak came in, they told the\nnewcomer that Qasiagssaq had got a big black seal.\n\nAt last there was but one kayak still out, and when that one came in,\nthey told him the same thing: \"Qasiagssaq has actually got a big seal.\"\n\nBut this last man said when they told him:\n\n\"I got a big black seal to-day, and hauled it up on an island. But\nwhen I went back to fetch it, it was gone.\"\n\nThe others said again:\n\n\"The tow-line which Qasiagssaq was using to-day was furnished with\ntoggles of pure narwhal tusk.\"\n\nLater in the evening, Qasiagssaq heard a voice calling in at the\nwindow:\n\n\"You, Qasiagssaq, I have come to ask if you will give back that\ntow-line.\"\n\nQasiagssaq sprang up and said:\n\n\"Here it is; you may take it back now.\"\n\nBut his wife, who was beside him, said:\n\n\"When Qasiagssaq does such things, one cannot but feel shame for him.\"\n\n\"Hrrrr!\" said Qasiagssaq to his wife, as if to frighten her. And\nafter that he went about as if nothing had happened.\n\nOne day when he was out in his kayak as usual, he said:\n\n\"What is the use of my being out here, I who never catch anything?\"\n\nAnd he rowed in towards land. When he reached the shore, he took off\nhis breeches, and sat down on the ground, laying one knee across a\nstone. Then he took another stone to serve as a hammer, and with that\nhe hammered both his knee-caps until they were altogether smashed.\n\nAnd there he lay. He lay there for a long time, but at last he got up\nand went down to his kayak, and now he could only walk with little\nand painful steps. And when he came down to his kayak, he hammered\nand battered at that, until all the woodwork was broken to pieces.\nAnd then, getting into it, he piled up a lot of fragments of iceberg\nupon it, and even placed some inside his clothes, which were of ravens'\nskin. And so he rowed home.\n\nBut all this while two women had been standing watching him.\n\nHis wife was looking out for him as usual, shading her eyes with her\nhands, and when at last she caught sight of his kayak, and it came\nnearer, she could see that it was Qasiagssaq, rowing very slowly.\nAnd when then he reached the land, she said:\n\n\"What has happened to you now?\"\n\n\"An iceberg calved.\"\n\nAnd seeing her husband come home in such a case, his wife said to\nthe others:\n\n\"An iceberg has calved right on top of Qasiagssaq, so that he barely\nescaped alive.\"\n\nBut when the women who had watched him came home, they said:\n\n\"We saw him to-day; he rowed in to land, and took off his breeches\nand hammered at his knee-caps with a stone; then he went down to his\nkayak and battered it to bits, and when that was done, he filled his\nkayak with ice, and even put ice inside his clothing.\"\n\nBut when his wife heard this, she said to him:\n\n\"When Qasiagssaq does such things, one cannot but feel shame for him.\"\n\n\"Hrrrr!\" said Qasiagssaq, as if to frighten her.\n\nAfter that he lay still for a long while, waiting for his knees to\nheal, and when at last his knees were well again, he began once more\nto go out in his kayak, always without catching anything, as usual. And\nwhen he had thus been out one day as usual, without catching anything,\nhe said to himself again:\n\n\"What is the use of my staying out here?\"\n\nAnd he rowed in to land. There he found a long stone, laid it on his\nkayak, and rowed out again. And when he came in sight of other kayaks\nthat lay waiting for seal, he stopped still, took out his two small\nbladder floats made from the belly of a seal, tied the harpoon line\nto the stone in his kayak, and when that was done, he rowed away as\nfast as he could, while the kayaks that were waiting looked on. Then\nhe disappeared from sight behind an iceberg, and when he came round\non the other side, his bladder float was gone, and he himself was\nrowing as fast as he could towards land. His wife, who was looking\nout for him as usual, shading her eyes with her hands, said then:\n\n\"But what has happened to Qasiagssaq?\"\n\nAs soon as a voice could reach the land, Qasiagssaq cried:\n\n\"Now you need not be afraid of breaking the handles of your knives;\nI have struck a great walrus, and it has gone down under water with\nmy two small bladder floats. One or another of those who are out\nafter seal will be sure to find it.\"\n\nHe himself remained altogether idle, and having come into his house,\ndid not go out again. And as the kayaks began to come in, others went\ndown to the shore and told them the news:\n\n\"Qasiagssaq has struck a walrus.\"\n\nAnd this they said to all the kayaks as they came home, but as usual,\nthere was one of them that remained out a long time, and when at\nlast he came back, late in the evening, they told him the same thing:\n\"Qasiagssaq, it is said, has struck a walrus.\"\n\n\"That I do not believe, for here are his bladder floats; they had\nbeen tied to a stone, and the knot had worked loose.\"\n\nThen they brought those bladder floats to Qasiagssaq and said:\n\n\"Here are your bladder floats; they were fastened to a stone, but\nthe knot worked loose.\"\n\n\"When Qasiagssaq does such things, one cannot but feel shame for him,\"\nsaid his wife as usual.\n\n\"Hrrrr!\" said Qasiagssaq, to frighten her.\n\nAnd after that Qasiagssaq went about as if nothing had happened.\n\nOne day he was out in his kayak as usual at a place where there was\nmuch ice; here he caught sight of a speckled seal, which had crawled\nup on to a piece of the ice. He rowed up to it, taking it unawares,\nand lifted his harpoon ready to throw, but just as he was about to\nthrow, he looked at the point, and then he laid the harpoon down again,\nsaying to himself: \"Would it not be a pity, now, for that skin, which\nis to be used to make breeches for my wife, to be pierced with holes\nby the point of a harpoon?\"\n\nSo he lay alongside the piece of ice, and began whistling to that\nseal. [12] And he was just about to grasp hold of it when the seal\nwent down. But he watched it carefully, and when it came up again,\nhe rowed over to it once more. Now he lifted his harpoon and was\njust about to throw, when again he caught sight of the point, and\nsaid to himself: \"Would it not be a pity if that skin, which is to\nmake breeches for my wife, should be pierced with holes by the point\nof a harpoon?\" And again he cried out to try and frighten the seal,\nand down it went again, and did not come up any more.\n\nOnce he heard that there lived an old couple in another village,\nwho had lost their child. So Qasiagssaq went off there on a visit. He\ncame to their place, and went into the house, and there sat the old\ncouple mourning. Then he asked the others of the house in a low voice:\n\n\"What is the trouble here?\"\n\n\"They are mourning,\" he was told.\n\n\"What for?\" he asked.\n\n\"They have lost a child; their little daughter died the other day.\"\n\n\"What was her name?\"\n\n\"Nipisartangivaq,\" they said.\n\nThen Qasiagssaq cleared his throat and said in a loud voice:\n\n\"To-day my little daughter Nipisartangivaq is doubtless crying at\nher mother's side as usual.\"\n\nHardly had he said this when the mourners looked up eagerly, and cried:\n\n\"Ah, how grateful we are to you! [13] Now your little daughter can\nhave all her things.