Page:Eskimo Folk-Tales (1921).djvu/74

 THE DWARFS

MAN who was out in his kayak saw another kayak far off, and rowed up to it. When he came up with it, he saw that the man in it was a very little man, a dwarf.

“What do you want,” asked the dwarf, who was very much afraid of the man.

“I saw you from afar and rowed up,” said the man.

But the dwarf was plainly troubled and afraid.

“I was hunting a little fjord seal which I cannot hit,” he said.

“Let me try,” said the other. And so they waited until it came up to breathe. Hardly had it come up, when the harpoons went flying towards it, and entered in between its shoulder-blades.

“Ai, ai–what a throw!” cried the dwarf in astonishment. And the man took the seal and made a tow-line fast.

Then the two kayaks set off together in towards land.

“Hum–hum. Wouldn't care to… come and visit us?” said the dwarf suddenly.

But this the man would gladly do.

“Hum–hum. I’ve a wife… and a daughter… very beautiful daughter… hum–hum. Many men wanted her… wouldn’t have them… can’t take her by force… very strong. Thought of taking her to wife myself… hum–hum. But she is too strong for me… own daughter.”

They rowed on a while, and then the little one spoke again.

“Hum–hum. Might perhaps do for you… you could manage her… what?” “Let us first see her,” said the man. And now they rowed into a great deep fjord.

When they came to the place, they landed and went up at once to the house of the little old man. And those in the house