“Hrrrr!” said Qasiagssaq, as if to frighten her.
After that he lay still for a long while, waiting for his knees to heal, and when at last his knees were well again, he began once more to go out in his kayak, always without catching anything, as usual. And when he had thus been out one day as usual, without catching anything, he said to himself again:
“What is the use of my staying out here?”
And he rowed in to land. There he found a long stone, laid it on his kayak, and rowed out again. And when he came in sight of other kayaks that lay waiting for seal, he stopped still, took out his two small bladder floats made from the belly of a seal, tied the harpoon line to the stone in his kayak, and when that was done, he rowed away as fast as he could, while the kayaks that were waiting looked on. Then he disappeared from sight behind an iceberg, and when he came round on the other side, his bladder float was gone, and he himself was rowing as fast as he could towards land. His wife, who was looking out for him as usual, shading her eyes with her hands, said then:
“But what has happened to Qasiagssaq?”
As soon as a voice could reach the land, Qasiagssaq cried:
“Now you need not be afraid of breaking the handles of your knives; I have struck a great walrus, and it has gone down under water with my two small bladder floats. One or another of those who are out after seal will be sure to find it.”
He himself remained altogether idle, and having come into his house, did not go out again. And as the kayaks began to come in, others went down to the shore and told them the news:
“Qasiagssaq has struck a walrus.”
And this they said to all the kayaks as they came home, but as usual, there was one of them that remained out a long time, and when at last he came back, late in the evening, they told him the same thing: “Qasiagssaq, it is said, has struck a walrus.”