Legends and Tales from Angmagsalik. 289 



up to it he saw thai it was a house floating in the air with props 

 underneath. It was his brothers' house. Here they dwelt together 

 with the dwellers in Akilinek. When they had entered the house, a 

 whalebone whale (Balæna mysticetus) was brought in to be eaten. They 

 ate on and on, but were never filled. The brother who had driven 

 him thither went out to fetch a ringed seal which they had caught, 

 and which thej' were now going to eat. The Akilinek man exclaimed: 

 "What a little bit we will get!" When they had eaten, they all 

 vomited. Then he journeyed home, and related that his brothers 

 were away among the dwellers in Akilinek. 



34. THE MAN IN THE MOON AND ERKINGASEK 



told by Narsingertek and Adlagdlak. 



In the moon there lives a man in a house. In the passage-way 

 there is a hole through which one can peep down on the earth. 

 The earth is so small that all the winter-places look as if they 

 lay quite close to one another. Outside the house there are umiak 

 props; he has no umiak, though. When the Moon goes out hunting, 

 he draws a dried skin before the passage, and, when he comes home 

 again, he removes the skin and hangs the sledge on the wall. The 

 Moon has a narwhal to draw the sledge, and he has a dog which is 

 so old that it has no skin on its skull. As everyone knows, the 

 angakut now and then make journeys to the moon to fetch down 

 children. The dog barks when the angakut draw near the moon, 

 even if they come from behind. This barking can be distinctly heard 

 in the houses from which the angekut have set out. When anyone 

 makes a noise on top of the Moon's house, he waxes wrath, and goes 

 out to peep down through the hole in the passage. If the Moon 

 sees a woman who has born a child that has died — and thus is in 

 mourning — going out into the open air to fetch water or anything 

 else, the Moon drives her in again by making it snow^ or else by 

 robbing her of her soul. The angakok must then make the journey 

 to the Moon to fetch the woman back her soul. When the Moon 

 shines on a sleeping woman, it causes her to menstruate. 



An angakok who set out on a journey to the Moon came by 



mistake to the mother of the Sun (Jupiter). The mother of the Sun 



cut him in pieces, took out his liver, and ate it raw. The angakok 



was on the point of death, but he tore his soul out of the mouth 



of the Sun's mother as she was just going to eat it, and recovered 



again. 



XXXIX. 19 



