Legends and Tales from Angmagsalik. 243 



and the other man amused themselves on the way bj^ rowing to- 

 wards each other, seizing the harpoon and taking aim with it. This 

 they did simply for practice. They did not really cast the harpoon, 

 but laid it down again and rowed on alongside of one another. 

 However, when they met any strange kaiakers on their way, they 

 harpooned them, leaving some of them in the sea, and dragging 

 others ashore. Uiartek had a dart-point made of a whole narwhal's 

 tusk, the other man had one of a walrus' tusk, and when they 

 came across calf-ice blocking their passage, they hurled their bird- 

 dart against it, so that it broke to pieces. 



When they had reached the southernmost^) point of the coun- 

 try, they rowed up a big stream, in the sides of which the sea had 

 formed hollows in the rocks. Here Uiartek's dog fell overboard and 

 was bitten to pieces by a kivarkek ('big sea- scorpion'). While 

 they were rowing up the stream, their companion's child starved 

 to death, as his wife's breasts could not reach over her shoulders 

 to the child, which she carried in her amaat^). The parents were 

 sorely grieved at the loss of their child, and in their sorrow they 

 did not notice that the current was carrying the boat into a cave, 

 where they perished. Uiartek's boat came safely up the stream, as 

 he used the steering-oar on both sides, while his wife pulled the 

 oars, and his child lived, as his wife's breasts reached up over her 

 shoulders, so that the child could be carried in the amaut and suck 

 the breast, while his mother rowed. 



When Uiartek had got safely past the stream, he saw a big 

 kaiaker among a shoal of narwhals, and soon after a few houses. 

 But fearing to meet the big man, as he was alone, he waited till 

 night-fall before going up to the houses to have a look at the im- 

 plements and utensils there. 



He now saw a huge narwhal tusk, which was used as a spit, 

 and on which were stuck human hands, bears's flesh and blubber, 

 walrus flesh and blubber, aud narwhal flesh and blubber. Being 

 afraid of these folk, he drove away in his sledge at night, skirting 

 their dwellings and passing through a great valley. 



When they had made the round of the country, winter set in, 

 so that they had to overwinter and could not travel further before 

 next year. On their way along the coast they saw just as many 

 seals as white grouse, and when the white grouse cried the seals 

 came up. When they had come to the northernmost point of the 

 country {nana isua), they travelled along a steep rocky coast, where 



') According to Kutuluk's version, both tliis episode and the following one of the 



cannibals is relegated to the northernmost point of the country. 

 '-) A woman's frock with a hood in which the baby is carried. 



16* 



