BOAS.] TALE OF THE VISITOR. ^27 



sent his sister into the hut to ask for some water. She entered and 

 said to Qitna'jung, who sat on the bed place, '"My brother asks for 

 some water;" to which Qitua'jiing resjjonded, " There it stands be- 

 hind the lamp. Take as much as you like." She stooped to the 

 bucket, when he jumped up and tore her back with his long nails. 

 Then she called to her brother for help, crying, ' ' Brother, brother, 

 that man is going to kill me." The young man ran to the hut 

 immediately, broke down the roof, and killed the bad man with 

 his spear. 



Cautiously he wrapped up his sister in hares' skins, put her on his 

 back, and traveled on. He wandered over the land for many days, 

 untirhe came to a hut in which a man lived whose name was Iqig- 

 nang. As the young man was very hungry, he asked him if he 

 might eat a morsel from the stock of deer meat put up in the entrance 

 of the hut. Iqignang answered, ' ' Don't eat it, don't eat it. " Though 

 he had already taken a little bit, he immediately stopped. Iqignang 

 was very kind ti) the brother and sister, however, and after a short 

 time he married the gii'l, who had recovered from her wounds, and 

 gave his former wife to the young man. ' 



THE VISITOR. 



An old hag liA'ed in a house with her grandson. She was a very 

 l)ad woman who thought of nothing but playing mischief. She was 

 a witch and tried to harm everylwdy by witchcraft. Once upon a 

 time a stranger came to visit some friends who lived in a hut near 

 that of the old woman. As the visitor was a good hunter and pro- 

 cured plenty of food for his hosts, she envied them and resolved to kill 

 the new comer. She made a soup of wolf's and man's brains, which 

 was the most poisonous meal she could prepare, and sent her grand- 

 son to invite the stranger. She cautioned him not to say what she 

 had cooked, as she knew that the visitor Avas a great angakoq, who 

 was by far her superior in wisdom. 



The boy went to the neighboring hut and said: "Stranger, my 

 grandmother invites you to come to her hut and to have there a 

 good feast on a siipper she has cooked. She told me not to say that 

 it is a mans and a wolfs brains and I do not say it." 



Though the angakoq understood the schemes of the old hag he 

 followed the boy and sat down with her. She feigned to be veiy 

 glad to see him and gave him a dish full of soup, which he began to 

 eat. But by help of his tornaq the food fell right through him into 

 a vessel which he had put between his feet on the floor of the hut. 

 This he gave to the old witch and compelled her to eat it. She died 

 as soon as she had brought the first spoonful to her mouth. 



' See foot-note on p. 616. 



