Legends and Tales from Angmagsalik. 235 



2. IMERASUGSUK 



told by Utiiak^). 



Imerasugsuk had had many wives; for he never had them long, 

 as he always killed and eat them and their children. In order 

 that his wives might grow fat, they were never allowed to drink 

 water. He was a great hunter, and often went out in his kaiak; 

 ■when he Avent out, he hid the water tub from his wife, lest she 

 should drink during his absence. When he came home from hunt- 

 ing, he gave his wives a great deal of food to eat, so that they 

 might grow fat. With his knife in one hand he often felt their 

 arms and the rest of their body, to see whether they would soon be 

 fat enough. When he had been out hunting and had caught noth- 

 ing, he would kill his wives in order to cook and eat them. After 

 he had eaten one of his wives, he would visit her family and say: 

 ^'Now I have again lost my wife". Then he took a new wife and 

 dragged her to his home. 



At last he got a wife whose name was Misana. She had several 

 brothers, and he also took her little brother with him to his home. 

 When Imerasugsuk went out hunting, his wife went out into the 

 passage-way and licked up the water which trickled down its loft 

 and walls. One day when he came home from hunting and had 

 not caught anything, he killed Misana's brother, cooked him and 

 gave his wife a piece of the flesh to eat. Misana made believe to 

 eat it, but dropped it down behind the collar of her anorak'^), for 

 she would not eat her own brother. 



Then when Imerasugsuk had gone out in his kaiak, she resolved 

 to run away from him. She dug a large stone out of the back 

 wall of the house, and formed behind it a hollow which could be 

 concealed by the stone. Thereupon she filled her anorak with lamp- 

 moss, and laid it on the platform just at the place where she 

 herself was wont to sit by the lamp with her back turned. When 

 she thought that her husband would soon be coming home, she said 

 to the anorak: "When he stabs you, shriek!". Thereupon she her- 

 self crept into the hole in the back wall. 



The husband came soon after, and went with a groan straight 

 into the house with his knife in his hand. He went up to the 

 platform, and stuck his knife several times into the stuffed 

 anorak, which began to shriek and wail like a human being. 

 When he discovered his error, and saw that it was her anorak 



The same legend has been told by Sanimuinak, and I have used his version 

 to supplement that of Utuak. 

 Fur frock. 



