Page:Eskimo Folk-Tales (1921).djvu/44

34 way out from land, Qujâvârssuk stopped. Then when the other had gone a little distance from him, he turned, and saw that Qujâvârssuk had already struck one seal. Then he rowed towards him, but when he came up, it was already killed. So he left him again for a little while, and when he turned, Qujâvârssuk had again struck. Then Qujavarssuk rowed home. And the other stayed out the whole day, but did not see a single seal.

When Qujâvârssuk had thus continued as a great hunter, his mother said to him at last that he should marry. He gave her no answer, and therefore she began to look about herself for a girl for him to marry, but it was her wish that the girl might be a great glutton, so that there might not be too much lost of all that meat. And she began to ask all the unmarried women to come and visit her. And because of this there came one day a young woman who was not very beautiful. And this one she liked very much, for that she was a clever eater, and having regard to this, she chose her out as the one her son should marry. One day she said to her son: "That woman is the one you must have."

And her son obeyed her, as was his custom.

Every day after their marriage, the strongest man in Amerdloq called in at the window: "Qujâvârssuk! Let us see which of us can first get a bladder float for hunting the whale."

Qujâvârssuk made no answer, as was his custom, but the old man said to him:

"We use only speckled skin for whales. And they are now at this time in the mouth of the river."

After this, they went to rest.

Qujâvârssuk slept, and awoke, and got up, and went away to the north. And when he had gone a little way to the north, he came to the mouth of a small fjord. He looked round and saw a speckled seal that had come up to breathe. When it went down again, he rowed up on the landward side of it, and fixed the head and line to his harpoon. When it came up again to breathe, he rowed to where it was, and harpooned it, and after this, he at once rowed home with it.

The old man made the skin ready, and hung it up behind the house. But while it was hanging there, there came very often a noise