g2G THE CENTRAL ESKIMO. 



you tlic l»st I have ; but I am very poor ; I have no siipporter; come 

 hiic. c.it iliis. it is very good." The boy, however, did not comply 

 ami :iskiii again, ''From whom did you get yon bearskin I saw 

 outside the hut?" Again she prevaricated ; but when she could no 

 longer evade the question she said, "A boat came here with many 

 men in it, who left it for me." 



The boy did not believe the story, but was sure that it was the 

 skin of the bear he had killed dming the winter. However, he did 

 not say a word. His mother, who was anxious to conciliate him, tried 

 to accommodate him with food and clothing, but he did not accept 

 anything. 



He went to the other Inuit who lived in the same village, made 

 a spear and a harpoon of the same pattern he saw in use with them, 

 and began to catch white whales. In a short time he had become an 

 expert hunter. 



By and by he thought of taking revenge on his mother. He said 

 to his sister, "Mother abused me when I was blind and has mal- 

 treated you for pitying me; we will revenge ourselves on her." The 

 sister aurrcd ami lie iilainird a scheme for killing the mother. 



When lie wiMit t(i limit white whales he used to wind the harpoon 

 line round his body :ni(l, taking a firm footing, hold the animal 

 until it was dead. Sometimes his sister accomjjanied him and helped 

 him to hold the line. 



One day he told his mother to go with him and hold his line. 

 When they came to the beach he tied the rope round her body and 

 asked her to keep a firm footing. She was rather anxious, as she 

 had never done this before, and told him to harpoon a small dolphin, 

 else she might not be able to resist the strong pull. After a short 

 time a young animal came up to breathe and the mother shouted, 

 "Kill it, I can hold it;" but the boy answered, "No, it is too large." 

 Again a small dolphin came near and the mother shouted to him to 

 spear it ; but he said, "No, it is too large." At last a huge animal 

 rose quite near. Immediately he threw his harj^oon, taking care not 

 to kill it, and tossing his mother forward into the water cried out, 

 " That is because you maltreated me; that is becaiise you abused me." 



The white whale dragged the mother into the sea, and whenever 

 she rose to the surface slic ( rii"(l, "Loukl Louk!" and gradually she 

 became trausfiiniicil into .-i ii;n-\\iial. 



After the young man had taken revenge he began to realize that 

 it was his mother whom he had murdered and he was haunted by 

 remorse, and so was his sister, as she had agreed to the bad plans of 

 her brother. They did not dare to stay any longer in their hut, but 

 left the country and traveled many days and many nights overland. 

 At last they came to a place where they saw a hut in which a man 

 lived whose name was Qitua'jung. He was very bad and had hor- 

 ribly long nails on his fingers. Tlie young man, being very thirsty. 



