The Insects that Wooed a Wifeless Man
There was once a wifeless man.
Yes, that is the way a story always begins.
And it was his custom to run down to the girls whenever he saw them out playing. And the young girls always ran away from him into their houses.
And when the time of great hunting set in, and the kayak men lived in plenty, it always happened that he shamefully overslept himself every time he had made up his mind to go out hunting. He did not wake until the sun had gone down, and the hunters began to come in with their catch in tow.
One day when he awoke as usual about sunset, he got into his kayak all the same, and rowed off. Hardly had he passed out of sight of the houses, when he heard a man crying:
“My kayak has upset, help me.”
And he rowed over and righted him again, and then he saw that it was one of the Noseless Ones, the people from beneath the earth.
“Now I will give you all my hide thongs with ornaments of walrus tusk,” said the man who had upset.
“No,” said the wifeless man; “such things I am not fit to receive; the only thing I cannot overcome is my miserable sleepiness.”