504 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [ETH.ANX. 18 



that they lingered there from day to day until a considerable time had 

 elapsed, during which two of them made fine bows and quivers full of 

 arrows, and another made a strong, stone-head spear. 



One day nearly all the men were gathered in the kashim when the 

 youngest brother hurried in and said that the sea was covered with 

 umiaks, so that the flashing of their paddles looked like falling rain 

 drops in the sun. The villagers told the brothers that the umiaks 

 were from a neighboring place and that the men in them meant no 

 harm to the people of Uii-a -shuk, but were coming to kill the strangers. 

 Hearing this, Ak -chik-chu -guk told the villagers to stay within their 

 houses and sent his brothers out to meet the enemy. The umiaks 

 soon came to the shore and a fierce battle ensued. The umiak men 

 tried in vain to kill or wound the brothers, while the latter killed many 

 of them. Finally the youngest brother returned to the kashim, saying 

 that his arrows were exhausted, but that their enemies were nearly all 

 dead. Soon afterward the next younger brother came in and said that 

 all his arrows were gone and only a few of the enemy were left. He 

 had scarcely finished speaking when the third brother came in, his 

 spear all bloody, and told them that only one man had been spared to 

 carry home news of the fate of his comrades. Going out the villagers 

 saw the shore covered with the dead men and were astonished, but they 

 said nothing. 



Still the brothers lingered, disliking to begin the long homeward 

 journey, and at last another fleet of umiaks, larger than the first, bear 

 ing the friends and relatives of the men slain in the first battle, came 

 in sight; these, the villagers said, were people coming for blood revenge. 

 Again Ak -chik-chiY-guk sent all of the villagers to their homes, telling 

 them not to leave their houses. When they were gone he sat side by 

 side with his brothers in the kashim and awaited the enemy. 



The umiaks came to the shore very quickly, and the warriors, fully 

 armed, hurried to the kashim to seek their victims, coming in such num 

 bers that the last had hard work to get into the house. The brothers 

 sat still in the midst of their enemies, who became quiet when they 

 were all in the house and seemed to be waiting for something. In a few 

 moments two extremely old women came in, each carrying a small 

 grass basket in her hands. One of them sat quietly in a corner while 

 the warriors made room for the other to come up in front of the broth 

 ers. She looked at them with an evil eye and drew from the basket a 

 finger bone of one of the men killed in the first battle, setting it up on 

 the floor in front of the youngest brother; then taking out a human 

 rib, she looked fixedly at the young man and struck the bone with the 

 rib, saying at the same time, &quot;He is dead.&quot; Instantly the young man 

 fell over from his seat dead. Quickly she placed the second bone in 

 front of another brother and he, too, fell dead from his seat. 



At this Ak -chik-chiY-guk uttered a cry of anger, and springing upon 

 the witch, before anyone could move, caught both her hands and crushed 



