“I knew you would come and find me,” she said. “That terrible big bird carried me away in his claws; that is why you could not find my footprints in the snow.”
Her husband wanted her to come home with him at once, but she told him that it would be better if she could first see the bird man, who would come back soon again. Her plan was to send the bird man on some far distant fight, so that they might get away during his absence. She gave her husband some food, and he went back to his hiding-place to wait for the bird man to come and go.
After a short time the bird came back with a walrus in one claw and a seal in the other. Flying to the rack, he took off the bird skin, hung it up, and went into the house.
When he came in, he found the woman crying. “What do you want?” said he.
“I want a white whale and a hump-back whale. I didn’t want any seal. I am tired of seal and walrus meat. Boo-hoo!” and she howled and wailed dismally.
“Only be quiet,” said the bird man, “and I will get you what you want.” And he came out again and, putting on his bird skin, once more flew out over the sea.
When the bird was out of sight, the woman ran from the house to her husband, who put her on his back and started for home as fast as he could go. He was the swiftest runner in his village, and covered the ground pretty fast; but, after all, legs are not wings. It was not long before they met the bird man coming back with a whale in each of his talons. When he saw the man carrying the woman away on his back, the bird was very angry, and circled about in the air over their heads, calling out to them, “I shall kill you. First, however, I am going to take these two whales home, then I shall come back and kill you.” And away he flew.
The man ran as fast as he could, but just as they reached the banks of a big river the bird came in sight.
The man and his wife dug a cave in the river bank, and hid in it while the bird flew by looking for them. Nowhere could the big bird find those two people, although he was sure they must be hiding somewhere nearby. Suddenly he circled about, and flew down to the water. “I shall set my great wing across the river like a dam, and the water will rise and drown them,” cried he; so he stretched his great wing across the river and the water rose over the wing, and crept nearer and nearer to where the man and his wife were hidden.
The two poor people were in despair. They thought that surely they would be drowned, when suddenly the man remembered his father, who was a witch doctor, and some magic words came to his mind: