Part 11
But the two told them: "No, you must not do that. For when we went away, she said: 'Do not let any others come selling arrows.'"
But although this had been said to them, all fell to at once making arrows. And the next day they set out with the arrows on their backs. The two little boys did not desire to go, but went in despite of that, because the others ordered them.
Now when they came to the ravine, it looked as if that house were no longer there. And when they came down, not a stone of it was to be seen. They could not see so much as the two sheds or anything of them. And no one could now tell where that woman had gone.
And that was the last time they went out hunting ptarmigan.
ATDLARNEQ, THE GREAT GLUTTON
This is told of Atdlarneq: that he was a strong man, and if he rowed but a little way out in his kayak, he caught a seal. On no day did he fail to make a catch, and he was never content with only one.
But one day when he should have been out hunting seal, he only paddled along close to the shore, making towards the south. On the way he sighted a cape, and made towards it; and when he could see the sunny side, he spied a little house, quite near.
He thought:
"I must wait until some one comes out."
And while he lay there, with his paddle touching the shore, a woman came out; she had a yellow band round her hair, and yellow seams to all her clothes.
Now he would have gone on shore, but he thought:
"I had better wait until another one comes out." And as he thought this, there came another woman out of the house. And like the first, she also had a yellow hair band, and yellow seams to all her clothes.
And he did not go on shore, but thought again:
"I can wait for just one more."
And truly enough, there came yet another one, quite like the others. And like them also, she bore a dish in her hand. And now at last he went on shore and hauled up his kayak.
He went into the house, and they all received him very kindly. And they brought great quantities of food and set before him.
At last the evening came.
And now those three women began to go outside again and again. And at last Atdlarneq asked:
"Why do you keep going out like that?"
When he asked them this, all answered at once:
"It is because we now expect our dear master home."
When he heard this, he was afraid, and hid himself behind the skin hangings. And he had hardly crawled in there when that master came home; Atdlarneq looked through a little hole, and saw him.
And his cheeks were made of copper. [14]
He had but just sat down, when he began to sniff, and said:
"Hum! There is a smell of people here."
And now Atdlarneq crawled out, seeing that the other had already smelt him. He had hardly shown himself, when the other asked very eagerly:
"Has he had nothing to eat yet?"
"No, he has not yet eaten."
"Then bring food at once."
And then they brought in a sack full of fish, and a big piece of blubber from the half of a black seal. And then the man said violently:
"You are to eat this all up, and if you do not eat it all up, I will thrash you with my copper cheeks!"
And now Atdlarneq began eagerly chewing blubber with his fish; he chewed and chewed, and at last he had eaten it all up. Then he went to the water bucket, and lifted it to his mouth and drank, and drank it all to the last drop.
Hardly had he done this when the man said:
"And now the frozen meat."
And they brought in the half of a black seal. And Atdlarneq ate and ate until there was no more left, save a very little piece.
When the man saw there was some not eaten, he cried out violently again:
"Give him some more to eat."
And when Atdlarneq had eaten again for a while, he did not wish to eat more. But then they brought in a whole black seal. And the man set that also before him, and cried:
"Eat that up too."
And so Atdlarneq was forced to stuff himself mightily once more. He ate and ate, and at last he had eaten it all up. And again he emptied the water bucket.
After all that he felt very well indeed, and seemed hardly to have eaten until now. But that was because he had swallowed a little stalk of grass before he began.
So Atdlarneq slept, and next morning he went back home again. But after having thus nearly gorged himself to death, he never went southward again.
ÁNGÁNGUJUK
It is said that Ángángujuk's father was very strong. They had no other neighbours, but lived there three of them all alone. One day when the mother was going to scrape meat from a skin, she let the child play at kayak outside in the passage, near the entrance. And now and again she called to him: "Ángángujuk!" And the child would answer from outside.
And once she called in this way, and called again, for there came no answer. And when no answer came again, she left the skin she was scraping, and began to search about. But she could not find the child. And now she began to feel greatly afraid, dreading her husband's return. And while she stood there feeling great fear of her husband, he came out from behind a rock, dragging a seal behind him.
