But she kept on asking him, and so he said at last:
“It was in this way. Once....” But having said thus much, he ceased, and went to rest. But it was long before he could sleep. And the sun was just over the houses of the village before he awoke and set out next day.
That day he caught but one seal.
In the evening, his wife began again asking and asking, and seeing that she would not desist, at last he said:
“It was in this way. Once ... well, I woke up in the evening, and rowed out, and heard a man crying for help, because his kayak had upset. And I rowed up to him and righted him again, and when I looked at him, it was one of the Noseless Ones.”
”’It was a good thing you were not idling about by the houses,’ said the Noseless One to me.
”’I had but just got into my kayak,’” said I.
And thus he told all that had happened to him that day, and from that time forward he lost his power of hunting, for now his old sleepiness came over him once more, and he lost all.
At last he had not even skins enough to give his wife for her clothes, and so she ran away and left him. He set off in chase, but she escaped through a crevice in the rocks, a narrow place whereby he could just pass.
Now he lay in wait there, and soon he heard a whispering inside: