Eskimo Folk-Tales — Tales 05-08

There was once a wizard whose name was Kúnigseq.

One day, when he was about to call on his helping spirits and make a flight down into the underworld, he gave orders that the floor should be swilled with salt water, to take off the evil smell which might otherwise frighten his helping spirits away.

Then he began to call upon his helping spirits, and without moving his body, began to pass downward through the floor.

And down he went.

On his way he came to a reef, which was covered with weed, and therefore so slippery that none could pass that way.

And as he could not pass, his helping spirit lay down beside him, and by placing his foot upon the spirit, he was able to pass.

And on he went, and came to a great slope covered with heather.

Far down in the underworld, men say, the land is level, and the hills are small; there is sun down there, and the sky is also like that which we see from the earth.

Suddenly he heard one crying: "Here comes Kúnigseq."

By the side of a little river he saw some children looking for greyfish.

And before he had reached the houses of men, he met his mother, who had gone out to gather berries.

When he came up to her, she tried again and again to kiss him, but his helping spirit thrust her aside.

"He is only here on a visit," said the spirit.

Then she offered him some berries, and these he was about to put in his mouth, when the spirit said: "If you eat of them, you will never return."

A little after, he caught sight of his dead brother, and then his mother said: "Why do you wish to return to earth again?

Your kin are here.

And look down on the sea-shore; see the great stores of dried meat.

Many seal are caught here, and it is a good place to be; there is no snow, and a beautiful open sea."

The sea lay smooth, without the slightest wind.

Two kayaks were rowing towards land.

Now and again they threw their bird darts, and they could be heard to laugh.

"I will come again when I die," said Kúnigseq.

Some kayaks lay drying on a little island; they were those of men who had just lost their lives when out in their kayaks.

And it is told that the people of the underworld said to Kúnigseq: "When you return to earth, send us some ice, for we thirst for cold water down here."

After that, Kúnigseq went back to earth, but it is said that his son fell sick soon afterwards, and died.

And then Kúnigseq did not care to live any longer, having seen what it was like in the underworld.

So he rowed out in his kayak, and caught a guillemot, and a little after, he caught a raven, and having eaten these one after the other, he died.

And then they threw him out into the sea.

THE WOMAN WHO HAD A BEAR AS A FOSTER-SON

There was once an old woman living in a place where others lived.

She lived nearest the shore, and when those who lived in houses up above had been out hunting, they gave her both meat and blubber.

And once they were out hunting as usual, and now and again they got a bear, so that they frequently ate bear's meat.

And they came home with a whole bear.

The old woman received a piece from the ribs as her share, and took it home to her house.

After she had come home to her house, the wife of the man who had killed the bear came to the window and said: "Dear little old woman in there, would you like to have a bear's cub?"

And the old woman went and fetched it, and brought it into her house, shifted her lamp, and placed the cub, because it was frozen, up on to the drying frame to thaw.

Suddenly she noticed that it moved a little, and took it down to warm it.

Then she roasted some blubber, for she had heard that bears lived on blubber, and in this way she fed it from that time onwards, giving it greaves to eat and melted blubber to drink, and it lay beside her at night.

And after it had begun to lie beside her at night it grew very fast, and she began to talk to it in human speech, and thus it gained the mind of a human being, and when it wished to ask its foster-mother for food, it would sniff.

The old woman now no longer suffered want, and those living near brought her food for the cub.

The children came sometimes to play with it, but then the old woman would say: "Little bear, remember to sheathe your claws when you play with them."

In the morning, the children would come to the window and call in: "Little bear, come out and play with us, for now we are going to play."

And when they went out to play together, it would break the children's toy harpoons to pieces, but whenever it wanted to give any one of the children a push, it would always sheathe its claws.

But at last it grew so strong, that it nearly always made the children cry.

And when it had grown so strong the grown-up people began to play with it, and they helped the old woman in this way, in making the bear grow stronger.

But after a time not even grown men dared play with it, so great was its strength, and then they said to one another: "Let us take it with us when we go out hunting.

It may help us to find seal."

And so one day in the dawn, they came to the old woman's window and cried: "Little bear, come and earn a share of our catch; come out hunting with us, bear."

But before the bear went out, it sniffed at the old woman.

And then it went out with the men.

On the way, one of the men said: "Little bear, you must keep down wind, for if you do not so, the game will scent you, and take fright."

One day when they had been out hunting and were returning home, they called in to the old woman: "It was very nearly killed by the hunters from the northward; we hardly managed to save it alive.

