256 G. Holm and Johan Petersen. 



12. MATAKATAK 



told by Kutuliik. 



There lived once in olden times a man called Matakatak, who 

 caught seals in a net (nigak). The net, which was made of whale- 

 bone, he set across the sounds up the fjord, and when he had 

 been some time at home, he went up the fjord in an umiak to look 

 after the net, and as a rule he found all kinds of seals, such as 

 bearded seals, harbour seals, and ringed seals, sticking to the net. 

 When they went ashore up the fjord, the w^men picked berries 

 and tugdlerunat (Sedum Rhodiola). 



One day they had been up the fjord as usual to see to the 

 net, and their neighbour's little son was with them. The umiak 

 was full of all the many seals that had been caught in the net, 

 but when they were to return home, their neighbour's son was 

 found to be missing. They shouted for him and searched for him, 

 but all in vain. 



When they came home and were crying over the lost child, 

 Matakatak said that it must have been the Timerseks who had taken 

 him; for when he went up the mountain, he perceived smoke 

 coming from a house up inland. Matakatak got his wife to sew 

 an anorak of double bearded-seal skin, which, when it was finished, 

 was so stiff that it could only be bent at the sleeves. Matakatak 

 went with the boy's parents up the fjord, and when they had come 

 up it, they went ashore. Every time Matakatak came to a stone 

 that was hollow underneath, he struck it so that it resounded, in 

 order to try his strength. He was so strong that he sometimes 

 broke the stones to pieces. "If it only had been a Timersekl", he 

 would then exclaim. 



When they had climbed up the mountain, they perceived some 

 smoke. Matakatak pointed at it, and they went up to the house 

 whence the smoke was issuing. 



The passage-way was blocked with a huge stone. They there- 

 fore climbed on top of the house, looked down^), and caught sight 

 of the old Timersek rocking the child with his hands, as he held its 

 head between his legs. The child was crying, and the old man 

 was heard asking it: "Is there anything you want?" "No", answered 

 the child. "Do you miss your family?" asked the Timersek. "Yes", 

 answered the child. "You must not cry about it; we are going to 

 take you to them to-morrow", said the Timersek. Matakatak, who 



') The house seems not to liave been built on the Greenland model ; for it must 

 have had a hole in the roof through which the smoke passed out, just as is 

 the case with the houses of the Western Eskimo. 



