Legends and Tales from Angmagsalik. 281 



When they got home they began to long for the spring, so that 

 they could travel south again. In the meantime the wife of the 

 man who had caught the bear brought forth a child, which died, 

 and the old married couple took it to make a tupilek of. They 

 now travelled south, and the wife wrapped up the child well and 

 put it in front of them on the horns of the umiak. When they 

 touched land, the wife stepped out of the boat, and then the hus- 

 band handed the child to her. This they did the whole way while 

 they were journeying south. 



It was not till they came to their own country again that they 

 made from the corpse a tupilek which could kill all the children 

 the bear-catcher's wife bore. The tupilek was given a fox's jaw 

 and a grouse's jaw, and its head was covered with dog-skin. It was 

 then made alive. When there came times of scarcity, the bear- 

 catcher killed his dog and sang magic charms over it, because he 

 wanted his children to live. 



Once when the bear-catcher's wife had brought forth a child 

 which died just like the others, she journeyed up to Kernertuarsuk. 

 She heard someone singing from up the fjord, and as she walked, 

 she saw an umiak coming down the fjord. The people in the boat 

 were going out to have a drum-match, and they took her with them. 

 As she was sorrowful, they did not have a drum-match, but anga- 

 kok arts were to be performed by six angakut to cheer her up. 

 She went and sat down near the place where the angakut were to 

 perform their arts, and the lamps were extinguished. 



The five angakut performed their arts, and she expected that 

 they should say something to her; but they said nothing. It was 

 now the turn of the sixth angakok, who was called Akerdlegsanalik, 

 to begin. The lamps were lit, he was given a new skin to sit on, 

 and a smaller lamp was placed by his side. He began to beat the 

 drum and the dried skin before the passage, and the skin on which 

 he sat began to move. 



As he was drumming, his natit slipped down and at last fell 

 off altogether. As he drummed, he sometimes made the back of 

 his head almost touch the ground, and he threw the drum aside 

 and it began to move of its own accord. All this the angakok did 

 to gladden the heart of the sorrowful one. Then the lamps were 

 extinguished. While Akerdlegsanalik was performing angakok arts, 

 and the drum was moving by itself, he said to the grieving woman : 

 "It is as if you had a child in your bosom". They stayed up the 

 whole night and performed angakok arts. 



When they were about to depart, the grieving woman said to 

 the angakut: "It would be well if ye \vould come over to Umivik 



