Eskimo Folk-Tales — Tales 18-25

UKALEQ

Ukaleq, men say, was a strong man.

Whenever he heard news of game, even if it were a great bear, he had only to go out after it, and he never failed to kill it.

Once the winter came, and the ice grew firm, and then men began to go out hunting bears on the ice.

One day there was a big bear.

Ukaleq set off in chase, but he soon found that it was not to be easily brought down.

The bear sighted Ukaleq, and turned to pursue him.

Ukaleq fled, but grew tired at length.

Now and again he managed to wound the beast, but was killed himself at last, and at the same time the bear fell down dead.

Now when his comrades came to look at the bear, its teeth began to whisper, and then they knew that Ukaleq had been killed by a Magic Bear.

[7] And as there was no help for it, they took the dead man home with them.

And then his mother said: "Lay him in the middle of the floor with a skin beneath him."

She had kept the dress he had worn as a little child, and now that he was dead, she put it in her carrying bag, and went out with it to the cooking place in the passage.

And when she got there, she said: "For five days I will neither eat nor drink."

Then she began hushing the dress in the bag as if it were a child, and kept on hushing it until at last it began to move in the bag, and just as it had commenced to move, there came some out from the house and said: "Ukaleq is beginning to quiver."

But she kept on hushing and hushing, and at last that which she had in the bag began trying to crawl out.

But then there came one from the house and said: "Ukaleq has begun to breathe; he is sitting up."

Hardly was this said when that which was in the bag sprang out, making the whole house shake.

Then they made up a bed for Ukaleq on the side bench, and placed skins under him and made him sit up.

And after five days had passed, and that without eating or drinking, he came to himself again, and commenced to go out hunting once more.

Then the winter came, and the winter was there, and the ice was over the sea, and when the ice had formed, they began to make spirit callings.

The villages were close together, and all went visiting in other villages.

And at last Ukaleq set out with his family to a village near by, where there was to be a big spirit calling.

The house where it was to be held was so big that there were three windows in it, and yet it was crowded with folk.

In the middle of the spirit calling, there was an old woman who was sitting cross-legged up on the bench, and she turned round towards the others and said: "We heard last autumn that Ukaleq had been killed by a Magic Bear."

Hardly had she said those words when an old wifeless man turned towards her and said: "Was it by any chance your Magic Bear that killed him?"

Then the old woman turned towards the others and said: "Mine?

Now where could I have kept such a thing?"

But after saying that she did not move.

She even forgot to breathe, for shame at having been discovered by the wifeless man, and so she died on the spot.

After that Ukaleq went home, and never went out hunting bears again.

Here ends this story.

ÍKARDLÍTUARSSUK

Íkardlítuarssuk, men say, had a little brother; they lived at a place where there were many other houses.

One autumn the sea was frozen right out from the coast, without a speck of open water for a long way out.

After this, there was great dearth and famine; at last their fellow-villagers began to offer a new kayak paddle as a reward for the one who should magic it away, but there was no wizard among the people of that village.

Then it came about that Íkardlítuarssuk's little brother began to speak to him thus: "Íkardlítuarssuk, how very nice it would be to win that new paddle!"

And then it was revealed that Íkardlítuarssuk had formerly sat on the knee of one of those present when the wizards called up their helping spirits.

Then it came about that Íkardlítuarssuk one evening began to call upon his helping spirits.

He called them up, and having called them up, went out, and having gone out, went down to the water's edge, crept in through a crack between the land and the ice, and started off, walking along the bottom of the sea.

He walked along, and when he came to seaweed, it seemed as if there lay dogs in among the weed.

But these were sharks.

Then on his way he saw a little house, and went towards it.

When he came up to the entrance, it was narrow as the edge of a woman's knife.

But he got in all the same, following that way which was narrow as the edge of a woman's knife.

And when he came in, there sat the mother of Tôrnârssuk, the spirit who lived down there; she was sitting by her lamp and weeping.

And picking behind her ears, she threw down many strange things.

Inside her lamp were many birds that dived down, and inside the house were many seals that bobbed up.

And now he began tickling the weeping woman as hard as he could, to encourage her; and at last she was encouraged, and after this, she freed a number of the birds, and then made a sign to many of the seals to swim out of the house.

And when they swam out, there was one of the fjord seals which she liked so much that she plucked a few of the hairs from its back, that she might have it to make breeches of when it was caught.

And when all this had been done, she went home, and went to rest without saying a word.

When they awoke next morning, the sea was quite dark ahead, and all the ice had gone.

But when the villagers came out, she said to them: "Do not kill more than one; if any of you should kill two, he will never kill again."

