Legends and Tales from Angmagsalik. 291 



fond of blubber. When a seal was cut up, and even when the neigh- 

 bours made a catch, the bear cub received its portion of blubber 

 from it. It grew up, and went in and out of the house, and Musatak 

 was very fond of it. When it got big, it went out hunting on the 

 ice, and then it would usually come home with a seal which Musa- 

 tak flensed, and from which the neighbours got meat. When winter 

 came on and the people could not go hunting on account of the 

 snow and ice, the bear would go out, and as a rule came home with 

 game, thereby saving the neighbours from famine. 



The bear Avas married to a human wife, and she became pregnant 

 and brought forth a lovely bear cub. The mother sat with it in her 

 bosom and fed it with blubber; but soon after it began to go out 

 hunting together with its father. One day when the bear was out 

 with its son, they came to some people who were hunting with 

 ituartit (long ice-harpoons). These people caught the bear cub, and, 

 w^hen they came home, they flensed it and boiled it. The bear placed 

 itself on top of the passage-way, and next morning when the men 

 came out, it struck them dead, one by one, with its paw, and 

 flung them aside. It was a large house, but the bear had soon killed 

 all the men except 'the eldest'. The latter tied a long knife on the 

 end of a stake and peeped out of the window at the bear. When 

 no more people came out of the house, the bear w^ent growling into 

 the passage-way; but just as it was about to lift its leg to put dow^n 

 its paw in the house, the man stabbed it with his knife under the 

 fore-leg. As the bear withdrew backwards along the passage, the 

 man stabbed it three times more under the leg, and then it fell over 

 and was unable to move any more. The man cut the bear to pieces; 

 yet it did not die, but seemed to be still alive. When its spine was 

 cut, it lost consciousness, but soon came to itself again. It was not 

 until its throat was cut that it quite lost consciousness. While the 

 bear was being boiled, its soul kept under the floor to cool itself; 

 but when the first man took a bite out of its flesh, it hurt terribly. 

 The bear's soul stayed here for three days, until its head had been 

 eaten. Then it went home, and saw there that its foster-mother had 

 cried so much that her rheum hung down right to the floor. 



37. THE LONG-TAILED DUCK AND THE WHITE GROUSE 



told by Pitiga. 



There was once a long-tailed duck^) and a white grouse that 

 had human form. When the long-tailed duck came down to the 



Anas hiemalis (glacialis). 



19^ 