\"\n\nAnd they gave him beads, and the little girl's mother said:\n\n\"I have nothing to give you by way of thanks, but you shall have my\ncooking pot.\"\n\nAnd when he was setting out again for home, they gave him great\nquantities of food to take home to his little girl. But when he came\nback to his own place, his fellow-villagers asked:\n\n\"Wherever did you get all this?\"\n\n\"An umiak started out on a journey, and the people in it were hurried\nand forgetful. Here are some things which they left behind them.\"\n\nTowards evening a number of kayaks came in sight; it was people coming\non a visit, and they had all brought meat with them. When they came\nin, they said:\n\n\"Tell Qasiagssaq and his wife to come down and fetch up this meat\nfor their little girl.\"\n\n\"Qasiagssaq and his wife have no children; we know Qasiagssaq well,\nand his wife is childless.\"\n\nWhen the strangers heard this, they would not even land at the place,\nbut simply said:\n\n\"Then tell them to give us back the beads and the cooking pot.\"\n\nAnd those things were brought, and given back to them.\n\nThen Qasiagssaq's wife said as usual:\n\n\"Now you have lied again. When you do such things, one cannot but\nfeel shame for you.\"\n\n\"Hrrrr!\" said Qasiagssaq, to frighten her, and went on as if nothing\nhad happened.\n\nNow it is said that Qasiagssaq's wife Qigdlugsuk had a mother who\nlived in another village, and had a son whose name was Ernilik. One\nday Qasiagssaq set out to visit them. He came to their place, and\nwhen he entered into the house, it was quite dark, because they had\nno blubber for their lamp, and the little child was crying, because\nit had nothing to eat. Qasiagssaq cleared his throat loudly and said:\n\n\"What is the matter with him?\"\n\n\"He is hungry, as usual,\" said the mother.\n\nThen said Qasiagssaq:\n\n\"How foolish I was not to take so much as a little blubber with\nme. Over in our village, seals are daily thrown away. You must come\nback with me to our place.\"\n\nNext morning they set off together. When they reached the place,\nQasiagssaq hurried up with the harpoon line in his hand, before his\nwife's mother had landed. And all she saw was that there was much\ncarrion of ravens on Qasiagssaq's rubbish heap. Suddenly Qasiagssaq\ncried out:\n\n\"Ah! One of them has got away again!\"\n\nHe had caught a raven in his snare. His wife cooked it, and their lamp\nwas a shoulder-blade, and another shoulder-blade was their cooking pot,\nand when that meat was cooked, Qigdlugsuk's mother was given raven's\nmeat to eat. Afterwards she was well fed by the other villagers there,\nand next morning when she was setting out to go home, they all gave\nher meat to take with her; all save Qasiagssaq, who gave her nothing.\n\nAnd time went on, and once he was out as usual in his kayak, and when\nhe came home in the evening, he said:\n\n\"I have found a dead whale; to-morrow we must all go out in the umiak\nand cut it up.\"\n\nNext day many umiaks and kayaks set out to the eastward, and when\nthey had rowed a long way in, they asked:\n\n\"Where is it?\"\n\n\"Over there, beyond that little ness,\" he said.\n\nAnd they rowed over there, and when they reached the place, there\nwas nothing to be seen. So they asked again:\n\n\"Where is it?\"\n\n\"Over there, beyond that little ness.\"\n\nAnd they rowed over there, but when they reached the place, there\nwas nothing to be seen. And again they asked:\n\n\"Where is it? Where is it?\"\n\n\"Up there, beyond the little ness.\"\n\nAnd again they reached the place and rowed round it, and there was\nnothing to be seen.\n\nThen the others said:\n\n\"Qasiagssaq is lying as usual. Let us kill him.\"\n\nBut he answered:\n\n\"Wait a little; let us first make sure that it is a lie, and if you\ndo not see it, you may kill me.\"\n\nAnd again they asked:\n\n\"Where is it?\"\n\n\"Yes ... where was it now ... over there beyond that little ness.\"\n\nAnd now they had almost reached the base of that great fjord, and\nagain they rounded a little ness farther in, and there was nothing\nto be seen. Therefore they said:\n\n\"He is only a trouble to us all: let us kill him.\"\n\nAnd at last they did as they had said, and killed him.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE EAGLE AND THE WHALE\n\n\nIn a certain village there lived many brothers. And they had two\nsisters, both of an age to marry, and often urged them to take\nhusbands, but they would not.  At last one of the men said:\n\n\"What sort of a husband do you want, then? An eagle, perhaps? Very\nwell, an eagle you shall have.\"\n\nThis he said to the one. And to the other he said:\n\n\"And you perhaps would like a whale? Well, a whale you shall have.\"\n\nAnd then suddenly a great eagle came in sight, and it swooped down on\nthe young girl and flew off with her to a high ledge of rock. And a\nwhale also came in sight, and carried off the other sister, carrying\nher likewise to a ledge of rock.\n\nAfter that the eagle and the girl lived together on a ledge of rock\nfar up a high steep cliff. The eagle flew out over the sea to hunt,\nand while he was away, his wife would busy herself plaiting sinews\nfor a line wherewith to lower herself down the rock. And while she\nwas busied with that work, the eagle would sometimes appear, with a\nwalrus in one claw and a narwhal in the other.\n\nOne day she tried the line, with which she was to lower herself down;\nit was too short. And so she plaited more.\n\nBut as time went on, the brothers began to long for their sister. And\nthey all set to work making crossbows.\n\nAnd there was in that village a little homeless boy, who was so small\nthat he had not strength to draw a bow, but must get one of the others\nto draw it for him every time he wanted to shoot. When they had made\nall things ready, they went out to the place where their sister was,\nand called to her from the foot of the cliff, telling her to lower\nherself down. And this she did. As soon as her husband had gone out\nhunting, she lowered herself down and reached her brothers.\n\nTowards evening, the eagle appeared out at sea, with a walrus in each\nclaw, and as he passed the house of his wife's brothers, he dropped\none down to them. But when he came home, his wife was gone. Then he\nsimply threw his catch away, and flew, gliding on widespread wings,\ndown to where those brothers were. But whenever the eagle tried to\nfly down to the house, they shot at it with their bows. And as none\nof them could hit, the little homeless boy cried:\n\n\"Let me try too!\"\n\nAnd then one of the others had to bend his bow for him. But when he\nshot off his arrow, it struck. And when then the eagle came fluttering\ndown to earth, the others shot so many arrows at it that it could\nnot quite touch the ground.\n\nThus they killed their sister's husband, who was a mighty hunter.\n\nBut the other sister and the whale lived together likewise. And the\nwhale was very fond of her, and would hardly let her out of his sight\nfor a moment.