218 М’. THALBITZER. 
qa‘'’se, pudse" 9 How moist, how ereasy (so that it oozes out)! 
mortuc:tar 10 A little hollow [his anus]. 
NOTES. — 3. narsa'i < narsarajik. — 5. sike-’ne, either an instrumental or 
a possessive form of sike, WGr. six-uk ‘nozzle, snout’, the meaning being 
illustrated for me by Kuannia’s drawing his upper lip up towards his nose. 
macala’-, WGr. massalawogq ‘the surface partly loosens, peels off’, suffixes 
-tsiaq ‘rather’ and -in°aq ‘right over.’ In explanation Kuannia gave this deriv- 
ation mac'ätätino ‘turning it up, loosening it from’, for example when one 
lifts a cover or turns a flat stone half up to look beneath it. — 6. = na'rgor- 
tuätsiag (Kuannia). — 9. Kuannia told that it is usual to say of anyone who 
falls into the water: qa'Yse, puäse: isicseqa “tit, is'ik°ame kame masap'ut ‘you 
are drenched and dripping-wet, you fell badly into the water, poor fellow — 
the water is trickling out of his boots.” — 10. The West Greenland variants 
here have itikulutsiag ‘a tiny anus’ or iserfiluk ‘the furrow (of his buttocks) ; 
EGr. mortutsiag ‘a sinking down, a hollow’, presumably signifies the same. 
No. 21. The Small Birds. 
Akernilik AX and Natseq BY. 
A A(X) 
qupaluartaje ja ja: 1 The little snow-bunting, 
kut-ukaje: ja ja 2 The little wheat-ear, 
qim:ime:a aja ja: ja: ai 3 They are, indeed, his dogs. 
qupaluarta‘je ja ja: 4 The little snow-bunting, 
kutukaje e ja ja: 5 The little wheat-ear, 
qim'ime:a aja Ja haij'e: 6 They are, indeed, his dogs. 
B B(Y) 
qupaluarta je ja ja’ 1 The little snow-bunting, 
inerciokaje Ja ja 2 The little wheat-ear, 
ila‘ca ja: ja 3 A part of it (of its body) 
pata: ja ja 4 (Is) sooty, 
ce‘ta Ja ja 5 lis ear — 
qim:ime: je e'Raje' 6 They are, indeed, his dogs. 
JE JE RE Je 7 (Refrain) | 
Notes. — 2. Two different words are used in A und B to designate the 
same bird, probably because the original name (in A) has at one time been 
tabooed, a new name being at the same time introduced. The latter occurs 
also in the comment of one of my interpreters, see no. 19, note to 1. 1. 
A 3 and 6, cf. В 6 qim'ime:, perhaps < gqim'iminik ‘with (or among?) their 
dogs’? Akernilik wanted to explain it thus, that “the birds come and ask for 
dog’s skins, because they are freezing.” Johan Petersen thought that the word 
might be derived from the WGr. qgim'era: ‘has an animal for dog, i. e., as a 
domestic animal, a tame animal’, but I do not see how the form of the word 
in my text can fit with any form of that verb. I am inclined to consider 
-me'a (B6 -me’) as a nominal ending which contains the common suffix -me: 
+ a (interj.), cf. по. 33, 1.3. — B.3. According to Kuannia, the bird’s neck or 
