come hurrying into the house from
without. He had a great live ribbon seal for a whip, and that whip
had long claws. And then he began dragging the children out through
the passage with his great whip, and each time he drew one out, that
one was frizzled up. And at last there were no more. But before going
away, the Great Fire reached up and touched with his finger a skin
which was hanging on the drying frame.

As soon as the Great Fire had gone away, little Kagssagssuk crawled
down from the drying frame and went over to the people who were
gathered in the wizard's house, and told them what had happened. But
none believed what he said.

"You have killed them yourself," they declared.

"Very well, then," he said, "if you think so, try to make a noise
yourselves, like the children did."

And now they began cooking blubber above the entrance to the house, and
when the oil was boiling and bubbling as hard as it could, they began
making a mighty noise. And true enough, up came the Great Fire outside.

But little Kagssagssuk was not allowed to come into the house,
and therefore he hid himself in the store shed. The Great Fire
came into the house, and brought with it the live ribbon seal for
a whip. They heard it coming in through the passage, and then they
poured boiling oil over it, and his whip being thus destroyed, the
Great Fire went away.

But from that time onward, all the people of the village were unkind
to little Kagssagssuk, and that although he had told the truth. Up to
that time he had lived in the house of Umerdlugtoq, who was a great
man, but now he was forced to stay outside always, and they would
not let him come in. If he ventured to step in, though it were for no
more than to dry his boots, Umerdlugtoq, that great man, would lift
him up by the nostrils, and cast him over the high threshold again.

And little Kagssagssuk had two grandmothers; the one of these beat him
as often as she could, even if he only lay out in the passage. But
his other grandmother took pity on him, because he was the son of
her daughter, who had been a woman like herself, and therefore she
dried his clothes for him.

When, once in a while, that unfortunate boy did come in, Umerdlugtoq's
folk would give him some tough walrus hide to eat, wishing only
to give him something which they knew was too tough for him. And
when they did so, he would take a little piece of stone and put it
between his teeth, to help him, and when he h