\n\nBut the girl here likewise began to feel homesick, and she also began\nplaiting a line of sinew threads, and her brothers, who were likewise\nbeginning to long for their sister, set about making a swift-sailing\numiak. And when they had finished it, and got it into the water,\nthey said:\n\n\"Now let us see how fast it can go.\"\n\nAnd then they got a guillemot which had its nest close by to fly\nbeside them, while they tried to outdistance it by rowing. But when\nit flew past them, they cried:\n\n\"This will not do; the whale would overtake us at once. We must take\nthis boat to pieces and build a new one.\" And so they took that boat\nto pieces and built a new one.\n\nThen they put it in the water again and once more let the bird fly\na race with them. And now the two kept side by side all the way,\nbut when they neared the land, the bird was left behind.\n\nOne day the girl said as usual to the whale: \"I must go outside\na little.\"\n\n\"Stay here,\" said her husband, that great one.\n\n\"But I must go outside,\" said the girl.\n\nNow he had a string tied to her, and this he would pull when he wanted\nher to come in again. And hardly had she got outside when he began\npulling at the string.\n\n\"I am only just outside the passage,\" she cried. And then she tied the\nstring by which she was held, to a stone, and ran away as fast as she\ncould down hill, and the whale hauled at the stone, thinking it was\nhis wife, and pulled it in. The brothers' house was just below the\nhillside where she was, and as soon as she came home, they fled away\nwith her. But at the same moment, the whale came out from the passage\nway of its house, and rolled down into the sea. The umiak dashed off,\nbut it seemed as if it were standing still, so swiftly did the whale\noverhaul it. And when the whale had nearly reached them, the brothers\nsaid to their sister:\n\n\"Throw out your hairband.\"\n\nAnd hardly had she thrown it out when the sea foamed up, and the whale\nstopped. Then it went on after them again, and when it came up just\nbehind the boat, the brothers said: \"Throw out one of your mittens.\"\n\nAnd she threw it out, and the sea foamed up, and the whale pounced\ndown on it. And then she threw out the inner lining of one of her\nmittens, and then her outer frock and then her inner coat, and now\nthey were close to land, but the whale was almost upon them. Then\nthe brothers cried:\n\n\"Throw out your breeches!\"\n\nAnd at the same moment the sea was lashed into foam, but the umiak\nhad reached the land. And the whale tried to follow, but was cast up\non the shore as a white and sun-bleached bone of a whale.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE TWO LITTLE OUTCASTS\n\n\nThere were two little boys and they had no father and no mother,\nand they went out every day hunting ptarmigan, and they had never\nany weapons save a bow. And when they had been out hunting ptarmigan,\nthe men of that place were always very eager to take their catch.\n\nOne day they went out hunting ptarmigan as usual, but there were\nnone. On their way, they came to some wild and difficult cliffs. And\nthey looked down from that place into a ravine, and saw at the bottom\na thing that looked like a stone. They went down towards it, and\nwhen they came nearer, it was a little house. And they went nearer\nstill and came right to it. They climbed up on to the roof, and when\nthey looked down through the air hole in the roof, they saw a little\nboy on the floor with a cutting-board for a kayak and a stick for a\npaddle. They called down to him, and he looked up, but then they hid\nthemselves. When they looked down again, he was there as before,\nplaying at being a man in a kayak. A second time they called to\nhim, and then he ran to hide. And they went in then, and found him,\nsobbing a little, and pressing himself close in against the wall.\n\nAnd they asked him:\n\n\"Do you live here all alone?\"\n\nAnd he answered: \"No, my mother went out early this morning, and she\nis out now, as usual.\"\n\nThey said:\n\n\"We have come to be here with you because you are all alone.\"\n\nAnd when they said this, he ventured to come out a little from\nthe wall.\n\nIn the afternoon, the boy went out again and again and when he did\nso, they looked round the inside of the house, which was covered with\nfox skins, blue and white.\n\nAt last the boy came in, and said:\n\n\"Now I can see her, away to the south.\"\n\nThey looked out and saw her, and she seemed mightily big, having\nsomething on her back. And she came quickly nearer.\n\nThen they heard a great noise, and that was the woman throwing down\nher burden. She came in hot and tired, and sat down, and said:\n\n\"Thanks, kind little boys. I had to leave him alone in the house,\nas usual, and now you have stayed with him while I was fearing for\nhim on my way.\"\n\nThen she turned to her son, and said:\n\n\"Have they not eaten yet?\"\n\n\"No,\" said the boy. And when he had said that, she went out, and came\nin with dried flesh of fox and reindeer, and a big piece of suet. And\nvery glad they were to eat that food. At first they did not eat any\nof the dried fox meat, but when they tasted it, they found it was\nwonderfully good to eat.\n\nNow when they had eaten their fill, they sat there feeling glad. And\nthen the little boy whispered something in his mother's ear.\n\n\"He has a great desire for one of your sets of arrows, if you would\nnot refuse to give it.\" And they gave him that.\n\nIn the evening, when they thought it was time to rest, a bed was made\nfor them under the window, and when this was done the woman said:\n\n\"Now sleep, and do not fear any evil thing.\"\n\nThey slept and slept, and when they awoke, the woman had been awake\na long time already.\n\nAnd when they were setting off to go home again, she paid them for\ntheir arrows with as much meat as they could carry; and when they\nwent off, she said:\n\n\"Be sure you do not let any others come selling arrows.\"\n\nBut in the meantime, the people of the village had begun to fear for\nthose two boys, because they did not come home. When at last they\nappeared in the evening, many went out to meet them. And it was a\ngreat load they had to carry.\n\n\"Where have you been?\" they asked.\n\n\"We have been in a house with one who was not a real man.\"\n\nThey tasted the food they had brought. And it was wonderfully good\nto eat.\n\n\"That we were given in payment for one set of arrows,\" they said.\n\n\"We must certainly go out and sell arrows, too,\" said the others.\n\nBut the two told them: \"No, you must not do that. For when we went\naway, she said: 'Do not let any others come selling arrows.'\"\n\nBut although this had been said to them, all fell to at once making\narrows. And the next day they set out with the arrows on their\nbacks. The two little boys did not desire to go, but went in despite\nof that, because the others ordered them.\n\nNow when they came to the ravine, it looked as if that house were\nno longer there. And when they came down, not a stone of it was to\nbe seen. They could not see so much as the two sheds or anything of\nthem. And no one could now tell where that woman had gone.\n\nAnd that was the last time they went out hunting ptarmigan.