Ititaujang promised to obey. He shut his eyes, the backbone became a kayak, and away he went over the lake. As he did not hear any splashing of water, he was anxious to see whether the boat moved on, and opened his eyes just a little. But he had scarcely taken a short glimpse when the kayak began to swing violently and he felt that it became a backbone again. He quickly shut his eyes, the boat went steadily on, and a short time after he was landed on the island.
There he saw the hut and his son playing on the beach near it. The boy on looking up saw Ititaujang and ran to his mother crying, “Mother, father is here and is coming to our hut.” The mother answered, “Go, play on; your father is far away and cannot find us.” The child obeyed; but as he saw Ititaujang approaching he re-entered the hut and said, “Mother, father is here and is coming to our hut.” Again the mother sent him away, but he returned very soon, saying that Ititaujang was quite near.
Scarcely had the boy said so when Ititaujang opened the door. When the new husband saw him he told his wife to open a box which was in a corner of the hut. She did so, and many feathers flew out of it and stuck to them. The woman, her new husband, and the child were thus again transformed into geese. The hut disappeared; but when Ititaujang saw them about to fly away he got furious and cut open the belly of his wife before she could escape. Then many eggs fell down.
[THE EMIGRATION OF THE SAGDLIRMIUT.]
In the beginning all the Inuit lived near Ussualung, in Tiniqdjuarbing (Cumberland Sound). The Igdlumiut, the Nugumiut, and the Talirpingmiut in the south, the Aggomiut in the far north, and the Inuit, who tattoo rings round their eyes, in the far west, all once lived together. There is a tradition concerning the emigration of the Sagdlirmiut (see [p. 451]) who live east of Iglulik. The Akudnirmiut say that the following events did not happen in Tiniqdjuarbing, but in Aggo, a country where nobody lives nowadays. Ikeraping, an Akudnirmio, heard the story related by a Tununirmio, who had seen the place himself, but all the Oqomiut assert that Ussualung is the place where the events in the story happened.
An old woman, the sister of Mitiq, the angakoq, told the story as follows:
Near Ussualung there are two places, Qerniqdjuaq and Eχaluqdjuaq. In each of these was a large house, in which many families lived together. They used to keep company during the summer when they went deer hunting, but returned to their separate houses in the fall.
Once upon a time it happened that the men of Qerniqdjuaq had been very successful, while those of Eχaluqdjuaq had caught scarcely any deer. Therefore the latter got very angry and resolved to kill the other party, but they preferred to wait until the winter. Later in the season many deer were caught and put up in depots. They were to be carried down to the winter settlements by means of sledges.
One day both parties agreed upon a journey to these depots and the men of Eχaluqdjuaq resolved to kill their enemies on this occasion. They set out with their dogs and sledges, and when they were fairly inland they suddenly attacked their unsuspecting companions and killed them. For fear that the wives and children of the murdered men might be suspicious if the dogs returned without their masters, they killed them too. After a short time they returned and said they had lost the other party and did not know what had happened to them.
A young man of Eχaluqdjuaq was the suitor of a girl of Qerniqdjuaq and used to visit her every night. He did not stop his visits now. He was kindly received by the woman and lay down to sleep with his young wife.