ore he found that he could
not keep up with his comrades at a run. And they ate all the food,
so that he got none.

"Kick up towards the sky," they told him. And then at once he was
able to overtake all the reindeer, and thus get food.

And later he became a walrus, but found himself unable to dive down
to the bottom; all he could do was to swim straight ahead through
the water.

"Take off as if from the middle of the sky; that is what we do when we
dive to the bottom," said the others. And so he swung his hindquarters
up to the sky, and down he went to the bottom. And his comrades taught
him what to eat; mussels and little white stones.

Once also he was a raven. "The ravens never lack food," he said,
"but they often feel cold about the feet."

Thus he lived the life of every beast on earth. And at last he became
a seal again. And there he would lie under the ice, watching the men
who came to catch him. And being a great wizard, he was able to hide
himself away under the nail of a man's big toe.

But one day there came a man out hunting who had cut off the nail of
his big toe. And that man harpooned him. Then they hauled him up on
the ice and took him home.

Inside the house, they began cutting him up, and when the man cast
the mittens to his wife, Avovang went with them, and crept into the
body of the woman. And after a time he was born again, and became
once more a man.

PAPIK, WHO KILLED HIS WIFE'S BROTHER

There was once a man whose name was Papik, and it was his custom to
go out hunting with his wife's brother, whose name was Ailaq. But
whenever those two went out hunting together, it was always Ailaq who
came home with seal in tow, while Papik returned empty-handed. And
day by day his envy grew.

Then one day it happened that Ailaq did not return at all. And Papik
was silent at his home-coming.

At last, late in the evening, that old woman who was Ailaq's mother
began to speak.

"You have killed Ailaq."

"No, I did not kill him," answered Papik.

Then the old woman rose up and cried:

"You killed him, and said no word. The day shall yet come when I will
eat you alive, for you killed Ailaq, you and no other."

And now the old woman made ready to die, for it was as a ghost she
thought to avenge her son. She took her bearskin coverlet over her,
and went and sat down on the shore, close to the water, and let the
tide come up and cover her.

For a long time after this, Papik did not