I. Folk-tales. 



1. Riddle. 



(ScriUtt, Oommannaq Fjord.) 



in'u'^o'q aX'a inuk tikik-u^o \ oqarpoq \ tere^iarsori'uit inor- 

 pi^i't I naya inu'suhàk' агата aiiuma^aX'ariha \ a'^ma oqarpoq j 

 siutisuarso'Tiuit inorpi^rt | naya ariuma'sa'rak'archa | 



A man, it is told, meeting another man | said: | the little 

 teregiarsuk's, can you not overtake them? | No, he answered, 

 when I was still young I could overtake them. | Again he asked : | 

 the little animals with large ears can you not overtake them?| 

 No, I have no longer any practise in overtaking them. 



[teregiarsuk is to signify the fox? The word is not other- 

 wise known, but is no doubt connected with the usual Gr. 

 name of this animal: teriärviaq, with Labr. teriaq , a weasel, 

 with teriX'uk, a young ground-seal (phoca barbata) , and with 

 N Al. tëri^gûnia (Ray) an arctic fox, SW Al. tri kän^ ny äk 

 wolverine.] 



Hendrik Hugh who related this and the following three tales , which I 

 took down in 1901 at the trading-place Sugtut on the Umanak Fjord 

 (70° 40' N. lat.), originally came from the northeastern corner of Disko 

 Bay, where he had heard the tales in his youth. His pronunciation of the 

 language, at least in those tales which he dictated to me, was peculiar on 

 account of his use of the fricative a wherever the official orthography has 

 this sound in accordance with the South or Mid-Greenlandic pronunciation 

 instead of the ^ m//) which is usual In North Greenlandic. 



.XXXI. 18 