Then he came forward and said:
"Where is our little son?"
"He vanished away from me this morning, after you had gone, when he was playing kayak-man out in the passage."
And when she had said this, her husband answered:
"It is you, wicked old hag, who have killed him. And now I will kill you."
To this his wife answered:
"Do not kill me yet, but wait a little, and first seek out one who can ask counsel of the spirits."
And now the husband began eagerly to search for such a one. He came home bringing wizards with him, and bade them try what they could do, and when they could not find the child, he let them go without giving them so much as a bite of meat.
And seeing that none of them could help him, he now sought for a very clever finder of hidden things, and meeting such a one at last, he took him home. Then he fastened a stick to his face, and made him lie down on the bedplace on his back.
And now he worked away with him until the spirit came. And when this had happened, the spirit finder declared:
"It would seem that spirits have here found a difficult task. He is up in a place between two great cliffs, and two old inland folk are looking after him."
Then they stopped calling spirits, and wandered away towards the east. They walked and walked, and at last they sighted a lot of houses. And when they came nearer, they saw the smoke coming out from all the smoke holes. It was the heat from inside coming out so. And the father looked in through a window, and saw that they were quarrelling about his child, and the child was crying.
"Who is to look after him?"
So he heard them saying inside the house; each one was eager to have the child. When the father saw this, he was very angry.
And the people inside asked the child:
"What would you like to eat?"
"No," said the child.
"Will you have seal meat?"
"No," said the child.
And there was nothing he cared to have. Therefore they asked him at last:
"Do you want to go home very much?"
Ángángujuk answered quickly: "Yes." And his father was very greatly angered by now. And said to those with him:
"Try now to magic them to sleep."
And now the wizard began calling down a magic sleep upon those in the hut, and one by one they sank to sleep and began to snore. And fewer and fewer remained awake; at last there were only two. But then one of those two began to yawn, and at last rolled over and snored.
And now the great finder of hidden things began calling down sleep with all his might over that one remaining. And at last he too began to move towards the sleeping place. Then he began to yawn a little, and at last he also rolled over.
Now Ángángujuk's father went in quickly, and now he caught up his son. But now the child had no clothes on. And looking for them, he saw them hung up on the drying frame. But the house was so high that they had to poke down the clothes with poles.
At last they came out, and walked and walked and came farther on. And it was now beginning to be light. As soon as they came to the place, they cut the moorings of the umiak, and hastily made all ready, and rowed out to the farthest islands. They had just moved away from land when they saw a number of people opposite the house.
But when the inland folk saw they had already moved out from the land, they went up to the house and beat it down, beating down roof and walls and all that there was of it.
After that time, Ángángujuk's parents never again took up their dwelling on the mainland.
Here ends this story.
ÂTÂRSSUAQ
Âtârssuaq had many enemies. But his many enemies tried in vain to hurt him, and they could not kill him.
Then it happened that his wife bore him a son. Âtârssuaq came back from his hunting one day, and found that he had a son. Then he took that son of his and bore him down to the water and threw him in. And waited until he began to kick out violently, and then took him up again. And so he did with him every day for long after, while the child was growing. And thus the boy became a very clever swimmer.
And one day Âtârssuaq caught a fjord seal, and took off the skin all in one piece, and dried it like a bladder, and made his son put it on when he went swimming.
One day he felt a wish to see how clever the boy had become. And said to him therefore:
"Go out now and swim, and I will follow after you."
And the father brought down his kayak and set it in the water, and his son watched him. And then he said:
"Now you swim out." And he made his father follow him out to sea, while he swam more and more under water. As soon as he came to the surface, his father rowed to where he was, but every time he took his throwing stick to cast a small harpoon, he disappeared.
And when his father thought they had done this long enough, he said:
"Now swim back to land, but keep under water as much as you can."
The son dived down, but it was a long time before he came up again. And now his father was greatly afraid. But at last the boy came up, a long way off. And then he rowed up to where he was, and laid one hand on his head, and said:
"Clever diver, clever diver, dear little clever one."
