Eskimo Folk Tales Part 25

skin. And so he rowed home.

But all this while two women had been standing watching him.

His wife was looking out for him as usual, shading her eyes with her hands, and when at last she caught sight of his kayak, and it came nearer, she could see that it was Qasiagssaq, rowing very slowly.

And when then he reached the land, she said:

"What has happened to you now?"

"An iceberg calved."

And seeing her husband come home in such a case, his wife said to the others:

"An iceberg has calved right on top of Qasiagssaq, so that he barely escaped alive."

But when the women who had watched him came home, they said:

"We saw him to-day; he rowed in to land, and took off his breeches and hammered at his knee-caps with a stone; then he went down to his kayak and battered it to bits, and when that was done, he filled his kayak with ice, and even put ice inside his clothing."

But when his wife heard this, she said to him:

"When Qasiagssaq does such things, one cannot but feel shame for him."

"Hrrrr!" said Qasiagssaq, as if to frighten her.

After that he lay still for a long while, waiting for his knees to heal, and when at last his knees were well again, he began once more to go out in his kayak, always without catching anything, as usual. And when he had thus been out one day as usual, without catching anything, he said to himself again:

"What is the use of my staying out here?"

And he rowed in to land. There he found a long stone, laid it on his kayak, and rowed out again. And when he came in sight of other kayaks that lay waiting for seal, he stopped still, took out his two small bladder floats made from the belly of a seal, tied the harpoon line to the stone in his kayak, and when that was done, he rowed away as fast as he could, while the kayaks that were waiting looked on. Then he disappeared from sight behind an iceberg, and when he came round on the other side, his bladder float was gone, and he himself was rowing as fast as he could towards land. His wife, who was looking out for him as usual, shading her eyes with her hands, said then:

"But what has happened to Qasiagssaq?"

As soon as a voice could reach the land, Qasiagssaq cried:

"Now you need not be afraid of breaking the handles of your knives; I have struck a great walrus, and it has gone down under water with my two small bladder floats. One or another of those who are out after seal will be sure to find it."

He himself remained altogether idle, and having come into his house, did not go out again. And as the kayaks began to come in, others went down to the sh.o.r.e and told them the news:

"Qasiagssaq has struck a walrus."

And this they said to all the kayaks as they came home, but as usual, there was one of them that remained out a long time, and when at last he came back, late in the evening, they told him the same thing: "Qasiagssaq, it is said, has struck a walrus."

"That I do not believe, for here are his bladder floats; they had been tied to a stone, and the knot had worked loose."

Then they brought those bladder floats to Qasiagssaq and said:

"Here are your bladder floats; they were fastened to a stone, but the knot worked loose."

"When Qasiagssaq does such things, one cannot but feel shame for him,"

said his wife as usual.

"Hrrrr!" said Qasiagssaq, to frighten her.

And after that Qasiagssaq went about as if nothing had happened.

One day he was out in his kayak as usual at a place where there was much ice; here he caught sight of a speckled seal, which had crawled up on to a piece of the ice. He rowed up to it, taking it unawares, and lifted his harpoon ready to throw, but just as he was about to throw, he looked at the point, and then he laid the harpoon down again, saying to himself: "Would it not be a pity, now, for that skin, which is to be used to make breeches for my wife, to be pierced with holes by the point of a harpoon?"

So he lay alongside the piece of ice, and began whistling to that seal. [12] And he was just about to grasp hold of it when the seal went down. But he watched it carefully, and when it came up again, he rowed over to it once more. Now he lifted his harpoon and was just about to throw, when again he caught sight of the point, and said to himself: "Would it not be a pity if that skin, which is to make breeches for my wife, should be pierced with holes by the point of a harpoon?" And again he cried out to try and frighten the seal, and down it went again, and did not come up any more.

Once he heard that there lived an old couple in another village, who had lost their child. So Qasiagssaq went off there on a visit. He came to their place, and went into the house, and there sat the old couple mourning. Then he asked the others of the house in a low voice:

"What is the trouble here?"

"They are mourning," he was told.

"What for?" he asked.

"They have lost a child; their little daughter died the other day."

"What was her name?"

"Nipisartangivaq," they said.

Then Qasiagssaq cleared his throat and said in a loud voice:

"To-day my little daughter Nipisartangivaq is doubtless crying at her mother's side as usual."

Hardly had he said this when the mourners looked up eagerly, and cried:

"Ah, how grateful we are to you! [13] Now your little daughter can have all her things."

And they gave him beads, and the little girl's mother said:

"I have nothing to give you by way of thanks, but you shall have my cooking pot."

And when he was setting out again for home, they gave him great quant.i.ties of food to take home to his little girl. But when he came back to his own place, his fellow-villagers asked:

"Wherever did you get all this?"

"An umiak started out on a journey, and the people in it were hurried and forgetful. Here are some things which they left behind them."

Towards evening a number of kayaks came in sight; it was people coming on a visit, and they had all brought meat with them. When they came in, they said:

"Tell Qasiagssaq and his wife to come down and fetch up this meat for their little girl."

"Qasiagssaq and his wife have no children; we know Qasiagssaq well, and his wife is childless."

When the strangers heard this, they would not even land at the place, but simply said: