THE WOMAN MAGICIAN 



agreed to go on a certain day to the storehouses 

 and pack up the game ready to start early in the 

 morning. This was the time for which the men 

 of Exaluq had been waiting. 



They started off all together with their sledges, 

 but when they got a long distance from the camp 

 and very near to the storehouse, those from Ex- 

 aluq suddenly fell upon the others and slew them, 

 for the men from Quern had never suspected that 

 there was any ill-feeling. 



Fearing that if the dogs went back to camp 

 without their masters, the women and children 

 would guess what had happened, they killed the 

 dogs also. When they returned, they told the 

 women that their husbands had separated from 

 them and had gone off over a hill, and they did 

 not know what had become of them. 



Now one of the young men had married a girl 

 from Quern, and he went to her house that night 

 as usual, and she received him kindly, for she be- 

 lieved what she had heard about the men of her 

 party straying off. She and all the other women 

 thought the men would soon find their way back, 

 as they had hunted in these parts so long that they 

 knew the land. 



But in the house was the girl's little brother 

 who had seen the husband come in; and after 



19 