Give therefore some mark by which it may be known; a broad collar of plaited sinews about its neck."

And so the old foster-mother made a mark for it to wear; a collar of plaited sinews, as broad as a harpoon line.

And after that it never failed to catch seal, and was stronger even than the strongest of hunters, and never stayed at home even in the worst of all weather.

Also it was not bigger than an ordinary bear.

All the people in the other villages knew it now, and although they sometimes came near to catching it, they would always let it go as soon as they saw its collar.

But now the people from beyond Angmagssalik heard that there was a bear which could not be caught, and then one of them said: "If ever I see it, I will kill it."

But the others said: "You must not do that; the bear's foster-mother could ill manage without its help.

If you see it, do not harm it, but leave it alone, as soon as you see its mark."

One day when the bear came home as usual from hunting, the old foster-mother said: "Whenever you meet with men, treat them as if you were of one kin with them; never seek to harm them unless they first attack."

And it heard the foster-mother's words and did as she had said.

And thus the old foster-mother kept the bear with her.

In the summer it went out hunting in the sea, and in winter on the ice, and the other hunters now learned to know its ways, and received shares of its catch.

Once during a storm the bear was away hunting as usual, and did not come home until evening.

Then it sniffed at its foster-mother and sprang up on to the bench, where its place was on the southern side.

Then the old foster-mother went out of the house, and found outside the body of a dead man, which the bear had hauled home.

Then without going in again, the old woman went hurrying to the nearest house, and cried at the window: "Are you all at home?"

"Why?"

"The little bear has come home with a dead man, one whom I do not know."

When it grew light, they went out and saw that it was the man from the north, and they could see he had been running fast, for he had drawn off his furs, and was in his underbreeches.

Afterwards they heard that it was his comrades who had urged the bear to resistance, because he would not leave it alone.

A long time after this had happened, the old foster-mother said to the bear: "You had better not stay with me here always; you will be killed if you do, and that would be a pity.

You had better leave me."

And she wept as she said this.

But the bear thrust its muzzle right down to the floor and wept, so greatly did it grieve to go away from her.

After this, the foster-mother went out every morning as soon as dawn appeared, to look at the weather, and if there were but a cloud as big as one's hand in the sky, she said nothing.

But one morning when she went out, there was not even a cloud as big as a hand, and so she came in and said: "Little bear, now you had better go; you have your own kin far away out there."

But when the bear was ready to set out, the old foster-mother, weeping very much, dipped her hands in oil and smeared them with soot, and stroked the bear's side as it took leave of her, but in such manner that it could not see what she was doing.

The bear sniffed at her and went away.

But the old foster-mother wept all through that day, and her fellows in the place mourned also for the loss of their bear.

But men say that far to the north, when many bears are abroad, there will sometimes come a bear as big as an iceberg, with a black spot on its side.

Here ends this story.

ÍMARASUGSSUAQ, WHO ATE HIS WIVES

It is said that the great Ímarasugssuaq was wont to eat his wives.

He fattened them up, giving them nothing but salmon to eat, and nothing at all to drink.

Once when he had just lost his wife in the usual way, he took to wife the sister of many brothers, and her name was Misána.

And after having taken her to wife, he began fattening her up as usual.

One day her husband was out in his kayak.

And she had grown so fat that she could hardly move, but now she managed with difficulty to tumble down from the bench to the floor, crawled to the entrance, dropped down into the passage way, and began licking the snow which had drifted in.

She licked and licked at it, and at last she began to feel herself lighter, and better able to move.

And in this way she afterwards went out and licked up snow whenever her husband was out in his kayak, and at last she was once more quite able to move about.

One day when her husband was out in his kayak as usual, she took her breeches and tunic, and stuffed them out until the thing looked like a real human being, and then she said to them: "When my husband comes and tells you to come out, answer him with these words: I cannot move because I am grown so fat.

And when he then comes in and harpoons you, remember then to shriek as if in pain."

And after she had said these words, she began digging a hole at the back of the house, and when it was big enough, she crept in.

"Bring up the birds I have caught!"

But the dummy answered: "I can no longer move, for I am grown so fat."

Now the dummy was sitting behind the lamp.

And the husband coming in, harpooned that dummy wife with his great bird-spear.

And the thing shrieked as if with pain and fell down.

But when he looked closer, there was no blood to be seen, nothing but some stuffed-out clothes.

And where was his wife?

And now he began to search for her, and as soon as he had gone out, she crept forth from her hiding-place, and took to flight.

