G24 THE CENTRAL ESKIMO. 



the beach and when the tide came in it swaai away. Wlieii night 

 came again it returned with eight large seals, two being fastened to 

 every bough. Thus the timber provided its wife, her mother, and 

 Kiviung with an abuii(];iiici' of food. Oui- day, however, after they 

 had launched it as llicy li.id always d<iiii-. it left and never returned. 



After a short intiT\al Kiviung married tlie young widow. Now he 

 went sealing every day himself and was very successful. As he 

 thought of leaving some day, he was anxious to get a good stock of 

 mittens (that his hands might keep dry during the long journey?). 

 Every night after retiirning from hunting he pretended to have lost 

 his mittens. In reality he had concealed them in the hood of his 

 jacket. 



After awhile the old woman became jealous of her daughter, for the 

 new husband of the latter was a splendid hunter and she wished to 

 marry him hei'self . One day when he was away hunting, she murdered 

 her daughter, and in order to deceive him she removed her daughter's 

 skin and crept into it, thus changing her shape into that of the young 

 woman. When Kiviung returned, she went to meet him, as it had 

 been her daughter's custom, and without exciting any suspicion. 

 But when he entered the hut and saw the bones of his wife he at once 

 became aware of the cruel deed and of the deception that had been 

 practiced and fled away. 



He traveled on for many days and nights, always following the 

 shore. At last he again came to a hut where a lamp was burning. 

 As his clothing wias wet and he was hungry, he landed and went up 

 to the house. Before entering it occurred to him that it would be 

 best to find out first who was inside. He therefore climbed up to the 

 window and looked through the peep hole. On the bed sat an old 

 woman, whose name was Aissivang (spider). When she saw tlie dark 

 figure before the window she believed it was a cloud passing the 

 siin, and as the light was insufficient to enable her to go on with her 

 work she got angry. With her knife she cut away her eyebrows, ate 

 them, and did not mind the dripping blood, but sewed on. When 

 Kiviung saw this he thought that she must be a very bad woman 

 and turned away. 



Still he traveled on days and nights. At last he came to a land 

 which seemed familiar to him and soon he recognized his own coun- 

 try. He was very glad when he saw some boats coming to meet 

 him. They had been on a whaling excursion and were towing a 

 great carcass to the villa,i;v. In the bow of one of them stood a stout 

 young man wild lunl kilKil the whale. He was Kiviung's son, whom 

 he had left a small boy and who was now grown up and had become a 

 great hunter. His wife had taken " new husband, but now she 

 returned to Kiviung. 



