468 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [ETH. ANN. 18 
the water and fasten it to the shore; lay my paddle, spears, and lines 
upon it in their proper places; dress my body in the waterproof shirt 
and put me into the kaiak, fastening the shirt to the manhole as you 
have seen me do when going to sea. Every evening for three days 
place fish, deer fat, and berries before my body that my inwa may be 
satisfied. Do you promise me this?” Ta-ku-/ka promised and wept 
silently. Pi-tikh’-cho-lik’ did not leave the house again, and he died on 
the third day. Then Ta-ku/-ka cried very much, but did as she had 
been told. Every morning she saw that the shade had eaten, for all 
the food before the body was gone. On the fourth morning, when she 
went to the shore to lament for her dead as usual, she saw that the 
kaiak with all its contents had disappeared. Then she threw herself 
upon the ground and lay there for a long time in her sorrow; finally she 
remembered her children and went back to the house to care for them. 
For a long time Ta-ku’-ka worked very hard, gathering berries or 
catching aud drying fish to prepare her store of winter food. 
One day while gathering berries she wandered far from home and 
went to the top of a mountain; there she looked out over the land and 
far away saw puffs of smoke drifting upward from the ground. This 
was the first sign she had ever seen of other people, and she decided 
to go to see what they were like. After some time she drew near the 
place and crept softly to the edge of the hill, that fell away sharply on 
one side to the sea, but sloped gradually toward a portion of the inland 
side. Near the water were three houses, from one of which came the 
smoke she had seen. 
Here Ta-ku’-ka waited quietly to see what kind of people were there, 
and soon a woman came out, shading her eyes with one hand and look- 
ing out to sea; then she hurried back to the house, calling to someone 
within. At this two other women came out, and all went down to the 
water’s edge, where they began to sing a love song and to dance upon 
the sand facing the sea, Ta-ku’/-ka had been so interested in watching 
these women and their handsome fur garments that she had not noticed 
anything else, but now the low, pleasant sound of a man’s voice rising 
in song struck her ear and made her heart beat faster. She looked 
beyond the women and saw a man urging his kaiak swiftly toward the 
shore, singing and playfully throwing his seal spear before him, and 
picking it up as he passed. 
When he came near, Ta-ku/-ka recognized the song as one that 
Pi-tikh’-cho-lik’ used to sing to her in the old days; then the kaiak 
man came on shore and the women met him with execlamations of 
pleasure. Ta-ku/-ka could scarcely believe her eyes when she saw that 
the man was indeed her husband, whom she had believed to be dead. 
He went into the house with the women, and Ta-ku/-ka felt a strange, 
fierce anger in her heart, such as she had never known before. She 
stood on the hillside listening to the songs and laughter coming from 
the house until far into the night. 
