Language and Folklore. 451 
B. 
He began to go up (from the beach), came to the house, went 
in. One of the side-platforms was in a mess (untidily strewn) with 
sheer bones of the upper fore-legs of seals. ” The lamp was burn- 
ing dimly. Beside him he saw a white blubber-stone.* — What a sur- 
prise! It was the wife (of the owner of the house). ® One of the seal- 
bones which had rolled on to the floor, he ate. How sleepy he be- 
came after that! He lay down to sleep on the innermost part of the 
platform (and) pulled off his shoes. ® Before he had yet fallen asleep 
(the man’s wife) was heard coming ш. — “Where are the food- 
fragments of our own little son?” — “The bad visitor has eaten them.” 
— “Where is that thumping fellow, the visitor, where?” ©) “On the 
platform he drew off his boots.” ® It was the blubber-stone which 
told and thus betrayed him. — So finally he again began to speak. 
“Let him appear; he is one who has not many to eat with. Let him 
appear!’ — So he ate with them. When they had finished eating he 
again held forth.” “They out there (by the coast), what are they 
accustomed to say (about me)?” — “They are not accustomed to say 
anything (bad)” — “What are they accustomed to say anyway?” — 
“They are not accustomed to say anything.” ® (But then) he began 
to backbite them (to saddle them with something) for he lied: “They 
are accustomed to say that you are a murderer.” 9 — [The host said] 
“How nice that was of you (thank you for letting me know it). (9 
See here, (is) a stone-point (for your ice-harpoon)* use it as a new 
peint! When you overtake an animal on the hunt, do not fail to hit 
it!’ Thus he spoke. — After having grabbed his wife with great force, 
placing the blubber-stone hard on the ground (D she belched forth 
fire — and when he led her further down through the passage, she 
again belched forth fire. 19 
[=] No. 229. Оп the Cutting Board. 
similar qila-investigation in the tale about Aqättiaq (see р. 419) in which it 
was the case of a child’s sickness. Here the question is different and ends 
in a warning or rather in a magically imposed punishment. — Several un- 
certainties in the tale are, as usual, due to the fragmentary rendering by 
word of mouth and also, in part, to the difficulty in understanding the words 
of the phonograph. 
The name of the tale is taken from the opening-word geerpik, used here 
as the name of a place which means ‘the cutting or scraping board, a flat, 
longish piece of wood on which the skin of the flayed seal is given its final 
treatment under the knife (ulo) of the Eskimo woman. A cutting board of 
this type is shown in fig. 226 First Part (cf. ibid. p. 504). It is a well-known 
place-name in the district. 
(Some variant forms of the tale from the phonograph are given here 
in brackets.) 
A. 
Up there in the north near Qeerpik (they were accustomed to 
fetch) both dried blood (as sausages) and dried shark-meat (strips) 
from the inside of the women’s boat (umiak) when they had no 
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