And then he sniffed.
And a second time he said to him:
"Now swim under water a very long way this time."
So he dived down, and his father rowed forward all the time, to come to the place where he should rise, and feeling already afraid. His face moved as if he were beginning to cry, and he said:
"If only the sharks have not found him!" And he had just begun to cry when his son came up again. And then they went in to land, and the boy did not dive any more that day.
So clever had he now become.
And one day his father did not come back from his hunting. This was because of his enemies, who had killed him. Evening came, and next morning there was a kayak from the north. When it came in to the shore, the boy went down and said:
"To-morrow the many brothers will come to kill you all."
And the kayak turned at once and went back without coming on shore. Night passed and morning came. And in the morning when the boy awoke, he went to look out, and again, and many times. Once when he came out he saw many kayaks appearing from the northward. Then he went in and said to his mother:
"Now many kayaks are coming, to kill us all."
"Then put on your swimming dress," said his mother.
And he did so, and went down to the shore, and did not stop until he was quite close to the water. When the kayaks then saw him, they all rowed towards him, and said:
"He has fallen into the water."
When they came to the place where he had fallen in, they all began looking about for him, and while they were doing this, he came up just in front of the bone shoeing on the nose of one of the kayaks which lay quite away from the rest. When they spied him, each tried to outdo the others, and cried:
"Here he is!"
But then he dived down again. And this he continued to do. And in this manner he led all those kayaks out to the open sea, and when they had come a great way out, they sighted an iceberg which had run aground. When Âtârssuaq's son came to this, he climbed up, by sticking his hands into the ice. And up above were two large pieces. And when he came close to the iceberg, he heard those in the kayaks saying among themselves:
"We can cut steps in the ice, and climb up to him."
And they began cutting steps in the iceberg, and at last the ice pick of the foremost came up over the edge. But now the boy took one of the great pieces of ice and threw it down upon them as they crawled up, so that it sent them all down again as it fell. And again he heard them say:
"It would be very foolish not to kill him. Let us climb up, and try to reach him this time."
And then they began crawling up one after another. But now the boy began as before, shifting the great piece of ice. And he waited until the head of the foremost one came up, and then he let it fall. And this time he also killed all those who had climbed on to the iceberg, after he had so lured them on to follow him.
But the others now turned back, and said:
"He will kill us all if we do not go."
And now the boy jumped down from the iceberg and swam to the kayaks and began tugging at their paddles, so that they turned over. But the men righted themselves again with their throwing sticks. And at last he was forced to hold them down himself under water till they drowned. And soon there were left no more of all those many kayaks, save only one. And when he looked closer, he saw that the man had no weapon but a stick for killing fish. And he rowed weeping in towards land, that man with no weapon but a stick. Then the boy pulled the paddle away from him, and he cried very much at that. Then he began paddling with his hands. But the boy gripped his hands from below, and then the man began crying furiously, and dared no longer put his hands in the water at all. And weeping very greatly he said:
"It is ill for me that ever I came out on this errand, for it is plain that I am to be killed."
The boy looked at him a little. And then said:
"You I will not kill. You may go home again." And he gave him back his paddle, and said to him as he was rowing away:
"Tell those of your place never to come out again thinking to kill us. For if they do not one of them will return alive."
Then Âtârssuaq's son went home. And for some time he waited, thinking that more enemies might come. But none ever came against them after that time.
PUAGSSUAQ
There was once a wifeless man who always went out hunting ptarmigan. It became his custom always to go out hunting ptarmigan every day.
And when he was out one day, hunting ptarmigan as was his custom, he came to a place whence he could see out over a rocky valley. And it looked a good place to go. And he went there.
But before he had come to the bottom of the valley, he caught sight of something that looked like a stone. And when he could see quite clearly that it was not a stone at all, he went up to it. He walked and walked, and came to it at last.
Then he looked in, and saw an old couple sitting alone in there. And when he had seen this, he crawled very silently in through the passage way. And having come inside, he looked first a long time at them, and then he gave a little whistle. But nothing happened when he did so, and therefore he whistled a second time. And this time they heard the whistle, and the man nudged his wife and said:
"You, Puagssuaq, you can talk with the spirits. Take counsel with them now."
