504 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [ ETH. ANN. 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 Un-a/-shiik, but were coming to kill the strangers. 
Hearing this, Ak’-chik-chi’-gfik 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 
ofthem. 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-chi’-giik 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, fuily- 
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. Ina 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, “He is dead.” 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-cht’-gik uttered a ery of anger, and springing upon 
the witch, before anyone could move, caught both her hands and crushed 
