■298 Gf- Holm and Johan Petersen. 



flesli of the dead man. When the brothers had eaten the liver, the 

 human flesh was placed before them, and bear's blubber луаз laid 

 on top of it. This too they partook of. When the brothers travelled 

 back home, the husband took the bones of the dead man, stuck 

 them in his kaiak, and said, as he shoved it out to sea: "Thy 

 brothers have eaten thee; now thou must revenge thyself on them 

 and kill them all!" Some time after it was noised abroad that all 

 the brothers had perished. The skeleton had eaten them. 



45. A TALE ABOUT A FAMINE 



told by Pitiga. 



Once in olden days when there was a severe winter, there dwelt 

 some people on an island off Umivik. 



In winter their house was snowed up, so that they could not go out 

 hunting, and, as they had nothing more to eat, they had to kill and 

 eat the women. When they had eaten them up, too, they made a 

 hole in the roof, and the biggest of the men crept up through it; 

 but the others could not get up, because they were too weak. The 

 big man went over to Umivik, where he went into the house and 

 up to his sister's cooking-pot, from which he took a bit of blubber 

 and put it in his mouth. Thus he did the whole winter through. 

 When he went out, he gathered some sea-weed, which he threw down 

 to the others in the house. 



One day when the big man's brother-in-law had been out hunting, 

 the big man went into his house and said: "I think it smells as if 

 you had caught something?« But as they did not wish to give him 

 any of the game, they answered: "How do you suppose we could 

 have caught anything? Do you think this is the right weather for 

 hunting?" 



One day when the big man came home to the house, he heard 

 someone down inside the house saying: „How lovely that I have 

 got something to eat!" "What is that you have found?" asked the 

 big man. „It is a lovelj^ human ear!" was the answer. 



In spring they all starved to death, except the big man. 



46. SANIMUINAK'S ACCOUNT OF HOW HE BECAME AN 



ANGAKOK'). 



When I was quite a small boy, I once made a sledge, for which 

 I was beaten by my mother with the upright of the sledge. I then 

 made up my mind to become an angakok. 



') The version is considerably abbreviated. 



