Language and Folklore (Snpplement). 527 
srew ever thicker and longer. When they considered them strong enough 
they threaded them through the holes in the island, sang and sang again 
over them and finally fastened them to their kaiaks. From out at sea they 
now tried with magic words to loosen the 
island from the land, but as it began to 
slip with a sound of crashing, Kiviaritajak 
appeared and pulled with all his might 
from the mainland. The hair that was fast- 
ened to the kaiaks stretched and stretched, 
growing ever stronger and stronger; the 
tow-line of skin fastened to the mainland 
stretched and stretched growing ever thin- 
ner and thinner. At last it snapped. Then 
the two old men in their kaiaks still singing 
tugged the island far out in the sea and 
dragged it along the coast toward the North.” 
The Eskimo name for Disko Island is 
Qegertarssuaq, Big Island. It is about the 
same size as our Danish Sjelland (Zeeland). 
There is (as just mentioned) a reference to 
this old myth already as early as in Egedes 
Perlustration: The hole through which 
the hair tow-line was fastened was still to 
be seen on the coast of the island. The 
luxuriant growth of angelica on this island 
recalls the vegetation of South Greenland, 
but is to be found nowhere else on the 
Gulf of Disko. 1 
The closing lines of the nursery rhyme 
are possibly remnants of the magic words 
Fig. 140. A young mother with her 
baby in the amaut. Old-fashioned 
woman’s costume from the south 
district of Egedesminde. (W.T. phot., 
June 1905, at Arqittoq in the 
Nordre Strömfjord.) 
by which the hair or line was 
straightened. They are recited with fixed accentuation and tempo. 
az‘unarsuaqg КЁогагагта 1 When the great skin tow-line burst 
nujaro:q atawoq 2 A hair held, so they tell. 
atawoq taman:a 3 It held, — here it is! 
iluliaminin’uag tinupanig'ua 4 А tiny fragment of an ice-berg, a little 
knoll, 
iluliaminersuag tinupanersua 5 A mighty fragment of an ice-berg, a 
mighty knoll. 
1 The tale has been treated by Axel Olrik in a comparative investigation. See 
“Danske Studier”, 1910, pp. 28—30. 
