Eskimo Folk-Tales. Various

afterwards all the trouble was to come upon me?”

      Then it swam up and attacked the kayak, and the water was coloured red with blood as it ate him. And having thus found food, the Tupilak felt well and strong and very cheerful, until at last it began to think thus:

      “All the other Tupilaks will certainly call this a shameful thing, that I should have killed the one who made me.”

      And it was now so troubled with shame at this that it swam far out into the open sea and was never seen again. And men say that it was because of shame it did so.

      One day the old one said to Qujâvârssuk:

      “You are named after a man who died of hunger at Amerdloq.”

      It is told of the people of Amerdloq that they catch nothing but turbot.

      And Qujâvârssuk went to Amerdloq and lived there with an old man, and while he lived there, he made always the same catch as was his custom. At last the people of Amerdloq began to say to one another:

      “This must be the first time there have been so many black seal here in our country; every time he goes hunting he catches two seal.”

      At last one of the big hunters went out hunting with him. They fixed the heads to their harpoons, and when they had come a little way out from land, Qujâvârssuk stopped. Then when the other had gone a little distance from him, he turned, and saw that Qujâvârssuk had already struck one seal. Then he rowed towards him, but when he came up, it was already killed. So he left him again for a little while, and when he turned, Qujâvârssuk had again struck. Then Qujâvârssuk rowed home. And the other stayed out the whole day, but did not see a single seal.

      When Qujâvârssuk had thus continued as a great hunter, his mother said to him at last that he should marry. He gave her no answer, and therefore she began to look about herself for a girl for him to marry, but it was her wish that the girl might be a great glutton, so that there might not be too much lost of all that meat. And she began to ask all the unmarried women to come and visit her. And because of this there came one day a young woman who was not very beautiful. And this one she liked very much, for that she was a clever eater, and having regard to this, she chose her out as the one her son should marry. One day she said to her son:

      “That woman is the one you must have.”

      And her son obeyed her, as was his custom.

      Every day after their marriage, the strongest man in Amerdloq called in at the window:

      “Qujâvârssuk! Let us see which of us can first get a bladder float for hunting the whale.”

      Qujâvârssuk made no answer, as was his custom, but the old man said to him:

      “We use only speckled skin for whales. And they are now at this time in the mouth of the river.”

      After this, they went to rest.

      Qujâvârssuk slept, and awoke, and got up, and went away to the north. And when he had gone a little way to the north, he came to the mouth of a small fjord. He looked round and saw a speckled seal that had come up to breathe. When it went down again, he rowed up on the landward side of it, and fixed the head and line to his harpoon. When it came up again to breathe, he rowed to where it was, and harpooned it, and after this, he at once rowed home with it.

      The old man made the skin ready, and hung it up behind the house. But while it was hanging there, there came very often a noise as from the bladder float, and this although there was no one there. This thing the old man did not like at all.

      Hunter in kayak. The creature behind is a monster that frightens all the seal away.

      Hunters encountering Sarqiserasak, a dangerous troll, who rows in a half kayak himself, and upsets all he meets with his paddle.

      To face p. 34.

      When the winter was coming near, the old man said one day to Qujâvârssuk:

      “Now that time will soon be here when the whales come in to the coast.”

      One night Qujâvârssuk had gone out of the house, when he heard a sound of deep breathing from the west, and this came nearer. And because this was the first time he had heard so mighty a breathing, he went in and told the matter in a little voice to his wife. And he had hardly told her this, when the old man, whom he had thought asleep, said:

      “What is that you are saying?”

      “Mighty breathings which I have heard, and did not know them, and they do not move from that side where the sun is.” This said Qujâvârssuk.

      The old one put on his boots, and went out, and came in again, and said:

      “It is the breathing of a whale.”

      In the morning, before it was yet light, there came a sound of running, and then one came and called through the window:

      “Qujâvârssuk! I was the first who heard the whales breathing.”

      It was the strong man, who wished to surpass him in this. Qujâvârssuk said nothing, as was his custom, but the old man said:

      “Qujâvârssuk heard that while it was yet night.” And they heard him laugh and go away.

The strong man had already got out the umiak2 into the water to row out to the whale. And then Qujâvârssuk came out, and they had already rowed away when Qujâvârssuk got his boat into the water. He got it full of water, and drew it up again on to the shore, and turned the stem in towards land and poured the water out, and for the second time he drew it down into the water. And not until now did he begin to look about for rowers. They went out, and when they could see ahead, the strong man of Amerdloq was already far away. Before he had come up to where he was, Qujâvârssuk told his rowers to stop and be still. But they wished to go yet farther, believing that the whale would never come up to breathe in that place. Therefore he said to them:

      “You shall see it when it comes up.”

      Hardly had the umiak stopped still, when Qujâvârssuk began to tremble all over. When he turned round, there was already a whale quite near, and now his rowers begged him eagerly to steer to where it was. But Qujâvârssuk now saw such a beast for the first time in his life. And he said:

      “Let us look at it.”

      And his rowers had to stay still. When the strong man of Amerdloq heard the breathing of the whale, he looked round after it, and there lay the beast like a great rock close beside Qujâvârssuk. And he called out to him from the place where he was:

      “Harpoon it!”

      Qujâvârssuk made no answer, but his rowers were now even more eager than before. When the whale had breathed long enough, it went down again. Now his rowers wished very much to go farther out, because it was not likely that it would come up again in that way the next time. But Qujâvârssuk would not move at all.

      The whale stayed a long time under the water, and when it came up again it was still nearer. Now Qujâvârssuk looked at it again for a long time, and now his rowers became very angry with him at last. Not until it seemed that the whale must soon go down again did Qujâvârssuk say:

      “Now row towards it.”

      And they rowed towards it, and he harpooned it. And when it now floundered about in pain and went down, he threw out his bladder float, and it was not strange that this went under water at once.

      And those farther out called