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nATDLARNEQ, THE GREAT GLUTTON\n\n\nThis is told of Atdlarneq: that he was a strong man, and if he rowed\nbut a little way out in his kayak, he caught a seal. On no day did\nhe fail to make a catch, and he was never content with only one.\n\nBut one day when he should have been out hunting seal, he only paddled\nalong close to the shore, making towards the south. On the way he\nsighted a cape, and made towards it; and when he could see the sunny\nside, he spied a little house, quite near.\n\nHe thought:\n\n\"I must wait until some one comes out.\"\n\nAnd while he lay there, with his paddle touching the shore, a woman\ncame out; she had a yellow band round her hair, and yellow seams to\nall her clothes.\n\nNow he would have gone on shore, but he thought:\n\n\"I had better wait until another one comes out.\" And as he thought\nthis, there came another woman out of the house. And like the first,\nshe also had a yellow hair band, and yellow seams to all her clothes.\n\nAnd he did not go on shore, but thought again:\n\n\"I can wait for just one more.\"\n\nAnd truly enough, there came yet another one, quite like the\nothers. And like them also, she bore a dish in her hand. And now at\nlast he went on shore and hauled up his kayak.\n\nHe went into the house, and they all received him very kindly. And\nthey brought great quantities of food and set before him.\n\nAt last the evening came.\n\nAnd now those three women began to go outside again and again. And\nat last Atdlarneq asked:\n\n\"Why do you keep going out like that?\"\n\nWhen he asked them this, all answered at once:\n\n\"It is because we now expect our dear master home.\"\n\nWhen he heard this, he was afraid, and hid himself behind the skin\nhangings. And he had hardly crawled in there when that master came\nhome; Atdlarneq looked through a little hole, and saw him.\n\nAnd his cheeks were made of copper. [14]\n\nHe had but just sat down, when he began to sniff, and said:\n\n\"Hum! There is a smell of people here.\"\n\nAnd now Atdlarneq crawled out, seeing that the other had already smelt\nhim. He had hardly shown himself, when the other asked very eagerly:\n\n\"Has he had nothing to eat yet?\"\n\n\"No, he has not yet eaten.\"\n\n\"Then bring food at once.\"\n\nAnd then they brought in a sack full of fish, and a big piece of\nblubber from the half of a black seal. And then the man said violently:\n\n\"You are to eat this all up, and if you do not eat it all up, I will\nthrash you with my copper cheeks!\"\n\nAnd now Atdlarneq began eagerly chewing blubber with his fish; he\nchewed and chewed, and at last he had eaten it all up. Then he went\nto the water bucket, and lifted it to his mouth and drank, and drank\nit all to the last drop.\n\nHardly had he done this when the man said:\n\n\"And now the frozen meat.\"\n\nAnd they brought in the half of a black seal. And Atdlarneq ate and\nate until there was no more left, save a very little piece.\n\nWhen the man saw there was some not eaten, he cried out violently\nagain:\n\n\"Give him some more to eat.\"\n\nAnd when Atdlarneq had eaten again for a while, he did not wish to\neat more. But then they brought in a whole black seal. And the man\nset that also before him, and cried:\n\n\"Eat that up too.\"\n\nAnd so Atdlarneq was forced to stuff himself mightily once more. He\nate and ate, and at last he had eaten it all up. And again he emptied\nthe water bucket.\n\nAfter all that he felt very well indeed, and seemed hardly to have\neaten until now. But that was because he had swallowed a little stalk\nof grass before he began.\n\nSo Atdlarneq slept, and next morning he went back home again. But\nafter having thus nearly gorged himself to death, he never went\nsouthward again.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nANGANGUJUK\n\n\nIt is said that Angangujuk's father was very strong. They had no other\nneighbours, but lived there three of them all alone. One day when the\nmother was going to scrape meat from a skin, she let the child play at\nkayak outside in the passage, near the entrance. And now and again she\ncalled to him: \"Angangujuk!\" And the child would answer from outside.\n\nAnd once she called in this way, and called again, for there came\nno answer. And when no answer came again, she left the skin she\nwas scraping, and began to search about. But she could not find the\nchild. And now she began to feel greatly afraid, dreading her husband's\nreturn. And while she stood there feeling great fear of her husband,\nhe came out from behind a rock, dragging a seal behind him.\n\nThen he came forward and said:\n\n\"Where is our little son?\"\n\n\"He vanished away from me this morning, after you had gone, when he\nwas playing kayak-man out in the passage.\"\n\nAnd when she had said this, her husband answered:\n\n\"It is you, wicked old hag, who have killed him. And now I will\nkill you.\"\n\nTo this his wife answered:\n\n\"Do not kill me yet, but wait a little, and first seek out one who\ncan ask counsel of the spirits.\"\n\nAnd now the husband began eagerly to search for such a one. He came\nhome bringing wizards with him, and bade them try what they could do,\nand when they could not find the child, he let them go without giving\nthem so much as a bite of meat.\n\nAnd seeing that none of them could help him, he now sought for a\nvery clever finder of hidden things, and meeting such a one at last,\nhe took him home. Then he fastened a stick to his face, and made him\nlie down on the bedplace on his back.\n\nAnd now he worked away with him until the spirit came. And when this\nhad happened, the spirit finder declared:\n\n\"It would seem that spirits have here found a difficult task. He is\nup in a place between two great cliffs, and two old inland folk are\nlooking after him.\"\n\nThen they stopped calling spirits, and wandered away towards the\neast. They walked and walked, and at last they sighted a lot of\nhouses. And when they came nearer, they saw the smoke coming out from\nall the smoke holes. It was the heat from inside coming out so. And the\nfather looked in through a window, and saw that they were quarrelling\nabout his child, and the child was crying.\n\n\"Who is to look after him?\"\n\nSo he heard them saying inside the house; each one was eager to have\nthe child. When the father saw this, he was very angry.\n\nAnd the people inside asked the child:\n\n\"What would you like to eat?\"\n\n\"No,\" said the child.\n\n\"Will you have seal meat?\"\n\n\"No,\" said the child.\n\nAnd there was nothing he cared to have. Therefore they asked him\nat last:\n\n\"Do you want to go home very much?\"\n\nAngangujuk answered quickly: \"Yes.\" And his father was very greatly\nangered by now. And said to those with him:\n\n\"Try now to magic them to sleep.\"\n\nAnd now the wizard began calling down a magic sleep upon those in the\nhut, and one by one they sank to sleep and began to snore. And fewer\nand fewer remained awake; at last there were only two. But then one\nof those two began to yawn, and at last rolled over and snored.\n\nAnd now the great finder of hidden things began calling down sleep\nwith all his might over that one remaining. And at last he too began\nto move towards the sleeping place. Then he began to yawn a little,\nand at last he also rolled over.