And while she was thus making her escape, her husband came after her, and seeing that he came nearer and nearer, at last she said: "Now I remember, my amulet is a piece of wood."

And hardly had she said these words, when she was changed into a piece of wood, and her husband could not find her.

He looked about as hard as ever he could, but could see nothing beyond a piece of wood anywhere.

And he stabbed at that once or twice with his knife, but she felt no more than a little stinging pain.

Then he went back home to fetch his axe, and then, as soon as he was out of sight, she changed back into a woman again and fled away to her brothers.

When she came to their house, she hid herself behind the skin hangings, and after she had placed herself there, her husband was heard approaching, weeping because he had lost his wife.

He stayed there with them, and in the evening, the brothers began singing songs in mockery of him, and turning towards him also, they said: "Men say that Ímarasugssuaq eats his wives."

"Who has said that?"

"Misána has said that."

"I said it, and I ran away because you tried to kill me," said she from behind the hangings.

And then the many brothers fell upon Ímarasugssuaq and held him fast that his wife might kill him; she took her knife, but each time she tried to strike, the knife only grazed his skin, for her fingers lost their power.

And she was still standing there trying in vain to stab him, when they saw that he was already dead.

Here ends this story.

QALAGÁNGUASÊ, WHO PASSED TO THE LAND OF GHOSTS

There was once a boy whose name was Qalagánguasê; his parents lived at a place where the tides were strong.

And one day they ate seaweed, and died of it.

Then there was only one sister to look after Qalagánguasê, but it was not long before she also died, and then there were only strangers to look after him.

Qalagánguasê was without strength, the lower part of his body was dead, and one day when the others had gone out hunting, he was left alone in the house.

He was sitting there quite alone, when suddenly he heard a sound.

Now he was afraid, and with great pains he managed to drag himself out of the house into the one beside it, and here he found a hiding-place behind the skin hangings.

And while he was in hiding there, he heard a noise again, and in walked a ghost.

"Ai!

There are people here!"

The ghost went over to the water tub and drank, emptying the dipper twice.

"Thanks for the drink which I thirsty one received," said the ghost.

"Thus I was wont to drink when I lived on earth."

And then it went out.

Now the boy heard his fellow-villagers coming up and gathering outside the house, and then they began to crawl in through the passage way.

"Qalagánguasê is not here," they said, when they came inside.

"Yes, he is," said the boy.

"I hid in here because a ghost came in.

It drank from the water tub there."

And when they went to look at the water tub, they saw that something had been drinking from it.

Then some time after, it happened again that the people were all out hunting, and Qalagánguasê alone in the place.

And there he sat in the house all alone, when suddenly the walls and frame of the house began to shake, and next moment a crowd of ghosts came tumbling into the house, one after the other, and the last was one whom he knew, for it was his sister, who had died but a little time before.

And now the ghosts sat about on the floor and began playing; they wrestled, and told stories, and laughed all the time.

At first Qalagánguasê was afraid of them, but at last he found it a pleasant thing to make the night pass.

And not until the villagers could be heard returning did they hasten away.

"Now mind you do not tell tales," said the ghost, "for if you do as we say, then you will gain strength again, and there will be nothing you cannot do."

And one by one they tumbled out of the passage way.

Only Qalagánguasê's sister could hardly get out, and that was because her brother had been minding her little child, and his touch stayed her.

And the hunters were coming back, and quite close, when she slipped out.

One could just see the shadow of a pair of feet.

"What was that," said one.

"It looked like a pair of feet vanishing away."

"Listen, and I will tell you," said Qalagánguasê, who already felt his strength returning.

"The house has been full of people, and they made the night pass pleasantly for me, and now, they say, I am to grow strong again."

But hardly had the boy said these words, when the strength slowly began to leave him.

"Qalagánguasê is to be challenged to a singing contest," he heard them say, as he lay there.

And then they tied the boy to the frame post and let him swing backwards and forwards, as he tried to beat the drum.

After that, they all made ready, and set out for their singing contest, and left the lame boy behind in the house all alone.

And there he lay all alone, when his mother, who had died long since, came in with his father.

"Why are you here alone?"

they asked.

"I am lame," said the boy, "and when the others went off to a singing contest, they left me behind."

"Come away with us," said his father and mother.

"It is better so, perhaps," said the boy.

And so they led him out, and bore him away to the land of ghosts, and so Qalagánguasê became a ghost.

And it is said that Qalagánguasê became a woman when they changed him to a ghost.

But his fellow-villagers never saw him again.