He went to the other Inuit who lived in the same village, made a spear and a harpoon of the same pattern he saw in use with them, and began to catch white whales. In a short time he had become an expert hunter.
By and by he thought of taking revenge on his mother. He said to his sister, “Mother abused me when I was blind and has maltreated you for pitying me; we will revenge ourselves on her.” The sister agreed and he planned a scheme for killing the mother.
When he went to hunt white whales he used to wind the harpoon line round his body and, taking a firm footing, hold the animal until it was dead. Sometimes his sister accompanied him and helped him to hold the line.
One day he told his mother to go with him and hold his line. When they came to the beach he tied the rope round her body and asked her to keep a firm footing. She was rather anxious, as she had never done this before, and told him to harpoon a small dolphin, else she might not be able to resist the strong pull. After a short time a young animal came up to breathe and the mother shouted, “Kill it, I can hold it;” but the boy answered, “No, it is too large.” Again a small dolphin came near and the mother shouted to him to spear it; but he said, “No, it is too large.” At last a huge animal rose quite near. Immediately he threw his harpoon, taking care not to kill it, and tossing his mother forward into the water cried out, “That is because you maltreated me; that is because you abused me.”
The white whale dragged the mother into the sea, and whenever she rose to the surface she cried, “Louk! Louk!” and gradually she became transformed into a narwhal.
After the young man had taken revenge he began to realize that it was his mother whom he had murdered and he was haunted by remorse, and so was his sister, as she had agreed to the bad plans of her brother. They did not dare to stay any longer in their hut, but left the country and traveled many days and many nights overland. At last they came to a place where they saw a hut in which a man lived whose name was Qitua´jung. He was very bad and had horribly long nails on his fingers. The young man, being very thirsty, sent his sister into the hut to ask for some water. She entered and said to Qitua´jung, who sat on the bed place, “My brother asks for some water;” to which Qitua´jung responded, “There it stands behind the lamp. Take as much as you like.” She stooped to the bucket, when he jumped up and tore her back with his long nails. Then she called to her brother for help, crying, “Brother, brother, that man is going to kill me.” The young man ran to the hut immediately, broke down the roof, and killed the bad man with his spear.
Cautiously he wrapped up his sister in hares’ skins, put her on his back, and traveled on. He wandered over the land for many days, until he came to a hut in which a man lived whose name was Iqignang. As the young man was very hungry, he asked him if he might eat a morsel from the stock of deer meat put up in the entrance of the hut. Iqignang answered, “Don’t eat it, don’t eat it.” Though he had already taken a little bit, he immediately stopped. Iqignang was very kind to the brother and sister, however, and after a short time he married the girl, who had recovered from her wounds, and gave his former wife to the young man.[10]
[THE VISITOR.]
An old hag lived in a house with her grandson. She was a very bad woman who thought of nothing but playing mischief. She was a witch and tried to harm everybody by witchcraft. Once upon a time a stranger came to visit some friends who lived in a hut near that of the old woman. As the visitor was a good hunter and procured plenty of food for his hosts, she envied them and resolved to kill the new comer. She made a soup of wolf’s and man’s brains, which was the most poisonous meal she could prepare, and sent her grandson to invite the stranger. She cautioned him not to say what she had cooked, as she knew that the visitor was a great angakoq, who was by far her superior in wisdom.
The boy went to the neighboring hut and said: “Stranger, my grandmother invites you to come to her hut and to have there a good feast on a supper she has cooked. She told me not to say that it is a man’s and a wolf’s brains and I do not say it.”