\n\nNow Angangujuk's father went in quickly, and now he caught up his\nson. But now the child had no clothes on. And looking for them, he\nsaw them hung up on the drying frame. But the house was so high that\nthey had to poke down the clothes with poles.\n\nAt last they came out, and walked and walked and came farther on. And\nit was now beginning to be light. As soon as they came to the place,\nthey cut the moorings of the umiak, and hastily made all ready, and\nrowed out to the farthest islands. They had just moved away from land\nwhen they saw a number of people opposite the house.\n\nBut when the inland folk saw they had already moved out from the land,\nthey went up to the house and beat it down, beating down roof and\nwalls and all that there was of it.\n\nAfter that time, Angangujuk's parents never again took up their\ndwelling on the mainland.\n\nHere ends this story.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nATARSSUAQ\n\n\nAtarssuaq had many enemies. But his many enemies tried in vain to\nhurt him, and they could not kill him.\n\nThen it happened that his wife bore him a son. Atarssuaq came back\nfrom his hunting one day, and found that he had a son. Then he took\nthat son of his and bore him down to the water and threw him in. And\nwaited until he began to kick out violently, and then took him up\nagain. And so he did with him every day for long after, while the\nchild was growing. And thus the boy became a very clever swimmer.\n\nAnd one day Atarssuaq caught a fjord seal, and took off the skin all\nin one piece, and dried it like a bladder, and made his son put it\non when he went swimming.\n\nOne day he felt a wish to see how clever the boy had become. And said\nto him therefore:\n\n\"Go out now and swim, and I will follow after you.\"\n\nAnd the father brought down his kayak and set it in the water, and\nhis son watched him. And then he said:\n\n\"Now you swim out.\" And he made his father follow him out to sea,\nwhile he swam more and more under water. As soon as he came to the\nsurface, his father rowed to where he was, but every time he took\nhis throwing stick to cast a small harpoon, he disappeared.\n\nAnd when his father thought they had done this long enough, he said:\n\n\"Now swim back to land, but keep under water as much as you can.\"\n\nThe son dived down, but it was a long time before he came up again. And\nnow his father was greatly afraid. But at last the boy came up,\na long way off. And then he rowed up to where he was, and laid one\nhand on his head, and said:\n\n\"Clever diver, clever diver, dear little clever one.\"\n\nAnd then he sniffed.\n\nAnd a second time he said to him:\n\n\"Now swim under water a very long way this time.\"\n\nSo he dived down, and his father rowed forward all the time, to come\nto the place where he should rise, and feeling already afraid. His\nface moved as if he were beginning to cry, and he said:\n\n\"If only the sharks have not found him!\" And he had just begun to\ncry when his son came up again. And then they went in to land, and\nthe boy did not dive any more that day.\n\nSo clever had he now become.\n\nAnd one day his father did not come back from his hunting. This was\nbecause of his enemies, who had killed him. Evening came, and next\nmorning there was a kayak from the north. When it came in to the shore,\nthe boy went down and said:\n\n\"To-morrow the many brothers will come to kill you all.\"\n\nAnd the kayak turned at once and went back without coming on\nshore. Night passed and morning came. And in the morning when the\nboy awoke, he went to look out, and again, and many times. Once when\nhe came out he saw many kayaks appearing from the northward. Then he\nwent in and said to his mother:\n\n\"Now many kayaks are coming, to kill us all.\"\n\n\"Then put on your swimming dress,\" said his mother.\n\nAnd he did so, and went down to the shore, and did not stop until he\nwas quite close to the water. When the kayaks then saw him, they all\nrowed towards him, and said:\n\n\"He has fallen into the water.\"\n\nWhen they came to the place where he had fallen in, they all began\nlooking about for him, and while they were doing this, he came up\njust in front of the bone shoeing on the nose of one of the kayaks\nwhich lay quite away from the rest. When they spied him, each tried\nto outdo the others, and cried:\n\n\"Here he is!\"\n\nBut then he dived down again. And this he continued to do. And in\nthis manner he led all those kayaks out to the open sea, and when\nthey had come a great way out, they sighted an iceberg which had run\naground. When Atarssuaq's son came to this, he climbed up, by sticking\nhis hands into the ice. And up above were two large pieces. And when\nhe came close to the iceberg, he heard those in the kayaks saying\namong themselves:\n\n\"We can cut steps in the ice, and climb up to him.\"\n\nAnd they began cutting steps in the iceberg, and at last the ice pick\nof the foremost came up over the edge. But now the boy took one of the\ngreat pieces of ice and threw it down upon them as they crawled up,\nso that it sent them all down again as it fell. And again he heard\nthem say:\n\n\"It would be very foolish not to kill him. Let us climb up, and try\nto reach him this time.\"\n\nAnd then they began crawling up one after another. But now the boy\nbegan as before, shifting the great piece of ice. And he waited until\nthe head of the foremost one came up, and then he let it fall. And\nthis time he also killed all those who had climbed on to the iceberg,\nafter he had so lured them on to follow him.\n\nBut the others now turned back, and said:\n\n\"He will kill us all if we do not go.\"\n\nAnd now the boy jumped down from the iceberg and swam to the kayaks\nand began tugging at their paddles, so that they turned over. But\nthe men righted themselves again with their throwing sticks. And at\nlast he was forced to hold them down himself under water till they\ndrowned. And soon there were left no more of all those many kayaks,\nsave only one. And when he looked closer, he saw that the man had no\nweapon but a stick for killing fish. And he rowed weeping in towards\nland, that man with no weapon but a stick. Then the boy pulled the\npaddle away from him, and he cried very much at that. Then he began\npaddling with his hands. But the boy gripped his hands from below,\nand then the man began crying furiously, and dared no longer put his\nhands in the water at all. And weeping very greatly he said:\n\n\"It is ill for me that ever I came out on this errand, for it is\nplain that I am to be killed.\"\n\nThe boy looked at him a little. And then said:\n\n\"You I will not kill. You may go home again.\" And he gave him back\nhis paddle, and said to him as he was rowing away:\n\n\"Tell those of your place never to come out again thinking to kill\nus. For if they do not one of them will return alive.\"\n\nThen Atarssuaq's son went home. And for some time he waited, thinking\nthat more enemies might come. But none ever came against them after\nthat time.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPUAGSSUAQ\n\n\nThere was once a wifeless man who always went out hunting ptarmigan. It\nbecame his custom always to go out hunting ptarmigan every day.