And furthermore she said: "If any of you should catch a young fjord seal with a bare patch on its back, you must give it to me to make breeches."

When they came back, each of the hunters had made a catch; only one of them had caught two.

And the man who had caught two seals that day never after caught any seal at all when he rowed out, but all the others always made a catch when they rowed out, and some of them even caught several at a time.

Thus it came about that Íkardlítuarssuk with the little brother won the new paddle as a reward.

THE RAVEN WHO WANTED A WIFE

A little sparrow was mourning for her husband who was lost.

She was very fond of him, for he caught worms for her.

As she sat there weeping, a raven came up to her and asked: "Why are you weeping?"

"I am weeping for my husband, who is lost; I was fond of him, because he caught worms for me," said the sparrow.

"It is not fitting for one to weep who can hop over high blades of grass," said the raven.

"Take me for a husband; I have a fine high forehead, broad temples, a long beard and a big beak; you shall sleep under my wings, and I will give you lovely offal to eat."

"I will not take you for a husband, for you have a high forehead, broad temples, a long beard and a big beak, and will give me offal to eat."

So the raven flew away--flew off to seek a wife among the wild geese.

And he was so lovesick that he could not sleep.

When he came to the wild geese, they were about to fly away to other lands.

Said the raven to two of the geese: "Seeing that a miserable sparrow has refused me, I will have you."

"We are just getting ready to fly away," said the geese.

"I will go too," said the raven.

"But consider this: that none can go with us who cannot swim or rest upon the surface of the water.

For there are no icebergs along the way we go."

"It is nothing; I will sail through the air," said the raven.

And the wild geese flew away, and the raven with them.

But very soon he felt himself sinking from weariness and lack of sleep.

"Something to rest on!"

cried the raven, gasping.

"Sit you down side by side."

And his two wives sat down together on the water, while their comrades flew on.

The raven sat down on them and fell asleep.

But when his wives saw the other geese flying farther and farther away, they dropped that raven into the sea and flew off after them.

"Something to rest on!"

gasped the raven, as it fell into the water.

And at last it went to the bottom and was drowned.

And after a while, it broke up into little pieces, and its soul was turned into little "sea ravens."

[8] THE MAN WHO TOOK A VIXEN TO WIFE

There was once a man who wished to have a wife unlike all other wives, and so he caught a little fox, a vixen, and took it home to his tent.

One day when he had been out hunting, he was surprised to find on his return that his little fox-wife had become a real woman.

She had a lovely top-knot, made of that which had been her tail.

And she had taken off the furry skin.

And when he saw her thus, he thought her very beautiful indeed.

Now she began to talk about journeyings, and how greatly she desired to see other people.

And so they went off, and came to a place and settled down there.

One of the men there had taken a little hare to wife.

And now these two men thought it would be a pleasant thing to change wives.

And so they did.

But the man who had borrowed the little vixen wife began to feel scorn of her after he had lived with her a little while.

She had a foxy smell, and did not taste nice.

But when the little vixen noticed this she was very angry, for it was her great desire to be well thought of by the men.

So she knocked out the lamp with her tail, dashed out of the house, and fled away far up into the hills.

Up in the hills she met a worm, and stayed with him.

But her husband, who was very fond of her, went out in search of her.

And at last, after a long time, he found her living with the worm, who had taken human form.

But now it was revealed that this worm was the man's old enemy.

For he had once, long before, burned a worm, and it was the soul of that worm which had now taken human form.

He could even see the marks of burning in its face.

Now the worm challenged the man to pull arms, and they wrestled.

But the man found the worm very easy to master, and soon he won.

After that he went out, no longer caring for his wife at all.

And he wandered far, and came to the shore-dwellers.

They had their houses on the shore, just by high-water mark.

Their houses were quite small, and the people themselves were dwarfs, who called the eider duck walrus.

But they looked just like men, and were not in the least dangerous.

We never see such folk nowadays, but our forefathers have told us about them, for they knew them.

And now when the man saw their house, which was roofed with stones, he went inside.

But first he had to make himself quite small, though this of course was an easy matter for him, great wizard as he was.

As soon as he came in, they brought out meat to set before him.

There was the whole fore-flipper of a mighty walrus.

That is to say, it was really nothing more than the wing of an eider duck.

And they fell to upon this and ate.

But they did not eat it all up.

After he had stayed with these people some time he went back to his house.

And I have no more to tell of him.

THE GREAT BEAR

A woman ran away from her home because her child had died.

On her way she came to a house.

In the passage way there lay skins of bears.

And she went in.

And now it was revealed that the people who lived in there were bears in human form.

