Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/187

 ��Tales of the Smith Sound Eskimo. 175

XIV. TERIENIAQ. 1

A man named Niviuk (butterfly ?) was looking for his wife, Teri- eniaq (fox). Finally he found her. A qogluvissin, a huge worm, had her and would not release her. The man went into its house, and grappled with it, wrestling. The qogluvissin said, " Who is it that is scorching me ? who is burning me ? " The man was bend- ing and folding it, threw it down, and burnt it, thus killing it.

XV. THE GULL. 2

High up on a cliff lived a large gull. Once he saw an unmarried girl come cut of a house. " Will you not be my husband a little," said the girl, who was still wearing a child's hood. The gull flew down, and, picking her up by the tip of her hood with his bill, carried her to his habitation to be his wife far up on the cliff. But then the gull went away to get something to eat for his wife. He flew far away over the sea to get whale-meat. When he was gone, the girl let herself down from the cliff by a rope, and ran home. The gull, coming back, saw her, but was too late to catch her, and in his grief flew about, crying, kotiuk. Thereupon a man came out from the house, and shot him, hitting him under the wing.

This (or another ?) girl is also said to have been swallowed b a narwhal, but to have been puffed out again by it.

XVI. THE UINGNIAQSSUQSSUIN.

Once upon a time the uingniaqssuqssuin (swordfish ?) entered a bay where there was a walrus and cut off his flippers. The walrus struck him on the head with his tusks, and then the swordfish swam off. They are called " Having knives" (ssavilingaptaon).

XVII. THE BLACK BEAR.

Two brothers left their home, going far away over the sea. Fi- nally they reached land again. Here they saw an agli (black bear), a large animal living in a hole in the ground, and having no claws from digging, but possessing large teeth. 3 They threw stones at him but missed him, and he retreated into his cavern. The bro- thers entered the cavern, and one of them thrust his spear down the agli's throat into his vitals. His young ones jumped at the men and bit at them like dogs, and they came out again, leaving the spear

1 A wife who had originally been a fox is mentioned by Rink, 71 and T. p. 143, and Turner, p. 264. Rink, p. 186, gives a story of a woman who married a huge reptile, that was later attacked and slain by her brothers.

2 This tale is found in Greenland (Rink, T. and T. p. 126), and in Labrador (H. I. Smith, Joicrnal of American Folk-Lore, vii. 211). Cf. also Rink, p. 465.

8 A fabulous animal also in Baffin Land, where it is called agdlaq (Boas, p. 640).

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