When he had said this, the wifeless man whistled again. And at this whistling, the man looked at his wife again and said earnestly:
"Listen! It sounds as if that might be the voice of a shore-dweller; one who catches miserable fish."
And now the wifeless man saw that the old one's wife was letting down her hair. And this was because she was now about to ask counsel of the spirits.
And he was now about to look at them again, when he saw that the passage way about him was beginning to close up. And it was already nearly closed up. But then it opened again of itself. Then the wifeless man thought only of coming out again from that place, and when the passage way again opened, he slipped out. And then he began running as fast as he could.
For a long time he ran on, with the thought that some one would surely come after him. But at last he came up the hillside, without having been pursued at all.
And when he came home, he told what had happened.
Here ends this story.
TUNGUJULUK AND SAUNIKOQ
Tungujuluk and Saunikoq were men from one village. And both were wizards. When they heard a spirit calling, one would change into a bear, and the other into a walrus.
Tungujuluk had a son, but Saunikoq had no children.
As soon as his son was old enough, Tungujuluk taught him to paddle a kayak. At this the other, Saunikoq, grew jealous, and began planning evil.
One morning when he awoke, he went out hunting seal as usual. He had been out some time, when he went up to an island, and called for his bearskin. When it came, he got into it, and moved off towards Tungujuluk's house. He landed a little way off, and then stole up to kill Tungujuluk's son. And when he came near, he saw him playing with the other children. But he did not know that his father had already come home, and was sitting busily at work on the kayak he was making for his son. He was just about to go up to them, when the boy went weeping home to his father, and when his father looked round, there was a big bear already close to them. He took a knife and ran towards it, and was just about to stab that bear, when it began to laugh. And then suddenly Tungujuluk remembered that his neighbour Saunikoq was able to take the shape of a bear. And he was now so angry that he had nearly stabbed him in spite of all, and it was a hard matter for him to hold back his knife.
But he did not forget that happening. He waited until a long time had passed, and at last, many days later, when he awoke in the morning, he went out in his kayak. On the way he came to an island. And going up on to that island, he called his other shape to him. When it came, he crawled into it, and became a walrus. And when he had thus become a walrus, he went to that place where it was the custom for kayaks to hunt seal. And when he came near, he looked round, and sighted Saunikoq, who lay there waiting for seal.
Now he rose to the surface quite near him, and when Saunikoq saw him, he came over that way. And Saunikoq lifted his harpoon to throw it, and the stroke could not fail. Therefore he made himself small, and crept over to one side of the skin. And when he was struck, he floundered about a little, but not too violently, lest he should break the line. Then he swam away under water with the bladder float, and folded it up under his arm, and took out the air from it, and swam in towards land, and swam and swam until he came to the land near by where his kayak was lying. Then he went to it, and having taken out the point of the harpoon, he went out hunting.
He struck a black seal, and rowed home at once. And when he had come home, he said to his wife:
"Make haste and cook the breast piece."
And when that breast piece was cooked, and the other kayaks had come home, he made a meat feast, and Saunikoq, thinking nothing of any matter, came in with the others. When he came in, Tungujuluk made no sign of knowing anything, but went and took out the bladder and line from his kayak. And then all sat down to eat together. And they ate and were satisfied. And then each man began telling of his day's hunting.
At last Saunikoq said:
"To-day, when I struck a walrus, I did not think at all that it should cause me to lose my bladder float. Where that came up again is a thing we do not know. That bladder float of mine was lost."
And when Saunikoq had said this, Tungujuluk took that bladder and line and laid them beside the meat dish, and said:
"Whose can this bladder be, now, I wonder? Aha, at last I have paid you for the time when you came in the shape of a bear, and mocked us."
And when these words were said, the many who sat there laughed greatly. But Saunikoq got up and went away. And then next morning very early, he set out and rowed northward in his umiak. And since then he has not been seen.