Page:Eskimo Folk-Tales (1921).djvu/48

36 believing that the whale would never come up to breathe in that place. Therefore he said to them:

"You shall see it when it comes up."

Hardly had the umiak stopped still, when Qujâvârssuk began to tremble all over. When he turned round, there was already a whale quite near, and now his rowers begged him eagerly to steer to where it was. But Qujâvârssuk now saw such a beast for the first time in his life. And he said:

"Let us look at it."

And his rowers had to stay still. When the strong man of Amerdloq heard the breathing of the whale, he looked round after it, and there lay the beast like a great rock close beside Qujâvârssuk. And he called out to him from the place where he was:

"Harpoon it!"

Qujâvârssuk made no answer, but his rowers were now even more eager than before. When the whale had breathed long enough, it went down again. Now his rowers wished very much to go farther out, because it was not likely that it would come up again in that way the next time. But Qujavarssuk would not move at all.

The whale stayed a long time under the water, and when it came up again it was still nearer. Now Qujavarssuk looked at it again for a long time, and now his rowers became very angry with him at last. Not until it seemed that the whale must soon go down again did Qujavarssuk say:

"Now row towards it."

And they rowed towards it, and he harpooned it. And when it now floundered about in pain and went down, he threw out his bladder float, and it was not strange that this went under water at once.

And those farther out called to him now and said:

"When a whale is struck it will always swim out to sea. Row now to the place where it would seem that it must come up."

But Qujâvârssuk did not answer, and did not move from the place where he was. Not until they called to him for the third time did he answer:

"The beasts I have struck move always farther in, towards my house."

And now they had just begun laughing at him out there, when