THE BOOK OF MIGRATORY BIRDS 255 



to the Mygledahl-man, and when he, in spite of her en- 

 treaties, would not give it back to her, she was forced to 

 follow him to Mygledahl. There they lived together for 

 many years, and many children were born to them, but the 

 man had to be perpetually on the watch, lest his wife 

 should be able to lay hands on her sealskin, which, 

 accordingly, he kept locked in the bottom of his chest, the 

 key of which was always about his person. One day, 

 however, he was out fishing, when he remembered that he 

 had left the key at home. He called out sorrowfully to 

 his fisher-mates : "This day I shall lose my wife." They 

 pulled up their lines and rowed home quickly, but when 

 they came to the house the woman had disappeared, and 

 only the children were at home. That no harm might 

 come to them when she left them, their mother had ex- 

 tinguished the fire on the hearth and put the knives out of 

 sight. In the meantime she had run down to the beach, 

 attired herself in her sealskin, and directed her course to 

 the sea, where another seal, who had formerly been her 

 lover, came at once to her side. This animal had been 

 lying outside the village all these years waiting for her. 

 After that, when the children of the Mygledahl-man used 

 to go down to the beach, they often saw a seal lift its head 

 above the water and look towards the land. This seal was 

 supposed to be the mother of the children. A long time 

 passed away, and again it chanced that the Mygledahl- 

 man was about to hunt the seals in a big rock-hole. The 

 night before this was to happen the man dreamed his lost 

 wife came to him and said that if he went seal-hunting in 

 that cave he must take care not to kill a Jarge seal which 

 stood in front of the cave, because that was her mate, and 

 the two young seals in the heart of the cave, because they 

 were her two sons, and she informed him of the colour of 

 their skins. But the man took no heed of his dream, 

 went away after the seals, and killed all he could lay h?nds 

 upon. The spoil was divided when they got home, and 

 the man received for his share the whole of the large male 

 seal and the hands and feet of the two young seals. That 



