Eskimo Folk-Tales — Tales 43-46

And at last they did as they had said, and killed him.

THE EAGLE AND THE WHALE

In a certain village there lived many brothers.

And they had two sisters, both of an age to marry, and often urged them to take husbands, but they would not.

At last one of the men said: "What sort of a husband do you want, then?

An eagle, perhaps?

Very well, an eagle you shall have."

This he said to the one.

And to the other he said: "And you perhaps would like a whale?

Well, a whale you shall have."

And then suddenly a great eagle came in sight, and it swooped down on the young girl and flew off with her to a high ledge of rock.

And a whale also came in sight, and carried off the other sister, carrying her likewise to a ledge of rock.

After that the eagle and the girl lived together on a ledge of rock far up a high steep cliff.

The eagle flew out over the sea to hunt, and while he was away, his wife would busy herself plaiting sinews for a line wherewith to lower herself down the rock.

And while she was busied with that work, the eagle would sometimes appear, with a walrus in one claw and a narwhal in the other.

One day she tried the line, with which she was to lower herself down;

it was too short.

And so she plaited more.

But as time went on, the brothers began to long for their sister.

And they all set to work making crossbows.

And there was in that village a little homeless boy, who was so small that he had not strength to draw a bow, but must get one of the others to draw it for him every time he wanted to shoot.

When they had made all things ready, they went out to the place where their sister was, and called to her from the foot of the cliff, telling her to lower herself down.

And this she did.

As soon as her husband had gone out hunting, she lowered herself down and reached her brothers.

Towards evening, the eagle appeared out at sea, with a walrus in each claw, and as he passed the house of his wife's brothers, he dropped one down to them.

But when he came home, his wife was gone.

Then he simply threw his catch away, and flew, gliding on widespread wings, down to where those brothers were.

But whenever the eagle tried to fly down to the house, they shot at it with their bows.

And as none of them could hit, the little homeless boy cried: "Let me try too!"

And then one of the others had to bend his bow for him.

But when he shot off his arrow, it struck.

And when then the eagle came fluttering down to earth, the others shot so many arrows at it that it could not quite touch the ground.

Thus they killed their sister's husband, who was a mighty hunter.

But the other sister and the whale lived together likewise.

And the whale was very fond of her, and would hardly let her out of his sight for a moment.

But the girl here likewise began to feel homesick, and she also began plaiting a line of sinew threads, and her brothers, who were likewise beginning to long for their sister, set about making a swift-sailing umiak.

And when they had finished it, and got it into the water, they said: "Now let us see how fast it can go."

And then they got a guillemot which had its nest close by to fly beside them, while they tried to outdistance it by rowing.

But when it flew past them, they cried: "This will not do; the whale would overtake us at once.

We must take this boat to pieces and build a new one."

And so they took that boat to pieces and built a new one.

Then they put it in the water again and once more let the bird fly a race with them.

And now the two kept side by side all the way, but when they neared the land, the bird was left behind.

One day the girl said as usual to the whale: "I must go outside a little."

"Stay here," said her husband, that great one.

"But I must go outside," said the girl.

Now he had a string tied to her, and this he would pull when he wanted her to come in again.

And hardly had she got outside when he began pulling at the string.

"I am only just outside the passage," she cried.

And then she tied the string by which she was held, to a stone, and ran away as fast as she could down hill, and the whale hauled at the stone, thinking it was his wife, and pulled it in.

The brothers' house was just below the hillside where she was, and as soon as she came home, they fled away with her.

But at the same moment, the whale came out from the passage way of its house, and rolled down into the sea.

The umiak dashed off, but it seemed as if it were standing still, so swiftly did the whale overhaul it.

And when the whale had nearly reached them, the brothers said to their sister: "Throw out your hairband."

And hardly had she thrown it out when the sea foamed up, and the whale stopped.

Then it went on after them again, and when it came up just behind the boat, the brothers said: "Throw out one of your mittens."

And she threw it out, and the sea foamed up, and the whale pounced down on it.

And then she threw out the inner lining of one of her mittens, and then her outer frock and then her inner coat, and now they were close to land, but the whale was almost upon them.

Then the brothers cried: "Throw out your breeches!"

And at the same moment the sea was lashed into foam, but the umiak had reached the land.

And the whale tried to follow, but was cast up on the shore as a white and sun-bleached bone of a whale.

THE TWO LITTLE OUTCASTS

There were two little boys and they had no father and no mother, and they went out every day hunting ptarmigan, and they had never any weapons save a bow.

And when they had been out hunting ptarmigan, the men of that place were always very eager to take their catch.

One day they went out hunting ptarmigan as usual, but there were none.

On their way, they came to some wild and difficult cliffs.

And they looked down from that place into a ravine, and saw at the bottom a thing that looked like a stone.

They went down towards it, and when they came nearer, it was a little house.

And they went nearer still and came right to it.

They climbed up on to the roof, and when they looked down through the air hole in the roof, they saw a little boy on the floor with a cutting-board for a kayak and a stick for a paddle.

They called down to him, and he looked up, but then they hid themselves.

When they looked down again, he was there as before, playing at being a man in a kayak.

A second time they called to him, and then he ran to hide.

And they went in then, and found him, sobbing a little, and pressing himself close in against the wall.

And they asked him: "Do you live here all alone?"

And he answered: "No, my mother went out early this morning, and she is out now, as usual."

They said: "We have come to be here with you because you are all alone."

And when they said this, he ventured to come out a little from the wall.

In the afternoon, the boy went out again and again and when he did so, they looked round the inside of the house, which was covered with fox skins, blue and white.

At last the boy came in, and said: "Now I can see her, away to the south."

They looked out and saw her, and she seemed mightily big, having something on her back.

And she came quickly nearer.

Then they heard a great noise, and that was the woman throwing down her burden.

She came in hot and tired, and sat down, and said: "Thanks, kind little boys.

I had to leave him alone in the house, as usual, and now you have stayed with him while I was fearing for him on my way."

Then she turned to her son, and said: "Have they not eaten yet?"

"No," said the boy.

And when he had said that, she went out, and came in with dried flesh of fox and reindeer, and a big piece of suet.

And very glad they were to eat that food.

At first they did not eat any of the dried fox meat, but when they tasted it, they found it was wonderfully good to eat.

Now when they had eaten their fill, they sat there feeling glad.

And then the little boy whispered something in his mother's ear.

"He has a great desire for one of your sets of arrows, if you would not refuse to give it."

And they gave him that.

In the evening, when they thought it was time to rest, a bed was made for them under the window, and when this was done the woman said: "Now sleep, and do not fear any evil thing."

They slept and slept, and when they awoke, the woman had been awake a long time already.

And when they were setting off to go home again, she paid them for their arrows with as much meat as they could carry; and when they went off, she said: "Be sure you do not let any others come selling arrows."

But in the meantime, the people of the village had begun to fear for those two boys, because they did not come home.

When at last they appeared in the evening, many went out to meet them.

And it was a great load they had to carry.

"Where have you been?"

they asked.

"We have been in a house with one who was not a real man."

They tasted the food they had brought.

And it was wonderfully good to eat.

"That we were given in payment for one set of arrows," they said.

"We must certainly go out and sell arrows, too," said the others.

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.