\n\nAnd when he was out one day, hunting ptarmigan as was his custom,\nhe came to a place whence he could see out over a rocky valley. And\nit looked a good place to go. And he went there.\n\nBut before he had come to the bottom of the valley, he caught sight\nof something that looked like a stone. And when he could see quite\nclearly that it was not a stone at all, he went up to it. He walked\nand walked, and came to it at last.\n\nThen he looked in, and saw an old couple sitting alone in there. And\nwhen he had seen this, he crawled very silently in through the passage\nway. And having come inside, he looked first a long time at them,\nand then he gave a little whistle. But nothing happened when he did\nso, and therefore he whistled a second time. And this time they heard\nthe whistle, and the man nudged his wife and said:\n\n\"You, Puagssuaq, you can talk with the spirits. Take counsel with\nthem now.\"\n\nWhen he had said this, the wifeless man whistled again. And at this\nwhistling, the man looked at his wife again and said earnestly:\n\n\"Listen! It sounds as if that might be the voice of a shore-dweller;\none who catches miserable fish.\"\n\nAnd now the wifeless man saw that the old one's wife was letting down\nher hair. And this was because she was now about to ask counsel of\nthe spirits.\n\nAnd he was now about to look at them again, when he saw that the\npassage way about him was beginning to close up. And it was already\nnearly closed up. But then it opened again of itself. Then the wifeless\nman thought only of coming out again from that place, and when the\npassage way again opened, he slipped out. And then he began running\nas fast as he could.\n\nFor a long time he ran on, with the thought that some one would surely\ncome after him. But at last he came up the hillside, without having\nbeen pursued at all.\n\nAnd when he came home, he told what had happened.\n\nHere ends this story.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTUNGUJULUK AND SAUNIKOQ\n\n\nTungujuluk and Saunikoq were men from one village. And both were\nwizards. When they heard a spirit calling, one would change into a\nbear, and the other into a walrus.\n\nTungujuluk had a son, but Saunikoq had no children.\n\nAs soon as his son was old enough, Tungujuluk taught him to paddle a\nkayak. At this the other, Saunikoq, grew jealous, and began planning\nevil.\n\nOne morning when he awoke, he went out hunting seal as usual. He had\nbeen out some time, when he went up to an island, and called for\nhis bearskin. When it came, he got into it, and moved off towards\nTungujuluk's house. He landed a little way off, and then stole up to\nkill Tungujuluk's son. And when he came near, he saw him playing with\nthe other children. But he did not know that his father had already\ncome home, and was sitting busily at work on the kayak he was making\nfor his son. He was just about to go up to them, when the boy went\nweeping home to his father, and when his father looked round, there\nwas a big bear already close to them. He took a knife and ran towards\nit, and was just about to stab that bear, when it began to laugh. And\nthen suddenly Tungujuluk remembered that his neighbour Saunikoq was\nable to take the shape of a bear. And he was now so angry that he had\nnearly stabbed him in spite of all, and it was a hard matter for him\nto hold back his knife.\n\nBut he did not forget that happening. He waited until a long time had\npassed, and at last, many days later, when he awoke in the morning,\nhe went out in his kayak. On the way he came to an island. And going\nup on to that island, he called his other shape to him. When it came,\nhe crawled into it, and became a walrus. And when he had thus become\na walrus, he went to that place where it was the custom for kayaks\nto hunt seal. And when he came near, he looked round, and sighted\nSaunikoq, who lay there waiting for seal.\n\nNow he rose to the surface quite near him, and when Saunikoq saw him,\nhe came over that way. And Saunikoq lifted his harpoon to throw it,\nand the stroke could not fail. Therefore he made himself small,\nand crept over to one side of the skin. And when he was struck,\nhe floundered about a little, but not too violently, lest he should\nbreak the line. Then he swam away under water with the bladder float,\nand folded it up under his arm, and took out the air from it, and\nswam in towards land, and swam and swam until he came to the land\nnear by where his kayak was lying. Then he went to it, and having\ntaken out the point of the harpoon, he went out hunting.\n\nHe struck a black seal, and rowed home at once. And when he had come\nhome, he said to his wife:\n\n\"Make haste and cook the breast piece.\"\n\nAnd when that breast piece was cooked, and the other kayaks had come\nhome, he made a meat feast, and Saunikoq, thinking nothing of any\nmatter, came in with the others. When he came in, Tungujuluk made no\nsign of knowing anything, but went and took out the bladder and line\nfrom his kayak. And then all sat down to eat together. And they ate and\nwere satisfied. And then each man began telling of his day's hunting.\n\nAt last Saunikoq said:\n\n\"To-day, when I struck a walrus, I did not think at all that it\nshould cause me to lose my bladder float. Where that came up again\nis a thing we do not know. That bladder float of mine was lost.\"\n\nAnd when Saunikoq had said this, Tungujuluk took that bladder and\nline and laid them beside the meat dish, and said:\n\n\"Whose can this bladder be, now, I wonder? Aha, at last I have paid\nyou for the time when you came in the shape of a bear, and mocked us.\"\n\nAnd when these words were said, the many who sat there laughed\ngreatly. But Saunikoq got up and went away. And then next morning\nvery early, he set out and rowed northward in his umiak. And since\nthen he has not been seen.\n\nSo great a shame did he feel.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nANARTEQ\n\n\nThere was once an old man, and he had only one son, and that son\nwas called Anarteq. But he had many daughters. They were very fond\nof going out reindeer hunting to the eastward of their own place,\nin a fjord. And when they came right into the base of the fjord,\nAnarteq would let his sisters go up the hillside to drive the reindeer,\nand when they drove them so, those beasts came out into a big lake,\nwhere Anarteq could row out in his kayak and kill them all.\n\nThus in a few days they had their umiak filled with meat, and could\ngo home again.\n\nOne day when they were out reindeer hunting, as was their custom,\nand the reindeer had swum out, and Anarteq was striking them down,\nhe saw a calf, and he caught hold of it by the tail and began to\nplay with it. But suddenly the reindeer heaved up its body above\nthe surface of the water, and kicked at the kayak so that it turned\nover. He tried to get up, but could not, because the kayak was full\nof water. And at last he crawled out of it.\n\nThe women looked at him from the shore, but they could not get out\nto help him, and at last they heard him say:\n\n\"Now the salmon are beginning to eat my belly.\"\n\nAnd very slowly he went to the bottom.\n\nNow when Anarteq woke again to his senses, he had become a salmon.\n\nBut his father was obliged to go back alone, and from that time,\nhaving no son, he must go out hunting as if he had been a young\nman. And he never again rowed up to those reindeer grounds where they\nhad hunted before.\n\nAnd now that Anarteq had thus become a salmon, he went with the others,\nin the spring, when the rivers break up, out into the sea to grow fat.\n\nBut his father, greatly wishing to go once more to their old hunting\ngrounds, went there again as chief of a party, after many years had\npassed. His daughters rowed for him. And when they came in near to\nthe base of the fjord, he thought of his son, and began to weep. But\nhis son, coming up from the sea with the other salmon, saw the umiak,\nand his father in it, weeping. Then he swam to it, and caught hold\nof the paddle with which his father steered. His father was greatly\nfrightened at this, and drew his paddle out of the water, and said:\n\n\"Anarteq had nearly pulled the paddle from my hand that time.\"\n\nAnd for a long while he did not venture to put his paddle in the water\nagain. When he did so at last, he saw that all his daughters were\nweeping. And a second time Anarteq swam quickly up to the umiak. Again\nthe father tried to draw in his paddle when the son took hold of it,\nbut this time he could not move it. But then at last he drew it quite\nslowly to the surface, in such a way that he drew his son up with it.\n\nAnd then Anarteq became a man again, and hunted for many years to\nfeed his kin.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE GUILLEMOT THAT COULD TALK\n\n\nA man from the south heard one day of a guillemot that could talk. It\nwas said that this bird was to be found somewhere in the north,\nand therefore he set off to the northward. And toiled along north\nand north in an umiak.\n\nHe came to a village, and said to the people there:\n\n\"I am looking for a guillemot that can talk.\"\n\n\"Three days' journey away you will find it.\"\n\nThen he stayed there only that night, and went on again next\nmorning. And when he came to a village, he had just asked his way,\nwhen one of the men there said:\n\n\"To-morrow I will go with you, and I will be a guide for you, because\nI know the way.\"\n\nNext morning when they awoke, those two men set off together. They\nrowed and rowed and came in sight of a bird cliff. They came to the\nfoot of that bird cliff, and when they stood at the foot and looked\nup, it was a mightily big bird cliff.\n\n\"Now where is that guillemot, I wonder?\" said the man from the\nsouth. He had hardly spoken, when the man who was his guide said:\n\n\"Here, here is the nest of that guillemot bird.\"\n\nAnd the man was prepared to be very careful when the bird came out\nof its nest. And it came out, that bird, and went to the side of the\ncliff and stared down at the kayaks, stretching its body to make it\nvery long. And sitting up there, it said quite clearly:\n\n\"This, I think, must be that southern man, who has come far from a\nplace in the south to hear a guillemot.\"\n\nAnd the bird had hardly spoken, when he who was guide saw that the man\nfrom the south had fallen forward on his face. And when he lifted him\nup, that man was dead, having died of fright at hearing the bird speak.\n\nThen seeing there was no other thing to be done, he covered up the\nbody at the foot of the cliff below the guillemot's nest, and went\nhome. And told the others of his place that he had covered him there\nbelow the guillemot's nest because he was dead. And the umiak and\nits crew of women stayed there, and wintered in that place.\n\nNext summer, when they were making ready to go southward again, they\nhad no man to go with them. But on the way that wifeless man procured\nfood for them by catching fish, and when he had caught enough to fill\na pot, he rowed in with his catch.\n\nAnd in this way he led them southward. When they came to their own\ncountry, they had grown so fond of him that they would not let him\ngo northward again. And so that wifeless man took a wife from among\nthose women, because they would not let him go away to the north.\n\nIt is said that the skeleton of that wifeless man lies there in the\nsouth to this day.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nKANAGSSUAQ\n\n\nKanagssuaq, men say, went out from his own place to live on a little\nisland, and there took to wife the only sister of many brothers. And\nwhile he lived there with her, it happened once that the cold became so\ngreat that the sea between the islands was icebound, and they could no\nlonger go out hunting. At last they had used up their store of food,\nand when that store of food was used up, and none of them could go\nout hunting, they all remained lying down from hunger and weakness.\n\nOnce, when there was open water to the south, where they often caught\nseal, Kanagssuaq took his kayak on his head and went out hunting. He\nrowed out in a northerly wind, with snow falling, and a heavy sea. And\nsoon he came upon a number of black seal. He rowed towards them, to\nget within striking distance, but struck only a little fjord seal,\nwhich came up between him and the others. This one was easier to cut\nup, he said.\n\nNow when he had got this seal, he took his kayak on his head again\nand went home across the ice. And his house-fellows shouted for joy\nwhen they saw the little creature he sent sliding in. Next day he\nwent out again, and caught two black seal, and after that, he never\nwent out without bringing home something.\n\nThe north wind continued, and the snow and the cold continued. When he\nlay out waiting for seal, as was now his custom, he often wished that\nhe might meet with Kiliteraq, the great hunter from another place,\nwho was the only one that would venture out in such weather. But this\ndid not come about.\n\nBut now there was great dearth of food also in the place where\nKiliteraq lived. And therefore Kiliteraq took his kayak on his\nhead and went out across the ice to hunt seal. And coming some way,\nhe sighted Kanagssuaq, who had already made his catch, and was just\ngetting his tow-line out. As soon as he came up, Kanagssuaq cut away\nthe whole of the belly skin and gave to him. And Kiliteraq felt now\na great desire for blubber, and took some good big pieces to chew.\n\nAnd while he lay there, some black seal came up, and Kanagssuaq said:\n\n\"Row in to where they are.\"\n\nAnd he rowed in to them and harpooned one, and killed it on the spot\nwith that one stroke. He took his bladder float, to make a tow-line\nfast, and wound up the harpoon line, but before he had come to the\nmiddle, a breaking wave came rolling down on him. And it broke over\nhim, and it seemed indeed as if there were no kayak there at all, so\nutterly was it hidden by that breaking wave. Then at last the bladder\nshowed up behind the kayak, and a little after, the kayak itself came\nup, with the paddles held in a balancing position. Now for the second\ntime he took his bladder and line, and just as he came to the place\nwhere the tow-line is made fast, there came another wave and washed\nover him so that he disappeared. And then he came up a second time,\nand as he came up, he said:\n\n\"I am now so far out that I cannot make my tow-line fast. Will you\ndo this for me?