to be pierced with holes
by the point of a harpoon?"

So he lay alongside the piece of ice, and began whistling to that
seal. [12] And he was just about to grasp hold of it when the seal
went down. But he watched it carefully, and when it came up again,
he rowed over to it once more. Now he lifted his harpoon and was
just about to throw, when again he caught sight of the point, and
said to himself: "Would it not be a pity if that skin, which is to
make breeches for my wife, should be pierced with holes by the point
of a harpoon?" And again he cried out to try and frighten the seal,
and down it went again, and did not come up any more.

Once he heard that there lived an old couple in another village,
who had lost their child. So Qasiagssaq went off there on a visit. He
came to their place, and went into the house, and there sat the old
couple mourning. Then he asked the others of the house in a low voice:

"What is the trouble here?"

"They are mourning," he was told.

"What for?" he asked.

"They have lost a child; their little daughter died the other day."

"What was her name?"

"Nipisartangivaq," they said.

Then Qasiagssaq cleared his throat and said in a loud voice:

"To-day my little daughter Nipisartangivaq is doubtless crying at
her mother's side as usual."

Hardly had he said this when the mourners looked up eagerly, and cried:

"Ah, how grateful we are to you! [13] Now your little daughter can
have all her things."

And they gave him beads, and the little girl's mother said:

"I have nothing to give you by way of thanks, but you shall have my
cooking pot."

And when he was setting out again for home, they gave him great
quantities of food to take home to his little girl. But when he came
back to his own place, his fellow-villagers asked:

"Wherever did you get all this?"

"An umiak started out on a journey, and the people in it were hurried
and forgetful. Here are some things which they left behind them."

Towards evening a number of kayaks came in sight; it was people coming
on a visit, and they had all brought meat with them. When they came
in, they said:

"Tell Qasiagssaq and his wife to come down and fetch up this meat
for their little girl."

"Qasiagssaq and his wife have no children; we know Qasiagssaq well,
and his wife is childless."

When the strangers heard this, they would not even land at the place,
but simply said:

"Then tell them to give us back the beads and the co