Page:Eskimo Folk-Tales (1921).djvu/145

Rh fragments of iceberg upon it, and even placed some inside his clothes, which were of ravens’ 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