And they rowed towards it, and he harpooned it. And when it now floundered about in pain and went down, he threw out his bladder float, and it was not strange that this went under water at once.
And those farther out called to him now and said:
“When a whale is struck it will always swim out to sea. Row now to the place where it would seem that it must come up.”
But Qujâvârssuk did not answer, and did not move from the place where he was. Not until they called to him for the third time did he answer:
“The beasts I have struck move always farther in, towards my house.”
And now they had just begun laughing at him out there, when they heard a washing of water closer in to shore, and there it lay, quite like a tiny fish, turning about in its death struggle. They rowed up to it at once and made a tow line fast. The strong man rowed up to them, and when he came to where they were, no one of them was eating. Then he said:
“Not one of you eating, and here a newly-killed whale?”
When he said this, Qujâvârssuk answered:
“None may eat of it until my mother has first eaten.”
But the strong man tried then to take a mouthful, although this had been said. And when he did so, froth came out of his mouth at once. And he spat out that mouthful, because it was destroying his mouth.