“That I do not believe, for here are his bladder floats; they had been tied to a stone, and the knot had worked loose.”
Then they brought those bladder floats to Qasiagssaq and said:
“Here are your bladder floats; they were fastened to a stone, but the knot worked loose.”
“When Qasiagssaq does such things, one cannot but feel shame for him,” said his wife as usual.
“Hrrrr!” said Qasiagssaq, to frighten her.
And after that Qasiagssaq went about as if nothing had happened.
One day he was out in his kayak as usual at a place where there was much ice; here he caught sight of a speckled seal, which had crawled up on to a piece of the ice. He rowed up to it, taking it unawares, and lifted his harpoon ready to throw, but just as he was about to throw, he looked at the point, and then he laid the harpoon down again, saying to himself: “Would it not be a pity, now, for that skin, which is to be used to make breeches for my wife, to be pierced with holes by the point of a harpoon?”
So he lay alongside the piece of ice, and began whistling to that seal.[1] And he was just about to grasp hold of it when the seal went down. But he watched it carefully, and when it came up again, he rowed over to it once more. Now he lifted his harpoon and was just about to throw, when again he caught sight of the point, and said to himself: “Would it not be a pity if that skin, which is to make breeches for my wife, should be pierced with holes by the point of a harpoon?” And again he cried out to try and frighten the seal, and down it went again, and did not come up any more.
Once he heard that there lived an old couple in another village, who had lost their child. So Qasiagssaq went off there on a visit. He came to their place, and went into the house, and there sat the old couple mourning. Then he asked the others of the house in a low voice:
“What is the trouble here?”