Yet for all that she stayed with them.

One big bear used to go out hunting to find food for them.

It would put on its skin, and go out, and stay away for a long time, and always return with some catch or other.

But one day the woman who had run away began to feel homesick, and greatly desired to see her kin.

And then the bear spoke to her thus: "Do not speak of us when you return to men," it said.

For it was afraid lest its two cubs should be killed by the men.

Then the woman went home, and there she felt a great desire to tell what she had seen.

And one day, as she sat with her husband in the house, she said to him: "I have seen bears."

And now many sledges drove out, and when the bear saw them coming towards its house, it felt so sorry for its cubs that it bit them to death, that they might not fall into the hands of men.

But then it dashed out to find the woman who had betrayed it, and broke into her house and bit her to death.

But when it came out, the dogs closed round it and fell upon it.

The bear struck out at them, but suddenly all of them became wonderfully bright, and rose up to the sky in the form of stars.

And it is these which we call Qilugtûssat, the stars which look like barking dogs about a bear.

Since then, men have learned to beware of bears, for they hear what men say.

THE MAN WHO BECAME A STAR

There was once an old man who stood out on the ice waiting for the seal to come up to their breathing holes to breathe.

But on the shore, just opposite where he was, a crowd of children were playing in a ravine, and time after time they frightened away a seal just as he was about to harpoon it.

At last the old man grew angry with them for thus spoiling his catch, and cried out: "Close up, Ravine, over those who are spoiling my hunting."

And at once the hillside closed over those children at play.

One of them, who was carrying a little brother, had her fur coat torn.

Then they all fell to screaming inside the hill, for they could not come out.

And none could bring them food, only water that they were able to pour down a crack, and this they licked up from the sides.

At last they all died of hunger.

And now the neighbours fell upon that old man who had shut up the children by magic in the hill.

He took to flight, and the others ran after him.

But all at once he became bright, and rose up to heaven as a great star.

We can see it now, in the west, when the lights begin to return after the great darkness.

But it is low down, and never climbs high in the sky.

And we call it Nâlaussartoq: he who stands and listens.

[9] THE WOMAN WITH THE IRON TAIL

There was once a woman who had an iron tail.

And more than this, she was also an eater of men.

When a stranger came to visit her, she would wait until her guest had fallen asleep, and then she would jump up in the air, and fall down upon the sleeping one, who was thus pierced through by her tail.

Once there came a man to her house.

And he lay down to sleep.

And when she thought he had fallen asleep, she jumped up, and coming over the place where he lay, dropped down upon him.

But the man was not asleep at all, and he moved aside so that she fell down on a stone and broke her tail.

The man fled out to his kayak.

And she ran after.

When she reached him, she cried: "Oh, if I could only thrust my knife into him."

And as she cried, the man nearly upset--for even her words had power.

"Oh, if only I could send my harpoon through her," cried the man in return.

And so great was the power of his words that she fell down on the spot.

And then the man rowed away, and the woman never killed anyone after that, for her tail was broken.

HOW THE FOG CAME

There was a Mountain Spirit, which stole corpses from their graves and ate them when it came home.

And a man, wishing to see who did this thing, let himself be buried alive.

The Spirit came, and saw the new grave, and dug up the body, and carried it off.

The man had stuck a flat stone in under his coat, in case the Spirit should try to stab him.

On the way, he caught hold of all the willow twigs whenever they passed any bushes, and made himself as heavy as he could, so that the Spirit was forced to put forth all its strength.

At last the Spirit reached its house, and flung down the body on the floor.

And then, being weary, it lay down to sleep, while its wife went out to gather wood for the cooking.

"Father, father, he is opening his eyes," cried the children, when the dead man suddenly looked up.

"Nonsense, children, it is a dead body, which I have dropped many times among the twigs on the way," said the father.

But the man rose up, and killed the Mountain Spirit and its children, and fled away as fast as he could.

The Mountain Spirit's wife saw him, and mistook him for her husband.

"Where are you going?"

she cried.

The man did not answer, but fled on.

And the woman, thinking something must be wrong, ran after him.

And as he was running over level ground, he cried: "Rise up, hills!"

And at once many hills rose up.

Then the Mountain Spirit's wife lagged behind, having to climb up so many hills.

The man saw a little stream, and sprang across.

"Flow over your banks!"

he cried to the stream.

And now it was impossible for her to get across.

"How did you get across?"

cried the woman.

"I drank up the water.

Do you likewise."

And the woman began gulping it down.

Then the man turned round towards her, and said: "Look at the tail of your tunic; it is hanging down between your legs."

And when she bent down to look, her belly burst.