Language and Folklore. 407 
ог ue‘r- а by-form of ujar-? — *(25) Cf. WGr. unerza”t. — 82) Cf. WGr. qisiaq. 
* (38) а`р- (first syllable) instead of ар-. — * 4?) Cf. WGr. se‘riwoq ‘oozes, percol- 
ates.’ — * (45) Literally ‘they began to hit them over the muzzle to slay Шет.’— 
*(47) -ep°a (= -in‘a) ‘he there’ often used in address, (= ‘thou, thee there’). 
[a] No. 217. The First Dead. 
namely, to be understood thus that they ‘live on’ (after death). I believe it 
should be corrected to agree with the translation of the word as given here 1.4, 
and that it means: ‘they have begun to die at intervals,’ i. e. generation fol- 
lows generation. 
Aleqaajik considered this song and story to come from the south (from 
Pikeetät). 
Some few sentences in this record were immediately translated and put 
down in my own language. They show themselves as lacunes in the Eskimo 
text following here (on p. 406). 
(In the beginning people could not die.) The children became far 
too numerous.‘® Therefore he began to think: “The descendants be- 
come far too numerous. How shall I bring about a depletion ?” ? 
In the morning when he went into the house, he began to recite 
a magic formula over them: “Become scum!” ©) While they dreamed 
in deep sleep he caused them to become scum.“ Then some of them 
died, he who was first dead, when he awoke to consciousness® he 
rose up to the heaven. — The dead must creep off. 
The way leads up a steep mountain-side with constant impedi- 
ments, especially because the steps are turned ‘backwards.’ ® Through 
the small ‘aterqat’ (2) they fight*, they complain over the way ™ (as 
they crawl up the steps). They fight much. 
The first dead reached heaven, just as the next moon appeared.®) 
(Weeping) he arrived to heaven, but his horror was soon turned to joy 
over all that he saw up there, and then the first dead was surprised 
and sang from joy. This is said to be his song (his drum-song). 
Song of the First Dead. 
Refrain: qawoaa ja jaa jee jaa hraa 
1. People have begun a new custom. * ©) 
2. People die now at intervals (in time), 
3. Chopping out the little step, * 4) 
4. People die at intervals, 
5. After they have stepped through their heavy troubles [?]. = 4 
the tale by nearly the same words, namely ater"qarak'un and na‘tenina:, but 
I do not quite understand the meaning of aterame:k here (possibly to be 
compared with WGr. ateraq, see no. 218, note to *(18)). 