\"\n\nAnd then Kanagssuaq made his tow-line fast, and as soon as he had\ntaken the seal in tow, he rowed away in the thickly falling snow, and\nwas soon lost to sight. When he came home, his many comrades in the\nvillage were filled with great thankfulness towards him. And thereafter\nit was as before; that he never came home without some catch.\n\nA few days later, they awoke and saw that the snow was not falling\nnear them now, but only far away on the horizon. And after that\nthe weather became fine again. And when the spring came, they began\nhunting guillemots; driving them together in flocks and killing them\nso. This they did at that time.\n\nAnd now one day they had sent their bird arrows showering down among\nthe birds, and were busy placing the killed ones together in the\nkayaks. And then suddenly a kayak came in sight on the sunny side. And\nwhen that stranger came nearer, they looked eagerly to see who it might\nbe. And when Kiliteraq came nearer--for it was Kiliteraq who came--he\nlooked round among the kayaks, and when he saw that Kanagssuaq was\namong them, he thrust his way through and came close up to him, and\nstuck his paddle in between the thongs on Kanagssuaq's kayak, and then\nloosened the skin over the opening of his own kayak, and put his hand\nin behind, and drew out a splendid tow-line made of walrus hide and\nbeautifully worked with many beads of walrus tooth. And a second time\nhe put in his hand, and took out now a piece of bearskin fashioned to\nthe seat of a kayak. And these things he gave to Kanagssuaq, and said:\n\n\"Once in the spring, when I could not make my tow-line fast to a seal,\nyou helped me, and made it fast. Here is that which shall thank you\nfor that service.\"\n\nAnd then he rowed away.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNote.--The particular sources of the various legends are as follows:\n\n\nPolar Eskimo, Smith Sound--                                Page\n\n    The two Friends who set off to travel round the world    15\n    The coming of Men, a long, long while ago                16\n    The woman who had a bear as a foster-son                 40\n    The great bear                                           81\n    The man who became a star                                82\n    The woman with the iron tail                             83\n    How the fog came                                         84\n    The man who avenged the widows                           86\n    The man who went out to search for his son               88\n    Atungait, who went a-wandering                           90\n    Kumagdlak and the living arrows                          93\n    The giant dog                                            95\n    The Inland-dwellers of Etah                              97\n    The man who stabbed his wife in the leg                  98\n    The soul that lived in the bodies of all beasts         100\n    Papik, who killed his wife's brother                    104\n    Patussorssuaq, who killed his uncle                     107\n    The men who changed wives                               109\n    Artuk, who did all things forbidden                     110\n    The thunder spirits                                     111\n    Nerrivik                                                113\n    The wife who lied                                       115\n    Kagssagssuk, the homeless boy who became a strong man   117\n\nSouth-East Greenland--\n\n    Nukunguasik, who escaped from the Tupilak                18\n    Imarasugssuaq, who ate his wives                         44\n    Qalaganguase, who passed to the land of Ghosts           46\n    Isigaligarssik                                           49\n    The Insects that wooed a wifeless man                    52\n    The very obstinate man                                   56\n    The Dwarfs                                               60\n    The Boy from the Bottom of the Sea, who frightened the\n    people of the house to death                             64\n    The Raven and the Goose                                  66\n    When the Ravens could speak                              67\n\nWest Greenland--\n\n    Makite                                                   68\n    Asaloq                                                   71\n    Ukaleq                                                   73\n    The man who took a Vixen to wife                         79\n    Qasiagssaq, the great liar                              123\n    The Eagle and the Whale                                 130\n    The two little Outcasts                                 133\n    Atdlarneq, the great glutton                            136\n\nGodthaab, West Greenland--\n\n    Qujavarssuk                                              20\n    Kunigseq                                                 38\n    Angangujuk                                              139\n    Atarssuaq                                               142\n    Puagssuaq                                               146\n    Tungujuluk and Saunikoq                                 148\n    Anarteq                                                 150\n    The Guillemot that could talk                           152\n    Kanagssuaq                                              154\n\nSouth Greenland--\n\n    Ikardlituarssuk                                          75\n\nUpernivik, North Greenland--\n\n    The Raven who wanted a wife                              77\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNOTES\n\n\n[1] Tupilak: a monster created by one having magic powers, who uses\nit to wreak vengeance on an enemy.\n\n[2] According to custom. It is believed that the qualities of the\ndead are thus transferred to the living namesake.\n\n[3] Umiak: a large boat, as distinct from the small kayak.\n\n[4] The first dress worn by a child is supposed to act as a charm\nagainst wounds if the former wearer can put it on when a grown man.\n\n[5] The story-teller speaks the dwarf's part throughout in a hurried\nand jerky manner, to illustrate the little man's shyness.\n\n[6] A heavy burden carried on the back is supported by a strap or\nthong passing over the forehead.\n\n[7] I.e. a creature fashioned by an enemy, after the same manner as\na Tupilak.\n\n[8] A small black mollusc.\n\n[9] The star is that which we know as Venus. \"Listening\": perhaps as\nthe old man had stood listening for the breathing of the seal.\n\n[10] A game played with rings and a stick; the \"ring and pin game.\"\n\n[11] Lit., \"Meat Dish.\"\n\n[12] Speckled seal may often be caught in this fashion.\n\n[13] The souls of the dead are supposed to be born again in the body\nof one named after them.\n\n[14] There is a fabulous being in Eskimo folklore supposed to have\ncheeks of copper, with which he can deliver terrible blows by a side\nmovement of the head. Naughty children are frequently threatened with\n\"Copper-cheeks\" as a kind of bogey.","title":"Eskimo Folk-Tales","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":46454}