“And the wifeless man has made a catch,” one cried.
And hardly had the evening begun to fall when the wifeless man went to rest, and hardly had the light appeared when the wifeless man went out hunting, long before his fellows. Hardly had the sun appeared in the sky, when the wifeless man came home with three seals. And his fellow-hunters were then but just preparing to set out.
Thus the days passed for that wifeless man. Early in the morning he would go out, and when the sun had only just begun to climb the sky, he would come home with his catch.
Then the unmarried girls began talking together.
“What has come to our wifeless man,” they said, and began to vie with one another in seeking his favour.
“Let me, let me,” they cried all together.
And the wifeless man turned towards them, and laughingly chose out the best in the flock.
And now they lived together, the wifeless man and the girl, and every day there was freshly caught seal meat to be cut up. At last she grew weary, and cried:
“Why ever do you catch such a terrible lot?”
“H’m,” said he. “The seals come of themselves, and I catch them—that is all.”